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What can your brain do if you put your mind to it?

That was one of the questions posed to audiences throughout Wednesday, as Dr. Ben Carson spread his message of education, faith and hope to the city, as part of the YWCA's capital campaign.

The world-renowned doctor, who is a professor and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, grew up in inner-city Detroit, overcoming his struggles through the power of education and the guiding hand of his mother.

Carson spoke to the city's youth at Williamsport Area High School and the YWCA's Remembering Honor class and addressed the general public at the Community Arts Center.

"Between the covers of books, I could go anywhere and be anyone," Carson said, adding he eventually was able to acquire knowledge that nobody else in his classes knew.

His mother, having only a third-grade education and illiterate at the time he was in fifth grade, made Carson and his brother read two books a week and write up a report on those books.

She'd highlight sentences and put red marks on the reports, though the two never knew their mother couldn't read, he said.

After a while, he said he developed an avid thirst for knowledge and reading and continued to follow his love of medicine that fueled his desire to become successful in life since he was 8 years old.

"Hardship puts fire in your belly that makes you want to achieve," he said, adding his mother often worked two or three jobs just to remain off welfare and stay independent.

In addition to growing up in poverty, Carson said he had several bumps in the road to his success that he had to overcome through the grace of God. One such obstacle was his temper that often led to violent outbursts.

Carson said he realized his temper would lead only to three places: jail, reform school or the grave.

"With this temper, I would never make it," he said.

He said his epiphany came to him after an outburst that forced him to lock himself in his bathroom, seeking God. After three hours, he understood his anger had everything to do with how things affected him.

"It was always, 'me,' " he said. "I had to step outside that circle (of self-absorption). I've never had a problem since."

Building good character, achieving goals through self-application and resisting negative peer pressure was the essence of Carson's message. Those also are the steps through which he developed his philosophy for success.

"If you really apply yourself, there are relatively few things that can't be accomplished," he said. "If I listened to all the people that told me I can't do it, I wouldn't be here today. Just because someone hasn't done something, doesn't mean you can't. Don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in in fear of something you say might ostracize you."

Carson also spoke on the nature of the United States and questioned whether, as a pinnacle nation, it can resist going down the path of self-destruction as other pinnacle nations in the past have.

The doctor likened the condition of the state of the country to that of having a flat tire, and people in this nation are attempting to change the car rather than the tire.

Each person has special gifts and talents, he said. Not all of those gifts and talents revolve around athletic ability but also around intellectual prowess.

Carson said, as a nation, people need to use that prowess to focus on the important rather than unimportant matters.

"We're living in a system that's mutating itself into something abominable," he said.

Today, people in the nation want to kick God out, he said, but the founding of the country rests on a collective trust in Him.

"It's on the coins in our pockets and the bills in our wallets," he said. "But we're not allowed to talk about it."

Carson cited terrorism and racism as other issues facing the nation, that he thinks are up to the younger generations to help find solutions to by applying and dedicating themselves to those issues.

Diversity in the U.S. shouldn't be a problem, he said, but a strength. The U.S. is a child of all countries, he added, and people here are all culturally relevant.

"The brain makes someone who they are, not the covering," he said. "We can move beyond that. We're smarter than that - that's for animals and insects. For too long we've allowed people to decide how a person is by what they look like.

"This is a problem for all of us," he added. "We're all in the same boat - no matter if you're in the luxurious part - we're all going to go down."

To remain a strong, unified nation, Carson believes people need to retain the values of what the country was founded on, as "that'll make us as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."