Arel Moodie delivers a fascinating talk on one of the most important life lessons he’s learned: You don’t have to be the smartest or most skilled to become successful. The secret, effort.
Arel Moodie is a bestselling author and has been a featured speaker at the White House and acknowledged by President Obama.
Inc. Magazine called him a “High-Energy,Motivator” and named him to their “30 Under 30 list” of top entrepreneurs joining people like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.
Essence Magazine said “He should be the poster boy for rags-to-riches stories… he is America’s Top Young Speaker.”
After college, Arel built a million dollar event production and Education Company while in his 20s and now as a professional speaker he has spoken to over 400,000 people in 48 states and 5 countries.
For fun, our speaker likes to dance; he has performed at Madison Square Garden and Arel has two viral videos that have millions of views, and one of them was even featured on The Ellen Show!
The Secret to Student Success | Arel Moodie
Transcript of the Video:
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so what if i told you you’ve been lied
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to your whole life
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what if i told you that what you’ve been
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told since you were a kid about what it
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takes to become successful is completely
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wrong
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what if i told you that you did not have
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to be so many of the things you thought
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you did
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now you’ve been lied to and just for
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clarity you weren’t like to buy your
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teachers by your parents by the adults
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in your life because they hate you
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you’ve been lied to because they were
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just misguided it for example what if I
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told you you do not have to be smart to
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be successful there are a bunch of
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really not smart people doing very well
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but this is what we’re told
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ever since were younger we want to be in
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the smart class don’t we have you ever
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heard a teacher say something like this
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maybe you or one of your classmates
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wow you finished your work really really
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quickly you must be really smart
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do you know what’s being said and
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implied in that statement was being
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implied is if it takes you a long time
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to do something then you are not smart
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so when we were younger if we come up to
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an obstacle we don’t go oh this is
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awesome we go I don’t want people to
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know i’m not smart but as adults we all
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know that anything worth doing takes a
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lot of time but we keep saying you have
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to be smart now I will prove to you that
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being smart is not a precursor to
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success with a simple question how many
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of you know someone you know someone
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who’s really really smart but they’re
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not doing anything productive with how
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smart they are
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does anyone else something like that all
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of us so being smart
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that can’t be what it is oh good news
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you know what else you don’t need to be
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talented talent completely overrated we
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talk about Talent oh you you’re gonna go
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so far you have so many natural
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abilities are so gifted doesn’t mean
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anything and I’ll prove it to you at the
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same question I just actually few
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moments ago how many of you know someone
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I want you really think who is really
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really talented
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maybe they’re amazing poet or musician
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or artist or whatever it is but they’re
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not doing anything to the level they
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should with the natural talent that they
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have does anyone else someone like that
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so well haha isn’t right wait a minute
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so we all know someone who is smart we
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all know someone who’s talented that’s
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not doing anything so we can’t be smart
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intelligence talent gifts and by the way
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it’s also not being born into the right
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family being born rich or any of those
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things it’s one thing that nobody can
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give to you
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it’s the only thing you can give to
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yourself that makes the biggest
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difference
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and that word is effort effort is
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everything whatever you’re not good at
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with the right amount of effort you
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become good at it
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now this whole concept was very
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fascinating to me because when I grew up
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in the projects in brooklyn new york i
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was in the smart class in elementary
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school I was in the top class and you
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know what we all knew we were in the top
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class
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oh and to make it even better does
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anyone remember the days when you didn’t
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even have to study for a test and you
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got good grades I loved it and everyone
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can tell me around you’re so smart and I
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was like I’m smart until I hit junior
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high and then all of a sudden I became
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really dumb the craziest thing happened
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I would be in class and the teacher will
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be talking and I’ll be like you ever
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have that face when the outside you look
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like your 100% paying attention but on
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the inside you have no idea what’s been
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happening
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I mastered that but I couldn’t ask for
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help because i was the smart kid because
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if i ask for help it would prove adding
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grasp things quickly so therefore i’m
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not smart
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dr. John Medina and his work of brain
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rules and brands for babies talked about
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when we connect our concept of who we
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are to innate abilities we have no
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control over we don’t become successful
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but when we attach them to things like
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hard work and effort we control those
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but i didn’t know that they’re so i did
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like what i thought was the right thing
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to do when I just shut them out and went
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on into high school I should be worse i
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started failing and I was not a science
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person where my people science chemistry
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biology it’s just natural thing like I
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look at it and you just might as well be
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speaking a different language where
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people Matthew just suck it Matt like
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it’s just not gonna be a good experience
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right I got you I was with that
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ok so for me science was my heart
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subject and I failed and i was told i
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want to be able to graduate on the side
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past my science class
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so now I’m facing not being able to
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graduate having no skills or talents
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that I could know of in fact i played
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three sports in high school and sat on
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the bench on all three of them so my
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professional athlete goes out the window
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I was in itself environment eyewitness
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people get murdered
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I’ve been robbed beat-up made fun of and
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I thought I have no future
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what’s the point
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so I was 16 I thought it’d be better to
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be dead than to be alive because what
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the point when i was 16 i want the roof
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of my building i stood on the roof and I
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look down I imagine we feel like to not
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have to deal with the pain that I had
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inside of me because what was the point
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not smart not talented luckily I step
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back from the ledge that day because i
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heard this still voice inside of me and
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all they said was not yet and it’s voice
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had to come from being much greater than
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me because again I’m not smart enough to
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think this on my own so that thought of
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not yet i went back into my room was
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just depressed
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and I’m lucky to have people care about
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me
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have an amazing mother awesome brother
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fantastic father my father saw when he
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said get up we got go for ride like I
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jump in his car he starts driving it
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takes me to this beautiful neighborhood
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that never seen before
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look like 15-20 minutes from our house
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and he says you see this house you see
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these cars he said one day if you want
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it you can have these things you know
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because a teenager we agree with success
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is the big house and a big car right and
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I was like you know there’s no way I’m
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gonna be able to have these things and
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then he said something that changed the
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course of my life
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what he said was we were all given the
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problems we were supposed to be given so
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that we can face them overcome them and
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that’s where we become the person we
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were meant to be so what most people do
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is they face their problems and then
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they go all this is proof i don’t
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deserve it
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this is proof i’m not supposed to have
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it look at these problems in my life so
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he quit he said when you put in effort
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you get to the other side and on the
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other side is where the magic happens
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that’s where success comes from so I
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start getting excited so well how can i
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apply this in my life I was like what
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better place to apply it then then with
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science so it’s my chemistry teacher
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said look
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oh I like to graduate and undergraduate
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classes left I’ll make a deal with you
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if I can pass the final exam you give me
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a passing grade in class with the final
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grand final exams team leaders she said
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deal so i started doing some strange
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things during lunch I would go to
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tutoring and I would work with my tutor
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understand concepts before i went home
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before i left school I would do the
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blowout do more tutoring then on my way
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to school and from school I would get
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practice problems and I would go over
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the practice problems every single day
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to and from school the craziest thing
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happened after I did that for a few
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months pass the class pass the test i
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graduated so from there I decided to
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sneak into college I snuck into college
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because I went to college at my brother
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got accepted to because he’s smart
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I got in and I said listen I’m not going
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to be the smartest student by no means
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i’m not gonna be the most talented
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student is impossible
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so how am I going to succeed here i made
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a decision early on that I was just
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going to outwork everyone because I’m
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not smart i’m not smart i’m not talented
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so if i was in class and I don’t
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understand something i would raise my
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hand until i got it i would go to office
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hours and meet with the professor to
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make sure I understood the concept not
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just when the test for coming out i
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would meet with the teacher’s assistants
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to go over the course curriculum to make
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sure I understood from that particular
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professors perspective I never handed in
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a paper without a second set of eyes
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looking at it I met up with all the
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smart kids in class and by the way you
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want to find the smart kids they sit in
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the front they got highlighters make
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friends with them
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ok I made friends with them and I
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studied in groups with them and the
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funniest thing happened at 16,000
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students i was named one of the top five
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exemplary students this is me back in
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the day when I had hair like all the
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glory days right
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I was educational opportunity program
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student GOP students begin to university
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yes yes I was named most outstanding
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graduating senior in my class president
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for student organizations when i
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graduated i apply the same concepts to
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Marc four-ship endeavors in my
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businesses so if i ever there was a
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problem like i don’t know how to manage
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people i’m not good at it i would change
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it to
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I just need to put more effort into
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managing people and i would get good at
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it and it’s amazing because I started
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traveling to high schools and colleges
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and sharing this idea of effort and
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effort is everything an amazing thing
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happens now we have a shared language
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the students have a language they can
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communicate to the teachers and the
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teachers have legs that can communicate
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to students so no longer is it
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oh I’m just dumb in math look I got a
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bad grade it becomes oh I got a bad
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grade i guess i need to put in more
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effort in math teachers instead of
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saying hey better luck next time they
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can say hey you good grade we just need
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two more effort let’s figure it out the
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language became created and it’s a
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mindset that moves away from this
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natural innate ability and move into
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something we can control coward work has
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a great book on mindset which talks
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about growth mindset and fixed
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mindset growth mindset says I can learn
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and do anything fixed mindset says
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everything I got already got its not
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gonna get better i believe and many
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educators do that the growth mindset is
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the way to success and i believe the
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pathway to the growth mindset is effort
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effort is everything and you’ve
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experienced this
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how many people remember what it was
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like to learn how to tie your shoes i
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remember this
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have you ever seen a little kid trying
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to tie their shoes it’s the most
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frustrating process in the world
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your fingers will do what your mind’s
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telling it to do you can’t get the bunny
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ears just right and then take you sure
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you don’t have the money but i just went
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well crow and just be done with it right
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to me and Tom’s shoes for the rest of my
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life right
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but the funny thing happens you don’t
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give up you believe it’s possible one
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day and you keep doing it and then
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something happens your brain click and
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now i’m confident most you can tie your
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shoelaces in the dark because of effort
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no one’s born naturally gifted at tying
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your shoes to get that no one is born
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naturally smart at the ways of tying
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shoes you put an effort you learn you
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get it that neural plasticity of the
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brain does not go away
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barring a healthy functioning brain of
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course you have to move from this idea
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that you have to be naturally good at
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something to succeed at it you don’t you
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have to put in effort effort is
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everything effort is more important than
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where you’re born it’s more important
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than the money you have in your bank
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account
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I have full confidence that I’ve ever
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lost it got really got a doe what I have
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my effort will see me through your not
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good at math software effort towards
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math not good at science start putting
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effort towards science you want to start
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a business put effort into starting a
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business you want a great marriage put
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in the effort to have a great marriage
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people think well if it’s supposed to be
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it’s just gonna happen know
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if it’s supposed to be you’re going to
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put in the effort to make it be there’s
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a great quote that I love from Thomas
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Edison that says opportunity is missed
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by most people because it is dressed in
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overalls and it looks like work with
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effort you’ll take advantage of every
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opportunity that’s in front of you
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effort is everything and when you put in
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effort not only will you take advantage
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of the opportunities that’s in front of
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you will take advantage and create
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opportunities you didn’t even know
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existed
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thank you
