Thursday, November 4, 2010

Book Review - Live Your Dreams by Les Brown

The book review for this month is Live Your Dreams by Les Brown.  Back when I was in sales working for a major insurance company we would go to sales seminars once a year.  They were usually in beautiful places like Hawaii or Palm Springs or Aspen and that's where the sales leaders would receive reward plaques and we would have speakers come in for the morning sessions.  One year the speaker was Les Brown.  He was incredibly motivating. That seminar changed the course of my sales career and the next year I was one of the sales leaders up on stage receiving an award.

This book isn't just for sales people, it is for anyone that wants to improve their life. Les Brown gives you a personal formula for success and happiness.  He says "My mission is to get a message out that will help people become uncomfortable with their mediocrity. A lot of people are content with their discontent. I want to be the catalyst that enables them to see themselves having more and achieving more."

I love his approach to life. He says "when life knocks you down, you should always try to land on your back...because if you can look up, you can get up!"  Is that great or what?  He was an inspiration to me because he had a very difficult beginning to his life and so it is very easy to believe what he says because he lives what he says. When he was a child he was adopted, along with his twin brother, by a 38 year old single woman, cafeteria cook and domestic worker, who had very little education or financial means. In fifth grade he was classified as "educable mentally retarded" and he let the label dictate who he was. Then a special teacher made an impact on him that changed the way he looked at himself.   He has many successes in his life and I'll let you find out what they are by reading the book. It's an excellent book bound to inspire you to Live Your Dreams, to be a better person and to realize that anything is possible because there is greatness within you.