Lyrics
There was a young man, and he wanted to
make a lot of money, so he went to this
guru, right?
He told the guru, «I want to be on the
same level you are.»
The guru said, «If you want to be on the
same level I’m on, I’ll meet you tomorrow,
at the beach.»
So the young man got there at 4 a.m., he’s
all ready to rock and roll. He wore a suit.
He should’ve worn shorts. The old man
grabs his hand and says, how bad you
want to be successful? He said, «Real
bad."He said, «Walk on out into the
water.»
So he walks on out into the water and,
watch this, when he walks out into the
water he goes waist-deep. So he’s like,
this guy’s crazy.
He’s like, «Man, I want to make money,
you got me out here swimming. I didn’t
ask to be a lifeguard. I want to make
money.»
So he said, «Come on out a little further.»
He walked out a little further. He had it
right around his stomach area. Said, «This
old man’s crazy. He makes money but
he’s crazy.»
«Come out a little further.»
He came out a little further, it’s right at
his mouth. He’s like, «I'm about to go
back in, this guy is wild.»
The old man said, «I thought you said you
want to be successful.»
He said, «I do!»
He said, «Walk a little further.»
He came, dropped his head in, held him
down, holding him down, my man’s
kicking and scratching, he held him down,
just before my man’s about to pass out, he
raised him up. He said, I got a question
for you. He told the guy, he said, when
you want to succeed as bad as you want
to breathe, then you’ll be successful.
I don’t know how many of ya’ll got
asthma in here today, but if you ever had
an asthma attack, you’re short of breath
—S.O.B., shortness of breath—and you’re
wheezin', the only thing your’e trying to
do, is get some air. You don’t care about
no basketball game. You don’t care what’s
on TV. You don’t care about nobody
calling you. You don’t care about a party.
The only thing you care about when
you’re trying to breathe is to try to get
some fresh air. That’s it. And when you
get to the point where all you want to do
is be successful as bad as you want to
breathe, then you’ll be successful.
And I’m here to tell you that some of you
want to be successful, but you don’t want
it bad. You just kinda want it. You don’t
want it badder than you want a party.
You don’t want it as much as you want to
be cool. Most of you don’t want success as
much as you want to sleep! Some of you
love sleep more than you love success!
And I’m here to tell you today if you’re
going to be successful, you’ve gotta be
willing willing to give up sleep. You’ve got
to be willing to work off three hours of
sleep, two hours of sleep.
If you really want to be successful, some
days you’re going to have to stay up three
days in a row, because if you go to sleep,
you might miss the opportunity to be
successful. That’s how bad you gotta want
it.
You gotta want to be successful so bad
that you forget to eat.
Beyonce said once she was on the set,
doing her thing, three days had gone by,
she forgot she didn’t' eat. Because she was
engaged.
I’ll never forget, when 50 Cent had one of
his movies out, I was doing a little
research on 50, 50 said, that when he
wasn’t doing the movie he was doing the
soundtrack. They said, when do you sleep,
50? He said, Sleep? Sleep is for those
people who are broke. I don’t sleep. I got
an opportunity to make a dream become a
reality.
Don’t cry or quit. You’re already in pain.
You’re already hurt! Get a reward from it!
Don’t go to sleep until you succeed!
Listen to me, I’m here to tell you today,
you can come here, you can jump up, you
can be excited when we give away money,
but listen to me, you are never going to be
successful until I don’t have to give you a
dime to do what you do.
You won’t be successful until you say I
don’t need that money! Because I got it in
here!