Leadership Training.

I made that phone call with you asking for that quote, okay? And I left a message. But I left the numbers. Community service. Well, I want to take this opportunity while we're waiting just another minute, um, to thank all of you for coming. And we are the first ones to really hear, you know, and bring it in. But most of all, I'd like to thank Stephanie for her wonderful cookies that everybody is raving about. Homemade cookies. Thank you, Stephanie. Yay! Thank you. Don't quit, Stephanie. Don't sit. Which one are you leaving? I have the. Pumpkin spice. Okay. Oh, it is really good. I really like oatmeal raisin. Yes, can't hit. There is greatness in your life, Stephanie, see? That's right, that's right. So, so you make the cookies? Mhm. And everybody loves them? Yes. How many of you love Stephanie's cookies? Raise your hand. Your cookies can be on the shelf in every store. Well, Jesus. That's— this is your proof. And if you're that good at making cookies that this many people like it, chances are that if other people around the world sampled them, 6 of 6.5 of the people that sampled your cookies, 6.5 to 7 of the people, 7 out of 10 will love your cookies. And you know what that means? That means for every one person around the world that loves your cookies, a pack of cookies, you can make 85 cents. Lord Jesus. So multiply that times 275 million people. That'll be your manager. All right, so there's something that I want. We're going to go ahead and get started. Again, I want to say I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to be here today. Thank you, Miss Flowers, Mr. Flowers, for the opportunity. Dally. He's a Dally. I'm Flowers. Okay. But we are married. Okay. Flowers Dally. All right, Mr. Dally, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to be able to share with you today, and to each and every one of you, thank you for the opportunity that you afforded me to be able to talk to you and to share with you. I talk up to people; I don't talk down to people. I talk up. My heart is to lift you up, to to pull out the best in you, to encourage and empower you to believe in your dreams. to do something that you probably didn't think you were capable of, but later on you learned that you were capable of doing. I want to ask you to do something for me. I'm going to ask you, if you will, to take out your cell phones and go to your camera and just put your camera on you and do a selfie. Selfie. Do a selfie. And don't just do a selfie, but hold your two fingers up like this when you do your selfie. Hold your phone up like this and do a selfie with your two fingers up. Now I'm going to tell you why I'm asking you to do it. Now once you're ready, take your picture. Take your picture with a mouthful of sesame cookies. I did. I mean, I was just going to take a selfie. All right. Get your best angle. Get your good side. Can I do like this? Yes, you can do it. You can do it either way. Excellent. Excellent. All right, so here's why I ask you to do it, and I'm going to ask you to make a promise to yourself to not give me that— not to ever give me that phone. Here's why I ask you to do that, and I ask you when I go to speak in high schools and in colleges and conferences, I ask people to do Here's why. I'm asking you to, on this day, make a promise to yourself. 3 things. Number 1, that you would never quit on your dream. Never quit on my dream. Number 2, I'm asking you to make a promise and a vow to yourself that you would Never give up on you. Never give up on you, right? And all of these are symmetrical and synonymous, right? They're relative; they relate. And then number three, I'm asking you to always believe in you. Always believe in you. Now, the reason I ask you to do this is because times are going to get tough. Times are going to get difficult. And there will be moments in your life where you become fatigued and you feel like quitting, you feel like giving up. There will be moments in your life where you feel like you have nothing left to offer your dream or a certain project, and ultimately your life. And when that moment happens, I need you to pull out your cell phone and go to this picture and remember that on this day, this day right here, Amen. Uh, September 25th? 24th. September 24th, 2024, that you made a promise to yourself that regardless of how difficult times get, that you would not give up on you, that you would not quit. I'm passionate about asking you to say that, and the reason why it means so much that you make this promise and you vow to yourself is because a little over a year ago, my older brother passed away, and he passed away from a broken heart. He passed away because life had beat him down, and he just didn't feel like he had anything left to give. And in my final conversation with him before he passed away, the last time I saw him alive, his words to me that I got out of our conversation was, don't let life kill you. Don't let life kill you. And I told you that I'm going tomorrow to go speak at a couple of colleges down in South Florida. And this is Suicide Prevention Month, and I'm going to be speaking on suicide prevention. And it's important that people learn how to overcome interpersonal challenges, mental challenges, psychological challenges, and to be able to extrapolate and bring out the best from within. So when times get tough, because it will, when times get hard, Go back to this photo that you took this day with your two fingers up, because this photo reminds you that you will not give up on you. You will not quit. All right, y'all got that? Because it's going to happen. But when it happens, say Rico told me this day is coming. Mr. Murphy will be sitting on your on your front porch waiting for you to get home one day. But remind Mr. Murphy that I promised myself. that I will not quit. And another thing is I want you to ask yourself these 2 questions: what is my why? What is my why? And what is my who? And I'm going to explain that. Your why in life represents why you do certain things. Why do you do what you do? Your why is your aspiration. Your why refers to— your why refers to that which stimulates you to— and give you ambitions to go after certain things in life. And everyone needs a why. Why did you wake up in the morning? If I'm speaking to college students, I say, why did you enroll in college? If I'm speaking to corporate 500 employees, I would say, why are you here in this particular position as a CEO or CFO? If I'm speaking to inmates, I will say, why did your life end up in this predicament? Why? And what is it that you can do to change your situation? So you gotta know that there's a why. Everybody, everyone has a why. Then there's a who. A who represents the people in your life, the people who believes in you, the people who loves you, the people who looks at you and look up to you and relies upon you, such as your, your family members, your kids, your spouses, your significant others, your parents, your grandparents. Your friends, and if you don't have any of those people that you feel like believes in you and love you, then you are your who. You are your who. Your who is your motivation. This is where you get the stamina. This is where you are able to institute the energy to keep going because you know that there are others who love you, who are counting on you, and who are depending on you to always do what's best in life and to make the right choices, the right decisions. And to arrive alive at your destiny. And so, in the next thirty minutes, I'm going to talk to you about bringing out the best in you. And I do want you to know that there's more on the on the inside. I like to say there's more in store. Say this with me: There's more in store. There's more in store. All right, put a little emphasis on it and say it like you mean it. Say there's more in store. There's more in store for my life. That's right. So you heard me say in the first session that there's greatness on your life, and that's true. And I'm not saying something because it sounds good, although it does sound good, I must admit. But there is actually greatness in your life. Amen. There's greatness in your life. You're looking at somebody who society wrote off. You're looking at somebody right now who the judge said to me, you are a threat to society, you don't deserve to be locked up. You don't deserve to be free. You should be locked up the rest of your life. You're looking at somebody— the last time I was incarcerated, I was facing 22 years in prison with a mandatory sentence. And yet I went from being that guy living down in the dungeon, in the gutter, to now traveling the world empowering people's lives around the world. And then in my bio, I once had my own worldwide television show. Can you believe that? No. I was on 3 different television stations. stations and a radio station. Can you believe that? And I've been invited many times, uh, to be guests on other people's television shows. Can you believe that you have greatness in your life? And your greatness in your life, although working here at REO is a part of that greatness, but your greatness also exceeds what you do here. Mm-hmm. And you have to believe, you have to expand your thinking. And, and stretch your mindset to believe that there's so much more in store for you. You've heard the saying before that the sky is the limit, and people believe that. And wherever you set your limitations are, that's as far as you can go. I say to people, the sky is not the limit. It can't be. I refuse to believe the sky is the limit. If the sky is the limit, then we could have landed on the moon. You can go to Mars, right? Because sky refers to the firmament, right? It's what we can see, it's where we can go. But however, there are 2 limitations in this world. Number one is death. Death is a limitation. So as long as you're breathing, as long as you're living, your time has not expired. You still got time on the clock, on life's clock. There's so much more that you can do. And then number two, ladies and gentlemen, the real limitation that has more impact than debt is your mentality, your mindset, your mindset. That's why I said earlier: your mentality creates your reality. But if you think small, you will live a small, condensed, restricted life. If you think big, you will live a big. Liberized life of freedom and expansion. Your mindset controls your life set. When I go into jails and prisons, I tell the inmates, you were incarcerated in your mind before you were incarcerated in your body. You had physical restraints on your thinking. You were in prison in your mind. Before you became imprisoned physically. You were imprisoned mentally, psychologically, before you became imprisoned physically. See, I was arrested in my mind before a police officer ever put handcuffs on me and put me in the backseat of a car. Your mindset has to alter. It has to change. It has to shift. It has to expand. We expand our mindset through beliefs. A belief is a state of mind. When I say to you, you have greatness in your life, I'm telling you to start believing that you have greatness in your life. It matters not what your race is. Greatness has nothing to do with your sexual orientation or your sexual preferences. Greatness has nothing to do with your age. Greatness has nothing to do with your past or your criminal record or non-criminal record. Greatness has nothing to do with your education or index. Rather you have more degrees than a thermometer or no degrees at all, greatness has nothing to do with it. I don't have a college degree. I do not. But I train people and teach people who does. I'm speaking in universities to professors. I'm what they call a thought leader because I help people to refocus and Retrain the way they think. Greatness is in your life, and when you have greatness in your life, there is nothing that is impossible for you. And the word greatness means an unusual or considerable— means unusual or considerable in degree, power, and intensity. You got the notes on the screen, so I won't read through all of them. Let me suggest something to you. And then I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you a description of what I mean. Greatness is inside of you. So greater is what's in you than what has already manifested in your life. Greater is what is in you than what has already manifested in your life. Several years ago, I ran and operated my own transitional housing for homeless people. And for people who would be released from jail and prison to keep them from becoming a habitual reoffender, going back out on the street and keep going back and back and back like what I did. And some of the people that came to my transitional facility came in with absolutely nothing. Like, if you ever saw a person who's been through a divorce, who's lost their family, who's lost their businesses, their homes, their employment, who's been incarcerated, who's been down on crack, living in the streets, and nobody cares about them. And they— and some of them didn't even care about themselves. And yet they came to me with nothing, like in ashes, if you will. But I was able to resuscitate and revive them and get them to start believing in themselves again, got them restored to their families, Found them jobs, got them in going to a church, renewing their mind, got them going to Narcotics Anonymous, Alcohol Anonymous, got them involved in giving back to the community, living abstinence of drugs and alcohol and other narcotics, and eventually released them back into the world. And many of them today are still in contact with me, and many of them today are changing lives around the world, helping other people. How is it possible to take a person from absolutely nothing and then get them to believe that they can do absolutely everything? You show people the greatness in their life. As a counselor, I understand that if you always address people where they are, then they'll always be What they are. But if you address people for where they can go in life and what they can become in life, then they start believing in themselves that more is possible. Mm-hmm. I believe that when you take a look on the inside and get a realistic picture of what you have on the inside, you will discover that what's inside of you is greater than what's on the outside of you. So let's just, for an example, say you are a father and a mother, and you've been in a relationship with your children from the time of conception— from the time of birth, rather. And at this particular juncture, they look at you and they say, oh, I love my dad, I love my mom, my mom's fabulous, my dad is outstanding, I like— I just love my parents. But if you were to focus more on being into personally acquainted with your level of greatness on the inside, you will discover there's a greater father inside of you, there's a greater mother inside of you, there's a greater husband inside of you, there's a greater wife inside of you, there's a greater dreamer inside of you, there's a greater visionary inside of you, there's a greater entrepreneur inside of you. There's a greater scholar inside of you. There's a greater person inside of you just waiting to be discovered by you. The word development, the word maturity, the word process is, is relative to you evolving and becoming more, becoming better, becoming greater. As much as some people may look at me and say, oh, you're a great speaker, I said thank you, but as soon as I finish speaking, you know what I do, y'all? I go back to my little dugout, I go back through my notes, I watch the videos, and I look at myself and I say, you know what, I could have said this better, I could have did that better. And then I go back to the drawing board and I continue to work on me. I continue to refine me. I continue to personally develop me. I continue to interpersonally refine my skills and my talents. You know why? Because I realize that greater is inside of me. And here at Rio, we don't want you to just come in and be good. We want you to come in and be great. And the you that is employed today should be able to at some point fade away in the background While the greater you comes forth. The person that you are today and what you have to offer the world should eventually fade into the background and the greater you comes forth. You see, evolving and becoming is what greatness is all about. We're not born adults, we're born babies. But through a process of maturity and development, we evolve, we grow, we mature, and we become. And now we're able to look back, as in our adulthood, over our childhood, and we can measure the development and the growth in our life and see how far we've come. 10 years from now, 15 years from now, you should be able to look back on this day and say, that's where I was then, but this is where I am now. I've continued to evolve. I've continued to develop. I see Stephanie 5 years, 10 years from now saying, I remember we had this meeting and this guy Rico came and he spoke to us and he told me that I should start my business of putting my cookies out on the market. And here I am 15 years now, and my cook is on the shelf. And I'm the manager. And this is her manager. You see, ladies and gentlemen, you have to think like you're great. You have to think like that. Don't measure your greatness by your bank account. Don't measure your greatness by your educational status. Don't measure your greatness by the kind of car you drive. Don't measure your greatness by the neighborhood you live in. Don't measure your greatness by what other people think about you. Other people's opinions of you matters not to the detention of your destiny, nor to the potential of your greatness. So when you focus on your greatness, the more you focus on your greatness, the more you begin to become that butterfly that's inside of that cocoon. You cannot tell that caterpillar that became that butterfly that it didn't have greatness. That butterfly believed in itself. I bet the cricket never said to the caterpillar, you have greatness in your life. I bet the frog never said to the caterpillar, you have greatness in your life. But the caterpillar knew something was happening on the inside. And it could lead to interpersonally focused and begin to evolve and develop. So accept the greatness in your life. That's the first point that I want to leave with you today. Accept the greatness in your life. Point number 2. And we're focusing on bringing out the best in you, so we're focusing on bringing out your greatness. Understand that greatness is your destiny. You've heard the word destiny before, right? Yeah. Oftentimes people equate destiny with destination, and it is totally opposite of the other. They're like— they're diabolically opposed. A destination refers to something physical. It's a place. It's a location. Like going to New York, and once you get there, that's your destination. So you arrive, but that's not your destiny because a destiny is not a physical place. A destiny is a state, is a place of arrival. Destiny has all to do with a space that you occupy in time. It's nothing to do with a physical place. It's a place you occupy in time. Say this with me: My destiny is a space that I occupy in time. Greatness is not defined by money, education, or fame. Shit, I got it. You were born and created with greatness. So the second point is knowing that greatness is your destiny. Greatness is a state of becoming, and your destiny is a state of being. That's important to understand. Greatness is a state of becoming, and your destiny is a state of being. Isn't that something? That a guy who speaks around the world came here to B-Land floor, to rail, To St. Anne's Church to talk to about 15 people about greatness being in your life. Can I share with you that there's a reason why I'm here? There's a reason why I stopped by. There's a reason why you're here. Can I say to you that you're you're the dream team? Say this with me: We're the dream team. We're the dream team. And when you're when you see yourself as a dream team, then you understand that the reason of your being here is bigger than what you originally or. When you're working on something big, you want to accomplish something great. A team is assembled to accomplish that great dream, that great vision. Mr. Walt Disney had to assemble a team of people that believed in his vision, that believed in his dream, and there were many people that he contacted and told about his dream and his vision that thought he was out of his mind. They thought he was crazy. They thought that he was missing a few screws because he talked about having a big playland, and he's an adult talking about having a place for people to come play and fantasize and be able to live in this fantasy world. And in the process of trying to develop a team, he had many people that he hired that walked off from him and abandoned and aborted the process of bringing his dream to formation Because they themselves did not believe that it was possible. But he believed that it was possible, and he kept going through people until he found the right people that believed in his dream. And sometimes he had to let go of certain people, and sometimes he had to hire the most unlikely people, and they became people who believed in his dream. And in the process of building his dream, he had several nervous breakdowns. And filed for bankruptcy 7 different times. But would you not know that years later, even after his demise, that Walt Disney World is strong and running? Mm-hmm. And people have come into the lineage of his dream and is continuing to perpetuate his vision. And people he never even met before are still channeling and supporting his dream and his vision. You see, one day, ladies and gentlemen, we're all going to have to leave this world. But the question is, what are you going to leave behind? We call that legacy. In order to leave a legacy that is going to outlive you, you have to believe in the greatness in yourself. You assemble the team around you that you want to help push and perpetuate your dream. And these people, they take your burden to heart. They take your dream, your ideas, and your goals to heart. And your ambition becomes their ambition, and your dream becomes their dream, and your passion becomes their passion, and your power becomes their power, your strength becomes their strength, your energy becomes their energy. And you can walk off and know that you've got a good team assembled. That's right. That not only believes in you, but believes in themselves and is a part of the network of greatness. That's exactly, ladies and gentlemen, what you have here at Rio. You are networkers and a vision and a dream of greatness. And you've been assembled as the dream team, not only because the company has greatness in it, but because you have greatness in you. That's right. You've been hand-selected. You've been chosen. You've been picked. You're special. You have something unique about you. And each of you are a piece to the puzzle. And each of you are cut and tailored and structured and configured to fit in in a certain way to make this thing come together. And each of you have something uniquely to offer that particularly the person next to you may not bring to the table. But what you bring to the table is uniquely perfect for this Dream Team. So do not minimize your greatness by thinking you don't have what it takes, because you do. The fact that you're here means you do. Others have come before you and are no longer here, but you're here, and your purpose of being here exceeds a paycheck. Your purpose of being here is connected to your greatness. That's right. Say this with me: My greatness has connected me to this organization. Believe that. Believe that. See, everything starts out in the summation or in the form of a seed. But inside of a seed, there's a harvest. Here's a man who stands before his Creator and says, "I would like to have an apple tree." And his creator says to him, open your hand. And he opens his hand, and in his hand appears a little seed. And he looks at that seed and he says, you know what, this doesn't look anything like an apple tree. This is just a small, tiny, insignificant, minute object called a seed. This isn't an apple tree. And the creator would say, no, This is an apple tree, but the apple tree is inside the apple seed. Take the seed, value the seed, identify the worth of the seed, plant the seed in the ground, water the seed, fertilize the seed, cultivate the ground around the seed. And give the seed time and watch it evolve and develop and become an apple tree. You see, there is this tree that grows in China, and it's called a Chinese bamboo tree. And this Chinese bamboo tree is one of a kind of all trees in the world. There's none like it. What is it called? Only grows in China. And this Chinese bamboo tree, you plant it in the ground and you water it and you fertilize it for 5 years before it breaks through on the surface of the dirt, of the earth. 5 years of watering, 5 years of cultivating, 5 years of fertilizing, and there's no evidence There's, there's no materialization. And I would imagine that in the process of time, the person planting the seed has to stop and wonder, man, is this thing ever going to grow? Is it ever going to sprout up? And I would imagine the man's neighbors peeping out the window, looking at him from day to day, going out there in his backyard, putting water in the same spot for 5 years and nothing has happened. And one day just decided to get out and go talk to him and And walk up to him and say, hey, neighbor, how you doing today, neighbor? He says, I'm doing good, just watering my tree. And the nosy neighbor said, yeah, that's the reason I want to have a conversation with you today, you know. I've been watching you for 5 years out here watering this tree and nothing has happened, nothing has grown. You sure you plant something in the ground? And he would reply and say, yeah, I planted a seed. You're right, planted the seed 5 years ago. Well, it seems like to me that Ray Charles can see that there's nothing growing. Seems like to me that by now you would have thought, give up, stop wasting your water, stop wasting your time, stop wasting your fertilizer. But this man in his heart knows, I can't abort the process. Right. I put something in the ground. And though it's taken 5 years, I will not walk away from my dream. And after 5 years of watering and fertilizing the ground where this seed is planted, ladies and gentlemen, within 5 weeks this tree grows to be 90 feet tall. It took 5 years to see results, but it takes 5 weeks to reap the harvest. There will be moments in your life where you will have to labor and focus on bringing forth your greatness and maturing and developing your gifts and working in this organization to get it to where it has the potential to get to. And there will be people who will walk up to you and say, you're wasting your time. Why are you there? Why do you believe so much in the dream and in the vision of this organization? Why do you give so much? Why do you work so hard? Why do you stay up at night trying to brainstorm? Why do you get up so early? Why are you not taking a lunch break? Why are you not playing? Why are you not enjoying recreation? Because I'm focused on my greatness. I'm focused on my dream. I'm focused on my future. Ladies and gentlemen, you must be willing to do today things that others won't do so that you can have tomorrow things that others won't have. That's right. You must be willing to make sacrifices for the present that will become presents in the future. We call that delayed gratitude. You must have an attitude That I have greatness and that I'm part of a bigger picture in life and that I will not quit and I will not give up on me and I will not give up on my dream. You must be willing to come into an agreement with yourself that I will make a commitment concerning my greatness and then I will commit to my commitment. I will dedicate and devote my time To my greatness, and then I will dedicate to my dedication. I will focus on not only doing what I know I need to do, but I'm going to go the extra mile. I'm going to go into overdrive. You see, people who does not discover their greatness spends life admiring those who do. Let me say that again. People who does not discover their greatness spends life admiring those who do. See, we admire Michael Jordan. We admire Oprah Winfrey. We admire Queen Elizabeth. We admire President Barack Obama. We admire Mark Zuckerberg. We admire Bill Gates. We admire the rich, the famous. We admire people who have discovered their greatness. But why spend your entire life admiring people who discovered their greatness? Why settle for being a cheerleader in life? When you were born with your own identity of greatness. I can't spend my life admiring Tiger Woods. I can't spend my life admiring people who build Tesla cars and people who create software for computers. I can't spend my life admiring people who build iPhones. I gotta discover my own greatness and perpetuate my greatness and manifest my greatness. so that the world can see my level of greatness. And if they choose not to discover their greatness, then I want to leave something behind for the world to admire. But I will not be born and go through life and then die and the world does not know who I am. Right. I'm going to stop for a moment right there and just let that sink in for a moment. The owner of and the founder of Chick-fil-A was not good in a whole lot of things, but he was good in creating the chicken sandwich. Mr. Colonel's chicken does not taste any better than my mama's chicken. I guarantee you that. Amen. But he sold his idea to people, and people bought into his greatness. Pizza Hut is the idea of someone's greatness. They sell these cookies in the store called Mama— Grandma's Cookies. Yeah. And can I be honest with you? I don't think they're all that hot. I don't. I don't think they're all that good, but it doesn't matter what I think because Grandma got 275 million people every day walking into the store buying her cookies across the United States. Somebody obviously think they're good. That's why I say to Stephanie, if Grandma cookies can sell Surely your quickest can sell. See, when you look inside, you discover you got something. No one in this world is born without something. Our something is not going to always be what the next person's something is, but you got something, and you have to discover your something. One lady created a program called MAC. Bible is a program to help people speak different languages. She doesn't sell cookies, she sells translations, and people are buying it all over the world. Somebody else created a shoe called Reebok. Reebok is not a Nike, but there's a market for it. Someone else created a sandwich called the fish sandwich. McDonald's sells fish sandwich. Captain D sells fish sandwiches. It's not chicken sandwiches, but there's a market for it. Right. Everyone has got something, and when you discover your something and you put your passion behind it, that's your greatness. And when you run after your greatness, your greatness runs after you. And even after your life expires, Your greatness continues to inspire. Let's move a little further. I'm going to take about eight more minutes, and then we'll have Q&A. Are you are you with me so far? Yes. Am I speaking your language? Yes. Can I just yes? Yes. I just need to say that we have the office opening back at eleven thirty with a sign window, so I just want you to be aware. That's fine. Okay. Go ahead. If nobody answers the door— All right. So you say, okay, how do I bring my greatness out? I call that process giving birth to the great you. This is a process that mothers understand completely. It is a painful process, but yet it is promising and productive. Giving birth to greatness and visions and dreams and ideas and business and wealth and movement is associated with pain, frustration, rejection, stress, hardship, isolation. I know about it. There are times when you're going to feel like it costs too much to realize your dream, but I can assure you that it costs you even more to not realize your dream. I believe you, sir. Your dream, your vision, your greatness is expensive, and it is supposed to be, because anything great should cost you something. When you work hard for something, you appreciate it more. When you work hard for something, you have a greater sense of respect for it. When you work hard for something, you have a greater sense of accomplishment for it. When you work hard for something, you have a greater sense of self-appreciation and self-validation from it. It's supposed to cost you something. You're supposed to be challenged in the area of your greatness, but yet still, when you fight through the challenges, now you're pushing out of you that greatness from within. When you fight through the stress, you're pushing out of you the process of manifesting your greatness. See, anytime you start working on your future, working on your career, working on your greatness, and working on your dream, There's going to be opposition, ladies and gentlemen. You're supposed to have opposition. You can't catch a fish at the lake without putting a worm on the hook. There's going to be a process to it, and there's going to be times that that little hook is going to prick you in your finger and it's going to hurt. Yes. But there's a process to it. And many people quit and give up on their greatness and give up on their dream because in their mind they say life is not fair. And life is not supposed to be fair. Over the past 5 years, I've had 14 family members to die in my life. 14, including my father and my brother, my grandparents, nephews. Awful thoughts, but I'm still here. And when people die, I realize that I cannot die with them. I have to fight through. And when I fight through opposition, I'm gaining acquisition. Say this with me: When I fight through opposition, I'm gaining acquisition. That means I'm acquiring valuable assets. Life's going to be hard. Yes. Are you going to feel like quitting? Yes. But to fight through it anyway. Life is not supposed to be fair. Life is a fight. It's not fair that birds eat worms, but they do. It's not fair that a dog can chase a cat up the tree. And the cat can figure out how to get up the tree, but can't figure out how to come down the tree. But that's life. That's life. You see, if you keep fighting, you keep trying, you're going to get it right. You're going to master your craft. Even a broke clock is right twice a day. There's going to be moments in your life where you're going to look at your life and you're going to say, is this worth it? But even at that moment, you must summon your tenacity and summon your strength and summon your courage and summon your fortitude to the surface and begin to fight back against life. Life isn't fair. But at the end, you win. And by the way, winning is not a celebration. Winning is not an end result. Winning is an attitude. Winning in life is a mentality. Even while you're losing, you must have a winning mentality. Mm-hmm. Even while you're at the starting line, Getting ready to force your way to the finish line, you must have a winning mentality. A man's gift, the good book says, brings them before great men. If you were to go into my website, you will see me in photos with some really great and powerful people around this world. Some from the NBA, some from the NFL. In fact, I mentor athletes who have played in the NBA and NFL, and many of them continue years later to come to me for advice and direction. Can you imagine that? You will see me with pictures of famous coaches who play professional— who coach athletes in professional sports. Great civil rights leaders. You'll see that on my website. You go on my website, on the first page, you scroll down to my photo album, and you go through, you'll look at some of the people that I'm associated with, and you will say, man, there's Rico with this guy, look at that. But you look at where I started— on the streets, homeless, eating out of trash cans, addicted to cocaine at the age of 13. Incarcerated 19 times. And look at where I am today. I refused to die, ladies and gentlemen, in my teenage life. You see, most people die at the age of 35, but it's not buried until the age of 75. I'm gonna explain that to you. Most people die at the age of 35, but it's not buried to the age of 75. What does that mean? You see, in terms of career, in terms of accomplishments, in terms of the American dream, in terms of family, in terms of certain financial status and leverages, most people say that by the age of 35 you should have your own car, your own house, you should be rooted in your career, You should be rooted and having a certain amount of bank money in your bank. You should be at a certain place by the age of 35. You should be out of college, on your way to really be focusing on retirement. Age of 35 is that pivotal age where most people feel they should have accomplished certain things, and if that does not happen by the age of 35, then people start looking at themselves like, "What's wrong with me?" Why don't I have children right now? Why am I not married right now? Why don't I have my own house by now? Why am I not accomplished by now? Why am I not traveling and seeing the world by now? Why am I not in my career field by now? And when they don't make it by the age of 35, they become disgruntled. They start doubting themselves. They start believing that it won't happen for them. They start feeling like that this is how my life is going to be. Maybe I'm just meant to be alone. Maybe I'm meant to be broke. Maybe I'm not meant to have my own house. Maybe I'm not meant to be able to accomplish certain things. And from that point, they just start dying internally. They deteriorate. They start feeling like, I can't do it. I can't have it. It's not going to happen for me. And from that point, they go into cruise control. They show up to work, but they don't give their best. They don't give their all. They marry, but they're not fully committed. They take vacations, but they're not maximizing their potential. And they just go through life from that moment, just coasting along the way, waiting to be buried at the age of 75 or whatever time their demise comes. They give up on themselves. They give up on their greatness. They give up on their creativity. They give up on their dreams. When you're focusing on bringing out the best in you, you don't let time or the laws of dispensations, which is a period of time, to determine when you can manifest your greatness. If it didn't happen by 35, keep pushing and let it happen by 40. If it doesn't happen by 45, keep believing because it can happen by 45. If it doesn't happen by then, keep going. Do not give up on your greatness. Nelson Mandela, the first democratic president of South Africa, who spent 27 and a half years in prison for a crime he did not commit, even in his old age determined that I can be the president of my country. It didn't happen for him at the age of 35. It didn't happen for him at the age of 50. But he didn't give up. He didn't quit. He kept believing in his greatness. He kept believing in himself. And one day a reporter asked him, Mr. Mandela, how is it that you can do nearly 28 years in prison, be treated harshly, made to serve Up under the leadership of a prison dictator who tried to break your spirit and yet come from that cruel and unusual punishment and become the president of your country? His reply was, though they locked me up in my body, they could not lock me up in my mind. Mm-hmm. I stayed free in my mind and I kept believing in me. The great poet Maya Angelou wrote a poem called Still I Rise, and in her poem she talked about how basically people want to see her down, see her fall, see her reduced to nothing but ashes. But just like the air in the wind, she rises. There's going to be moments in your life where you're going to have people who doubt you, people who does not believe in you, people who look at you and judge you by the contents of your color. People are going to judge you by the car you drive. They're going to judge you by your past. They're going to look at you and not see greatness in you. And you're going to be confronted with an ultimatum at that time. Do I live after other people's opinions of me, or do I put my focus internally and stay subjected To my greatness. Say this with me: I know who I am, and it does not matter if other people disagree. I'm going to stop here in about five minutes. When you think about your gifts and your talents, we call I call this interpersonal discovery. On the inside of you, you have gifts, you have creativity, you have talents. You've heard the term interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills is when 2 people, or when a person basically develops a desire, or develops their desire to interact with other people. There are certain skills you need to efficiently and adequately interact with people and engage people. We call them interpersonal skills. Emotional intelligence, the ability to better identify, the ability to be able to relate. Sometimes humor, sometimes sympathy. sometimes empathy. These are skills that you use to engage in relationship, but in order for you to deploy those skills and use them in relationship, you have to discover them on the inside of you, that they first exist. This is called interpersonal discovery, and I call this interpersonal discovery because so many people are going through life trying to get to know others without first getting to know themselves. Right. You have to get to know you before you can get to know others. Many people's relationships don't last in life because you got 2 people coming together spending more time on trying to get to know each other rather than getting to know themselves, because it's knowing you that causes for the relationship to be healthy. You learn your strengths and your weaknesses. You learn your, your mood swings. You learn what turns you on, what turns you off. You learn what you're good at, not what you're not so good at. And when you focus on bringing out the best in you, what is difficult for others to do, becomes easy for you when you focus interpersonally. This is why greatness is in you. Greatness is not in your hand. Greatness is not in your car. Wealth and finances and being rich does not make you great. I can call a name right now of someone who is very rich, but it, but it's not all that great in my opinion. And if I called the name, you'd be like, oh yeah, I feel the same way. But I'm not going to become political. Just give you hints and clues. What is difficult for others to do, when you focus interpersonally, it becomes effortless for you. It becomes— look, I don't have to struggle to speak. And I got some people I talk to about public speaking, and they'd rather you shoot them than to put them up in front of a crowd. It's my gift, it's my talent, but I had to perfect it. How did I perfect it? By focusing on it, by feeding myself with knowledge, by watching videos, listening to others, by doing things that would cost money, by sacrificially investing into my gift, into my craft, into my skills. I put money into my ability to be able to communicate. I put money into my mind. Most folk would rather put money into a car, money into a house, money into a diamond ring, money into a Rolex watch. I put my money in my mind. You know why, ladies and gentlemen? Because I realize that I am my own bank account. Say this with me: I am— I am— My own bank account. My own bank account. Let me explain to you what that means. When I say to you, you are your own bank account, what I'm saying to you is if you put money in you, sir, If you put your money in you, ma'am, and continue to educate yourself and empower yourself and hone your craft and sharpen your gifts and sharpen your talents and do whatever you can to sacrificially become the best that you can possibly become, eventually people are going to recognize your gift, your talents, your creativity, and pay you money to do what you do. And money will come to you. Because you're good, you're great, and you're the best. Yes. I train leaders to focus interpersonally. You can't sell a car without selling you. You can't sell a wardrobe without selling you. People don't buy cars from you because they want a car. They can buy a car from someone else. They buy a car from you because they like you as a salesman. Right. Your greatness is within you, and the moment you bring it out— can I say to you that if each and every one of you would focus for the next 30 days on bringing the greatness out of you to deploy in this organization, real, this company would grow by leaps and bounds. Within the 30-day period. In fact, do this with me. Raise your right hand and say, "I make a commitment today." I make a vow. I promise this organization, and I promise me that over the next 30 days, I'm giving it all I have to give to promote. This organization. This organization. Now, if you mean that, give yourself a round of applause. If you have thoughts and ideas of how to accomplish tasks, assignments, and delegation, that's your creativity at work. Whatever you do that impacts, encourages, and inspires others, that's your greatness at work. You see, I walked off from being a manager at a car dealership to start my own business. I wanted to be more efficient with my time and my gifts and my talent. And I started, along with my wife, we started our own daycare. And then from there, we started investing in properties. We realized that there comes a time in life when you experience a transition from being good to being great. You stop working for money. That's right. And you let money work for you. That's another message on another day. But that is a seed that I want to sow in your mind. There are things that you are doing right now that will change the landscape of your life if you would just perfect it and become better at what you do. Nobody wants an employee that shows up to work for a paycheck because it reflects in your disposition and your attitude that to you this is just a job, but to your employer this is an opportunity of a lifetime. You're part of a dream team. You are employed to make an impact, to not only make a difference but to become the difference. So you connect with the right people and you find yourself doing what your inspirations and your aspirations lead you to do. You make sacrifices and investments into your life and you understand that if you don't invest into you Why should anyone else invest into you? Amen. If you don't put money into your education, your gifts, your skills, your craft, why should anyone else invest into you? You stay the course and you stay in your lane. I'm not out there trying to be a rapper or a dancer or a songstress. Those are not my gifts. I'm a speaker. I know what my talent is. I know where my lane is, and I'm going to stay in my lane. I'm not trying to be an engineer, an architect, a doctor, an attorney, a psychiatrist, a psychologist. I'm a speaker. I'm a mentor. I'm a counselor. I'm a leadership instructor. I'm an interpersonal skill developer, and I stay in my lane. And I will close with this, and if you want some more of my notes, you can come up afterwards and take screenshots of with your cell phone of my notes, and you can get the rest of it. But I want to say this: Do not limit yourself to one thing or one idea. When I first started out speaking, I didn't. I was just a public speaker. I didn't realize that I had the creativity of writing books and being on television, having my own television show. And being a mentor to professional athletes. And I didn't realize that I had the capacity. This is an important word, it's called capacity. Capacity is a word that's relative to greatness. It's the ability to do a lot. It's the ability to do more than one thing. And so you have greatness, you have capacity. If you have greatness, you have capacity. And then as I began to go on, I realized that I'm a life coach. Now I'm training other coaches and other people how to be life coaches. I train leaders how to be leaders. I train people how to manage their own corporation and their own businesses. There's so much more that you can do the moment you begin to perfect your greatness. And I'm 53 years old. I know I don't look like what I've been through, but I'm 53 years old. And the fact that I'm only 53 means by the grace of God and by proper decision-making with my health and my life, I, I have several more years. And because I have several more years and because I'm still focusing interpersonally, working on my greatness, there's so much more that I can do with my life. Yes, sir. And I'm not ever going to arrive to a point where I say, okay, I've done enough. I'm good. I'm straight. I got money in the bank. I got family. My kids love me. Let me sit down and just enjoy and relax and go into cruise control. Cruise control does not exist for Dreamers. Cruise control does not exist for Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Cruise control does not exist for Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Cruise control does not exist for the owner of Amazon. These people owns— these 6 people whose name I just called owns 70% of the country's wealth. 6 people own 70% of this country's wealth. That means they got enough money for each and every one of us to have— to give each and every one of us $9,750,000 in this country and still be rich. They own enough wealth to give each and every individual in this country $9,750,000 and still be rich. These 6 people. Say wow. Wow. Whoa. Complete suicide. But they're still out the money, right? Microsoft is still clocking in dollars, right? Facebook is still clocking in dollars. Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, right? Warren Buffett owns GEICO. GEICO is still writing insurance policies. Why, ladies and gentlemen? Does the guy know? Does he know? There's no cruise control. And if there's no cruise control for the rich and powerful, guess what, ladies and gentlemen? There's no cruise control for you. In closing, always reach for the moon, because even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. Be willing 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 be willing to give to life the passion you inspire so that life can give to you the dream you desire. Again, 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 matters not. To the dictation of your destiny, nor to the determination of your potential. So walk not in the shadows of those you admire, but discover your own greatness and dare to aspire. For then you will live a life that is promised to leave a legacy that inspires. So think sharp, talk sharp, plan sharp, walk sharp, talk sharp, dress sharp, eat sharp, live sharp, And you're a B sharp. Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Rico Sharp. At this time, again, I want to say thank you for the opportunity to be able to share this precious moment with you. If you have questions for me or comments, at this time we will Give you the floor for Q&A. Yeah, I just want to say thank you for speaking today. It's been great. Your optimism is infectious, and I feel motivated. I also want to say that I hope to see you on October 11th. It's our open house and 15th anniversary. Okay. Over at our offices. Okay. Okay. Now I'm just wondering, we talked a little bit about leadership, and this might be a whole other session. I don't know. But if you could give some pointers about how you motivate while being firm and and and positive. And encouraging and, you know, all these things that you kind of talked about today, recognizing we need to also stay in our lane sometimes. From the position of a leader, right, your firmness is not something that you compromise in order to inspire and motivate other people, realizing that when you're representing an organization, you are employed in that position As leader and entrusted with the delegation of that authority to be a leader, and firmness is something that you have to enter. You have to you have to employ when you're dealing with people that you have jurisdiction over in terms of leadership. When you're when you're not firm and you're passive, you let allow for people to get away with not doing what's required of them, and especially when you don't have. Potential to do it, then you jeopardize and compromise the integrity of the organization. That is something that is more expensive than what you're willing to sacrifice for. So oftentimes what I found is that in order to empower and motivate people to give their best, it's not— it's either good to address them like in a setting like today where you're not calling them out individually in front of everyone, or either sit down with them and on a personal basis, one-to-one, and not so much address them for what they're not doing, but address them for what they can do. Remember I said earlier that if you address a person for what they are, then they'll always stay there. But if you start to address a person for what they can do and what they can be, then they'll start to believe in themselves. It's like if you have a family member that's on drugs, addicted to drugs, and every time you see them, your heart breaks because you see how they're throwing their life away. You see the deterioration of their health. You see how their life is going down. If you talk to them about how they're destroying their life, then all you're doing is helping them to become even more guilt-ridden. You're putting even more guilt in their life, and it is because of self-pity, it's because of guilt and remorse and things like that that people put drugs in their life. It's because of things like that that people turn to these narcotics and other things that gives them an escape route from what they feel. You don't address them for what they're doing. You tell them, listen, I see greatness in you. I see you one day overcoming. I see you one day living your life without drugs. I see you living your life as a dreamer. I see you traveling the world, taking vacations. I see you working. I see you being a father again to your children, a mother again to your kids. And you start planting seeds of hope. You start planting seeds of confidence. You plant seeds in people's minds. What do seeds do when they're planted? They germinate. They grow. They evolve. And so it's, it's being solution-driven that you want to approach people on. And when you do that, you give them something to go home, to look in the mirror, and to rehearse. And they take your words, they take your confidence in them. Sometimes we have to borrow other people's faith, belief, and confidence in you until your faith, belief, and confidence belief and confidence kicks in. Yeah. Sometimes you have to borrow other people's belief in you until your belief kicks in. So that's how I train leaders to approach the people they lead without compromising the standard of their position and without compromising the integrity of the organization, and people will appreciate you more, right? And they will start looking up to you. And when everyone else beat them down in life, they'll come to you because they know you want to lift them up. It's like looking beyond our faults and seeing our need. That works 100% of the time. Very good question. You could clap. You can go ahead and clap. I can say a thing or two because I know a thing or two. Anyone else? Don't all speak at the same time. Okay, I said I'd like to take pictures of you and John with— okay, all right. Well, if if that's all, thank you for coming out today. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of Armor Rail and yeah, my wife, I'd like to thank you for I guess rejuvenating my spirits on that. So I appreciate hearing that. That means a lot to me. I'm thankful. And it's inspiring and motivating people that keeps me motivated. So thank you once again. I feel honored. And I do need to get a few people to just make a short testimony about my coming to speak and one thing that they got out of my coming to speak, if that's okay. If that's okay. One, two, three. Okay, great. And can I get you to say something? Sure. All right. All right. So let me disconnect. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. If you want a photo with me, you feel free to get. In fact, I encourage you come take a photo with me. Come take a photo with me. Okay. And I'm gonna make you famous.