Les Brown Motivation: It's Not Over Until I Win Speech

I want you to look at something right now thank you some major goal you want or maybe it's one you're already working on and you have experienced a lot of setbacks a lot of defeats you've experienced a lot of disappointment maybe you've already given up and maybe you just need a little fire a little encouragement to get back in the game again here's what I want you to look at they're winners and they're losers and there are people who have not discovered how to win and all they need is some coaching all they need is some insight or different strategy of plan of action to make some adjustments that will open up the key to a whole new future for them that will give them access to the unlimited power that they have within themselves that's all that they need so what I want you to do is think about something you want for you that's real for you and I don't even want you to say I can do that I don't want you to assume that see five years ago when I started out in this area I would not have been able to make the mental leap that I would be up to where I am right now to be able to say something to yourself that will enable you to maintain a level of Integrity with yourself that when you say this even when you face tremendous setbacks it will be a benchmark to keep you in the game to keep you moving forward and experimenting and readjusting your strategy and your plan of action continuously looking for ways to win so what is that something hey it's Evan Carmichael and I make these videos because of my first business I struggled to stay afloat I quit in my business partner and the thing that kept me going was studying the stories of famous entrepreneurs and seeing how they struggled and seeing what they had to overcome and listen to their wisdom motivation gave me the Courage the strength the belief to go one more day and see my business through and in all honesty I still need the inspiration wisdom motivation today for my business too so today let's live your best believe life and learn how to get rich with Les Brown enjoy when you got an idea you want to move on you might not have the money you might not have the education you might not have the support of the resources you need what is that something that can keep us going that will enable us to act on our grief what's one of those keys that will begin to help us to discover the secrets to our Dream here's what I want you to repeat after me please with power and conviction say it's possible that's all I want you to do when you look at your dream you say to yourself every day it's possible you say that every day to yourself it's possible because what does that do see it begins to change your belief system see the way in which we operate ladies and gentlemen it's a manifestation of what we believe what's possible for us whatever you've done up to this point all that it really is is a duplication it's a reproduction of what you believe subconsciously that you deserve and what's possible for your life most people operate out of their personal history out of their memory things they've done things have experienced things they've seen things that they have observed what I'm suggesting that you operate out of a larger vision of yourself I want you to see yourself doing what you want to do experiencing what you want to experience it having what you want to have doing what it is that gives your life the meaning and value operate out of your imagination not your memory because whenever you look at where you want to go I wanted to warn you you will have some conversation back here after you go through the data that you've experienced in life saying you can't do it and so what you want to begin to do is ignore that inner conversation well most people ladies and gentlemen when something happens to them what they do is they begin to believe that that's the way it is that's the way it's always been and they can't see the possibility of it being any different example before in April 1954 the common belief the universal belief because it had been tried again and again and again and people have failed the belief was that man was not physically capable of breaking the four-minute barrier that he could not run a mile in less than four minutes that was the belief on the planet it had never been done but here's what happened ladies and gentlemen Roger Bannister came along and he broke the four-minute barrier now here's What's significant about that since that time up to this day over 20 000 people have done it including high school kids what changed 20 000 people what changed here's what happened when they got on the track they knew it had been done and because they knew it had been done there was a new belief about this barrier about this goal that was unreachable and those 20 000 people got in a race believing knowing in their heart that someone had done it that it's possible that they could do it and I'm saying that if you know anybody that had some goals Some Dream something they wanted to do and they did it the knives saying that you know in your heart that if someone has done it then you can do it it's possible and that if someone can make that dream become a reality that it's it's possible that you can make your dream become reality and so as you begin to look at where you want to go beginning to embrace that it's possible I'm blessed and highly favored I've got a lot going for me I've got some good stuff in me and it's possible that I can bring my greatness out here in the universe that I can do what I want to do it's possible I can write my own book I can have my own business I I can take the trip and travel around the world it's possible I can bounce back from adversity and reinvent my life it's possible regardless of where I am the things can get better for me it's possible I'm thinking about two men right here in Chicago who are fairly successful similar background educated they work for a corporation for many years and they were among many people that were laid off two guys who were very good friends one went out looking for a job for several weeks along with the other one and they face disappointment and rejection again and again and again they couldn't find any work which is the story of many people across this country one guy stopped he became discouraged he stopped going he stayed home looking at television became very argumentative and toxic with his wife drinking beer getting on the phone talking to his other negative unemployed friends and he just gave up the other guy kept looking for a job everywhere he could go every time he could get an opportunity kept asking people networking checking the newspapers every day kept going everywhere he could trying to find a job you have too much education you're overqualified you won't be here long enough he kept going he kept going he went to a place and said look here I tell you what if you can't hire me and I know you can use my talents abilities and skills I don't want to sit home and do nothing just just let me do some volunteer work you don't have to give me anything all right I just want to work I want to be busy God said okay it's on you now but don't don't expect me to give you anything it's okay this guy came in and worked he was the first one there the last one to leave was the best employee there about four weeks later one of the top managers quit they were looking for a replacement guess who they selected this other guy this guy who was volunteering his time he got the job what was the difference between the two men eyesight and mine sight eyesight is judging on what you see judging according to appearances but mindsight is how you interpret what you see one guy said it's not possible it's over I'm finished I can't do it I can't make it he surrendered I've faced rejection again and again I'm not going anymore there are no jobs out there but this other guy he felt that in spite of the nose and rejections in spite of how bad the economy is in spite of what the newspapers are saying that it's possible that somebody somewhere will give me a job he just kept going thinking it was possible and guess what ladies and gentlemen that's what we have to do with our dreams because things happen to you in life that you can never ever anticipate and many times when those things happen you want to give up I remember when I was in broadcasting when I was a disc jockey I became very controversial not only being a disc jockey but I felt that radio was something that you not only entertain people with but you also Empower them you educate them and I got fired I didn't just leave they fired me that was a shock good I said wait a minute they took my microphone I thought that was who I was no no ladies and gentlemen it wasn't I had to do something else and I didn't know what else I could do see here's what I'm looking at what are the uses for your life right now that you haven't even reached for yet see I believe that when you don't have enough encouragement to act on your dreams or ideas or you're not enlightened enough that life will act on you see life had moved on me and said Les Brown you have outgrown this it's time for you to do something else well I wasn't enlightened enough I organized some disc joggers and got my job back so they had to find me a gift find twice here's what I did I had to think of something else and so a guy suggested to me he said Les why don't you run for office I said I've never known anything about how to operate in the political Arena I've encouraged people to register to vote and get out to vote but I don't know anything about politics he said neither do the people who run for office all the time so Iran now here's what I'm suggesting Iran you got to do what you can where you are with what you have I didn't have any money I didn't know anything about the political process I didn't even have any support but here's what the guy told me it's possible you could win that's all I had I was running against an endorsed candidate he was an incumbent he had the newspaper support all of the leadership in the community and I was challenging this guy so I had a saying when I was on radio stand up for what you believe in because you can fall for anything and I would go door-to-door I have my kids on one side of the street I would be on the other and I'd I'd knock on doors hello my name is Les Brown tell everybody I'm still standing hey get on the phone shout Less Problems to my house today you know the ball on the radio with the big mouth yeah say he's still standing see I'm saying just just keep moving don't start feeling sorry for yourself don't spend time blaming and talking about what happened to you see whatever you talk about that's what you multiply and expand in your life experience so don't talk about stuff unless you wanted to keep on happening to you all right so I got in that kind of option as I continue to do that have my children with me we're going door to door didn't have enough money eventually we got close to the election and something happened that really surprised me guys who I thought were going to even support me I'll stay out of it various powerful Community leaders they became involved in it and they endorsed my opponent I felt devastated now that's going to happen to you when you're working on your dream things are going to happen that's going to catch you on the Blind Side that was shocking to me they didn't have to do that all they had to do just stay out of it but here they go come up and they're messing with me now that's going to happen you've got some people who believe it's their personal business to stop you from living your dream all right but I didn't deal with that you want to make your dream come true you got to stay focused some people rather get even than get ahead stay focused on where you want to go I just kept on doing what I was supposed to do and so I was driving to the radio station my opponent had over twenty thousand dollars I had less than eight hundred dollars as I was in the radio station the guy said you're going to make a commercial I said yes he said it better be a good one because that money can't go pretty far here and I sat there in the middle control room and I was thinking and here's what happens when you get still stuff will start coming something said call your mama you used to talk about your mother on the air all the time ask her to say a few words for you that'll be a different kind of political Spa so I called my mama and I had a a gospel record playing in the background battle s and then I had my mother say hello this is Mrs Mamie Brown when I raised my sons I raised him to be good children when they got out of hand I'd beat their behind and made them go right please vote for my son he's a good boy usually in the state representative race maybe three or four thousand people will come out to vote in a primary and that primary race over 27 000 people came out and voted said I'm voting for Les Brown because his mama said he's a good boy laughs I won ladies and gentlemen I won so you've got to be willing to stay focused to be creative to be relentless because things are going to happen to you when you're working on your dream when you get on track I remember when I first got involved in speaking one of the main things that speakers like to do is fake to speak to a certain Association that they have over ten thousand of their sales reps that come to this convention and I was relentless I kept saying it's possible it's possible see what I want to let you know and set you up for because you said it's possible don't mean that you're not gonna have any problems that Murphy's Law ain't gonna come and slap you side the head oh you say it's possible okay it's possible well I was working I kept saying it's possible they got other speakers on this program I can be on that program too I kept selling myself I got all fired up and I was calling him every day every day and the lady finally said Mr Brown I tell you what we want you to come in and talk to our sales Executives you got to kind of fire and guts that they want that will motivate them and let me tell you something else we want you to bring your motivational tapes you're going to need at least fifty thousand dollars worth of tapes I said is that right yes because they want to keep that drive alive I said all right I call a guy to duplicate my tapes I said Don how you doing this is less let me tell you I got a major speaking engagement I said man it's a speaker's dream I need over 50 000 worth of product he said Les you don't have that kind of credit laughs I said I know but Don I can sell that just just right after speaking engagement I'll give you money in four days he said are you sure less I said yes but I got a major speaking engagement and they told me to do it he said man that's a big order let me talk with the lady with you I said hold on just a minute man call the lady back hello Evelyn how are you hi it's bro I got Don on the phone what did you did just an engagement yes you do and what else you suggest less uh people they buy a lot of tapes your takes a very popular among them I'm saying bring at least fifty thousand dollars worth of tapes less you'll sell everything you got and more I said did you hear that dog he said yes I said now if anybody else has to make a decision are you the final person she said I'm the final person I will send you the contract I want you I said you'll hear that Don he said yes I said oh yeah of little faith I said duplicate the text man hunk the photo well he duplicate the tapes one week came by I'm checking the mail every day no contract I said come on Murphy don't start nothing man come on and give me a break come on you know to say fair come on come on everybody come on I talked to myself you know I don't want to call him right now two weeks passed by Murphy said don't you think you ought to call who I said okay I call I say hello this is Les Brown calling how are you doing unless I said fine I said I'm Evelyn hasn't sent my contract out yet any additional information you need so unless you haven't heard I said no I said Evelyn died I said did she say anything about me when I got home I was so wiped out and Murphy was in the house waiting on me then is it possible you want to listen to some of your tapes but ladies and gentlemen here's what I had to do I had to begin to focus on what was the solution that this was not the only place that I'll be able to sell those products and as I begin to challenge myself and got to help and support and some other input I eventually did a trip longer but it was challenging if I was riding with a friend the other day and I I know this friend of mine who has been working on a job where she's been miserable for a long time she was telling me about how she was miserable on the job and how how she was so unhappy so I said full and if it's causing you that much pain I say why don't you just quit and do something else and she said something that really put her in the chorus line with a lot of other people she said I would but and then I started thinking about that I said let me take a poll so I started talking to other people and I would ask them what they were doing and I said but is that your passion and they would say no I said then what's your real passion and they would tell me what their real passion was then I said well then why aren't you doing what you really want to do oh I can do it but and they would continue on so this word you know but just kept on coming up and then it also has some friends like water and Coulda and shooter and one day I'm gonna have my own business those people who talk about one day I'm gonna some of y'all know some of those one day I'm going to people raise your hand some of you get up in the morning look in the mirror at that person I just tease and I just tease all right so how is it that many times we block ourselves and we use these words almost like we're in a trance like with sleepwalking through life that we find ways to cancel out our dreams that I think that but is a dream killer that a lot of things that we want to do a lot of places we would like to go a lot of things we would like to experience and we just stop at but and we Bill a case in fact I was reading something the other day that that talked about but it says but is an argument for our limitations and when we argue for our limitations we get to keep them see but will cause you to procrastinate but will cause you to hide out behind fear but will cause you to come up with all type of excuses that you can validate your inaction and not acting on your dream and right now more than ever people need to look for ways to live their dream people need to look for ways to make it on their own there is no such thing as job security there's no such thing as a storm proof or tragic proof life there are no guarantees today ladies and gentlemen the illusion is gone there was a time when when we graduated from high school you're told go to college and get out and you go and work for a corporation for 30 or 40 years they'll give your goal watching you'll retire a special announcement that day is gone that day is gone never to return again so instead of P ihype living in feeling stressed out feeling powerless feeling like victims I think it should be a time that we need to begin to look at ways that we can become an active force in our own lives look at ways when we can decide to take charge of our own destiny look at ways when we can decide to design a life of substance and begin to truly live our dreams and it's time for people to decide I'm ready to get on with my life Shake somebody's hand on you right enough a guy named Bob may say to say don't let nobody turn you around do that right quick now you know a lot of people say I'm going to live my life one day when things get right when I get all my bills paid when I get my feet on the ground I say what have you been walking on see they're no problem free moments god named dimples had a record one time called if it ain't one thing it's another and I say if it ain't one thing is 12 others Always Something There to build a case on why you can't move on why you can't grow to the next level why you can't begin to manifest your greatness why you can't begin to live life on your terms Always Something There to block you to keep you where you are and keep you from beginning to develop your true greatness always some fear how do we handle it and I'm saying that if you've been hiding out behind but if you've been using the fact that you don't have enough money or you don't have the education take it head on go get the education I'll sing to a guy the other day who was saying he I said how old are you he says 47 years old I said your sister tell me that you can't read he said that's right I said why well you know I I didn't go to school excuse me how old are you I'm 47 47 yes and you can't read or write yes have you ever heard of adult school adult education have you decided that you should learn how to read to begin to expand your world why are you using that as a racket why don't you decide now that you're going to expand your world that if other people can learn you could learn too well it's hard for me how do you have you been and sit in a class yet have you signed up yet no I haven't see a lot of people say no ladies and gentlemen to things and they don't even know what they're saying no to haven't even challenged themselves he hasn't even gone to sit into a class and say teach me how to read instead it's been easier for him to go through life he thinks trying to play a whole con game pretending he knows how to do something that he doesn't know how to do and you know what most of us go through life like that most of us go through life pretending pretending that we're satisfied where we are pretending that everything is okay pretending that that we don't have any special goals or Ambitions or desires when really deep down inside we do really want more but if you look at our Behavior if you judge based upon what we do that really will tell you some true stories about people because you have to judge a tree by the fruit it bears not the fruit that it talks about see a lot of people pretend that they want more out of life but all you have to do is watch their actions that will tell you something so I used to pretend that I want to lose weight but how could you tell I was pretending watch me when I have a piece of sweet potato pie within walking distance of some peanuts some potato chips see I was pretending that I really wanted to lose weight no all you do is watch what I eat I tell you what I'm seriously committed to people tell you oh yeah one day I want to have a restaurant see they're pretending they want to go into business for themselves they're not serious how can you tell Les watch their actions watch what they're doing the proof is in the pudding so if you want to do something if you've thought about something you want to do take it head on decide that you're going to start looking at it start doing research on it start tackling it start becoming involved in whatever and wherever it might lead you to begin to explore the possibilities in that particular thing that you're seeking so that you can begin to learn all you can about it decide that you're going to face it that whatever shortcomings you have that you're going to strengthen yourself there whatever training that's required that you're going to go get that training that you're going to get started right now the George Washington Carver would say do what you can where you are with what you have and never be satisfied let's be fully used to say it I heard Joe Dudley talk about always strive to be more than that which you are yeah don't get satisfied with yourself always know that wherever you are you can enjoy more that you deserve more but most people you know what they do most people go through life quietly and safely tiptoeing to an early grade find out what it is you want and go after it as if your life depends on it why because it does people that have found their passion people that found the things that they love people that have found the things that they can pour their lives into those people live longer I was in New York and I had to do a seminar at a special church and a guy by the name of Reverend Johnny Young Blood and I said how is it that you were able to build this big housing facility and got all of the various community and religious groups together to to have this dwelling for 2 000 residents that were were once homeless how were you able to take on this responsibility wasn't it overwhelming he said the kind of work I do he said it's in me I've got to live what's in me and I think that's everybody's desire in life you've got to live what's in your life is just too short and unpredictable but what are what do we say but but there always be tomorrow oh no there's no guarantees you're going to show up tomorrow there are a lot of people who were here yesterday that they're not here today there are a lot of opportunities that were around yesterday they're not here today oh you can wait but you know what Abraham Lincoln said well good things might come to those of two who wait but only the things that have been left over by those who Hustle foreign [Applause] you deserve much more than that the leftovers that somebody has left you so take it head on begin to explore here's something else decide to do it now decide whatever you want to do that you are now going to become actively involved right now exploring the possibilities for you that you're going to look at it and do just a little bit of it right now when I decided to become a speaker I didn't just quit my job and just ran out and say I'm a motivational speaker no what I did was I decided to start looking at other people that were involved in the speaking profession I volunteered to work with some speakers so that I could learn whatever you want to do get your feet wet gain some experience doing some volunteer work in the area and find out whether or not this thing you want to do will fit for you A friend of mine told me he wanted to have a restaurant and say have you ever operated a restaurant before he said no I said well really you don't even know if you want one I said what's your expertise what do you bring to the table he said I can cook real good I said well what about the management side what about the business part of the restaurant you're not going to be cooking all the time somebody's got to receive the money who's going to manage the Personnel he said you got it right you got a point there so this guy got a job in a restaurant in the evening time on a part-time basis after doing that for a while he said you know what I think I just want to be a chef he said after working their people didn't show up to work he said it's hard to find to help people were responsible the headaches the guests was just giving him problems day in and day out they weren't ever satisfied he said no I just think I'll stick the cooking see you got to find out what fits for you because you might decide after you go up in there and examine it and experience it and and get some experience on the about on it well you say this is really not what I want this does not fit for me so decide that you're going to do that now John H Johnson said something that's very important he said there's no defense against an Excellence that meets oppressing public need see whatever you decide to do look at it and find out what is it that I have that I could bring to the table that can begin to enable me to ensure that I could be successful in this where is the opening for you there's room for you out here out here in the arena call life there's room for you to come out and live your dream don't allow but to keep you in the corner or keep you up in the bleaches looking at life being a spectator not being a participant making a difference in life I believe that all of us came here with something all of us showed up to give something and that nobody but nobody is going to give that service that you have to give no one's going to produce your product no one's going to write your book no one's going to open your Academy no one's going to begin to create your daycare with a special curriculum to help to cultivate the high self-esteem in our children that's your idea and if you don't bring your idea out here when you die all of us will suffer because we've been deprived of your Genius because you're allowed but to keep you in the bleachers and not pursuing your greatness you take it to your grave with you and that's what most people do I think that's why the guy said that many people died at age 21. and don't get buried until they're 65. they're walking dead you can tell them by the way they walk how they look in the face when they speak to you I was giving a speech at this high school and a lady came after school she said Mr Brown to you about my son I said what is it she said he's not motivated you got to have energy ladies and gentlemen you've got to have life if you excited about what you're doing even in the area of selling you know people don't buy because of logical reasoning people buy because of your way of feeling people are like to be around dead people oh no Let the dead bury the dead no no keep them away from before they grab you or to hold on to you so the fact that that whatever you do you want to be excited about it you want to have the kind of excitement that is so contagious that people want to be around you because whatever you're doing whatever you talk to people about this particular idea that you have they're looking at you and they want to know do you believe it and are you the kind of person they want to be in business with and if you're not positive if you're not energetic if you're not fired up about it how can you expect anybody else to be fired up about your idea am I right all right repeat after me please I'm going to be fired up about my dream put his hand on your right a little say you got what it takes there are a lot of people who say but I tried once or twice and it didn't work out and so they used that as an excuse not to ever come out again guy said um if at first you don't succeed you're running about average and it didn't work out two or three times well that's all right you're running about average you know I heard something a jarring question it says why is it that people prefer known Hells to unknown heavens [Music] you know why because it's comfortable ladies and gentlemen I remember I was in um a service once and I heard Dr Johnny Coleman give this example she talked about a man who had been captured behind the Enemy Lines in a war and was sentenced to to be killed or another option the captain said to the guy listen he said tomorrow morning at six o'clock you can face the firing squad or you can go out this door over here and the guy said what's out the door he said no one knows all we can tell you just unknown Horrors he thought and the next morning he selected the firing squad after the shots rang out the captain's secretary said what's beyond that door and he said freedom but very few people would select to do it because it's unknown see a lot of people never lived their dreams a lot of people never do the things they want to do a lot of people stay on jobs where they're miserable I read an article call is your job making you sick a lot of people some of y'all know about that already here they're going to say Amen it's all right that one lady told me she said Les I when I used to go to work she said when I stepped in the door felt like a refrigerator dropped on my shoulders how many of y'all understand that kind of feeling just hated to go around the afternoon or come Monday morning my head used to thrive I just couldn't take it didn't want to go sometimes just just for the heck of it I just drive on by laughs I used to hate to go to work many of us choose an active living death many of us are Walking Dead The Walking Dead that we're not doing what we want to do many of us stay in relationships where we're dying together rather than growing and expanding and living together we're miserable but because we don't have the courage to see ourselves beyond that relationship that has turned toxic we go through life living dead people and you can always tell couples that have been together for a little while going to restaurant the one sitting side by side giggling and talking to each other feeding each other with their focused food they just got together for one week you see him in the car they're sitting on all each other hugging his or they've been together about three days all right but if you see peoples in the restaurant to you know see a couple and they're sitting in front of each other take so long for this food I wonder when they go hurry up those are the maribus for years let me well it's cheaper to keep but not necessarily it's according to the price you want to pay see the price of Peace of Mind the price of living the truth of being honest with yourself and say wait a minute it's got to be more than this so you've got to decide wait wait even if I I things don't work out even if I experience defeat a failure that does not make me a failure it's a difference between failing and being a failure if you if things don't work out if you don't produce the results you want that's all but don't confuse who you are with the results that you produce I used to be a state legislator in Columbus Ohio and I remember once I was going to introduce some legislation on the floor and after getting that legislation passed a guy came up behind me and he had some legislation that I opposed him on that and I was about to stand up to debate this guy and the guy next to me said excuse don't don't debate that guy why do you know who that is I said no it's wilkoski from Toledo it's a bad dude he's a lawyerless that man can debate I don't care I'm Les Brown maybe Brown's ball come on so I raise my hand Mr Speaker you said the gentleman from the 29th house district said yes sir to tell the gentleman I like to take him on challenge him on this legislation he said well because you said I would more than like to Mr Speaker everybody would say whoa I asked him some questions he responded I say I wonder why I asked that man that question wilkoski won't be out I mean I was so embarrassed I just lifted back to my room with my yes I can add it whatever here's what I learned when you win see if I win a debate I win because of what I know when I lose I lose because what I don't know so I had to check out what is it that I did not know I wasn't prepared I did not do enough research I did not do my homework so he handled me like he wanted to so I came back again I waited on to my other legislation did my homework but he was more than able to take me out again but pretty soon each time it would take him it would become a little bit more difficult and a little bit more difficult and the older guys say would you argue on behalf of this legislation for me I said sure I start volunteering to do work in the legislative committees for the older guys I said absolutely and the more I did it the better I became and then people began to start respecting me and when I would ask and say Mr Speaker I like to speak on that bill some guys let's start trembling and stuff like Jimmy I don't know do we have a problem here but if I wasn't willing to be humiliated if I wasn't willing to allow myself to be embarrassed if I wasn't willing to be debated and defeated if I wasn't willing to look at it and say well I'm just not good as I'm going to be you want that lady to say Lord I ain't what I want to be what I'm going to be but thank God I sure ain't what it was you can either live your dreams or live your fears and I think the majority of people actually are not living their dreams but are living their fears so I want to ask you a question what are your fears what are you afraid of what are you scared of because we all have fears don't we we all have something that's blocking us that's holding us back and as we begin to look at life what we realize is that the reason that most people are not living out their true potential and not doing all of the things that they would really like to do is because of fear some people call fear false evidence or expectations appearing real are reminded of the story of a guy that was living in an area where he had some new neighbors and these neighbors had a bulldog and when he came home every day this Bulldog used to chase him about a half a block from his house every day he would have to streak home I mean he would just run this Bulldog be right on his heels and so he just got tired of that because he would go home and about a half a block away from home he would look around for this bulldog and he would see him and he would go walking casually long and this Bulldog come out of nowhere and start chasing him he'd run home so this one day he just got tired and so when the Bulldog was running after him he started running he saw a rock and he stopped to pick it up to throw at the bulldog and when the Bulldog got up on him he started barking he realized the Bulldog would have any teeth in his mouth then he's not chasing the Bulldog if you don't get all the way because the boss the Bulldog could have done his gum you know and so you know what most people go through life Running Scared Running Scared from things that have no teeth in them because their false expectations appearing real let's see we're brilliant enough to scare ourselves to death you realize that there are some people actually who get a kick out of scaring themselves to death I remember the last frightening movie I saw it was The Exorcist I will never forget when I came home I'll never end I had already called my former wife and said listen turn the lights on I was coming in the driveway and I and I was getting out of the car and all of a sudden I couldn't get out I started blowing my heart I said Madeline they got me they got me she came to the kitchen and said take your seatbelt loose food foreign but there are a lot of people who they get off on that they love I'm a person not I my brother is a paratrooper my twin brother he's in the military career man I would love to jump out of an airplane to parachute I'm scared though I mean I really admire my brother for that I would really love to be macho man like that what are the things that you fear that's been keeping you from living your dream that's been keeping you from doing some things that you would like to do just think about those things and how do we begin to handle that Abraham Maslow said that the life is about growth and he said you could either go back to your comfort zone and there you won't find any growth or you must really be willing to go forward and face your fears again and again and again because you're never going to have a fear-free existence I mean some fear is acceptable and legitimate there are some things that you you really should be afraid of now you shouldn't allow it to immobilize you you acknowledge it you take it into account and you carry yourself accordingly there are times that we should proceed with caution but it's the difference between being stopped by fear is the difference between having a fear and the fear having you so what do we do one acknowledge it and knowing that it's okay don't condemn yourself for being afraid it's perfectly fine to have some fears you acknowledge your fears you Embrace those fears and then you move on you act on whatever it is that you fear because once you embrace it see what you resist will persist what you resist will persist so one of the most important things is is to begin to embrace your fear the fear of bodily harm that's legitimate when I was a disc jockey in Columbus Ohio you know I was young about 22 23. I thought I was tough and I was on the air and Al Green who was a great performer at that time and still is now now singing gospel music had a record his first hit record was backup trade so a guy came in the town and was impersonating Al Green I happened to know Al Green because I'd already booked him and so when I found out this guy was impersonating Al Green I came on the air and did an editorial about it and I exposed it he was rather a big fellow and so he had the word out that when I see this guy let's find the disc jock I'm going to knock him in mouth of having a big mouth so I was driving down Main Street in Columbus Ohio had my son in a car and I always had the little saying hey if anybody ever put a thread on with me I'm gonna make him honor it so I saw this guy in the street so I pull around I say excuse me I'll be right back got out of the car I said hey man I heard you said that you were looking for me I'm Les Brown he said you are I said yeah I said what is it I'm the one that said that you were an imposter I said I want to know what you're going to do about it he opened his coat he had a gun there I say but whatever I said to hurt your feelings foreign yourself accordingly and do what makes sense for you well one major fear I've always had is a fear of a dentist and this fear had me I didn't have that fear and what really reinforced it you got to watch things that can feed your fear I saw a movie that most people would not remember this movie was starring Dustin Hoffman it's called the marathon man with Lawrence Olivier I mean he's trying to get a confession out of here and he took this drill out let me tell you something he went in duffman Hoffman's mouth with that drill I had a dollar worth of popcorn that popcorn with everyone I could not go to the dentist for five for five years I had left broadcasting went to the Ohio legislature had an impacted wisdom tooth now that hurts and I would call as soon as the people would answer the phone I would hang up that's not frightening with Dr hamler's Office boom right here then I got to the point where I could just ask for an appointment hello and I wouldn't give my real name because I knew I wasn't gonna keep it I'd give anybody's name Joe jiggly Jim it did better and pretty soon I got to the point where I could give my name it was about four years after that you know I said my name is Les Brown then I would call back and say look here due to my legislative agenda I won't be able to make it so the lady finally said on phone said you're scared aren't you I said no I'm not she said then why don't you come in I said that's none of your business she said you're not coming in because you're scared I wish you just would not waste our time and she hung up I said you have no right to do that to people like me you know so finally it'll make it long and short of it I was hurting so bad I said wait a minute I've got to do something and I said what am I afraid of go there and handle I said man I said Dr Hamlet I just can't hear this drill I mean if you can do whatever I just don't I don't need to hear this drill this drill that sound you know that's the what gets me that drill don't pull that drill out on me he said just calm down calm down and it wasn't really bad as I thought it was one of the things you find out that when you face your fears is not as bad as you think it is and when people tell you I just can't do it I I can't handle I mean really really I can't handle it what they're envisioning is that they're not going to be if they're going to clock out like you're going to die and guess what we all had occasions when we confronted our fears we had to do something we felt uncomfortable with we didn't want to do it and we did not die they didn't come take us and put us in a box somewhere am I right so what we've got to begin to do how do we handle that what's the process because it's all up in here one I think is imagine the worst case scenario I just imagine that he went in my mouth and with this drill and that I just croaked out then I imagine that's the worst case scenario then I had another technique I used visualize yourself being more than able and capable of handling it I used to have a tremendous inferiority complex about speaking before people that I felt who had more going for them than I did because I'm not College trained I used to feel that college people were the most intelligent people on the planet and there was nothing I had to say for them and what will that what will they listen to me for that's the way I felt and so I had to to visualize myself speaking before them speaking before various audiences that had more going for them than I did and realize and appreciate my own value and that I was a worthwhile person even though I didn't have all going for me I didn't have the money I didn't have the education that they had so part of the process is seeing yourself being worthy being capable having what you need to make you a worthwhile person and that you're more than able and that you deserve to be listened to or you deserve to have that dream and that passion and whatever it is that you see and envision there you've got to see it in your mind's eye and know that you've got what it takes repeat after me please I must see and my mind's eye see myself confronting my fears handling my fears I'm more than able Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say you got the right stuff so deciding as you look at your life as you look into the future and say what fears am I holding on to what fears that I'm allowing to imprison me that's keeping me from breaking out that's keeping me from living up to my true potential that's keeping me from really being happy that's keeping me from having a sense of adventure and excitement in my life what's what's keeping me from controlling my destiny what fears that I'm giving that permission to notice what I said that we must give our permission to fear to immobilize us because whatever discomfort you experience whatever challenges a difficulty that it is you got to handle it you've got to go up in there and wrestle with it will it be easy no will it be challenging yes a friend of mine who's going into recovery he's been addicted to crack cocaine for years and alcohol he was talking about how challenging it was and why he was dreading going on going into cold turkey I said what do you want me to tell you that is going to be a picnic no it's not it's going to kick your butt yes it is are you going to want to die yes yes that's a part of it but that's just what you must go through in order to get where you want to go and guess what you are strong enough to do it you're strong enough and your life is worth whatever you have to go through to get past this addiction whatever you have to do this dream you got whatever you want to do will it be easy to just run out there and do it no will it happen overnight no would it be a struggle yes will there be times when you can't make ends meet yes that's a part of it will there be times you won't know what to do yes that's a part of it well you have some opposition will things go wrong sometimes you will have many visits from Murphy foreign don't worry somebody must have told us some place along the line I don't know where but somebody must have told people oh life is going to be real easy if they told you that I've got a special announcement they lied never forget I had a special piece of legislation I wanted to get passed and I said to her guys look can I count on your vote he said yes and look here if I can't count on let me know there's another guy that owes me a chip and I can call on that and I won't need your vote but I do need it if you say you're going to do it do it you say you can count on it legislation came up he voted against my bill my bill passed I went back to and said hey I told you I needed the vote but if you couldn't give it up let me know I would get somebody else said why did you tell me he said I lied I was in shock how many of you that life just wore you out that you didn't expect that you thought you'd go to school get good grades get a job and you came out here and you'll be able to get a job a little happily ever afterward you say they lied you know yes they did they never told me you know that song said mama told me there'll be days like this I don't even tell us that something about life is challenging I mean it's some stuff you get out here you didn't read it in a book nowhere did nobody warn you that it was gonna come down on you like this it's called life there are kind of challenges like that so what's the the next piece is that you accept yourself then you accept the fear as a fact and not a force see when you accept yourself and you accept fear as a fact that means that it's something that happens it's something that you're going to experience but it is not a force to hold you back it doesn't have any special power other than that that you give it so you accept the fact that you are afraid and then you move on anyhow you move on past it and you do whatever you've got to do I was in a big motivational rally for a gentleman by the name of Dexter Yeager down in the Carolinas I was standing backstage and I had to go out I was the last speak on the program at the first time I'd been in a stadium of this size over 10 000 people you couldn't see the people because the lights are just blaring in your eyes called free enterprise day I was afraid my heart was beating fast I'm just pacing back and forth and Dexter said are you all right I said yeah thank you yeah all right so I said wait a minute just calm down calm yourself hold me hold it it's all right Les it's all right all right just be as scared as you can be I'm gonna say Embrace that fear just try and see how scared you can really get and stop breathing deeper so the guy came back and said are you about to die I said no I'm fine but after I start embracing it and trying to make myself as a friend as I can get and imagine what's the worst thing that I could go out there and do my mind go Blake and I fade on stage then the longer they gave me my check thank you so once I started laughing at myself I started talking to myself and say you know you scared today and I said I just calm myself down and I went out there and I cooked and that's what you got to do I had another experience where I was at a major corporation and I was it was one of my first major presentations I was going to do for this Corporation and I had four other presenters that had large firms and one of the things that you've got to do is you've got to watch your inner conversation and discipline your thinking and your imagination because if you don't your mind will take you on a wild trip so my mind said hey Les I said what these guys are going to wipe you out you can't compete with them because I heard these guys sitting over a cross from me and they were talking about all that they had going for them and so I started doubting myself and I became afraid and I was thinking well maybe I shouldn't go in there and so I knew then and this is what I suggest to you sometimes you got to talk to yourself talking to yourself you know it could be a good exercise might be the only intelligent conversation you ever get foreign I started talking to myself said let's find let me tell you something you care about these guys and their firms and all their money you you got six children you got a mama you got to take care of homes you ain't got nothing to lose I win that room and looked at those people I said don't you do nothing till you hear from me and I got that contract too so when you have your lower self talking to you telling you what you can't do part of what you've got to do is be your own motivator you can you can't talk casually to yourself you can't say I sit down you must calm down now no that's unconscious mind won't hear that you've got to have a good conversation to you so hey and answer yourself too don't pay these people any attention you answer yourself hey what you gonna do I'm going in get off all right very good go in there and take care of business you've got to talk to yourself and you build yourself up and you'll feel your energy level coming up and people will feel that around you see now if you go through life being afraid people can sense that they can pick up that fear so that's why you've got to stand up inside yourself I'm reminded of the little boy that was on a bus and and some bigger fellows were picking at him you know and so he he wanted to move from by then they were thumping him on the head and so he stood up just to get from by them and they would push him back down and he would stand up again they'd push him back down and he stood up again they pushed it on held him down he said you might hold me down but I'm standing up inside myself and that's what you got to do in life see when you are not filling your life with the things that you are capable of doing see we all have some stuff that we've been given and I don't think that it's optional for us to sit on what we have see if you're sitting on what you have what you've been given and I think everybody's been given something to bring to the planet that only you can do that only you can perform that only you can initiate that activity and if you don't do that if you're not filling in your life with your life work or your mission then there are gaps in your life and what we do when we're not living out our true identity we begin to fill the gaps we fill the holes with garbage alcohol drugs worry self-destructive Behavior so when you begin to look at your life and you know that that you're not doing what you can do because you have allowed yourself to be held captive by your fears now when you don't have a true appreciation an acceptance for who you are and you allow yourself to be immobilized by fear what happens in the process is that you begin to abuse yourself you begin to sabotage your life you begin to sabotage your dreams you begin to unconsciously work against yourself you become Your Own Worst Enemy so what do you do about that well you you begin to realize that your dream and your gifts have so much meaning and so much value for you till your hunger for them will begin to push you past the fear you're hunger to have them will give you a special Drive as you work on yourself as you begin to acknowledge your true identity the true power that you have the true capacity you have to bring about change the miracle working power that you have within yourself to do the things that you want to do when you take them on I'm reminded of a man who this gentleman was doing a special study of a special tribe in Africa Headhunters and he had difficulty in developing a relationship with these tribesmen because of the fact that he had fear he had fear they would take his head a day off fears aren't bad I was a legitimate fear that's a good fear to give you a headache so he worked there for a long time with no effort no progress in developing relationship and Rapport and being able to achieve a level of trust so finally one night while he was in bed he was thinking about I said what what is it that you came here to do what is your life work as a missionary he said I wanted to study these tribesmen I said what's the worst thing that they can do to you kill you and he just decided hey this is what I came here to do I know that there's some risk involved and I'm going to do it come with me he said I'm not going to be afraid anymore he went back the next day and he started doing the work and trying to talk to an interview many of the members of this tribe and they began to respond to him they throughout the welcome mat to him and years later when people came to see what his progress was they asked him how were you able to do this how did you convert the relationship from being hostile to that of being positive and he said something I think his value for all of us he said when life can no longer threaten you with death he said what else is there what else is there and the majority of the fears that we have are not life or death fears they're not those kind of fears but through our imagination we blow them out of proportion and we give them more power than they actually have or deserve and we permit them to govern Our Lives we permit them to determine how far we can stretch out on our dreams and discovering our stuff and as we begin to look at ourselves and and begin to wait a minute just getting to the point as you assess yourself and and begin to prove yourself and just say wait hold a minute hold a minute I've been sweating this out what can what's the worst thing that can happen to me on this will it kill me will I die why am I going through all of these changes over this how much power does this really have and am I the one that's feeding the power into it see a lot of times we we allow ourselves to be fed and to be programming to to being afraid you watch the news and read the newspaper you'll be scared to come out the house am I right you'd be afraid so what kinds of things what kinds of thoughts are you feeding your Consciousness what kind of things are you putting in your mind that will enable you to either move forward or to justify why you are staying where you are another piece that I look at that when I finally decided that I was going to go to the dentist the pain was so great I couldn't hold out any longer all of a sudden the fear didn't matter I can't even take me now some people need fear you know have a friend that that we told him hey man you know you need to lose some weight you're getting overweight and out of shape and at all age we need to have a regular program and Bud said man I've been fat since I was a little boy I'm you know I'm big boned I've never seen a fat skeleton though well Bud became ill how many of you ever see the fat skeleton right yeah I know all right but became ill passed out and um I was there and the doctor was talking to him and Bob I think was going to go right back to same old eating habits and doing everything you know there's a look here um you are a diabetic and so now here's some of the side effects you know you could go blind you can become an amputee none of that touched him he said you can become impotent he said what did you say [Applause] God has lost weight he exercises every day he's in a body sculpture 48 years young he looks great I can't believe but just that one statement made all the difference in the world but as a new man today so what is it that has to happen to you some people don't take corrective measures to improve their health until they get a pronouncement that they're about to die then they'll start okay all right I'm ready to do whatever you want me to do but they won't do that they can see people dropping off like flies around them well that's them you got to go from something we go through life really blocking ourselves constantly and fears one of the the greatest instruments that we could use to stifle our true potential when you begin to to look at your life you can decide to to use fear as a blocker or you can decide to use it as building blocks that you decide hey look here I'm going to move in this direction I'm not going to allow anything to stop me from doing what I want to do re-shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say I'm unstoppable foreign and you go forth anyhow you go forth in a spirit and a knowing that there's a way that you can begin to handle this there's a way out here somewhere there's a solution what it is that you're seeking that you have the capacity to whatever comes up to handle it to face it and rather than feeling powerless you begin to feel powerful see when all of the major downsizings that are taking place around this country there are a lot of people who are biting their fingers in fear that they might lose their jobs but there are a few people who have decided within themselves I'm going to make it some people aren't waiting to be cut some people are moving on their own because they feel within themselves I've got what it takes to make it They're Not Afraid about tomorrow because of how they see themselves because of what they feel that they deserve because of what they feel that they can create for themselves because these people have decided as they look at the future as they look at themselves there's a way where there's a will there's a way for me to begin to create a way out of no way and when you have that kind of Consciousness when you have that kind of spirit nothing can stop you nothing what would your life be like as you look toward the future if you decided I'm not going to allow my fears to stop me what would your life be like what would your future be like if you decided to to want that which you desire so strongly that It prepares you past your fears that you experience the fear as the one book says Feel the fear and do it anyway what would your life be like and I'm saying to you that all of us who have been entombed by fear have the capacity to resurrect ourselves and to resurrect our dreams all of us have a capacity to do that and you have is it easy no it's not easy can I do it yes what's one of the ways to get started some of us need somebody to hold our hands sometimes we need somebody to help us out be willing to say I don't know be willing to reach out be willing to get some assistance to take you to the next level of what great athlete you never expect boxes to make profound statements I think it was Joe Frazier said this one he says all of us are like the blind man at some point in our lives standing on the corner waiting for somebody to lead us across to all of us at some point in our lives need some help need someone to reach out to us to throw out the lifeline to help us go across some treacherous Waters that we couldn't navigate by ourselves none of us do it by ourselves all of us at some point of Our Lives we need that kind of help we need that kind of assistance because we grow from the people we have in our lives that can enrich our lives personally professionally spiritually and all the dimensions of Our Lives we don't grow in a vacuum so as you look at yourself what are the fears you have that maybe you need some help and strengthening yourself in that area as you assess your strengths and your weaknesses as you begin to approve yourself and your passions and your dreams and your goals and the things that you want if you decide to experience all of your true potential as you decide to manifest all of your greatness as you decide wait a minute what what else is available to me out here if I decided to experience the fear of rejection the fear of no the fear of failure the fear of standing by myself what else is available of taking a chance a fear of losing it all what else is available to me that will bring some extra meaning and value the fear of people not liking me you know how many people do things they don't want to do because they want everybody to like them everybody's not going to like you excuse me special announcement everybody's not going to like you no that's it's just not that kind of world what but you know a lot of people who won't take positions on issues who won't take a stand for things they believe in who won't speak up for themselves because they don't want to make anybody mad oh it was Bill Cosby he said I don't know secret of success is he said but but he said trying to please everybody you can't please everybody but there are people who have a fear of rocking the boat so they just go alone in life just go alone well how do you feel well I don't really want to say how many of you know people like that raise your hand they these people are living life they're not truly experiencing life what do you really want to do well I don't like this but I guess I'll go ahead on and do no the life is too short for that too short and unpredictable mosing through not trying to disturb anything not trying to shake anything up not trying to make any waves you see there are some people who who come through the universe and their level of contribution and the level of energy they manifest is so small so inconspicuous that when they go you won't even know they left I mean they're people who die on jobs and and you say Hey where's John oh John's been dead six miles you're kidding no is that right yeah I didn't know why did somebody say well I guess we didn't miss him but there's some people because of their personality because of their contribution because of their the investment of their time and their energy and the impact they have there that when they go everybody will miss them so when Mother Teresa checks out everybody will know when Rosa Parks everybody will know Nelson Mandela everybody will know why because of their contribution see but there's some people because their contribution is so small no one will care some saying before you are boxed and buried decide that you're gonna box and bury your fears decide that you're going to begin to live life on a new level seeking out New Horizons that you're going to find more love and more joy and more ways to give more to life God said something I love this he says everything a man does for himself guess what he takes with him but everything he does for others he leaves behind so when you begin to say what is it that I want to leave what contribution that I want to begin to make what difference do I want to make in life what is it that I want to do with the rest of the life that I have left what what chances I need to take what risk do I need to begin to embrace what fears do I need to step on what areas of my life am I dead right now what dream you can either Live Your Dreams or live your fears you have got to get to a point where you say I'm sick and tired of living like this there's got to be more that's see that's when people go out and strike out on their dreams that's when people get out of relationships where they're dying together rather than growing together that's where they leave Johnson where you going away from here I don't know good foreign do you have another job no I don't how are you going to make it I don't know but I will see you will when you put yourself in that kind of situation I'm reminded of two frogs that that were hopping down the road and they they fell into a bottle of milk and one was hopping up and down for a while and he drowned he just gave up but this other frog gets kept on kicking he wouldn't give up he just kept on kicking and pretty soon he churned that milk into butter and he walked on it foreign slap your wife and knock you down I said just keep on kicking you know and you can kick on out of those circumstances whatever they are not be intimidated by them most people are not accumulating wealth most people are living in poverty most people are living far below their potential not because they don't have the capacity not because they have not been given Authority and dominion over everything on the face of the Earth but most people are living like they're living because of the fact that they don't believe they can have any more than what they now have the book called The miseducation of the new ecology Woodson said if you can determine what a man shall think you'll never have to concern yourself with what he will do if you can make a man feel inferior you'd never have to compel him to seek an inferior status for he will seek it himself and if you can make a man feel cast you have to order him to go to the back door he'll go without being told and if there's no door his very nature will demand one that's why scripture reminds us being not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind every day you have to sell yourself find those old thoughts that old belief system every day you've got to sell yourself on that it's possible that you got to put a new mind in you you got to get out of your mind you got to begin to restructure your thinking every day you've got to begin to recondition your mind see many of us go through life making choices thinking it's our choices and it's not what do you mean by that a reminder of the great Anthropologist Margaret Mead she was in a restaurant in Europe and a waiter saw her and said oh how are you I'm so glad to see you he said there are several other Americans here tonight and she said is that right he said yes he's she said when you served in dessert let me know and I'll tell you exactly how many are here he said that's not possible she said let me know after you serve dessert when he served dessert he came back and he told her she got up she walked around and she looked and she observed and she said you have exactly 65 Americans here he checked the guest list and he was amazed he said how did you know that she said because in Europe when you eat a slice of pie or cake you eat it from the back toward the tip in America when we eat a slice of pie of cake we eat it from the tip toward the back how many of you when you eat a slice of pie cake you eat it from the tip toward the back raise your hands please good now what else is in your mind what else are you doing unconsciously that you don't even know I'm going to say something and I want you to answer it after it I want you to end it for me Winston tastes good like what how many of you don't even smoke Winston but know it raise your hands please now that commercial been off the air for 30 30 years share something with you the easiest thing I've ever done was to earn a million dollars the most difficult thing I've ever done was to believe it happened to me difficult part to believe that given my circumstances if my birth parents came down this aisle right now I would not know either one if my daddy came up here or my mother came up here given the fact that I was born in abandoned building on a floor being labeled educable mentally not having any college training I used to feel all my life but people who had college degrees were more intelligent than me I remember going to see the late Dr Norman Vincent Peale the author of the book power of positive thinking and I used to look at him up on stage and I said I could do that I would love to talk to people I love to talk to people and I said I can do that but then when I started going back to my car my mental conditioning activated itself and it said Les Brown you can't do that you don't have a college education let's find you can't do that you don't have the training you've never worked for a major corporation you can't do that what makes you think you can earn 5 10 15 20 000 in an hour you don't earn that now working for two or three months what makes you think that you can speak for at T Procter Gamble McDonald's Corporation General Electric these are clients I have now you you've never even worked for them how many have you ever thought about something you wanted to do and you talk yourself out of it raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about that inner conversation is what's going to haunt you after standing here and saying I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me after saying that again and again we are more than conquerors that inner conversation will cause you when you leave here to go back leading a life of mediocrity leading a life of unproductivity leading a life of poverty so I'm going to share with you how to break out of that foreign [Applause] I want to share with you how to reach your goals I think the Bible's greatest motivation book ever been written now I want you to repeat after me please we got to recondition our minds first let us say together good things that's supposed to happen to me and Don I want you to say that to yourself every day see we live in a world where we believe that bad things are supposed to happen to us I remember the point of my life Bishop when things are going good for me and I said this is too good to be true something is bound to happen guess what it did thou shall decree a thing that shall be established unto you and shall accomplish that where until it has been sent watch your words and watch what you say about yourself about your Affairs be conscious of that on a daily basis why because your words are powerful in the beginning was the word life and death is in the tongue watch what you say never say I'm broke say I'm overcoming a cash flow problem foreign [Applause] what you want not what you don't want so affirm good things as opposed to happen to me and begin to believe that begin to expect that now I was talking to my oldest son Calvin we're going for a walk and I said Calvin do you want to be successful he said yes sir Dad it's okay we kept on walking then I stopped and I looked him in the eyes it's my namesake my junior I said Calvin we're looking at each other do you expect to be successful given the fact that you are a single parent of two kids given the fact that you decided not to go to college to further your education given the fact that you are very talented but you're behind on your dreams and your bills do expect based upon your performance based upon what you produce at this point in time in your life do you expect to be successful and Calvin got quiet because see if you ask most people at the Manpower conference do you want to be successful do you want to live a life of productivity do you want to live a life of contribution do you want to be a better father do you want to have your own business are there dreams you want everybody will say yes but see once shows up in conversation expectation shows up in Behavior see I can tell what you expect by what you do that's why the Bible says judge a tree by the fruited Bears not the fruit that it wants not the fruit that it talks about not the fruit that it claims but by what you are doing see what you do when you leave here when the Music Stops when the shouting dies down your behavior how you conduct yourself writing your goals down deciding to enroll in school to get a GED deciding to sit into class with children young enough to be your grandchildren decide to find some product some idea some service that you can provide so that you can begin to create some value for yourself so you can create wealth and let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen it's very important that we begin to learn how to create wealth I'm not talking about loving money see I believe the lack of money is the root of all evil steal for money kill for money jail for money every time the unemployment goes up in those areas where the unemployment is high that's where you have the highest incidence of crime and violence whenever the unemployment goes up one percent in our community ten thousand children and women are better when money makes a difference in your life I know wanted to do was to be comfortable how many of you ever want to be comfortable raise your hands then I realize not to be comfortable you got to be rich [Applause] an old friend of mine six they're gonna say people say money won't make you happy but everybody want to find out for themselves Rita Davenport say money ain't important but it's right up there with oxygen you got some money women will find something cute on you he got earlobe like Denzel honey foreign money makes a difference I used to be so broke when creditors would call a house my children would answer the phone and say my daddy said yeah I was so broke at one time my life I walked by a bank and tripped the alarm I tell you poverty sucks you hear me repeat after me please I'll never be broke again yes write that down I affirm that I'll never be broke up here never never will I ever be broke again let me tell you what money does number one it gives you control over your life write that down number two it gives you options three it allows you to live a life of contribution to contribute to things that you feel strongly about like this ministry and the work of project 2000 will be doing the change the lives of young people Bishop Jake's vision is that we can have little league football teams and baseball teams and basketball judges and cardiologists and endocrinologists so he's now establishing an institution project 2000 to give our young people the methods the techniques to reinvent themselves as we go into the next millennium and this era that Peter Drucker calls the era of the three C's accelerated change overwhelming complexity and tremendous competition so here's the first step to accumulating wealth if you expect to do it write this down you must be willing to do the things today others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have that's why the Book of Life sent the road to life is straight and narrow and few there be that find it because fuel there be that are willing to do the things today of the us won't do in order to have the things tomorrow of others won't have what are the things that others won't do number one make discipline a major force in your life how many of you know if you'd have been more disciplined you'd be further along to reach your goals right now Socrates in life the road to life is straight and narrow because few there be that are willing to discipline themselves here's something else that most people won't do make it okay to okay to fail a lot of people 85 85 prior to succeed repeat after me please anything that's worth doing is worth doing badly see anything is worth doing is worth doing right as we have been taught if you know how to do it but if you don't know how to do it it's worth doing badly until you get it right I bet you and I wasn't there I bet you that when Bishop TD Jakes first stood up to preach when he gave his trial sermon he did not have a command he did not have the Mastery he did not have the confidence he did not have the depth he did not have the capacity to translate and milk scripture like he did last night when he first started out now write this down you don't have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great foreign [Applause] the first time I stood up to speak I stood up and my mind sat down I had to introduce a play at school oh we about we're about to start ran off Mr Washington Mr Brown where are you going uh Mr Wash and I I can't think sir I I I I don't know did you rehearse yes sir I did well what's wrong why did you say your lines I I don't I don't know son I just I got up there and I looked at him and everything left me let me do it another day please her no go back out there Mr Brown Mr Washington I'll mess up please sir don't don't don't don't send me out there now I'll mess up Mr Brown if you run now you will always be running anything that's worth doing it's worth doing badly until you get it right why are you moving right there I gotta go to the bathroom Sir Mr Brown go back out there yes sir we have them to start a plea call 12 Angry Men directed by Mr Leroy Washington and I ran off the next day hey I found foul they dogged me out they talked about me so bad the next time another event came up Mr Washington Mr Brown you were up I said no Mr Washington everybody says no not him I said they're right Mr Washington not me he said Mr Brown you were up yes sir and I went out and pretty soon when people laughed at me it didn't bother me they would throw paper and I could catch it without losing my concentration [Applause] and then one day I came out and a hush went across the audience because it must have been something about me that indicated that I had come to myself and Mr Washington had been practicing with me to give a presentation and I looked at the audience and I said I choose not to be a common man it's my right to be uncommon if I can I seek opportunity not security I do not wish to be a kept citizen humbled and dull by having the state look after me I want to take the calculated risk to dream and to build to fail and to succeed I refuse to live from hand to mouth I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence the Thriller fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia I will never cower before any Master nor been to any threat it's my Heritage to stand direct proud and unafraid to face the world boldly and say this I have done girl stood up say that's my boyfriend I like me some less brown baby but I didn't start off like that you have something special you have talents and abilities in you that you don't even know so how do we begin to create wealth let me give you some some ideas number one write this down knowledge what knowledge that you have in this economy part of what we need that people are willing to pay you for that next is Talent what talent thank you Dion's challenge playing football I didn't have that as a talent my talent is talking to me it's my definition of success is doing what you love to do and find somebody to pay you to do it so I find people to pay me to talk I talk I bought a game to this to this country called beard whisk that I invented that's how I talk I shoot pool I signify I make you tear up your cars break your cue stick because I talk a lot of trash I'll throw you off you've never been to Boston I'll take you there so I learned how to signify and talk trash all right and so I make a living talking trash to ATT I make more than one hour than ninety percent of the American public earned working for a whole year doing what I love to do that I've developed my talent you want to master your talent find out what it is that you love to do I love to talk scripture is another key that says to us that what we need to do to begin to develop ourselves Luke 12 34 where your treasure is there will your heart be also so what do you love to do and then explore ways in which you can earn a living doing that cooking writing painting working with numbers working with people [Music] the other thing is not only must you have knowledge Talent some skill but the other thing that's important faith to act on whatever your dream is see if you don't believe in yourself how many people you know that have a lot of talent a lot of abilities but they don't believe in themselves raise your hands see that faith is very important so the faith to act on those dreams those desires here's scripture that I that I like very much Proverbs 16 16 chapter third verse commit thy Works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established commit means to carry into action deliberately commit means to make it happen no matter what commitment the difference between next time you have bacon and eggs the chicken was involved the pig was committed he had to give it all up that's going to take a minute to sink in it's not all right see when you make a commitment I'm going to become wealthy when you make it important when you decide I'm going to do it no matter what life changes for you see most people don't keep their commitments to their commitments that's why they lead lives of poverty lives of misery lives of unhappiness Socrates said the uncommitted life isn't worth living so part of what you must do whatever commitment whatever Covenant you make with God while you're here to go back to be a better father to go back to make a difference in the community to go back to change your life to decide not to ever to use drugs or alcohol again to decide to bed that you're going to begin to recreate yourself that you're going to be reborn to a new State of Consciousness whatever commitment that you make keep your commitment to your commitment no matter what if it's hard then do it hard but keep your commitment to your commitment also to make sure you're actually taking action after watching this video I designed a special free worksheet just for this video the worksheet will highlight all the Lessons Learned in this video as well as pull out our three favorite learnings and quotes that will inspire you to actually do something the worksheet will also give you space to write down what your key takeaways are and your specific plan of action to make sure you're getting results if you want the worksheet designed specifically for this video absolutely for free there's a link in the description below go click on it and start building the momentum in your life and your business I'll see you there one of the things I have realized and many of us have that if you want something out of life if you want to change yourself if you want to acquire something if there's some goal that you want to reach that is really not easy as some people will make us feel that living your changing your behavior behaves overcoming negative challenging it's hard [Music] that living alone is just very difficult and once we begin to come to grips with the fact that living is difficult life is very challenging I heard a song Once by a guy named dimples call if it ain't one thing it's another lovers always something you will never ever have a problem-free moment in life somebody said I like this and do you either in a problem or just left one or hit it toward what anybody found that to be so raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about I only there's always something so how do we begin to nurture that hunger what are the characteristics of the qualities of people that are hungry what will it take for me to get some of the things that I want and being hungry for those things number one you've got to work on yourself it's very important that you engage in an ongoing process to develop you spend more time on yourself than what you've been spending it's very important you owe that to yourself I was reading a book by augmentino called the University of success read one line gave me a chill I didn't have to read anything else in the book he said many of us never realize our greatness because we become sidetracked by secondary activity we spread ourselves too thin don't know how to say no and we find ourselves doing all kinds of things and never ever have time to do those things that we need to do to work on ourselves and then there goes a second there goes another second there goes another second and we can't stop and hold time and before you nort you wake up one day and you're behind in your dreams and your bills so decide that you're going to take some time to work on you that you deserve that from yourself that your life deserves some prime time because you are creating your own production as Michael Todd would say you are the star of your show you are the director you're writing the script and you will determine whether your life is a smash office hit or Flop you determine that working on yourself talking to yourself that's so very important overcoming the negative conversation that inner dialogue that's going on all the time all the time even when you don't want it to be there you can't stop yourself right now from thinking you can't do it it's going on and so learning how to empower yourself part of doing that is standing up to yourself you've got to stand up inside yourself sometimes and say shut up you've got to do this I was going to give a presentation and this voice inside of me saying you can't do this you don't have everything it takes like shut up I ever had on my bills and you're telling me what I can't do to do it your mind will go blank on you some people you will allow to unnerve you and you'll wonder what's wrong with me I'm not crazy that's why you've got to learn to make a conscious deliberate determined effort to stand up inside yourself working on yourself watching that inner dialogue it will determine the quality of your life I don't believe this I know this I've had a challenge of losing weight I'm walking through the airport this boy say why don't you have some m m peanuts no no well just one and after you eat that you might as well have a sticker now you sucker oh I mean it's challenging my mother fixed the kind of sweet potato pie you can't eat with your shoes on to take your shoes off so you can wiggle your toes it sticks on my fingers it says eat it one little bite won't hurt that voice constantly little demons from Colonel Sanders driving my car in there I had to say no no no no no our diet tomorrow I saw a skinny man get hit by a truck had to had a little bit more weight he might some of you know what I'm talking about raise your hand if you don't that voice is awesome so you have got to stand up to that voice when you're working on something you want to achieve you have got to stand up to that voice you've got to sell yourself every day on your abilities on what you're doing on the goal that you want to reach you've got to sell yourself every day every day every day according to your level of belief it will manifest itself in what you're doing whatever we have right now whatever we're demonstrating in our lives is a result of what we believe subconsciously that we deserve and part of increasing that belief level is that you have got to convince yourself every day you've got to sell to yourself I I do a lot of training for many corporations and I conduct sales seminars and I've heard all kind of guys doing techniques and training um people techniques of how to close sales and how to work with and and begin to control the the sale and how to ask for the clothes let me share something with you you can learn all the techniques in the world if you don't you don't sell [Music] it won't happen for you I learned all of it so that's why I do a training called focus on the seller you've got to focus on you and as you convince you as you sell yourself every day every day every day you will begin to see a difference in the things that you're doing selling yourself on your ability to perform a job to achieve a certain objective telling yourself every day here I go again and I got what it takes this is my day and nothing out here is going to stop me and when you go out that life say come over here say it again well I'll be back tomorrow that brings me to the next thing it takes courage to act part of being hungry when you've been defeated it takes courage to start over again I used to do door-to-door sales and I was working with another friend of mine and door-to-door sales I mean it's punishing it's cruel and unusual punishment and I was a little boy knocking on the door hello would you like to buy a nice working television set no money now no they slammed the door on your face and a friend of mine that was working with me they slammed the door on his face and I looked back and he was going to the car he said I can't do this and he sat down in the car and he said you go ahead I'll be here when you get back now he had a mother and father to take care of him my mother was ill I am adopted I was hungry I had to go on I learned something about myself that when you step into your fear somebody said it was Winston Churchill he said that courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm when you step into your push yourself to go on something happens for you it will enable you to transcend yourself I went to the next door you like to buy a nice working tablet no bam went to the next no after a while I no longer took it personal and to play a game I say well I know there's a yes out here somewhere and I'm going to keep on till I find it and I'm not going home until I do and I continue to knock on doors and then somebody eventually would say yes and I said are you sure and I would go on there and I would get the sale when you when you have something you want to do if you don't develop the courage which has been given you to do and you spend a lot of time going around trying to convince other people trying to get their approval what will happen is that you will lose your nerve and other people will convince you that what you're doing doesn't have any value and you'll give up on your dream it's an interesting thing about life I've also found that if you don't have the courage to act sometimes and particularly if you have something special to do life will move on you I if if if it were not for life I would still be a disc jockey I didn't just leave voluntarily to go to the state legislature I was fired I was working on a job and I came home one day I was married at the time and I told my former wife I said that guy bird I work for is stupid she said if he's so stupid why does he sign you a paycheck now you see why I divorced her right and her that night I could not sleep well here was a guy that was controlling my life I was going through all kind of changes because this man controlled my paycheck and it was Carlisle who said truth crushed to Earth shall rise again Winston Churchill said the truth is incontrovertible malice May attack it ignorance May deride it but at the end there it is and we know scripture that says ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free and the truth that I had to come to grips with that I wasn't in charge of my destiny the truth was that I wasn't giving all that I had the truth was that there are some things that I wanted to do but I didn't have the courage to act on those things and the truth was that bird Charles was a blessing to me he made life so miserable for me I had to start looking at my life differently I started going to work earlier I started being the last one to leave there I started working harder than anybody else the other guys could not why would you work so hard Les I said I'm not working for them I have been cheating Bert I thought I've been cheating myself and my family wherever you are whatever you're doing do it with everything that you have develop the habit of giving more than what you're paid for develop the habit of setting standards and others will be measured by someone said do not go where the path may lead but go where there's no path and leave a trail all right easy to be negative today it is easy to have low morale today I was at a corporation and they're they're going through downsizing and going to lay off some 1500 people over the next few weeks it's very depressing there and those people that stay there nine times out of ten they're just going to do just enough to keep from getting fired anybody can do that but if you can begin to harness yourself and say that where I am I'm going to do the best I can with what I got because that is an expression of who I am if you get into the habit of just being mediocre it will become a part of your Consciousness if you get in a habit of giving less than what you have it within you to give it will begin to reflect itself in your personality it will begin to damage you psychologically and you don't want to be a part of that kind of self-destructive Behavior and so you want to set some high standards for yourself the next thing part of what feeds that hunger you've got to develop a sense of urgency Aurelia said stop living your life like you have a thousand years to live in life you either hit a day and you're gone today if there's something that you want to do and you can't do it all at one time do just a little bit of it I like what Robert Shula says he said by the yard it's hard but inch by inch anything is essential enough do just a little bit of it a friend of mine Bobby Kerr used to be a roommate Bobby wanted to go into the area of public relations he loved working with the public young lady he wanted to marry named Clarice Bobby was a great procrastinator pretty soon the job where Bobby worked they transferred him to another location he went out to celebrate with the people on that new job site and Bobby suffered a massive heart attack and died Bobby didn't drink and didn't smoke was under 40. and he died ask you a question how much time do you have left how much time do you have left when you stop thinking about that we don't know we don't know Bobby took all the greatness and all of the talent and all of his abilities to his grave with him one of the things you could have put in parenthesis under his name he didn't use all his stuff and most of most of us do that most of us don't use the stuff that we have brought into the universe and we want to make a conscious deliberate determined effort to start living life with a sense of urgency and using what we've got using ourselves up sharing what we brought into the universe to share because if we don't nobody else will stop wasting valuable time knowing that if we begin to live our lives as if each day were our last Our Lives will take off take on a whole new meaning and take on a whole new expression valuing each moment that we are blessed with the next thing that begins to nurture that hunger honor yourself as your word don't give your word out lightly when you throw your word out there and you don't honor it it makes a statement about you if you decide to maintain a sense of Integrity with yourself that if I speak it I'm going to live it it's who I am and I'm going to be very cautious and how I give my word to others and most of all with the commitments that I make to myself because I want my life to reflect my words and honoring who I am and what I express another challenging area in terms of nurturing and developing that hunger in yourself is learning the art of becoming single-minded learning how to concentrate learning how to focus in and you'll be surprised of the things that you're able to do when you learn how to block things out when you learn how to keep that eyes single you'll be surprised of the ideas that will come to you of the people that you'll be able to attract of the opportunities that you'll be able to see you'll begin to see things that have been staying there looking you in the face say I can't believe this has been here all this time here's a habit that I do maybe it might be of some value to you I get up in the morning and I start writing what great ideas can I can think of today that can improve me and that will enable me to reach my goal and I just let my mind flow sometimes I write 50 20 ideas some days it's more difficult than others one idea can change your life one idea can turn your life around deciding that you're going to focus to develop your skills a guy was was um the new owner of a team a team a baseball team that was in the basement of the league when he took it over he went to the picture and he said what is your best throat he said well I got a good curveball and I've got a good fast ball and he went on talking about his different throws he said but tell me this what is your best throw he thought for a moment he said I've got a good fastball he said that's all I want you to work on nothing else just develop your fastball the next year they went to the World Series most people don't know what that fastball is most people go through life never discovering what their talents are most people never develop their talents they have skills and abilities but if you don't nurture them if you don't develop them they will never serve you your gifts can take you many places if you develop your gifts most of us don't like to do those things that come easy to us I've always loved to talk to people I decided taking this advice to develop my skills as a speaker and my gift has developed and it developed and has taken me many places you have something that you brought to the universe and that if you decide that my life deserves my developing this what I do well and becoming the best at it and mastering myself and seeing what I have Within Me if you decide to drop your buckets Where You Are and develop your gifts I grant you you'll never ever be without I grant you that your gifts will take you places that will literally Amaze you I grant you that if you begin to work to develop your gifts you develop a strong sense of Happiness you'll get a larger vision of yourself because part of beginning to get a larger vision of yourself all of us need some area of Our Lives where we can have a feeling of competence that people know when they think about this area that's something you do that you eat and sleep bad and that you do that you do that people know it and you know it and you know that you know that you know this if you don't know anything else you know this can you tell I know I know what I'm doing uh hello you know this so you've got to work on it when other folk are having a good time you've got to have this the strength of character to concentrate to read to digest information if you decide any particular area that you're concerned about to make a conscious deliberate determined effort to read one book a month in that area in five years you'll be among the top five percent experts in the world I read a minimum of two books a week the average American reads only one book a year if you decide that area that you love but you are going to master that particular area in this era of accelerated change overwhelming complexity and tremendous competition as you begin to develop and expand your skills and your talents and your vision of yourself you will always be in control of your destiny how many of you ever decided not to do something based upon an assumption raise your hands please and so that's why it's important for us to be strategic and experiential and and being able to tell the story to distract them from their current story distract dispute Break Down The Limited belief system and Inspire them to say yes to a new opportunity in their lives and and so as a result I didn't do what I'm doing now because I had such a tremendous inferior infared inferiority complex because of my lack of of college education I stopped myself as an African proverb that says there's no enemy within the enemy outside can do us no harm and so as you look at yourself as you look at your goals look at your dreams it's very important that you take time every day and write this down to retrain your thinking got to retrain your thinking because how we live our lives is a result of the story that we bought into I had to retrain my thinking because of what I saw studies indicating that the decisions we make in life is directly related to the things that we saw the things that we experienced the conversations we've been exposed to between age zero and five and so as a result of that my experience I had to begin to engage in a process of retraining my mindset and I didn't even know what I was doing but this man Mr sandersky I'll never forget Leslie come in here yes sir look at my shoes you can shine them better than this I do apologize sir I'll do a better job and his wife said please don't yell at him like that that's not nice he's just a kid he's only 10 years old he should do a better job than that he can I said it's okay Mrs sugerski and he should have yelled at me he was very rude arrogant guy but he was a kind guy too what I loved about his time in the morning he spent working on his mind and I wanted to be in the office as he was shining his shoes listening to Earl Nightingale all of us are self-made but only the successful will admit it listening to Dr Dennis Whitley people form habits and habits prayed Futures listening to Zig Ziglar if you give enough people what they want they will give you what you want listening to Jim Rohn when the end comes for you let it find you conquering a new Mountain not sliding down an old one listening and reading the words of Winston Churchill the truth is incontrovertible malice May attack it ignorance me to write it but at the end there it is reading from my favorite book be not conformed in this world be transformed by the renewing of your mind listening to these words helped to create a different vision for myself some of you are already doing it right now I'm saying this is a time more than ever that you want to begin to inoculate yourself with positive words coming to conventions showing up on meetings being on the calls to make yourself Unstoppable to get out of your mind the polluting negative thoughts that's causing most people to go through life being stuck because they're volunteer victims somebody said that many people died age 25 and don't get buried until they're 65 because they got so much garbage in their minds you are here because you've got a Clear Vision of what you want and where you're going give yourselves a round of applause come on bring energy level up yes yes you want more foreign you're different you're different than everybody else but worry if they don't get it don't try and convince people to do this business a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still you are not like everybody else you can walk outside and find pigeons but if you're looking for Eagles it's going to take you a minute you are different it's Lonely at the Top how many of you know it's Lonely at the Top raise your hands it's lonely at the top but you eat better that's what I'm talking about but different one great entrepreneur said I choose not to be a common man it's my right to be uncommon if I can I seek opportunity not security I do not wish to be a kept citizen humbled and dull by having the state look after me I want to take the calculated risk to dream and to build to fail and to succeed I refuse to live from hand to mouth I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence the thrill of fulfillment to the still calm of Utopia I will never call before a master nor been to any threat it's my Heritage to stand a wreck proud and unafraid to face the world boldly and say this I have done you showed up because you're building a business that you can stand and say I did this I did this this is my dream give yourselves a ride of Applause yes yes yes yes yes foreign there's something in you that wouldn't allow you to stop Dr Howard Thurman he said there's something in each and every one of you that Waits and listens to The Voice of the genuine in yourself it will be perhaps the only guide you will ever have and if you cannot hear it all of your life your days will be spent on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls and I say to you the reason you showed up even though you couldn't afford to be here the reason you drove hundreds of miles flew around the world there's something in you in your heart of hearts it said I'm not going to let anybody pull my strings it said I'm going to control my own personal economy it's sad I've got a dream I want to achieve I want my children to have a choice of the kind of education that they want that said I am the captain of my ship that said I'm going to control my destiny and whatever it takes I'm willing to do the work give yourselves a round of applause 1961 1961 President John F Kennedy had a decision to make decision was whether or not to call a news conference and tell the world the United States was going to go to the Moon and I submit to you that the decision to do that was very risky and what governed his thinking is what govern your thinking when you decided I'm going to do this see the technology did not exist the answer of what will it take did not exist no one had ever done it before but he made a decision he looked at Werner van Braun the most brilliant scientist of that day and he said Warner what will it take for us to go to the Moon and he spoke five words and those five words I think is what governs most entrepreneurs those five words I think is what give people like you the courage to pursue their dreams those five words is what I think people who are pioneers people who are breaking new ground make decisions on he said what will it take for us to go to the moon and the response was the will to do it as you look at yourself as you look at your business as we looked into 2015 and Beyond what will it take for you to increase your business the will to do it what will it take for you to become more powerful in your presentation skills and be able to increase the number of people to quadruple your business the will to do it what will it take for you when others are quitting because of the rejections when others are stopping because they just become so discouraged and they have predators breathing down their neck and they have family members and friends telling them they're full what is it that will allow you to have the mental resiliency to keep on keeping on to keep your commitment to your commitment the will to do it every time I said and ask you a question I want you to say the will to do it what will it take for you to build your your business what will it take for you to increase your recruiting will it take for you to bring out the greatness in you and to make your mark what will it take for you to become a high achiever and to bring out the billionaire in you this one's hand on your right and left and say I've got the will Mr Washington this man who taught me he said Mr Brown you want to make it in life he said number one develop your mind you don't get in life what you want you get in life what you are number two develop your communication skills once you open your mouth you tell the world who you are three practice the principle of oqp only quality people let us say together only quality people as you think about your goals and dreams this is not for everybody you want to build an organization with only not people who need more but people who want more you want to surround yourself with people that are hungry people that are hungry are willing to do the things a day others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have people that are hungry do what they know not what they feel see I didn't do this for years because I knew it would be hard and Mr Washington said something to me Mike Williams my mentor you want to go online and find his book The Road to your best stuff he said something that grabbed me and I want you to put this someplace where you can see it see you build this business through persistence you got to affirm I will persist until I succeed you build it through patience it takes time to grow orchids it's faster to grow roses but orchids that takes time you have to have persistence you have to have patience and perseverance it takes courage to come back again and again and again because in order to build the business it's hard work it's h-a-r-d and h-e-a-r-t [Music] are you with me there write this down if you do what is easy your life will be hard but if you do what is hard your life will be easy if you do what is easy point out all this to some pyramid scheme oh I've been talking to people and nobody's interested I talk to people and they said no oh I've done that before come up with excuses if you do what is easy always looking for a way to give yourself a pass to let yourself off the hook to do what everybody else is doing a job the Journey of the broke if you do what is easy your life will be hard people working on jobs that they hate that they hate the heart attack rate on Monday morning between six o'clock and ten o'clock increases by 35 people going to jobs that they hate if you do what is easy your life will be hard working two and three jobs so one paycheck and no job security but there's something in you that says you know I'm making some good money but you know what I can't do this I can't do this anymore a friend of mine she's here I'm so honored to be in her presence Kim wheat she went to do a presentation drove from Los Angeles to San Francisco and 20 people in Rome and they said yes she's an electrifying speaker great presenter yes and when she left the dream Busters took the floor and when the dream buses finish with those people who had goals and dreams of a new life they sabotaged him and they called her before she can get home and say no we're not going to do it and at that moment she could have quit write this down your private voice every entrepreneur you have two things going for you have an energy signature and some of you will be working with and you have a private voice eight to nine decisions out of ten that you make a governed by that private voice when they called and said no her private voice said you're wasting your time you don't need to do this your husband is a doctor you don't need to do this your mother you need to spend more time with your child get this crazy idea out of your mind but rather than do that she started talking to herself rather than do that she started listening to motivational messages that will build herself up from the inside and as a result a verse saying yes I can do this as a result of ignoring the dream Busters now she's one of the top 10 producers in the world in multi-level marketing give her a round of applause can we stand up give Round of Applause yes yes in the world and that's why you are here there's a voice in you that is said I can do this I know others have failed I can do this I know others have said that that I can't do it I've had said birth backs in life how many of you had some failures raise your hands please have you had some nose in your life raise your hands please Shake someone down on your right and left and say make know your vitamin ladies and gentlemen if you want to make it in life you got to make know your vitamin you've got to know every no brings you a step closer to a yes anybody can stop because someone said no but there's something in you in Your Heart of heart to say I'm not a quitter there's something in you that says I've got the will to do it there's something in you that says I'm going to find a way Mr Brown what do you want to do with your life young man sir I'd like to become a disc jockey why Sarah because I want to buy my mother a home he said great listen to Paul Harvey here are my car keys going to call 12 noon he comes on every day why because if you want to be successful study the people that are doing what you want to do he's the best in the world when it comes to communication I suggest to you as you look at what you want to achieve look at the top Achievers understand and know they are only an example they are not an exception they're an example of what you can do because success leaves Clues follow the system watch the leaders and study them I did that and he said Mr Brown detoxify your life let all the negative people in your life go can I change them no it's a full-time job changing yourself he's right he's right you can't change people it's hard changing yourself and there's some people so negative they can walk into a dark room and begin to develop thank you he said practice oqp only quality people he said I want you to see yourself as a disc jockey you want to be a disc jockey visualize yourself being on radio you want to be a top performer visualize yourself building the business visualize yourself coming across the stage accepting an award for your recognition of your hard work see it in your mind's eye he said I'll give you all your eyes can see and I had to see myself on stage as I'm presenting right now I've been here many times before I showed up in my mind all your goals are achieved Twice first in the mind then and without and then finally he said Mr Brown I said yes sir you want to be a disc jockey yes sir he said you got to be hungry I said why you keep saying that he said people that are hungry are Relentless people that are hungry Unstoppable people that are hungry no excuse is acceptable I said sir I'm hungry to take care of my mother all my life people have always compared me to my brother because I'm not smart like him it takes me longer to get things than most people I have to hear it again and again but once I got it sir I got it you you're the only person that never called me stupid or dumb you never call me DT the dumb twin you you look at me like um why come somebody I've never had a father and I I watch you and I want to be able to talk like you I I get choked up sometimes because I can't get my thoughts out sir but I want to do what you do and I want to make my mom a proud he said you can do it Mr Brown I've given you all you can get from me now it's on you if you want to be a disc jockey go out into the marketplace I went to apply for a job on Miami Beach Milton Butterball Smith was a program director hello Mr Butterball how are you sir my name is Les Brown so I like to be a disc jockey your man you're having journalism in your background no sir I don't have experience in broadcasting no sir but let me let me addition for you so let me show you how good I am all I want sir is a shot just let me let me audition he said no how many have been rejected racial aspects I was devastated with rejection I said Mr Washington they said no he said don't take it personally most people are still yes I said yes [Music] I came back the next step come on how are you sir my name is [Music] yes [Music] about your goals and dreams and became the urban boy for the discharges [Music] I expect to live my dream I began to serve them my favorite book says and so pretty soon building a relationship people build relation people may know life and Trust proven themselves and as they look here young boy who cleaned my car today I did Sir how much is all you nothing sir you cleaned it inside and out you watched it yes I don't owe you anything no sir I just wanted to help out write this down give before you ask I was giving service I was giving Service First he said whoa yeah Donna Ross and The Supremes are coming to town The Four Tops and The Temptations here are my car keys pick them up and take them to the Fountain Blue Hotel on Miami Beach I said be my pleasure to serve you sir I would drive these entertainers all over Miami Beach and the disc jockeys big long Cadillacs I didn't have any driver's license but I'll drive it like a handsome then one day it was a Saturday afternoon a disc jockey by the name of rock and Roger was drinking while he was on the air he began to slur his words he got so drunk he was about to fall off the chair it was a Saturday afternoon and I was the only one there looking at him through the control room window walking back and forth Young ready all right now [Music] [Music] front porch foreign I waited for about 20 minutes and I called him back and said Mr Klein I can't find nobody controls I said yes sir he said don't you say nothing here I said yes sir I couldn't wait to get a rock out of the way I put on a fast record I say look how this is me lb triple P Les Brown your Plata plan Papa there were nothing before me and there will be none after me therefore that makes me the one and only youngest England love Domingo certified Bonafide doably qualified to bring you satisfaction and a whole lot of action look out they 've read I was hungry I was hungry Shake someone's hand and say you got to be hungry Shake someone's head and say you got to be hungry you got to be hungry so I'd like to leave this with you I don't know what you want to do but I believe that Zig was right you give enough people what they want they will give you what you are I believe Jim Rome was right when the end comes to you let it find you conquer in the new Mountain not sliding down an 0-1 I believe Earl Nightingale was right all of us are self-made but only the successful will admit it I believe that Dr pill was right always strive to get on top in life because the bottom is overcrowded I believe Mike Williams is right if you do what is easy your life will be hard but if you do what is hard your life will be easy so I dedicate this to you to the dreamer in you something my mother used to love to hear me say Leslie yes ma'am mama say that thing for me boy that makes me feel good I dedicate this to you because it's one thing to be in the business but there's something else in the business is in you you are here because it's in you it's in your heart and it says simply this if you want to think bad enough to go out and fight for it to work day and night for it to give up your time your peace and your sleep for it if all that you dream and scheme is about it and life seems useless and worthless without it and if you gladly sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it and lose all your Terror of the opposition for it and if you simply go after that thing that you want with all of your capacity strengthen sagacity faith hope and confidence and Stern per tenacity if neither cold poverty famish adult sickness or pain or body and brain can keep you away from the thing that you want if dog had had Grim you besieged and beset it with the help of God you'll get it Dr Howard Thurman one of the mentors of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi it was a very brilliant writer he wrote some things that really grabbed me he he wrote deep is the hunger the voice of the genuine the sinnering moment during the time after receiving 238 radiation seed implants I was reflecting on his words and and these words kept me up that night he said the ideal situation for a man or woman to die is to have family members praying with them as they cross over he said but imagine if you will being on your death bed and standing around your bed the ghost of the dreams the ideas the abilities the talents given to you by life and that you for whatever reason you never went after that dream you never acted on those ideas you never use those talents you never use those gifts and there they are standing around your bed looking at you with large Angry Eyes saying we came to you and only you could have given us life and now we must die with you forever [Music] and the question is if you die today what dreams what ideas what talents what books what music what leadership what voice will die with you miles Monroe great origin speaker said the wealthiest place in the planet it's not in the Far East where there's oil in the ground it's not a South Africa where the diamond mines he said the wealthiest place on the planet it's the cemetery because there you'll find greatness that we've never seen there you'll find talent and genius and potential never actualize perhaps that's why Henry David Thoreau wrote the words oh God to reach the point of death only to realize that you've never lived maybe that's why some unknown writer wrote the words what if you live your whole life only to discover that it was wrong wrong that it was wrong that you were chosen to do something else and you didn't do it [Music] repeat after me please live full die empty I want you to take some notes into things and I want you to think about your goals and dreams in the three categories that I mentioned personal professional and your social contribution how many of you serious about your goals and dreams raise your hands please thank you very much how many of you don't want to take your dreams to your grave with you raise your hands please very good shakes the one's hand on your right and left look him in the eyes and say get out of your head and step into your greatness do that right now please say get out of your head and step into your greatness I want you to write this down let us say together as you think about your goals and dreams let us stay together it's possible together please yes write that down see ladies and gentlemen as an entrepreneur I've been an entrepreneur for 20 years it's my 21st year I could have been speaking and training for 34 years but for 14 years I was living in my head for 14 years I stopped myself for 14 years I used to go see Zig Ziglar that I considered the number one motivational speaker on the planet Zig ziglan Tony Robbins they're the best on the planet Bob Proctor they are the best on the planet Jack Canfield Mark Victor Hansen T.I Beckett I would go and see them and then I would leave in my conversation with myself was my heart would say I can do that and then my mind would ask how how would you do that Les Brown see when I was in the fifth grade I was identified as EMR labeled educatable mentally put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade I failed again when I was in the eighth grade I have no College training and a man changed my life and I'll never forget his name Mr Leroy Washington he's in his 80s now and and he's blind from glaucoma but he he gave me a different vision of myself I was in his class waiting on another student he came in and said young man go to board and work this problem out for me I said oh sir I can't do that I said why not I said I'm I'm not one of your students said look at me yes sir go to the board and work the problem on anyhow I said sir I I can't do that he said why because it's there because I'm educable mentally sir I'm in special education and the students started laughing they said that's Leslie that's not Wesley he's DT Wesley it's the smart twin he said what does DT stand for I said I'm I'm the dumb twin sir and as the students laughed at me he came from behind his desk he looked at me and he said don't you ever say that again someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality foreign I was humiliated but on the other hand I was liberated because he looked at me with the eyes of girder who said look at a man the way that he is he only becomes worse but look at him as if he were what he could be then he becomes what he should be and so we developed a relationship and one of the things that I can just tell you as you think about your goals and dreams all of us can say in a spirit of Integrity that it's possible that if anybody at any point in time lived their dream that it's possible that I could live mine and what I did was I made a mistake I looked at my goals and dreams and my mind said how will you do that I went from my heart to my mind and I stayed up there for 14 years 14 years I can't bring those 14 years back those years are gone and I've made a mission in my life to help people to stop putting it off and procrastinating how many ever thought about something you wanted to do and you procrastinated you talked yourself out of it raise your hand please there's a proverb that says if there's no enemy within the enemy outside can do us no harm and so as you look at your goals and dreams every day we must convince ourselves we must sell ourselves on that it's possible every seminar every Workshop every book that I've ever read every speaker that I've ever heard it interrupted what I was believing about myself everything that you do everything matters as you go through each day I know now as I look back at age 63 looking at my life everything matters T Hoff is right how you do anything is how you do everything and I realize that the choices I was making was based upon how I saw myself let us say together it's necessary write that down it's necessary as you look at your goals and your dreams it's necessary that you have a strategy and a game plan to change the story that you believe about yourself and that's an ongoing process I discovered and many people have that what we do what we accomplish what we produce is a result of the story We believe about ourselves my favorite book says Biggie and I conform to this word be transformed by the renewing of your mind and so as I began to work on myself I realize that I'm getting out of one story and stepping into another story as I become aware of some things there's still some things I'm not aware of so I still I'm still growing I'm still developing I'm like the lady who said Lord I ain't want to wanna be what I'm going to be but thank God I showed what I was but I realize that that you have to work on yourself on a regular basis and write this down for mental mindset for mental mindset and stamina because things are going to happen to you I don't believe I believe that the reason that most people go to their graves where their talents and abilities and skills in them is because of the fact number one many are like me they didn't know that they didn't know and and thought they knew I thought I knew myself and I really didn't know myself as well as I thought I've discovered that sometimes people can take you to a place within yourself that you can't go by yourself the other reason is I was afraid I never worked for a major corporation I wanted to speak for corporations I was afraid I would I would be exposed because I don't have a college education I felt inferior because of the fact that I don't have a college education I allowed that level of fear of failure to stop me and because I never had any experience in it I assume that I could not do it I was paralyzing Myself by believing and assuming the limited part of myself as opposed to believing that I had something special you have something special there's something you want to do because you don't know how to do it doesn't mean that you can't learn I like something that I heard you don't have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great repeat after me please leave and grow your wings on the way down see the people that will live their dreams the two percent that will do that these are and write this down become a risk taker they're Risk Takers they don't mind failing they don't mind making mistakes they're willing to take life on take life in the column this God said if you're not willing to risk you cannot grow and if you cannot grow you cannot become your best and if you cannot become your best you can't be happy and if you can't be happy then what else is there I like what Helen Keller said she said life is short and unpredictable eat the dessert first I don't care how good you are I don't care how talented you are I don't care how much you work on yourself there are some times when things aren't going to go right they just are not going to go right there are times when anything that can happen will happen Murphy's Law will be knocking at your door why I don't know why that's called life and you have to deal with it sometimes your life will be in a slump just like sports some of the best Shooters can't hit baskets different times in games they get in a slump do they sit on the sideline and say you know I just didn't hit a basket today no they continue to execute I suggest to you that if you were facing a challenge don't stop stay busy work your plan continue to do those things that you know that work for you after you have evaluated yourself from the situation continue to move stay busy stay busy stay busy repeat after me help somebody and help yourself because what you give because is what you get find somebody that you can help so you can forget about you for a moment see sometimes the best thing to do is to be sometimes you have to just back up and go within yourself a bow and arrow you you can't take a boat and just push it out an hour you just can't push the arrow out you have to pull it back and then release it sometimes you have to back up and go within and pray and meditate and recharge your batteries go away clear your head and then come back and look at it from a different vantage point don't operate while you're under the spell or the effect of what's going on next thing is that you've got to activate the Thinker in you don't allow your emotions to control you we are emotional but you want to begin to discipline your emotion if you don't discipline and contain your emotions they will use you your mind goes on automatic just like a god you know I loved reading the book called as a man thinking by James Allen he uses the analogy of the mind being like a garden you know weeds don't have to have any encouragement to grow sunshine sidewalk am I right yeah but if you want to grow orchids or roses or any kind of exotic flowers there are special processes and procedures you must go through well by the same token you don't have to force yourself or motivate yourself to think negatively to be depressed to hate somebody to want revenge you want to get back at somebody to beat yourself up over the head to feel loaded with guilt you don't have to make any effort to do that your mind is on automatic it will do that by itself but if you want to begin to move into your own personal greatness if you want to begin to really enjoy a happy successful healthy life you've got to be willing to go against the tide you've got to be willing to harness your will and say in spite of this I'm in control here I'm not going to let this get me down I'm not going to let this destroy me I'm coming back and I'll be stronger and better because of it you have got to make a declaration [Music] that this is what you stand for you're standing up for your dreams you're standing up for peace of mind you're standing up for health you want it and you're going to go all out to have it it's not going to be easy when you want to change it's not easy if it were in fact easy everybody would do it but if you're serious you'll go all out to yes I'm going to turn this situation around I'm not going to sit back and and moan and cry over what happened and what went wrong and who did what I'm going to do something about this situation the next thing that is important is that it's things to get better for you because they are they are you're not what is exp whatever experience you're having right now it has not come to stay it has come to pass not to stay just to pass it's just going through the biggest challenge is is to know what's happening this is a part of this thing we call life this too shall pass and maintaining perspective putting it in perspective I was doing a training at a college and the two-day training during orientation and in the training that I provide I'm a motivational speaker but I conduct processes and personal Dynamics where people begin to go through changes that stimulate the right and left hemisphere of the brain enable them to see themselves differently I conducted this particular simulation with these young kids 17 and 18 years of age so that they would begin to see how they make decisions how they would survive in this particular simulation process we gave them we had them to do it individually and then collectively over 30 percent of them wrote down as their first option in order to survive they would commit suicide first thing they wrote down suicide among young people has increased 300 over 5 000 will successfully take their lives this year why why did they do that they fasted I was so shocked I said what do you mean well at least we would not suffer and then they had the nerve to write down all of the other things they were going to do after they committed suicide foreign no when you when you come up with a permanent solution for a temporary problem that's it game's over that's it you're not going to do anything anybody wrote suicide at the top you can put your pencil down see a lot of us because of our limited vision of ourselves a lot of us who begin to focus on problems and enable them to overwhelm us we begin to think that we have no options we begin to believe that there's no way out repeat after me there's always a way where there's a will there's a way Shake somebody's hand on your right left and say I'm unstoppable you've got to make those kind of declarations to yourself I'm unstoppable this will not get me down and if I get knocked down I'm gonna be like um Leo Pascal you said you're going to have some low moments in life but when you do you will have high lows learn your work on yourself what are some of those things that you can do during this period of time go for walks do some things for you just go for a stroll so you can engage in some reflective thinking on life on yourself looking and enjoying the universe smelling the Roses along the way listen to upbeat music music that inspire you I have only but goodies I have strategies that I engage in to recharge my batteries I'm preparing for that because I know things are going to happen that I cannot anticipate very good friend of mine died the other day I had a program for myself I have books that I read that inspire me tapes that I listen to that fire me up because you're going to have sometimes low moments when you won't want to get out of bed you just want to stay there at times you won't want to come out the house the times you'll be feeling bad and don't know why what's wrong I don't know just leave me alone why did that happen I don't know it's called life the other thing is take full responsibility for your life except Where You Are and the responsibility that you're going to take yourself where you want to go someone said we have two primary choices in life we can either accept conditions as they exist or we can take the responsibility to change them see a lot of people want to exempt themselves from taking responsibility all they want to do is talk about the problem every time you see them they'll tell you their story over and over and over and over again no no you want to take responsibility for your life I got me here I can get me out of this and I'm getting out I'm not going to be a volunteer victim George Bernard Shaw said there are two kinds of people in life you know he said those that make things happen those that watch things happen and those that don't know what happened and he said the people that get along in this life look around for the circumstances that they want and if they can't find them they make them they create like you've got to decide that the behavior pattern that you have adopted doesn't work for you you've got to change your strategies and changing your strategy means Reinventing Your Life recreating you and you have the power to do that decide that you're going to change that you're not going to be a wimp you can decide that you're going to stand up to life you can decide that I'm going to live each day as if it were my last you can you have the power to make that decision you can decide I'm going to work on myself and develop myself I'm going to empower me and all of these things that are happening to me right now they're just temporary inconveniences they're not stronger than I am I'm in charge here yeah see one of the things about life you're going to get hurt you're going to make some mistakes you're going to feel your way to success but you've got to be willing to experiment you got to be willing to push yourself you've got to be willing to challenge yourself by putting yourself in a Perpetual state of discomfort and so but things happen in life when you have goals and dreams things happen had no idea Midway of my third term my mother became ill she was diagnosed with breast cancer my brothers and sisters called me and said they're going to put her in a nursing home and I said no they said we thought you would say that we've interviewed the best nursing homes in Dade County I said I said no so I had a problem how can one woman raise seven children who couldn't take care of themselves but seven grown people couldn't take care of one woman I had a problem with that and I've said no some resigned from the Ohio legislature and I came back to Miami to take care of Mama and took care of until 89. and there are things as you have your goals things are going to happen to you that you can't anticipate some of you in the eye of the storm now things are going to happen and don't say why does this have to happen to me why not you who would you suggest you want to give us some names and email addresses that's really what I said the second time I got cancer they had told me the cancer metastasized the seven areas of my body I started laughing he said why are you laughing are you in denial I said no I feel like Mother Teresa he said what do you mean she said Lord I know you know how much I can bear I just wish I you didn't have so much confidence in me there's times in your life when things going to happen that you've got to begin to put your dream on hold and you might have to reinvent yourself how many have already gone through that raise your hands please it's called life and don't tell everybody about it eighty percent don't care and 20 Glad Is You you have to suck it up and handle it that's what it called being in business being an entrepreneur being a risk taker walking by faith and not by sight stuff happens to you it's hard changing your life it was hard when just over three years ago in the Penobscot building in Detroit Michigan where I was operating my business and I fell on some hard times and I was sleeping in my office it was hard coming into the lobby and the security said excuse me Mr Brown Can we see you for a moment and I said yes and I walked up to the counter and he gave me an envelope and he said would you mind reading it here and I opened the envelope and the envelope was from management that said this is an office tower it's not a hotel please do not sleep in your office and I said excuse me sir I said I just worked long hours and creating my business I'm an entrepreneur and right now things are bad for me but they're not going to be this way always and I just asked for the opportunity to continue to operate like I'm doing I'm not trying to make this my home and it was hard coming through the lobby and sometimes they would laugh there's a guy talking about becoming successful and look at him he's bathing in the bathroom upstairs on the 21st floor he sleeps on the floor him and two other dreamers up there look at them it was hard ladies and gentlemen coming to speak to people and I was facing financial difficulties in my own life I was behind on my bills and my dreams and I'm saying to them you can live your dream it was hard ladies and gentlemen it was very difficult to pick myself up each day believing that I could do it there were times that I doubted myself I said God why why is this happening to me I'm just trying to take care of my children and my mother I'm not trying to steal a rock from anybody why did this have to happen to me it was very hard and here's what I want to say to you for those of you that have experienced some hardships don't give up on your dream no one could have convinced me by holding on by continuing to push forward by continuing to run toward my dream that one day I would have my own talk show it's a long shot ladies and gentlemen from Liberty City an abandoned building on a floor never knowing my mother or father it's a long shot being here with you today in this Dome in Atlanta it's a long shot no College training labeled educable mentally but I kept running toward my dream don't stop don't stop foreign don't stop running towards your dream it's very important as you hold on to that dream [Applause] they're moments when you're going to doubt yourself their rough times are going to come but they have not come to stay they have come to pass it's very important for you to know that don't say I'm having a bad day Sam having a character building day [Applause] it's very important for you to believe that you are the one to make this happen I remember this High School teacher Mr Leroy Washington at the end of school one June it was just a few days before we were supposed to leave and I just got my report card and it indicated that I'd fail history and I'd fail English and I would have to go to summer school and I was feeling Within Myself that I was a failure that I I'm sure that most people and getting paperwork and and I was feeling down on myself and and very negative and Mr Washington was giving a speech to the graduating seniors and I was in 11th grade and even though I wasn't supposed to be in there I went in there because the speech he was giving that speech was for me and as he talked my heart began to beat fast tears began to run by my eyes and I was in the back just listening to him because he said and he was a very dramatic man I still talk to him to this day he said as graduating seniors of Booker T Washington High School I want you to know that you're blessed and highly favored and that as you go toward the future begin to know that you have greatness within you and if just one of you here begin to Envision yourselves as being blessed and highly favored to reach your goals if just one of you capture the essence of what that means that you have greatness within you and responsibility to manifest that greatness that you can make your parents proud you can make your school proud you can touch millions of people's lives and the world will never be the same again because you came this way and the students gave him a rousing standing ovation and as he left the auditorium I ran down the steps and I caught him in the parking lot I said Mr Washington he said yes I said do you remember me sir he said no I said um my name is Leslie Brown my mother she works in the cafeteria here I'm one of the twins Leslie and Wesley I said Miss Washington but you know you know I got these Big Dreams you know I like talking to people I love people I said I want to work with people and I got this dream of buying my mom a home could could I do that Mr Washington he said it's possible Mr Brown and as he walked away I call him again I said Mr Washington he said what do you want now I said uh I'm the one sir I said I'm the one you you remember me sir I miss maybe Brown's boy I'm the one I'm the one thank you [Applause] and you must feel that that that's why you're here because you are the one and I remember when PBS first played one of my specials called you deserve one Sunday afternoon in Miami Florida I had some friends call him to tell him to tune in and he watched the program he called me in Detroit and I answered the phone and I said hello he said may I speak to Les Brown please I said who's calling he said you know who this is I said Oh Mr Washington it's you he said you were the one weren't you I said yes sir he said and you were so crazy I said I know but I'm rich now laughs ladies and gentlemen it's not going to be easy it was hard laying on the floor of the Penobscot building looking out of the window daydreaming saying less can you do this can you make this happen I used to listen to tapes day in and day out about see you at the top my my great friend Zig and and Dennis Whitley different other motivational speakers and Dr Norman Vincent field and Dex is saying don't let nobody steal your dream I used to ask myself can I do this and something said Within Me you're the one you're the one and let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen while you're here and before you go back home to your respective cities and communities write down at least five reasons on why you deserve your dream and why you won't give up what's going to make you Unstoppable why you must be unreasonable because logical practical thinking says you can't do it today but if you want to produce unreasonable results in your life like living your dreaming taking charge of your destiny you've got to be an unreasonable person you've got to be an uncommon person so write down the reasons of why you're here my first major goal was to buy my mother a home and let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen what what will reasons do less Nietzsche said if you know the rifle doing you can endure almost anyhow what do you mean by that if you know why you're doing something when the hard times come and they're going to come when the disappointments and rejections come and they're going to come by the truckloads your reasons will be your rod and staff to comfort you to pick you up once again I got a saying on one of my tapes if life knocks you down try and land on your back because if you can look up you can get up let your reasons get you back up [Music] I remember when I I bought the home for my mother and she came out of the car when I opened the door I said Mom I think I know these people in this house that's my first major goal and then I couldn't conceal it anymore I said Mom I got this for you and as she went from room to room looking at the house and saying thank you Jesus thank you Lord no one ever could have convinced me that this could have happened to me and she looked at me she said Leslie and you cost me so much problems as a boy you were always into stuff she said no one could have convinced me that day when I walked in that house and this lady was holding you and your brother and she said ma'am I want you to promise me two things and she'd say what is it she says one promised me that you won't separate them she said I want them raised together I want them to know each other I got pregnant while my husband was away in the war and I can't keep him promise me that you won't separate them she said I promise I won't I've never had children I promise I won't separate him and she said promise me that you'll never tell them about who I am because if my husband ever found out he would kill me she said I promise and she said that she gave them to us and and she kind of cried and she and she was walking out the door and she looked at my adopted mother she said remember don't you separate him she said I swear to God I won't I won't separate am I keep them together and she said if I held you all in my arms I never had any children of my own I didn't know how I was going to do it but I knew with the help of God I will do it and ladies and gentlemen my mother had a dream of having children and raising us she didn't know how she's going to do it you're going to be just like that and some of you are already there well you don't know how you're going to make this happen but you just feel within yourself some way somehow with the help of God I'm going to make it happen repeat after me please no matter how bad it is or how bad it gets [Applause] I'm going to make it I'm going to make it Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say you got the right stuff so yes it's possible for you to live your dream it's necessary that you associate with winners that you worked your system that you are Relentless that you never give up it's you you've got to take personal responsibility you've got to make it your personal business to make it happen and you've got to resolve within yourself that I can do this that it's hard but you've got to say I'm the one I'm the one to make this happen I'm the one to become successful in this business as you work to help other people to become successful that feeds your success but you know it's going to be hard but find out what will make it worth it for you because you made it this far in a video I want to celebrate you most people start and don't finish most people never actually follow through most people say they want something but they don't ever do the work to actually get it but you're different you are special believe Nation you made it here all the way to the end and I love you so it's a special celebration if you put a hashtag believe down in the comments Below on this video I will showcase you and celebrate you somewhere on the screen in a future video because you are awesome to see my one-on-one interview with Les Brown check the video right there next to me I think you'll love it continue to believe and I'll see you there whatever Vision that you hold for yourself see it accomplish and understand this it can be done and the glue is service belief

Channel: Evan Carmichael

Views: 362,076

Keywords: entrepreneur, yt:cc=on, evancarmichael, les brown, striving to be better, #Believe, goals and dreams, success motivation, les brown motivation, best habits for success, motivational video, les brown motivational speech, les brown speech, les brown mindshift, your mind is the key to your success, les brown mind, les brown motivational, les brown motivational video, les brown motivational speaker, les brown its possible

Id: -kRyAzCg9Ig

Length: 188min 30sec (11310 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 08 2023