In this motivational speech, Rico Sharp uses a crumpled $20 bill as a metaphor for intrinsic value, recounting his journey from a troubled childhood to homelessness, drug addiction, and multiple incarcerations beginning at age 13. While in prison he earned his GED, pursued vocational and biblical training, and reshaped his mindset. Upon release in 1995 he dedicated himself to speaking in jails, schools, and churches, emphasizing that everyone retains worth despite past struggles. He founded a home‑based church that grew to 3,000 members, launched a motivational business, life‑coaching practice, TV/radio show, and property investments, and now identifies as a successful husband, father, pastor, and entrepreneur. The core message urges listeners to recognize their inherent worth, no matter their hardships.
Chapters
Give a round of applause and welcome for our next speaker, Rico Sharp. Rico Sharp, everybody. You see this $20 bill? I crumple it up, pull on it, stretch it. I spit on it, throw it down on the ground, stepped on it, crush it. Yet after all of the abuse that this $20 bill has gone through, guess what, y'all? It still has its worth. It still has its value. That's exactly what I discovered about myself. You see, at the age of 13, I ran away from home. I had a lot of household problems going on in my family, being born to a 14-year-old teenage mother. And when I ran away from home at the age of 13, I dropped out of school in the 9th grade as a straight-A student, and I started living in the streets. I got attracted to drug dealers. At the age of 13, and I found myself homeless with no direction, with no clarity, with no purpose in life. I got addicted to cocaine at the age of 13, marijuana, and alcohol. Got arrested multiple times, 19 different times to be exact. I found myself in the state penitentiary 3 different times. Wow. Yet while in the state penitentiary for trafficking cocaine, I discovered that I still have value. I still have worth. I got involved in vocational training. I got my GED while in prison. I learned about interpersonal skills. I started looking on the inside of me, and I discovered the person that I was created to be. And I started changing my life. I grabbed an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an almanac, a concordance. I enrolled in Bible training courses, and I started renewing my mind and changing and transforming the way I think. I came out of prison in November, on November 3rd, 1995. I started going into jails, prisons, on street corners, into churches, courtrooms, schools, letting people know that no matter what you've gone through in life, you still have your value, you still have your worth. I can relate to people when they say, man, I've had a hard life, I've had hard times in life, and I understand that because I've been there. I've been in the gutter, I've been in the trenches. But yet I realized that you don't have to stop at your struggle. You don't have to die in the valley. You can rise again and turn your entire life around. That's exactly what I did when I rediscovered my value and my worth. I started a church in my home with just 4 people and grew it to 3,000 members. I started traveling the country speaking. I started a motivational business. I became a life coach. I started my own television and radio show. I started multiple businesses, including property investment. And today I'm a successful husband, successful father, successful pastor, a successful individual, because I realized that after the drug addiction, after the homelessness, after dropping out of school, after being given up on and told that I would not live to see 21, I discovered that internally I still have my worth and I still have my value. And that's what I want to say to each and every one of you today. No matter what you've gone through, no matter what your struggle has been, no matter what your addiction or your dysfunctionalism has consisted of, you still have your value, you still have your worth. Remember the $20 bill, because this is exactly how your story goes. Thank you. I'm Rico Sharp. That was Rico Sharp, everybody.
