for 15 years before I made the decision that I was going to stand up and be a professional speaker for 15 years I allowed fear to keep me silent one I thought that I would not be good enough I have no College training I never work for any major corporation I mean there are some things I feel strongly about but why would anybody would Gather in an auditorium to listen to me I mean I'm nobody and that kind of thinking fed the fear of failure fed the fear of disappointment fed the fear that I wasn't
good enough fed that fear of they're not going to like me I won't be accepted I'm not qualified all of those things paralyzed me and kept my lips sealed there are times that the audience will not like you you're not going to get every audience I've experienced that how'd you feel afterwards Les I felt badly and I looked at myself I listened to the tape I went back to the drawing board and say what did I do wrong what is it that I can do to improve myself and I worked on it I've been intimidated
by other speakers I've been on programs where the speaker before me was so good and got such an incredible response from the audience the a standing ovation I said oh my God I I really don't want to come up behind that speaker I had a program I'll never forget a young man had to speak before me and he was so powerful and I was the guest speaker but he was a young kid that had been invited to speak there at this special program honoring Dr Martin Luther King and he did the I Have a Dream
speech and I've heard a lot of people try to do it but on that day he did that speech with the power with the magic and mesmerized the audience to such an extent when the pandemonium died down everybody was walking out and they said let Brown is supposed to speak and I pretended to have an attitude I said don't worry about it and walked out I was relieved I said oh God thank you I couldn't wait to get into my car I mean that's going to happen they're going to be speakers better than you learn
from them he and I became friends and I brought him on other programs and I learned from him a young man much younger than I am there are times when you're not going to be able to connect with the audience that you're going to be off your memory will fail you you're going to do some things that will embarrass you I spoke at the National Speakers Association and step forward and call Cavit Roberts dick Cavit and I didn't even realize it at the time until the second time that I did it to make a point
incorporating a name in my presentation and I had to keep going I could not back up and later people talked about me and made jokes about it and I was embarrassed I was hurt and I came back that's going to happen to you you're going to make some mistakes but you know my good friend Ed Foreman has something that he anchors his life on I think all all of us can learn from he said anything that's worth doing is worth doing badly and I I've used it so much I've just taken it for myself anything
that's worth doing is worth doing right if you know how to do it right but even if you don't know how to do it right is worth doing badly again and again and again until you get it right so this fear of making a mistake you're going to make some mistakes you're not going to be perfect this fear of they're not going to like me that's right there's some people that aren't going to like you there are people that are going to talk about you that are going to criticize you there's some speeches that you
are going to give and as you listen to that later say oh my goodness I should have said this and I should have said that or why did I say that or why did I not include this story or that statistic or why did I get the names confused all of those things are going to happen why because we're human we're human every time I speak I experience that fear I get it off in a variety of ways part of it is I listen to tapes before I go to speak part of it is I
prepare myself to know that subject like the back of my hand part of it is I go out and I talk to the audience and I shake people's hands and and I engage in small conversation to relax myself part of it is I visualize and I see myself successfully giving the speech and receiving a standing ovation and people loving me and accepting me and embracing me and see myself confidently doing what it is that I want to do with that audience the more you do it the stronger you will become and that fear will drive
you as it drives me I'm nervous all the time I can't sit down and relax I sometimes go to a banquet table and can't eat because I'm so nervous I'm so excited I never ever get so relaxed that I don't experience the nervousness so I'm saying to you don't worry about the fear you can handle it you're God's miracle child I talked to a man who's going through our training when he was a baby he fell he got through the rails where they were living in the apartment on the third floor and doctor said he
was going to die he didn't have long to be here and his mother rather than just let him be on life support gathered him up and said I want to take my baby home he's still here motivating people he couldn't hear because of the injuries blind couldn't talk fell three stories and now he said I I want people to know their Miracle cuz I'm a miracle he went through some St Bo when he told that story last night you could hear a pin drop as I was working with him on his story he said I've
been searching for you Mr Brown for a long time for 10 years I been searching for you to have this moment that we're having right now to be able to talk to you through my computer it finally happen I've been looking forward to this moment sir I said sir I feel honored to be in your presence you are God's miracle child you f three stories as a baby with the power of prayer and a mother's love give me my child you determine the diagnosis but God determines the prognosis give me my child gathered him up
disconnected those tues and carried a miracle out into the parking lot to get in the C take hold look at God you've had some experiences you've had some experiences that God has done for you through you as you and you knew it was not you I give him the praise I give him the credit some of you this is a breakthrough moment as you listening to me right now it's a breakthrough moment you can hear me in your heart it's stirring something up now now you know this is not it for you you know when
you look at me when you look at my eyes you know that you got to be hungry that hunger brings out a fierceness in you and refuses to be tonight that it's possible that it's necessary that it's you that you take personal responsibility for where you are and it's hard and you can do hard you can do hard want you think about the goals that you want to achieve and I really want to challenge you to make up your mind that you're going to make that happen for yourself and I hope that it's some goal
that really resonates with who you are when I was a little boy my goal was to just buy groceries for our family my mother worked on Miami Beach she was a domestic worker and and my goal was to to really be able to go to the grocery store and purchase groceries ourselves the families knew that my mother had adopted seven children and so they said maybe whatever food is left over after we eat you can take that home to the children they were very kind very very considerate people my mother who when she worked on
Miami Beach the people were very kind I was appreciative of their generosity but as a little boy I said Mama one day when I become a big boy I going to be able to buy groceries for us my goal as a little boy was to buy clothes for my brothers and sisters we wore the hamy down clothes of the children that Mama Babys set for when she went over in Miami Beach and if the clothes were too small she would let them out and if they were too large Mama could sew and take him up
and I'll never forget um David his father was very wealthy Mama worked for him but David was my buddy his father gave him two gifts for his birthday gave him a brand new boat but he also gave him some motivational tapes Earl nighting gild I'll never forget so he said David man let me tell you something when I die you're going to get everything I want you to listen to these tapes and when his father left the room David threw those tapes in the waist basket I said David can I have those tapes he said
yes I said man your father said if you listen to these you can get more than do more than what he's done he said hey look I'm going get everything anyhow go ahead take them I thought I told my children I'm not leaving them anything if I had a qut and thought I was going to die I'll swallow it it's not what you leave for your children is what you leave in them I look at you I say you have greatness within you you have the ability to do more than you can ever begin to
imagine no one could have convince me that I would be doing what I'm doing right now you know the easiest thing I do every year is go into a sales organization and dramatically increase their sales or go into a prison and and enable prisoners to see them elv differently and teach them the methods and techniques of how to plug into the system or motivate young people to begin to to see how they can have a vision of themselves the future and fit that's the easiest thing I do to or train a speaker to help them
to leverage their experience as a speaker and say look speaking is a projection of who you are not who you think you ought to be and come with power from a platform that's the easiest thing I've ever done let me share with you the most difficult thing I've ever done the most difficult thing I've ever done was to believe that I can do what I'm now doing no one could have convince me just given my circumstances I earn millions of dollars every year no one could have convinced me if if both my parents came up
here right now I I would not know either one no one could have convinced me being labeled educable mentally [ __ ] born in abandoned building of Floy in Liberty City po section of Miami Florida failing twice in school no College training never work for major corporation I did not know how I can do what I'm doing right now never forget Mike Williams my mentor I think a lot of people fail in life because of the fact that they need some mentoring they need some coaching see you can't see the picture when you're in the
frame and here's something I I realized sometimes you have to believe in somebody's belief in you until your belief kicks in I kept holding on to my mother saying you're special lesie when they said you're educable mentally [ __ ] Mama didn't know what that meant she only had a third grade education so she said he'll be all right he'll be fine but she said you're special baby you are special and and they kept saying that over and over again faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing as you think about your goals and your
dream it's possible together see most people never achieve their goals because most people suffer from possibility blindness they look around trying to think about the things that they don't have Robert Roots young man who wrote a book about success principles of The Three Little Pigs he said is not what you don't have is what you think you need that keeps you from being successful or happy in life it's not what you don't have I was focused on what I didn't have don't have a college degree don't have any credentials never worked for a major corporation
I was focused on the negative things it said negative things are the things that you see when you're not focused on your goal what do you come with what is it that you have within you that you showed up to bring hey Les you don't know but my dream is a long shot long shot friend of mine Dexter Jagger said when a dream is big enough the odds don't matter I'm reminded of a great man when I was reading Time Magazine talking about some of the Great minds of the last century they didn't mention his
name Dr Howard Thurman one of the mentors of Dr Martin Luther King Jr also an adviser to mamag Gandhi and and Albert schwitzer and he said the ideal situation for a man or woman to die is to have family members standing around their bed praying with them as they cross over but imagine if you will being on your death bed and standing around your bed the dreams given to you by life the ideas that you never acted on the talents the gifts the abilities that you never used 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 and the question is if you died this very moment what will die with you what dreams what ideas what talents what leadership potential what what greatness that you showed up to bring that you allowed fear or procrastination to hold you back perhaps that's why hendri David wrot wrote the words oh God to reach the point of death only to realize that you've never lived only to realize that you've
never scrape the surface of your potential you surviv one out of 40 million spurns you will never have those odds again you beat those odds you can win anything failure I will fail my way to success see eight out of 10 millionaires have been financially bankrupt 85% of people allow Their Fear of failure to outweigh their desire to succeed and I believe that the reason that most people go so far in life and stop Maya Angelou said it best she wrote a poem she said that most people go so far in life and then they
Park they pull off the highway of life especially when they get some hits especially when they've been rejected especially if they have an illness especially if they lose something they par and I take it further they don't even turn on their emergency lights it's not because that they are broken down they don't want anybody to stop and say hey look here I've got some jumping cables in my trunk you need a jump hey look here there's a service station ahead about 3 or four miles I have a can I can take you up there and
get some gasoline oh no I'm just fine I had a talk show once and highest rated fastest cancelled talk show in the history of television and I was excited you know when time I came in the television years ago television was based upon conflict and controversy so I said I want a solution oriented talk show first concept of that kind high ratings and the syndicators say you just got lucky come on let's do these other type of shows you can be Jerry spring oh no that's not why I came here no I I I believe
that we live in the greatest country I'm not going to come here and sell out on who I am I'm not going to compromise I'm not going to lower my standards for you no that's not why I showed up and so they fired me security walking out I said I can walk by myself but let me tell you what happened I took a hit and I popped it wasn't that I didn't have the ability to do more my concept was good but what happened when I took the hit when they canceled the show I canceled
myself when they said the show is going to be taken off television it won't work I told myself Les you can succeed in television and I parked you know what I did I went back to my comfort zone as a motivational speaker I I'm I'm doing better than most people that's nothing to compare your your and then make yourself feel better no I parked I didn't have my emergency lights on I didn't want to show up on the radar I parked you know how long I parked I parked for 10 years do you hear me
now unlike reges filin when his shows were canceled he kept going he kept going he kept going and he got other shows I bet you somebody gave him a push somebody said hey you need a lift I didn't even make that an option for me I got off the highway I've went back to my comfort zone and I ped the show faed and I identified myself as a failure one day just flipping the channels looking at PBS and saw Wayne Dyer my friend Wayne D we're both in our 60s Wayne is still doing it I
said hey I've got some more stuff in me I've got another PBS special in me I've got some other ideas you know Oprah and Phil that're doing my stuff maybe I need to come back out here and I went back and started calling PBS and and different people they said Les what happened to you I said I didn't know whether or not anybody would be interested in me because the show was can no no you had some good ideas and when they said yeah we would love to do a show with you I went into
the studio and and people that worked with 10 years ago they were still there and I said guys you know do you guys still have it said we have it do you have it I said I think so and I did the show and I wasn't as good as I was 10 years ago it's taking me some time to get my strength back to find my power to get my confidence back but at least I'm back out there in the game determined to dry empty so I say to you see I only attract millionaires of
millionaires in training you have something special you have greatness within you and the only reason you are here you are my assignment you can feel me some of you feel me right here in your heart of hearts and my goal is to get past your mind and ENT your heart so it's necessary that you you have the mindset that I can do this you've got to begin to believe and to fortify that belief and feed that belief by listening to tapes going to seminars and workshops by challenging Yourself by stretching yourself it was osbor who
said unless you attempt to do something beyond that which you've already mastered you will never grow and as you begin to challenge yourself you'll discover some things about yourself that you don't know right now the other thing is you begin to look at yourself look at your dream and and begin to experiment and stepping into your greatness one of the things is very important whatever goals and dreams that you have make your move before you're ready make your move before you're ready we're in instructed in life to walk by faith not by S see you
want to really begin to stretch yourself you want to become a risk taker you want to raise the bar on yourself most people won't do that see most people engage in low life living lowrisk living 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 life is short and unpredictable eat the dessert first and so you want to begin to
take some chances you want to begin to challenge yourself and make it okay to fail and learn from your failures don't allow fear of failure and the the Allure the attractiveness of playing it safe in life to draw you in you can't get out of life alive you got to die to leave here other thing is you look at yourself look at your dreams detoxify your life write that down see I think that most people never achieve their true goals in life because they're surround Ed with too many toxic negative energy draining people you've got
to look at the people in your life and ask yourself the question what is this relationship doing to me how is it impacting my life am I a better person Sydney Porte wrote a book called The Measure of a Man and it it's powerful but I encourage you to get the tapes I love his voice and he said something in there he said when you go for a walk with someone something happens unconsciously it's not spoken either you adjust to their Pace or they adjust to your pace whose Pace have you adjusted to my daughter
Ona Brown who's a speaker and Coach she says call forth your team but make sure these are people that you can learn from I never forget I'm on a special board with a Bishop TD ja and we went into a board meeting he looked at everybody before opening the meeting he said as soon as I know as much as you do you're fired and with that the meeting is now open everybody continued to learn on that P trust me that a friend of mine that he said if you're the smartest one in your group you
need to get a new group so as you look at yourself and look into the future call forth your team George Frasier says your network determines your net worth who do you allow to be in your ear what kind of relationships are you developing are they an asset to you or they a liability do they elevate your spirits or do they tear you down think get two types of people nourishing people and toxic people nourishing people they bring the best time of you they encourage you they inspire you they hold you accountable toxic people they
are critical people always telling you what you can't do always measuring your possibilities based upon their failures my mother said never let anybody tell you what you can't do son especially if they haven't done it they don't know what's possible for you so as you begin to look at yourself begin to identify the relationships that you communicate with most and say hey is this relationship helpful to me and then think about some people that you need to bring into your life that you can learn from that you can grow from I joined the National Speakers
Association when I decided that I wanted to speak I wanted to to be around the people that were doing what I wanted to do I'll never forget when I saw Dr Norman Vincent Peele he said you you have something special you have greatness within you and you can do more than you can ever begin to imagine and here I am and the audience said oh my goodness I'd read the power positive thinking 17 times my hero and I saw him backstage and I said Dr Peele High my name is Les Brown I I've listened to
your tapes and I I've read your books they gave them to us in special education sir and one day I would love to be on stage with you and he looked at me and said it's possible young man it's possible but this man when he spoke he gave me Goose pimples deep Barone voice spoke from his diaphrag you have something special you have greatness within you he override the inner conversations in my mind I I never forget a gentleman what a brilliant man a Harvard graduate Dr Carter G Woodson he said if you can determine
what a man shall think you never have to concern yourself with what he will do if you can make a man feel inerior you never have to compel him to seek an inferior status for he will seek it himself and if you can make a man feel justly an outcast never 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 see we live in a world where we're told more about our limitations rather than our potential how many you ever
been told that you couldn't do something your MIT did a study that if I say to you you can't do that that 16 people have to come alone and say you can do that you can do that you can do that to neutralize that and the 17th statement that you hear you can do it will be the one that will finally stick so you have to watch who's speaking into you you've got to begin to monitor your mind and and you've got to begin to literally be proactive and programming yourself to success be not conformed
to this world be you transformed by the renewing of your mind you've got to take responsibility to make that happen and as you begin to do that you'll begin to see some incredible changes in your life I understand now when Earl Nightingale said all of us are self-made but only the successful will admit it as you begin to look at your dreams and look at your goals make know your vitamin see most people stop short of their dreams and park and get off the highway of life because of the rejections of life you will always
be rejected it's no big deal I can't feel said rejection is a myth get excited about the no why because every time someone says no that brings you another step to a yes you're getting closer trust me you will win if you don't quit you will win if you don't quit even a broke clock is right twice a day the other thing is as you look at yourself and look at your goals and look at your dreams assess yourself what are your strengths what are your weaknesses what do you bring to the table when I
looked at becoming a motivational speaker I looked at all the speakers and I noticed that they were pretty much scripted so I said what is it that can make me stand out I don't have any college education I don't have any credentials I never work for a major corporation what is it I can do to offset my weaknesses Mr Washington Mr Brown yes sir what do you want to do with your life I want to become successful good he said 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 you said you have something special see very few people go to seminars and workshop they'll go to a concert but showing up to get something that can expand their minds and help them to begin to see their lives differently to give them a larger vision of themselves they'll be too busy or they say well how much does it cost well information costs but it pays for itself it's possible you can Live Your Dream it's necessary that you have the mindset that that I'm going to do this but
you've got to take ownership you've got to decide hey I'm going to do you've got to take responsibility for your life George Bernard Shaw said the people that make it in this life they look around for the circumstances that they want and if they can't find them they create them you've got to de it's me you've got to say and say this with conviction I expect to win [Music] [Music]
