sit in this dark holding cell and then
all a sudden there’s light and
everything that we’re experiencing is
for the very first time every smell
every taste every touch and as the
minutes become hours and the hours
become days we start to become more
curious about our surroundings we will
later find out that the seven women
throwing us around like a football
aren’t actually trying to kill us
they’re called nurses and that these two
large humans that are making weird faces
and noises from the moment we wake up to
the moment we go to sleep aren’t aliens
they’re called our parents and they love
us and somewhere around the age of two
or three years old we’re able to
verbalize all this curiosity into a
one-word question why now if you have
kids of your own or you’ve watched any
movie with some annoying child that
knows more than the adults you know that
that question of why cannot be answered
in a single sentence know that question
of why is going to need explanation and
counter explanations because somehow
this three-year-old that still wets the
bed knows more about life than you do my
son Bryce is four years old I’m still
answering a question from when he was
two the struggle is real
trust me when I say this but something
happens when we get older our curiosity
turns into cautiousness I remember being
ten years old and standing on top of a
flight of stairs equipped with nothing
but a garbage bag because I was sure
once I jumped that hefty bag was going
to turn into a parachute 17 stairs later
I realized that was not the case I got
messed up I got hurt but I made that
and when you start learning things and
being taught things like fear by your
parents by your teachers by your
siblings you start accepting answers and
you stop asking why and the problem with
that is this the most important question
we can ask ourselves as human beings is
why are we here there are billions not
millions billions of people that occupy
this planet that believe their only
purpose in life is to go to school go to
college get a job to pay for said
college get married have two-and-a-half
cancers I still cannot figure out how
you have to want to have kids retire at
the ripe age of 80 and then die they
feel that’s the reason they exist that’s
not an existence that’s just existing
that’s taking up space I feel that every
single one of us has a purpose you’re
probably sitting there right now like
okay crazy man on stage why are you so
sure well here’s the reason I used to
work at this place called the Denville
pharmacy in the very back counter I used
to call it the sink counter I used to
sell cigarettes and a lottery tickets
and I had this older gentleman that used
to come into the pharmacy every single
day and by hundreds of lottery tickets
hundreds and one day he came up to me
said young man I’ve been playing the
lottery for 30 years I never got more
than three winning numbers I’m 18 so my
mind says like stop but then I started
to think about it think about how many
millions of people play the lottery
every day and how many tens of thousands
of people play it as aggressively as
this older gentleman and never ever win
and there’s a reason for that
you know when the lottery is a 1 in 175
million chance one in 175 million that’s
like me walking out of the theater
getting struck by lightning coming back
in here getting struck by the same
lightning ball only to walk back outside
that’s what 1 and 175 million look like
so when someone finally does win from
Louisiana because they’re always from
down south I don’t know why what’s the
first 2 things they say they bring him
up to the podium his hair is all
disheveled
his shirts and buns he found he has 30
new family members he’s never met before
in his life and they say sir how do you
feel and he gets up there he wipes his
brown he goes man I just want to thank
God I want to thank God and baby Jesus
and Jesus is nephew and everybody and
what’s the second thing he says it’s a
miracle
it’s a miracle and he’s right one in 175
million is a miracle but here’s a
crazier stat I’m not trying to get too
personal I don’t know your father’s
exact sperm count and I don’t want to
know it but for you to be born is
somewhere in the one in four hundred
trillion range with a T one in four
hundred trillion so please do not sit
here and tell me that you don’t have
purpose you didn’t play the lottery you
are the freaking lottery you are the
miracle every time you wake up and you
look in the mirror the miracle is
looking right back at you so why are so
many of us unconvinced some of you guys
are sitting there right now I can see it
I’ll tell you why
when I was 16 years old I fell in love
with basketball head over heels in love
with basketball the problem was this I
never played ball before in my life ever
and I sucked badly but I play a
basketball for a really big reason I
want to play basketball so my mother the
great Tina Thomas never had to work
another job again in her life because
when I was three years old my father
Bobby Thomas passed away from cancer and
he left my mom the task of raising five
kids on her own with no money so since I
was three
I’ve seen this woman struggle I’ve seen
this woman come home and us have bills
from the table to the ceiling so when I
started playing ball I said to my mom
she’s the only one I share my dream with
mom I’m gonna be a professional
basketball player you’re never gonna
have to work again and my mom would
always say all right baby I believe you
all right and somehow some way through
having the coordination of a baby dear
when I first started I was able to get a
scholarship to play in North Dakota and
then after I got home I got a contract
to play professional basketball in
Europe in 168 hours before I was
supposed to leave I ruptured my Achilles
tendon now understand something my whole
purpose in life was pure it was for this
woman that I love more than anything
else on this planet in the hardest day
because the day after my surgery my mom
came in my room it kissed me on my
forehead and I watched her walk out the
house on her way to one of the three
jobs I promised
she never have to work again and when I
talk about it now I still feel it and
when she left I asked myself why why
would I get injured now and I’m cursing
the heavens all upset I’m I’m pissed off
but that’s the answer to why we don’t
think we have purpose because what we
don’t understand when we’re going
through it is a lot of times it’s going
to take pain to find your purpose and us
as humans when we experience pain one of
the first things that we do is tuck tail
and we run without realizing that on the
other side of that pain your purpose is
waiting for you you just got to stick it
out last year they did a like a mini
documentary at my house it was just my
uncle not fancy was it was my uncle he’s
just recording some stuff I tried to say
like I was cool he was like oh did a doc
and I sat down with my mom my mom’s
supposed to be here today but she gets
embarrassed when I talk about her so she
gets embarrassed a lot and I said mom I
said how did you get through all the
madness now when I say fi5 I’ve four
siblings is five of us one of my
brother’s is autistic if you have
anybody on the spectrum you know that’s
tough so how did you get through all
that what did you dream about what was
your purpose and my mom said baby boy
she goes my only purpose was to make
sure you guys had a roof over your head
you have food in your stomach and you
were raised the right way now understand
something sometimes that’s all that
purpose has to be we get it misconstrued
we think purpose is everybody has to
save the planet man sometimes you just
got to save your house and that’s
powerful if it wasn’t for my mom I
wouldn’t be here right
now and man if it wasn’t for my injury I
wouldn’t be here either
my injury has bought me my beautiful
family my injury has allowed me to speak
in front of thousands of people an
impact and be impacted and my injury is
bringing me to this stage right now
where I’m getting a chance to have a
conversation with you beautiful people
now understand something Kurt Vonnegut
once said we are whatever we pretend to
be so if you want to sit there in this
auditorium and act like you don’t have
purpose you want to act like there’s no
reason that you exist you want to act
like you’re not good enough you’re not
smart enough you’re not the right shade
of color etc etc etc so be it but do
this for me think of your age and
subtract it by a hundred how much time
do you think you have left that’s if
everything goes right we’re just renters
on this planet we own nothing these
clothes my car that barely works my
house in a hundred years all that is
gone but what I could do is this every
day I am blessed with the opportunity to
wake up
I can impact my life for the better and
my family’s life for the better I can
impact somebody else’s and I can leave
this world a little bit better than
where I got it if you look around this
auditorium right now we all won the
lottery today we’re all awake we’re all
alive and if you don’t have gratitude
for that if you don’t realize there are
tens of thousands of people all over the
world that didn’t then you don’t
understand the miracle so my big
question to you is this today
you have opportunity what the hell are
you gonna do with it
thank you
you [Applause]