The School of Greatness - 596 Tererai Trent: Awaken to Your Full Potential and Achieve the Impossible

Episode Date: January 31, 2018

"I REALIZED THE PATHWAY I WAS GOING THROUGH WAS SILENCING ME. I've learned that greatness can come from anywhere, everywhere, or anyone. It all starts with a dream, a vision. Of course one of the secrets is never giving up, but the biggest one is that it needs to be yours. You need to know that your goals are your goals, not something pushed on you by someone else. No matter where you are in your life, or what obstacles appear in your way, you can achieve it. I believe this now more than ever after sitting down with our most recent guest, Tererai Trent. Tererai was born in Zimbabwe, was forced into marriage as a child, and even gave birth to 4 children by the time she was 18. She came from a place where education wasn't an opportunity given to women. Tererai ended up pushing through so many obstacles and now had a PhD - and that's just the beginning of her incredible accomplishments. Tererai was named by Oprah as her All-Time Favorite Guest and received a $1.5 million donation to rebuild her childhood elementary school in recognition of her tenacity and never-give-up attitude. With the firm belief that education is the pathway out of poverty and a desire to give back to her community, she founded Tererai Trent International. Eleven schools are being built in Zimbabwe and education has been improved for over 5,000 children so far. And this is only the beginning. Today, Dr. Trent is invited to speak all over the world, to share her remarkable story and the valuable lessons she has learned along the way. She just came out with a new book all about empowering women to awaken to their full potential (she is the poster child of this). Her favorite motto is Tinogona, meaning, It is achievable! Discover all of that and much more, on Episode 596. Some Questions I ask: What interested you in agriculture? (16:15) What made you bring your 5 children and your abusive husband to America? (17:20) What was it like when you met the same woman who inspired you 14 years later? (26:26) Do boys have more access to education around the world? (36:10) What's your message to girls from privileged and non-privileged parts of the world? (40:36) How can anyone make an impact in the world? (42:43) What is available for a woman who is not sexually happy with herself? (46:05) What advice do you have for men to support the women in their lives? (48:15) What's your vision now? Have you planted new dreams? (50:00) In this episode you will learn: What it's like to be a young mother in Kenya (and mother of 4 by 18) (7:43) The struggles of raising kids in while going to school (21:18) The thoughts that helped Tererai find her greatness (23:12) How Tererai funded her dreams (30:09) How writing down her dreams helped her achieve them (37:28) The ways women have been silenced (44:40) A ritual someone can do to rekindle the fire within themselves (47:18) What makes Tererai whole (54:32) Plus much more...

This is episode number 596 with who Oprah calls is her favorite guest of all time, Terri-Rye Trent. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Marilyn Ferguson said that your past is not your potential. In any hour, you can choose to liberate the future.

We have a very special guest on today. Her name is Tererai Trent, and she was born to a cattle herding family in a village in Zimbabwe, who against all odds achieved her dream of attaining a PhD in America. Today, she continues to fulfill her sacred purpose by serving her community through Tererai Trent International, an organization which provides universal access to quality education while empowering rural communities. Hailed by Oprah Winfrey as her all-time favorite guest, Tererai is also an internationally acclaimed voice for education and for women's empowerment.

She has also built schools for girls in Zimbabwe with funding from Oprah. The Awakened Woman, Remembering and Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams, is her accessible, intimate, and evocative guide that teaches nine essential lessons to encourage all women to reexamine their dreams and uncover the power hidden within them,

power that can recreate our world for the better. And in this episode, we talk about how the earth is so connected to who we are. That's right, the earth and why it's important to bury your dreams and your intentions in the earth. Also what happens when women are given permission to own their erotic power. Interesting conversation about that. And where our greatness in life actually comes from,

how to fill our greatest hunger in life when we feel the sense of hunger, how do we fill it? And the power of visualization to manifest our dreams. Again, I think you're going to love this one. Oprah called her her all-time favorite guest. Make sure to screenshot and share it out there right now on social media, on Instagram. Tag me, atlewishouse. Make sure to connect with Terrorite Trent as well. And tag anyone that you know who might want to be inspired to awaken the dreams within them. And I want to give a shout out to the fan of the week. This week is Taylor Galagos, who said, I found the School of Greatness six months ago. I love it.

I listen all the time. It has really helped me stoke the fire inside me in terms of my life goals and aspirations. The interviews are amazing. The people are talented, driven, and experienced. What's the best though is that Lewis works from a space of humility, presence, love, and respect. And with that, he gets the best out of people. Through Lewis, we get to connect with the movers and shakers of our generation. Also, I just got the Millionaire Morning booklet and I've been using it as a workbook. I'm not even all the way through it

and I'm already experiencing big shifts in my mindset and in my business. It's a great reprogramming tool and I really feel that it can be beneficial to just about everyone. Thank you, Lewis. So Taylor Galagos, thank you so much for the kind thoughts and kind remarks about everything

on the podcast. It means a lot to me. And if you guys want a chance to be shouted out as a fan of the week, then head over to iTunes and check for the School of Greatness. Leave us a review there or right on your podcast app. It's really easy to go to your podcast app and just look for the School of Greatness and then leave a review right there. All right, guys, I hope you are excited about this interview. Again, Tererai Trent, Oprah Winfrey's all-time favorite guest. I hope you enjoy it. And let me introduce you the one, the only Tererai Trent. Trent. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We have Dr. Tererai Trent in the house. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you for having me. Thank you. I'm very excited. You have a book out called The Awakened Woman, Remembering and Reigniting

Our Sacred Dreams. It just came out recently around the launch of my book. Make sure you guys pick it up. I'm excited to have you in here because we tried to have you come on a couple months ago when you were going to be in town for a little bit. We had to reschedule. Now you're here. Oprah says that you're her favorite guest of all time on The Oprah Show. So I'm curious to see why.

And I'm excited to learn more about your story and really why you wanted to write about this book. And you've been talking about female empowerment for many years now, right? Essentially, since you were a young woman growing up in Zimbabwe, you lost sight of your dreams. Is that what I'm... That's so right. I lost sight of my dreams. I always talk about I come from this long line of generations of women, women who had been married very young before they could define the life they wanted for themselves. My great-grandmother became the sixth wife to my great-grandpa, and it was a polygamous union. So she was given off as a young girl to my great-grandpa. My grandmother would follow the same pathway and became the 50 wife and married off when she was

very young my own mother would also follow the same pathway and here I come before I was 18 years of age I was already a mother of four and one of the babies died as an infant because I failed to produce enough milk to feed the child. I was a child myself. And I realized the pathway that I was going through was silencing me and it silenced me. I was also exchanged for a cow, the same way. For a cow? Yes, the same way it's practiced in my culture. But I wanted education so badly. I wanted education.

I was born in Rhodesia before the country became Zimbabwe. And I was born during the war, the war that shaped everything about me, everything about the gender inequalities and poverty in my community. And I realized at an early age that, gosh, I didn't like this life. But I didn't know how best to change that life because growing up in the rural areas where you have no electricity, no running water, no role models, what can you envision? But then we gained our independence and we became Zimbabwe. And when we gained independence, this woman from America came to my village.

I didn't know her name. Later I learned her name is Jolak. She found me with other women sitting in a circle, and she asked me one fundamental question what are your dreams I looked at him and I am thinking me poor black woman I'm supposed to dream I kept quiet the other women talked about their hopes for educating their own children. They talked about their dreams for having food security at household level. And I was quiet. She turned around and you'd see there's a photo of her. She turned around and she looked at me and she said, young woman, why are you quiet? What are

your dreams? And I'm not sure, maybe it was the way she looked at me. Maybe it was the way she kept on nudging me. When I opened my mouth, I became a chatterbox. You couldn't stop. I couldn't stop. I said, I want to go to America. I want to have an undergraduate. I want to have a master's. I want to have a PhD. There was silence because the other women knew I did not have a high school diploma. I was also expecting my fifth child. And you're 18 at the time or 19? Yeah.

Wow. at the time or 19 or yeah and wow and this woman she looked at me and she said Tererai if you believe in your dreams they are achievable and she used one word tinogona in my language it means it is achievable. And I'm thinking, how can she say that? I have no high school diploma. I live in an abusive relationship. I'm expecting my fifth child. I ran to my mother and I said, Mother, I met this woman.

She made me believe I can achieve my dreams. And that was music to my mother. My mother turned around and said, Tererai, if you truly believe in what this stranger had said to you. And by the way, we were just a newly independent country. We never had any white people coming in, foreigners coming in, and we had lived in an oppressive system, racial system, where the white community were not good to the black community. And there is an American woman rubbing shoulders with me and asking me this. So I believed her. And my mother said, if you truly believe in what she said and you achieve these dreams, not only are you defining who you are as a woman, but you are defining every life that comes out of your womb and generations to come. And I am thinking, what does that even

mean? So my mother said, write down your dreams and bury them the same way we bury the umbilical cord, the birth cord. I come from a culture where when a child is born, they snip the umbilical cord of the child and they take the mother's old dress, they wrap that umbilical cord of the child and they take the mother's old dress, they wrap that umbilical cord and bury it deep down under the ground with the belief that when this child grows, wherever they go, whatever happens in their life, the umbilical cord, the buried umbilical cord will always remind this person of their birthplace. So my mother said, write down your dreams and bury them wherever you go, whatever happens in your life, despite the abuse in your life,

despite the challenges, those dreams will always remind you of their importance. So it would take me eight years from the day I buried my dreams to achieve my GED. Wow. And I always talk about eight years of failing. Because that time we were still under the British system of education where you would, because I was already an older woman, so I would go through correspondence and I would write my classes and through correspondence try to get the next tuition that I needed and go to the post office mail those results to a place called Cambridge in Britain wait three six months for that brown envelope to come go to the post office and I open that brown envelope and I realize I have a U, which is a failure, and graded, and I have an F. And I'll try to find money to repeat those classes again,

and it will take me another two years to do that and write the exams and send them to this place called Cambridge. The brown envelope comes back, and I open that brown envelope, and I realize I have a D and I have a U. Find more money and write again up until I achieved my GED. Wow. Eight years. And then I found myself at Oklahoma State University.

Really? Yeah. And I did my undergraduate in agriculture. And then I did my master's in plant pathology, which is the same field as agriculture, but now you're looking at the diseases that affect agricultural crops. Wow. What interested you in that, those studies? I remember I talk about burying my dreams under the ground.

I believe in rituals. In this book, it's full of rituals. The earth is sacred to my people in my community. We survive from the earth. Whatever we dress is from the earth. Whatever we do, we go back to the earth. When we are born, we bury our umbilical cord in the earth. When we die, we go back to the earth.

And so I knew coming to America, I wanted to do agriculture because it's part of who we are. So after I completed my master's, it was terrible because I had brought with me my five children and my abusive husband. You brought them. Yes, I did. I did.

And they were all enrolled in your vision to go to the United States to do undergrad, and they said, we'll go with you. So when I wrote down my dreams, when my mother said, write down your dreams, initially I had four dreams, to come to America, to have an undergraduate, to have a master's and a PhD. And I was ready to go and bury those dreams. When my mother said, your dreams will have greater meaning when they are

tied to the betterment of your community and I had no idea what my mother was talking about and I said what does that mean my mother was a very quiet woman and she said your dreams will have greater meaning when they are tied to the betterment of your community. So I ended up writing my fifth dream. When I'm done, I want to come back and improve the lives of women and girls in my community. And I knew in those moments that I had a moral obligation, a sacred obligation, not only to educate myself, but to educate my own children and to come back with the gift of education to my own people. So I had to make sure I bring my children. Also, I didn't want to leave my children behind and especially the girls, because I knew if I do so they will end up also

following the same pathway. You know I always talk about the relay you know this sport where you have four track the track and they are running and they are holding a stick, the baton. So I knew through the stories from my grandmother and my mother that my great-grandmother was born holding this baton. She was born in this relay. And I call that the relay of poverty. And I call that the baton of illiteracy, the baton of early marriage. So as my great-grandmother is running in that race, she's holding that baton.

She's running so fast. She hands that baton of poverty to my grandmother. First, she hands that baton of poverty to my grandmother. My grandmother grabs that baton of poverty, the baton of illiteracy, the baton of early marriage. She runs so fast with that baton. She hands it over to my mother. My mother grabs that baton of poverty, the baton of illiteracy. She runs with that baton and she hands it over to me i never wanted that baton it was not my race it was not my relay but something happened even though i

accepted that baton i had children when I was young, married young. Jolak, when she came, she came at that point in my life, at my lowest point in my life, when I had children before they could be married. So coming to America was a no-brainer for me to bring my own children. Yeah. But anyway, after they arrived, my children, to America was a no brainer for me to bring my own children. But anyway, after they arrived, my children,

I realized that America was a difficult place to live. I was an older student, an international student, no access to scholarships. I used to work three, four jobs to be able to feed the children and pay for my own tuition. And one day I saw my kids, when they were brushing their teeth, the gums were bleeding. And I realized that they were missing fruits and vegetables. Back home in Africa, fruits and vegetables are everywhere. In America.

Nowhere. Especially in Oklahoma, right? It's like processed foods and packaged foods. Yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I guess I ended up feeding the children with French fries and burgers, and it affected them. So I had to go to the university and back to the university. And I said, you know, I have a dream.

I want to achieve this education, but I need help with the kids. So the vice president, Dr. Ron Pierce, said, well, you know, we can get you to a local store. And sometimes they leave fruits and vegetables that are going bad at the end of the day. They may throw them away. I hope you don't mind taking those and wash them and feed your children. Well, the store manager says, in this country, if we give you these fruits and vegetables that are going bad and you feed your children, and if something happens, you might end up suing us.

And I said, no, I have no money to sue anyone. I really need the fruits and vegetables. And I guess the store manager saw that I was almost in tears, and he said, okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make sure that we put the fruits and vegetables in a cardboard box and we place that cardboard box near the trash can. Four o'clock, make sure you come and pick it. If you don't, you'll find your fruits and vegetables into the trash can.

And I used to take 18 hours of coursework, three, four jobs, taking care of five kids. 99% of the time I was late to that trash can and I would find the fruits and vegetables into the trash can. And I would retrieve the fruits and vegetables, wash them and feed my children. And ask myself, who am I even to complain that my own children are eating from the trash can

when I know there are thousands, if not millions, of children out of Africa and in many developing countries who are eating from trash cans that no one washes. At least the American trash can is washed. Who am I even to complain? I live in Oklahoma and I'm living in a trailer house where we don't have electricity. And when it's summertime, it's so hot, we can't stand it. But who am I even to complain when I know in Oklahoma and even in the United States, there are so many women

who are living on the streets homeless, and they have no shelter. Those thoughts grounded me. And those thoughts, they gave me a platform to know my greatness in this life. So I graduated with my master's and I thought, well, there's something about poverty I want to find a job to help the kids and then I can do my PhD so I applied for a job in Oklahoma or I just went online and I applied a job and living in Oklahoma and I was living in Oklahoma and I got accepted by Heifer International. And Heifer

is in Arkansas, Little Rock. So I went to work. One day I was walking and I met this woman. And she said, I know you. And I'm thinking I think I do. Said, are you not from Zimbabwe? And I said, yeah. And I said, oh yeah, I remember.

We had met some 14 years back, and that's the woman who told me, if you believe in your dreams they are achieving no way yeah the woman who came the white woman who came no way in Arkansas yeah in that woman that time she was a program officer and I had no idea now she is the president and CEO of Heifer International. The company you're working with now? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. And I always talk about, you know, the universe is always conniving for our success. And she said, I know your dreams. Wow. You want to have a PhD. What was that like when you came across her? I couldn't believe it.

Did you tell her the story right then or? Yeah, she, yeah, I told her. She remembered. She remembered the story. Wow. She remembered the story. She's like, I'm the one who told you that. Yeah. So many years ago. Oh yeah, yeah. She remembered the story. For me, I, I had like, well, it happened. I met this woman and I wrote down my dreams. But could I remember the woman's face? No. But she remembered. She remembered. Without her, I don't think I would

have remembered. She remembered. And to top it off, there was a small magazine with my photo, with her sitting. And I'm thinking, what are the odds? Wow. Burying our dreams.

It's a ritual that I talk about in this book. I think when you want something so badly, when you have a vision to change your life, whatever you write down, that vision. And I, so my first trip back home, I went to that place where I had buried my dreams, dug them up, checked going to America, checked undergraduate, checked master's, reburied those dreams, came back to the United States, enrolled myself at Western Michigan University, and achieved my PhD in evaluations. Wow. And it had taken me almost 20 years from the day I buried my dreams to the day I then achieved my PhD. And I remember walking to that podium where there were these professors wearing their big gowns and hats. And I'm looking and I'm saying, I'm going to get that paper.

And I felt like a lawyer who addressed that hair kiss to the world. And my closing argument was, if we give education opportunities to those who are torn down and marginalized by the social ills of our times, they can achieve their dreams. And if we give education opportunities to women and girls, it is the best investment any country, any nation, any individual in any community can do. Because we need to make sure that we educate our women and girls. We have 62 million girls in the world, in the whole world, who are being denied the right to education.

So we have a moral obligation to make sure that we access universal education to everybody and making sure that women also have the opportunity for an education. So now I have my PhD and you think I'm happy. And I go home and I'm thinking, dear mother, why did you make me write that fifth dream to give back to the community? Because when my mother said your dreams will have greater meaning when they are tied to the betterment of your community, I ended up writing the fifth dream when I'm done.

I want to come back and improve the lives of women and girls. And I buried those dreams. Maybe I was just trying to please my mother. I don't know. So I'm thinking, what can I do to fulfill that fifth dream? I had no money. I had nothing. And I remember Jolak when she came to the village and when she found me in that circle, she used the word Tinogona, it is achievable. And I said, I'm going to design my t-shirts and I'm going to write Tinogona and I'm going to have, it is achievable. I'm going to sell these T-shirts, and I'm going to make more money. I'm going to go back home like a giant and build schools. But guess what?

I only sold 20 T-shirts. It's a lot harder to sell shirts, isn't it? Oh, gosh, yeah. And mostly to my friends my american friends i didn't know what to do up until i got a phone call the most memorable phone call of my life a call from oprah winfrey and she donated 1.5 million million towards that fifth dream that I call the sacred dream. All along, my mother, she knew that

it's not about our personal goals in life. It's not about those personal financial goals. It's not about the degrees it's none of that but it is about how our personal goals and how our financial goals are tied to the greater good that's the secret to our success if I had not written down that fifth goal I don't think I would be sitting here with you. I don't think I would be invited to speak all over the world. I don't think I would be addressing the United Nations to talk about the importance of education.

I don't think none of that would have happened. Our greatness in life, it comes from recognizing that I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am. I also, in this book, talk about the hunger or I defied everything that my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother had gone through because I had hunger. And there are two kinds of hungers in our lives. There is the little hunger. The little hunger is all about immediate gratification. I want it now. How many Facebook likes do I have? How many book sales?

How many book sales? How many friends? Exactly. Yes. But the great hunger, the greatest of all hungers, is hunger for a meaningful life in our lives. Ultimately, as human beings, we become bitter when we lead a life without meaning. Because that's what gives us our greatness. So I realized, well, now we are funding, today we have 11 schools going on, benefiting more than 6,000 girls and boys going through our education system. Amazing. Yeah.

And these are campuses you were mentioning before, not like small schools. No, no, they are not small schools. We range from the smallest school would have about 400 kids. And the largest school, which is the school that I attended when I was young, has become one of the largest schools in the whole district, if not the country. We have about 1,900 kids going through that school. Wow. Because of the success that we have had, many parents, they want to bring

their kids to our schools. And I met these old men holding their eight-year-old girls and say, Tererai, can she be just like you? And I realized in those moments that not only have we managed to provide quality education to the poorest of the poor, but we have also managed to help the communities to transform themselves, to understand the importance and value girls' education. That's all. That's what makes me happy.

You said 62 million girls are without education or denied education? Yes, they are denied. What does that mean? They're not allowed to go to school or they don't have access to it? What does that mean? Everything. They don't have access to school.

They are being denied because of... They have kids early or they're told not to. Yes. Like I talk about in my region, in Africa, every day we have 39 girls that get married before they turn the age of 18. Those girls should be sitting in classrooms. Those girls should be engineers. Those girls should be dreaming whatever life they want. But because of the policies, the times that we have, and because lack of funding, we have neglected girls. Yeah. What about boys around the world?

Do you know the statistics around young boys? Do they have more access to education? Boys are more likely to have access to education. But there are also boys that are being forced into wars, civil wars, that have no access to education. That's why, for me, I'm not only talking about access to education for girls only. I talk about universal access. I want boys and girls to have equal opportunities. But we know that the playing field is not level.

And that's why I'm giving heads up to more girls to make sure that when I go to these communities, I want to ask the fundamental question to each girl, what are your dreams? How best can we help you to excel? That's a great question to each girl what are your dreams how best can we help you to excel that's a great question to ask yeah i believe that without dreams we're living a subpar life if we don't have a dream to at least think about and just be on on the path exactly it doesn't actually in my mind matter if i achieve all of them but to have them, to be able to go for it, it's powerful.

It gives you hope. You want to jump because you know you have something that you can see in your future. You know, when I wrote down my dreams, I would go to this place where I had buried them, and I would sit there and visualize what life would be like. In those moments, I would go deep and look at myself getting into that airplane to America. I'd never been in an airplane. And I didn't even know what it looks like. But I knew it was something that would go up in the sky. Sit in that aeroplane and visualize myself carrying a bag

at a campus and going to school and taking my classes. And then visualize myself getting that degree that says now I have an undergraduate, now I have a master's. I would visualize myself and then visualize myself after I am done what life would be like. Those things helped me, grounded me to have that mental image of what life would be like. So I want every girl, every woman, every boy, every man to have mental images of the life that they envision, the life that was meant for them, not the life that someone else is defining. Not where someone is trying to pass the baton to them. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. What would you say is the greatest lesson you learned about yourself during those 20 years of planting the seed of the dream into finalizing the fourth dream of the doctor, the doctorate degree. What was the greatest lesson for you? You know, that's a great question because many also ask me the same question. They say, gosh, you must be very lucky to have achieved all these things. What did you learn in the process? I am not lucky. No.

There's nothing called lucky. I had opportunities. So the lesson for me is opportunities. If we give opportunities, lay it there for everyone to have access to their passion, access to whatever they want. It's easy.

It's not like I was the smartest person. No, I wasn't. There were other women I know who were smarter than I am, but I had an opportunity. And that's why when I finished my school, when I started working on the schools, I wanted to give opportunities to the children so they can have access to a life, a better life that they deserve. Yeah. Yeah.

What's your message to women and young girls growing up now who maybe live in privilege in the United States or maybe don't live in privilege in other countries, developing countries? Is the message the same to both sets of girls and women or is it different based on their environment? I would say, which I write so much in my book, my mother would talk about the invisible ladder. Ladder? Ladder, yeah.

That we are all climbing. The ladder. The ladder. We are all climbing this invisible ladder. Some people are on the top rank, and that could be maybe a Western woman, I don't know. Some people are still on the lower rank. western woman i don't know some people are still on the lower rung so we have a moral obligation to make sure that those who are on that top rung they look down and pull their sisters so we all climb together and i say the silencing of one woman is our silencing.

So when we see another woman being silenced, whether they are in Cambodia where you work, or whether they are in Africa, or they are here in America, we also need to help that woman. Because the awakening of women, it is the awakening of the whole world. And it is our healing. You know, Native Americans,

they have taught us one thing that I have learned and I admire so much. Humankind is not often the web of life. We are one thread within it. Whatever we do to this web, we do it ourselves. All things are bound together. All things are connected. Our very survival in the United States is connected to the survival of women in Cambodia, in India, in Africa. When there are so many people who maybe are on a lower

part of the ladder in the world, what's your recommendation for someone who does want to make an impact? When you've built a massive impact in your country, you've built 11 schools, but there's so many more people to lift up, and you're only one person. What is someone's approach to how they can help serve,

whether it be everyone in every other country when there's other stuff in their own family that they're dealing with? We all need to be awakened as women and form these collective circles of women to help other women. And when I wrote this book and I was thinking about, what about if all women rise together

and realize these statistics that we all know, the 62 million and more girls that are being denied their right to education. What about women? Realize that we have 700 million women today, married today, who were married or had babies before they were 18. 700 million. 700 million? Yeah.

Oh. Of those 700 million, surely enough, there are many who are still on the bottom rung. And there are many who were denied the right to their erotic power. Erotic power. Mm-hmm. What do you mean? Chapter 5. Erotic power. What do you mean? Chapter five.

Tell me more. So I write about the power of our sensuality as women. Many women may be denied that power because sex is such a taboo subject. So when I talk about the silencing of women, women were silenced through sexual abuse, through these many things. And we hear it even in America, the greatest country where women are being silenced through sex. But women who are happily in their partnership, who are happy, who are happy with their sex life, or happy being loved. It's not only about the physical sex that I'm talking about,

but just being happy. Having somebody who looks at you and say, you matter. I love you. You are the best thing. Having that feeling is part of our awakening. So as sisters, as we go into these circles of awakening ourselves and awakening other women so that we don't get to see the silencing

of women, then we can also tackle on those issues so women can be happy with who they are, happy with their own bodies. That's what I recognize in my life as part of awakening. A woman who is sexually satisfied, a woman who is happy with her own sensuality is a woman who can sit in a boardroom and make decisions. And a woman who isn't sexually satisfied or happy with herself, what is not available for them? We need to help them. We really need to bring that consciousness

to all women. Do you think they're limited in their abilities to achieve their dreams if they're not sexually satisfied? Yes. Really? Yes. There's a connection between achieving your dreams and your happiness in life with who you are. And sensuality, as I said, is not only about the physical sex,

but also being in a loving relationship. Of course. So what's your recommendation for women who don't feel like they have a loving relationship and they don't feel comfortable with their sexuality? Read my book. Yes, of course. No, I truly encourage the women to find help because there is help out there. To find their voice, to help define themselves by finding their own voices,

knowing their own bodies, knowing what makes them happy. Is there a specific ritual that you recommend that anyone listening or watching right now could do, something small or to start to rekindle that fire within themselves that they wouldn't require someone else to support them with? Yeah, you know, sometimes it requires others to support them. Back home, I do these circles of women where we all sit together in an intimate circle and we talk about these issues. And one of the questions that I always ask is, what breaks your heart? What really breaks your heart?

What's the most common response? It all depends. If we are talking about the great hunger, what breaks your heart? Some people, they talk about, I really want to help with the issues that are happening in my community. Some people, they talk about the oppression of women and they want to be part of that. Some people they talk about the abuse of animals

and they want to help in that area. Some people they talk about I'm not happy in my own life and it breaks my heart and I'm afraid that this unhappiness, it will overflow to my own children and why are you not happy and it could be they're not happy because they live in an abusive relationship and it's because they're not being allowed to dream big and there are so many things that makes women unhappy or individuals unhappy. What advice would you have for men who are listening? Because our audience is about 50-50 men and women.

What advice for men on how they can support the women in their lives, their mothers, sisters, daughters, partners, all the women in their lives, what can men do better? You know, there are many men who are so good, who really understand these issues. And I call these my soul brothers. The men who are there for women. And as you see with the silencing of women in America, there are some men who are standing up and say, this is just wrong. So I encourage men to bring their voices out, to fight these social injustices, to make

sure that we live in a world, a loving world, a world that they would want to see their own baby girls growing, living, and excelling, and being the mistresses and the masters of their own destiny. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. What's the vision now moving forward? You've come back to fulfill the fifth dream.

You're building schools. You're empowering women. You're cultivating them to awaken their sacred dreams. And you're making a big impact what's the vision now have you planted new dreams you know i get that all the time i'm tired of writing and bearing dreams deep down under the soil under the ground i'm bearing my dreams in your heart. So whoever I'm talking to, I'm burying my dreams in their hearts. Yeah. What's something that's a non-negotiable for you every single day and every single year?

Being silenced. Not being silenced? No, not being silenced. Because when I share my story, many come to the conclusion that maybe I'm a victim. And I always say, no, I'm not a victim. I am part of the solution. And I have learned to define myself. I'm the mistress and master of my own destiny.

I'm the mistress and master of my own destiny and defied the norms of my culture. And I refuse to keep silent about societal expectations that marginalize women and girls to be submissive at the expense of their dignity. And I'll never be silent. So that's non-negotiable. That's powerful. Thank you. And do you believe if someone doesn't have access to a university, or maybe it's just they still want education, but they can't come to America for whatever reason,

how do they get education, or what's the best education they should be getting? So when I talk about getting a PhD or these degrees, do they get education or how can they what's the best education they should be getting so when i talk about getting a phd or these degrees i'm not saying everybody should have that i'm saying find your passion find your great hunger if education is your great hunger, go for it. There are many ways that we can define education. It could be skills that you do with your hands. It could be other things that you could do. And coming to America is not the only thing that people should think about.

That was just your dream, yeah. That was my dream. We have universities in our own countries. Let's go there. Let's do the best that we can. Otherwise, if we all say, oh, I want to follow the same dreams and go to America. And if it's not your passion, you're just leaving someone else's passion and you'll never be happy. Yeah.

That's powerful. I want people to make sure to go get the book, The Awakened Woman, Remembering and Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams. You guys hear me talking about dreams all the time. For me, as a young boy growing up in a small town in Ohio, I had education, but I was dyslexic and it was very challenging for me to read and write and comprehend the information I was receiving. So I never felt good enough to be able to really excel in education.

So I learned sports and other things that became my form of education and my teachers were different teachers. But I always believed in dreams. who are different teachers. But I always believed in dreams. And for me, I held on to those very strong and loose at the same time and was just constantly persistent in pursuing them. And that brought me a lot of joy in that pursuit. And so for me, it's always sad for me when people don't have a dream or when they just have no clue how to discover the dream.

So I know there's some rituals and other things in here to help ignite those dreams and light the fire to get the juices going. What's a question people don't ask you that you wish they would ask you? What makes you happy? What makes you happy? What is it, Ben? I always want to say happiness is temporary, but wholeness is permanent. So the question should not be what makes me happy. What makes you whole?

What makes me whole. What is that? What makes me whole is when I manage to live the Native American mantra that we are all connected. We are on a sacred journey. And realizing that I'm part of that journey, it makes me whole. I may wake up sad, but I'm still whole. And when I'm whole, I am me and I'm happy yeah yeah yeah and what's the thing you're most proud of that maybe most people aren't

aware about you you know Oprah favorite guests building schools in your country and all these things the awards with the NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work, all these things that people know about, what's the thing people don't know about that you're most proud of? My mother. What about her? My mother was my greatest mentor. Despite the fact that she was poor herself, not educated herself,

she saw something in me that I didn't see. She wanted me to excel. She wanted me to live this dream. And I'm living the dream. Wow. Yeah. And what's the greatest lesson she taught you? Your dreams will have greater meaning when they are tied to the betterment of others. Yeah. And what's the greatest lesson she taught you? Your dreams will have greater meaning when they are tied to the betterment of others.

Yeah. That's powerful. Yeah, it is. And the greatest lesson your father? When you feel sad, just sing. You sing a lot? I do. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you sing when you're happy too, hopefully? Yeah. So it's not always sad. That's good. No, my father would say when you feel sad, you're overwhelmed, or you are too happy to express these feelings, these emotions, just sing. So it wasn't only about being sad.

Yeah, that's great. That's great. I've got a couple questions left for you. Okay. This one is called The Three Truths. Okay. The Three Truths. So imagine this is the last day for you many years from now.

Many, many years, it's the last day for you many years from now many many years it's the last day for you and um you've achieved every dream and you've helped inspire the world and you've done everything you said you wanted to do and you feel whole complete you've awakened the dreams and millions of women around the world you've you've done it it's, right? And you've written books and spoken all over the world like you already have been. But for whatever reason, all of the information you've put out into the world is erased. So there's no access to your information on books or videos. It's gone. Just the memory of you, right? Hypothetical. But you had a piece of paper and a pen. And you got to write down three things you knew to be true about your life, your experiences, or three lessons that you would share with the world.

And this is all people would have of your work. What would you say are your three truths? One, forgiveness. Without forgiveness, without forgiveness we cannot be at peace with ourselves we give more power to those who hurt us and we can't do that that's one that that's that, that's the truth for me, forgiveness. The second one is one-ness. Our one-ness is a people, our Ubuntu, which is the same. The essence of our humanity, I am because we are,

since we are, therefore I am because we are, since we are, therefore I am. And the third one is peace in the world. We need peace because without peace, then we live in a world that subjects more women and children to suffering. So those for me are the truth, but also principles that guide my life. That was a great, thank you.

I want to acknowledge you for a moment for your incredible contribution to humanity. You have defied so many odds from where you come from to create such abundance been through, who's treated you poorly or pushed you down, you've risen up and created incredible results in the world. And you're an inspiration

to so many people. So I want to acknowledge you for that. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Again, I want people to get the book, The Awakened Woman.

Make sure to check it out. Where do you like to spend time online? Is there a website for you or social media that you spend the most time? Yes. Or your team? My Facebook. On my Facebook, you can go to Tererai Trent. And my Twitter feed is at Tererai Trent.

I think that's it. Okay, perfect. And TereraiTrent.com or no? Yeah, for my website, it's www.tererai.org. .org. Yeah,.org. Perfect, perfect. Awesome.

We'll make sure to go there, follow you, and get the book. And I have one final question, and that is, what's your definition of greatness? What defines greatness for me is my ability to recognize the fact that I am part of something that is bigger than I am. just waking up every day recognizing that fact and knowing that I am here on earth for a purpose when I know that then I see my greatness in this world because if I don't see that then I'm leading what I'm being led by my little hangers and I want to be led by my great hangers it is that which breaks my heart that makes me recognize that I am part of the solution, and I am part of what is also needed. I have a place in the world because I am. Thank you so much for coming on.

I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's powerful. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. And there you have it, my friends. If you feel more awakened to reach your full potential and achieve the impossible, then let me know over at Instagram, at Lewis Howes, leave a response

on one of my recent posts and just let me know what you thought of this. Over on Twitter, make sure to tweet this. All of the show notes, all of the tweets, the quotes, the things that she said that were powerful are over at lewishowes.com slash 596. So you can go there. You can see the full resources from the show notes, everything we talked about, all the links, the videos, the quotes that you can pull from this and tweet out. It's all at lewishouse.com slash 596. Make sure to check it out. Her book is over there, all the information about her book as well, as I'm sure she'd appreciate you picking up a copy as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. And let me know again

what you think. I'm always curious to hear your thoughts. Take a screenshot of this. Post it on Instagram stories. Tag me, atlewishouse. I like to screenshot a lot of your images over there. And then I repost them on my Instagram story. So go ahead and do that right now. And if you write a good one, then I'll probably reshare it.

But make sure to check that out. Again, I hope you enjoyed this one. And as Marilyn Ferguson said, your past is not your potential. In any hour, you can choose been through, the challenges you're going through right now, the things you've done in the past that has set you up for a place of feeling stuck or confined in this particular moment. Tara Rye Trent is an incredible example of what is possible, where she's come from, the situation she was in, and how she followed her dreams, pursued it, and made them come true. You have the potential to achieve the seeming impossible if you fully commit to your dreams, if you fully commit to your intentions and pursue your dreams with 100% passion, no matter what, doing whatever it takes. You've got this. I've got your back.

We're all in this together. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music