Oklahoma some of you guys have probably
never heard of it it’s a small town
about 35,000 people but it’s really not
a good place it actually were actually
four times the national average when it
comes to crime rate and we’re listening
one of the top 100 most violent cities
in America so as you can imagine this
created for a very interesting childhood
and my whole life was not much better
there’s just there was drugs alcohol
abuse you name it it happened in my home
and what I remember most from my
childhood hey that’s me what I remember
most of my childhood is the messages
that I would receive from the people
that I loved and they told me that
you’re never going to be anything you’re
going to end up in prison your end up
dead as a matter of fact they told me
I’d never see my 20th birthday well I
did make it to 20 years old a little
past an hour but on my 20th birthday my
life changed dramatically me and a
friend went to a nightclub as 20 year
olds do and we were having a good time
drinking talking to girls it was very
packed and I remember seeing my friend
running towards me and I knew something
was wrong and he had been an altercation
with a group of people that were there
and he pulled out a gun and he emptied
the clip to the ground and it jammed and
there was so much happening at this
moment they were fighting and we were
all standing around watching the fight
and I remember looking next to me I felt
something cold touch my hand and I
realized that the person standing next
to
he had a gun also and you know how in
the movies they slowed everything down
and and everything is happening in slow
motion well that’s exactly the way it
was happening he pulled up the gun and
he pointed it he was standing so close
the barrel that gun touched the back of
my friend and he pulled the trigger boom
boom I don’t remember how many shots he
fired I wasn’t afraid I just wanted to
see who this person was and I expected
to see this cold evil person but when I
looked over to him because literally
he’s standing right here I didn’t see
that at all I actually saw somebody who
was afraid and I saw somebody who
regretted the decision that he had just
made and he dropped the gun and ran out
and I went over to my friend and as he
was taking his last breath I remember
looking in his eyes and seeing something
very similar he was afraid and he
regretted the choices and decisions that
he had made in his life so I went home
that night and as you can imagine I
didn’t sleep very well and I began
thinking about the choices and decisions
that I was making for my life because
the life that I was told that I was
supposed to have that was just my
environment that’s just what I believed
it was supposed to be and so did they
and I began to think about what if they
had made better choices what have they
had made better decisions about their
lives what would have happened what
decisions can i make about my life right
now in that moment so i made a decision
that day that i was going to create the
life that I wanted regardless of my
situation regardless of where I lived I
was going to create the life that I
wanted and I did so there’s some
happiness
to the story this is where I moved to
Houston Texas much better place great
job and I said you know what if i’m
going to write this story let me write
it the way I want to write it so we’re
going to live in a nice city why don’t I
add a wife beautiful wife and kids let’s
see what how that turned out there she
is haha two kids and to me before this
this was never possible this is not what
I saw I didn’t see this growing up and I
chose to make this happen for my life
and then I wanted to make a lot of money
and I saw people who did sales I said
you know I want to do sales too I want
to make a six-figure income so you know
what I said let’s see if we can make
that happen and there it is this was my
team i ran for fortune 500 company at a
home depot but but i tell you this story
because the people that I work with now
I work with introverts you guys may have
noticed that from my introduction I work
with introverts in my business because
these people people who are introverts
have been told that there are only
certain jobs that they can work they
have to be the super social people to be
successful and it reminds me so much of
my story of growing up where somebody
told me that I had to be something a
certain way to be successful and I’m
here to tell you guys that you can
choose the life that you want you can
truly design the life that you want and
I want to share with you guys what I’ve
shared with them to design their life
for the people that I mentor and the
people are mentoring business as
introverts so the first thing I tell
them is listen first of all except the
things about you that you cannot change
if you’re an introvert if you had a
tough upbringing whatever it is you just
accept it and move on it is what it is
let’s move forward number two you have
to believe in the things that are great
about you because each of you have
something that’s great about you so you
have two apps absolutely believe in that
and number three you have to have the
courage to go after what you want in
life you actually you absolutely have to
do that
there’s a quote by Meg Cabot and it says
courage is not the absence of fear but
rather the judgment that something is
more important than that fear the brave
may not live forever but the cautious do
not live at all from now on you are
traveling the road between who you think
you are and who you can be the key is to
allow yourself to make the journey thank
you [Applause]