- Your gift can be anything,
you can't look at it as simply running, jumping,
singing and dancing. Failure means you've now
learned another valuable lesson that pushes you one
step closer to success. Everything you see above
ground that blossoms and plants and grows and that's beautiful, it was underground one time. When people try to figure out
how to make a million dollars, they have no idea how daunting that is, because if you knew how
to make a million dollars, you going to make it tomorrow. If I had as many followers
as Kim Kardashian, I probably wouldn't even
have to do this TV show. When you strike out on your goal, you're going to have to
get ready for flexibility. The dream is free, the
hustle is sold separately. I aim for stuff so big that the dream is bigger than the fear. - And I want you to
take a look at this sign as they pull the cord, can you see this? - [Steve] Yeah, I'm looking at it. - He's an American comedian,
TV host, actor and author. He's the host of the
Steve Harvey morning show, Steve Harvey, Family Feud,
and Little Big Shots. He's a three-time daytime
Emmy award winner. He's Steve Harvey, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. - Your gift can be anything. You can't look at it as
simply running, jumping, singing, and dancing, but
I'll tell you one thing, your gift is the thing that
you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort. For me, it was comedy, so
once you identify then, that's the beginning of it. But there's a lot of work to do even after you identify your gift. You can believe you're
something all you want, but if you don't work towards it, you just sitting there,
it's going to be empty. Failure means you've now
learned another valuable lesson that pushes you one
step closer to success. - It means going another direction. It means you have to go
in another direction. - Failure's not the end all.
- No! - People keep getting
buried under failure. I bet you that you have failed more times than anyone in this room.
- Absolutely. - I promise you you
have, I'm willing to bet that I have failed more times
than anyone in this room. Because I have attempted so many things that you have no idea what
I've attempted and failed at. But I don't let the failures define me. - It's God pointing you
in another direction. - And it's clear about
that, and you've got to be willing to go with that bend, because that bend in the
road is the only way. Success is not a straight line. - It is not. - It's crooked, it's down in the valley, it's back up over a mountain. See, I'm a seed, I really am. But a seed has to be planted. A seed got to have dirt put on top of it. If you take a seed and
throw it on the concrete and walk off, the sun just burn it up. But guess what? Logically, in my mind,
it doesn't make sense that to grow something
you should dig a hole, put it down in there,
and cover it with dirt. Logically, that don't make no sense to me. But oh, though, see, dirt is necessary for growth and development. Dirt builds character, dirt gives you the push through factor,
dirt makes you come with it when you don't feel like
coming with it no more. And you get dirt in a
lot of different ways. All of you all done had
dirt throwed on you. And dirt ain't always what you want. It's somebody talking
about you down on your job. It's somebody accusing of
something that you didn't do. It's somebody telling you
you ain't going to make it. It's somebody sharing information
about you that ain't true. Everybody get dirt put on them. But see, when you getting
put under that stress, please know God is always working. Kirk Franklin's song, God is
always working, so I smile, because I know he back there. See, that dirt builds character in you. When they talking about you,
it teaches you to withstand it, then it gives you
something to push through. So when you put the seed
and you put the dirt on it, if you understand stress,
stress really ain't just dirt. Stress, they don't call it
dirt when they plant it, they call it soil, because
soil has nutrients in it. What the nutrients, when
people talking about you, dogging you, lying on you, back biting, stealing from you, talking about you, they're actually putting nutrients in you. They're building your character. You got character now,
because now the seed, if they put a camera under the ground, you would have seen the seed sprout open and start coming through the dirt, because the dirt is necessary
so you can prove yourself. If you don't really want,
everything you see above ground that blossoms and plants and
grows and that's beautiful, it was underground one time. All them potatoes, collard greens, they was underground one time. Them apple trees, they
was underground one time. So they had to prove theyself. You want to be successful, well then, you got to prove yourself. You got to push through the dirt. You've got to come up through here, you've got to come out, then you sprout, and then Bishop say,
then you become a tree. Next thing you know you got fruit. When people try to figure out
how to make a million dollars, they have no idea how daunting that is. Because if you knew how
to make a million dollars, you going to make it tomorrow. But since you can't figure
out a million dollar idea, you go somewhere and sit down,
that's the wrong approach. If you apply your gift,
your God-given gift that he gave you, you have millions already at your disposal,
if you break it down inch by inch in the things essential or the 10 by 10 theory,
which is very simple. You don't need a million dollar
idea, you need a $10 idea. You need something that you do, your gift that God gave you, to make $10. That's all you got to be
able, no, I don't care if it's cutting hair,
cutting somebody's grass, washing somebody's car,
I don't care if it's mowing somebody's lawn,
I don't care if it's driving people to they're destinations, I don't care if it's babysitting, I don't care if it's
baking cookies or pie, you have something,
braiding somebody's hair, you have something that you can do so well that someone will give you $10 for it. Write my paper for me, do this for me. Somebody give you $10 for it. Once they give you $10,
all you got to do is, whatever you did to get that
10, do it 10 more times. You now, my friend, have $100. You have $100 simply because
you took the $10 idea and you did it 10 times. Well, guess what, if you take that $100 that you made since you done it 10 times and you do it 10 more
times, I got news for you, my friend, you now have $1,000. $1,000, you make a thousand
dollars, guess what? All you got to do, you got to
multiply that effort again. Do whatever you did to
do a thousand dollars, do it 10 more times. My friend, you now have $10,000. You got $10,000, now
imagine if you was making an extra 10,000 a month, just imagine if you was making an
extra $10,000 a month. That's $120,000 a year,
but I got news for you, my friend, whatever you
did, whatever you did, whatever it took to make yourself $10,000, all you got to do is do it 10 more times. 10 more times, my friend,
you now have $100,000. I got news for you now,
if you can make $100,000, you just a step away from
being a millionaire, man. Because now you hire a few more people to help you out that you can
do portions of what you do so you can duplicate that
effort, and one more time, just one more time, do it 10 times. Man, that sounds hard, it is hard. But what else you got to do? What, you going to stop
at the hundred thousand? All you got to do is
duplicate your efforts by 10. You duplicate your efforts by 10, 10 times a hundred thousand, welcome to the club, my friends,
you are now a millionaire. Congratulations, you became a millionaire with a $10 idea, so stop trying, stop bargaining yourself
down trying to figure out how to make a million, do
what you can do to make $10. And then do the 10 by 10 theory. Inch by inch, anything's a cinch. When you are a person who is success mind, you have a wagon that
you are pulling uphill. Attached to this wagon
is this very thick rope. You are shirtless, you
have a rope on your back, and you are pulling this
wagon uphill at all times. You are totally
responsible for your wagon. You are the only one on rope. Now, in order for the
wagon to go up the hill, you have to people, like-minded people. People on your staff, employees, people who you partner with. The thing of it is, though,
you are the only one responsible for the pull. What you have to be careful
of, as you pull this rope up the hill, you have to make sure that everybody that's on the wagon is doing something to get
the wagon up the hill. Everybody's foot got to be
hanging off that wagon pushing. Somebody got to get off
the wagon and move rocks from under the wheel, it's
an old wagon you pulling. But what happens along the way, and you got to be
careful, there are people who will get on your
wagon and have no value. Get on your wagon and become
very, very comfortable. All of a sudden they
feet up off the ground. They just on the wagon riding. And you have them in
your life as a mother-- - Everybody has somebody in
their wagon they're pulling. - You all got somebody on your wagon? - Everybody has somebody in
their wagon they're pulling. - That's doing nothing.
- That's got their feet up. - Seriously, sometimes it's your children. They done just put they feet up. Now, at a young age you understand that. But once they get to a certain age, you want them to help out. Sometimes it's your business partner. Sometimes it's the people you hire. Sometimes it's the people
in your other department that's supposed to be
helping with a project and they just got their feet up. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you are now making my haul on this rope more
difficult than it is. You must now shed yourself
of this dead weight. If you don't, your climb with
your rope, it's agonizing. One of my weak points
in my personal life is, I don't like technical stuff. So even though I have to
be on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, I don't care
for that, so guess what? I found somebody who loves to do that. I find somebody who has a
strength where I have a weakness and I partner with them. All you're trying to
do is get to the goal. No one gets there by themselves,
everybody needs help. Now, when you know what
you got going for you, be confident, not cocky. Managing your strengths,
knowing what they are and don't let nobody talk you out of it. And that gets you fight ready, you get fight ready like that. You got to know you, helps
you develop your skills. All the while, you're
developing your strength. You just got to keep
developing the strength. Don't let nobody talk you out of it. At the same time, you must work on improving your weaknesses. I've had to, in spite of
myself, get on Instagram, get on Twitter, get on Facebook. I got to do the videos,
whether I want to or not. Because the world is
moving to social media. If I had as many followers
as Kim Kardashian, I probably wouldn't even
have to do this TV show. - Jennifer says, "Life is what happens "when you're busy making
plans, should my plan be solid "or flexible once I'm
clear on what I want?" - Well, it's a combination of both, but you got to get tunnel
vision to reach your goal. You have to put blinders on and say, I'm laser beam focused
on this, but know this. The road to success is
always under construction. So just knowing, when you
strike out on your goal, you're going to have to
get ready for flexibility. Because there's going
to be detours, pitfalls, stop signs, men working,
or delays, detours going around, that has to be expected. Terrell, who's our floor manager here, he runs the entire set, his
first job out of high school was at Magic Johnson's Theater in L.A. That was his first job, for four years. He swept floors, cleaned up
the theater for four years. Boy runs a TV show now, ain't that great? (audience cheering and applauding) See, the hustle man, somebody sent me a wonderful sign one
day, it was like a sign that goes in front of a
house that's for sale. It says, "The dream is free,
the hustle is sold separately." And that's so true, man, you never, you can never give up, you don't ever know whren God is just waiting
on you to pass the test. But you have to stay with something and go through the test to get to the end. See, if you quit, there's
no way you'll ever know. You have to keep putting one
foot in front of the other, even if you don't know the way. It's not your job to know the way. It's your job to believe,
that's why people mess up as people, you try to figure it out. Show me the scripture that
tells you to figure it out. Where is that scripture at? There's no scripture that
tells you to figure it out. It tells you to ask and believe. That's what you got to
do, ask God for something and then believe it. Now, faith without works is
dead, you got to be willing to hustle, because the
hustle's sold separately now. The dream is free, you
can dream all day long, but the hustle's sold separately. God willed all of us to do
the gift that he put in us. Now, you gift might be attached to a job, some of you all should
been done quit your job and tried your business idea. But now you, I got these
bills, I can't quit. Tell you what, if you don't quit, if you do not quit and
go fulfill your dream, you ain't ever going to
be happy, it ain't no way. Because you ain't living in your dream. You've got to do it, just
take the leap of faith. What you waiting on? God big, God hold you up. You going to a couple and tears
on your way once you jump, because when you jump,
just know this right away. The parachute not going
to open right away. When you jump, you going to
hit the edges of the rock and all that, but after a while, it opens. But it ain't going to
open if you don't jump. Now, you can stay safe,
you can stand on the cliff watching everybody
soaring by and never jump. Keep that parachute on your
back tucked in the pack. Be nice and safe, don't
jump, but you going to watch a lot of people soaring by
with their parachute on. Until you jump, you
will never have the life that God wants you to have. If you ain't going to
jump, man, you got to jump. Just jump, just go. - I wanted to ask you, how do you overcome the fears and doubts? - I mean, look, the fears
and doubts are a part of it. Can I be honest with you? Everything I've ever
done started with a fear. My walking out on stage,
that starts with a fear. When Oprah came and got
me for this life class, I told her, I said, "This is like "a standup appearance for me." I'm back there sweating, I
don't want to talk to nobody. I have to overcome fear all the time. When I wrote my book, I was afraid. When they told me, "We wanted
you to be a game show host," I've never done that, I was afraid. When they said, "We wantt
you to do a talk show?", I was afraid, I have to
overcome fear all the time. But the best way for
me to overcome fear is, the dream has to be bigger than the fear. That's the only way you
turn around and run at it. I just want something so
great, I aim for stuff so big, that the dream is bigger than the fear. Look at it like this, man. If you don't ever go for this, would it be better for
you to face the fear or just deal with the fact that you just never gave it a shot? - Face it, definitely. - See, that's what, the dream. I saw you with your tie on,
I know that makeup mirror, that's backstage somewhere
in a dressing room. Somebody's hiring guys like you. It's no such thing as too old, I'm 57. If I went back out there,
I'd get hired tomorrow as a standup, if you funny,
there's a marketplace for you. Now, look--
- Start where you are, right? - Just where you at.
- Start where you are. - Now, behind me is a sign, and I want you to take a look at this
sign as they pull the cord. Can you see this? - [Steve] Yeah, I'm looking at it. - [Man] Here we go. - [Woman] Terry, help her! (audience cheering and applauding) - Alright, Mr. Harvey, I want
to read the last paragraph of the proclamation, it says, "Now, therefore, I,
Mayor Frank G. Jackson, "the 56th Mayor of the City of Cleveland, "do hereby offer this
proclamation in recognition "of the Steve Harvey Day. "I invite all Clevelanders to join me "in congratulating Mr.
Harvey on his success "and commending him on his contribution "to the City of Cleveland
and the community." One more time, happy
birthday to Steve Harvey. - [Crowd] Happy birthday! - Thank you all, wow, man. (audience cheering and applauding) That's the best. - What are your thoughts
about all of this? - I mean, my family, man, but you know. - I love that, look at that. - I learned everything
I know about survival on that block right there, with them dudes you
looking at right there. That's my mama's house. (audience cheering applauding) - Thank you so much for
watching, I made this video because TishNStan asked me to. So, if there's a famous
entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave
it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also like to know which
of Steve's top 10 rules impacted you the most and why. Leave it in the comments,
I'll join in the discussion. Thank you so much for
watching, continue to believe, and I'll see you soon. - Whatever you think riches
is, that's your definition. There's a survey that says riches and success is being happy. Well, all you have to do then is determine what is it that makes you
happy and start down that path. Now, to find true success,
I believe that you've got to do some work, because it's not free. Everybody would love to
wake up and just be happy and bubbly, but it requires some work. So I want to share with
you something from my book, chapter 11, there is no self-made man. Now, most of us want to
believe that we're independent, that if we set our minds to do something, simply it can get done. Well, I got news for you,
unless you look to others, you can work twice as
hard to get half as much. Sometimes you need a partner in the deal in order to aid you along the way. There is nothing wrong with
asking for what you want. You know, for a long time I used to think that the path to success
was going at it alone. Because I was always busy priding myself on not asking for help. I was homeless, I didn't
want to ask for help. I lived in a car, I didn't
want to ask for help. And I almost missed out. I didn't realize how
many people were willing to have discussions with me about success. You know, most people that are successful, if you ask them for help,
they'll give it to you. I'm talking about advice,
principles, solutions. Not money, see one thing
that's never a good idea, don't walk up to a wealthy
person and just ask for money. You know how many times
they done got that? But if you're interested
in learning how to fish, a lot of people will
teach you how to fish, as opposed to giving you a fish sandwich. Because they know if they
give you the fish sandwich, you going to eat it, you
going to have to come back. A lot of people have
helped me along the way. Magic Johnson, Oprah
Winfrey, the President. I've had some conversations
with some people who have it together and they've taught me many things about succeeding. You might think that
requesting help is a huge ask, but it's not, people don't
mind sharing knowledge. What is knowledge unless it's shared? If you have knowledge
but you never share it, how we know you got it? (audience laughing) And just remember, there is
no shame in wanting something. This whole world is based
on wanting something. You know, don't sit up
and listen to some group, wanting something is a sin, no, it's not. You got to want something,
the scripture says a man without a dream or
a vision shall perish. So the day you quit wanting something, you might as well push your
chips up to the window, it's a wrap, so lose the shame and you'll have access to more power. Here's the key that I
wanted to tell you about. Success is all about
building relationships. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Some people might not step up
when you ask them for help, they might not, but guess what? The worst thing can happen to you, if somebody refuses you,
you didn't have it anyway. What are you worrying about that for? Well, they might say no or
they might turn me down. Ask people, you never know. Suppose they say yes, that
could be the turning factor. But there are some
principles that will increase your chances of getting success. Know your worth, don't let
nobody else determine it. And don't assume anything,
people aren't mind readers. They don't know what you
thinking, don't assume they know, unless you ask with specifics. And then recognize that
no is not a rejection. Every time you hear no, it moves you one step closer to a yes. Everybody can't say no. Not unless you got a harebrained idea. (audience laughing) And just remember that success
is about building a world that looks the way you
want it to, nobody else. Never be afraid to reinvent yourself. My career, my entire career
is a study in reinvention. I started out as a comedian, that was it. I never planned on hosting a radio show, hosting a game show, or
hosting a daytime talk show. I never did, writing books, none of it. Making movies, none of it. Reinvention happens when
you diversify your gift. There lies your greatest
secret for success. You've to discover your gift,
and when you discover it, you got to soak it, you
got to wring it out, man. You got to diversify it. Most of us only have one talent. But do you know that that's all you need? Mine happens to be to take information and immediately transfer it
into other kinds of platforms. Now, when I was younger,
I actually thought that I could only do that with comedy. But as I've gotten older
I discovered through diversification that it was
a little bit more than that, that I could also take information, immediately transfer it into inspiration. I could turn it into motivation. I can offer it as guidance. So now, sitting on a talk show, I actually have something to talk about. All the failed marriages, I
got something to talk about. The being homeless, I got
something to talk about. Being dead broke, I got
something to talk about. Having bad credit, tax problems, I got something to talk about. Whatever hole you've been
in, I done just about drug myself through it,
but I came out of all of it because I was not afraid
to diversify my gift. Even the book, Act Like
A Lady, Think Like A Man, it was all about me diversifying the gift. Okay, I had taken two failed marriages and I had taken the love for my daughters and I combined those things. I taught my daughters
what I knew about men. Now, little did I discover
that I had a little over four million
daughters in this country. Cousins, and nieces, and stuff like that who needed that same information. And that was a huge part for
me, to take that information and turn it into a book that turned it into a megastar movie and
produced a lot of things for me, but it also helped a lot of people. One of the other tricks
for reinventing yourself is not letting your background
become a limitation. If you take that
background that you're from and never let it define you,
but allow it to redefine you, all that stuff works for the good. Do you understand that
you needed everything that's happened to you to happen to you in the exact order that it's happened in order for you to be the
person that you are today? All that failing and getting
over, you needed all of that. (audience applauding) It's good to be steeped in
the traditions of your gift, but don't get stuck in them. Look, if your gift is baking, don't assume that there's only one way to do it. If you bake, bake, but you can't just bake for people you know, bake
for people you don't know. You're a musician, let yourself explore other types of music. I'll tell you an example, The Roots, who play on Jimmy Fallon's show, they steeped in hip hop, but
they're also great musicians. So what they do is, they
take all of that talent and now guess what, hip hop, jazz, R&B, classic, pop, rock, they didn't just get stuck on hip hop, I'm
doing hip hop, that's it. No, they do whatever. LL Cool J, hip hop, one of
the top actors on TV today. Queen Latifah, hip hop, big
actor right now, you get it? Jerry Seinfeld, nothing but a comedian. One of the biggest actors on TV today. Remember, you can win if you're not afraid to reinvent yourself, stop getting stuck. Just go ahead and give
it a try, you never know. You also need some outside perspective. If you listen to people
that's close to you, that have your best interests outside, you can use these outside observers to gain knowledge to assess yourself. And when you reach out to
get these outside opinions, be open, keep your emotions in check. You can't say that about, just
keep your emotions in check. Now, from there you
going to have a good feel about what your strengths
and weaknesses are, and you can work on them to build them.