Cousins shares lesson of survival with TCC students

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

By the time Jomo Cousins got through his story of overcoming adversities, his audience had a good idea what he meant when he said survival is the ability to go “from fight to fight without losing my fight.”

Cousins, a former football player at FAMU, came back to Tallahassee Community College last Wednesday to deliver a dose of confidence. He came with a resume that says he is a successful ordained minister, motivational speaker, radio show host and author who is renowned.

He even overcame colon cancer and made it through losing both of his parents in succession.

But it is the life he endured after leaving FAMU until 2008 when he opened Love First Christian Center in Hillsborough County that qualified him to give advice. He and his wife, Charmaine, also hold doctorate degrees from Tabernacle Bible College. 

“If you don’t believe in you you’re in trouble,” Cousins, 49, told students and faculty gathered in the Student Union Ballroom. “You better be sold on you.

“As you go through life, things are going to happen to you that don’t seem fair. You will get discouraged, get down and you will say why me and then have a pity party.”

At that point, Cousins’ speech began to resonate with freshman Breale Gray. What she heard made her remember how she had endured after being in an auto accident at the time she was caregiver for her grandmother.

Her friend Janiah Finney said she could relate to having fortitude in the face of adversity. She suffers with sickle cell anemia and that could be challenging sometimes, she said.

“I deal with it a lot because sometimes I don’t think I can reach a goal and it can be very hard, dealing with my health and other things,” she said. “What he was talking about encouraged me.”

Cousins seemingly had plenty of opportunities to wallow in his troubles but refused, although reluctantly in some cases.

He used one illustration after another to tell how, as a Jamaican native, he came to Tallahassee to attend college on money that his mother had saved. The cash for his tuition got short, he endured a period of homelessness before graduating and eventually getting drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the late 1990’s.

Years later, he found himself struggling financially after being traded to the Giants. He had a brief stint at Jacksonville and even played a bit in the XFL.

The days of making $13,000 weekly as a professional football player were long gone. His alternative was working at a Walmart at nights and substitute teaching in the daytime. 

His wake-up call came when the principal of the school where he worked as a substitute asked him to give a speech to the students. He hedged and she reminded him who was the principal.

His speech set in motion what became a career as a motivational speaker. First with a company then on his own. 

“Often times in life, people will see a gift in you that you don’t know is in you,” Cousins said. “A person tells you that you should do this, but you blow it off because it wasn’t normal and common to you. 

“You will minimize your gift because it’s easy to you. As you are trying to figure out your life, people are telling you what you’re good at but you discount it because it’s not normal to you.”

One of the first times he heard about his ability as a speaker was after he had spoken to students at FAMU DRS. An AT&T manager gave him a business card, asking him to apply for a public relations position.

There were several other times when he heard about his talent as a speaker before he relented. Millions of people are glad he did.

One of them is Jennifer Carr, Ph.D., Dean of Student Services at TCC. The message he brought is priceless, she said.

“I hope they see him as an example and understand that life is about a fight and if they stay focused whatever comes their way they can work through them,” Carr said. “Everything we do here at the college is about giving students nuggets that they can carry in their toolbox.”