April 18, 2024

Rico Sharp. Anybody here familiar with me? You are? You are? You are? You are? Okay, great. You are? All right, great. Um, a lot of people are familiar with me from different platforms that I engage in. Um, and I'll just talk a little bit about myself, then we're going to get to the reason that I'm here today. First of all, let me say that I'm grateful to Mr. Orlando Norwood that has given me the opportunity to come and speak to you all. Thank you. And I'm also grateful for you, Coach, for allowing me to be able to come here this morning. Can you just put your hands together for Mr. Norwood and Coach Taylor? I'm a motivational speaker. I'm a pastor. I'm a life coach. I'm a mentor. I've been traveling the world for years speaking. This is what I do. My life has a story of its own. And a lot of people know me from my television ministry, seen me on billboards. radio show, being guests on different people's talk shows and things like that. But, um, there was a particular point in my life when I was sitting right where you are, and I was an honor roll student, straight-A student in the 9th grade. And at some point, I decided that school was no longer for me. Why? I wanted to do something different with my life, which was a terrible choice, perhaps the most dreadful mistake I've made in my life. So I dropped out of school in the 9th grade as an honor roll student. I love science, I love math, I love social studies, I love drawing, I love being in school, but I had my eyes and my focus on some young Boys that were also in my school that were doing some things that they should not have been doing, and as we would say in this day and time, they were on some other stuff. They were thugs. They were gangsters. They were players. They were drug dealers, and they were drug addicts. And I got caught up into wanting to be like them. Long story short, and I followed them to their side town. and started hanging out on the street along with them, and I started doing the same thing that they were about. I got involved in drugs. I got involved in using drugs, selling drugs. I got involved in street gangs. I got involved in violence. I got involved in crime and criminal activity. And as a result of that, a lot of bad things happened in my life. At the age of 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, A lot of bad things happened. For one, I got arrested 19 times. I went to prison 3 times. Uh, for 2, I got beat up by gangs and left for dead. I got shot at. I got beat in the head with a gun. Almost OD'd off of drugs a couple of times. And finally, I decided while in prison facing 22 years for dealing in drugs that I needed to turn my life around. I needed to change. I needed to get back in school. And so what I did is I enrolled in a GED program while in prison. And there I was able to get my GED. You see, you guys are in school right now. You have a great future ahead of you. And you get to graduate and walk down, you know, basically the aisle with your cap and gown and your family in the audience celebrating you. That's right. while you graduate. I didn't get to do that. I had to have my diploma brought to me by a correctional officer. But I guess the good part about my story is that I survived all of the negative stuff that I was involved in, and I decided that I was going to take the rest of my life and dedicate it toward helping people such as yourself to not make the mistakes that I made in life, not do the dumb things that I did. And so I— this is what I do. I speak in jails, I speak in prisons, I speak in churches, I speak in colleges, I speak for other schools, I speak for businesses, I speak everywhere. And my whole objective in life is to take the negatives of my life and turn them into positives for your life. So that's the reason why I'm here. Thank you. So more than share my story, I want to share some insightful points with you to, to help you to, to just better focus on what's going to be next for your life, right? What's going to be next for your life? So how many of you can feel me so far? You, you see where I've come from? You know where I'm going with this? I'm here to help you out for a minute. Is that cool with you? Yeah. All right, uh, so I want to talk to you on, on this subject, and it's, it's a powerful subject, and it's called I Promise Me. I Promise Me. All right, can you say that with me? I Promise Me. I Promise Me. Oh, you gotta talk a little bit louder so I can make sure that we're feeling each other here. Say it again. I Promise Me. I Promise Me. All right, and I'm gonna tell you what that's about. I know you're just kind of saying something, from, from the blind side without fully understanding what, what that verbal commitment is. But when I say to you, I promise me, I, I'm saying to you that you have to put you first in front of everybody. You have to make sure that you dedicate your life to doing what's best for you. Does that make sense? Yes. You, you have to make sure That you make a commitment to yourself that you're going to give yourself the best chance you have out of life. Let me say to you that you only get to live once. You only get to live once. Life, life is really short, and life can end without any forenotice or forewarning. I'm going to tell you this, and you may not believe this, but I've had just in the last couple of months 5 people in my family to die. 5. 4 in 1 week. And then 7 months ago, my brother died. And then a year before that, my aunt died. And then a year and a half before that, my father died. When I say to you that life is short, I'm telling you what I know. Being a pastor, I, I have the honor and the privilege of sharing with families during their time of grieving or bereavement, particularly when someone dies. And I see students your age, young adults at your age category, Being laid in the casket, and even children, and even babies. So when I say to you that life is short, I'm not telling you something that I heard. I'm telling you something that I know. And so when I say to you that you have to make a dedication or you have to make a commitment to take care of you, I'm telling you this because I've been down the street where people are dying and I see what's happening. And so I'm coming here to talk to you from my heart because you have the grand opportunity that a lot of people right now in this world wish they had. And you know what that is? You have your youth. So that means your whole life is ahead of you. But the question is, what are you going to do with your life? What are you going to do with the time that you have? What are you going to do with the years that you have in front of you? What are you going to do with your future? What are you going to do with your career? See, some of us in here, we got people in our lives that we call friends or homeboys or homegirls or associates and what have you, and they're not really living a positive life. They're doing some things that your parents would not approve of. They're doing some things that you know you shouldn't engage in, but yet you, you've turned a blind eye to that because you rather Have them in your acquaintance as a friend or, or a homeboy or a homegirl or what have you, and you don't realize that the negative things that they are doing is starting to rub off on you. You don't realize that the way they talk to their parents is the way that you're beginning to talk to your parents. You don't realize that the way they sag their pants are the way that you're beginning to sag your pants. You don't realize that the way you roll your eyes and suck your teeth It came from the way they rolled their eyes and sucked their teeth when they're talking to someone that they should have respect for. See, negative influence is an invisible force that you can't see with the natural eye. It just kind of— it just kind of ease in on you in a very cunning way, and it causes for you to start acting out of character and displaying characteristics that your family members and your parents did not instill within you. Anytime you find yourself wanting to do things that you normally would not do, or wanting to say things that you normally would not say, or find yourself thinking in a way that you normally would not think, somebody's influence is starting to rub off on you. And what you have to do is you have to take the initiative to say, I'm not going to be that way. I'm not going down that street. I'm not going to talk back to my parents. I'm not going to be a bully in school. I'm not going to follow a crowd to a gang fight. I'm not going I'm to do that. not going to stay after school when I need to catch that bus and go home. I'm not going to go home and lie to my parents about what happened at my day in school. And I'm not going to come to school with an attitude. And I'm not going to talk back to the people here at this school that are here to help me get an education. And foremost, I'm not going to put myself down and let myself down and fail me and disappoint me when I know I deserve the best that this life has to offer. Thank you. Are you understanding what I'm saying? If you understand what I'm saying, raise your right hand and say, I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. So you owe you, and you have to promise you that you're going to give yourself a fair chance at life. You have to promise you that you're going to take whatever licks comes at you and that you're going to keep on ticking. You have to promise you that it— that, that I'm going to graduate and I'm not going to let anything stop me from graduating. You have to promise you that if you're going to go to college, that you let nothing derail you from going to college. You have to promise you that if you want to be a football player, that I'm going to work hard, I'm going to keep my scores up, and I'm going to work hard to be the best football player I can be. You have to promise you that if you want to be an athletic— or athlete or a track star, that you work hard at it and you don't let drugs and you don't let alcohol and you don't let the games and you don't let the street life or anything else stop you from doing just that. Yes, sir. If you want to be a doctor or a psychiatrist or a psychologist or an engineer or an architect or a police officer or an attorney or a judge, you have to promise you that I will not stop until I reach my goals. I will not stop until I accomplish my plans. Say this with me: I promise me. I promise me. See, when I ask you to say that, You're saying it because I asked you to say it. But what I need you to do before I leave here this morning, or before this class is over, is I need you to say that to yourself because you owe that to yourself. Now, in order to say, I promise me, and mean that from your heart, there's a couple of things that has to happen. Number one, you You have to love you. You have to love you. You have to love you. What what did I say? You have to love you. Say this with me. I have to love me. I know y'all can talk louder than that because before I came in, I could hear y'all in the hallway. Come on, elevate your voice a little bit. Say it with me. I have to love me. Can you say it a little louder? Can you say it a little louder? I have to love me. All right, all right. So, so, so if I gave all y'all $20 apiece, let me hear how you would say it if I gave you $20 apiece. Go ahead and try it on count of 3. 1, 2, 3. I have to love me. All right, all right. Some of y'all fell for it. Okay, the second thing is you have to believe in you. You have to believe in you. So let me ask this question. How many of you in here believe in you? You believe in you? Okay. So when I say, how many of you believe in you, what does that actually mean? What does it mean to believe in you? It means that you have confidence in your ability. You have confidence in your ability to do whatever it is you set your heart and mind to do. Is that right? Yeah. So you have to love you, you have to believe in you. Number 3, you have to protect you. You have to protect you. What do I mean by protect? You have to protect you from drugs, from alcohol. You have to protect you from peer pressure. You have to protect you from stress. You have to protect you from depression. He has to protect you from criminality. The number one— let me see, who knows the number one killer for teenagers? Who knows what that is? The number one cause of teenage death. Does anybody know? What is it? Violence. Nope, violence is number 4. Suicide. Suicide is number 2. Drugs. Drugs is number 3. Car. Car accident. Car accident is the number 1 killer in this world for teenagers. And what— and how does that happen? Well, a lot of times when somebody your age get a driver's license, they're so excited and so eager to get behind the wheel of a car and drive that they're not really focusing on everything that's in their environment. Or everything in their peripheral. For example, texting on the phone while driving a car is an issue for a lot of teenagers. And because of that, a lot of car accidents happen. So driving while a teen is the number one cause of teenage death. Number 2 is suicide. Suicide is real. There are people that are 15, 16, 17, 18 that does not want to live. And you got to ask yourself, what could be that bad when my life is just starting that I want to end it? But it's happening, right? It's happening. And then you got to ask yourself, What is it about drugs and alcohol that children my age are engaging in and it's taking their life? It's nothing about the drugs and the alcohol. It's about the fact that people don't love themselves like they should and does not protect themselves as they should and does not believe in themselves as they should. See, if you believe in you, you don't need drugs in your body. To make you who you are. If you believe in you, you don't need drugs in your body to make you capable of coping with life. When you believe in you, you are enough. When you love you, you don't put drugs in your body, alcohol in your body. When you love you, you don't get behind the wheel of a car and text. When you love you, you don't drive down the street doing— through a 35 miles per hour speed zone doing 70 miles per hour. Right? When you love you, there are just certain things that you're going to do and certain things you're not going to do because you love you. You love you. You believe in you. And, and the thing is, is that when you love you and you believe in you, you know what's going to happen, y'all? You're going to be your best friend. So let me say to you, never be more of a friend to someone else than you are to yourself. Never be more of a friend to someone else than you are to yourself. Never believe in someone else more than you do in yourself. Always congratulate your friends, your family members, the students around you when they do something great and they accomplish their goals, but save your best dance for you. So that when you do something great, you can celebrate and you can, and you can have a party all by yourself if no one else comes to celebrate with you. And anytime you do something that you should not do and it serves as a disappointment, or you look at it like a failure or a big mess up or a big mistake, forgive you. Forgive you. Forgive you. Don't hold stuff in. Don't let yourself become so upset with you that you become mad at you, and then you become depressed, and you don't feel like going through life like you should. And then it begins to change who you are and cause for you to not want to participate in moments that you know you need to participate in. Again, life is short. And so while you're at this age and at this stage of your life, You gotta take control. You, you can't be like somebody out there that doesn't know where they're going, what they want, or what they're going to do with their life. You got to be that individual that says, I know what I want in life, I'm going after it, I'm not going to stop until I make it happen. I know who I am. I'm called to be somebody that is great. I'm called to change the course of my family. I'm called to help take care of my mom and my dad and my brothers and sisters. I'm called to be the first one in my family to go to college, or the first one in my family to play pro ball, or the first one in my family to be a doctor, or the first one in my family to be an RN, or the first one in my family to be rich. I promise me that I won't stop until I make it happen. When I was in prison, I knew I needed to change my life. While everybody else in prison was huddling up talking about who they're going to fight, who they're going to beat up, who they're going to rape, how much money they're going to make when they get out, all the dumb stuff that got them in there, I got by myself and I promised me that I'm going to change my life. I'm going to fix me up. I'm going to take advantage of the time I have left. I'm going to start a family. I'm going to start a business. I'm going to give back. I promised me that I'm going to do something with my life. I've been out of prison for almost 35 years, and I have not looked back. I have not gone back. I have not turned back to that lifestyle that got me incarcerated. You know why? Because I promised me. I promised me that I'm going to do something better with my life. I promised me that I'm going to be someone great in life. That's right. I promised me that I'm going to be a world changer. I promised me that I'm going to be a productive citizen in society. I promised my mom I'm going to be the best son that she could have. And then I promised my wife when I got married, I'm going to be the best husband you can have. And I promised my children when they were born, I'm going to be the best father you can have. But it all started with me. I had to make a promise to myself. How many of you are ready to make a promise to yourself today that you're going to give yourself the best shot in life? Raise your hand if you're ready to do that. Okay, so if you're ready to do that, I want you to do something for me. I know all of you in here have cell phones. Take your cell phone out if you don't already have it out. Take your cell phone out, go to your camera. I want you to do something with me real quick. Say, Go to your camera. Get ready to do a selfie. Get ready to take a selfie of yourself. It's real simple. What you're doing is you're capturing this moment. You're seizing this moment to say to yourself that I promise me, and that the person I see right now in this picture on this camera Is the person that I'm promising that I'm going to take care of. Go ahead and take that picture right now if you haven't already done it. And as you take it, say, "I promise me. I promise me." That's right. I promise me. So what does that mean? That means that every time you open up your camera phone and you see that picture, that picture is a reminder. Of the promise that you made to yourself today. That picture is a reminder that you decided that you're going to do something good, something great, something powerful, something explosive with your life. See, I'm going to say this, and I'm going to get ready to get out of your way. When I— because I'm a pastor too, I get a chance to mentor young people in my church, and I have for the— for over the years. I started a church in my home and built it to 3,000 people with just my wife and my 2 sons, and built it up to 3,000 people. And so I had a whole lot of young people over the years like your age, and sometimes the parents would come to me and bring their son or bring their daughter and say, can you mentor them because my child is being disrespectful? My child is cursing. My child is using drugs. My child is about that violence. My child is just acting crazy. I don't know what to do with them anymore. And sometimes I will sit them down and talk with them and do things with them to try to help them to snap out of it, right? And then there are times that some of these young people, they would listen. They would change. They would change their course of direction. But then there are times that some of them would not change. Some of them would not listen. And then they would follow that same path that I was going down. Next time I hear from the parents, they dropped out of school. Then the next time I hear from the parents, they're on drugs. Then the next time I hear from the parents, they're living in the streets. Then the next time I hear from the parents, they're incarcerated. And the parent would say, can you go to the jail or to the JDC and visit my son who's been charged with murder or charged with armed robbery or charged with carjacking? See, when you're from the inner city, you, you have to contend with this type of temptation and this type of pressure and this type of hostility almost daily. And so I would go to the jail and talk with this young man or talk with this young lady, trying to help them to turn their life around at that point. 9 times out of 10, it works. It works. But then there's that one time, or that 1%, where somebody doesn't listen, and then they end up getting life in prison. Or even worse, I get a phone call saying, my son is dead, my daughter's dead, he got shot in the head, she was at a club and a stray bullet hit her. Or they got in the car drinking and driving and lost control of the vehicle, flipped the car, and my child got killed in a car accident. I get those calls. I'm not making this up. I get those calls, and they're your age, and they have your opportunity. Life is short. Life is not a game. Life is not a joke. What you hear about on the news is happening, and sometimes it hits home, doesn't it? Because some of you in here got like either brothers or cousins or uncles and aunts or somebody that you know that has died way, way, way too soon. And it can happen to you if you don't take life serious. So you have to promise yourself that I'm going to do what I have to do to be who I have to be. I'm going to do what I have to do to get where I have to get. I'm going to do what I have to do to live how I'm supposed to live. And if you stick with that promise, a year from now you'll see great progress. 2 years from now you'll see even more progress. 3 years from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, you'll be that example that everybody will look at and say they wanna be like. You'll be the next LeBron James. You'll be the next Venus and Serena Williams. You'll be the next Mark Wahlberg. You'll be the next person who develops social media sites. You'll be the next millionaire. You'll be the next person that can be the president of this country. You'll be the next governor. You'll be the next NFL star, basketball star, whoever it is, whatever it is. You'll be that person, but it starts right here, and it starts right now with you promising you. Come on, shout this with me because I'm done. I'm getting out of your way. Shout this with me. I promise me. Can you say it louder? Can you say it like you mean it? I promise me. Can you say it? This side right here seems to be a little bit louder than this side. Can y'all? Show them that y'all got more volume over here. Can you say, "I promise me"? I promise me. Say it again. I promise me. All right, let me hear this side again. I promise me. Yeah, they still got y'all. There's more people on this side than they got y'all. How's that working? Come on, let me hear you. I promise me. Listen, my name is Rico Sharp. Thank you for your time. Let me get y'all some nap. I hope you got something out of what, what I talked about. If you got any questions, I think we got about 4 or 5 more minutes. All right, if you have any questions, you can ask me a question. If you have any questions at this point, you know, get a look down, look real quick, just look down. Any questions? Any questions? Anybody got any questions? No? Good job. All right, let's go. All right, man, thank you. Anytime. I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.