You've Got To Be Hungry For Your Dreams... Part 1

Jerry Clark interviews Les Brown

INTRODUCTION

 

Hello, everyone.  This is Jerry DRhino Clark welcoming you to another issue of Power Tips: your regular dose of energy and power.  This is a special edition of Power Tips.  We have what we call Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.  And who I have with me today is definitely a giant who I had the privilege of standing on his shoulders when he didn't even know I was standing on his shoulders.  And that is no other than Les Brown.

 

Les Brown, what he didn't know is about 15 years ago--1989 or so--I went into my home and I turned on the TV and I saw him delivering a message.  The message was based on the Power Pack tape set that he had-- You've Got to be Hungry, Keys to a Better Future, and several other tapes in there.  But I ordered that pack and I got that information, and I listened to that over and over and over and over again.  I literally wore those tapes out listening to that information.  And that was key information that allowed me to stay positive and to stay pumped up and to stay motivated any time that I started to feel down.

 

Over the years, Les has continued to not only really come out with information that can empower people, but come out with information that can literally alter people's lives.  And that is what he's done not only in the United States but all over the world.  Les is author of three best-selling books.  One of them is called, Live Your Dreams.  It's Not Over Until You Win, that's another one, and then Up Thoughts for Down Times.  And you can find those books at www.amazon.com or you can go to Barnes and Noble, you can go to Borders, or you can go to his Web site at www.LesBrown.com.

 

 

INTERVIEW

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

Well, for years I wanted to get together with Les, and now we finally have a chance to get together, so Les, I want to thank you for being a part of the program.

 
 

LES BROWN:

 

Well, thank you very much.  I'm very honored, Jerry, to be here with you.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

All right!  Les, how did it all start for you?  I mean, I know a lot of people listen to your tapes, they've heard your story, and so forth.  But now you're known as the motivator.  You motivate people all around the world.  Was it always that way for you?  Were you always the motivator?

 

LES BROWN:

 

No, I think I was, at one crucial point in my life, being the motivated, because my mother, she adopted seven children.  I'm adopted.  And so I saw her as a motivator.  My mother made us feel very special.  In fact, whenever I speak to audiences, I always have them to shake someone's hand on their right and left and say you have something special.  I saw a sign once that said that God took me out of my biological mother's womb and placed me in the heart of my adopted mother.  That sense of specialness, I think, has been a motivating factor in my life.  There are certain things that I just couldn't do.  Certain places I couldn't go or that were just out of reach for me that, when it came to my life and what I wanted to do with my life, I had to hold myself to some higher standards because of the specialness that my mother made me feel.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

Wow.  So, was this something that was instilled in you throughout your developmental ages?  I mean, throughout life in general, or--?

 

LES BROWN:

 

Yes.  Because of the fact that I think early on she probably decided that she needed to do that.  She only had a third grade education, but she had a Ph.D. in mother wit.  And so, when I was in elementary school, I was identified in the fifth grade as being educable mentally retarded--

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

Wow.

 

LES BROWN:

 

--and put back from the fifth grade into the fourth grade, and I failed again when I was in the eighth grade.  I have a twin brother and we were born in an abandoned building on a floor in a poor section of Miami, Florida, called Liberty City.  My brother had always been smarter academically, and so it's always been a struggle for me.  So I think that she really put an emphasis on trying to help me feel comparable to Wesley's achievement, even though I didn't get the grades that he got, and positive recognition.  I was a kid that was always in trouble.  I didn't do well in school.  So even when she would punish me, she would say, you know, you're special, and this is why I've got to whop your behind.  Whop your behind until 'til the cows come home!  I'd say, "Momma, they're already here!"

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

So she would give you a motivational speech while she was whopping you.

 

LES BROWN:

 

That's right, that's right.  She believed that my subconscious mind was located in my behind.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

So, let me ask you this, then.  At what point, did things start to change for you in regards to-- you say you used to always get in trouble, and--?

 

LES BROWN:

 

Yeah.  My junior year in high school when I met Mr. Leroy Washington--I was just with him the other day--that was a turning point for me because I was in a class waiting on another student and Mr. Washington came in, and he was a substitute instructor at that time.  And he said, "Young man, go to the board and work this problem out for me."  And I said, "Well, I can't do that, sir."  And he said, "Why?"  I said, "I'm not one of your students, first of all."  He said, "Go to the board and work it out anyhow."  I said, "Sir, I can't do that."  And he said, "Look at me.  Why not?"  And I said, "Sir, because I'm educable mentally retarded.  I'm not supposed to be in here."  And he came from behind his desk as the students erupted in laughter and he said, "Don't ever say that again.  Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality."

 

So that was a turning point in my life, and he became my mentor and really surrogate father to a very large extent because I followed him, I watched him, I observed him, and I wanted to be like him.  And he was a very eloquent man and he had an arrogance and an air of superiority about him that I admired.  And I said, "I want to be like him."  When he spoke, everybody listened.  He just had great oratorical skills, and I said, "That's somebody that I want to be like."

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

So that's where you got the first little glimpse of having those types of skills to be able to communicate?

 
 

LES BROWN:

 

Yes, because he was a speech coach and a speech and drama instructor.  And he used to coach and train kids to participate in the Elks oratorical contest.  Well, when you're in special education, you're not main stream, so you're not able to be privy to those classes.  So even though I was never one of his students directly, I used to go outside of the wooden portable where he worked and coached these students and stand on milk crate cartons to watch and look through the window.

 

One day it started raining and he invited me inside and told me that I could sit in there and watch him if I would just be quiet and not cause any problems.  And so watching and observing him over the years, I decided that that was something I wanted to do.  I wanted to be a speech coach.  But apparently by watching and observing, I developed the skill, and eventually people started requesting that I give speeches, even though I wanted to go out and emulate Mr. Washington and instruct people for many years.  I started out as a trainer, but evolved into speaking.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

So when you say you started off as a trainer, at what point did you actually start training?

 

LES BROWN:

 

Well, what happened is that when he would be late or could not make the rehearsal, he would say, "Brown, take care of it."  You know, you do it.  So he would ask me as a student.  And so he noticed that I had a good memory, but I also memorized everything he did and all the instructions he gave the students, and I was able to do that.  But he saw me doing it one day clowning around, and he came in and I was not aware and I was imitating him.  And so he said, "Continue."  And everybody got quiet.  You know, during that time they could beat you at school.  I thought I was going to get the board.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

Hmmmm...

 

LES BROWN:

 

Everybody was going, oooh, he's going to put the board on Mr. Les Brown.  Mr. Washington is going to beat him.  But he didn't.  He was amused that I had had him down--his voice quality, his movements, and his instructions.  He was just amused.  He said, "You are insane, but you're gifted."  And so he told me to continue, and so he would always have me step in.  He said, "What would you do here?" and ask me my ideas on that.  He felt that I had a knack for it.

 
 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

So what did you do after high school, because obviously you were doing this in 11th and 12th grade, I would suppose?

 

LES BROWN:

 

Yes, after high school I worked for the Miami Sanitation Department.  I became a garbage collector, and I was also doing custodial work for Sears and Roebuck, and then I became a salesman for them.  And then I started doing door-to-door sales for an organization selling television sets.  And then I went from there into broadcasting.  I saw Mr. Washington and he told me that was something he knew that I always wanted to do and he encouraged me to pursue it, and I did that.  And then I went from Miami, Florida to Columbus, Ohio, and then I got out of broadcasting and ran for the Ohio legislature.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

Wow!

 

LES BROWN:

 

And then went from there doing volunteer motivational speeches for a variety of local organizations and decided to pursue it nationally.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

Now, I understand in your broadcasting career, you started off by picking up the entertainers and just driving them around.  You didn't have a driver's license--

 

LES BROWN:

 

No.

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK:

 

--but you were acting like you had one?

 

LES BROWN:

 

That's right!  That's right!  Yeah.  Those were the good ole days... 

 

JERRY DRHINO CLARK: 

How did you get your first on the air?  Tell us that story.  Just about how a guy named Rock or something who--?

End of Part 1.  (GO TO PART 2 OF THIS INTERVIEW TO CONTINUE)...