Eric Thomas — ET The Hip-Hop Preacher, PhD, Motivational Speaker | Self Growth Videos
Dr. Eric D. Thomas — known to millions as ET The Hip-Hop Preacher — is one of the most in-demand motivational speakers in the world. A former high-school dropout who spent two years homeless before finding his way back to education, Thomas eventually earned his PhD in education administration. His 'How Bad Do You Want It' speech — and the line 'when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful' — has been streamed hundreds of millions of times and adopted as a locker-room anthem by professional sports teams across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA.
etinspires.com →Eric D. Thomas was born September 3, 1970 in Chicago, Illinois, and raised by his mother and stepfather in Detroit. At 16 he learned that the man he had always known as his father was not his biological father. The revelation broke something in him. He dropped out of high school, left home, and spent roughly two years homeless on the streets of Detroit — sleeping in abandoned buildings, eating out of dumpsters, working odd jobs for cash.
A chance encounter with a preacher at a bus stop changed the trajectory. The man spoke to him long enough — and with enough directness — to get him to go back home. Thomas eventually earned his GED, enrolled at Oakwood University in Alabama on a speech-and-motivation scholarship he mostly talked his way into, and met his future wife Deanna.
He kept going. A bachelor’s from Oakwood. A master’s in counseling from Michigan State. In 2015 he completed his Ph.D. in education administration from Michigan State, writing his dissertation on the experiences of Black male dropouts who later earned their degrees — a research topic that was, in essence, the story of his own life rendered in academic form.
While still completing graduate school, Thomas had begun doing speaking work. He started with high-school audiences in Detroit, then regional churches, then college campuses. His speaking style was unique from the beginning — a cadence he openly called hip-hop preaching, drawing on the rhythm of Black Southern pulpit tradition and the intensity of MCs he grew up listening to. He spoke fast, loud, and without apology. He repeated key lines three and four times until they landed. He paced the stage like a boxer before a round.
In 2008 a video clip of Thomas’s “How Bad Do You Want It” sermon — built around the parable of a young man taken by a guru to the ocean and held underwater until he fought back for air — went viral. The key line became a generational refrain: “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” The clip has been posted and reposted hundreds of millions of times. NBA, NFL, NCAA, and international football teams play it in locker rooms before games. Olympic athletes have credited it by name.
Thomas has since written multiple books — The Secret to Success (2011), Greatness Is Upon You (2016), and You Owe You (2022, co-authored with Chris Paul and featuring contributions from multiple NBA and NFL stars). He runs ETA (Eric Thomas & Associates), a consulting firm that works with NFL, NBA, and MLB organizations on culture and performance. His “Breathe University” online academy, his Thank God It’s Monday (TGIM) weekly video series, and his corporate speaking calendar have built an eight-figure enterprise on top of the original speaking foundation.
His central teaching, compressed: no one is coming to save you. Your circumstances are not an excuse. Pain is information. When the world tells you you can’t, the answer is not to argue — the answer is to get to work and let your results settle the argument. You owe you. Be phenomenal, or be forgotten.
Books by Eric Thomas — ET The Hip-Hop Preacher, PhD, Motivational Speaker | Self Growth Videos
You Owe You
Ignite Your Power, Your Purpose, and Your Will to Win
The 2022 bestseller co-authored with NBA star Chris Paul, with contributions from LeBron James, Jalen Rose, and other elite performers. Thomas's clearest book-length statement of his core philosophy — personal responsibility as the engine of everything else.
Greatness Is Upon You
Laying the Foundation
The 2016 follow-up to The Secret to Success — focused on the mindset and daily disciplines required to hold greatness once you've earned it. Written in Thomas's signature hip-hop-preacher cadence.
The Secret to Success
When You Want to Succeed as Bad as You Want to Breathe
Thomas's 2011 debut — the book-form expansion of the viral 'How Bad Do You Want It' speech. Tells the underlying parable and draws the practical lessons for anyone trying to escape their starting circumstances.
