You Owe You: Ignite Your Power, Your Purpose, and Your Why by Eric Thomas

Author:Eric Thomas [Thomas, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

The only difference between that day and any other day was that there was a camera in that room and there was a mic on my collar. A guy I knew from the school, named Kenneth Nelson, asked if he could record me giving one of my talks. And I thought, Why not? Being willing to try something new puts you in miracle territory, too.

Here’s the thing: I’d been doing those talks. I’d been counseling those kids. Before that day, I’d had a twelve-year speaking career. Every week, I’d be in juvenile detention centers with boys whose lives were on a downward spiral that couldn’t be stopped, kids whose parents had been killed, or who’d watched their friends die in front of their eyes. The intensity in those rooms was ten times what you see in the guru video. But nobody had ever thought to put me on camera or to put a mic by my mouth.

That day, I didn’t go in there with much planned. I never do. I usually have a general idea of what I’m going to talk about—a subject, a message, an atmosphere—but I don’t write it down or practice it ahead of time. Rote learning has never been my thing. I do better when I feel that I can be spontaneous, when I can see what the crowd needs and calibrate my delivery and content to their vibe. However, that day I did have a notecard in my hand. You can see it in the video. It’s weird. I never use notecards. It’s not me. It’s not natural. But, for whatever reason, that day, I had written down a Lance Armstrong quote: “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” And when I read it, those kids sat up. (Sometimes people think that’s my quote, so, Lance, if you heard about that, I’m sorry, bro. I wasn’t trying to steal your wisdom.)

Here’s another truth: I don’t know why I told the guru story. I hadn’t thought of it before I walked into the room that day. I know that a version of it comes from a book I’d read years before, but I don’t even remember reading that part of it myself for the first time. And yet there the words were, in my mouth, coming out into that room, traveling through that microphone, being recorded by that video camera. There the story was, traveling into the ears of these young people whose lives and futures were on the line. There it was for the millions upon millions of people who have heard it since.

CJ was in the room that day, too, and he agrees with me. He says it was the same as any other day. And, like every other day, I got those kids’ attention. CJ says that when they heard my voice, my intensity, my urgency, it was like their dad or their coach was in there yelling at them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.