“Put God First in Everything You Do” Episode No. 192 (Subtitles)
In this Twitter tweet meme mean world that we’ve created for our children, the least we can do is consider what we’ve done and think about the young people, the future, and individually collectively do the best we can to try and turn this thing around. I blame no one; I look in the mirror. On the other side of it, what an opportunity we have because tomorrow’s the first day of the rest of our lives. Put God first in everything you do, everything that you think you see in me, everything that I’ve accomplished, everything that you think I have, and I have a few things; everything that I have is by the grace of God.
Understand that it’s a gift. Forty years ago, March 27, 1975. It was forty years ago just this past March. I was flunking out of college. I had a 1.7 grade point average. I hope none of you can relate. At a 1.7 grade point average, I was sitting in my mother’s beauty shop. They still call it a beauty shop. Now what they call it, yeah, I’ll sit in the beauty parlor. I was sitting in my mother’s beauty parlor and I’m looking in the mirror, and I see behind me this woman under the dryer, and every time she looked up, every time I looked up, she was looking at me. Just look at me in the eye. And I didn’t know who she was. And I said, you know, she said, “Somebody give me a pen. Give me a pencil. I have a prophecy. March 27, 1975.” She said, “Boy, you were going to travel the world and speak to millions of people.” Now mind you, I flunked out of college. I’m thinking about joining the Army. I didn’t know what I was going to do. And she’s telling me I’m going to travel the world and speak to millions of people. Well, I have traveled the world, and I have spoken to millions of people. But that’s not the most important thing. The success that I had, the most important thing is that what she taught me and what she told me that day has stayed with me since. I’ve been protected. I’ve been directed. I’ve been corrected. I’ve kept God in my life, and it’s kept me humble. I didn’t always stick with him, but he always stuck with me. So stick with him in everything you do. If you think you want to do what you think I’ve done, then do what I’ve done and stick with God. Number two:
I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Nothing. Nelson Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that’s less than the one you’re capable of living.” Now, I’m sure in your experiences in school and applying to college and picking your major and deciding what you want to do with life, I’m sure people have told you to make sure you have something to fall back on. Make sure you got something to fall back on, honey. But I never understood that concept, having something to fall back on. If I’m going to fall, I don’t want to fall back on anything except my faith. I want to fall forward. I figure at least this way, I’ll see what I’m going to hit. Fall forward. This is what I mean:
Reggie Jackson struck out 2,600 times in his career, the most in the history of baseball. But you don’t hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Fall forward. Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that? I didn’t know that, because the 1,000 and first was the light bulb. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success. You’ve got to take risks. And I’m sure you’ve probably heard that one in order to achieve your goals, you must apply discipline, which you’ve already done, and consistency, every day, not just on Tuesday and miss a few days. You have to work at it every day. You have to plan every day. You’ve heard the saying: We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan. Hard work works. Working really hard is what successful people do. And in this text, tweet, twerk world that you’ve grown up in, remember: Just because you’re doing a lot more doesn’t mean you’re getting a lot more done. Remember that. Just because you’re doing a lot more doesn’t mean you’re getting a lot more done. Don’t confuse movement with progress. My mother told me, she said, “Yeah, ’cause you can run in place all the time and never get anywhere.” So continue to strive. Continue to have goals. Continue to progress. Life has humbled me. I used to say I wanted to be the best actor in the world. When I won the second Oscar, I said I wanted to be the best actor I could be. Now, I don’t even necessarily want to be an actor. It’s not my goal anymore.
It’s not a burning desire for me. I may segue out of it in the next few years, if not sooner. But to go all the way back to your question, none of that would have happened without the family. None of that would have happened without not just my wife, but the love I give to my children and love I give back. Desire in the heart. That itch that you have. Whatever it is you want to do. That thing that you want to do to help others and to grow and to make money. That desire, that itch, that’s God’s proof to you, sent beforehand, already to indicate that it’s yours. And anything you want good, you can have. So claim it. Work hard to get it. When you get it, reach back. Pull someone else up. Each one, teach one. Don’t just aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference. Here’s my second point about failure: If you don’t fail, you’re not even trying. I’ll say it again: If you don’t fail, you’re not even trying. My wife told me this great expression: To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. Les Brown’s a motivational speaker. He made an analogy about this. He says, “Imagine you’re on your deathbed, and standing around your deathbed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential.
The ghost of the ideas you never acted on, the ghost of the talents you didn’t use, and they’re standing around your bed angry, disappointed, and upset. They say, ‘We came to you because you could have brought us to life,’ they say, ‘and now we have to go to the grave together.’ So I ask you today: How many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes? I like seeing people do good, you know? Society is forcing success down our throat, comparative success down our throat, you know? I don’t know if the Bible says it, but it’s somewhere, it says, ‘In the last days, we’ll become lovers of ourselves.’ It’s in the Bible. The number one photograph now is a selfie. Yeah. So all we all want to be followed, no you know? We all want to lead, I should say, and we want fight, we want, we’re willing to do anything, young ladies and young men, anything to be influential, yeah, yeah, you know, the universal stems from the specific. Where’s your soul? Where’s your heart? Where does it start? Do you want credit for it, or do you want to see the other person do well? It’s the most selfish thing I’ve done in my life is give because of the joy that I get from you. I love it. I don’t like it. I love it.
