Essay on video

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1

Purpose, and context of the speech..................................................................................................2

Background of the speaker..............................................................................................................2

Contents of the Speech....................................................................................................................5

Related topics which are current and relevant in today’s environment...........................................9

Level of importance of the issues covered in the speech to an executive.....................................10

Analysis of the Speech...................................................................................................................12

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
 Knowledge Seminar

Empire of Entrepreneurs

Name : Gokul Rov J

PGDM No : 19079

Section : B

Speaker : Leslie Brown

Introduction

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears”. The speaker known
as Leslie Brown in the given speech speaks about how to follow a dream despite many
difficulties that would haunt the human. He explains how few people like him did not give up in
his life where he faced a lot of difficulties in his life. The speaker also conducts these talks in
order to motivate the people who are afraid to take risks in their lives thinking what the society
would think about him. The speaker also gave some real-life examples that he encountered in his
life and also, he expressed how he overcame such difficulties even in the extreme conditions. He
also mentions the three reasons why people do not continue to follow the dreams. First is that,
the people don’t say it’s possible to do. Second is that people become comfortable and they stop
growing, stop working on themselves and they stop pushing themselves and hence they will
become cynical about life. The third thing is that, people stop working on dreams because of fear
of failure. The speaker also explains why one should be creative. While pursuing dreams, the
speaker also explains that it would be hard to achieve the dreams, but the people should develop
the never give up attitude. The speaker also explains that since the world is now a customer
driven economy, it is necessary to explore various ways to improve the quality of the service that
an organization is providing to the people. In this competitive market, its necessary to amaze the
customers so that they will become loyal to the organization. Also, in order to achieve the dream,
the person must develop an attitude of “It’s not over until I win”.
Purpose, and context of the speech

The purpose of the speech was to motivate the entrepreneurs who are hesitating to build their
own business because of the lack of motivation and as speaker mentioned, the fear of failure
such as what if the things don’t work out and the fear of success what if the things go out of
control and would feel uncomfortable to handle it.

The speech does not only apply to the entrepreneurs, it also applies to every individual being
present in the world who wants to achieve their goals. The purpose was also to develop a
positivity towards the audience no matter what circumstances they face in their lives. The
context of the speech was to how to follow their dreams and how not to give up no matter what
circumstances may come in life and also to develop a positive attitude such as it’s possible, why
you are here? It is because you are the one. Since, the given link was an audio tape, I would like
to guess the nature of the audience would be motivation and the audience would consist of
entrepreneurs who has the dream of building their own business.

The indirect stakeholders that are involved in this speech such as security guards who might be
having a different dream but not willing to take the risk because of fear of financial difficulties
they would face if they come from the comfort zone. The other indirect speech would be the
employees of the organization who would be having their personal goals and dreams. It might be
to develop a small business, or it might be intrapreneurship where most of the companies are
promoting to improve their business or it might also to become CEO of the company. The
speech was delivered to the live audience.

Background of the speaker

Leslie Calvin “Les Brown” is an American motivational speaker who was born on 17 th February
1945 in an abandoned building of Liberty city at Miami Florida. He has a twin brother Wesley
Brown. These two were adopted by Mamie Brown, a 35-year-old single woman who was
working as a cafeteria attendant and domestic assistant. Les brown doesn’t have a college degree,
during his 5th grade he was identified as EMR known as Educable Mentally Retarded where he
was put back to 4th grade and stayed in that category till the end of his high school degree. He
changed his perception of life from his high school teacher whose name is Mr. Leroy
Washington. He was also a former radio Disk Jockey. He has also given TV shows such as The
Les Brown Show in 1993. He was also a member of Ohio House of Representatives from 1976
to 1981. As a motivational speaker, he uses the catch phrase “it’s possible” to encourage people
to follow their dreams. After high school, Brown found employment as a city sanitation worker,
but he was determined to achieve what he desired. According to the speeches given by Mr.
Brown, when he first decided to get into public radio, he was repeatedly unsuccessful. His break
came when one of the disc jockeys became inebriated. Brown stood in for him and then was
hired as a disc jockey.

After the termination from the radio station , he ran for the election in the Ohio House of
Representatives and won. After the completion of Ohio state legislature, he shifted his career to
the television and became a host on PBS (An organization that broadcasts television programs
and is not financed by advertising). Brown was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of
Jurors from 1982 to1988. In 1989, he was the recipient of the National Speakers Association’s
Council of Peers Award for Excellence. In 1990, Brown recorded the Emmy Award-winning
series of speeches entitled You Deserve, which became the lead fundraising program of its kind
for pledges to PBS stations nationwide. In 1994, he was a recipient of Toastmasters
International’s Golden Gavel. In 1996, he was hired on as morning host at WBLS (FM radio
station).

In 1993, he began hosting a new talk show. The Les Brown Show. He also formed the company
Les Brown Enterprises Inc. to support his career as a motivational speaker and was on KFWB
(Commercial AM radio station) in California for a daily syndicated radio program from 2011 to
2012. Brown had also conducted motivational training sessions not only for executives of
corporations such as AT&T, General Electric and Procter & Gamble, but also for prison inmates.

Coming to his personal life, On August 29,1995 Brown married legendary soul singer Gladys
Knight in a private ceremony in Las Vegas. Later, on 1997, due to irreconcilable differences the
two divorced.

As a motivational speaker, Les Brown has created a number of books, videos and audio
recordings, including his bestselling book “Live Your Dreams”.
Brown ranks amongst the nation’s leading authorities in understanding and stimulating human
potential; he is a featured guest on many radio broadcasting stations and is often hired by
professional corporations to teach and inspire new levels of achievement.

The books that are written by Les Brown are

 Live your dreams

 It’s possible
 It’s not over until you win
 Laws of Success
 Choosing your future
 Up thoughts for down times
 Words on Leadership
 Success is a state of mind
 The Authorities

Famous quotes from Les Brown

 “When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a
big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation – it
empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams.”
 “You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of
urgency in your life.”
 “I advise you to say your dream is possible and then overcome all inconveniences, ignore
all the hassles and take a running leap through the hoop, even if it is in flames.”
 “Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.”
 “Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours.”
 “If you do not develop the hunger and courage to pursue your goal, you will lose your
nerve and you will give up on your dream.”
 “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” 
Contents of the Speech

The speaker begins with thinking about your dream that you are doing right now. The dream
where a person holding in his mind is possible. Sometimes, the people can’t say that they can do
but, they can say it’s possible as they work on it day in and day out. The speaker tells that before
six years no one could have convinced him as he started out on the dream where he took the
chance where most people won’t do that. In the process of working on the dreams, people will
face a lot of disappointment, failure, pain, setbacks and lot of defeat.

But later, the person would discover the things that they don’t know right now where they will
realize that they have greatness with them. They will realize that they will be more powerful that
they can ever imagine.

As the speaker had mentioned that he was labelled as an Educable Mentally Retarded in his fifth
grade, his high school teacher named Mr. Leroy Washington one day changed his life where he
asked Mr. Brown to write on the board where, Brown said he can’t do that because he does not
belong to the teacher’s category of students and he told that he is an Educable Mentally retarded
person. Hearing thin, the teacher told not to say that word as someone’s opinion of you does not
have to become a reality. That is when the speaker started to realize and started to work on his
dream.

Most of the people do not work on their dreams because of fear. The fear of failure such as what
if the things do not work out and fear of success such as what if they do and the person cannot
handle it.

The other thing is when the people achieve small part of the goal, they will become comfortable
and they will stop growing. The people will stop working on themselves and stop pushing
themselves to go further because if they get a satisfied need such as money, they will play safe
and do not take more risks. This will lead them to become cynical about life.

People also do not feel worthy because they don’t believe themselves. They will allow other
people’s opinion on them to control them which they don’t act on their ideas.

So the speaker applauds the people who run towards their dreams, believe themselves and would
look for different ways to improve themselves. No one could have convinced the speaker as after
six years of his high school, he has his own book “Live your dreams” and motivational speaking
for AT&T, McDonalds, Xerox and IBM.

Not only it is important in believing that its possible, but it is necessary to work and develop on
themselves. It is necessary to kick out the energy drainers of their lives like people who don’t
want anything, not challenging themselves and people who aren’t growing and dreaming.

The speaker tells that it is necessary for people to align themselves with the people and attract
them to their business who are hungry, unstoppable and who wants more. The speaker also
recalls where his mother had told him “ If you run around a loser, you will end up as a loser”.
Therefore, it is necessary to remove the losers out of their lives if the people want to live in their
dreams.

The speaker also explained with an example how one must be creative. The example was, when
he was walking in the street, a show shiner approached the speaker, he asked whether he could
shine his shoes. The speaker refused as he was in a hurry. Many people came and asked him for
the same thing, but the speaker refused. Later, a young man approached the speaker and started
counting 97, 98, 99, 100, and told that today it is his birthday. To thank the god for another year,
he would give free shoe cleaning for every 100th person who passes nearby his shoe stand.

After finishing his job, the speaker asked the cost of the shoes where he mentioned it is $2, the
speaker gave him $5 and asked him to keep the change. Later, when the speaker saw that young
man approaching the people who were coming from the opposite side. Speaker got surprised
seeing the young man as he attracted those customers by carrying out the same mentioning that it
is his birthday.

Therefore, since the present world is now a customer driven economy, it is necessary to be more
creative and explore various ways to improve the quality of service that the founder of the
company is providing to the people of his organization. If he is competing today, it is necessary
to amaze that he should look for the ways to amaze their customers by being committed to work
and keeping their word.

The speaker also explained that one has to keep “it’s not over until I win” attitude until he
reaches his goal. The speaker explained that attitude with the example when his 9-year-old son
had lost 10 straight games against him. Mr. Brown got bored and told him that to stop playing
this game. The 9-year-old son refused to get up and he told that “It’s not over until he wins”.
After several games, the speaker’s son won the 11th game and later he was ready to go to sleep.

Therefore, brown relates the never give up attitude when a person faces rejection, when they
have a meeting where no one shows up and when someone says, “you can count on me” and
doesn’t come through. He also states that what if we have that attitude where nobody believes
the person, the person has lost again and again but that person reviews his dream every day and
says “it’s not over until he wins” .

The next thing was that the speaker told that the person would already now that in order to
achieve all his dreams, it is hard. The speaker relates it with an example when, he was operating
the business in an office building, he came faced some hard times and he was sleeping in the
office. The security called him to the counter and gave him an envelope which was sent by the
management saying that this building is an office tower, not a hotel so that he should not sleep in
the office.

Brown requested the security saying that he works for long hours as an entrepreneur and things
were bad for him. It was hard for him when he used to come out from the lobby, the office
workers used to laugh at him and one person insulted him saying that “look there’s a guy who is
talking about being successful and look at it as he bathes in the bathroom of 21 st floor and he
sleeps on the floor look at him”. The speaker was facing financial difficulties and still he told
everyone that they can live in their dream. It was very hard for him to pick himself up each day
believing that he could do it.

There were also times for the speaker where he doubted himself and asked god why is this
happening to him? He was trying to look after his children and family, and he was not stealing
from anybody. By relating the above incidents, the speaker told that for those who have
experienced hardships in their lives, don’t give up on your dreams. He also told that the rough
times would come but they haven’t come to stay, they have come to pass, The speaker also told
not to say that they are having a bad day, instead say that it is a character building day.

The speaker also gave examples where, he had failed in history and English and would have to
go to the summer school again. The speaker had also attended the speech given by his high
school teacher for the graduating seniors where he gave some inspiring words and while the
teacher was coming back to the parking lot, Mr. brown asked the teacher that if he could get his
mother a home. The teacher told him that its possible and he left. Later again he called the
teacher again and told that “he is the one” which means that he is the one who would bring a
home to make his mother happy.

Later, when the speaker’s first television show was aired, he had informed one of his friends to
inform his teacher to watch his show. After watching the program, the teacher called the speaker
and told “you were the one, weren’t you? and the speaker was very much happy. The speaker
used to listen the tapes about famous personalities like Dr. Norman. Which something kept
motivating the speaker in order to tell that he is the one.

The speaker asks everyone to write down at least five reasons on why you deserve your dream?
Why you won’t give up? What is going to make you unstoppable?

The speaker picked up a saying which quoted” If life knocks you down, try and land on your
back because, if you can look up, you can get up”

The speaker also mentioned about no matter how bad it gets, I am going to make it. The person
has to keep the attitude which says that he is the one to become successful in this business, as he
works to help other people to become successful that feeds his success but he knows it’s going to
be hard but he has to find what will make It worth for him.

The speaker also told that one must be hungry for more in order to live on the dreams. Mr.
Brown had told his teacher that he wants to become a radio DJ. The teacher told that if he wants
to do something worthwhile in the life, one must be hungry.

Brown started to work on himself, teacher told him to practice every day even though if he
doesn’t have a job. It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an
opportunity and not be prepared.

Brown went to apply for radio DJ, the recruiter asked whether he had a journalism background
or broadcast background. The speaker said no, and recruiter rejected him. The speaker went back
to his high school teacher and told him about the incident. The teacher told him not to take
personally as most people are s negative that they must no seven times before they say yes and
asked to go again. Therefore, Mr. Brown again and again towards the radio station to ask for the
job. He got rejected several times and finally agreed where he had to serve coffee to them. By
this later, they started to gain trust from him and one day during the live radio broadcast one of
them had to finish the program early and still there was 20 minutes left to end the program. The
Manager asked Mr. Brown to take over the radio station for that remaining 20 minutes. By this
he became successful.

So, what the speaker is trying to say is that one must not give up no matter how much failure
they face in their life. As there is a saying “ Failure is the steppingstone for the success”
therefore the people should not consider failure as their end of their lives, but they must consider
as step of correction.

Finally, the speaker says that you must live on your dream no matter how hard the circumstances
come in their lives. People should not fear themselves from achieving their goals.

Related topics which are current and relevant in today’s environment

 Chasing the dreams will develop courage. Courage is the fuel to achieve amazing success
in life, therefore, the dreams have to be followed to exercise courage and can become
unstoppable at a right time
 Great dreamers grow to be independent, learning that they can make a difference all by
themselves.
 Dreams can distract from the negative events in life.
 Though accomplishing dreams, a person would appreciate the experience of failure and
also one should know that failure is just part of success and that it wasn’t really all that
bad as it was all worth it in the end.
 Regret is a terrible thing, and a dream is powerful enough to bring the regret if a person
doesn’t take the chance to at least follow it
 The unknown of following dreams may spark a little fear which is ok because a little fear
is known to make feel more alive
 The more the dreams are accomplished and chased, the more would be the lines of the
boundaries that the world puts in front of us fade, as we learn that everything is possible.
  If the dreams are pursued, the person will give hope to others who wants to do the same.
The person could serve as their example and their reason why they should give it a try.
 It’s a known fact that no one else is going to pursue dreams for a person. Everyone would
have their own dreams and their goals for what they want to achieve in life.
 Reality is often ruthless, It tests every dream on harsh and tough conditions and which
dream does not go through , it does not take much time to break apart.
 The difference in success and failure is just that you have chosen to live on your terms
and conditions. There is nothing wrong or right, everything depends on your perception.
 Never give up dreaming in life because dreams never die.
 The secret of living is giving.  If one follow dreams, one will have something worth
sharing with others: hope, inspiration, and purpose.

Level of importance of the issues covered in the speech to an executive

In the present world, without a dream no one could survive in this world. Every human being
present in the world will have a dream. Everyone present in the world will be having dreams, but
only few of them achieve their desired dream. If we look in the context of an executive, some of
the executives will be satisfied and they will always keep themselves motivated to do their jobs
and are ready to face new challenges that they face in the life. But some of the executives may
not give a 100% effort because, the job that they perform may not be linked to their dream that
they want to achieve. They might be working in this company because of the good pay, but not
because of their dream. Some of the executives would be interested in the job, but they lack
skills. It is because that they do not get proper guidance, or it is because they don’t get
motivated. It is also because of lack of dedication.

One can also achieve a dream if they are more creative such that they don’t need any guidance
and could work on to improve themselves. The main critical factor that is required to achieve is
motivation. The executives must motivate themselves in order to take up new challenges. For
example, if the executive sets the dream to become a CEO of the company, he must gain lot of
knowledge and must develop skills such as leadership skills, interpersonal skills, communication
skills etc. As the speaker had mentioned that, in order to achieve a dream, it is not going to be
easy and it will be hard. So, the executive who is willing to become a CEO must work harder in
the above-mentioned skills . It is hard to master those skills but if an executive follows his
dreams, he will work hard and achieve his dream that he desires to achieve.

While, working on the dreams, there comes a major barrier which is knows as fear. The
executive would face fear of rejection such as, what if the manager doesn’t get satisfied by my
performance. What would the team members think about me if I am aggressive? What would my
colleagues think about me if I interact a lot with the manager?

The other thing is that the colleagues might demotivate an executive by saying u can’t do it. As
the speaker says, an individual should not allow other’s opinion to control his mind. It would
lead to the destruction of his dream. Instead the speaker tells that an individual must motivate
himself by telling himself “It’s possible” . If an executive ignores the negative things uttered by
colleagues, and motivates himself with positivity, he could follow his dream.

The other thing is that the executive may experience is the fear of success. For example, if an
executive gets promoted to CEO position, he might experience the fear , what if he can’t handle
the things properly, what if the things go out of control. Therefore, he must motivate himself as
the speaker mentioned, its possible. It’s possible to control the activities carried out in the
organization. It’s possible to take a successful firm decision. It’s possible to improve the growth
of the organization.

The CEO must inculcate the attitude which says I am the one who can drive this organization to
become more successful. I am the one who can guide people to be a well skilled executives for
their future.

One of the live examples for a dream of an executive is Infusionsoft, a complete sales and
marketing automation software for small businesses. This company had a positive and healthy
work culture which resulted in employees and everyone’s eagerness to build the company to
even greater success

There are plenty of people who deserve credit for the culture at Infusionsoft, especially their
CEO Clate Mask. they have someone on staff who is labeled as their dream manager. Dan
Ralphs, who is the dream manager at Infusionsoft, has one job description to help the employees
of the company achieve their personal dreams.
When talking to some of the employees at Infusionsoft, they would hear things such as, “I ran
my first marathon because of Infusionsoft” or “I am almost out of debt because of Infusionsoft.”
Hearing some of the personal dreams that have been accomplished is truly astonishing.
Infusionsoft isn’t making miracles happen to make dreams come true for their employees, but
they do show them that they immensely care about them as people and want to provide them
with the resources and tools to help them achieve some of their biggest dreams in life. In return,
they have employees who are extremely passionate about the company that they work for and are
actively engaged in the workplace. 

Therefore, from the above example, if a CEO follow at least some of the above behaviors, he
could drive his company into a big success.

Analysis of the Speech

In terms of the message conveyed by the speaker, there is one saying which says that “When
there is a will, there is a way” The speaker is trying to portray this saying in terms of following a
dream. He explains that one must fix and follow a dream and while following that dream, one
will face hard times in achieving the tasks and one might experience several failures in their lives
but he has to consider that as a correction of the mistake and he should never give up.

In terms of the analysis, everyone can fix a dream but sometimes it does not work even after he
has been making considerable progress. For example, if a person dies from a sudden heart attack
or an accident, the dream cannot be achieved even though if he is willing and progressing
towards the dream. So according to me, achieving the dreams is always not in our hands. Luck
also matters in order to achieve a dream.

Another example is that Martin Luther King had many dreams to improve his country but,
unfortunately, he was shot dead and therefore it remained as a dream in his life. So, this would
be another great example that luck also matters to achieve their dreams.

Also when the speaker mentioned that, when he went towards the radio station recruiter, he was
rejected for several times for not having a proper qualification and when he went again and again
to ask for the job, the recruiter somehow agreed to give a job.
Suppose if a person wants to become a journalist just so he has good English speaking skills and
asks the recruiter that he doesn’t have a journalism degree and wants to do the job, not everyone
will face the same situation as the speaker had went several times to ask for a job and succeeded
in getting one. So therefore, one must have a fixed dream such that he could train on his skills
and finally achieves his dream.

The managerial learning that one can receive is that if one must take a decision, he should not
just agree blindly by the advices given by the other people. He must think carefully before
making a decision and, he should not ignore the suggestion given by others thinking that others
should not control his mind.

The other learning is that one has to gain more self confidence that is he has to eliminate the fear
of failure or fear of success while taking a decision, He might experience external stress from the
managers or any other higher authorities but he should take that positively and has to concentrate
on achieving that task.

Also, in order to achieve the dream, one must be willing to make sacrifices. Suppose if a soldier
has a dream to protect our country and if he faces an attack, he must sacrifice his life in order to
protect others from the attack.

The main value that a listener receives is motivation. One must require motivation in order to
achieve the dream. That was the most critical thing which was provided by the speaker to
motivate his audience in order to achieve their dreams. This would help them to achieve their
goals.

The individuals who have their dreams to become an entrepreneur will gain a lot of insights
about running their own business and how to tackle them no matter what circumstance may
arrive in their lives.

Conclusion

The life is short, we all live once, so one must follow a dream and must keep motivated in order
to achieve the goals. The time will be ticking faster so if the time runs out, one will have to
regret that they did not follow the dream. Opportunity comes and knocks the door, so if an
opportunity related to your dream comes and knocks the door, you must open and grab it because
opportunities are uncertain and may don’t come every day in your life.

For example, Google and Microsoft had offered to buy Yahoo for a huge money but Yahoo
refused thinking that they would dominate in the world but later it fell. This was because of the
poor decision of the management. Now they will be regretting about that decision for the rest of
their lives so one has to be careful in making a proper decision.

So, therefore in order to achieve those dreams, one must work hard to hone their skills and
patience is also one of the most critical things in order to achieve dreams. Dreams do not have
any shortcuts to achieve so, one must have patience to achieve those dreams. Also, it would be
easier if one keeps a role model in their lives which would act as a catalyst to attain their dreams.

I would like to conclude from his quote “Too many of us are not living your dreams because we
are living our fears” Which tells that many of them are not following their dreams and instead
they are afraid what would others think about them in achieving their dream and end up
regretting themselves for not achieving their dreams. So therefore, one should not care if others
demotivate him and if he thinks that he is confident and would lead him to the right path, he
could achieve his dream no matter how hard circumstances are.