My Favorite Inspirational Speeches
These video clips will motivate you to maximize your potential
Speeches have always had a powerful impact on me. Listening to people share stories that motivate others resonates with me as a business leader, father, husband, friend, and person.
I’ve coined Life Is Sales as a mantra and used it to start a business. Its underlying premise is that we are all selling all of the time, and speaking is no exception.
As a speaker myself, I like to analyze speeches from a technical standpoint to see what I can learn about how inspirational speakers structure their speeches, keep the audience’s attention, utilize body language, and other important details. I’ve spoken numerous times for business and public events, and whether it’s talking to a company at a corporate retreat or giving a Father Of The Bride speech, I try to leave the audience with at least one meaningful message that they can apply directly to their lives. I try to “sell” people on reaching their maximum potential to be the best person they can possibly be.
Here are a few of my favorite speeches and my thoughts on the messages behind them.
Jim Valvano - “Never Give Up” Speech - 1993 ESPY’s
I’ve touched on this before in my video series and LinkedIn posts, but here’s my chance to elaborate a little more.
Jimmy V said there are three things we all should do every day: laugh, think, and cry.
As it relates to crying, he specifically said, “You should have your emotions moved to tears.” Before you think you have to be sad every day, he clarifies this could be achieved through happiness and joy.
Even as someone who openly admits to being a crier, I will say that this may not be realistic for everybody. But I can watch a movie or a commercial and probably shed a tear! :) Even if you are not a crier, two out of three of these we can and should do intentionally every single day we are on this Earth. The key word here is intentionally.
“If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day, that’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re gonna have something special.” This is such an important message to me that I used it in my Father of the Bride speech at my daughter’s wedding last year.
That piece is what most people remember from Jimmy V’s speech. However, I’d like to highlight another section that I believe is also powerful and doesn’t get enough attention. Jimmy said, “What’s important in life is to think three things: where you started, where you are, and where you’re going to be.”
To me, this is what we all should focus on. Whether building a business, raising a family, or simply developing yourself as a person, it’s important to put everything into perspective when talking about growth. We must understand our past and recognize our present in order to create a vision for our future.
As a follow-up to this video, go ahead and watch Stuart Scott’s ESPY’s speech as well. Another charismatic individual who offered some heartfelt words to live by.
Admiral William H. McRaven - “Make Your Bed” Speech - 2014 University of Texas Commencement Address
Another speech I’ve brought up on other channels but only dove into a short amount. Let’s go a little deeper here.
Can something as simple as making our bed each morning really lead us toward achieving much bigger goals?
I believe so. It’s about building good habits, creating positive momentum, having success every day, and paying attention to detail.
“If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right,” Admiral McRaven says in this viral speech that he delivered as a commencement address to the 2014 University of Texas at Austin graduating class. The habit of making your bed every day reminds me of dials and sales metrics. Set minimums for your dials/emails every day and your meetings every week. And don’t EVER miss them. You may not get a sale every day or every week, but you can meet your dial/meetings goals and build momentum for your success.
Another concept Admiral McRaven introduces is that the average individual meets 10,000 people in their lifetime. If each one of us changes the lives of just 10 people and on and on, in just five years, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people. One more generation, and it becomes eight billion—nearly the entire global population!
“Changing the world can happen anywhere, and anyone can do it,” he says. Pretty powerful stuff indeed. We never know the impact we can have on someone else, so why not try to help others and do good?
Let me know what your top tasks are for creating a routine and building daily habits.
Jim Carrey - “Taking Risks” Speech - 2014 Maharishi University of Management Commencement Address
I love Jim Carrey movies. The Truman Show, Yes Man, Liar Liar, The Mask, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Bruce Almighty—these and many others I consider classics.
Maharishi International University happens to be where the Wright Graduate University now lives, and the Lyons School of Transformation Business has moved into the MIU MBA program. It also happens to be in Iowa, where the Field of Dreams is located, so I love that Carrey made a joke about this reference!
Carrey drops a lot of wisdom over the course of the speech, but much of what he says has to do with believing in yourself, embracing your unique self, overcoming fear, and taking risks to get what you want out of life. Here are my favorite quotes with a few of my own notes.
“Fear is going to be a player in your life, but you get to decide how much.” Fight or flight, it’s your choice. Make friends with your fear and use it to your advantage.
“The world is starving for new leadership.” I completely agree. We need new ideas and innovation. I believe sales is a great way to serve people, and that awareness is key to serving at a high level. We all must transform ourselves to be the next transformational leaders.
“I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which is that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.” Go after your dreams, don’t be afraid to ask the universe for what you want.
“My purpose in life is to free people from concern.” How will you serve the world? What can your talent provide? Sales = service. “The effect that you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.”
“Who would I be if I said things people didn’t want to hear, or if I defied their expectations of me?” Conformity vs. expression. Know who you are.
“To find real peace, you need to let the armor go”. This is a lesson I learned from my wife through our marriage, and then again having kids. I needed to be real and have feelings, rather than hold them back. I needed to be real, and not a stoic robot.
“Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory.” Absolutely love this!
Regarding feelings of self-doubt: “I have a reset button, and I ride that button constantly. Once that button is functioning in your life, there’s no story that the mind can create that will be as compelling.” How do we deal with our fear? Our projections? The belief that we will never be enough? We can all have awareness, which then leads us to choice.
“Relax. and dream up a good life. Let the universe know what you want and work toward it while letting go of how it comes to pass.” Trust, hard work, karma, trust. Follow that recipe. There are always doors opening. EWOP - Everything Works Out Perfectly - but it might not look the way we think it should.
“Hope walks through the fire, faith leaps over it.” Take a chance on faith, not hope. We are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world. We only ever have two choices: love or fear. “Choose love, and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.”
Denzel Washington - “Fall Forward” Speech - 2011 University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address
Similar to Carrey, I love just about any movie Denzel Washington is in: Remember the Titans, Equalizer, Fences, The Magnificent Seven, Glory, Malcolm X, Unstoppable, Inside Man, Flight, Training Day, Safe House, Man on Fire, Philadelphia. He has quite the réumé in Hollywood.
In his 2011 UPenn commencement speech, Washington highlighted three reasons why we need to embrace failure in order to be successful.
First, everybody will fail at something at some point, so you better get used to it. You will lose, you will embarrass yourself, and you will suck at something, there is no doubt about it. Embrace it. It is inevitable. Everyone has the talent and training to succeed, but do you have the guts to fail? Sales is the perfect training ground of this concept. In sales, we constantly fail and must get used to this truth. Sales, and jobs in sales, force us to deal with failure.
Second, if you never fail, take that as a sign that you're not really trying. To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. The world needs our help, our individual gifts. Give it everything you’ve got. You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse; you can’t take anything with you. What are you going to do with what you have? We all have specific traits and skill sets. Sales can force you into taking risks, and being uncomfortable. To be the best we can be, we need to get outside of our comfort zone. And remember, the world needs our unique gifts.
And third, at the end of the day, failure will help you figure out where you’re going. Life is never a straight path.
In regards to falling forward, Washington shared a couple of specific examples.
Reggie Jackson struck out twenty-six-hundred times in his career, the most in the history of baseball, but you don't hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you swing big and take risks.
Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments, but number 1,001 was the light bulb. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.
I love this quote he shared by Nelson Mandela: “There is no passion to be found in life playing small, and settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living.”
Taking risks is about knowing what you know and what you don’t know. Overcome fears. Take risks. Accept new views. Be open to life. Fill your heart with love. So many important lessons for our world right now.
Honorable Mention: Steve Jobs - 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
I’ll let you watch this one for yourself without any spoiling from me, other than it contains three stories: 1) Connecting the dots; 2) Love and loss; 3) Death.
Last word. Sales forces us to take risks. Sales forces us to serve. Sales allows us to fail and embarrass ourselves and move on. All great skills and life lessons in a job. As Denzel said, we will all lose and embarrass ourselves and suck at something but don’t quit. Work hard, create your breaks, and fall forward.
I hope these messages inspired and motivated you! Let me know what your favorite speeches are and any that I should watch. Send to me via LinkedIn or to Rich@RichLyons.com.
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