just be talking about you want to make six figures.

You hear what I'm saying to you tonight?

If you do the three things I tell you to do tonight,

I guarantee whatever it is you want to do in life,

you'll be able to do.

You will be able to accomplish whatever you want to

academically, financially, relationally, whatever.

So three things.

All right, now I'm gonna tell you this story.

I got to get outta here.

And the story is about,

you guys have probably heard about this before,

it was a young man who, he wanted to make a lot of money

and so he went to this guru, right?

And he told the guru, "I want to be

"on the same level you are on."

The guru said, "If you want to be on the same level I'm on,

"I'll meet you tomorrow at the beach at 4am."

He like, "The beach? I said I want to make money.

"I don't want to swim."

Guru said, "If you want to make money,

I'll meet you tomorrow. 4am."

So the young man got there, 4am.

He all ready to rock and roll.

Got on the suit, he should have wore shorts.

The old man grabs his hand, said

"How bad do you want to be successful?"

He said, "Real bad."

He said, "Walk on out in the water."

So he walks out into the water, watch this.

When he walks out into the water it goes waist deep.

So he like, "This guy crazy.

"I want to make money, he got me out here swimming.

"I didn't ask to be a lifeguard. I want to make money.

"He got me in..."

So he said, "Come out a little further."

Walked out a little further,

then he had it right around this area, the shoulder area.

So this old man crazy.

He making money but he crazy.

Said, "Come on out a little further."

Came out a little further, it was right at his mouth.

My man like, "I'm about to go back in here.

"This guy outta his mind."

So the old man said, "I thought

"you said you wanted to be successful."

He said, "I do."

He said, "Walk a little further."

He came, dropped his head in, held him down, hold him down.

My man getting scratchy, hold him down.

I got you, I know you've brushed it out, but I got you.

He had him held down, I need you for illustration.

He had him held down,

just before my man was about to pass out, he raised him up.

He said, "I got a question for you."

Somebody answer the question for me.

He said, "When you were underwater,

"what did you want to do?"

[audience mumbling]

Leave? I'm looking for a different word, though, than that.

- [Woman] Breathe.

- He said, "I wanted to breathe."

He told the guy, he said, "When you want to succeed

"as bad as you want to breathe,

"then you'll be successful."

I don't know how many of y'all got asthma in here today,

but if you ever had a asthma attack before,

you short of breath, SOB, shortness of breath.

You wheezing. (wheezing sounds)

The only thing you trying to do is get some air.

You don't care about no basketball game,

you don't care what's on TV,

you don't care about nobody calling you,

you don't care about a party.

The only thing you care about when you trying to breathe

is to get some fresh air.

That's it.

When you get to the point where

all you want to do is be successful

as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful.

I'm here to tell you, number one,

that most of you say you want to be successful,

but you don't want it bad.

You just kind of want it.

You don't want it badder than you want to party.

You don't want it as much as you want to be cool.

Most of you don't want success as much as you want to sleep.

Some of you love sleep more than you love success.

I'm here to tell you today if you're going to be successful,

you've got to be willing to give up sleep.

You got to be willing to work off

of three hours of sleep, two hours.

If you really want to be successful,

some days you gonna have to stay up three days in a row.

Because if you go to sleep you might miss

the opportunity to be successful.

That's how bad you gotta want it.

You gotta go days without, listen to me.

You gotta want to be successful so bad

that you forget to eat.

Beyonce said once she was on the set doing her thing.

Three days had gone by, she forget she didn't eat.

'Cause she was engaged.

I'll never forget, when 50 cent was doing his movie

I did a little research on 50, and 50 said

that when he wasn't doing the movie

he was doing the soundtrack.

And they said, "When do you sleep, 50?"

He said, "Sleep? Sleep is for those people who are broke.

"I don't sleep.

"I got a opportunity to make a dream become a reality."

Football players, how many football players,

got anybody that like football in here, raise your hand.

Anybody like football?

Emmitt Smith.

I used to be a Cowboy fan before

they did my boy Tom Landry wrong,

I used to be a Cowboy fan.

There was a commercial,

Emmitt Smith had won his first Super Bowl,

and he had this commercial when he was lifting weights.

I don't know if you saw the commercial,

when he was lifting, and he said, Emmitt said,

"You know what, I won the Super Bowl,

"so I can rest now."

He was doing his bench press.

So he said, "So I won the Super Bowl so I can rest now."

So he throws up about 325, boom.

And he rests for about two seconds.

Then he's ... boom, boom, boom.

Did you see that?

He'd already won a Super Bowl,

he said, "I think I'm gonna take a rest."

And he rests for how long?

One second.

Most of you won't be successful

because when you're studying, and you get tired, you quit.

I'm here to tell you today, if you got a-

Somebody came to my office the other day crying.

I said, "Look, don't cry to give up, cry to keep going.

"Don't cry to quit.

"You already in pain, you already hurt.

"Get a reward from it.

"Don't go to sleep, until you succeed."

Listen to me, I'm here to tell you today

that you can come here, you can jump up, you can do flips,

you can be excited when we give away money.

Listen to me, you will never be successful

until I don't have to give you a dime to do what you do.

(audience clapping and cheering)

You won't be successful until you say,

"I don't need that money, 'cause I got it in here."

Listen to me, Emmitt Smith said this

at the end of the commercial.

Emmitt Smith said, "All men are created equal.

"Some work harder in preseason."

I'm gonna say it again because you might have missed it.

"All men are created equal.

"Some work harder in preseason."

So that means that there are some people

who are going to see the professor, going to see the TA,

and even when the professor says,

"I don't meet with you, my TA meet with you."

you say, "I don't want to talk to your TA."

- [Man] That's what it is.

- I don't pay the TA.

I pay you to teach me.

So you gonna have to find some time to meet me.

If I gotta meet you at the mall,

if I gotta meet you at your house,

you are going to see me.

Listen to me, all men are created equal,

some work harder in preseason.

When I went to college guys were way smarter than me.

4.0s, 3.0s, they went to the Ivy League high schools,

came to Oakwood from these great high schools.

Most of them are not doing what I'm doing.

Why?

'Cause it's not about where you come from.

It's about heart.

You come to place where being smart ain't enough.

You gotta have heart.

That's number one.

What's number two?

Number two, catch number two,

I wrote it down, I wanted to make sure you got it.

It says, watch this,

we're talking about sacrifice now.

The important thing is this -

you're writing while I'm saying it,

'cause I only have about three more minutes -

listen to me.

The most imporant thing is this,

to be able at any moment to sacrifice

what you are for what you will become.

That's the number two thing, you gotta catch that one.

To be able to, listen to me, at any moment.

Some of you, you can make sacrifices

when Monday night football is not on,

you can make a sacrifice.

But when a game come on,

for some reason you just attached to it.

For some of you, when your favorite show come on,

you can make sacrifices on Sunday

when there ain't nothing going on.

But when your favorite show comes on Monday.

Some of you, you focused until the phone ring,

and then you like, "I gotta answer it.

"If I don't answer the phone I'm gonna die."

I'm saying to you today, that there are some of you

if you give up your cell phone you would be successful.

But your cell phone is more important

to you than your success.

I'm gonna say it again, I'm gonna hurt somebody.

Some of you need to give up your cell phone,

because the time you spend on your cell phone

could be used for your success.

The time you could be using to be successful

you are using on the cell.

And the cell phone is not bringing you nothing but a bill.

And somebody has told you you couldn't live without it.

I'm talking about going deep now, giving up stuff.

Watch what it says.

To be able, at any moment

to sacrifice what we are for what we could be.

"I don't do well in math."

You're right!

You ain't never studied.

"I'm not good at writing."

'Cause you have never written before.

But I dare you to fail in writing for a whole year

to see if you can get to the end.

I dare you to fail.

I dare you to take that same class over and over again.

I dare you to stop dropping classes, like you soft.

Always want to give up.

"I'm dropping."

Why you dropping?

I'm so grateful that the slaves didn't drop and quit,

say "I'm just gonna stop.

"I'm a slave, I'm just gonna be a slave, I'm gonna quit."

Listen to me, the slaves said,

"We will live because one day we will become."