A motivational speech for college students arguing that school is a singular opportunity requiring total engagement. The speaker uses an electrician's story to show how disengagement hurts job prospects, and pushes a work ethic of arriving early, staying late, and sometimes skipping meals to master material.
Chapters
Number 3. Let's focus on being here in school. It's important that you take advantage of the resources that have been set before you. It's important that you begin to maximize every opportunity to guarantee yourself a successful finish at this, at this college, right? It's important. It's super important. It's imperative. Like, life has given you one chance to live. Your creator has given you one chance to live. The question is, what are you going to do in terms of maximizing this moment and making your academic pursuit a priority for you? So many people who sign up to come to college, they don't make the commitment they need to make. And so many people stay home because they were out drinking or because they were out partying or because they was up watching television all night. And when it's time to get up and come to school, they, they don't want to get up because they're too tired and too exhausted. They don't take this career opportunity serious enough. And then sometimes people come and don't— they just, they're not here. They're somewhere else. It's like their body is here, but their minds are somewhere else. Their body is here, but their minds are at home. And when your body is here and your mind is not here, then you're not giving you the proper opportunity to successfully accomplish all that you can accomplish academically. I was talking to, to, uh, a gentleman a couple days ago. And he shared with me how that so many students who comes to school, they're not really engaged in their activities like they should be. And he said when they leave here, even though some of them graduate, they have a hard time landing a job. And I said, well, if they're graduating, why is it so difficult for them to have a job? He said because when they go through an interview to get a job, that person who is hiring wants to make sure that they are students who were engaged, because you have to learn, you have to grow, you have to know, you have to develop academically. You have to know what you're doing, especially if you're an electrician. For example, if you're in a— you're an electrician and you realize that, hey, I got a job as an electrician, when you go to work, you got to be fully engaged because you're dealing with live wires, right? You're dealing with, with something that can really cause a problem for you and that particular company. And so you got to really be engaged. And it's true that when I go to many colleges and places to speak, people are on their cell phones when they should be paying attention. People are sleeping when they should be paying attention. People are somewhere else when they should be present. And when that happens, you're not fully engaged. And if you're not fully engaged, you're missing something. And if you're missing something, what you're missing is going to count against you when the time will be. And so I need you to focus on getting all that you can get it while you're here. Because while you're here, you're learning something that you didn't know before you got here, and you're learning something that you can take back out there with you. Are you with me so far? Say this with me: I will commit. I will commit. To my commitment. To my commitment. So what does that mean? You're here, you're committed to being here, but you got to be committed to your commitment. When I show up, my body is here, my mind is here, my spirit is here, my focus is here, my My energy is here. My concentration, everything that I have to offer is right here with me. When I graduate, I want to graduate knowing that I know what I need to know to do what I need to do. Because you don't get, you don't get a second chance in life once life is over. You don't get to come back. So everything that you're doing now, you're doing it because you want some bigger things in life, right? So taking advantage of academic opportunities is what I'm talking about right now. Taking advantage of the resources that are available to you. What are some of the resources that you're talking about? Making sure that you are attentive and you are alert. Making sure that you get up in the morning and you push yourself here. Making sure that you don't let anything derail you from, from graduating. That you don't allow for anything to get in your way and you don't allow for anything to throw you off balance or to set you back. When you show up, you show up. Say this with me, when I show up. When I show up. I show up. I show up. That means I bring my all. That means I give my all. If I got homework, Then I do my homework. If I got to follow up, then I do my follow-up. Whatever I have to do, I'm giving it all I have because I want to make sure that I can reap the residual from the fruit of my labor. I'm giving it all I have to give. Sometimes 100% is not enough. Sometimes you got to go the extra mile. Sometimes you got to come early and stay late, right? Sometimes You gotta skip lunch today so that you can just sit back and catch up on some things that you need to catch up on or to learn a little bit more, right? There's no such thing of being too successful, but there is such a thing of not being successful enough. There's no such thing of being too accomplished, but there is such a thing of not being accomplished enough. All right, the next point that I want to
