Latest / Motivation study / This Video Will Make You Cry (2024)

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This Video Will Make You Cry (2024) · Motivation study

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Back in the 70s, I met the finest woman I'd
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: ever met in my life. We're at this dance and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I find out her name is Trina Williams from Lompoc, California.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And we're all dancing and we're just excited. And I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: decide in the middle of dancing with her that I
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: would ask her for her phone number. Trina was the
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  Speaker 1: first one. Trina was the only woman in college who
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: gave me her real telephone number. The next day we
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: walked to Baskin and Robbins ice cream parlor. We go
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: on a second date and a third date and a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: fourth date. Mm-hmm. We drive from Chico to Vallejo so
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that she could meet my parents. My father meets her,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: my daddy, my hero. He meets her, pulls me to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the side and says, is she psycho? But anyway, we
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: go together for a year, two years, three years, four years.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: By now, Trina's a senior in college. I'm still a freshman,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: but I'm working some things out. So now it's time
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to propose. So I talked to her girlfriends and it's California,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it's in the 70s, so it has to be outside.
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  Speaker 1: Have to have a candle and you have to have,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you know, some chocolate. Listen, I'm from the hood. I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: had a bottle of Boone's Farm wine. That's what I had.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: She said yes. That was the key. I married the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life. Y'all
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: ever been to a wedding and even before the wedding starts,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you hear this, how in the world And it was
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: coming from my side of the family! We get married.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: We have a few children. Our lives are great. One day,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Trina finds a lump in her left breast. Breast cancer.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Six years after that diagnosis, me and my two little
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: boys walked up to mommy's casket. And for two years,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: my heart didn't beat. If it wasn't for my faith
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: in God, I wouldn't be standing here today. If it
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: wasn't for those two little boys, there would have been
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: no reason for which to go on. I was completely lost.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: That was rock bottom. You know what sustained me? The
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: wisdom of a third grade dropout. The wisdom of a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: simple cook from California Maritime Academy. We're at the casket.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: In College Station, Texas. I'd never seen my dad cry.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Big strong man. But this time I saw my dad cry.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: That was his daughter. Trina was his daughter. Not his daughter-in-law.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm right behind my father about to see her
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: for the last time on this earth. And my father
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  Speaker 1: shared three words with me that changed my life right
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: there at the casket. It would be the last lesson
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: he would ever teach me. He said, son, just stand.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything more profound that I can
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  Speaker 1: share with these cadets than these words. You keep standing.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: You keep standing. No matter how rough the sea, you
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: keep standing. And I'm not talking about just water. You
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: keep standing. No matter what, you don't give up. I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: learned that lesson from a third grade dropout who was
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a cook at Cal Maritime. Who said, boy, you keep standing.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: No matter what. I stood. And a miracle took place.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: A couple of years later, my heart started to beat again.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I'm talking in a group about like this when all
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of a sudden I spot the finest woman I've ever
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: met in my life again. First thing Janet did after
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: we got married was she adopted those little boys, fulfilling
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  Speaker 1: Trina's last wish that her babies not go through life
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: without a mommy. Let me take you back to two
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: days before Trina died. No hair because of chemotherapy, cadets.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: A tummy pooched out because of a liver no longer working.
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  Speaker 1: She weighed about 75 pounds. I'm in the kitchen so
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  Speaker 1: I can keep an eye on her in the family room.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: She's surrounded by pillows. Our then youngest son, Andrew, walks
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: up with a shirt that he wants Mommy to fold.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And this is what I hear from Trina. Andrew. Mama. Mama.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: not always gonna be there to help you she was
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: saying goodbye and i was so moved i waited for
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  Speaker 1: andrew to leave and i walked over and i sat
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: next to her on the couch and as clearly as
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: i'm talking to you today these were some of her
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: last words to me she looked me in the eye
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  Speaker 1: and she said it doesn't matter to me any longer
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  Speaker 1: how long i live what matters to me most is
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  Speaker 1: how i live Cadets, I've come here with honor, with
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  Speaker 1: bells on, to ask you all one question, a question
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  Speaker 1: that I was asked all my life by a third-grade dropout.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: How you living? How you living? Every day, ask yourself
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that question, how you living? Here's what a cook in
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  Speaker 1: the dining center would suggest. Don't judge people. The tendency
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  Speaker 1: of a person is to walk away from somebody that's
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  Speaker 1: different from them. You stay there and you get to
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  Speaker 1: know them. Never judge. Then he dropped Jonathan Swift on
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  Speaker 1: me who said, vision is the ability to see the invisible.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Don't judge. Another lesson from this third grade dropout. Son,
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  Speaker 1: you'd rather be an hour early than a minute late.
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  Speaker 1: My father had the breakfast and lunch shift here at
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  Speaker 1: the academy. He had to be at work at five o'clock.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: We lived on Louisiana Street, 15 minutes away. My mother
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  Speaker 1: said for nearly 30 years, my father left the house
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  Speaker 1: at 3.45 in the morning. One day she asked him,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: why daddy? He said, maybe one of my boys will
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: catch me in the act of excellence. I want to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: share two things with you. Aristotle said, you are what
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  Speaker 1: you repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence ought to be a habit,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: not an act. Don't ever forget that. The other thing
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I want to share with you is Harvard Business Review,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: September 2004. The article is titled Deep Smarts. Here's the thesis. Lecturing.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: What our universities are based upon is the worst kind
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  Speaker 1: of teaching method. That if you want to get the
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  Speaker 1: intended message across, model the behavior.
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  Speaker 2: My daddy, a third grade dropout, a cook, was modeling
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  Speaker 2: excellence for his boys. Combining academic knowledge and old school wisdom,
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  Speaker 2: that's what makes an impact.
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  Speaker 1: An impact. As you go all over the world, you're
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  Speaker 1: not interested in making a nice impression, you want to
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  Speaker 1: make an impact. Lesson number three, son, make sure your
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: servant's towel is bigger than your ego. I want to
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: remind you cadets of something as you graduate. Ego is
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  Speaker 1: the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the burden of a foolish person. You'll never be a
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  Speaker 1: great shipmate. You'll never be a great executive. You'll never
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: be a great teammate if it's all about you. 12
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: years ago when Ozzie Smith walked into the Hall of Fame,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: he said, I've always been told how average I can be.
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  Speaker 1: Always been criticized about being average, but I want to
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  Speaker 1: tell you something. I stand here before you, before all
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of these people, not listening to those words, but telling
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: myself every single day to shoot for the stars, to
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  Speaker 1: be the best that I can be. Good enough isn't
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: good enough if it can be better, and better isn't
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: good enough if it can be best. it is with
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  Speaker 1: great honor that I say all your life, look in
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  Speaker 1: those unlikeliest places for wisdom. Enhance your life every day
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: by seeking that wisdom and asking yourself every night, how
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  Speaker 1: am I living? May God richly bless y'all. Thank you
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for having me here.