What if it works out?

A lot of times I'll be in a 200 mile run

or something like that and I'm all

jacked up. Body's broken, mind's broken,

spirit's broken. I start to say, "What

if I can pull this off?" When I first

walked into the Navy Seal recruiter's

office, he looked at me and said,

"There's only been 35 African-Ameans in

70 years make it through." You know, I

said to myself, "What if I can be the

36th?"

It's the what if I can pull off a

[ __ ] miracle? What if I can become

someone that no one thinks I can be? And

just that just me talking about that, I

have the hair growing up on my arms

because it makes me just like what if.

>> I once had a Gins counsel tell me that I

shouldn't play basketball,

that it would never amount to anything

for me. You know what? Much to your

surprise,

I took that counselor's advice.

I took it and I used it to be the best

basketball player I could be. His

negativity towards me made me stronger.

You can't stop people from trying to

limit your dreams, but you can stop it

from becoming a reality. Your dreams are

up to you.

I encourage you to always be curious,

always seek out things you love, and

always work hard once you find it. So,

with that, I'll let you carry on with

your evening. I hope you enjoy your

special night. Please know I'm thinking

of you, supporting you and encouraging

you always. Peace.

>> I had that one viewer and that viewer

made me like keep going. And each day

and each day and more, week two, I

gained I start averaging four viewers.

Week three, eight viewers. Week four, 20

viewers. So on and so on and so on. So

then my sophomore year,

[Music]

I just kind of I kind of gave up on

school, right?

>> I kind of gave up on school. I kind of

gave them everything that I that I had

to my old life and just put everything

onto my stream. I streamed every day. I

didn't care about nothing else but

YouTube streaming. As I was streaming,

there was a clip that kind of blown up.

It was on Warar. You remember Warst

Star, right? It wasn't like it wasn't

like it didn't go viral. It had like

maybe 30,000 viewers. So my mom So my

dad showed my mom cuz my dad watches

Warst Star. My mom seen the video. She's

like, "What are you doing?" blah blah

blah. Why is everybody talking about you

like online blah blah blah? cuz it was

like hate comments.

>> So she kicked me out. No, she told me to

quit.

>> Yeah.

>> Or I'm leaving like you know or are you

or like you can't do this in my house.

So I'm like

I'm out.

>> Really?

>> Yeah. I was like I'm out, you know? Like

I'm not about to stop. Like I was I was

already averaging like 20 viewers. I had

like a two a,000 subs. 2,000 subs,

right?

>> Like like I'm already going. So I like

and once I start something, I'm not

stopping,

>> right?

>> So boom, she kicked me out. I moved to

my dad in Detroit. Uh then I kept going.

I kept going. My dad didn't really care.

My dad let me. Shout out to my dad.

Shout out to my mom, too. I still love

my mom. She was She didn't know what was

going on,

>> right?

>> But anyways, I kept going in Detroit and

um I got here.

>> So, I came home one day from working at

a job called Eco Lab where I sprayed for

cockroaches.

Made $1,000 a month, weighing 300 lb.

And I got home and I watched a show on

Discovery Channel of guys carrying boats

and logs,

Navy Seal training,

and I decided to make a change in my

life. And I called the recruiter up and

he asked me these questions. He had to

re he had to meet a certain age, like

like a certain height and weight limit.

I was 6'1 and 300 lb. He laughed at me.

Seven other recruiters laughed at me.

One recruiter finally said, "Come on in.

I'm too busy to talk to you on the

phone." He didn't know how much I

weighed.

I walked in the recruiter's office and

he looked at me and he said, "You're fat

and you're black." Guys, I want to be a

Navy Seal. I didn't know there only been

35 African-American Navy Seals at that

time in over 70 years.

Um he said I basically had to lose 106

lbs in less than 3 months because of my

age. I was getting too old. I came back

3 months later 106 lb lighter.

I uh Thank you.

[Applause]

If you think

the price of winning is too high,

wait till you get the bill from regret.

And then boom, years go by and I'm like,

damn, bro. Like, five, six, seven years

went by and this is still not working

for me. Like, how much time am I going

to spend on this thing? Like, I

reorganized my whole life for this thing

and it's still not working for me. Like

when my friends went and got jobs that

paid well, these like security jobs that

got $20 an hour, I would instead

volunteer. I would and and so I did and

so I needed to spend time on YouTube. I

couldn't do nothing that would spend

take away from YouTube. When I went to

university, when I went to university,

instead of going in the dorms, which

looked way more fun, I got a townhouse

with four other people because the

internet sucked in the dorms. I had to

be able to upload YouTube videos. I like

I I spent too much on this [ __ ] Like,

bro, there was way too much time. Like

when my friends would go out, I'll be

like, "Bro, I haven't uploaded yet, so I

got to upload today." Boom. I'm now I'm

uploading. Bro, no exaggeration. I have

reorganized literally everything in my

life for this to work. And And I

remember I was my third year in

university, [ __ ] I have goosebumps. I

was in my third year of university, bro.

And it was summer, [ __ ] I wasn't even

going home for the summer cuz it was

tough to record at home. So, I was

staying at uni on a ghost campus. It was

dumb empty. It was boring as [ __ ] But I

would stay there because it was better

for YouTube. Everything was, "Let me

just, bro, I need this to work. I need

this to work. This is what the [ __ ]

bro." I knew what I wanted, bro. If you

don't quit, you can't lose. It's

impossible cuz you can just get up and

try again. So that's all I did. Every

time I felt like quitting, I would just

convince I would talk to some friends

and I would convince myself of

everything I already believed, why I

knew I wanted this from years ago. And I

would go again and I would go again. And

it was one video that finally blew for

me. Got 50,000 views after [ __ ] six,

seven years.

>> How bad do you want him? There's two

options. To continue forward,

pushing upward. And if you do, that

dream is given birth. And forever you

will live in the reality of it. If you

stop, quit, throw in the towel. I

promise you there's no distance you can

travel far enough ever finding that

dream again. for it is dead and in its

death is replaced by regret.

That's what it takes to do anything

successfully in life.

You've got to want it as bad as you want

to breathe.

And if you want it that bad,

if you're willing to give it that much,

you get a big piece of what you want.

And life and dreams do come true.

Anything you want can happen and become

a reality.

I believe that sincerely and I'll die on

that thought.

>> My philosophy is why be normal when you

can be the best. I don't want to be

normal. I want to make the difference.

So everything I do, I want to make the

difference because when I make the

difference, I'm the best. And that is

not arrogance. That is confidence.

>> If I was to

quit rapping and I say I want to go to

the NBA, I would be in the NBA.

>> No, you wouldn't.

>> Yes.

>> No, you would.

>> Yes, I would.

>> No, you would.

>> Yes, I would.

>> Why would you think you could make it to

the NBA? Because I think I can do

anything.

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