Fight for It: Ronald A. Burgess Jr.’s Winning Drive

0:00This is why you're fighting right here, listen kid, there's gonna be time in your life where people are gonna try to reign on your parade, they're gonna try to tell you what you can and what you can't do, but this is why you're fighting, you're fighting for them, you fight for all of them nights, you watch your mother sit on the edge of that bed and then cry almost every night, well you and your brother they couldn't do anything and it hurt you, you remember? Listen, I don't want you to ever forget why you're doing what you're doing. You gotta understand there's so much greatness that lives inside of you and if you just get through this and continue to fight, there's greatness on the other side and I understand that you may be in the dark today, but doesn't the beautiful roses of the field begin in the dark?

1:00What you gonna do? You gonna give up or you gonna keep going? What is it that stands behind that passion, purpose, desire that has you waking up every single day to go get what's yours? Because my faith is bigger than the size of a mustard seed and whatever it is that stands behind that passion, purpose, and desire that has you waking up every single day. What is it? What is it that gives you unwavering conviction to go get what's yours? To do what you want to do because there was a point of my time in my life where I didn't have faith in myself where I didn't believe in myself then.

2:03I begin to pick myself up, dust myself off so I don't ask the question what is it that continues to drive you, push you to continue to get up every single day after you've been knocked down, you've been here before. Is it your daughter at home? Is it your mama? Because as I reminisce and watch, my mama sit on the edge of that bed and cry every single night. Are you back yet? Because whatever it is that does stand behind that passion, purpose, and desire that picks you up every single day, it better be strong and I'm talking you will be knocked down, a storm is coming, you will be exposed to the elements, a tornado is coming.

3:12It's the faith that stands behind that purpose, passion, desire that got you getting up every single day after you've been knocked down, today, yesterday, you may be knocked down tomorrow. And nothing gonna change if nothing changed so you have to take action. And when I say take action, you have to self-assess and say it is you versus you. When you can look at a mirror and you can say to yourself, I didn't study, I woke up late. And you can say it's me versus me when you can get very comfortable being very uncomfortable you begin to grow. You begin to grow and you don't go to point and fingers that nobody. Man I remember, I was stripped of everything I own from apartments, the cars, everything I came in contact with, I mean, I was stripped of, but all through, through the storms,

4:22the trials of the tribulations, I begin to saw like an evil sea. The evil is one of the only birds that when a storm is coming, he doesn't fly away but he flies into the storm. And he uses the pressures of the storm to soar. We're using very little energy to soar above the storm to rise to an atmosphere of peace and security. Don't you want to soar? How would you use the storm to rise to elevate? How would you use the storm to soar above everybody that told you you couldn't do what you're doing and what drives you? Because it don't matter how hard you go when you're on a journey to go get what's yours, you will be knocked down.

5:23And I hope it's the faith that gives you the unwavering conviction, the courage, the dedication, what you sacrificing. Because being physically committed to the process without being emotionally attached to the outcomes is flying into the storm and asking yourself, what can I extract from this storm to soar to rise to an atmosphere of peace and security? What do you do when people tell you you can't do it? Are the people who are attacking you, adding purpose and value to your life? Are you caring too much?

6:26Studies show 30% of caregivers die before the person they're caring for, man. Are you caring too much? You put in your expectations on them and they not mean your expectations. It's just going to kill you. Every single caregiver's die before those they're caring for, they understand. So what I want you to do is self-assess. What are you scared of about what people are going to think? We all make mistakes in your identity that does not lie in the mistakes you make. It is not the burdens of life that weighs us down, but it's how we handle them. When adding value to anything, doesn't it come with mistakes anyway? It's a part of the process. And you got to keep the faith in the hope alive.

7:29Because like I said, when you lose the faith in the hope, that's when you quit. And people only quit when they get deep and deep into pain and they can't take it anymore. You didn't come this far just to come this far. Now if you pick yourself back up yet, I know you've been knocked down. I know time has been tough. I know it's been a rough year. But here, listen, there's going to be times that people are going to talk about you. They're going to judge you. They're going to slander your name and yeah, it may not be true, but you got to understand that through the football games, through the pain, through the pressure, through everything you go through, you must continue to believe in yourself. Do it for your mother, do it for your father. Because they're going to be times where nobody believes in you, kid, and you got to understand I've been through so much pain in my life, growing up in a project, kid, I wasn't even raised with my father.

8:35When you talk about keeping the hope alive, you have to dig real deep. And taking it back, they're going to laugh, they're going to talk so what? Let them hate. They just want to be like you anyway. They thought I would never grow up, they have a voice. They thought I would make it to play pro football. They thought I wouldn't pass the high school exam when I felt four times. How many times do they got to doubt us before they understand that anything we put our minds to, we're going to go get?