[Music] unfortunately my mom was a tea mom you know wasn't married had me at 18 years old and you know it was just me and moms for a while moved to Detroit she married her husband adopted me I wasn't really you know feeling my man like that wasn't feeling the relationship and so you know just just a diamond downward spiral didn't take school seriously serious and I ended up at 16 so rebellious you know so angry with my mom that eventually got kicked out the house I'm living in abandoned buildings eating out of trash cans
you know hanging with the wrong group just going the wrong way man and you know one day I was like man I want better you know like I can't I'm looking at guys on the block you know you either end up in jail or you're dead like you don't retire from the life that we were living I was like this came it's not it's not for me bad like I got to be able to do something better you know and so I made my move you know I got in a different environment I start going
to church start dating this young lady who really you know may help me accomplish she's like I'm going to college and I'm not dating a high-school dropout you know and so I ended up getting my GED going to college and free a lot of people didn't believe in me your mom you know came from nothing you know your daddy wasn't in your life you didn't do well in school so there's a there's a journey for that type of person I was like hey not for me you know I'm going to be somebody and although people
didn't believe I always say sometimes it when you're running a company when you first start a company you got to be the CEO the CFO you know you got to be the administrative assistant the mail mail clerk you got to do everything you know mailman you got to do it all and so from my personal life I became that person for me I want everybody it is now there are hundreds of people maybe even though I don't know who believed in me but it all happened because I believed in myself so once you invest in
yourself people are willing to invest in you and get tired sometimes you know kids called me mr. Thomas I have its business so I have this idea I want you to invest you know three thousand pounds I'm like that's your jury that's your vision you have to invest in it more than anybody else and when you do that then you'll get other people to support you so that's just what I believe you got to believe in yourself before anybody else is gonna buy into your vision for me the one thing I love about my haters
is they give me a perspective that my mother doesn't give me my mom loves me so much and I think you know there are times where you know she may want to correct me and she's like I don't want to hurt his self-esteem you know my wife you know may not say a certain thing because she's like I'm not on a percent sure I'm not in the field maybe I shouldn't say that but I find that my haters say what's on their mind and sometimes what they say is is real you know that there's some
adjustments that I need to make you know not now I don't take their hate and allow it to tear me down but there are things that they say you know about me I'll never forget this one guy who was hating on me was talking about how I had four or five jobs you know he's like he's doing this and he's doing that he's doing that and I thought about it one day I was like okay what is he saying now take away that he's not making his dreams become a reality and he's jealous about the
fact that I'm fearless that I'm going out here and I'm trying it but there was some validation in what he was saying and that if you're doing too much and you don't have a solid focus you may not be getting the most out of your life I was like you know what this guy's he's telling the truth and so I started to narrow my focus and I quit my job at Michigan State and start doing free thank God is money and I'm traveling across that so to do what's right the one that was really taking
me away from from going from good to great the job will speed on my wife love and stability she loves the 401 K the health plan you know I was getting a steady check you know my wife loved that but I left that job that job did not allow me to come to London because I can only take off for so many weeks I only had so much time off so honestly nobody else was courageous enough to say this guy's got four or five jobs but this guy he's doing too much that's that download and
say you know what he might be right you know and then what I love about my haters as well is that I know they don't want me to succeed so there are times honestly when I'm thinking about sleeping in I'm like my haters would love is we're making an error I want to roll I'm you know thinking about maybe doing something I'll have no business doing and I'm thinking how am I hated like to see this in the news and just talk about I told you I told you so I told me he wasn't the
father you thought he was or the husband you thought he was when I told you he didn't have the integrity that you think that he had and so those are the two ways I use my haters you know to push me you know to to a place where my loved ones and trust me my loved ones have supported me you know in ways I can't even imagine but my haters have given me that extra that edge that advantage but I know that they're always in the back drive waiting for me to make a mistake they're
waiting for me to fall they're waiting for me they're waiting for me you know to come out with a video that doesn't represent you know the videos I've done or they're waiting and so on I'm gonna keep them waiting cool look so close to great some of the characteristics are also the traits are so closed but is not and so that's why I hate good because it looks like great is not the average man average people you know they don't serve my food properly you know they don't pick me up and they say they were
gonna pick me up you know they say eight but they meant nine you know and I tell people the reason why I'm so aggravated is because you know for real honestly this may sound weird to you guys in the studio but if you if you burn down my house as much as it may you know be like oh you burn down my house I can buy it nothing and you think it actually my grandmother's house was burned down about five years ago we grew up in that home listen to me guys they redid the house
it looks exactly like the house we grew up in it's not the house but it looks exactly like the house you could take my money out the bank guys and I could get a couple more engagement and I can put that money back but once you take time for me I can never get that back again I can never get yesterday back I can't get it a second back in 2012 I can't get it back so I take time so serious because the only commodity that once is spent you can never regain it and so
average people don't understand the importance of time and so that's what aggravates me is that while you're being average you're dragging me into your reality when that's not my world and I don't want to live in that world so I like to hang with great because they did it you know and people who are good transition into great they're not stuck in great they get they understand my and they understand I was with Harry Davis yesterday they're talking and it's a wonderful conversation because we both do the better we're going back and forth back and
forth and he's like Eric I don't understand some of these guys that play now they don't had a tribe they're not hungry and it's because they don't see that opportunities have to be seized you have to and so that's why I forgot the problem with average and good they frustrate me because that their facade they look to be a certain thing but a reality it's not what it appears every day in Africa and the safari a lion wakes up every single day and a safari a lion wakes up alright and every single day in the
safari a gazelle wakes up it says that if you wake up and you're a gazelle you realize if you're going to survive as a gazelle if you're going to survive you must outrun the slowest gazelle and your mind you're thinking you gotta outrun the fastest line that's not the truth you just got to stay ahead of this low gazelle that's it every single day when you wake up whatever it is that you do professionally you better make sure you're not in the back of the pack you got to be as close to the front if
not up front as possible because every single day when the lion wakes up it's only one thing on that Lions mine and that is catching the gazelle that couldn't keep up [Music] what the Gazelle realizes is that the way it operates that the way it performs that the way it goes about its daily business is contingent upon life and death that if that gazelle does not do what he or she is supposed to do it will be eaten by a lion even if you are a lion even if you are a lion and you have
the advantage that when the Sun comes up if you were gazelle or lion you better get to running because if you are a lion a gazelle is still not going to come to you and say just I don't care how deep you are as a lying-in when you wake up nothing is going to come to you nobody is going to give the infant they're still not giving stuff to eat you I still have to work I still have to fly 20 hours to get to Australia I still have to go to London I still have
to do free stuff in Detroit I still have to drive I'm a lion and when the Sun comes up I still have to get to run it here's the challenge though I asked myself when I read that story that's what's on the surface I read it and I started asking myself et what's the difference between a gazelle and what's the difference between the lion [Music] what's the difference I know that they're wired differently but what's the difference and what I discovered is that the gazelle is running from something [Music] because they always running from something
so as long as the lion is chasing the gazelle the gazelle is running but as soon as the lion stops chasing the gazelle it stops that's a lot of you in this room you will run you'll do what you're supposed to do as long as you're getting pushed as long as you're getting motivated as long as somebody is encouraging you as long as somebody's coaching you as long as somebody's pushing you as long as somebody spotting you you're doing what you're supposed to do as long as somebody's calling you as long as someone is I
see you as long as somebody's giving you rewards you're moving but as soon as that stops you stop [Music] I asked myself the question about the lion and I said the lion is not running to be rewarded the lion is running to eat every single day the lion is running to eat because the lion realizes when he kills the gazelle not only does the easting is there but he brings it back home you've got to ask yourself what's your why what motivates you what pushes you what drives you and if that thing is eternal if
nobody has to call you if nobody has to prod you if nobody has to reward you if nobody has to give you anything if you are self-motivated and self regulating you can have it you can be it you can do it [Music] you
