Make your Life Count! Full video. Rico Sharp Motivations

Hey man, I showered. Right. All right, so my name is Rico Sharp. And I'm going to ask you to do something for me. And I know you just took your seat, but this is like— this is how I always like to start my meetings. I'm going to ask you to stand up for the last time and look at somebody on your left or right and just tell them, you have something special. You have greatness on your life. Tell them, you have greatness on your life. You're very special. You already know that. You're very special. You can do whatever you set your mind to do. You can do whatever you set your mind to do. I can see you doing great things. I can see you living your dreams. I can hear that line. Living your dreams. I can see you living your dreams. I can't hear y'all in here. I would expect y'all to be screaming right about now. Alright, let's try this right here. Put your hand right here and repeat after me. I am special. I am special. I have greatness on my life. I have greatness on my life. I will do great things in life. I will do great things in life. I will live my dreams. I will live my dreams. I will accomplish my goals. I will accomplish my goals. I will achieve. I will achieve. Everything I set, my heart and mind to achieve. I will live in this world, and the world will know I live, because every desire of my heart I will make come to pass, and I will build success for as long as I live. Give yourself a round of applause. My name is Rico Sharp. I'm a motivational speaker. I'm a mentor, I'm a counselor. I mentor people that are professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, WBO boxers. I've traveled for many, many years speaking in places like colleges, high schools, even elementary schools, jails, prisons, for corporate organizations, churches. You name it, I've been there. This is what I do for the past 33 years of my life. I dedicate my life to speaking and to sharing so that I can help other people to overcome and to win in life. Just this past Saturday, I was at a prison in Arcadia, Florida, speaking to inmates, telling the inmates there about how not to ever give up on themselves even though their situation is dire. Some of them would never According to the judicial system, coming home again. A couple of days before that, I was in Tampa speaking at a federal government conference to FBI agents, to HUD agents, to Department of Homeland Security, to people who are in the Defense Intelligence Department, and just really sharing with them some things that are very, very important, some of the things that I'm going to share with you tonight. All right? All right. It's important to understand that your life matters, your life counts, and what you want to do with your life, it matters, and you have to make it count. The reason I have a passion for speaking into people's life and for motivating people and sharing is because of where I come from in life. You see, everybody have a story, and I'm going to share with you tonight a little bit about my story so that you can get a little bit more acquainted with me and get to understand where my passion comes from. When I was at the age of 13, I ran away from home. I was a straight-A student in high school, and I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. And when I dropped out of school, I went to go live on a side of town with some guys that I really didn't know, but they were in my school, they were in my class, they were cool, they always had money, they had on nice clothing. Everybody wanted to be with them and be like them. So I'm like, man, this is my new family. And so I went to go and live on the side of town where these guys were, not realizing that even though I was received by them, that I was not going to live in a house with them. So I was homeless. I lived under an oak tree, eating out of a trash can, just trying to survive the winter. One night, a drug dealer came by and said to me, he said, Rico, why are you always up under this tree all night long? Why? And I said to him at 13 years of age, because I don't have nowhere to live. He said, come get in the car with me. He took me to his house, and he lived in this rooming house where there were other drug dealers renting out a room in this rooming house. And he said to me, if you're going to survive out here in the streets, then you got to learn how to hustle. You got to learn how to make money. And at 13 years of age, I didn't really know that I had other opportunities or other options. I just went with what he said. He handed me a bag of drugs and I started out on the street trying to sell the drugs. A few weeks later, I found myself addicted to marijuana. A couple months later, I found myself addicted to powder cocaine. The long story short is that I would go from the age of 13 to 19 being incarcerated being on drugs, been a drug dealer, nearly being killed, nearly killing people, and just almost lost my life on multiple occasions. I got arrested 19 different times from the age of 13 to the age of 19, and then I got sent to prison 3 different times. And while in prison on that last time, I started taking vocational trades. And I began to realize that there's something more to my life than just being a convict or a criminal or somebody who was in the street dealing in drugs and getting high. I really began to look internally, and there I discovered that I have the power to change my life. I have the power to become someone that will live a good life in this world. But all the other inmates in prison were playing poker and using their money to buy little Debbie snack cakes. I met a man in prison named Billy, older guy who was never going home from prison, who had his own library. I took my money and I went to Billy and I started buying books from Billy. I bought an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an almanac, commentary, Bibles. I bought all different types of self-help books. And I sat down on my bunk for years memorizing words from out of these books, memorizing definitions from the dictionary, and I basically self-educated myself. And then I took this course while I was incarcerated called Interpersonal Life Skills. And Interpersonal Life Skills course is a course that helped me to be able to look internally and identify with the potential, with the gifts With the talents and the skills that I have on the inside. It helped me to rediscover and rebrand myself. And so when I came home from prison some years later, I made a decision that I'm never going back again. And so immediately I started reaching out into the community, helping to get family members, friends, and ex-hustlers that were on the street with me off the street. I started a transitional house for homeless people and for people who were incarcerated that's coming back into society so that they would have a place to go and someone to mentor them and counsel them so that they wouldn't go back to that lifestyle. And eventually I began to start speaking different places again— churches, schools, prisons, jail, for businesses, for corporations, in courtrooms. And I began to realize that I have something special. That I have greatness on my life, that I don't have to die a drug addict or a drug dealer, that even though I dropped out of high school, I can still be successful in life. I can get my life back. I can get my focus back. I can get back out there and turn my whole entire life around. And that's exactly what I did. I even started my own television show that broadcasts all around the world. And since then, I've been traveling throughout different countries speaking and doing what I do to help change people's lives. I am here today, and I drove an hour and a half to get here to be with you today. I am here today to speak to you, to tell you that no matter what struggles you've had in your life, what challenges you've had to overcome, that you can make your dream your reality. If I can do it coming from where I've been then you can do it too. And I share my story with you because I want you to always have somebody in mind that you can think about that can remind you of how you've got to keep going with your life and how that if they can do it, then you can do it too. So today I want to talk to you for like the next half an hour on this subject called Give It All You've Got. Give it all you've got. Can you say that with me? Give it all you've got. I'm gonna give it— I'm gonna give it— All I have to give. All I have to give. That's, that's what it means. When you think about life, when you think about your plans, when you think about your dreams, when you think about what you want to do with your future, you got to make a decision that I'm going to give it all I have to give. You see, there's a time where you have to begin to realize that I only have one chance in this life, one chance in this world. I don't get to live this life and come back and start over again. I don't have 9 lives like a cat. I have to make sure that I make my life count. I have to make sure that I do what's best for me. So I'm determining today that from this moment on, from this day forward, I'm going to give it all I have to give. Now some things are going to come tough. Some things are going to be hard. Some things are going to be challenging. You're going to find yourself frustrated at times. You're going to feel like quitting. You're going to feel like giving up. But I need you to make a decision that no matter what comes my way, I will not quit. I will not give up. I'm going to give it all I have to give. So I want to provide for you some steps as to how to give it all you have to give. And, and I also want to tell you why so many people end up failing in life. Now, one of the things that I do, because I have a passion for helping people that are homeless, one of the things that I do is every so often I'll go to where the homeless people are and I'll pull over, get out of my car, Go over to them and talk to them for a while. I'm interested in learning their story because everyone has a story. Not everybody on the street that are homeless are there because they want to be there. There are circumstances that have driven people under those conditions. And so what I try to do is get to know them, right? And then I help them. I buy them food. I give them money. I give them my own clothing, cell phones, and things of that nature. That's great. To help them to be able to know that somebody cares about you. And then I leave them with a positive message that even though this is where you are right now, this is not how your story ends. You can turn your life around. You just need to have some support and begin to believe in yourself. So when you see somebody homeless— and this is a very important point— when you see somebody homeless on the street, understand this right here. Some of them that are homeless sat right where you're sitting at today. In a vocational school, in a school of higher learning. Some of them got college degrees. Some of the people that are out there on the street living under a bridge, pushing all of their belongings in a shopping cart, some of them were people who once had their lives together. They had a home, they had a family, they have children. Some of them have grandchildren. That's right. They are there, they're out there, but they haven't always been under those circumstances. But something happened, ladies and gentlemen, something happened that drift— that drove them to live under those conditions, under, under that circumstance. And one of the things that happens in life is that people stop giving life all they have to give. Sometimes people stay— they, they take the easy road. Right? They they go easy on themselves. They lighten up sometimes. They don't really be consistent with their dedication. So so I need you to make a dedication to yourself. Make a promise. Make a vow and a commitment to yourself. And then I need you to commit to your commitment. I need you to vow to your vow. I need you to dedicate yourself to your dedication. And I need you to promise you that you will not give up on the promise. That you promised to you. Because it's going to happen that something is going to come your way that makes you feel like it's not working for me. So why do people stop giving it all they have to give? Well, number one, oftentimes because of fear. When fear settles in, people start looking at their life and at choices and at their future in a very apprehensive way. Fear is a prison, ladies and gentlemen. Fear will keep you from realizing your dream. Fear will stifle you and stagnate you and hold you back and take you hostage as a prisoner, refusing to let you go. So many people start out good in life and start out with one foot in front of the other, and they start working toward their dreams, and then something happens, and then they start fearing. And when they start fearing, Fear, it stifles them from being able to be successful. I know what that's like because when I first started being a speaker, I had this, this fear about being a speaker. I had this fear that if I got up in front of people to speak, no one is going to want to listen to me. People are going to give me all these weird faces. People are going to tune me out. Maybe I'm not good enough. And I started thinking about, I don't even have— I didn't even graduate from high school. I had to get a GED in prison. Who's gonna want to hear me? Who's gonna want to listen to me talk about that I was on drugs and that I was in the streets and that I was incarcerated 19 times? And so for a long time, I was even fearful of sharing my story. I was fearful that people were going to reject me. And when you're doing something for you, you have to contend with fear. Maybe one day down the road with your, with your diploma, with your skills and your talent that you have, you may want to start your own company. You may want to start a welding business. You may say, man, look, I'm making good money working for someone else, but I want to have my own business. So instead of making $1,000 a week, I can make $10,000 a week running my own company. Well, you're gonna have to overcome the fear of doing so because there will be voices in your mind that gives you reason as to why you shouldn't do it and why you're going to fail if you attempt to do it. That's called fear, ladies and gentlemen. And whenever you're dealing with fear, understand, even if you have fear, don't let fear have you. If you have fear, don't let fear have you. And so when people fear, they sell themselves cheap. They stop short of their dreams. Do not allow for yourself to ever become so fearful of success that you stop short of your dream. And then number 2, you got to be able to believe in yourself. You have to believe in you. How do I give it all I got once I overcome fear? I have to believe in me. There is nothing that you cannot do if you just set your heart and your mind to accomplishing it. You have to believe in you. You have to believe in you like Michael Jordan believed in him, that he could be the best basketball player the world has ever seen. You have to believe in you like Tiger Woods believed in him, that he could be the best golfer the world has ever seen. You have to believe in you like Floyd Mayweather believed in himself that he could be the best boxer, or Muhammad Ali believed in him that he could be the best boxer. You have to believe in you like Usain Bolt believed in himself that he could be the fastest man alive. You have to believe in you. Listen, there is nothing that Michael Jordan has that you don't have. There is nothing that anyone else has that you don't have. You were born with talent. You were born with skills. That's You right. have the skills and you just need to believe in yourself because when you believe in you, nothing can hold you back. When you believe in you, nothing can slow you down. When you believe in you, nobody can derail you. When you believe in you, if you knock on a door trying to gain access to your, to your dream and that door doesn't open, you don't stop there. You go on to the next door. That's right. And if you knock on that door, you go on to the next door. If you knock on that door and the door doesn't open, you don't stop, you keep going. And if you have some setbacks in life, you don't stop, you keep going. And if you run into some disappointments in life, you don't stop, you keep going. And if you have people around you that does not believe in you, you don't stop, you keep going. Say this with me. I will never stop. I will never give up on me. I will never give up on me. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. Because I believe in me. Because I believe in me. Do you mean that? Yes, sir. Because life is going to test you. Life is going to come and test you. There is this law called Murphy's Law, which means whatever can go wrong will go wrong. And sometimes things will go wrong. Sometimes things will fall apart on you. Sometimes situations will catch you from the blind side. Life is not a fair fight. Life will come and it will prove what you're made of. And it's going to be in your best interest to determine that I believe in me and I'm willing to fight and give life all I have to give. Yes, sir. And so in my travel and speaking in different places, I come across people all the time that doesn't take their life serious, and then they end up in jail, in prison, they end up on the streets, they end up homeless. Why? Because they gave up believing in themselves. They gave up overcoming fear. They gave up treating themselves and giving themselves a fair shake at life. So you got to overcome fear, number one. You got to believe in yourself, number two. And then number three, which is very important, you have to eliminate negative influence from out of your life. Negative voices. People that's going to tell you you can't do it. People that sort of laugh at you when you're trying to take life serious. People who will say to you, you don't have what it takes. You got to separate yourself from the negativity of other people. Some people are so negative, ladies and gentlemen, that if you never saw them again, that would be too soon. Some people are so negative that they never have anything positive to say to you about what you're able to do in life. That's right. Some people are so negative that they will tell you no 7 times before they tell you yes 1 time. Some people are so negative that not only do they not believe in themselves or believe in their dream, they don't want you to believe in you, and they don't want you to believe in your dream. And when you're trying to make your dream a reality, when you're trying to do something big and special with your life, you have to separate yourself from negativity because negativity depletes you of your strength, your courage, and your worth. That's right. Your energy and your self-belief. You have to determine that I will not invite negativity into my space because I have one chance to get my life where it needs to be before life is over. So you gotta eliminate negativity as much as you possibly can out of your life. When I made up my mind that I was going to turn my life around, I had a bunch of family members who were living that life that I used to live, that sent me to prison. And when I came home, because many of them owed me, they came to me trying to pay me, but in street value drugs. And I said to them, listen, I'm not about that life anymore. So take your drugs and get away from my house before I call the police on you and have you arrested. See, I made a decision. Number one, I'm not going back down that dark, lonely road. Number two, I made a decision that I'm going to give myself a fighting chance in life. And number three, I made a decision that if I'm going to do good, I can't have myself surrounded by negativity. Many of my family members and friends that lived that life and refused to give it up are either dead, in prison, or strung out on crack cocaine. I don't want that to be how my story ends. I had to make a grown-up decision that I'm going to do what's best for me. And I'm here today because I'm telling you, I'm coming to encourage you that you got to do what you have to do to make sure that you have the best chance you can possibly have with life. Because after a while, You're going to be too old to come back to college and sit in this class and take a course. Life is going to come and life is going to go, and you're not going— you can't go back in time. You can't push the rewind button and go back in time and start all over again. So you got to make a decision that I'm going to do what I have to do and I'm going to do it now. Now is my time. Now is my chance. Now is my opportunity. And I will not let this moment pass me by. You see, ladies and gentlemen, this is a bridge to your promised land. This is a ladder that you're climbing to success. And if you take advantage of it and give it all you've got to give, you will find yourself living your dream, while others who doubted you and didn't believe in you will be sitting back Asking for a dollar at a traffic light. Don't let that be you. Don't let that happen to you. Take life serious. Take you serious. If you're going to laugh, if you're going to joke around, if you're going to play, do that with your kids. But when it comes down to your life, Take your life serious. How many of you understand what I'm saying? Yes. And so, number 4, if you're going to give it all you've got to give, then you got to be able to bring out the best in you. You got to be able to look internally and discover what your potential is. The greatest frustration that a person can have in life, in my opinion, is to know that you deserve better than what you have right now. It's to know that you have potential to do more for yourself than what you're doing, but yet you're not doing it. My greatest frustration was believing and knowing that I had more on the inside than what I was actually living out and manifesting in my life. I want to be able to bring out the best in me, and so I've made up my mind that I'm going to search internally and discover what my gifts and my talents and my my creativity, and my purpose is— and then begin to walk in that purpose. Can I tell you something? Yes, sir. That coming to school here at Florida Technical College and getting a degree or a diploma in higher learning, that's your trade, but that's not your purpose. Your purpose is bigger than your trade. You can go 5 years from now and decide, I no longer want to be a welder, but then life still goes on. 62% of people who go to college actually does not graduate. And then those who graduate, after they leave college, 71%, 5 years later, are not even working in the career field they went to college for. So what I'm saying to you is, even though you're walking away from here with a diploma, with a trade, don't let your life be defined strictly and totally by a welding career. Because there's more to you than being a welder. There's more to you than just having a job welding. Your life is bigger than that. The spectrum of your life is bigger than that. Yes, sir. You were born with greatness. You're born to be a world changer. You're born to be a trailblazer. You're born to be a multi-millionaire. You have the opportunity to travel the world, to set up businesses around the world. You have the opportunity to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. You have the opportunity to, to be the next Elon Musk. Don't limit yourself to just what you can accomplish through welding. Because life is much bigger than that. This is a good start for you, but this is not where you end with your journey. This is where you start, but this is not where you end. This is where you start out at, but this is not where you end up at. This is your starting line. This is not your finish line. But in order to take it to the next level and really begin to maximize your potential, You have to look inside and discover what you have on the inside because you have greatness on your life. Say this with me, I have greatness on my life. I have greatness on my life. And you have to be— you have to mean that. You have to mean that. You have to believe that. You have to tell yourself this, that I have greatness over my life. Don't just settle, my brother, for having a Ram truck. You can own the whole entire Ram dealership. Don't settle for just having a house. You can own the entire community. Don't just settle for having money in the bank. You can own the entire bank. People are doing these things. People are not only buying houses and buying cars and putting money in the bank, but they're owning communities, they're owning franchise dealerships, and they're owning banks. Individuals like you and I. See, if you have a dream and that dream is a big dream, then you can work that dream until it comes into your life into fruition as a manifestation. When you have a dream, you're saying to yourself that I'm going to work until I accomplish something great in my life. I don't want to tell you To settle for where you are right now. I do want to say to you, this is a good start, but it's not where you finish. It's not how your story ends. So believe in yourself. Put around you people who can speak into your life and encourage you and tell you what you can do instead of folk who tell you what you can't do. When you share your dream with somebody and they laugh at you, Walk from around them because they're not the one that is going to be a part of the process. When you tell somebody what you want to do with your life and then they look at you as if you've lost your mind, they're not the one that you're going to get support from. You want around you people that want what you want, that believe in you, people that can affirm you, people that can tell you that, hey, it's possible. Say this with me. My dream, my dream is huge, it's huge, but it's possible, but it's possible. My dream, my dream is big, it's big, but it's possible, but it's possible. Whatever, whatever I set my heart and my mind to accomplish will be big, will be big, but it's possible, but it's possible. Do you believe that? Yes, it's possible, it's possible. Who would have ever believed That a 13-year-old runaway who was incarcerated 19 times will have FBI agents, HUD agents, agents in the Department of Homeland Security sitting down just like you're sitting down listening to me talk? You can go to my website and you can see the videos. Who would have believed that I would be traveling the world speaking? That's right. Telling people that they can realize their dream. Who would have ever believed that I could come from the gutter and begin to live a life where I'm seeing my greatness manifest every single day right before my eyes? If I could do it, you could do it too. You just have to bring out the best that's within you. You have to give life all you have to give. You have to look in the mirror and believe in the person you love, and believe in the person you see, and believe in the person that you know only have one chance at life. You have to tell yourself, I am somebody. Other people are not going to believe in you. Other folk are not going to support you. Other folk are not going to stand by your side and pat you on your back when you accomplish certain things. But that's okay because you don't need other people in order to be the best you can be. You don't need other folk in order to realize your dream. You can do this the moment you said in your heart and in your mind that this is my life, nobody's going to give me anything, I got to work hard for it, and I got to not quit until I accomplish what I set myself out to accomplish. Will it be hard? Yes! Yes. Will you feel like quitting? Yes. Will you break down and cry sometimes and pound your fists on the table? Yes. Will you feel like you're wasting your time? Will you feel like it's not worth it? Yes. But in spite of all of that, you must keep going. In spite of all of that, you must give it your all. All you have to give. You cannot quit on you. You cannot give up on you. You cannot pull the plug on you. Anything great, it's going to cost you something, and it's going to cost a sacrifice. There's this tree that grows in China. It's called a China bamboo tree. And when you plant this tree in the ground, you have to water it and fertilize it for 5 complete years before you see any results. And I can imagine that while a man is out there planting this tree and watering this tree, his neighbors are peeping out of the window at him day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, seeing him constantly watering the same spot. And yet there's no results. There's no manifestation. And I can imagine that one will walk out and say to him, hey neighbor, you've been watering this spot for quite some time. Are you sure that's something there? Yeah, I planted a Chinese bamboo tree about 3 years ago. Well, for 3 years I've seen no evidence that there's anything growing. But yet this man is determined, he's focused, he knows what he's done, he knows that he's planted something in the ground. And instead of quitting and giving up on his dream, he continues to water that particular spot and fertilize the ground where this bamboo tree is planted. Well, ladies and gentlemen, after 5 years of watering and planting that Chinese bamboo tree That tree grows to be 90 feet tall within 5 weeks. That's exactly how it would be with your dream. That's how life is. Sometimes you're gonna work at something and work at it and work at it and work on it and work on it, and it looks like you're not getting anywhere. Sometimes you will work hard to accomplish something and you'll put a lot of time in it, a lot of energy, and a lot of effort, and it looks like nothing's happening, nothing's growing. That's right. Everything's falling apart, everything's falling through. But through consistency, through diligence, which is point number 4, you will overcome any type of adversity and you will see your Chinese bamboo tree come to fruition. That Chinese bamboo tree for you may be your own business. It may be traveling the world. It may be raising a family. Yes. It may be having millions of dollars in the bank. It's not going to happen easy, and it's not going to happen quick, and it's not supposed to. Through blood, sweat, and tears, it's going to cost you. But if Rico can do it, so can you. If Walt Disney can have 7 bankruptcy and 2 nervous breakdowns and still get back up and brush themselves off and say that my dream of Walt Disney World will come to pass, then you can too. Never give up on you. And I'll leave you with this. There is a man running through the forest. He realizes that there is an angry Hungry grizzly bear chasing him. And while he's running through the forest trying to get away from this grizzly bear, he trips over a branch and falls. And when he falls, he turns over and looks up, and this big grizzly bear is about to come down over the top of him. Great. He looks up at this grizzly bear and he says, Mr. Bear, Are you going to eat me? And the bear replies, I don't know. This is your dream. Only you can determine how your story ends. This is your dream, ladies and gentlemen. This is your life. Only you can determine how your story ends. Life is like a book. It's full of pages and chapters, but you're the author and you get to determine how your story ends. And whenever you find yourself dealing with some hardships in life, turn the page and move on to the next chapter. And finally, the last thing I need you to do to give life all you have to give is when you mess up in life, When you experience setbacks, when you make wrong decisions and bad choices, when you do something that you don't like and you're not proud of, I need you to forgive you. Forgive yourself. Don't live with remorse. Don't live with regret. Don't be angry at yourself and hold yourself Don't be a prisoner for something you did a year ago, 3 years ago, 5 years ago. See, it took me some time to get over my teenage disappointment. It took me some time to get over my teenage mistakes. It took me some time to get over my teenage crisis. And it took me some time to really release myself and forgive myself for allowing for chaos to come into my life as a teenager. But I finally broke through and I forgave myself, and now I'm no longer living with regrets and remorse. I feel like what happened in my life as a teenager has helped to shape who I am today as an adult, and I have forgiven myself for every negative decision, every bad choice, and everything that I've done wrong in my life. And I need you to do the same thing. Forgive yourself for any mess-ups in your life, because in order for you to give it all you've got, you can't have anything inside of you holding you back that is going to prohibit you from making your life count. Always reach for the moon, because even if you miss You will 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 hit, but because they aim too low and hit. Most people fail in life not because they set their goals too high and miss, but because they set their goals too low. So give to life The passion that you desire, and life will give to you the dream that you aspire. Be willing to do today things that others won't do so that you can have tomorrow things that others won't have. Your attitude toward life determines life's attitude toward you. Tough times don't last, but tough people do. And when the going gets tough, the tough people get going. And the final thing I want to say to you is to 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. My name is Rico Sharp, and I thank you for this opportunity to be able to share with you today. Thank you. God bless you. I got about five minutes, so if you have any questions or comments or anything like that, I'll take whatever questions you have. Yes, sir. Why did you choose to be a motivational speaker? I discovered that empowering people, motivating people, and inspiring people was my talent. It was my gift, but it also became my passion. I felt like that was the best way for me to be able to give back and to help people to overcome adversity. So I chose at that time to follow my passion of being a speaker. That's a very good question, and that's probably the first time someone has asked me that question. Very good question. Next question. Any regrets? Huh? Any regrets? Somebody asked me if I could go back in my life and change one thing, what would that be? I said if I could go back to when I was 13 years of age, when I decided to drop out of high school when I was a straight-A honor roll student, I would change that time. I don't believe in living with regrets. I don't believe in living with remorse. But if I had life to live over, I would definitely stay in school because I realized later on how important having an education is in this world. But if you stayed in school, would that change the course of your life? Would you be able to do the things that you do now? That is a very good question, and that is a very good observation. And I believe that destiny calls us to certain experiences in life, and there are certain things that we go through that shapes us and forms and configures our lives so that we can be the person that we are today. Would that have changed the course if I would have stayed in school? I believe that in the end, ultimately, I was still speaking to people's lives as a motivational speaker. I probably would have had some other type of experience in life To accommodate my effectiveness. But I'm not sure how my life would have been different had I stayed in school. But I do believe that at that time, my dream was to, to, to be a doctor. My dream was to be able to help people. So I always had a heart to want to help people. I just didn't know what courses to choose. And of course, when I dropped out of school, some of my choices were derailed. Very good, very good observation, very good observation. Anyone else? Sir, where are you— I was about to say, where are you from, sir? I'm from Sanford, Florida. Oh, Florida. Yep, born and raised. So that's where you were at when you dropped out of school and stuff? I was in Seminole High School when I dropped out of school, but ironically, and I stopped by there today, when I was in prison And, and on the third time when I was coming home from prison, there is a work release, a work release center down on Michigan Avenue which is called Kissimmee Correctional Community Center. I was there, I was there for, for, for almost a year, and then I had to go back behind the barbed wire fence to finish out the remainder of my sentence. So I ended up doing some time in this same city. Yeah. Any other questions? Great, great. Give yourself a round of applause. Thank you so much. You can visit my website and, uh, you'll see on my website pictures and videos that I have of me speaking and pictures with professional athletes that I mentor. Yeah. And counsel. You— there's a lot of things that you can learn about me on my website. I even offer, uh, personal mentorship and, um, and counseling on my website. If any of you ever felt like, man, I need somebody to be like a life coach to me, that's— I'm also a life coach, whatever the case is. So I want to see you do great in life. I want to see you succeed. I believe in you, and I know that if I can make it, you can too. You just have to bring out the best of you. All right, God bless you. Thank you for your time. I will shake your hand one more time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here, everybody. Thank you for being here, Mr. Rico. You're welcome, you're welcome. I will see you in our social media in other campuses. Great, great.