I'm saying what you gonna do till you do what you said. Will you go through that Bible you knew what you read? You feel to get to yourself, but promise they're not inspired. Be inspired.
I can see beyond the tears you cry. And the thing you feel. I saw every hill you have to climb. Just a make it here.
When you say you ain't afraid to die. Is it for the people? Yo, what's up people? I'm your host Jay Will, and I would like to welcome you to inspire guys, people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose.
This is episode 231, create in me. Why looking inward is the key to change. What's up people? Look man, today we gonna talk a little bit about this idea for like how do I change my life?
Like how do I improve? You know what I'm saying? Like so many people are just like struggling or feeling stuck in a certain spot in life and they can't figure it out. And let's just be real sometimes you're in a cycle.
In this cycle and even really just the cycle of your life, you in a cycle that your whole family been in. It's like just being stuck in the washing machine forever. Just going around and circles getting spanked around. You ever see how loud?
You ever get put some in the washing machine? That more get loud and start shaking. It's too much going on in there. That's how the cycle of some of our lives are.
It's like we in there just shaking and just knocking stuff all over and you know let's be real. We trying to get up out of that washing machine. So today I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about like, you know, how do we make those improvements from a practical perspective where we gonna also be real? You know, I like to be real and talk about like the actual problem and let me just tell you trigger warning.
Some people don't like to hear what the real problem is. Like sometimes we wanna blame everybody, wanna point the finger at everybody, but today we are gonna look inward. All right, before we jump into like a Bible and talk a little bit about some black history, some Booker T. Washington, W.E.B.
We gonna talk a little bit about that. But first I wanna just kind of like set the stage with you for how I'm thinking through this. Growing up for me, right, you know, my I had neighbors that was like close friends. We were cool or whatever.
You know, it's crazy. Like social media didn't exist when I was a kid. So growing up, like I didn't really know nothing about people. I knew what I felt like I was supposed to know.
Meaning like you cool, we go to the same school, we friends. Like, you know, I don't really know who your parents voted for. I don't really know what y'all have for dinner. I don't know, I don't see what y'all do in your house within those walls, right?
But social media man introduced like this whole new way of living. And I know like this sound crazy cause like yeah, we in a social media era, like we live in life, but I don't know if we really be stopping and thinking. Like do you ever just stop and think about what you're in? Like sometimes you're in it.
So you can't really think about it. But like with this social media thing, like we're in it. And we've been introduced with this idea of access to other people's lives. And let's be real, like who am I to complain about social media?
Or on social media kicking it with you on social media, right? I ain't saying social media bad at all. But what I am saying is like some of us have gotten this access to this whole world. It's like a portal into a world where like all of a sudden you could see that somebody had bacon and eggs this morning.
And like there are people on YouTube with pages, there are millions of subscribers watching them eat. Just make the noise. You all hear the ice. Hold on, hold on.
20 million subscribers. Y'all gonna sit here and listen to me. Eat some ice. I can't get you to listen to me give you life-changing information.
And it's 23 million of us watching somebody eat ice. I ain't knocking those people. They are here getting it. Cool, keeping with you.
What's my point is that that's all new. And it's some good things about social media, right? It's some good things about access. You could be inspired by someone.
You can get to know somebody in a different way, I guess. But in some ways it's kind of like crossing certain lines from the standpoint of like personally, now I'm waking up and my whole perspective of life is based on everybody else. And that concerns me because it's a different mindset to look outward than it is to look inward. And some of us, we got opinions about everybody's life.
You ever just sit and listen to people or watch your timelines sometimes. And I'm talking about people you know. Some of y'all know me for real. Some of y'all just know me through the social media world.
When you're watching people, you really know. I know you, bro. And you're watching them critique or complain or talk about everybody else's life or point the fingers at people or criticize or judge people online. And I'm like, you?
Miss the dude, nothing? Miss, sit around and don't know whether you come in the door. Some of us have been so, the perspective has been shifted so much outward that we actually start to believe this stuff. Like it's some of us that's actually believing that, oh, I don't have to give my life together.
Oh, I don't have to change. I don't have to grow. I don't have to develop myself. But you do.
Oh, I'm a criticized you. I'm gonna tell you about yourself. I'm gonna tell you like, what's, like where you need to get better, but not me. I really would have taught you how you doing sister.
I really be out here having fun. But my point is like, bro, like, we actually believe that like, like that watching other people in critiquing them somehow makes us better. I would hate, I'm gonna just talk about me. I ain't gonna talk about you because why would I talk about you?
I would hate to be sitting up all day every day, talking about other people coming in. Some people being a comment, pouring a heart out. And it's like, bro, you not even working on your own goals and dreams like that. You ain't even that passionate about correcting your own sin.
You ain't even that serious about your own marriage. It's people that's fully invested. And I'm not talking about your, I promise this out of love. But it's people that's fully invested in judging, critiquing, observing, and watching other people's lives.
I wanna talk to you a little bit about that today. But before I go further, I wanna look in the Bible because this is a Christian show. And I believe in looking at the word of God and like trying to hear God and what He's saying about things and sometimes in maybe a unique way, right? So I wanna go to a scripture that you probably have heard before, let's just be real about it.
Where am I going first? I got two scriptures I wanna show. And one of them, let's see, there we go. All right, so this is Psalm 51.
Do we wanna go? Let's start 11. All right, so let me just say this though, first, I'll read the top. Psalm 51, for the choir director, a psalm of David regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
So that's the context, at least some of the context of what's happening here. This is after David has seen it. And the reason I think this is important is because we all have seen it in Father, the Lord of the God, and like we can look at David and say, oh, He's horrible, I didn't do what He did. So He's horrible and I'm not.
But I don't think that's the purpose of the word of God. I don't think that's the purpose of this scripture here. But let's see how David was talking because I think it's interesting. Verse nine, let's just start there.
Don't keep looking at my sins, remove the stain of my guilt. This is what I like. Create in me. This is episode 231.
Create in me. Why looking inward is the key to change. Oh, now you see where I got it from. Create in me a clean heart.
Oh God, renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. What I like about this, let's just see how many times you hear the word me, meaning I need to put myself, right? In David's position because he's seeing it.
This is him after sinning. I know that I have seen it. I'm assuming you have as well. And so what it like, again, like part of what we're doing here is we're like laying out the perspective of just everyday life, like as believers, how we should be actually thinking through things because when you start putting your mind, your heart and meditating and thinking about the word of God, what will happen is you will start thinking about other stuff the way you think about the Bible, right?
The way you think about David's situation, you'll start thinking about other things through that lens and that's the power to where the God, because it's not limited to the stories or the situations that you're reading. It only makes stuff mean something that doesn't mean and just like go left field, but it means you could be inspired. You could take these things and translate them and relate them to your life and see what they resonate. Let's just focus on this word me.
Create in me, what a clean heart, oh God, renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Okay, and if that's not enough folks, come on down to verse 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. Wow.
Then I will teach your ways to rebels and they will return to you. Now look at how many means it was before he got to they. We can even go up like you, seven, purify me from my sins and I will be clean, wash me and I will be wider than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again.
You have broken me, now let me rejoice. It's a lot of me's for I was born a sinner. Yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the one teaching me wisdom, even there. Now what I'm trying to figure out is how come David, how come the Bible, like how come the word of God is so many me's, but in regular life, we waking up every single day and it's them and you and they and what they did over there and look at her, look at what, oh, look at him.
Oh, guess what I heard about? It's like, what you hear about you? Like what you do first? Like I got a new thing, right?
Before somebody tell me somebody else business, tell me yours first. Can we start off with that? Once upon a time, tell me I want to hear the word me before I hear day. I think it's something we got mixed up.
You feel me? Start with me first. That's what it is, Tonya. And I think what happens is we got it mixed up because we got to this point in life where we are so consumed with everybody else's life that we've turned their reality into our reality.
Like it's some of us that's actually walking around every day, trying to live somebody else's life. It's like you might as well go and create a Halloween costume of somebody else, a mask with a face on it. Get up in the morning, put their skin on, put their face on, any and just go live as them because you're more worried about them than you are you. And I'm just trying to figure out, have you dealt with you yet?
Or, or, or, you're perfect, you good. You got your stuff straight and now you just, now you going out and you taking care of everybody else. All right, cool. All right, cool, cool.
I got you. This is one more scripture I want to look at. What was the other scripture? Oh, second Corinthians, let me go to that.
Look man, and look what I love about this is, I'm really sharing where God has me. Like if I'm being real, like I'm really sharing with y'all. I'm just kind of sharing with y'all where the Lord has me at and where he has my mindset. Like anybody who know me and been listening to the show for a while, like every, every year, every season, I try to be mindful of like, what's the, what's the theme of the season?
Like what are we, what are we focused on, Lord? Like what, what am I, what am I to be thinking or doing in any particular time? You feel what I'm saying? Let me make myself smaller.
All right, cool. All right, so second Corinthians five, I want to go to 17. Let's go to the King James on this. Or the King James, I bro should have been at the top.
There we go. All right, five and 17. Ooh, you see it right here, right? Let's start at 16.
A new creature, where for henceforth, now, no, we, no we know man after the flesh. Yay, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth, no we him no more. Verse 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, creation, creating me. He is new.
Oh, things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Look, what I love about this is that when God creates me and me a new heart, a clean heart, I have become new. New in the way that in the beginning God created the heavens and earth.
Like when something is created is new. Anytime I see the word create in a Bible, I literally stop. Like that's, create is maybe one of my favorite words in the world, maybe it's because I consider myself a creative or whatever it is, I'm a creator. Anytime I see the word create, I stop and I pay attention.
Cause I like new stuff. Like I know some of y'all like when they come to like houses, some people like you know, some of y'all like they're probably like old houses with character. No, I just see an old wall. I see a 200 year old fireplace.
I see a dusty HVAC system, just. Some people like old stuff, I'm be real. I like some, I like a house that was built yesterday. Like Bill, my gym, and I've been like this for a while.
Even when I was in college, I lived in my junior year. I lived in student apartments and I happened to be transferring. It wasn't my junior year, maybe sophomore. I happened to be transferring to the school or moving into those apartments when they was new.
Like brand new, first year, new stove, refrigerator. Listen, I love new dog. Ain't nothing better than new to me because new is a fresh start. And that like what I'm really saying is for some of us, like you need a fresh start.
I need a fresh start. Sometimes we need a fresh start in life and Jesus Christ is the source of that fresh start. But in order to even get there, you have to make the decision that you want God to create something in you. And it's a different perspective than waking up and the first thing you're thinking about is what God needs to do to somebody else.
Most of the time, not even for him. Like God, get him, get him, get him, get him, God. Some of us want God to get somebody else and God looking at you like, well, if I'm gonna get to getting, I'm gonna start with you, buddy. Cause you ain't even listening to me.
That's how I be sometimes, right? Now, the reason we should focus in work is because I want you to think about it like a formula. I look at stuff like a formula, right? Like what are my best chances of being successful?
If the goal is like, I want to live a more prosperous life. I want to live, I want to be closer to God. I want to have the fruits of the spirit. I want to have integrity and respect.
And maybe I want to prosper financially, whatever it is, be healthy. Like it's all these things we want to get better at me, which means we want to change. If you want to get better, that means you want to change. Now I ask myself like straight up, like, if I have a goal, what's gonna give me the best percentage probability possible to achieve that goal?
Now you got to ask yourself, let's make it super practical. Let's say I want to save $1,000. Do I have a better chance of waking up every day, getting on social media and trying to change you in order for me to get $1,000, right? Or do I have a better chance and my probability is higher if I wake up every day and try to change me to get to $1,000?
Now I'll tell you like this. Sometimes you might get the thousand quicker if you're trying to change somebody else because changing somebody else could just be changing their mind. It could just be a phone call to convince them to give you the thousand. Okay, cool.
That's to obtain something, but that's not sustainable. Cause if I need another thousand, now I gotta go get up again and call the next person and eventually, based on my calculations, you're gonna strike out. Eventually you're gonna get to the point where I'm not gonna be able to grow wealth cause growing anything, you can start with a small seed and the goal is to compound and grow and get better, right? With anything like, hey, I want to incrementally become a better person.
I want to walk in my purpose closer to the Lord. I don't wake up tomorrow and just read the whole Bible whenever I never read the Bible before. Maybe it's one scripture and two scriptures. But if I was based in my growth, I'm like, hey, you, I want you to get up every morning with me at six o'clock and read the word.
Okay, cool. Until I gotta work, until I oversleep. Like other people got stuck, till I just got something to do. So the chances of me reaching my goal of getting closer to the Lord and reading his word and understanding my purpose is lower if my focus is outward.
Now when I switch that around and have an inward focus, let's go back to money. Maybe I feel like I don't make enough money. So it's like, all right, I'm gonna have to save $10 a week, or a hundred weeks just to get this money, whatever it is. Okay, feels like a long time until you start doing it and realize that when you were trying to wait on somebody else to change and focus on them, a hundred weeks went by anyway.
Time be flying regardless. Like we at the end of 2024, some of us wasted the whole year. We ain't accomplished one of our goals. Maybe we didn't even set goals.
It's no problem. That's why you're here. That's why you listen to fire gods people. What's up, Brittany?
How you doing, sister? But what's my point? It's that if I have an inward approach over time, if I'm patient, let patients have a perfect work. See, when I think about that scripture, let patients have her perfect work, it's like cooking something.
We just had things given. Come on, y'all. If you made the Mac and cheese in a minute, I don't want it. I don't want the minute rice on Thanksgiving.
The problem with some of us is we want minute blessings. It's like, yep, God did it. There you go, you're rich. God said, sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle water on me.
Sprinkle, sprinkle some on me so I can get the blessing. Okay, you're blessed. Some of us literally live in life. Like we just want magic.
We don't want faith. We don't want faith for real. We want magic. And so we walking around, treating God like a genie.
All right, Jesus, I'm gonna rub your belly. I'm not gonna change nothing. Let's just, can I be real? Can I just say how we already, it's like, you man's what's so God, I don't plan on changing the thing.
Look, I want this money, I'm gonna keep blowing money, I'm gonna keep wasting the money. Look, yeah, I wanna live blessed. I wanna have integrity and respect and a good marriage, but you think I'm gonna read the word of God? Who are you God?
I'm talking to you now. Just bless me. That's what some of us want. But there's some perfection that happens in patients because some things gotta cook.
You like a macaroni noodle, bruh. You gotta go in there, like you want the cheese, but you gotta bake. Some of us are like, no, just give me the cheese. No, you gotta bake, buddy.
Because good things take time. We keep trying to skip the main thing that's gonna help us, which is time, the greatest gift on earth. And some of us are wasting it. We're about what other people are doing.
We're about what other people are thinking. Some of us can't even walk in our purpose because it's like, what are they gonna think? What are they gonna think? I'm gonna tell y'all, man.
I'm gonna tell y'all how crazy God worked. The reason, it's funny, the reason that I don't care what people think. Like I don't care what you're thinking about right now, as far as it relates to it stopping me from doing this. God used me being a class clown in high school.
I know it sounds crazy, but I was telling somebody that some of my Facebook comments recently, it started off jokingly and I was like, no, seriously. Like God used me being a class clown to help me to walk in my purpose because when I was a class clown in high school, I was a performer. I went to school like I treated it like a stand up comedy show. Like, and I had people rolling, right?
But one thing that I took away from that is at a very early age, I was able to speak in front of audiences, speak in front of crowds. I would walk into a classroom, it didn't matter if it was 10 people or 100 people in there, I would walk into a lunch room joking. I went on a bus joking. So what happened was public speaking is one of people's biggest fears.
But at a young age, I was so engaged in being a comedian, all I wanted to do was make people laugh, but I had no idea that what was happening behind the scenes was that I was building up this skill set and this grit and this mindset of not being afraid to put myself out there. Because one thing is when you try to be funny and make people laugh, it's like a laugh is a weird thing. A joke is a weird thing because a joke is like giving somebody a gift and everybody don't want it. A mad like when somebody don't laugh at a joke, imagine if you show up on Christmas and it's like time to open the gifts and you're like, yeah, I bought, I bought you these gifts and you give it to the person, it's like, here you go.
And they're just looking like, yeah, I'm gonna set that over there. That's what it's like when somebody don't laugh at your joke. In order to endure that awkwardness, you have to build up and be a certain type of person. I say all that to say, not to praise me about being a class clown, I'm saying it to say that it helped me overcome something that probably would have been a fear of my later in life.
And so many of us are waking up in the first thing we're thinking about before we even think about, I wanna take this step, but it's people watching you over there and I don't know what they think. I don't know if they like me or not. And some of us are basing our entire lives. Like we can't make a move on our own dreams and goals because you're worried about what someone else thinks.
Let me tell you the secret. They think it all. They think the good, they think the bad. The good thing about it is 99% of the time you'll never know.
Like I don't like some of y'all might hate me. I don't, I don't know. But I can't let you stop me because I don't even know why you hate me. Right?
I'm not literally saying y'all hate me. I'm using that as an example to say that you can't let people stop you from your goals and dreams. And that's the problem when we live life so outward versus starting inward. When you start inward and you like, okay, I know what I'm doing.
I know why I'm doing it. I know who told me to do it. It was God and I'm not gonna let someone outside of the Lord stop me from doing me what God caught me to do. And for sure it's not gonna be because in my mind, I'm worried about what someone thinks.
So when you start inward and focus on growing and developing, changing yourself inward, you give yourself a just a higher chance of winning and being successful in life. That's just literally what it is. I made this post on Facebook, where is that? Earlier today, I made a post on Facebook.
I'm gonna talk about this just for a second. And I said, you can break the cycle of poverty in your bloodline if you really want to. And the if you really want to is really the important part because some of us say we want to do stuff and we just never do it. Let's just be real.
Like, and this is the importance of looking inward first. When you look at you and talk to you and be real with you, have you done what you said you was gonna do to you? Like just to yourself, like you ever like tell yourself, like, yeah, this we gonna do. All right, I'm on that.
Like some of us line ourselves. If you want it, if you wanted to break the cycle of poverty in your bloodline, you could do it. And some of us, I'm gonna use this word. I don't like using this word, but I'm gonna use it easily.
Not many things are easy in life, but I'm telling you right now, whenever there's something and you control all of the elements to create the desire outcome, that's a beautiful power that God has given us. That's that free will that God has given us. And some of us are walking around with a superpower and don't know how to use it. When you control the chips, all right, what do I mean by that?
You get a thousand dollar check today. Incremental check, this is money you wasn't expecting or something, your bills are paid. This is an additional thousand dollars. I'm gonna tell you what most people do, the average person, you're not average, that's why you listen to the show.
The average person take that money and they go blow that money on something that don't mean nothing. Something that in three months won't even have the value that it has today to them. Something, a lot of times, let's be real, people are going to obtain material things, not to prove anything to themselves, but to prove things to the outward, the outward. I'm gonna talk about the outward, I'm gonna talk about everybody else like the alien.
The inward, that's me, the inward, the outward. What's my point? We got to break a cycle is a decision to say, I got this thousand dollars and this time, forget them. Not forget them in a negative or arrogant way, right?
We got to be careful, I want to be careful when I say certain stuff because people might take it around with it. I don't mean this in a malicious way, like forget them like that. What I mean is I can't have them on my mind making a decision about me and my life. I'm gonna tell you what me and my wife did this.
I'm just, I'm telling you what I know, I'm not telling you what I think. You can break the cycle of poverty in your life. I'm gonna tell you exactly how I did it. And if you were a long time listening to this show, you probably heard it, I'll make it short and sweet.
At the end of the day, it took an experience of getting denied for a home loan back in 2012. It took that experience for me to be upset enough with myself. See, this is about looking inward. I was mad at myself because my credit was messed up.
And I told my wife never again in 2012. And from that very moment in 2012, when I said never again, I started making changes. And you know, one of the first things I did other than like calling my creditors and paying off debt. I told me and my wife, we agreed.
I took it to her. I was like, no shoes, no clothes, no going out to dinner. We are not spending no extra money that we don't need to spend. And you know what?
There were people that laughed at me now almost 13 years ago. Mm, man, people was laughing at me, bro. This is what I mean about the grit that guy gave me by being a class clown. I'm like, oh, I'm used to people laughing at me, bro.
I'm used to that. So you could, you know, like people could laugh. They could talk about me. People think I was crazy.
Like you being cheap, you being this, I was wearing. I went by no new shoes. And I ain't going to say like I was super busted because most of the audience really know because I got a little bit of style when I had style. When I went to have style.
So I know how to flip the shoe and clean it. And I know how to keep stuff clean. I know how to wear some pants on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. And you don't know because I had to collar up on the jacket on Monday and put a t-shirt on on Wednesday.
I know how, listen, you learned some tricks when you broke. I learned some stuff. Be upset with you. You feel me?
Appreciate you, appreciate you. So look, I learned how to navigate it. But we made some decisions that this change that we were trying to make, this cycle that we were trying to break was so important to be broken that I literally had the blackout and tuned everybody else out who wasn't in my house. So like, yo, it's me and her in this house.
Forget y'all, you dressed better than me. You drive a better car. You got money. You're cuter than me.
Y'all do whatever y'all got to do that's going to make you feel good about yourself. I'm trying to break a cycle. And some of us are not serious enough yet about what we try to break. That cycle could be anything.
It could be a spiritual cycle. It could be financial cycle. It could be a cycle of laziness that you're trying to break. There's all kinds of things that you're trying to break.
But the thing is you ain't never going to break a cycle. We're about what outside people think. You got to look inward. So my point with that story is we started inward.
And then now it's been 13 years. And so now you have habits that were built. I remember when we started saving the money instead of spending the money. And I remember, whoo, wow.
OK, 2013 we can build a house. Wow, that was quick. Less than a year later, we got money in the bank. And this is just, I didn't get a raise at work at the time.
We didn't get some big check. We didn't. You're blessed. We didn't get unexpected checks in the mail and all these weird things.
No, it was it was a personal decision to change my behavior, to look inward, hold myself accountable for the fact that I'm in this situation because I won't change. And then you start changing. And the beautiful thing about it when I look back at it now is that when you change things compound. So a lot of us just look at something when God bless us with something or when we make a lifestyle change and get better.
You just you think it's just one result. It's it's it's growth connected to the change that you can't even see until you change. Some of us if we knew the incentive, we would change automatically. But that is where you need faith.
And that's a problem with some of us. We won't change because we want God to show us the result first. It would have been easy for me to change. I'm just being real.
It'd have been real easy for me to change if God would just show me like, oh, this like, oh, this wrong. Oh, this wrong. OK, cool. No problem.
You know what I'm saying? No problem. You feel me? But you have to have faith and you have to look inward and you can make a decision to change.
Now, in order to do that, a lot of other things happen. You have to have discipline. You have to have education first, right? Have a plan.
Then learn. Like learn first, then plan actually. I like to learn first, get some education, then make a plan behind it, right? And then you start doing something after you have learned and you've planned, it's time to do.
And as you start doing, you will become. And after you become, eventually you will just be. And that is the process of being guided to your purpose. That process is what I've been talking about on this show for years.
That process of going from nothing to something. From going from, I want to do this. Whatever this is, feeling the blanks for your life. But in order to get there, you're going to have to tune people out.
All right, I got one more little situation, not situation, but one more thing I want to talk about before I jump out of here today. And just to kind of bring this home. I'm really fascinated with slavery and post slavery. But really, really fascinated, as an African-American.
This is what I feel like. I went to school and I was younger. And people, no offense to the teachers, but I feel like the education system, they put a spin on a lot of the information we were learning. And sometimes I feel like, even being black, that people try to teach you stuff a certain way that's really catered to your emotions.
And me, I'm more of a realist and I'm practical. So I like to really know, what really happened? I don't really like the narrative after, because it's kind of like when somebody died, they become a hero. You can never really trust how people talk about people when they die.
I'm talking about the masses. Not like a family member or somebody who knew them. I'm going to give you an example. It's like Nipsey Hussle.
Like Nipsey Hussle, I mean, I heard of him when he was alive. Maybe seen a clip of him or something before. I never heard people really talking about his music, respectfully. And then he passed and he's like, the second coming to Tupac.
He's great and amazing. And I don't say that as disrespect to him. I say that to say people romanticize things when somebody's gone, they jump on a bandwagon. And so then if you were just going off of the way people talk about Nipsey Hussle now, you would have assumed when he was alive, he was just the most beloved person ever.
But in my opinion, he seems to be more famous in his death than he was in his life. And I only say that to say, that's how I feel like some of what I learned about black history and culture and stuff was like through this romanticized view. So I'm really fascinated with slavery. And part of the reason is because I really realized it's just like four to five generations ago.
It really wasn't that long ago that people slaves became free. And what that meant for me is like, African-American is like, that means like, my grandmother, her parents, like I can trace back and be like, oh, so that person was born a slave. Her great grandfather was born a slave. And so I'm not that far removed from the ideology of slavery.
And I say that because we passed ideology in mindset only from generation to generation. And for me, sometimes I try to deconstruct like, why do we think this way? Like, why is this happening around me? And so part of that has been like studying Booker T.
Washington. I'm just now getting into like WBE De Bois. I think that's how you say, I don't know if it's De Bois De Bois. Like, I think it's De Bois maybe.
I'm just saying De Bois is at the French De Bois. But in studying their different ideologies, what's crazy and dope to me is like, when we talk about black history in school, they made it almost seem like all black people were the same. And I remember one of the first things that triggered the start that I'm about to explore now. And as when I was reading Frederick Douglass's book, one of his autobiography, towards the end, Frederick Douglass never told you how he freed himself from slavery.
I thought that was crazy. Like, oh, like he never actually shared how he did it, right? And maybe it's out there now, but it wasn't shared in the book exactly how he did it. And so one of the things that was said that he said, he was like, yeah, I'm paraphrasing on this part, but it was like, he disagreed with Harriet Tubman, like, cause her whole thing of the underground road, like she was like showing everybody how to do it.
He had a different perspective. He was like, yo, if you tell everybody, then they're gonna be able to stop it. But if we just do this and be on covert mission, then they can't stop it. But her thing was like, well, if you tell everybody, they'll get to more people.
So you see the contrasting points of view. What is my point in bringing that up? My point in bringing that up is, I think it's important, especially for black people. And I'm not, I'm not an expert, but it's probably expert.
It's like, well, that technically he said, no, I'm not an expert. It's something that I'm actively exploring, right? But I think it's important because we walk around with a point of view and you saw this with the election and politics, you see it a little bit after. A person will be married to a point of view.
And I think their point of view is the only legitimate point of view. But I'm intrigued at Booker T. Washington versus W.E.B. because they had completely different perspectives around how blacks should navigate freedom after being enslaved.
Now Booker T. Washington was actually born enslaved. I actually don't think, I don't know, I don't want to speak incorrectly. It's like, for some reason, I don't think W.E.B.
was. But again, like I said, I'm actively kind of exploring and learning about them. My point with bringing that up is, I'm gonna focus on Booker T now. Booker T's perspective was that black people needed to better themselves.
They needed to educate themselves and learn skills. W.E.B. was more about civil rights and kind of protesting and those type of things. Now this ain't me to, I'm not taking a shot at civil rights or protesting at all.
I just thought it was interesting that one of them had a more outward perspective and one had a more inward. And the thing that I say is like, when I look at the state of black culture and the community of people today, I can't help but think like, about the mindset in the black community is sometimes so outward. It's so dependent on the system or the government to accept me. And I'm like, you know, you talking late 1800s and this stuff is happening early 1900s.
And here we are in the 2000s. And I'm like, so again, time has passed. All right, y'all, we 60 years removed from civil rights and stuff and all that. And it's like, these are lifetimes.
Some people that lived and died. For me, I'm just, this is how I think through things. It's like, yo, that same time you spent trying to change everybody else and make these outside people like you that ain't gonna like you. Now I'm not, don't take what I'm saying wrong about like, I know like certain laws and things, people fought for things.
This isn't in disrespect to people that did those things. But it's to say that like, yo, at least some percentage of this time needs to be focused on me. Because you ain't never gonna change outward people. That's the secret to me.
It's like, bro, I can't control how you feel about me. You think you can make everybody in the world like you? That's ridiculous. Somebody, actor puts out a movie.
The actor might make $30 million doing a movie. The movie might be gross number one in the box office over the last two weeks. You're gonna find probably millions of people like, oh, that movie horrible, terrible. People do it all the time with comedians like, it ain't funny to me.
All right, well, the venue is sold out. Everyone's screaming, some people are crying. He just sold out 30 cities and made $100 million. But he's not funny to you.
Now what I'm saying is this. If you think about that scenario, that's the reality of the life we live. I could go out right now, become the most successful investor that you ever know, make millions of dollars, help other people make millions of dollars. I can love people, kiss babies and hug them and give the charity.
And there will be at least one person that grew up with me that know me that I can't stand it. And the thing about when people don't like you, and this trust me, I'm not a hater. The reason I'm saying this is because no matter what you do, no matter how much you try to please people, you can't please everyone. As some of us have put so much time, effort, energy, crying, losing our mind.
I saw people like when Trump won the presidency, I see people online losing their mind. I'm like, what? It don't matter who was about to win. I wasn't about to do that.
That wasn't about to happen, bro. Why? Because I got to like to live. I got purpose.
God called me creating me a clean heart. Renew my spirit. Some of us are so outward thinking. I'm looking like, bro, how you that passionate about the president?
And you ain't even that passionate about your own family. Like, what are you doing? You uploading videos and you going off and going, I'm like, what is wrong, y'all? I don't know what's wrong.
Time has passed yet. Our minds are the same. Woo. It's definitely an inward work that needs to be done for some reason.
We don't, that's 100% system. Inward work. That's what this about, man. Not wasting the time that God has given us to do the things that he's called us to do.
Because at the end of his life, at the end of the road, God isn't going to ask you, did everybody else do what you said do? He's going to ask you what you did. If you did well, it's well done. My good and faithful servant.
When God talks to you, he talking to you about you. So why would I wake up every day consumed and concerned about everyone else and every little thing? And some people are so toxic. They are just consumed by every little thing happening in the world.
Like, what happened? What Trump say? What come out of the city? It's like, look, bro, that's cool.
But did you handle you first? Are you on the path? Imagine this. You tripping so much every day about what's so wrong about a politician.
In your real life, you're not even half the person God called you to be right now. Now, you ain't doing half of what God called you to do. We're in December, 2020, and you're still walking in January purpose. Like, it's a whole new world.
It's a new world. Yeah, some of us, like, you walking thinking about something that God did and said years ago, I'm going to end with this. This is like literally one of my favorite moments on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, right? The original one.
I don't watch the new one. I can't mess with that. The original Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Now I'm like, the older person is like, back in my day.
But anyway, I'm a original Will Smith fan, new situation. I don't know what is going on with them. People got blessed and loved them. But Fresh Prince of Bel Air, there's this episode, my favorite.
It's not the best episode. It's just maybe the most memorable for me. It's when Will went back home. Now, you got to think, you know, watching the Fresh Prince growing up, you're like, man, you like, you know, he and Bel Air, all this stuff, and you're hearing an intro.
No, this is a story. You know, like, you hear all that. My life got flipped turned upside down. Anyway, you hear about it.
But when they made the episode where he went home, that was so dope. But something happened in that episode, here I am preaching about the Fresh Prince. You know, life is funny, though. First of all, I'm hilarious.
Because I'd be serious. I'd be so serious. Like, I'm preaching the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Will Smith goes home.
And when he went home, they were on the basketball court. And Will wanted to find the bully, the dude that fought him and sent him to the suburbs, sent him, changed the path of his life, right? And Will went there because he was trying to avenge himself, right? He was trying to avenge his reputation and everything that everybody in Philly thought about him.
And I'll never forget, like, Will got in front of my man and stood in front of him and he was ready to fight. And my man looked at him and said, bro, like, I'm paraphrasing him. I'm like, I ain't that person. The only people I care who think about me is these people right behind me.
And I ask myself in that situation, who would I rather be? Would I rather be the person that maybe has a legitimate grudge that's holding the grudge, that's feeling some type of way because you run my reputation and all these people think this about me and be this person that's consumed with a avenging and getting somebody back because they did you wrong. Like, I got to get them back. Or, and like, to the point that you've been living all this time and all you want to do is get them back.
But you imagine getting to that enemy and they like, oh, like, I'm sorry, but I've grown past the person you're looking for. And I'm, I have an inward mentality, so I'm not walking around based in my whole life about what everyone else thinks about me. So if, if you're still there, I have nothing to offer you. That's when creating me a clean heart and renew me a right spirit.
Like, like when God actually changes you and starts working on you, it's like you won't even be able to tap into some old stuff because it's like, bro, like I have grown so far past what you own that I can't even, it's like you speak in another language. Definitely wouldn't want to be well in that situation. Look, y'all, I appreciate y'all watching, man. I just encourage you to look inward before you look outward, look in the mirror before you look out the window, because that's how you could truly change your life.
And then, yes, once you change, God will send you out and you will preach the gospel and you will see lives being changed and you will have things to pour into other people from your life experiences. But if you try to start this journey on the outside, while never changing what's on the inside, you will be a hero in the world, but a villain at home. And I don't think none of us really want to be that. God bless y'all.
Love y'all, man. Please do like, subscribe, share, comment. Subscribe on YouTube, inspire guys, people, man. We still, like, I still got goals.
I still got things like I'm still playing in 2025, make it bigger, make it better, like keep growing. For those of y'all who know, like, you know, I've been rocking like six years with this podcast and I'm navigating this as I'm navigating life. And that's the way I approach it. It's a journey.
It's not like I'm like, it's a journey. And I'm in the ups and downs of the journey because that's how life is sometimes I'm busy, sometimes I'm traveling. Like, I can't, I just can't, I got other priorities. I'm married.
Like, there's other things that I'm living life as I try to continue to grow in my purpose and look inward and see like, hey, where do I have gaps? Like, where do I mess up? Like, where can I get better? Cause I'm gonna just be really, it's always something.
Like, for me, it's always something. It's like, bro, I'm constantly trying to grow. Like, marriage be like that. You be like, growing in marriage.
Like, okay, I'm better now. Like, speaking better. And I'm doing everything better. And I'm all I be like, I hate when you do that.
I hate when you do that. That's how she talk. I hate when you do that. Hopefully she ain't watching this.
I'm joking. She ain't even talking like, I hate when you do that. Man, sometimes it just be hard in marriage. We like, bro, I was growing.
Like, I was growing and I'm not mad. I just talk loud, like whatever. Like, my point is you gotta embrace that. Embrace that aspect of life where there's always gonna be necessary room for you to grow.
Don't be mad at it. Like, embrace it. The more we deny it, the more we run away from the growth, the more we don't hold ourselves accountable, then the more we're stuck in the cycle. You can't grow until you admit that you need to.
You can't grow until you admit that you need to. You can't eat the word cause that's the food that feeds you. All right, I gotta get out of here, man. Love y'all having amazing day.
I appreciate y'all for checking out Aspire Guys people and hope and pray that you live the life you love and you love the life you live.