- [Narrator] This is Leo, and Leo knows the secret to creating limitless motivation. But before we can talk about that we need to first understand his childhood. Leo was born into the slums of Brazil known as the Favelas.
And this area is filled with crime, drugs, danger and there essentially is no government enforcing any laws here. And Leo had a pretty rough childhood, he never met his Dad and his Mom worked all the time in order to put food on the table for him and his little brother. And she was the most important person to him in his life.
But one day Leo's Mom got very sick. And there wasn't a hospital for them to go to and they couldn't really afford to go to the city and pick up the right medical supplies. Leo and his brother did everything they could to help her but she didn't make it and she died.
At the young age of 17, Leo had now become the man of the house. He had no money, no expertise, no education, but he had to somehow figure out a way to provide for himself and his eight year old brother. And if he couldn't figure this out, him and his brother probably wouldn't be able to live long lives.
At first Leo tried to do legitimate work for people around the city, stuff like cleaning, shopping, that kind of thing. But he quickly realized that this kind of work would not be enough plus a lot of the time the locals would scam him or they wouldn't be able to pay him enough money so things quickly went from being bad to worse. And he was slowly running out of options.
So one day Leo was walking around the city and he was starving, he was literally willing to do anything to get some food. And he noticed there was a house with an open back door. He looked inside and saw this big platter of bread, wine and cheese and just looking at this made his mouth water.
And without thinking, Leo went in there and tried to take some. As he was packing up the food in his bag, he was caught by a group of three men and they threatened to take his life for what he was doing. He begged them to spare his life and he told them that he had a younger brother and that he had a future and that we would do anything just to let him go.
And luckily they did let him go but there was a cost. They took all of his money, they took the only bag that he had and they even took the shoes off of his feet. When Leo walked home that day, he didn't feel like a real person.
He felt broken and lost. And when Leo walked through the door and made eye contact with his incredibly skinny brother, he just burst into tears. Leo knew how hungry his little brother was and how we would pray every night for him to simply come home with just a little bit of food.
They both were starving and they both were slowly giving up all hope. The next day, Leo was once again walking in the streets but this time a man caught his eye. This man was tall and he was wearing these nice black shoes which was not very common in this area.
The man looked confused and lost which was a dangerous state to be in in a place like the Favelas. Maybe this man can buy me if I can help him with something, Leo thought to himself. So he went up to the man and asked, "Hey Sir, are you lost?
" And it turned out he was a wealthy business man who was from the city center of Rio and he had come to explore the Favelas. After they had talked for a little bit and established a little bit of trust, Leo said, "Look, I'll make you a deal. "You are probably going to get robbed, "if you keep walking around like the way you are.
"I'll show you around the Favelas "if you buy me groceries for the week. " The wealthy man paused for a second and said, "Okay, deal. " So they spent the whole day walking around and Leo knew every detail about his city, he knew where the best views were, which areas to avoid, even the secret places that only the locals knew about.
And the wealthy man was so impressed by Leo's knowledge that he actually offered to buy him dinner. And of course, Leo said yes. And as the wealthy man watched Leo stuff his face with food, he asked, "How come you want me to buy you groceries?
"I feel like most boys your age "would rather spend money on other things? " And this question led Leo to tell him the story about his Mom's death and how he had to provide for his brother and how they were basically starving. This story really moved the wealthy man and he wanted to help.
So the wealthy man said, "Look, I actually run a tourism business "in the city center of Rio "where wealthy tourists from all over the world "come and get shown around the city "and not a single one of my tour guides "were as nearly as thorough as you were today. "If you knew this much about the city center of Rio "you would be the best tour guide by far. " And without hesitation Leo said, "I'll do it.
"I'll come work for you right now, "just take me and my brother and I'll start tomorrow. " The wealthy man looked at him and quietly said, "No, but I will give you these books "describing the tours that we offer "and you will need to read through all of them "and learn everything you can about Rio, "the history, the attractions, the street names, "I mean everything. "And if you pass my test I will consider bringing you on.
" The man gave Leo the books, paid for his groceries and he told him that he would return in about two weeks. And when Leo got home he just looked at all the books. It reminded him of when he was in school and how overwhelmed he would feel when he had to read books for his classes.
See, Leo had actually dropped out of school at a very early age because his teachers and peers labeled him as incompetent and stupid. And they basically told him that he wouldn't be successful and all these voices still deeply haunted him to this day. And Leo thought to himself, this is crazy.
Should I actually spend my time reading these books while I could be out trying to get more food? But then he looked over at his incredibly skinny, starving brother. And he realized that he had to try.
Leo gave pretty much all the groceries to his brother so it would last him two weeks instead of lasting them both one week. So that means that Leo barely ate, barely slept, and he spent the next two weeks glued to those books. He would spend 20 minutes reading a single page, sounding out every word, looking up the meaning of the words and he dissected everything in these books.
And he would constantly hear those voices of doubt in his head. You're a stupid kid, you're a loser, you aren't good enough. You aren't the type of person who can pull these types of miracles off.
Leo felt like he was slowly going insane. Fast forward 12 days and Leo hears a knock on the door. Leo opened the door and he saw the tall, wealthy man.
And he had a big smile on his face. "You ready? " the man said.
Leo replied with, "I hope so. " And for the next six hours Leo was drilled with questions asking him why is this street important, what is this area called, what building is that, why do we avoid that area? And this went on and on and on.
But eventually it was over. The wealthy man closed his book and said, "Okay, I'll think about it. "And I'll come back to you in a few days "with a decision.
" And just like that he was gone. And every hour that went by, Leo wondered about the man. Both him and his brother's entire futures was riding on this.
Their survivability was riding on this. And two days later, the man returned. And he was driving a big van.
And Leo ran outside and asked, "Did I pass, can I jump in the car with you right now? " The wealthy man paused for a moment and said, "No, you can't. "Pack your bags, get your brother "and then you can come in the van with me.
" And within the hour they were gone. And over the next few months, Leo became one of the hardest working employees in the company and over the next few years he even started to work side by side the wealthy man. And they turned that company into one of the top tourism companies in all of South America.
Leo was able to provide for himself, his brother and start a family. So what is Leo's secret to motivation? And how can you unlock your motivation?
The reason why Leo is so motivated is because he was grateful for every moment that he spent outside the favelas. He was grateful that he could be in an environment where he could go outside and not fear for his life. And he was grateful that he didn't have to resort to stealing or selling drugs or all sorts of other crazy things in order to put food on the table.
He was grateful for every breath that he took. And he will never forget where he came from. This gratittuted idea is the key to unlock that limitless motivation.
Because when you truly understand just how lucky you are to even have access to things like the internet or having a roof over your head or even having the option to start a business, you will want to seize every single opportunity that is placed in front of you. When you become grateful, you won't need to watch any more motivational videos. Check out my last video about the real truth about success.
And I'll see you there.
