A speaker who overcame drug addiction, prison time, and homelessness urges listeners to commit fully to their goals despite fear and frustration. He shares how fear kept him from speaking up for years, and now he helps homeless people understand their circumstances don't define their future. He calls for concrete promises to yourself and unwavering consistency.
Chapters
So today I want to talk to you for like the next half an hour on this subject called Give It All You've Got. Give it all you've got. Can you say that with me? I'm gonna give it— I'm gonna give it— All I have to give. All I have to give. That's, that's what it means. When you think about life, when you think about your plans, when you think about your dreams, when you think about what you want to do with your future, you got to make a decision that I'm going to give it all I have to give. You see, there's a time where you have to begin to realize that I only have one chance in this life, one chance in this world. I don't get to live this life and come back and start over again. I don't have 9 lives like a cat. I have to make sure that I make my life count. I have to make sure that I do what's best for me. So I'm determining today that from this moment on, from this day forward, I'm going to give it all I have to give. Now, some things are going to come tough. Some things are going to be hard. Some things are going to be challenging. You're going to find yourself frustrated at times. You're going to feel like quitting. You're going to feel like giving up. But I need you to make a decision that no matter what comes my way, that I will not quit. I will not give up. I'm going to give it all I have to give. So I want to provide for you Some steps as to how to give it all you have to give. And, and I also want to tell you why so many people end up failing in life. Now, one of the things that I do, because I have a passion for helping people that are homeless, one of the things that I do is every so often I'll go to where the homeless people are and I'll pull over, get out of my car, go over to them and talk to them for a while. I'm interested in learning their story because everyone has a story. Not everybody on the street that are homeless are there because they want to be there. There are circumstances that have driven people under those conditions. And so what I try to do is get to know them, right? And then I help them. I buy them food, I give them money, I give them my own clothing, cell phones, and things of that nature to help them to be able to know that somebody cares about you. And then I leave them with a positive message that even though this is where you are right now, this is not how your story ends. That's right. You can turn your life around. You just need to have some support and begin to believe in yourself. So when you see somebody homeless— and this is a very important point— when you see somebody homeless on the street, understand this right here: some of them that are homeless sat right where you're sitting at today, in a vocational school, in a school of higher learning. Some of them got college degrees. Some of the people that are out there on the street living under a bridge, pushing all of their belongings in a shopping cart, Some of them were people who once had their lives together. They had a home. They had a family. They have children. Some of them have grandchildren. They are there. They're out there. But they haven't always been under those circumstances. But something happened, ladies and gentlemen. Something happened that dri— that drove them to live under those conditions, under that circumstance. And one of the things that happens in life is that people stop giving life all they have to give. Sometimes people stay— they take the easy road, right? They go easy on themselves. They lighten up sometimes. They don't really be consistent with their dedication. So I need you to make a dedication to yourself. Make a promise, make a vow, and a commitment to yourself. Yes, sir. And then I need you to commit to your commitment. I need you to vow to your vow. I need you to dedicate yourself to your dedication. And I need you to promise you that you would not give up on the promise that you promised to you. Because it's going to happen that something is going to come your way that makes you feel like it's not working for me. So why do people Stop giving it all they have to give? Well, number one, oftentimes because of fear. When fear settles in, people start looking at their life and at choices and at their future in a very apprehensive way. Fear is a prison, ladies and gentlemen. Fear will keep you from realizing your dream. Fear will stifle you and stagnate you and hold you back and take you hostage as a prisoner. Refusing to let you go. So many people start out good in life and start out with one foot in front of the other, and they start working toward their dreams, and then something happens, and then they start fearing. And when they start fearing, fear, it stifles them from being able to be successful. I know what that's like because when I first started being a speaker, I had this, this fear about being a speaker. I had this fear that if I got up in front of people to speak, no one is going to want to listen to me. People are going to give me all these weird faces. People are going to tune me out. Maybe I'm not good enough. And I started thinking about, I don't even have— I didn't even graduate from high school. I had to get a GED in prison. Who's going to want to hear me? Who's going to want to listen to me talk about that I was on drugs and that I was in the streets and that I was incarcerated 19 times? And so for a long time, I was even fearful of sharing my story. I was fearful that people were going to reject me. And when you're doing something for you, you have to contend with fear. Maybe one day down the road, with your, with your diploma, with your skills and your talent that you have, you may want to start your own company. You may want to start a welding business. You may say, man, look, I'm making good money working for someone else, but I want to have my own business. So instead of making $1,000 a week, I want to make $10,000 a week. I can make $10,000 a week running my own company. Well, you're gonna have to overcome the fear of doing so because there will be voices in your mind that gives you reason as to why you shouldn't do it and why you're going to fail if you attempt to do it. That's called fear, ladies and gentlemen. And whenever you're dealing with fear, understand, even if you have fear, don't let fear have you. If you have fear, don't let fear have you. And so when people fear, they sell themselves cheap. They stop short of their dreams. Do not allow for yourself to ever become so fearful of success that you stop short of your dream. And then number 2, you gotta
