Good morning. To our Honorable Sheriff Campbell, Drill Academy Commander Peterson, staff and distinguished guests, it gives me great pleasure to share in this event with you today.

And to the Transitioning Class of the Leon County Drill Academy the first thing I want to offer you is my congratulations. Congratulations on being bigger than the negative forces that might have led you down another road to another place that might not have been as pleasant and as caring as this one. I want to also congratulate you on completing this class and in doing so, achieving success in the eye of a storm.

Your experience with the Leon County Drill Academy I’m sure will leave you with a mixture of bitter and pleasant memories, a mixture of the negative forces that brought you here and the positive energy that lets you know that you can make it in spite of who may have told you that you can’t. As I look out at the 16 of you who will be transitioning today, I know that while your backgrounds and experiences are diverse, there are some common attributes you were both born with and have the ability to take on that can propel you to personal success.

Before I get into what I will call a Formula for Personal Success, I want to ask you and I just want you to consider this to yourselves: What is important to You? What do you want for yourself in life? Most important, what are you willing to do to get what you want in life? You may not have all the answers to these questions now, but write them down. These are questions I ask myself periodically, because I never feel as though I’ve arrived. We are always changing, always growing, and our needs and desires change just as quickly as the circumstances of our lives.

And at any time circumstances that happen to us in life can either put us on the wrong path or propel us to greatness. I have found that often the same circumstances that lead us to a negative condition actually serve to teach us valuable lessons that can still in effect lead us to a positive destination. And so, the key to turning a negative situation into a positive one is to catch ourselves early. This is the purpose that the Leon County Drill Academy was founded. To catch young lives early and put them on the right path. To give some who may have given in to peer pressure, or poverty, or other negative motivations, some tools to get on and stay on a path to success. Our young people are our future and we as responsible adults must take responsibility for all of our youth. The Drill Academy is one entity that has assumed this responsibility. And this is why the Leon County Board of County Commissioners has been so supportive of the Drill Academy and its efforts.

Now, on to Your Formula for Personal Success...

As I stated before, there are several qualities we are born with and some that we acquire.

First of all we have inborn attributes. By this I mean our God-given talents. We are all born with talents. But if we don’t identify them and learn to use them and improve upon them they will go away. So, what are you good at? What do you enjoy? Often we have the same answers to these two questions.

Then we have acquired attributes. Things we learn in school and in extracurricular activities, or from other friends and mentors, that we come to learn we are good at. When we blend our acquired attributes with our God-given talents, say for instance, when we combine our acquired ability to throw a football with our God-given talent to run fast, we have within us the makings of an excellent running and passing game in football. Once we are aware of the inborn and acquired attributes we possess, the only thing that will make or break our success in using them is the third quality that is a part of your formula for success...

A Positive Mental Attitude. We are born with a positive attitude. Have you ever seen a little child learning to crawl or walk? I have seen my children fall and fall and fall in their efforts to learn to walk, but I’ve never seen a toddler trying to walk get discouraged and decide not to learn how to walk. What causes such determination? A little child can keep trying and trying and trying until he or she learns to walk because they don’t really know they can’t do it. They believe they can. Because they believe they can they keep trying until they do.

But as we get older something happens. As life goes on we begin to hear what we can NOT do. Because of our race, because of our gender, because of what others perceive as our limitations, or potential, we begin to hear what we cannot do. Often these messages come from our parents, our teachers, and others close to us whose opinions we respect. And so, we believe them. I challenge you now to make every attempt to reverse all the "I can’t’s" in your life and replace them with "I can" and "I will".

Like Nike says, "Just do it". Without a positive mental attitude all best laid plans are doomed to failure. Think positive. Know that you can do it.

The final quality that we must have is that of Performance. Once we have identified our talents and skills that we have acquired, and we believe we have the ability to use them in a positive way, we must take action. We must put our beliefs to action. We must prove ourselves to ourselves. Many times we talk about what we want in life - the things we want, the plans we have. But as has often been said, talk is cheap. We must put our thoughts to action. Otherwise, we are doing nothing with the gifts we have. Performing and demonstrating your potential will show who you are to others, and will most importantly show who you really are to yourself.

From this point on, constant self-examination will not just be something good to do. It will be necessary to your personal growth. I have come to learn, and so will you, that the opinions of others, while they may hurt when they are negative, do not really matter at all. It is the opinion you have of yourself and your life that counts. I encourage you to do all you can to stay on the positive road you are now on and to design for yourself your tailored Formula for Personal Success. I wish you God speed and continuous progress toward your goals and dreams.

Thank you.