January 28, 2025

Thank you, Rico. All right, well, first of all, it's an honor for me to be here with you tonight. And my name is Rico Sharp, as mentioned. I am a professional speaker, motivator. And as Bridget mentioned, I've been to all your campuses throughout the state of Florida. And, um, I enjoy being able to come and talk to you guys and Just really dealing with issues at hand that potentially could get in the way of your graduating and graduating within a timely manner. It's important that you look at this opportunity as an opportunity of a lifetime, and it's important that you come out of cruise control And go into overdrive and really begin to focus on what's more important. You know, like prioritizing your priorities. Mm-hmm. How many of you in here are parents? For those of you who are parents, you have more of a reason to be here than anyone else does. And you have more of a reason to focus and to really give your all than anyone else does. And you have more reasons to graduate and to go on with your life with a degree from higher learning or certificate, a vocational trade. You have more on your shoulders because you're not only here for you, but you're here for your little ones, and they're dependent on you to make this moment count. Every time you leave home and you leave them behind to come here, When they watch you walk out of that door, they are dependent on you coming back one day with a certificate of completion. And for those of you that does not have little kids that's dependent on you, your parents are dependent on you, right? You are dependent on you. Your future is dependent on you. And so when I go around to schools and colleges And I speak in places where people are trying to do something big and better with their life. I enjoy seeing people, like, really succeed in life. I enjoy seeing that. Earlier today at 9 AM, I was in the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Florida. I was there as an advocate to an inmate who was fighting for the rest of his life in society. I watched the judge give him 30 years in prison today. 30 years in prison. You know, when you see someone on the side of the road, under a bridge, sleeping in a parking lot, when you see someone standing at a traffic light with a sign in their hand that says, $2 will help me out of Holacca, I want you to think about something. You probably never looked at it like this before, but that could have been you out there. Amen. This guy that ends up getting 30 years in prison today, That could have been you in there. The people that are in the hospital having to survive off of a machine that breathes for them, that could be you in there. But yet here you are in college and you're going after a vocational trade and you have a 99% chance of graduating. That's right. to go on and do something with your life. And so when you compare what you're working on right now with your life to the people who are under the bridge that are homeless, to the people who are incarcerated going to prison for the rest of their life, or the ones who are in the hospital fighting for their life, you have to stop and realize that I've got an opportunity here. And I got to take advantage of this opportunity because the alternative to graduating and move on with my life Is being homeless. The alternative is being in the street. The alternative is being in the hospital fighting for your life. So there is no way that I would trade what I have right here, right now, for any of those other alternatives. There's no way that I would allow for myself to become lackadaisical in my thinking. And lazy with my approach to a better life, to a great future, there's no way that I will lay down on the job when it comes down to pursuing after my certificate and my graduation so that I can move on with my life to bigger and better things. Ladies and gentlemen, life does not care about your goals. Your dreams and your aspirations. People out there does not care about the fact that you are a mother or a father, you have little kids who relies on you in order for them to survive. So if the world does not care, then you have to care. And you have to care to the point where you can't afford to stay home and watch football When you need to be in school getting a degree. You can't afford to miss school because you— it was your birthday and you were hungover because you wanted to go hang out with your friends instead of putting your priorities in place to make sure that every single day that the school doors open, that you are here to report that I am accounted for and I'm going to give it my all. Yes, sir. You see, at one point in my life, I was a homeless young man. At one point in my life, I was that incarcerated individual facing decades in prison. At one point in my life, I was in that hospital. I know what it's like to, to be on the other side of the alternatives and have to fight my way back into a meaningful existence. I know what it's like. And when I travel the world talking to people in schools and colleges and churches, when I travel and I speak to people in corporations and businesses, when I talk to NBA athletes and NFL athletes, when I talk and speak for the federal government, I'm looking people in the eye just like I'm looking you in the eye. And I'm saying to them, just like I'm saying to you tonight, That you have to make up your heart and make up your mind that you're going to give life all you have to give. Don't look for pity. Don't look for help. Don't look for somebody to stop by and empathize and sympathize with you. Don't look for other people to do for you what you can do for yourself. What you have to do is look within And find the strength and the tenacity and the resilience to rise up every single day and overcome every objection and every obstacle that stands in your life. Because the only way you're going to succeed is that you have to do it yourself. Mm-hmm. I came from a place where nobody gave me anything. I was homeless at the age of 13. I was homeless. I was addicted to cocaine at the age of 13. I was addicted to alcohol. I was living in the streets, sleeping under an oak tree in the wintertime. And every single day, adults would drive by me, seeing me out there day after day after day, week after week, with the same clothing on. And people would not stop to even give me The bun from a hot dog. I had to wait until somebody would set a piece of meat down or a sandwich down that they were eating, and the moment they walked off, I would run and get it and run back under the oak tree. That's how I survived. And you would think that the world would care enough about a 13-year-old boy to give a 13-year-old boy a helping hand. You know who came by one day to help me out? A drug dealer. And the drug dealer helped me out by putting a bag of drugs in my hand and saying, if you're going to survive in these streets, you need to go out there and sell those drugs. And at the age of 13, being naive and not realizing that I had other options, I took his advice and it led me down a long, dark road. But one day I decided that I'm going to get off of this journey and find my place in life. And while sitting inside of a prison cell, I started looking internally and I discovered a new man that lived on the inside. Can I say to you that the best of you haven't even yet been revealed. You're right now at the brink, you're at the genesis, you're at the starting point of fully evolving and becoming the man and the woman you were created to be. Your deepest level of potential hasn't even yet been explored. You have greatness in you that you haven't even tapped into yet. And what this school has done is afforded you the opportunity to bridge over hurdles in life and get to a point where you can begin to identify Your deepest potential so that you can maximize your highest level of creativity and greatness. And this school is in your corner, giving you resources so that you can make a great life for yourself. Truth of the matter is, after a while, we die. After a while, we check out. One by one, we leave here. That's right. And the question is, what will be your story? What will be your legacy? What will you be remembered by? What will people say about you and think about you when your name is mentioned as somebody who existed in this world? Will they remember you by being under the bridge? Will they remember you by being in the hospital? Will they remember you by being on drugs? Will they remember you by being in jail? Will they remember you by being somebody who dropped out of school? who did not finish. What, what would be your story? What would be your legacy? How will you be remembered? How will your children remember you? How will society remember you? What are you doing for yourself to let the world know that you are here? What are you doing for yourself to let the world know that you once lived, that you existed, that you were a contributor to mankind? What are you doing to show the world that you matter? Rico Sharp. That your life counts. What are you doing? The fact that you are aiming toward graduation, the fact that your plans are to leave here with a degree or a vocational trade, the fact that you are on your way gives you the capacity to be remembered by the world as someone Who did great things with their life. See, don't look at yourself as being average. There's nothing average about you. There's nothing common about you. There's nothing mediocre about you. You have greatness in your life. Say this with me: I have greatness in my life. No, you didn't say it like you mean it. I need you to talk about it. Come on, one more, one more time. I have greatness in my life. See, I never realized that somebody who was homeless and addicted to drugs at the age of 13 could be a life coach to professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, and WBO. But that's my reality. I never realized that somebody who had been incarcerated 19 times and to prison 3 times would be teaching federal agents Right in Tampa at the Tampa Convention Center, August 12th through the 16th. FBI agents, Justice Department agents, people from the defense intelligence agents— agencies, and even from out of the Oval Office of the President of the United States under Joe Biden. I never realized that they would be coming and sitting just like you are and going through my leadership training, but that's exactly my reality. See, nobody can set limitations on you but yourself. That's right. Amen. People can look at you and not see your potential, not see your greatness, not believe in you, and not agree with you, but none of that matters unless you buy into it. That's right. I said, if people don't believe in you, that's their problem. You have to continue believing in yourself. I never believed that somebody who had been homeless at the age of 13 could have their own worldwide television show aired on 3 different channels. But that's my reality. Amen. I couldn't see that when I was in the street. I couldn't see that when I was on drugs. I couldn't see that when I was incarcerated. You know why? Because you can't see the picture when you're in the frame. And sometimes You have to borrow someone else's belief of you until your belief in yourself kicks in. And some of you, you're sitting here right now and you're listening to me and you're looking at me like, man, I didn't sign up for this. Who is this guy? I don't see all this stuff happening for me. You don't believe in you, but I believe in you, and I'm going to continue to believe in you until your belief in yourself kicks in. Amen. And when your belief kicks in, Nobody will be able to stop you from doing what you want to do with your life. Yes. Can I tell you, there is greatness in your life. And I'm gonna say it to you until you start believing. And you know why? Because your attitude towards life determines life's attitude toward you. When you believe in yourself, you will make the sacrifice You would do what you have to do. You'll go where you have to go. You would get up in the morning and you would get to school no matter what it costs you to get here. If your back is hurting, you're gonna come anyway. If your head is hurting, you're gonna get some BC powder, take them and come anyway. If you're cramping, you're gonna come anyway. If your car breaks down, you're gonna get an Uber. If the Uber car breaks down, you're gonna get on the city bus. If the city bus break down, you're gonna walk. If you don't have a car, you're gonna If walk. you gotta walk in the rain, you're gonna get here. If your feet start hurting, you're gonna crawl. But whatever you gotta do, you gotta drag yourself to school because you're after something big with your life. Mm-hmm. I've seen people fail. I know what failure looks like. I counsel people who have failed. One of the things that I did with my life Is because of my passion and my struggle for being homeless, I started a homeless facility for homeless people. I built a relationship with the state of Florida so that when they had people coming out of jail and prison that had no place to go, they would call me up and say, Mr. Sharp, I got so-and-so, can you take them into your facility? And I would take them, and then I would get a group of guys that I trained, and we would go down into the ghetto. to the inner city, to the hood, and find homeless people on the street and get them off the street and bring them into our facility and feed them, clothe them, help them to be re-educated, help them to get a job, help them to be reinstated with their family members. We will build their dignity back up and their self-esteem back up and give them reasons to believe in life again. And I've seen Ladies and gentlemen, people who were down on their backs and couldn't get up, I've seen them rise up and take their life back. And one of the things that I've learned is a lot of the people out there on the streets that are homeless, they either served in our military, their fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, some of them had businesses, some of them have college degrees. Some of them have sat where you're sitting tonight, and at one point they had a life, but something happened along the way that knocked them down, and they didn't believe they could get back up. And so they stayed down. They compromised within themselves. But we were able to get in there and help them to be reinstated back to pursue and afterlife with all they have to get to give. I want you to say something with me. Say, I will never, I will never, ever, ever give up, give up on me, on me. Come on, say it like you mean it. I would never, I would never, ever, ever give up, give up on me, on me. One more time. I would never, ever, ever give up, give up on me, on me. Now listen, society will give up on you. Yeah. The world will turn its back on you. Husbands and wives will give up on you. We call that divorce. Sometimes family members will disown you and not want to have anything to do with you. Friends will give up on you and excommunicate you from their fellowship, from their friendship. Sometimes employers will give up on you, and we call that being fired. Sometimes it happens, but what's not possible from this point on is for you to give up on yourself. Do not give up on your pursuit of higher education. Do not give up on your pursuit of being able to walk out there and get a job that pays you the money you know you deserve. Do not give up on your dream. Do not give up on your aspirations. Do not give up on you. Continue to set goals. So I'm going to give you a few things. If you're taking notes, I want you to write these things down. This is how you're going to be able to live a fortified life and never find yourself quitting on you. Number 1, you need mental toughness. Mental toughness. This is where we get the word being resilient from. Mental toughness simply means that you have made up in your mind that no matter what comes your way, it is not going to derail you from your pursuit. It means that you're willing to go through whatever you have to go through in order to get what you have to get. That even if it takes more time than what you originally planned, if you have to go through Setbacks in life, no matter what it is that comes against you, you're going to stay the course. Like, I don't quit. That's one thing about it. I'm not going to quit. I fight to the very end. I fight to my last breath. But quitting is not an option. You gotta have mental toughness. And some of you in here, you, you, you just, you give up too easily. When things don't go your way, you give up. When things gets hard, you give up. When things takes a long time, you give up. But winners never quit, and quitters never win. So number one, you gotta have mental toughness. Number two, you need an I can do it attitude. I can do it attitude. That's what you gotta have. I got this. I counsel people, I talk to people, and when I do, I oftentimes hear people saying it's hard. And the truth of the matter is, I get it. Like, I know where you're coming from when you say it's hard, but I also know that life isn't designed to be fair. Like, like, life was not supposed to be fair. Whoever told you that life was supposed to be fair? That's what I hear a lot. Life is not fair. It's not supposed to be fair. Life is a fight. Life is a dogfight. Like, like life doesn't have any sympathy for you. Life isn't going to pat you on the back and say, it's going to be okay, baby, just keep going, just keep trying, you'll get over it, you'll get through it. Life doesn't care. Life will pass you by. So you, you got to tell yourself, no matter how hard it gets, I'm just going to keep going. It's hard, but do it hard. I know what hard is. A lot of times what people call hard, it's not hard. It's not really hard at all. I know what hard is. Hard is when you, you've been incarcerated 19 times and you can't get a job because nobody wants to hire you because you're— because you're a career criminal. And you got to work in a ditch and work in a junkyard, which is what I had to do. I know what's hard. Hard is when 15 family members die in the span of 4 years, including your father and your brother, which is what has happened in my life. I know what's hard. Hard is when you have 3 kids by the time you're 15, which is what my mother had to endure through because her parents died, both of them, by the time she was 11 years old. I know what's hard. Hard is when you try with all that you have To just take care of your household, and every time you knock on the door, it's slammed in your face. And you're behind on this, and you're behind on that, and you're behind on this, you're behind on that, and there's nothing to eat in your refrigerator, and there's no gas in your car, and your lights are off, and your phone is off, and everything is going down. But yet you rise up in the morning and you say, I may be broke, But I'm not broken. Mm-hmm. My spirit will not die, and I will not quit. And you keep going, you keep fighting. And then number 3, you need to have a winning attitude. Can I tell you, and I tell athletes the same thing, winning Winning is not a result. It's not an outcome. Winning is an attitude. Winning is a mentality. It's hard to beat somebody in a competition that believes before the bell rings, before the game starts, that they have already won. It's hard for Mike Tyson to beat a Buster Douglas. When Buster Douglas had already told himself, I'm gonna win this fight. Knock me down, but I'm gonna get back up, and in the end, my hand will be raised. It's hard to beat somebody that believes in their heart they can beat you. I've been in many fights in my life. I'm talking about physical brawl, and it's hard to beat somebody even if you hit harder than them. If you swing faster, if you know more moves, it's hard to beat somebody that believes they can beat you. You can beat them to death and they'll come back from the dead, from the dead, or from the grave for round 2. Winning is an attitude, ladies and gentlemen. And when it comes down to graduating, you come in here with a winning attitude. When it comes down to testing time, you take that test with a winning attitude. And when you rise up in the morning and you go off to your normal job right now, or your regular job right now, and then you come to school at night after you get your house squared away and your family squared away, you come in here though you're tired, though you feel like staying home, you wanna call the night off, you come in here with a winning attitude. Winning is not a result, it's an attitude. Say this with me: Winning is an attitude. Number four, always believe in you. Always believe in you. Never doubt your ability, right? Never question your tenacity. Never question your resilience. Never question your fortitude. Never question your determination. Never question your willpower. Never question your capacity and your strength to get things done. Always believe in you. Don't you dare believe more in someone else than you do yourself. Hmm. And number 5. Always be your best friend. Never be more of a friend to someone else than you are to yourself. It's good to have friends. How many of you have friends? Great. I have good friends. I have friends all around the country. I have friends in, in, in countries outside of the United States. I have friends in the United States. And many of them are really good friends. I could call many of them up right now and say, hey man, I need this, I need you to do that, and it's going to happen just like that because I've built these friendships over the years. But I can tell you this right here, I would never allow for anyone to be more of a friend to me than I am to myself. And what that really means, ladies and gentlemen, is that I'm going to do what I have to do to make sure that I'm good Good, right? Like, if I need to, to take some time off from hanging out with my friends because I'm focused on something that is very important to me, then I'm going to back up for a moment and let them know, guys, I'm going to check out for a little while and I'll be back when I get my priorities taken care of, right? If I find myself dealing with some mental health challenges, I'm going to be such a friend to myself that I'm going to stop for a moment to get some help for myself. Right? If I'm trying to go after a goal and I'm ambitious about something, I want to accomplish something, I'm going to do what I have to do to make sure that I can obtain my goals. Like, I am going to befriend me to the end. I'm going to stick by me to the end. I'm going to believe in me to the end. I'm going to have a winning attitude to the end. And I'm going to give me the support that I need in life to the very end. You know why? Because nobody can support me the way I can support myself. No one can believe in me the way that I can believe in myself. No one can be a friend to me the way that I can be a friend to myself. The greatest responsibilities that I have in life is to make sure that I'm good. It's like when you— anybody ever been on a cruise ship before? How about an airplane? When you get on a cruise ship and you're going through this little drill they give you, they tell you this right here: in the event of an emergency, before you try to put a life vest on anyone else— Yeah. First put it on you. Why? Because you can't save anyone else if you're drowning. When you get on the airplane, the stewardess, when they do their little safety briefing, they say, in the event of an emergency, when the Oxygen mask come down out of the ceiling, put your oxygen mask on first before you try to put it on someone else. Why? Because you can't save anyone else if you are drowning, dying, or going down yourself. It's just— that's just science, right? It's just math, right? You gotta take care of you, and if you do a good job taking care of you You're going to be a great husband. You're going to be a great wife. You're going to be a great mother. You're going to be a great father. You're going to be a great employer. You're going to be a great friend. You're going to be great in society. So I want to leave you with this. Always reach for the moon, because even if you miss, you will land among the stars. Be willing rather to aim high and hit nothing rather than to aim low and hit everything. Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit. Your attitude towards life determines life's attitude toward you. So you have to be willing to do today things that others won't do so that you can have tomorrow things that others won't have. Understand that tough times don't last always, but tough people do. So other people's opinions of you matters not. to the determination of your potential, nor to the dictation of your destiny. So life is what you make it. And when your opportunity comes, you take it. You be sharp and maximize your moment and make yourself a great life. And think sharp, plan sharp, talk sharp, walk sharp, look sharp, dress sharp, live sharp, and you'll be sharp. That's all the time I have. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Rico Sharp. Thank you so much for your time. Rico, you're welcome. Thank you. I just want to take a couple of minutes and do Q&A. If you have any quick questions, then we're just going to give a couple of opportunities for a quick question, if that's okay, Bridget. It is. Okay, right here. Who was the first person to sow hate within you? Me. Yeah, but there is a story that I don't have time to tell, but I was in prison as a young juvenile. And this old white guy named Billy, who had did 30 years in prison, who had no family, who was dying in prison of cancer, he came up to me one day and he said, Rico, he said, you don't belong in here. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, you don't know my story. You don't know my past, dude. This is my life. And he took me under his wing and became a father to me and showed me how to really turn my life around. He had a library. I bought all of his books from him, and I turned my prison dorm into a college campus, and dedicated 12 hours a day, every single day for years, studying and becoming self-educated. But he was the first one outside of myself that looked at me and saw something in me. That's a very good question. That's the first time I've been asked that. Great. Anyone else? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Don't everybody raise their hand at the same time. All right, well, thank you so much. I hope, I hope my coming here meant something to you tonight because I drove from Daytona Beach to come here tonight to talk to you, and, and, and I did this because I wanted to come. Am I right, Bridget? I wanted to come. Okay. Yes, I just want to say God bless you. Thank you, I receive that. And God bless you too. Yes. Thank you for sharing your story. You're welcome. Oh, do me this favor, please. Pull your phone out. Do this for me. Do this for me, please. Go to my YouTube page, which is @RicoSharpMotivation. @RicoSharpMotivation. Can you do it now if you have a cell phone on you? Go to @RicoSharpMotivation and subscribe. You don't have to pay anything. It's not going to cost you $10 a month. Just go to @ricosharp, R-I-C-O-S-H-A-R-P Motivations with the S on the end, and you'll see I have hundreds of videos on there. All the videos from me speaking at all of the other campuses, you'll see them on there as well as many other places. And even though I speak in jails and prisons and all that kind of stuff, there are some videos on there I can't show too much because of the federal regulations, but You'll see me at places speaking, and you'll see the messages that I spoke in there, and it will really help encourage your life. At Rico Sharp Motivations. Yes. At the the at or yeah. At Rico Sharp Motivations. Yeah, the symbol. Oh, that's not Rico Sharp. That's you got to make that into an M right there. You got motivations, but there it is. Let's turn that to him. You guys had Spanish questions? There I am right here. Yeah, how many of you subscribed? How many of you still working on it? All right, I appreciate it. And Rico Sharp, we're amazing. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you for your time. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. You guys make sure that you signed in, um, so we have everybody