When I was in college at speaking competitions, a common question that would float around would be, “Who’s your favorite speaker?”

I heard all kinds of responses from Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, to David Goggins or Mel Robbins.

And as great as they are, I could never find myself choosing just one speaker I loved over every other I’ve heard.

I might not be able to give you my number one choice, but I can give you one of my favorites—Les Brown.

Now full disclosure, Les doesn’t speak as much as he used to as he’s now 79 years old, but this was a man who spoke from experience rather than false hope.

Born in an abandoned building in 1945 and adopted alongside his twin brother at six weeks old, Les grew up in a poor neighborhood in Liberty City, Florida where he was labeled as “educably mentally retarded” in elementary school.

For years Les carried this label above his head and was placed in special education classes throughout middle school and high school.

One day Les was asked by one of his teachers to grab another student from a classroom across the hall—a general education course.

When he entered the class, the teacher—Leroy Washington—was in the middle of speaking so he chose not to interrupt just yet. But Leroy, seeing Les standing in the corner asked him, “Young man, go to the board and work this problem out for me.”

Les said, “Well I can’t do that sir.”

“And why not?”

“Well I’m not one of your students sir.”

At this point Leroy was visibly frustrated and said, “It doesn’t matter, follow my directions.”

“Well I can’t do that sir.” Les repeated.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m labeled as educably mentally retarded.”

At this point Les could hear some of the students in the classroom start chuckling and one of the students piped up to say, “Mr. Washington, that’s Lesly, his twin brother is the smart one. Les is the dumb twin.”

And Les looked down and replied, “I am sir.”

Leroy then walked over to Les and said,

“Don’t ever say that again. Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.”

And that was the moment that Les said changed his life. From that point on, Leroy would become a motivational figure to Les and push him to do what he wanted to do, not what others believed he could do.

Les Brown would go on to serve as a Representative for Ohio State and become one of the highest paid motivational speakers getting paid anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 per event.

The moral of this story is that criticism is going to come your way at some point, and it’s up to you to decide whether or not you’re going to let someone else dictate your worth.

The only person that truly knows what you’re capable of, what you’ve gone through, and who you are is you.

So who cares if you hear someone is talking about you behind your back?

Who cares if you found out someone said they don’t like you?

Stop caring about other people’s opinion of you and focus on loving yourself.

As Marcus Aurelius says, “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”

So focus on the people that do show their love for you, and push aside whatever hate that might come your way.

Prove to them that you’re better than they are.

But more importantly, prove it to yourself.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I’m Currently Reading - I’m now reading Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, a book written around 400 BC on the ancient philosophy of Taoism.

Quote Of The Week - “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra” — Jimmy Johnson