In this motivational monologue, Rico Sharp argues that the greatest obstacle to personal success is the prejudice and judgment we direct toward ourselves. While external discrimination and bias exist, they do not determine our capabilities or outcomes. Instead, self‑prejudgment—using excuses such as lack of education, past criminal records, race, gender, or socioeconomic background—creates a self‑imposed barrier. Sharp urges listeners to stop being their own enemy and to become their own friend by cultivating self‑confidence, self‑value, and self‑worth. He emphasizes that belief in oneself, even when others do not support or celebrate you, fuels resilience against life’s hardships, economic downturns, and personal setbacks. The speech repeatedly reinforces that inner gifts, tenacity, and determination enable one to rise stronger after failure, ultimately achieving victory not only for oneself but also for family and loved ones. The piece concludes with a call to action: adopt a friend‑like mindset toward yourself, pursue your goals with relentless diligence, and meet your finish line.
Chapters
If there is any real judgment or prejudice that exists in your life that really matters and counts against you, then it is the judgment, the prejudice, and the discrimination that you have against yourself. Someone else can discriminate against you. Someone else can be prejudiced toward you, and someone else can prejudge your outcome based upon whatever measurement they choose to use, based upon whatever lenses they choose to look at you through. That doesn't matter. That does not change what you're capable of doing. Neither does it change the results or the outcome that you can have. But what does change the outcome, what does matter, is when you prejudge yourself. It's when you're prejudiced toward yourself. You see, a lot of the things that you wanted to accomplish, you prejudged you, and you determined that you were not able to do it, or you couldn't do it, and you got a Lineage of excuses as to why you feel that way about yourself. Maybe you say, well, I dropped out of high school, so I don't have the proper education, or I'm an ex-convict, a felon. I'm Black, I'm a minority, I was raised in the ghetto, I'm on welfare. Maybe you feel like you're a female working in a male-oriented environment. environment, but yet you're the talented one. Maybe you feel like, well, I'm a black lady in America, in society, and the deck is stacked against me, but yet you're the gifted one. And so when you prejudge you based upon what you consider to be legitimate reasons as to why you can't be successful and why you can't accomplish your goals, You are doing yourself a disservice. You are being discriminative against you. You're being prejudiced toward you. Prejudice means to prejudge one's outcome based upon some generic or false pretense. Listen, you can have what you want. You can do what you want. You can accomplish what you want. But you can't be judgmental against yourself. Take a deep look inside and ask yourself, why am I so against me?
Why do I not believe in me? Why do I put more emphasis on someone else's success versus my own?
Why do I have more faith in what others are able to do and accomplish and And, and not have that same level or greater faith when it comes to me and my own dreams and desires. Man, I do not want to be my own enemy. You need to stop being an enemy to yourself and start being a friend to yourself.
You need to stop going through life basically disqualifying yourself before you even have a real shot at it.
You need to be your friend.
And learn how to believe in you and support you and have self-confidence and self-value and self-worth. And know that regardless of what I've gone through in life, all that has done is made me stronger. It's made me better. All that has done is helped me to realize just how much of a winner and an overcomer I am.
I am an achiever, and I can do what I believe. I can do.
I can have what I believe I can have. I can accomplish what I believe I can accomplish.
I am a friend to me.
And if nobody else believe in me, that does not offset my victory.
I believe in me.
If no one else supports me, I support me. If no one else celebrate me, I celebrate me. And when I set a goal or a vision, when I have a dream or an ambition or a desire, When I look to the sky and believe the sky is the limit, anything that stands in my way, all it does is bring out the best in me. Because I'm going to take on every challenge that stands as an adversity to my destiny as a means for me to dig deep and really pull out what I know I have stored up inside. Because on the inside, I am full of gifts and talents and creativity and tenacity and determination and willpower. And if I get knocked down, I'm going to rise up. And when I rise, I'm, I'm going to rise stronger. I'm going to rise higher. I'm going to rise up with more life. I will not be defeated. I will not allow for life to defeat me. I would not allow for a recession to deny me. And I would not allow for inflation To deprive me of what I know I can do in this life. If I got one chance at it, I'm giving it everything I got. You got one chance to get life right. You got one chance. And when I say one chance, I'm talking about one life to live. So when when when life It's not a bed of roses, when life is not a cakewalk through the park, and it's more so like a valley or a desert, when you feel like you got to climb mountains and swim across seas, then do it knowing that in the end I'm going to celebrate because my hand will be raised victoriously. Over the opposition and every adversary that tried to deny me my moment, when I know I can live this moment in victory. I am my friend, and I am going to win for me and everyone who's connected to me— family, spouses, children. Genuine friends, they're going to benefit because of my relentlessness, because of my diligence, because of my consistency. And I'm not going to lay down on the side of the road just because I got the wind knocked out of me. When I resuscitate, I will elevate. When I resuscitate, I will elevate. And when I elevate, I will congratulate, and I will not allow for somebody to deny me my moment to celebrate, because I will have what I believe I can have. I will do what I believe I can do, man. Listen, love you, and love you enough to believe in you and stop holding you back, stop discriminating against you, and stop allowing for life to pass you by.
Yeah, this is Rico Sharp, and this has been a Live Sharp Motivational Moment. I'll see you at your finish line.
