How Bad You Want Success

A while ago I wrote an entry around “Defining Success“, a post about how I think about success and in the context of both an entrepreneur and manager in the corporate environment – define success for myself. For me success is as in the above mentioned post:

The true definition of success is when you stop making excuses for yourself.

A work colleague recently sent me a video which my brother shared with me several months ago which again grabbed my attention. She mentioned that she didn’t understand all parts of it (english not being her native language), hence I took a minute to write it down and highlight what I think is important and really sticks out to me. Eric Thomas, known as ET the Hip Hop Preacher, speaks in this video about wanting success, and wanting meaning – everything! All credit goes to him.

Here it is (my apologies for leaving a word or two out):

There was a young man who wanted to make a lot of money.
So he went to a Guru and he told the Guru, “I want to be on the same level your on.”
The Guru said, “You Want to be on the same level I’m on? Ill meet you tomorrow at the beach.”

So the young man got there at 4am, ready to rock and roll, got on a suit – should have worn shorts.
The old man grabs his hand and says, “How bad do you want to be successful?”
He said:[highlight color="yellow"] “Real bad.”.[/highlight]
He said (the old man), “Walk out into the water.”
So he walks out into the water, watch this, so when he walks on out to the water, goes in waist deep, hes like this guy crazy.

He says (young man), “I want to make money, you got me out here swimming. I didn’t ask to be a lifeguard. I wanna make money.”
So he says (the old man), “Come out a little further.”
He walked out a little further, then he had it right around this area, shoulder area.

“This old man crazy, he makin money but he crazy.” (young man)
He said (the old man), “Come on out a little further, so he came out a little further, right at his mouth. My man was like Im bout to go out here, this guy is out of his mind.
So the old man said, “I thought you wanted to be succesful?”
He said, “I do.”
He said (old man), “Walk a little further.”
He came dropped his head in, held him down, hold him down.
My man beginscratching, holding him down. He had him down just before my man was about to pass out.
He raised him up and he said, “I got a question for you.”
He told the guy, he said,[highlight color="yellow"] “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe then youll be successful.”[/highlight]

I dont know how many of you have got asthma in here today, but if you have ever had an asthma attack before, you short of breath, SOB, shortness of breathe, you wheezy.
The only thing you trying to do is get some air. [highlight color="yellow"]You dont care bout no basketball game, you dont care whats on TV, you dont care about nobody callin you, you dont care bout no party, the only thing you care about when you tryin to breathe is to get some fresh air, thats it! And when you get to the point where all you wanna do is be successfull as bad as you wanna breathe, then youll be successfull.[/highlight]

And im here to tell you number one that most of you say you want to be successfull, [highlight color="yellow"]but you dont want it bad, you just kind of want it[/highlight]. You dont want it badder than you want to party, you dont want it as much as you want to be cool, most of you dont want success as much as you want sleep. Some of you love sleep more than you love success and im here to tell you today that if [highlight color="yellow"]your going to be successfull you got to be willing to give up sleep! You gotta be willing to work on three, two hours of sleep
if you really want to be successfull. Somedays you might have to stay up three days in a row because if you go to sleep you might miss the opportunity to be successfull, thats how bad you gotta want it.[/highlight ]

You gotta go days without, listen to me, you gotta want to be successfull so bad that you forget to eat. Beyonce said once that she was on set, doing her thing, three days had gone by she had forgot she didnt eat. Cause she was engaged.

I never forget when 50 cent was bringin his movie out and I did a little research on 50 and 50 said when he wasnt doing his movie he was doing his soundtrack. Then they said (reporters),”When do you sleep 50?”
“Sleep?” he said, “Sleep, sleep is for those people who are broke, I don’t sleep.”
He said, [highlight color="yellow"]“I gotta an opportunity to make a dream become reality.”[/highlight]
Dont try to quit, you already in pain, you already hurt get a reward from it. Dont go to sleep until you succeed,
listen to me, I’m here to tell you today, you can come here, you can jump up, you can do flips, you can be excited when we give away money, but listen to me, you will never be successful until I dont have to give you a dime for you to do what you do.

You wont be succesull until you say, “I dont need that money cause i got it in here!”

Here the video:

[vimeo id="27933991" height="360"]

Are you willing to go that far for your personal success? I am.