The Resilient Mind - Take Bold Action On Your Dreams - Eric Thomas

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Eric Thomas, Ph.D., is a critically acclaimed author, World-renowned speaker, educator, pastor, and audible.com Audie Awards Finalist. As he is better known, ET has taken the world by storm with his creative, common-sense approach to living a successful, satisfying professional and personal life.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠Channel: https://www.youtube.com/etthehiphoppreacher Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to Take Bold Action on Your Dreams with Eric Thomas. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. So if you want to make six figures, you can't just be talking about you want to make six figures. You hear what I'm saying to you tonight? If you do the three things I tell you to do tonight, I guarantee you, whatever it is you want to do in life, you'll be able to do. You will be able to accomplish whatever you want to academically, financially,

relationally, whatever. So three things. All right, now I'm going to tell you this story. I got to get out of here. And the story is about you guys have probably heard about this before. It was a young man who, you know, he wanted to make a lot of money and so he went to this guru, right? And he told the guru, you know, I want to be on the same level you are. And so the guru said if you want to be on the same level I'm on, I'll meet you tomorrow at the beach at 4 a.m.

He liked the beach. I said I want to make money. I don't want to swim. Guru said if you want to make money, I'll meet you tomorrow. 4 a.m. So the young man got there at 4 a.m. He all ready to rock and roll, got on the suit. He should have wore shorts.

The old man grabs his hand, said, how bad do you want to be successful? He said real bad. He said, walk on out in the water. So he walks out into the water. Watch this. When he walks out into the water, it goes waist deep. So he's like, this guy crazy.

Adrian, he's like, I want to make money. He got me out of swimming. I didn't ask to be a lifeguard. I want to make money. He got me in. So he said, come out a little further, walked out a little further. Then he had it right around this area, the shoulder area. So this old man crazy, he's making money, but he's crazy.

He said, come on out a little further. It came out of his mouth. My man, like, I'm about to go back in here. This guy is mine. So the old man said, I thought you said you wanted to be successful. He said, I do. He said, walked a little further. He came, dropped his head in, held him down, hold him down.

My man getting scratching holding him down. I got you. I know you brushed it out, but I got you. He had him held down. I need you for illustration. He had him held down. Just before my man was about to pass out, he raised him up. He said, I got a question for you.

Somebody answered the question for me. He said, when you were underwater, what did you want to do? Lee, I'm looking for a different word though than lip. What's that word? He said I wanted to breathe. He told the guy, he said when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe then you'll be successful I don't know how many y'all got asthma in here today but if you ever had an asthma attack before you short of breath

SOB shorted in some breath you wheezing the only thing you trying to do is get some air you don't care about no basketball game you don't care what's on TV you don't care about nobody calling you you don't care about a party the only thing you care about when you're trying to breathe is to get some fresh air that's it and when you get to the point where all you want to do as be successful as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful. And I'm here to tell you number one that most of you say you want to be successful, but you don't want it bad.

You just kind of want it. You don't want it bad than you want to party. You don't want it as much as you want to be cool. Most of you don't want success as much as you want to sleep. Some of you love sleep more than you love success. And I'm here to tell you today, if you're going to be successful, you've got to be willing to give up sleep. You got to be willing to work off for three hours of sleep, two hours.

If you really want to be successful, some days you will have to stay up three days in a row. Because if you go to sleep, you might miss the opportunity to be successful. That's how bad you got to want it. You got to go days without, listen to me, you got to want to be successful so bad that you forget to eat. Beyonce said once she was on the set doing her thing, three days had gone by, she forgot she didn't eat because she was engaged. I never forget when 50 cent was doing his movie,

I did a little research on 50. And 50 said that when he wasn't doing the movie, he was doing the soundtrack. And they said, when do you sleep, 50? He said sleep. Sleep is for those people who are broke. I don't sleep. He said, I got an opportunity to make a dream becoming reality.

Football players, how many football players? I got anybody like football in here, raise your hand. Anybody like football? Emmett Smith. I used to be a cowboy fan. Before they did my boy Tom Landry roll, I used to be a cowboy fan. And watch this, there was a commercial.

Emmett had won his first Super Bowl, and he had this commercial when he was lifting weights. I don't know if you saw the commercial, when he was lifting, and he said, he said, you know what, I won the Super Bowl so I can rest now. He was doing this bench press. So he said, I won a Super Bowl so I can rest now. So he throws up about 325, boom.

And he rests for about two seconds. Then he said, boom. You see that? He'd already won a Super Bowl. He said, I think I'm gonna take a rest, and he rests for how long? One second. Most of you won't be successful because when you're studying and you get tired, you quit. And I'm here to tell you today, if you got somebody came in my office the other day crying.

I said, look, don't cry to give up, cry to keep going. Don't cry to quit. You already, in pain, you already hurt, get a reward from it. Don't go to sleep until you succeed. Listen to me, I'm here to tell you today that you can come. come here, you can jump up, you can do flips, you can be excited when we give away money. But listen to me, you'll never be successful until I don't have to give you a dime to do what you do. You won't be successful until you say I don't need that money.

Because I got it in here. So listen to me, Emmett Smith said this at the end of the commercial. Emmett Smith said, all men are created equal, some work harder in preseason. I'm going to say it again because you might have missed it. All men are created equal, some work harder and preseason. So that means that there are some people who are going to see the professor, going to see the TA. And even when the professor says, I don't meet with you, my TA meet with you, you say, I don't want to talk to your TA. That's what it is.

I don't pay the TA. I pay you to teach me. So you're going to have to find some time to meet me. If I got to meet you at the mall, if I got to meet you at your house, you are going to see me. Listen to me. All men are created equal, some work hard in preseason. When I went to college, guys were way smarter to me. me, 4.0s, 3.0s. They went to the Ivy League high schools, came to Oakwood from

these great high schools. Most of them are not doing what I'm doing. Why? Because it's not about where you come from. It's about hearts. You come to a place where, you know, being smart ain't enough. You gotta have hearts. That's number one. Watch number two. Number two. Catch number two. I wrote it down. I wanted to make sure you got it. It says to be, watch this, watch this. We're talking about sacrifice now. The important thing is this. You're writing why I'm saying it, because I only have about three more minutes. Listen to me. The most important thing is this, to be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you will become.

That's the number two thing. You got to catch that one. To be able to, listen to me, at any moment, some of you, you can make sacrifices when Monday night football is not on. You can make a sacrifice, but when the game come on, for some reason, you just attach to it. For some of you, when your favorite show come on, you can be, you can make sacrifice. sacrifices on Sunday when ain't nothing going on.

But when your favorite show comes on Monday, some of you, you focus into the phone ring and then you're like, I gotta answer it. If I don't answer the phone, I'm gonna die. I'm saying to you today that there are some of you, if you give up your cell phone, you would be successful. But your cell phone is more important to you than your success. I'm gonna say it again, I'm gonna hurt somebody.

Some of you need to give up your cell phone, because the time you spend on on your cell phone could be used for your success. The time you could be using to be successful, you're using it on the sale. And the cell phone is not bringing you nothing but a bill. And somebody has told you you couldn't live without it. I'm talking about going deep now, giving up stuff.

Watch what it says. To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could be. I don't do well in math. You're right. You ain't never studied. I'm not good in writing, because you have never written before. But I dare you to fail in writing for a whole year to see if you can get to the end.

I dare you to fail. I dare you to take that same class over and over again. I dare you to stop dropping classes like you soft. Always want to give up. I'm dropping. Why are you dropping? I'm so grateful that the slaves didn't drop and quit. Say, I'm just going to stop.

I'm a slave. I'm just going to be a slave. I'm just going to quit. Listen to me. The slaves said, we will live because one day we will become. Always be slaves. So today, although we're slaves, we're going to act like we free, and one day our children will be free.

If the slaves would have just said, we quit, we give up. We would have died in the middle passage. But some slaves said, I don't care what we go through. We're going to survive this. Four hundred years of slavery, we're going to get through this. And you can't get through an 1825. You can't get through a writing class, and you got tutor after tutor, resource after resource. The problem is, you can't get through a writing class.

You ain't never felt no pain before. You're soft. It's a soft generation. You quit on everything. Our people did not quit. Harriet Tubman not only made it, she went back and got some more. She said, you know what, I made it, but I'm going to walk all of it. Listen to me, shh, not ride the bus.

I'm going to walk all the way back down to the south to get some more. And you quitting on 1825? Now watch this. You quit after you, listen to me, you get a sleeping bag and you wait for him. wait for the first WRA instructor to come in and you come out your sleeping bag, I need help. You quit after you do that. You quit after you had, listen to me, a WRA party. I'm having a party.

Everybody come over. I got food, everything, and let them get over there, let it be all the best writers. All right, I fool y'all. I want to have a writing party. I'm serious. You quit and you ain't even tried yet. Last one, I'm sorry. Last one.

Listen to me. Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute or an hour or a day or even a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it will last forever. Listen to me, I'm telling you as I leave, I was homeless for two and a half years. And the problem with most of you, you never felt no pain before. Y'all spoil.

Some of y'all spoiled. Some of y'all spoiled. Just bottom line, your parents have done everything for you. You never had to do nothing for yourself. You're spoiled. We're gonna keep it real tonight. Some of you are spoiled brats. Every time you ever got in trouble, somebody in your house got you out of it.

Every time you've done something you're not supposed to do. People say, Eric, your mother is a tyrant. You're right. She kicked me out. You're right. She's mean, but she developed a man because she put me out there and said, you're going to have to grow up. And some of you have never learned to grow up.

And so every time something get hard, you quit you call mama I dare you to take a little pain I dare you not to go home somebody said I don't go home I feel bad go through it you ain't going to die at the end of pain and success you're not going to die because you're feeling a little pain I'm not eating like I eat at home that's why you're about to go to the next level because if you keep eating like you head at home you will keep being a boy or a girl It's time to become man, woman. So don't worry about a little pain.

My greatest asset is I was homeless, so I can't feel a whole lot of pain. I've already been alone. It's not a whole lot of hurt I can feel on a little paper, on a little test. So I leave you, I leave you, listen to me, we have gotten to a point where it's midterms and we're moving forward. The days of you getting money, I'm not saying we quitting, but I'm saying a day has got to go from external to internal. You have to give it everything you got. No more TV, no more parties, no more plan. If you don't have a 4.0, what you need to be doing is studying.

Get off the phone. I'm sorry, I'm not available until the end of this year. No, I'm for real. You've reached the right number, but you call me at the wrong time. Call me back January 1st. I'm about to get busy now. Huh? I want you to have a countdown of your own.

when the countdown is over with a real, watch me, because when I was homeless, I knew something was wrong, I knew that wasn't the best of me. And one day I said, will the real Eric Thomas, please stand up. Will the real Eric Thomas, please stand up. Stop being this high school dropout. Stop giving up, stop sleeping on the street. Stop walking up and down Finco Avenue like you ain't got

nothing and get your GED. Stop being afraid to take a test. Stop being afraid to go to college because your daddy didn't go and your mama didn't go. Stop being afraid and be the best Eric Thomas you can be. But listen to me, it's going to be hard. It took me 12 years to get a four-year degree, but I got it. And guess what?

On a degree, it don't have dates. So if it took you four and it took me 12, it don't show up nowhere. But I'm exactly where I wanted to be because I realized I got to commit my very being to this thing. I got to breathe it. I got to eat it. I got to sleep it. And until you get there, you'll never be successful in life. But once you get there, I guarantee you.

the world is yours. So work hard, and you can have whatever it is you want. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.