How to reinvent yourself | Jay Morrison | TEDxBuckhead

a gift of why how to find your purpose and live a peaceful prosperous and purposeful life if anyone here would love to find their purpose say I do that's four of you if anyone here truly would like to receive the gift of Y tonight and to leave and live a peaceful life say I do if you want to live a prosperous life say J show me how it's the gift of Y what I found over the last 38 years is that many of us grow up to believe that or why our purpose is to make money is to feed our family is to have a roof over our head to enjoy life well I've found something over this journey this secret the secret sauce called the gift of Y and that Y is what we should live for and it's what we'll leave you to or leave you to a peaceful purposeful and prosperous life and I want to tell you how I grew up in poverty to a single bomb 17 years old I watched my mother sell drugs to give us the extras I visited my stepfather in prison for several years doing 13 years in prison for armed robbery and various charges there was six of us in a two-bedroom apartment we grew up on welfare on WIC or food stamps and we live below the poverty line so early on I had this urge in this ambition to get money and as I became a teenager my environment showed me that money was gained the fastest on a street corner and growing up in my household my stepfather came home from prison he had a heroin addiction and he was emotionally and physically abusive so abusive he would knock me down stand over me and say I don't care if you live or die so I grew up angry I grew up in poverty I grew up frustrated and at 15 years old I began to sell the drugs on a street corner at 16 years old I left home dropped out of high school in 11th grade and became a full-time drug dealer at 17 I would go back to school and graduate from alternative program but my whole purpose my whole mission was to get money to break the poverty curse at the nearest corner that I've seen how I remember looking at face in prison time and thinking to myself that if I had to go to jail for decades but I could leave behind some kind of resources for my family I would gladly sign up because I thought my purpose was to feed my family and at 18 years old I did go to prison facing three years of life in prison or Rikers Island in New York for drug possession and drug trafficking crimes we serve a year in jail come home and before a year was up again I caught two more felonies facing drug trafficking crimes in Maryland and New Jersey would serve more prison time still come home from prison and go right back to the corners right back to the block because of my why my early walk it was to get rich or what it was to get rich or what let the church say Amen it was to get rich or die trying' that's how passionate I was about what I thought my wife was what I thought my purpose was I thought my purpose was as minuscule as to sacrifice my life just to feed my family or have the extras how immature of me so in 2005 approaching 25 years old on the street corner of 10th and Springfield in Newark New Jersey I had epiphany while I was selling dope to my community at 6:00 in the morning and that epiphany was Jay were you gonna be with you 30 as a three-time felon I'm with three felonies in three different states no college education and a former high school dropout where would you be when you're 30 I knew it we'll be dead or in jail I said Jay are you really a hustler or are you just a drug dealer because a drug dealer only could sell drugs the hustler can hustle anything and so I challenged myself that day to see if I will take my same charisma my same energy my same grind my same work ethic my same swag and take it from the street corners to the corner offices of a mortgage company in Union New Jersey I began my journey as a loan officer and as a young investor a purchase of my first two family home and then a couple more multi families in my first flip also got my real estate license while I had my mortgage license and built this growing a budding brand in three years in my first million in real estate from the day I left that corner but I still thought my wife was getting money and in three years after making millions my arrogance my pride my lust for money and my lack of purpose I lost every bit of those millions God humbled me because they have prepared me to find what he truly put me here for and what I'm going to teach each and every one of you here today is to find what he or she or it or what you are just here for see the world needs your purpose I need your purpose we all have something to offer the world just as the trees as the plants as the food as every part of this ecosystem contributes to each other we all have a duty to mankind and a duty to fulfill and contribute our purpose the gift of why so after being humble I mean after having millions I found myself had to give my my car back at no car no savings I was depressed because I had screwed it all up I actually gave up on entrepreneurship because I beat myself up and felt I wasn't worthy enough for anymore chances I made it out of the streets I made it out of poverty I made it out of Riker's Island my 3 upper in the sea 74 building all the way to a successful young real estate developer mister real estate but had thrown it all away being financially irresponsible arrogant and too prideful but that humbling period then I began to think about my purpose everything in my whole life was centered around money around getting rich or die trying' around feeding my family but there was so much more in store for me but I was blocking my own blessings because I wasn't aware of my why and so I would find my wife February 10th of 2012 after doing some research on wealth homeownership and finding out the wealth gap the wealth disparity and how rich the top 10% in elite one percent were how the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves it did something to me and resonated with me that I had experienced poverty but they had also experienced success and I knew the formula to get to success to get to abundance coming from extreme adversity it's on February 10 to 2012 I did a program for a local high school New Jersey 450 kids and I taught them about financial literacy I taught them about my journey and they all clung on to the message I said it tears that day and I knew that this was a part of my purpose and so will you all we all want to find what our why is I mean since then I've spoken to dozens of high schools we spoken to many many street corners holding free classes on wealth of strategies financial education etc and I thought my purpose was just to empower people economically but then I found out that I had superpowers socially it was a part of the Freddie gray protests in Baltimore and out in Sterling and Baton Rouge and contributed my talents and gifts to my community from a socio-political standpoint but all that was his rounding out to my fullest why see my many why was to feed my baby daughter who was born when I was 18 years old in prison who's now for the top colleges in the country that was my mini why my medium why was to be a financial expert at contribute my translation of Wealth Strategies to underserved communities but then I found out my big one which is your big why our why is to leave a legacy to max out our potential and leave this world a much better place than we left it contributing all we have to give it's about what you leave behind when you're gone how will people see so how you identify your why is the wvh in the water but W thinking about what drives you what motivates you what compels you and most importantly what would you do in this world if money we're not an issue if all your bills were paid if even your children your grandchildren knew that would be straight financially what is it then you would do contribute to the world driving a nice car isn't know why living in a nice house isn't know why what would you give the world if finances or health or your necessities we're not an issue what drives you what compels you so I knew for me that even if I were broke I would still want to empower inspire and educate others I would do it for free I do it for free I love to do it it gets me pumped it gets me high the transfer this energy and education into others that's the first part of family a while the second part little why is the H how do you do it so many people say well a woman of power in the city youth I want empower single moms I want to you don't have this thing you found a thing that drives you you're excited by what's homelessness it could be animals abused animals whatever that thing that drives you you got to contribute that but then you get caught in well how do I do it I don't have enough time but I have enough resources which is why we've done things as simple as what I tell people with just you want to do it just go do it just go to a local high school and go speak free of charge no booking fee just go contribute this is how you live a peaceful purposeful prosperous life plant those seeds because it's the universal law don't worry about the money right now the universe will take care of it if you so see that empowerment you gonna get back one empowerment what you do reap what you would you reap what you want so if you sow seeds of love you're gonna get back would love if you sow seeds of abundance you're gonna get back what abundance so I went around the country doing free financial literacy tours in high schools I went back to Rikers Island I once was an inmate it's a lot of real estate the inmate the real estate program for free how I begin to fight live a peaceful life and a purpose of life in a prosperous life is I simply served and I gave and contributed my purpose over a thousand lectures of my youtube channel just giving and so you have here W what motivates you what compels you what you would do if money we're not an issue you have your H how you do it just go do it if you want to teach go stand on a street corner bring the flipchart out in any neighborhood and start to teach and talk what's stopping you go contribute and then the why of our why and that is why are you doing it you know what compels you you know not if you now know how to do it but why are you doing it dig deep into you will see what their motivations are your motivations can't be money your motivations can't be fame your motivations can't be self-elevation but you do it to contribute to give and to soul and this is the secret sauce to prosperity to success to peace which i think is the most priceless thing of them all we're so - and anxiety and / stresses and / bills and / life but will you truly walk you find your while walking your purpose and you find that and embrace that wide not only will you have prosperity but you will have peace you'll have that peaceful swag your glow your energy will be infectious so what I want all of you to do today is to tap into your wh-why what would you do you could decide it tonight find your purpose is this easy formula if money was all good what would I do with myself how would I give to the world what would I go accomplish how would I leave a legacy what would they say about me when I'm going because of what I contributed not because of what I drove not because how good I looked but because of what I gave if you do that and then H how to do it go do it and stay rooted in why you're doing it why I do the work that I do it because I have a deep deep love for people that have went through circumstances and adversity such as I and should be able to give them not just hope but a blueprint to be able to be them better their their best selves to find their why and now because of my Y empowering them they now are powering others and making a barrell world a better place and my legacy will live through them missus the cycle of life this is a secret sauce to how you live a peaceful purposeful prosperous life you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 125,818

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Education, Innovation, Life, Positive Thinking, Psychology, Start-up, Success, Visualization

Id: V8ZLXBLBfqI

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 04 2018