Josh Shipp's life started off very challenging due to facts beyond his control. In his words, his life would be "determined by this one unfortunate situation." Despite all the things he had to go through, however, Josh Shipp learned to not run away from but face the ghosts that haunted him.
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00:00Oh great, another motivational spea...
00:03Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
00:05I kind of dislike that people refer to me as a motivational speaker
00:08because that means,
00:08Oh, let me guess, you're always positive, huh.
00:11Shut up.
00:12Laughter
00:14This is very funny to me.
00:16I don't know, like if you can see this from where you are,
00:18but there are people in the front row
00:21watching me on the screen.
00:25I'm right here!
00:27You clap, they're crying.
00:33Why did that little man yell at us?
00:36He is an angry elf.
00:38It's terrible.
00:41For me, my biological mom was 17 when she got pregnant with me.
00:45I know I like to joke.
00:46I'm not joking.
00:47On the day I was born, my mother left me at the hospital when I was born.
00:51What that means to you is that I'm an orphan.
00:52On my birth certificate, it says, Josh Shipp, orphan of the court slash ward of the state.
00:57I just have to say, Josh, welcome.
01:00Your life's probably going to be pretty messed up.
01:02Your life is now determined from this one unfortunate situation.
01:06I'm not saying everyone in this room has been left at the hospital.
01:09Obviously not.
01:10I'm not saying everyone had a difficult childhood.
01:12Obviously not.
01:13My point is, all of us in this room have had and will face challenges, things that are
01:18unfortunate.
01:19Sometimes things that we idiotically cause to ourselves.
01:23Sometimes things completely out of our control that people cause to us.
01:28By the time I was eight, I lived in a dozen different foster homes.
01:32One foster home, 15 kids lived there, ages five to 21.
01:36It was a place they stuck you while they figured out what we're going to do with this kid.
01:40There was a 21-year-old man who lived in that house, came into the room I was staying in,
01:45raped every kid in the room.
01:47As an eight-year-old in that instant, I made the decision.
01:49I hate myself.
01:50I hate my life.
01:51Screw it.
01:52I'm done.
01:53I was so angry, so defiant, because this one adult burned me, broke my trust.
01:58I thought, I can't trust anyone.
02:00I can't let anyone in.
02:01I don't want to ever get hurt and burned like that again.
02:03I medicated myself by eating food.
02:06That made me feel great.
02:07I was very short, got very overweight.
02:10Every day I would go to school, there was a new fat joke about me.
02:13One time a kid said to me, hey Josh, you're nothing but a stupid, fat, pathetic, punk
02:18foster kid.
02:20No wonder your mom left you at the hospital.
02:22But in that moment, I reacted like most people, you're an idiot, you don't know what you're
02:26talking about.
02:27But secretly, quietly, behind everyone's back, those words haunted me.
02:35And I would replay them.
02:36What if I am nothing but a stupid, fat, pathetic, punk foster kid?
02:42So what I did is I told no one.
02:44Here's the problem.
02:45What you do not talk out, you act out.
02:47You don't deal with it, it will deal with you.
02:49It's like that, you ever play Mario Brothers?
02:51Old school, hands up sharp.
02:53Hands down sharp.
02:55Remember Mario Brothers?
02:56There was, in certain levels, there would be the stupid ghost.
03:01I hate that dude.
03:04Think about the ghost in your mind as the challenges you will face, because that ghost
03:10would chase you, haunt you, chase you, until you did the following, which was turn around
03:16and face him.
03:17Only then would he stop.
03:18He would not go away, but only then would he stop.
03:21The same is true.
03:22You cannot run away from the challenges, from the circumstances, from the situations.
03:27You have to, even though anyone would be terrified to do such, you have to have the courage to
03:32turn around and face it.
03:35Some of you are believing that just because you've screwed up, that you are a screw up.
03:38Some of you are believing that just because you've failed, that you're a failure.
03:41Some of you are believing that just because you've had something terrible happen, that
03:45you are terrible.
03:46What if I am nothing but a loser, nothing but fat, nothing but a slut, nothing but pathetic?
03:51Cut that crap, stop listening to that.
03:53Your imperfections make you human.
03:55Your humanity makes you influential.
03:58Do not make someone's words a priority to you when all you are to them is an option.