Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success: Discovering Your Gift and the Way to Life's Riches (5 page)

In your journal, list three Dash Deposits you plan to do in the next twenty-four hours. Tweet or Instagram me your #DashDeposits to @ActLikeASuccess.

Now that you have some Dash Deposits in your success account, here are a few more yes-and-no questions for you to seriously consider as you move from perishing to reaching your destiny.

         
1.
   
Regardless of your track record, are you willing to acknowledge, perfect, and use your gift to be successful?

         
2.
   
Are you open to changing and evolving your thinking around success?

         
3.
   
Are you willing to change your actions around success?

         
4.
   
Are you willing to believe that you deserve all the riches that life has to offer?

If you answered no any of the above questions, gift this book to a person who is willing to acknowledge his or her gift. Give it to a friend who you know has been seeking success but has received no satisfaction through his dead-end job. In fact, leave it on the doorstep of a family member who wants to have a healthier marriage or a better relationship with his or her children.

Now, if you answered yes to all of the questions, keep on reading, because we have more work to do!

There's no way you can move from a state of perishing into the Land of Promise if you don't step up and let the world see your gift. What good is it to be a great chef if you're afraid to let someone sample your dishes? What sense does it make to be a great speaker if you won't let the world hear your voice?

It's entirely possible that you could cash in your life savings to pursue your dream and a year later be flat broke. It's not desirable, but your leap of faith could land you back in your parents' basement. But, which is worse—leaping and falling and getting back up, or living your life regretting that you never leaped at all?

You can't let your fear of the unknown keep you from your destiny. If God had told me that my path toward being a successful comedian would include living out of my car, divorce, and facing a $20 million tax bill, trust me, I would have stayed right on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company. But taking that leap into a foreign territory prepared me to jump higher and further than I could ever have imagined.

There's going to come a day when your pursuit of living your dream is going to cost more than the money in your checking account and the credit available on your credit card. What's going to stop you from running back to your old boss and asking for your job back? As you pursue your dream, you have to be prepared for the times of lean, as well as the times of plenty. Nobody said that living in the Land of Promise would be easy. When someone gives you a harsh critique or comes to tear down your character, you have to be confident enough to know that what God has for you cannot be taken away because of one person's opinion. Even if your financial responsibilities require you to take on a part-time job to get you over the hump, you have to stay committed to your dream until you get the break you deserve.

Nobody but you and God can see it, but you know your gift is in there. It doesn't make sense to most people right now why you're spending so much time on something that looks like a useless hobby, but you know in your heart that it's the key to your future. At the end of the day, your personal resolve to nurture and grow your gift will be the deciding factor between your success and your failure. I don't care how close you are with your mother or how much your best friend supports your dream; if you don't know and believe in your gift for
yourself
, you will never have the life that God has destined for you.

When you are really living in your gift, you just know it. When you are doing what you are meant to be doing, you can just feel it. When the right opportunity comes along, you won't have to force it. I want you to be able to
live
in a space where your dream is no longer a question of who you are but the answer for everything you are meant to be.

Moving from perishing into the Land of Promise won't work if you aren't motivated to stay there. We think that motivation comes from somewhere else, but our greatest motivation is inside of us. The only difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people know what their gift is and how to focus on it at all costs. Once I discovered my gift, pursuing it became my sole focus. After I finished focusing on the insignificant stuff and started focusing on my promise, I began to move in the right direction.

We have to commit to taking the lid off our dream every day. Most of the world just wants you to get a job and make someone else rich. Too many schools and training programs will steer you toward serving a company while forgetting about you and your dreams. Blow that lid off of your life
every day
and say to the world, “I might be in this place right now, paying my dues and mastering my craft, but my dreams are out of this world!”

What is an out-of-the-jar, no-holds-barred dream that you have for your life today? Don't limit your dreams to just your career. Think about your family, your relationships, and your contributions to your community or your house of faith. You've got your ideas? Now write them down in your journal. Make your descriptions come to life with rich detail.

I
remember vividly the day that I decided to change my life. It was Tuesday, October 8, 1985, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I was twenty-seven, married, and a new father of beautiful twin baby girls. While I was excited to be a father for the first time, we were really struggling. We were living in a little two-bedroom house, and I was barely scraping by with my full-time job and writing jokes on the side for comedian A. J. Jamal. One night, I was hanging out in Hilarities Comedy Club with a woman named Gladys Jacobs. She knew about my gig with A.J.

“Why don't you just write some jokes for yourself and sign up for the open-mike night for next week?” she asked. I agreed to sign up for the next show.

I hung around to see Gladys perform her set. There were nine comedians onstage that night with Gladys. Some of the performers were good; some were bad; and, surprisingly, the guy who did Bullwinkle and Popeye impersonations slayed the crowd the most. The host got to the end of the open-mike list, and the last comic was a no-show.

“Well, why don't we just start with the names for next week? If Steve Harvey is here, come on up,” he said.

I was sitting there minding my business, eating, and drinking a glass of grapefruit juice. I put down my drink and said, “Gladys, somebody here has the same name.”

She looked at me and said, “Fool, he means
you
. Get on up there!”

I ran up onstage and started my set by facing the wall. When I turned around, I said, “I ain't even supposed to be here until next week.” To my shock, they started laughing. “No, really, I'm not kidding. This is an accident.” The crowd kept on laughing, but Gladys could see that I was freezing up.

“Tell us the story about your boxing days!” she yelled.

I starting telling a story about boxing one of my fiercest opponents, who was named Bernard Taylor. I really got into it and began demonstrating how he used to climb into the ring with a pigeon-toed walk. The crowd was howling. Meanwhile, the host was on the side of the stage motioning for me to wrap it up, but I thought he was telling me to keep going, so I told another story. Finally, I said, “Well, I can't think of anything else to say, so I'll see y'all next week!”

After I finished, the host brought all the contestants back onstage. There was a clap-off for the best comedian. I won my first amateur night. The first-place prize was fifty dollars!

I walked into work the next morning with that fifty dollars, and you couldn't tell me nothing. I marched myself into the card shop downstairs and paid them twenty-five dollars to print up two hundred cards with my name, address, phone number, and the word “Comedian” right under my name. I waited until all two hundred cards were off press. When they were done, I took my fresh box of printed cards and went upstairs to show them to my buddy, Russell.

When I saw Russell, he said, “Where were you last night? I was looking for you and couldn't find you anywhere.” I told him that I won an amateur night at a comedy club.

“A comedy club? That's exactly where you need to be!”

I showed him the cards. “I'm thinking of quitting this job.”

“Well, don't think about it. Do it!”

I got a box, cleared off my desk, and headed to my boss's office to deliver the news.

“Tom, look, I really appreciate the opportunity, but I have a young family, and last night I discovered what I really want to be.”

“Well, what's that, Steve?” my boss asked.

I told him about winning the amateur night at the comedy club and I informed him that I was a comedian now. Tom looked me right in the eye and said, “You won one amateur night and now you think you're a comedian, huh? Steve, I've never heard you say a funny thing since you've been here.”

I wanted to show him that I was really serious. I handed him one of my new business cards, which was still warm from the printer.

“Listen, Steve, you're a young guy with a young family to support. Don't go chasing some foolish dream. Now take that box, put your stuff back on your desk, and go sit down. I will pretend like this never happened.”

I let Tom talk me right out of quitting. I turned around and left his office. I went back to my desk.

“What are you doing?” asked Russell.

I told him that Tom made some good points about being responsible and taking care of my family.

Russell shot back, “So you're really going to let this dude tell you what to do with your life? Steve, let me ask you something: Is Tom the kind of man you want to be?”

“No.”

“Is his car the kind of car you want?”

“No.”

“So why in the world are you listening to him? Steve, you're the funniest man I know. I really think you have missed your calling being here. Keep your stuff in that box and go.”

I grabbed my box for the second time and headed back to Tom's office. I explained to him again that I was really serious about becoming a comedian. He looked at me like I was the biggest fool in the world.

“All right, Steve. If you walk out that door now, I'm not going to give you your job back.” I thanked him again, and I went to shake his hand, but he refused it. “You're making a bad move, Steve, but good luck to you.” I walked out that door, jumped, and never looked back.

Now, please don't walk into work tomorrow and quit your job. Let me tell you that during my first few months as a comedian, I thought Tom was right. I made $125 my first month and the second month was even worse, because I was only seventy-five dollars' worth of funny. I ended up losing my family and my home. I thought it would be better out on the road, but it just got worse, and I barely had enough money to send some back home.

Even in the midst of being homeless, I knew I was doing what I was born to do. I wasn't successful at it yet, but I was on my way. I've known that I had a gift to make people laugh since I was ten, but I didn't attach it to a vehicle called “being a comedian” until I was in my late twenties.

I want to inform you of one very important piece of information: You have a gift! Yes, you have a gift, too. Our creator, in his infinite wisdom, created every single soul with a gift. Your gift is completely unique. No one can rob you of it. You are the only one who can choose to use it or to ignore it. You have the power to permit it to be used to enrich your life.

“Steve, what is
my
gift?” Your gift is the single thing that you do at your absolute best with the least amount of effort.

Take a moment to really think about what I am saying. Be honest with yourself while considering my words:
You have a gift
. Note that I did not ask you what you were passionate about or what you hoped, dreamed, or wished for. What do you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort?

Don't think that a gift is limited to playing sports or performing onstage. There are many other options. Are you a problem solver? Are you a sharp listener who can convey the views of others? Do you have the ability to bring together people who can then form mutually beneficial, business-enhancing relationships? Do you cook well? Are you an excellent mediator? Do you have a calming voice that can lift a person's spirit? Are you especially effective communicating with children? Can you draw or paint? Do you like designing garments? Does creating floral arrangements give you a thrill? What is it that your creator has naturally endowed
you
to do?

This whole notion of “gift” can be challenging. We have been conditioned to care more about jobs and titles. Our gift is not the job we have that we think is better than everyone else's. I have plenty of friends who are making millions of dollars and hate what they do because they are using their talents, but not their gift. As you are figuring out what your gift is, do not be misled by alternate career options.

Some of you may be having trouble identifying your gift because you are attaching it to or defining it as a job. I completely understand that, and I know this is especially true for men because so much of our identity is tied to the company we work for and the title on our business cards. But your job is not your gift. It may be one of the places where you can use your gift. But you should also be able to use your gift in your relationships, your communities, and throughout every aspect of your life.