Rico Sharp, a former inmate and homeless teenager, shares how he went from 19 arrests and three prison terms to speaking for governments and corporations. He teaches a four-step framework: reject victimhood, believe in yourself, become your own best friend, and practice forgiveness.
Chapters
I have Mr. Rico Sharp. Please help me welcome Mr. Rico Sharp. He will deliver some motivation that we all need to conclude the night. All right, Rico Sharp. Thank you. Can you put your hands together for Kristen? I'm gonna ask you to do something. I'm gonna ask you to stand with me, if you will. I'm gonna ask you to stand, and I'm gonna ask you to look at somebody to your left or your right, and I'm gonna ask you to repeat after me, but say it to them and say it like you mean it. Look at them and say, you are special. You are special. You have greatness in your life. You have greatness in your life. You are an achiever. You are an achiever. All things are possible. All things are possible. There is nothing. There is nothing. That you can't accomplish. That you can't accomplish. When you set your heart. When you set your heart. And your mind. To accomplish, and I can see you in your future doing a whole lot better than you are right now. You believe that? Clap your hand. One more time. Now I want you to put your hand right here. I want you to say the same thing. Say, "I am special. I have greatness on my life. I am an achiever. All things are possible. There is nothing that I can." I can accomplish when I set my heart and my mind to accomplish. I can see me in my future, and I'm doing a whole lot better than I am right now. If you believe that, give yourself a round of applause. Thank you very much. You may be seated. My name is Rico Sharp, and it's an honor for me to be here tonight to be able to share with you For a few minutes. Let me start out by saying that I am a motivational speaker. I am a life coach, a mentor, a counselor. I travel the world speaking, speaking for the federal government, speaking for corporations, speaking for businesses, speaking for faith-based institutions. I do a lot of speaking— jails, prisons. I even at one point had my own television show that broadcasts all around the world on 3 different channels. I'm sharing that with you not because I feel like any of those things make me special, but I'm sharing those things with you because I want you to believe in yourself, that whatever life throws at you is just a curveball To get you to learn how to swing and knock the ball out the park. That's right. When I share those things with you about what I do and what my accomplishments are, and that's just a few things, I want you to understand that that's not where my story began. My story began at the age of 13 when I found myself homeless. Eating out of trash cans, sleeping under an oak tree, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and addicted to cocaine. I escaped homelessness through prison. Prison became my way out of homelessness. I've been arrested as a teenager 19 different times. I've been sent to prison 3 different times, and I've served years of my life incarcerated. You see, ladies and gentlemen, when people look at you and celebrate your accomplishments, they think that you've always had it made or always had it good, failing to realize That there are some hardships in our lives that we had to overcome to get to where we are. The reason I'm excited about being here with you tonight is because I'm no better and no different than any one of you. I've had some challenges that I've had to fight through. Tonight I want to give you some pointers about how to overcome challenges in your life. And how to turn what could be a lived experience controlled by circumstances into a lived experience controlled by expectations. One of the things that I did when I was incarcerated for the 3rd time, I made up in my mind That I would no longer be a victim to circumstance. I made a decision that I'm not going to spend the rest of my life going around this cycle, going through this cycle of constantly being on drugs, constantly being incarcerated, feeling like a victim, feeling sorry for myself because I found myself homeless, I found myself addicted to drugs. I made a decision that I'm going to turn my life around. You see, ladies and gentlemen, you've got to come to a place in your life where you say, I am not going to be defined by my circumstance. I will not be a victim for the rest of my life. I will be a victor for the rest of my life. And when I came to that decision, I started doing some things differently. Number one, I changed my mindset. I changed my perspective. I started looking at the positive things in life instead of focusing on the negative things in life. I told myself that no matter what I've gone through in my life, that is not who I am. That's what I did, but that's not who I am. That's how I lived, but that's not who I am. I am not a drug addict for the rest of my life. Yes. I am not a prisoner for the rest of my life. Yes. I am not homeless for the rest of my life. Yes. I am not a victim for the rest of my life. Yes. Those things were phases and stages, but that's not how our story ends. That's right. Secondly, I made a decision to believe in me. You've got to come to the point that you believe in you. Never place more belief and faith and confidence in others than you do yourself. Always believe that regardless of what your circumstances are, regardless of what your life has been like, That you can turn things around and that you are enough and you have what it takes and there is nothing impossible and you can live your dreams. And then thirdly, ladies and gentlemen, I made a decision to support me. I made a decision to stand by me. I've seen people walk off and abandon me in a time of need, but I've made a decision that regardless of who walks off and leaves me, I would not walk off and leave me. Yeah. Regardless of who don't believe in me, I believe in me. Regardless of who don't support me, I will support me. You see, I became committed to me. And this is what you have to do in order to make it to the life that you want, in order to realize your dream. You have to become committed to you. And then you have to— number 4, you have to become your best friend. Yep. You have to be your best friend. Never be more of a friend to someone else than you are to yourself. You don't get to abandon you. You don't get to give up on you. You don't get to throw in the towel on you. You have to stand there and say, if it's just me and the world, or me against the world, or me against my past, me against my mistakes. I'm going to support me because I believe in my future. I believe in my destiny. I believe in my potential. I believe in my greatness. You see, when I ask you to say that you are great, you are great. You are great. I know that sometimes you look at your circumstance And you say, man, but I don't feel great, and I don't have money, and I don't know where I'm going to get a job from, and I don't know how I'm going to make things work out for me, and Christmas is coming, and I don't know how I'm going to be able to buy gifts for the people I love. Listen, all of those things will take care of itself. Right now, I need you to make up in your mind and to fix your heart that you're going to love you, you're going to support you, you're going to be your best friend, you're going to believe in you. And no matter what, you're going to always— and this is the last one, I'm gonna get out of your way— you're going to always forgive you. Amen. If you've made mistakes along the way, if you've done some things that have put you in certain situations, if you've hurt people, if you put yourself in the middle of a circumstance that did not work out in your favor and you're living with regret and you're living with remorse, And you're going around blaming yourself, being angry with yourself and upset with yourself. I need you to take this moment and forgive you. Forgive you for the times you let you down. Forgive you for the times you disappointed you. Forgive you for the times when you made decisions and choices that didn't work out so well. Forgive you. How am I going to forgive me? I'm going to forgive me. by way of knowing I deserve another chance at life. And listen, only you can give you a better chance at life. Okay. If Rico can come from the streets, being homeless, living under an oak tree, eating out of trash cans, then to jail and prison, incarcerated 19 times, in prison 3 times, serving years in prison, addicted to marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol at the age of 13, If Rico can come out of prison and turn his life around to now going around the world doing leadership training for the federal government, speaking to schools and colleges, Rico, if he can do it, say this with me, I can do it too. Come on, say it like you mean it. Say, if Rico can do it, I can do it too. One more time, say, if Rico can do it, I can do it too. I can do it too. And I want to leave you with this: always reach for the moon, because even if you miss, you will land among the stars. Always be willing to be on top, because it's the bottom that's overcrowded. Always be willing to do today things that others won't do so that you can have tomorrow things that others won't have. Other people's opinions of you matter not to the determination of your destiny, nor to the dictation of your potential. So walk not in the shadows of those you admire, but discover your own passion and dare to aspire. For then you will realize your greatness and live a life that inspires. For life is what you make it. When the opportunity comes, you take it. You be sharp now and maximize your moment and make yourself a great life. And think sharp, talk sharp, walk sharp, plan sharp, live sharp, eat sharp, dress sharp, and you'll be sharp. Rico Sharp. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Rico Sharp. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions for Rico?
