As we change, we bring 1,000of our brothers with us. That’sthe quote Aric Bostick uses todescribe not only the impact ofhis work, but also his desire topropel himself forward. Bostickis asuccesstrainer for kids andmotivational speaker, rankingNo. 1 in Google searches for‘teen speaker’. He travels theU.S. speaking to teens, parentsand educators about the toolsto succeed in the game oflife. Some of these kids comefrom broken environments;others come from privilegedbackgrounds. They all drawfrom his passion.
It’s not so much thatBostick comes from an idyllicchildhood – he doesn’t. Hischildhood was riddled withabuse, emotional neglectand instability. But Bostickmanaged to turn what was anenormous hurdle into selfhealing,and ultimately intohis passion.“I can talkto kidsbecauseI’m real. I’m willing to saywhateveryone else is thinking,”he says. “I’ve made a businessout of trying to teach what I’mtrying to learn.”
Bostick was essentiallygroomed to be a motivationalspeaker from an early age. Afterrunning away from his mother’shome and moving back to SanAntonio with his father, he wasdetermined to make a change.Bostick’s father, a recoveredalcoholic, used to drag himaround to inspirational speakersand deep therapeutic sessionsin an effort to gain groundover his addiction. Bostick waswriting out goals and readingZig Ziglar’s “See You at the Top”in ninth grade, without evenrealizing the impact of thoseinfluences. Additionally, Bostickhad a high school basketballcoach who believed in him: BillyGillispie, now coaching at theUniversity of Kentucky. Bostickwas a 4–foot, 9–inch kid on theB–Team when he met CoachGillespie. A year later he madethe varsity team. Basketballquickly became Bostick’s driveand platform for future success.
He later became a JudsonHigh School teacher, and startedthe Goal Setters Club. When herealized the impact he had onhis students, Bostick knew hehad a calling beyond teaching.“As a teacher, I was reachingmaybe 180 kids a year. If I couldmake my passion a business,I could reach 100,000 kids ayear,” he says. “I wouldn’t bethe speaker I am today withouthaving worked with teenagestudents. You’d better haveyour armor on when you talk toteens, especially those comingfrom tougher backgrounds.They see me and think I’m just ablonde–haired, blue–eyed whiteguy who doesn’t know whatthey’ve been through. Afterthey hear my story, and feelmy energy they have a wholenew picture of who I am andhow they can learn from myexample. I’m an underdog whohas made a business out of beinga champion for underdogs.”
Bostick knows he’s fortunateto be able to do what he loves.“There have been times whenI’ve spoken to an audience ofonly eight people. The first timeI spoke was because a kid frommy Goal Setters Club asked meto come speak at his church,which was in a portable buildingon Highway 78 in Converse.When I showed up, they literallyread my teaching resume asmy introduction, and after Ispoke they passed the plate andgave me $82. I had no idea thatI could get paid to do what Iloved. But I knew I had to actlike a full–time speaker beforeI could be a full–time speaker.”Bostick did 650 speeches forfree over the next two yearsat the school and around SanAntonio. The first six months asa full–time speaker he spoke to6,000 kids; the next six monthshe spoke to nearly 40,000. “Itgrew bigger than me really fast,”Bostick says.
Turning his passion into hisbusiness hasn’t been so easy.“Most people aren’t willing tospend [time, money or otherresources] to get where theywant to go. You have to bewilling to put in the work, tospeak to eight kids in an emptychurch on the eastside, so tospeak. Whatever it is, do itbecause you love it and let yourpassion become your business.You do what your heart leadsyou to do and the finances willtake care of themselves.”
And the message that hesends to kids? It’s the same asthe message he sends to adultsabout living your passion:be true to yourself; live yourdreams, not someone else’s.“When you chase the wronggoal, you will never arrive.Chase your goal, and you arethere.”
