October 8, 2025

Just kind of sit right here.

Hi, how are you guys doing? People said that.

I appreciate that.

I'm doing good, thank you. How about the rest of y'all? How are y'all doing? And how about the rest of y'all? How are y'all doing? We good? Everybody's cool? All right, my name is Rico Sharp and I am a motivational speaker. I'm a leadership trainer. I founded Student Lives Matter and Teachers' Lives Matter. I have a curriculum out there called Breaking the Silence: Stopping Gun Violence. I have a program that I'm building called The Best You Leadership Academy, which is an online course. I have Rico Sharp Motivations. For the past 30-plus years of my life, I've been traveling the world speaking. I speak in jails, I speak in juvenile detention centers, I speak in prisons, I speak in churches for faith-based organizations. I speak in schools all the way down to elementary schools. I speak in colleges and universities. I do conferences for educators. I train federal employees. I train executive directors in college. There's a lot that I do with my life. I once had a worldwide television show. I travel to different countries speaking. A couple days ago, I got an invitation to speak in Nigeria. A little over a month ago, I got an invitation to speak in Dubai. This Friday, I'm going to jump on a plane and go and speak to a bunch of teachers out in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout this month, I got invitations to be in Milwaukee, to be in a whole bunch of different places. I can't even remember all of them. That doesn't matter. None of that stuff that I just shared with you really doesn't matter a whole lot, not until you hear my story and where I started. At the age of 13, I ran away from home.

Mm-hmm.

I dropped out of school. I was 13 years old in the 9th grade, and I loved school. In fact, I was on the A/B honor roll. I loved science, I loved art, I loved math, and I had a bright and promising future ahead of me. I was being raised with my 2 brothers by my mother. My father was on the other side of town as a drug dealer raising another family. My mom was a churchgoing young lady who loved me and did all that she could to try to keep me on the straight and narrow. But when I got in high school, I found some guys in my class that had money in their pockets, gold chains around their neck, gold teeth in their mouth, and fresh Adidas, and they had their own car out in the parking lot. And I was poor, like I was poor, poor. I was so poor that poor was poor. And when I saw these guys and how they had it going on, and I started listening to rap music and watching these MTV videos— we didn't have social media back then, we, we watched videos where these rappers like Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube and Ice-T and N.W.A. and Eazy-E. Anybody familiar with any of those names?

Yes, sir.

Yeah, we saw those guys on television, and they had all this money, all these girls, all this stuff, all these cars, all these nice clothing, and they were like living it up. And I'm looking at these guys in my class, and they were living it up. And I'm looking at myself, and I'm like, I'm living it down. But I want that. I want what they have. I want to be like them, right? Like, like, I want it. I want that life. I'm tired of being poor. And then at the same time, my father wasn't in my life, and I wanted to have a relationship with my dad, but my dad was too busy raising someone else's kids. And I looked at all of that, and I decided I'm going to leave home. My mom said to me, She said, I can't do anything with you anymore. You need to go live with your dad. I was afraid of my dad. I didn't really know the guy. Only time I ever met him was when he came and beat me up, and then he went back. And so I'm like, okay, I gotta live life on my terms. What kind of 13-year-old knows what's best for them? What 13-year-old boy has a mature, developed mind that knows what type of life he or she should live? See, I was that 13-year-old boy, and when I saw these guys in my school, I said, I want that life. I want to be flamboyant. I want that swag. I want to be cool. I want to draw crowds. I want the girls to be around me. I want the guys to want to be like me. I want money, I want nice stuff. And I got persuaded, which is more of a deception. I was more so deceived, but I became persuaded to go and hang out and live on the side of town that these guys that were coming to my school with money and nice stuff were living. My young, undeveloped, immature 13-year-old brain said, Said I can go live with them and live like them. And so here I am, off I go, run off from the school campus. My dad had dropped me off to school that day because I was supposed to go and live with him. I'll do questions afterwards. I was supposed to go and live with him, but instead I ran off.

What happened?

Never to go back home. And here I was, 13 years old, living on the side of town with some people I thought were going to take me in. I thought they were going to be my family. And immediately, the very first day, I became homeless. And consequently, this was in the wintertime. I became homeless. I'm out there, 13 years old, totally lost. I don't know anybody. I don't have any family. I don't have any money. I don't have a second change of clothing. I don't have toothpaste. I don't have a blanket. I don't have food. And I'm standing up there on the street, and I'm seeing everybody leave, and it's getting late, and I'm standing up there lost, like, what do I do now?

What do you do now?

I saw some bushes across from this store where everybody hung out at, and I went and laid down in those bushes, and I slept that night in the bushes. And the next morning, I heard people talking. I get up, I come out of the bushes, and now here I am again, back out there in front of the store where all the people hung out at, thinking that this is my life. This is how I'm supposed to live. This is what I signed up for.

That's right.

And day after day after day after day, I'm homeless. I don't know anybody. I don't have any money. How did I survive? Eating out of trash cans. When people would go in this store and buy a bag of Doritos or a hot dog and left the scraps, I would run out of the woods like a cat or dog and go and get those scraps. And eating. And how did I survive? Laying up under trees, sleeping under trees, sleeping in the woods, drinking and eating whatever was left. 13-year-old out there, terrified, weighing about 60 pounds because of being malnutritioned, having thoughts of wanting to kill myself. Too afraid to ask for help, terrified that my father, if he catch me, he's going to kill me. Wanting my mom, wanting my brothers, wanting to be loved, wanting to be accepted, and I'm looking for love in all the wrong places. And so one night out there in the cold, about three o'clock in the morning, this car pulls up, and this guy. Get out of the car. And he walks over to me and I'm thinking, oh man, here we go again. Because many nights I had to jump up and run for my life because people trying to beat me up, hurt me, kill me, and all that stuff. And hide up under houses to get away from people trying to kill me. And here I am now seeing this guy come up to me and I don't know what he's about to do, but I'm tired of running. I'm cold, I'm weak, I'm hungry, I stink. What's your name? I don't know what to do. He said to me, he said, why are you always out here by yourself like this? Knowing how cold it is out here, you sitting up under the tree shaking and shivering, falling asleep. I said, because I don't have any place to go. He said, you don't have any place to go? He said, where's your family? I say, I don't have a family. And he said, come get in the car with me. I got in the car with this guy and he tucked me into this house and he said to me, I'm going to feed you, buy you some clothes, go in there and take a shower, you can sleep in this room. And this guy tucked me in off the street right here in America. I'm not talking about in Haiti or in Ethiopia or in Africa. I'm not talking about in Saudi Arabia. I'm talking about right here. Just about 45-minute drive from this school in Sanford. Here I am, this young boy, homeless, terrified. This man took me in, and when he took me in, he started taking care of me. And I'm thinking, I found a family, I found acceptance, I found love, I found somebody who sees me. Somebody who will embrace me, somebody that I don't have to change for and perform for and be somebody that I'm not. That's these were the thoughts running through my mind, which are some of the same thoughts that you have to deal with when you find somebody that you think love and accepts you and will be your friend and will be down with you like four flat times, only to discover there's always a trick in the bag. And so a couple of weeks later, this guy say to me. He said, Rico, if you're going to survive in these streets, you're going to have to learn how to hustle. And I'm like, hustle? What's that mean? He handed me a bag of crack cocaine at the age of 13. I'm 13 years old. He handed me a bag of crack cocaine and he says, go down on that corner in front of that store and sell this dope. And bring me half the money and you keep half. And this is how you're going to survive in these streets. And because ain't no love in that life, ain't no love in the street. And I'm not knowing that I had alternatives. And if there were some, I didn't know what they were in my immature mind. My mind was closed. And so when I went down the street and I started selling drugs, Immediately police walks up on me. I'm trying to be gangster, right? I'm trying to be cool. I think I got swag. I think I'm what's up, right? I think I'm living and I'm doing it. I'm balling. And the police walks up to me, and here I am, 13 years old, drinking a can of Budweiser beer in front of the police officer. I don't even have enough knowledge to know that That was a crime. And the police grabbed me, throw me down on the ground, throw me in the back seat of the car, and off I go to Disney World. No, it wasn't Disney World. It was the juvenile detention center. And that began a journey that would one day spiral out of control, that would land me incarcerated 19 different times and 3 times in prison. And here I am, totally, totally lost, not knowing what to do with my life other than to think that I'm a gangster, I'm a player, I'm a hustler, that this is my life, that I'm supposed to be a baller. And in that life, many people that I loved and cared about, that I learned to know, That I learned to love died, shot dead right in front of me. Some of them even family members. Some of them I had to pick up off the ground and drag their lifeless body to the car and haul them off to the hospital as fast as I could try to try to save their life. And yet they died on me with their blood all over me. And I lived that life. And I went to prison time and time and time again because I lived that life. And I almost died time and time and time again because I lived that life. And I had to run from the police, and I had to jump out of cars, and I had to do all kind of things to survive because I chose to live that life. I gave up being in school Getting an education, making something out of myself, to go and live the street life because I saw somebody else portraying the life of a gangster, the life of a hustler, the life of a rapper, and I said, I want that. And I signed up for it. And how wrong was I? To think that I could live that life and everything's gonna be good. I got dead cousins, dead family members right now that signed up to live that same life. They didn't make it out. Many of the guys that I stood out there on the street and sold drugs with, they didn't make it out. Some of the guys that used to travel with me back and forth to Miami trafficking kilos of cocaine back to Orlando with, they didn't make it out. Some of the guys that I was locked up with that didn't see how to get out of that life, they didn't make it out. I traded being in school for being a career criminal. And on that third time of being in prison, I went in in 1993, March of 1993. The judge said to me, you are a threat to society. 1993, I actually made the evening news in Sanford, Florida. It's still in the Seminole Herald newspaper. 1993, I made the evening news for being the youngest, biggest drug dealer in Sanford to be busted and raided by the police department and the FBI. Can you believe that? I make the news for all the wrong reasons. And so when I was sitting in that courtroom and the judge saying to me, you are a threat to society, the state came to me and said, we'll make a plea bargain with you. How many of you know what a plea bargain is? The plea bargain they gave me was 17 years in prison.

17 years.

And here I am deserving every day of it, but not wanting any of it. And the judge said to me, I'm gonna lock you up and throw away the key because you've had many chances to get your life together. I've been arrested as a teenager 19 different times. Did I say 19?

Correct.

19 different times. And finally, sitting in prison for that last time, I made a decision. I can't keep living like this. There's something more in store for Rico Sharp. There's something more that I can do with my life than to be a gangster, than to have people that die off of the crack that I sold them or the drugs that I brought into town. There's something more I can do with my life than sitting up in a hotel room snorting cocaine, having drug overdoses. There's something more that I can do with my life than trying to be like somebody who's portraying a gangster life. There's something more that I can do with my life than to drop out of school to go to the street and give up opportunities to make something out of myself just because Because I have an attitude. There's something more. And I started wondering, what is that something more? What else can I do? What do I have to offer me? What do I have to offer my family? What do I have to offer society? What do I have to offer the world? And so that answer Can only be found within me. So while in jail, I decided I got to start doing some things differently. And one day while coming from the chow hall, where you only got 3 minutes to eat a plate of food, I'm walking in this single-file line and there is this guy that is talking to me. What's up, Rico? And he's an older white gentleman, and I'm a young Black gangster thug. And he looked at me and he said, there's something different about you. And I stopped and faced him and I said, listen, you don't know me. Like, my name's Money, right? Because that was my street name, Money Sharp. My name's Money. Like, you don't know me. You don't know what I did. Like, I, I beat guys with pistols and brass knuckles. Like, I sell cocaine, like I've been locked up 19 times, like, like you don't know me. And he said to me, he's like, there's something different about you. You're not like all these other guys. His name was Billy. Billy had no family. Billy had cancer. Billy was about to die. And Billy looked at me and said, there's something different about you. You're young, I'm old. You're Black, I'm white. But I see something in you. You're not this guy. And he said to me, let me help you. And Billy became my mentor. But not just my mentor, Billy became the dad that I never had. And Billy took me under his wing. After having been in prison for 30 years and never going home, Billy said to me, I want to know before I die that I did something good in this world by helping you to get your life right. And Billy made me promise him that I would go out there and change the world. And I made Billy that promise. And Billy had a library that he had accumulated over the 30 years of being incarcerated. Billy had all kinds of books from all around the country. And I decided while in prison that I want to change my life. I want to turn my life around. And when I decided that, I said to Billy— first he handed me a couple of books. He says, here, take these books. And I started reading. And when I started reading, I realized that reading is good for me because now I feel like I'm learning something. And if I'm learning something, I'm growing.

That's right.

And if I'm growing, I'm maturing and developing. And if I'm maturing and developing, then I'm changing. And if I'm changing, I'm going to have a different life. And so when Billy came to me one day— Billy liked to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes— and I had money in my commissary account, and all I did was bought Little Debbie snack cakes, Doritos, and Jolly Ranchers, right? Like, because I'm just a little kid in a grown man's world. still living like a little boy. So every time I wanted to get something, it was just snacks, junk food if you will. But then I made a deal with Billy. I said, Billy, let me buy your books from you. And Billy sold me an almanac. Billy sold me a dictionary. Billy sold me a concordance. Billy sold me Bibles. Billy sold me All kind of books, commentaries and everything. And now I got all these books, so I turned my jail dorm, my prison dorm, into a college dorm. And I began to read for 12 and 13 hours a day. I dedicated my time to reading. And day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, I'm sitting there reading, reading, reading, and absorbing like a sponge all of this information. Memorizing scriptures out of the Bible, memorizing words out of the dictionary, memorizing definitions out of the dictionary, memorizing things about American history, just trying to change my thinking. And then I got back in school. I had a chance to go to school in prison. And I got my GED in prison. Come on, that deserves a little clap right there, don't that deserve a little clap? I got my GED in prison. See, that was a big accomplishment for me because I did love school and I wanted to be in school deep down inside. I wanted to have a second chance at life. And when I went and got my GED in school— in prison, I realized my life isn't over. I may have a chance. Then I found out that the prison offered this course called Interpersonal Life Skills, and so I then enrolled in that course, and I graduated that course at the top of the class and was voted by all of my fellow inmates as to be the most likely guy to succeed in the world. And that made me feel good. So I graduated with 2 certificates. One, completion for the course, and 2, I graduated with the certificate that said voted by all the peers to be the most likely one to succeed. And so now I'm starting to realize there's something special about me. I have greatness in my life. That it's not too late to turn my life around. And on November 30th, 1995, after doing a little over 2 years on that last time in prison, I got down on the pavement when I walked out of the gate at Lake Correctional Institution in Clermont, Florida. And I got down on the pavement and I kissed the pavement. And I made a promise to me that I am never ever coming back to prison again as an inmate, that I'm done with the street hustle, I'm done with the violence, I'm done with the gangbanging, I'm done with selling drugs, I'm done with using drugs. I want to do something good with my life. I felt like that life had given me a second chance. And I felt like it was time to take advantage and do something positive and constructive with my life. And after that, I went back to the streets and I found all of my homeboys and all of my relatives and all of the friends that I met. And I said to these people, come and go with me. Let me show you a better way in life. And then I started going into juvenile detention centers, into jails, into prisons, speaking to people in jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers, telling them, come and go with me, there's a better life. And then I started speaking in churches, and then for businesses and corporations and organizations, for homeless organizations. For mental health organization. And then I started doing more things with my life. I started going into schools and into colleges and into universities, talking to kids and sharing with them the things that I've experienced and telling them, don't do what Rico did, because if you do what Rico did, you'll end up where Rico ended up or worse.

Amen.

I made some very bad choices, some very poor decisions. I made a promise to myself, I'm going to give back to society. I started a transitional house for homeless people, and I started getting homeless people off the street. And people who were coming out of jail and prison that didn't have anybody to love them and to care for them and to help them get up on their feet, I would take them in. And I would give them a place to live, help them find a job, help them find their family, help them get off the drugs and get their life back. And now here I am, 30 years later. November 30th of this year will be 30 years that I've been out of prison. I've been crime-free, drug-free, and have not lived that life again. And I enjoy what I do. Now you ask yourself, okay, cool, good story, I feel glad for you, but how does all of that relate to me? I'm glad you asked. I have an answer for that question. Obviously, life is not prejudiced toward anyone. Doesn't matter if you're white, Black, Hispanic, Asian. Doesn't matter if you're young, old, rich, poor, male, female, Democrat, Republican. Doesn't matter if you're a Christian, non-Christian. Doesn't matter if you came out of the hood or if you were born In the suburbs. Doesn't matter if you live in Heathrow, raised up in Aliquid. Doesn't matter if your family is rich or poor. Life doesn't care. Life has no respect for a person, and neither does death. Death doesn't care, and neither does jail, and neither does prison, and neither does opioids or drugs, and neither does suicidal contemplations. None of that stuff counts. It's not prejudice. Failure is not prejudice. The cemetery, coffins, it's not prejudice. And so it doesn't matter who you are, you can make one bad choice— And you're doomed. That would totally derail you for the next 15, 20, 30 years of your life if you were fortunate enough to survive. Now, I know many people that did not survive. Some of them are my blood relatives. So I'm saying to you today, you have a choice. You have options. You have options. You have opportunities. What are you going to do with your life? What are you going to do with the next 360 days, or 65 days, or 400 days, or 500 days? What are you going to do with the next 2 or 3 years of your life? Between now and the time you graduate, what are you going to do? Are you going to become a statistic? Are you going to follow the crowd? Are you going to be influenced by social media? Do you think that you can live the life that Snoop Dogg lives? Do you think that you can live the life that Jay-Z lives? Do you think you're the next Cardi B? What are you going to do with your life? What are you after? What are your goals? What are your aspirations? What do you want? I want to be a millionaire. Because that's what happened to me, right? I thought I could live like the next person, and I exchanged and traded my aspirations and my dreams of being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher. I gave up my dream of going to school, going to college, and making something out of myself and living a life that not only that that my parent, my mom, or my dad, or my family members could be proud of, but one that I could be proud of too. I gave that up to be a hustler, to live in the street. And it started when I was in school in the 9th grade. I gave that up. I let somebody influence me to walk away from my dream. What was that dream? From everyone I love and everything I cared about just to go and throw my life away. Let me just say it like it is. I was foolish. I was uneducated. I was uninformed. My brain was undeveloped. I did not know what I was about to get myself into. And I did it thinking I'm a man, I'm 13 years old thinking I'm grown, trying to live an adult life, trying to make adult decisions. And I've made the worst decisions of my life that many times nearly cost me my life. Many of those times I was in a hotel room snorting powder cocaine, smoking weed, and drinking alcohol, and having near-death experiences. What was the worst decision you ever made? death overdose in a hotel room, 15, 16 years old, by myself. Some of those times I had to jump out of cars and run from the police officer or run from people who were trying to shoot me and kill me. Somebody asked me in the last class, did I ever get shot? By the grace of God, I didn't, but I sure do know what it feels like to have a bullet flying by my head and and hearing the whistling sound of a bullet flying by your head. That's how close I've come. I'm telling you today that if I could push the rewind button and go back to where you are today, I would choose to stay in school and take advantage of the opportunity that I have to not be a fool, right? Did that rap?

Cool. Fool.

School. Did that kind of rhyme a little bit? Just a little bit. All right, I'm gonna stick to being a speaker versus a rapper. I made a decision to go after money, to go after that what I consider to be luxury lifestyle, but I was dumb. But you couldn't tell me that at the time. Just like right now, some of you, you You, you're thinking about other alternatives and other choices in life, and you're looking at other things, you're looking at other people, and you're beginning to drift away from your morals and your principles and the standards that you were raised by. You're beginning to go astray because you got in your mind somewhere that you can have that life, and you look at other things and other people and you want that, and you're starting to fall.

That's right.

You're starting to slip. You're already going astray. And you got potential. You got greatness on the inside of you. You're smart. You're intelligent. You're beautiful. You handsome. You got some good stuff going for you. You have a dream. You have aspirations. You have greatness on your life. Say this with me, I have greatness on my life.

I have greatness on my life.

Come on, say it like to me and say, "I have greatness on my life." Look at somebody else and tell them you have something special. You do. You do. See, I needed to be told that. My father died four years ago from COVID-19. And out of all the years of my life, he never said to me, I love you. He never said to me, you're gonna be somebody great. He never said to me, something good is gonna happen for you. And so I grew up wanting to be affirmed, right? I grew up wanting somebody to look at me and tell me, you're gonna do some good things with your life. I didn't get that. I had to learn how to look in the mirror and tell myself that. And here I am now, 30 years later, traveling the world, telling you that, and people like you, that, that you have something good going for you. And that every day you wake up in the morning is an opportunity. And every day you walk into this school, it's an opportunity for you. I had to get my GED in prison. You get to graduate on the outside. You get to graduate in a school, in an auditorium, and you get to leave school and go to college and get a degree in engineering or science or neuroscience. You get to do something big. Your dreams are wide open. This world is wide open. Opportunities are wide open. And all you got to do is look inside of you. And discover what you have inside. And so here's what I did. I started looking inside, and then I discovered I'm somebody, right? Say this with me, I'm somebody.

I'm somebody.

I started discovering I'm not— I'm not put in this world to be a hustler or a player, right? I'm not put in this world to hurt people or for people to die from my drugs. I'm not put in this world to shoot at people. I'm not put into this world to do wrong and evil and harm to others. And neither am I put in this world for people to do that stuff to me. I'm put in this world to contribute to humanity, to make a difference, to live a dream, to make a mark on this world that could never be erased, to establish a legacy so that when I die and leave here, people would know that I lived and and I did something right and something good for the rest of the world to benefit from. The next Mark Zuckerberg, the next Jeff Bezos, the next Warren Buffett is sitting right here in this room. The next multimillionaire is sitting right here in this room. The next Steve Jobs that invented the iPhone is sitting right here in this room. The next tomorrow thinkers for today's world is sitting right here in this room. And who knows, maybe the next president of the United States of America is sitting right here in this room. Here's what has to happen, and I'm going to give you 3 things. Number 1, you have to start looking in here. Stop focusing out there. Stop looking at everyone around you.

Amen.

Stop looking at who has what and who's doing this and who has that. Get, get off of social media feeding your mind with negativity, right? Right. Turn off the rap videos that's portraying that gangster criminal lifestyle, because the truth is, what I found out is that those guys and girls don't really live like that. They sell that stuff to you. See, I know that because I really lived like that. They sell that to you because that stuff is glamorous. It sells, and we buy it. And I see young guys all the time.

How much time? About twenty minutes before they start getting into it for folks.

I I found out. That everybody that I hung out with on the corner all had one thing in common. We were persuaded by someone else. And when you become persuaded by someone else, then you relinquish the jurisdiction of your life to others, and you dance to the beat of their drum. But I stopped dancing to the beat of other people's drums and realized I'm not born to be a follower. I'm born to be a leader. And if I can't lead nobody else but myself, then I will lead myself to a bright future. And when I went back to school in prison and got my GED, that told me that if I could do that, I can do Anything in my life. And here you are now at Aloma, having the opportunity to take advantage of some mistakes you've made along the way. Here you are right now having the opportunity to turn your life, to make a 180-degree turn and go in the direction toward Your destiny, your legacy, and your promised land. You have the opportunity to still live your dream. The question is, what are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with this opportunity? You may not listen to a lot of people, and you may not feel like a lot of people see you, hear you, feel you, understand you, and get you. And I get it because I know what that feels like too. But if you're going to listen to anybody, if you're going to listen to any voice at all in this world, listen to the voice of your heart and let that voice tell you which way to go with your life. Don't listen to the thoughts in your mind. Listen to that voice in your heart, because the thoughts in your mind— there's an old song I used to listen to called My Mind Playing Tricks on Me— that, that happens. But there's a voice in your heart that says you can do good all by yourself. There's a voice in your heart that says you are somebody, you are special, you are gifted, you are talented, you are creative. Your authenticity matters, your originality matters, who you are matters. I am somebody. I can do all things. All things going to work together for my good. There's a voice in your heart that says, I matter. And if I don't matter to anyone else, I matter to me. Now I've learned that I have something to offer the world. I have something to offer, a good Young man and a good young lady brings forth good things from the good treasures of their heart. You've got some good stuff inside of you. We call it potential. I call it greatness. We call it gifts and skills and talent and creativity. And you got all this good stuff inside of you, and all you got to do To put your life on the right course and live your dreams and see your aspirations come to fruition is the number one, look inside. Number 2, believe in you. Yes, it's true that everybody's not going to believe in you. Everyone's not going to look at you and see your potential. Everyone's not going to look at you and tell you that you're great. I can't tell you how many times I've been rejected And have been denied. Even after I turned my life around, even after I've been a successful young man for many years, I still get rejected. I still get told no sometimes.

Yeah.

Sometimes I knock on the door and it doesn't want to open, and then I have to find another way to get in. But there's something that nobody can deprive from me, no matter how many times I'm told no or rejected by others. And that one thing that no one can deprive from me is my belief and my faith in myself. I believe in me. I believe that all things are possible. I believe I can live my dream. I believe that I can accomplish my goals. I believe that the sky is the limit, that there are nothing— there are no limitations. There is nothing that I can't accomplish. I believe in me, and I need each and every one of you to believe in you. I need you to believe in you. Say this with me: I believe in me. If you believe in you and you really mean it, then one more time say it like you mean it. Say, "I believe in me." That's right. And you have to. And you look at great athletes out there; they have to believe in themselves. How many of you are planning on becoming an NBA ball player or NFL ball player or an actress or? Someone who produces movies, or a doctor, or an attorney. How many of you have dreams and aspirations? Raise your hand. You have to believe in you. And everyone who, who's living that life and doing those things and fulfilling that desire of their heart and maximizing their opportunities, they believe in themselves. They believe in themselves. They believe in themselves. And then number 3, You got to put yourself around the right people because you can't be hanging out with folk that's not going anywhere with their life expecting to go somewhere with your life. That is an oxymoron. That is a diabolical contradiction. It doesn't work. You can't mix fire and gas together and expect for everything to be cool, calm, collective and copacetic. Doesn't work that way. You have to get around people who have your dreams, your aspirations, who have your motivation, who want something. And if, and if you're not around the people who want something, get around the people who have already done what you want to do in life and learn from them, right? Draw from them and don't be intimidated. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to say, can you teach me some things? I'm 54 years old and I have people that are mentors in my life that I'm still learning from, that I'm still allowing to teach me some things in life. And that will be the— my life, the rest of my life. So you don't want to be around people that are influencing you to fight. You don't want to be around people who are bullying you and depressing you and making you feel insignificant, and it's diminishing your value and your self-worth. You don't want to hang around folk that always got some trouble going on because that will begin to affect your thinking capacity. And then number 4, you want to work hard at what you want in life. You got to start now making some sacrifices, determining there's some things that I'm going to do, and no matter what it costs, I'm committed to the cause. Will it be hard?

Yes. Yes.

Will you want to cry sometimes? Yes. Will you feel like quitting sometimes? Yes. Will you feel alone?

Yes.

Will you feel like life is not fair? Yes. But so does everyone else in this world. But at the end, you keep going, you keep fighting, you keep believing, and at the end, you get a chance to realize your dream. You get a chance to graduate. You get a chance to go to college. You get a chance to build your house from the ground up. You get a chance to travel this world. You get a chance to have a family. You get a chance to get a degree. You get a chance to live your dream. Then you'll be able to look back and say, it was hard, but I did it. It was challenging, but I fought through the challenges. It was difficult, but I didn't quit. And you'll have self-gratification of knowing that you did some good things with your life. But ladies and gentlemen, It starts right here, right now. Not next year, next month, next week, or tomorrow. Your opportunity begins right here, right now.

Mm-hmm.

So my final thing, the question I want to present What are you going to do with the opportunity you have? I had to get mine in terms of my GED, my diploma, my graduation certificate in prison. Trust me on this, you don't want to have to get yours in prison. You gotta now re-navigate the path and the direction you're going in. Because for many, this is a last stop. I— because I speak in jails and prisons and in schools and colleges, I sometimes run into people in jail and prison that I spoke to in a school or college. And often they'll come up to me and say, you remember me? And I'm like, no, I don't. You spoke at my school. Oh, that tells me you didn't hear a word I said. You didn't listen because you thought you knew what time it was. You thought because you were 15, 16, 17, 18 that you got you, that you grown, like you know what's up, you know what time it is, and that nobody can strain you and nobody can tell you anything. And you got life figured out, and that's why you went from school to prison with life. I'm not making this stuff up. This is how I live. Everything I'm telling you right now, this has been the last 30 years of my life. And so there is this man. He's running through the forest. He's having a nightmare, and he's being chased by a grizzly bear. And then he trips over a tree branch, and he stumbles and falls. And when he turns over and looks up, the grizzly bear is about to come down over the top of him and eat him alive.

Oh my God.

And he said, Mr. Bear, are you going to eat me? And the bear replies, I don't know. Only you can determine how your dream ends. Only you can determine how your story ends. You see, this is your life, and your life is a book. Your life is your dream, and only you can determine how this dream ends, how your story ends. And I will leave you with this: always aim for the top in life, because it's the bottom That's overcrowded. Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit. You see, your attitude towards life determines life's attitude toward you. So 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. So walk not in the shadow of those you admire, but discover your own passion and dare to expire. For then you will live your dream and leave a legacy that inspires. For life is what you make it, and when the opportunity comes, you take it. You be sharp now and maximize your moment and make yourself a great life. And think sharp, talk sharp, walk sharp, dream sharp, dress sharp, live sharp, plan sharp. And you'll be sharp. My name is Rico Sharp, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for your time. Now I believe we got a few minutes for Q&A, and I want to start with this gentleman right here. Absolutely. Born and raised in San Francisco. Thank you, sir. Next question. So you said you took People under your wing, has there been times that they didn't want to turn their life around? Absolutely. I got a young guy I mentor now from Kansas. He's incarcerated. He's 16 years of age and he's incarcerated for the next 11 years of his life because he chose to go back to Kansas instead of living in Orlando with his dad who moved from Kansas just to give him a better life away from the street gangs, and he chose to go back there and And he got arrested, and now he's got to do 11 years in prison. It happens. Yes.

I have two questions. Depends on the first one. What religion are you?

What position am I in?

Religion.

What religion? I'm a Christian by faith.

Why are you not Catholic?

Why am I not Catholic? Never been exposed to it. I was raised by my mom as a Christian boy.

Oh. Yeah.

Next question.

Next question.

I, I expect a lot of questions. I get a lot of questions everywhere I go because people want to know some things about how I was able to turn my life around and become the guy I am today. I, I mentor NBA athletes, NFL athletes. I got people that follows me that have played professional sports. In fact, I got an event scheduled with the Orlando Magic on Friday, November 7th, where I'm going to be I'm going to be speaking to the people that comes out that night in the arena about my foundation called Student Lives Matter, Teachers Lives Matter, and a curriculum that I wrote called Breaking the Silence: Stop the Gun Violence, where I am on a mission to go around the country to put an end to gun violence on school campuses. Isn't that a good thing?

Yes.

How many of you want to be safe in school? Everyone's hand should be raised, right? I'm on a mission to stop that, and Orlando Magic heard about what I'm doing and asked me if they can partner with me to support that. So I actually have tickets for sale on my website for this event called Breaking the Silence Magic Night for Friday, November 7th at 5:30 PM, and then afterwards we get to watch the Magic defeat the Boston Celtics.

Thank you.

That's a powerful event. I would encourage you to come out to that event. I'm out to try to get all schools to come to this event because what I'm doing is for schools, is for students, and it's for faculty members. And nobody's paying me to do what I'm doing. I'm doing it out of my heart because my passion has been for the last 30 years to help students and to help educators. Yes? Um, Do you have any additional, like, online resources? I do. Very good question. I have books on Amazon called Bringing Out the Best in You, and I am currently finishing up a development of a new online academy called the Best You Leadership Academy, and it is designed with youth in mind, with educators in mind, and with professionals in mind, and that would really be something good. You can find all the information about me on ricosharp.org or studentlivesmatter.org or teacherslivesmatter.org.

Yes?

I can't hear you. What religion do you believe in? What religion do I believe in? I was raised Christian. I believe in God. He helped me out a whole lot. Next question. Yes. I was— I got out of prison. That's a very good question. I was 21 years old when I last got out, and I'm 54 now. So, and I've been out with no issues with committing crime and stuff from that age, this age. Yes. Was it you? Was somebody— yeah, it was you.

When you left, did you have like any Please be quiet so I can hear it. Because I've heard like once you're in that, like selling drugs, it's like really hard to get out or something.

It was hard to get out. That's why I was locked up 19 times, because my thinking I'm smart but really a dumb behind was trying to figure out every time I went in how to go in and how to learn how to do wrong the right way. But I've discovered after 19 times of being incarcerated That there is no right way to do wrong. But I bumped my head many times. Y'all listening to me? You yapping, young blood? You listening? I learned out the hard way. I learned, I figured out the hard way there's no right way to do wrong. And that's something that I want every one of you to leave out of here with. There is no right way to throw your life away.

Yes.

Did my mom look for me? When you was homeless? No, my dad did. My mom did not come look for me, and I have to be honest. She loved me, she prayed for me, she didn't know where I was. My dad knew where I was. He came and looked for me 3 times. Each time he came to look for me, I ran away from him, and I had the boys looking out for his car. And, and, uh, 2 times he chased me in a car. One time I ran and got away from him and hid under the house. The other time I got on the bicycle and rode down the alleyway and his car couldn't come and I got away. And after the third time, he stopped looking for me. So I grew up out there on the street from 13 on up, in jail, prison, and on the street. And I regret every moment of it. It was not a good thing. Yes?

How old were you when you first got into drugs?

Anybody else? Yes.

So do you still have like a connection or relationship with your family?

I do. I have, I have a great connection and relationship with my family. My father unfortunately passed away from COVID-19 right after getting a heart transplant, and then my brother, my oldest brother, passed away August of last year. And so the remaining family that I have now Uh, in terms of immediate family is my mom and my youngest brother. And, um, but yeah, I do, I do have a great relationship with them. And my mom is my biggest fan now. And my mom and I didn't grow up with a relationship. My mom was, was actually 13 years old when she gave birth to me. So by the time my mom was 15, she had 3 kids.

Wow.

And unfortunately, her— both of her parents died before she was 11. So she grew up without really having parental guidance in her life, and she couldn't afford to take care of me, so she had to hand me off to someone else. So for the first 5 years of my life, I didn't know my mom. And then when I finally came home to her at the age of 5, because the person who took care of me had to go into the hospital for an extended stay. I was shifted around from house to house, house to house with family members, church members, and I grew up feeling unloved, unwanted, unaccepted. And that was part of the thing that led me to look for love and acceptance somewhere else. But today my mom and I have a fabulous relationship. She's my biggest fan. In fact, she contacted me last night to say, I just got your book off of Amazon and I'm loving every moment of it, and thank you for giving a, a tribute to the family. And I said, oh, Mom, you're gonna make me cry. Thank you. My mom is my biggest supporter. Next question. Yes, sir. So you say you grew up Christian. Um, obviously you told a story that you were a drug dealer. When did you really let God shine his light? In that last time of being in prison. Scared, terrified, lost, confused, not knowing what will happen. The judge telling me he's going to lock me up and throw away the key, calling me a threat to society. And the state saying that your plea bargain is 17 years. And me seeing so many people die, and I almost lost my life many times through violence in the street and through drugs. And I just realized, you know what, this is it for me. Either I'm going to sell out To a better life and let God in, or else I'm dying like this, and I didn't want my story to end like that.

Yes, real quick. I'm sorry, I'm so— guys, I want to keep going so bad, but I want to make sure everybody gets time just because Miss Ivy is going to start the, um, announcements. So real quick, if you are— if you want to stay and chat, I'm okay with that, but if you guys are ready to go back to your classrooms, that way it's not like a big Let's give Mr. Sharp a round of applause. If you are from a different classroom, you guys can go back. If you'd like to sit and chat with Mr. Sharp, that's fine too. And we'll get Mr.— Dr. D to come in and get out. Sorry, I hate doing that. Of course.

Yep. All right, all right, all right, all right. Anybody else got any questions for me?

Yes. Say it again.

What was the last part? You said, how would you start if you wanted to do that? I want to share my story. Oh yeah, you would, you would start like with schools and churches, uh, and like Boys and Girls Club, YMCA. Um, you can start like just finding on the internet like different community groups in your neighborhood that comes together To do these type of things to help kids.

That's what it was like.

Honey, yeah, it was. And great question, Dr. Sharp. Yeah, my name is Rico Sharp. I meant to say that to you, but Rico Sharp. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I've been alive 5 years.

Too long.

Yes, one day. My book is called Working Out the Mess. It's on Amazon. You go to Amazon and type in Rico Sharp. Yes, yes, I have a free Kindle download of my book in Spanish. Go to Amazon.

Amen.

Type in Rico Sharp, my books will come up. And when you go to download the book, choose the Spanish version, and it's a free download for, for you. You're welcome. You're welcome.