Today I went to a Les Brown event in central London which was about learning how to speak to add a whole new income stream to your business. Now for those of you who know me, you know that I am no speaker!

Nevertheless the event was a tremendous success even though there were only 30 people there! This actually made it a much better learning experience for me.

Many people still don’t know who Les Brown is so I’ll give you a little bio:

Les Brown is a top Motivational Speaker, Speech Coach, and Best-Selling Author, loving father and grandfather, whose passion is empowering youth and helping them have a larger vision for their lives.

Les Brown’s straight-from-the-heart, high-energy, passionate message motivates and engages all audiences to step into their greatness, providing them with the motivation to take the next step toward living their dream. Les Brown’s charisma, warmth and sense of humor have impacted many lives.

Back To The Event

I met so many new people and came to the realisation that I do have a LOT to offer people! Even at the tender age of 20! Everyone had to get up and speak about their 3 goals for 2010 and why this year is going to be different from last year. I relished this moment as I have a great deal of confidence and understand that:

“Facing our fears is the only way to overcome them”

Me and Les Brown

So the 10 things Les Brown taught me are in no specific order but are all important.

1) Fasten your mental seatbelt because you’re gonna take some hits

Just like when a plane is about to take off, they say put on your seatbelt we are going to encounter turbulence; the same is true with your life. There will be things that happen to you which are beyond your control but if you have your ‘mental seatbelt’ on you won’t get hurt that much. You will still have the courage to pursue your dream.

2) Don’t focus on how much it costs, focus on how much it will cost YOU

This is a very important point because it shows the millionaire mindset. Focusing on how much it costs is not thinking big at all. Les Brown had to pay $2500 to go to this guru’s event and during conversation Les said he couldn’t afford it and the mentor said straight away, ‘Don’t focus on how much it costs, focus on how much it will cost you if you don’t go’. This statement opens up a whole new way of thinking.

3) Die to who you are now to give birth to who you can become

Lets face it, the person who you and I are right now is not the person that we want to be otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

In order to be somebody you’ve never been before you have to do something you’ve never done before.

4) Deliberately speak to yourself affirmitively

(This is something I do on a daily basis now) Deliberately say to yourself things like: “I’m ready, I’ve got the right stuff, I can do it, I’m a huge success, I love myself” You get the point! Affirm those positive statements to yourself everyday. Make the commitment to do it. I have. Speak them with power, passion and feelings. This gets you in the right frame of mind to align yourself with your dreams.

5) The best revenge is massive success

Les Brown told us how his girlfriend left him mainly because he didnt have any money yet called himself a motivational speaker when he had no experience. Six weeks later he gets a cheque for $2.2million and she comes running back! He took her out to dinner in a limousine then she dropped down on one knee as if to propose to him – she wanted him back to which he replied ‘Stop embarassing yourself down there get up!’ He never took her back!

THE BEST REVENGE IS MASSIVE SUCCESS!

6) Listen to your first mind

Always listen to your first mind. Your gut feeling, your intuition. Ask any successful person and they will always tell you to follow your instinct. In the movie Save The Last Dance, Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) was asked by his friend to go and shoot up some guys out of town. Derek listened to his first mind and refused – his friends then got caught by police. So the moral is:

“Always follow your gut feeling. If it doesn’t feel right don’t do it”

7) Change your mind and your life will follow

This runs true with everything you do in life which you frown upon. If you just change the way you think about things for the better your life will follow. It sounds simple but its a long continuous process. I have been told by numerous personal development guru’s to:

“Spend at least 30mins everyday listening to/reading/watching some  sort of personal development program.”

What this does is it feeds your mind with a positive mindset and gives you that much needed ’3rd influence’ in your life. Instead of listening to the news listening to negativity.

All of us are born the same way – dumb, naked and speechless!

When Les said this everybody burst out laughing (as you can imagine!) It is very true, nobody is born with more knowledge than the other person. We are all born the same – dumb! We learn how to walk, we learn how to talk, we learn how to do EVERYTHING. Do you think surgeons are naturals? NO! They have to go to medical school to LEARN. So whatever it is we want to do we have to learn how to do it. Pretty common sense I know but common sense is not always common practice.

9) Most people would rather spend £47 on some clothes rather than invest in themselves

This one really resonated with me as I realised that I would rather invest in myself hence why I paid £47 to attend the seminar. Most people aren’t like that. They would sooner go and spend it on nonsense things that don’t add any value to them. Les said that if the event was a Kanye West concert we would’nt have been able to get close to the room! This is because most people value entertainment more than education. As aspiring entrepreneurs we have to value education higher. Because what do entrepreneurs do? They get specialised knowledge then create Systems for other people to operate (employees).

10) BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, NO ONE ELSE WILL

The reason I put this last one in caps is because its SOOOO important. After all if you don’t want to believe in yourself and your own ability who else will? Its absolutely vital that you believe in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself currently then I suggest you get yourself down to London and attend the Chris Howard Breakthrough To Success Seminar on June 25-27th 2010.

If you can’t make that then you need to plug into some Les Brown, Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins. Self-belief to me is all about confidence and you only get confidence when you do something you don’t really wanna do but you know you should do it. And when you do it you think ‘it wasn’t that bad’ and you feel good about yourself. Then you take that confidence with you for the next time and it constantly builds – you get momentum.

Hope you enjoyed this lengthy post.

Please leave me a comment below I will like to hear your views on what I just shared with you.

Your Friend in Success

Aaron Darko

P.S. Here is the great Les Brown in action! If you want to check out his site Click Here – he has A Lot to offer!