Best Motivation – Les Brown (Chinese Bamboo Tree)

Chinese Bamboo Tree – This remarkable tree is different from most trees in that it doesn’t grow in the usual fashion. While most trees grow steadily over a period of years, the Chinese bamboo tree doesn’t break through the ground for the first four years. Then, in the fifth year, an amazing thing happens – the tree begins to grow at an astonishing rate. In fact, in a period of just five weeks, a Chinese bamboo tree can grow to a height of 90 feet. It’s almost as if you can actually see the tree growing before your very eyes.

Leslie Calvin “Les” Brown (born February 17, 1945) is an American motivational speaker, author, radio DJ, former television host, and former politician. As a politician, he is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives. As a motivational speaker, he uses the catch phrase “it’s possible!” and teaches people to follow their dreams as he learned to do. He was the host of The Les Brown Show.

Brown was born with his twin brother, Wesley, in an abandoned building in a low-income section of Miami, Florida. He was subsequently given up for adoption and adopted by Mamie Brown, a 38-year-old single woman who worked as a cafeteria attendant and domestic assistant. He was declared “educable mentally retarded” while in grade school. Despite the self-esteem issues this created, he learned how to reach his full potential with the encouragement of his mother and assistance by a helpful teacher in high school, a key point in many motivational speeches he gives now.