Inky Johnson - GREATEST SPEECH EVER | MOST INSPIRING!

I couldn't believe in myself yet and I rented their level of belief until I got strong enough to possess my own when I hit him every breath in my body left my body with completely limp fell to the ground blacked out exposure Sparks inspiration by exposure sparks motivation the next time it gets tough the next time you question your purpose and it gets tough for the challenge just whispered to you so there's two shell backs just too shall pass [Music] my name is in cordis inky johnson a lot of people know me by inky johnson but my real name is in chorus I'm an inspirational speaker as some would say I like to just look at it as serving you know at one point I was a collegiate football player at the University of Tennessee and my career ended abruptly making a tackle almost lost my life ended up paralyzing my right arm in hand and that's what led me to the journey that I'm going now I was born in Atlanta Georgia east side of Atlanta to be specific in the neighborhood by the name of Kirkwood so born and bred right in the heart of Atlanta Georgia so Kirkwood inner city and at the time when I was growing up in Kirkwood it was it was a pretty rough place one of the roughest but just like any other inner-city drugs gangs violence you name it we had it they put a police precinct in our neighborhood right and literally put cops out on the street on bikes just start riding through the neighborhood to clean the neighborhood up and they did you know they ended up cleaning the neighborhood up but at the time when I was coming up it was violence you know even in my household you know it was drugs you know all these things that were transpiring and happening and that kind of shaped my mindset and the angle in the way that I live my life even until this day so I was born to a mother at 16 years old single mother she was working a double shift at Wendy's and at the time she took me back to 125 one so 125 one was a two-bedroom home you know it's 14 of us living there in that house and I slept on the floor you know what my cousin's went but you know there's a lot of us and when I was in that household you know my uncles were going in and out of jail prison from doing different crimes and so being there it kind of a get me in a couple of different ways you know I got to see both sides of the spectrum I got to see my mother get up and go to work you know even though she was a single mother I had a hard time raising a son then she later had my little sister but she still got up and she went to work and she did it the on its way and I got to watch my uncle's you know that I felt were good people at heart but because of the situation in the circumstances they felt as if they need it fast money so they went out and did certain crimes from drug selling the drug dealing all type of things and it landed them in prison in jail I was still in prison until his day and so I got to see both sides of it and the collateral damage and what it did to family and what it did to children and so I got to make a choice at an early age because I got to see to do a mentality of both decisions and choices you know you come up in a two-bedroom home with that many people it was a lot of love but at the same time you feel as if that's life right because my my friends up the street they were struggling the same way they lived the same way they slept on the floor the same way they didn't have beds right and so when I started playing sports the thing that sports did for me I think the most important it wasn't just opportunity it gave me exposure and so I remember the first time I went to my coach's house and I was like man like his kids got their own room like they got their own bed right like they're living they don't have to rush to the dinner table to try to make sure they rush to get the food because they don't have as many people in the house whereas with us you got 1415 people at one time in the house you got a rush to try to eat sometimes right and so when I got to experience a different side of life I remember coming back and talking to my cousins and I was like it's a different life out there and they're like what do you mean I was like it's a different life like it's people that don't live like this right like this is not normal and they couldn't fathom it right until we worked my coach one day and I remember he bought me my first steak right and I came back home I was like man coach bought me a steak man I got a steak right and I was so hype but what it did for me was it made me realize that people didn't have to live like that if they didn't want to that impacted me and it affected me never let a situation or circumstance define your life no matter what it may be right because you can always look at a situation and think like me for example I I was the first one in my family to go to college right in that house my grandparents had 16 children right three of them graduated high school three so the value of education was extremely low and when I came along and I had this dream of going to the NFL going to college I could have looked at my situation and said well man more than half of my family didn't even graduate high school so it's far-fetched it's not gonna happen right people even told me when I got the high school and a cop asked me once he said man what's your drink I said would go Division one and we'll go to college then I'm go to the league and he's like you're probably go to cellblock D 1 and I was like me making a mistake like I've never met your day in my life and he was like your family went to this school your uncle's went to this school I got an uncle in jail right and uncle in prison right and I was like yeah he's like Apple don't fall too far from the tree right and what he was saying to me was you'll probably repeat the same pattern that they repeated you come from the same household right and I could have looked at and made an excuse and said imma lower my standards to meet and accommodate my household my experience my situation my circumstance or I can take my situation in my circumstance and raise my standard and say I'm going to be an example I'm going to try up and I'm gonna use my situation and my circumstance is my driving force and my my field right and so never allowing a situation or circumstance to define your life and understanding that you got something inside of you that's great in that situation around a circumstance but you have to constantly believe it and not only believe it you have to make decisions and choices every single day to put your step forward toward what you believe your destiny is so I attended a lungs away Krim High School and so it's in Atlanta public school so on the east side of town I was in my neighborhood and the name of the school was creme high school by Alonzo a creme just give a little hiss three about it he was one of the first african-american superintendents right in Atlanta and so my school even though the name of it was creme high school had a rich history people in that Lantern knew it as crime I write because of the crime violence that was the same rep as the neighborhood pretty much people don't go to college out of there right that was direct and so when I got there people would say to me hey ink do you want to go to college say yeah I'm going to college they say what school are you going - I'm going to crimp say people don't go to college really from crime like you got to transfer people came to talk to my mother right coaches across town at great schools told my mother hey we can guarantee you we'll get him a scholarship to play football just bring him to our school my mother said to me hey inky you want to go to college this man well you got to go to this school in order to make it happen people don't really go to college from Krim I said yeah but I think I can do it from Krim she said I can't play with your future which is a mother's position right she's supposed to look at the situation it makes what she filled the best decision as for a son and they transferred me my sophomore year to the school tucker high school great school sports off the charts kids going to college let them write and I got there and I was so upset right and I didn't really go to class and it would ask me why why aren't you going to class I said I want to go to college from Krim and like man you're out of your mind like you had to cream-of-the-crop like you want to go back across town gonna take the harder route and you probably won't even make it from there I said yeah because I believe if I make it from there not only will I make it I'll open up the door for my family my friends and I'll show the people in my community that you can make it from this high school and so when I went back to that school I was on a mission right not only just to go to college I wanted to change the perception of the school I wonder when people spoke about it they spoke about in a certain way right and so when I went to college my cousin's went to college right a couple of my friends ended up going to college my wife went to college from that same school right and so it was a mission that I was on so I was playing football from the time I was seven years old but I also played at that high school and we weren't very good right doing my stint we weren't right but prior to me school had some pretty good teams but doing my step we weren't very good we had some very athletic guys I just don't think at that time football was the most important all right because you had guys with real life situations right you had guys mothers that were dealing with things whether it was drug addiction whatever the case may be guys fathers that weren't in the household in prison you know guys houses getting broken into so there's real life issues when we would come to the lunch table or as is most high school kids would come to the lunch table they're talking about goals dreams you know aspirations we would come to the lunch table we were talking about real life problems right we were talking about how such-and-such is gonna eat right we were talking about how can he get some clothes on his back right what can we do for such-and-such he was talking about our situation and we were in high school we were teenagers right dealing with real life problems and so football wasn't the most important thing even though we played it but to me it was the most important thing because I felt like this could be the vehicle that I can help my family through there was a vehicle of expression and what I mean by that is I felt as if in my household I had so much built-up I want I wouldn't say anger but it was like it was misplaced understanding right because I'm coming from this household - I sleep on the floor right roaches with rats I'm not ashamed to admit it right and I will go to school and I will compete I will work and so when I met a kid that I was competing against the only thing I felt I had that advantage in my whole life was my work that day and I took pride in that right I was never the biggest the fastest the strongest never had the most resources but I had a work ethic and so for me when I got on the field it was like I was free right I was free from my household that to bet would hurt a lot of people I was free from sleeping on the floor like this was the thing that my identity and I could just be me but also I could hit people right I could tackle people I can inflict violence not get in trouble for it so it's a vehicle of expression that I felt as if if I do this well I can get my family in a better situation if I do this well I can get my mother off the double shift at Wendy's if I do this well I can get my own bed if I do this well I can get my grandmother a better living condition if I do this well maybe I can stop my uncles from selling drugs right and so for me I viewed it that way right and I firmly believe perspective drives performance and so my perspective about the game was different and so therefore it drove my performance to be different my situation was what it was at a very young age and so my whole life I want it different for my family ever since I was a kid right and my coach took me across town to play ball and when we'd be riding home we'd be riding through these neighborhoods right and we were see people in their living condition right he would be putting out different houses and people just telling me about life you know he was teaching me and molding me right and he was showing me that hey man like you don't have to live like that and when that would be happening every time I would go back into my community I was there in this situation but I was very much cognizant that it was a better life out there if I made the right decisions and right choices and so it was almost like you come up in this situation of opposition in adversity that's you're in and in every single day you get to go out and you get to see a different life and you get to be free for a few hours and they bring you back into the opposition in that versity so it's almost like you're taking a test then they pull you out of the situation they take you somewhere they show you the answers to the test then they put you back in a situation and they make you take the test again and you know the answers but the opposition and the adversity and the current of it is so strong that for most people they forget the answers and for me I want it to be laser-focused and keep the answers so I can make the right decisions and choices so I can pass what I felt at the time was the ultimate test so me and my wife we work with homeless a downtown Atlanta and in my neighborhood we see homeless people all the time like we had kids that went to school with us that you sleep in abandoned houses that teachers adopted like my mentor was my eighth grade math teacher basketball coach I came and his wife adopted three kids from Atlanta public school system right because he felt they didn't have anywhere good to go after school and so you could very much see if you go in one side of town in Atlanta you can see affluent if you're on the other side of town you can see people under bridges for whatever reason right and for me when we do work with homeless now it's a great teaching tool because even at the shelter's you would think when you go to a shelter the first time we went we had a group of people with us and I just wanted to hear their thoughts right and most of the circle was like oh man you know people are irresponsible you know they're probably doing drugs right probably made some bad choices and when we got in there and you start talking to people and you meet a mother that say she's there because domestic violence right and this is the only place that she can go they can't post pictures on Facebook and the guy can't find her and she's there as a transitional program she's working she has to exit date for her and her daughter you meet a man there all right that lost his whole family in a house fire right and he's trying to get back on his feet right so it's different reasons and you got some men that are irresponsible and that may have done drugs whatever the case may be right but I look at it through the lens of Who am I to judge right if I've been put in a situation to help and to serve I'm I hope as much as I can I must serve as much as I can because I feel like that's a part of who I am and that's my character because I've came from a situation to where I didn't know where my next meal was coming from I came from a place to where I watch my mother scrape up change in dollars to get me a pair of cleats right to being in a situation to now I could buy my son like about my daughter cleats and it's not a problem right I can even buy their teammates some cleats and it's not a problem but my perspective about it different I got a level of compassion that a lot of people can't understand like I firmly believe in life it's a lot of moments and it's a lot of people that change and impact your life right like I don't believe it's just one moment you say this one moment just changed my life even though that moment may have but it's going to be another moment that's going to shape and change your life as well like my own changed my life my teacher changed my life but to be more specific when he met me in eighth grade the first day he told me my wife at the time he said she's gonna be your wife one day scared the mess out of me I mean this guy's lost his mind right but I'll never forget he drove up in my neighborhood and I was on the corner but one of my uncles and my uncle's that time they were drug dealers alright I wasn't selling drugs I was just hanging out you hung out in the neighborhood on the street and he pulled up in his truck and he was just like what are you doing out here like I'm chillin he's like no you didn't hear me what are you doing out here it's like I'm hanging out he's like getting in trouble I got in his truck he said put me to your house I put him to my grandmother's house we pulled up I get out and he says to me Inc you're better than that and I was like I hear you I was like but the same corner you just picked me up from Uncle where 2x t-shirt said morning when I come to your class I'm gonna be wearing a 2x t-shirt that he's stood on the corner in and probably so drugs ended it whatever all night I'm 135 pounds so I hear you right but to me those are just words right basically saying to him I'm coming from a real situation right so I hear you talking but I'm coming from the real situation and he was like you think I'm playing I'll be here in the morning to pick you up and the next morning he picked me up and he said here's the deal man he said I'm gonna pick you up on the play you're in a game in one-on-one basketball every morning and I'm gonna make you recite a proverb until you graduate high school and I was like he's just talking in every single morning he did it you picked me up take me to school he'll play me in a game in 1:1 basketball and make me recite a proverb and this is the moment was for real the principal came into the gymnasium and in Atlanta and in you know school systems most of them worldwide public schools you got this thing between the church and the state right to where they don't want you to bring Church religion into the school system which I get and I understand and the principal came into the gymnasium and said to him I heard you been given inky proverbs which proverbs out of the Bible and he said yes sir I have he says stop it or I have to fire you and at the time my teacher was 23 years old right we were his first class of students fresh out of college and he looked at the principal and he said well you're just gonna have to fire me because his life is worth it right and I'll never forget in that moment saying if he's willing to put the way that he provides for his family on the line for me I gotta give him everything I got right and I never wanted to let him down so I would be in the park late when I was a kid and after football practice because my mother worked a double shift and sour stayed in I loved the game and when she would pull up in a part you know most of the kids would be going home and I'll be sitting on a bench and she drove at the time it was an old Buick Regal in hubcaps off the car you know seats torn up collars all beat up but we loved it you know it's my mother's car and she'll pull up and get out and I will hug her kiss her and I would say mom if you don't mind can you sit in the car turn on your car lights I gotta do some extra drills gotta go to the NFL so you never have to work another day in your life and I knew my mother was tired right and my mother never said to me now boy let's go get in the car let's go home right like bump that not doing that she would always go sit in that car and she returned my mom's car lights and I'll be out on the field I'll be running laps I'll be doing agility drills I'll be running sprints chasing this dream to go to an NFL and for me that level of sacrifice was the thing that drove me and still drives me until this day right that's why when I competed it wasn't just about a sport for me right like I looked at competence I looked at work ethic I looked at dedication I looked at commitment I looked at sacrifice as this is life for me this isn't about a sport this is about things that I can extract from the sport and apply it to everyday life to make me somewhat of a decent human being right and so when my mother did that for me that made an impact an imprint on my soul right that I take with me even until this day the way it worked for me with my scholarship to college so they have a group of athletes and every school has an allotment a number of scholarships that they get every year that they can give to kids all across America so Tennessee doesn't just have to recruit Tennessee they can go to Georgia California they go to London if they want they can go anywhere to give a kid a scholarship so it's the best of the best that they feel fits their scheme their needs and so Tennessee came to see me in my senior year and I was a small guy I was really fast you know really tough gritty kid from from Atlanta and they offered me a scholarship right and on the spot I was like man I'm coming I'm going and for most kids it's a system in the process to where you take the visits you know you go you see the University you see what they had to offer then you make your decision and so they told me we want you to come up on a visit I was like I don't need it I'm coming and as I yeah but we want you to see the city and so when I first came I had a host and so the job of a host is like they recruit you they make you love the place they show you a great time take you to parties and my host as have you ever been to a sorority party sounds like now I've never been it's not going tonight right and I was like okay can you take me back to the Marriott to have me a room at the Marriott hotel he's like yeah I'll take you up to get changed and when we pull up I just say to him and I'll catch you all tomorrow and he was like man are you sick and I was like no he's like I told you we got to go to the sorority party man it's fun and gets wild and I was just like man this is the first time I've ever had a room with a bed by myself all right and it's a king-size bed bro I bumped that party I got my own bed and he's like you don't got a bed at home and I like no as I own got a bed he was like really I was like yeah I don't got a bed right so I didn't go to the party next morning I got up I met with my advisor they said what's your plan in college I said I'm gonna graduate in three years and go to the NFL so I could help my family and I said well looking at the testing you didn't just knock it out I say yeah but I really need to help my family so freshman year I ended up playing as a true freshman not a lot but I played a lot of special teams and I got in a little bit as a defensive back right which was my primary position coming into my sophomore year I played a lot I had a really good season things were going really well I had great spring I was doing well in the classroom and coming into my junior season I was as strong as I'd ever been as fast as I'd ever been and I was looking like a NFL prospect so things were going extremely well and so when you go to college and football you have to play three years in order to declare for the NFL now basketball you have to go to college and just play one year then you could declare and so that was going to be my third year that I was about to play complete then I can declare for the NFL and so at the beginning of my junior year my coach came to me and basically said hey ink man your projected draft pick like NFL teams scouting you they love you all you got to do is do what you've been doing and you'll get a shot you'll be automatic multi-millionaire you could take care your family and I was like awesome and and so coming into my junior year I'm thinking all I have to do is do what I've been doing I just got to play football that's easy right and I come out the first game we play against California Bears I execute I have a great game we get the victory and we're going into the second game against Air Force tough group disciplined group fourth quarter rolls around two minutes left and so usually in two minutes the game is basically about to be over and so we're thinking we make a couple more stops I'm thinking if I get the opportunity here the guy in the game make him fumble get ready for Florida the next week and so the quarterback drops back throws it to a guy he catches it and I go to make the tackle that's supposed to end the game and as soon as I hit him right something different happened and never happened to me before in my life right my body goes complete and left I fall to the ground i black out I just had my anniversary not long ago September 9 but it's a special day for me right reflective day but that exact day September 9 2006 it was a day that you know I did everything the way I always did it right I prepare for the game the same way I listened to the same music my pregame routine and ritual was the same and in that game when I went to make that tackle I went out of the way that I always went out of tackle but for some strange reason when I hit him every breath of my body left my body went completely limp fell to the ground blacked out right when I came to my teammates were standing over me like ink it up let's rob I was like I can't I can't move there was a shot going through my body I couldn't feel anything but me thinking it's just a stinger shoulder injury nothing too serious right and when they get me over to the hospital and they run their tests and then they bring me back into a room and my mother had just left the room kissing praying you know kissed me on my head praying and saying Inc you'll be fine right and when she walks out doctor runs in and says guys guys we got a Rusty's kid back to emergency surgery he's about to die and I remember thinking like man like what I'm saying to him like you can't use another word like man is like use a synonym like I'm thinking he's joking fine he's like no man you ruptured the Clavin artery in your chest you're bleeding internally I got a rushing back take the main vein out of your left leg plug it into your chest in order to save your life he said oh I guarantee you you won't be here in the morning so you bleeding internally and so the next morning I woke up I was grateful that I was still alive right and I think because of the the seriousness of the situation right it made me view football in a microwave and terms up I love the game right it hurt that my career ended right it heard it right but I was there my life was spared like if they didn't catch that my artery had busted and I was bleeding internally I could have went to sleep that night in the next morning the title on the paper the newspaper would have been different it wouldn't have been inky Johnson suffered possibly career-ending injury it'd have been inky Johnson lost his life last night from a tackle made in the game and so it made me view it differently even though I had a long role a rehabilitation for my arm ahead of me my grandmother used to say something to me all the time and I think is so true and she would say to me inky either somebody is in the midst of adversity or just came out of adversity or it won't be long before they head into adversity so you need to be prepared either way and so we all go through adversity opposition I think that's the thing that that makes us all in common as people right no matter if you're from London Atlanta Florida California New York like we're all going to go through something at some point or phase in our life right and as cliche as it sounds when a quote says it's never about what happens to you it's about how you respond to it that's very true right but in the same sense I think what's most important is when we go through something what's the perspective that we have of it right because for most people when you go through something the person's natural perspective is okay what did I lose right what happened to me like I took a loss right people never look at it and say okay man tell me what did you gain right even though I know it hurt you didn't want to go through it but look at it in a way to where you can say what's the lesson in this right what would you say life is trying to teach you from dealing with this and so when I went through it my perspective was okay what can I extract from it to apply to other areas and aspects of my life that I feel can help other people and I firmly believe the quicker you can shift your perspective from yourself to others when you're in the midst of adversity the quicker you'll get through it right Martin Luther King has a quote that says life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing to help other people now I'm not telling you to not acknowledge your pain I'm not saying that I'm not telling you not to say man I'm going through this in his heart I'm not saying that I'm saying when you go through it look at it step back from the picture and say okay I'm dealing with this nine out of ten times there's somebody else that's either dealt with it are they gonna deal with something similar to this and if I deal with it in the right way I can use it to add value to lives of other people the funny thing was I had never heard of the injury that I suffered never heard of it when I went through it I met probably ten guys years after that that have been going through it that I could talk to at different stages and phases in the process and say hey man Inc how did you deal with this how did you deal with this when they told you this how did you accept that right how did you process that and I was like bingo that's how I got through it that's how I dealt with it right but I had to shift my perspective from why me - why not me I think we help people in different ways right it's almost like leadership right you find some leaders that are vocal Idec and tall you find other leaders that lead by example they're not big talkers right they're just the guys you watch they're gonna do their thing and you can point to him and say hey man you see the way that God works and does it staying follow him and I think the same for opposition and that versity you find some people they can work their way through it and then they can speak about it and tell people you got others that deal with it and they can work their way through it and you almost have to pry it out of them and so it's like for me with speaking I never wanted to speak never had any interest in it all right never said man I want to go across the country share my story I wasn't interested I wanted to coach when that fell through I wanted to work at a rec center and my neighborhood create leadership curriculums with the kids and just get back to him and one day I was talking with my buddy and he just made me realize like what she went through just wasn't for you right basically like I was being selfish about my situation and my experience right he was like you're going through it you got through it you're dealing with it but that's not just for you like when we go through a situation in circumstances it's easy to step back and think now I just went through this and it's just my experience I firmly believe when we go through things it's for us to deal with it get over it and reach back over the hill to help another person and a lot of times like you said when you're trying to work through it you think man how can I help somebody and I'm trying to get through it myself right and that's a great perspective right but when you get through it right maybe you can't help them when you're in the midst of it because you're processing it but when you get over the hill I think is important and I think is vital that you reach back over the hill and help somebody that may be going through a similar situation and you can share your values and principles with them because that experience that we go through and we deal with it's not just for us so uh you know a lot of athletes and you know I don't want to speak for all but a lot of athletes are extremely driven right there self-starters I like the guys that I was with at the University of Tennessee they were all incredible men in their own way because you have the best of the best now high performers from everywhere and so it's like you come from high school and you're the man at this high school right and you come from this high school and you're great and then another guy comes from his high school and he's great then they put you all in this pot and it's like all these great athletes from this great high school or wherever it was their great city and you put them together you say alright let's compete you got the best of the best and you got some guys that shy away from competition they're like I was demand in high school I shouldn't have to compete right you know what I bring to the table you got other guys that say I want to compete against the best I want to go against the best every single day not that I'm trying to say I'm the best I want to go against the best because I know it's gonna sharpen me up and make me a better person and so for the most part athletes struggle with I feel identity right because you're coming up your whole life and you've been told man you're great like you're awesome you've been given things right because of your athletic ability because of your skill set and then you get to a point if you don't make it to the NFL or even if you make it to the NBA Major League Baseball even if you make it at a certain point is going to end and stop right and people are gonna say you're a great perlier right but the perks are gonna stop they're not going to bow down to you anymore and a lot of guys the thing that breaks them is the transition when you got to go from sports to life and now your identity and what you did in sports it's cool but it's not so much important anymore right when you get a job in corporate they expect you to produce and not talk about the stats all day right when you get married to your wife like you got to learn obedience and compromising as well right but when you're coming from this athletic background you used to everybody just praising you and telling you how great you are and so it's struggling with that identity but also being extremely talented being extremely gifted but when you get out of this setting of where people praise you can you take the things you learn that made you great in that sport and apply to other areas and aspects of your life to make you just as great as a person empty the bucket man was this thing that I created just about emptying everything right like everything you got not living on reserve right and I'll tell you where it came from so when I was a freshman I had a roommate right extremely talented he's my guy until this day like we're super cool that's my brother right but when we first got our financial aid checks and I got like twenty five hundred you know and he got some might think close to 4,000 right we came from similar places similar backgrounds similar family experience and I was like I'm going to the bank I'm I opened up me an account I've never had this much money and I was like man you need to come to the bank open up your an account and he was like i'ma spin this ain't gonna spin all this well I mean you want to save a little bit of your money he's like no that's the problem I might not get this much again and I was like just coming to the bank and so I go to the bank open up me an account he opens up an account he gets his car and we go to the store and he did exactly what he said he was going to do I start buying every give me that give me those shoes I'll get to the counter and the lady is ringing it up and he gives her the card and she swipes the card and the card didn't go through all right he looks at me and I'm like man don't look at me big spender you do baller right he was like ma'am can you swipe it again and she swipes it again and it didn't go through and he looks at me and I'm like look at me man look at her means like ma'am the football office gave me the money can you please try it again I know I got the money and when she swiped it it didn't go through and as she was hitting in the car back she said to him sir you probably had the money but she didn't put a strip off to activate it she was like you never activated the car right and I was like for most people man you could be great but you haven't even poor to strip off to activate it right like you can be great but you live it on reserve right you didn't you didn't empty the bucket right you didn't give everything you had to every aspect of your life like for most people they're great professionally but they end up becoming a public success and behind closed doors they're private failure not because they don't have the talent or the skill set they don't have the character right that they can apply it and be consistent in every aspect of their life and empty out everything they got to everything all right now one would say okay well when do you turn it back right you find pockets to turn it back turn it back right of course you don't just give everything you've got all the time right you get to a point to where you learn to be efficient and effective in every aspect of your life and for most people is not a problem with skill set there's a problem of character and empty the bucket is having the right character to be consistent and empty out everything you got in every aspect of your life I think man is it's funny I think the to measure wealth deserve is happiness right like I really do and it's not saying that I'm looking money I'm not against that at all because you gotta gotta work hard make your money to take care of your family and be able to bless people but I think it's a lot of people with so-called wealth and they don't have joy and they don't have happiness right and I feel like joy happiness is P and peace it's the most important things we can possess right and for most people with their material possessions they feel like the most important for me when you got joy when you got peace when you got happiness I think that's true wealth because you can't put a price on that like for me people can't understand a guy asked me just yesterday what do you think about stem cell why don't you go over to London or one of these places somewhere and try to get stem cell for your arm and I was like I got peace and he's like what does that mean I was like I'm good but my situation right like I'm I'm wealthy because of that I got something that you can't put a price on right you can't price out my joy you can't price out my happiness you can't price out my Peas now if I measure wealth by money money is a number numbers never in right so you never catch it numbers never stop if your happiness is predicated upon a number if you're being wealthy is predicated upon a number you'll get it then it's like okay I gotta set it a little bit higher the number will never end and so therefore you'll never be wealthy enough if I get to the end of my life and you know my old guy at the time and I'm sitting back in a rocking chair on my porch with my wife and got a head full of gray hair and our kids come up and we're just chilling out and I've accomplished a lot and my wife is sitting there and my son and my daughter comes up and they say to me like that man you accomplished a lot like you a great player you've done well speaking but you feel like you're a terrible father right I what would it be worth for me to accomplish gain give them certain things and suck as a father right my wife got me asada said and man you've done really well speaking like your athletic ability but you're a terrible husband what would it be worth right and so for me I feel like the greatest gift I could ever give to my children is showing them that I honor love respect and admire their mother but the greatest thing that I could ever give to my children also is not something that I can give to them it's the things that I will leave in them the principles the values to guide how you treat people how you live your life how you make decisions and choices and so family is something that's very important to me right to be honest I don't think a person you know how a lot of times reconsider some money to be great right guys great right like for me the true measure of greatness is if you can reproduce it in your family like with your children right if one day your children come up and they're great not great and athletic ability no great people right like when they come up like we saw a young man yesterday and I went to speak out of school right and I was just talking to some kids basically because a young man reached out had the courage to reach out and ask me can I come and talk to his junior class I was like no problem and I'll do it for you and I thought I met him his parents came and I said man his dad and his mother gotta be proud right because he's a great young man to me that speaks volumes of the parents that they are and so for me that's what I want somebody to say about my son my daughter and my family one day man this is so tough you know because I remember when I was young and I didn't have my father right in the household and we got we became cool and I remember I used to live my life and I had like it was it was like a resentment toward him right because I could understand why he wasn't there early on I just couldn't understand it right I'm like when I will be home and we will experience certain things in me and my cousins would be asleep on the floor right and it was certain questions and things at times that I wanted to ask my father because he wasn't in the household a Canasta so he created a resentment until one day I just asked we were together and you know I just asked like man what happened you know and he just shared with me what happened right like I was young your mother was young right I ended up losing my mother right and I was just scared right and when he told me this situation I could understand it right and for most people is like forgiveness is the hardest thing in the world and when you see a son when you see him coming up with his mother or you see a father that's not present a lot of times for me I think now man what's that situation and I want to understand it right because I firmly believe as tough as this situation is my teacher said this to me my teacher who's my mentor my 8th grade teacher he said to me one day when I was in eighth grade because I was talking about fatherhood and stuff like that and some of them my friends they were talking about their fathers was just having a man conversation and one of my friends said like my father don't care about me he don't want me right I am in the world and see him right and my teacher said to him son I don't think any man brings a kid into this world and don't think about him and don't love him and don't want and the kid was like no man like that's wrong right he was like I'm I'm a man I'm a father I'm a husband right and when he said it at the time I was young and I was like I don't know but now that I'm a father right I got two kids or I got three little sisters right and it's this thing inside of me that that makes me think like he was it was true it was real but situations and circumstances happen sometimes that we can't understand and it leaves a mother and the householder sometimes it leaves a father to be a single father right and when that happens I think the village is important it's like me I got I got a level of accountability and responsibility with my son right if my son plays on a team right and it's kids on that team that their fathers are not present I feel like I have a responsibility and obligation not to be their father right but to fill a void to be a positive male figure in that kid's life as much as possible and not just look at the kid and see him drowning and just be like that's not my kid I'll just let him try right no he's very much so my kid right because God has put me here to be present in his kids presence or am i helping right and so it's just becoming a village around that mother or around that father to assist as much as possible to help that kid be shaped and molded in the right way with principles I think and I think the greatest gifts in life and it's belief in exposure right because a lot of times for me personally the reason I say that is it was a lot of moments in my life to where it was people that saw things in me that I couldn't see him myself and they believed in me in a way that I couldn't believe in myself yet and I rented their level of belief until I got strong enough to possess my own all right it's like when you're young and they see you and it's like even when you start out doing what you're doing you could be talented right and somebody older than you or more experienced than you can see you and know like oh man if he did this but if he does this I mean he could be great right and they can come to your say hey kid man you got something you could be great right like my teachers and my coaches when they came to me and it was like son telling you like you could go to college man like you really I know you're talking about it but your circumstances are saying different I think you can do it right and when they said it I'm like oh I can I can do it like I can make it happen because they're believing in me making it happen I think I can do it so I think belief and the reason I say exposure is because like I think when you show people things that's powerful I think exposure sparks inspiration right exposure sparks motivation like when I was coming up in that two-bedroom house with all those people and I went to the other side of town on my coach and he was like how people don't you don't have to live like that Inc you could live a normal life right it changed my whole mindset and my mindset can never go back to the way that it once was because I have been exposed to something different to something new and so I think belief in exposure or two of the most powerful things that can happen to a person the reason that I'm I think belief is important is because like when you're young or when you do something in your novice right and you start out doing it and you might think you can do something with it or you might not you might do it and it's being driven by your passion and then somebody comes along that's a little bit older or even more experienced and they can see it in a way that you can't see it right and so I think is important with belief because if a person believes in you in a way that you don't believe in yourself you can rent that person's belief until you get strong enough to possess your own right and you use that person's belief to feel you every single day right because you can have a level of belief with what you're doing but you can go back to a certain set of circumstances that tell you now it's not gonna happen and so you read that person's belief until you get strong enough to possess your own I think I think having a purpose it's that thing that that makes us tick that gets us up every day and gets us over the hump of opposition and adversity and a reason that I champion that verse in opposition is because I think for the most part in life people pretty much know what to do when things go right right like when things go right they know how to feel they know how to act how to react but it's when that opposition and that adversity comes and it creates a level of misunderstanding right now the vision is now you don't have clarity about what you're supposed to do now you question if your existence matters and I think when you have a purpose it's powerful because in the midst of the opposition it makes you realize that you've been put here for a certain reason and so me once I tapped into my purpose of once I thought it was football right but when I started speaking I'll never forget today I got the exact same feeling backstage that I used to get before I ran out on the field to play football and that's when I knew like this is my purpose this is what I've been put here to do and so the opposition adversity the challenges is as a part of the process it's gonna make me a better person but my purpose I can't let anything stop or detour me from tapping into that every single day because the key with purpose is I firmly believe every person's purpose is tied to somebody else's purpose in destiny and so your purpose my purpose is tied to somebody else like when I speak when I do what I do like people say all man man I really needed to hear that right that helped me do this that helped get me through this that helped me with this that's what my purpose being tied to other people's purpose destiny beliefs and dreams that's the power magic of purpose right I don't think it can be a purpose without being tied to other people's purpose destiny dreams and aspirations right I think that's the power in it but realizing it as another thing that thing that not only feels right that thing that when you do it it impacts the lives of other people like prime example you guys in in the videos that you create right to platform that you've been blessed with that helps people right that serves as a blessing of people right that gets people through challenges right and it's a video right but everybody can't do the video the way that you guys do the video everybody doesn't feel as if that's their purpose to do these videos put them out to let them impact the world everybody don't view it that way and so I think when you look at it and you assess the situation or whatever you're doing I think on the other end of purpose you have to look at it and count the cost and say is what I'm doing helping people right and I think when you view it that way and you can see it visibly I think then you know you're in line with your purpose all right if I was just speaking to speak and it didn't touch anybody or people would hear me and be like okay it's not my purpose but when I speak and somebody say hey man that helped me get through this that got me through this I got my mother over cancer that helped my son get through this that helped me with my marriage I'm in line with my purpose it's humbling it's humbling because when you think about it nobody has to say to me like thank you nobody has to say man that video really helped me and my relationship with my son nobody has to say to me like man I showed this to my staff like they don't have to do that i people are grown like you guys don't have to come down and do this you didn't write you can stay in your pocket do what you do create get great videos help people you never had to say hey ink man we're gonna do this put out a project be pretty cool you don't have to do that and so for me is being aware of that what I'm doing is a lot greater than me it's bigger than me you remove the ego from it you remove the AI from it you remove the desire from it right and then you're left with your purpose and what you feel you've been put here to do and so when people say Amen I really appreciate what you do if you feel as if that's your purpose and your reason for living and why you do what you do I think you're accepted in a different way right and so for me I like to call it just destiny moments all right when I bump into somebody in the airport and say man I really need to talk to you about what you said when I'm like thank you right I bump into somebody on the street man I really need to I'm like man thank you right because I realized what I do is bigger than me right if I was just an ego-driven that thought oh man I'm what I do I'm just bad right you don't appreciate what people say you don't value it you don't respect it you just look at things in terms of superficial materialistic and how it makes you feel right but I think when it's your purpose you think about how does it make other people feel I wouldn't change a thing right and the reason that I wouldn't change it you know a lot of times I think people think that the reason I said wouldn't change it it has just something to do with me right and it does to a certain extent because my perspective change right demand that I know I am I think is as a result of my injury and the things that I've been through right the whole process of it by from rehabilitation to accept an injury to learn how to do things with my left hand the whole process of it but the reason I wouldn't change it is the impact that I saw it have in the lives of people that I love that I respect and people all over the world right like that lets me know that this was a part of my destiny this was divine appointment right because I saw people around me visibly change right because I was able to remove myself from the situation and not just sit there and be like why did this have to happen to me well I mean not that anything is wrong with that right if a person has to question that question it do what you got to do man you get you through your process but in terms of me dealing with it right when I was able to remove myself from the situation step back it started to view how would I was going through affected other people for the better right their lives improved as a result of it and so if I go back and say I'll change it I would have to be thinking only about me and my selfish ambition of making it to the NFL and the reason that I wouldn't change it is because of not only the impact that this had on my life the reason I wouldn't change it is because of the impact that I had on people's lives that were interconnected to me both directly and indirectly I just want to I just want to be a great person man like I want to when the clock stops from my life and it's all said and done like I was telling my kids like the best thing that I could ever give to her right I just as a father as the leader of my household the best thing that I could ever give to him is a good name by that's the most valuable thing that I could give to my family right is a good name right that people know we do things the right way we treat people the right way in situations and circumstances and people don't affect or don't alter that right when it's all said and done when people speak about me they don't have to lie on my behalf right they don't have to say oh he's a good person but in their heart they don't believe that to be true right not saying that everybody is gonna like me everybody doesn't like him everybody like it just doesn't happen that way but for those that know me and my character by when it's all said and done will I have said more than I've done because for most people that's a lot of talk right but I want to do more right I'm gonna be a great person I'm gonna make my impact on the world right I want to go down in a character Hall of Fame right the character like that was a man of supreme character you judge the character a person not by where they stand in times of comfort and convenience you judge the character of a person by where they stand in times of challenge and controversy man I think his inspiration my mother yeah my mother and my grandmother yeah I have to put them two together my boy to rock when the rock is my guy right the rock shows me a lot of love man he supports my message he's posted my messages before he sent me messages before like lengthy messages about something that I've said how it impacted him and just following him and a guy's an animal by his inspiration may see the way he worked but not only way that he works you see the way that he treats people in a way that he handles himself and so I would say the way in the rock smart government his uh his agent got by the name Brad Slater at the time reached out and when you reached out I didn't think it was serious I was like you know he reached out and I think I might've hung up the phone on him at first because I was like minutes probably my boys don't prank me right and he hit back and he was I know menaces really mean like me I represent like Dwayne the rock Johnson like Dwayne loves your stuff like whatever man guys bluffing and sure enough he's the real deal right in the rock reached out and it was it was all she wrote from there man but I was that was a big day you know for me and then that same day he posted something and that's when I knew like always real deal and everybody's reaching out like you saw a rock post your stuff and I was like that's crazy but ever since then it's been consistent man and you know we reached out back and forth and he's awesome my first paid speaking engagement the check at the time was $2,500 and I spoke for like a high school graduation and at the time I didn't really go she ate a fee I just agreed to do it and this was like 13 years ago and I spoke to the guy you know he gave me the envelope when I got in the car I was driving home and I stopped at a gas station and I open the envelope I was like $2,500 and I called my wife yeah I was like I just got paid 2,500 to speak and she's like awesome right but that was that was on my favorite career moment you know not since then I've had some great career moments like speaking chick-fil-a coca-cola NFL team you know NBA teams but that first moment you know when I did it when I got compensated for impacted the lives of some young kids it made me realize it was real just too shall pass right and the reason I would say that is like I said our champion diversity right we know what to do when things go right but the next time it gets tough the next time you question your purpose the next time you question your existence your mission if you're supposed to be doing what you're doing and it gets tough and challenging just whispered to you so this too shall pass just too shall pass hey how you doing guys inky johnson here just got done man doing an interview with my guys the Mulligan brothers we had a great time I appreciate their platform and what they do most importantly I respect and I admire take care peace you

Channel: Mulligan Brothers Interviews

Views: 69,115

Keywords: Mulliganbrothers, mulligan brothers, motivational videos, motivation, motivational speech, inky johnson, inky johnson speech, inky johnson motivation, inky johnson story, inky johnson injury, inky johnson motivational speech, inky, best motivational speech, speech, the most motivational speech ever, inky johnson inspiration, motivational speeches, inspirational speech, inky johnson inspiring speech, inky johnson inspirational speech

Id: 48N1kyEY1Sk

Length: 61min 27sec (3687 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019