Motivation Daily by Motiversity - The Wisdom of a 3rd Grade Dropout Will Leave You SPEECHLESS | Dr. Rick Rigsby

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

Dr. Rick Rigsby, author, award winning professor, and internationally acclaimed speaker, delivers one of the best motivational speeches you will ever hear. Inspired? Get Rigsby's book, Third Grade Dropout: https://amzn.to/3NUbuCiSpeaker:Rick Rigsby: https://www.instagram.com/drrickrigsby/Music:Epidemic SoundDisclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links. If you use the link to make a purchase, we earn a small commission. Thank you for your continued support! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The link is in the description. The wisest man I ever met in my life never made it past the third grade. Impacted tremendously. Me and my brother, growing up right here in Valail, this was our family. My father, wisest man ever met in my life. Left school in the third grade to help out on the family farm, but just because he left school doesn't mean an education. stopped, Mark Twain once said, I've never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education.

My father taught himself how to read, taught himself how to write, decided in the midst of Jim Crowism, as America was breathing the last gas for the Civil War, my father decided he was going to stand and be a man. Not a black man, not a brown man, not a white man, but a man. He literally challenged himself to be the best that he could all the day, of his life. I want to share something with you. This academy was our backyard. Going on that training ship and getting lost, sneaking into the pool, going to all the different places for nearly 30 years. This was home. And I want to tell you, I know what it takes to get where you are. And I need you to listen to me very carefully. I have four degrees. My brother is a judge.

we're not the smartest ones in our family. It's a third grade drop out daddy, saying to us, boys, I won't have a problem if you aim high and miss, but I'm going to have a real issue if you aim low and hit. A country mother quoting Henry Ford, saying if you think you can or if you think you can't, you're right. You see, it takes knowledge and wisdom combined to grow your influence so that you will make an impact.

you'll be a shipmate that others can count on. I learned that from a third grade drop. Simple lessons. Lessons like these, son, don't judge people. The tendency of a person is to walk away from somebody that's different from them. You stay there and you get to know them. Never judged. Then he dropped Jonathan Swift on me who said vision is the ability to see the invisible.

Don't judge. Another lesson from this third grade drop out. Son, you'd rather be an hour early than a minute. late. My father had the breakfast and lunch shift here at the academy. He had to be at work at 5 o'clock. We lived on Louisiana Street, 15 minutes away. My mother said for nearly 30 years, my father left the house at 3.45 in the morning. One day she asked him, why, Daddy? He said, maybe one of my boys will catch me in the act of excellence. Aristotle said, you are what you repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence ought to be a habit, not an act. Don't ever forget that. Lecturing.

What our universities are based upon is the worst kind of teaching method, usually. Present company excluded. That if you want to get the intended message across, model the behavior, my daddy, a third grade dropout. A cook was modeling excellence for his boys. Combining academic knowledge and old school wisdom, that's what makes an impact. an impact as you go all over the world. You're not interested in making a nice impression. You want to make an impact.

Lesson number three, be kind to people. He always told us, kind deeds are never lost. You know what stops me in my tracks? When I see one of those rich folks show kindness. It literally stops the world. George Washington Carver said, when common people do common things in uncommon ways, they command the attention of the world I just described.

your grandmother. I know you're tough. I know you're seaworthy, but always remember to be kind. Always. Don't ever forget that. Wisdom will come to you in the unlikeliest of sources. A lot of times through failure. When you hit rock bottom, remember this. While you're struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow. I'm not worried that you'll be successful. I'm worried that you won't fail from time to time. The person that gets up off the canvas and keeps growing, that's the person that will continue to grow their influence. Back in the 70s, to help me make this point, let me introduce you to someone. I'm at the finest woman I'd ever met in my life.

We get married, we have a few children, our lives are great. One day, Trina finds a lump in her left breast. Breast cancer. Six years after that diagnosis, me and my two little boys walked up to mommy's casket. And for two years, my heart didn't beat. It wasn't for my faith in God. I wouldn't be standing here today. If it wasn't for those two little boys, there'd have been no reason for which to go on.

I was completely lost. That was rock bottom. You know what sustained me? The wisdom of a third grade dropout. The wisdom of a simple cook from California Maritime Academy. We're at the Casket in College Station, Texas. I'd never seen my dad cry. Big Strong man, there are several alumni that remember Riggs that are here.

We've been sharing stories all weekend. But this time I saw my dad cry. That was his daughter. Trina was his daughter, not his daughter-in-law. And I'm right behind my father about to see her for the last time on this earth. and my father shared three words with me that changed my life right there at the casket. It would be the last lesson he would ever teach me. He said, son, just stand.

President Cropper, Captain Bolton, Rear Admiral de Quattro. I don't think there's anything more profound that I can share with these cadets than these words. You keep standing. You keep standing, no matter how rough the sea, you keep standing. standing, and I'm not talking about just water. You keep standing. No matter what you don't give up. I learned that lesson from a third grade dropout who was a cook at Calamaritan who said, boy, you keep standing no matter what. I stood and a miracle took place. A couple of years later,

my heart started to beat again. I'm talking in a group about like this when all of a sudden I spot the finest woman I've ever met in my life again. First thing Janet did after we got married was she adopted those little boys, fulfilling Trina's last wish that her babies not go through life without a mommy. Let me take you back to two days before Trina died. No hair because of chemotherapy, cadets. A tummy poached out because of a liver no longer working. She weighed about 75 pounds.

I'm in the kitchen so I can keep an eye on her in the family room. She's surrounded by pillows. Our then youngest son, Andrew, walks up with a shirt that he wants mommy to fold. And this is what I hear from Trina. Andrew, Mama, not always going to be there to help you. She was saying goodbye. And I was so moved. I waited for Andrew to leave and I walked over and I sat next to her on the couch.

and as clearly as I'm talking to you today, these were some of her last words to me. She looked me in the eye and she said, it doesn't matter to me any longer how long I live. What matters to me most is how I live. Cadets, I've come here with honor, with bells on, to ask you all one question, a question that I was asked all my life by a third grade dropout.

How you living?