Focus on Yourself and Stay Silent in 2026 - Motivational Speech | Eric Thomas

Durant scared me because when Durant score, he don't say nothing. He ain't getting nobody excited. He ain't trying to get LeBron pissed off or pumped up. He just score on my man and shh. Only thing he does at the end of the game, he kiss his mama, hug his brothers. All right, I'm out. Game over. But the one thing he does, I don't know if you watched it. The first thing he does is what with them numbers. Touch them numbers on the front, touch them numbers on the back. And he's doing that for who? His coach that was killed. He got a why. He got a why. He ain't just playing for no championship. He not. You got to hear what I'm telling you. If y'all going to be great on that field, you got to have a why. A reason for why you do what you do. All he keep thinking about is, I'm going to get one for my coach. That's why he ain't all smiling. Because why? He not smiling because what he's trying to accomplish, he has not what? He ain't got it yet. Y'all better start watching these games, bro, because you're going to need to do what these champions doing if you're going to be a champion. The problem with some of y'all, the reason why you don't give 120% every doggone time you get on the field, because you ain't got a why for what you do. You ain't got a why. So because you don't live long, you don't have time not to make your dreams and goals become reality. Every single day, because you don't know how long you have, every single day should be about what can I do? What can I have? What can I be? And you got to hang out with other people on the same trajectory you're on. Anything you could think of, if you could actually think of it, it means you can do it. There is no dream that's too big. There is nothing that you could think of in your head that you can't do. Listen to me closely. Everybody want to win. Everybody want to be on the winning team. Everybody want to win, but everybody don't want to work. Everybody want the reward, but everybody don't want to work. We all got to work. You have to make a decision that nobody in your position will outwork you. You here now! Here now! You finally made it! And this is where you break up? This is where you start chillin'? This is where you get comfortable? You made it now! This is where you make it permanent! Why do you wake up in the morning? Why do you put on that jersey? Why do you go out and practice? What's your why? I'm about to give everything I got, and I will know if I don't get another gig, it won't have nothing to do with the fact that I didn't put everything on the field. You better grow up and get to the point as a man that if you ever get beat, you better get beat by somebody that's just purely more talented than you are. You better not ever get beat by somebody because you beat yourself. At the end of the day, your superpower is when you are your authentic self. That's your superpower is when you're you. If I'm going to be like anybody else, it's not going to work. And at the end of the day, if you are your authentic self, that's the 1%. There's 1% of us that don't care about what nobody else say or think about us. We're going to be our authentic self. That's what the 1% is. I'm number one. Why? Just because I'm being myself at all costs. It does not take talent. You don't have to be talented. You don't have to be gifted. You don't have to be the quickest, the strongest. You don't have to be the most intelligent to get to where I am. That's what you gotta do. You just gotta grind though. You'll grind. Listen to me. You might come from privilege. Your daddy might hook you up with a car. He might know people. He might be able to get you a job, but you will not outwork me. The reality is, it's not that you don't have the talent, it is what it is. Y'all can run just as fast, you can catch, you can throw, you can tackle. I say here's the problem. The problem is you got average will. There's two things you need to do to take advantage of this opportunity and be a dog. You need phenomenal skill and you need phenomenal will. You need both. I'm telling you, you got to have phenomenal will and I wasn't smart as you, But I passed you up, why? Because I had that dog, I had that will, I had that determination. I don't care that I can't read or write. Like, I failed English twice in college. I still got a four-year degree. Took me 12 years, but that dog, that will. I said, if God gave me the ability to get up, yup, it might take me five days to do what it take you to do in one day, but I'm gonna do it in five. It may take me four weeks to read a book that you can read in a week, but I got that dog, and guess what happens? If you don't have phenomenal skill, but you got phenomenal will, you can make up for skill. I went in the dark, y'all. I went in the dark for 10 years. I ain't watched no TV. I ain't listened to no music. Sacrifice. I sacrificed like 10 years to catch up with everybody else. Like for real, ADHD. I had a learning disability when I was younger. Like I overcame all of that with that dog. I overcame all of that with Will. So I cut the TV off. I cut off intramural sports. I cut off everything. I cut it off. I'm up at three o'clock in the morning praying. And after that, I'm reading, I'm studying. Listen to me very closely. Two things, skill and will. Like you only had a small dream. You had a dream of a house and a car and to take care of your mama. All that is done. So what you playing for? What you playing for? You ain't playing for nothing. That's why they beat you. Discipline is doing what you said you were going to do when you don't feel like doing it, when you felt like doing it in the first place. That's all it is. When you first start playing this game, when you fell in love with it, you were just like, let's go, let's go, let's go. But then something's going to happen. Like I got to dig deep now and go a little harder. I actually went harder. You've got to discipline yourself and you've got to learn that when you don't feel like it you must still do it or actually go harder when you don't feel like it because out of 365 days there are going to be days you don't feel like getting up. There are going to be days you don't want to work out. There's going to be days you don't want to watch film. There's going to be days that you don't want to practice. There are going to be days you might not even want to play. There might be days you don't even feel like getting in the game. But listen to me very closely. Champions, if you want to make it to the next level, you got to win in the dark before you can win in the light. All of us can go buy a car, but all of us can't get up in the morning and grind. I'm not that guy that just started off and had everything together. It's like I learned, I grew, and got better. So I'm a living example that you don't have to be born number one to be number one. You can be last, born last, but through hard work, determination, you can work your way up to number one. You told yourself to get up at 3, it's 3, get your butt up. You cannot tell nobody else to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning. You can't tell nobody else how they need to grind. They grind, look like they grind. You can't tell nobody, you need to get up early, maybe they don't, who knows? You know what you need to do, you gotta have a say for you. So if you're going to separate yourself, growth is the greatest separator between men. As you grow, right, you see CP3, leadership, grow. You see the way he handles himself, growth. So I'm asking, what sacrifices are you willing to make? Everybody want what you want. Everybody want to go to the league. Everybody want to take care of their family. Everybody want to be a celebrity or whatever you want to be, right? What are you willing to give up for it? What are you willing to sacrifice? That's next level. That's saying that although I'm already great at what I do, I'm ready to dig deeper. I'm ready to do something. I'm ready to make another sacrifice. I'm ready to go somewhere everybody else ain't ready to go. Why? Because I'm ready to take it to the next level. no matter what has happened to you no matter what somebody said to you no matter what somebody did to you i need you to walk away knowing you are one of one strive for perfection don't mean you gotta be perfect but strive for it people tell me all the time oh you got this thing this image you try to be one thousand percent i'm trying to be perfect one thousand percent it don't mean i'm not trying to dog you out i'm not judging you i don't even think i'm better than you but i am I am striving for perfection. I am. I'm definitely not trying to be the same version of Eric Thomas I was last year or the month before. I'm definitely, if you knew me five years ago, you better take a picture. Because the only way you're going to be able to prove that person existed is that you got film on it. You got to be possessed with the vision. And somebody's trying to mess up my vision. And I need to make sure my vision is protected and cared for. If you really want to be happy, get in that vision. You think a car going to make you happy? I promise you it won't. You think a house going to make you happy? You think status? You think, you think, you think? I promise you. I promise you, you get in that vision, you're going to sleep so well at night. When are you going to level up? What's the goal? What's the mission? What's the priority? What's the purpose? Stay focused on the mission and don't let anything distract you from getting it done. No fighting, no fussing. Get focused. Focus on the goal. Are you listening to what I'm saying? Like we ain't letting the noise distract us. I need you to lead. I don't know how much time I have left on this earth. So I have to focus on, you have to focus on what's the goal? What's the mission? What's the priority? What's the purpose? Opportunity. You have an opportunity of a lifetime. When you understand you have an opportunity, you play a little different. When I dropped out of high school and I started going to this church and let me speak, I picked up the mic. I was 16 years old, I picked up the mic. I'm not gonna say it was the best speech I ever did, but when I picked up that mic and got off that stage, I was like, yep, I can do it. So hear what I'm saying, opportunity. I got an opportunity, you got an opportunity. So here's the deal. When you have an opportunity, why would you give 80%? Why would you give 80 percent, 70 percent? Why wouldn't you always give 120 percent? It's sports. It's basketball. Why wouldn't you give 120 percent? You can't dictate if the ball gonna always go in. You can't dictate what kind of game you're gonna have. You can't dictate how your body is gonna respond to moving around. But you can dictate your what? You can dictate your good. You can dictate your... You can always give 120 percent effort. And everyday I want you to wake up and not just go, I'm sweet like that. I want you to go, I'm not just going with skills. There's a one type of dude who feel like because he's gifted that it's just an automatic role for him. Let me tell y'all something. You are gifted, but you better humble yourself. You got to understand that pride come before fall. You may get it, but right now what? Oh, I can't hear y'all. You may get it, but right now what? You don't have it. That's not what gets you in the league. Not what you were born with. You got skill and you got will. You got skill and you got will. Two total different things. You were born with certain things, but to get to the next level, and not just get to the next level, to stay at the next level, you gotta have will. So when you play, you have to compete. I'm a high school dropout, my daddy wasn't in my life. But I found out I had a gift, then I found out your gift shall make room for you. And I'm like, you mean to tell me if I perfect this, I can eat and my kids can eat and my kids' kids can eat? From today on, you play whatever your best game is, you play that level every single time. So some of you like me, I ain't have my daddy. I'm from Chicago, Southside, I ain't have my father in my life. Who my grandfather is? My mom got pregnant with me at 17 years old. I didn't have the people in my life that was supposed to be in my life. So I made some stupid decisions, dropped out of high school, homeless, living in abandoned buildings, eating out of trash cans. I promise you, if a speaker came, I was like some of y'all once saying nothing. But guess what happened? Guess what happened? Yup, one day I got a why. Got married, I had a son, and everything changed for me. That's why I'm asking you, who do you love? So when people ask me, E.T., why you get up at 3 o'clock in the morning? Why you putting videos up every day at 3 o'clock in the morning on Instagram? Number one, because I want to be the best that ever done it. Like, I honor my craft. I want Dr. Martin Luther King to look at me and go, that's it, kid. I want Malcolm X to look at me and go, that's it, kid. Just like you got the Hall of Fame in basketball, I want to be the Hall of Fame in speaking. I want all the greats to look at me and go, that's it right there. Number one, I'm competing against everybody else in the world. I'm not mad at them, I'm not against them, but when you number one, you don't have to negotiate with your check. I remember when I was like number 25 or something, they would be like, okay, you gotta fly here, you gotta fly, now I tell people how I fly. I tell people where I stay, where I don't stay. So number one in the world, what happened? One day I woke up and was like, I gotta do this for my wife. Like, I don't know what happened, but she called me, like, yo, E, I'm lost. I'm like, what you mean we lost? We live in Lansing. We can't be lost. She's like, I'm lost. I got a brain fog. Took her to the hospital, found out she had MS. Doctor was like, look, this is the one thing we can tell you. Stress caused MS. I told my girl, you will never work again. My son, I didn't go to college. When you finish high school and go to Michigan State, I'm cashing you out. I found out I had a gift. I started thinking about what my mom need, what my sisters need, and a lot of y'all, you selfish, flat out. How many of you in this room, some of y'all, you good. You don't make it to the league, you tight work. That ain't all y'all. How many of y'all, your mama really need need you to go to the league, let me see your hand. Hands down, I'm gonna say it again. How many of y'all need to move your mama out that neighborhood and y'all need to put your mama in another neighborhood and the league is how you gonna get there, let me see your hand. So what I'm trying to tell you is, while you playing, it might be some cats in the league who really are going, or who do come from privilege, and you like thinking you them. I promise you, I ain't stupid. I ain't Tony Robbins. I don't come from where he come from. I don't come from where Kiyosaki come from. I don't come from where Zayn came from. My mama barely finished Dunbar. I'm from the south side of Chicago. I ain't had no safety net. You acting like if you don't make it to the NBA, you got like some second opportunity that's going to pay you 100 mil. If you're in the room right now, your mama got a safety net. Other than you making it to the league, you got another way where you about to make 100 mil. Let me see your hand real quick. Because that's what you're acting like. Now, if your parents got that, hey, you good. But some of you, your mama ain't got that. So when you hoop from now on, I don't want you to see basketball. I want you to see your mama getting out the hood. So every time you get your handle straight, your mama is that closer to doing what? Every time you get your character straight, you heard what the man said. He said if they gotta choose between the two of y'all, they not choosing the snotty-nosed dude who think he everything, who don't speak to people. You know, man, they always pick me. I always ask, why y'all pick me and not the other speakers? They say, because you're easiest to work with. Because when you come, you don't talk down to nobody. You clean up behind yourself. He just said, I'm a grown man. They say you clean up behind yourself. You don't cause problems in me. Number one, this is not about basketball. This is about who? Yourself and then who? Your family. So the days you don't feel like working out, it's easy. How do you get motivated? How do you get pumped up? You think about mama and that feeling on draft day. And which one is more important? You get some rest or mama coming to the draft? I'm just being real. Which one is more important? So somebody locking you down. You're trying to score and they're locking you down. Like in your mind, you gotta go, uh-oh, this ain't just about me getting locked down. This about mama not having what? This mama not having what? Food. So at halftime, when coach go back over to stunt, when you come out, what you got to do? You got to kill. I just told y'all, this is how my man eats. This is how my grandkids going to eat. He doing his own personal thing. This is how we eat. This ain't no motivational presentation. This is how my mama eat right now. This is how my wife never have to go to work again. This is how we live on the West Coast and on the East Coast. And I ain't no baller. And I ain't making millions of dollars. But my gift is making room for me. Every time I get on 3 o'clock in the morning, I'm killing them. Tony Robinson can't keep up. He's a phenomenal speaker, but he ain't from the shot. He can't keep up. My motor. I'm killing him.