For the ninth year, Steve Harvey, Essence magazine and the Disney Dreamers Academy hosted a group of 100 high school students from all across the country to inspire them to be great. Here are a few pearls of wisdom the celebrity speakers shared with the students and their families.
1. Tamera Mowry-Housley: Everything begins with a dream.
"Allow yourself to dream and tap into your unique gift, be keen to your unique gift and be aware of it, it's usually something that you're very passionate about. Allow yourself to have passion [for that gift] and be willing to work hard to get there."
2. Lamman Rucker: Envision what you want and work to get it.
"I don't care how improbable it seems or how high everything seems to be stacked up against you, you must dream. Everything that [I] do is a result of having dreamt of being here. After the dream comes the work, do not be afraid to take the steps toward actualizing the dream."
3. Karli and Wynton Harvey: Be mindful of your image online and in person.
Wynton Harvey:
"You are addressed by the way you are dressed. You have to set the tone; there is power in the way that you present yourself, there's power in the way that you dress. The more you cover up, it sets a tone of sophistication and elegance, and you can still be fly."
Karli Harvey:
"Once you put that image out there, you can't get it back. You think, 'Oh, I've deleted it,' but no, someone has taken a screenshot of it. Once you put it out there, once you snapchat, once you send a direct message, that is forever. Be aware of what you put out there because it's hard to do damage control once you've released it."
Wynton Harvey:
"Your job opportunities can be limited based on your social media; 85% of employers are looking at your social media platforms to decide whether or not they want to hire you."
4. Dr. Steve Perry: Stay humbled and hungry.
"To those who say, 'I'm tired, I'm not a morning person.' Are you serious? What a luxury. You get to decide what kind of person you are, who gets to do that?
You've been babied and you'll be beaten by a person with far less talent than you but far more drive; someone with greater humility than your hubris. When you're working for that person and you go home thinking, 'I'm smarter than that person, I went to a better school, I made better grades,' that's right, you did. But you weren't a morning person. You have to stay humble and hungry."
5. Michelle Ebanks: Fight for what you want.
"One of the hardest decisions that you'll ever make is whether to quit and walk away or to keep on going and try harder. Failure and mistakes are painful but they are meant to guide you, not define you.
Many times along my journey I wanted to quit. My first role in media, a manager told me to find another job, that this really isn't for me. I was failing and I had a choice, do I look for another job, one that it not as demanding and wouldn't lead to my dream, or do I fight? And I said, I may have to find another job, but I told myself that I would do this job great, before I go to another one. And a few years later that manager--the one who gave me that gift, that feedback--I ended up being her manager."
6. Jonathan Sprinkles: Instant success is a fallacy.
"The uniqueness of the millennial generation is that it is marked by technology. Technology has afforded millennials the opportunity to do a lot of things. However, they don't understand the process that makes these things happen. They understand [success] is possible and they want it, but the people in this generation have one major sin: They quit too soon. They give up on themselves too soon. What happens when things take a little bit longer?"
7. Steve Harvey: Ask God for what you want.
"You didn't know me when I stuttered severely and couldn't talk outside of my house. You didn't see me when I flunked out of college. You missed me when I was struggling through two marriages to get the third one right. You didn't know me when I lost everything twice in my life. You didn't know me when I was homeless and living out of my car for three years. You didn't know me then, you see me now. I'm trying to tell you how to get to the now: God sent me through all of that to prepare me for what I asked for. When I was homeless, I asked God to be rich. I was reading the scripture and the scripture said, you have not because you ask not. So I asked Him to be rich."
Photos: (Top) Gregg Newton, used with permission; Zondra Hughes.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
from Chicago - The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/1M6zzOS
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment