Never Give Up - #BelieveLife

Good morning, Believe Nation. Today we're going to talk about why you should never give up.

Somebody came up to me, they said, "E.T., man, I'm tired, E.T. I'm tired, E.T. I put in the work, E.T. I'm not seeing the results, E.T. I'm ready to give up, E.T. I'm ready to give in, E.T." Come on, E, I did what you told me to do. I read the book you told me to read. I put in the hours you told me to put in. E, I'm doing it and I'm not seeing anything. Listen to me closely. Listen to me closely. When you get to the point where enough is enough, when you get to the point where it hurt real bad, when you get to the point you can't take it no more, when you get to that point, I'm telling you, I can't explain it to you, but doors start opening, opportunities start happening. But what you cannot do is is you cannot quit during the process. You cannot give up because it ain't what you see. You cannot give up. What you gotta do is, you heard it, you heard it, you read it, I sent it out on Twitter, I told you, champions keep going when they don't have anything left in their tank. That's the difference between the greats. That's what separates them. When they don't have no more, when it's over, when they're tired, when they're frustrated, when they're ready to give up, when they spent their last dime, that's when they get started. You hear me. It's when you have nothing left. It's when you depleted all your money, when all your energy gone, when you have nothing left, that's when it's showtime. When you find a way out of no way, when you find breath that you don't have, when you find energy that did not exist, when you want this thing as bad as you want to breathe, that's when you find a way.

Practice faithful persistence. It means never, ever, ever give up. Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected by 144 publishers. 144 publishers said, we don't want to publish a collection of short stories. The title's stupid, Chicken Soup for the Soul, what does that mean? People don't buy collections of short stories. There's never been, you know, successful chain of doing that. So literally we spent 14 months trying to find a publisher. And we'd go to New York with our agent, and eventually our agent gave us the book back and said, "I can't sell this." So we went to the National Booksellers Association Convention down in Anaheim. We went from booth to booth to booth for 3 days, and there were 4,000 publishers represented there. And we go, "Would you publish our book? Would you publish our book? Would you publish our book?" And we got no, no, no, no, no. It was late on the 3rd day that a little publisher from Florida, after we'd gotten over 144 rejections, said, we'll read it. And then they said, we said, well, how many copies do you think we'll sell? After they said, yeah, we'll buy it, a couple weeks later, so we'll publish it. And we said, well, maybe 20,000 if we're lucky. And we said, our goal is to sell a million and a half in a year and a half. Now, have you ever told someone your dream and had them laugh out loud at you? He laughed out loud. Now, if we had given up after 100 publishers had said no, I wouldn't be standing here today. You know, wouldn't have happened. And so you've got to be willing to persevere because we didn't take no. See, when the world says no, you say next. Let's practice that. If I say no, you say absolutely. There's only 5 or 6 billion people out there you can go and ask, right? There's over 4,000 publishers just here in the state of California. So what we have is this endless possibility, but you have to persevere. It's as if the universe tests our commitment. And so today we have 147 titles in print, we sold over 115 million copies, we're in 47 languages, and over a billion dollars worth of Chicken Soup for the Soul books have been sold worldwide. So if you're willing to decide what you want, believe it's possible, consciously envision the future, feel the feelings of what it would feel like if you had achieved this goal, you can have anything. And then you take action, both obvious actions and inspired actions, you can do anything.

Why is it that you deserve your goal? What are the 5 reasons that you won't give up when life catch you on the blind side? When the messenger of misery visits you, what are you going to do? What will keep you in the game when life knocks you to the canvas? See, the Buster Douglas that fought in the last fight was not the Buster Douglas that fought Mike Tyson. See, the Buster Douglas that got knocked down while fighting Mike Tyson had gotten out of an alcohol recovery center. His mother had died. His wife was ill with a terminal illness. He was considered a nothing, a bum. So when he got knocked down, Buster Douglas had a reason to get back up because he said, "I'm dedicating this fight to the memory of my mama." But when he fought the last fight that he had and he got knocked down and he had a guaranteed $24 million in his pocket, where whether he got up or not. He just said, hurry up and count me out. And I don't blame him. Why get hurt? Say no, why'd you leave so soon? Somebody's about to get hurt— me. So you've got to have some reasons that when life knocks you down, and it's going to Hello, it's going to knock you down when people disappoint you, and that's going to happen. When they betray you, and that's going to happen. When they lie to you, and that's going to happen. When they say, oh, you can count on me, and they won't show up, and that's going to happen. When you want to throw in the towel and give up yourself, and that's going to happen. When life collapse on you and catch you on the blind side and drop you to your knees and start choking you, you got a dream? No, I ain't got no dream. And that's going to happen. What reason can you remember that you can call on, that you can reach on, that can make you get back up? Find that reason. Because when life had knocked me down, I said, life, I'm doing this because I want to make my mama proud of me. I'm doing this because I want my children to have a better life than what I had. I'm doing this because all my life I've been told I'd be a loser, that I wouldn't make it. All my life I heard people say, name me, take them back to the welfare department. I'm doing this to make them a liar. I believe like Frank Sinatra, He said the best revenge in life is massive success. I'm doing this so I can become massively successful. And with that kind of courage, with that kind of affirmation and reason to empower me, I got a saying that when life knocks you down, try and land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up. All right, so when you run out of money When things don't work out for you, when things happen that you could not anticipate, what are the reasons that you can think of that can keep you strong, that can keep you in the game, that will be your rod and staff to comfort you, that can be your bridge over troubled waters? Those reasons are very important. Nietzsche said, if you know the why for living, you can endure almost anyhow.

So find out the reasons. That you do what you do. Find out the reasons that will make you strong, that will make you walk by faith and not by sight, that will make you pursue your dream when everybody is against you or don't believe in you no more. And let me tell you something, that's a lonely feeling. It's a lonely feeling, particularly people that you're doing it for, or people that stand to benefit the most, or people who should be the number one members in the encouragement club, but they end up saying you can't do it, and they become members of the Discouragement Club. Oh, it hurts very badly. I know what that's like, have people that you love close to you that look at you with that look and say, "Why don't you try something else? Why don't you give up?" I said, "But this is my life. I have got to do this." "Les, you had a good job at Sears.

That man lack you." Mama, I can't go back to Sears.

I can't.

I can't do— I got to be my own boss. I can't do that.

I mean, you know, it's—

ladies and gentlemen, you know when you work on a job that's dead end? You can see the ceiling already. It's like going in the middle of a movie, and after you've seen the movie, sitting back through that over again, there's something missing. You know the hero's not gonna die. You know what the outcome is already. And so that's why a lot of people— a lady was telling me, she said when she went to work, it smelled like a refrigerator. The refrigerator fell on her shoulder as soon as she stepped in because she knew she'd gone as far as she could go. See, they're paying her just enough to keep her from quitting, and she's worked just hard enough just to keep from getting fired. How many of you know people like that? Raise your hand. One of you didn't raise your hand. You the one. I'll just tease it.

I'll just tease it.

All right.

There are a few people in this room that know what it's like to be in a situation where everything in your flesh is saying give up. And yet you're in a situation where sometimes you're standing not because you're so strong, you just don't have any other option. You just backed in a corner, you know. It's not that you didn't think about quitting. It's not that you didn't fantasize about quitting. It's not that you didn't dream about quitting. It's not that you're so tenacious and so strong, but life has got you pressed in a corner and you simply cannot let go of anything, and you have to stand there in the middle of the storm and keep pumping your head with the faith to persevere and just say, "Just hang in there. Just don't give up. Just don't give up. Some kind of way, you're going to get through this." Great people are people who don't cave in. They're not people where everything goes right. All hell can break loose. And there's still something down inside of them that says, "I'll never give up. They'll never take me alive. I'll be fighting. I mean, I'll have a knife in my teeth and a rag around my head, and I'll be coming at you like this." So what do you do when you fall down?

Get back up. Everybody knows to get back up, because if I start walking, I'm not gonna get anywhere. But I tell you, there are some times in life where you fall down and you feel like you don't have the strength to get back up. You sort of put a mask on your face when you come to school and pretend that everything's okay when it's not. And you go home and lay in your bed when no one's looking at you, when you don't have to impress anybody. And you're yourself. And fear comes in. You know the fear that you have as soon as you walk into the doors of your house. Maybe there's a broken home. Maybe you have doubt in your life. Maybe you don't know for sure what's going to be happening in the future and it scares you. Maybe you're worried about what people think of you, what people say about you. Just that fear paralyzes you. And I just want to ask you today, do you think you have hope? Because I tell you, I'm down here, face down, and I have no arms, no legs. It should be impossible for me to get back up. I mean, you go home and tie the legs and arms of your brothers and sisters and like push them down. And see how long it's going to take him to get back up. You know what I mean? You know, you can tell him that you'll see him tomorrow. You know what I mean? But this is the thing. It should be impossible for me to get back up, but it's not. You see, I will try 100 times to get up, and if I fail 100 times, if I fail and I give up, do you think that I'm ever going to get up? No. But if I fail, I try again. And again and again. For as long as I try, there is always that chance of getting up. Does that make sense? And it is not the end until you have given up. And just the fact that you are here should persuade you that you have another chance to get back up. There is still hope. I am not here today to tell you that I understand your pain. I do not know how it feels to be abused. I don't know how it feels to feel, quote, fat, and you got an eating disorder. I don't know how it feels to have a broken home. I don't know how it feels. But I know how it feels to have a broken heart. And I know how it feels to be alone. And I want you to know that I found my strength in Jesus Christ, and you're going to find your strength in whatever you find it in. But I just want you to know that it's not The end. It matters how you're gonna finish. Are you gonna finish strong? And you will find that strength to get back up like this.

Number 1, and I know you've heard this, but my question is how much do you do it? And that is visualization. And we call it highly engaged visualization. Visualization where you're seeing yourself doing something and you're emotively there. You're literally closing your eyes and meditating on the experience. Experience. You're seeing it, feeling it, sensing it, and it's not the kind of visualization you've probably been taught to do, which is just all the buoyant victory, everything's great, victory, hey, hey, hey, everything's awesome, perfect. It's the visualization where you also imagine, see, and feel the struggle on purpose.

Let me give you an example.

Lots of people, when they're new to, you know, performance training and haven't had a lot of experience, they would say, oh, well, you know, If you're going to run a marathon, imagine yourself crossing that finish line. You know, your arms up in victory, everything is great. You cross that finish line, there's your family and they give you big hugs and you feel great, still vital, energized, ready to kick some butt. You know, you could run another 20 miles. You're the strongest, most powerful you ever. Now I'm like, oh wow, you know, that's just a person who hasn't done a lot of training or actual high-performance coaching. They're like, because the better thing to imagine is what happens at mile 13. To imagine yourself running, to starting, running, running strong, but also seeing and sensing and feeling yourself at mile 13 when that decision point comes to want to quit. That's where I want you to also enter the scene and visualize seeing yourself struggle, like seeing the perspiration, seeing seeing the heartache, seeing the hurt, the pain, that like, I can't run anymore, dude. Seeing yourself make a decision at that point to be resilient, to keep at it, to see the charge come back on your face, to see yourself working through the struggle is the most important visualization you can do. What would you say to yourself when it sucks? Not just see yourself validated. It's about, look, the real truth of achieving any dream is that struggle, that effort, that push And I know you know this. So my question is, when is the last time you just gave yourself a few moments free away from, you know, playing on the phone, free away from the internet, to just sit down by yourself to visualize and daydream about your dreams, about the activities involved in that, about how you would struggle through, about what it would feel like to be victorious? All of it, the whole thing, the messy part, the ugly part, What would you say to yourself when it gets hard? That's what you need to do. To truly actualize a dream, we gotta begin with seeing it and sensing it. The good, the bad, the easy, the difficult, and the victory.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because David Vazquez asked me to. So if there's a topic that you'd like to see for the next edition of Believe Life, Leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of the videos that you saw, which clips resonated with you the most, and what action you're going to now take in your life or in your business. Leave it in the comments. I'm going to join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.

See the hustle, man. Somebody sent me a wonderful sign one day. It was like a sign that goes in front of a house that's for sale. It says, "The dream is free. The hustle is sold separate." And that's so true, man. You never— see, you can never give up. You don't ever know where God is just waiting on you to pass the test. But you have to stay with something and go through the test to get to the end. See, you can't give up. If you quit, there's no way you'll ever know. You have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, even if you don't know the way. It's not your job to know the way. It's just your job to believe. That's what people mess up as people. You try to figure it out. Show me the scripture that tells you to figure it out. Where is that scripture at? There's no scripture that tells you to figure it out. It tells you to ask and believe. That's what you gotta do. Ask God for something and then believe in it. Now if you gotta Faith without works is dead. You gotta be willing to hustle because the hustle sold separately. Now, the dream free, you dream all day long, but the hustle sold separately.

It's hard changing your life. It was hard when just over 3 years ago in the Penobscot Building in Detroit, Michigan, where I was operating my business and I fell on some hard times and I was sleeping in my office. It was hard coming into the lobby, and the security said, "Excuse me, Mr. Brown, can we see you for a moment?" And I said, "Yes," and I walked up to the counter, and he gave me an envelope. And he said, "Would you mind reading it here?" And I opened the envelope, and the envelope was from management that said, "This is an office tower. It's not a hotel. Please do not sleep in your office." And I said, excuse me, sir, I said, I just worked long hours in creating my business. I'm an entrepreneur, and right now things are bad for me, but they're not going to be this way always. And I just asked for the opportunity to continue to operate like I'm doing. I'm not trying to make this my home. And it was hard coming through the lobby, and sometimes they would laugh. There's a guy talking about becoming successful. And look at him. He's bathing in the bathroom upstairs on the 21st floor. He sleeps on the floor, him and two other dreamers up there. Look at him. It was hard, ladies and gentlemen, coming to speak to people, and I was facing financial difficulties in my own life. I was behind on my bills and my dreams, and I'm saying to them, you can live your dream. It was hard, ladies and gentlemen. It was very difficult to pick myself up each day believing that I can do it. There were times that I doubted myself. I said, God, why? Why is this happening to me? I'm just trying to take care of my children and my mother. I'm not trying to steal or rob from anybody. Why did this have to happen to me? It was very hard. And here's what I want to say to you. For those of you that have experienced some hardships, don't give up on your dream. No one could have convinced me by holding on, by continuing to push forward, by continuing to run toward my dream, that one day I would have my own talk show. It's a long shot, ladies and gentlemen, from Liberty City, an abandoned building on a floor, never knowing my mother or father. It's a long shot being here with you today in this dome in Atlanta. It's a long shot. No college training, labeled educable mentally retarded, but I kept running toward my dream. Don't stop. ¡No pares! Don't stop. Don't stop running toward your dream.