BET personality Jeff Johnson recently released his new book “Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am: Discovering Your Personal Best” in hopes if inspiring the youth. Speaking with Frank Ski and Wanda Smith from Atlanta’s V-103’s Frank & Wanda Morning Show, Johnson spoke about educational statistics and that the facts are if you don’t graduate from high school, you’ll most likely be in jail, unemployed or not making any kind of money that you’ll be happy with and how that all ties in together spiritually. Johnson stated,
“There’s a documentary that Mario Van Peebles just did called “Bring Your A-Game” that was on BET a few weeks ago. Kevin Liles was in it, Jay-Z was in it as well and it talked about the pipeline from dropping out to jail [and addressing the educational crisis]. And part of my book is really about how we get to the place where we help our young people but not just our young people but our seasoned folks too. Understanding that being my personal best is not just having a good job because you and I both know, there are people that are great at what they do but their life is torn apart.
‘Because spiritually I’m not in the right place, I’m married but I don’t know my wife… I don’t see my kids, I ignore my friends because I’ve been conditioned to believe that as long as I succeed and excel in this one area that makes me great.’”
Cousin Jeff also spoke on Kanye West who wrote the forward to his book who also happens to be at the top of his game musically but he has some spiritual and personal issues he’s yet to address which played a part in his recent failures outside the music.
“Kayne did the forward for me. The book came out two days after the VMA debacle so I had people texting me like, “Dude what you gonna do, are you mad at Kanye,” and I’m like no, this personifies what the book is about. This shows that you can be at the top of your game and still have a bottle of Hennessey on the red carpet, because you ain’t dealt with your stuff.
And so first of all, as opposed demonizing the brother, pray for him and secondly understand that most of us go through the same things but our stuff isn’t put on television and people talking about it on blogs. The third chapter deals with being whole and how can we identify each of those pieces that make us who we are and then develop a strategy. And that’s not just for young people that’s for parents too.”
During the dialogue, the conversation shifted to people having to discover their personal best which often means having to distance yourself from certain family members and friends. Johnson added,
“Some of us are afraid to break away from friends that can’t get us to where we need to go. Let’s look at it from a sports team perspective, some people need to be on your team and some people just need to be spectators. And spectators still get into the stadium, I’m gonna get you court side seats to watch me do this but you can’t get on the field and help me win. So you got to surround yourself with people, so that’s part of what I’m talking about. But if you don’t have people on your team that can help you go those places, that can encourage you to do those things, that can pick you up when you fall, you’ll find yourself isolated in the long run. Or either you’re gonna be surrounded with people that say they care about you but don’t have the capacity to help you get you where you need to be.”
For more info on “Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am: Discovering Your Personal Best,” click here.
Johnson will also be Atlanta today doing book signings at Walden Books at the CNN center at 12:15 p.m. and Borders at Stonecrest at 7 p.m.
