Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, Malik Bucks has how the knowledge you want,
Speaker 1: my liek but has how the knowledge you need my
Speaker 1: ledgy Bucks. Yeah, they have out the books that the
Speaker 1: whole wild world want to read, my Leek Bucks. Malik's
Speaker 1: bookshow bringing a world together with books, culture and Community. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Malik Mohammed, your host of Malik's Bookshelf.
Speaker 1: Being a father is a major role in my life.
Speaker 1: It's an important role in my life. And when you
Speaker 1: raise children, no one has a blueprint. You try to
Speaker 1: do your best in order to make them successful. You
Speaker 1: want children to be more successful than you, in bigger
Speaker 1: and better than you. That all as all. That has
Speaker 1: always been my view. Now others might have something different,
Speaker 1: but me as a parent, me as a father, always
Speaker 1: want to see my children become successful and do bigger
Speaker 1: and better things than me. So along the way as
Speaker 1: we grow up, or along the way as they grow up.
Speaker 1: This journey's a long role. It's an ending role, and
Speaker 1: it's an obligation as a parent. You know, you have
Speaker 1: to be present and you have to have the desire
Speaker 1: and you have to have the fortitude because this journey
Speaker 1: is long and it takes patience. As a father, the
Speaker 1: first topic on the shelf today is called child or Communership.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be talking to my son. I'm gonna share
Speaker 1: with your story there at tenues old, this near and dear.
Speaker 1: You're gonna love this story, So stay tuned. Another segment
Speaker 1: that we willn't be discussing on this episode. It's called
Speaker 1: family table talks. When I sat down for dinner and
Speaker 1: we were just having a discussion between my wife and
Speaker 1: my two kids a year in Mecca, and we were
Speaker 1: discussing um the topic of like man role in a
Speaker 1: woman role in a home, you know, and so it
Speaker 1: was just amazing to hear what a fourteen year old
Speaker 1: girl thinks about domestic role in the home, in a
Speaker 1: sixty ye old boys a year what he thinks about
Speaker 1: the domestic role of a man and woman um in
Speaker 1: in their home. The final topic on the shelf today
Speaker 1: is called growing Pains. You don't want to talk about
Speaker 1: this subject matter because people see success us, but they
Speaker 1: don't always see what happens behind the scenes and what
Speaker 1: goes into it. So I want to just talk about
Speaker 1: because this is very very deep and meaningful story. That's
Speaker 1: a great memory and it brings back so much joy
Speaker 1: when I think about the things we did and how
Speaker 1: we did it and what we did. So sit back,
Speaker 1: enjoy this episode of fatherhood. When you was ten years old,
Speaker 1: you always had a spirit of and entrepreneur, a goal getter,
Speaker 1: and you always are very outgoing and outspoken. And when
Speaker 1: we were in a financial hardship and we were trying
Speaker 1: to go to the Junior Olympics, funds were limited, and
Speaker 1: yet you, at ten years old, you said to me,
Speaker 1: and remember you said to me, You said, Dad, you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about me. I'm gonna pay my
Speaker 1: own way. And you took these bookmarks and you just
Speaker 1: started selling them and raised like over a dollars and
Speaker 1: paid for the whole trip for all of us to
Speaker 1: go to the Junior Limbits, just to watch your brother man.
Speaker 1: And I always remember that and on it, and remember
Speaker 1: you know when you wrote on your college application and
Speaker 1: they had you write an essay, you included that part
Speaker 1: about yourself, because at ten years old, you know, just
Speaker 1: to take all those bookmarks and sell them and raised
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred dollars just like and you and paid
Speaker 1: for our trip to the Junior Olympics. Was huge. Ishmael,
Speaker 1: and I've always remember that because that was incredible, which
Speaker 1: you know, so I know you could be whatever you
Speaker 1: want to do whatever you want, and and because you
Speaker 1: have a very very determined in just beautiful spirit brother,
Speaker 1: and so but you know you remember Ishmael when we
Speaker 1: went around and we'll go to those black expos and
Speaker 1: I will set y'all louve with those bookmarks. We went
Speaker 1: to uh the million Man March a long time ago
Speaker 1: and nine and y'all sold all those book marks your
Speaker 1: witness to me and black men all over in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. As a little ten levenie old and you
Speaker 1: sold all of those book marks. Um, yeah, that was
Speaker 1: a cash cow. Asked how I remember that. I remember
Speaker 1: that I had a plan. I remember I realized at
Speaker 1: the time, I realized I wouldn't be able to go.
Speaker 1: And that's when I realized, if I put a table outside,
Speaker 1: I wrote on a piece of paper, I just started
Speaker 1: doing math. I remember like it was yesterday. I started
Speaker 1: to a math on a piece of paper, worked out
Speaker 1: if I did because I knew when the Junior Olympics
Speaker 1: were going on, and I knew how much time we
Speaker 1: had left, how much money I need to make every day,
Speaker 1: And it was forty dollars. I think I gotta sell
Speaker 1: forty dollars and bookmarks every day. I remember, and I
Speaker 1: got a table. When I put a table outside of
Speaker 1: the bookstore. It was a fox Heels all right. It
Speaker 1: was Uma Hill, Bolling Hills Mall, Balling Hillsmall. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I put a table right outside to catch the traffic.
Speaker 1: And as they were walking by the store, and it
Speaker 1: turned out some days we're making more forty bucks. So
Speaker 1: they yeah, yeah, right right there next to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that was good. You know, this is why
Speaker 1: you know you got an entrepreneur, a spirit um. That
Speaker 1: was a milestone. To believe it or not, you have
Speaker 1: to understand I was a milestone for someone ten years
Speaker 1: old to the side, did Dad, You don't need to
Speaker 1: worry about me. I'm gonna pay I'm gonna raise the
Speaker 1: money so that I can go to the Junior Olympics.
Speaker 1: And while I was like, well, how are you gonna
Speaker 1: do that, I'm gonna sell these bug Martin, and you
Speaker 1: went out there, didn't. I only did you pay for yourself,
Speaker 1: but you raised the money for all of us to go.
Speaker 1: And you was ten years old. Man. I we said
Speaker 1: in that restaurant, and we talked about that. I was
Speaker 1: just like side, I just want to thank you, man.
Speaker 1: I want to thank because if you know, we all
Speaker 1: would listen and in them times, you know, books wasn't
Speaker 1: flying off your shelves like that. It was a labor
Speaker 1: of love. It was a labor of love. But y'all
Speaker 1: was you. You and your brother was hit always in
Speaker 1: the store, hit side by side with me, and uh,
Speaker 1: y'all grew up in the store. So it ain't always
Speaker 1: you know, been a financial um um yeah, natural success.
Speaker 1: You know, there's been trials and there's been trimulations, and
Speaker 1: there have been you know, hard times, and books wasn't
Speaker 1: flying are always off the shop. You know, this was
Speaker 1: we was playing seeds. We were doing our part, but
Speaker 1: it took time. People just walked back rather wouldn't. It
Speaker 1: wasn't interesting in these types of books. But I know
Speaker 1: these books right here, they helped change my life. And
Speaker 1: I was trying to teach y'alls. Y'all were growing up
Speaker 1: to be strong and and and and and you know,
Speaker 1: strong young black men in America who had to knowledge yourself,
Speaker 1: had confidence in yourself, and be successful in America, to
Speaker 1: win in America. You know, and by loving yourself, knowing yourself,
Speaker 1: believing in yourself. So you know, so that's what I
Speaker 1: tried to instill in you and inn Calfani and uh
Speaker 1: and but man, that that was an incredible achievement when
Speaker 1: you sold all those bookmarks and pay for all of
Speaker 1: the junior. You should never forget about that, because brother,
Speaker 1: you know, not everyone is that industrial and then that
Speaker 1: and they have that kind of for the two and
Speaker 1: you had it at ten. You had that at ten
Speaker 1: years old, the determination to do something and do it
Speaker 1: and come up with a plan. You know, you thought
Speaker 1: it through and then you went out and implemented and
Speaker 1: made it happen. That's you. I want one for two
Speaker 1: or three ft five? Oh yeah, you remember that one
Speaker 1: for three? What was it? One for one book mark
Speaker 1: for three dollars? Was it? No, one for two, one
Speaker 1: for two, two for four or three for five? There
Speaker 1: you go, that's right, one for two, two for four
Speaker 1: or three bookmarksters and that five dollars flying off this
Speaker 1: when you change, you change the game with the magnets.
Speaker 1: Oh man, the magnezis man. I would be manufacturing no
Speaker 1: bookmarks and no no magnets. Man. I was like I
Speaker 1: gotta get proud of my son out here. He's selling
Speaker 1: the daylight side of this stuff. I gotta have some
Speaker 1: inventory for him, because, you know, man, we entrepreneurs by nature.
Speaker 1: We have the spirit of the Duke himself and entrepreneurship. Man.
Speaker 1: We was out here manufacturing book Martin Magnus and my
Speaker 1: sons was out here, Luke. When I say three ft five,
Speaker 1: it was different when a tenuo say three ft five, man, Man,
Speaker 1: people will buy them by the backs, on barks, by
Speaker 1: the bat man. It was. It was some of those sans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had some positive smokeness on h but it was
Speaker 1: you catch more flies with honey the vinegar. Yes, this
Speaker 1: fake it till you make it. Remember that, fake it
Speaker 1: till you make it. I remember that one. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have some really positive, nice little artwork on them,
Speaker 1: positive affirmations on them, and um and when you put
Speaker 1: that in the hands of a ten year old who
Speaker 1: knows how to sell, like you, you know how to sell.
Speaker 1: But there's no accident. There's no accident. Brother, that you
Speaker 1: went to a school with with three thousand seniors. You
Speaker 1: went to a school where the graduation had probably about
Speaker 1: eight thousand people, and you were selected two give a
Speaker 1: speech at the graduation. You were selected and nice graduate,
Speaker 1: But you were sixteen years old talking in front of
Speaker 1: eight thousand people, you know, for three four minutes. You
Speaker 1: know you didn't stumble. You didn't stumble, not one time.
Speaker 1: Brother and us both with confidence. But you don't know
Speaker 1: how proud your family, your dad was to see you
Speaker 1: do something like that's in the cheer. I could never
Speaker 1: do something like that, you know, back then, because I
Speaker 1: had a phobia about, you know, speaking in front of people.
Speaker 1: That was a that's a challenge for me to speak
Speaker 1: in front of people. And here I have my own
Speaker 1: sixty year old son standing before the graduating class, has
Speaker 1: graduating class and all the parents and families and given
Speaker 1: a threefold minute speech. Brother, did you wrote you do you?
Speaker 1: I come along way? Though I come along way. But
Speaker 1: the reality is that I had to move in degrees
Speaker 1: to be able to talk in front of people and
Speaker 1: in front of large groups. It didn't happen to me easily. Um.
Speaker 1: I had someone pushed me, he would you know, he
Speaker 1: would speak um, he would speak um. And he needed
Speaker 1: somebody to open for him. And he said, you know, Malie,
Speaker 1: going out there and give me two three minutes, just
Speaker 1: warm up for me and then bring me up. So
Speaker 1: and I was like going out there stumbling, you know,
Speaker 1: nervous to see. But every week you will push me
Speaker 1: out there. At the study group. We used to have
Speaker 1: these leak books study groups and people would come, man,
Speaker 1: they would come all over and say we do it
Speaker 1: right into the bookstore and the leak book study group
Speaker 1: and I would open up to three minutes before the
Speaker 1: main person come on and speak about whatever it is
Speaker 1: that he wanted to talk to the people about that day.
Speaker 1: And so what happened was it helped me with I
Speaker 1: still have some of those tapes, man, but it helped me.
Speaker 1: It helped me to look at an audience and speak
Speaker 1: and not be so nervous and petrified like I used
Speaker 1: to be. It was a challenge for me, brother, and
Speaker 1: it was I had a phobia doing it over. I
Speaker 1: still have it. You know, I get the butterflies, I
Speaker 1: get the nerve, but you know, if I gotta do it,
Speaker 1: I gotta do it. When I saw a life is
Speaker 1: and sometimes we we have to challenge our fears, man.
Speaker 1: And that's where you at now. You're challenging your fears. Um,
Speaker 1: You're nervous and it's not necessarily fearful, but you're nervous. No,
Speaker 1: I was literally fearful to stand up and talking for
Speaker 1: the people. You could do it, brother, with no problem.
Speaker 1: You're not nervous. You enjoyed it. And it isn't the
Speaker 1: things where you know you enable thrill man. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do that, man, You did that well, you did
Speaker 1: that brother in natural and so you know you're not
Speaker 1: You have that gift. Brother, you have that gift to
Speaker 1: do that. So you put all your gifts together. Man,
Speaker 1: you make a wholesome pocket. This is where your life
Speaker 1: leads you to in your career. So you're putting it
Speaker 1: all together, you know. And so uh, kudos do you
Speaker 1: ishmael kudo's do you? Brother? Thank you appreciate that. Thank
Speaker 1: you for saying you're welcome, You're welcome, and so um
Speaker 1: you know, um, this was enjoyable. I really enjoyed the
Speaker 1: conversation we had, and all week to continue to have more.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy um. We talked about a lot of
Speaker 1: substance and I think that some of the things we
Speaker 1: talked about it can be very helpful and useful to
Speaker 1: you know, others. So thank you Ishmael. Thank you for sharing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, thank you. Let's talking to nice talking to you,
Speaker 1: and I'll have you on again on Malik's bookshow. Appreciate
Speaker 1: you man a housewife? What's your children are successful? And
Speaker 1: that's all you do? I shall pay for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what joint of the households now? Today? It's not
Speaker 1: living that word. Mom and dad works. Mom and dad
Speaker 1: does both the things shore clean fold should like our household,
Speaker 1: our hol absolutely like our household. Everybody has a duty
Speaker 1: and a chore. Now in order to make it work,
Speaker 1: one person shouldn't do everything. That's my mama said dad.
Speaker 1: Come on now, I'm preach. I noticed there right. Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: can anybody take any back back? All right and I'll
Speaker 1: bring it back out. Okay, break, How would you raise
Speaker 1: your family? Yeah? I already land like hunging tomazine as eat.
Speaker 1: Everybody gets there own chores to do, yes, and take
Speaker 1: turns to doing the issue. Just one person doing it
Speaker 1: overord over, so so we can know who's turning into
Speaker 1: your dishuess coonsibly, I might have a calidar take a
Speaker 1: bit on turn days to be started. People doing different stuff.
Speaker 1: If like the dishes are it's like really dirty. If
Speaker 1: the stuff cloud up and it's like really dirty, they
Speaker 1: have to clean it, like that's a responsibility. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can't just walk by it. If if it's cloud up,
Speaker 1: you clean it. Yeah, don't, don't. Don't are actually not
Speaker 1: be like you know, actually we're not tattoo toor because
Speaker 1: we're always a clue. If I clean up for yourself,
Speaker 1: if you don't wash your plate, you're washing the dishes
Speaker 1: like it. And also when man make the art and
Speaker 1: the dishes the same thing in a dining room, thank you.
Speaker 1: What if what if you have a partner or your
Speaker 1: husband and wife that chooses not the work and just
Speaker 1: choosing to do everything in the house so and chooses
Speaker 1: and do all the other responsibility. You just bring on
Speaker 1: the and you just bring on the paycheck. You can
Speaker 1: accept that. What if what if your husband wants you
Speaker 1: to be to do that? Yes yourself. You know she
Speaker 1: doesn't want to do that. She wants to be, she
Speaker 1: wants to having a career. That conversation, that's a conversation. Okay.
Speaker 1: What if your husband says stop working feeling either getting
Speaker 1: to break it down, Okay, I'm one of my parent's
Speaker 1: house be stuck here a little? Or do you should
Speaker 1: say that you're a can be like I'm talking my brothers.
Speaker 1: You'll see who's she's gonna wint this? What about yours? Here?
Speaker 1: What if you'll to your woman? Besides? Are you guys
Speaker 1: coming to the agreement. I want to be a housewife.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do anything else but take care
Speaker 1: of the household. Would you be agreeable with that? Or
Speaker 1: would you want someone more independent? I wouldn't agree to
Speaker 1: it because because I don't want her to do it
Speaker 1: all by herself and having nobody to hell? Would you bread?
Speaker 1: You go out, you make the bread, make you make
Speaker 1: the chat on you and she does everything else that's
Speaker 1: her contribution to the household. Would you be agreeable to me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well that's a situation is different, non agreed upon amongst
Speaker 1: your relationship. Don't worry about nobody else's. Whatever works to
Speaker 1: your relationship, that's works to the alert relationship. I said
Speaker 1: it depends on the job. Okay, Um, if your job
Speaker 1: is a paying enough, you're gonna need her to be independent.
Speaker 1: Oh you better say it, or them and need your
Speaker 1: lover to be a tell you both make money, you
Speaker 1: both contract. That's to have contribute, contribute to the household
Speaker 1: and money from you. You know you're having the money,
Speaker 1: you have that money saved up, and that that's what
Speaker 1: he or she still wants to do. I have and
Speaker 1: for sure you have money keeper gonna keep going and
Speaker 1: you know, keep saving, um, keep paying taxus. Uh, she
Speaker 1: keep going at him her wants. Okay, I like that.
Speaker 1: Now what if the shoe was on another foot? What
Speaker 1: if the man wants to stand? I say, that's a
Speaker 1: rad that's rare. But you know, I don't know a
Speaker 1: lot of people. Um for you, for me, I said,
Speaker 1: still the same. It depends on the job. Um. But
Speaker 1: if you're still working out like I don't know, half
Speaker 1: time job or all time. But it's not hanging up enough.
Speaker 1: But it's some time. You know, you're a girl. You
Speaker 1: work hard, but they don't pay you enough. That it's true. Um,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to h here. He's gonna have to
Speaker 1: do something other than you need the money. Yes, and
Speaker 1: if you guys don't get money, you know how you
Speaker 1: can pay back here. You won't have a room up.
Speaker 1: That's fact. That's a fact, and awesome. You got to
Speaker 1: make some money, you piggy bank off you like like
Speaker 1: I would say, if your husband's like, there is something
Speaker 1: to you, like you can call me funny or any
Speaker 1: anyone else. You will because you've got our national protection,
Speaker 1: because it's that's what you're You're I'm getting the day
Speaker 1: you would you you're the younger. I couldn't like that.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, but I think I can also
Speaker 1: detect myself. See if I learn how to drive, I
Speaker 1: could be out of there like like a flash. But
Speaker 1: but if if I have to say, I wouldn't get
Speaker 1: the phone, Like I'm out with a pizza pizza to day,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the whole pizza, make anything,
Speaker 1: and I'll be like, see us, I'll leave and then
Speaker 1: you go get you know, he's gonna go to jail
Speaker 1: and yes, and and that's it. Yes's right. I like you.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go bash heself exactly exactly. I like this,
Speaker 1: he would say, I love you. I know it was
Speaker 1: the day. Hey, I'm just sitting here taking it on
Speaker 1: in a fourteen year old and a fourth year old
Speaker 1: daughter sixteen year old son speaking in mind Mama asking
Speaker 1: them questions. Hey, table talk, dyning out, family night out.
Speaker 1: We're just having a good time. And we're chopping up
Speaker 1: music get in the background. Well, hey, you heard it.
Speaker 1: All coaching is very serious. And the commitment what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: did if the man's a sacrifice. And when I saw
Speaker 1: the spark in Mecca, I knew that it would require
Speaker 1: a great sacrifice and a great commitment. And I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready for it. M I wasn't ready to put on
Speaker 1: her on that program I placed on Cafani. I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready to place that commitment on my family and on
Speaker 1: and on myself. And I saw the spark. I saw
Speaker 1: something that is sparked me and I wrestled with it
Speaker 1: day in and day. I am a mind and I
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure I wanted to go there again. But
Speaker 1: because my love for this not only the sport before
Speaker 1: my child, I knew that that sacrifice will be worth it.
Speaker 1: The obstacle for me was to get her to see
Speaker 1: that it's worth it, to get her to believe in
Speaker 1: the sacrifice, to get her to want to make that
Speaker 1: same sacrifice, because it demands, it demands all of you,
Speaker 1: not part of you. It demands because eight percent of
Speaker 1: his mental you can have all the physical ability which
Speaker 1: I saw, which I saw and I saw that she
Speaker 1: had a strength in her mind because the run of
Speaker 1: eight hundred meters required a certain mindset. That's a hard race,
Speaker 1: it's a demanding race, and that's what you know if
Speaker 1: it A lot of my frustration sometimes come because I
Speaker 1: see in her what she doesn't see in herself, and
Speaker 1: my job as a father, as a coach is to
Speaker 1: try to help her to see was in her and
Speaker 1: to believe in her before she believed in herself. And
Speaker 1: that it's a challenge sometimes because everybody's a lock and
Speaker 1: you have to have a key to the master key
Speaker 1: to unlocked the treasures in you, the gifts in you,
Speaker 1: and that's where the psychology coming out. That's what I
Speaker 1: say as a coach, and I've been a damn good one.
Speaker 1: I had to get into the mind and get into
Speaker 1: the head and get the most out of the athlete
Speaker 1: in order to in order for them two tap into
Speaker 1: their glory and their greatness. You know. So, man, I
Speaker 1: just saw myself. I saw what we go through as
Speaker 1: a family, where we go through as a coach, where
Speaker 1: we go through as a father, where we go through
Speaker 1: as an anthlete. Man, you know, I'm just so Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was in the man of the commitment. And I
Speaker 1: didn't have her on that program, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But I wanted still the same results, and I got
Speaker 1: frustrated when she didn't before, like I know she could
Speaker 1: and what's because based on what's in her but not.
Speaker 1: And then but I was miscalculating because I realized that
Speaker 1: I didn't put her on that program. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I gave her a part of the program
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to burn her out. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to see I learned from Califani. I learned, you know,
Speaker 1: and he didn't burn out. But the things that I
Speaker 1: knew from that journey, and that was over a decade
Speaker 1: long journey of sacrifice and commitment and pushing in wasn't
Speaker 1: the excellence and to get the most. And so but
Speaker 1: I saw that spot and I wrestled with it, baby
Speaker 1: like wrestling with a bare ninth day, trying to like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I think that gift there. You know that
Speaker 1: you above average and we're not even Harley practicing. You
Speaker 1: out here with nothing in your tent and you out
Speaker 1: here competing and you know, above average with all these
Speaker 1: other athletes. But I saw an in it and I
Speaker 1: used to say that I didn't on I saw Monday,
Speaker 1: our Sunday work out what we were for years, Every
Speaker 1: Sunday we gonna work out as a family. I said, baby,
Speaker 1: she got something in earth, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I didn't pull the trigger, and I said, let's
Speaker 1: just go out. Let's just go to one of me
Speaker 1: unless see where she at. And she was a bull
Speaker 1: average It's just like I said, and a serious attitude
Speaker 1: like I can't be beat. You know. I think she
Speaker 1: won her heats, but based on her time, you know,
Speaker 1: she was above average. And I said, wow, when you
Speaker 1: want to reach that next level, it demands a commitment
Speaker 1: both physically and mentally. It demands a sacrifice. You're gonna
Speaker 1: miss out on birthday parties, You're gonna miss out wound thing,
Speaker 1: doing things with your friends. You're gonna miss out on
Speaker 1: you know, other opportunities and things that you get invited to,
Speaker 1: what have you. It's just a because your schedule is
Speaker 1: your plan, you know too, and your schedule is just
Speaker 1: gonna be and you gotta zone in on it, and
Speaker 1: you like every practice matter, Yes, you gotta tweak to
Speaker 1: make exceptions. You know what I'm saying based upon certain things,
Speaker 1: but it's a priority. And you know what, as a
Speaker 1: former athlete, other people who maybe not have been an athlete,
Speaker 1: they might not understand that sacrifice, that commitment that you
Speaker 1: know it's required in order to reach that that level
Speaker 1: to be a champion, to be great, to stand out.
Speaker 1: All of these things come with a push, a vision,
Speaker 1: a goal, a plan. Man, long hours, man, We will
Speaker 1: go to some of them. Track meets wake up is
Speaker 1: dark and you leave and you get home, it's dark,
Speaker 1: and you're out there all day to watch three four
Speaker 1: races right to three fall races for your fifteen seconds
Speaker 1: of fame. And you out there ten eleven, twelve hours
Speaker 1: just to watch a few races. Man, And you do
Speaker 1: a year in a year out, year in a year out,
Speaker 1: and you stick to the plan. Why nobody else believe
Speaker 1: in it? Nobody else around you, nobody else. They're looking
Speaker 1: at you sideways. I asked, somebody tell me, I asked,
Speaker 1: somebody tell me. I don't even know why you're doing
Speaker 1: all that, because when they get a little old, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do it anyway. But that's your dream. That ain't
Speaker 1: my dream. That ain't what I see. That ain't my
Speaker 1: what I expect. I believe they're gonna stay the course.
Speaker 1: I believe they're gonna believe in themselves one day and
Speaker 1: want to do this and right their ticket and right
Speaker 1: their future. So to see Calfani becomes state champion in California,
Speaker 1: running up with the sophomore, got second place in the
Speaker 1: Want to Meets two hunters, and then when he became
Speaker 1: a junior and a senior, he became state champion in
Speaker 1: California in the one hundred and two. It is junior
Speaker 1: senior back to back in California, only have one state champion,
Speaker 1: and we're the biggest state in the country, so they
Speaker 1: merge every school, whether large whether small, Only one gonna
Speaker 1: be a hundred meters state champ. Only one gonna be
Speaker 1: the two hundred meter state champion. Team win the state championship.
Speaker 1: So for that that happened, that took sacrifice, that took years.
Speaker 1: Oh sweat, money, commitment, pain, guts, glory man, baby, those
Speaker 1: were some fun times. And to see him get a
Speaker 1: scholarship two cow to see him to the University of California, Berkeley,
Speaker 1: and to beat and to play football and then get
Speaker 1: drafted by the Tennessee Titans. You know, all of these
Speaker 1: things started at five years old, a dream, a plan,
Speaker 1: and to see that happen, you know, it's almost unreal
Speaker 1: to be you know, get drafted in the NFL, you know,
Speaker 1: play football in the NFL, graduate on, you know, get
Speaker 1: a scholarship, you know those scholarships three folk Fi thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and get a degree from you, I mean your university, California, Berkeley,
Speaker 1: you know. Then and then go on and start his
Speaker 1: own business. And you know that that you can't. You
Speaker 1: gotta be proud as a father, you know, you gotta
Speaker 1: be proud as a parent, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But it took sacrifice, and I made sure he don't
Speaker 1: forget that. This commitment took all of us. This commitment
Speaker 1: took all of us was on this journey. All of
Speaker 1: us felt the pain, all of us felt the sacrifice.
Speaker 1: All of us felt the journey. And we filth it
Speaker 1: when you won, we filth it when you're lost. We
Speaker 1: feel every single bit of this because it requires unity,
Speaker 1: It requires us as a whole to be committed. When
Speaker 1: we won that first title in the statement, that four
Speaker 1: by one relay, and we wondered the four by one relay.
Speaker 1: You know, I said in them stands and cried because
Speaker 1: all the years, you know, just flashed before me. Me
Speaker 1: and but brother j we just fell. We started crying,
Speaker 1: his son on the first leg, my son on the anchor,
Speaker 1: and we won the four by one and we cried. Man. Right,
Speaker 1: I had a moment there. You know, it was just
Speaker 1: to see because it was all of pain, all the socrifice.
Speaker 1: It's just flash. It broke you down. We went only
Speaker 1: won the state title that year, he won the hundred
Speaker 1: wanted two U when the winning the state California state
Speaker 1: Try and field title. He went on to college and
Speaker 1: then my baby girl, I saw something I saw and
Speaker 1: I said, baby, I see something, manum. I don't think
Speaker 1: she understands that. And we just started working a little
Speaker 1: by little. I didn't want to put it on that
Speaker 1: same I didn't want to put it on that find
Speaker 1: Mohammed plan her bear a girl. I said, you know
Speaker 1: we're gonna start slow. You don't burner out. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't put that nas that extra you know, you
Speaker 1: know when you're right there, man, you're battling, and you
Speaker 1: gotta chop into the soul and boom when you explode, right,
Speaker 1: I didn't put that in. I didn't put it in.
Speaker 1: I put it in there, you know, because she was
Speaker 1: still young. I don't want to burn her out. And
Speaker 1: you gotta be strategic, you gotta have tactics. My crazy
Speaker 1: but went down to San Diego. How was she? M hmm,
Speaker 1: probably about nine at no, yeah, nine at the time
Speaker 1: she was nine. Baby went down there, ain't ran but
Speaker 1: a couple of meets right, went down and made the
Speaker 1: eight hunted. She was nine years old, made uh the
Speaker 1: regional Junior Olympic finals in the eight hunted top five
Speaker 1: go to the Junior Olympics to run against the best
Speaker 1: in the country. And I gave my baby a strategy.
Speaker 1: You know, kids don't listen sometimes, you know, they had
Speaker 1: their own mind. They do it the way they want
Speaker 1: to do it, no matter what. So she did. She
Speaker 1: went out there and she did her old stratagy, didn't
Speaker 1: listen to mine. Ended up seventh. We didn't make it
Speaker 1: to the Junior Olympics UM Championships that year, got seventh,
Speaker 1: and I felt disappointed, and I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have,
Speaker 1: But at the time I just couldn't see what's she
Speaker 1: done here? The all these girls out there had been
Speaker 1: training all season, and here my baby girl ain't hardly
Speaker 1: trained at all. And she in the finals to qualify
Speaker 1: for the Junior Olympics Championship and ended up seventh place.
Speaker 1: And instead of me being joyful and happy, is proud
Speaker 1: and picking her up and spinning around and kissing all
Speaker 1: on the upset. That's that competitives that stuck impetitive in me.
Speaker 1: We're allowed that to consume me. And missed the moment.
Speaker 1: I missed the moment that I could have had with
Speaker 1: my baby. I missed the moment that I couldn't embrace
Speaker 1: with my baby. And let me tell you something, history
Speaker 1: is always gonna repeat itself until you get it right,
Speaker 1: until you get it right, and you gotta enjoy those moments,
Speaker 1: even when it comes with my loss. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: a loss. It was a win. And here I'm walking back.
Speaker 1: I see my boy Steve. He said, my Homed, what's that?
Speaker 1: What's up? I said, what's up? Man? You know man,
Speaker 1: I ain't feeling well right now. Man, my baby ain't
Speaker 1: making through the literally, he said, what like, you don't
Speaker 1: even got her on that Muhammed program. She y'all here
Speaker 1: running brother with no hardy, no training like these other groups. Man,
Speaker 1: I've been out here all year. You should be extudied.
Speaker 1: And that woke me up. I said, God, don it,
Speaker 1: God do it. You're right, said brother, she ain't on
Speaker 1: that program. Brother, you said yourself. You're you holding her
Speaker 1: back because you don't want to burn her out. So
Speaker 1: you can't expect those kind of results if you know
Speaker 1: you ain't put that kind of training up under her
Speaker 1: to get that kind of performance. I said, you're right.
Speaker 1: Whether you're right, I was asking for them possible, but
Speaker 1: that's just the way champions are. We asked, was unaskedable,
Speaker 1: So yes, I was a world class Brenner so height,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I did. I asked for what I asked
Speaker 1: for what was impossible. Because of the situation. I didn't
Speaker 1: train her with you know, like these other girls. We
Speaker 1: started late. I didn't. We didn't work out a whole lot.
Speaker 1: So what we've done was incredible and I shouldn't embrace
Speaker 1: that moment. But I made it up to him, you know.
Speaker 1: I woke up and got my stuff together and went
Speaker 1: over there, embraced their and what have you, and we
Speaker 1: went out eight and had a good time and enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I had to get there though, because I go hard. Man.
Speaker 1: When I get I go hard, I expect a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, And I pushed a lot because I believe
Speaker 1: in greatness. I believe in winning. Two more years go by,
Speaker 1: he turney Levin, and I realized that this year, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do things a little different. I'm gonna train a
Speaker 1: little more. But I don't want to train and sessive what.
Speaker 1: But what I wanna do is put that extra inmmer.
Speaker 1: Put that what I call that extra that nas and
Speaker 1: that explosive the inner. I want to put something in
Speaker 1: her that when she needs to dig deep into her soul,
Speaker 1: she will find it there. And she won't just find
Speaker 1: locking acid and being locked up, but she will find
Speaker 1: that extra gear. So we started a little early. I
Speaker 1: strategically did the workout, but I know we're still not training.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna, like I said, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: when you get to high school, they train every day,
Speaker 1: you got meets every week. I'm still gonna let you
Speaker 1: experience is that I'm not gonna put that level of
Speaker 1: training on you until you get the card. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: letting you've experienced out in high school. But I tweeked
Speaker 1: it a little. I made some adjustments, and you know,
Speaker 1: each week, each month, we're getting better and better. Um,
Speaker 1: we got a strong team, we got a strong region
Speaker 1: in California. You know, we got a lot of dogs
Speaker 1: out here in California. You got a lot of strong athletes,
Speaker 1: you know. So then we went on. We got third
Speaker 1: in our in our region, made it to the Junior Olympics.
Speaker 1: So off to the Junior Olympics. But you know why,
Speaker 1: we were in the room and we you know, we
Speaker 1: ran in the in the semifinals and we we got
Speaker 1: second and our heat we had to going into the finals.
Speaker 1: We had the fourth best time. And you know, she's
Speaker 1: eleven years old. But I told my baby, I said, baby,
Speaker 1: I know two years ago when you went into your soul.
Speaker 1: And I said this too, I said, listen, I know
Speaker 1: two years ago, and I should tell you then. I
Speaker 1: used to tell you that too, about when Metha tapped
Speaker 1: into her soul when she was nine. I didn't put
Speaker 1: that extra in her, and so she hit that wall
Speaker 1: and she hit a level of fame that she was like,
Speaker 1: whoa locked up, you know, with legs, can't boo and
Speaker 1: all that because in her mind was like, I mean,
Speaker 1: this girl can't beat me. And so when the girl
Speaker 1: made a move, she made a move. When the girl
Speaker 1: made a move, she made a move. And then they
Speaker 1: kept just battling, bottling and then booling mac and hit
Speaker 1: that wall. Maca hit that wall right, that lack of
Speaker 1: the astra hit she couldn't move. Ran her best time,
Speaker 1: but she didn't have that extra in the soul that
Speaker 1: you need when you want to tap in. I didn't
Speaker 1: put it there because I wanted to training. But two
Speaker 1: years later, I said, you know, you're Levin. We're back
Speaker 1: to the kind of same situation. You went from being
Speaker 1: a bound now you're what they call him, Midge Leving
Speaker 1: and twelve year old the age division. So I said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna let I'm gonna put some menu
Speaker 1: so when you tap into that soul, it's gonna be there.
Speaker 1: So we had to Julian Olympis No. She finished. She
Speaker 1: got the fourth best time going into the finals in
Speaker 1: the eight hundred meters. Then you know, we're in a
Speaker 1: hotel and I'm talking to in the room and I'm
Speaker 1: just saying we had you know, I said, baby, I
Speaker 1: know what you're afraid of. You're afraid of hitting that
Speaker 1: wall again. You're afraid of taped into your soul and
Speaker 1: given everything you have and you that pain that you
Speaker 1: felt and you when you hit that wall, you're afraid
Speaker 1: of that. You don't need to be afraid of that
Speaker 1: anymore because I strategically placed in you a hitting gym.
Speaker 1: It's in you all. You got to do that strategically.
Speaker 1: Talk about our plan. If you run race like I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, don't do it your way, do it my way.
Speaker 1: I know you're like to go out here sometimes and
Speaker 1: do it your way. This is it. I told her
Speaker 1: the strategy. I said, Now, our weakness is that third
Speaker 1: two hundred. That third two that's when she the girl
Speaker 1: they're gonna make the move. That's when you have to
Speaker 1: make your move and you have to be in striking range.
Speaker 1: So back to six hundred meter mark, the last two hundred,
Speaker 1: that's when what I put in you you can tap into.
Speaker 1: And but we got to be at sixty five seconds
Speaker 1: the first lap. So Hey, for the first time in
Speaker 1: two years, I saw her mind set before the race.
Speaker 1: I said, I think she's gonna do it. I think
Speaker 1: she believes now, and I think she's gonna tap into
Speaker 1: her true give and so man, they took off Man
Speaker 1: and they took off Man. He was running that first
Speaker 1: lap and she hit that market sixty seven in the
Speaker 1: first lap and the girl made a move. I said
Speaker 1: she gonna run in the curb, run out and said, look,
Speaker 1: you got to go with her. That second two hunting,
Speaker 1: that's when you like the rest. Can't do it, stay
Speaker 1: in the race, you gotta stay close down the back stretch.
Speaker 1: And the third two hunting, she made her move with
Speaker 1: the girl. The girl made her move. She took the
Speaker 1: lead going into the curb, the third curb, and then
Speaker 1: coming out the curb, MacCAM made a move going down
Speaker 1: that back stretch. Man. It took the lead on the
Speaker 1: girl going into the last curve the last two hunting
Speaker 1: to the girl tried to make another move to go
Speaker 1: around Mecca from lane two to get back in one,
Speaker 1: and Mecca didn't let her get it. She They took
Speaker 1: off on that last curve like they was running a
Speaker 1: huntred meters. Mccam took off with her back, Mecca took
Speaker 1: off with her. It came out that curve and the
Speaker 1: girl couldn't couldn't keep up with Mecca, and Mecca kept
Speaker 1: on going and down that home stretch, the girl met
Speaker 1: about fifty to go. She she just Mecca took her soul,
Speaker 1: took her soul and ran it on in and became
Speaker 1: the Junior Olympic champion in the eight hundred meters. Broke
Speaker 1: broke a grown man down in the stands of crying
Speaker 1: because I knew it was there. I knew it, but
Speaker 1: I had to get her to believe it. I had
Speaker 1: to get hurt. I had to get her to buy
Speaker 1: into it was there. And when she typed into the soul,
Speaker 1: it was there. That's when the god come out of you.
Speaker 1: That's when the God rises up. When you tap into
Speaker 1: the soul. You pushed the body and the mind beyond
Speaker 1: the limits that when the greatness come out. You can't
Speaker 1: be great unless you top into that soul. You got
Speaker 1: to go when you haven't been before. You got to
Speaker 1: bleed that you can do it. You got to know
Speaker 1: you can do it. You got to want to do it.
Speaker 1: And on that day, Mecca tapped into the soul, dropped
Speaker 1: folks seconds in that final. It ran two nineteen as
Speaker 1: of the eleven year old in the eight hundreds and
Speaker 1: became the Junior Olympic champion. That was a high point
Speaker 1: in my life too, and board that was a lot
Speaker 1: of joy to see that win. But he came with
Speaker 1: a lot of sacrifice. He came with a lot of pain.
Speaker 1: My baby told me her last enough. I couldn't feel nothing,
Speaker 1: couldn't hill nothing. But she did it. She did and
Speaker 1: I said, baby, I'm so proud. And I told her,
Speaker 1: hugged her, picked her. Uh And let me tell you
Speaker 1: this is that, I said. You know, when you win
Speaker 1: like that, pain feel good. When you win like that,
Speaker 1: the pain go away a whole lot faster. When you
Speaker 1: win like that, you become champion, baby, because all of
Speaker 1: your world winners, when you got to the finals, to
Speaker 1: get to the junior, you're already to winner. You're already
Speaker 1: above average. But it only gonna be one champion. But
Speaker 1: everybody is a winner in the race, everybody, but it's
Speaker 1: only gonna be one champion. And that's who show up
Speaker 1: that day, that moment, because success is only a moment
Speaker 1: of time. Enjoyed when you have it, because it don't
Speaker 1: last forever. But when you have of it, celebrated, enjoy
Speaker 1: every minute of it because it goes quick, but it
Speaker 1: takes years to get to take a lot of pain
Speaker 1: to get whoa a lot of hard work they get,
Speaker 1: but enjoy it when you have it and move on
Speaker 1: to the next because man, just reflecting on, you know,
Speaker 1: memories of our past, they bring a lot of joys.
Speaker 1: And I've done a lot of things in my life
Speaker 1: and these things that I'm talking about is just some
Speaker 1: of the highlights that I can say that I appreciate,
Speaker 1: you know, my involvement in the commitment that went into it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't in vain, you know, even if we never
Speaker 1: had one, is not in vague because everything we do
Speaker 1: still got meaning and purpose because everything we learned along
Speaker 1: the way we can still use in other ways in
Speaker 1: our lives to make it better and greater. So a
Speaker 1: look back is that, you know, whether we wanted or lost,
Speaker 1: it still was a win. It still was glory, it
Speaker 1: still was a lesson. It's still was something to be gaining.
Speaker 1: And experience is the best teacher. You know. You can
Speaker 1: you can talk to talk, but you gotta run the race.
Speaker 1: You know you could be you know, you gotta be
Speaker 1: in the game to be part of the game. Game
Speaker 1: on the sideline. So it's just you know, every every
Speaker 1: we learned from every single thing we do, we gain experience.
Speaker 1: We gain experience, and you got the experience is the
Speaker 1: best teacher. So whatever came out of that, it's just
Speaker 1: a part of our journey and how we evolved and
Speaker 1: how we learned and how we grow. Because is there
Speaker 1: is no growing pains without I guess I don't wanna
Speaker 1: say there is no pain without growing. Right, you gotta
Speaker 1: to grow, you gotta have plain. So that's why we
Speaker 1: call it the growing pains. What that means is what
Speaker 1: all the things that it took in order to grow. Alright,
Speaker 1: I hope you got somebody of this. Boy, I know
Speaker 1: it was long winded, but I had a lot to say.
Speaker 1: But the most important thing I hope you got out
Speaker 1: of this is it experiences the best teacher, and they're
Speaker 1: growing pains is a part of life. No matter what
Speaker 1: endevil you're in, no matter what you are doing in
Speaker 1: your life, there's gonna be growing pains. Peace,