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How to KEEP GOING – #OneRule


don’t stop running to watch your dream
keep going keep going it will keep you
going keeping yourself going keep going
kept going keep going
hello belief nation today we’re going to
talk about how you can keep going it’s
hard changing your life it was hard when
just over three years ago in the
Penobscot building in Detroit Michigan
where I was operating my business and I
fell on some hard times and I was
sleeping in my office
it was hard coming into the lobby and
the security said scuse me mr. Brown can
we see you for a moment and I said yes
and I walked up to the counter and he
gave me an envelope and he said would
you mind reading it here and I opened
the envelope and the envelope was from
management that says this is an office
tower it’s not a hotel please do not
sleep in your office and I say excuse me
sir I said I just worked long hours in
creating my business I’m an entrepreneur
and right now things are bad for me but
they’re not going to be this way always
and I just asked for the opportunity to
continue to operate like I’m doing I’m
not trying to make this my home and it
was hard coming through the lobby and
sometimes they would laugh there’s a guy
talking about becoming successful and
look at him he’s bathing in the bathroom
upstairs on the 21st floor he sleeps on
the floor him and two other dreamers up
there look at him
it was hard ladies and gentlemen coming
to speak to people and I was facing
financial difficulties in my own life I
was behind on my bills and my dreams and
I’m saying to them you can live your
dream it was hard ladies and gentlemen
it was very difficult to pick myself up
each day believing that I can do it
there were times that I doubted myself
and say God why why is this happening to
me
I’m just trying to take care of my
children and my mother I’m not trying to
steal a rock from me
buddy how did it have to happen to me it
was very hard and here’s what I want to
say to you for those of you that have
experienced some hardships don’t give up
on your dream no one could have
convinced me by holding on by continuing
to push forward by continuing to run
toward my dream that one day I would
have my own talk show it’s a long shot
ladies and gentlemen from Liberty City
an abandoned building auto flaw never
annoying my mother or father it’s a long
shot being here with you today in this
dome in Atlanta it’s a long shot no
college training labeled educable
mentally retarded but I kept running
toward my dream
don’t stop
don’t stop
don’t stop running to watch your dream
now here’s an important point
nothing works the first time when you
try something new it probably won’t work
when you try something new several times
it probably won’t work and the turning
point in my life came when I would hear
good ideas and I was so eager to be
successful in selling I would run out
and try the ideas and they wouldn’t work
I try a way of getting an appointment or
answering an objection or closing a sale
it wouldn’t work and my natural response
ah and I think yes to be disappointed
and then I realized nothing works at
least the first few times so I decided I
would try a new idea five or ten times
before I pass judgment on I would not
just try it once and quit like most
people do and that changed my whole life
it was a turning point in my life
because I realized from then on if
you’ve got a good idea and you’ve got a
good goal and you want to double your
income and improve the quality of your
life and you have to try new things in
order to get new results it’s not going
to work the first time say say well that
didn’t work try something else and try
something else and try something else
now if you try only two things can
happen what are they succeed or fail if
you succeed you do more of it if you
fail you learn from it get smarter and
try it again so you cannot lose by
taking action you can only lose by not
taking action is of utmost importance
like I mean I was such a diehard fan
like a fan growing up man and just my
personality like it was for me to ask
for trade or to go play someplace else
to try to chase the championship That’s
not me man that’s not being that’s not
what my career has been about that’s not
who I am I stay with it stuff that I’ve
been through in my life and then to
learn my career and just taught me
anything it’s the fact that you’ll have
good moments you have bad moments you
have great emotion horrible moments you
just keep going through all of them and
then things work themselves out you know
every time you lose at something you’re
one step closer to winning the next time
the difference between successful people
are not successful people okay let’s
call it ballet our people give up people
wake up every morning I’ve doubt they
have fear they lose in a Ferrari race or
they lose in a race and then they just
give up the hardest thing in life to
learn is to lose winning is easy you
and you’re happy you get a high-five
your friends are happy it’s your ability
to take a loss get up the next day dust
yourself off and keep going
I have lost that everything you can
imagine seriously we have I have been
beat up and put down and everything that
can go wrong has gone wrong for me but I
just kept going my only idea my only
focus was to do my one play and I knew
if I could get that to work everything
else would come to pass there’s so many
people who go in so many directions they
this week they’re doing this the next
week they’re doing that and next week
they’re doing this and next week they’re
going to be in real second the next week
they’re gonna open a salon it those
those kind of people are all over the
place and I usually try to get them to
focus focus on one thing one area put
all of your energy into watering one
area if you spread the water across many
many seeds you don’t have as much water
for one seed so focus on one thing
making your priority and stick with it
no matter what no matter how many people
told me no no matter how many people
lied to me no matter how many times I
put the show up and nobody came that I
remembered when I did my very first show
I worked my butt off and saved 12,000
dollars tax returns to maintain our
blood money I saved it work hard saved
myself ready to 14th Street Playhouse
put that show up
thought that 1,200 people would come
over weekend and 30 showed up and I knew
everyone up but I didn’t stop that
didn’t determine that was in 1992-93
same thing happened I 94 95 96 97 up
until 1998 same devastation nobody
showing up in the audience I’m still in
one show a year working with different
promoters trying to get the show up and
nobody showed up but I didn’t stop and
my my what I say to you now looking at
me now Here I am a human being there’s
no difference between my humaneness and
your illness the only thing is if you’re
trying
get there you cannot stop believing in
any way no matter what anybody says no
matter what anybody tells you you have
to know it beyond knowing it and it is a
it is a feeling when something is for
you this is how I knew it was for me
when something’s for you there’s a
feeling that it’s deep down inside of
you that will not allow you to let it go
you have it will it will keep you going
when you can’t even keep yourself going
that’s why the mantra here at the
typewriter studios is your place where
even dreams believe because there comes
a time in your life where you’ve worked
and stressed and you’re trying to get
there and you couldn’t on your own but
you have a dream and that dream has to
take on the belief for you because you
can’t do it by yourself so what I would
tell you is this don’t stop
narrow your focus to one idea one and
make it work that will give birth to all
the others successful people do the
things unsaid on’t want to do or have a
very difficult time doing guys very
difficult time and that is keeping
yourself going when nothing’s working
when everyone else is saying no no no no
no I mean what made you single-handedly
decide to replenish America’s bison herd
save everything remember
I’m supposed to be shooting for
something that’s impossible to to have
happen in my lifetime and he has done
the impossible many times like the 1979
Fastnet race off the coast of England a
massive storm whipped up winds and waves
that left 15 sailors dead to this day
it’s considered the most dangerous ocean
race ever and Ted didn’t just survive he
won and that’s where we started our
conversation about his amazing life was
there ever a moment that you thought you
wouldn’t make it no but I didn’t spend a
whole lifetime thinking about not making
it I was trying to figure out how to
keep going were you afraid no did you
ever think of not going through with the
race was it ever
dropping out mmm no way every night
dropping out with CNN you will fail at
some point in your life except it you
will lose you will embarrass yourself
you will suck at something there’s no
doubt about it
and I know that’s probably not a
traditional message for a graduation
ceremony today I’m telling you embrace
it because it’s inevitable and I should
know in the acting business you fail all
the time early on in my career I
auditioned for a part in a Broadway
musical perfect role for me I thought
except for the fact that I can’t sing
so I’m in the wings I’m about to go on
stage but the guy in front of me he’s
singing like like like Pavarotti he’s
just wrong and wrong he’s just going on
and on and on and I’m just shrinking I’m
getting smaller and smaller so they say
oh thank you very much thank you very
much and you will you’ll be hearing from
us so I come out with my little music
and it was it was a just my imagination
by the temptations that’s what I came up
with so I hand it to the the the
accompany us and she looks at it and
looks at me and excited the director and
was like all right so I start you know
like I’m gonna sing I’m like once again
and then carrying away with me and
they’re not saying anything so I’m
thinking I’m getting better I start
getting into it
running this all of you thank you thank
you thank you thank you very much mr.
Washington thank you so I assumed I
didn’t get the job but the next part of
the audition he called me back the next
part of the audition is the acting part
of the audition so I’m like hey okay
maybe I can’t sing but I know I can act
so they pair me with this guy and again
I didn’t know about musical theater and
musical theater is big so they can reach
everyone all the way in the back of the
stadium and I’m more from realistic
naturalistic kind of acting where you
you know you actually talk to the person
next to you so I don’t know what my line
was my line was will hand me the cut and
his line was well I will hand you the
cup my dear the cup would be there to be
handed to you I said okay
well should I give you the cup back oh
yes you should give it back to me
because you know that is my cup and it
should be given back to me I didn’t get
the job but here’s the thing I didn’t
quit I didn’t fall back I walked out of
there to prepare for the next audition
and the next audition and the next
audition
I prayed I prayed and I pray but I
continued to fail and fail and fail but
it didn’t matter because you know what
is an old saying you hang around the
barbershop long enough sooner or later
you’re going to get a haircut so you
will catch a break and I did catch a
break last year I did a play called
fences on Broadway if someone talked
about it won the Tony Award and I didn’t
have to sing by the way but here’s the
kicker it was at the Court Theatre it
was at the same theatre that I failed
that first audition 30 years prior the
point is and I’ll pick up the pace the
point is every graduate here today has
the training and the talent to succeed
but do you have the guts to fail how did
and or and Bill Gates find out about you
I think you must have there must have
been some agency on your part that
resulted in those two people popping up
in your story yes and especially about
Bill Gates about 40 people have taken
credit for introducing him to I haven’t
gotten I thank them all the the for an
it was her daughter was I believe she
was in Middle School in Palo Alto at the
time and one of the other mothers had
told Ann that my children are really
getting a lot out of this kind of
had anything you should check it out and
then and checked it out and she her says
it’s not just it’s not just kind of
academic math there’s stuff there about
the financial crisis about accounting
about kind of current events and so she
found herself spending like a full day
on it and so that’s kind of what kind of
inspired her to give the very generous
donation that she did Bill Gates I mean
regardless of who introduced it I heard
someone at the foundation sent him an
email check this out they knew that he
he you know he’s famous for reading a
lot and liking online lectures and all
of this and they sent it to him and the
account that I heard is that he normally
sends things back like oh I’ve already
seen it not a big deal or whatever like
he’s a really fast information processor
but he didn’t hear back from him they
sent him the link they didn’t hear back
from for like a day and then he emails
back he says I just spent the last day
on Khan Academy
this is missus which is once again a
little bit I still find that a bit of a
stressful I dia but but yeah and that’s
what kind of catalyzed this this this
whole thing in terms of what I did to
make that happen you know I I i I’d like
I can’t say that I mean what I did is I
just kept going I mean you know
throughout this thing most people
thought this was a fairly crazy project
and and especially because there’s the I
there’s there’s nothing really novel
about the idea the idea of recording
lectures and even exercises putting it
online I mean people are talking about
this it’s radio or radio is going to be
the killer app for education or TV now
with VCRs it’s on-demand you know even
exercise as Steve Jobs famously thought
the PC was going to be the treadmill for
the mind so these weren’t new ideas but
I think it was just you know I was
satisfied kind of the small wins hey my
cousins find this valuable and people
are emailing me I’m getting a lot of
satisfaction out of this and I kind of
said oh one day when I have kids I have
kids now but one day when I have kids
they could use these videos how cool is
that and I think that’s what kind of
gave me the the energy to just kind of
keep going and I think you’ll hear
entrepreneurial stories it’s kind of
just as long as you what you’re doing is
kind of unkillable and what I was doing
was unkillable I was a hobby for so long
that at some point it finds its moment
and if it and if it’s destined to have a
moment and then people discover it and
it just kind
it’s a hockey stick like that just keep
going find that thing you love because
it’s tough work and my father gave me
this advice when I said I wanted to be
an actor he said have a back-up
profession like welding but I think if
you can find that thing that really
gives you joy that’ll be it because for
me it’s always been comedy and stand-up
and enacting too because of exploring
behavior but it’s tough work but it’s
and if you can get it even better good
luck thank you guys so much for watching
I hope you enjoyed I’d love to know
which of the clips meant the most to you
had the biggest impact on you leave in
the comments below I’m gonna join the
discussion I also love to know what’s
holding you back from keeping going what
are the problems that struggles you’re
facing right now hopefully by sharing in
the comments believe nation will rise up
and help you get to where you need to go
so share those in the comments below
finally want to give a quick shadow to
Dodi Putra our Tawan I hope you
pronounce that okay
nobody purchased a copy of my book thank
you so much for that for you guys
watching if you want a chance at a shout
out in the future video make sure to get
a copy of the book and email in your
receipt so we can keep track thank you
guys so much for watching
continue to believe or whatever you’re
one where it is and I’ll see you soon
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