These 20 Minutes Can Change Your Life - Les Brown | Motivation

many of us have genius within us we have ideas we use it for the company we put in Long 60 70 hours a we we'll break our backs for the company but when it comes to us when it comes to using our genius in our own behalf taking a chance with our own creativeness acting on our own dreams and ideas somewhere along the line we get paralyzed we find some reason not to do it oh I did that I'm not as good as they are I don't have their education I felt inferior because I never

had a college education so I felt inferior I thought people with college education were the most intelligent people in the world I felt inferior and intimidated by them so I wouldn't want to speak before people that had more education than I did what come on unless you can do that oh no I can't unless you're a good speaker man you can just communicate with people period there's just some things I just don't know and I just can I pass you know get somebody else I got a friend man he this guy has a master's degree

he's real good you know get him but I just I'm not the one to come speak to that group see I didn't know what I had in my hands and fortunately I had somebody around me who saw what I had and was willing to work with me until I could see it too see that's what many times we have to have somebody could look beyond our thoughts and see our knees and hold that Vision until we are able to capture that Vision ourselves how do we handle some fears I was talking with my friend Pat

Johnson here's one thing she said if you got a real major fear she said take a deep breath and see yourself strong enough and more than able to handle that fear whatever it is everybody take a deep breath whatever that feel just feel that you have the strength and the power and the capacity to handle it another friend of mine Ron Wier he says when I'm confronted with a fear I just practice the art of looking beyond the fear I go behind it and see it already completed see it already resolve and then I carry

myself accordingly as if it already is taken care of that dispels the fear for me another friend of mine by the name of Jack Wilson said when I experience fear I think about when I was in Vietnam and what I handled back then and I look at what I'm dealing with right now and the fact that I survived that the fact that I had other kind of situations that were close CS or that I was overwhelmed with fear and I came through it then I look at this and says this is nothing here and we've

all had that experience with Jack had how many of you had some situations that you were in that you were overwhelmed with fear you didn't know how you going to come out how you going to survive and you did you survived and you didn't die so what you got to do whatever that was whatever that State of Consciousness whatever that self-confidence that you had however you stood up within yourself here's what we know you survived here's what we know you're still here you didn't die hello you did not die you didn't die you hear that

you didn't die you're here right now you got it and you handled that fear you kicked it out of there remember that play Color Purple I remember when when Abba told the girl she couldn't go with sure she was afraid she felt incompetent and he said where you going you can't talk sure can talk you ugly you dumb she got class you ain't got nothing where you going you ain't gonna make it you're gonna fail she said look here I might be ugly I might be dumb I might can't talk she said but I'm still

here and so as you begin to look at the fears in back of you you came through those fears and you're still here see that's a testament about how powerful you are and so whatever the volcano is you have the capacity to take that volcano on the capacity to jump in it and find your true identity here's another thing that keep a lot of people from taking on the volcanoes and jumping into the challenge that they're confronted with the fear of making mistakes or not feeling good enough guess what you're going to make some mistakes

you're going to make a lot of mistakes guy said this and it's true he said the person who's never made a mistake hasn't done anything if you're going to make some mistakes if you want to do something out here you're going to fall flat on your face you're going to be criticized when you come out into the arena called life you're going to feel awkward and stupid and dumb sometimes it goes with the territory but it's okay what's important is that you bring your stuff out here are you good enough prepare yourself see there's no

substitute for competency a positive attitude won't get it being enthusiastic won't get it so you got to prepare yourself you've got to develop yourself you've got to practice you've got to work you got to do your homework you got to do your research see a lot of people have a yes I can't attitude but a no I can't aptitude and competency builds confidence and confidence feeds into competency see the better you become the more confident you feel and the more confident you feel the better you want to become you realize that you have no ceiling

that you can better whatever you've done so far you can beyond that you don't become cocky and arrogant feeling that you've already arrived as most people have and that's why they've settled for less than what they rightly deserve in life because they feel they've arrived and they say well I can rest now I can rest on my Laurels no I've I've made it no no no long as you're breathing you got some more work to do there's something else for you to achieve the publisher of USA Today said that unless you've made some major mistakes

in life you haven't started Living yet so a lot of people if you've never made any major blunders made some major mistakes lost some serious money taking some serious risks you haven't started Living yet you don't call that living not rocking the boat going through life quietly tiptoeing safely to an early grave no no no no you got to take some chances you want to bring some adventure to your life see a lot of people because they don't want to make any mistakes it takes us to the next level a lot of people don't want

to fail fear of failure fear of success and guess what else fear of the unknown I saw a guy last week came up to visit me haven't seen him for years Bob boy from Columbus Ohio Bob Boyd introduced me to motivational tapes introduced me to a lot of motivational speakers and positive thinking Bob boy that I know has been involved personally I know and I've been involved business deals with him Bob has had at least 30 failures that I know 30 business failures since since I've known him since 1972 incredible so I wanted to hear

this deal that Bob was bringing me Les I've got to talk to you so he came in in the traditional Bob board fashion hello Les how you doing Bob said Les Brown I've got a deal you know you get exposure to a lot of people man I've got a deal I'm thinking does he want me to join Amway what is this man I've got something going man this thing man Les it's a money machine tell me about it Bob but here's what was going on in my mind Bob didn't mention anything about all the losses

deals we'd lost some money on he it never came up in conversation it was like this is the first deal he ever brought me I said what courage you know when the church just said about courage he said courage is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm so you want to courageously hold on to your dream and not lose enthusiasm see Bob is not internalized failure things just didn't work out the way he wanted them to work out he's still look voice po of gold at the end of the rainbow bless

let me tell you something man you've got to see this deal with the things you're doing you're now on PBS bless you make a fortune man I just can't wait to tell you about it I said tell me Bob tell me he said now explain to me what I just told you I said I don't know what it is but I want to do it I want to do it I didn't even know so I like the fact that Bob has not lost his fire Bob is still hungry Bob still sees his dream Bob is

still searching for a way to make it happen he doesn't care about people talking about it man he's never kept the job guys had 15 or 20 different job all these business deals Bob has turned a deaf ear that a guy in Los Angeles all over the front page of the newspaper he just passed the bar after taking it 48 times he had more than enough reason and excuses not to take it his son has a law firm he could have been a legal assistant a clerk and people all of a sudden used to laugh

at this guy he was a laughing stock are you taking the ball people will do that to you you know people talk about John Kennedy Jr failing the bar did you read in the newspaper that he passed I didn't see that but did they make a bigger deal about him passing as he did when he fail no you know why people like to see you fail they like to see that people like that I don't know why I set up like that I was on the expressway traffic was jammed up you know what was happening

it was an accident but people pull over to the side to get out of their car to go look to see somebody else's suffering that's why talk shows are so popular so people like to hear other people's misery get it caught up in that then they go magnified in their own lives cuz that's all they focus on Bob boy went to conquer his volcano like that gentleman who decided it doesn't matter how many times I fail I'm going to courageously pursue it I don't care what people say I don't care what they think this is

something that I want that gives my life meaning and value you got a volcano like that in you somewhere when I think about the three pillows of something that would be your anchor a foundation to drive you into the future to live a big dream to live a big life what you think about you bring about you know as a man thinking so as he Dr C G Woodson said that if you can determine what a man shall think you never have to concern yourself what he will do he said if you can make a

man feel inferior you never have to compel him to seek an inferior status for he will seek it himself and if you can make a man feel justly an outcast you never have to order him to go to the back door he'll go without being told if there's no door his very nature will demand one and I think that in many cases governments and religious institutions have really unwittingly crushed the dreams and aspirations and and the visions that people had of themselves not all but a lot of them and I think it's incumbent upon the

individual to take responsibility to develop yourself to expand your mind your vision to seek out experiences you know Helen Keller said life should be a daring Adventure it's boring and start to dream what do you want what do you really want for your life I remember going to ashit and walking down the halls in the Nazi German concentration camps and seeing the pictures of men and women who had dreams and these people were exterminated and one of the things that I heard in my mind when I reflected on a book written by Victor Frankle who

was there he said if you know the why for living you can endure almost anyhow he talked about the people who were able to survive the inexpressible cruelties of nazist those who either believe in in God or had someone that they loved that they were determined to see for some cause bigger than themselves and in my case my goal was to buy my mother a home that was my big dream and that caused me to read things and to listen to things to fuel my my imagination and then to develop my skills to becoming a

voice of influence and the other thing that's important is creating a community of collaborative achievement driven supportive relationships and it started with man Mr Washington who said a high school teacher someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality it could stop with one person and then it goes from there associating with people who share your values associating with people like-minded people who have dreams who have goals that they're working on and being in that Community studies indicate that one Goose can fly 40% further in formation with other geese than can ever fly

by itself in fact I'm thinking about a scientific study where they exposed some rats to electronic shock and after they increased it it killed them instantly but then they put these rats in in groupings with other rats and then what happened was that they continued to increase the shocks of these rats and they increased it over 10 times more it took far more to kill them than when it took with just one and so there's something about being in a community of people who share your dream who hold you account able who challenge you who

call you out who can see what you can't see that you have within youire you to step up Ebony magazine the late Johnny Johnson who started that with a $500 loan from his mother he said something in his book called Making It Against All Odds there's no defense against an Excellence that meets a pressing public need and I suggest to you one work on yourself to me I think there are three pillows of of what's require quired in order to car out your place in this global economy there are many steps but there are three

that I think that indispensable one is working on your mind be not conformed to this world be transformed by the renewing of your mind the second is of having a mindset and willing to discipline yourself to make the sacrifice to engage an ongoing self study for self growth and development developing your communication skills I can hear Mr Washington I'll say Mr Brown develop your communication skills because once you open your mouth you tell the world who you are Nelson Mandela said if you speak from your mind you speak in a language that a man can

understand but when you speak from your heart you speak in his language and so my goal in teaching people how to create Mass appe peel how to change lives that you first you have to change yourself that starts with you and then you begin to see from your experience how you can begin to impact and influence others and be a voice of change and that ability really will allow you to carve out a place for yourself in the marketplace and the methods and the techniques the Simplicity of how you language what you say Einstein said

that genius is the capacity to take the complicated and make it simple when you are creating change and Mass Appeal keeping it simple with being the message that you bring and loving it and standing in your power and realize that you're here for a reason I believe to make a difference I believe to do a great work I believe to live a life as Jim Rowan said when you live your life he said your life can be either an example or it's a warning a warning of what not to do or an example of what

to do and what's possible 85% of them Reser goes because of their attitude 15% because of their aptitude now to me that was big because I was in special education I was labeled educable ment [ __ ] so I say whoa that means I don't have to be the smartest guy in the RO that if I have a Winner's attitude that I've got a shot that I could make it that I don't have to live a life of being average I want to live a life of meaning of purpose being adopted I I wanted to

do something for my mother and so by listening to motivational messages and reading on a regular basis it really taught me the value of using your time to work on yourself to develop yourself to really restructure your belief system for what was possible for you it it really expanded my vision of myself and so to me that's what it means about Mass Appeal because I was working on myself then I started sharing it with others and I no there a difference in them when I shared with them the things that I was doing because they

saw the difference in me and it's been said that a career is something you love so much you do it for nothing so as I talked with and shared with my friends what I was doing and what was possible for them I eventually evolved into this life of where I am and as a result I CED out a market for myself and because this is my passion this is what I've spent the majority of my life doing I've developed a level of expertise a level of strength and power and reputation in this area that created

a demand for myself to me one of the most important things in the first step in changing lives is to have a program for yourself when I started on this path that was what my goal was was to change me given my circumstances I think that you know psychologists say that we create a mental blueprint between the ages of one and five that between that time we determine what's available for us and what's not available for us and so given my circumstances being born an abandoned building on a floor in a poor section of Miami

Florida I became interested in a path of developing myself I remember shining the shoes of Mr sedersi this man that my mother worked for very wealthy on Miami Beach she cleaned his home and she cooked for the family and kept the children and he listened to motivational messages annoying to me that was programming my mind and it created a thirst within me to get on this path I remember listening to Earl Nightingale who said you don't get in life what you want you get in life what you are and so to me reading became an

out it became a tool that I used to develop myself and not just reading for enjoyment but reading for personal growth reading to look at those things that I read and to apply them in my lives I would read sometimes at night 60 100 Pages a night sometimes a whole book and then I would underline the book and I would think about them I would memorize them and then I would apply them I would try them out all of us have seen our destiny at some point in time and we decided not to listen we

decided to ignore it and say no that's that's not for me and that's what causes many of us to give up on our volcano the experiences and the challenges the defeats the disappointments and the failures of life that we decide to to sell out on our true potential sell out on living our dreams feeling that we're not good enough not wanting to make any mistakes particularly if you're raised with a great deal of criticism so you've got to be willing to prepare yourself and do the best you can take your best shot and let the

chips fall where they may and believe that everything is going to be all right take that leap of faith trust yourself and know within yourself that everything's going to be all right but aren't there some guarantees you can give us less yes what is that you're going to die excuse me you're going to die in case you didn't understand that you can't get out of life alive so I'm saying to you you got 6 months to live live your life now live your dreams now live your life now live your dreams now start acting like

this is your last day on the planet this is the only life that I have and that is my volcano and I'm going to take the leap of faith I'm going to jump in it and I'm going to handle it because I know the universe will never give me anything I don't have the capacity to handle see I say to you that you've got the power within you to handle any kind of volcano in your life regardless of how it shows up regardless of any kind of challenge that you might have in your life I

say to you you got that in you right now where will it come from don't worry if you trust yourself it will come to you at the right time in which you need it [Music] [Music]