00:00Now for you, you know, for someone who's watching Essence and they see you, you know, a young black boy wants to know how do I get in his position?
00:06What's your piece of advice?
00:07My first piece of advice is to ignore what people tell you that you can't do.
00:13You know, I was told my entire life I'd be dead or in jail by the time I was 16 in my young adult life because I'm a product of a sexual assault.
00:20My mother had me at 12 years old, grew up poor, you know, and just constantly having issues.
00:26And so I got a chance to go to a place called the Florida Sheriff's Boys Ranch and that place turned my life around and empowered me to be able to go out and be the first person in my family to graduate from high school, first person to graduate from college, the University of Florida, go Gators, and make away, break generational curses.
00:44So I would tell any young kid, especially young black or brown kid, girl, oh boy, that the world was not systemically built for us to succeed, but we are those that are accustomed to breaking down systems and breaking barriers and making change.
01:06And yes, it's a lot slower than our white counterparts, but at the end of the day, never be ashamed of where you got to come from in order to get to where you want to get to.
01:17Be proud, be on time, and be disciplined, and don't take no for an answer because there'll be a lot of people that tell you no.
01:27And sometimes no's can be a good thing, but in the case of you trying to go out and pursue yourself, pursue your goals and your dreams of becoming something, you know, no's should not be an option.
01:39So I've been very fortunate. My sons are fortunate. I have two sons, TJ and Titus, and I have a daughter.
01:47They're all honor roll students, but more importantly, they're honor roll human beings, which is what we preach the most, and I'm looking forward to seeing them continue to reap the benefits of being good human beings.
01:59And I think that that's the message that people want to elicit on a regular basis, which clearly they don't if you look at social media and look at everything else.
02:09But when we focus on that, unfortunately, the only time that we do that is in times of tragedy.
02:15And we all like to have this bravado that we're the greatest country in the world.
02:19We're the country with the greatest amount of opportunity.
02:21And that's why people come here from other countries to do so much, get an education they probably wouldn't have been able to get, start a business they probably wouldn't have been able to start back at home.
02:31And let's not be ignorant to the realities of our country.
02:37But more so, let's not be dead set on just the negative of it.
02:40Let's look at the positive side and go out and make real positive, effective change.
02:44I'm not a political person. I can care less if you're a Democrat or Republican.
02:48I want people to go vote. Go vote for who you feel like is the best candidate.
02:55But prior to getting involved in elections and everything else, I need to get involved in your communities, whether it's going to a local school and tutoring, helping a food bank, starting your own non-profit.
03:06You can't cry and complain about what's going on in your city or in your state or in your country if you're not even doing something at home.
03:14It all starts at home.
03:16Thank you. We needed that word.
03:18I appreciate it. Enjoy your night.
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