How To Build Your Vision From The Ground Up | Q&A With Bishop T.D. Jakes

I

want to read you something, and this was written
by Judd Apatow. He was writing about the comedian

Albert Brooks and how he got a chance to work
with one of his heroes. And just a couple

of sentences, but he said something that I
would love to say about Bishop Jakes before

he comes and … He said, “In your dreams
as a young guy, you imagine your heroes to

be one thing, and then you get a chance to
work with one of them, and he’s actually even

better.” He said, “Deep down, all comedy nerds
hope that at the end of our lives we will

have made one movie as good and true as Albert
Brook’s best movies.” I’ll modify that a little

bit. Deep down all preachers and leaders hope
that at the end of our lives we will have

preached one sermon as good and true as Bishop
T.D. Jakes worst sermon. Would you put your

hands together Elevation Church and welcome
to the stage the one, the only, Bishop T.D.

Jakes.

I don’t know how we’re supposed to do this,
but I want to tell you right off that bat,

this is my Steven Furtick outfit. This is
me trying to be cool like your pastor. Did

I do pretty good? Cool, man.

So I inspired you?

You inspired me.

Can we call it even now for all of the stuff
I’ve ripped off from you over the years?

The only problem is my thighs can’t breathe.

That’s a problem. So if we see you leaning
over …

Yeah, I need a EMT for my knees, but I’m good.
Woo.

Woo.

You can’t dance in these things, man.

You can’t?

You know you just got to jump up and down.

Can you soar?

I can soar in them. I can soar in them.

How would you like to hear Bishop T.D. Jakes
and Pastor Steven Furtick sing I Believe I

Can Fly by R. Kelly, a duet to begin this
interactive experience? Is that something

you might be interested in? All the millennials
are like, “R. What?”

Right.

Maybe we’ll do that at the end.

No, let’s not.

Do you like that song?

Yeah, I like the song.

What are some songs that you like to listen
to, Bishop Jakes, that don’t get played in

church?

That don’t get played in church? Woo. Cut
the cameras.

Oh, you guys can be seated, we’re hanging
out now. They’re so excited.

I like Luther Vandross. I like Anita Baker.
You know. I like, lesser known but extremely

talented is, Keiko Matsui. Keiko Matsui is
a Japanese jazz pianist that is absolutely

out of this world. And I listened at her this
evening before I came over here, so I’d have

my international flavor. Yeah. So I like all
kinds of music. I like classical music. I

like gospel music, of course. I like just
about every kind, every genre. Even some country.

I’ll go country on you every now and then.

Greatest rock and roll band of all time?

Oh, god, now I’m in trouble. I don’t go rock
and roll.

No?

Though it’s funny, I grew up in the Jimi Hendrix
era, so you know, anybody call you Jimi Hendrix?

No. Big poster over on my wall. My life’s
ambition was to have his Afro. I had women

braiding my hair till my eyeballs were up
like this, trying to get my hair to grow.

It never happened. I didn’t hair till the
Jheri curl.

That was your moment.

You don’t know nothing about the Jheri curl.

Yes, sir, I do.

You don’t know nothing about that.

I mean not from personal experience, I’ve
seen pictures.

You’ve seen pictures of it. Well, when I used
to preach years ago, I wore a Jheri curl and

I had a towel around my neck. And when I got
to really preaching … you’ve seen some pictures

or something? Yeah. And the Jheri curl, the
juice would fly across the center aisle, and

everybody would get … in the spirit. Those
were the days when the power of God was falling.

Is that the secret?

That’s the secret, you’ve got to get a curl.

I’m in trouble. I’m so excited about this
new book, “Soar.” Excited to talk to you about

it tonight.

Thank you.

I’ve been reading it. It’s kind of weird,
though. I had to do my research to interview

you, and so I put in Amazon, because the book
is subtitled, “Build Your Vision From The

Ground Up,” and focuses on leadership, entrepreneurship.
So I put entrepreneur in Amazon search, and

over 56,000 results. Over 56,000 results.
And then I put in leadership. Over 257,000

results.

Amazing.

Which made me wonder, for my first official
question of the interview, what was missing

from the conversation that made you want to
add your voice?

Timing. What we need depends on where we are
in the history of this country. The topography

of this country has changed in terms of how
we make a living quite a bit from agricultural.

We went through that phase to the Industrial
Age to the Information Age, that we’re currently

in right now. And people have had to retool
themselves in order to keep up with trends

they didn’t choose. Now we’re in an era where
people of my generation sent our kids to school,

because we trained them to think ‘a job.’
And we said if you go to school and you get

a good education, you’re going to come out
and you’re going to get a great job, and that

was true when I was coming up. But that’s
not true today. Today, you can … am I right

about it? Today you can go to school, you
can get a great education and come out with

a good bill. A whole lot of debt, and end
up working at Burger King. Nothing against

Burger King. But, how do we … I have to
be careful, brother like me gets sued on a

regular. The
question then becomes how do we, with our

education and our disappointment, living in
our mother’s house, sleeping on the couch,

eating cereal at noon, retool ourselves so
that we can be functional in the 21st Century?

I listen at the argument that our country’s
having right now. It’s hard to listen to.

But, beneath all of the chatter, the Red Belt
states and the inner cities are crying about

the same thing, the lack of opportunity. And
we’re looking to the White House to solve

the problem. And the reality is, that’s not
going to happen. That’s not going to happen.

And we need solutions. And this goes beyond
… we like to talk in terms of, we have nice

terms for it, but it’s really black and white
… urban and Red Belt states is really black

folks, white folks. But now, we’re both getting
broke. Okay, which is a scary situation. And

you’ve got smart, bright, gifted, talented
people who can’t find an opportunity. Also,

in our community, and even in other communities,
you have this dilemma of people who made mistakes

when they were young, some criminal justice
issue, and 25 years later they can’t get a

job or a place to stay.