Latest / Moming and Me: The Podcast / Men, You Are More Than What You Can Provide.
Transcript
- Najah: Men, come here for a minute. Come come here. Let me talk to you. I need you to know that you are valuable outside of what you can provide. Yeah. You are more than your paycheck, more than your position. More than your talent. More than what you can produce, carry, fix, or make happen for everybody else. And I feel like we don't tell you that enough. Too often a man's value is measured by what he earns and what he can do that other people can see and applaud. So when the athlete gets cut, the musician's music is not moving. when the actor is in between roles, when the job you depended on is gone, or the business you poured everything into has not paid you back yet, it can feel like you lost more than an opportunity. It can feel like you lost yourself. But you have not lost yourself just because life requires you to become somebody new. You are allowed to pivot. You are allowed to rebuild. You are allowed to have hard moments like the rest of us. You are allowed to be uncertain about what comes next without believing that makes you less of a man. And as a mother of four sons, with one son who has been a public figure for most of his life, I have always been intentional about pouring into who my sons are beyond what they can do. Their talent has never and will never be the most valuable thing about them. Their hearts are their character is the way they treat people. The standards they carry. Their ability to be considerate, loving, respectful, wise, and accountable. Those are the things that make me proud to be their mother. Not the applause. Not the recognition. Not what they can provide. My sons will tell you, I have never allowed their value to be held in what they can do for other people. And I don't believe your values should be held there either. Careers change. Money comes and goes. People stop applauding. But your character is who you still have to be when the room gets quiet. So remember to surround yourself with people who see your value outside of what you can provide and how you perform. People can hold you accountable while still supporting you, uplifting you, and holding you in high regard through your season of change. I see you, King. I see the pressure you carry. I see you trying to figure it out. and I see the courage it takes to begin again when what you believed in did not work out the way you hoped. A good man is still a good man in a hard season. So hold your head up, King. Hold your head up. What you provide may change, but that was never all you had to offer.