You’ll Never Win Until You Master THIS | Ray Lewis' Rules for Success in 18 Minutes

Effort is between you and you.

There's no limits. You know, don't let the world ever put limits on you. Don't move to next year too fast. Just like don't go to tomorrow too fast.

To the king, he said, King, I can't fight your fight. I got to fight my fight.

I was so pissed off, I said, I got it.

I said, I got it. Time slows down for no man. So the question is, how much time you gonna waste?

I don't need to give you everything you want. I just make— I got to make sure you need— you have everything you need. Write down your vision.

Write it.

You know, let your subconscious mind be the leader of you.

Every footstep that's ever taken while you've been on this earth is accounted for.

Boy, we are going to play a football game tonight, boys. It's going to be a great night tonight.

He's a former American football player who played his entire 17-year career with the Baltimore Ravens.

He was selected to 13 Pro Bowls.

Playing middle linebacker his entire career, he's considered one of the greatest of all time at his position.

He's Ray Lewis. And here are his top 10 rules for success.

Effort is between you and you. Effort. This ain't about X's and O's. Because as long as you play this game, you're gonna have mess-ups, you're gonna have great plays, you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days. That's just the irony of this sport. But when you talk about effort, I wondered when I got to the University of Miami, because there were so many great athletes, like in this building, athlete after athlete after athlete after athlete, what makes me different? How do I stand out? What makes the coaches notice me? And I started figuring out, playing with the Saps and playing with all these different people, something gotta click in that every time the coach turn on the film, why is he calling my name? Why does he notice me? I ain't the fastest. I ain't the biggest. I ain't the strongest. Never have been. Never have been. But Lord be my witness, I've never met a man in my life that'll flat out outwork me.

Honestly, there's no difference. The way you win it, the way I win at the game, I go at business as hard as I win at the game. You know, I study. Businesses, and I studied people as much as I studied people trying to figure out plays, you know. So it's kind of something I told the kids yesterday, you know, when you see transition really start to happen, when you really want to transition into something, master it. There's no limits, you know. Don't let the world ever put limits on you. You can do anything you want to do. But make sure if you have a vision, make sure the vision is written, you know. Make sure you have something to actually chase and not just hoping and wishing and all these different things. So if I— I tell guys this all the time, Put your plan together and then work the plan. Don't, don't work somebody else's plan, right? That's one thing about the league. I love the league, but the league is somebody else's brand, right? You have to create your own brand yourself, and your brand is whatever you feel like doing, whatever your heart is passionate about.

Chase it. I've had, I've had seasons where I've had the worst surgeries ever, you know.

I've been through I had 7 surgeries, you know, and that alone, you know, you ask yourself time and time again, how do you bounce back from that, year in and year out? But I've always used it as, you know, taking that time to strengthen myself. I never knew I was gonna play 17 years. You know, who could have ever thought that? You don't say when you come into the league, you don't say, "You know what? I'm gonna play 17 years." And you don't even think of it that way. You just say, "I take it year by year." And that's what I try to tell kids. Don't move to next year too fast. Just like don't go to tomorrow too fast. Deal with today. Deal with right now. You know, we be in the locker room and we at practice and I'm like, listen, put the phones down. 'Cause these moments gonna go too fast. And when they gone, they gone. You know? So before you look up, you in 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, if you make it that long. You know? Because most of 'em don't. You know, just like you spoke about earlier. Most of these young babies never see 5 years. Never see 7 years, never let a 10-year career, you know. So you, you try to prepare them to understand what the moment actually feels like. And that's why I think, honestly, why my career lasts so long, cuz I always lived in the moment. Like, it— nothing else mattered to me. And, and I was selfish at times because even towards my family, nothing else mattered when it came to that. When it came to that, I was dialed in. It's a, it's a heck of a blessing to be here now. I'm walking, I'm healthy, you see. Um, but still making an impact. Absolutely right, absolutely. So, you know, I, I just tell people, I don't know how long whoever's going to play, but I will say enjoy every moment. Don't, don't rush too fast, you know. Let your years take care of your years, but go year by year, go day by day, go hour by hour, go minute by minute.

If you never researched something, I want you to do— everybody do one favor— I want you to research the story of David and Goliath. I want you to understand what the king told David when he put on the armor on David, and he said, "I want you to fight Goliath with this armor because he's huge, he's 9 foot tall." And David said something that was very key to the king. He said, "King, I can't fight your fight. I got to fight my fight." It's about fighting our fight. 2005, I had one of the most tragic injuries ever, and I couldn't help my team. So the leader was took away, so there could be doubt. But when you still have a leader, and Joe Flacco, you gotta rally around him. You got to get behind him, and it ain't about wins or losses, it's about loyalty. It's about understanding, I'mma make the play, or I'mma watch the play be made. It's simple. It's if I could tell my safety, you cover this 'cause I'm gone this time. It's a man on a man every time you play the game. It'll never change. It's about winning one-on-one battles. Fight your fight. It's our fight to fight. 1 and 6 doesn't define who you are. What defines who you are is what you do when you 1 and 6. What demand you will fight for. Give everything you got today, not because of the scoreboard, but because when this game ends, you have a brother to call for life. Knowing you gave everything you had. That's why you play as a Raven. That's why you fight as a Raven. That's why no matter what nobody on the outside says, fight your fight. David found a way to fight his fight. Ravens, Joe Flacco, lead your team. It's your fight. It's our fight. Let's see if somebody can deal with really who we are.

I started training because my father left me. The only way I can get through the pain sometimes was just do push-ups and sit-ups until I passed out.

For the next decade, Ray's father was rarely a part of his life. Then in 1990, his sophomore year in high school, a coach looking to motivate Ray handed him a yearbook from 1975 that listed the school's athletic records.

And when he handed me the book, he said, you'll know what to do with this. I looked in the first picture, I said, that's my father, that's my daddy. And I flipped the next page and saw that his name was number one in every record. I was so pissed off, I said, "I got it.

I said, I got it.

I'm finna go through these books and I will train so hard that I will never stop till his name is erased.

Ever." Day after day after day after day, I mastered it.

And every time his record would fall, I would go in my garage and I would scratch it, scratch it, throw it away. I said, that's one down, that's one down.

Making the right decisions is a one-on-one battle. Whatever majority of the— whatever majority of the crowd's doing, find your way doing the opposite and see 9 times out of 10 how right you turn out to be. Be. How many of you, by show of hands, how many of you have found out a way to not waste time? Show of hands. So it's simple. See, God gives us a lot of things in life, but it's a couple things he don't give us. And time is something he there's no man.

That's the one thing.

No matter if you look at your watch, I looked at my watch, you look at your clock, I look at my clock, you look at your phone, I look at my phone. Time slows down for no man. So the question is, how much time you gonna waste? I gave up on trying to make money years ago. I gave up on entertaining clubs years ago. 14 years since I even answered even thought about taking a step in anything that doesn't reflect where I'm trying to go. That's what you got to put in your head. Every decision you make, does this decision influence where I'm ultimately trying to go? Because if it does, you got to get rid of it. So these conversations that I came and had today, I could go all day. 'Cause I love sharing the reason why people don't realize what you got to give up to become great. What sacrifices you gotta make to become great. What promises you gotta make to yourself to become great. Greatness ain't a thought process. Greatness is a lifestyle. It's what you live like. It's what you get every day, breathe.

Why is it important for you to give back?

My mom. What do you mean? It's not a secret. We didn't have much. We didn't have much. But she showed me a model. And I vowed to follow that model. And that model is, you know, I don't need to give you everything you want. I just have to make sure you have everything you need. You need. And my mom gave more to people when we didn't have, and all she did was give, give, give, give, give. And I'm telling you, we were completely broke growing up, completely. And to see her giving, to see what she was built from in that state—

she still was a giver. So she was your model right from the start?

From the start. My greatest— I've had a lot of people that I admire, but my greatest role model on this earth is my mom. Because what she taught me, no man could ever give me.

Giving.

Yeah, giving. Giving. Don't ever stop giving. And, you know, the good book says, "Giving to the poor is like lending to God himself." So when you start to understand scripture and you start to really add it to your life, it becomes a purpose. So my purpose of giving became a purpose the rest of my life, to figure out different ways to give, different ways to help, different ways to encourage, different ways to speak life into people. And so that's what my whole thing vision started to open up and say, wow, you know what, the game was great, but the game is actually a platform for me to really be able to use what God has given me, which is my ability to give. My infrastructure on what I wanted to see myself, I wrote, I wrote, I write everything down and I see everything. So I got books and books and books from years that now I go back and pull out and I'm like, wow. You said this in '09, you know, and now you're living it, you know.

So you wrote the vision and you like made it plain.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

And you see it.

Right.

And you see it. And that's one thing I share with guys. I'm like, listen, write down your vision. Write it. You know, let your subconscious mind be the leader of you. You know what I'm saying? Trust it. Because what you think in your subconscious mind is ultimately what you're going to live. You see? And that's when God says, write the vision. He said, "Make it plain." He didn't say write a 5,000-word essay. He just said, "Write it. Make it plain so you can see it, so you can visually see where you want to go in your next steps." And so for me, I did that a lot and I still do it.

If life was to end right now, how would you be remembered? Like, how would somebody Think about you. Every footstep that's ever taken while you've been on this earth is accounted for and will be counted one day. We all gotta face Judgment Day one day. So I found out very early in life, ain't no— there are no breaks in life. My greatest pain I've ever had in my entire life. I'm 39 years old, I'll be 40 in 3 weeks, and for the first time, for the first time in my life, 33 years old, 39, 33, and the first time I actually had a chance to meet my father. And it bothered me so much because I used to look at myself in the mirror sometimes and say, "I know I'm who I am." Now the question remains, why inside of me there was a burn that has never stopped burning. There was a grind that I made up in my mind. The first time I fell on my knees, I'll never forget it. I'm praying, as I'm falling on my knees, And I was a junior deacon early, and I fell on my knees, and the first time I heard God's voice, He said, "Can you hear me now?" But I'm asking to hear Daddy's voice. Every Christmas I'm sitting at Christmases with a bag packed. I got a t-shirt in the bag and one pair of jeans. I got a toothbrush but no toothpaste. And I'm saying, "Daddy gotta come today. Daddy gotta come this Christmas." Daddy never came. Daddy never came. So I had a decision to make at a very early age. Would I fold or would I make up my mind to be remembered forever? I made up my mind to be remembered forever. I did it. I did it.

And you know what I did?

I did it my way. I did it my way. And today, I need a young man to change their attitude in life and do it their way. There's somebody sitting in this audience that has one thing to do. The moment you leave here, Make up in your mind that I'm a different person. Make up in your mind that there's something way greater than me. Everybody in this room this day can have a real change on somebody's life by the way you live your own life. No pain lasts always. No pain. I can do all things. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. At middle linebacker, from Miami, number 52, Ray Lewis.

Game time! Game time! Woo! Boy, we are going to play a football game tonight, boys. It's gonna be a great night tonight. If you run out of energy or get tired, look at me. I got too much. Being a champion is not easy.

Fight y'all!

Be quiet. Tonight is the night we ride. Through the camouflage Humvee with brothers inside. Here we come. We're not Mr. Blue. We unleash hell today. We're not Mr. Blue.

We unleash hell.

Hey, it's a man's game tonight now, you know that.

It's a man's game tonight.

Here we come, here we come.

It's a man's game now.

Oh, don't get nervous because I'm here now. Don't get nervous because I'm here. It's gonna be a football game tonight now. No doubt it's gonna be a football game here. Okay, all right, let's go, baby. Oh, y'all thought y'all was getting out of here easy. Oh no. Get off the field. Get off the field. They cannot move the ball on us. You can't hurt this. I'm a machine, jerk. You carry my junk. Man, I love this kind of game.

And you know why?

'Cause defense stood up. That's who wins championships. You can't run from this. You can't run from this. They can't let them hide from me tonight. They got to see me.

Let's see if they can run without nobody touching them.

You know what I'm talking about?

Let's become great. You know how we do our thing.

Everybody watching tonight. So I tell you what, if you can't find anything tonight, you in the wrong business. We control this. We run this. And anybody come in our house, they get dealt with.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

We made this video because Mark asked us to. If there's anyone that you would like us to feature, please leave the comment below.

I'd also love to know which of Ray Lewis's top 10 rules meant the most to you, leave in the comments and we'll join in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe.

Believe.

It's this hand.

Okay.

No, no, this hand.

We'll meet together. Believe.

And we'll see you soon.