My Chat with Les Brown

I had the honor of interviewing Les Brown a while back. Here's an excerpt:

Andy: I have a number of questions here and I’d like to kind of dive right in with how do we find our life’s purpose if we’re not quite sure what that is?

Les: I think that you have to experiment. One of the most obvious ways is that what are the things that you enjoy doing that comes naturally to you and others recognize in you that you receive compliments about?

All my life I’ve always had people to tell me that I had a great sense of humor, that I had a good speaking voice, and that I was an encourager, that I made them feel good when they were facing challenges.

They would ask me questions and I would give them response to that. And, so when I look back on my life I’ve been told for years that I had a gift that I was not aware of. Because it came so natural to me I never paid any attention to it. But, the other thing is that’s important to find your life purpose, is just experiment what resonates for you.

I used to be a disc jockey, a state representative. I’m an author. I’m a speaker. I used to have a talk show. I was a radio personality. So, I was doing a variety of things to find out what resonates with me as an individual that would put me on the path to where I’m at right now.

Andy: So, we need to kind of feel that in us.

Les: Yeah, we have to experiment. We have to try and test a variety of things to see what fits. And, the other thing is listen to what people tell you that you’re good at and then try it and work with it and see what can come from it.

One of things that I always ask people to do is to try and find something that they love to do and leverage that to create income for themselves. I believe that man, and I say man in a generic sense, was not born to work for a living but to live his making. And, living his making will make his living. So, find out that which you love to do.

See, I speak and that’s my profession but I would speak for nothing. I used to speak for free for years. So, this is not work for me. This is what I would do twenty-four seven.

Andy: Now, okay let’s say that someone has been able to find their life’s purpose and what is the key to living your dreams once you know what you want? Is there some type of formula?

Les: I think it’s very simple. Once you find out what it is you love to do, do as much of it as you can until you leave here. That’s it. Because, when you find that which you love to do then there is a, what I call, the magnificent obsession that comes into play. And, that you want to do it not as often as you can, but that not just doing it often but doing it the best that you can.

And, right now at this stage of my life, I’m sixty years old, and so I’m finding things about myself as a speaker. I’m discovering things about the audience. But, now I’m beholding. I’m realizing some secrets. Anything that you do a lot you will master it. It will reveal its secrets to you.

And, so I’m doing things now that I’m amazed. I’m impressing myself because I’m still in love. This is a romance here. This is still my passion. And so as a result of my mastering this, this is has now allowed me to live a life that others just dream about.