what does it take to to be in charge of your destiny what do you have going for you what is it that you have going for you right now that's a real Plus for you what is it that you have going against you what kind of train training do you require what is it that you need to learn don't worry about the fact that you don't have all the things you need in order to make it happen decide that you're going to do something about it become an active force in your life most people go
through life never using the power they have if you don't use your talents if you don't use this power this force that you have within you you're going to lose it as you begin to look at life as you begin to look at the things you want to do decide that you're going to become the active force in your life view all of the things that happened to you as an opportunity now you become an active force in your life now you are the one rather than running from things as they begin to change you
become a change driver because you know that you've got the power within you to make the difference this Force this power this energy that you have that's more powerful than anything that can ever happen to you how you feeling this evening whenever somebody's ask me how I'm doing always say better than good and better than most and that's what I like for you to say how you doing better than good better than most Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say you're doing better than good you're better than good all right you know
I like to say that because I believe that we are we have a lot of things going for us that many of us don't realize and and many of us really never use all the things that we have going for us and ever act on the things that we'd like to act on and consequently most of us go through life sleepwalking never really discovering our true potential never enjoying life to its full extent and so therefore I think that there are some things that we need to begin to do to take charge of our destiny
how many of you like to take charge of your destiny raise your hand please very good all right so we're going to do that and you know one of the things that really stimulated this I was with a friend of mine we were riding back after I'd spoken to her company and they had a major downsizing now they call it right sizing when companies reduce the workforce for economic reasons well at any rate when we were on the plane and she said um you know I'm no longer going to be with the company and I
said no I said why she said well U my division has been eliminated I said well you do have another plan don't you and she said no I said but didn't they have something of this nature about a year ago she said yes I said but didn't you start thinking that maybe perhaps you need to prepare to do that which you really wanted to do because this person that I've known for a long time always wanted to be involved in fashion design so I said haven't you been doing something on your your fashion designing career
she said no I said but what have you been doing she says hope hoping that nothing happened to me I said but hoping is not a process it's not a method uh you know you know a lot of people go through life like that now that wasn't really what she wanted to do but I do a training simonon one of the things we ask what would you do if the unthinkable happens to you what would you do if you had an accident or you lost your job or you were laid off or you became ill
how how would you provide for yourself if the unthinkable happens to you and it doesn't always happen to the other person it can happen to me it can happen to you but most of us go through life thinking that well just maybe it won't happen to me that we just read about somebody else that will happen to us talking to a friend of mine by the name of Maria who is wheelchair bound and she said that she had an experience in her life that taught her that she's not immune from life because she was diagnosed
as having muscular distopy at age 15 and she figured that was trag tragic enough but two years ago because of a malfunctioning wheelchair she fell out of a van struck her head and suffered a closed head injury had blood on her brain and they said that she perhaps might go blind or she have loss of memory or concentration and I said how did you handle that she said L was the best thing that could have happened to me I said why she said because on that that day I woke up and I realized that life
is about today living today that whatever I want to do I do it right now she said I enjoy getting up in the morning looking out of the window just looking at the grass she said because I could have lost my vision she said I'm appreciative of just the little things Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say be thankful for the little things isn't that important that we've got to begin to learn how to become thankful for the little things and living life right now so I want you to think about your
ideas all of us have ideas and things that we have not acted on I want you to just think about them right now um eel Simpson said that an idea should be like a pen you know that a pen that you sit on and and you jump up right away to do something with it so I don't want you to just think about it I want when you leave here I want you to jump and do something with it all right now so think about this idea what does it take to to be in charge
of your destiny well you got to begin to develop some skills and you got to ask yourself a question um what do you have going for you what is it that you have going for you right now that's a real Plus for you what is it that you have going against you what kind of train training do you require what is it that you need to learn see you you make money only one of three ways in an economy of this nature you have to have a skill like I've developed the skill to become a
speaker Seer or have some specialized knowledge or have a particular product that or service that you can provide for the public John Ace Johnson of Evy magazine said something very important he says there is no defense against an Excellence that meets a pressing public need so any idea that you have it must fulfill a need for somebody why don't you think about it now here's the next step don't worry about the fact that you don't have all the things you need in order to make it happen decide that you're going to do something about it
become an active force in your life see you've got some talents and abilities right now you have that if you don't challenge yourself to use those talents and abilities you'll never ever discover the full effect that they can have on achieving all the things that you want to achieve most people go through life never using the power they have you have enormous power to begin to create all the things that you want in your life experience that most people go through life never using I travel a lot speaking around the country and I was out
of Detroit for around two months I came back to the airport went in a parking lot put my key in the ignition turny key can anybody tell me what happened can you tell me why the car did not get started the battery was dead why was it dead I had not been using it repeat after me please if you don't use it if you don't use it you lose it see ladies and gentlemen if you don't use your talents if you don't use this power this force that you have have within you you're going to
lose it if you have the ability to write and if you don't write you're going to lose the ability to write as well as you do right now if you have the ability to play an instrument the world's greatest pianist said that if I miss a week of practice I knew it and if I miss two weeks the critics know it and if I miss three weeks my audience knows it if you have the ability to to draw well and if you don't use that Talent eventually you're going to lose it if I don't speak
often and I One Time time at one point in my life I miss speaking for around 6 months and when I came up before an audience I was Rusty I could not get my thoughts together I could not have the power this the kind of confidence that I needed in order to make it happen so whatever you want to do whatever idea that you have the longer that you're sitting on that idea you either creating or you are disintegrating if you're not using it your skills are diminishing every day and there goes a second there
goes another second and life is happening right now but Les what do you mean get your butt out of the way so many people have gone to their graves never discovered their true potentials because they allow their butts to stop them like but I don't know what to do now that's not really true I was on a television program the other day lady called in and she said um there's something I like to ask you and I said what is it she said well I have this this thing I want to do but I've been
unemployed I lost my job for two years I haven't been able to find a job I don't have the money and I don't have the contacts and and I really don't know what to do I said excuse me I said the fact that you don't have the money or the contacts really is not the issue I said what's the real issue she said what do you mean I said what's stopping you from doing what you want to do she said well I I don't know I said but if you did know what would your answer
be she said well I think maybe I'm afraid I said what are you afraid of maybe I might fail see a lot of people allow fear to stop them from living their dream answer your calling whatever you're called to do don't count yourself out don't say I can't do that many of us go through life saying no and you don't even know what you're saying no to you don't know what you cannot do if you're not willing to challenge yourself whatever it is that you don't know how to do right now you can learn I
did not know how to speak for major corporations I didn't know how to do that but I decided to become a student if you do your research if you do your homework if you make the commitment that I'm going to learn when you look at what do I have going for me and drop your buckets where you are decide I'm going to work and get myself together I got in Jim R and said if you develop your gifts your gifts will take you places that you'll never begin to imagine and I decided to do one
thing all my life I've been a jack of all trades and Bast of none I mean I did a little of everything I was a this jockey I was a state representative I used to be an MC I used to do public relations work I used to do door to-door sales I did a whole lot of things but I decided that I was going to do one thing and I would master that and after mastering the art of speaking then I would become a trainer and after doing that then I said I must become a
businessman just find one thing and just decide that you're going to work with it until it gives you the blessing that you want and don't let up on it just keep right on working it and working it and working and knowing that whatever you do you can better your best it you can get better at it that whatever you are achieving right now it's only a tip of the iceberg of what's possible for you now here's something else that you do when you start working on this dream give it everything you got see put your
heart in it most people when they're working on dreams they don't give it everything they have I I heard a guy say in a book the title of it was all you can do is all you can do and all you can do is enough well see most people don't do all they can do most people go through life holding back have you ever had the experience of starting your car and you mashed down on the accelerator and the carom wait a minute hold a minute start mashing again and and it was not moving it
was very hard and all of a sudden you realize that you had the emergency brakes on how many of you ever had that experience ra your all right then you release the emergency brakes and then the car moved W unencumbered most of us go through life with our emergency breaks on well if might not work out people might talk about me I don't have enough money I don't have enough edication I'm too [Music] ugly Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say what you have is enough see you know there are two kinds
of people people in life they're winners and whiners you know most people go through life just whining I didn't have enough money I didn't have good credit they didn't like me you know no life is not about that see H the major key to your taking charge of your destiny is you I mean if you have the credit of Ross r that will help all right if you got somebody to coign for you that will help if you happen to be handsome that will help you know um if you have people who will support you
that will help but all of those things are secondary the major key to your taking charge of your destiny is you it's you and even though you might not have all the things going for you that you would like you have the power within you as you begin to develop your Consciousness as you hold the vision of what it is that you want to do as you decide to answer this Small Voice Within you because as you respond to this voice that's telling you you ought to do this the way will come ideas will come
to you you will begin to attract things you need and things that you don't even know that you need right now you will develop the skills in the process as you look at yourself finding out what is it you need to do what kind of adjustments you need to make what new strategies that you need to begin to implent to make it happen but if you don't put yourself out here if you don't become actively involved in life if you hold back on yourself and continue to procrastinate when I saw a speaker who I said
I know if this guy can do this I know I could do that that was years after I had made the decision to do it I was holding back on myself I kept building up all kind of reasons and excuses to justify why I wasn't acting on my dream most people go through life as volunteer victims they go through life volunteering to be victims giving excuses on why they're not pursuing their greatness giving excuses on why they're not doing the things that they want to do putting it off again and again and again wasting valuable
time life is very valuable ladies and gentlemen time is very valuable and it's very fragile you've got to decide to do what you can right now and don't delay live your living your life like a sense of urgency repeat this please and tell somebody on your right and left live your life now be happy now this is not a dress rehearsal do that please this is your Super Bowl do you know there are people who put more emphasis and more energy into a sporting event or dancing or entertainment than they do on their dreams they
have more interest in who won a particular game than where they are in Rel relationship to their goals and their Ambitions and developing themselves so you want to begin to get your priorities in order ask yourself the question the people in my life right now are they contributing to my growth and development are they making me a better person what I'm doing right now is it nourishing me does it Empower me is it giving me what I need out of my life right now is it challenging to me is it making me stretch mentally and
emotionally and spiritually is it getting the best out of me see this is the only life you've got so you don't want to squander it doing something you don't want to do feeling you can't do any better you can do better you should do better you deserve to do better you entitled to that that is your right to do better so resolve that within yourself make it something in your life that you just won't compromise on see it is important to me that I be able to provide for my mother that is not optional to
be able to provide for my children there's a standard of living that I'm going to enjoy it is not optional it's not something that I would like to see happen it's not something that it'll be okay it's something that I value and as you begin to look at your life draw the line and say hey what is it that I need that can give me a sense of fulfillment what is it that I need right now that I would enjoy that will give my life some music and some power decide that because you deserve that
but if you don't decide that and decide to make that happen it will never happen for you it will never happen for you I did a training years ago and after this particular seminar I never forget a lady who was 85 years old she stood up and we asked a question anybody has anything Brave to share and she said yes she said this was a very enriching seminar for me it really opened my eyes she said I'm 85 years old she said all my life she said I sacrificed my dreams for everybody else for my
family for my husband for my children she said I've really not never done anything for me of value of the things that I really find important she said I say to you young people you won't be in my situation right now if you decide to live your life now she said if I had my life to live over I would do things differently she said but I don't have it to live over and when I go home I I got news for my [Laughter] husband so repeat after me please I'm going to live my life
now I'm going to live my life now I deserve that I deserve that okay now here's something else I want you to realize things are going to happen you've just got to handle it my god daughter niik Williams who lives in Columbus OH Ohio just this past week three children in her neighborhood that she went to school with were sitting in a car talking an intoxicated driver lost control of his vehicle and ran into that car and killed those three kids the children that they went to school with experienced pain and grief and shock but
they came became actively involved in putting together the funeral services and I talk with her and I said how you doing Anda she said I miss them she said but there's something that I realize that many of the relationships we have in life we take casually and we don't say all the things that we really should say and do all the things with people that mean something to us that we really should do and she said I'm going to miss them but it's really alerted me about how unpredictable life is and so now she's going
to become a very sharing person more so than ever before and all of the other young people that were involved but they were handling it and as you begin to look at your life decide to handle things when you decide that you want to begin to take control of your destiny there going to be some sacrifices that you're going to have to make there'll be things that you're going to have to decide I got to give this up I've got to let this go many times you will have problems in your personal relationships when I
decided to become a motivational speaker I was gone sometimes for weeks when I left home before coming back and I'll never forget I did a big major Rally For A guy by the name of Dexter jger a big Amway rally called free enterprise day and after speaking people were chanting we want the motivator we want the motivator well I was excited so I went back to the phone after I came off stage and I called the young lady that I was dating then I said look I said I wiped them out they love me they
were saying we want the motivator listen they're saying we want the motivator we want the motivator so she said Les I need to tell you something I said what and I Heard a Voice in the background said hurry up and tell him I said who's that she said Les you've been gone so long I said yes yes I've been working on a dream and I'm sorry the relationship is over what you got to be kidding I said hang up I said wait and I said Mr motivator come on I said hold a b wait I
said Mr motivator come now I said okay okay I went outside and I looked at the people I said you got to have a dream that's real big I said sometimes things will happen to you that will catch you on the Blind Side and bring you to your knees I went back to the hotel but they had to pull me off stage I was out there said you got to have a lar of vision you got to be hungry they pull me off I said and you got to stay more motivated they said come on
motivator they were turning the lights off the janitor want to go home I wanted to keep off from me so they took me to the H I was walking in the room trying to find the Gideon Bible and lonely was sitting on the bed saying how's your positive attitude how is your larer vision now I'm telling you when this happens think it not strange you are going to cry people going to get bad with you people going to start working against you your mate is going to get upset with you where you going I'm working
on the dream uhhuh I got your dream you ain't going nowhere people going to start going crazy on you becoming jealous and envious that's a part of the program understand that see that's why a lot of people said no that's all I pass on the dream that's all I just keep on biting my nails hope nothing don't happen but it's it's an experience that that opposition those obstacles that you will encounter that's how you grow that's how you become [Music] stronger now will there be some tight moments will there be some times that you want
to give up yes here's something I was reading that that Harriet beat your store said she said when you get into a tight spot and everything goes against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer never give up then for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn never give up then and that is so important when you're working on doing the things you want to do and fulfilling your dream and things happen there are times when your energy feels so depleted that you want to give
up that it looks just totally impossible and I can tell you from my own personal experience don't give up then that's when you've got to fall forward when life is kicking dirt in your face don't give up then that's when most people turn back most people will tuck their tails between their legs and they will run in the opposite direction and say that's all right life I don't want this all right no no no if you've decided that this is what you want to do you've got to become courageous to stand up within yourself to
face it and step forward and ladies and gentlemen that is what gives your life meaning that those things will begin to strengthen you like you can never begin to imagine and I tell you one of the most painful experiences I had in my life was also one of the most enriching because they say that pain opens the space in the heart for joy and because I did not buy into something because I caught myself at a critical point and was able to back up and look look at it I was able to become free of
the effects of what could have been a tragic situation for me and move on and do something about it but I learned in the process that I had to learn to surrender and give certain things up see in life everything that happens to you there's a lesson in it there's a lesson in it for you if you look at it whatever happens to you just look at and and view life that you're a student of the universe and say what's in here for me to learn one of the most tragic things that that happened to
me that could have been a tragedy was when I wanted to buy my mother home and I did that and in my haste and it was the first major purchase of property that ever made in my life and so I was naive and so when we were sitting there at the closing um the attorney said have you done a title search and I said what's a title search and she said well that's when you check to see whether or not there any leans against the property before you purchase it so that you don't inherit any
Financial Obligations of the previous owner so the guy interrupted said look here he said the only reason that I'm selling you this house and I'm doing it at a loss I can actually make more money but the only reason that I flew here from Philadelphia to sell you the house specifically is because I admire the fact that you are adopted and you want to buy this home for your mother and he said there are no leans on the property I just want to help you so I looked at my attorney I said I believe you
she said Les this is business I'm not questioning his Integrity but I advise you not to sign the contract now I looked at him he said if you're not going to do it man I'll just go ahead on and make the money that I was going to make I said okay no no no no I want to do it I said I'll do it so she said okay she said this is not the last house in the world I signed the contract after being in the house for around 2 months I received a notice that
I had to pay a lean of $25,000 or I had to get out of the house I called the attorney I said look here sir I said my name is Les Brown I'm the new owner of this property I said I bought this home for my mother I said she's 80 years old I said she has a bad heart a serious condition I said and I just cannot give up this home and I just exhausted all of my resources to buy the house that's all I have I said can we work out some kind of
monthly payments I don't know how much I can get but if you can work with me I guarantee I'll give you my word I want to keep this home I'll pay you back he said we want the money in 6 weeks or you have to get out of the house it's going to go in an auction bar I said oh I said but I borrowed everywhere I could just to get the $112,000 to put down on it he said mister that's not my problem you should have had a title search done so I went back
home and I worried for weeks I lost around 23 PBS I would go home to catch the mail so my mother wouldn't get it they put a listing in the newspaper people were driving around wanted to come in the house to look at it so I put a a a sign out front saying that the newspaper article was an error saying that the house up for sale and finally when they were coming for the day they were going to auction it on the courthouse steps I knew the moment a truth had come I had to
tell my mother so I walked all night that night around 2:00 in the morning the children were asleep my mother was asleep I said Lord I said why did this have to happen to me I said I'm trying to do the right thing I I want to provide for Mom I'm not out stealing and robbing I want to provide for my children I said why did this have to happen to me I was personalizing I feeling like a victim and so finally I I had to go and then I had to tell my mom so
I I kneel by the bed I said Mama I've got something to tell you she said what I said we've got to move out the house she said why I said well because of the fact that I made a mistake and I signed a contract when I should have had a title search done and I can't pay the $25,000 outstanding lean against it she said good I don't like this house [Applause] anyway I said but you told me you did she said I just said that for you because you like it so much she said
it's TW story baby and the arthritis I can't climb the steps but you told me you could mama oh I just did that for you I walked up the steps and I was in the room said that fool crazy with this house I said oh mama so I'll never forget when we had to pack up and go back to the old house we had moved out on in Liberty City right down the street from Miami Northwestern High School and the neighbors were out looking is that M's boy they coming back I I was so embarrassed
I mean I was you know I turned red but could nobody see it you know so my sister came over she didn't make it any better she mhm mix the big time won't get no job going around and running your mouth yeah you got a dream to get Mama home now you back where you belong here we came in the house of the rich the roaches was playing bid wh they say y'all come on in we miss y'all and as I was taking Furniture off the truck I was so hurt and humiliated I felt beaten
and I began to cry and I held my head down and my mama said hold your head up boy I said Mama I just I just can't mama she said hold your head up you have nothing to be shame of you did the best you could hold your head up so I said yes ma' so I was carrying the F in and I had to give a lecture that week on forgiveness and I can't talk about anything unless I'm doing it myself and I had to forgive and forget let it go so that I could
grow it took me time to work through that but I did and I was able to give the lecture and to this day I can't even remember the guy's name but because I let it go and I begin to focus my energy in the now later I got a bigger and better home for my mama here's what I learned from that that was not the last home in the world there were other homes uh I if I had just been willing to just let it go he who cares less wins and the guy called and
say you got to get out of there if this is what happened I could have I mean through worry and stress I could have had a heart attack over a house that my mama didn't even like do you follow what I'm saying so I and I realize hey it's only things and it's okay they are replaceable I lost everything except my spirit and accept the love of my mother and her respect and respect of my children sure people talked about me did they laugh yes did I feel humiliated for a while yes I did embarrassed
yes and that's a part of it but I didn't stay there see sometime you just you can wall in it you know don't want to get somebody pull you out feeling good oh I want to go back again no no don't wer in self-pity and there are people who will help you you call them up and they give you a pity party all right no I talked the other night about some explorers that were in Africa and they saw these two little boys who were playing with some what appeared to be Marbles and they went
up to these little guys and say here let me give you some candy for that little fellas ate the candy and like that said can we have some more I said yes but would you give me what you are playing with and they said yes and they gave these shiny little rocks so to speak to the explorers and the Explorers taking them back and examining them discovered they were large siiz uncut diamonds they had a fortune the little boys had a fortune in their hands but they didn't know they did not know repeat after me
please if we knew better if we knew better we would do better we would do better see there are many of us we work for for people and sometimes put in 60 and 70 hours a week why because we have the ability the talents and the skills to contribute to the long-term growth and development and profitability of the company do we do that for ourselves oh no why well we say well I've got security there's no such thing it's an illusion in your mind we go through life creating these Illusions for ourselves but doesn't mean
that you can't strategically work on something else on the side develop some hobby of passion and find ways that you can begin to create some alternative methods of providing wealth for yourself see you know money is not important to me but Rita Davenport said it's right up there with oxygen but it is important to me that it not be important I got that from RE steel that's important it is important to me that it not be important make it important to you to Live Your Dream see how many of you fly airplanes you've been in
an airplane raise your hand right how many of you ever lost your luggage raise your hand please raise your hand all right very good now how many of you if you knew your chances of getting to your next destination were as good as your luggage would you still get on the airplane no no hands went up you know why you know why you could get on the airplane where your luggage is supposed to go and you show up and your luggage does not show up because the airline has made human cargo getting to the destination
important more important than the luggage aren't you glad she said yeah I ain't going to fruss no more so as you begin to look at life as you begin to look at the things you want to do decide that you're going to become the active force in your life decide that you're not going to go through life feeling like a victim deci that when things become challenging and they are that you're not going to personalize it that you're going to look at it and you do whatever you must do in order to work things out
and learn from it learn from it that's the key I like what Charles Udall said he says in life you will always be faced with a series of god-ordained opportunities brilliantly disguised as problems and challenges if you've lost your job don't say that I've been laid off just say I've been given an opportunity by the universe to find find my life work so as you view all of the things that happened to you as an opportunity now you're taking it from a different perspective now you become an active force in your life now you are
the one rather than running from things as they begin to change you become a change driver because you know that you've got the power within you to make the difference this Force this power this energy that you have that's more powerful than anything that can ever happen to you you're more powerful than your circumstances or anything that you can experience right now decide that you're going to commit yourself to act on your ideas to become happy commit yourself to Live Your Dream commit yourself to become the architect of your future there's something that I heard
that gerder wrote that I love very much and and it really as you begin to to operate out of this Consciousness you begin to experience a different level of living in terms of commitment he says until one is committed there is hesitancy the chance to draw back always ineffectiveness see until you are willing to jump out there somebody asked me how do I do that I said no no no no you don't need any answers now you need to make the commitment once you make a commitment then life will give you some answers you can't
decide just going to sit on the side of out of the pool and just stick your toe in no you've got to be willing to make the leap most people don't want to do that they want to sit on the side and and say tell is it cold out there is it rough out there come on out and see see no you want to decide to make that commitment because then that's when you begin become involved in the learning process he said concerning all acts of initiative and creation there's one Elementary truth the ignorance of
which kills countless ideas and Splendid plans that the Moment One commits oneself then Providence moves too all sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred he said whatever you can do or dream you can do begin it boldness has genius power magic in it begin it now I read a book by Dr Johnny colan that says it works if you work it and as you begin to look at your life decide that you're going to start working on that dream you're going to work and nurture that idea now there will
be people that will criticize you there will be people that won't see it for you but I say to you don't let them turn you around Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say don't let nobody turn you around yeah that's key because people will try and turn you around hello people will try and turn you around but when I heard Bob maiz out of Chicago sing that song don't let nobody turn you around that's real because that's why most people don't act on their dreams and ideas that's why most people when I'm
talking with kids that are in institutions and I said what happened why why did you give up working hard and making good grades well they started teasing me and they allowed that peer pressure to cause them to scale down their dreams and their Ambitions they start following the crowd that's why many people don't do the things they want to do friend of mine he wanted to become an actor all his life he let someone convinc him you can't become an actor you go out to Hollywood they'll swallow you up it's too competitive thousands of unemployed
people out there but then another friend of mine Sheila Hall and she decided at age 42 I'm going to live my dream a son graduated from high school she decided to make the plunge to go to Hollywood quiet person never had any experience in the area and because she decided to make the commitment she is now working on a one-woman show and she's been getting support from everywhere because she was willing to make the commitment this other guy far more talented and skillful but he wasn't willing to make the commitment so he goes to work
every day to a job that's making him sick because he doesn't have the guts or the boldness is to stand up in life and say I'm going to live my dream I'm going to commit myself to live out what's in me I heard Dr Johnny Young Blood say I must live what's in me I said why do you do this he said I got to do it I got to do it and I'm saying find something in your life that you say hey it might not work out but I got to do this why hey
it's the one thing I love it's my peace it's my thing you don't understand it it's all right it's all right you don't need anybody to understand it you don't need anybody to approve you you don't need anybody to say go ahead on and do it if you get that that's fantastic if you get that encouragement that's great but I say stand up within yourself boldly and say this is my life I'm controlling my destiny dude it is so good to have you you are an unparalleled motivational preacher and and I use that word very
intentionally you have a way of conveying a message with such chills inspiring Goosebump giving power it's really really extraordinary to witness and becomes all that much more powerful knowing that you didn't start there that that wasn't sort of naturally you know your your beginning and you've called life a a battle for Terror territory yes what do you mean by that that the things that you get in life you know federick Douglas said we might not get everything that we fight for but everything we get it will be a fight so and I love the quote
that life is a fight for territory and once you stop fighting for what you want what you don't want will automatically take over like getting ready to come here to see you I want to just first of all thank you for the great work that you're doing I watch you and I study you and you have had some incredible guest have impacted my life and and preparing to come here I'm being treated by Cancer Centers of America for fourth stage cancer which I've been kicking Cancer's butt for 27 years and I've been working on getting
a six-pack before getting here I still got one pack but I and I've been working to get some muscles so I can wear my t-shirt but they weren large enough so I wore a long sleeve that's amazing man talk to me about cancer you've had such an upbeat attitude about it it's really pretty extraordinary was that your initial reaction did you go through a trough of Despair when you first got diagnosed like how have you framed that Dr Alfred gosen uh who is since passed was a very unusual guy and he told me he said
Mr Brown you have cancer I said can you give me a second opinion he said yes said you're ugly too I said oh my God so I didn't have chance to have fear because you know those three words you have cancer three of the most feared words in seven different languages I saw it as a fight and and and from that time to this time you know my PSA was 2,400 that's s a prostate specific antigen and now it's below zero and metastasized the seven areas of my body which was a good thing cuz seven
is my lucky number okay so it no I I I never was fearful that I was going to die from it and and I think that I read something by Dr Norman Cousins he wrote a book called the biology of Hope and he talked about the fact that when something happens to you you don't deny it you defy it and I was defiant that I'm going to beat this I'm going to handle this that there people who many times when something happens to them that they embrace it from a place of fear and it takes
them out and Elsie Robinson said things may happen to you and things may happen around you but the most important things are the things that happen in you and you have to stand up inside yourself and deal with it and handle it so fortunately that never bothered me but I had s of cap that had me speaking in unknown tongues and I was in a wheelchair for several months speaking from a a wheelchair and it was something that I I dealt with that frightened me will this ever end it was 24 hours I lost a
lot of sleep it was exhausting going from all type of specialists in and out of the country and just one day it stopped and I'm glad that I'm past that you know I just I I feel like when when you go through some stuff you just there some certain things that you don't want ever to see again and that's what I want to ever see or again but fear has not been the biggest challenge that I faced with the things that I've been dealing with in terms of my health well talk to me about the
process that you go through mentally so there have been a few times in your life in getting to know your story where they seem like really key inflection points um being told that you were teachable but mentally started that for sure is something that would define most people and they would have a hard time escaping that um being told that you have cancer that it's stage four that um they don't know how to treat it like that's something that consumes most people how do you build that resilience so maybe by the time you get to
cancer you've already done so much work so I get maybe how that one you're you're protected by the mechanisms you've built but in the beginning how did you crawl out from under the labels that people were putting on you the easiest thing I've done was to get out from under the labels and to live the life that I live the most difficult thing I've ever done was to believe that I can do it what's the difference uh the difference is that when you don't know what's impacting you and it's it's something that that's holding you
down and you're not aware of it the great Anthropologist Margaret me was in a restaurant in London and and a guy was serving her and said there's several Americans here tonight and she said is that right yeah said let me know when you serve them dessert I'll tell you exactly how many are here he said oh you couldn't possibly and so he came back and said okay I've done it and she got up and she walked around and she came back and she said there're around 25 here and he looked at the roster how did
you know that say in America we eat differently from you when we eat a dessert you eat it from the crust toward the tip we eat it from the tip toward the crust when you eat a slice of pie how do you eat yours oh definitely yeah from the the tip back to the crust for sure yeah okay and so so there are things that when you in in my situation when you live in a dominant culture that is designed to destroy your sense of self and your belief in yourself and and you have to
learn ways in which you can begin to connect with this power that you have within yourself to handle where you are the key is to be constantly in a Perpetual process of discovering the truth of who you are and fighting constantly to look for ways in which you can escape the inner conversation I speak to audiences around the world and I and I train speakers as well and I I tell them that when you speak that there's there's an objective that you want to achieve when you speak to an audience because how people live their
lives is a result of the story they believe about themselves so you as a speaker when you speak in this program when people see you what you do is distract dispute and inspire you distract people from their current story with your guest and the questions that you ask through the process of the ongoing questioning and the way in which they respond and the things they have learned you dismantle their current belief system and Inspire them to to create a new chapter with their lives and so but that's an ongoing process of of constantly interrupting that
conversation what psychologist call your self-explanatory style because life is is going to beat up on you in so many ways and many things they come back you know negative thoughts and and how you feel about yourself they don't die they they come back in fact once you stop doing the maintenance work on your mind listening to motivational messages going to seminars and workshops spending time quietly listening to the still Small Voice Within who am I really is this really me am I giving my best uh am I just reflecting what's around me because all of
these various things affect how we show up in life and so having a strategy to continuously of find ourselves reaching higher Robert Schuler had a book is not very popular but I loved it it's called Peak to Peak you p a k to peek because you're constantly reaching higher to find out and discover your your better self one of the things you mentioned as I as I was listening to you is a person Mr Washington that shaped your life I have a two-fold question we know one of the individuals who shape your life was Mr
Washington another one was Miss m brown um but what has shaped your life the desire to make my mother proud I'm talking to you because of two women one gave me life the other one gave me love God took me out of my biological mother's womb and placed me in the heart of my adopted mother and so my mother as a kid she's my hero you know Father's Day came around I gave her a Father's Day card too because she was not just my mother but she served as a father as well for seven children
that she did not give birth to and I always wanted to do something to make her proud um I I want to I want to talk talk about greatness just for a moment what has been your greatest life lesson that there there are things that you can do that you don't know that you can do that's why the Book of Life says Eye Has Not Seen ear has not heard I never saw myself speaking in the stadium before 880,000 people I never saw myself standing on a stage in Poland to 30,000 people and over 51
different countries those are things that I accomplished that I did not see coming when I realize that there are things that we can do and things that we can achieve that we cannot see and because we cannot see does not mean we cannot do it that's why we're taught to lean not onto thine own understanding that we been programmed and indoctrinated with a mindset to be logical practical and realistic IC but when you step out of your history your mindset and live from your heart where your heart is there your Treasures also that that transport
you to begin to live out of your imagination and Einstein said the imagination is the preview of what's to come and so and it takes discipline and persistence to do that that's what's required to get out of your head into your greatness and and to live and to do the greater [Music] [Music] work
