Les Brown - You've gotta be hungry - motivation (to Interstellar soundtrack)

I like to talk with you this evening about being hungry somebody said I'm hungry it is something I'd like to share some ideas and thoughts with you I'm not asking that you believe anything that I say I'm not asking that you agree with me I'm merely asking that you stand on and in the conversation that we share with you this evening and if there's something that I say that can fit and work for you I say use it if not discard it and let it be is that Alright say that's fair enough very good all

right one of the things I have realized and many of us have that if you want something out of life if you want to change yourself if you want to acquire something if there's some goal that you want to reach that is really not easy as some people will make us feel but living a dream changing your behaviors overcoming negative habits it's challenging it's hard but living alone is just very difficult and once we begin to come to grips with the fact that living is difficult life is very challenging I heard a song once by

a guy named dimples call if it ain't one thing it's another I say to you banane one thing is twelve of us always something you will never ever have a problem free moment in life somebody says I like this and you either in a problem or just left one or hit it toward words anybody found that to be so raise your hand if you don't have talked a lot I mean there's always something so how do we begin to nurture that hunger what are the characteristics or the qualities of people that are hungry what will

it take for me to get some of the things that I want being hungry for those things number one you've got to work on yourself it's very important that you engage in an ongoing process to develop you spend more time on yourself than what you've been spending it's very important you owe that to yourself I was reading a book by augmentee no-call the University of success read one line gave me a chill I didn't have to read anything else in the book it said many of us never realize our greatness because we become sidetracked by

secondary activity we spread ourselves too thin don't know how to say no and we find ourselves doing all kinds of things and never ever have time to do those things that we need to do to work on ourselves and then there goes a second that goes another second that goes another second and we can't stop it whole time and before you know it you wake up one day and you're behind in your dreams and your bills [Laughter] so decide that you're going to take some time to work on you that you deserve that from yourself

that your life deserves some prime time because you are creating your own production as Michael Todd would say you are the star of your show you are the director you're writing the script and you will determine whether your life is a smash office hit or flop you determine that working on yourself talking to yourself that's so very important overcoming the negative conversation that inner dialogue is going on all the time all the time even when you don't want it to be there you can't stop yourself right now from thinking you can't do it it's going

on and so learning how to empower yourself part of doing that is standing up to yourself you got to stand up inside yourself sometimes and say shut up [Music] you've got to do this I was going to give a presentation and this voice inside of me think you can't do this you don't have everything it takes us shut up I'm behind on my bills and you're telling me what I can't do I have got to do it you get scared sometimes your mind will go blink on you some people will you will allow to unnerve

you and you wonder what's wrong with me I'm not crazy that's why you've got to learn to make a conscious deliberate determined effort to stand up inside yourself working on yourself watching that inner dialogue it will determine the quality of your life I don't believe this I know this I've had a challenge of losing weight I'm walking through therefore this voice say why don't you have some M&M peanuts no well just one then after you eat that well you might as well have a snicker now you sucker I mean it's challenging my mother fix the

counter sweet potato pie you can't eat with your shoes on have to take your shoes off so you can wiggle your toes and six on my finger if that's eaten one little bite won't hurt that voice constantly little demons from Colonel Sanders driving my Chi in there I said no no no no I'll diet tomorrow I saw skinny man get hit by truck had I had a little bit more weight he might have lived you know some of you know what I'm talking about reach and if you don't that voice is awesome so you have

got to stand up to that voice when you're working on something you want to achieve you have got to stand up to that voice you've got to sell yourself every day on your abilities on what you're doing on the goal that you want to reach you've got to sell yourself every day every day every day according to your level of belief it will manifest itself and what you're doing whatever we have right now whatever we're demonstrating in our lives is result of what we believe subconsciously that we deserve and part of increasing that belief level

is that you have got to convince yourself every day you've got to sell yourself I I do a lot of training for many corporations and I conduct sales seminars and I've heard all kind of guys doing techniques and training people techniques of how to close sales and how to work with them and begin to control the sale and how to ask for the clothes let me share something with you you can learn all the techniques of the world if you don't believe in yourself and what happened for you I learned all of it so that's

why I do a training called focus on the seller you've got to focus on you and as you convince you as you sell yourself every day every day every day you will begin to see a difference in the things that you're doing selling yourself on your ability to perform a job to achieve a certain objective telling yourself every day here go again and I got what a case this is my day and nothing out here is going to stop me and when you go out there life it come over here say it again well I'll

be back tomorrow I bring you to the next thing it takes courage to act part of being hungry when you've been defeated it takes courage to start over again I used to do door-to-door sales and I was working with another friend of mine and door-to-door sales I mean it's punishing it's cruel and unusual punishment and I was a little boy knocking on door hello would you like to buy a nice working television set no money down no damn it slammed the door in your face and the friend of mine I was working with me they

slammed the door in his face and I looked back and he was gone to the car he said I can't do this and he sat down in the car and he said you go ahead I'll be here when you get back now he had a mother and father to take care of him my mother was ill I'm a doctor I was hungry I had to go on I learned something about myself that when you step into your fears somebody said it was Winston Churchill he said that courage is going from failure to failure without losing

enthusiasm when you step into your fears and continue to push yourself to go on something happens for you it will enable you to transcend yourself I went to the next door we'd like to buy a nice work until no BAM went to the next no bell after a while I no longer took it personal and I begin to play a game I say well I know there's a yes out here somewhere and I'm going to keep on until I find it and I'm not going home until I do and I continue to knock on doors

and then somebody eventually would say yes and I said are you sure and I would go in there I would get to sell when you when you have something you want to do if you don't develop the courage to do that which has been given you to do and you spend a lot of time going around trying to convince other people are trying to get their approval what will happen is that you will lose your nerve and other people will convince you that what you're doing doesn't have any value and you give up on your

dream it's an interesting thing about life I've also found that if you don't have the courage to act sometimes and particularly if you have something special to do life will move on you I if it were not for life I would still be a disc jockey I didn't just leave voluntarily to go to the state legislature I was fired I was working on a job and I came home one day I was married at the time I told my former wife I said that guy bird I work for is stupid she said if he's so

stupid why does he sign your paycheck now you see why the Worcester right I couldn't stand her that night I could not sleep well here was a guy that was controlling my life I was going through all kind of changes because this man controlled my paycheck and it was Carlyle who said she was crushed to earth shall rise again Winston Churchill said the truth is incontrovertible malice mere tacit ignorant may divide it but at the end there is and we know scripture that says ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free

and the truth that I had to come to grips with that I wasn't in charge of my destiny the truth was that I wasn't giving all that I had the truth was that there are some things that I wanted to do but I didn't have the courage to act on those things and the truth was that virchow's was a blessing to me he made life so miserable for me I had to start looking at my life differently I started going to work earlier I started being the last one to leave it I started working harder

than anybody else the other guys could not why would you work so hard less I said I'm not working for them I have been cheating Burt I thought I've been cheating myself in my family wherever you are whatever you're doing do it with everything that you have developed a habit of giving more than what you paid for develop the habit of setting standards as others will be measured by someone said do not go where the path may lead but go where there is no path and leave a trail all right it is easy to be

negative today it is easy to have low morale today I was at a corporation in there they're going to downsizing and going to lay off some 1,500 people over the next few weeks it's very depressing there and those people that stay there nine times out of ten they are just going to do just enough to keep from getting fired anybody can do that but if you can begin to harness yourself and say that where I am I'm going to do the best I can with what I got because that is an expression of Who I

am if you get into the habit of just being mediocre it will become a part of your consciousness if you get in a habit of giving less than what you have it within you to give it will begin to reflect itself in your personality it will begin to damage you psychologically and you don't want to be a part of that kind of self-destructive behavior and so you want to set some high standards for yourself the next thing part of what feeds that hunger you've got to develop a sense of urgency aralia said stop living your

life like you have a thousand years to live and life you either here today and you're gone today if there's something that you want to do and you can't do it all at one time do just a little bit of it I like what Robert Schuller said he said by the yard it's hard but inch by inch anything is a session do just a little bit of it a friend of mine Bobby Kerr used to be a roommate Bobby wanted to go into the area of public relations he loved working with the public young lady

you are to marry named Clarice Bobby was a great procrastinator pretty soon the job where Bobby worked they transferred him to another location he went out to celebrate with the people on that new jobsite and Bobby suffered a massive heart attack and died Bobby didn't drink and in smoke was under 40 and he died ask your question how much time do you have left how much time do you have left when you start thinking about that we don't know we don't know Bobby took all the greatness and all of the talent and all of his

abilities to his grave with E one other thing they could have put in parentheses under his name he didn't use all his stuff most of most of us do that most of us don't use the stuff that we have brought into the universe and we want to make a conscious deliberate determined effort to start living life with a sense of urgency and using what we've got using ourselves up sharing what we brought into the universe to share because if we don't nobody else will stop wasting valuable time knowing that if we begin to live our

lives as if each day where our last our lives will take off take on a whole new meaning take on a whole new expression valuing each moment that we are blessed with the next thing that begins to nurture that hunger out of yourself as your word don't give your word out lightly when you throw your word out there and you don't honor it it makes a statement about you if you decide to maintain a sense of integrity with yourself that if I speak it I'm going to live it it's Who I am and I'm going

to be very cautious and how I give my word to others and most of all were the commitments that I make to myself because I want my life to reflect my words and honoring Who I am and what I expressed another challenging area in terms of nurturing and developing that hunger and yourself is learning the art of becoming single-minded learning how to concentrate learning how to focus in and you'll be surprised of the things that you're able to do when you learn how to block things out when you learn how to keep our eyes single

you'll be surprised that the ideas that will come to you of the people that you'll be able to attract of the opportunities that you'll be able to see you begin to see things that's been staying there looking you in the faces I can't believe this has been here all this time here's a habit that I do maybe it might be of some value to you I get up in the morning and I start writing what great ideas that I can think of today that can improve me and that will enable me to reach my goal

and I just let my mind flow sometimes I write 15 20 ideas some days it's more difficult than others one idea can change your life one idea can turn your life around deciding but you gotta focus to develop your skills the guy was was the new owner of a team a team a baseball team that was in the basement of the lead when he took it over he went to the picture and he says what is your best throw he said well I got a good curveball and I've got a good fastball he went on

talking about his different throws he said but tell me this what is your best throw he thought for a moment is that I've got a good fastball he said that's all I want you to work on nothing else just develop your fastball the next year they went to the World Series most people don't know what their fastball is most people go through life never discovering what their talents are most people never develop their talents they have skills and abilities but if you don't nurture them if you don't develop them they will never serve you your

gifts can take you many places if you develop your gifts most of us don't like to do those things that come too easy to us I've always loved to talk to people I decided taking this advice to develop my skills as a seeker and my gift has developed and developed and has taken me many places you have something that you brought to the universe and that if you decide that my life deserves my developing this what I do well and becoming the best at it in mastering myself and seeing what I have within me if

you decide to drop your buckets where you are and develop your gifts I grant you you will never ever be without I grant you that your gifts will take you places that will literally amaze you I grant you that if you begin to work to develop your gifts you develop a strong sense of happiness you'll get a larger vision of yourself because part of beginning to get a larger vision of yourself all of us meet some area of our lives where we can have a feeling of competence that people know when they think about this

area that's something you do that you eat and sleep that and that you do that you do that people know it and you know it and you know that you know that you know this if you don't know anything else you know this can you tell I know I know what I'm doing oh hello you know this so you've got to work on it when other folks are having a good time you got to have this disguise of character to concentrate to read to digest information if you decide any particular area that your concern about

to make a conscious deliberate determined effort to read one book a month in that area in five years you'll be among the top 5% experts in the world I read a minimum of two books a week the average American reads only one book a year if you decide that area that you love that you are going to master that particular area in this era of accelerated change overwhelming complexity and tremendous competition as you begin to develop and expand your skills and your talents and your vision of yourself you will always be in control of your

destiny the next thing is whatever it is that you want to do you want to do it massively have a friend who was telling me that his sales were down I said well how many phone calls you make a day he said 25 I said double them make 50 or 75 or 100 hits they're all man that's just too much what do you mean too much you behind on your bills you're talking about too much you know one way to get back on your feet real quick is to miss two car payments you talk about

your time there's no competition out here decide that you're going to push yourself most people won't do that most people give up on themselves easily you know the human spirit is powerful this nothing is powerful it's hard to kill the human spirit there's Benjamin Disraeli a man who became the head of a country at a time when Jews were not allowed out after ten o'clock is it hard to do it how do you even give such great odds is that nothing can resist the will of a people that will stake even their existence on the

extent of their purpose for good but when you have a made up mind when you decide that you want to do something I was reading something the other day he said the power to hold on in spite of everything the power to endure this is the winners quality the hunger the ability to face defeat again and again without giving up this is a winner's quality you have that quality within you when you're hungry you don't care about the facts you don't care about the odds Doug Williams played for the Washington Redskins quarterback John Elway of

the Denver Broncos and the Superbowl everybody was talking about Elway Elway after the Superbowl when Doug Williams made a historic passing game asked him said how are you able in spite of all of that negative publicity saying that you couldn't win how did how did you do it he said I ignored my critics I just didn't pay any attention to them I ignored myself because they kept on saying it so much there were times I doubted whether or not I can do what I needed to do there's a Doug Williams and everybody here there's greatness

in you and you've got to learn how to tune out the critics outside and the critic inside and since I'm going to do this I'm going to harness my will and I'm not going to let anything stop me I deserve this I'm going to do it until and this way I told him to start increasing your calls I thought make a hundred calls a day I got a countless in my ear my ear counted doc you can't see it but it's there [Applause] his sales of increases he's working harder now the other thing is that

if you want something you have got to be relentless you've got to learn how to become resourceful you've got to learn how to become creative when crises strike in your life and in the Chinese language crises mean danger but it also means opportunity and this is an opportunity for you to grow and you've got to be so ridiculous regardless of what comes down the pike that you're always looking for ways to get over always looking for a way that you can break through always looking for a way that you can win always looking for ways

that you can strike a killing blow and pretty soon I think there's some people watching us in the universe to say wait let's call a meeting over here you know that guy Mustafa look hey man he won't stop just that fool don't know you can't get over look look look look look here why don't we do this let him go and let's make mess with somebody off yes let him go life will just get cat or whooping you sometimes and yes they left just let this one go I believe this I know what it told

me this but I just kept on kicking I didn't have sense enough to stop I was intelligently ignorant I didn't know what I couldn't do so I just tried anything and the fascinating thing about life because you can't get out of it alive you might as well have a good time [Laughter] have a good [Music] live your life with passion with some Drive I was giving a seminar the other day and I mentioned that I was going to do some training in August with some young teenagers who take about a hundred away to a two

or three day camp and wipe them out I've been working on this so after the speech what our parents walked up to me at this mr. Brown I'd like to you to do something for my son he's not motivated [Laughter] I said I wonder why [Music] I wonder what's wrong with him he had no fun whatsoever see what what you do speaks are loudly PO can hear what you say and so you don't have any fire you know you've got to watch the people the relationships that you develop have people of kindred mindsets if you're

round folk who are dead and negative all the time they will affect you you want people that around you that have smiles on their faces looking good I was telling a group last week Abraham Lincoln refused to hire guys because of its faith if the guy can't help but he said anybody over 30 is responsible for their faith if you have some depressing face looking at you every day it affects your blood pressure keep these dead faces away from you it's contagious this is serious so you've got to watch your countenance watch your faiths have

an uplifted expression watch your body posture all of these things affect you psychically you've got to be the kind of person that you are fearless fearless folk lead fearless people alone now some people walk to a neighborhood and every dog in the neighborhood would walk out but there some people come through ain't nobody gonna mess with this you are unstoppable and because you aren't stoppable because you've got power that you haven't even began to use yet you are to yourself to release your brakes how many of you have experienced pulling out of your drive when

your mashed on accelerator and the car will just move and you mesh hard and it couldn't move and then you discovered you had your emergency brakes on and then you release those emergency brakes the goals - have you ever had that experience before most of us go through life without brakes on calling back not giving all that we have not sharing all of ourselves most of us go to our grave still holding on rather than releasing it what are some of those things that that keep us from releasing it because of past experiences past Appice

past pain we look back well it didn't work out then it probably won't work out now many people get confused their performances with who they are they are I was reading Pat Riley the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers [Music] but you're going to lock this quote here after the Trail Blazers had blown them out of the water and I'm sure he said this last night they asked him says how do you feel he said tonight we were exposed for what we are right now you see that if my speech tonight doesn't work it doesn't

mean that I'm a bad speaker it means that what I did didn't work tonight and I've got to separate what I do from Who I am and I've got another shot see the last chapter to your life has not been written yet and it doesn't matter about what happened yesterday it doesn't matter about the things that you've done that you feel guilty about if you wouldn't do it today you're convicting an innocent person you've been reborn to a new state of consciousness and as they say if we knew better we would do better and so

you would begin to decide I'm not going to be tonight I remember and I was telling someone and they asked me would you repeat that again I was interested in going into broadcasting I'm adopted and that was my key out I wanted to make my mama proud of me I was a proud I was very much appreciative of what she has done for my brother and sister and I and that was my way out and I went over to the radio station asked the guy that and told him that I was interested in broadcasting he

looked at me and my straw hat in my overalls you said you have any broadcasting background I said no sorry don't what do you do I cut glass young ladies after what kind of work I do and I was working on a garbage truck and say well I'm a sanitary technician he said we don't have any job for you I decided that that was something I was going to do I decided I want to stop the book I'm going to go up in here I'm going to do this I started going to the radio station

every day developing a relationship with the people that were doing what I wanted to do and that's what I encourage you to do where whatever area you want to go and find people that are doing it the way you want to do it and develop a relationship with them when I decided to go on this area I wrote letters to dr. norman vincent peale - Zig Ziglar - Denis Waitley all of the Giants in this area and I said this is something I wanted - I've been following your career what you helped me dr. norman

vincent peale answered my letter did an article on me wrote about me in the most recent book that he issued and done many broadcasts about me I'd wanted to develop a relationship and rapport with those people that were achieving those things that I wanted to achieve by the same token I would go to the radio station and I developed a relationship with the guys and they used me as the errand boy they needed some food or someone to go pick up entertainers that came into town temptation singing my girl Jerry Butler singing for your precious

love Sam Cooke singing darling you send me I would pick up the entertainers at the airport and driving around in the disc jockeys big Cadillacs didn't have any driver's license but I was acting like a hat sir [Music] every day I used to go home and work on my communication skills developing myself it was Whitney Young he said it's better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared start working and developing yourself not and prepare yourself for what it is that you want because you

expect to get it and when the disk jockeys were in the control room I would go in and watch them and develop a trust level and they would let me stay and I would watch and observe them working the controls when you want something out of life don't worry about how you're going to get it how is none of your business the most difficult thing that is it's the whole division it's the whole love issue so there I was at the radio station a guy was on there and he started to drink by the name

of rock I was outside the window looking at him and watch him hungry and ready send ray kroc trained pretty soon the phone rang it was a general manager I said hello he left this was mr. client I said I know if that rock can't finish his program he's slurring his words I said I know can you work the controls until one of the other disk jockeys come in would you call them I said yes sir I hung the phone up I said now he must be think I'm crazy I call my mom and my

girlfriend Cassandra said y'all come out on the front porch and turn up the radio I about to come on the air [Music] I waited by 15 minutes I call him back as if it's the climb I can't find nobody he said well why don't you go and then work your controls until they get there and don't say nothing here I said yes sir I couldn't wait to sit down at that turntable Mustapha I said look out this is me I'll be trouble P Les Brown a plan a plan Papa there will number for me and

there will be none after me therefore that makes me the one and only you're insane don't love Domingo certified bonafide then DubLi qualified to bring you satisfaction and a whole lot of action look out baby I'm your love man I was already shake somebody's hand on your right 11 state you've got to be hungry where are y'all somebody else you want to be persistent about what it is that you want to achieve Alexander Graham Bell said what this power is I cannot say all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when

a man or woman is in that state of mind in which he or she knows exactly what he or she wants and is fully determined not to quit until they find it when our children are learning how to walk how many times will your baby attempt to walk and fall and you just think shuts it down don't try anymore you call it 20 times just sit down somewhere busting your lip and everything get them folks wait when will the baby walk it will walk when it was that's when it will walk that's where will you

be known nationally as the motivator I will be known when I know that's what I'll be known don't get caught up in well I've tried it four or five times and things didn't work out if there's something that you want and you have home report you've got to do whatever is necessary until and when you give the best you can and that's not enough you must do what is required and don't give up on yourself don't throw the towel in so quickly many people give up on the one-yard line we if they have the determination

just to keep on market it's a funny thing about life if you're home one day and someone is knocking on the door and you say I don't want to be bothered today and if that person just keep on knocking can you believe that fool still knockin pretty soon you say what is it what do you want and that's how you've got to be about your dream