There are very few opportunities in life where all you need to do is sit down and listen to gain perspective that will change your whole entire outlook on the world. I was fortunate enough to listen to Eric Thomas speak on a Youtube video about success and what success means to him and I left my seat with a brand new view of the word. Although the speech was only about five minutes long, the words he used spoke volumes about what really defines the word and how the word can define you.
Eric told a story about a young man and a guru. The young man wanted success and all of the perks that came with it, however the guru needed to show the young man how much he needed to want success before he could attain success. The guru brought the young man to the ocean and made him walk into the water until it got up to his neck, then the guru held the man’s head under water until he almost passed out. The young man was gasping for air; the guru told him “when all you want to do is succeed as badly as you want to breathe, that is when you will be successful.”
Eric goes on to speak about the commitment it takes to be successful, going days without sleep or eating because the will to succeed is so great that one forgets about all the necessities in their own life. “A lot of people say they want to be successful, but not everybody is doing what they have to get there,” said Eric, who is also known as the Hip Hop Preacher, who makes everyone question their own view of the world. In today’s society everyone is judged on their success whether it be in the office or out on the playing field, but more often than not what we see is only the finished product. The blood, sweat, and tears that were put into the outcome is what everyone doesn’t see, and is the most important. We are slowly becoming a society with a lackluster work ethic; anything that needs to be done now has a short cut, which is why I personally believe sport is as great as it is, because it’s the only profession where there are still no shortcuts.
I am sure that I wasn’t the only person to hear that talk with chills, because there is no way the message that Eric delivered didn’t hit home with someone in some way. There is a part of every one of us that would have liked to do something different; some may have experiences that haunt us whereever we go. What Eric made everyone realize is that no matter what you try to do, there is only one real way to succeed, and if you think you found a different way of doing it, you are probably doing it the wrong way and you aren’t going to get the results that you hope for.
To see the video of this talk:
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