Motivational speaker ‘Bigg Milt’ offers students a reality check

York County students are getting a reality check this week through the work of Milton “Bigg Milt” Creagh, a businessman-turned-motivational speaker who speaks to about 200,000 teens a year.

Creagh kicked off three days of talks at Fort Mill and Nation Ford high schools on Tuesday, including a parent meeting at Nation Ford in the evening.

“What bothers me is you all getting in trouble for dumb stuff,” Creagh told several hundred Nation Ford students Tuesday.

Creagh was born in North Carolina and spent time in Mississippi as a child, but was mainly raised on the south side of Chicago. He said he was a large, black youth who got top grades and was picked on for his size, being a good student and not being “street enough.”

But he and his parents didn’t let that stop him from becoming a National Merit Scholar, a college athlete and a top corporate recruit after graduation. He even spoke at an event and impressed former President Gerald Ford enough that Ford personally recommended him for a job.

In an unconventional style and without being too specific about issues, Creagh told his life stories to teach the students lessons about making good decisions and being a bigger person than those who try to take you down.

“Some of you get in trouble because you go straight to (an) emotive (response) and get upset,” Creagh said.

He told a story about a supervisor early in his career who said he wanted to fire Creagh. He said the man was a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan. But, through hard work and clever networking, Creagh was able to rise through the ranks above that man in just two years.

Creagh said each time he speaks somewhere of note, such as with the late Nelson Mandela in South Africa or with former President Bill Clinton at the White House, he sends that former supervisor a card telling him how great he’s doing.

“If I had punched that man out when I wanted to, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you today,” he said.

Creagh will visit five more schools in the area the next two days.

His York County trip was sponsored by York County All on Board, the National Elks Foundation and South Carolina Elks and marks the second time he’s spoken in the area in the last three years.

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Motivational speaker ‘Bigg Milt’ offers students a reality check."