Speak Your Mind

Malala was born into a Sunni Muslim family in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where she grew up in a house with two younger brothers, her parents, and two pet chickens. Malala and her brothers were educated by their father, a poet and school owner. From a very young age, he saw something special in his daughter, and allowed her to stay up at night to discuss politics after her brothers had gone to bed.

When Malala was just eleven years old, she began speaking locally about education rights. The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist political movement, was increasing its military presence in the Swat Valley, and had begun destroying schools for girls in an effort to keep female students from attaining proper education. For Malala, the threat of losing her chance for an education was too serious to accept without standing up for it. So, when her father was approached by the BBC in search of a girl willing to anonymously submit reports about life under Taliban occupation, he suggested his own daughter. Despite the possibility of Taliban reprisals if her identity became known, Malala agreed, and started submitting her handwritten notes to the BBC.

Shortly after Malala's BBC blog began, the schools in the region closed for winter vacation. However, no one was excited, because the Taliban had set forth an edict to ban girls' education completely. This meant that, once they left, the female students had no idea when they could return to school. During the coming weeks, Taliban militants continued blowing up schools to enforce the education ban. And, even after the ban was publicly lifted, many families continued to keep their children (boys and girls alike) home from school. Finally, government forces began clearing the region of Taliban militancy in an effort to avert further violence.

Throughout all of this, Malala's blogs continued, attracting growing interest around the world as she reported openly on what she saw: "It seems that it is only when dozens of schools have been destroyed and hundreds others closed down that the army thinks about protecting them. Had they conducted their operations here properly, this situation would not have arisen." When Malala's identity became known, her profile rose, and she met world leaders, spoke to international news sources, and received numerous international youth peace awards. Unfortunately, this heightened profile also made her a more visible target.

Threats against Malala's life from the Taliban, who claimed to be targeting her for promoting non-religious and westernized education, were published in regional newspapers, through social media, and even slipped under her door. When Malala showed no sign of reining in her vocal activism, members of the organization decided to act. In a secret meeting of the Taliban's leaders, they unanimously agreed to kill her.

On October 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman entered the bus that Malala Yousafzai was riding home after taking exams at school. The masked gunman, after identifying who she was, shot at her, hitting both Malala and two other girls.

Malala was hit with one bullet in her left brow, but instead of penetrating the skull, it was deflected down and lodged in her shoulder. The doctors who treated her stated that the chances of such a wound from a point-blank gunshot not being fatal were astronomical. Equally unlikely was the presence of a team of renowned British medical specialists in Pakistan at the time of the shooting. Brought in to consult on Malala's condition, they were not optimistic due to swelling in her brain, and made the decisive call to move Malala to a facility in Birmingham, England.

Despite all odds, Malala recovered. She underwent physical therapy and a series of surgeries to repair skull and nerve damage, ultimately regaining her speech, movement, and, most critically, coming through the ordeal with no brain damage. Instead of the Taliban turning her into a martyr, they made her a symbol. She was alive and still able to speak, which she continues to do, upholding the rights of young women everywhere to receive proper education. In 2013, at the age of 15, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest individual ever to receive such an honor. This month, her autobiography, I Am Malala, was published.

Educators teach students all about life, but sometimes it takes a student to teach us what life is all about. Malala does more than speak her mind; she speaks for the rights of women and children. She speaks for the world. Thank you Malala! We are listening.

Until next week...

Live Your Dreams

Stay True to You

I’m in New Orleans this week to deliver a presentation on how a change in mindset can radically improve a person’s happiness and success.  I’ll be sharing the stage with the mayor because we both believe in helping empower people to new heights.  This week’s story is about a young man who was born and raised in New Orleans, and a glimpse into his personal journey.

Emmitt was a middle child with three siblings.  He had a challenging upbringing, due partly to living in poverty, but mainly because of the relentless, abusive anger of his father.  The creative Emmitt learned at a young age to go places in his mind in order to avoid facing the mistreatment and hardships of his young life.

Not long after a particularly troubling incident, Emmitt was watching a talk show on which a speaker discussed how some difficulties in life could be worked through by writing them down.  Supposedly, it was a process that could be helpful and therapeutic, and he decided to try.

Emmitt’s first writing took the form of letters to himself. He found that he not only liked writing, but was good at it.  The letters helped him come to terms with his childhood and find strength in himself and in forgiveness.  He also gained the foundation for a skill that he never knew he had, but which would inspire him to make writing a central part of his life.

Emmitt began working on a play based on his experiences.  In it, he pulled no punches, using fictional names but conveying the hard-hitting truth about what he’d been through.  It was rewarding for him to create, even though the subject matter was far from uplifting, and he was eager to see the play performed.  Having saved up nearly $12,000 working at an entry-level office job and living with his family, he moved to Atlanta with plans to produce the play.

In Atlanta, Emmitt rented a theater to stage his production.  Unfortunately, his name was unknown, so there was no audience for his work.  Only thirty people showed up to see the play, and it lasted just one weekend.  Emmitt lost every cent.

However, he was tenacious, and felt this was what he was supposed to be doing.  He reworked the play while taking a variety of odd jobs that included used car sales and restaurant positions.  Saving up his money, he kept trying to produce the play; each year he would put on another production, and each one failed to bring in an audience.  This went on for six years, with each attempt leaving him broke.  At one point, Emmitt, a grown man of six-foot-five, even lived out of his car, sleeping in his tiny Geo Metro.

His determination was faltering.  His mother told him constantly that it was time to give up and go back to New Orleans where she’d feed him while he looked for a job with benefits.  Nearly ready to quit, he decided to make one last attempt, and booked the show at Atlanta’s House of Blues.  But this time, he went about things differently.  He visited churches all throughout the city and persuaded prominent members of the choirs to take roles in the production.  And for the first time, Emmitt decided to star in his own show. 

On opening night, he was worried.  Once again, he had spent everything he had, and it was the coldest night of the year.  In the dressing room, he was reflecting on whether this would be his last show, when he looked outside into the freezing evening.  There was a line of people around the corner waiting to get in.  It was sold out.

Emmitt finally saw some success with his first show, I Know I’ve Been Changed, which toured throughout the South and up the East Coast.  He wrote, directed and produced a number of subsequent plays about urban life that substantially raised his profile as a creator and voice that resonated with African-American audiences.  Soon, Emmitt set his sights on Hollywood.

One thing he learned through his years in the theater was the power of putting out your own message and staying true to it.  Hollywood tested that belief when one major studio executive told him that African-Americans who go to church don’t go to the movies. Emmitt walked away from that negotiation, and eventually found a deal that required him to put up half the budget, but allowed him complete creative control.  That first movie, Diary of A Mad Black Woman, featured Emmitt “Tyler” Perry in his iconic role as the tough-spirited grandmotherly character Madea, and the film grossed over $50 million. In 2011, Forbes named Tyler Perry the highest paid man in entertainment.

It takes courage and conviction to follow your dreams. Learn to be your authentic self and you’ll never have to act a day in your life.

Until next week...

Live Your Dreams

Shoot for the Moon

Elon came from a family who viewed their bloodline as voyagers and adventurers.  Growing up in South Africa, there were always stories of what the family members who came before had done:  the grandfather who won a race from Cape Town to Algiers; the grandparents who flew on the first single-engine plane from South Africa to Australia.  Young Elon matured quickly in this environment, but it wasn’t always a blessing.  He started school early to support his rapid development, and this set him apart as the youngest and smallest in his class.  He was frequently bullied and given a hard time by the other kids.

Elon’s father helped provide distractions.  He took his family on exotic trips, giving them a sense of the world and how much of it lay beyond their home.  He was also strict, but with intention:  Elon and his siblings were made to do the chores often performed by servants in South African households.  Their father made it into a game that he called “America, America” for the chores American kids did, creating a connection between his children and the idea of a place where anything is possible.

That connection never diminished for Elon.  When he finished high school, he visited some of his mother’s family in Canada, and stayed there.  He had researched American citizenship, and determined that emigrating from Canada would be easier than from South Africa.  Having almost no money, Elon worked a series of jobs, and enrolled in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.  He beckoned his brothers, sister, and even cousins to join him in Canada, helping them obtain citizenship before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania on a full scholarship.

Elon studied business and physics, getting degrees in both, and was accepted to graduate school at Stanford.  He also began to think about working in some way on what he saw as three areas of great importance to the future of humanity:  the Internet, clean energy, and space.  He had been working with personal computers from the moment they arrived in consumer households, having even programmed and sold a video game in his teens.  He left Stanford after only two days with a car, a computer, and $2,000 in the bank, and began working with his brother on an Internet company called Zip2.

Zip2 designed some of the earliest software to help media companies publish their content to the Internet.  At the age of 28, Elon sold the company, receiving $22 million for his share.  He invested half of what he made into his second enterprise, X.com, an online financial services company that allowed people to make payments using their email address.  Merging with a competitor, the new company was re-branded PayPal, and was eventually purchased by Ebay.  Elon earned over $150 million from that sale, but he was just getting started. 

Money for its own sake was never one of Elon’s goals, and he was now in a position to pursue his most ambitious plans.  He co-founded Tesla Motors, a manufacturer of environmentally friendly cars and engines.  He became the chairman of SolarCity, the largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.  And in perhaps his most far-reaching idea, he began thinking of how to build affordable spaceships so people could travel to other planets and, someday, even live on Mars.  The more he thought about it, the more he wondered:  how complicated and expensive could it be?  So he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and within a few years, had begun making trips into space.

Elon Musk accomplished more before the age of 40 than most people do in a lifetime, or 40 lifetimes for that matter.  He was even the inspiration for the film depiction of genius billionaire Tony Stark in the movie Iron Man.  Elon is a strong believer in the principles of the Live to Give mindset, and recently joined forces with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates in pledging to donate the majority of his fortune to philanthropy.

In 2011, Forbes called Elon one of America’s most powerful CEOs under age 40.  When asked for the secret to his success, he responded:  “Surround yourself with people who believe that everything is possible, and remember to always dream bigger.”  If you shoot for the top of the mountains and fall short, you will crash into the mountainside.  Instead, raise your expectations and shoot for the moon… chances are, you will find yourself among the stars.

Until next week...

Live Your Dreams 

Happy New Year

A wealthy man stood at the edge of his swimming pool in the backyard of his mansion. He was hosting a party and had invited twenty of the most promising young men from the community to his home for a very special occasion. One of the young men was going to be lucky enough to either marry his daughter, a beautiful and intelligent young woman, or become president of his multi-million dollar business. To determine who was the most courageous and motivated among them, a simple test had been arranged. The man explained that his pool was filled with snakes and baby alligators, and the first man to swim from one side to the other could choose to become the president of his business or ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Before the man could finish explaining the rules, a loud splash was heard at the edge of the pool. One of the young men was swimming with tremendous speed across the pool.  He jumped out at the far side and came to stand before his host, soaked and out of breath. The wealthy man was impressed and said he had never seen such courage and initiative. He faced the young man and asked him if he wanted to become the president of his business. The young man shook his head. “No.” The wealthy man smiled and asked, “Then you have chosen to marry my lovely daughter?” Once again, the young man shook his head. “No.” Now the wealthy man looked perplexed. He said, “If you don’t want to be the president and don’t want to marry my daughter, then what do you want?”  The young man looked at him and said, “Sir, I would just like to know the name of the guy that pushed me into the pool.”

I was in my early twenties when a man named Hilary told me this story.  I’ll never forget that day for two reasons. First, how often do you meet a man named Hilary? Second, after hearing the story, I asked Hilary what it meant. He said the lesson wouldn’t be as valuable if he told me, and suggested I think about it and come up with my own meaning.

Hilary was a unique man in many ways. He was born in a rural part of the country, the tenth of twelve children. When Hilary was only five years old, his father died from a stroke, and just two days later, his younger sister died from an illness. The family was poor and suffering from two devastating losses. Hilary learned to improvise, and from an early age, he sold snacks at school to make a little money for his family. He joined the Navy as a teenager because they offered a steady job and a free college education.

While at college he sold sandwiches to make extra money. After he graduated he tried to turn it into a full time business. He married his school sweetheart, and although they worked side by side the business just didn’t work. Hilary took a job selling cookware. The problem was, he wasn’t a very good salesman. After two years, the owner of the company pulled him aside and told him he had great potential if he could only improve his self-image. Hilary viewed himself as a poor kid with limited opportunities. His boss told him that as long as he saw himself that way, then that’s all he would live to be. He told Hilary he had the potential to become a national champion if he could only change his mindset.

Hilary decided from that day forward to imagine he was a national champion. Within one year, he became the second best salesman out of 7,000.  Throughout his life, Hilary remained a top salesman. He was so successful that he started writing books on sales and delivering seminars to teach others. I was fortunate to hear him speak last year, almost twenty years from when we first met. Hilary Ziglar recently passed away at the age of eighty-six.  Most people knew him by his nickname, Zig, and he is certainly missed.

One of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes is, “Where you start is not as important as where you finish.”  2013 is upon us, and The Time is Now to pursue your dreams.  Sometimes we all need a little inspirational “push” into the pool to get started, but it’s up to each of us to swim.  Happy New Year, and happy swimming!

Until next week...

Live Your Dreams