EP 176 - Afraid of Heights

Yo, what's up people? Me and Mojay Will, this is Inspire Guys, people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose. Hope you're feeling good out there today, man. Today is just gonna be a nice little, kind of raw, authentic conversation, real quick to kick it, you know, about the idea of being afraid of heights.

So if you're out there and you experience some fear of whatever level, I'm not talking about literally being afraid of heights, we're talking about figuratively being afraid of heights. So this idea of being afraid of going higher. I don't think enough people deal with this whole conversation around like it's scary to grow. You know what I'm saying?

You know, like the most comfortable place you could be a lot of times is where you always been. Like that's just how it is in life. Like, yo, if I always been in this space, I know what comes with it. So I know, you know, you got people out here talking about how great it is to grow and be at the top and progressing your life, but the reality of it is a lot of everyday people are sitting there and they looking at it and they like, bro, like, I'ma be real.

It's a lot of uncertainty going that route. I rather just, you know what I'm saying? Kind of chill, lay back and do what I'm doing. So I'ma talk to you a little bit about that today, about some of my experiences and growing through.

And hopefully something connects with you and is valuable for your life. Let's jump right into it because this is a Saturday, middle of the day. I typically like to do my shows late, believe it or not, whether I'm doing it live or if I'm just in studio myself, I like to do shows late. I don't know what that is.

Let's not dig too deep into that. I don't know if I'm in a certain vibe or something when it's later, but it is what it is. What up? How you feeling?

Gina, welcome. So me growing up, you know, I was, when it comes to middle school, high school, let's go high school. I was so impressed with people who had the ability to do a talent show. Now, what was crazy to me was because like, in elementary school, I was in a choir.

I was a drummer, middle school, I was in a band, played sports, but those were all team situations. You feel what I'm saying? Those were all like, yo, if you in a band or if you on a basketball team, whatever, the spotlight ain't never really all the way on you. And I guess it's under the organization of the school.

I was always impressed with people who were in talent shows growing up. And in high school, I was not in one talent show. I don't think I've been in a talent show probably in my life. Nothing I can remember.

And the reason was, especially middle school in high school, I was literally afraid. Like I did not understand how someone, for instance, that could seem could go in front of their classmates and like, had a guts to actually just be like, yo, for better or worse, whether I win or lose, I'm standing up here on my own too. And I'm seeing this song that used to blow me away. So I never did it, never overcame that fear.

And I found myself at different times in my life growing up where there were opportunities that I could have taken advantage of, but instead of looking at the opportunity, I looked at the possibility of failure. And I was like, ooh, that's a little too scary. I don't want that much pressure. And so a lot of times I didn't even engage the fear to see what an opportunity would have taken me.

And I'm not a good thing about it as an adult. I've overcome that. But I want to talk about the fact that it's not that I have overcome the fear itself. I've overcame being afraid of the fear.

I like it's early, y'all ain't trying to go there with me. I've overcame the idea of just because something is scary, just because I'm afraid of heights, that I'm not going to go higher. You know what? I got another example for you.

I am an example man if you don't know that roller coasters. It's been time in my life, man, especially probably between like, let's call it 12 and 16. I wasn't really trying to mess with no roller coasters. And you know, being in the Midwest, see the point, where we went, that was what we did.

Like, see the point was everything. I would go to see the point sometimes. And my friends, family, whoever, they jumping on certain rides. And I'm like, hey, bro, you can hide that one.

I'm gonna hit this carousel. I'm gonna go ahead and hit the, I'm on the horse that's just going up and down in a circle. That's what we gonna do real quick. But then one day, I'm gonna just tell you what happened.

I remember me and my wife, she was my girlfriend. And let's say if I'm 18, 19 at the time, I don't know. We went with a group of people and my girl was getting on. And I was like, no, bro, I'm not going to not get on.

That was the first time that when it came to roller coasters, that I had something that was more valuable than a fear. You feel what I'm saying? It was more valuable to me to impress her than to be afraid around all these people. So I started getting on roller coasters.

And here's the crazy thing about it. When you start doing stuff and you realize it's not as bad as you thought. And then now I'm the person that will take somebody else to see the point and I have me and my wife have broken many people in. And now I'm breaking people in.

Like, oh, you ain't no rider. You'll be a rider before we get out of here. You're gonna get on everything. And we've done it successfully.

Done it this year as well. So what's my point? In this life, there are definitely going to be times where you are afraid, afraid of the situation, afraid of the opportunity. Now I have friends and I've talked to you all about this on the show where they might come to me and be like, hey, I got an opportunity to be a manager.

We're gonna make a real plane for you. I got an opportunity to be a manager, Jay. But man, I ain't trying to do it. And they come up with all these reasons as to why they should not go and be a manager.

And I'm realizing in my life, they're no different than when I was a kid afraid to be in a talent show. The thing is the fear is so strong for them. And they don't have something that they've identified that's more valuable than the fear. So they create all these reasons why they shouldn't go and be a manager.

So they just stay, stay the stock boy forever because you don't want to be a manager. There's nothing wrong with being a stock boy. There's nothing wrong with flipping burgers. I've been on the cashier at McDonald's several times in my life.

But the thing is, if you stay there, not because you're not talented, not because you don't have an opportunity, not because somebody don't believe in you, you are there simply because you're afraid. Now I want to say something. I said earlier that I overcame that fear as an adult. I didn't overcome the fear of heights or the fear of the opportunity.

I overcame the fear of the fear. And what you got to realize in your life, man, I've learned this is that everybody is scared. Now you get some people that come on here, come on the internet, you know what I'm saying? They're trying to act a certain way because that's what sells and they want to go viral or something.

Like I'm not into all that. I'm trying to actually kick it with you in a way that's real that you can hopefully take something tangible and your life can be changed. So ultimately what I'm telling you is I'm scared too. So let's start there.

I've been scared. I know what the fear looks like, what it feels like. I understand the psychology behind passing up over opportunities because you're too afraid to engage. But here's the thing, as I've embraced that fear and this is gonna be something a lot of people don't like hearing because a lot of people don't like to hear about being able to change their own life.

But I've learned that there's two different types of people when it comes to this type of stuff. There's people that wants you to tell them things because that make them comfortable in their current situation so that they can blame other people for wrongfully putting them there and also hold other people accountable for getting them up. Raise your hand if you're that person. If you could be honest with yourself.

I can't see you anyway. You can see me. I can't see if you raising your hand if you're a person that just want to hand out. And you don't want to hold yourself accountable because you were a victim in your mind and you've been done wrong.

Let's go get the evil people with the money and make them take care of me. I understand that is a whole, there are movements in the world today that are built on that exact psychology. If you are that person, don't be mad at me. You know what I'm saying?

Just come here and sit down. Let me talk to you a little more. Let's see if we can think through it. Then there's another type of person.

The person that likes to hold themselves accountable. That can look and say this. I don't even care if somebody else is the reason that I'm here. I'm gonna be the reason that I get up.

You feel what I'm saying? Like I'm gonna be the reason. I'm gonna earn it. I'm gonna work.

I'm going to get myself out of this situation. By the grace of God, I'm not gonna sit back and wait for somebody to save me or wait for some handout or wait for the government. Rah-rah-he-he, this politician said, they were gonna promise that they were gonna do this for me. So I'm gonna do it.

Listen, I understand all that stuff has a place. I'm not here to attack your personal beliefs or the things that you like to believe in in your life or whatever it may be. But I am here to tell you that being that type of person constantly puts you in the back seat. The person that is afraid of opportunities.

So they wanna be told something to make them comfortable. But today I'm kicking it and I'm creating my content always with inspired guys people. For the person that's sitting there and you're like, you know what? I have passed up on some opportunities.

I haven't really set up to think about why or nobody's ever really challenged why. But ultimately I want to be able to take my life in my own hands, putting it in God's hands, of course. Like when I talk like this, let me just say this for the people if you watch this even on a replay and you never rock with my show. We got over 180 episodes.

We just started doing video a couple months ago. So the video's part is new. But just notice, we turned five years old on October 10. I have interview CEOs, artists, people who've been shot, people who've been with sicknesses, people who've been in bad accidents, people who've been almost died off drug overdoses, people who've been in the trap house.

I got archives of interviews and I have set for the last four and a half years and talked to people. You can go on Apple podcast and start an episode one and start listening now. I want you to understand something. What I purposely done in the last four years is lay the foundation of what this show is about.

We've laid the foundation of Jesus Christ. We've done Bible studies. None of that changes. So when I say stuff like take your life in your own hands, if you knew, just know that I mean that figuratively from the standpoint of you being accountable for yourself.

But I never mean it in a way where I'm saying, yo, it's me doing this and it's not God. We don't rock like that on this show. We don't talk like that. So because y'all knew, you know, audio, I don't do all these disclaimers on audio for four years and if you rock with the show, you know.

And most of the people who rock with Rock Uninspired Guys, people been rocking with us for some years at least in the new people to in the state on board for years. That's how we do. We try to reach you deeply. We ain't trying to reach everybody in the world.

It just don't work that way. We just trying to connect with the people we do deeply. So I needed to say that because if I got a new listener to catch this on the replay or if you watch a live or something, I need you to understand what I'm talking about. All right, let's move on from there.

That was a smooth transition. I think it was smooth. I give myself credit. The person I want to take life in your own hands.

Here's the thing that I've seen and experienced on my own eyes is that somehow, some way, the way God gives opportunities is like opportunities tend to find the people who want it. Now, I've seen and experienced times in my life, where it's like, I'm lazy. I ain't really doing nothing. I'm creating excuses.

And somehow, when I'm in that mentality, opportunities continue to pass me by. To the person that wants to turn your life around and you have the ability to skill set, the talent, and the desire. I am literally telling you, it is amazing how this works. When you get your mind on the right track and start focusing on the right thing and going after what God has for you in your life, your purpose, which we teach you how to do that in this show.

You got a bunch of episodes that laid out foundation. When you do that, opportunities start finding you. And here's the thing, when I say I'm afraid of heights, I want to make this so plain for you where it's like where you can really understand what I'm saying, where it's super practical. So like in my own life, working in corporate America, I started at super entry level.

Like I'm talking like the entry is level of all jobs. And the test started for me from my first job in the first few months at the company. I remember I was working and they created this new job, this new role, and I had the opportunity to go after it. And I didn't know what I didn't know.

I'm like, well, I got a degree. I'm going to go after this promotion. And I remember people telling me like, I don't even try to go after it. Like, they're going to overlook you, black, whatever, whatever.

And you've got to think this 15 years ago or whatever. And so we went into like politically correct climate that we didn't know. So people could overlook you because you was black potentially without and do it fairly seamlessly. What's my point?

I had a decision to make. Do I go after this promotion? Or do I listen to everybody who's given me all the reasons why I shouldn't? And thank God I went after the promotion and I got it.

And then when I got that promotion, it took me a couple of years. But then I found my way to the next promotion, so on and so forth. And I've been doing that for the past 15 years. I've had eight jobs in 16 years.

So on average, I've stayed on the job on average for two years over the last 16 years. And what I'm telling you is that through this process of consistent growth, I have constantly had to overcome my fear of heights. Because when you take one job and you get the next one, it's like, oh, wow, I never had this level of responsibility before. And the thing is going to happen for the people who want to take their lives on their own hands, you're going to keep growing.

And you're going to realize at some point, you're going to grow to where the jobs or the opportunities that you once thought were big opportunities are now minor to you. That's an interesting place to be. Why am I calling this out? I'm not calling this out to sound arrogant or sound like, oh, I'm better than these opportunities.

I'm calling it out to say, imagine this. Things today that are minor to me, I was once afraid of. But they only become minor because I embraced the fear and took on the challenge. Had I never taken on the challenge?

10, 15 years later, they would still be mountains in giants to me. What am I saying? Somebody out there sitting there, you've been passing opportunities for 10 years. You've been scared to be a manager for 10 years.

You've been scared to be accountable and responsible for start a business for 10 years. You've been scared the whole time not realizing you're going to always be scared until you embrace the fear. And that's a challenging thing in life. But once you embrace the fear and you overcome that mountain, then you realize that that mountain wasn't as big as you thought it was or that it was big and you were just stronger than you thought you were.

Then now you're looking at the next mountain. Here's the crazy thing about it. You can't even see all the mountains from where you stand. I'm going to give you this example.

We got a lot of examples today. I want to play golf recently for the first time on the real course, about a month ago. And it was a beautiful course. I was at Fox Hills in Plymouth, Michigan, I think it was.

So we're on the course. And I picked up golf. I want to give you my level of experience with golf. I've been to top golf four times before I find myself on the real course.

Here's what happened. One of my mentors called me and was like, hey, we need another person to go out to this event. I was like, man, I'm not ready. I literally was like, yo, I've never been on the course.

I'm not that good at top golf. I've only been to top golf four times because I'm so busy with my job that I don't. It's not like I got all this time just to be going and learning how to play golf. Golf is an expensive sport.

The shoes cost a lot. You got to dress a certain type of way. You got to suck your shirt in where a certain type. It's so many rules, right?

I had every excuse not to do it. And it full of transparency, it wouldn't have been the first time that I passed up an opportunity to play golf because I was afraid of the situation. I passed up an opportunity in July and June. Same thing.

But I found myself in August, like, okay, with a more direct challenge. And my mentor told me, he was like, oh, you'll be all right. I'm like, goodness, like what? So you know what I did?

I went to golf galaxy, spent $700 getting all the equipment and stuff that I need. And thank God, one of my friends gave me some clubs and stuff because I didn't have to buy everything. I'm telling my $700 just to embrace the opportunity. But this is what I told myself.

If you go and go, you go and go. And so I find myself sitting on fox heels, beautiful golf course with $700 worth of equipment and clothes on and can barely hit the ball. I hate not being good at stuff, embarrassed, but I was with some good people. Yeah, $700 bro.

I'm not lying. I spent $700 and I didn't have to buy everything. Golf is just the bag. The balls, like, got to, everything is expensive.

You go in a golf store to shoot all the shoes, like those shoes comfortable. I might, can I just say this real quick? You might see your man's walking around and you go out and shoot all the shoes on the regular. Like, there's shoes, I ain't talking about the ones with the spikes at the bottom.

They make a lot of different ones, not what he just like rubber butt and shoes is coming. What's my point? See, the thing about me when you listen to this show, I actually remember my original point. So we like, we go somewhere with this.

I was standing on the course, and this is so crazy. I'm standing on the course at one point. And it's beautiful, green, big trees, everything. And I was like, I asked them, I was like, where am I hitting it to?

You asked them why, like, I should know that I'm hitting it to the little flag, right? I didn't see it. And when you're on a real golf course, that joke is so far away. But here was the thing they told me.

They was like, oh, it's around the corner over the trees. I'm like, what? So yeah, they're like, oh, this a par five or whatever. So you not even aiming at the target.

You are aiming to put yourself in a better position for the next hit. Y'all ain't, it's there. I can stop the show right now. I'm literally giving you the sauce right here.

There are things in your life that you are passing over because you can't see the target. Not realizing this ain't even about you hitting a target. This is about you taking this opportunity and this opportunity will position you better for the next step. One thing about me, if you know me, man, I'm gonna just be real with y'all.

I don't like standing still. I don't like the idea of doing nothing. That is the weakest way to live to me. When I say weak, I'm just, I'm not so much.

I'm talking about me. For me personally, to go nowhere is frustrating. Like, I would rather be going somewhere that's gonna lead me somewhere than to go nowhere because I don't know where I'm going. Like, no, like, no, we gotta go.

Somewhere over the rainbow. Whatever the song say, we gotta go somewhere. But my point is I needed to hit the ball, not to the target, but to a position that gives me better field of view, perspective, vantage point of the target. There are some opportunities in your life right now that you've been passing over because you can't see the end and you don't realize that's where faith comes in.

That's where trusting God. I always tell people, direction is more important than speed. You feel what I'm saying? Like, direction is definitely way more important than speed.

Some of us get caught up and we looking at like, we looking at the speed. We wanna get there fast. You feel me? You feel me?

You feel me? One, like, you wanna get somewhere fast and not realizing like, bro, slow it down. Just hit the target. All right, so let's take a step back.

We got these situations in our lives, right? I looked at, again, I'm trying to get y'all as much juice as I can. And the pandemic, if you've been rocking with me, if you listen to my music, I put out two music projects over the pandemic. One was entitled to whom it made inspire and the other one was entitled to the inspiration.

Here's what I was doing over the pandemic. Literally, I remember at the top of 2020, I was like, if the world is gonna be stopped, slowed down, whatever, whatever, I need to take advantage of this. And so what happens is people take different approaches. When things slow down, a lot of people say down and they slow down.

I'm gonna sit here and watch Netflix. I got more time to waste, whatever. I view the world through with different lens. I'm not here to judge you on how you view it.

I view the world through the lens of, oh, wait a minute. If the game slowing down, if I move faster while the game is slow, I speed up my position in the game. So I had a couple of sayings that I was saying, you can listen to the podcast, go to the 2020 episodes and listen to how we was talking. We was talking like this in the midst of it.

And I'm telling you, I'm proud of that. This ain't new. This ain't like, oh, COVID is over. So I'm just feeling whatever.

No, if you go and listen to the episodes, we was in the fire and we was talking about being in the fire. We was in the fire, talking about being in the fire. Everybody looking at me, I'm trying to go high. Anyway, I'm sorry, I just ran a freestyle.

We were in the midst of the fire trying to go higher. And what's my point? I had a saying that I was saying during the pandemic. Don't leave the pandemic empty-handed.

Rock with me, rock with me, people. Don't leave the pandemic empty-handed. I was screaming it from the top of every mountain that I could climb to get people to hear me out. And here we find ourselves now, two and a half, almost three years later.

And there are people that are still in the same position they were in two and a half years ago in the whole world change. And you ain't change nothing about yourself. I'm gonna just be all the way 100 with you. If the last two and a half years didn't make you change something, I'm not gonna finish the sentence.

You might hate me if I finish the, I'm not even gonna finish the sentence because here's my thing. The game is slowing down. I'm gonna move faster. And then when the game speed up, I'm further than I was.

This ain't even, I'm not talking about me. This ain't like, oh, I'm not here bragging. I'm saying anybody could have did this. The game for the first, oh, y'all don't under, I should just, I'm about to break something in the studio.

But the first time in my life, I looked up and I was like, the playing field is even. To me, it didn't matter what color you was during the pandemic because number one, you had the race world wars going on anyway. But the first time in my life, I'm like, oh, they giving out opportunities for everybody. Oh, you got one big ear and a small ear.

Here's a grant for you. Oh, you like skin. Here's an award. You dark skin.

Okay. Oh, Asian, we got something for you. Tawn and white, here's something for you. Here's, listen, for the first time in my life, I was looking like, oh, the game is in a cheat code right now.

And I'm like, how are you sitting at home, eating biscuits and watching Game of Thrones when the game is in a cheat code and you three months behind on your car note? You feel what I'm saying? Thank you, thank you. Like the game was in a cheat code.

I'm telling y'all what I did, the entire pandemic, was work harder than I've ever worked in my life. In my life, I worked harder than I ever worked in my life. And I'm telling you, I'm still in this mode because what I genuinely believe is that if the game, if, all right, follow me, follow me. This is for my diverse, my African American people, you know what I'm saying?

You know what I'm saying? Listen, I'm from 7 Mile in Detroit, bro. Like I grew up around it all. Like any excuse we wanna have, I feel like I could have that excuse, you know what I'm saying?

Ain't nothing been handed to me in my life. I don't come from, like, I come from love in Christ. You get what I'm saying? In middle class living.

And maybe at some point lower class. I ain't really come from middle class living. I was just trying to be nice, if I'ma be real. I was in the hood, okay.

They was still in our car for Christmas. Like they was still in our car when I lived on 7 Mile. Like, yeah, what's up, Tonya? Yes, I am.

When I tell you they was still in our car, it was like surprise, we stole your car again. They used to just steal our car. I'm like, why are y'all taking, you couldn't have nothing. What's my point?

I'm just being real with y'all. Like, a lot of us have been fed our whole lives. White people this, white people blame everybody, whatever. Look, I ain't saying we ain't been done wrong.

That's not the conversation that had out on another day. One of my favorite books in the world is Up From Slavery from Booker T. Washington. And if you read this book, I've read the life story of Frederick, the autobiography of Frederick Douglass.

When you read these people books and you hear their stories and you like, wait a minute. So my man went from being a slave to an advisor of presidents, like a slave beating battered, bruised slave. And he made it to be advisors of presidents and a leader of leaders. And I'm going to complain because I'm from 7 Mile growing up in a, what, a teenager in a, what, what?

Late nineties, early 2000s. When it came to the pandemic to me, I'm like, in some cases y'all like, let's just be a hooded. Showing some cases like they giving out money to people they ain't ever gave up before. And I was telling people like, yo, it ain't just about getting the money.

See the problem with us, why are you, I get mad at myself sometimes because I'm about to tell you the truth. Sometimes I don't even like when I think the truth because I know people don't like the truth. 7 Mile, better mile. Here's the reality.

The reality is a lot of us just want to hit a lick. We don't even want real success. I didn't watch people squander opportunities because they didn't have real money, but the only way they know is how to be get on ignorant and do scamish things with them. I've watched people scam away real legitimate opportunities.

So what's my point? At some point y'all, we got to take advantage of the opportunities that's there to get us to another place. Now I know everybody don't like that because some people just, you know, they just, what, they just comfortable scamming. Can I say it that way?

I started off the show saying a lot of y'all, look, tell you a lot of these people just comfortable living how they live in it. I mean, nothing I'm gonna say that's gonna make you change. But to the people who want to change, you've got to change your mentality about this stuff. You've got to change the way you look in.

Oh, some people, I saw the jokes on here. Your stimulus check was just a lick for somebody. I was telling people, take that stimulus check, bad delta stock, it went down to $21. I'm like, that's $110, $120 stock prepandemic.

But like, I was only giving, this is not financial advice right now. I was just telling this to my family members and close friends. I was doing, I had so many people, I had so many people bad stock, low-key, so many y'all should, how many y'all say thank you? That's the whole other thing anyway.

But I had so many people, what up, Doug? I had so many people buying stock, but people's mind is caught on hitting a lick. And so some of this y'all, the Bible says I keep telling y'all, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I am trying to speak to you in a way right now that convinces you that you need to transform the way that you've been thinking.

Throughout this pandemic, I have seen more opportunities put in front of people like myself than I've ever seen in my life. My parents never had these opportunities. My grandparents never had these opportunities. My great-grandparents, but showing them I've never had no opportunities like this.

So why would I sit on a couch and be complaining, you feel me? Like why would I be sitting on a couch and complaining during the most like, prosperous time? Look, I know the economy is messed up now. It's recession.

I was trying to tell people that I was coming. It was inflation. But the problem with some of, oh, I'm about to help somebody. The problem with some of us is we can't see the forest through the trees.

What am I saying? The distractions are so much in our face, we can't see the truth through it. So when the pandemic was going on, it was all about being afraid. It was all about fear.

And I get it. I'm not here to minimize anything I got respect for everybody. Like this ain't what that's about. But what I'm saying is afraid of heights.

Some of us were so fearful during that time that we could not see the opportunities that would have literally had you not complaining about the recession today. I'm telling you, I'm trying to tell you what I know. I'm trying to tell y'all that there were opportunities to make money. Let me just, okay, let's give one example, okay?

I like real life examples. So let me go back to the Delta example. And I'm gonna say this because my auntie actually posted on Facebook about this. And I think I made her $14,000.

My auntie came over, she was at my brother, Daris House, she was kicking it. And she was like, man, I'm looking at, she's the one who really, like, she's a real OG with stocks. I'm still a newbie just a couple years in. But I was telling her, Auntie, I'm assessing this situation.

And I'm telling you Delta is the stock at the time. Don't take this as financial advice right now. I have not looked at Delta stock. I no longer own Delta stock.

Like I don't want you to take this and go do this with your money. This was, mmm, I'm saying, listen, y'all got to really hear what I'm saying. So many opportunities were in the pandemic. The opportunity I'm talking about right now was just two years ago and no longer exists.

That's how quick we miss opportunities have windows. And some of us waste so much time that I tried to give people this advice two years ago. It's still good advice, but you can't even take it no more because the move already happened. Yo, the move of God is on the way.

We sing all these songs and in the move happened and you miss the move. Some of us been singing the same song in church for 20 years. Listen, if you singing about a breakthrough in 99, 2009, 2019 and I still ain't seeing nothing break, it's time for you to either choose a different song or stop missing the break. Like some of us just like singing about stuff.

We ain't even experiencing it. All right. So I told my, I'm looking at Delta. I told my friends, I'm looking at Delta.

Delta was, it went down to like $21 at $1.22, right? At some point in 2021, that stock hit $110. Whoo, you talking about five times your money fam? So just imagine like if you went during that same period and wasted $1,000 on some McQueen shoes or some Gucci's or something.

And instead just would have bought a good stock set on it for six, eight, nine months, made five times that took your money out. Now you got $5,000 from $1,000. These are the opportunities that are literally around you every single day. You feel me, Steph?

What's up? These opportunities are around us every day. But if you are focused on the problem and not the solution, you go miss opportunities. So what am I saying?

Back to my black people, my friends, my family, my brother. And let's kick it. We live in the world and I'm just, look, everybody not gonna like this and I know that. And I'm not mad at you cause you don't like this.

You gotta write to live how you do. But I got to write to live differently too. So growing up for me is like, all right, I'm from the hood, I don't come from money, whatever, whatever, I got a couple options. Everybody telling me, you know, growing up, I can't tell you how many times I heard.

The white man is the white man holding us back. The white man is like, and I'm just the kind of person this man said y'all have, whether it's right or wrong. I'm not saying you haven't been done wrong. I'm not saying that some white people haven't done wrong, whatever, especially in power.

I don't think that means all people, white people are bad or that we can't be cool with white people or we shouldn't be trying to reconcile things. But I also was like, yo, y'all ain't going nowhere though. You want me to blame everything on the white man while also sitting and waiting on the white man to come save me. That doesn't make sense to me.

It don't make sense to me. Like, so that's like, okay, let's make it. I gotta talk to you on the way that makes sense. Imagine your baby mama is the worst fellas.

And I came to you and said, you know what, yo baby mama trash. No, yeah, she trash. I'm like, you know what? She, oh, you sit back and don't do nothing with your life into the person that you think is trash, value enough to pay you what you deserve.

How many people are willing to take me up on that offer? Come on down, ladies, baby daddy is horrible. Do you want to wait on him? So look, I'm just playing a game.

Let's say the person, look, duh, like let's say the person really is horrible. You want to play the game, ladies, to wait on the horrible baby daddy to maybe one day come back and take care of you? I'm sorry. For me, all right.

So you can tell me how the white man is or that. I was always like, yo, I feel you. Like I feel it. Thank you.

But I can't wait. I can't wait on the white man to get this act together. Like you all waiting on him to hit like not the same people who did all that. Y'all trust the same people that y'all hated 20 years.

I don't get this stuff. But here's what I'm saying. At the end of the day, what I believe, I believe that true freedom is about you getting up and going and taking your own life in your hands because for me, there's nothing greater than an opportunity. It's not about a handout.

It's about an opportunity. Because with an opportunity, see, you could play the handout game for the rest of your life. You could say, OK, you were in power. You were white.

Now you owe me this because you took this away. All right. Then I can get it. And then I get power.

And one day I'm going to owe it to somebody in the future for something else, right? Or I could say, you know what game I believe is the equal game that even is the playing field? The game of opportunity. Because what opportunity says is that, yo, imagine I put, if I had a bag of jelly beans a quarter mile at the end of the row and had three people racing for it, a white man, a black man, and a Chinese man, a tall and a short one and a medium high one.

And I said to them, the first person to the jelly bean gets the bag. If they have the same starting point, you get what I'm saying? They run it on the same field or the same turf or whatever. That, to me, is equal playing field.

If I start the game off and the black dude is far back and the one dude is closer, and then I do the second game and say, well, because in the first game, the black dude was behind. In the second game, we're going to put you at the front and we're going to make that game is going to go on for the rest of the tournament. But if I said, yo, let's stop all the nonsense and let everybody start at the same time. And now it don't matter what color you are, it don't matter what you like or what you hate, whoever gets their first gets the bag, the bag, the bag.

The bag. What I'm saying is that's the game we should be trying to play, the opportunity game. See me? I want to play the opportunity game.

That's the game I've been playing in the last few years because I'm like, oh, y'all actually leveling out some of the opportunity? Where now I can't go after something that maybe before I would have been disadvantaged that. I don't have too much time to talk about the problem or the reason why I'll talk about the problem after I get the bag of jelly beans. Listen to what I'm saying, but I'm not about to miss the first bag of jelly beans that I can get equally.

I'm not gonna miss it talking about the last 10 bags of jelly beans I missed. I'ma go get this one. And when I get this one, then we can sit down and write a book and tell a story about it. What I'm telling you is don't, this time for you to stop, listen into people in your life who want you to be a victim, who want you to sit down and be waiting on Santa Claus to show up to your doorstep with new opportunities and you need to get up and go out and take advantage of yourself.

And what I'm saying, especially like for us, black people, especially in my age group, you got millennials, Gen Z, all this stuff, understand this, you have way more opportunities than your parents have. People don't wanna talk about this. I got way more opportunity in my parents. Of course I was able to make it further in school or make it further in corporate America.

They didn't have these opportunities. I honor them. I honor them while they're still here living with my work towards saying, listen, if I got an opportunity that you didn't get, cause I know had you gotten it, you would have did something with it, I'ma go do that for you. I'ma go, I'ma go do this for the family name.

I'ma go do this for our future. I'ma go do this and then when I do that, I'ma keep going because I wanna help somebody else. The problem with us is we miss the opportunities to change our family's lives because we complain about some junk that our grandma went through. How you 18 years old complaining about some stuff, and you had an iPhone your whole life.

You had an iPhone since you was three years old, some of my opportunity. You mean, opportunity only phones, people just, I mean, you know how many people didn't change their life? Cause they start a page, start a business. You know how many businesses I just, you can just, everybody could print T-shirts now.

Everybody could print T-shirts in the 90s. You know how easy it is to make a business card now versus the people when I was growing up, the adults, we got opportunities they didn't have. So all I'm saying to you today is, yeah, I'm afraid of heights. I know it's scary thinking about like, you're gonna go in here into the big bad world with the white man and whoever else don't like you.

And you're gonna have to try to find a way to survive in a world where everybody ain't your best friend. Guess what? We do that in the hood every day. Like I just get tired of some of these narratives.

I grew up in the hood. It was, they was still in our, I just told y'all they was still in our car like it was a Christmas present for them. Like every time we got a new car, it was like, somebody was like, yeah, we got a new car. Cause our cars kept getting stolen.

It went no white man, I didn't grow up around white people. I'm just, I'm gonna just keep it extra crispy with you. The two and three white people that grew up around me in the hood, they looking at blacker than I do. Like so, like at the end of the day, like my point is, like, all right, if I'm in the hood, if I'm over here, black people gonna be trying to take my stuff.

If I go over here, I gotta deal with white people. If I move to China, I gotta deal with Chinese people. What I'm saying is that there are problems. I'm just trying to keep it extra crispy.

You feel me? There are problems everywhere in the world. So this idea that you're gonna create this reality where you don't have to go after any opportunities, but then all these things are gonna be handed down to you from your oppressors and people. And here, I just don't believe it.

Like, I don't believe it and I ain't waiting on it. I'm not about to be sitting up here 75 years old talking about like, I can't do it, I can't do it, they took my opportunity. They owe me. I'm not about to be 100 years on my death bed and be like, if I just would have did the video.

Can't do it, fam. I can't do it. I'm telling y'all, man, there are so many opportunities in your hand that you're missing because you're complaining. Cause here's something I've learned in life.

You can't see an opportunity in complaining at the same time. You can't do it, you can't do it. You can't do it. Sopranos, you can't do it.

I thought you can't do it. You can't do it. You can't do it. You can't do it.

You can't see an opportunity in complaining at the same time. It ain't possible. So here's my question to you. Are you complaining?

Cause if you are, you're missing an opportunity. There's an opportunity out there right now. And I got another thing to say to you. Opportunity doesn't knock.

It don't knock, fam. You can't do it. Opportunity don't knock. This idea that you think opportunity knocks?

Opportunity is there waiting for you to come get it. Let me tell you something. Before the pandemic, I had never traded stocks. I had done something with crypto.

Back in 2017, I started messing with crypto a little bit, but I didn't know what I was doing. But here's the thing that was, I'm gonna tell you the absolute craziest part to me. We're talking about opportunity. And I wanna look at something.

Hold on. I wanna look at something because we're talking about opportunity. I just wanna look at how much the stock was yesterday. Before 2020, I had never traded stocks.

But here's what was crazy. When I set up my account to start trading stocks and I bought some Apple and some Delta. I was buying a little bit of everything for it. I was just buying whatever.

Cause I was looking at like, oh, this stuff on sale. This is what's crazy to me. Do you know the craziest part about stocks to me? It was how easy it was.

I was like, wait a minute. So it ain't no law to say I can't do this cause I'm black or I'm from the hood or I'm light skinned or I'm bald headed. There's nobody stopping me from this. There's nobody putting a gun in my head and saying buy a five pair of Jordans instead of buying five shares of Apple.

Nobody is doing it. So I live in America. I'm in a free society. I have a cell phone.

I logged up and set up a free account on TD Ameritrade. And they're not sponsoring this video or anything. So I'm just sharing with you. I set up a free account on TD Ameritrade.

Fairly easy and simple to use. I look in here at the stocks. I can see all the prices, look at the whole thing. So just like I know how to shop for clothes, if I go to the store today and I see a nice pair of shoes that used to cost 200 and they don't sell for 89, I feel like that's a good price.

They're quality shoes. Like, oh, I'm gonna buy these shoes, right? Especially you're telling me something has a chance to go back up. Now what I'm not telling you to do is blindly start going out there and buying stocks.

This is not financial advice. And I am not advising you to go do anything without the proper education. I am simply telling you how opportunity works. So you have these stocks.

I log on here. I started buying stocks. What I wanna pull up. I wanna pull up a Tesla just split.

That's gonna be harder to look at. What's something that's easy? Let's stop talking about Delta. Let me just look at Delta real quick.

I haven't looked at they stock in a while. Delta. What up? Hope, how you feeling fam?

Stop substituting complaints for opportunities, please. I just wanna tell you how opportunity works. So Delta yesterday closed at 32 11, right? So the crazy thing for me was like, there was nobody stopping me when I was buying Delta stock at $24.

Then I held it. I think I sold at $75, $74. It went to what's something. So I missed that.

What's my point? That opportunity to look a couple of dollars I made there, just a little bit of money. I wasn't trading a bunch of money in stocks at that time. But the little bit of money I made showed me something.

Is that nobody was stopping me. So this idea of the big bad wolf and the big bad white man, like I was like, where's he at? Because I just logged in the TD Ameritrade, decided to spend my money on stocks versus buying new shoes, delayed gratification. I'm not a victim.

I don't worship the things I want. So I don't have to have them in the moment that I want them all the time. So I just went and bought this and sold and made a little bit of money. And you mean to tell me nobody stopped me?

What up, Nehemiah? What up, bro? Keep making them serves. Let me, you know, text me to join you.

Just made a opportunity. I'm trying to see that. Maybe I'll rock it on the next show. My point people is sometimes we create monsters that's like a boogeyman.

They're not real. And it's because you are paying attention to a fake monster that you don't even realize the little bit of effort is in your hands. The same effort that took you to start a Facebook account. Same effort that took you to start an Instagram, a TikTok.

Why is it that we figure out how to start new accounts? We're gonna upload videos, get new phones. We're like, oh, how are you going to website? Do stuff?

How do you do it? I don't know. Oh my God, what is this? It's the same thing you've been doing.

It's the same phone. It's just opportunity. It's kind of like when it comes time to pray or read the Bible, how you get sleepy. Some of us get sleepy when we talk about opportunities.

You can sit here all day long on your phone, like a zombie looking at 1,015 second videos on TikTok. But you can't watch one 30 minute video on how to set up a stock account. You can't learn financial. Listen, I'm not trying to hear it.

Listen, I'm just being real with y'all. I have very little, a very short threshold for excuses. Because I've seen too many opportunities in the past few years right in front of your eyes. And the only thing stopping you is you being lazy, being comfortable, being complacent, being ignorant, not wanting to listen to wise counsel.

The Bible tells us to listen to wise counsel. The problem with us, we think wise counsel is always somebody in the four walls of a church with a title. I'm sorry. No disrespect.

But if your bishop don't know nothing about finances or he ain't teaching or passing along, like yes, he might be the person you go to to understand the scripture or pray for you or something. But I'm sorry. Somebody else can give you advice. You can read a book that was not written by TD Jakes.

And I'm just telling y'all, like, I'm telling y'all, what up, what up, Gene, how you doing? Yeah, please check it out later. I know you will. Thank you for letting me know.

I appreciate people like Gene and she writes with the show, they're rocking with the show at least for a year or so now. And you know, see, like, see, that's how we do it. It's by our guys people. What up, I see you live.

I can't watch it now, check it out later. At the end of the day folks, here's what I'm trying to say. It's, it's, it's my bad. I have to text my wife.

It's too many opportunities in front of you that take minimal effort. And all you've been doing is making excuses as to why you're in your situation. And the reason I ain't trying to hear it is because I'm from the same thing and all I did was try. And I failed a couple of times too.

And that's the whole thing I'm saying. Yes, it's scary. Learning the new trade, learning something new, like me trying to play golf. That's really hard.