but I listen with Jim Valvano said 21
years ago the most poignant seven words
ever uttered in any speech anywhere
don’t give up don’t ever give up those
so I now have a responsibility to also
not ever give up I’m not special I just
listen to what the man said but I tell
you there is some times in life where
you fall down you feel like you don’t
have the strength to get back up I will
try 100 times to get up any five fail
100 times if I fail and I give up do you
think that I’m never gonna get up no but
if I fail I try again and again and
again don’t wait the secret is in not
giving up everybody who done something
great
they weren’t that deep what they had was
resiliency they had the ability to
bounce back all the great they didn’t
quit no matter how your situation may
seem stay on course I guarantee you
cannot pass it it is quit I guarantee
you gonna fail but you don’t know what’s
gonna happen if you keep going
[Music]
I’m fragile I feel pain I heard I opened
my eyes I crave victory I do not give up
I feel no fear I fear no man I create
make a choice just decide what is gonna
be who you’re gonna be how you’re gonna
do it just decide and then from that
point the universe is going to get out
your way we can’t have another bad year
you’ve got to get to the point where
enough is enough it much easier to come
up with excuses why you can’t do it
if you do what is easy your life will be
hard if you do what is easy complain
about your situation your circumstances
it surrender and give up on your dreams
become depressed and bitter and angry
anybody can do that if you do what it’s
easy your life will be hard but if you
do what is hard keep coming back again
and again and again
get up dressed every day take life Oh
taking life by the column you say yes I
will do it I can do this and you’ve said
yourself I’m willing to face the note
I’m willing to be
I’m willing to let this out I’m willing
to make this happen
it’s my time it’s possible it’s
necessary it’s hard it’s worth I’m going
to do whatever it takes I can do it if
anybody’s ever done at any point in time
and history then what’s possible for
what it’s possible for me and I’m gonna
do it and if you do that over and over
tomorrow’s going to be your first day if
you’d like to work here as a broker
you
the reason that we are here this evening
to talk about Joe versus the volcano and
so what I wanted you to do was to really
experience this now what is it when
you’re near a volcano that’s thus
boiling over and about to explode what
is it that you feel that let you know
you were in the area of a volcano what
is it you feel oh I know I don’t you
feel heat right so you’re going to
experience this volcano because we have
things in our lives ladies and gentlemen
and because we don’t handle them because
we don’t deal with those things they
began to get kind of hot you know you’ve
heard the expression for I’m in hot
water have you ever heard that before
and that means that there’s something
that you’re in that some dilemma that
you’ve got to handle something that
you’ve got to deal with so let’s begin
to look at this guy called Joe versus
the volcano and let’s see what’s in it
for us I took the liberty of changing
some things to enable them to be
symbolic for us and Tom Hanks plays his
role and for those of you that have not
seen the movie it’s about a guy who was
going to work every day it was very
depressing I mean when you see it I mean
the photography is very dingy looking
and gray and very dim lighting and and
the people are going in looking drab
doing the same old thing every day in
the same hallway some of you work with
people like that their faces that you
wish you never ever saw yeah well right
I mean if you never saw him again it’d
be too soon I am I right so this is what
was going on this guy was going into
this job where it was a dead-end job he
wasn’t happy he was miserable and many
of us can identify with that he knew
that he was capable of doing more but he
had really given up on himself he had
really sold himself out yeah some of us
have done that he made a trade off for
whatever reason he decided to do this is
why we can identify with you and the
volcano is symbolic of the challenges
that we invariably face in life
the problems that many of us run away
from handling and he had to handle this
and how did he come in contact with this
volcano well what happened was he was
going to this doctor constantly he’s a
hypochondriac because he wasn’t living
his purpose his dream had not found his
life work he would create illnesses for
himself and so what happened in the
process this doctor decided he set him
up really see when you’re not living
your gold you go through life living
like a victim if people can set you up
for anything they can run any kind of
game on you and you’re go for it I had a
saying when I was in radio stand-up what
you believe in because you can fall for
anything well Joe didn’t believe in very
much including himself in his dreams see
so he was very vulnerable and so Joe was
set up by this doctor this doctor told
him that he had a rare disease in the ad
six months to live this disease would
call a brain cloud he believed it but
you know something it changed his life
it changed his life and so he was told
look at you you know you don’t have long
to live anyhow the guy said why don’t
you do this I don’t give you all my
credit cards in this way you can live
like a king and there’s something I want
you to do there was a catch
there’s a volcano on an island that’s
about to erupt and and unless somebody
jumps in that volcano sacrificed their
life these people on this island will
perish well your life isn’t worth much
and you don’t have that blog anyhow so
why’d you take my credit cards while
Mike remarks American Express master
charge all take all them go live like a
king and die like a man
joe said okay what do you have to lose
he’s going to die knee huh and his legs
didn’t have any meaning and value to him
as it was so this was no big sacrifice
on Joe’s behalf now that says something
about us people human beings that when
you have not structured your life so
that it can have some meaning and value
for you that you’ll be willing to throw
your life away into anything
see the volcano could be alcohol it
could be drugs it could be a job that
does not meet who you are that you go
through life you’re doing it so long you
you’re operating in this and you’re
acting out that role of mediocrity for
so long you think it’s you it could be a
relationship that’s no longer giving you
what you want and creating disease in
your body it could be any kind of
circumstance like in his work
environment it was toxic it wasn’t good
for him but he didn’t have the guts to
do anything about it to act on it so
therefore it was making him miserable
and as a result he couldn’t see the
beauty of life in fact in the movie see
they had in the concrete that was a
daisy growing up through the concrete
but people were so caught up in the
depression and the gloominess of life
they could even see the daisies well
somebody just stepped on it one day I
couldn’t see the beauty in life see
that’s what can happen to you in life
that you can get so caught up in the
misery of it and the pain and the
sickness and the depression and playing
a victim and blaming everybody and
everything rather than taking
responsibility it will blind you from
seeing the stuff out there that’s really
beautiful that’s what Henry David
Thoreau meant when he said that most
people go through life and quiet
desperation and miserable
I’ve friends been married for years
living to different rules why would you
live like that I mean nezam don’t even
talk to each other grumble oh I think
miserable just making each other
miserable everyone like that people go
to work like I said why even sure I used
to work with a guy like that you
couldn’t say good morning to him before
9 o’clock he look around said does he
know me
anybody know me no you don’t talk to me
before 9 o’clock I don’t play that
all right people like honey ever work
with people that are just grumps raise
your hand just miserable why sure
come in complaining everyday the best
day on the job is when they’re absent am
i right so this is where Joe was so this
doctor told Joe hey man you got to dive
with this brain cloud you know something
all of Joe’s on the illnesses left Joe
decided to live Joe decided to live his
life now that is interesting
a psychiatrist did a study and he was
talking about how his patients reacted
when they got information that they were
going to die immediately he said that
many of these patients that had gone
through years of therapy that should
have been making decisions about their
careers about their marriage or about
their circumstances and somehow another
they were stuck and didn’t have the
personal power the wherewithal or the
willpower to act in their own best
interests but when they were told listen
you’ve got three months to live or you
got six months to live all of a sudden
these people who were initially victims
or powerless all of a sudden they
started acting in their own best
interests they started living their
lives and it’s amazing to me that that
what a paradox that once people are told
they’re going to die all of a sudden
they start seeing the daisies in life
they start seeing the beauty in life I
remember it’s a monologue and it’s
called the last mile and so it’s a
monologue about a guy who was sentenced
to die in the electric chair
for a crime that he did not commit and
he was pleading to the jury to
understand his case and I remember one
of the parts of the monologue where this
guy talking to the jury and talking to
himself and going the whole gamut of
emotion and I remember something he said
that struck me right now he said you
know he said it’s Queeny how even though
life is done you’re wrong somehow you
still want to live he said you never
and finally complaining about life about
life has given me a a short deal no I
just want to live I take the park
benches the crowns buy anything I just I
just want to be they’re not going to let
me hobby all of a sudden this guy who
before from slopes Kona Indiana never
really cared about life all of a sudden
now that he knew that his life was going
to be taken away but crime that he did
not commit he wanted to live it was it’s
a very passionate powerful monologue I
used to read that quite often he study
that so what is it that we can begin to
do do we have to get a pronouncement
that we only have six months to live in
order to decide to live in order to live
in a spirit of integrity see most of us
go through life living alive the
platters had a song oh yes I’m the great
pretender what a beautiful voice oh
don’t fade it’s okay it’s alright it’s
oh I hit that note it just gives me a
chill but anyhow let many of us don’t
like being great pretenders we should
get an Academy Award pretending that
we’re happy pretending that we’re
content pretending that everything’s
happy and gay and carried away and
that’s not the way that it is going
through life feeling that we can’t do
anything about our situation like Joe
did but when they told Joe he was going
to die Joe became a new person went back
to work and young lady he’d been want to
talk to him for a long time he say I
want to take you out he wasn’t worried
about rejection Joe had his eyes on her
he said Lord as my chef what I see what
I won’t be gone but I ain’t dead yet
he wasn’t looking for a living you hear
me I like that Joe don’t lose that don’t
lose that all right so so here’s what I
think that we can begin to do to live
our dreams to begin to let light take on
some new meaning for some new power and
some new value
is to begin to look for the daisies in
your life right now where you are
regardless of what’s happening to you
regardless of what’s going on with you
begin to look for some beauty in it
begin to look for some lessons that you
could learn from where you are and what
you’re going through see the volcano see
when Joe jumped into the volcano and he
eventually did that with a young lady
that fell in love with him they were
thrown out of the volcano and they
survived think about that now see I
think that when you decide to take a
leap and you handle the challenges that
you’re facing with something about fear
that’s one of the things that keeps us
from beginning to live life
here’s what happened the tide John
Rogers wrote they say when people take
the courage to journey into the center
of their fear they find nothing
it is only many layers of fear being
afraid of itself and Eleanor Roosevelt
said you gain strength courage and
confidence by every experience in which
you really stop to look here in the face
you able to say to yourself I’ve lived
through this how I can take the next
thing that comes alone you must do the
thing you cannot do see that’s what the
volcano is it is the thing that we
cannot do and because it is that we must
do that once fear is acted upon the
death of fear is certain to what volcano
you have in your life let me ask you
some questions here if you had six
months to live what would you do
differently with your life what would
you do differently would you have the
would you be worried about things that
you weren’t about right now would you
have the same relationships would you
have the same people in your life I was
sitting on the house of the Ohio
legislative floor
I just been elected for the third time
as a chairman of the human resource
committee powerful prestigious position
and I was reading a book on how to
manage your time in your life and it
talked about what are your long-range
goals two to three years from now what
are your short range goals six months
goals minute said if you have three
months to live what would you spend your
time doing so I wrote down I would I
would spend my time I wouldn’t one thing
I would resign from the legislature I
would go and back to Miami and I buy my
mother home something I promised myself
that I was going to do and I had
continued to procrastinate and put all
kind of reasons why I couldn’t do it and
you know I want to make sure that she
was financially secure my children would
be financially secure and I would June
lectures and I would go around talking
to people and working with kids that’s
what I said I would do then it turned to
next page and said for all you know you
don’t have three months to live
you might die today so whatever you
wrote on the last page you want to spin
as much of your time
doing that today so I looked at mr.
Byrne life the Speaker of the Ohio
legislature and I said to the guy on my
right state representative mike
stanziano out of the Ohio State district
I said stins II twenty-five years from
now who would care what legislation we
passed he said nobody would care one
year from now
now here’s what was happening with me I
came to the Ohio legislature with great
expectations there are things I wanted
to do I wanted to make a change in
society I wanted to make an impact but I
was just disillusioned after being there
for a while I introduced some
legislation that I’d work months to get
this legislation passed got it out of
subcommittee
vote it to the major committee and then
went from there to the reference
committee and then they introduced it on
the Ohio legislative floor and this
legislation was designed to provide
protection for senior citizens and poor
people who bought money autos people buy
many orders thinking that it’s cash but
what they did not know that there is no
bond or insurance security in the event
that the money order company files
bankruptcy and so this company filed
bankruptcy just left a lot of people
just holding worthless paper so I wanted
to introduce some legislation so that
senior citizens would not be victims of
this anymore after months of hard work
after introducing the bill and having
the votes lined up got raises and mr.
speaker mr. wife said yes said I like to
introduce the amendment for mr. Brown’s
bill he said we will hear the amendment
he said I like to amend it and change
the word shall to May as excuse me mr.
speaker may I speak please yes I said
ladies and gentlemen of the highe
legislature this legislation is not
something we wanted to make it optional
to provide protection for Hyland’s and
senior citizens we want to make it
mandatory
and then this guy said no Mr Speaker I
just think that he’s taking it a little
too far this is an honorable gesturing
on behalf of the state but he’s taking
it too far let’s make it optional and
leave it up to the good will of these
buddy auto companies to provide for the
protection let’s have the vote and they
had the votes and I lost and I sell wait
wait this is not why I came here and
then all of a sudden this job that at
one point had meaning to me and value
and no longer had that for me and all of
us have had some experiences where you
went to a job and you were excited about
that job for it had so much promise and
then you got there so much you wanted to
do you thought was an opportunity for
upward mobility and growth and
development expansion and all of a
sudden after you got there you found out
it was nothing but a glorified cubbyhole
o grave with no dirt on
so if it became very depressing going to
work and so that’s what happened to this
guy Joe and a lot of us have done that
before I used to get my headaches stop
throbbing on Sunday afternoon after the
Sunday afternoon football game a
basketball game I just hated to go to
work some days I just drive by just with
nothing just driving by I came back
though I came back because I had bills I
came back you know we never stay in
relationships like it had a friends
talking to she said she was so miserable
in her marriage that one day she went
home I said when did you get you a
divorce number
she said less she said when we’ll put
the key in the door and she said I
couldn’t go in she said I was so
depressed had so much pain in my body
she said I couldn’t just walk in she
said I dropped to my knees she they had
to crawl in I had to crawl in the house
because it I just couldn’t she said I
knew then I had to get a divorce so that
was happen to Joe and Joe decided to act
on that so what can we do well here’s
what we can do wherever you are decide
that that you’re going to focus your
time I lost my job in broadcasting and
it was a major blow to me because
broadcasting was all that I had that’s
all that I knew I had been doing that
for like 15 or 20 years and that’s that
was my specialty but because I was so
controversial and couldn’t keep my mouth
closed I lost my job you know and so it
was a depressing time for me and I could
not find a job immediately no one would
hire me locally and because I was good
and I would send off my audition tape
the other radio stations program
directors would hear it and they
wouldn’t bring me and I was a seasoned
veteran so you have that experience if
you’re real good many people will
perceive you as a threat and they won’t
hire you because they want somebody that
they can control and they don’t want
anybody in there that’s gonna outshine
their see sometimes being good can be a
liability to you am i right sometimes
women
to scale down their ambitions and drive
and what they can do in deference to
man’s ego so what I did was in the
meantime in in-between time I stopped
focusing on my flowers I got into
flowers see they say when I was kid that
an idle mind is the devil’s workshop
yeah that’s true see you don’t have
anything on your bad you know your mind
you play I’ll catch it so do you though
see when I wasn’t busy sometimes I want
to call Burt childhood sit Burt can I
get my job back
my mind was sitting why you all you had
you just keep your mouth shut now you
heard it for running your mouth what
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
why’d you just shut up they told you to
shut up man Tok you’re gonna get I know
you had to keep on target oh he go he go
he goes now you are unemployed what
about high you cuz your mouth to be
about to be stopped beating myself up
why not shut up for you right you’re
right
you know these boys you ever talk to you
separate here you know I’m tired ever
talk to you is that so I just kept busy
I start working on flowers I got it
really into flowers
I knew my flower had names for my
flowers grow real good I talked to him
hello how are you today
oh you’re beautiful I want you to write
people to bring their flowers over to me
the world we’re dying and willing I
would speak to say rise those flowers
straighten up like that up that was
phenomenal all right then the other
thing is I did a lot of volunteer work
I’d go to the hospital not to read the
Bible to people and I would go to
friends whose parents perhaps were ill
or facing a challenge not talk to them I
became involved in all kind of community
volunteerism so I’m saying that if
you’re going through a challenge not
that you’ve been laid off but the
universe has given you an opportunity to
find your real true making on the planet
then use that time wisely volunteer give
yourself away my high school teacher
Charles L Williams said something I love
he said love and happiness are like
perfumes
you can’t sprinkle it on others without
getting a few drops on yourself he’s not
beautiful see what you give is what what
you get all right repeat after me please
I’m going to give my life away
because what you get is what you get
shake somebody’s hand on your riding up
now here’s something else
fear of change see the reason that I
think the Jo stayed as long as he did Jo
fear change most people fear change a
lot of people stay in jobs for their
miserable or sin relationships where
they’re miserable sometimes in order to
begin to see the day’s is in life you’ve
got to be willing to change cities
change friends change relationships
change jobs say after while you get
bored doing the same old thing in the
same old way day in and day out
human beings were designed to achieve
and when you are not on a path of
developing your greatness and growing
and being more productive and being more
effective than your life literally
becomes depressing just like Jo so Jo
was resisting change and as a result of
resisting change Jo made some trade-offs
see this psychiatrist talked about the
fact but these people who had been on
his couch for months and years not being
able to make decisions about things but
when they found out that they were dying
they got up and started making all kinds
of decisions they decided no longer to
sell out and you know what happened to
me when I lost my job you know what I
think it was what life said to me more
or less Les Brown you know you can do
more than what you’re not doing Les
Brown you have sold out Les Brown
go wrong go in your drawer pull out your
check stubs and see how much you’ve sold
your soul for see one of the things that
got me about the movie is what Joe said
to his boss after the doctor told him he
was going to die he went back to work
and he confronted him he said because I
was afraid too afraid to live my life I
sold it to you for $300 a week I sold my
soul for $300 a week
when I look at Joe ladies and gentlemen
I know that I’d sold out for myself at
different points in my life and when you
go home and you look at if your life is
not what you want it to be if you’re not
living the way that you want to live if
you’re not experiencing what you want to
experience if it’s not giving you what
you want you’ve got to ask yourself what
if I sold my soul for remember that song
16 tongue and what do you get another
day older and deeper in debt saying
Peter don’t you call me cuz I can’t go
I’m old my soul to the company store oh
no this is not loop a bad drop tonight
no last time my son Nupur car my hotel
and made a bomb threat no no that song
is depressing ladies the gentleman that
many of us have sold our souls for home
in the suburbs or brand-new car or three
meals a day and a roof over our heads or
because we want to be popular with our
friends see when you decide to make a
change it’s challenging but there going
to be some resistance everybody’s not
going to agree with that there’s a price
to pay
am i right see when I had to think about
getting a divorce it was time for me to
grow and sometimes you stay in a
situation too long many times you say
well I need to do it for the kids well
see staying there too long can be
harmful to the kids that a friend of
mine who finally got a divorce after
agonizing it she said I stayed there as
long as I did for the kids she said but
if I had it to do over again I would
have left sooner because it wasn’t
healthy for them and it wasn’t healthy
for me many of us stay in jobs where
it’s no longer good for us to be there
but because we can’t see ourselves
having the capacity to do more to
achieve more and can’t see life after
that job we stayed there as victims
volunteer victims because nobody’s
making us do it we volunteer to be
victims we volunteer
not to be in charge of our destiny we
volunteer we willingly do it if you got
a sellout don’t do it in a hurry do it
slowly let somebody who come and have to
take it from you don’t just give it up
willingly and that’s what Joe had done
think about a guy who he had everything
going for went to Harvard became a
lawyer joined a large prestigious law
firm merit the perfect life had children
and guess what he was going through the
motions day in and day out but it wasn’t
giving him what he wanted out of life he
was going through an act he was acting
on a roll and one day he couldn’t get
out of bed he was just there in bed
couldn’t get up paralyzed they got the
doctors they looked at him examined him
from head to toe and said there’s
nothing physically wrong with him get up
John come on
get up he couldn’t get up he stayed like
that from months had to take therapy see
because there was disease there was
conflict in his body many times when
life calling on us to change into grown
to expand we said no not over here no no
no no we resist that so we can go back
to that lifestyle a mediocrity we resist
that that changed that growth we go back
so we can go back to sleep Winston
Churchill said that truth is
incontrovertible malice mere tacit
ignorance made to ride it but at the end
there is Carlisle said truth crushed to
earth shall rise again and we know
scriptures say ye shall know the truth
and truth shall set you free but the
truth that will set me free it’s the
truth then don’t want to hear so we
don’t want to hear you got to change you
got to take responsibility for your
stuff you got to clean your act up you
are not your act you need to get your
life together we don’t hear that [Music]
years ago the most poignant seven words
ever uttered in any speech anywhere
don’t give up don’t ever give up those
so I now have a responsibility to also
not ever give up I’m not special I just
listen to what the man said but I tell
you there is some times in life where
you fall down you feel like you don’t
have the strength to get back up I will
try 100 times to get up any five fail
100 times if I fail and I give up do you
think that I’m never gonna get up no but
if I fail I try again and again and
again don’t wait the secret is in not
giving up everybody who done something
great
they weren’t that deep what they had was
resiliency they had the ability to
bounce back all the great they didn’t
quit no matter how your situation may
seem stay on course I guarantee you
cannot pass it it is quit I guarantee
you gonna fail but you don’t know what’s
gonna happen if you keep going
[Music]
I’m fragile I feel pain I heard I opened
my eyes I crave victory I do not give up
I feel no fear I fear no man I create
make a choice just decide what is gonna
be who you’re gonna be how you’re gonna
do it just decide and then from that
point the universe is going to get out
your way we can’t have another bad year
you’ve got to get to the point where
enough is enough it much easier to come
up with excuses why you can’t do it
if you do what is easy your life will be
hard if you do what is easy complain
about your situation your circumstances
it surrender and give up on your dreams
become depressed and bitter and angry
anybody can do that if you do what it’s
easy your life will be hard but if you
do what is hard keep coming back again
and again and again
get up dressed every day take life Oh
taking life by the column you say yes I
will do it I can do this and you’ve said
yourself I’m willing to face the note
I’m willing to be
I’m willing to let this out I’m willing
to make this happen
it’s my time it’s possible it’s
necessary it’s hard it’s worth I’m going
to do whatever it takes I can do it if
anybody’s ever done at any point in time
and history then what’s possible for
what it’s possible for me and I’m gonna
do it and if you do that over and over
tomorrow’s going to be your first day if
you’d like to work here as a broker
you
the reason that we are here this evening
to talk about Joe versus the volcano and
so what I wanted you to do was to really
experience this now what is it when
you’re near a volcano that’s thus
boiling over and about to explode what
is it that you feel that let you know
you were in the area of a volcano what
is it you feel oh I know I don’t you
feel heat right so you’re going to
experience this volcano because we have
things in our lives ladies and gentlemen
and because we don’t handle them because
we don’t deal with those things they
began to get kind of hot you know you’ve
heard the expression for I’m in hot
water have you ever heard that before
and that means that there’s something
that you’re in that some dilemma that
you’ve got to handle something that
you’ve got to deal with so let’s begin
to look at this guy called Joe versus
the volcano and let’s see what’s in it
for us I took the liberty of changing
some things to enable them to be
symbolic for us and Tom Hanks plays his
role and for those of you that have not
seen the movie it’s about a guy who was
going to work every day it was very
depressing I mean when you see it I mean
the photography is very dingy looking
and gray and very dim lighting and and
the people are going in looking drab
doing the same old thing every day in
the same hallway some of you work with
people like that their faces that you
wish you never ever saw yeah well right
I mean if you never saw him again it’d
be too soon I am I right so this is what
was going on this guy was going into
this job where it was a dead-end job he
wasn’t happy he was miserable and many
of us can identify with that he knew
that he was capable of doing more but he
had really given up on himself he had
really sold himself out yeah some of us
have done that he made a trade off for
whatever reason he decided to do this is
why we can identify with you and the
volcano is symbolic of the challenges
that we invariably face in life
the problems that many of us run away
from handling and he had to handle this
and how did he come in contact with this
volcano well what happened was he was
going to this doctor constantly he’s a
hypochondriac because he wasn’t living
his purpose his dream had not found his
life work he would create illnesses for
himself and so what happened in the
process this doctor decided he set him
up really see when you’re not living
your gold you go through life living
like a victim if people can set you up
for anything they can run any kind of
game on you and you’re go for it I had a
saying when I was in radio stand-up what
you believe in because you can fall for
anything well Joe didn’t believe in very
much including himself in his dreams see
so he was very vulnerable and so Joe was
set up by this doctor this doctor told
him that he had a rare disease in the ad
six months to live this disease would
call a brain cloud he believed it but
you know something it changed his life
it changed his life and so he was told
look at you you know you don’t have long
to live anyhow the guy said why don’t
you do this I don’t give you all my
credit cards in this way you can live
like a king and there’s something I want
you to do there was a catch
there’s a volcano on an island that’s
about to erupt and and unless somebody
jumps in that volcano sacrificed their
life these people on this island will
perish well your life isn’t worth much
and you don’t have that blog anyhow so
why’d you take my credit cards while
Mike remarks American Express master
charge all take all them go live like a
king and die like a man
joe said okay what do you have to lose
he’s going to die knee huh and his legs
didn’t have any meaning and value to him
as it was so this was no big sacrifice
on Joe’s behalf now that says something
about us people human beings that when
you have not structured your life so
that it can have some meaning and value
for you that you’ll be willing to throw
your life away into anything
see the volcano could be alcohol it
could be drugs it could be a job that
does not meet who you are that you go
through life you’re doing it so long you
you’re operating in this and you’re
acting out that role of mediocrity for
so long you think it’s you it could be a
relationship that’s no longer giving you
what you want and creating disease in
your body it could be any kind of
circumstance like in his work
environment it was toxic it wasn’t good
for him but he didn’t have the guts to
do anything about it to act on it so
therefore it was making him miserable
and as a result he couldn’t see the
beauty of life in fact in the movie see
they had in the concrete that was a
daisy growing up through the concrete
but people were so caught up in the
depression and the gloominess of life
they could even see the daisies well
somebody just stepped on it one day I
couldn’t see the beauty in life see
that’s what can happen to you in life
that you can get so caught up in the
misery of it and the pain and the
sickness and the depression and playing
a victim and blaming everybody and
everything rather than taking
responsibility it will blind you from
seeing the stuff out there that’s really
beautiful that’s what Henry David
Thoreau meant when he said that most
people go through life and quiet
desperation and miserable
I’ve friends been married for years
living to different rules why would you
live like that I mean nezam don’t even
talk to each other grumble oh I think
miserable just making each other
miserable everyone like that people go
to work like I said why even sure I used
to work with a guy like that you
couldn’t say good morning to him before
9 o’clock he look around said does he
know me
anybody know me no you don’t talk to me
before 9 o’clock I don’t play that
all right people like honey ever work
with people that are just grumps raise
your hand just miserable why sure
come in complaining everyday the best
day on the job is when they’re absent am
i right so this is where Joe was so this
doctor told Joe hey man you got to dive
with this brain cloud you know something
all of Joe’s on the illnesses left Joe
decided to live Joe decided to live his
life now that is interesting
a psychiatrist did a study and he was
talking about how his patients reacted
when they got information that they were
going to die immediately he said that
many of these patients that had gone
through years of therapy that should
have been making decisions about their
careers about their marriage or about
their circumstances and somehow another
they were stuck and didn’t have the
personal power the wherewithal or the
willpower to act in their own best
interests but when they were told listen
you’ve got three months to live or you
got six months to live all of a sudden
these people who were initially victims
or powerless all of a sudden they
started acting in their own best
interests they started living their
lives and it’s amazing to me that that
what a paradox that once people are told
they’re going to die all of a sudden
they start seeing the daisies in life
they start seeing the beauty in life I
remember it’s a monologue and it’s
called the last mile and so it’s a
monologue about a guy who was sentenced
to die in the electric chair
for a crime that he did not commit and
he was pleading to the jury to
understand his case and I remember one
of the parts of the monologue where this
guy talking to the jury and talking to
himself and going the whole gamut of
emotion and I remember something he said
that struck me right now he said you
know he said it’s Queeny how even though
life is done you’re wrong somehow you
still want to live he said you never
and finally complaining about life about
life has given me a a short deal no I
just want to live I take the park
benches the crowns buy anything I just I
just want to be they’re not going to let
me hobby all of a sudden this guy who
before from slopes Kona Indiana never
really cared about life all of a sudden
now that he knew that his life was going
to be taken away but crime that he did
not commit he wanted to live it was it’s
a very passionate powerful monologue I
used to read that quite often he study
that so what is it that we can begin to
do do we have to get a pronouncement
that we only have six months to live in
order to decide to live in order to live
in a spirit of integrity see most of us
go through life living alive the
platters had a song oh yes I’m the great
pretender what a beautiful voice oh
don’t fade it’s okay it’s alright it’s
oh I hit that note it just gives me a
chill but anyhow let many of us don’t
like being great pretenders we should
get an Academy Award pretending that
we’re happy pretending that we’re
content pretending that everything’s
happy and gay and carried away and
that’s not the way that it is going
through life feeling that we can’t do
anything about our situation like Joe
did but when they told Joe he was going
to die Joe became a new person went back
to work and young lady he’d been want to
talk to him for a long time he say I
want to take you out he wasn’t worried
about rejection Joe had his eyes on her
he said Lord as my chef what I see what
I won’t be gone but I ain’t dead yet
he wasn’t looking for a living you hear
me I like that Joe don’t lose that don’t
lose that all right so so here’s what I
think that we can begin to do to live
our dreams to begin to let light take on
some new meaning for some new power and
some new value
is to begin to look for the daisies in
your life right now where you are
regardless of what’s happening to you
regardless of what’s going on with you
begin to look for some beauty in it
begin to look for some lessons that you
could learn from where you are and what
you’re going through see the volcano see
when Joe jumped into the volcano and he
eventually did that with a young lady
that fell in love with him they were
thrown out of the volcano and they
survived think about that now see I
think that when you decide to take a
leap and you handle the challenges that
you’re facing with something about fear
that’s one of the things that keeps us
from beginning to live life
here’s what happened the tide John
Rogers wrote they say when people take
the courage to journey into the center
of their fear they find nothing
it is only many layers of fear being
afraid of itself and Eleanor Roosevelt
said you gain strength courage and
confidence by every experience in which
you really stop to look here in the face
you able to say to yourself I’ve lived
through this how I can take the next
thing that comes alone you must do the
thing you cannot do see that’s what the
volcano is it is the thing that we
cannot do and because it is that we must
do that once fear is acted upon the
death of fear is certain to what volcano
you have in your life let me ask you
some questions here if you had six
months to live what would you do
differently with your life what would
you do differently would you have the
would you be worried about things that
you weren’t about right now would you
have the same relationships would you
have the same people in your life I was
sitting on the house of the Ohio
legislative floor
I just been elected for the third time
as a chairman of the human resource
committee powerful prestigious position
and I was reading a book on how to
manage your time in your life and it
talked about what are your long-range
goals two to three years from now what
are your short range goals six months
goals minute said if you have three
months to live what would you spend your
time doing so I wrote down I would I
would spend my time I wouldn’t one thing
I would resign from the legislature I
would go and back to Miami and I buy my
mother home something I promised myself
that I was going to do and I had
continued to procrastinate and put all
kind of reasons why I couldn’t do it and
you know I want to make sure that she
was financially secure my children would
be financially secure and I would June
lectures and I would go around talking
to people and working with kids that’s
what I said I would do then it turned to
next page and said for all you know you
don’t have three months to live
you might die today so whatever you
wrote on the last page you want to spin
as much of your time
doing that today so I looked at mr.
Byrne life the Speaker of the Ohio
legislature and I said to the guy on my
right state representative mike
stanziano out of the Ohio State district
I said stins II twenty-five years from
now who would care what legislation we
passed he said nobody would care one
year from now
now here’s what was happening with me I
came to the Ohio legislature with great
expectations there are things I wanted
to do I wanted to make a change in
society I wanted to make an impact but I
was just disillusioned after being there
for a while I introduced some
legislation that I’d work months to get
this legislation passed got it out of
subcommittee
vote it to the major committee and then
went from there to the reference
committee and then they introduced it on
the Ohio legislative floor and this
legislation was designed to provide
protection for senior citizens and poor
people who bought money autos people buy
many orders thinking that it’s cash but
what they did not know that there is no
bond or insurance security in the event
that the money order company files
bankruptcy and so this company filed
bankruptcy just left a lot of people
just holding worthless paper so I wanted
to introduce some legislation so that
senior citizens would not be victims of
this anymore after months of hard work
after introducing the bill and having
the votes lined up got raises and mr.
speaker mr. wife said yes said I like to
introduce the amendment for mr. Brown’s
bill he said we will hear the amendment
he said I like to amend it and change
the word shall to May as excuse me mr.
speaker may I speak please yes I said
ladies and gentlemen of the highe
legislature this legislation is not
something we wanted to make it optional
to provide protection for Hyland’s and
senior citizens we want to make it
mandatory
and then this guy said no Mr Speaker I
just think that he’s taking it a little
too far this is an honorable gesturing
on behalf of the state but he’s taking
it too far let’s make it optional and
leave it up to the good will of these
buddy auto companies to provide for the
protection let’s have the vote and they
had the votes and I lost and I sell wait
wait this is not why I came here and
then all of a sudden this job that at
one point had meaning to me and value
and no longer had that for me and all of
us have had some experiences where you
went to a job and you were excited about
that job for it had so much promise and
then you got there so much you wanted to
do you thought was an opportunity for
upward mobility and growth and
development expansion and all of a
sudden after you got there you found out
it was nothing but a glorified cubbyhole
o grave with no dirt on
so if it became very depressing going to
work and so that’s what happened to this
guy Joe and a lot of us have done that
before I used to get my headaches stop
throbbing on Sunday afternoon after the
Sunday afternoon football game a
basketball game I just hated to go to
work some days I just drive by just with
nothing just driving by I came back
though I came back because I had bills I
came back you know we never stay in
relationships like it had a friends
talking to she said she was so miserable
in her marriage that one day she went
home I said when did you get you a
divorce number
she said less she said when we’ll put
the key in the door and she said I
couldn’t go in she said I was so
depressed had so much pain in my body
she said I couldn’t just walk in she
said I dropped to my knees she they had
to crawl in I had to crawl in the house
because it I just couldn’t she said I
knew then I had to get a divorce so that
was happen to Joe and Joe decided to act
on that so what can we do well here’s
what we can do wherever you are decide
that that you’re going to focus your
time I lost my job in broadcasting and
it was a major blow to me because
broadcasting was all that I had that’s
all that I knew I had been doing that
for like 15 or 20 years and that’s that
was my specialty but because I was so
controversial and couldn’t keep my mouth
closed I lost my job you know and so it
was a depressing time for me and I could
not find a job immediately no one would
hire me locally and because I was good
and I would send off my audition tape
the other radio stations program
directors would hear it and they
wouldn’t bring me and I was a seasoned
veteran so you have that experience if
you’re real good many people will
perceive you as a threat and they won’t
hire you because they want somebody that
they can control and they don’t want
anybody in there that’s gonna outshine
their see sometimes being good can be a
liability to you am i right sometimes
women
to scale down their ambitions and drive
and what they can do in deference to
man’s ego so what I did was in the
meantime in in-between time I stopped
focusing on my flowers I got into
flowers see they say when I was kid that
an idle mind is the devil’s workshop
yeah that’s true see you don’t have
anything on your bad you know your mind
you play I’ll catch it so do you though
see when I wasn’t busy sometimes I want
to call Burt childhood sit Burt can I
get my job back
my mind was sitting why you all you had
you just keep your mouth shut now you
heard it for running your mouth what
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
why’d you just shut up they told you to
shut up man Tok you’re gonna get I know
you had to keep on target oh he go he go
he goes now you are unemployed what
about high you cuz your mouth to be
about to be stopped beating myself up
why not shut up for you right you’re
right
you know these boys you ever talk to you
separate here you know I’m tired ever
talk to you is that so I just kept busy
I start working on flowers I got it
really into flowers
I knew my flower had names for my
flowers grow real good I talked to him
hello how are you today
oh you’re beautiful I want you to write
people to bring their flowers over to me
the world we’re dying and willing I
would speak to say rise those flowers
straighten up like that up that was
phenomenal all right then the other
thing is I did a lot of volunteer work
I’d go to the hospital not to read the
Bible to people and I would go to
friends whose parents perhaps were ill
or facing a challenge not talk to them I
became involved in all kind of community
volunteerism so I’m saying that if
you’re going through a challenge not
that you’ve been laid off but the
universe has given you an opportunity to
find your real true making on the planet
then use that time wisely volunteer give
yourself away my high school teacher
Charles L Williams said something I love
he said love and happiness are like
perfumes
you can’t sprinkle it on others without
getting a few drops on yourself he’s not
beautiful see what you give is what what
you get all right repeat after me please
I’m going to give my life away
because what you get is what you get
shake somebody’s hand on your riding up
now here’s something else
fear of change see the reason that I
think the Jo stayed as long as he did Jo
fear change most people fear change a
lot of people stay in jobs for their
miserable or sin relationships where
they’re miserable sometimes in order to
begin to see the day’s is in life you’ve
got to be willing to change cities
change friends change relationships
change jobs say after while you get
bored doing the same old thing in the
same old way day in and day out
human beings were designed to achieve
and when you are not on a path of
developing your greatness and growing
and being more productive and being more
effective than your life literally
becomes depressing just like Jo so Jo
was resisting change and as a result of
resisting change Jo made some trade-offs
see this psychiatrist talked about the
fact but these people who had been on
his couch for months and years not being
able to make decisions about things but
when they found out that they were dying
they got up and started making all kinds
of decisions they decided no longer to
sell out and you know what happened to
me when I lost my job you know what I
think it was what life said to me more
or less Les Brown you know you can do
more than what you’re not doing Les
Brown you have sold out Les Brown
go wrong go in your drawer pull out your
check stubs and see how much you’ve sold
your soul for see one of the things that
got me about the movie is what Joe said
to his boss after the doctor told him he
was going to die he went back to work
and he confronted him he said because I
was afraid too afraid to live my life I
sold it to you for $300 a week I sold my
soul for $300 a week
when I look at Joe ladies and gentlemen
I know that I’d sold out for myself at
different points in my life and when you
go home and you look at if your life is
not what you want it to be if you’re not
living the way that you want to live if
you’re not experiencing what you want to
experience if it’s not giving you what
you want you’ve got to ask yourself what
if I sold my soul for remember that song
16 tongue and what do you get another
day older and deeper in debt saying
Peter don’t you call me cuz I can’t go
I’m old my soul to the company store oh
no this is not loop a bad drop tonight
no last time my son Nupur car my hotel
and made a bomb threat no no that song
is depressing ladies the gentleman that
many of us have sold our souls for home
in the suburbs or brand-new car or three
meals a day and a roof over our heads or
because we want to be popular with our
friends see when you decide to make a
change it’s challenging but there going
to be some resistance everybody’s not
going to agree with that there’s a price
to pay
am i right see when I had to think about
getting a divorce it was time for me to
grow and sometimes you stay in a
situation too long many times you say
well I need to do it for the kids well
see staying there too long can be
harmful to the kids that a friend of
mine who finally got a divorce after
agonizing it she said I stayed there as
long as I did for the kids she said but
if I had it to do over again I would
have left sooner because it wasn’t
healthy for them and it wasn’t healthy
for me many of us stay in jobs where
it’s no longer good for us to be there
but because we can’t see ourselves
having the capacity to do more to
achieve more and can’t see life after
that job we stayed there as victims
volunteer victims because nobody’s
making us do it we volunteer to be
victims we volunteer
not to be in charge of our destiny we
volunteer we willingly do it if you got
a sellout don’t do it in a hurry do it
slowly let somebody who come and have to
take it from you don’t just give it up
willingly and that’s what Joe had done
think about a guy who he had everything
going for went to Harvard became a
lawyer joined a large prestigious law
firm merit the perfect life had children
and guess what he was going through the
motions day in and day out but it wasn’t
giving him what he wanted out of life he
was going through an act he was acting
on a roll and one day he couldn’t get
out of bed he was just there in bed
couldn’t get up paralyzed they got the
doctors they looked at him examined him
from head to toe and said there’s
nothing physically wrong with him get up
John come on
get up he couldn’t get up he stayed like
that from months had to take therapy see
because there was disease there was
conflict in his body many times when
life calling on us to change into grown
to expand we said no not over here no no
no no we resist that so we can go back
to that lifestyle a mediocrity we resist
that that changed that growth we go back
so we can go back to sleep Winston
Churchill said that truth is
incontrovertible malice mere tacit
ignorance made to ride it but at the end
there is Carlisle said truth crushed to
earth shall rise again and we know
scriptures say ye shall know the truth
and truth shall set you free but the
truth that will set me free it’s the
truth then don’t want to hear so we
don’t want to hear you got to change you
got to take responsibility for your
stuff you got to clean your act up you
are not your act you need to get your
life together we don’t hear that [Music]
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