How To Find Your Greatness With Eric Thomas, Best-Selling Author, Motivational Guru And International Business Phenom

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You gotta control what you can control and you gotta focus on what you can focus on. And I get to decide with my life how I live it. I don't have to let any other group or any other institution determine for Eric Thomas how he's going to live.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. If you don't know now, you know that I text you daily Monday through Friday, you guys, and you have been so awesome. I've been loving interact with you on these text messages. You can text me the word daily to 310-496-8363 and I'm going to text you affirmations, manifesting affirmations, journal prompts, questions you can ask yourself. And one of the quotes I put out today, it says you can't be who you want to be while also being who they want you to be. It's always your job to choose you. Nothing good comes out of being an inauthentic, resentful shell of yourself. Little reminders like this one could come to your phone every single day. You guys, I would love to text you so you can text me the word d daily to 310-496-8363. That is literally growing by hundreds every single week. And I hope that you join that text list because it's just such a cool way to be able to interact with you and send you exactly what I'm thinking and what's getting me inspired every single day. And it's my job to go out there and find the inspiration so that I can regurgitate it back to you. I feel like a baby mama bird. So coming into this show was so, so exciting with this next guest because I got to see this person speak probably now at this time like five years ago. And oh my God, I literally was jumping out of my seat watching Eric Thomas when I was sitting in the audience at School of Greatness in Ohio Lewis Howes event. And seriously, this man is so hyped up and is just so incredibly divinely inspired that you can't help but literally feel like you are changing listening to him speak. And this podcast is no different. He talks so much about average skill combined with phenomenal will is going to Be the equation for your greatness. Eric Thomas, PhD. He's an educator, a bestselling author, motivational guru, and an international business phenom. Eric's unique brand of pragmatism continues to take the world by storm, and it's made him the preferred go to problem solver for many of the world's largest corporations. He's spoken for General Electric, Quicken, loans, AT&T, Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, UPS, the MLB, NBA, NFL, MLS. You guys, seriously, we are getting served just the most amazing platter of inspiration dedication in this podcast. So I'm stop talking and let's just tune into him because he is seriously where it's at.

All right, E.T. it is an honor, and I don't say that lightly, a massive honor having you on the show. How you doing?

Bless, bless. Blessed. Good season. Good time to be alive. My kids are grown, so that's why I'm so excited. My daughter just finished her masters at Michigan State and I'm praying for her husband.

Oh, my God. I love it.

I love it.

You know, we were just speaking offline. You mentioned Michigan State. We're all kind of Midwest, born and raised. We got that bond going on there.

We like you already.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal humans, man. Look, I'm not disrespecting anybody else. Let's just say, you know, my wife and I, we own a home on the west coast for the winter. And they don't necessarily speak the way we speak to each other. So I'm like, hey, how you guys doing? They looking like, I love Midwest. It's just, you know, blue collar, get up every day, grind, work. It's a different. It's a different culture, man. So I'm glad to be amongst you guys.

Yeah, we literally. We live on the west coast for part of the year too. And we've had the conversations about how we actually feel like the way that we grew up is so easy to. Not necessarily easy, but kind of easier to win when you move to the coast. Cause you just have a different mentality than a lot of the people out here, so.

Ah. And again, nothing against the west, but no, love them. Yeah, I like to get up in the morning and stuff's not open. I'm like, hold up, what time are we opening here? You know what I'm saying? Like, what are we waiting on? Who are we waiting for? You know what I'm saying? So total different grind. Total different hustle. I'm sure they grind and they hustle. It's just a different way.

Different way oh, man, isn't that the truth? So listen, the first question I got on my mind is this. To kind of kick off the show, it's been very well documented how you went from, of course, homeless and some other struggles to the international superstar speaker and coach that you are right now. And. And it's been so well documented elsewhere that as important of a story as that is, I'll let individuals go to some of the other interviews to go hear that story. Where I really wanted to pick up today is as you stand today, from your perspective today, what do you feel your mission is and who are you here to serve?

So, you know, this is weird, right? So I was just talking to my Auntie Cleo the other day. So I lost both of my grandmothers. I lost one in March and the other one, like sometime in the end of April, right? Blessed. My Grandmother One was 93, the other one was 90. But my aunt was calling me because, you know, I had a special relationship with my grandmas. I'm one of those kids that. My mom was young, like 17 when she got pregnant with me. So grandmas were like, really, you know, mothers, if you will, extensions of mine because mom's so young. So they. So I was, I was raised. So my grandma called me, my auntie called me, was like, how you doing? I'm like, I'm good. She's like, no, how you doing? I said, auntie, can I be honest with you? I was like, wow, I'm 51 years old and I know what it's like to have experienced marital bliss, you know, Like, I got married at 19 years old, so I know what it's like to struggle, and I know what it's like for mental bliss. I was like, auntie, I've been broke, like, homeless, bad credit, getting letters from Uncle Sam, and I know what it's like to be wealthy, you know, I was like, auntie, I was a struggling artist and considered one of the best speakers in the world, most sought after. I've traveled to Dubai, like, the world. I was like, yo, Auntie, I'm literally, I've done what most humans dream about. And again, we could talk, you know, material things, but I'm like, yo, marital bliss is not something that everybody gets to, you know what I'm saying? Like, most of us know what it's like to struggle, but we don't know what it's like to work with your partner, want to be with your partner every day. I've been blessed to have two beautiful children and I'm at This point in my life where it's like, yo, what's next? And it's, can you teach? Or how many people can you teach to get that before you get out of here? You know, before you leave this earth, like, can you be a bridge? And how many people will be in your tree? Like, how many other. You know, you got the Inky Johnsons of the world. Again, Inky's just a phenomenal talent by himself. But I was blessed to catch Inky before the world knew Inky and was able to use my platform to assist him, what he was already gonna do, but a little bit earlier, you know, the Jeremy Andersons of the world. So there are so many young people who are doing very well for themselves, who CJ And I can say, yo, we help. But now we're like, that was kind of maybe intentional, but it wasn't as deliberate and intentional as we're about to be now with how many multimillionaires can we create? How many marriages can we help? How many people can we help teach their children how to take that generational wealth and expand it to another generation? You know? So that's where I am now. Okay? Either you learn how to do it, but can you duplicate yourself? Can you scale this success you having? And for who? Just anybody who doesn't believe in the American dream. You know, there are a lot of people, especially right now, who are just like, I see it on tv, I see it on the Internet. I don't know nobody personally or I don't believe stuff we're seeing that's going on. Like, I don't believe in that America you're talking about. And I'm like, yo, I'm telling y' all from experience, it exists. And you're talking about a kid who didn't necessarily. Who wasn't necessarily born in it. You know what I'm saying? Like, I didn't come into the world looking around and, like, experiencing it, but I got it now. And I just want to let those people know, yup, is there another America? 1,000%. I'm not going to argue with you like, it's real, but this is just as real. Like, what you're experiencing is real. But I'm trying to tell you this right here. This is just as real. So anybody who doesn't believe, but wants to believe and wants to taste this, that's my population. I'm trying to convince them that it's real and you can experience the real just like other people are experiencing it.

Man, it's got me Fired up right now.

So good. So anybody who listens to you can catch on pretty quickly. And throughout this podcast, you guys will hear it. You have a really unshakable belief system, like, just around the way that you view disadvantages and turning them into advantages. Like, that's truly something that. I can hear it in your voice. You're convicted by that belief. How do you. Number one, I would love to know some of the big disadvantages that you've turned into advantages. But also, how did you create this unshakable belief system that your disadvantages can be advantages?

Well, you know, actually it was the loss of the disadvantage and the perpetual loss of the disadvantage. You know, like, you get to a point where it's like, okay, I lost, all right? My mom didn't do what she was supposed to do. All right? I lost. My dad wasn't in my life, all right? I lost. I went to, you know, public schools and didn't necessarily. But, you know, after a while, you get to a point where it's like, yo, you keep losing and you keep blaming people, and blaming them is not helping you to get any further, you know? So I, like, I tell people all the time, like, yo, I'm not mad at whatever you're on or whatever you believe, but if you're losing and you're not winning, at some point you got to get tired of losing. And I just got to a point where I was just like, yo, E, you blaming your mom, you still homeless. Like, you blaming your dad. And let's just be real, like, he might need to take some of the responsibility. I don't know. But the one thing I do know is that your mom is married. You got sisters, your dad, I don't know where he at, where he is or what he's doing, but he not homeless. Like, so. You know what I'm saying? Like, so all of this blaming you're doing, all this finger pointing you're doing, it does not help you get out of this situation you're in. And so I was like, okay, cool. I want to get out of my situation. So it was like, if you want to get out of your situation, you first have to figure out what's wrong. And when I looked at everything and everybody, it's crazy, but I started noticing, like, yo, the cop that arrested me, he don't know my mom. And the teacher that kicked me out, she don't know the police officer. You know what I'm saying? I saw, like, hold up. Like, there's a common denominator Here. You know what I'm saying? And it's Eric Thomas, the counselor from school, the police officer, the court, my mom. Like, everybody knows Eric Thomas. And so while it may seem overwhelming to realize you're the problem, at the same time, it's kind of liberating. Like, I'm not gonna lie. Like, in the beginning, when it was like, eric, you're the problem, I kind of wanted to fight that. Like, yo, no, my mom shoulda. No, no, don't put that on me. I'm 16 years old. My father should have. But then I was like, you know what, Eric? No, you probably should take the blame, because if you take all the blame, you can actually take all the power. Like, yo, you got the power now, bro. Like, it's all on you at this point. You feel me? Like, you ain't got to talk. Worry about your mama no more. You don't gotta worry about your daddy no more. You don't have to worry about, you know, Republican, Democrat, Independent. You don't have to worry about rich, poor. You don't have to worry about socioeconomic status. You don't have to worry about what side of the street you like. Yo, bro, you don't gotta worry about none of that. Like, you owe you. Bottom line. You owe you. And I'm telling y', all, although I came to that realization, I was at rock bottom. When I came to that realization, that probably was the mindset that was the beginning of my wealth. That was the beginning of my turnaround. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and lie and tell you, at 17, I had changed everything, but I had adopted the mindset that was about to turn everything around in my life. I promise you. Yeah. So long answer to a short question.

No, great answer. Great answer to a great question. Because everyone needs to hear that right now. Right?

Yeah.

I feel like there's a lot of people right now that are counting themselves out.

There's a lot of people that are.

Saying, well, it can't happen for me. And you're right. There's almost two Americas right now. Which one are you focusing on?

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I want to take a step back for a moment when you said right now your goal is to see how many millionaires can you produce and how many couples can you help experience marital bliss? It's interesting. We've been married 17 years coming up this August. And we have been beyond broke. We've been poor, poor, poor. And then we've been very wealthy together. And we've been happy during both of those times. But I think it's. I want to speak. It's happier and easier when we've been wealthy together.

Just honest, right?

And so here we are, facing a challenging economy coming up. There's a lot of people that are afraid of it. What words of inspiration or what tips do you have for the couples or individuals out there that are afraid of what might be coming up in the economy?

Listen to me very closely, like, and I mean this. And I get slack sometimes, you know, from people, you know, who rock with me or, you know, kind of believe in me. It's like, yo, E, you go sit here and act like all of this stuff doesn't exist. And I'm like, yo, I never said, like, yo, I'll be the first. You read my book. I'll be the first to tell you I've experienced what I believe is racism. I've experienced it. I believe I experienced what it's like to probably be in a community where, you know, top notch resources weren't necessarily there. But listen to me very closely. I'm not saying that I'm blind to the bad that's in the world. I'm just saying I'm not focusing on that. I'm not focusing on what can stop me. I'm focusing on what can help me. Like, I'm not focused on, you know what I'm saying, all the barriers that exist. I'm focusing on all the strengths, the talents, the skills, the people. I know. I tell people this all the time. If there are races in this world, which they are, I just don't hang out with them. I just don't personally know them. I ain't on a podcast, you know what I'm saying? Like, we don't hang out together. So I'm not saying they don't exist. They just. Not in my sphere. They're not on my radar, they're not on my frequency. So I'm not saying they don't exist. I'm just saying I'm not about to put my energy on that. So, yeah, I do go to the schools to talk to the kids. I do go to the prisons. But I go saying, yo, what are the possibilities? What's possible? What's past possible? What can we control? I can't control what somebody feels like because he sees me and he sees the color of my Skin. And he don't particularly care for me because I don't. I can't control that. There's absolutely nothing I can do about that. But what I can do is love on my neighbors. What I can do is put out positive energy. What I can do. Listen to me. I wrote a book. I wrote a book during COVID you know, I was like, now. I got hit hard. I never cried about it. But when you think about it, my career took probably one of the greatest hits because of social distancing. I never even knew what social distancing was until they told me we got social distance. I'm like, what does that mean? I'm not going to be on stage. So for about a year and a half, you know, almost two years, it was taken from me. My livelihood was taken from me. So what did I do? I didn't cry or whine. I just decided, in Covid, I'm going to write a book. I just said, in Covid, I'm going to write a book. Why? I didn't see. It's taken from you. I saw you got more time than you've ever had before. I saw. If you want to reflect, now is a good time to reflect. I saw if you want to go back and reverse engineer how you got to where you are and create a document that will outlast you, outlive you, and give people for years and years and years to come away who come from what I come from. Dad ain't in your life. 17. Mom 17 when she got pregnant. South side of Chicago. High school dropout, like, whatever. Homeless, like, college got kicked out, whatever. If you feel like you disadvantaged, I just want to give you a blueprint. I want to give you a blueprint to show you how to take that disadvantage and turn it into a. I did that through Covid. I didn't go in a state of depression. And again, I'm not speaking ill of anybody who, during the recession got depressed. I'm just saying I didn't. I'm just saying I made a choice to go. You can look at this as the worst thing that ever happened to you, or you can survive, or you can say to your wife and your children, hunker down. Let's get our anchor. Like, we got a storm, y'. All. It may last six weeks, six months. It may last a year. It may last longer than I thought it was gonna last. But let's anchor down. Let's eat together more than we've ever eaten before. Let's be on the phone more than We've ever been on the phone. Let's get counselors. We got counselors doing Covid. Let's get some counselors, you know what I'm saying? Let's find some stuff on TV we can watch. I never watched TV a day in my life. I'm like, calling my friends, hey, what's the best series out right now? That's going to take weeks, so we can watch TV together at night. You know what I'm saying? We're going to go on walks. We went to California, spent a little bit more time. Our house is a little bigger there. We've got a trail in the backyard. It's a golf course. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, son, you play golf? Go play golf, sweetheart. We'll walk around. We cook more than we've ever cooked before. I'm just telling y', all, Covid was terrible. But in the words of Winston Churchill, never let a good crisis go to waste. Never let a good crisis go to waste. And we just took that crisis and we just got closer as a family, you know, like I said, wrote a book, did more zooms than I care to do. You know what I'm saying? I was zoomed out, you know, said I was. It took me maybe five zooms to get what I would normally get on stage at once. So way more. Okay, sweetheart, I can't do this at that time, okay? I can't do this. I gotta be in front of Zoom. But I was like, I'll do zoom as long as I can. Why? Because we don't have the stage. But we have Zoom now. Yeah, we have zoom. So this is the new stage. So instead of crying about it, we gonna get on Zoom and take advantage of it.

Opportunity and everything is what I'm hearing. There's opportunity in everything.

It sounds like you are.

So one of your main, like, another belief is to. When you feel maybe scared or anxious or depressed, because these are all the human emotions, right, that we can cycle through in a day. Especially with just, like, all of the different things going on in the world right now. It's easy to look at the news and feel really, like, scared for the future, defeated. So for you, what do you recommend for people? Different actions that they can take right away to get them outside of their own kind of like, head or funk. Like, what do you say to those people when they're like, man, I'm just. I'm stuck. Like, I just feel stuck. Is it their environment? Is it the people? What is it you Know, I want.

To say to you, the first thing is, you know, information, like, you have to be careful what information you take in. You know, you really do, you know, Because I believe if it's not clinical right now, there's some stuff that's clinical. Like, we're not talking about that right now. Right. But there's other stress that I've seen in my loved ones or my friends or people that attend my church that is stressed because of what you're focusing on. Right. And this is stress that can be alleviated because you've decided to focus on that and not focus on this. So the first thing I want to say is, like, you need to be careful. One who you're doing life with. Like, yo, it make a big difference. Like, you in a hole. It make a big difference who you in the hole with. Yeah, if you in a hole with a Debbie Downer, that all y' all gonna do is talk about the negative. I'm guaranteeing you you're going down. You're going down quick. You need to be in a hole. I'm not saying this is something you need to do consistently, but if you're in the hole, you might want to be with somebody optimistic. You might want to pay somebody who's optimistic. Like, you might want to get in a support group that's optimistic. Like, when things are going bad, the last thing you need to do is be in the hole with somebody who's already in the hole, who's already negative. Right. Number two, when I say the information, like, for me, when things are going bad, I'm like, yo, what's my favorite? Where's Lauryn Hill at when I need it? I'm putting my Lauryn Hill boy on. I've got Lauryn Hill on repeat. I've got my Bobby McFerry. Don't worry, be happy. I promise you, I'm not listening to that on a regular basis. But when I get down and out the greatest hits, I go on, Google the greatest upbeat songs of all time. Be careful what you take in. So if you're not strong, don't watch the news. I'm just saying if you're not a strong person and you can't take what they're saying, don't watch it. Number three, here's what I believe. I truly believe that a lot of our stress, a lot of our funk comes from the over intake of external stuff. It's like way too much external. It's way too much. My son's 26. I remember like a year or so ago my son was like, dad, I'm growing through it. I was like, what? Like, give me more, you know what I'm saying? Like, help me to understand. He was like, dad, I'm behind. I said behind. Behind what? You got a four year degree from Michigan State University. You work with coach Izzo, you traveled the world. You got a final four ring and an elite eight ring for being a general. Matt, son, you've traveled the world. You've been all over the world. You got a passport. What, you're behind who? At 24, behind who? I didn't even have a degree at that age. Your mom wasn't finished with school at that. Like, you're behind. You got an Escalade. You live in a, you live in an apartment. You can see the stadium for the park. You go to the games. Like, you know, NFL, NBA player, like, you walk through, people know you're behind who? I said, oh, I know who you're behind. All the people you watching on the Internet. Cut the Internet off. Cut the Internet off. Do me a favor. What are you taking in, son, that's making you feel like you behind? Do me a favor, cut the Internet off and go take a trip to a third world country for me. Go spend a week in a third world country and come back and call me again. Come back after you've been in the country where there's no drinking water, there's no running water, where there's no bathroom, call me. Where there's no kitchen, no refrigerator, call me. Where they're not there. They don't have a grocery store within a 50 mile radius. Like, call me back. So go take a trip. It's on me. I'll sponsor that joker. Go take a trip to a third world country, Come back and talk to me. And so I never forget, my daughter decided her freshman year on spring break, super mature, 18 years old, she decided to go to Capeche, Mexico, and spend time with kids who were like cancer patients. And I'll never forget, my daughter came back third world country. My daughter came back in tears. And I'd never seen her cry like that in tears. I was like, what happened? She was like, dad, these kids didn't have drinking water, dad. The water was brown. Flies all in the water. Insufficient medical facilities, dad. And she said, that's not what got me. I said, well, what got you, sweetheart? They were still smiling, dad. Wow. They were still laughing and having a good time, dad. Like they didn't know. They didn't have hair. They took my hair, my braids, and put it on their head. And we would take pictures with them. She's like, dad, the things that made them happy, dad. She was like, I'm embarrassed. And let me tell you, from that day for she got her master's in social work. She's like, I'm gonna be a social worker. That's the trip my daughter went on in a third world country chain. I'm telling y', all, if you could take when you feel depressed, if you could take one hand and count your blessings. If you're not smiling by that time, get the next one. If that don't work, get a set of toes. If that don't work, get the other set of toes. By the time you count 20 blessings, you should be okay. And that's what we're doing wrong. We're looking at what we don't have. We're looking at what they're saying. People are calling me, Eric, the recession is coming. I said, okay, well, do me a favor, be happy until it gets here.

There are so many challenges to business that I don't want starting to be.

One of them for you.

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Let me have you here like Don't. You are fearing something that hadn't even happened yet. Like, are you still eating? You still in your car? Are you still. Yeah, yeah. But it's coming. I said, please, do me a favor. Not until it gets here. And do me a favor. When it gets here, call me and tell me if it's as bad as you thought it was, because I guarantee you, it's probably not going to be as bad as you thought it was. We'll keep moving. So, yeah, I would just say be careful of what you're taking in and be careful who you're doing life with, because who you do life with, who you do. I'm telling you guys, I've done podcasts with people before, and I'll be honest, it was whack. Like, we did a podcast. It was like, apparently y' all know how to ask questions. You feel me? I'm just being real. Great. You said it like, ae, we're not gonna get into that. Like, they could go find it. Like, yo, that's genius. You know what I'm saying? Like, we can talk about the same thing I talked about in the last. Whatever it was. Well, first of all, I don't do a lot of podcasts, but the few that I do do. You're right, they probably do. What time do you go to bed? I'm like, I talk about that on the video. Actually, you have to ask me that. That's on the actual video. So even being with you guys, who you do a podcast with, who you work with, who you do life with, is way more important than what happens in life, because who you do life with will probably dictate more on the outcomes of life than just life itself. I say this all the time. People will debate me. I used to gamble. Forgive me. When I was high. You know, when I was in high school, I was homeless. I played poker. I played card games. For those of you who ever played card games before, you understand this. It doesn't matter what hand you have. I've seen guys with a royal flush who can't get no money because I can tell on your face you got a royal flush. So I'm just, like, throwing all my stuff in. I'm like, okay, it looked like my man got something. I look at his face, he's smiling too hard. Go ahead and take these $5. I'm out. And I've seen somebody with nothing pretend as they had a royal flush and want all the money. It doesn't matter what hand you have. And this is what people get Wrong. And that's why I love. I don't know if you guys know Jesse. Here's why I love have Jesse on my platform. People think just because you were born a certain gender or race, that life just automatically like, oh, you're a white male. Oh, multimillionaire. Oh, billionaire. I'm like, Jesse is explained. Now, Jesse's did say he has some advantages, but he had to work the advantages. Like, the advantages don't necessarily just work themselves. I had some disadvantages. You just got to work the disadvantages. Like, it doesn't matter which one you have. You got to work either one of them. Like, none of them. For many of us, they aren't just assembled. So there are kids who come from rich families who got strung out on drugs. There are kids who come from rich families that end up in prison. So I'm not saying that they're not advantages. I'm not saying they're not things. I'm just saying you got to control what you can control, and you got to focus on what you can focus on. And I get to decide with my life how I live it. I don't have to let any other group or any other institution determine for Eric Thomas how he's going to live. And so since I only live once and it's temporary, yo, I just decided to focus on the things that's going to blow me up. And then here's the deal. Like you guys said, it's a lot easier when you have influence and impact and income to actually do something. It is when you don't have any of it. So my thing is, e, let's go out here and write books. Let's be the best speaker in the world. Let's put ourselves in a position where I have an army of people who support me that I know, people who have a platform that can help me establish the stuff that I'm doing. Let's not focus on the people who hate. I want to focus on the people who love. Let's not focus on the people who closing the doors. Let's focus on people who open up the doors. Yes. And then from when we could take it from there. So some people, I don't know, Eric. I just don't. Hey, whatever. If you want to focus on the mountain and how big it is, cool. I'm looking at that joke and going, how can I move this thing? How can I move this mouth? Because I seen other humans move them, and I believe I can move them, too. And then how do I teach people to move mountains.

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Wow.

Okay, so number one, that was for me, especially when you talked about feeling behind. There's a lot of times I feel behind. And then when you lay out, what do you mean behind? You've got this, this and this. You've got that, that and that. What do you mean behind? Like that spoke to me. That was for me. And then it made me think. You speak to such a wide range of people. I mean, you speak to and coach the elite of the world, the rich and famous of the world. And then you also speak to and coach, you know, a kid from, let's say, a tough upbringing that doesn't even know why he or she exists today. Right? So in that range is one group more important to speak to than the other. And if so, why?

Okay, yes and no. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who may be athletes who still don't know their purpose in life. You know what I'm saying? I tell some of these kids, like, bro, let's just be real. You just 6 10. You didn't have nothing to do with that, bro, you're 16. I'm just saying, like, you came out 16 and I don't care who you are. If you come out 6 10, no matter where you live, everybody gonna think you should play basketball. It is what it is. Whether you could play or not, whether you're athletic or not, you 610 people are automatically labeling you. So there are people who are tall, strong, fast, whatever, and they get opportunities because of some elite attribute. It doesn't necessarily mean that they had a stuff together. It doesn't necessarily mean they know who they are and what their purpose is in life. It doesn't mean that they have a set of values that they stand by. It doesn't mean that they had people in their lives who actually cared for them or loved on them. They could have been used because they were in sports, right? So for me, like everybody at the base is trying to get to self actualization. Like every human is like water, food, drink, shelter, sense of belonging, I want my self esteem. And then boom. Stuff actualization, like that's every human. I don't care how much money you have, whatever. We all want to belong, that we all want to get to a place where we feel like we're living life on our own terms. But it's different when I spoke to Kyrie because I kind of felt like, yo, Kyrie got bread. You know, Kyrie is wealthy. Kyrie has a support system. He gonna be okay. You understand what I'm saying? When I'm fortunate, you know, to talk to a obj, I'm not Victor Oland Depot. I'm not necessarily like their life is gonna be. I just look at that as okay. For whatever reason, our vibes or our frequency at that time connected and whatever I feel like I can do to help you to continue and sustain your greatness, whatever that little bit, I'm gonna do that. I worked with the 49ers last season. They were like at the brink of okay, if we lose one or two more games, we're out of the playoffs. I was able to get to them and speak to their why they made it to the NFC championship. One little mistake. They probably, if the interception would have been caught they probably would have been going to the Super Bowl. So I felt good about. All right, these guys are already doing well, but you were able to help them to take advantage of an opportunity of a lifetime in that lifetime of the opportunity. But my kids From Detroit, Chicago, 14, 15, it's life or death. I find it amusing when people say, is that the guy that's screaming and hollering like, Absolutely, 1000%. Why? Because you're doing corporate work. Ah. You may not need to scream and yell, but I got a kid who 14. He on his way to jail. He's on his way to a gang. He's on his way to potentially getting shot and killed. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe the right place, right time and shot and killed. Like, this is life or death. This is somebody. Mama. Potentially going to bury their children or he gonna get to college and not athletics. I'm gonna help him get there with his mind because it's not enough opportunities for everybody to play sport. So when I'm going to a youth prison, I'm like, yo, these kids got three to five, and if they listen to me, they get out. If they don't, they gonna get in trouble here. They gonna be lifers. So when I'm talking to elementary, especially elementary, like, this may sound crazy to some people, but statistics show that they build prisons based on a kid being able to read by the third grade. Like, they can kind of tell if you're going to be in trouble with the law by the third grade, researchers by the third grade. That's the foundation. So if you can't read, write, or comprehend by the third grade, the probability of you learning by the fourth or the fifth grade is slim, right? It's slim. Doesn't mean it can't happen. So they brought. There are certain predictors by the third grade. So that's why I'm going in, talking to third graders with this kind of pat. That's why I'm going into the boys and girls club and screaming and hollering. Why? Attention span is low. I'm competing with video games. I'm competing with sports. I'm competing with a lot of stuff. So I got to get in there and I got to arrest your attention. And I may only have statistics show with these kids. Now, you got 15 seconds. So when you cut my video on, I don't have. Y' all see it. TikTok is 60 seconds. You got 60 seconds to convince them that you need to stay on your page or go somewhere else. And so for me, I got 60 seconds, man, to change somebody's life. So, yes, that group definitely. And. Or I got a lot of prisoners that been coming out that I meet on the street. They're like, eric, I listened to you in jail. You changed my way of thinking. I'm out. I'm never going back. So some people see it as motivation, but I really do. Serious life, you know, work.

That's incredible. That's incredible.

Oh, man.

So good. Kind of on those lines of talking about maybe. I know you talk a lot about average skill paired with phenomenal will. And I absolutely resonate to having average skills. I did not graduate high school, so I definitely focused on here we are. I know we light up and get excited. So I want to hear more about just your thoughts on combining average skill with phenomenal will and what you think of. I know that you believe in that for success. So tell me more about it.

And you know what? Can I be honest? There was a time in my life where I just. The skill, like, again, when you don't know, you don't know. And I used to think, yo, the skill just got an automatic. You know, they got an automatic ride. But if you really pay attention to the environments that you're in, for instance, you know, I might watch sports. So there are times where you'll see, you know, a team that nobody thought should win. During the Pistons, when we played the Lakers, like, nobody thought both times, nobody thought we had what it take. But you saw a group of scrappy guys, you know, Isaiah Thomas, Bill Lambert, like, these aren't people that, you know, Sally, Dennis Rodman, like, these aren't necessarily. Now, Isaiah was all of that in the bag of chips. But for the most part, these other guys, you never heard about them before. They weren't, like, considered to be hall of Famers at that time. But I'm a kid watching them, and I'm like, wow, they won the championship. You know, you watch a sport and you watch, you know, America beat the US Hockey team, win. You know, what was it? Soviet Union like, You know, you watch, it's like, oh, wow, I can't believe, like, they were underdog. You see women's soccer, you see, it's like, oh, okay, okay. You see the little, you know, gymnastics, you like, whoa. We had, wow. Like, we won. That's crazy. Like, we weren't supposed to. And so for me, as a kid, I started watching what you would call average people, like, change the world. Like, I saw a Martin Luther King. You know, I try to explain to people Dr. Fungkin was a pastor. He wasn't like a lawyer. He was a pastor. Mother Teresa was a nun. Like, I went to Catholic school. I'm not trying to be funny, but even in Catholicism, like, a nun is not at the height in the pecking order. She's not at the, how are you a nun? But you probably more recognized and known than any Pope. Like, I'm sure most people knew who Mother Teresa was. Everybody know which pope was which pope, right? And so I started noticing, yo, there's a gap for people who are not highly skilled, maybe a smaller window, maybe. You know what I'm saying? Maybe the opportunities are not as grandiose as maybe they are for. But I started noticing, like, whoa, if you got that dog. Okay, if you're willing to get up earlier, go to bed later, oh, okay. If you're willing to do it 50 times, it might only take them two or three times, but you got to do it 50 times. Oh, you could catch up to them. You can win. You can beat them. So I started noticing that life and success favors the person with will. I start noticing that success has more to do with will than it does skill. I started noticing that success has more to do with passion, determination, heart, not surrendering, never giving up. And then, you know, I watched a lot of Chinese movies when I was coming up as a kid. You know, it was popular during that time. And, you know, you just see a fighter who was smaller but who would win because that person kept getting back up, like, ah, wiping the blood off. Ah, you know, saying, no. Ah, you know what I'm saying? Like, and they kept it up. So for me, I realized, yo, air, there is a body of work that can be contributed to being highly skilled, but there's also a body of work historically, that has nothing to do with skill but has everything to do with will. And you may want to align yourself with the will, because I think what I was doing wrong is I was trying to play the skillsman game when I wasn't skilled. And I realized, like, yo, E, that ain't your thing, bro. Like, come on over on this side. And even when I started speaking, believe it or not, my wardrobe was indicative of being from the Midwest. Like, people would see me like, you don't got on a shirt in the time. Like, yo, bro, from the Midwest, bro. Like, we working in farms. We work at Ford, gm, in Chrysler. Like, we not nothing against certain types. Like, that's just not where we come from. And I found when I was wearing Saul's armor, When I was wearing somebody else's armor, trying to be like somebody else, it didn't work. But when I just act like Dave and was like, yo, just give me a slingshot and five rocks. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's all I need. I don't need all that other stuff that y' all wearing. And when I start carrying my slingshot and my rocks around, I won way more victories. I defeated way more Goliaths than I did trying to be somebody else. And so I just realized there's nothing wrong with skill. There's nothing wrong with those people who are smart, you know, and who get through life by being Jesus. But I just want y' all to know there's not just one path that's paved to success. There are multiple paths, and we just got to pick ours. And again, you know, people tease me or people shunned me, or people wouldn't hire me because of the way I dress. But guess what? I kept being who I was. And then there was a population that was like, yo, we don't want. We do not want Eric Thomas if he not coming like that. If you're not coming like the guy I see on the video, if you don't have that passionate energy, please don't come. And so if you would just be who you are, you owe it to yourself to be your authentic self, because you can't be great being somebody else. You might be able to be good, but you can't be great at being somebody else. Even Kobe Bryant, who mimicked Michael Jordan, only ended up with five, and Mike was with six. You feel me? So Kobe did a phenomenal job, but he still didn't necessarily become Michael Jordan in the process of mimicking Michael Jordan. So I just say you owe it to yourself to be yourself, E.T.

I think that's one of my favorite things that. That you always preach on is empowering the average everyday person that it might take you a few more tries than somebody else who's more talented, Right? It may take a few more at bats, but you, too, can go build this extraordinary life full of extraordinary impact. And it's literally what the blueprint, I'm going to use your word, the blueprint that you reverse engineered in the book, you owe you. That's what it's about. So of the blueprint that you created when you wrote that book, is there a chapter, is there a lesson that stands out as the most important one that people need? Even if they turn right to it, that's the one they gotta hit Ah, give me two.

Give me two. So the first one is, you gotta own it. You know, you gotta own it. And I just feel like so many people aren't successful because they don't want to own it, man. I have people that work for me. I'm like, man, it's not going to work out. And it was like, why not? Because you want me to pay your bills? Because you want me to put your kids through college. Because you want me to put your kids through private school. It's like, there are things that you're asking me to do for your family that rightfully only you should be doing it. So it doesn't mean you shouldn't work for me. But, like, you leaving all the responsibility to me, you putting your whole life in my hand. Like, if Eric go to. Speaking of Eric, what if something happens to me? What if I decide to be a terrible guy tomorrow? Like, what's gonna happen to you and your family? Like, I truly believe that there are certain things that only I should do for my kids or for my wife. I just believe like, yo, this is this my wife. Like, tell your dad I'm good and tell your mom I'm good. I got this. You feel me? I respect them, but I can take it from here, right? My kids, there's just certain things that I should just do for my kid. And I just find that there are a lot of people in life, everybody wants something, but not everybody wants to own what they want. Wow. And I'm like, yo, I'm gonna own it. So, you know, some people say to me all the time, like, yo, E, it ain't fair. Like, you may not make as much money as, you know, a white motivational speaker. I was like, bro, I'm not buying into that. Maybe I gotta get a four year degree. Maybe I gotta get a master's degree. Maybe I gotta get the PhD. I don't look at it like it's not fair. I'm just like, yo, you tell me how much can be made, I'll do whatever it takes. Do I have to be the best? Do I have to have a degree? I don't necessarily see that as quitting and giving up. I just see that. As you might tell me, my path is a little narrow, but it's still a path that I can walk to and walk through. And guess what? My wife owes me to walk through it and not go like, yo, life ain't fair, sweetie. So we gonna have to just live here. Cause life ain't fair. Oh, we gonna have to Eat here because life ain't fair. Or we're gonna have to fly in the back. Because life ain't fair. Bump. Dad. Just show me the path and I will own it. Just show me what I gotta do. Just show me it's possible. Just show me that there's a way to go about Nonprofit escort LLC Foundation Just show me. Just show me what it takes to. Okay, I gotta do corporate. Okay. What do I have to do? Just show me. Right? And so that's the first chapter. Own it. The second one is triple threat. Like you got to become a triple threat. Like it's not enough sometimes to be one dimensional. It's just not. Sometimes one dimensional is not going to take you where you need to go. And I'm going to say this name and this is one of the people that really inspired me. With the average skill, phenomenal wheel is Cal Ripkens. Anybody know anything about baseball? My man is considered to be one of the best of the best. They called him the iron man. And I promise you my man wasn't batting the.300 average. I promise you he wasn't. I promise you it was good, you know what I'm saying? Two, six something. It was all right, you know what I'm saying? Like it wasn't nothing to write home about. But he never missed a game. 2,600 something game. He never missed the game. I know him and his wife had to have an argument in one of those games. I know somebody had to get sick in one of those games. I know he wasn't 100% in one of those games. I know there was a funeral or something that happened in one of those games. He owned it. He owned his position. He owned his spot on the team. He owned his salary. He owned it. He could catch that ball. He could play offense well enough to help his team. He could play defense supremely. He showed up. He was always there. Culture. He pushed the culture. He was the brand. You couldn't talk bad about my man. I promise you. He triple threat, y'. All. And some of you are thinking because you're skilled in one area that the world just supposed to lay down and supposed to owe you something. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I'm gonna be multi dimensional. I'm gonna be multi. And I got blind spots. So we're gonna get the big mirrors with the sensors on the jokers so that my blind spots don't kill me. Because over a million people die, you know, in the span of a couple years because of those blind spots. So I have Blind spots. So I got to figure out what to do for the. You can read that in the book as well. You could take an assessment in the book. We'll help you with that. But I'm a triple threat, y'.

All.

Yes, I can speak, but I have the degree. But I'm down to earth. Marital bliss. But I know what marital struggle was like. A great credit score, 800. But I once had a 500. I once couldn't read and write. Now I'm writing books. The triple threat, y'. All. I'm not one dimensional. I could talk to the governor, but I can go in the hood and sit down, talk to the kid on the block that don't know how to read and write and help my man get his GED and send him off the cop. Like triple threat. And I'm saying to you guys, this is the same Eric Thomas. Nothing has changed. Except I got wider. That's always been a change. I didn't get any taller. I don't have a new voice. My brain actually worked better in my 20s than it does at 51. But guess what? The GED Eric did not attract the people that this Eric is attracting. The ged. Eric was a great guy, but he didn't have these opportunities. The four year degree, Eric, a little bit better. The master's a little bit better. The PhD. Listen to me. The disc, the attributes, the value, like all the certificates, all this stuff, the meeting people, talking to people, learning from people. The 2.0, Eric was a good kid, but the 5.0 and the 10.25, oh, it's just so much triple threat, y'. All. The more you are, the more you attract, the more you could be. More you can have, the more you can do.

Man, I love that.

Y' all getting me pumped up.

I love that. No, no other way, bro.

This is why we do podcasts. I'm like, wait, this is so selfish because we get like all of this incredible info for the day. Oh, my God. Okay, so I want to know about faith, because I think about faith all the. As in, we talk about faith, we say we have faith, or most people do, but it's not until we are really tested that we ever even get to use it or kind of like form our ideas around how we view things. Kind of what we were talking about earlier about advantages and disadvantages. But are there moments, like, has there been a moment, even recently, maybe, where you have been solo, where you've questioned your faith, but then you remember a certain tool or remember what to do? To kind of like turn yourself toward faith again.

Yeah. So here's what I would suggest. I would suggest that we don't wait to use our faith when something goes wrong. I would suggest that we stay close to our faith as much as we can every day. I think one of the things that I did well in that 30 year span was I got up every day. Well, I started at 6 and then I eventually got to 3 o' clock in the morning. And the trick to 3 o' clock in the Morning was when I used to get up at 6 and walk the neighborhood. You know, everybody's going to work. Five o', clock, you know, there's those runners. Four o', clock, the dogs are up. Three o' clock was that time where it was nothing but the stars, you know, the moon, me and God, you know, So I remember, you know, six o', clock, then three o' clock for years. And I remember when Dee Dee got diagnosed with Ms. And a lot of my very close family members and friends were like, wow, you didn't budge. What happened? I said, it's not that I didn't budge, but every morning I would get up at 3 o' clock and I would just pour out my heart to God about, you know, stuff that I thought was fair, not fair, stuff that I thought, you know, was a challenge, things that I thought was going to break me. And in that 3 o' clock time frame, it was like I was just casting it, like giving it away. Like, go, take this, I can't bury, Take this. And I told him what happened when Didi got sick was I got up the next morning and I just took that to him too. And so it might have been harder to do if I hadn't been doing it for 20 years up to that point. Like, if it was like the first day, I was like, okay, I know we hadn't talked in a minute, but hey, I got some on my heart I need to talk to you about. But I had been doing it for about 20 years at the time. So it was just like, yo, this is what I always do. I give it up, I let go. So. So. And I want to give you guys a practical example. It's easier if you do it every day. Because if you do it every day, then what happens is your challenges have to submit to your faith and not the other way around. So because most of you. Wait, your challenges are actually stronger than your faith because you don't use it. Not that you don't have it, you just don't use it. And Nothing that like anything you don't use. Of course, you know, Gang Green might sit in and, you know. So I give you guys a very simple example. I'm not saying I agree with it. It's right, it's wrong. I just know it's real. Chick Fil a is closed on Sunday. It does not matter if you are a college Chick Fil A. They close. If you're in the airport, they're closed. It don't matter if you in New York and the city never sleeps. Chick Fil a sleeps. It's closed. It's not open. I don't care if you wake up in the morning on Sunday and you got the crate, it's closed. Like it's. They practice. You don't have to go to church, but you're not coming here. Just what they practice. They practice Southern hospitality, which is why they don't have them in certain cities. Yeah. Because there's no Southern hospitality. So that's a. That's their faith. Their anchor is. We don't call you 0597. We ask you, what's your name? Eric. Eric, your sandwich is ready. I always answer to Eric. I don't always answer the 15360. Right. That's a part of their faith. So what? McDonald's does the numbers and Burger King does the number and Taco Bell does the number. Chick Fil a does not care. They call you by their name. That's a part of their faith. They play a certain type of music in their restaurant. They're not playing what's traditional or what everybody else is playing. They're not playing the top 40 songs. They're playing what they play. And because they believe in something, it's the weirdest thing. They actually are doing business on a very high level without doing it like other companies are doing it. Why? Because they are doing it based on their faith. And so when you have a faith and you stand on it, everybody will learn how to. To operate based on that faith. Now, there are a lot of people that don't believe in a lot of the belief systems of Chick Fil A. They still eating there?

Yep.

There's a lot of people, like, I don't agree with Chick Fil A. Okay. But you in line on Monday, give you a sandwich with the Polynesian sauce. Okay. And it's just a chicken sandwich. It's not even like it's the whole. But they only got a whole bunch of stuff. It's a chicken sandwich. But they do not go against their faith. And I learned that if I wake up every day and I spend time with my faith, when something negative happens, it's not going to have the same impact on me because my faith is stronger than the challenge. Why? Because the challenge is new. Even though my wife got ms, it's still new. It wasn't something that we talked about six months ago. My faith is something I've been doing for 20 years. So I take my struggle and, and put it in my faith. I don't put my faith in the struggle, man.

I love it. So do not wait to exercise that faith. I'm going to add to that. Do not wait to go out and order this book. You owe you. So where can people get it?

I guess wherever books are sold.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the places. I just, I pre ordered the audio. It was easy to find. I prefer books on audio. We got a bit of a surprise too. You don't know we're going to do this, but the first 50 listeners that tag you, Lori and I, with their breakthrough or their takeaway, Lori and I are going to personally buy and send them a book. So the first 50 listeners on Instagram that tag you and Lori and I with their takeaway, we'll buy them a book, send it right to their home. It's one of our favorite things to do when people launch new books.

Anything to me about this, guys? This is not a marketing scheme. It's not a. No. I hadn't heard this before. Thank you guys so much. And I say thank you because you don't have to do it. You don't, you don't owe me. So thank you.

No, it is absolutely our pleasure, dude, to help get this, this word out there. It's a word that everybody needs to hear. My favorite part of the word is that the everyday person with average skills can succeed. I think that describes Lori, that describes me. It describes the people that we love the most. And without people spreading that message and empowering, literally putting the proof in the book, people are going to follow the wrong individuals and they're going to follow the wrong advice.

We are so grateful for you. And honest, honestly, this podcast, like over delivered. I literally am writing things down, but I'm like, I'm just going to go back and listen to this a few times, I'm sure, because I feel super pumped up. It's like one of those videos, I don't know if you remember that, like viral. It was actually a Will Smith video years and years ago. I used to listen to it all the time about. He had like pumped you up in the morning about the treadmill. Yes. This is like the treadmill. I'm going to listen to this over and over again.

All right. You owe you Rush out and get it.

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, guys, listen.

Absolutely. Our pleasure. Our privilege. Rush out order. You owe you first 50 listeners that tag us with your takeaway, all three of us. We will send you a book from Lori and I. Our pleasure to do so. ET thank you to keep being you. We love and appreciate everything that you're doing.

All right. And we've got to link up at some point on the west coast. Yep. We got to do lunch together or go for a walk or whatever.

Let's do it.

No, let's do it. Thank you guys so much. Be blessed.

I appreciate you, man.

God bless.