you reaching deep inside of yourself and
really discovering how amazing you are
and living the life of your dreams and
I’ve always had this little voice in my
head telling me that I needed to help
people and make a difference in this
world and I had that little voice even
as a little boy and you would have
noticed me when I was a little kid I was
different I’m sure many of you know what
it’s like to be different for color a
different size different shape a
different belief standing out and people
noticing and like that I was the fat kid
and people teased me they made fun of me
I was bullied I was called names like
fatso and lard ass tubby fat ass and it
wasn’t just by kids it was by adults too
and the sensitive little boy began to
withdraw from the world I spent a lot of
my time watching really bad sitcoms in
the 60s and the 70s and eating and the
more I was teased the more I withdrew
the more I ate the bigger I got and the
cycle continued and I can remember
certain times in my life like I remember
being in grade school in gym class you
remember the president’s program on
physical fitness we still have that and
I remember every year it was the same
thing it’d be a week long and it’d be
things like push-ups sit-ups pull-ups
there were a lot of ups and none of them
I did very well but the day I hated the
most is on one of the days they weighed
us in and every year it was the same
thing on the day they’d weigh us in
I had this gym teacher who thought it
was really brilliant – what to weigh us
from the lightest to the heaviest kid so
every year was the same thing in the day
we weighed in it’d be the end of gym
class and all the kids would be over
here already weighed in
and I’d be standing here on the other
side of the gym by myself waiting for
that call and somewhere in the back of
my mind wishing that some other kid who
was bigger and fatter than me had moved
into my neighborhood and took that title
away of being the fattest kid in the
neighborhood and the same thing would
happened every year all the kids would
be way over there I’d be on this side of
the gym and the call would come out okay
Shmi Hren and everybody else and there
be a roar of cheering like it was some
great honor to be the heaviest kid in
the class and I would go up there with
this big fake grin on my face and inside
I was dying and that little voice inside
of me it started to fade and I remember
other times I’m when we’re getting older
and I don’t know how many times I had
lost weight and gained weight but I
still felt horrible inside and I
remember as a young adult being invited
to a New Year’s Eve party and I was so
excited somebody actually invited me to
a party and I went to this party there
was probably 50 60 people there and I
remember making myself a plate of food
and my diet coke and I remember finding
a place to sit and I remember sitting on
this beautiful wooden rocking chair and
just like a scene out of a movie the
chair broke crushed it and it was funny
it had to be funny straw the short fat
little guy laying on the floor with a
plate full of food everywhere and in
that moment the entire room froze there
was not a sound everybody turned around
they looked and then they laughed how
could they not laugh it was a funny
scene the only person it wasn’t funny
too was me I was dying inside and that
little voice in my head telling me to
help people make a difference in this
world I lost it I couldn’t find that
voice anymore and I remember getting out
of that New Year’s Eve party as fast as
I could
went home being alone and member
spending my New Year’s Eve with my two
best friends at that time a large
sausage pizza from a place called Nicks
and a frozen cheesecake with the
cherries on top of it and man I ate it
all I ate all of it and I was full and I
was stuffed and I was angry and I was
sad I hated myself I hated the world I
hated everything so many times so many
things imagine what it’s like to go out
into public and little kids are pointing
their finger at you like you’re a freak
or a monster and at some point the pain
got too bad I couldn’t stand it anymore
I hated everything I hated the world I
hated myself nothing made me happy and I
gave up I quit I had no desire to live
anymore so what did I do
I remember contemplating this for a long
time
and I took a bottle of sleeping pills
took a bottle of painkillers and I
remember pouring them into a paper cup
and I remember walking into the bathroom
and placing that paper cup on my
bathroom counter I looked at it for a
long time thinking about this could be
the end to all of my pain it also scared
me and then I remember looking and
myself squarely in the mirror and I saw
nothing I saw nothing so what I do I
took all the pills took em all I took
enough medication probably to kill an
elephant and I remember sitting down in
this chair I had this chair i sat in
that I used to hide from the world I
would watch TV in that chair I would eat
in that chair I would avoid the world in
that chair and I remember sitting in
that chair and my heart beating about a
hundred miles an hour I was scared yet
there in the back of my mind there was
kind of a sense of relief case you
haven’t noticed I’m not a giant I’m five
foot six at my peak I weighed 360 pounds
at a 56 inch waist this is what I used
to look like and I remember sitting in
that chair scared alone and at some
point they passed out I don’t remember
much after that except they woke up in
that chair for some divine reason I
didn’t die and I remember in the morning
I opened my eyes and the light was
shining in through my living room window
I can’t even worry what that feeling was
like but as one of the most moving
surreal life-changing moments it were
such a sense of peace inside of me I
truthfully I thought I was dead and then
I opened my eyes and I realized that I
was still alive that was still alive and
in that moment I found clarity and
purpose and direction in my life I
realized that I must be here for a
reason
and remember the tears starting to flow
down when I was angry at myself for what
I had done but I said I felt this sense
of relief I began to feel my courage and
I began to find direction and I made a
decision to get out of that chair and in
that moment my life changed I started a
new course in my life I wanted to
experience what everybody else
experienced and wanted to enjoy things
about just be going be able to go to
amusement park and get in a roller
coaster and the safety equipment that
they need to strap you in fit you or on
an airplane the seatbelt and wire you
experience life I had missed so much and
I got that chair and I made a decision
that I would never sit in that chair
again never so I wanted to start
studying how my mind work why was I
always at odds at myself I’m sure many
of you can imagine wanting to accomplish
something great in your life but
something always pulls you back maybe it
scared you
maybe it stopped you I didn’t want to do
that anymore I had done that enough in
my life so I began to study how my mind
worked I study all kinds of cool things
and I started to change the course and
the momentum in the direction of my life
changed and at first I had a simple goal
I just wanted to go into public and not
be noticed for being the fat guy that
was it
and I did that and then I wanted more
and as my body change and how I began to
think would change that little voice in
my mind telling me to help people and
make a difference in this world it came
back it came back roaring and screaming
at me saying this is your calling in
life this is what you need to do and I
remember I had a real estate career at
that time I chucked my real estate
career and I committed my life to
helping other people helping them change
not just to lose weight but to change
their lives the course in the path of my
direction changed and when I think about
the journey of my life I realize along
that journey I had three best friends
that helped me on that journey without
them I win they survived
I had three best friends that carried me
through this journey they’re still with
me today
those three best friends are patience
persistence and faith they carried me on
my journey patience however long your
journey is going to take that’s how long
it’s going to take and we do not live in
a patient world right now do we right
social media texting we have Facebook
Twitter Instagram and something else
that’ll come out tomorrow everything is
now now now well you know what the
journey of your life may not happen now
patience allows you to carry yourself
forward on that journey for however long
it’s going to take I’m 55 years old I’ve
been on this journey for a long time
it’s taken me many years to get where I
am now and it’s continued I’m gonna
continue to have to have patience to
move me forward in the next part of my
life persistence persistence on the
journey of your life is critical why
think about this
we all think they were gonna get from
point A to point B in a straight line
it’d be a really a great thing
I don’t know anybody that’s done that
the reality is there will be obstacles
and challenges you face on the journey
of your life that you need to face they
have the lessons you need to learn on
that journey 95% of the people failed
accomplishing their goals you want to
know why it’s not because they’re not
capable it’s because when they reach an
obstacle or challenge in their life what
happens they turn around and they run
home persistence there’s a lesson to be
learned from those obstacles and
challenges you face push through it you
will get it and I’m gonna take this off
of my shoe faith you can’t do any of
this without faith the momentum of your
life moves forward with faith faith is
from getting from point A to point B if
you knew everything you need to know to
get to point B you would have gotten
there already
faith is knowing that what you need to
learn along this path this journey of
your life you’ll learn when you need to
learn it it’ll come about at the right
time and you’ve got a have faith faith
and it’s funny is I think about my
journey from all the TV it washes a kid
kind of like Dorothy from The Wizard of
Oz and the journey that she went on
actually the thing I like best about
Dorothy was her red shoes but think
about this here’s this girl she lives in
this little town in Kansas she hates
where she lives a house picks her up
throws her to some distant land and then
she figures out that she wants to go
home and she doesn’t know how to do that
and along her journey what did she find
patience persistence and faith you know
them as the Scarecrow the Tin Man in the
Cowardly Lion
they helped her along her journey to
find her way to get where she needed to
go and on their journey towards the end
of her journey right she’s in the
Emerald City City she meets the wizard
of course the Wizards not really a
Wizards just some guy and at the end the
Wizards gonna take her home in a balloon
and of course Toto jumps out of the
balloon and she runs after him and he
takes off and he can’t control the
balloon and now Dorothy’s bawling her
eyes out she did a lot of that movie
she’s a lot of complaining she did a lot
of crying and she’s sitting there crying
I’m never gonna get home I’m never gonna
get home and then what happened you see
Glenda in that big ball of bright white
light come down from the sky and she’s
got that big smile on her face and
Dorothy goes what will I do now
well I do now and Glenda with a big
smile on her face said you’ve had the
power all the time
and she was what do you mean she was
you’ve had the power all the time and
that she said something important to her
she said Dorothy said to her well why
didn’t you tell me and Glenda said to
her if I would have told you you
wouldn’t to believe me anyway
so I’m telling you now you have the
power on the journey of your life you
have the power to accomplish anything
you want patience persistence and faith
there with you you have them all right
now maybe you know that you have them
maybe you still need to discover them
they are with you they will stay with
you they will serve you they will love
you take your scarecrow your Tin Man and
your Cowardly Lion with you on the
journey of your life they will take care
of you use them they are your best
friends so I’ll leave you with this in
the journey of your life I challenge all
of you when you leave here today to go
inside of yourself discover how truly
and then do this step out of the circle
of what you’ve always known learn
something new all the speakers you have
heard here today and will hear here
today have step out of their circle they
have all done something different that
little flame inside of them they’ve
embraced it and they’ve gone with it and
along that journey take with you
patience persistence and faith have a
great day [Applause]