Jabari Hall, an international empowerment speaker, came to WCU on the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 20 to share his “10 Secrets to Success” with students in Sykes.
Hall was born in Trinidad but grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he said he had to avoid gang and drug violence on the streets. Staying committed to his studies, Hall went on to receive a full scholarship to Penn State University and graduated with a degree in information technology (IT).
Hall stayed in the IT field for 13 years before making a career change to motivational speaking. “I lost my sense of zeal, I lost my sense of purpose in IT and I was wondering what my purpose on earth was. There was a day in church where I heard the Holy Spirit in my ear telling me I have been put on this earth to empower people, empower the youth. It has been my journey to want to provide more to people,” said Hall.
Hall has grown his motivational work to include many topics such as becoming a leader, creating standards, building and creating value, working on yearly goals and having a life coach. He came to WCU to present his “10 Secrets to Success” seminar.
Students gathered in a meeting room on the second floor of Sykes as Hall greeted each person who entered the room.
Once the seminar began, Hall had everyone in the audience close their eyes and imagine they were in a perfectly white room sitting in a chair and every goal they had created for themselves had been conquered. He wanted them to imagine that, in that moment, everyone was successful in their own individual ways.
Hall turned the lights on and then asked everyone to write what they saw in their minds; what they had accomplished and what made them successful. Once everyone was finished, he asked them to fold up the notecards and place them in their pockets for later on in the event.
At this point, Hall officially began his talk, starting with his definition of success. Hall had gone all the way back to the root of the word success, analyzed current definitions and considered all the possibilities for its meaning before concocting his definition. Success as defined by Hall is, “A person or thing that positively results from a disciplined pursuit of becoming more of one’s destiny.”
Then Hall delved into what everyone in the audience wanted to know: the secrets to success.
“The secret to success is discovering how to apply the key to success,” Hall explained.
According to Hall, the key to success is “you.” Therefore, it takes applying oneself for success to occur. He used the analogy of a key for your house: It is customized to each person, and only that individual knows exactly how to open their house using their key. Now that the secret of success had been uncovered, Hall changed the name of his 10 secrets to the “10 Principles of Success.”
Some of Hall’s “10 Principles of Success” are: put your God first, think positive and dream big, maintain maximum focus, believe in yourself, law of compounding interest and preparation is everything. Unfortunately, the seminar had to come to a close before Hall could go over his final principles of success. However, he encourages all to go to jabarihall.com/IWANTMORE and contact him to hear the rest of the principles so he can explain each step in depth, as well.
Hall wrapped up the event by having everyone reopen the pieces of paper mentioned earlier. He asked everyone to think about if they now had a different perspective on success and how to achieve their goals.
“My definition of success changed significantly after attending this workshop. So now I know I am the key to success, so no matter what my vision of success is today, it can always change, but I know I can always accomplish it,” said Briana Boner, a junior public health major at WCU.
The final part of this event was a Q&A where audience members asked Hall many questions and for more advice.
“Best piece of advice: live life with no regrets. Have your experiences, they make you who you are and then you’ll know what not to do in the future,” said Hall.
Hall travels around the country speaking to a variety of audiences on an array of topics. He is currently trying to make his way around more college campuses to present his “10 Secrets to Success” seminar. Hall also created and runs his own nonprofit called J-Has-Heart. Developed by Hall, this nonprofit is dedicated to spreading the message of thinking positively and dreaming big, along with other empowerment curriculum to 100 middle and elementary schools by 2020.
“The best part about doing this is seeing someone being able to be free and operate within their love for themselves because there is so much sadness in the world and when I impact someone’s life and have them believe in themselves and love themselves, then I know I made a difference. Who doesn’t want to make a difference? So at the end of the day, I get my own joy and my own blessing,” said Hall.
For more information on Hall and to learn all about his seminars and other endeavors, visit http://jabarihall.com/.
Mackenzie Haverdink is a fourth-year student majoring in communication studies. ✉ MH850486@wcupa.edu.