STOP MAKING EXCUSES! | Inky Johnson

Second game we're playing against Air Force, got late in the game, fourth quarter, guy dropped back, he threw the ball to a receiver coming down my sideline. Me and the guy, we went head-on. Soon as I hit the guy, felt as if every breath in my body left. People think commitment is saying, "Yes, I'll do it on the days when it feel good." But I have been committed to everything that I ever started in my life and I never stopped and I never quit it. I don't believe in excuses. Because the thing about it, when you make an excuse, the thing you have to realize about life, somebody has it 10 times worse than you and you're making an excuse because you're soft, man.

In a football game in 2006, he made a tackle that completely changed the course of his life. He suffered a life-threatening injury that paralyzed his right arm. It turned him into a motivational speaker that encourages people to embrace the challenges of life. He's Inky Johnson, and here's my take on his top 10 rules of success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and I'm super curious to figure out which one you guys like the best. Also, as you're watching the clips, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. When you write something down, it's much more likely to stick with you too. Enjoy.

You know why people quit? People don't have pride in what they do. You know why people stop? They're selfish and it's just about them. When you have a bigger purpose to why you're doing what you're doing and you want to honor the sacrifices that others have made for you, it's nothing for you to keep going when you hit adversity. If every decision and choice you make is just about you, at a certain point you're gonna hit something that's a lot tougher than you, that's gonna make you quit because you don't have a driving force for why you do what you do. But when I got up to the University of Tennessee, it was simple. It was simple for me to give everything I had. My freshman year, I played special teams. My sophomore season, I broke the starting lineup, had a really strong sophomore season. The summer heading into my junior year, I still remember the There was a day where I was sitting in our film room and I was watching film on the California Bears. My defensive backs coach, Larry Slade, came in the room. He said, "Inky, I got some good news for you." I dropped the clicker. I said, "What is it?" He said, "Man, you're projected top 30 draft pick, son." He said, "All you have to do is play the next 10 football games, you're automatic multimillionaire." I went out of the room, I called my mother and my grandmother on a 3-way. I said, "After this season, there will be no more struggling." I said, "We would never miss another meal." I said, "We would never experience another Christmas where we have to stand on the side of the curb." and just be grateful. And I hung it up. First football game, I went out, played great, got an interception, shut Cal down. Second game, we're playing against Air Force, got late in the game, fourth quarter, guy dropped back, he threw the ball to a receiver coming down my sideline. Me and the guy, we went head-on. Soon as I hit the guy, I felt as if every breath in my body left. Body went completely limp, fell to the ground, I blacked out. Never happened to me before. When my eyes opened, I'll never forget, my teammates ran over, they said, "Ink, get up, let's go." I said, "I can't. I can't move." He said, "What do you mean you can't move? You're our lockdown corner, man. We need you. Let's go." I said, "I know, man, but this time I can't move." I flipped my head up to the sky, I said, "God," I said, "Surely nothing is happening in this moment that can alter my life." They got me over to the hospital, they took me back, they ran CAT scans, they brought me back into my room, and all in a 15-second time frame, The doctor came running in from the opposite side. He said, "Hey, get in there. We got to rush this guy back to emergency surgery. He's about to die." I said, "What?" He said, "Son, you have busted up your clavian artery in your chest. You're bleeding internally. We have to rush you back, take the main vein out of your left leg, plug it into your chest in order to save your life." When I opened my eyes from recovery, the same doctor was over me. He said, "Son, I have some good news and some bad news for you." I said, "You got some bad news for me? I have to tell him I was about to die? I'm still alive." How bad can it get? I'm still here. He said, "The good news is we saved your life." I said, "Thank you, sir." He said, "The bad news is, Ink, you have nerve damage in your right shoulder." I said, "Okay, cool." He said, "But son, it's a strong possibility that you probably can never play the game of football again in your life." I said, "No way." I said, "No disrespect to you, Doc, but I've been working for this ever since I was 7 years old." I said, no disrespect to you, Doc, but you wasn't in the park with me and my mother when I was 7 years old and she was sitting in that Buick Regal after she got done working at Wendy's. No disrespect to you, Doc, but you didn't come up in that 2-bedroom home, 14 people sleeping on the floor. No disrespect to you, Doc, but you done missed those meals and stayed focused and never made an excuse. I never cheated. I never cheated. Like, my conscience still until this day won't let me cheat. Like, I can't cheat. I can't look myself in the mirror and say, "Ink, you did a good job," knowing that I cheated. You can't cheat. One of the greatest pieces of advice that my mother gave me was this: Son, whenever you start, you make sure you finish it. And the problem with the world today, people get involved with things, and if they don't like a certain person, if they don't like the process, if it's not what they thought it was, they quit. And what they don't understand about quitting, quitting becomes a habit that doesn't just affect you. Later on in life, when you get a wife and you get some kids or you get a family, it's gonna come back to hunt you. And it will one day affect them. That is why I tell you the process is more important than the product. It's not even about the outcome for me. It's about can you take pride in what you do as an individual and every night when you look in the mirror knowing that you gave everything you had to it. And we have to get to the point where we're willing to impose our will on certain things. Impose your will on it. My life totally changed and they gave me an opportunity to stop. And most people, when you give them an opportunity to stop while they're chasing something, they take advantage of it because they feel as if, man, why did this have to happen to me? I felt as if, why not me? This is the perfect opportunity to use this to be a blessing to somebody else. And you know what? It's not even about me, to be truthful. It's not even about me now. It's about repaying the people that invested in me and saw something in me when I couldn't see it in myself. At a certain point in life, it can't just be about you. And the moment that we understand that, and every day we when we wake up, we understand that life is a blessing and life is a gift. And if you were to check out today, how would you want to be remembered? It's bigger than you. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [Speaker] Bucket first started, and it started over 5,000 years ago. And so the whole purpose of a bucket was if a guy was up on a hill and he wanted some water and we couldn't get the guy some water, or the guy couldn't get down and get the water, we can put the water in a bucket and we can get that bucket to that guy. And that water pretty much gave that guy life. And in some instances, the bucket was used to put out fires. And so my thing with Empty the Bucket, I believe if you give everything you got in everything you're a part of, by giving everything you got, it's kind of like the quote that says, "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender." Meaning the harder it is to give up, the harder it is to stop, the harder it is to give in. And so if you give everything you got to everything you're involved in, the only way you're able to live a full life is if You empty the bucket. And so at the end of every day, our attention should be on E, and the next day our buckets should be full. And so the only way we can go back to the source is if we empty our bucket. We can never go back to the source, and the source of God, without bucket full and get replenished and get a new mindset and get a new spirit and get a fresh anointing. And so when I empty my bucket every day, I know the next day when I wake up, my bucket will be back full. But the way I empty my bucket is if I can empty my bucket and give everything I got and it gives you life, if I can empty my bucket and give everything I got and it puts out a fire in your life, if I can empty my bucket and give everything I got and it inspires you, if I can empty my bucket and give everything I got and it empowers you, my job is done with the way that I live my life. But the thing we have to understand, in order to live a full life, you have to empty your bucket. But the thing I can guarantee you about emptying your bucket, your family's life will be made richer, your workplace will be made richer, and you as a person, when you look in the mirror at night, you have this fulfillment and you will have this joy and you will have this peace that comes over you and you will say, "Man, I gave everything I had today." It wasn't about my circumstances, it wasn't about the opposition, it wasn't about pleasing my boss, it was about me taking pride in what I do and the person that I am and giving everything I got to everything I'm involved in. Can I be honest with you? They cut me 6 times down my left thigh, 1 time across the left side of my neck, 1 time across the right side of my neck, twice through my right ribs, cut out my right pec, bottom of my armpit to the bottom of my hand, 350 staples in my body and they bandaged me from my neck. To my knees. This is not lip service. And I gotta be honest with you, it was days to where if I could have laid there, I would have laid there. But my spirit said, that's not who you are. My mentality said, that's not who you are. Like, I don't know about you all, but I'm a fighter, man. I fight for my goals, I fight for my dreams, I fight for the things that I represent and the things I'm a part of. And I dare you, the things that you do, the things that you're a part of, and the things that you're connected to, I dare you every single day to show up and give everything you got to. I dare you every single day when you wake up, you understand you represent something a lot greater than yourself. I dare you to go with 15 representing, give everything you got to it. Go home to your family, go to your careers, give everything you got to every aspect of your life. And I dare you to watch what happens with your mentality. As a matter of fact, like my 5-year-old son tells me, I double dog dare you. I don't believe in excuses. Because the thing about it, when you make an excuse, the thing you have to realize about life, somebody has it 10 times worse than you, and you're making an excuse because you're soft, man. I never cheated myself. Ever since I was 7 years old, in everything that I did, I took pride in what I did. And I firmly believe the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. You see, a lot of people don't understand, if you go through life and you cheat yourself, there is going to come a time where you hit a certain piece of adversity, and if you're not who you're supposed to be, adversity will always introduce you into who you really are. And if you haven't been working hard, if you haven't been sacrificing, if you haven't been emptying that bucket, if you haven't been going all in in every aspect of your life, it's gonna crush you. It's gonna make you give up, it's gonna make you stop, it's gonna make you make excuses. But if you work hard, if you got a certain person in you that when you in adversity and you in opposition and you want to make excuses, and that person inside of you say, man, you ain't built like that, you know you better than that, you know you're not like that, man, you deal with it and you keep going, and you embrace it, man. That's what life's about. That is how people get stronger. People don't get stronger by you making excuses. People get stronger by when you go through adversity and you go through trial and tribulation and you look at it. When they hit you in the face, you back up a little bit, and they hit you again, you back up a little bit, you step back up, you say, if that's all you got, you in trouble. When you think about life, everybody wants the prize but nobody wants the process. Everybody wants the championship but nobody wants the day-to-day. Everybody wants to wing games, but nobody wants to put in the work that it takes to win games. In the Bible, it talks about— in Proverbs, it says, "The laborer's appetite works for him, and his hunger drives him on." The laborer's appetite works for him, and his hunger drives him on. And so my question to you all is, what's your appetite for winning? Because if you have an appetite for winning, your hunger will drive you every day. Your hunger will take you to the weight room. Your hunger will take you past 3:02. Your hunger will take you past the office opposition. Your hunger will take you past adversity. Your hunger will take you past the trials and tribulations. Your hunger will take you to that fourth quarter when it's 4 zeros on that clock. You have emptied that bucket. You have given everything you had in that game. See, it's a certain mindset, man, when you attack this thing. The game of football, it's not about skill. That's what people miss the boat on. This game is not about— it has nothing to do with skill. It has nothing to do with a 40-yard dash. It has nothing to do with jumping a 40-inch vertical. What this game is about, it's about will. That's it. It's not about skill, this game is about will. And so the moment that you make up in your mind, the day that you make up in your mind that you are going to play this game for God and give everything you got to it, you can't help but to give everything you got. And that's the moment that you will realize this game has nothing to do with skill. I've seen plenty of talented guys fold. I've seen plenty of talented guys get hit in the mouth and they didn't want it. I've seen plenty of talented guys get punched in the face and they go back to the sideline, they stand beside their coach and they don't want it no more. They make up excuses. I've seen plenty of talented bunch of guys, they ran a 4.2 in the 40, they bench-pressed 325 pounds. When 3rd and 1 came up, they tapped their helmet to come out of the game. That has nothing to do with skill. I can correlate it over into some of you all's lives. When I thought I was all in, when I thought I was giving everything I had, my father would say to me, "Son, I need you to empty the bucket. Son, I need you to give everything you got. Son, no matter how hard you work, there's somebody inside of you that works even harder." And you remember he was saying to me, "Son, you're operating in year 1, you have 2 more years that you haven't even tapped into yet. You haven't even pushed yourself to the limit. You haven't even pushed yourself to the point to where you feel as if you can't go anymore. You have to dig a little bit deeper. You have to push yourself you have to go a little bit harder. You haven't even reached that point yet. So until you push yourself to that point to where you have to dig a little bit deeper, to where you feel as if you're about to pass out from working too hard, that's when you come and talk to me. Purpose. See, if your life doesn't have purpose, then life is like a pencil with no end. It has no point. And so every day you get up, you don't have any direction. But when you get up every day and you have a purpose, you have a paralyzed right arm and hand and they say, "Hey man, you can't use that arm anymore." And I say, "I'm using this arm every day by the way that I live my life." Because my life has purpose. I don't live my life for me. That's why some of the decisions, some of the choices that I have to make, nobody understood them. Because it wasn't about Inky Johnson. It was about the ones that paved the way for me. I was honoring them and about the ones that were coming behind me. I had to leave a legacy for them. Every day you wake up, Make it bigger than just your job. That's how you become a champion. That's how you're really all in. That's how you empty the bucket. You can't just empty the bucket and call yourself a champion if you just come into an Athlete's Office or you just do your job and you're doing great, you do a great job, but you're a public success but you're a private failure. You're a public success but you're a private failure. You don't give everything you got to your family. You don't give everything you got to God. You see, when I speak, I'm not talking about just football. When I speak, I'm just not talking about your job. I'm talking about taking every aspect of your life to the next level. That's what emptying the bucket is. You see, when I step on the stage and I give everything I got, when I get home tonight, I don't care what time it is, I'm gonna wake my wife up, I'm gonna wake my kids up, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get on my knees and I'm gonna pray with them. Doctor walked by my bed, he said, "Ink, we'll get to know each other well. You've been in this hospital for the next 40 days." I walked out of the hospital on the third day. I was back in class the next week. I was back at practice in the sandpit with my teammates the next week. I had to learn how to write all over again. I had to learn how to walk all over again. And people come up to me all the time, "Ink, how did you do it, man? Doc, how did you do it? How did you make it out of the hospital, man? How did you do it?" It's cute to them, right? It's cute, it's cute to them, right? How did you do it, man? And people don't understand when I say the process saved my life, like they don't get it. And when I say the process saved my life and the process is more important than the product, what I'm trying to tell them was when I was in the park with my mother when I was 7 years old and she was sitting in the Buick Regal, that saved my life. When I was up every Saturday at 4 o'clock in the morning running 2 miles to a fire station, 2 miles back home, that saved my life. When I never cheated that saved my life. When I didn't let my teammates give up and quit, that saved my life. Because my arm and my hand was paralyzed, my spirit wasn't. My heart wasn't, my mentality wasn't. I was the same man, I just had a paralyzed right arm and hand. It couldn't stop me if it wanted to. I couldn't quit even if I wanted to because of the spirit and the soul that resides in Inky Johnson. The game created that. The process created that. And so understand, when you're playing sports, it's a blessing because you're in a controlled setting. It allows you to build your character. You have a bad practice, come back tomorrow, have a good practice, make it up, buddy. Have a bad game, come back tomorrow— next week, have a good game, make it up, buddy. It allows you to build your character so one day when you face real-life opposition, you can reveal your character and what you're really made out of. Process more important than ESPN called me. They did a story on me this past summer. But they called me one day, and I picked up the phone. They said, "Is this Inky Johnson?" I said, "Last time I checked, I'm Inky Johnson." They said, "Is this the same guy that said if you could change what happened to you, you wouldn't?" I said, "Absolutely." They said, "It's our understanding the game of football meant the world to you." I said, "At one point, it did." They said, "It's our understanding that your family was banking on you making it to the NFL so they can have a better way of life." I said, "Yep, that's correct." They said, "We're coming to see you." I said, "All right, cool, come on." They said, "But we don't want to see you in Atlanta. We want to see you in Neyland Stadium on the exact yard line where your life changed. The same time of day. The only thing that won't be present is Air Force's team." I said, "All right, cool." And so they take me to Neyland Stadium, they put me on the exact yard line where my life changed. They said, "Now tell your younger self why you wouldn't stop your injury if you could. If you could be in the NFL right now making millions of dollars, tell your younger self why you wouldn't change that situation if you could." And I said, "The reason I wouldn't change it, believe it or not, it has nothing to do with me." Like on a personal level, you— he thought I was going to say, "Because of the man that I've become, the perspective that I've acquired, my faith has been fortified." He thought I was going to say something like that. I said, "No, it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the lives that have been affected by the result of the process and the thing that I represent in the world." What my spirit represents, when somebody see me, they think perseverance. What my spirit represents, when somebody see me, they think don't quit. What my spirit represents, when somebody see me, they think it's a— that's a quality individual right there. What my character represents in the world. And every single day we're putting something out like that represents something. When people see that, they think, it's a thought that comes to their mind. When he said gold standard, he gave me that, I felt a certain type of way. When he gave me the gold standard, I felt a certain type, I felt different. Gold standard, I felt like that went with me. Because I think in what I do, the line of business I'm in, I'm the gold standard. Because I don't compromise. And every single day, I'mma give you my very best, you can bet your bottom dollar. Every single day, I'mma bring that gold standard. And I'm not just bringing it in one aspect of life, I'm bringing it in every single aspect of life. I'm not gonna be one of these people in the world that's a public success but they're a private failure. Meaning they give everything they got to one aspect of life but the other areas they lack off. No, I'm gonna give every single thing I got to every aspect of my life because I represent something. When people see me, they think something. Whether that's character, never giving up, never surrendering. And the thing that we can never do is forget what we represent, because that's how guys end up under a bridge on a cardboard box sleep. They forget what they represent when life hits them with adversity. My only charge for you: never forget what you represent. I am not here for me today. I'm here for every one of you all because I kept going, because I knew the day would come when one day I'll be standing before a group of children and tell them regardless of what happens comes to you in life, regardless of the adversity, regardless of the opposition, regardless of the trials and tribulations, nothing can stop you. The only thing that can stop you is you. No situation, no circumstance, no piece of adversity can define your life. Never let a circumstance define you. You see, I know something about you. I can speak from a certain place. I know something about you without even knowing you. I know if you wanted to come into this school and do what you have to do, you can do it. I know if you wanted to go into a classroom and get straight A's, you can do it. I know if you wanted to go to college, you can do it. I know that you can become whatever it is that you want to become, but it's said, quote, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." You see, I can tell you all the right things, I can stand up here and say a presentation, but if you walk out of these doors and you don't apply it to your life, what good was it? You see, I'm not so concerned with, you know, you having dreams, you having goals, I'm concerned with the process. Because a lot of people want the prize, but not many people want the process. A lot of people have the will to win, but few people have the will to to prepare to win. The process is more important than the product. The process is more important than the product. And what the process is, the process is coming into this building day after day, giving everything you got and molding yourself into the individual that you need to become in order to make those things happen. You know the reason you set goals? The reason you set goals and the reason you have dreams is not for the outcome. The reason you set goals and the reason you have dreams is to become the person that you need become in order to make them manifest in your life. You see, young people, the road to success is constantly under construction, with plenty of potholes, with plenty of speed bumps, with plenty of detours, with plenty of parking spots to give up. But just as if you were in a car with your mother, you find a way to get over that speed bump, you find a way to get around that pothole, you find a way to get to that detour. The only thing about life, that destination may be that goal or that dream or whatever it is that you aspire to do with your life. The one thing that I can tell you right now, man, I'm not I'm not anything special, but the one thing I can guarantee you young people, and I'm gonna leave you with this, if you don't give up, if you don't stop, if you don't give in, nothing will defeat you, nothing will conquer you, nothing will stop you. Never give up, never stop, never doubt yourself. You always believe, there's always hope, there's always somebody inside you that's stronger than anything that life can throw at you. I have been working my whole life. And what I didn't understand by being determined to chase something, by being committed to it, and what commitment is— commitment is staying true to what you said you were going to do long after the mood that you have set it in has left. You see, people think commitment is saying, "Yes, I'll do it on the days when it feel good." But I have been committed to everything that I ever started in my life, and I never stopped, and I never quit it. And so by being committed to everything that I started, I finished it. It built a certain type of spirit. It built a certain type of mentality. It built a certain type of individual. And so now I couldn't quit even if I wanted to. I couldn't lay in the bed that even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop. Even if I wanted to, I had too much sweat equity in my life and everything that I was doing. Because I understood my existence wasn't about me. I went from me to we a long time ago. I understood the process is more important than the product. It wasn't about the outcome for me. Whether I made it to the NFL or not, that was inconsequential in God's plan for my life. But I was going to fall in love with that process. Because I understood by falling in love with that process, process, it was gonna turn me into a machine.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Mark Clark, I hope I pronounced that okay, asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did Inky say that had the biggest impact on you? What lesson you're gonna take from this video that you will immediately apply to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments, I'm gonna join in the discussion. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Felipe. Thank you, Felipe, so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and making that awesome video talking about it. I'm glad it had an impact on you, and I really appreciate your support.

On this book, Evan talks about the importance of living with purpose. Evan has a channel on YouTube called Evan Carmichael, and he always says believe. He says believe is his One word.

So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

The other day I was trying to kick it in gear as a guy at Texas A&M. Inky, I was trying to kick it in gear, NFL prospect. I was trying to kick it in gear, Inky. I was trying to give everything I had to it and I just couldn't take it there. I said, "What's the button on the game? The X button or something? When you go and the guy just speed up? The burst, right?" He was trying to do the burst, but he couldn't do the burst. And I said, "Listen," I said, "I don't even know you." I said, "But I bet I can tell you why you can't do the burst." I don't even know you. I said, "But I bet you're the type of person that when it's something that you like and it's something that's easy, Oh, I'm all in, I love it, let's go! But when it's something that challenges you, something that pushes you outside of your comfort zone, you try to find a way to get around it, cut a corner. But I got news for you, if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. And so the point when the light bulb goes off and you say, man, I should be giving everything I got to everything I'm a part of. The brain is a 2 million year old machine. It adapts to you, it tries to automatically protect you. And so when you get in a situation or environment that's uncomfortable, your brain tries to protect you. And so what his brain was doing when he was trying to kick it into gear that he had never been to before, his brain was saying to him, "You know you don't work like that. Like, don't play yourself. You know you don't go hard like that. Like, you're lying to yourself." And so the reason I say don't cheat at whatever you do, the reason I say it is because the method behind the madness is this: if you got a goal, a dream, or aspiration, or something that you really want to accomplish and you're gonna be all in at it, you're gonna sacrifice, stay dedicated, stay committed, you're gonna flat out go and get it, right? And it comes time for it to manifest and you have given it everything you got, and it comes time for it to manifest and it doesn't manifest the way that you want it to manifest, I can wipe my hands and I can say, okay, I guess it wasn't in the cards for me, what's next? But the thing I can't do is say, man, this is the goal, this is the dream, this is the aspiration, these are the things that I want to do with my life, and I start cheating. And I start cutting corners, and then it comes time for that dream, that goal, or that aspiration to manifest, and it doesn't turn out the way that I want it to turn out. I say, man, why didn't I get what I worked for? No one had it work for me. And you know the amazing thing? We got people that live in the world every day and they expect results that they haven't even worked for. Like, I got news for you, man. You can lie to a coach, you can lie to a teammate, you can lie to a parent, you can lie to a mentor, for, but the one thing that will not give you what you haven't worked for is the grind. It knows how much blood you shed it, know how much sweat, how much sacrifice, how much dedication, and how much commitment. People are rewarded in public for what they practice in private, period. And the whole time in life, you got to live with the thought of, what if I gave everything I had to? Just what if? Just think about the mentality that you will possess if you gave everything you had to everything that you were a part of, even if it didn't turn out the way that Good morning, turnout!