The Motivational Speaker That Can Create Motivation Within Your Heart

Growing up, I have been an individual who has pushed myself beyond the minimum requirements in order to succeed. In high school I excelled in both academics and athletics. I graduated in the top 10% of my class and lettered in hockey and tennis my sophomore, junior, and senior year. I worked hard and put in extra time in order to set myself apart from others. Succeeding in both school and athletics made me a responsible, reliable, and an organized individual. These experiences made me a versatile individual and have given me a work ethic that has benefited me with my academics in college and with my work and volunteer experiences.

Growing up as an african american male it was hard to identify my character throughout my educational career. At a very young age my dad alway wanted me to succeed in life, but in the back of my mind I always thought “ Am I really cut out to becoming successful”. I grew up in a culturally diverse suburban area. Growing up in the suburban area I made unbreakable bonds that will forever exist.

Mark Caine once stated, "the first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself." Growing up in the Bronx, New York, this quote greatly applies to how the environment in which I grew up in shaped my aspirations. Living in the Bronx can prove to be difficult and it requires strenuous effort to find exceptional opportunities. Resources that are provided towards education are limited, meaning that most supplementary aspects that we need to obtain a "full' education is not granted to us.

In the book And Still We Rise By MIles Corwin, we hear the stories of students childhood and upbringing. We also hear about their aspirations for the future but each of them seem to have extensive barriers that try to stunt their growth. Throughout the book we see how it’s not how someone is brought up that dictates who they are, but it’s that person’s perseverance that makes them who they are.

He said the constant moving made him more willing to take risks and change. However, it also made him introverted as a child. He decided didn’t want to make friends if he would have to move and leave them in two years.

As a young girl growing up in Haiti, I experienced first hand that the path my parents chose for themselves was not the life that I wanted for myself. I was able to relate closely to Richard Rodriguez in “The Achievement Desire” because he faced many struggles that I too faced as a young girl. My parents always pressured me to work hard at school, I was always suppose to have my homework for Monday done by Friday night, which made

As a child I grew up in a community of neighbors that had just as much as I did, hardships and challenges where unknown to me. It was in college in my Chicano/a studies courses that allowed me to view my life challenges. When asked to describe how I overcame life hardships, I can only think of the life lessons my father have instilled in me. Therefore, my socio – economic challenges are overcome daily by learning how to manage money, at an early age I was thought to save my money. Education challenges where coping with a learning disability without resources, my private tutor was my oldest sister. A family challenge was coping with the passing of my mother in

For the first time, she clearly saw what her life would have been like had her parents didn’t take the risk of leaving their home. Poverty was omnipresent, opportunity was non-existent and educated, hard working professionals were barely scraping by. Even the youth had nothing to look forward to. “Their faces all shared the same expression -- hopelessness. I would only see a small glimmer of hope in their eyes when they spoke of America, and how different their lives would be if they could live there.” says Cameron, “My parents risked everything because of hope. Hope for opportunity. Hope in the American Dream. Hope for their children. The risk they took is unparalleled to any risk I’ll ever have to face as an entrepreneur in America, and I felt so ashamed that I had allowed ignorant remarks shape my life and translate into resentment, especially towards them. The very thing that I viewed as a disadvantage growing up as a foreigner, which I let cripple me with fear and insecurity throughout my childhood and teenage years, was now my biggest blessing. My perception shifter, and it transformed into pride, a strong will, and an unrelenting ambition to succeed. My culture is unique and beautiful, and so am I, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to become anything I choose. My entrepreneurial instinct kicked into

In elementary we are constantly encouraged to dream big and achieve even higher. We are expected to choose any occupation and follow its clear pathway to success. Nonetheless the reality of the story is that getting there is most often if not always difficult. As children we are not told of the obstacles we will soon encounter and the disappoint we will discover along the way. Only too late do we realize that the pathway to success will be a lonely and at times conflicting one. Richard Rodriguez an American writer discusses in his autobiography, The Achievement of Desire the sacrifices and lost he endured in the process of becoming a scholarship boy. Rodriguez's feelings of nostalgia at the end of his journey to success allowed him to see what he had so greatly attempted to ignore. The fact that education had

Ever since I was a kid, my parents always talk about the hardship they went through to get here. From a house with ten siblings, no electricity, and barely any food, my dad manage to escape poverty and support his family by pursuing his passion in electronics. With his passion, he went to high school without an elementary education and barley passed. Afterwards he went directly into the workforce and continue to educate himself until how he is today.

NYU Film alum Chelsea Odufu and New School Film Alum Emann Odufu have conducted motivational speeches and workshops etc. at institutions such as Yale University, Dartmouth

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure” (Bill Cosby). Reflecting back on my life I have dealt with numerous downfalls but I always bounce back. I was born in India and moved here when I was six years old. As I grew up in California I was not a bright student at first. I was enrolled in Carmichael Elementary in which I was the only one with Turban on my head, which caused me to get into a lot of fights with other students who were making fun of turban. Not knowing how to speak English at the time affected the way interacted with teachers and students. On the other hand my family always had a tight budget at home. Both of my parents worked at the store we owned which was the only source money. At school kids were always talking about their new shoes and the iPod which his or her parents got them. I didn’t get everything I wanted as a kid but as I got older I understand if did I could be a spoiled brat. When I moved from Carmichael to Sacramento and I was enrolled at Maeola R. Beitzel elementary. Going to this new school I already learned English so I made marvelous friends and was surrounded by positive people. Going from a chaos environment to this harmonious environment in part because I was speaking English, made me have unique personality .I was playing sports and growing as a student. Those years went by in no time. Now I am in high school and my family’s income has been growing. My mom changed her work to now at Jack in

Twenty-four years ago, my dad boarded a one-way flight to the U.S. He was coming to a new country filled with vocational opportunities his homeland could not provide. He was not limited by his place of birth or the reality that no one else in his family had ever left their village. He trusted his gut and took a leap of faith. A year later he called for my mother and I to join him in the U.S. and we left our life in Kenya and my future was ultimately changed. Throughout my life, I have been keenly aware that had my father limited himself to only opportunities that he could see, I would have never even been able to consider opportunities such as the UNC Medical Center Administrative Fellowship.

Without the support of my father and the drastic change in my life, I understood that the only way to improve my quality of life was to study and find the passion to which I was going to dedicate the rest of my life. After careful thought, I decided to move to the United States. Leaving my family, I came to this country in search of knowledge, contacts and “greater opportunities”. During these years, I have been confronted with many obstacles, but I have been able to resolve them thanks in part to my dedication. When it comes to achieving my goals, I find it in myself to push myself until that goal it met. I consider that there is no lack of opportunities for someone that believes in their capabilities and is aware that nothing comes without sacrifice, meaning that hard work and dedication are required in order to achieve goals.

As a child, I remember growing up in an area of Atlanta, Georgia called Mechanicsville. This area was very diverse with people from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Often, my mother would share valuable life lessons with my siblings and me. One, in particular, I remember even to this day is, “Life is only as challenging or motivating as you make it”. Originally, I did not quite understand the purpose of this aphorism; but as I got older, the meaning became quite clear. Although life for me has been both wholesome and unhealthy, in hindsight, it seemed better than my childhood friends. If you knew the real story, you would see that my life is not as perfect as it appears. Just to provide you with a little insight into my world, I had a