The Resilient Mind - Be Relentless in Pursuing Your Life Purpose - Steve Harvey

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

Broderick Stephen Harvey, Sr. is an American television host, actor, writer, producer, and comedian. He hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Family Feud, Celebrity Family Feud, the Miss Universe competition, Family Feud Africa, and the arbitration-based court comedy Judge Steve Harvey.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to, Be Relentless in Pursuing Your Life Purpose, with Steve Harvey. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. I was telling you about your gift. This is how you save yourself a lot of trouble. This may apply to some adults in this room. Maybe not.

Your gift is the thing that you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort. That's your God-giving gift. You ain't got to trip on it, wonder about it. It's what you do better than anything else. Now, whether you've chosen to make that your life's work or not, that's your choice. But I got news for you. If you don't ever pursue that, you ain't going to ever be happy. It's some unhappy people in this room today.

Because there's some people in here doing what people expect them to do and doing what was required of them. and they just got locked into it. Now you've got bills and the family and you don't really want to pursue your dream. So now you've got the job, you're just going to ride it all the way out. And ain't nothing wrong with that.

If your job is what you gifted at doing, this man is going to retire this year. But he's been in the education of young people's minds. He's been shaping young people's minds for 30 years like that. That's what he was gifted to do. If you're sitting up in here and you ain't happy

and you're in misery, It's because you ain't pursued your gift. And I'm telling them young people over there with them blue shirts on and them striped ties, find out what your gift is and pursue it with everything in you. Because ain't nothing worse than getting a degree and you don't even want it after you get it. Because a degree ain't nothing but a piece of paper hanging on a wall. Now, it signifies that you have the ability to complete a task, but your life is made up of what you do with it.

Life is 10% what happens. is 90% of what you do about it. You've got to do something with your life, man, that makes your heartbeat in the morning when you wake up. See, people ask me all the time, how do you do all these jobs, Steve? Because I like all my jobs. You cut your radio on 240 times a year.

I do a four-hour live radio show. How do you do that every morning? Well, the main reason they got a nice check, but other than that, I wake up in the morning, I give people some inspiration, I play music, and I tell jokes. Okay, boom, I like doing that.

Then I go to a talk show. I live in Chicago eight months out of the year. 34 weeks, I tape 180 talk shows in Chicago. How do you do that every day? Because I love doing it. Then I go to Atlanta. I live in Atlanta, and in nine weeks, I take 200 episodes of Family Feuds. Man, how you tape all them shows?

Once again, they have a check attached to this. But I love what I do. If you cut your TV on this, obvious that I love what I do. do. I'm always smiling because God has given me the life of my dreams because I'm living in the gift he gave me. If you live

in your gift, man, it changes your life. Do something about your gift. Listen to me, I don't care what job you got now. If it's something that really burns on the inside of you, you ought to go do that. I don't care how old you are. How come you you think Kentucky fried chicken

how come you think that man on the side why you think he owes? because his recipe got discovered when he was 68. That ain't the picture of the colonel when he was 35. But he's been frying chicken. He can't just wake him start crying chicken. He's been frying chicken with this secret recipe for years. It took him a long time for a click.

But he kept frying chicken, man, till he became the biggest chicken joint in the world. You can't go nowhere and don't see Kentucky Fried Chicken. That ain't real chicken. But when he was living, it was real chicken, though. It really was chicken. It was the actual parts. If you peel that skin off that Kentucky fried chicken, you're in for a surprise.

It don't look nothing like. But he hit it. When is it too late to hit it? When is it really too late to hit the jackpot? When is it? When you're 60? That's too late? You don't want to be rich then?

What, just 65? Too late for you to be rich? When is it too late to hit it? Man, put some spark in your life. Have something to wake up about that make your heart beat in the morning. Have a joyous spirit when you wake up in the morning. Here's another principle of success.

I'm going to tell you what rich people talk about all the time. You know rich people talk about all time? They talk about money. All the time. All the principles of success is in the Bible. See, a man is as he thinks. So what you think, excuse the grammar, but that's what you eat.

Don't think it make better sense. Bad grammar makes better sense sometimes. If a man is as he thinking, then what you think is what you is. That makes real good sense to me. See, yeah, I like to keep it where people remember stuff I say. So rich people, you know what they do to talk about money. Now, when you talk about money around people, they get tight

because they don't want to get the money. Well, money is not everything. And money can't buy you having it. They ain't got no money. money might not buy your happiness, but it park you're right in front of happy house. You can get out, ringedobel, see your

happy home. There's nothing wrong with money. There are people that. So many things have been said over the years. What rich people get together, they talk about money. They talk about business all the time. It's nothing wrong with that. See, we go to church and we learn the wrong thing. You know what, messing me up, man, when I was little, I went to church

in Cleveland, you know, and a preacher would always say It says, hard for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. Now, me and the rest of the ignorant members, we thought that you was trying to take a needle with a sewing thread and push a camel through it. All the people in my church collectively decided they didn't want to be rich because they wanted to go to heaven. I was sitting at 10-year-old. I wasn't really buying into this because I was trying to figure out how I was going to get this camel

into this hole. Because I didn't know what they was talking about because I wanted to be rich. Because this poverty was, I was allergic to it. I itched all the time. I just came from being poe. You know, it's just fine. Just be digging in yourself sometime.

Because you're poe. Poverty is uncomfortable. First of the month come, your whole butt tighten up. Just like somebody squeeze and lemon juice down the crack of your behind, because it's the first of the month. All this stuff is due, shot! That's your butt, shut, just tightening it up. Because you ain't got the money.

Why would I not want no money? I live in the hood. I want out. I need money to get out. But at my church, they say, this is hard for a rich man getting to the king of heaven as is for a camera get through the avenue. So I bought into that.

I was about 30, almost 38. I was in Hollywood. I was driving down the street and ran up in the Donny McClark. He was coming out of the studio on sunset. I was in the truck smoking cigar. I saw Donnie.

I said, hey, man, what's happening? He said, hey, Steve, man. This was one of the first years I had hosted Celebration of Gospel. And I was going to quit hosting Celebration of Gospel because I didn't like the gospel community because they didn't like me.

You know, backstage they'd be saying stuff like, I don't know why he is hosting our gospel show he ain't saved. I don't know what y'all talking about. I'm here for the check. Let's be clear about this. I've been in church my whole life, but, you know, I got it, I ain't living no perfect life

and I wasn't, but, you know, that was my life at the time. And I was going to quit, and I was telling Donnie, I was thinking about quit. He said, man, why are you going to quit? I was telling him, man. I said, man, I'm just confused right now, man. I said, I don't get it. I said, man.

If I think about going back to church, man, but, you know, I want to go to heaven, but man, I'm making a, spend the start making this money down here, and it just don't jive with Christianity. He said, what you mean? And I told him what the preacher that it's hard for a man to get through the kingdom of heaven

as is for a camera through the eye of a needle. So Donnie looked at me a little confused because, you know, he's a pastor. And I was just telling him, you know, but I'm trying to find a way to get the camel in needle. He says, Steve, that's not what it means. I said, what does it mean? He says, in the Middle East, a needle is an arc that is stuck in the sand that looks like a wishbone on the chicken. And they have them to entryways sometime.

And when a camel approaches the needle, in order for the camel to get through the needle, he has to kneel. and crawl through the needle and then the camel gets back up. He said, that's what God meant. I said, Donnie, you mean they ain't talking about a sewing needle? He said, fool, you can't put a camel through a sewing needle after that.

I said, I got to go make me some money. I just humbled myself before God like I'm going through the needle and he ought to let me in. But I'm going in with some money, though. I became friends with Oprah Winfrey because of obvious reasons. We ain't going to keep saying that, but she's a very successful woman. She's a very kind person.

Everybody get a bad rap on the Internet. She thinks she did. Well, you know, a lot of people shooting that. The thing about haters, man, haters kick you when they down, and they throw at you when you're up. And they just do it all damn day. They're just haters. You got them on your job. You got them at your church.

You got them at your church. They just hate us. Haters because they ain't got nothing else to do. They want to be you. They can't. So here come to hate it. And I don't mind haters as long as they throw them because I'm usually up. You can throw up at me. I don't address you. And I was talking to Oprah one time and she said, I did a life class with her this past year. And she said, Steve.

I never knew you had a vision board. She said, you believe in that? This is the first time we had a serious conversation. I said, oh, but I'm not going to believe in that. Every successful person I know has a vision board, or they have their goals written down. You can't do it without writing it down. When you write it down, it's a symbol of faith.

See, I was telling the story earlier about writing it down. You know, teacher, we were in sixth grade and asked us, to write on a piece of paper we came in from some of what you want to be when you grow up. So everybody filled out the paper. You had to put your name on and had to write this one thing in 1968. So I wrote I want to be on TV.

Because nobody had told me I couldn't. I was 10. My vision was wide open. So I wrote I want to be on TV. She collected all the papers. She started going around the room, naming everybody name, had everybody stand up. And she read what they wanted to be. Bob would want to be a nurse.

Johnny wanted to be a basketball player. Robert wanted to own a gas station, Cindy want to be a doctor. She got to me, she waited last. Now, I had never gotten a gold star before all of my years of school. And she asked me to stand. And when I stood, she said, little Stevie, come to the front of the class. Now, I'm thinking to myself, this is it. This is the gold star moment.

I've been waiting 10 years for this. I ain't never got a star before. This is today. So I started walking to the front. I'm skinny. I got my brother's clothes on because we were poor. I got up there and she said, Steve, let me ask yourself.

What did you write on your paper? I said, I want to be on TV. She said. And why did you write that on your paper? I said, because that was our assignment for today. And then she said, what you write that on the paper for? Now, I'm thinking to myself, judging by the tone of this conversation, this might not be the gold star moment I thought it was going to be.

So I started cowering down. And she said, so why did you write it on the paper? And I said, because you asked us to. Voices really softened. She said, do you know anybody on TV? I said, no. Anybody in this school ever been on TV? I said, no.

Any of your relatives been on TV? I said, no, ma'am. She said, take this paper. I'm going to call your mama. When you go home, I'm going to tell her you being a smart aleck in this class. Now, you take this paper, and you come back with something more believable on it. So she pinned a note on me, and I had to go home. My mom was waiting on me because she called the house.

So my mother said, what you're doing up at that school? being a smart aleck. I said, Mama, I just did what the teacher told me. She read the know. She said, what you write this on your paper? I said, because the lady asked me what I wanted to be. I won't be on TV. She said, I'm telling your daddy when you get home. Well, my father was the executioner. My mother was the warden, and he was the executioner. And I knew when he got home, I was going to get my ass whoop. So, excuse me, I'm sorry that slipped out. I didn't really sorry about that. I was going to get my butt whip. And so when my father came home, she told my father,

look what Steve wrote on this paper. So he read the paper. He said, what's going on here? He said, Steve up at that school, act like a smart act. That teacher didn't ask him what he wanted to be. And he didn't put, I want to be on TV. My father read the paper. He said, what's wrong with that? I started thinking, uh-oh, a reprieve.

So he said, boy, go in your room. I'll be in there in a minute. And now I got my spankans in the room, so I went on in there getting ready. Him and my mother had all My father came in the room. He said, boy, what you write this on your paper for? I said, because I want to be on TV. He said, what she wants you to write on the paper? I said, like a basketball player or a policeman? He said, put that on paper. Take it up to the school and give it to that dream killing heifer. So I write it. He said, now take your paper. He said, before you go to bed tonight, now this is my father now with a third grade education. My father was a sharecropper in Alabama. He said, read your paper every night.

before you go to bed. And when you wake up in the morning, read your paper before you go to school. Read your paper every day and read your paper every night. I took my paper up to the school and I turned it in. It took me till I was 38 years old. But I finally, I got on TV.

I wish everybody before they died could experience what it feel like to wake up and do what you was born to do. It's so cool, man. It's so cool. If you've been dreaming of opening that business, you should start the process. Don't try to figure out how to make the business, make a million dollars. Just start the process.

See, if you make one step, he'll make two. But he can't make his two unless you make your one. So you got to start. Fill out the application. Go get the patent. Send in the paperwork. Get your federal ID number. Do something, man.

Start creating the website. Let your job sponsor your dreams. Take some of your check money. Quit playing one of them punk companies. take that money and start your website. What is you talking about now? If you owe Kmart some money and seers, what is you paying them for? They're fin to be out of business.

Take whatever money you owe came out and see us. Take that money, buy your business cards. Take one of your bills one time instead of paying it. Start your website. But start. If you make one step, he'll make two. And don't worry about where you're going with it. Just get started.

He'll show you the way to go. because he wants you to get to your destiny. But he got to make sure that you want to get to your destiny first. If you tell him you want to get to your destiny that God you serve, he's going to show you how to do it. You can believe that. Don't forget to pray. Don't be ashamed to pray and don't ever be too proud to pray.

Because prayer, prayer changes things. Stay right here on Faith Street, y'all. The box you ask for is coming. Everything on my vision board I get. I put, I built on my house one time. my wife wanted a special kind of car and I built the garage, the extra garage on the house. She came out there and saw her

and she said, Steve, what are you doing? I said, Steve, I said, we got enough cars. What do you need with another garage? Because don't worry about it. Two years went by. I had been looking for this car. I went to dealerships. They said, sir, there are none in that color. I see. She won't a white one. I said, so I went to the dealership. I said, I want you to get car in for my wife. He says, sir, there are none in the country and none being made. I said,

okay, well, when the car come in, could you accept it into your dealership and call me when he get here? He says, sir, I didn't told you. I can pull it up on the computer. There are no cars in that color that make a model. Do you want another color? I said, no, my wife won't white. She says, sir, we don't have that. I said, I'm not already built the garage. I've already built the garage. All my garages have chandeliers of them. I don't have doors that go over. All my cars have chandeliers hanging over. And I have marble floors in my garage because I like, I like stuff like like that because I saw it one time. So I said, I've already, I've already built the garage. He said, sir, there are no cars like that anywhere in a computer base. I said, I just need for you when the

car come in. So a year went by. I said, any word on the car? He said, no, I've called the factory. they're not even making anymore in that color. I said, okay, I'm looking for this color right here. He said, sir, we don't have it. I said, I'm going to give it to her for her birthday, October 10th, 2016. She said, he said, sir, that's impossible. I said, no, it's not. No, it's not.

It's just a car that I'm asking for in a particular color. How that's impossible? He says, sir, I can't find the car. I ain't asked you to. I ask you, when it come through, would you accept it into your dealer? and call me. That's all I asked you for. Two weeks before my wife's birthday, I got phone called. It was Perillo from Gold Coast in Chicago. He said, Steve Harvey. He said, are you sitting down? I said, no, I'm standing up. What's happening? He said, you're not going to believe this.

A guy bought a car a year ago. It's been sitting in his garage. It has eight miles on it. He bought it to me to turn in to me and ask him how much would I give him for? I said, what is it? He says, the white car you've been looking for. I said, I'll be up there to get it. He said, this is unbelievable. I said, that God I serve, he's an unbelievable God. I don't listen to what nobody tell me. Once I write it down, I write the vision and make it plain. It will come. Surely it will come at an appointed time. It doesn't matter that nobody sees it. It doesn't matter that it's visible to other people. All you got to do is write it down and believe it. God is greatness, man, all day long. What he's done for me, he'll do the same thing for you, but you've got to write the vision.

Go home and read Hebeca 2 and 2. Go home and read Bible verse Hebeca 2 and 2. Read what it's safe. If you do that, you'll change your life. Appreciate it. I can't tell you about no education, because I ain't got one. I ain't got no degree in nothing. I've been told my whole life you'll never be nothing simply because of the way you talk. You know how many times I've been

the way I talk, man? Because you know, I'm kind of country. I don't really speak that good. You know, my English is not eloquent. I know that. But I ain't never let that stop me. When I first got on TV at NBC seven years ago, they sent a linguist

to see me. I didn't even know what that was. I thought this lady's been to show me how to make spaghetti or something. I didn't know. I've never heard this. What is a linguist? So the woman comes in my office and she says, are you ready to begin? And I said, excuse me, ma'am, who are you? She says, I'm your grammar coach. I said for what? She said, NBC is under the understanding in order for you to be successful on daytime TV. you're going to have to learn how to speak more eloquent. I said, I ain't going to do all that there. She said, excuse me? What did you just say?

I said, I ain't going to do all that there. She said, say what you just said to me again slowly. I said, I am fitting to do all that there. She said, that's exactly why I'm here. because that is improper grammar on every level. I say, yeah, but I talk just like this here. She said, say that again. I said, I talk just like this here.

She said, slow that down. I say, I talk just like this him. What's the problem? She said, if you don't learn how to speak more properly, you'll never be successful. I said, who told you that? You walked into my office. I'm already on TV.

You know, where are you trying to go with this? See, the reason I'm not going to let you change my mind is because I've never known you up until this point. Now, I made it to this point without you. I don't know how you figure I ain't going to get the rest of the way without you. So I'm just looking at this lady. She says, listen to me. If you don't learn how to speak better, you'll be off TV.

I said, okay, let me ask you some. I said, which one of these sound best to you? I am broke. or I'm is rich. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.