Video Transcript: If everybody could become an expert at anything at a drop of a hat, would there be any rewards for it? I think you have the answer, even as I ask the question.
Got a couple of good buddies that used to live down in South Alabama. Their names were Bernard Haygood and Jimmy Glenn. One day they’re out riding through the South Alabama foothills and they got a little thirsty. Bernard was the driver. He’s also the athletic one, so he hopped out of the car, he ran around to this old abandoned pump there in the back of this old farmhouse.
He grabbed the handle of the pump and he started to pump. Now let me say that when old Bernard grabbed that handle and started to pump you know, since it was August and brutally hot that day, he was anxious to get some water out. So he really got after it, he was just pumping away. And after a couple of minutes he said, “Jimmy, you better get that old bucket over there and dip some water out of the creek. We gonna have to prime this pump.” All that really means is that you gotta put something in here before you can expect to get anything out, here.
The pump is really saying in another way what we’ve said so many times, and that is that you gotta be and do, before you can have. Too many people stand in front of the stove of life, and they say, “Stove now, you give me some heat, and then I’ll put some wood in you.” So many times the employee goes to the employer and says, “Now give me a raise. And when you give me the raise I’ll start coming to work on time. I’ll start doing the things you really want me to do.” What they’re saying is, “Reward me now and then later I’ll perform.” That’s not the way it works. First you’ve gotta put something in before you can expect to get anything out.
Well old Bernard wanted to drink water. But the question is, just how much pumping are you willing to do in order to get that drink of water? And after a few minutes he said, “Jimmy I just don’t believe there’s any water down there.” And Jimmy said, “Yes it is, Bernard. You know in South Alabama the wells are deep.” We’re glad they are, aren’t we? Because you see, the deeper the well, the cleaner, the sweeter, the purer, the better tasting the water is. Isn’t that another lesson the pump can teach us?
Isn’t it true that those things which have value, I mean real value, are those things which we have to work for over a period of time? Yes, it’s absolutely true. But those things which have value, which have real value, are those things which we make that honest effort to acquire. We work at it and we do a little sweating in the process. And by now, old Bernard is really beginning to sweat. I mean, it’s August, it’s hot. Finally, he just threw up his hands and he said, “Jimmy, there just ain’t no water down there.”
Jimmy said, “Don’t stop Bernard, don’t stop. If you stop, that water’s gonna go all the way back down, and then you’re gonna have to start all over.” And isn’t that the story of life?
Isn’t it true that so many people lose out on a lot of effort they’ve expended in the past, because they don’t do just a little bit more?
Transcript:
Alright, everyone looking forward, please. Good morning Year Elevens. Today’s assembly is about the start of a journey. The start of the rest of your lives. In 2 years’ time all of you will be finishing your A Levels. In 3 years’ time you’ll be studying across the world, studying at the university of your choice. In 5 years’ time you’ll have started your careers.
Many of you will be in this room working for the top institutions across the globe. You will then get married, you then may buy a house. In 10 yeas’ time your life will be set for you. In 15 years you’ll be 30 and from then on your path, your life will be set.
I’m sorry Mr. Headmaster, let me tell you why that approach may fail you. I know people who graduated at 21 and didn’t get a job until they were 27. I know people who graduated late at 25 and they found work immediately. I know people who never went to university, but found what they love at 18.
I know people who found a job straight out of college making decent money, but hate what they do. I know people who took gap years and found their purpose.
I know people who were so sure about what they were going to do at 16, they change their mind at 26. I know people who have children but are single, and I know people who are married but had to wait 8 to 10 years to have children. I know people in relationships who love someone else. I know people who love each other but aren’t together.
So my point is everything in life happens according to our time, our clock. You may look at some of your friends and think that they’re ahead of you, maybe some of them you feel are behind, but everything happens at their own pace. They have their own time and clock and so do you. Be patient.
At age 25, Mark Cuban was a bartender in Dallas. It took till 32 for J.K. Rowling to be published for Harry Potter after being rejected by 12 publishers. Ortega launched Zara when he was 39. Jack Ma started Alibaba when he was 35. Morgan Freeman got his big break at 52. Steve Carell only got his break after 40 years old. Virgin was started by Richard Branson at 34.
Getting your degree after 25 is still an achievement. Not being married at 30 but still happy is beautiful. Starting a family after 35 is still possible, and buying a house after 40 is still great. Don’t let anyone rush you with their timelines. Because as Einstein said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that’s counted truly counts.”
And this is the most important thing, I want you to be able to create meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling lives for yourselves, and learn how to use that to make an impact and a difference in the lives of others. That, will be true success.
Transcript: It’s really hard. It’s really, really hard. It’s a difficult job. You can never perfect what we do. There is no way. I’ve never met anyone who goes, “That’s perfection.” As an actor, and this isn’t mock humility, I think it just goes for all art forms really, that the whole point is perfection is unachievable.
So see lots, read lots, hear lots. Experience life as well and just keep observing. Really observing. Not just looking and seeing, but sort of observing.
It’s that constant pursuit of the unobtainable which is kind of magic, really, and to keep us kind of motivated to try better. It’s the Beckett thing. Fail again, fail better.
Transcript:
The wisest person I ever met in my life, a third grade dropout. Wisest and dropout in the same sentence is rather oxymoronic, like jumbo shrimp. Mm-hmmm. Like Fun Run, ain’t nothing fun about it. Like Microsoft Works. You all don’t hear me.
I used to say like country music, but I’ve lived in Texas so long, I love country music now. I hunt. I fish. I have cowboy boots and cowboy… Y’all, I’m a blackneck redneck. Do you hear what I’m saying to you?
No longer oxymoronic for me to say country music, and it’s not oxymoronic for me to say third grade and dropout. That third grade dropout, the wisest person I ever met in my life, who taught me to combine knowledge and wisdom to make an impact, was my father. A simple cook, wisest man I ever met in my life, just a simple cook. Left school in the third grade to help out on the family farm, but just because he left school doesn’t mean his education stopped. Mark Twain once said: “I’ve never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education.”
My father taught himself how to read, taught himself how to write, decided in the midst of Jim Crowism, as America was breathing the last gasp of the Civil War, my father decided he was going to stand and be a man, not a black man, not a brown man, not a white man, but a man. He literally challenged himself to be the best that he could all the days of his life.
I have four degrees. My brother is a judge. We’re not the smartest ones in our family. It’s a third grade dropout daddy, a third grade dropout daddy who was quoting Michelangelo, saying to us, “Boys, I won’t have a problem if you aim high and miss, but I’m gonna have a real issue if you aim low and hit.”
A country mother quoting Henry Ford, saying, “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right.” I learned that from a third grade drop. Simple lessons, lessons like these, “Son, you’d rather be an hour early than a minute late.” We never knew what time it was at my house because the clocks were always ahead. My mother said, for nearly 30 years, my father left the house at 3:45 in the morning. One day, she asked him, “Why, Daddy?” He said, “Maybe one of my boys will catch me in the act of excellence.”
I wanna share two things with you. Aristotle said, “You are what you repeatedly do.” Therefore, excellence ought to be a habit, not an act. Don’t ever forget that. I know you’re tough, but always remember to be kind, always. Don’t ever forget that. Never embarrass Mama. Mm-hmmm. If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. If Daddy ain’t happy don’t nobody care but you know…
Next lesson, lesson from a cook over there in the galley. “Son, make sure your servant’s towel is bigger than your ego.” Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. You all might have a relative in mind you might want to send that to. Let me say it again. Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is the burden of a foolish person. John Wooden coached basketball at UCLA for a living, but his calling was to impact people, and with all those national championships, guess what he was found doing in the middle of the week? Going into the cupboard, grabbing a broom and sweeping his own gym floor. You want to make an impact? Find your broom. Every day of your life, you find your broom. You grow your influence that way. That way, you’re attracting people so that you can impact them.
Final lesson. “Son, if you’re going to do a job, do it right.” I’ve always been told how average I can be, always been criticized about being average, but I want to tell you something. I stand here before you, before all of these people, not listening to those words, but telling myself every single day, to shoot for the stars, to be the best that I can be. Good enough isn’t good enough if it can be better, and better isn’t good enough if it can be best. Let me close with a very personal story that I think will bring all this into focus. Wisdom will come to you in the unlikeliest of sources, a lot of times through failure. When you hit rock bottom, remember this. While you’re struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow. I’m not worried that you’ll be successful. I’m worried that you won’t fail from time to time. A person that gets up off the canvas and keeps growing, that’s the person that will continue to grow their influence.
Back in the ‘70s, to help me make this point, let me introduce you to someone. I met the finest woman I’d ever met in my life. Mm-hmm. Back in my day, we’d have called her a brick house. This woman was the finest woman I’d ever seen in my life. There was just one little problem. Back them, ladies didn’t like big old linemen. The Blind Side hadn’t come out yet. They liked quarterbacks and running backs. We’re at this dance and I find out her name is Trina Williams from Lompoc, California. We’re all dancing and we’re just excited. I decide in the middle of dancing with her that I would ask her for her phone number. Trina was the first… Trina was the only woman in college who gave me her real telephone number. The next day, we walked to Baskin & Robbins Ice Cream Parlour. My friends couldn’t believe it. This has been 40 years ago, and my friends still can’t believe it. We go on a second date and a third date and a fourth date. Mm-hmm. We drive from Chico to Vallejo so that she can meet my parents. My father meets her. My daddy. My hero. He meets her, pulls me to the side and says, “Is she psycho?” But anyway. We go together for a year, two years, three years, four years. By now, Trina’s a senior in college. I’m still a freshman, but I’m working some things out. I’m so glad I graduated in four terms, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan. Now, it’s time to propose, so I talk to her girlfriends, and it’s California. It’s in the ‘70s, so it has to be outside, have to have a candle and you have to have some chocolate. Listen, I’m from the hood. I had a bottle of Boone’s Farm wine. That’s what I had. She said, “Yes.” That was the key. I married the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my… You all ever been to a wedding and even before the wedding starts, you hear this? “How in the word?” And it was coming from my side of the family.
We get married. We have a few children. Our lives are great. One day, Trina finds a lump in her left breast. Breast cancer. Six years after that diagnosis, me and my two little boys walked up to Mommy’s casket. For two years, my heard didn’t beat. If it wasn’t for my faith in God, I wouldn’t be standing her today. If it wasn’t for those two little boys, there would have been no reason for which to go on. I was completely lost. That was rock bottom. You know what sustained me? The wisdom of a third grade dropout. The wisdom of a simple cook. We’re at the casket. I’d never seen my dad cry, but this time I saw my dad cry. That was his daughter. Trina was his daughter, not his daughter-in-law. I’m right behind my father about to see her for the last time one this Earth, and my father shared three words with me that changed my life right there at the casket. It would be the last lesson he would ever teach me.
He said, “Son, just stand.” You keep standing. No matter how rough the sea, you keep standing, and I’m not talking about just water. You keep standing. No matter what. You don’t give up. And as clearly as I’m talking to you today, these were some of her last words to me. She looked me in the eye and she said, “It doesn’t matter to me any longer how long I live. What matters to me most is how I live.” I ask you all one question, a question that I was asked all my life by a third grade dropout. How you living? How you living? Every day, ask yourself that question. How you living? Here’s what a cook would suggest you to live, this way, that you would not judge, that you would show up early, that you’d be kind, that you make sure that that servant’s towel is huge and used, that if you’re going to do something, you do it the right way. That cook would tell you this, that it’s never wrong to do the right thing, that how you do anything is how you do everything, and in that way you will grow your influence to make an impact. In that way, you will honor all those who have gone before you, who have invested in you. Look in those unlikeliest places for wisdom. Enhance your life every day by seeking that wisdom and asking yourself every night, “How am I living?”
May God richly bless you all. MAKE AN IMPACT
People were looking at me, people were pointing their finger at me and laughing.
I was born this way, and no doctor knows why I was born this way. My parents don’t know why I was born this way. Lady Gaga don’t know why I was born this way. In my life, seeing everyone with arms and legs, my brother and sister have arms and legs. I never imagined that I would be happy, but we’ve got to understand that brokenness is brokenness, but hope is hope.
Some people say, “Well, all you need is just to be positive.” Well, it’s easy for you to say, that’s what I’m thinking. People who have arms and legs, it’s easy for you. I just want you to know though that there is something I have come here to prepare a message for you, to let you know that there is hope beyond what you see.
When in life, we have things in life that come and we try to figure out, well, who am I and what am I doing, and what’s my purpose? Is there any purpose at all to my life in the end?
I stand before you without arms and legs telling you right now that I am absolutely not disabled. There is something greater, something greater than the disabilities around you, or the limitations around you. There is HOPE.
Related: Overcoming Hopelessness by Nick Vujicic
