Pod Insights The Quote of the Day Show | Daily Motivational Talks Dr. Dennis Kimbro: “If Your Work is Your Play, You'll Never Work a Day in Your Life.” About this episode Dennis Kimbro delivers a passionate message about purpose, excellence, and discovering why you’re here. Through powerful questions and inspiring stories, he challenges you to identify your gifts, maximize your time, and pursue meaningful work that impacts others. This episode will motivate you to grow, lead, and step fully into your calling. Source: Dr Dennis Kimbro 2025 Dunamis Woman™ & RAM Conference KeynoteHosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 If you don't read, if you don't study, if you don't grow, if you don't develop, if you don't go to the conferences, if you don't go to the seminars, if you don't go to the workshops, if you don't sit in the front row, in the first seat, another student will. And the day you meet another student, you lose.
0:34 Speaker 01 Welcome back to the Quote of the Day Show. I am your host, Shawn Croxton of seancroxton.com. We got Dr. Dennis Kimbrough taking the stage today. Our QOD is this: If your work is your play, you'll never work a day in your life. He's gonna give us two surprising recommendations for entrepreneurs. He's also going to encourage us to identify our area of excellence, or as Dr. Gay Hendricks calls it, your zone of genius. He's also gonna talk about like, what are you doing with your time? You only have so much time. If we live forever, we wouldn't do anything. We would just put it off. But because we don't, we only have so much time.
1:17 Speaker 01 So what are you doing with it? Dr. Kimbrough is coming up.
1:24 Speaker 00 I was on a podcast and podcast host said, "What books would you suggest? What books do you tell your students?" And I said, "You know, I'm a bit of a crazy guy. You can learn from anything." I mean, come on, man. I'm in front of Gen Z all day, every Tuesday at 13. Yeah, I can learn from rap lyrics and blah, blah. So I did suggest a few books. And one of the books that I suggest that you get is Alice in the Looking Glass. And he poo-pooed me. He gave me, "Put a nursery rhyme? That's a child book. You teach NBA class?" What is that? I said, "That's one of the best entrepreneurial business books out there." He said, "You gotta be kidding." He said, "Well, you know, in 1863, 1864, Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland.
2:07 Speaker 00 And his sequel, follow-up book, which has everything to do with you, is Alice in the Looking Glass in 1869." And to give you the backflap story, there's Alice in the garden, and she stumbles right in front of a mirror, the looking glass. Now, this is where you come in. Louis Carroll, the author, says when Alice sees her reflection in the looking glass says, "Alice, what do you see?"
2:38 Speaker 00 "Dunamis, when you look in the mirror at home, what do you see?"
2:43 Speaker 00 I don't care what room you go into, ladies, every room for the rest of your life that you go into will contain two seats. Number one, the seat that you aspire to take.
2:57 Speaker 00 And number two, the seat that you will take.
3:02 Speaker 00 And that's why I got a sign in my classroom. That one time, everybody on that campus, a clock later, knew my class. Why? I had a sign on my door. And what did that sign say? "If you don't want to, you know, if you don't want to work hard and you don't want to lead, under no circumstances walk through my door."
3:24 Speaker 00 "'Cause I got a big ego, I'm all that." No, it's not fair to all the people who gave me an hour or a portion of the day to be interviewed, and I got them all. From Tyler Perry to Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey spoke in my class.
3:38 Speaker 00 Ayala Van Zer spoke in my class. Eric Thomas, well, he spoke in my class.
3:45 Speaker 00 Ladies, you should have been there when Tyrese Gibson spoke in my class.
3:52 Speaker 00 Dr. Kimbrough, take a picture of me and Mr. Gibson. No, I don't want you in the picture, Dr. Kimbrough, just me and... Calm down, little girl.
4:09 Speaker 00 Wow. Wow. So what do you see? What do you... That's why I got a sign in my classroom that reads, "If you don't read, if you don't study, if you don't grow, if you don't develop, if you don't go to the conferences, if you don't go to the seminars, if you don't go to the workshops, if you don't sit in the first row, in the first seat."
4:33 Speaker 00 Another student will. And the day you meet another student, you lose.
4:40 Speaker 00 You lose.
4:44 Speaker 00 So it wouldn't be fair to all of them. Now going back, why are you here to serve? Number three, what can you do?
4:58 Speaker 00 In other words, I'm asking you, do you know your area of excellence? Do you? And if you don't know your area of excellence, I need to know why you don't know.
5:11 Speaker 00 Why did the Lord take time out of his busy schedule to blow breath into your lungs? Come on, connect the dots. Why was I born in 1950 and my dad born in 1914? Well, the world, the universe wasn't ready for me then.
5:31 Speaker 00 But when 1950 came, all the stop signs were removed, all the lights were turned green.
5:38 Speaker 00 If you live the normal life, and what is a normal life according to Census Bureau? Seventy-seven, seventy-eight years on earth. That's all it is. I hope and pray I live longer, fruitful life, a fulfilling life. But if you live the normal life, do the calculus.
5:54 Speaker 00 You get 28,000 weeks. You get 40,000 days. Ladies, I'm telling you, time is not running out.
6:05 Speaker 00 But your life is.
6:08 Speaker 00 So here's the entrepreneurial question. What are you gonna do with the rest of the life that you have left?
6:16 Speaker 00 So what is your area of excellence? Why are you here?
6:23 Speaker 00 And how do you even find your area of excellence? You ask yourself three critical questions. Question number one, what do I love to do? What do I have the passion for? What can I throw my whole heart and soul into?
6:38 Speaker 00 Dr. Kimbrough, what do you love to do? I'm a nerd. My daughters make fun of me, man. When I was a sophomore undergrad, my fraternity brothers called me the professor. I said, why you guys call me the professor? What's that about? Kimbrough, you always got a book on your arm. If we're ever looking for you, we know exactly where you are, you're in the library. Anytime a, you know, speaker comes to campus, you always sit in the front row taking notes. What's this about?
7:04 Speaker 00 They saw something that they could see from a distance, what I couldn't sit up and see up close.
7:11 Speaker 00 So, what do I love to do? I love the academics, I love teaching. I love putting my hand on the next generation and making a difference. But that's my life. Question number two, what would you do for free?
7:27 Speaker 00 If no one ever paid you a dime, if no one ever gave you financial reward for your effort, what would you do for free?
7:38 Speaker 00 I teach at an HBCU. I love my HBCU. They only got 109 of them. Got what, barely 320,000 students. Climbing the rough side of the mountain to go ahead and organize and build these schools.
7:56 Speaker 00 But I don't care who you are, you ain't gonna make a whole bunch of money teaching at HBCU. I'm walking distance to Georgia Tech, I can walk the four miles to Georgia Tech. I take my fancy Northwestern PhD degree over to Georgia Tech, they don't double, it's gonna be one of the
8:13 Speaker 00 But it's not about that.
8:17 Speaker 00 It's not about that. What did Steve Jobs say when he was the first and the youngest billionaire at the time? A lot of people always ask me, Steve, how does it be so young and be a billionaire? He said, I didn't build insanely products, useful products for the money.
8:33 Speaker 00 I did it to improve the lives of others. You see, that's Nelson Mandela.
8:40 Speaker 00 That's Nelson Mandela mindset, ladies. And what do you know about Nelson Mandela? There he was fighting for every breath, about to make his transition, surrounded by his SEAL lieutenants. Lying on that bed and he could see a young man at the door, a journalist, wanted to ask one last question. And Mandela's handlers just pushing way, no, he's too tired, he's not up to it today. And Mandela saw him, he said, wait a minute, come on in, come on in.
9:11 Speaker 00 And the journalist said, Mr. Mandela, one last question. He says, sure, what is it, young man? He said, what is the purpose of life? And Mandela said, the only way I can answer that question is ask you two questions. Question number one, have you moved from fear to fearless?
9:32 Speaker 00 Have you?
9:34 Speaker 00 Do you really know who you are? Adam, where are you though? I was hiding, Lord. Why were you hiding, Adam? I was afraid. Adam, who taught you fear? I didn't. That's new to me. Have you moved from fear to fearless?
9:53 Speaker 00 And number two? Have you closed the gap between the promise and the performance?
10:03 Speaker 00 Because when you're doing what you love to do, and you would do it for free, your work is your play. And if your work is your play, you'll never work a day in your life. So my classes are Tuesday and Thursday. It's no big deal for me to just throw on some clothes and go up on campus on Friday. And my daughter says, "Dad, I can't believe you go on campus Friday, man. Four-day weekend, what are you doing?" I said, "Wen, this is my life. I chose to do this. This is, this is my purpose. This is my calling."
10:36 Speaker 00 And then last but not least, in your area of excellence, ladies, if you can't answer those two questions, go to somebody who you respect and admire. Go to that individual and ask him or her, "What do you see me doing?"
10:54 Speaker 00 And in my MBA class, when everybody's grown folks, I bring in champagne. When my students identify the one reason why they are here, their area of excellence. Because when you identify your area of excellence, two things you never have to worry about for the rest of your life. Number one, you never have to worry about employment. And number two, you never have to worry about income. Why? Society will seek you out. Everybody wants to be a part of the best.
11:28 Speaker 00 So find your area of excellence. And then last but not least, where are you going?
11:36 Speaker 00 Where are you going?
11:42 Speaker 01 That was Dr. Dennis Kimbrough. You can check out today's entire talk on YouTube. It's called Dr. Dennis Kimbrough 2025, Duminous Woman and Ram Conference Keynote. All right, friend. Coach John Wooden is back on the show tomorrow. I'll see you then. Have a good one. Peace.
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