CLARKSDALE – When quirky motivational speaker Jason Dorsey met 1,500 students in the Pinnacle at Coahoma Community College Wednesday, it was love at first sight.

The two-way connection was electric as Dorsey introduced himself as a 4-ft, 10-inch kid growing up in a small Texas town where no one would have anything to do with him except troublemakers.

“With nothing to do, people dressed up to go to the dollar store,” quipped the non-conventional speaker.

Communicating with jumps, shouts, and humor, Dorsey asked, “How many of you have friends who get you into trouble? We call that leadership; it makes you feel better about yourself.”

Dorsey talked about an educator changing his life forever in the 10th grade when he convinced him to apply for a special summer college program in Florida.

“What is the worst thing people can say?,” he asked, and says the simple answer is "Just ‘No.’”

“Fear of rejection,” Dorsey said, is everyone’s problem,” he said.

When Dorsey applied, was accepted, and flew for the first time to Florida, at age 16, he discovered, “I’m not like them,” (the other students from big cities who were smart, rich, and older).”

However, he says, he learned that coming from a small geographically diverse background can be an asset.

“But you have to apply,” he emphasized

His next adventure was an archaeological dig in Israel; and the next – assuming a $20,000 loan to enter college via financial aid and work study tutoring a basketball player.

“I helped him learn to read at the age of 20; he finally was able to read a book to his daughter,” he said.

“If your goal is money, you never have enough, but if money doesn’t matter what would do,” I asked myself, Dorsey says.

Helping out his friends who had given up on life at age 18 was his answer.

“I wrote a book in three weeks; went $50,000 in debt; slept on the floor for a year; learned 38 ways to cook ramen noodles including with Tabasco and marshmallows,” he said.

The book became a best seller; four more followed and Dorsey became an internationally-renowned motivational speaker on-site and on national television.

“I have talked to 100,000 students and 90 percent of them have the same fear – the fear of failure,” he said. “They think, if I never try, I never fail – and they become good at making excuses.”

“Because my family doesn’t have any money, is an excuse – that’s where you start, not where you finish,” he said

“Don’t make excuses; you give away any power to choose; don’t tell me you can’t go to school or I’m not smart like you – I had the lowest ACT score on record; I got a tutor for every class, because I said I was going to make it.”

“Everyone will have tough days, it’s how you deal with it; life might not be fair or easy, but make it work,” he said.

Attending the program sponsored by Tech Prep and CCC’s Lyceum series, were students from Clarksdale Youth Leadership, Thomas Shaw Alternative School in Clarksdale, Cleveland Career Center, Coahoma Agricultural High School and CCC.

Introducing the speaker was Dr. Clarence Hayes, Tech Prep coordinator, who says he met Dorsey several years ago.