nothing and so I was in India and I was teaching a course on leadership in India

and I had gone into this university and I spoke there and after I left I got

back to the hotel I realized I didn't have my wallet and so

I called the hotel and I said can you please bring the car back they have my

wallet and they said I'm sorry sir we don't have a car that was a taxi we used and

so they tried calling the taxi company nobody answered the phone they tried

again and nobody answered the phone and I became a little cynical

I went from hopeful to skeptical to cynical I started thinking the worst of

people and of course I said with my my wallet is gone by midnight they called

and said we're still trying he's not answering the phone the taxi cab driver

but at 2:00 in the morning he called and said he answered his phone his phone was

off he's coming back to your hotel with your wallet so I get dressed and I run

downstairs and a man meets me and the bellman translates for me in Indian in

the dialect and I answer and I get my wallet and everything is in my

wallet everything my passport my money my credit cards is all there and I reach

into my wallet and there's $70 U.S. I asked the man through a translator what do you

make a month he says about 2500 rupees which about what that time which is

about $70 U.S. so I reach out and I say let me give this $70 to you this is my

way of saying thank you and the man says no I said no I don't think you

understand I have one month's salary for you I want to say thank you here 70

dollars and the man says to the translator no and I said there must be a

translation problem here I'm talking about paying you I'm talking about

giving you a month's worth of your salary one more time he said and this

time he became a little visibly angry he said I told you no

I didn't bring you your wallet because I wanted a reward

I brought you your wallet because it's your wallet now this may not sound like

an incredible story but think what would have happened if I had lost my wallet in a

taxi in New York City or a big city anywhere in the world think about what

the chances of me getting my wallet back think about it and be honest with

yourself now this is a slum so they call it in India so I said in the man what

can I do to be thankful to you what can I do to say thank you he said well the

next time you're in India come to my house and have tea be my friend

sometimes when you give you get sometimes whatever goes around comes

around and so you gain more by giving you get more by building you learn more

by listening we have a chance and an opportunity to change the world because

nobody changes in good times people only change in bad times no one changes when

they're comfortable they change when they're uncomfortable we have a chance

now to change the world like yesterday I ran I did an hour and it was you know 92

or 93 degrees outside it was hot right like and but I

didn't say like hey do I is this gonna be enjoyable or not I said look this is

what I do and come hell or high water I'm gonna do it you know and

it was enjoyable I got it wasn't enjoyable at first but I

but I pushed through that it's like on the other side of that resistance is

often that thing and so I think that's the problem with people who are like you

know I'll just sort of go with the flow I'll take it as it happens that can work

but you know it's often on the other side of what you're afraid of that you

experience really great things and you have to have the power to push through

that your life would feel better and richer if you

had a goal you chased that goal you accomplished some things and you would

get this boost of confidence you'd get this boost of self-esteem like whatever

it is that you're going to do and maybe you're in a drawing comic books maybe

you're into nah but making pottery or sculptures or but find whatever that is

and pursue that instead of doing nothing like the people that are doing nothing

those are the real people look doing something might be as simple as like

that Alex Honnold guy he just climbs rocks but he's world-class rock climber

it's something turn your wounds into wisdom you will be wounded many times in

your life you'll make mistakes some people will call them failures but I

have learned that failure is really God's way of saying excuse me you're

moving in the wrong direction it's just an experience

just an experience just an experience I remember being taken off the air in

Baltimore being told that I was no longer being fit for television and

that I could not anchor the news because I used to go out on the stories and my

own truth was even though I'm not a weeper I would cry for the people in the

stories and which really wasn't very effective as a news reporter to be

covering a fire and crying because the people lost their house and it wasn't

until they I was demoted as a on-air anchorwoman and thrown into the

talk-show arena to get rid of me that I allowed my own truth to come through and

the first day I was on the air doing my first talk show back in 1978 it felt

like breathing which is what your true passion should feel like it should be so

natural to you and so I took what had been a mistake

what had been perceived as a failure with my career as an anchorwoman in the

news business and turned it into a talk-show career that's done okay for me

don't let your mind become conditioned for mediocrity don't let that change who

you really are sometimes people will try to put us in a box tell us things like

you can't start that business you don't have the resources you'll never afford a

nice place to live never get well never meet the right person because their

thinking is limited they'll try to put their limitations on you you have to put

your foot down and say I refuse to be mediocre because people around me are

mediocre I refuse to be addicted depressed have

low expectations I know I'm a barrier breaker I'm gonna set a new standard it

starts in our thinking nothing will change until you make up your mind you

are not going to accept mediocrity first bit of advice came from Tyler Perry the

famous director kind of movie producer that sort of thing you know about two

years ago I had the good fortune to interview him one on one in three

different cities around the country where he got to speak about his

entrepreneurial story to a bunch of small business owners around the country

you know Tyler Perry is key you know did his thing he was homeless for a while

right now he's like the highest-paid dude in Hollywood right really

fascinating story so I'm interviewing them one on one

start the Q&A one woman raises her hand stands up she says Mr Perry you know we

have to always go through these different trials and tribulations as entrepreneurs

like what keeps you going right how do you get back up but just to

go right he said the most profound thing that I had ever heard he said the minute

he realized that the trials that you go through right and the blessings you

receive are the exact same thing like that freed him as an entrepreneur right

like just think about that for a second like it I kind of stopped the interview

because I had to soak that up for a little bit right like every single kind

of trial tribulation all that stuff that you go through it's just a lesson right

and that lesson is just an inherent blessing right so as entrepreneurs like

this entrepreneur thing is hard right like at times it's amazing at times it's

sucks right and I've been very blessed and fortunate to have really good

opportunities but it's very very hard right and you don't want to stress

yourself out unnecessarily and what that lesson taught me was that I didn't

have to be as stressed out right like I'm gonna go through these issues

they're just lessons let me treat that as a blessing we're gonna move right and

a lot of folks look at me when I start this company like Tristan you're way

more calm than you should be and it's like yeah because I fundamentally

understand this lesson that I learned and I think that the success is

something that is earned and re-earned I think that in life you're climbing up

that mountain and you want to take breaks strategically but people think

that you can climb up a mountain and just kind of stay there not really I

view it like it's like a muddy mountain you climb up and you stay there you

start to slide down and there's a number of reasons why that happens I'll talk

about them today does that mean you should never take a break

no I'm gonna take a little time off when I do my Miami events this year cool you

know of course I believe in taking a break I think you should spend time with

friends and take breaks but I also believe that success is something that

has to be earned and re-earned the world is a dynamic place the world is changing

if you're not changing along with it you're probably being left behind think

about what's the Holy Grail between somebody taking action or not it's one

word certainty when somebody has absolutely certain they you know the

common word it believes right but you know you can believe at a general level

or you can believe what's certain when you're absolutely certain that if I do

this it's gonna get that result and that results gonna change my life you'll do

it when you think it absolutely is not gonna work you're never gonna do it the

middle no-man's land of maybe it'll work maybe it won't that's the piece that

kills people right so if it's a must for you you got to make it work