ERIC THOMAS | YOU OWE YOU | Motivational Speaker
– Can’t make me want what I don’t want.
You can’t dangle something
in front of my face that’s,
I don’t want that.
And many of your are taking anything
’cause you don’t know what you want.
And so if I can do one thing for you
when you leave this room,
I don’t want nothing from you but for you
to leave this room and know what you want.
What do you want in your marriage?
What do you want with your
son and your daughter?
What do you want in your health?
What do you want financially?
Like, how much money do
you want to make a year?
What do you want to drive?
How do you want to live?
Stop just waking up like an accident.
What do you want?
And then once you find out what you want,
spend the rest of your natural life
waking up and going after it.
The reason why I speak
with so much passion,
E.T. why do you speak
with so much authority?
‘Cause I’m talking about my
life, not something that I read.
I ate out of trash cans.
I had no business eating
out of trash cans.
I lived in abandoned buildings.
I had no business living
in abandoned buildings.
But E.T., your daddy wasn’t in your life.
Your mom was a teenage mother.
You grew up, come on
E, look at your cir…
that’s not an excuse.
There’s no excuse for not living up
to your fullest potential, no excuse.
I told you, I didn’t get a new daddy.
I didn’t get a new mama.
What changed?
I changed, and I stopped being a victim.
I stopped saying I’ve
gotta wait for good things
to happen to me.
And I said I’m going to
grind, I’m going to fight.
I’m going to work, I’m
going to press toward,
I’m going to learn, I’m going
to do everything in my power
every single day.
I’m going to do everything
in my power to become
a victor and not a victim.
Now let me say this before I move forward.
And I can’t explain it,
but you better feel me.
Winners win, and losers lose.
I can’t explain it any better than that.
I don’t know how it
happens, but winners win.
And if you create a culture of losing,
if you keep being a victim,
if you keep letting losing happen to you,
if you keep letting people do you
and treat you any kind of way
it’s gonna become a culture.
Let me tell y’all, I’m
not from New Zealand guys.
Come on, listen to me very closely.
I’m not from New Zealand,
but I know about…
let me say it this way so I can help you.
I know about about one team.
I’ve never seen, I’ve never seen
All Blacks play a day in my life.
I’ve never been to the
stadium, where’s the stadium?
Help me out, where’s the stadium?
Okay, I’m going… you see what I did?
I’ve never been to the stadium.
You’re like, Eric, the stadium,
that’s Habit that way, Eric.
That’s not the stadium,
the stadium is this way.
I’ve never been there a day in my life.
And if you watch some of
my videos I have All Blacks
in my videos.
Why? ‘Cause they’re what?
They’re winners.
And when you’re a winner
you don’t even stay
in your own little town.
When you’re a winner, winning spreads.
So everybody, I got videos where I’m like,
y’all, I don’t really know
how to show my passion.
Somebody said, get the
All Blacks (screaming).
I’m like yep, that’s
who I need, All Blacks.
(chanting)
Yup, yup, I need the All Blacks.
I need the All…why?
‘Cause they say what I’m saying.
They just said it in rugby.
I don’t say, I’m like whoo,
that’s a violent sport.
Their passion is all over there, why?
‘Cause winners win.
I can’t explain it to
you, but you better stop
making excuses and find a way to win.
Because once you start winning
you go from 1,500 to 3,000
to 5,000 to 7,000.
You remember C, from seven to 10?
Nothing changed, we’re
still in the basement.
We don’t have a building.
We still use the garage
for all of our products.
We don’t have business cards.
We don’t have a five-year plan.
We don’t have a three-year plan.
How do you do it then, E?
We wake up and grind.
Winners win.
I focus more on winning
than I focus on structure.
I focus on winning.
And when you become a winner,
they start seeing you with winners.
You get from being a loser, low
self-esteem, doubt, and fear
and if you can find your
way on this side, guys
it’s sweeter on this side.
You know what’ so funny?
We want people to make guarantees to us
but we’re not willing to
make guarantees to ourself.
Now, for real, I’m gonna say it again.
Like somebody gave you a
guarantee, 30-day guarantee.
In 30 days if you don’t
make what they told you
you was gonna make, in 30
days you got an attitude,
you want your money back.
But you never demanded your
money back from yourself.
You’ve never looked at yourself
in the mirror and said,
you let you down.
Until you get to that
point, you let you down.
You’ve never, you’re not brave enough.
You want to put it on somebody else.
The reason why I’m not
successful is ’cause of my boss.
Have you ever looked at
yourself in the mirror
and said I’m not getting up on time.
I’m not going to work on time.
I’m not putting in 120
percent when I’m at work.
I let me down.
And when you get to the
point where you can say
you let you down, I don’t care…
listen to me, no disrespect.
I don’t care about Glenn,
that’s not why I do what I do.
And I love Glenn.
I don’t come here and do what
I do so Glenn can affirm me,
so he can give me a pat on my back.
I care more about me than I care about
what Glenn thinks about me.
I have standards, I have values.
I don’t care how much you pay me.
If I speak at an elementary
school for 300 dollars,
I chose to do that for 300 dollars.
If I chose to speak at a prison for free,
I chose to do that.
And I will not go in there
giving those prisoners less
than what somebody pays me 100,000.
Why? Because I value myself
enough to give 120 percent
or don’t do it.
And that’s the problem with some of you.
You always want to blame other people.
You want to hold other people to the fire,
but you’re not holding
yourself to the fire.
You just said you giving 50 percent.
You owe you an explanation.
You owe you an explanation!
You need to look at yourself
in the mirror and say,
why are you only giving 50
percent, what’s wrong with you?
You need to put yourself on punishment.
You need to tell you no
more TV, no more snacks,
no more desserts, no more–no
we’re working out now.
No more alcohol, not right now.
Not, no I can’t handle it right now.
You need to tell you that
you owe you something.
Stop going back to, you
keep going to the mall
with the receipt, this is
what y’all said it was.
Glenn, you didn’t do what
you say you was going to do.
Well, you didn’t do what
you were supposed to do,
so how am I going to do what
I am supposed to do for you?
You walk out of this
room, you owe yourself.
I didn’t get here making excuses.
So what my father wasn’t in my life.
The truth of that matter is
he ain’t never come into my life.
So what, I’m-a wait
for the rest of my life
for my man to come?
He ain’t coming.
I live in America, I’m
an African American male.
They don’t treat us the same.
It’s something called racism.
I ain’t gonna cry about it.
It’s probably going to be
racism ’til the day I die.
But I’m not going to cry about it,
I’m still going to be a millionaire.
I’m still going to be one of
the top motivational speakers
in the world.
No, I didn’t grow up on
that side of the town.
No, my mama don’t have no network.
No, I don’t know a whole lot of people.
No, I’m not at a country club.
No, I don’t play golf,
and I don’t plan on playing no time soon.
But I’m still going to be successful.
I’m still going to get
to where they are, why?
‘Cause I owe it to myself, and
can’t nobody stop me but me.
And you need to get rid of them excuses.
And you need to stop
pointing fingers at people,
and you need to start
pointing fingers at yourself.
What did you not do?
(bold instrumental music)
