The Resilient Mind - The Secret to My Success (and Yours Too) - Steve Harvey

Episode Date: October 14, 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 The Secret to My Success with Steve Harvey. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. You know, folks, I'll admit it. My life is going really, really well. Many of my dreams have come true, and there are plenty of you who've got huge aspirations for success, too. I get emails and tweets all the time from people.

so many people asking how I did it. I try to share the principles of success whenever I can because I have not gotten this far without learning the principles of success. And over the years, I've just realized that common sense just ain't that common. So I often get inspiration from books. And one book that resonates with me all the time

is this book right here is called The Secret. It is the most powerful book outside of the Bible that I have ever read in my life. And the book is based on the law of attraction. And how that principle, once you master it, can help you find wealth, happiness, better health, whatever you're looking for, relationships. So let me share some of the concepts

that have helped keep me on my game. So the first one is like attracts like. You have to understand. You are a magnet. Whatever you are, that's what you draw to you. If you're negative, you're going to draw negativity. You're positive, you draw positive. You're a kind person, more people are kind to you.

So you're like a magnet, you know, and you've got to understand someone about like a tracts light. If you see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand. This is so true. You've got to grab that. You've got to create dream boards. to put the new car up on your mirror, put the weight you want to be on the refrigerator. If you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand.

That's the law of attraction. That's what you bring to you. Okay, moving on. The next principle, ask, believe, receive. So many people overlook this very simple quality. You don't have to figure it out. That's what freezes people. When you're trying to figure out your life all the way to the end, when you can't figure

it out. It freezes you from trying it because you go, oh, well, I can't figure that out. Oh, I can't go over there because I don't know how. You don't have to know how. You have to ask, believe, and receive. That's as simple as it gets, folks. It's very, very

true. I really want you to understand that. Now, science says, show me, and I'll believe. Faith says, believe, and I'll show you. There is a,

difference. Next, very important. Gratitude is a powerful process. The only way to move to the next level is you must show gratitude for where you are. If you show gratitude, it gets you to where you want

to be quicker. Laughter attracts joy and it releases negativity and it leads to some miraculous cure. Laughter is so big, man.

When you're laughing, it just brings a lot of joy into your life. It attracts joy, it releases negativity. You know, at my mom's funeral, I learned something that was the most important lesson I've ever learned. I was sitting there was totally distraught. My mama was gone.

You couldn't talk to me that week. It was a worst week of my life. The minister said something. He told us to think of only the good things that she's done. So me and my brothers were sitting there, and we started laughing about some of the stuff my mom had done. And we started smiling. And then the minister says something that has registered with me. Joy and depression cannot reside in the same space. Everyone in here has the potential

to be whatever it is you imagine. Whatever you imagine is what you can have because God places the life he has for you in your imagination. If you keep seeing yourself owning a business, if you keep seeing yourself with a summer home. If you keep seeing yourself with a big job promotion or the job of your dreams, if you see yourself with two homes, that's God

putting in your imagination the future that he has for you. He places everything he has for you in your imagination. He puts everything you've been imagining is what God is showing you he has for you. It's just people don't understand that. Unreal things

don't come into your imagination. You've never thought anything unreal. Because how can you think an unreal thought? If you dream of being rich, don't play that off. Because that's what God got for you. But now you have to pursue it. It's just the principles of success. You just got to adhere to them because the law of attraction works.

If you walk in the house, it's how it works. Whatever you put out, that's what comes in. if you want more people to smile at you, all you've got to do is smile at more people. That's it. You want more people to shake your hand? All you got to do is stick your hand out in front of more people. Everybody ain't going to shake your hand,

but I bet you'll a whole lot more people will. Because you attract that. You think rich, you be rich. You think poor, your ass is poor. You ever heard a woman say, all men and her dogs? Guess what? She's fitting to meet all of them. You're going to meet every last.

one of you ain't even going to meet a good dude because that's what you attracted that's the signal you emitted from your remote control so when I wake up in the morning I only have great thoughts I'm gonna have a great day thank you Lord appreciate today I expect great things to happen to me even when something negative happened all I got to do is wait it out behind more every moment of adversity there's a lesson and a blessing all you got to do is ride it out it's gonna be tomorrow And as long as you wake up, whatever happened yesterday, that's in the past. I'm telling you, man, all you got to do is think. If you think different, you'd be different.

That's the trick. I ain't smarter than nobody in here. I just think a little bit different. I think big thoughts. I want to ask God for little stuff. I don't even waste his time with little stuff. I want to ask God for a couple hundred dollars. Lord, I need another zero on my check.

I don't even ask for zeros. I ask for commas. I want another comma. But now if you want a zero, just ask for the zero. Your brain is divided into two halves. Positive and negative, good and evil. It don't function on nothing else. Ain't no neutral ground in your brain.

It's either positive and good or negative and evil. Each half of your brain has millions of factory workers on each side. You got a million factory workers on the positive. side, you got a million factory workers on the negative side. At the forefront of each one of those factories in your brain is a forming. You got forming positive and you got forming negative. You are in charge. You're the boss of the factory.

So let me show you how this works. You got a remote control. You go to your house tonight and you press that power button and you press it. When you point it at the TV, what do you expect to happen? You expect TV to come on. Listen to me, you press the power button. You expect the TV to come on. If you want to watch HBO, and HBO is channel 300,

and you press 300, and then you press select, what do you expect to come on that TV? And what comes on that TV? Okay, you follow me now. They got this concept from the Bible because God said a man is as he thinking. And since he created all of us in his image, guess what?

We are how we think. If God said let there be light, it was light. If he parted the waters from the land, it was done so. He gives you the same power to produce, you can't make a world, but you can make your own world. So now, since your brain is in two halves,

let me show you how this works. You wake up in the morning and you say, man, I don't feel myself today. I got up on the wrong side of the bed. I'm not a morning person. Forming negative. He hears that. He steps to the front.

He said, what did you say? You said, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed day. I'm not myself, I'm not a morning person. He says, you got it right away. He said, hey, the boss just woke up and said he's not a morning person. He's having a bad day today, and he ain't feeling itself. Let's get to work. The million factory workers start producing thoughts to justify what you just said.

So now guess what? Man, I hate my alarm clock went off this morning. I got to get out here in this traffic. I'm going to drive down here to there. I don't even like these people on my job. I can't stand this car. I'm fin to get in this morning. Shell wish I had a new car,

but I'm driving this ragged-ass car. And on and on and on. And your day starts tumbling into what you ordered at the top of the day. You could wake up in the morning and you say, you know what? Today is going to be a great day today.

I expect something really good to happen for me today. Man, thank you, Lord, for waking me up this morning. He said, what did you say? You said, I said, I'm having a great day today. I expect something good to happen today. Thank you, Lord, for waking me up. Forming positive turns around and goes,

all right, let me have your attention. Steve's having a great day today. He's expecting some wonderful things to happen, and man, let's get it going. And let's start manufacturing thoughts. Same brain. Man, I can't wait to go to work today. It may not be the job I won't,

but at least I got a job. I'm so grateful I got a car to drive to work today. Hey, man, at least I got a check coming in. I sure want to thank you, Lord, for this roof over my head today. I appreciate the fact that I don't have a car, but at least I can walk to the train. Man, this is going to be great today. That's how your mind works 24-7.

It never turns off. You have got to change the way you think. It is the whole determining factor of where you go in life. We are all where we are today because we thought ourselves to this position. If you don't like the position, think yourself out of it. Your gift is the thing that you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort. I want to tell you something that can help enrich your life. It's a sure sign from God that heen through with you because it wakes you up in the morning.

When he's done, you won't wake up no more. But as long as you're waking up, that means he has something for you that he hasn't been able to give to you for whatever the reason. I'm going to help you get to that reason a little bit quicker. quicker. I want to tell you something that I learned that changed my life. I was reading a book one time that had a quote in there from Albert Einstein. And Albert Einstein said, imagination is everything. It's the preview to life's coming attractions. If you think about that, that's a really, really true statement. Because everything you see in this world came from somebody's

imagination. Everything. Somebody was talking on the phone one day, on that wall phone, connected to the court and tried to walk, and it didn't go no further, and he wanted to just go outside and get something out of the car. He said, somebody said, you know what, I wish I could take this phone outside. Everybody in here got a cell phone. It was in somebody's imagination. Somebody imagined that. Somebody imagined everything. Somebody got tired of walking. Somebody got tired of walking. Somebody got tired of driving cars. Somebody said, we're going to fly. You're not fitting to fly.

Everybody in here to have been on the plane. See, your imagination is the evidence of things not seen. You know why they call it the evidence of things not seen? Your imagination, you're the only one can see it.

You're the only one can see it. See, so all this stuff you've been imagining was not some hocus pocus. When you imagine stuff, It's actually God showing you a preview of a coming attraction he has for you. That's what your imagination is. Why do you keep imagining yourself with a second home?

Because God wants you to have a second home. Why do you keep imagining yourself in a supervisory capacity on another job? Because God really wants you to have that. Why you keep dreaming of opening a business one day? That's because that's what God really got for you. And he put it in your imagination. The problem with your imagination, though, is you tell it to the wrong people.

If you want to kill a big dream, tell it to a small-minded person. You can't, oh, man, think about this in your life. How many times have you had this really incredible idea and you took it your family and your friends? You shared it with them and they shot it down. You know why?

shout it down because they couldn't see it. Because God didn't put it in their imagination. He put it in yours. It was your evidence of things not seen. See, all this stuff you've been imagining, you ought to start working on it. Because that's what God really got for you.

Your real life is in your imagination. I'm here to tell you that. You think I'm here by accident? I'm here because he put this in my imagination when I was 10. When I was 10, he showed me I was going to be on TV. That's all I ever wanted. The assignment when I was in the sixth grade was everybody

write their name on a piece of paper and write what you want to be. You know what I wrote on my paper? I won't be on TV. Now the problem I had though was I used to suffer with a serious stuttering problem. I couldn't talk outside my house. I studied for years. I flunked out of school. I'm on my third marriage. I lost everything I ever owned twice. I've been homeless and lived in a car for three years. But at 10, though, I wrote on a piece of paper, I want to be on TV. So the teacher went

around the room and read everybody's paper. Had you stand up when she called your name. And the only assignment was your name and what you want to be. Doctor, lawyer, dentist, basketball, player, football player. I wrote I want to be on TV. She saved me for last. She said, little Stevie come to the front.

Now, I'm thinking, I'm going to the front because I got the best answer. Because ain't nobody had put that on their paper. She called me to the front. I'm thinking I'm going to be afraid to give me a gold scar. But I was wrong about that. She called me to the front to humiliate me.

First of all, you know I can't talk. I suffered with stuttering stammer so bad, man. I couldn't talk at all. And that lady lit in on me. Why did you write this on your paper? Now I'm standing now. I can't talk. Who in this school?

ever been on TV. Who in your family ever been on TV? Who in this neighborhood ever been on TV? I'm crushing, man. I'm standing there dying. She said, look at you standing there.

You can't even talk. How are they going to put somebody like you on TV? So every Christmas, I send her a flash screen TV. Because I don't want her to miss me. I do not want her to miss not an air episode of me. because I wanted her to see what God had done for me.

The fact that you couldn't see it, it wasn't for you to see. He put it in my imagination. But after three years of homelessness, losing everything I ever owned twice, suffering through flunking out of school, go home and cut your TV on. That little boy with the stuttering problem,

he's all over there, TV. You can't cut your TV on. You can't cut your TV on nothing there, day of the week and you don't see that little boy. That little boy with the stuttering problem is all over that TV because God put it in my imagination. All I did was hang on to that thought. I just kept hoping.

I just kept hoping that what I had wrote on the paper would come true. A lot of times it wasn't about no faith. I didn't believe it sometime. When you're homeless and living in the car, how you see yourself as a TV stop? But I just kept hanging on that. Because my mama's Sunday school teacher,

I kept hearing and I say, God, God didn't bring you this far to leave you. God didn't bring you this far to leave you. Why do you think he keeps waking you up? Because he got more for you. He got way more for you. He got plans for you. But he needs your faith.

He just needs you to call up. He needs you to dust off your imagination and just go for it. You got to try. Quit waking up thinking you ain't got no say-so. in your life. You have a choice in this matter. You can't stop what happened to you, but you can doggone show do something about what happened to you. Life is 10% what happened to you is 90% what you do about it. Somebody in your family going to die. Somebody in here going to get fired. Somebody here going to get an eviction notice.

Somebody going to get laid off. Somebody company going to close. That's life. Somebody you love going to break up with you. That's life. But what you're going to do by, by life? But what you're going to do by though since it's going to happen anyway. Trust me, go home and ask God to open up your imagination and then pursue it with everything in you and watch what he do for you. My mother was a Sunday school teacher

for 40 years when she was living. She used to always tell me. She said, God blesses you to become a blessing. I didn't get it back then because I ain't had nothing. So he blessed me. Mama, we ain't got nothing. She said, but one day, son, you're going to, gonna be different.

I'm standing here today because I learned something. I just try to tell people some real basic stuff to succeed. You do not have to be educated to succeed. So you can quit beating yourself up about your lack of education. Education ain't in the Bible. Harvard ain't in there, UCLA ain't in there. Now if you wanna be a doctor, lawyer, scientist, dentist,

you gotta go to school, we understand that. Maybe you're gifted with your hands of healing. You do that. But what about if you like me? What if you like you? What if you ain't a school person? What you're going to do? Suppose you got a learning disability.

Pose you're dyslexic. Suppose you just don't get to you. You know, I just didn't get math. Once you got past adding, subtraction, multiplication, and division, you lose me. I don't know. I only know what I know. I learned to identify this gift of mine.

And this gift has made room for me. Now, I've told you that. But here is the other thing. Once you identify your gift, you have got to write this information down. If you do not have a vision board, if you don't have a dream list, I am telling you,

you are complicating your process to getting what you want in life. You're complicating it because you are missing because maybe nobody ever told you, or maybe you don't think that it applies to you, but a simple principle of success is that it has to be written down somewhere. Oprah was on TV for 30 years talking about these vision boards. Oprah, she got a billion dollars.

She has my attention. Now, like I said earlier, you don't got to be rich to be happy. Maybe your goal is not to make a million dollars. That's cool. But maybe you just need $150,000. Maybe you just need 200,000. I'm telling you you have to write this information down. I don't care what church you go to, synagogue, temple, mosque.

If you don't write it down, chances of it happening is slim. Could that be the one thing that's holding you back? If I'm telling you this, or do it with no education, I can't read a business periodical. my head explode. I don't even know what they're talking about. It's not what I do. Too many times people have you focusing on your weaknesses.

You're wasting your time. You ain't got to strengthen that. Work on what you good at. If you focus on what you good at, you'll make enough money. You hire somebody to be what you ain't. I got all kinds of people read numbers and contracts and all that because I can't do it.

But I hire them. Listen, man, you've got to write this information down. Let me tell you what, the reason writing it down is important. Because it plants the information in your subconscious. That means write exactly what you want. Don't deviate. Be clear. If you want four cars, it's nothing wrong we want four cars.

If you want three houses, you can have three houses. Why not? Why? Why you can't have, why you just can't get it? a home. What kind of God you serve when he won't give you a house? It's just a house. Somebody asked me the other day

they saw my vision board. They said, man, where your dream car at? They're in the driveway. They've been marked off the vision board a long time ago. The vision boys work. I'm not bragging. I'm telling you how this work. You don't think I got all these TV shows. I ain't making no money now.

I'm out here hustling and grinding. But I'm willing to work. You've got to write everything you want down. Now, if you want, like I said, you can go to school, try to get you another degree. I don't have one. I'm telling you what I did to get here. I learned a few scriptures that made some good sense to me. You have not because you ask not.

So you mean to tell me, if I just keep asking you for it and believing in it, that's one way to get it. Okay, cool. Then you tell me, faith without works is dead. You tell them, if I believe in you and I'm willing to work, I should have it. But I can't believe in it and don't work and I won't get it. Okay, I understand that one. and then you tell me to write the vision and make it plain, I can do this.

These are things you can do today that ain't got nothing that you don't need nobody's permission to succeed. To get to God, you ain't got to check with nobody. He available to you today. You ain't got to get cleared. His line ain't busy. You can talk to him right now. I do it all the time.

That's how I got here. I'm telling you how you can get to where you're trying to go. Now, you can go get your other education if you want, I did it without an education. I did it without nobody's money. All I did was I identified this gift. I worked. I wrote all of my visions down.

I read them every morning and every night. And I instilled them in my head. And every time I met somebody, they say, hey man, what you're trying to do? I would tell them one of my visions. Somebody would always say to me, You know, I know a guy that's selling them things right there. You ought to talk to him. I started scratching stuff off my vision board.

My vision board is so vast now. If I showed you what was on it, you wouldn't even believe it. Because I dream so big. I won't so big because the God I serve is big. He's not a small God. He's a really, really big God. He does really, really big stuff. And I expect him to do really, really big stuff for me.

If somebody who had come from the bottom and got to this position I'm in, told me that this is the way I would try. If I was you, I would try that. You're looking at a man who has made the simple application of three or four scriptures and maxed them out to get here. Albert Einstein said once, he said, imagination is everything. It's the preview to life's coming attractions. everything you have, everything we have in this world, somebody imagined it. It's your imagination is tremendous. Imagination is everything.

It's the preview to life's coming attractions. Your real life, the one God really got for you, is in your imagination. It is not in your current situation or your current paycheck. And if you've been living like that, you have then restricted yourself to a commonality that it's really not choice. Because what really God got for you is really in your imagination. There is a scripture

that Albert Einstein took this quote from. It's like the book The Secret. The Secret is one of the top-selling motivational books ever. But if you read the book, The Secret, it's all biblical. Everything comes from the Bible.

You really don't need self-help books. You don't need the magic of thinking being, the power, positive thinking, how to win friends and influence people, think and grow rich, the winner's circle. I've read them all. All of that information is in Proverbs, all of it. But let me give you this scripture.

You've all heard this, right? Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So when I told you a minute ago, you've got to have a tremendous work ethic, but you've got to have a lot of faith. I talk to so many people who get older, like some of us are, and they've lost to faith.

Well, faith is really simple. It's the, faith is the substance of things. hope for. All that mean is in the beginning, you just hope something pop off. You know, you just kind of hope something happened for you. I was hoping I would get on TV. I wrote it on a piece of paper when I was 10. I want to be on TV. The problem I had when I wrote it at 10 was I suffered from a severe stuttering problem. I could not talk outside of my house. So can you imagine when I wrote on a piece of paper, I want to be on TV and turn that in? But when I wrote it on the paper, it wasn't factual.

It was just hoping. You just got to start with the hope. Faith is the substance of things that you hope for. You just hope something, Joe. Then what happened in through grace and favor, he'd give you a couple of them things you hope for, and then you're supposed to start believing then, because now it turns into faith.

But if you take this scripture, faith is the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen. what is the evidence of things not seen i just told it to you albert einstein said imagination is everything it's the preview to life's coming attraction but guess what your imagination really is it's the evidence of things not seen because your imagination you know why it's the evidence of things not seen because you the only one can see it. Your imagination is actually God showing you a preview of a coming attraction that he has for you. The moment you don't believe in your imagination,

you negate what he got for you. Your imagination is to preview to life's coming attraction. It is the evidence of things not seen because can't nobody see it with you. Your problem is you keep telling your imagination to the wrong people. See, if you want to kill a big dream, tell it to a small-minded person. It's dead. How many times, man, have you had a tremendous idea? Something you thought was the one,

and you wouldn't told it to your loved ones and your so-called friends. And they shot it down. I mean, you was convinced that it was. was just, oh man, I just came to you. And you told it to me and they shot it down. And you thought since they was your loved ones and their friends and they got your best interest at heart, you believed them. You was wrong. You let them talk you out of what God got for you. Some of y'all still sitting here with the ambition of opening a business one day, but you're scared to go start

the business because you got a job and you got bills. Rich people got bills. Everybody got bills. Hell, I got bills. You, who? Everybody owes somebody something. I got something with the bank right now. You're going to let the fact that you got some bills stop you from opening the business, the thing that God didn't put in your imagination.

So you're going to squash that because you got bills. Everybody got bills. Your real life is in your imagination. Can you grab what I'm telling you? So I don't know what you thought I was going to say to you. I'm just a real dude. I don't even have the education you all have. I flunked out of school.

I flung, I ain't got no education. I don't use four-syllable words. What I'm sharing with you is stuff that everybody can apply today. If you're sitting in here thinking that you're too old to listen to what Steve, hell, I'm 60. But I still rely on my imagination. See, if you think you're too old to make it, let me give you a prime example. Colonel Sanders.

Colonel Sanders has been frying chicken his whole life. He was telling everybody he had the best chicken in the world. Ain't nobody believing. They turned him down everywhere. Colonel Sanders didn't get a franchise till he was in his 60s. Kentucky fried chicken sell more chicken than anybody in the world today. So if you're sitting here thinking because you got a little gray on you, you're too late, as long as God waking you up in the morning,

that's the sign that he ain't through with you. So what you're tripping for? You're sitting up in here like God can't do nothing for you because you're 60. Man, you know what I'm asking God for right now? And I'm 60? If you could see my vision board, you would be blown away. Because I got enough right now. I really know, but I ain't in the need business.

I'm in the won't business. Ain't nothing wrong with wanting something. But going down to these churches, y'all sitting up in here going down too, that keeping you in these little boxes. God got a big life for you. The smallest scripture I ever read changed my life. The scripted real something. You have not, because your ass not.

Do you know the difference that that could make in your life? I'm just giving you real talk now. I'm just trying to tell you how I got here. See, I have no education. When the last time you really asked him for something? Or do you keep making requests that's inside the confines of your paycheck? When you're going to get outside of that?

Didn't I just tell you God ain't in your paycheck? Didn't I just tell you he ain't in your job title? The life God got for you is in your imagination. why you still imagine this stuff? Why you keep dreaming of a summer home? Why you keep dreaming of retirement, leaving your grandkids money? Something at the age now

why I think about my grandkids. I got seven TV shows. Dog, I only need one. One show pay me enough money. I need four for my wife. The other three is for the grandkids.

I just need one. I do not live my life in the confines of what anybody says to me. I let my imagination go, and now imagination is a preview to life's coming to trash. But what that really means is,

is God showing you a preview of what he has for you. So now, if you have not, because you ask not, do you understand if you up your ask, he has to up his guilt? This period. This is simple stuff

that anybody can apply. You ain't even got to have no degree to do this. You don't even have to have no money to do this. You can start this today and change your whole game because you're going to need grace and favor anyway. You have not because you ask not. Quit asking God for little bitty stuff. Lord Jesus helped me make my rent.

Don't he always? All y'all got somewhere to stay. How about this? Why do you keep asking for rent? Why don't you ask for a mortgage? If he going to give you the money for a place, to stay. What difference do it make to God? But if you keep saying rent, ain't he fair? He keeps giving your rent. If you ask for a mortgage, he'll give you a mortgage, but you have not

cause your ass not. Lord Jesus, help me fix my car so I can make it to work. Why do you keep praying over that raggedy car? Why don't you? you ask God for a car that don't need fixing. You know, they roll them off the assembly line every day. How you can't get a new car? How you serve God? How you go to church and you can't get a car?

Just a new car. How you can't get that from God? You know, why, because you ain't asking. You keep asking him for stuff that fit in your paycheck. Your paycheck, say a 2015 Lexus, so you go down there and ask him for that. And guess what you get?

A 2015 Lexus. You up your ass. He up his gear. You have not because you ask not. This ain't a magic trick, man. I get tired of rich people talking to people and they make you buy these programs and stuff so they can drag you out for eight years.

I have asked God for some tremendous stuff. Everything he hasn't given to me is on the way. When I was homeless, I lived in a car for three years. I made some decisions in my life, man, and threw myself off a cliff. My decision in October 8, 1985, I walked into a comedy club for the first time on a dare from a girl.

Jesus. I walked into a comedy club for the first time. Had never heard of a comedy club. All my life, I wanted to be on TV. Had never heard of a comedy club. Club. October the 8th, I walked into hilarity's comedy club

in Kyle Hoker Falls, Ohio. That's right outside. I signed up for the following week, because I just wanted to see what the comedians did. Man, I wanted, I saw live stand up for the first time. They had 10 acts supposed to go up.

Nine of them went up. The 10th guy got scared and ran out the door. So I had signed up for the following week. The guy says, listen, we lost our 10th act. If Steve Harvey's here, come on up now. So I ran up on stage. I'm doing, I don't even know what to do,

but I just started talking about boxing and stuff that happened to me. Audience was hardly laughing. They bought all 10 of us back up on stage. They had a clap off. I won the clap off. I won $50. I cried from Kyle Hover Falls to Cleveland. The girl kept saying, why are you crying?

It ain't but $50. I said, no, you don't understand. This way more than $50. This is what I do. She said, what you mean? This is what you do. This is just your first time. You don't understand.

Something happened to me. I won't have much tonight. I went to work the next day, October 9th, 1985, and quit my job. Now, I don't recommend that you do it that way. Because two years later, I was homeless. Because the first year of comedy, I made $3,400. The next year, I made $4,800.

And the third year, I made $5,300. I got a wife, a set of twins. I'm sending every dollar I got to them. So I tried to live on $50,75 a week gas for 38 cent of gallon back then. I just stayed in my car. So I lived in my car for three years. Three years I lived in my car. And what happened was I just said, man, so I used to fish all the time to eat because I'm a fisherman.

I'm a bass fisherman. So I used to stop at lakes and ponds and just fish. And every month I get run off from somebody's land. Hey, get away from here. Hey, move along. That's not yours. Hey, stop fishing here. I just get run off.

And he didn't understand. And one time I had fish on the line and said, you got fish on that line? I said, yeah, throw them back. I had to throw them back. Because I used to stop at rest areas with them little cast iron grills. I kept charcoal in my car. I started a fire and I eat fish. There's some days I wouldn't eat.

So they thought I was just fishing, but I was eating. So I said one day, I said, man, you know what? One day, man, I'm going to get myself some land. I'm by myself a piece of dirt. So fast forward, God bless him. I get on TV when I'm 38 I'm on Showtime at the Apollo Lord have mercy

They gave me my money I saved my money up I say $250,000 I say I'm going to give me some land That's all I want Because you know the one thing I wanted I didn't care if I put a house on it or nothing I just wanted to be a stand somewhere

And could nobody run me off I just wanted You know ma'am I was in world of hurt I was so sick of just getting just getting runoff man every time I stop. So I got this money

man I saved my money I saved $250,000 I'm going and I'm looking for some land. The first day I get there I see a piece of land in Texas so beautiful I couldn't believe it had rolling hills had a pond on it where I could fish the dude took me over there

I look at the land and I'm looking at I said man this is great right here I said, sir, how much is this right here? He said, well, it's about $600,000. I said, man, I ain't got that kind of money. He said, well, how much do you have? I said, I got $250,000. He said, let me think about it.

And I was standing there, and then I stopped. I said, sir, can I ask you a question, man? How many acres of land is that? He said, this is six acres. Six. six years ago I just asked God just give me six

see I didn't want a whole lot of acres I just wanted my cut just give me my six and so I said ain't this crazy so I thought about it I said man what can we work out right before I got raised saying

the guy that took me over and said Steve let me show you something right quick he took me over this hillbilly's house took me over this hillbilly house named Jerry Campbell I was a little nervous about meeting him, man, because I ain't like the way he talked, but messing around turned out to be one of the finest men

I've met in my life. Became a father figure to him. It's an old white man. It took me up and showed me this land, and it was massive. It had three lakes on it. It had rolling hills. It had trees.

It was unbelievable, man. I said, man, this is incredible. I said, man, how much is this? He said, this 16 acres. I say, hey man, I ain't got that kind of money. Let me go on back over here to this dude where I can, Mike can cut a deal. He said, let me ask something.

What was you going to give that man over there? I said, well, I hadn't worked it out yet because all I got is $250,000. He said, well, listen, I'm in a little bit of a tie right now. Said, if you can bring me $250,000 cash by tomorrow, I give you this $16 acres. I showed up next day $250,000 $16 acres See, that's grace in favor right there

That's what that is So my first piece of land was 250 acres So I said man This is the land That I'm going to save for my family I'm going to fish on the rest of my life I'm going to be an old man

So then I got to thinking I said hold up man You mean you have not Because you ask now I asked for six six years ago, he showed me six, but he gave me 16. Next thing you know, I had 270 acres of land. Now, let me tell you something. I'm so busy now, I don't even get to go to that ranch. I never can go. And I thought I was going to be fishing and save it for my kids, rest of life.

God had no plan for it. That's the ranch that I was going to be fishing. That's the ranch that I was going to be fishing. I had my mentoring camp on. I bring a thousand black boys out there with a thousand single mothers. And that was the purpose of that ranch. I never go there to fish at all. But see, that's what I wanted. I thought

that's what it was for. But God got another plan. His way is way bigger than you. You can't even see his way. But you got to start to hustle. You got to give God something to work with. Look, if you start hustling and grinding, he'll fill it up for you. But if you ain't got no hustle,

no grind, he can't fill it up. So guess what? I don't ever go there to use that land for fishing or not, but I'm changing boys' lives over there. My story is really a story about faith. Really is, man. I come out the dirt. I have no college degree. All of my children do. I got seven kids. I'd send their last one of them to college. I got three boys, two boys come out of Moe House. I got a daughter that come out of Feldman at Berkeley. I got two daughters went to Hampton, and then graduated from Ohio State. I made sure all my kids went to college,

because I know they got to have that education. Well, Daddy, you didn't go to college, but your ass ain't got no jokes. It's been important for me to empower my children, but not only my children, but thousands of young people across the country. And education is key for a lot of people. when I speak at colleges and stuff, I tell people,

number one thing in your world is not your education. It's your dream. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.