FROM POVERTY TO GREATNESS - Les Brown

you have something special you have greatness in you before i retire tonight i said you know what i want to do i've been saying for a long time you have greatness in you and someone asked me why do you always say that and emphasize that every time you speak well i want to share with you why i say that i said because i know that based upon my own experience when i think about where i came from born an abandoned building on a floor poor section of miami florida called liberty city when i think about

being a foster kid and being adopted and i want i want to take you on a journey i want i want you to see what my journey has been and why i'm so adamant about it i want you to see something that my friend dr miles monroe talked about rob the cemetery of your gifts had i not been willing to invest in myself had i not been willing to change my relationships had i not been willing to believe that i had greatness in me and was willing to experiment with this thing called life to take

a chance on me i would have made the cemetery rich with les brown because i had so much in me that i didn't even realize that's i know you've got a lot in you you don't even know and for 14 years i didn't do what i'm doing for 14 years i didn't believe that i could live the life that i have lived and i'm continuing to live so i want to take you on a journey right now it's not going to be a long journey but you're going to say um this is interesting i don't

want you to sleep tonight i want to upset you i want to disrupt your conversation with yourself because you came here with something in you you have a superpower you have a story and you have a voice and i realized that i was born for this time i want to show you some stuff when you work on yourself when i work with you and and and and i put my work alongside everybody not just in terms of what i train you to do and how to earn money with it but what i've done myself i'll

give you an example so let's let's go to the beginning all right now i hit the slide presentations toller help me out now help a brother out okay make it larger taller come on now we've done this before yes indeed so i'm going to show only share something with you right now now this is mrs mamie brown she she decided never had any children herself that she's going to adopt my twin brother and i we just turned 76 on february the 17th she never had any children herself but our birth mother said i i know

you are the one because mama told her i will not separate these twins i will take good care of them they always have food in their stomach a roof over their head and clothes on their back we were raised in poverty i want you to really remember this is not where you start is where you're going i want you to really understand when you think about all the stuff that's going on now the most powerful area that we have not focused in for the most part that has been major in my life for those who

know me and know my voice i talk about the value of knowing you have greatness in you self-development knowing the truth of you now i want you to remember me and my twin brother wesley is on the left i'm on the right wesley became a career man in the military did 24 years took a bullet for the flag all right now i want you to think about your story i tell a story how i became a disc jockey and my persistence now what you will notice is my superpower which is my ability to communicate i

invested in myself i got a coach and i surrounded myself with the right people look what it can take you i became a community activist that's a demonstration in columbus ohio where i was the disc jockey there and even black police officers demonstrated with us that was a demonstration against police brutality this is in the 80s mind you and i led this demonstration in the winter they called it black monday in columbus ohio a vietnam veteran was beaten while he was holding his baby in the kahiki restaurant and i led a demonstration to protest that

and they fired me then i ran for the ohio legislature use my same power that i'm going to teach you how to use your voice to make a difference pass 14 bills my first term i was elected three terms beat a 22 year incumbent and and everybody said you can't do it he's no longer on the air they took his power oh but i could speak i could communicate i can tell a story and i won hands down i i just want you to see the different versions of les brown i resigned from the legislature

to go back to my mother i refused to allow her to be put in a nursing home that was my why why i left walked away from my political ambitions i enjoyed politics i was good i was a bad dude come on ask somebody but i love my mama and i was not going to let her be put in a nursing home i promised her i would take care of mama until she was 89 when i turned 18 she never had to pay another bill i set her down that was my goal with my voice

and my story and then while i was in miami um les brown the community activists rose again as we have led a demonstration of thousands of people down to miami city hall to save the job of a brother named howard gary he's the city manager and they just fired him i said oh no this ain't going down like this and we got his job back all right now that's another version of les paul watch just just just flow with me then i won the national speakers highs association all right the national speakers association hires the

ward then i got the golden gavel award from toastmasters international then i was selected among the top five speakers in the world and then they had to talk the les brown pbs special for public television and we made tremendous impact and raising funds for public tv and and made a lot of money from that then i had a talk show they paid me five million dollars for that i must admit i was fine then i'm a little fat boy now well i was fine i'm going back there though i'm going back i'm working on it

i'm going back but you got to admit homie was bad back then that was my talk show come on somebody wait let me tell you something you you you have more than you can begin to imagine these are different versions of me watch now that's me in hong kong china look at listen uh here i am with kim wie she heard me tell my story and my story inspired her and she invited me to hong kong and i was uh who would have thought these two little boys holding sugarcane who would have thought who the

thought now i want to show you i want to share something with you toler queue up the presentation please i i just want you to look at where where this was where it took place and what i did while i was there and and the thing is who would have thought given my background you see the range when you know how to speak you're waiting around that's your super power i don't care what business you're in you are the storyteller of that business i don't care what product you have you are the storyteller you got

to sell investors on you what knowledge you have your ability to communicate will determine who you're able to influence who you're able to impact if you're ready to go to that next level with somebody who's been there when when when when a team has a losing season notice they don't fire the team even though the team they were out there playing they don't fire the team you know they fire the coach and guess what they do they recruit a coach who knows how to win hello i know how to win you have people oh i

can get you involved like i can get you branding i don't have any of that had no money no three color brochures still don't and i've had global impact and i could have gotten here faster the people at the top would have seen my value would not have been threatened by me would would would have given me a shot endorsed me as i've put my arms around so many speakers to because endorsement brings it it brings audience and credibility and so with the experience that i have i shorten your learning curve i know i i

know how to get up in there and and pull that story out of you people know about td jakes because of woman thou art loose that's why they know about him when you think about president barack obama the audacity of hope when we think about people that the kennedys that's not what your country can do for you that's what you can do for your country when you think about people that are known les brown you got to be hungry a disc jockey story you got stories in you how i was turned down for a job

at a radio station you know how much i've made telling that story over and over again dr king i have a dream he gave that speech over 200 times before he gave it at the washington monument you have a story tell me talawin raise your hand when you're ready you ready so i want to share something with you i'll just bring you on the road with me please to meet incredible people i want you to keep in mind i want you to write this down somebody is waiting to hear your voice your people all over

the world that's waiting to hear your voice i don't know you but here's what i know about you that you have something special you have greatness within you you have the ability to do more than you can ever begin to imagine and in this limited time that that we have together i want you to think about some major goals that you have in your life a friend of mine told me a period in his life he was going across europe on a train and and at different points people would wake him up the staff on

the train and ask him three questions who are you why are you here and where are you going and i think that life is always asking us that question who are you how do you see yourself how do you define yourself why are you here what is it that caused some of you to fly in from different countries to show up what is it about this opportunity as an entrepreneur that you decided to be present samson talked about that that's 80 percent of of of what it is that you do just showing up as major

in achieving your goal and where are you going there's some dream that you have something that you want to do something that you want to accomplish and size you as you i want you to think about three major goals that you'd like to achieve when i think about kim and in a moment in her life she heard my voice and and at that moment she decided that there was a possibility that she created a new life for herself there are some of you here right now in growing your business that people that you spoke to

that as a result of your voice as a result of your showing speech but here's the point that i'm making think about my twin brother and i standing with sugar cane living in poverty when scripture says i has not seen ear has not heard nor has entered the heart of mankind what god has in store for you that means something i hear people saying that all the time and they haven't done anything they haven't been anywhere they don't even live their lives from a place of power they don't even know who they are and they

take their talents their abilities their skills their superpower to the cemetery and you know people like that because they underestimated themselves because of the kind of environment that we live in that's why richard writes it the impulse to dream has been slowly beaten out of me through the experiences of life we've had some experiences that many of us don't even dream anymore somebody asked the question when is it that a man or a woman dies when their dreams die they're talking projections now about the damage the coronavirus and the impact it's having on education and

and particularly our children and and people quiet there should be an outcry and voice is saying no we're going to intervene here no we're going to intervene and help to create a strategy that will close the gap know that they will not be left behind while we're here so you you listen to these people speaking these politicians they're trained they're all talking from the same playbook that they'll get in the media and and they get caught red-handed and lie with a straight face like you are blind you got to be you know nothing happens td

jake said this nothing happens until it's spoken warren buffett said this the most important investment you can make is in your ability to communicate not being able to communicate effectively it's like being in a dark room with a woman and wink your eye nothing happens and and i realize i'm not for everybody because the majority of people are not hungry i'm amazed i'm amazed how many people don't know i've got people from around the world reaching out to me saying i want you to coach me i can hardly understand them and i'm going to do

it because they're hungry guy called me well 2 30 and when i i was like brother i do i always speak to you mr brown i said man how did you get my number first of all it's 1 30 in the morning i called you from nigeria and i was searching for you for a long time i'm hungry to talk to you i said well let me tell you something give me your number i'll call you back man you you had tracked me down like james bond you know he said he was not from nigeria

i'd do it i said well i got to do the talking you can't do no talking up in here all right i've been to benin and i got family there listen he was hungry this time where we are all these mixed messages around this coronavirus got people scared out of their wits including me including me uh you know i let me tell you when i used my phone i i i got a i got a mask on my phone i got a mask on my phone just in case my phone sneezes i'm just playing but

i'm serious and i haven't had the shot yet i'll say i'll go wait a minute to see what happens you know but now i said i want i i need all the protection i get i just turned 76 i i'm not going to get taken out by that virus no no no i need all the protection i can get but listen to me live life now invest in you now bet on you now you got a story i could teach you how to tell that story oh i i i don't know what my story is

i know i can go up in there and get it that's what i said i said mike what how can i talk to corporations i never work for a major corporation he said telling me sir mike i don't have a story how did you get involved in radio i went to apply for a job at wnbm radio station who do you talk to milton butterball smith and what happened he told me they'd have a job for me because i didn't have any experience and what happened i went back and i told mr washington said mr

washington they said no that's why i said go back you got to be hungry most people are so negative they have to say no seven times before they say yes and he asked what did you do then i went back to the radio station that's hello mr voter ball how are you sir my name is les brown sir i like to be a disc jockey and he said weren't you here yesterday i said yes sir didn't i tell you no yesterday i said yes sir then why are you back today i said sir i didn't

know whether or not somebody was laid off or somebody was fired sir he said no one was laid off or fired get on out of here then mike asked what did you do after that brownie no i went back again what made you do that well mr washington said you got to face a lot of no's to get a yes so i was hungry so i went back again hello mr butterfall how are you sir my name is les brown sir i like to be a disc jockey and what did he say he said weren't

you here the last two days i said yes sir did not tell you know the last two days i said yes sir but why are you back today well sir i i didn't know whether or not someone got sick or someone died sir he said no one got sick or died no one was laid off a fire now don't you come back here again and he said he asked me what did you do after that i came back the next day looking at him like i was singing from the first time smiling from ear to

ear hello mr vodavall how are you sir and he said go get me some coffee he said brownie i said what that's your story come on man being turned down for a job brownie you can't see the picture when you're in the frame i'm gonna teach you how to tell that story man that's your story big come on come on come on come on i can't go out there with that i don't have any college education that ever worked for a major corporation now you telling me people told my mother i was a little touched

in the head that i can talk to people about what it takes to be successful in life and you got to be faced with rejection and and what drives you through is what why did you go back i was hungry i was hungry to get in radio man so that i could make something of myself people always compare me to my twin brother i was hungry to do something that's me so that i can take care of my mother i told her when i turned 18 you won't pay another bill i will take care of

you and i felt radio was a way to do that i i like people i like to make people laugh and feel good and i thought i'd be good at that what are you hungry for what do you think you're good at even if you are if you got coaching i know how to get it out you wanna come on don't listen you don't have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great i got started i put my money where my mouth was you've heard that expression i invested

in me see most people they they buy what they want and beg for what they need this is a time you want to put your money where your mouth is this is the time you want to invest in you you ready to invest in you put voice in the comment section if you're serious tired of playing around knowing that there's no such thing as job security want to live a life that's you want to live a life that the future you will say whoa i'm so glad you made that decision a life that gives you

a sense of significance and purpose and power you want that people say why why do you laugh so much because i have joy [Laughter] see if you're doing something that's not you and you under pressure and and you don't like the job 86 percent of people don't like their jobs and as a result on monday morning between six o'clock and nine o'clock the heart attack rate increases 35 percent people getting ready to go to jobs that's not them and the majority die on the toilet um well some of y'all don't want to go to work

tomorrow morning or don't leave don't use the toilet before you leave home hey don't go there hello yo some of y'all got to be sad you know what if he can make it hungry child i know i can make it [Laughter] oh my goodness oh when you're doing something you love to do is different but people they they go to these jobs they hate and at the same time they hope they don't get fired it's like mixed emotions seeing somebody that you hate drive off a cliff in your car you're glad they're gone but not

in your car how could they use their own car somebody else's car whoa i i love the life that i live and i'm living the life that i love and you deserve that too you deserve that but you know what for a long time i didn't even try because i didn't believe in me i didn't believe in me i wish when i started out that those at the top those who were known nationally and around the world would give me the time of day and they wouldn't i've trained a lot of speakers why i want

to leave a legacy i i know what it is not to be recognized not to be judged to be dismissed to be treated with disdain so you can tell a lot about a person's character based upon how they treat people who they don't consider important and so because when i started out there was nobody on any stage that looked like me i remember the first time i spoke at the national speakers association yes goodell who are you i'm les brown you speaking here today you're the featured speaker yes i am are you an athlete no

you don't play football no basketball are you a movie star no do you sing no i don't i speak this room full of speakers from around the world and meeting planners here they'll give their right arm to to be in this slot where you are how did you get here why did they choose you i don't know when i spoke when i spoke when i spoke i got a standing ovation i got the butter from the duck when i spoke when i got back to the table i looked at him and he said now i

know i told that thing about i did everything but bite the microphone oh what a mighty god we serve what a mighty god we serve i know i was born to speak at the trained speakers i'm so glad i made the right choice to listen to my heart and not my head i'm i'm so glad i had a positive voice in my ear that i allowed to override my negative voice and said brownie you can do this i said i don't know how mike he said all of us are born the same way dumb naked

and speechless i don't know who i'm talking to but this is for somebody that's sitting on the fist this is for somebody who's got a story this is for somebody who's got a voice this is for somebody who want to make an impact with their lives this is for somebody who want to rob the cemetery of their gifts of their story this is for somebody who has a passion for helping children helping kids give people hope this is for somebody shekana glory would say that that's ready to say yes yes lord this is for me

hmm i don't want to convince you to do this a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still i only want to work with a few people because most people are not serious most people are not hungry most people have already settled most people aware tennessee williams said that most people look in the mirror at some point in time in their lives and they know the eyes that are looking back at them are looking at a person that all they're ever going to be and all they're ever going to do they've already

done it this is from people who said i want more i'm not through yet that's that this is for people that are road serious life is straight and narrow and few there be that find it because few there be that are serious few there be that are determined few there be that are hungry those who hunger and thirst after righteousness right thinking right words right feelings right people right vision shall be filled hmm i repeat you have something special you have greatness in you you you have no idea there's so much in you god chose

you for a reason the reason that 400 000 people are gone and you're still here you're not taking a dirt nap because god has kept you here for the greater work and if you are ready to do it i ain't through yet taught you everything you know didn't teach you everything i know [Laughter] you know sometimes mama would say they smelling themselves you know old folks had those things wait a minute i went off now in 76. i wanted the old folks i'm in that exclusive club oh my goodness the old folks you talking about

me are you talking to me we're gonna have so much fun i'll have so much fun with you you're gonna save mr brown i want to thank you so much thank you for bringing my story out thank you thank you thank you i get that all the time oh let's have not to have your hand in your mouth keep your hands away from your eyes okay well i hope that you got something special out of this i'm going to leave now because tola's in here okay all right so i like to say to you help

my daughter out and you have something special you have greatness in you don't take your greatness to the cemetery put voice in the comments section take a chance on you i has not seen ear has not heard knowledge in the heart of mankind what god has in store for you if you put your money where your mouth is if you're willing to take a chance on you if you're willing to say yes lord use me to change lives that's what i did and the rest is history you do what you can do and god will

do what you can't do this has been this is mamie brown's baby boy you have something special you have greatness in you that's my story and i'm sticking to it