Now THAT is what an insperational speech sounds like!
My favorite segment:
But you know, my mother couldn’t stand the fact that we’d been doing poorly in school. And she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom, what could she do to get her young sons to understand the importance of developing their minds, so that they could control their own lives. And you know what - God gave her the wisdom, at least in her opinion. My brother and I didn’t think it was that wise. (laughter)
‘Cause, it was to turn off the TV, let us watch only 2 or 3 TV programs during the week, and with all that spare time read two books apiece from the Detroit public library and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn’t read but we didn’t know that. (laughter) She put check marks and highlights and stuff...
But, you know, I just hated this (reading), and my friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her, they would say “You can’t make boys stay in the house reading books, they’ll grow up, they’ll hate you.” And I would overhear them and I’d say “Mother, you know, they’re right.”
But she didn’t care, you know. And...
But after while I actually began to enjoy reading those books. Because we were very poor, but between the covers of those books I could go anywhere, I could be anybody, I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. And as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you and what happens to you in life is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny.
And at that point, I didn’t hate poverty anymore. Because I knew it was only temporary. I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me. It made all the difference.”