An excerpt from The Book Of Hov , written by Duane...
Many of us are living our lives talking the talk but not walking the walk. We falsely believe that we can establish credibility through our words and not our actions. Respect is not earned from what we say but from what we do. Society seems to be so much about image and swagger. If a person has charisma and knows what to say and when to say it, he or she is embraced in this society. I rather embrace truth than hype. I often write on how swagger cannot replace substance. Having substance in your life comes from experience. In the act of living your life you’re going to have certain experiences that shape who you are. The experiences in your life largely define you as a person and not the words that come out of your mouth. People often use words to persuade, convince, fabricate and deceive. In other words, words are at times used to make the speaker falsely appear to be something that he or she is not.
Your world was everything
So everything you said you’d do
You did it
Couldn’t talk about it if you ain’t lived it
“Where I’m From”
On “Where I’m From”, Jay-Z rhymes that he grew up in an environment where you couldn’t talk about being in the criminal underworld if you didn’t live that life. Ironically, many guys who come from the kind of environment Jay was raised in are guilty of doing just that. They try to define themselves based on the streets where they grew up. There might be “certified” gangsters in your neighborhood, but that doesn’t make you a gangster. You might live in a neighborhood full of successful professionals who are lawyers, doctors and businesspersons- but that doesn’t mean you will become a successful professional.
What you say and how you say it may be persuasive but that doesn’t make it authentic. You can only make your life what you want it to be through actions- you can’t talk it into existence. The pursuit of success in life is certainly competitive. But don’t compete against others on the issue of swagger. It’s not about who’s the coolest, the loudest, the most popular, the funniest or who is physically the toughest. It’s not about who tells the most amazing story…
If you seek respect then live your life with credibility. How you actually live your life will make a much greater impact than how you say you live your life. These lyrics from “Where I’m From” also indicate the importance of being a person of your word, doing what you set out to do. A real go-getter doesn’t hide behind words he makes his mark with strong, confident actions.
I hear you talking…but do you live it?
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