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Lee Thomas: I really love more informal groups. I've spoken at a few universities that were
just kind of a round table setting and I hope when I'm done with my talk it's, bigger than
the book it's kinda just about me and the book is a memoir of a few years and a few
difficult times.
But hopefully you guys can walk out of here with a, with a better perspective on not only
the way that you approach work, but the way that you approach life because I think every
moment is-is honestly and truly a gift and you can do -- at any moment you can change
your life and-and make all of your dreams realities.
So I always say I don't go anywhere without-without a little TV --
[laughter]
and that's changed over the years 'cause literally a little TV now really means a little TV
[laughter]
but I mean I brought a little DVD for people who might not know me or might have never
seen me on television. Here's a little bit about what I do and a little bit of my story,
so please enjoy. It's about six minutes and then I'll talk on the other side.
[DVD playing]
>>Lee Thomas: "I've been on the job for well over a decade and I'm best known for my fun
celebrity interviews.
Is it 'cause she won an Oscar or 'cause she's unbelievably hot? He goes, 'hot."
[laughter]
>>unidentified speaker: Would you dance with me?
>>Lee Thomas: That's it, that's five times.
So far from Fresh Prince days.
[laughter]
>>Will Smith: You know I try and mix it up a little bit, man. I try and mix it up.
>>Lee Thomas: If you were trying to describe yourself to someone, 'Meryl Streep is,' how
would you finish this sentence?
>>Meryl Streep: A little happy.
[laughter]
It's alright. He's perfect.
>>Lee Thomas: No one is perfect. And little did I know my biggest imperfection would become
my biggest story. Here we go.
When most people see me on camera, I'm fully covered up, fully made up except for my hands
are exposed and they look different.
[pause] Well, here's what I really look like. This
is
my face without makeup. I have a disease called vitiligo. I was diagnosed with it about a
decade ago and it's gotten progressively worse.
In fact, one day, I may be completely void of color; completely white.
Now one to two percent of the world population has vitiligo, that's about 40 to 50 million;
and right here in the United States two to five million people have this disorder, but
I'm fighting back.
>>unidentified medical personnel: "Ready, Lee?
>>Lee Thomas: Yep.
>>unidentified medical personnel: Here we go. Close your eyes.
>>Lee Thomas: Uh-hum.
[music and singing]
"Every little place seems to whisper Louise."
>>Lee Thomas: Over the past five years, I've done various treatments including the latest
technology, light. Why am I telling my story now?
>>unidentified voices: Wiggle your little toesies.
>>Lee Thomas: Over the past few years I've met or spoken with a number of kids and adults
that have vitiligo and many of them have told me that seeing me unafraid to be in the public
eye and enjoying my job helps them.
So frankly, I'm doing this report because a young man asked me to.
I know of a kid who wears a mask to go outside and play 'cause he's afraid of being teased.
I've spoken to a woman who will not leave her house because she has this disease.
[pause]
I know how they feel.
[pause]
Vitiligo is not contagious and it's not life threatening, but it is psychological warfare.
It's tough.
[pause]
So I hope that my story can be an extension of strength and-and courage.
Yeah, the first 20 minutes of my day are spent in a makeup mirror, putting on makeup, getting
ready for work, but I'm happy.
[pause]
This disease does not define me.
[pause] So if you're dealing with a health challenge
or vitiligo, live your life; just make sure you have little fun along the way.
That's my story.
That story aired in November of 2005 and when we televised my story, it got the biggest
viewer response my station has ever seen. But that was only the beginning."
[rock music playing]
>>Larry King: We're back on Larry King Live. The book is "Turning White: A Memoir of Change".
The author is Lee Thomas.
>>Lee Thomas: There was Larry and Montel.
[applause]
>>Lee Thomas: I also got a little TLC.
[music]
My book and my story have traveled the globe and I've even started a support group with
part of the proceeds of the book going back to a charity that I started.
But this journey has turned into so much more than a guy with a disease. It's a life changing,
heartwarming mission as I show myself unmade, unclothed, and unafraid for the whole world
to see.
[slow piano music playing in the background]
>>Lee Thomas: [speaking live] I used to look at these pictures and it would be like devastating.
I would look at myself in the mirror and I would think that people would see a monster
or people wouldn't shake my hand or they wouldn't wanna talk to me or ostracize me, but as time
went on, I started to see myself differently.
It took a little bit of time, but where I saw disaster, I saw something that was shockingly
beautiful in a way; it was almost like art work.
And where I saw destruction and the end of a television career I- I began to see that
this could be something that makes me so incredibly unique that I am singularly defined, which
is what you want in a television career.
And-and I realize that people are simply looking at a citizen, a man, a good person; they were
lookin' at a guy who works hard; they were lookin' at somebody who tries to do the best
he can at everything. And no matter what the obstacle was or no matter what they saw and
knew, they were lookin' at a good person 'cause they were lookin' at me.
Hit them with that million dollar smile – gotta love that.
[end of DVD]
[audience laughter]
>>Lee Thomas: You know, you look at my face and you look at a disease like vitiligo which
can be very devastating and you think that it would be a show stopper.
And for me, for awhile, it- it was. There were times when I wouldn't go out of the house;
there were times when it was difficult for me to see myself or whatever you define yourself
to be. But the outside coating is what you are closely defined with and it was difficult
for me to see myself.
But as time went on and I struggled through the different changes my body was going through,
I am so much more clearly defined as a man, as a, as a father, as a brother; so much more
clearly defined as a African-American, as an individual because I had to clearly define
myself in my own mind and in my own heart that who I was and what I stood for past what
people saw.
And even past what I saw when people saw me, which was the most important thing and the
most difficult thing that I think we all go through.
Now I've-I've traveled all over the world now talking about my story and sharing my
story in the book or-or just in-in speech form, and I've realized in all this time,
I realized it pretty quickly that we all have these things that we think make us different.
The thing that you say, "I can't do this because of that", whatever "that" is.
It can be something that's easily defined as a disease like vitiligo or it can be something
else. Some people think they're too fat, too skinny, can't see, not tall enough, not short
enough, whatever especially when it comes to hairdos or hair --
[laughter]
And all kinds of issues that we deal with that-that stop us from achieving that dream;
that stop you from saying, "I can't do it."
And a lot of times you'll find that when you really sit down with that disaster, you'll
find that the person that's stopping you is always you. It's, you're the one that says,
"Well I shouldn't go. I shouldn't do." And you have to find a way to work yourself out
of that, that self-imposed prison, 'cause that's what I had found myself in.
So I'm gonna go over a few of the obstacles that I face and not only that, I'll go over
how I-I overcame those obstacles and-and share some stories as well along the way.
I always say to people that it was not, was not easy; getting past those-those issues
are-are never easy. And I always go to the-the darkest time for me, the most difficult part,
and I wrote about it in the book; it's a section of the book that I actually posted on line
and it's called: Two Little Girls.
Because in the situation, in these real life events, through these two little girls, it-it
helped me to understand myself better and my situation.
One little girl about two or three, a little cutie like the one that you have --
[laughter]
a little cutie, we were at -- I was at a playscape and I was just walking up to-to -- I was actually
getting ready to go to work and I was on the way and I walked up and the kids were playing
and I just came to, "Hey, let's go have some kids for a second before I have to go back
to 'the news.'"
[laughter]
So I'm standin' at this playscape and this little girl -- she bumps into me. She's kinda
not watching what she's doing, you know how kids are, bumped right into my legs and I
looked down at her, she looks up at me and she screams.
And if you've ever been around kids you know there's different levels of scream --
[laughter]
there's the, "Okay I'll get to that in a minute scream, tell your brother to stop." There
is the, "Okay, what did you just do and are you bleeding." And then there's the, "Drop
everything and get the heck over there as soon as you can because something's seriously
wrong with this kid," any adult would know.
That's the scream that she screamed. And she screamed so loud, everybody at the playscape's
turning and lookin' at me. So I look down and I go, I-I do what anybody else would do,
I reach out say, "What's wrong?" And she screamed louder. And I realized that she was screaming
'cause she saw my face.
So what do you do with that? Because adults are -- they're adults, they have their own
issues and their own problems and they bring those to you and they drop it at your doorstep,
and then they can leave 'em with themselves. Adults are no problem; they can do whatever
they want and I can handle it.
But a kid is pure honesty. I mean the little girl was really afraid. So what do you, what
do you do with that?
So I-I backed up, I-I put my hands by my side and I said, "Somebody come help this kid."
I was the one that was makin' her scream.
And when that happened, I went home and I stayed home for two weeks and three days.
I'd only put on my makeup, I'd go to work, I would, I would do everything that I had
to do; go to the grocery store, go any errands, then I'd go home, I'd take off my makeup and
I'd stay home.
And for two weeks and three days, I lived like that. And that's like prison to me, but
it was a self-imposed prison.
But I didn't wanna go around scaring small kids, you know what I mean? And it was tough
for me to get my head around that. And I'm sittin' there one afternoon after work watching
Oprah --
[laughter]
I'm not afraid to admit it. [clears throat]
And I look over by the TV and-and I see my-my gym shoes; Converse not the Chucks, just regular
All-Stars, you know what I'm sayin'.
[laughter]
And I say that, "I-I just wanna go and-and play basketball. I just wanna go play." And
I can't not go because of this; I can't let this imprison me.
So I decide that I'm gonna go to the gym where I've been goin' for the last [clears throat]
years with all the guys. And the guys have seen it go from one spot on my hand, to a
spot on my scalp, to a spot on my face; they've seen it progress and they don't care. As long
as I hit my jump shot and we win, we're good.
So I go to the gym and people look as much as they always did, but nobody, no-no kids
were scared; no one cried so it was okay.
And I kept doing that. I'd go to places I had been before; the same grocery store I
always go to and I start venturing out a little bit more and it became okay again to go out
to the places I had been before.
And so one day I'm at my favorite grocery store and I'm-I'm reachin', tryin' to get
the ranch flavored rice cakes 'cause I think they're scrumptious --
[laughter]
and the second shelf from the bottom I'm reachin' back and there-there, you know how people
tuck 'em in the back 'cause they're tryin' to save 'em for themselves --
[laughter]
I don't get that, but I-I found it, so I'm reachin' in the back to grab the one ranch
flavored one and I'm lookin' at the thing and at the rice cakes and I hear a little
voice go, "You got a boo-boo?" And I go, "Oh my God, its a little kid," right?
So [laughs] --
[laughter]
what's gonna happen? Am I gonna look up and is she gonna freak out and-and is she gonna
go screaming through the grocery store and everybody's gonna stare at me again? [sighs]
So I kinda froze there and then I go,
"Okay, I gotta do somethin'." She says, "You got a boo-boo?" So I stood straight up and
I go, "No, it's not a boo-boo, I have vitiligo. About one percent of the world population
--
[laughter]
Sixty million people but only 5 million are in the United States. I was talkin' like a
three year old.
[laughter]
So I stop and I go, I go, "No, sweetie, it's-it's-it doesn't, it's-it's-it's not a boo-boo. It's-it's
okay." And she says, "It's not a boo-boo?" And I go, "No, it's not a boo-boo." She said,
"Do they hurt?"
[laughter]
And I said, I looked at her mom and said, "What?" She goes, "Leave the man alone." I
go, "No, no, no this is good.
[laughter]
I just don't know what she said." She goes, "She wants to know if it hurts." She said,
"Does it hurt?"
[laughter]
Oh yeah, it is, "does it hurt?"
[laughter]
So I-I-I bend down, I get on one knee and I say, "No, no sweetie it doesn't hurt at
all. I'm fine." She said, "Does it hurt?" I go, I go, "No." She reaches out and she-she
touches my face and she-she kind of looks at it for a second and she touches the dark part and
the light part and she goes, "Okay." And turned around and grabbed a loaf of Wonder Bread.
[laughter]
Apparently it was, it's more interesting than me.
[laughter]
But that's how kids are.
And-and in the-those two little girls was the definition of dealing with this disease.
People have no idea what it is. I had no idea what it was. So I freaked out completely;
fearful not knowing what it meant. Thinking it was gonna be the end of everything. I freaked
out just as much as that little girl screaming.
But because the other little girl thought she knew what it was, she had nothing but
compassion and-and love. She reached out and-and healed a grown man's pain with one touch.
And because she thought she knew what it was, because it was a boo-boo to her it wasn't
anything of fear. And I got compassion and love and all these things that we all want
anyway even though sometimes we're too tough to admit it.
[laughter]
So right there I knew that if I could handle those two extremes that I could handle a life
with this disease.
Now before that I wasn't handling it very well. It was difficult. I would be the, I
called it, I called it, "the angry black-white guy."
[laughter]
'Cause people would look at me and I would, I would give them -- you know that mean look
we all give when we're walkin' and we don't anybody, everybody puts that face on.
[laughter]
When you're, when you're 6'2" and 190, it's a little meaner, I guess.
[laughter]
If you're African-American, whatever, you give 'em the mean look and you really look
mean.
So I would look at people and they would give me the mean face or the "scared -- don't attack
me" face --
[laughter]
which is definitely not what I was tryin' to get from people. But it was my own fear
thinking that they were gonna say something that was gonna force me to be mean to them,
when I'm really not that kind of a guy.
So I said, "Why am I giving this mean face to the public when it's really not even who
I am?"
So I said, "I'm gonna hit 'em with a megawatt; that got me on TV."
[laughter]
The smile, baby. I'm gonna hit 'em with that.
[laughter]
Every time I just, that's, from here on out, from this day forward, I'm not gonna be to
anybody, white, white guy, I'm gonna hit 'em with the megawatt.
[laughter]
Know what I mean, bam!
[laughter]
Good timing!! You watch the news. Thank you very much!!
[laughter]
And from that day forward since that little girl, I decided that-that-that's what I was
gonna do. And everything changed.
People would come up and you're thinking it's so weird like you'll be in a situation and
you'll automatically think you know what someone's thinking, just by what they do. You don't
know where they've been; you don't know if they're in some kind of physical pain; you
don't know if they have a false leg or a bum eye; you just see a person lookin' at you
funny and you go, "Well that person obviously has [boop]."
And all of a sudden it's the definition of that person when you really have no idea what
that person's life is like or what they're goin' through.
So I said, "I'm-I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm just gonna hit 'em with the megawatt smile
and see what I get." And I got a lot of good stuff. People would smile back; people would
actually ask me, "Is that vitiligo? Is that the same thing Michael Jackson has? I have
a cousin that has that." I got 98 percent positive response from doin' that.
Oh but there was the two percent; the people who had bad things to say, but most of the
time it was an adult that had their own issues along the way.
I-I'll give you an example how flippin' it around changed it for me.
I was at a gas station and you know when you're pumping gas and there's that little space
between the-the mirror and the actual pump where you can see the other person, but you
ignore them anyway.
[laughter]
And you pump your gas and they're like four feet away from you pumpin' their gas, but
you swear you're on two different planets.
>>female in audience: Right.
[laughter]
>>Lee Thomas: So I'm doin' my, "You pump your gas, I'll pump mine," thing and I'm-I'm thinkin'
about work or somethin' and I'm got a lady across the way is like giving me the stink
face.
[laughter]
I call it the stink face because it's the face that you make when you smell somethin'
funky.
[laughter]
You know that one?
[laughter]
She was givin me the stink face. And she's like burnin' a hole on the side of my head
with the stink face.
[laughter]
So [laughs] I like, I hit her with the megawatt. She's like. 'Foo!'
[laughter]
I'm like, "Okay. I'll just keep pumpin' my gas."
So she finishes staring at me and-and walks [laughs] around to go pay for her gas and
I'm still pumpin' my gas. So I-I hit her with the megawatt again, "Hey."
[laughter]
And she goes, "What is wrong with you?"
[laughter]
I go, "Did do the [unintelligible]good enough?"
>>Female: Yeah.
[laughter]
>>Lee Thomas: So I look at her and I go, "Look besides the price of gas, I'm good."
[laughter]
"What's wrong with you?"
[laughter]
She's like, "Huh." And just walks off again.
And ever since, ever since that little girl and ever since I changed my attitude I have
experiences like that where I walk away laughing, and the person walks away with whatever they
walked up to me with. And they take it back with them and go back to their families, God
help 'em ?
[laughter]
to deal with all of that. But I-I walk away with-with dignity and humor intact; and those
are two really important things to me.
So I found that dealing with that in those simple terms and-and taking those small bites
when it comes to that, is one way of-of my way of finding a positive path in something
that could have been negative.
The other thing about it is the truth of the matter is, there's-there's like 500 channels
or more, I mean you all have Dish or whatever you have, and there's Google TV --
[laughter]
and there's like a zillion things that people could watch. And in that landscape of global
television, 'cause that's what it is, and in any instant we can call up a video from,
'China's Got Talent' and a million people will view it in a few hours, a day. There's
a lot of things vying for people's attention today and honestly, as a television personality,
I want people's attention.
And I-I was thinking it's-it's-it's -- attention is a commodity in this world that we live
in now. And people will do it, get, try to get attention at all costs.
I'll just say two words, "reality television." Hello.
[laughter]
They will try to get attention at all costs. I mean Paris Hilton -- what'd she do again?
[laughter]
But she is Paris Hilton you know what I mean? I mean attention at all costs is worth a-a
lot in this day and age 'cause it's really about just having that bit of some person's
mental property in there where they go, "Oh yeah, I know that guy." And that can sell
on-on whatever platform we have -- on the Web or whatever.
And honestly I thought that this was gonna be the end of my little bit of television;
my small bit of TV real estate.
I-I got vitiligo when I had a job in Kentucky. I got a job in New York and hid that I had
it. I only had it on my hand and on my scalp when I got to WABC in New York. Then I would
just put makeup on it and nobody-nobody knew.
When it got on my face completely freaked out. I mean was walkin' in Central Park talkin'
to myself, "What am I gonna do? Go to trucking school or what am I gonna do now." People
were lookin' at me like, "Why does that guy dressed so nice to be homeless?"
[laughter]
"No. No. I'm just talkin' to myself. Don't worry about it." Sat on the bench and I really,
I took my whole lunch break the day I-I was completely diagnosed saying, "This is vitiligo;
it's not curable. What are ya gonna do?" My whole lunch break I was sittin' in the park
talkin' to myself, thinkin' that it's over.
I worked my way through college, I paid for it myself, I got my job in TV and I had been
workin' ever since doin' pretty much entertainment reporting and anchoring which is exactly what
I wanted to do; dream come true kinda scenario.
So when I got the diagnosis, I thought it was done. How can a guy with this kind of
disease with this darker skin, and the-the transition is gonna be crazy and one day it's
gonna be, I'll be sittin' on some island with a hat that says, "Press," on the front; one
of those newsboy caps. "Well I used to be on TV."
[laughter]
So I could impress people at a bar, I mean that's what I thought was my future. And-and
it was hard for me to-to shake that-that image in-in my head.
But honestly, this situation that has happened to me, this disease, has made me, not only
the global spokesperson for this disease, which is a very difficult disease for many
people in a lot of countries. There are still countries on this globe that think vitiligo
is leprosy, and ostracize or even worse to the person who has it in that culture.
So I've become the face of this disease on a global, a global platform. And also I-I
have become, for whatever little bit of mental real estate that means, when people-people
go, I've had people come to work for me that say, "You know my dad knows your story; he
read your book and-and-and he asked me if I was comin' to the station to work with you.
You're the first person I sought out when I came here because I had heard your story."
I was at an airport in Germany and this guys comes up and, "Lee Thomas!" I'm thinkin',
"Oh man!"
[laughter]
I'm gonna be taken down in Germany.
[laughter]
Where's my mom's numbers?
[laughter]
But he-he gives me hugs. "I see you on the Larry King. You are incredible!"
[laughter]
And I'm like, "that's awesome," 'cause I really thought I was going to go to customs on this.
[laughter]
He gives me a hug.
It's incredible how now I've become a-a television personality from Detroit without a doubt.
But now people know all over the globe from Australia to Taiwan who I am.
I've spoken to groups in, last month I was in Italy; month before that I was in Toronto;
I've been goin' all over the country and the globe for that matter. I'm sharing my story.
And I can say that what I thought was gonna be the worst, devastating, show stopping thing
in my life has turned out to be one of the biggest blessings that I've ever had.
And it's incredible to even say that now. It feels funny even coming out, but it's the
absolute truth. It's made me so much of a better man than I was before in the shallow
television world.
[chuckles] I'm doin' an interview with a-a Hollywood actress and-and she's got a pimple
[laughs] --
[laughter]
Like right by her nose, like right in this area. [laughs] And she -- like the makeup
artist comes in and the other makeup artist comes in and she says, "Oh my God, can you
see it?"
[laughter]
Mind you this is in between my interview and someone else's interview so I have to sit
in the chair and I'm sittin' there goin' tryin' not to laugh. She's like, "What?" I'm like,
"If you knew what my face looked like under this makeup, that pimple's like small potatoes."
She goes, "I know, but you have to look -- this is Hollywood." And I go, "I know. It's
Hollywood. It's the way the people view you."
But-but the thing that could have most devastating for me turned out to be the-the most incredible;
the most incredible.
I-I say, I-I share that story especially when I speak to people at companies because sometimes
when you're in the midst of a situation, a difficult task and you look at the difficulties
of that task, you-you pull yourself away from it and pull the emotion away from the task,
and you might find a gem in there that you would not have noticed because it was a such
a devastating, bad thing two seconds ago.
But if you pull yourself away from it and try to look at it at every angle, different
angles, all of a sudden an angle will come out that you never would have thought of.
I mean sittin' at this table I still can't believe I still have my job. It's incredible!
A hundred and twenty-five thousand people every 15 minutes watch the number one morning
show in Detroit 'Fox Two News, the news that works for you.'
[laughter]
But --
[laughter]
I mean I never would have thought --
[laughter]
that —like Austin down there/
[laughter]
Thank you.
I never would have thought that I would be able to maintain my job and-and look like
this and have this disease and slowly change over time.
But it's turned out to be the singular defining thing that defines not only me, it defines
how great my boss and our general manager are, because from day one they've been nothing
but supportive.
'Cause I-I, went it started getting worse when I couldn't hide it anymore, I'd go into
my boss' office and I would say, "I don't know if I'm gonna be able to stay on TV doin'
this." And she goes, "We love what you do. We love your work. Whatever you decide to
do, we're gonna support you. But we want you on our television station." I'm like, "Cool.
Just checking. Good to know."
[laughter]
And I always, especially when I talk to younger kids, I-I try to tell 'em to have-have what
I call "their-their high council" because there's a lot of people who say a lot of stuff,
talkin' about attention. You can hear opinions from anywhere. Just click on your computer,
Google something, you got a zillion opinions on everything.
But you-you can't listen to them all. You have to pick your high council and listen
to those people. And it's usually someone that has a stake in you; someone who has some
kind of emotional stake in you: family or just a really good friend who is that honest
person. And for me it-it's my sister, Beverly. She-she has made me more money.
One time I was tryin' to negotiate a contract and I called my sister and she goes, "You
can't live on that! Ask for 20 grand more!"
[laughter]
I go, "Are you serious?"
[laughter]
She goes, "Just try it; see what happens. But be nice when you say it."
[laughter]
I called her back I'm like, "Get outta here!"
[laughter]
"Five G. Ahh!!!"
[laughter]
But my sister's always been very honest with me and I said to her, "I don't know if I can
continue to do this. I don't know if I can stay doin' this."
And she goes, "Why? Has-has the big boss," (that's the guy in the biggest office, I call
him "big boss") – the general manager ?
[laughter]
"Has the big boss said anything?" And I go, "No. They've been, they're still very supportive."
And she go, "Well has-has the boss said anything? Has she said anything?"
My boss is the news director, my direct boss. And I go, "No. She's, they've been very supportive."
She said, "Have any of your co-workers said that you need to quit because you have vitiligo?"
I go,"No. Not to my face they didn't."
She goes, "Well the only person I hear sayin' it is you. So stop sayin' it. Just stop saying
it. Stop sayin' it; stop thinking it; stop acting that way. Act like it's your job and
that you're gonna have it for a long time, even if you don't believe it right now. Just
act that way."
And it changed; and once again just a simple thing as perspective.
I-I beg to say, I don't beg to say, I'll just say it --
[laughter]
that you can't define somethin' as negative until you define it as negative. Up until
that point it's just something that happened. Up until that point, it's just something that
happened.
You can walk out of this room right now and-and slip and-and-and fall right there in the hallway.
You can get up and go, "I cannot believe that just happened. Why does this kind of stuff
always happen to me?"
But what if while you were slippin' and fallin' in the hallway and doin' all that stuff, there
was something in your office that much worse that would have happened if you wouldn't have
fallen in the hallway?
But you don't know that because you're too busy worried about what just happened in the
hallway to know that you just avoided something much worse. That if you slipped and fell in
your office and hit the side of your desk that you'd be at the hospital.
So it's all about the perspective on the situation; 'cause things happen in life. Nothin's gonna
be smooth sailing ever. It's all about how you prescribe feelings or emotions around
that situation. And-and what you, what weight you give it.
I always say to people that if you, I have this thing I call the five second-five minute
rule; you get five seconds to let it all out when something happens. Because things happen
and you have emotions and you have to deal with those emotions. You take five seconds
and sometimes you may wanna go somewhere by yourself and just let it all out.
Whatever you wanna say, however you wanna say it, let it happen. Stop at five seconds
and then take five minutes to get over it -- if you need five minutes to get over it.
Whatever it takes: call your best friend, write it in your journal, which I highly recommend,
but take those five minutes and really get over it.
I don't mean go over it. I mean get over it. Meaning that situation happened; it's not
defining who I am; it's just the situation that happened. And if you could figure out
why it happened, do that whatever the situation is.
And then change that situation's outcome by the end of that five minutes and go, "You
know what? I'm glad this, this, and this didn't happen and that's the only thing that happened."
And make it something better in that five minutes. And then after five minutes, let
it go. L-I-G. I was interviewing Snoop Dog once he said, "L-I-G, brother --
[laughter]
And I said, "What?"
"Let it go."
[laughter]
Let it go. Don't go back and go, "Man it's this-this happened two weeks ago and it's
happening again." In two weeks, let it go. Let it go.
If you go over your life and there's some things you do over and over all the time;
happen every day. You get up, you take a shower, you brush your teeth, sometimes you don't,
sometimes you don't take a shower. You're still alive; you still have the opportunity
to live. Don't prescribe all these bad things to that one moment so it's gonna devastate
your life.
And-and in five minutes really let it go. And sometimes that's hard to do, because what
happened is tough. And what I do is I, it-it sounds kind of funny, but I call it a-a "happy
thought." And whatever that "happy thought" can be -- and for me I have a two-year old
daughter and she cracks me up; just lookin' at a picture of her. [laughs]
But whatever that is for you for-for a guy I was at a, at a, at a company and I was asking
people what could be your happy thought for-for a guy it was a car that he was workin' on
'cause every time he goes to work on that car. it just, it just makes him, makes him
happy.
It could be your mom; it could be your dog; it could be your house; could be a walk on
the beach you had with your sister, your mother, your girlfriend, your wife, your husband.
But whatever that happy thought is. after that five minutes, go there and live there
for a couple minutes so that you come out of it on the other side of it realizing that,
"I'm still here. They're still here. Life is still good. I'm gonna go home and my daughter's
gonna give me a hug."
Whatever just happened is small potatoes compared to her well-being.
I mean I might have fallen in the hall, somebody might have said something a bit flippant to
me about the way that I look, but they don't sign my paycheck and what they said is not
gonna hurt my daughter [someone in audience coughing] or hurt me. So I move right on and
I don't, I don't harbor, I don't harbor any of those emotions.
I just like sharing-sharing stories in that way because maybe that's somethin' that you
can take with you as you try to overcome obstacles not only in your life, but at work.
It makes, it makes the things that happen at work so much smaller when you big picture,
when you big picture something.
Another thing that I end up talking about --
[pause]
>>female voice: Yeah. Come on in.
[laughter]
[several people talking at same time.
>>Lee Thomas: Another thing, another thing I end up talkin' about a lot is-is Michael
Jackson. He had the disease vitiligo; he talked about different venues and for some reason
people just will not believe it; will not believe it.
I say to people, "What if you were the most popular person on the planet? Your album "Thriller"
is out and there's this album cover with you, baddest dude in the world, women are fainting
at your sight, albums are selling like hotcakes, but you have a secret.
You really look like this instead of that. What do you do for all of those millions of
fans, for all of those millions of fans? And if you're in Hollywood, you hide it. You fix
it. That's the way they do things; they fix it – they fix their hair, nose, butt –
everything else.
[laughter]
Hair, you fix it.
So I-I understand why he hid. I'm pretty sure that's what the people around him told him
to do was to hide. I understand how it became more difficult for him.
gas and the guy behind the counter goes, "Oh come on, you cut this out." I'm like, "What?
I'm just thirty on pump three." "No, no, no stop this with the face thing. You have, you
have the Halloween mask on." I go, "Dude, it's not Halloween really. Thirty on pump
three."
[laughter]
He's like, "No, no, no take this stuff off your face. That is the best makeup I've ever
seen. Take this off your face now. Hey come here, look at this guy. Come here. Come here."
Some other guy comes in, "Oh look at this. Is this a Halloween mask?" [laughs]
I said, "Really, just want gas. You guys are really funny --
[laughter]
should be on Letterman, but I-I want, I want gas."
[laughter]
"No, no, no, no, no."
So the guy, there was two ladies behind me and another guy. The guy literally pushes
me out of the way and goes, "Do you know who this is?"
[laughter]
"Do you know who this guy is?"
And I go, "Please don't. No. No."
[laughter]
"Don't go that route, please. Please I just want-want thirty on three please."
[laughter]
And the lady's like, "I can't believe they're sayin' that. There must be somethin' you can
do. You should call the Problem Solvers. Get a camera out here. They don't know you're
Lee Thomas."
[laughter]
The guy's like, "He is Lee Thomas."
And I'm like, "Oh my God."
[laughter]
And then they realize that-that I, that it's me; that I have a disease; not that I'm Lee
Thomas. But I think the three people on the other side of the counter would mug them if
they didn't just give me my gas.
[laughter]
So they-they take my $30 from me and say, "Thank you."
And I walk off and [laughing] going, "You people are great, like hey follow me around
all the time."
[laughter]
Very entertaining."
But the-the way that people react to the way that you look is-is incredible. So could you
imagine bein' Michael Jackson with all that? I mean really.
I, when I first got the disease, I got one spot. I got a spot on my scalp, got two on
my scalp and then I got one on my hand probably the size of a quarter. And so this was one
of the worse ones that happened while I was here in Detroit.
And it was like early September and I wore one glove to do my live shots. So I'd hold
call it.