Tyler Perry Reflects on Journey from Homelessness to Studio Mogul: Look for the Little Things that Encourage You

EXCERPT:

PERRY: "It was too much. It's too much. The pain was too much. What I’d been through was too much. I’m homeless. I don’t have food to eat. It's just -- I’m done. And in that moment, as I’m sitting there praying in tears, which never happened because everybody's warming their cars up, all the cars drive away almost simultaneously. It’s little moments like that that I'd be like, 'Okay, I guess I have to get up and go to work today.' Those moments gave me, like, 'You’re okay. You will be okay.' So, I would say to anybody, just look for the little things that encourage you, even if you don’t see anything, the little, small things that keep you going. So, for every little thing that somebody did, I was able to make a little step. And each step was forward. And to be here on this side, what I say to anybody, if the pain is the buy-in, what are you paying for? Had I stopped then, had I died then, had I given up, I would have missed the best part of my life. I would have missed being able to help thousands of people see their dreams come true. So, my hope for anyone who knows, like you know it, you know it in your soul, there’s something -- no path, nothing makes sense, you don’t know how to get there, but you know for sure something’s out there, my hope is, one little step at a time, keep going."