I believe that there are three types of
people are life they’re winners they’re
losers and they’re winners who have not
discovered how to win yet and these
individuals it’s something about them
that drives them that that they will
invest in themselves they go to seminars
and workshops and lectures and they’re
seeking there’s something in them that
says I can do better than this that
there are people who would be glad to be
where they are and would be happy but
they’re not how many of you know if you
had your life to live over again you can
do more than what you’ve done that’s
well raise your hands I was reading a
story about George Bernard Shaw who was
a very brilliant man in his day and I’d
love to quote him but one of the things
that was asked George Bernard Shaw that
really resonated with me at the end of
his life somebody asked him if you had
to be anybody in the world
anybody throughout history if you had
the power to be born again
who would you like to come back as and
without blinking he said I’d like to be
I like to be the man and never was that
I never became seeking to connect with
that person there’s a another person
here that you’re looking at there’s
somebody else back there and every chair
in this place there are two people in
this place in every chair you’re in the
chair with somebody else there’s another
person back there you know they’re back
there and that person is the person that
you want to become connected with and
sometimes you do sometimes you’ve had
some experiences where you said I can’t
believe I’m doing this
how many never done that please that you
surprise yourself when every time I
speak I I see this as such a sacred
opportunity and I’m so happy sometimes I
think I’m dreaming because when I look
back on my life and this less round that
you see was in bondage for so many years
didn’t come out too late in my life I
had him under arrest I was in bondage
with fear I wanted to do what I’m doing
and I thought about things I wanted to
accomplish and I held myself back
because I was afraid to fail I was
afraid to make mistakes I was afraid
that I would embarrass myself I was
intimidated by people who had college
degrees because I didn’t have a college
degree I still don’t have a college
degree and so I would think about the
things I wanted to do and then I would
start thinking about the fact unless you
can’t do that that’s what I told this
guy in me last you can’t do that you
don’t have a college education less I
hear what you’re saying but come on be
logical be practical you can’t do that I
know you feel good going to see Zig
Ziglar and Tony Robbins and the late dr.
Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Shula
and I know they motivate you and inspire
you but get real you can’t do that you
never work for any major corporation
come on let’s be practical be
logical oh yes I know people told you
you have a gift of gab and you have a
nice personality and and you’re funny
and you make people feel good you make
them laugh but you become a speaker
speak for corporations train and teach
people motivate people to do something
you’ve never done you’re not rich you’re
not successful you don’t have any books
you don’t have the resources you don’t
know the people you don’t have the
contacts you you can do that Les Brown
see my heart said I can do that
and I looked at my dream and saw someone
doing what I love to do I love to help
people how many love to help people and
my heart said I can do that and then I
made a critical mistake I asked how the
mind became operative the mind came up
front and celestron I heard what your
heart said what I want to ask you how
will you do that and so I went from my
heart to my mind and I tried to figure
it out how would I do that at that time
I wanted to earn a thousand dollars an
hour my mind said do you make a thousand
dollars a week I said no okay
have you ever done this before I said no
okay well I’m not saying you can’t do it
but let me ask you some other questions
all right
have you really contacts with anybody
that can teach you how to do this no
okay well maybe there’s something else
do you have the money no do you have the
credentials we know well anybody stand
up for you and say oh he’s done it for
me and I know he’s good no well let me
ask you do you really think you could do
this no there’s an African proverb that
says if there’s no enemy within the
enemy outside can do you
ha how many of you ever thought about
something you wanted to do you felt it
in your heart you couldn’t explain it
you found it in your heart and you
talked yourself out of it raise your
hands you don’t I’m talking about I talk
myself out of it
no one did it to me but me the porked of
prudence is not in Our Stars but in
ourselves that we are underlings my
first major goal was I wanted to buy my
mother a home and I achieve that I’m
adopted
I feel like Abraham Lincoln who said all
that I am and all that ever hope to be
I owed to my mother so sign once it said
God took me out of my biological
mother’s womb and placed me in the heart
of my adopted mother my mama was a good
woman she adopted seven children mama
only had a third grade education but I
admired her her carrot I admired her
personality she never met strangers mama
met you right now she would talk your
head off you know she’s a funny woman
she always had a sense humor mama walked
fast we walked with Mama downtown we had
to hold up dress mama but walk fast we
trying to keep up with mama years later
at the end of her life and he was 89 and
suffering from breast cancer
we took her to a Furniture Warehouse and
she got out of the car with my sister
and she was holding my arm and I said
mama I say they have a wheelchair here
can I get this wheelchair for you and I
went got the wheelchair and she looked
at me she said no boy I would walk this
place myself I said mama but it’s it’s
so huge mom huh oh I won’t worry in a
wheelchair she said I’m fine and I saw
her straighten herself and she she
walked did her
selfhood mired her strength I as oh mama
you know this morning I got up and every
time something happens to me and I want
to get down and I want to surrender to
any of the challenges I encounter and I
got up this morning and the sadiq nerve
and this hell v and L for my Lord disc
the protruding and I was in pain and and
my body said you can’t do this speech
today in and somebody said are you gonna
surrender to this pain are you mamie’s
boy get up and straight your back you
can do that speech you can walk that
float yourself when you start walking
you won’t feel anything but her presence
with you sometimes we have to stand up
inside ourselves sometimes we have to
fight ourselves sometimes you have a
dream and goal that you want to achieve
and you say oh I can’t do that you got
to tell yourself to shut up I can do it
don’t tell me I can’t do that sometimes
you got to talk to yourself I can’t do I
mainly it’s for oh I can do this oh whoa
I will do it I have got to do this what
you think about your dream and I want
you to increase your dream dramatically
I said you have something special I’m
telling you what I know you have
greatness in you you have the ability to
do more than you can ever begin to
imagine I don’t even know you but I’m
telling you what I know from our own
experience and greatness ladies and
gentlemen greatness it’s a choice it’s
not your destiny most people never
discover their greatness
most people ladies and gentlemen go to
their graves living a life of mediocrity
living a life far below their potential
Oliver Wendell Holmes said most men and
women go to their graves with their
music still in them for the mind
Dwight pleasure was eulogizing his his
brother and Chicago and I attended the
funeral
no I’d powerful speaker he gives a
presentation called how to start over
again how to make it from scratch old
widest powerful flight head lost his
life years to drugs and crack cocaine
lost everything and he came back again
he demonstrated come back power going
around the world changing people’s lives
and he was eulogizing his brother he
said and the room was very quiet and
very somber and he said my brother was
in the room in California and they told
me he died by himself and he said and I
submit to you that my brother didn’t die
by himself then with my brother died a
lot of Dreams with my brother died a lot
of potential my brother had a lot of
good ideas and my brother was one of
those guys there that said one day I’m
gonna and everybody started laughing
because they everybody knew his brother
was talking about various things all the
time one day I’m gonna do this and one
day I’m gonna do that in one day I’m
gonna do he had a lot of good ideas that
he never acted on and we died when he
took his last breath all those ideas and
one day I’m gone all of that went down
in a grave with him henry david thoreau
come forward what are your word he said
Oh God to reach the point of death only
to realize that you’ve never lived only
to realize that you’ve never stripped
the surface of your potential general
and come forth what would you say when
the end comes for you let it find you
conquering a new mountain not sliding
down and old
Oh No ladies and gentlemen a lot of
people died fool full of their dreams
full of talent full of ideas full of
skills full of intelligence and
abilities that they never reach for they
never tapped they never got into they
never used it never used it and so how
do we do that what is it that blocks as
well and then she won what mine was
fear here’s another one I didn’t feel
good enough I just I was comparing
myself to other people I didn’t feel
because I didn’t have a college
education and based upon my failures and
disappointments in the past and things
that I’d attempted to do and they did
not work out I’ve built a very practical
realistic logical case on why I couldn’t
have my dream and so I want whatever
dream you have I want you to expand it I
want you to increase it and I want to
warn you don’t ask yourself how you’re
going to do it how is none of your
business don’t get trapped there and
don’t worry about failing you’re going
to fail you’re going to make some
mistakes you’re going to look stupid
wise call life write this down
make it okay to fail Goethe says that
which does not kill you will make you
stronger see where I found that as the
saying goes most people fail in life not
because they aim too high and miss most
people fail in life because they aim too
and many don’t aim at all
many just survive they come to work
asking what time is it and they work
just hard enough to keep from being
fired and they are getting paid just
enough to keep them from quitting in
order to to reach your goals and do some
incredible things ladies and gentlemen
and say that you have something special
you have got to have faith and ignorance
you’ve got to believe in yourself you’ve
got to believe in what you’re doing
you’ve got to believe in your product
you’ve got to believe in your services
you’ve got to believe in a Power greater
than yourself you’ve got to believe in
the power pursuit and you’ve got to be
ignorant enough to know that you don’t
know what you can’t do don’t rule
anything out for you I has not seen here
he’s not her nor has been at the heart
of humankind what God has in store for
you repeat after me please lead and grow
your wings on the way down
yes you’ll be a good sales for you’ve
got to be a risk-taker
here’s something else I tell you I do
you want one of the keys what will
separate great sales professionals from
people that are mediocre I’ll tell you
what I learned this as a kid he used to
sell newspapers
Sam Axelrod who was one of my early
mentors he used to every day would pick
me up and I was the youngest one in the
group all old of individuals didn’t
mostly grown men and every day Sam would
get in and he would have a quote for
everybody in the car Sam driving a
station wagon he said gentlemen yes he
said this is the use of a world and if
you don’t use it in the right way it’s a
cruel world and I would say thank you
miss Axelrod nobody else paid attention
to that I don’t know why but I was the
one it just made sense to me and I kept
these things I remember Lesley yes sir
because he remembered that I was the
only one that responded I was the only
one that took notes when he spoke kids
had always tried to get on top in life
young man because at the bottom that’s
overcrowded yes sir thank you miss sucks
miss exra and but he was baffled by me
because he couldn’t understand how that
adults who were 10 15 years older than I
was had more experience how was it that
I was selling circles around them I
didn’t have the experience they were
more mature how did this little young
kid come there and I’ll sell them two to
one in many cases he couldn’t understand
when at the evening of the close of the
day he would look around and do a head
count so wait a minute somebody’s
missing and never I said you know who it
is that Leslie guy Leslie yes sir hey
come on nobody stole anything
territory oh I can’t come now Sam why I
haven’t sold anything Leslie no one’s so
leaving you guys tell me thing no sir
summit territories are dead Leslie Sam
yes sir I can’t come why I haven’t so
leaving Leslie no one sold anything
that’s them Sam oh I’ll get home all
right
I’ll be all right Leslie in order for
you to get from here back to over town
from Liberty City you’ve got to pass the
20th Street shops the 14th Street game
Leslie that’s dangerous young man Sam
I’ll be all right it’s late it’s late
it’s after 8 o’clock I’ll be all right
and they’ll guys would say come on Sam
he’s a fool leaving leaving he won’t
stop and see these guys is just extra
chump change I guess
I don’t know maybe to have a new suit
pelo small bill here and there for me it
was different
my mother adopted seven children because
of authority’ condition she lost her job
so my reasons were different I just died
five reasons whatever he goes on dreams
are why you won’t fail five reasons five
reasons why you won’t feel nietzsche
said if you know the why for living you
can endure almost any how five reasons i
couldn’t afford not to make a sale i was
out there to get groceries while family
i had to make money i had to to make
enough money for dr. Johnson when he had
a prescription for Mama I had to make
money for the bills for the light bills
I had to work mama was doing the best
she could but mama
our hero mama was sick we have no
relative she was an only child she
adopted seven children at age 46 I saw
my mother on a floor scrubbing floors on
her knees we ate the leftover food from
the families that she cooked for they
were very nice people said Mamie
whatever food is left over you can take
it home to those children
that you have adopted and I said mama
when I get strong enough I’m gonna buy
food for our families we want a
hand-me-down clothes of the children
that that she kept they would said Mamie
whatever clothes here that you could use
these children are mine don’t leave
these take them home and let those kids
wear those clothes that you have adopted
if they were too large mama would soul
take them up if they were too small she
would let them out and now mama was sick
and I said mama what boy I’m gonna take
care of you how to worry mama and I sold
newspapers and I sold televisions that’s
it now I used to collect copper and
aluminum from garbage cans and junk
piles and I would bend them together him
and and put them in a bag and out of a
box being food we’d take him to Peppa’s
junkyard over in Overtown in 11th
terracing and in 4th Avenue and they put
him on a scale and give us $5 I would
stand on the corner hey we need some
boys to come move some stuff hey you too
small or I’m small but I’m strong you
see my muscle man I’m strong okay boy
you got a lot of mouths you better be
able to be strong yeah and I’ll be
grunts definitely care and stuff you
know I was determined I wasn’t going to
steal that was not an option
mama worked too hard I promised my mama
mama I’d never get in trouble I’m I’m
gonna do the right thing mama I’m so
proud of you I’m so glad that you
decided to adopt us I love you so much
I’m gonna take care of you mama I’m
gonna work hard just like you just like
isn’t interesting how kids can be in the
same family raised by the same same
parents same circumstances end up
dramatically different what is that name
I said that you have something special I
believe it people go to seminars and
workshops they have that it that’s
something I don’t know what it is it’s
just something about us that we’re
different we don’t know why we’ve just
got to have what we don’t know why we
have this restlessness and and say to
ourselves this just can’t be it there’s
got to be something better we don’t know
we just got to do this we just got to
keep on stretching got to keep on
learning we
care about feeling I read something that
was in my first book by dr. Benjamin
Mays he was a great man great motivator
one of the mentions of dr. Martin Luther
King jr. dr. Benjamin Isaiah Mays says
it must be borne in mind that the
tragedy of life does not lie and not
reaching your goals
the tragedy lies are not having any
goals to reach it isn’t a calamity to
die with dreams unfulfilled but it is a
calamity not to dream it’s not a
disaster to be unable to capture your
ideas but it is a disaster to have no
ideas to capture it’s not a disgrace not
to reach for the stars but it is a
disgrace to have no stars to reach I say
you got goals and dreams things that
you’re reaching for things that will
make you stretch things that will
challenge you I say don’t lose that
passion and that drive for life it will
keep you alive I’m telling you what I
know doctors looked at me eight years
ago and said you have cancer eight years
ago they gave me two and a half years I
was still here I told my group of
speakers that I trained I said I’m gonna
beat this and this is a year all of them
said hokay letter we believe you man we
believing in you and then they start
calling the person who manages my
speaking program and say will we get a
free fund when he dies because they were
believing the numbers because the PSA
one two fours normal 119 that’s serious
I’d went to the MD Anderson which is
number one in the world sloan-kettering
Johns Hopkins Howard University went all
type of doctors and urologist and
oncologist and I said mr. Brown I’m
sorry young man put on we’ve done all we
can do and let me share something with
you write this down work on yourself see
the people that are going to reach their
goals and dreams not only do they have
compelling reasons that drive them
because the thing that drove me that
kept me ahead of every
I had some compelling reasons why I was
selling television sets no money down I
had some compelling reasons that I’d go
to a door at 10 o’clock at night and not
going to do it hello yes who is that hi
would you like to buy a nice working
television set no money down but do you
know what time it is yes I do it’s 10
o’clock at night and I’d take care of my
mama and I’m going to sell the
television set tonight
to somebody it might as well be you and
finally somebody said fool come on and
it better be a good one you got to have
some reasons reasons will drive you
reasons will give you come back power
one of my good friends Willy jolly has a
saying one of his books is like that if
you get knocked no he says a setback is
a setup for a comeback
a setback is a setup for a comeback when
I said you have cancer one of the things
that was different for me than everybody
else and I just finished doing a
presentation called you are more
powerful than cancer was because in fact
that I listened to so many positive
things I went to so many lectures I
talked to so many people that were
cancer conquerors I asked them what did
you do and when people said to me oh my
uncle died of prostate cancer my father
died from prostate cancer my mind said
well that has nothing to do with me I
don’t want to hear nothing about that
I’m not being insensitive but don’t tell
me that that’s not my destiny I got too
much work to do I got things and I’m
supposed to accomplish and so I had a
mindset that hey I can beat this I can
get past this oh no I’m not going out
like this so you got to stand up in
yourself you got to fight you will have
our position things gonna happen to you
in life it’s called life and it’s not
personal stuffs gonna happen and if you
make it to the 40-yard line if you can
make it to age 40 between 40 and 60 it
begins to intensify all kind of things
happen between 40 and 60 my mother was
diagnosed with breast cancer and finally
between 40 and 60 I was diagnosed with
prostate cancer between 40 and 60 are
between a
went through a divorce from someone that
I loved very much between 40 and 60 my
best friend died waiting order liver
transplant between 40 and 60 had a
nationally syndicated talk show
highs rated fastest cancel talk showing
a history of television between 40 and
60 Oh life put a whooping oh my god
y’all had yours already tell how many
you know what I’m talking about
hey personal don’t say why did this have
to happen to me why not you and here’s
what the key to it that you have to work
on yourself I read every book I could on
how to heal yourself I listened to every
speech I talked to people I went to
lectures I mean everything dealing with
healing I fed my mind
same thing in sales focus on your mind
when your sales drop focus on your mind
not your techniques not just strategy
not your clothes focus on your mind what
you do what you accomplish what you’re
able to sell is a direct direct
relationship to what you believe and the
story that you playing in your head
that’s what that’s what blocks you as
sales professionals don’t tell you what
I know I’m telling you what I’ve earned
billions of dollars doing I’m telling
you what got me from being born an
abandoned building on a floor and being
labeled educable mentally retarded put
back from the fifth grade to the fourth
grade failing in the eighth grade
and being able to give a lecture at
Saint Albert Hall in London England or
speaking at Harvard University I’m
telling you what got me here what
brought me to the party the speaking to
the Georgia Dome to over 80,000 people
was my belief and the story in my head
the story used to be I couldn’t do that
but by listening to lectures over and
over again faith comes by hearing and
hearing and hearing by reading and
eating my mind language is a software
that my how many of you since I’ve been
speaking to you your energy level is
higher ratio hands pleaser yes
how many of you can feel me in your
heart raise your hands please yeah
dr. norman vincent peale spoke he gave
me goose pimples when Earl Nightingale
said all of us are self-made but only
the successful will admit it mr.
sidarsky you like that one huh yeah mr.
sidarsky family that we work for in
Miami Beach he did not know why I spent
so much time in his office shining his
shoes because he listened to the
strangest secret in the world by Aaron
lighting Hill and I was listening to
this and as he was playing those tapes
called lead the field I was hearing
these things and then and what not shiny
he said well that’s good enough I said
well let me dust let me let me do kit I
do love ah stop well that looks wrong
clean last night oh look at the books of
crooked let me and I’d win it early and
messed him up so I could stay because I
were to be in there while he was taking
this time to work them and say he was a
multi-millionaire my dream and vision
was one day I’m going to be a
millionaire like mr. sidarsky one day
because I was young I had faith and I
was young and ignorant I didn’t know I
couldn’t do it I didn’t know I couldn’t
have a mansion I was like the bumblebee
according to the laws of aerodynamics a
bumblebee isn’t supposed to fly because
the body is too large to be held up by
his little puny wings but the bumblebee
doesn’t know it its intelligently
ignorant so it keeps on flying anyhow
you have to read write this down
something positive every day for an hour
you have to put yourself and you’ve got
those five PS in a personal development
regimen take an hour every day I do it
even now I take two because my goals are
higher every day read at least a chapter
something positive every day listen to
motivate
don’t message everyday language it’s a
software the mine why because it will
change the straw story that’s in your
head see what we do what we accomplish
is a result as I said earlier of what we
believe and the story that’s in our head
see most people go so far and then they
park they stop their income their
achievement level their Commission’s
what they do in life just tapers off
they paw because the story in their head
is this is it it’s not conscious guess
well I got so busy and so consuming
where I was I stopped reading I stopped
listening to tapes that which got me
there I stopped doing it the mine ladies
and gentlemen it’s like a garden if you
have a god you have a yard you have
weeds you just can’t go out there but
one can of weed killer write this down
Steve Duncan’s had said this powerful
statement put it someplace you can apply
to your health you can apply it to your
sales you can apply to your business you
can apply to your life he said life is a
fight for territory and once you stop
fighting for what you want what you
life is a fight for territory and once
you stop fighting for what you want what
you don’t want will automatically take
over I have to exercise every day I have
to drop out on my bed and do 100 pushups
every day I have to discipline my eating
I have to turn off the news I can’t
watch the news I’m not gonna have a
reoccurrence of cancer in my body I have
to eat 80% raw vegetables I have to
drink 12 glasses of water a day I have
to take my zinc in my saw palmetto about
healing 951
I have to take my wheatgrass I hate it I
hate it but life of the fight fraternity
I’m fighting for my health I have to
what working on yourself does by setting
us on time to work on your mind to go
seminars and workshops it causes you to
begin to reflect on yourself to take
personal inventory and to upgrade your
game plan and your strategy but also it
increases your faith see a belief it is
something that continues to grow what I
earn is a reflection of what I believe
subconsciously that I deserve they did
this study with these senior citizens in
their 80s and 90s and said do you look
back on your life what do you like to
say right now you know what they said
the majority have said they have regrets
of the things they thought about they
didn’t do and now they’re going to their
graves not knowing it if they could have
done it that’s why I said live for diam
do what if you lose what have you failed
what if things don’t work out so so it’s
not about the goals that you reach it’s
about what you become in the process
that’s what it’s about
I’ve lost a lot of deals that’s okay
I’ve made a lot but I’ve lost more deals
I get more rejections you get close to
me there’s a callus on my it looks like
a mole I’ve made over a hundred cold
calls in a day to convince people to
bring me in who are you my name is les
brown have an experience no I don’t but
if you will let me work for you I work
real hard I’ll have you as my client
that will brag about me
oh no you let us know when you do it for
somebody okay yes I will calling calling
calling call finally somebody said yes
write this down you will win if you
don’t quit
Oh sales you got to have stamina you’ve
got to have staying power you want to be
successful in sale you’ve got to make
know your vitamin oh you can’t be a whip
someone says no that’s when we get
excited house when a Sales Professional
gets taught everybody said yes we
wouldn’t be needed let us say together
it’s possible see the people that are
going to increase their sales the people
that are going to change their lives the
people that are going to recover their
health the people that are going to
build their lives and start all over
again from scratch of people who believe
it’s possible the people who fail are
the people who suffer from possibility
blindness repeat after me please go all
out yeah write that down see when you
want to increase your performance in
life let’s say the people that are
successful in any area life you must be
willing to do the things a day others
won’t do in order to have the things
tomorrow others won’t have if you want
to make it in any area in life you’ve
got to go all out I was always the top
seller where I was because I made more
calls I made more presentations than
anybody else I always have had a goal to
earn a hundred thousand dollars a year I
set my site and I had a plan of action
to make enough calls create enough
prospects to earn four hundred thousand
if I shot for a hundred thousand I knew
I would fall short but if I shot
realistically and practically and worked
like I was working for four hundred
thousand I wouldn’t drop down to a
hundred thousand and even if I dropped
that two hundred thousand I’m still
ahead of the game
yeah William said all you can do is all
you can do and all you can do is enough
but make sure you do all you can do
write this down you want to make it a
day
you got to out fake and I’ll work the
competition out think you’re not working
will they take a break in and I’m gonna
share with you some other strategies
that will give you the competitive edge
I don’t kill what you’re doing I’ll work
for my competition when I decided to
become a motivational speaker
my goal was not to be just another guy
out here I train speakers and I say let
me tell you what has governed the
industry the Dale Carnegie cause which
is a great course tell them what you’re
going to tell them tell them and tell
them what you told them I said you want
to be successful and speaking or
anything else I said listen to me my
favorite book says and all thy getting
get understanding you want to be
successful in any business and any sales
first thing you want to do is know your
customer I tell people spend more time
listening to them asking questions
finding out what they need don’t go in
running your mouth
some people talk their way in and talk
their way out have you seen them do it
raise your hand find out who they are
find out what do they want ask questions
give a presentation from their point of
view not from your point of view let
them see you as a resource as a
consultant as a strategic partner don’t
go in selling build relationships they
would say people don’t care
how much you know until they know how
much you care
here’s something else and whatever you
want to do in becoming successful write
this down master your knowledge of the
marketplace and the product when I
decided to become a major player in this
industry I started reading one book a
week you must be willing to do the
things a day others won’t do in order to
have the things tomorrow others won’t
have the average American reads one book
a year if you decide to become an expert
professional in your area and becoming
knowledgeable about your customer about
the product about the industry about the
competition you just study and read one
book a month in five years when the
average American read five books you
read sixty books it will make you an
expert because the other thing that
we’re talk about when we come back write
this down
we’ll start off this way presentation
power the difference between successful
and unsuccessful sales professionals is
the power to prevent mr. Washington said
mr. Brown yes sir man changed my life I
was in his class waiting on another
student he said young man go to board
work this problem out for me I said well
sir I can’t do that say why not I said
I’m not one of these to say look at me
yes sir go to the board and work the
problem out anyhow I can’t do that sir
why not sir because I magica bula
mentally retarded sermon special
education unless the students erupted
and laughed he came from behind his desk
he looked at me he said don’t you ever
say that again
someone’s opinion of you does not have
on one hand I was humiliated but on the
other hand I was liberated because he
looked at me with the eyes of Goethe’s
and said look at a man that waited he is
he only becomes worse but look at him as
if he were what he could be then it
becomes what he should be he said mr.
brown
he said develop your mind and develop
your communication skills because once
you open your mouth you tell the world
who you are and with that we will take
time out this has been mrs. Mamie
Brown’s baby boy it’s been a plum
pleasing pleasure as well as a privilege
thank you
this stage of my life I’m reinventing
myself I’m training people how to become
a part of this fifty eight billion
dollar industry and one of the things
that I think that that top sales
performers have going for them is the
ability to present and that is either on
the telephone or 101 or in small group
settings making the presentation or
speaking before a large audience it’s
something that can be learned and
something that some keys I’d like to
share with you and the training that we
provide that will give you a competitive
edge how many of you think that that
will they have some value and and
learning strategies that can impact your
presentation style raise your hands
please how many of you have ever been in
a situation that you know that had you
been more effective in terms of how you
presented yourself that you would have
done better raise your hands please
have you ever been in a situation this
has happened to me where you choked
where I just choked you just could not
remember anything my mind went blank you
want to master your knowledge you want
to know when you open your mouth that
you know what you’re talking about the
reason that I
you have to work on yourself and write
this down before you sneak power
presentation before you speak see a lot
of people just worry about good at
getting up and speaking and presenting
before you speak there’s work you’ve got
to do on you because I don’t care how
good you are in your presentation in
your knowledge how well-organized it is
I don’t care about your PowerPoint
presentation who you are behind the
words will be more powerful than the
words you speak when you come into the
room you’ve got to have a spirit and
energy about you that you expect this
deal to happen you have to come in the
room and you have to look at them and
your look must be the only reason you
were scared from birth control was to
before you speak your body language when
you come to watch your posture your mind
said before you speak listen to positive
motivational messages before you speak
read 10 to 15 pages of something
positive why it increases your energy
we’re all connected ladies and gentlemen
haven’t you felt people’s energy that
some people you’ll get around them and
and you just said there’s something
about that person I don’t know what it
is but I don’t like their energy how
many have been like how many ever walked
into a deal and you know the deal was
done before you took the contract out
raise your hand please you know it
you knew it because you knew you’re in
the zone you knew you’re in your place
you knew you were in sync mentally and
emotionally and spiritually and your
information you knew you were ready it
was ready it was game time you knew it
and I’m saying from the time you get out
of the car and walk in from the time you
make eye contact and shake their hand
from the time when you say hello you
have to be close you have to close the
deal in your voice your mindset must be
you’re not going anyplace else this is
it one stop one deal it’s mine I do
market takeaways against the brightest
and the best I don’t care about the
credentials MBA PhD only means pal high
and deep that’s all
[Music]
no disrespect I don’t care I’m gonna
prepare you’re not going to out think
and outwork me I’m gonna know everything
there is to know about my customer about
what their needs are I like what this
lady said and she said talking about the
added value her company was providing
for her customers she said it’s not our
intention to please our customers or to
satisfy our customers our intention is
to amaze them when I decided to become a
speaker I noticed that you hear most of
my heroes they gave the same speech
it’s a memorized script they give it
everywhere I decided I was going to make
myself different what is different about
you you’ve got to have something that
makes you stand out when you are in a
situation and people make decisions with
their dollars in a time when the economy
is tight in a time when budgets are
tight you don’t have the option of not
believing in yourself if there’s any
doubt as an ounce of doubt and trust me
ninety nine and a half won’t get it if
there’s any doubt if you intimidated by
the competition I charge more than 99
percent of the speakers and they said
hey you know you charge too much no you
just don’t have enough money I don’t
charge too much you get well I’ve got a
speaker that will come in for $15,000 I
said then get that then you get a
$15,000 speaker and you get the results
or whatever they produce but when you
want the best you call me and I might be
okay no no we don’t anybody else we want
you very good and write the check you
have to believe in yourself you have to
believe in your product you have to
believe in your service and you have to
sell you every day that’s the biggest
sale you have to make the biggest sale
ladies and gentlemen that I make every
day that Les Brown you can do this the
biggest sale I had to make when I left
the doctor’s office and they said mr.
Brown your PSA is still going up the
biggest sale I had to make as I was
walking out of the office I can beat
this I can beat this
it doesn’t matter about what they say
about their numbers I’m not going to
listen to that report home no absolutely
not they are not God they don’t know the
future they don’t know who I am I’ve got
to fight this at the cellular level Oh
No
other people have beat it over 9 million
I can beat this son stronger than cancer
if other people can do it then it’s
possible that I can do it it’s not my
town no they don’t know who I am
oh I can make this sale absolutely no I
don’t have the pretentious no I can’t do
a slide presentation can’t even turn on
a computer I still have my 8-track oh
you got to sell yourself every day then
sometimes you get scared I like what on
Ambrose read he said that courage is not
the absence of fear courage is the
judgment that what you want is more
important than your fear I used to be
intimidated by people because they had
more education because they had more
money because they had credentials
because they had contacts because they
had four color brochures because they
had books and I didn’t have all these
things because they had infomercials and
they had television explosion I didn’t
have all those things but the judgment
that providing for my family was more
important than my feeling inferior more
important than my fears the judgment
that I have to control my future the
judgment that I want to be able to take
care of my mother that when my mother
becomes ill I want to be in a position
to do more than just pray for her Oh No
whatever she needs medically I will be
able to write the check the judgment
that my children will have a choice to
go to the College of their choice to
give them a competitive edge in the
future the judgments at home know one
day I’m gonna be able to have vacations
I will go to Paris I’ll go to Tahiti I
will go to Jamaica
I will go to Hawaii the judgment I have
more time for myself the judgment that
I’m gonna secure my grandchildren’s
future and my great-grandchildren the
judgment of those things that make life
worth living
was more important than my fear what is
it that will make it worth it for you to
face the rejections what is it that will
make it work is worth it for you the
brainstorm and not be intimidated and
say I can do this what is it that will
make it worth if it of you to raise the
bar on your self and say I got some more
stuff in me oh I haven’t even gotten my
biggest deal yet what is it that will
make it worth it for you to go back to a
customer who slammed a door in your face
what is it that will
make it worth it for you to make know
your vitamin that you become empowered
by it what is it I will make it for you
when you want to give up you can’t buy a
sale and things that working against you
and you get close to making your numbers
and then they double your quota what is
it you’ve got a sales manager breathing
down your neck don’t give you the tools
don’t give you the resources that you
need you’re working in a toxic
environment and rather than working
together they’re working against you
what is it that will make it worth it
for you to get out of the car when you
want to keep driving past the office
because of the stress what is it that
gives you the strength in the power got
a single one of my tapes and life knocks
you down try and land on your back
because if you can look up you can get
it what does it have will help you get
back up again can you feel me up in here
love it here come on get over a round of
when you are involved in any area of
life let us say you got to have Drive
together you got to have Drive let us
say kick it up a notch yeah see when you
are presenting I tell and train my
speakers you’ve got to kick it up a
notch you’ve got to have power feeling
and conviction you can’t be casual see
if you’re casual about your dream you
will end up a casualty if you’re casual
about your product if you’re casual
about what it is you’re presenting if
you don’t internalize it if they can’t
feel that you are excited that you are
sold yourself they don’t care
you’ve got to give people enough
emotional energy to say wait a minute I
know this had cost less but is something
about this this person I’m gonna go with
them I’m gonna go with them I’m telling
what I know I’ve had company said no and
look here I know we have these other
people but I want somebody in here
that’s on fire about our stuff I talked
to this guy he’s already done his
research he knows about us
I saw him speak and he’s so custom
designer we thought he was in the real
estate industry we thought he was
involved in finance what is it that’s
gonna set you apart you got to care
enough to do your research you got to
know what you know and they got to know
that you know that you know and when you
speak how you speak before the words the
spirit of who you are will touch them
give you the competitive advantage if
you’re going to be successful today
write this down you’ve got to be
flexible you’ve got to be versatile and
you’ve got to be adaptable you’ve got to
deal with circumstances such as you find
them why because a lot of stuff is going
to be thrown at you many times you’re
not going to have time to prepare
sometimes people come out of nowhere
with stuff and you’ve got to stand up
inside of yourself and handle it
see ladies and gentlemen we’ve been
blessed to be dropped off on this part
of the planet because we have choices
some people don’t have choices they
don’t have the option I’ve been abroad
while I stood in line waiting across the
border
singing god Bless America they called me
to my room did mr. Brown did you call
yes I just turned on my shower and it
didn’t come on and I tried to flush the
toilet in it it didn’t flush oh well you
ought to be back on at 5 o’clock 5
o’clock no problem at all there is a
problem I want that flush that toilet oh
I don’t want to sit up in here and it
smell that all day oh no it ain’t that
kind of party there is or I want to take
a shower there’s a problem up in here oh
no we do this every day when you don’t
have enough water to have it running all
day long we’d take that oh great
Legrand humming the grocery store had
this woman crying out on the other aisle
I go around thinking she fell or
something and she just been brought here
compression she’d never seen so much
food it oh my god has she turned to the
lady that took in the store she said
your vows lovely your vast blue I love
you thank you for bringing me here Saffy
take for granted how is it that
immigrants coming to this country can’t
speak the language and and run circles
around our children academically and
have a 4-time greater chance of becoming
millionaires than the average Americans
why why because they are not casual
about making it they don’t come here
wanting to live their dreams they expect
to live their dreams when you out swim
sharks or you sneak over here through
some ship cargo in the belly of a plane
oh let me tell you
you come here running and have a passion
to win with to do whatever is required
if we’re going to maintain high
dominance globally in this era that
Peter Drucker calls the era the three
C’s accelerated change overwhelming
complexity and tremendous competition
we’ve got to kick it up a notch we’ve
gotten too comfortable oh no it’s a
different game now we’ve gone from a
domestic economy to a global economy oh
no we can be replaced replaced in a
heartbeat today you either expand as
Robert Schuller says or you are
expendable you’ve got to kick it up or
not oh it will never be like it once was
Oh known today oh that’s not in my job
description it’s not well you better put
it in there you’ve got to do more and do
it faster and do it better you’ve got to
see if you ask those people do you want
more sales do you want more of life do
you want to earn more money do you want
that home do you want to lose weight see
one shows up in conversation expectation
shows up in behavior and choices how you
manage your time how you manage your
energy it shows up in your intention
it’s not lip service so I know the
people who expect to lose weight why
because they know they’ve done as much
as they could by themselves and so they
get a trainer they get some help they go
to the gym they have an exercise program
they get a nutritionist because they
realized my best thinking has produced
this body
I know people who want to earn more how
do you know that when they realize what
Einstein realized the thinking that has
brought me this far has created some
problems that this thinking can’t solve
as you look at yourself look at your
goals one of the things that’s very
important that I’ve learned from people
who are high achievers they have coaches
why whatever hard
Williams for the past 35 years because
you can’t see the picture when you’re in
the frame why is it that I got water my
fitness program with a trainer than I
did by myself because a trainer can pull
more out of me than I can pull out of
myself people who become top achievers
never stop learning and they have
coaches Michael Jordan had Phil Jackson
Muhammad Ali had Angelo Dundee I don’t
care who the great saw somebody was in
their corner looking over their
shoulders helping them why you can’t see
the fight when you in it Mike said
unless you got to do this less you got
to do this less you got to do this and I
had to be willing to listen most people
fail because they don’t know that they
don’t know and they think they know in
life here’s what I want you to write
this down please you gotta trust that
you’re gonna be all right
you have no evidence to support it it
doesn’t make sense you can’t point
anything to say well this is why there’s
no logic in it there’s no there’s no way
in which you can logically and
practically and realistically support it
and prove it
that’s why you got to have faith and you
got to have trust somehow someway you’ve
got to have that that you’re going to
come through and I can tell you some
things will begin to happen that you
will not even anticipate the phone will
begin to ring deal will come out of
nowhere somebody will recommend you
someone you talked to years ago and gave
them a brochure and put it on a desk and
somebody in their office came in and
picked up your car I picked up your
brochure and called you out of the blue
I remember years ago I read an interview
by James Brown at that time he was
recognized as a hardest-working man and
show business and it was my senior year
night
1863 in an interview they asked him what
was your greatest performance at that
time is his number one song was please
please please please
they had a cape and put it on his back
baby please don’t go he would throw the
cape off and run back on stage he do the
Jade Rasta and he said in that interview
when they asked him what was your
greatest performance and he said the
last one the last one see you’re always
in competition with yourself I’m working
on being the best presenter I have never
been you’re working on being the best
salesperson you’ve never been you’re
working on being the best father the
best mother you’ve never been the best
entrepreneur you’ve never been there’s
somebody else in you back there and as
you work toward becoming that person who
you are right now must die daily you got
to kill that person off you got to be
willing to give up who you’ve been for
who you can become to release what he
brother Elizabeth Brown and call the
imprisoned splendor the road will come
as you take each step that you’re going
to go into uncharted territory you’re
going to do what Henry David Thoreau
said do not go with a path may lead but
go where there’s no path and leave a
trail you’re going to break records
you’re going to do some things when you
challenge yourself when you work on
yourself because you don’t get in life
what you want you get in life what you
are
most people don’t know if you want to
improve your income you want to improve
your circumstances you want to improve
your Commission’s you want to improve
your life you got to first improve
yourself you got to first take the time
to work on you Zig talks about a
lumberjack whose wood production dropped
by 40% because he wouldn’t take the time
to sharpen his axe
right the staff sometimes you have to
believe in somebody’s belief in you
until your belief kicks in sometimes you
have to believe in somebody’s belief in
you until your belief kicks in I want
you to think about your best year
earning your best year of sales your
best year of accomplishment your best
year of achievement here’s what I’d know
about you and I don’t know you but from
people that I’ve worked with and from
things that I’ve learned in my own life
example here’s what I know about you
whatever you have done is only a tip of
the iceberg of what’s possible viewed
you can do four to five times more than
whatever you have done if anybody had
told me given my circumstances born an
abandoned building on a floor with a
twin brother in a poor section of Miami
Florida called Liberty City if both my
parents stood up now in the audience and
say hey we’re your parents I would not
know either one being adopted labeled
educable mentally retarded failing twice
in school if anybody told me that in my
future I would be speaking to you in my
future I would write books in my future
even though I don’t have a college
education
I would produce six different specials
for PBS and earn millions of dollars in
my future I would have a nationally
syndicated talk show in my future I
would travel around the world and speak
to over 80,000 people in the Georgia
Dome and nobody could have convinced me
when I was working at Sears as a
salespersons person when I was working
for the mining sanitation department as
a garbage collector making $8 an hour no
one could have looked at me when I was
walking to empty their garbage and
pushing it that can forward and kicking
and getting up under it
moving it and straighten my back and
walking with it to empty that stinking
garbage in a truck with other men older
than me and stronger than me I did not
know that this less round that you see
I didn’t know I I’m still working hi I
know there’s something else back here I
feel that there’s something bigger for
my life and I feel that at this stage of
my life only certain kind of people come
see me people that that show up because
we were cut from the same cloth
we’re branches of the same tree people
who feel me and they’re hard people who
are strange people like me you’re
strange
that’s why are you here you’re different
you’re different mr. washio mr. Brown
you say you want to be successful yes
sir don’t follow what other people do I
feel like a stranger when I have family
unions reunions with my family when I go
to my reunions with my classmates they
talk about retirement life is about
change
human beings were built for change
animals can’t changed an alligator can’t
be anything but an alligator tree can’t
be anything but a true human feeds we
were built for change to reinvent
ourselves you must be born again there’s
something in you you’re pregnant with
unlimited possibilities you’re pregnant
with greatness there’s some things in
you in this room some entrepreneurs in
this room some millionaires in this room
some great ideas great strategies in
this room some great concepts for
business in this room great fathers
great mothers great community activists
and policy makers in this room his
greatness in this room
I don’t know what your goals are I don’t
know what you want to do here’s what I
feel
here’s what I have coming to me in my
mind that I feel from you and while
you’ve taken this slice of your life to
spend this time with me to honor me with
your presence because time is so
important I believe that there’s
somebody in here that it’s your time
I remember when mr. Washington gave a
speech and I just failed math and
history in English and I had to go to
summer school for the fifth straight
year he was speaking to the graduating
seniors I was gonna have to be involved
in a summer school program to to go to
the to the 12th grade he was giving this
speech I heard his voice and I came in
the auditorium I stood in the back as he
spoke and I felt he was speaking to me
people were jammed around the auditorium
because mr. Washington he’s in his 80s
now he or he’s still very eloquent he
was he was a great orator and as he
spoke he said I was brought here from
Braden Brighton’s in Florida and I
believe when I was brought here I came
to develop greatness you have greatness
within you you have the ability to do
more than what you can ever begin to
imagine and as you graduate from Booker
T Washington High School if you leave
here with a sense of greatness is just
one of you have that vision of yourself
then mr. Charles L Williams your
principal and the school board and all
the people that were involved in
recruiting me to bring me here their
efforts would not have been in vain if
just one of you have the vision a larger
vision of yourself doing more impacting
people’s lives changing the course of
history creating a brand brighter
tomorrow but my being brought here would
not have been in vain and they gave him
a rousing standing of
nation and as he left and went down the
auditorium steps I followed him and I
said huh mr. Washington he said yes I
said do you remember me sir he said no I
said my mother mrs. Mamie Brown she
works in the cafeteria now she got
started she’s the one that fixed the
great sweet potato pies that everybody
talked about I’m the twin Leslie
remember I was in your class waiting on
my call the Stevens and and and you told
me to do something I told you couldn’t
do it you and I told you I was in
special education I was a jerk about
mentally retarded and you said to me
somebody’s opinion of me does not have
to become our reality he said yes I
wrote that down sir I see that every day
when I get up it’s on my bathroom window
sir come on they’re in my bathroom I’ll
repeat that to myself it doesn’t bother
me anymore that people call me DT that
dumb twin he said I’m glad to hear that
mr. brown
I said sir he said yes you said that if
if anybody just one person in there got
a larger vision of themselves that
you’re being brought here would not have
been in vain he said yes well sir
I’m the web sir you are yes sir I don’t
know what one day sir you are going to
hear my name
what will you do i I don’t know circles
one day you watch you gonna hear my name
again he said ok he said it’s possible
yes sir
he started walking away I said mister
washed he said what do you want now I
said don’t forget my face sir don’t
forget me
I’m this mamie’s boy I’m a baby boy
people told that she should take me back
to the welfare department but I’m my
mama kept beating her he said ok he
started walking away I said don’t forget
don’t you forget here and he’s even
bother Hampshire he just kept walking
years later I produced a special many
years ago on PBS called you deserve in
Detroit and I call friends and have them
to call him to tell him to turn on
public television when they are doing
their fundraising and when the
announcement came on and said ladies and
gentlemen you deserve that Les Brown he
was in the kitchen and he came out and
he saw me come up on the screen he said
Edith look it’s the dumb twit and he
called me in Detroit and this was and I
cannot wait to tell you the story how I
used to sleep on the floor the Penobscot
building and building my business you
know during the good times you put in
your pocket during the tough times you
put it in your heart and so he said may
I speak to mr. Brown please I said who’s
calling he said you know who this is
I said Oh mr. Washington is you he said
you were the one weren’t you I said yes
sir he said but you were so crazy I said
I know but I’m rich now
I don’t know what your goes I’d like to
leave this with you you have greatness
within you you have a part of yourself
in you that if you reach for it if you
work at it you will discover some
uncommon moments that other people only
dream about if you work to to live full
and to die empty I saw something
recently they said I refuse to die an
unlived life and I’d like to leave this
with you to the greatness in you that’s
what I’m speaking to now I don’t care
what you’re going through I don’t care
where you are I don’t care about your
failures I don’t care about your
disappointment whatever you’re going
through you’re greater than anything
that has ever happened to you
and I’d like to leave this with you that
my mother used to love to hear me say
she said Leslie I said yes my mama said
I think for me boy that makes me feel
good your mama fought breast cancer for
22 years she’s a 22-year breast cancer
Conqueror mama was a fighter you got to
fight for your dream I’ve learned a
fight from my mama mama was a fighter
and I dedicate this unit says simply
this if you want to think that enough to
go out and fight for it to work day and
night for it to give up your time your
peace and your sleep for it if all that
you dream and scheme is about it and
life seemed useless and worthless
without it and if your garden is sweat
for it and fret for it and plan for it
and lose all your terror of the
opposition for it and if you simply go
after that thing that you want with all
of your capacity strength and sagacity
Faith Hope and confidence and stern
pertinacity if neither cold poverty
family should go sickness of pain of
body and brain can keep you away from
the thing that you want have dogged and
grim you beseech and beset it with the
help of God you’ll get it this has been
mrs. Mamie Brown’s baby boy god bless
you god bless your dream and god bless
america thank you very much
people are life they’re winners they’re
losers and they’re winners who have not
discovered how to win yet and these
individuals it’s something about them
that drives them that that they will
invest in themselves they go to seminars
and workshops and lectures and they’re
seeking there’s something in them that
says I can do better than this that
there are people who would be glad to be
where they are and would be happy but
they’re not how many of you know if you
had your life to live over again you can
do more than what you’ve done that’s
well raise your hands I was reading a
story about George Bernard Shaw who was
a very brilliant man in his day and I’d
love to quote him but one of the things
that was asked George Bernard Shaw that
really resonated with me at the end of
his life somebody asked him if you had
to be anybody in the world
anybody throughout history if you had
the power to be born again
who would you like to come back as and
without blinking he said I’d like to be
I like to be the man and never was that
I never became seeking to connect with
that person there’s a another person
here that you’re looking at there’s
somebody else back there and every chair
in this place there are two people in
this place in every chair you’re in the
chair with somebody else there’s another
person back there you know they’re back
there and that person is the person that
you want to become connected with and
sometimes you do sometimes you’ve had
some experiences where you said I can’t
believe I’m doing this
how many never done that please that you
surprise yourself when every time I
speak I I see this as such a sacred
opportunity and I’m so happy sometimes I
think I’m dreaming because when I look
back on my life and this less round that
you see was in bondage for so many years
didn’t come out too late in my life I
had him under arrest I was in bondage
with fear I wanted to do what I’m doing
and I thought about things I wanted to
accomplish and I held myself back
because I was afraid to fail I was
afraid to make mistakes I was afraid
that I would embarrass myself I was
intimidated by people who had college
degrees because I didn’t have a college
degree I still don’t have a college
degree and so I would think about the
things I wanted to do and then I would
start thinking about the fact unless you
can’t do that that’s what I told this
guy in me last you can’t do that you
don’t have a college education less I
hear what you’re saying but come on be
logical be practical you can’t do that I
know you feel good going to see Zig
Ziglar and Tony Robbins and the late dr.
Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Shula
and I know they motivate you and inspire
you but get real you can’t do that you
never work for any major corporation
come on let’s be practical be
logical oh yes I know people told you
you have a gift of gab and you have a
nice personality and and you’re funny
and you make people feel good you make
them laugh but you become a speaker
speak for corporations train and teach
people motivate people to do something
you’ve never done you’re not rich you’re
not successful you don’t have any books
you don’t have the resources you don’t
know the people you don’t have the
contacts you you can do that Les Brown
see my heart said I can do that
and I looked at my dream and saw someone
doing what I love to do I love to help
people how many love to help people and
my heart said I can do that and then I
made a critical mistake I asked how the
mind became operative the mind came up
front and celestron I heard what your
heart said what I want to ask you how
will you do that and so I went from my
heart to my mind and I tried to figure
it out how would I do that at that time
I wanted to earn a thousand dollars an
hour my mind said do you make a thousand
dollars a week I said no okay
have you ever done this before I said no
okay well I’m not saying you can’t do it
but let me ask you some other questions
all right
have you really contacts with anybody
that can teach you how to do this no
okay well maybe there’s something else
do you have the money no do you have the
credentials we know well anybody stand
up for you and say oh he’s done it for
me and I know he’s good no well let me
ask you do you really think you could do
this no there’s an African proverb that
says if there’s no enemy within the
enemy outside can do you
ha how many of you ever thought about
something you wanted to do you felt it
in your heart you couldn’t explain it
you found it in your heart and you
talked yourself out of it raise your
hands you don’t I’m talking about I talk
myself out of it
no one did it to me but me the porked of
prudence is not in Our Stars but in
ourselves that we are underlings my
first major goal was I wanted to buy my
mother a home and I achieve that I’m
adopted
I feel like Abraham Lincoln who said all
that I am and all that ever hope to be
I owed to my mother so sign once it said
God took me out of my biological
mother’s womb and placed me in the heart
of my adopted mother my mama was a good
woman she adopted seven children mama
only had a third grade education but I
admired her her carrot I admired her
personality she never met strangers mama
met you right now she would talk your
head off you know she’s a funny woman
she always had a sense humor mama walked
fast we walked with Mama downtown we had
to hold up dress mama but walk fast we
trying to keep up with mama years later
at the end of her life and he was 89 and
suffering from breast cancer
we took her to a Furniture Warehouse and
she got out of the car with my sister
and she was holding my arm and I said
mama I say they have a wheelchair here
can I get this wheelchair for you and I
went got the wheelchair and she looked
at me she said no boy I would walk this
place myself I said mama but it’s it’s
so huge mom huh oh I won’t worry in a
wheelchair she said I’m fine and I saw
her straighten herself and she she
walked did her
selfhood mired her strength I as oh mama
you know this morning I got up and every
time something happens to me and I want
to get down and I want to surrender to
any of the challenges I encounter and I
got up this morning and the sadiq nerve
and this hell v and L for my Lord disc
the protruding and I was in pain and and
my body said you can’t do this speech
today in and somebody said are you gonna
surrender to this pain are you mamie’s
boy get up and straight your back you
can do that speech you can walk that
float yourself when you start walking
you won’t feel anything but her presence
with you sometimes we have to stand up
inside ourselves sometimes we have to
fight ourselves sometimes you have a
dream and goal that you want to achieve
and you say oh I can’t do that you got
to tell yourself to shut up I can do it
don’t tell me I can’t do that sometimes
you got to talk to yourself I can’t do I
mainly it’s for oh I can do this oh whoa
I will do it I have got to do this what
you think about your dream and I want
you to increase your dream dramatically
I said you have something special I’m
telling you what I know you have
greatness in you you have the ability to
do more than you can ever begin to
imagine I don’t even know you but I’m
telling you what I know from our own
experience and greatness ladies and
gentlemen greatness it’s a choice it’s
not your destiny most people never
discover their greatness
most people ladies and gentlemen go to
their graves living a life of mediocrity
living a life far below their potential
Oliver Wendell Holmes said most men and
women go to their graves with their
music still in them for the mind
Dwight pleasure was eulogizing his his
brother and Chicago and I attended the
funeral
no I’d powerful speaker he gives a
presentation called how to start over
again how to make it from scratch old
widest powerful flight head lost his
life years to drugs and crack cocaine
lost everything and he came back again
he demonstrated come back power going
around the world changing people’s lives
and he was eulogizing his brother he
said and the room was very quiet and
very somber and he said my brother was
in the room in California and they told
me he died by himself and he said and I
submit to you that my brother didn’t die
by himself then with my brother died a
lot of Dreams with my brother died a lot
of potential my brother had a lot of
good ideas and my brother was one of
those guys there that said one day I’m
gonna and everybody started laughing
because they everybody knew his brother
was talking about various things all the
time one day I’m gonna do this and one
day I’m gonna do that in one day I’m
gonna do he had a lot of good ideas that
he never acted on and we died when he
took his last breath all those ideas and
one day I’m gone all of that went down
in a grave with him henry david thoreau
come forward what are your word he said
Oh God to reach the point of death only
to realize that you’ve never lived only
to realize that you’ve never stripped
the surface of your potential general
and come forth what would you say when
the end comes for you let it find you
conquering a new mountain not sliding
down and old
Oh No ladies and gentlemen a lot of
people died fool full of their dreams
full of talent full of ideas full of
skills full of intelligence and
abilities that they never reach for they
never tapped they never got into they
never used it never used it and so how
do we do that what is it that blocks as
well and then she won what mine was
fear here’s another one I didn’t feel
good enough I just I was comparing
myself to other people I didn’t feel
because I didn’t have a college
education and based upon my failures and
disappointments in the past and things
that I’d attempted to do and they did
not work out I’ve built a very practical
realistic logical case on why I couldn’t
have my dream and so I want whatever
dream you have I want you to expand it I
want you to increase it and I want to
warn you don’t ask yourself how you’re
going to do it how is none of your
business don’t get trapped there and
don’t worry about failing you’re going
to fail you’re going to make some
mistakes you’re going to look stupid
wise call life write this down
make it okay to fail Goethe says that
which does not kill you will make you
stronger see where I found that as the
saying goes most people fail in life not
because they aim too high and miss most
people fail in life because they aim too
and many don’t aim at all
many just survive they come to work
asking what time is it and they work
just hard enough to keep from being
fired and they are getting paid just
enough to keep them from quitting in
order to to reach your goals and do some
incredible things ladies and gentlemen
and say that you have something special
you have got to have faith and ignorance
you’ve got to believe in yourself you’ve
got to believe in what you’re doing
you’ve got to believe in your product
you’ve got to believe in your services
you’ve got to believe in a Power greater
than yourself you’ve got to believe in
the power pursuit and you’ve got to be
ignorant enough to know that you don’t
know what you can’t do don’t rule
anything out for you I has not seen here
he’s not her nor has been at the heart
of humankind what God has in store for
you repeat after me please lead and grow
your wings on the way down
yes you’ll be a good sales for you’ve
got to be a risk-taker
here’s something else I tell you I do
you want one of the keys what will
separate great sales professionals from
people that are mediocre I’ll tell you
what I learned this as a kid he used to
sell newspapers
Sam Axelrod who was one of my early
mentors he used to every day would pick
me up and I was the youngest one in the
group all old of individuals didn’t
mostly grown men and every day Sam would
get in and he would have a quote for
everybody in the car Sam driving a
station wagon he said gentlemen yes he
said this is the use of a world and if
you don’t use it in the right way it’s a
cruel world and I would say thank you
miss Axelrod nobody else paid attention
to that I don’t know why but I was the
one it just made sense to me and I kept
these things I remember Lesley yes sir
because he remembered that I was the
only one that responded I was the only
one that took notes when he spoke kids
had always tried to get on top in life
young man because at the bottom that’s
overcrowded yes sir thank you miss sucks
miss exra and but he was baffled by me
because he couldn’t understand how that
adults who were 10 15 years older than I
was had more experience how was it that
I was selling circles around them I
didn’t have the experience they were
more mature how did this little young
kid come there and I’ll sell them two to
one in many cases he couldn’t understand
when at the evening of the close of the
day he would look around and do a head
count so wait a minute somebody’s
missing and never I said you know who it
is that Leslie guy Leslie yes sir hey
come on nobody stole anything
territory oh I can’t come now Sam why I
haven’t sold anything Leslie no one’s so
leaving you guys tell me thing no sir
summit territories are dead Leslie Sam
yes sir I can’t come why I haven’t so
leaving Leslie no one sold anything
that’s them Sam oh I’ll get home all
right
I’ll be all right Leslie in order for
you to get from here back to over town
from Liberty City you’ve got to pass the
20th Street shops the 14th Street game
Leslie that’s dangerous young man Sam
I’ll be all right it’s late it’s late
it’s after 8 o’clock I’ll be all right
and they’ll guys would say come on Sam
he’s a fool leaving leaving he won’t
stop and see these guys is just extra
chump change I guess
I don’t know maybe to have a new suit
pelo small bill here and there for me it
was different
my mother adopted seven children because
of authority’ condition she lost her job
so my reasons were different I just died
five reasons whatever he goes on dreams
are why you won’t fail five reasons five
reasons why you won’t feel nietzsche
said if you know the why for living you
can endure almost any how five reasons i
couldn’t afford not to make a sale i was
out there to get groceries while family
i had to make money i had to to make
enough money for dr. Johnson when he had
a prescription for Mama I had to make
money for the bills for the light bills
I had to work mama was doing the best
she could but mama
our hero mama was sick we have no
relative she was an only child she
adopted seven children at age 46 I saw
my mother on a floor scrubbing floors on
her knees we ate the leftover food from
the families that she cooked for they
were very nice people said Mamie
whatever food is left over you can take
it home to those children
that you have adopted and I said mama
when I get strong enough I’m gonna buy
food for our families we want a
hand-me-down clothes of the children
that that she kept they would said Mamie
whatever clothes here that you could use
these children are mine don’t leave
these take them home and let those kids
wear those clothes that you have adopted
if they were too large mama would soul
take them up if they were too small she
would let them out and now mama was sick
and I said mama what boy I’m gonna take
care of you how to worry mama and I sold
newspapers and I sold televisions that’s
it now I used to collect copper and
aluminum from garbage cans and junk
piles and I would bend them together him
and and put them in a bag and out of a
box being food we’d take him to Peppa’s
junkyard over in Overtown in 11th
terracing and in 4th Avenue and they put
him on a scale and give us $5 I would
stand on the corner hey we need some
boys to come move some stuff hey you too
small or I’m small but I’m strong you
see my muscle man I’m strong okay boy
you got a lot of mouths you better be
able to be strong yeah and I’ll be
grunts definitely care and stuff you
know I was determined I wasn’t going to
steal that was not an option
mama worked too hard I promised my mama
mama I’d never get in trouble I’m I’m
gonna do the right thing mama I’m so
proud of you I’m so glad that you
decided to adopt us I love you so much
I’m gonna take care of you mama I’m
gonna work hard just like you just like
isn’t interesting how kids can be in the
same family raised by the same same
parents same circumstances end up
dramatically different what is that name
I said that you have something special I
believe it people go to seminars and
workshops they have that it that’s
something I don’t know what it is it’s
just something about us that we’re
different we don’t know why we’ve just
got to have what we don’t know why we
have this restlessness and and say to
ourselves this just can’t be it there’s
got to be something better we don’t know
we just got to do this we just got to
keep on stretching got to keep on
learning we
care about feeling I read something that
was in my first book by dr. Benjamin
Mays he was a great man great motivator
one of the mentions of dr. Martin Luther
King jr. dr. Benjamin Isaiah Mays says
it must be borne in mind that the
tragedy of life does not lie and not
reaching your goals
the tragedy lies are not having any
goals to reach it isn’t a calamity to
die with dreams unfulfilled but it is a
calamity not to dream it’s not a
disaster to be unable to capture your
ideas but it is a disaster to have no
ideas to capture it’s not a disgrace not
to reach for the stars but it is a
disgrace to have no stars to reach I say
you got goals and dreams things that
you’re reaching for things that will
make you stretch things that will
challenge you I say don’t lose that
passion and that drive for life it will
keep you alive I’m telling you what I
know doctors looked at me eight years
ago and said you have cancer eight years
ago they gave me two and a half years I
was still here I told my group of
speakers that I trained I said I’m gonna
beat this and this is a year all of them
said hokay letter we believe you man we
believing in you and then they start
calling the person who manages my
speaking program and say will we get a
free fund when he dies because they were
believing the numbers because the PSA
one two fours normal 119 that’s serious
I’d went to the MD Anderson which is
number one in the world sloan-kettering
Johns Hopkins Howard University went all
type of doctors and urologist and
oncologist and I said mr. Brown I’m
sorry young man put on we’ve done all we
can do and let me share something with
you write this down work on yourself see
the people that are going to reach their
goals and dreams not only do they have
compelling reasons that drive them
because the thing that drove me that
kept me ahead of every
I had some compelling reasons why I was
selling television sets no money down I
had some compelling reasons that I’d go
to a door at 10 o’clock at night and not
going to do it hello yes who is that hi
would you like to buy a nice working
television set no money down but do you
know what time it is yes I do it’s 10
o’clock at night and I’d take care of my
mama and I’m going to sell the
television set tonight
to somebody it might as well be you and
finally somebody said fool come on and
it better be a good one you got to have
some reasons reasons will drive you
reasons will give you come back power
one of my good friends Willy jolly has a
saying one of his books is like that if
you get knocked no he says a setback is
a setup for a comeback
a setback is a setup for a comeback when
I said you have cancer one of the things
that was different for me than everybody
else and I just finished doing a
presentation called you are more
powerful than cancer was because in fact
that I listened to so many positive
things I went to so many lectures I
talked to so many people that were
cancer conquerors I asked them what did
you do and when people said to me oh my
uncle died of prostate cancer my father
died from prostate cancer my mind said
well that has nothing to do with me I
don’t want to hear nothing about that
I’m not being insensitive but don’t tell
me that that’s not my destiny I got too
much work to do I got things and I’m
supposed to accomplish and so I had a
mindset that hey I can beat this I can
get past this oh no I’m not going out
like this so you got to stand up in
yourself you got to fight you will have
our position things gonna happen to you
in life it’s called life and it’s not
personal stuffs gonna happen and if you
make it to the 40-yard line if you can
make it to age 40 between 40 and 60 it
begins to intensify all kind of things
happen between 40 and 60 my mother was
diagnosed with breast cancer and finally
between 40 and 60 I was diagnosed with
prostate cancer between 40 and 60 are
between a
went through a divorce from someone that
I loved very much between 40 and 60 my
best friend died waiting order liver
transplant between 40 and 60 had a
nationally syndicated talk show
highs rated fastest cancel talk showing
a history of television between 40 and
60 Oh life put a whooping oh my god
y’all had yours already tell how many
you know what I’m talking about
hey personal don’t say why did this have
to happen to me why not you and here’s
what the key to it that you have to work
on yourself I read every book I could on
how to heal yourself I listened to every
speech I talked to people I went to
lectures I mean everything dealing with
healing I fed my mind
same thing in sales focus on your mind
when your sales drop focus on your mind
not your techniques not just strategy
not your clothes focus on your mind what
you do what you accomplish what you’re
able to sell is a direct direct
relationship to what you believe and the
story that you playing in your head
that’s what that’s what blocks you as
sales professionals don’t tell you what
I know I’m telling you what I’ve earned
billions of dollars doing I’m telling
you what got me from being born an
abandoned building on a floor and being
labeled educable mentally retarded put
back from the fifth grade to the fourth
grade failing in the eighth grade
and being able to give a lecture at
Saint Albert Hall in London England or
speaking at Harvard University I’m
telling you what got me here what
brought me to the party the speaking to
the Georgia Dome to over 80,000 people
was my belief and the story in my head
the story used to be I couldn’t do that
but by listening to lectures over and
over again faith comes by hearing and
hearing and hearing by reading and
eating my mind language is a software
that my how many of you since I’ve been
speaking to you your energy level is
higher ratio hands pleaser yes
how many of you can feel me in your
heart raise your hands please yeah
dr. norman vincent peale spoke he gave
me goose pimples when Earl Nightingale
said all of us are self-made but only
the successful will admit it mr.
sidarsky you like that one huh yeah mr.
sidarsky family that we work for in
Miami Beach he did not know why I spent
so much time in his office shining his
shoes because he listened to the
strangest secret in the world by Aaron
lighting Hill and I was listening to
this and as he was playing those tapes
called lead the field I was hearing
these things and then and what not shiny
he said well that’s good enough I said
well let me dust let me let me do kit I
do love ah stop well that looks wrong
clean last night oh look at the books of
crooked let me and I’d win it early and
messed him up so I could stay because I
were to be in there while he was taking
this time to work them and say he was a
multi-millionaire my dream and vision
was one day I’m going to be a
millionaire like mr. sidarsky one day
because I was young I had faith and I
was young and ignorant I didn’t know I
couldn’t do it I didn’t know I couldn’t
have a mansion I was like the bumblebee
according to the laws of aerodynamics a
bumblebee isn’t supposed to fly because
the body is too large to be held up by
his little puny wings but the bumblebee
doesn’t know it its intelligently
ignorant so it keeps on flying anyhow
you have to read write this down
something positive every day for an hour
you have to put yourself and you’ve got
those five PS in a personal development
regimen take an hour every day I do it
even now I take two because my goals are
higher every day read at least a chapter
something positive every day listen to
motivate
don’t message everyday language it’s a
software the mine why because it will
change the straw story that’s in your
head see what we do what we accomplish
is a result as I said earlier of what we
believe and the story that’s in our head
see most people go so far and then they
park they stop their income their
achievement level their Commission’s
what they do in life just tapers off
they paw because the story in their head
is this is it it’s not conscious guess
well I got so busy and so consuming
where I was I stopped reading I stopped
listening to tapes that which got me
there I stopped doing it the mine ladies
and gentlemen it’s like a garden if you
have a god you have a yard you have
weeds you just can’t go out there but
one can of weed killer write this down
Steve Duncan’s had said this powerful
statement put it someplace you can apply
to your health you can apply it to your
sales you can apply to your business you
can apply to your life he said life is a
fight for territory and once you stop
fighting for what you want what you
life is a fight for territory and once
you stop fighting for what you want what
you don’t want will automatically take
over I have to exercise every day I have
to drop out on my bed and do 100 pushups
every day I have to discipline my eating
I have to turn off the news I can’t
watch the news I’m not gonna have a
reoccurrence of cancer in my body I have
to eat 80% raw vegetables I have to
drink 12 glasses of water a day I have
to take my zinc in my saw palmetto about
healing 951
I have to take my wheatgrass I hate it I
hate it but life of the fight fraternity
I’m fighting for my health I have to
what working on yourself does by setting
us on time to work on your mind to go
seminars and workshops it causes you to
begin to reflect on yourself to take
personal inventory and to upgrade your
game plan and your strategy but also it
increases your faith see a belief it is
something that continues to grow what I
earn is a reflection of what I believe
subconsciously that I deserve they did
this study with these senior citizens in
their 80s and 90s and said do you look
back on your life what do you like to
say right now you know what they said
the majority have said they have regrets
of the things they thought about they
didn’t do and now they’re going to their
graves not knowing it if they could have
done it that’s why I said live for diam
do what if you lose what have you failed
what if things don’t work out so so it’s
not about the goals that you reach it’s
about what you become in the process
that’s what it’s about
I’ve lost a lot of deals that’s okay
I’ve made a lot but I’ve lost more deals
I get more rejections you get close to
me there’s a callus on my it looks like
a mole I’ve made over a hundred cold
calls in a day to convince people to
bring me in who are you my name is les
brown have an experience no I don’t but
if you will let me work for you I work
real hard I’ll have you as my client
that will brag about me
oh no you let us know when you do it for
somebody okay yes I will calling calling
calling call finally somebody said yes
write this down you will win if you
don’t quit
Oh sales you got to have stamina you’ve
got to have staying power you want to be
successful in sale you’ve got to make
know your vitamin oh you can’t be a whip
someone says no that’s when we get
excited house when a Sales Professional
gets taught everybody said yes we
wouldn’t be needed let us say together
it’s possible see the people that are
going to increase their sales the people
that are going to change their lives the
people that are going to recover their
health the people that are going to
build their lives and start all over
again from scratch of people who believe
it’s possible the people who fail are
the people who suffer from possibility
blindness repeat after me please go all
out yeah write that down see when you
want to increase your performance in
life let’s say the people that are
successful in any area life you must be
willing to do the things a day others
won’t do in order to have the things
tomorrow others won’t have if you want
to make it in any area in life you’ve
got to go all out I was always the top
seller where I was because I made more
calls I made more presentations than
anybody else I always have had a goal to
earn a hundred thousand dollars a year I
set my site and I had a plan of action
to make enough calls create enough
prospects to earn four hundred thousand
if I shot for a hundred thousand I knew
I would fall short but if I shot
realistically and practically and worked
like I was working for four hundred
thousand I wouldn’t drop down to a
hundred thousand and even if I dropped
that two hundred thousand I’m still
ahead of the game
yeah William said all you can do is all
you can do and all you can do is enough
but make sure you do all you can do
write this down you want to make it a
day
you got to out fake and I’ll work the
competition out think you’re not working
will they take a break in and I’m gonna
share with you some other strategies
that will give you the competitive edge
I don’t kill what you’re doing I’ll work
for my competition when I decided to
become a motivational speaker
my goal was not to be just another guy
out here I train speakers and I say let
me tell you what has governed the
industry the Dale Carnegie cause which
is a great course tell them what you’re
going to tell them tell them and tell
them what you told them I said you want
to be successful and speaking or
anything else I said listen to me my
favorite book says and all thy getting
get understanding you want to be
successful in any business and any sales
first thing you want to do is know your
customer I tell people spend more time
listening to them asking questions
finding out what they need don’t go in
running your mouth
some people talk their way in and talk
their way out have you seen them do it
raise your hand find out who they are
find out what do they want ask questions
give a presentation from their point of
view not from your point of view let
them see you as a resource as a
consultant as a strategic partner don’t
go in selling build relationships they
would say people don’t care
how much you know until they know how
much you care
here’s something else and whatever you
want to do in becoming successful write
this down master your knowledge of the
marketplace and the product when I
decided to become a major player in this
industry I started reading one book a
week you must be willing to do the
things a day others won’t do in order to
have the things tomorrow others won’t
have the average American reads one book
a year if you decide to become an expert
professional in your area and becoming
knowledgeable about your customer about
the product about the industry about the
competition you just study and read one
book a month in five years when the
average American read five books you
read sixty books it will make you an
expert because the other thing that
we’re talk about when we come back write
this down
we’ll start off this way presentation
power the difference between successful
and unsuccessful sales professionals is
the power to prevent mr. Washington said
mr. Brown yes sir man changed my life I
was in his class waiting on another
student he said young man go to board
work this problem out for me I said well
sir I can’t do that say why not I said
I’m not one of these to say look at me
yes sir go to the board and work the
problem out anyhow I can’t do that sir
why not sir because I magica bula
mentally retarded sermon special
education unless the students erupted
and laughed he came from behind his desk
he looked at me he said don’t you ever
say that again
someone’s opinion of you does not have
on one hand I was humiliated but on the
other hand I was liberated because he
looked at me with the eyes of Goethe’s
and said look at a man that waited he is
he only becomes worse but look at him as
if he were what he could be then it
becomes what he should be he said mr.
brown
he said develop your mind and develop
your communication skills because once
you open your mouth you tell the world
who you are and with that we will take
time out this has been mrs. Mamie
Brown’s baby boy it’s been a plum
pleasing pleasure as well as a privilege
thank you
this stage of my life I’m reinventing
myself I’m training people how to become
a part of this fifty eight billion
dollar industry and one of the things
that I think that that top sales
performers have going for them is the
ability to present and that is either on
the telephone or 101 or in small group
settings making the presentation or
speaking before a large audience it’s
something that can be learned and
something that some keys I’d like to
share with you and the training that we
provide that will give you a competitive
edge how many of you think that that
will they have some value and and
learning strategies that can impact your
presentation style raise your hands
please how many of you have ever been in
a situation that you know that had you
been more effective in terms of how you
presented yourself that you would have
done better raise your hands please
have you ever been in a situation this
has happened to me where you choked
where I just choked you just could not
remember anything my mind went blank you
want to master your knowledge you want
to know when you open your mouth that
you know what you’re talking about the
reason that I
you have to work on yourself and write
this down before you sneak power
presentation before you speak see a lot
of people just worry about good at
getting up and speaking and presenting
before you speak there’s work you’ve got
to do on you because I don’t care how
good you are in your presentation in
your knowledge how well-organized it is
I don’t care about your PowerPoint
presentation who you are behind the
words will be more powerful than the
words you speak when you come into the
room you’ve got to have a spirit and
energy about you that you expect this
deal to happen you have to come in the
room and you have to look at them and
your look must be the only reason you
were scared from birth control was to
before you speak your body language when
you come to watch your posture your mind
said before you speak listen to positive
motivational messages before you speak
read 10 to 15 pages of something
positive why it increases your energy
we’re all connected ladies and gentlemen
haven’t you felt people’s energy that
some people you’ll get around them and
and you just said there’s something
about that person I don’t know what it
is but I don’t like their energy how
many have been like how many ever walked
into a deal and you know the deal was
done before you took the contract out
raise your hand please you know it
you knew it because you knew you’re in
the zone you knew you’re in your place
you knew you were in sync mentally and
emotionally and spiritually and your
information you knew you were ready it
was ready it was game time you knew it
and I’m saying from the time you get out
of the car and walk in from the time you
make eye contact and shake their hand
from the time when you say hello you
have to be close you have to close the
deal in your voice your mindset must be
you’re not going anyplace else this is
it one stop one deal it’s mine I do
market takeaways against the brightest
and the best I don’t care about the
credentials MBA PhD only means pal high
and deep that’s all
[Music]
no disrespect I don’t care I’m gonna
prepare you’re not going to out think
and outwork me I’m gonna know everything
there is to know about my customer about
what their needs are I like what this
lady said and she said talking about the
added value her company was providing
for her customers she said it’s not our
intention to please our customers or to
satisfy our customers our intention is
to amaze them when I decided to become a
speaker I noticed that you hear most of
my heroes they gave the same speech
it’s a memorized script they give it
everywhere I decided I was going to make
myself different what is different about
you you’ve got to have something that
makes you stand out when you are in a
situation and people make decisions with
their dollars in a time when the economy
is tight in a time when budgets are
tight you don’t have the option of not
believing in yourself if there’s any
doubt as an ounce of doubt and trust me
ninety nine and a half won’t get it if
there’s any doubt if you intimidated by
the competition I charge more than 99
percent of the speakers and they said
hey you know you charge too much no you
just don’t have enough money I don’t
charge too much you get well I’ve got a
speaker that will come in for $15,000 I
said then get that then you get a
$15,000 speaker and you get the results
or whatever they produce but when you
want the best you call me and I might be
okay no no we don’t anybody else we want
you very good and write the check you
have to believe in yourself you have to
believe in your product you have to
believe in your service and you have to
sell you every day that’s the biggest
sale you have to make the biggest sale
ladies and gentlemen that I make every
day that Les Brown you can do this the
biggest sale I had to make when I left
the doctor’s office and they said mr.
Brown your PSA is still going up the
biggest sale I had to make as I was
walking out of the office I can beat
this I can beat this
it doesn’t matter about what they say
about their numbers I’m not going to
listen to that report home no absolutely
not they are not God they don’t know the
future they don’t know who I am I’ve got
to fight this at the cellular level Oh
No
other people have beat it over 9 million
I can beat this son stronger than cancer
if other people can do it then it’s
possible that I can do it it’s not my
town no they don’t know who I am
oh I can make this sale absolutely no I
don’t have the pretentious no I can’t do
a slide presentation can’t even turn on
a computer I still have my 8-track oh
you got to sell yourself every day then
sometimes you get scared I like what on
Ambrose read he said that courage is not
the absence of fear courage is the
judgment that what you want is more
important than your fear I used to be
intimidated by people because they had
more education because they had more
money because they had credentials
because they had contacts because they
had four color brochures because they
had books and I didn’t have all these
things because they had infomercials and
they had television explosion I didn’t
have all those things but the judgment
that providing for my family was more
important than my feeling inferior more
important than my fears the judgment
that I have to control my future the
judgment that I want to be able to take
care of my mother that when my mother
becomes ill I want to be in a position
to do more than just pray for her Oh No
whatever she needs medically I will be
able to write the check the judgment
that my children will have a choice to
go to the College of their choice to
give them a competitive edge in the
future the judgments at home know one
day I’m gonna be able to have vacations
I will go to Paris I’ll go to Tahiti I
will go to Jamaica
I will go to Hawaii the judgment I have
more time for myself the judgment that
I’m gonna secure my grandchildren’s
future and my great-grandchildren the
judgment of those things that make life
worth living
was more important than my fear what is
it that will make it worth it for you to
face the rejections what is it that will
make it work is worth it for you the
brainstorm and not be intimidated and
say I can do this what is it that will
make it worth if it of you to raise the
bar on your self and say I got some more
stuff in me oh I haven’t even gotten my
biggest deal yet what is it that will
make it worth it for you to go back to a
customer who slammed a door in your face
what is it that will
make it worth it for you to make know
your vitamin that you become empowered
by it what is it I will make it for you
when you want to give up you can’t buy a
sale and things that working against you
and you get close to making your numbers
and then they double your quota what is
it you’ve got a sales manager breathing
down your neck don’t give you the tools
don’t give you the resources that you
need you’re working in a toxic
environment and rather than working
together they’re working against you
what is it that will make it worth it
for you to get out of the car when you
want to keep driving past the office
because of the stress what is it that
gives you the strength in the power got
a single one of my tapes and life knocks
you down try and land on your back
because if you can look up you can get
it what does it have will help you get
back up again can you feel me up in here
love it here come on get over a round of
when you are involved in any area of
life let us say you got to have Drive
together you got to have Drive let us
say kick it up a notch yeah see when you
are presenting I tell and train my
speakers you’ve got to kick it up a
notch you’ve got to have power feeling
and conviction you can’t be casual see
if you’re casual about your dream you
will end up a casualty if you’re casual
about your product if you’re casual
about what it is you’re presenting if
you don’t internalize it if they can’t
feel that you are excited that you are
sold yourself they don’t care
you’ve got to give people enough
emotional energy to say wait a minute I
know this had cost less but is something
about this this person I’m gonna go with
them I’m gonna go with them I’m telling
what I know I’ve had company said no and
look here I know we have these other
people but I want somebody in here
that’s on fire about our stuff I talked
to this guy he’s already done his
research he knows about us
I saw him speak and he’s so custom
designer we thought he was in the real
estate industry we thought he was
involved in finance what is it that’s
gonna set you apart you got to care
enough to do your research you got to
know what you know and they got to know
that you know that you know and when you
speak how you speak before the words the
spirit of who you are will touch them
give you the competitive advantage if
you’re going to be successful today
write this down you’ve got to be
flexible you’ve got to be versatile and
you’ve got to be adaptable you’ve got to
deal with circumstances such as you find
them why because a lot of stuff is going
to be thrown at you many times you’re
not going to have time to prepare
sometimes people come out of nowhere
with stuff and you’ve got to stand up
inside of yourself and handle it
see ladies and gentlemen we’ve been
blessed to be dropped off on this part
of the planet because we have choices
some people don’t have choices they
don’t have the option I’ve been abroad
while I stood in line waiting across the
border
singing god Bless America they called me
to my room did mr. Brown did you call
yes I just turned on my shower and it
didn’t come on and I tried to flush the
toilet in it it didn’t flush oh well you
ought to be back on at 5 o’clock 5
o’clock no problem at all there is a
problem I want that flush that toilet oh
I don’t want to sit up in here and it
smell that all day oh no it ain’t that
kind of party there is or I want to take
a shower there’s a problem up in here oh
no we do this every day when you don’t
have enough water to have it running all
day long we’d take that oh great
Legrand humming the grocery store had
this woman crying out on the other aisle
I go around thinking she fell or
something and she just been brought here
compression she’d never seen so much
food it oh my god has she turned to the
lady that took in the store she said
your vows lovely your vast blue I love
you thank you for bringing me here Saffy
take for granted how is it that
immigrants coming to this country can’t
speak the language and and run circles
around our children academically and
have a 4-time greater chance of becoming
millionaires than the average Americans
why why because they are not casual
about making it they don’t come here
wanting to live their dreams they expect
to live their dreams when you out swim
sharks or you sneak over here through
some ship cargo in the belly of a plane
oh let me tell you
you come here running and have a passion
to win with to do whatever is required
if we’re going to maintain high
dominance globally in this era that
Peter Drucker calls the era the three
C’s accelerated change overwhelming
complexity and tremendous competition
we’ve got to kick it up a notch we’ve
gotten too comfortable oh no it’s a
different game now we’ve gone from a
domestic economy to a global economy oh
no we can be replaced replaced in a
heartbeat today you either expand as
Robert Schuller says or you are
expendable you’ve got to kick it up or
not oh it will never be like it once was
Oh known today oh that’s not in my job
description it’s not well you better put
it in there you’ve got to do more and do
it faster and do it better you’ve got to
see if you ask those people do you want
more sales do you want more of life do
you want to earn more money do you want
that home do you want to lose weight see
one shows up in conversation expectation
shows up in behavior and choices how you
manage your time how you manage your
energy it shows up in your intention
it’s not lip service so I know the
people who expect to lose weight why
because they know they’ve done as much
as they could by themselves and so they
get a trainer they get some help they go
to the gym they have an exercise program
they get a nutritionist because they
realized my best thinking has produced
this body
I know people who want to earn more how
do you know that when they realize what
Einstein realized the thinking that has
brought me this far has created some
problems that this thinking can’t solve
as you look at yourself look at your
goals one of the things that’s very
important that I’ve learned from people
who are high achievers they have coaches
why whatever hard
Williams for the past 35 years because
you can’t see the picture when you’re in
the frame why is it that I got water my
fitness program with a trainer than I
did by myself because a trainer can pull
more out of me than I can pull out of
myself people who become top achievers
never stop learning and they have
coaches Michael Jordan had Phil Jackson
Muhammad Ali had Angelo Dundee I don’t
care who the great saw somebody was in
their corner looking over their
shoulders helping them why you can’t see
the fight when you in it Mike said
unless you got to do this less you got
to do this less you got to do this and I
had to be willing to listen most people
fail because they don’t know that they
don’t know and they think they know in
life here’s what I want you to write
this down please you gotta trust that
you’re gonna be all right
you have no evidence to support it it
doesn’t make sense you can’t point
anything to say well this is why there’s
no logic in it there’s no there’s no way
in which you can logically and
practically and realistically support it
and prove it
that’s why you got to have faith and you
got to have trust somehow someway you’ve
got to have that that you’re going to
come through and I can tell you some
things will begin to happen that you
will not even anticipate the phone will
begin to ring deal will come out of
nowhere somebody will recommend you
someone you talked to years ago and gave
them a brochure and put it on a desk and
somebody in their office came in and
picked up your car I picked up your
brochure and called you out of the blue
I remember years ago I read an interview
by James Brown at that time he was
recognized as a hardest-working man and
show business and it was my senior year
night
1863 in an interview they asked him what
was your greatest performance at that
time is his number one song was please
please please please
they had a cape and put it on his back
baby please don’t go he would throw the
cape off and run back on stage he do the
Jade Rasta and he said in that interview
when they asked him what was your
greatest performance and he said the
last one the last one see you’re always
in competition with yourself I’m working
on being the best presenter I have never
been you’re working on being the best
salesperson you’ve never been you’re
working on being the best father the
best mother you’ve never been the best
entrepreneur you’ve never been there’s
somebody else in you back there and as
you work toward becoming that person who
you are right now must die daily you got
to kill that person off you got to be
willing to give up who you’ve been for
who you can become to release what he
brother Elizabeth Brown and call the
imprisoned splendor the road will come
as you take each step that you’re going
to go into uncharted territory you’re
going to do what Henry David Thoreau
said do not go with a path may lead but
go where there’s no path and leave a
trail you’re going to break records
you’re going to do some things when you
challenge yourself when you work on
yourself because you don’t get in life
what you want you get in life what you
are
most people don’t know if you want to
improve your income you want to improve
your circumstances you want to improve
your Commission’s you want to improve
your life you got to first improve
yourself you got to first take the time
to work on you Zig talks about a
lumberjack whose wood production dropped
by 40% because he wouldn’t take the time
to sharpen his axe
right the staff sometimes you have to
believe in somebody’s belief in you
until your belief kicks in sometimes you
have to believe in somebody’s belief in
you until your belief kicks in I want
you to think about your best year
earning your best year of sales your
best year of accomplishment your best
year of achievement here’s what I’d know
about you and I don’t know you but from
people that I’ve worked with and from
things that I’ve learned in my own life
example here’s what I know about you
whatever you have done is only a tip of
the iceberg of what’s possible viewed
you can do four to five times more than
whatever you have done if anybody had
told me given my circumstances born an
abandoned building on a floor with a
twin brother in a poor section of Miami
Florida called Liberty City if both my
parents stood up now in the audience and
say hey we’re your parents I would not
know either one being adopted labeled
educable mentally retarded failing twice
in school if anybody told me that in my
future I would be speaking to you in my
future I would write books in my future
even though I don’t have a college
education
I would produce six different specials
for PBS and earn millions of dollars in
my future I would have a nationally
syndicated talk show in my future I
would travel around the world and speak
to over 80,000 people in the Georgia
Dome and nobody could have convinced me
when I was working at Sears as a
salespersons person when I was working
for the mining sanitation department as
a garbage collector making $8 an hour no
one could have looked at me when I was
walking to empty their garbage and
pushing it that can forward and kicking
and getting up under it
moving it and straighten my back and
walking with it to empty that stinking
garbage in a truck with other men older
than me and stronger than me I did not
know that this less round that you see
I didn’t know I I’m still working hi I
know there’s something else back here I
feel that there’s something bigger for
my life and I feel that at this stage of
my life only certain kind of people come
see me people that that show up because
we were cut from the same cloth
we’re branches of the same tree people
who feel me and they’re hard people who
are strange people like me you’re
strange
that’s why are you here you’re different
you’re different mr. washio mr. Brown
you say you want to be successful yes
sir don’t follow what other people do I
feel like a stranger when I have family
unions reunions with my family when I go
to my reunions with my classmates they
talk about retirement life is about
change
human beings were built for change
animals can’t changed an alligator can’t
be anything but an alligator tree can’t
be anything but a true human feeds we
were built for change to reinvent
ourselves you must be born again there’s
something in you you’re pregnant with
unlimited possibilities you’re pregnant
with greatness there’s some things in
you in this room some entrepreneurs in
this room some millionaires in this room
some great ideas great strategies in
this room some great concepts for
business in this room great fathers
great mothers great community activists
and policy makers in this room his
greatness in this room
I don’t know what your goals are I don’t
know what you want to do here’s what I
feel
here’s what I have coming to me in my
mind that I feel from you and while
you’ve taken this slice of your life to
spend this time with me to honor me with
your presence because time is so
important I believe that there’s
somebody in here that it’s your time
I remember when mr. Washington gave a
speech and I just failed math and
history in English and I had to go to
summer school for the fifth straight
year he was speaking to the graduating
seniors I was gonna have to be involved
in a summer school program to to go to
the to the 12th grade he was giving this
speech I heard his voice and I came in
the auditorium I stood in the back as he
spoke and I felt he was speaking to me
people were jammed around the auditorium
because mr. Washington he’s in his 80s
now he or he’s still very eloquent he
was he was a great orator and as he
spoke he said I was brought here from
Braden Brighton’s in Florida and I
believe when I was brought here I came
to develop greatness you have greatness
within you you have the ability to do
more than what you can ever begin to
imagine and as you graduate from Booker
T Washington High School if you leave
here with a sense of greatness is just
one of you have that vision of yourself
then mr. Charles L Williams your
principal and the school board and all
the people that were involved in
recruiting me to bring me here their
efforts would not have been in vain if
just one of you have the vision a larger
vision of yourself doing more impacting
people’s lives changing the course of
history creating a brand brighter
tomorrow but my being brought here would
not have been in vain and they gave him
a rousing standing of
nation and as he left and went down the
auditorium steps I followed him and I
said huh mr. Washington he said yes I
said do you remember me sir he said no I
said my mother mrs. Mamie Brown she
works in the cafeteria now she got
started she’s the one that fixed the
great sweet potato pies that everybody
talked about I’m the twin Leslie
remember I was in your class waiting on
my call the Stevens and and and you told
me to do something I told you couldn’t
do it you and I told you I was in
special education I was a jerk about
mentally retarded and you said to me
somebody’s opinion of me does not have
to become our reality he said yes I
wrote that down sir I see that every day
when I get up it’s on my bathroom window
sir come on they’re in my bathroom I’ll
repeat that to myself it doesn’t bother
me anymore that people call me DT that
dumb twin he said I’m glad to hear that
mr. brown
I said sir he said yes you said that if
if anybody just one person in there got
a larger vision of themselves that
you’re being brought here would not have
been in vain he said yes well sir
I’m the web sir you are yes sir I don’t
know what one day sir you are going to
hear my name
what will you do i I don’t know circles
one day you watch you gonna hear my name
again he said ok he said it’s possible
yes sir
he started walking away I said mister
washed he said what do you want now I
said don’t forget my face sir don’t
forget me
I’m this mamie’s boy I’m a baby boy
people told that she should take me back
to the welfare department but I’m my
mama kept beating her he said ok he
started walking away I said don’t forget
don’t you forget here and he’s even
bother Hampshire he just kept walking
years later I produced a special many
years ago on PBS called you deserve in
Detroit and I call friends and have them
to call him to tell him to turn on
public television when they are doing
their fundraising and when the
announcement came on and said ladies and
gentlemen you deserve that Les Brown he
was in the kitchen and he came out and
he saw me come up on the screen he said
Edith look it’s the dumb twit and he
called me in Detroit and this was and I
cannot wait to tell you the story how I
used to sleep on the floor the Penobscot
building and building my business you
know during the good times you put in
your pocket during the tough times you
put it in your heart and so he said may
I speak to mr. Brown please I said who’s
calling he said you know who this is
I said Oh mr. Washington is you he said
you were the one weren’t you I said yes
sir he said but you were so crazy I said
I know but I’m rich now
I don’t know what your goes I’d like to
leave this with you you have greatness
within you you have a part of yourself
in you that if you reach for it if you
work at it you will discover some
uncommon moments that other people only
dream about if you work to to live full
and to die empty I saw something
recently they said I refuse to die an
unlived life and I’d like to leave this
with you to the greatness in you that’s
what I’m speaking to now I don’t care
what you’re going through I don’t care
where you are I don’t care about your
failures I don’t care about your
disappointment whatever you’re going
through you’re greater than anything
that has ever happened to you
and I’d like to leave this with you that
my mother used to love to hear me say
she said Leslie I said yes my mama said
I think for me boy that makes me feel
good your mama fought breast cancer for
22 years she’s a 22-year breast cancer
Conqueror mama was a fighter you got to
fight for your dream I’ve learned a
fight from my mama mama was a fighter
and I dedicate this unit says simply
this if you want to think that enough to
go out and fight for it to work day and
night for it to give up your time your
peace and your sleep for it if all that
you dream and scheme is about it and
life seemed useless and worthless
without it and if your garden is sweat
for it and fret for it and plan for it
and lose all your terror of the
opposition for it and if you simply go
after that thing that you want with all
of your capacity strength and sagacity
Faith Hope and confidence and stern
pertinacity if neither cold poverty
family should go sickness of pain of
body and brain can keep you away from
the thing that you want have dogged and
grim you beseech and beset it with the
help of God you’ll get it this has been
mrs. Mamie Brown’s baby boy god bless
you god bless your dream and god bless
america thank you very much
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