LISTEN TO THIS EVERYDAY AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE IN 2025 | One of the Best Speeches Ever by Les Brown
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Why is it that most people don't pursue their dreams or don't do better than what they're doing if they're capable of doing it? I think that many of us don't go the next step because we don't know what to do yet. And I say that the reason that we don't even explore the possibility of what to do is because subconsciously we don't believe that it can happen for us and we don't believe that we deserve it. So here's what I'm suggesting. How much time do you spend working on you?

How much time do you spend every day working on your dream? In the last 90 days, how many books have you read? In the last year, what new skill or knowledge have you acquired? What kind of investment have you made in you? So I'm saying that as you begin to look at where you want to go, if you want to make it today and things are changing so fast you have to literally run to stand still,

I'm saying that you've got to make some conscious effort to begin to work to develop you. Here's something else. Most people are not living their dreams because of fear, ladies and gentlemen. Fear, limited vision, and lack of self-esteem is what keep most people doing things they don't want to do.

The same reason that people stay in relationships where they're abused or they're unhappy or it's unfulfilling. They can't see themselves beyond that relationship. They can't see themselves enjoying life without that person. They think that this is all that they can do. The same reason that people get stuck at a certain level in life. They can't see things being better for them. And they think that this is it and this is all they deserve. This is all they've ever seen. It's been passed on to them. And they think that this is it for them.

Fear kills dreams. Fear kills hope. And I ask you a question, what is the benefit? What's the benefit of allowing fear to hold you back? What's the benefit of giving up on yourself? Of not stepping out on life and taking life on? What is the benefit for you? What's the plus in that? What do you want me to tell you? That it's going to be a picnic? No, it's not. It's going to kick your butt? Yes, it is.

Are you gonna wanna die? Yes, yes, that's a part of it. But that's just what you must go through in order to get where you want to go. And guess what? You are strong enough to do it. You're strong enough and your life is worth whatever you have to go through to get past this addiction. Whatever you have to do. This dream you got, whatever you wanna do, will it be easy to just run out there and do it? No. Will it happen overnight? No.

Will it be a struggle? Yes. Will there be times when you can't make ends meet? Yes, that's a part of it. Will there be times you won't know what to do? Yes, that's a part of it. So deciding as you look at your life, as you look into the future and say, what fears am I holding on to? What fears that I'm allowing to imprison me that's keeping me from breaking out?

That's keeping me from living up to my true potential. That's keeping me from really being happy. That's keeping me from having a sense of adventure and excitement in my life. What's keeping me from controlling my destiny? Whatever you've done up to this point in time, your life is working. Whatever you have produced, it came out of you as a result of the kind of person that you have become. It's a result of your choices. It's a result of your consciousness.

Now you have to ask yourself, are you satisfied with what you have produced? Is this what you want? Would you like for things to be better than this? Do you believe that you deserve better than this? Are you content? This is it. You don't have to do anything else. That you already resigned yourself in life and said, well, I'm happy. Are you allowing yourself to get off the hook like that?

Or do you believe somewhere in the back of your mind or in your heart that there is some other great work for you to do? There's something else that life has for you. And that's why you're here. How do we handle this fear factor? How do we increase our self-esteem? You have to begin to fortify yourself.

How do we do that? I believe that you have to begin to consciously monitor your inner conversation and start talking to yourself. Start building yourself up. Sometimes the only good things you will hear about you are the things that you say to you. So I'm saying learn to be your own booster. Start building yourself up. Start encouraging yourself. Start saying, "I can do this. I can make this happen." Go forth in a spirit

and a knowing that there's a way that you can begin to handle this. There's a way out here somewhere. There's a solution. What it is that you're seeking. That you have the capacity for whatever comes up to handle it, to face it. And rather than feeling powerless, you begin to feel powerful. Your dream and your gifts have so much meaning and so much value for you, till your hunger for them

will begin to push you past the fear. Your hunger to have them will give you a special drive as you work on yourself, as you begin to acknowledge your true identity, the true power that you have, the true capacity you have to bring about change, the miracle working power that you have within yourself to do the things that you want to do.

When I started thinking about becoming a speaker, I said, yes, I can do this. I can make this happen. When I start trying to convince myself, I can be a businessman after a

flopping and failing and losing thousands of dollars and feeling stupid and dumb and having people take advantage of me because of what I didn't know. I had to talk to myself because people were saying to me that I was dumb and somewhere in the back of my mind I was saying, "You're right, look at what I've done." I had to say, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Les. Hey, hey, come on man, get yourself together."

You can handle this, you just haven't figured it out yet. It's alright, this is your training period. This is the tuition you have to pay for what you don't know. You can do this, other people have done it, doesn't take an Einstein. Get you some people that can teach you some stuff that you don't know. Get you some people that have done it successfully and learn from them. Take some seminars, workshops, read some books on how to manage a business.

Change the way you see yourself and begin to tend to the personal details. Understand that nobody's going to take care of your business better than you. See, we all have some stuff that we've been given. I don't think that it's optional for us to sit on what we have. See, if you're sitting on what you have, what you've been given, I think everybody's been given something to bring to the planet. That only you can do that. Only you can perform that. Only you can initiate that activity.

And if you don't do that, if you're not filling in your life with your life work or your mission, then there are gaps in your life. And what we do when we're not living out our true identity, we begin to fill the gaps. We fill the holes with garbage, alcohol, drugs, worry, self-destructive behavior. So when you begin to look at your life and you know that you're not doing what you can do because you have allowed yourself

to be held captive by your fears. Now, when you don't have a true appreciation and acceptance for who you are and you allow yourself to be immobilized by fear, what happens in the process is that you begin to abuse yourself. You begin to sabotage your life, you begin to sabotage your dreams, you begin to unconsciously work against yourself. You become your own worst enemy. So, what do you do about that?

There are few people who have decided within themselves, "I'm going to make it." Some people aren't waiting to be cut. Some people are moving on their own because they feel within themselves, "I've got what it takes to make it." They're not afraid about tomorrow because of how they see themselves, because of what they feel that they deserve, because of what they feel that they can create for themselves, because these people have decided

as they look at the future, as they look at themselves, there's a way. Where there's a will, there's a way for me to begin to create a way out of no way. And when you have that kind of consciousness, when you have that kind of spirit, nothing can stop you. Nothing. When you want something out of life, you've got to be willing to go into action. Don't wait around for things to be just right. Don't wait for things to be perfect.

Don't wait for the ideal situation. It will never be ideal. There will always be a reason. Well, as soon as the children grow up, as soon as I pay my bills, as soon as I get my divorce, as soon as I get enough money together, do what you can, where you are with what you have, and never be satisfied.

A lot of people never take a chance in life. They don't want to take any chances. They want the situation to be ideal. See, that's not walking by faith. That's walking by sight. I was born in a poor section of Miami, Florida called Liberty City. I was born in an abandoned building on a floor with a twin brother. And when we were six weeks of age, we were adopted.

And when I was in the fifth grade, I was identified as EMR, labeled Educable, Mental Retarded, put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade. I failed again when I was in the eighth grade. I don't have any college education, but because of my mother, and I feel like Abraham Lincoln who said, "All that I am and all that I ever hoped to be, I owe to my mother."

I saw a sign once that said that God took me from my biological mother's womb and placed me in the heart of my adopted mother. So my first major goal was to buy my mother a home, to take care of my mother. And I did that, took care of her until she passed at 88.

But I'll never forget when I met Mr. Washington, I was in a class waiting on another student, and he came in and he said, young man, go to the board and work this problem out for us. I said, oh, sir, I can't do that. He said, why? I said, I'm not one of your students. He said, look at me. I said, yes, sir. Go to the board and work the problem out anyhow.

I said, "Sir, I can't do what you're asking me to do." He said, "Why?" "Sir, because I'm... I'm educable mental retarded, sir." And as the students erupted in laughter, he came from behind his desk, he looked at me and he said, "Don't you ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality." And that was a turning point in my life. On one hand, I was humiliated. But on the other hand,

I was liberated because he looked at me with the eyes of girder who said look at a man the way that he is he only becomes worse but look at him as if he were what he could be then he becomes what he should be I found that most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss most people fail in life because they aim too low and hit and many don't aim at all

So raise the bar on yourself and don't ask how you're going to do it. I'll never forget when I decided that I wanted to become a motivational speaker. I saw the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and my heart said, I can do that.

But my mind asked the question, "How?" And for over 14 years, for 14 years, I would go see Zig Ziglar and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Jim Rohn and different speakers and I would be in the audience and my heart would pounce and say, "You can do that, you can do that, Les." And then when I would leave, I would be going to the parking lot and my mind said, "How are you going to do it?" And I spent so many years trying to figure out how.

I wasted 14 years. How many of you ever procrastinated? Raise your hands, please. Yeah, see, so as you begin to think about your goals, the most important thing is, and write this down, commit yourself.

See, once you commit yourself, the how will come. The way will come. Once you commit yourself, you will then figure it out. And if you're going in the wrong direction, all you have to do is turn around and go in the other direction. You will figure it out. You want to begin to just challenge yourself. You want to stretch yourself because you really don't know what you can't do. Once you think about the goals that you want to achieve,

And I really want to challenge you to make up your mind that you're going to make that happen for yourself. And I hope that it's some goal that really resonates with who you are. What is your reputation in your industry? When you come into a room and you leave, what's the scuttlebutt about you? Do people say, hey, that's a go-to person, that's a person? If you ask them to do that job, you're talking about the job being done. It will be done extremely well.

Are you known for that person that stands out with what you do? That stands out with your quality of service, with your standards, always looking for ways to better your best? Are you one of those people that believe, "Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Japanese believe it ain't perfect, keep working on it. Are you willing to keep working on it? Are you willing to realize that you have not done your best stuff yet, that you can better your best? You've got to take responsibility for that.

And now let's go to the next level. Not only is it possible that you can live your dream, is it necessary that you call forth your team and surround yourself with people that you can learn from and grow from, that you must work on yourself and monitor yourself and train yourself, that you've got to begin to take total responsibility for the outcomes that you want to produce in your life? Well, let us say together with power and conviction, it's hard. Ladies and gentlemen, living a dream, changing your life is hard.

It's hard when you lose all your money, when you've given it the best that you have, when you have some major setback. It's hard. When a doctor looked at me and said the three horrible words no one wants to hear: "You have cancer." It was hard to mobilize my mind and spirit to listen to tapes and music and read scripture and be around other people and seeking out other prostate cancer conquerors to believe that I could do this.

It was hard. Never forget my son said, "Daddy, are you going to die?" Why are you asking me that? You're not going out much. You're not the bubbly personality that I know you to be. You're not talking much. You're spending a lot of time in the room by yourself, Dad. Are you gonna surrender? Are you giving up? Are you gonna let that doctor's opinion become your reality? Will my daddy see me graduate? Yes, yes, son, yes.

Yes, I'm gonna fight. No, no, I don't think it's my time yet. I'm gonna see you graduate, but more than that, I've got some other things that I'm gonna do with my life. And I thank you for asking me that, but I must tell you that I'm scared. I'm scared. And I've never been in this situation before. It's been easy for me to talk to people and encourage people when they've had challenges in their lives, but it's me.

And I don't feel less than a man in admitting this to you. Yes, I'm scared. And I need some help. Repeat after me, please. Ask for help. Not because you're weak, but because you want to remain strong. And ask for help. And don't stop until you get it. Yes. See, life is hard. And there are some moments in life when you're going to need some help.

You're gonna need somebody to speak to you. You're gonna need somebody to say something to you. I have a friend of mine, Willie Jolly, who's a motivational speaker. He said, "A setback is a setup for a comeback." I had to listen to Willie's tapes. I have another friend, Kevin Bracey, who's a speaker. He said, "Les, come on, man. You can do this. You can make this happen."

You can hit a home run, it's a done deal. You are Les Brown. That cancer's got to get out of your body. I said, "Talk to me, Kevin, talk to me." That's what I needed to hear. I needed to hear those words.

I don't care who you are. Many people want to allow themselves to ask for help because of pride. Pride comes before a fall. Because of ego. Ego means edging God out. No, ask for help. Not because you're weak, but because you want to remain strong. And ask for help and don't stop until you get it. I'm here because a lot of people helped me. I'm here because a lot of people believed in me at a time when I was struggling to believe in myself.

The other thing is, let us say together, it's worth it. Yeah, see, I think, and write this down, you got to find five reasons that will make it worth it for you. Five reasons. What will make it worth it for you? Mine was, I want to take care of my mother. Mine was, I want to do something with my life. What will make it worth it for you? Mine is, I want to leave a legacy. Was to believe that I can do what I'm now doing.

No one could have convinced me, just given my circumstances, I earn millions of dollars every year. No one could have convinced me, if both my parents came up here right now, I would not know either one. No one could have convinced me, being labeled educable, mentally retarded, born in an abandoned building on Florida, Liberty City, poor section of Miami, Florida, failing twice in school, no college training, never worked for a major corporation, I did not know.

I can do what I'm doing right now. Never forget Mike Williams, my mentor. I think a lot of people fail in life because of the fact that they need some mentoring, they need some coaching. When you begin to understand and acknowledge your fear and you go forth anyhow, you go forth in a spirit and a knowing that there's a way that you can begin to handle this. There's a way out here somewhere. There's a solution. What it is that you're seeking.

that you have the capacity to whatever comes up to handle it, to face it and rather than feeling powerless you begin to feel powerful

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