This morning I had the privilege of attending a speech by Les Brown and I have to thank Mark Crowley and the Greenwood Village Chamber of Commerce for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

The speech delivered by Les was nothing less than spectacular. He spoke with an energy and passion that was contagious and made you feel inspired and motivated. There were many highlights of the morning and the most resonating was how Les talked about his late mother. He has an incredible amount of love and respect for her and at one point in his life he spent every last cent of his money in order to keep her alive. Being raised by a single mother I can echo Les’s love, compassion, and respect for his mom and I commit to being a supporting parent and providing my new baby daughter a lifetime of love and support.
Below is a snippet of some of the highlights and takeaways of this morning:

• Unless you have done something significant with your life it will be as if you were never around
• Live full and die empty
• The wealthiest place on earth is the cemetery because they you will find the hopes, dreams, and ideas of people that were never realized
• When pursuing your greatness you don’t know what your limits are, so you act like you don’t have any
• Life is a fight for territory and if you stop fighting that what you don’t want will take over
• Provide more service than you get paid for
• You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great
• If I spend 8 hours cutting down a tree, I will spend 6 hours sharpening the blade
• Someone’s opinion of you does not shape your reality – Abraham Lincoln
• Live your life as a result of what you believe about yourself
• Life’s greatest gift is the ability to serve
• Make a commitment to live a bigger game with your life

And my personal favorite:

• Shoot for the moon because if you miss you will land among stars

If you ever have the chance to see Les Brown speak in person, do not pass up the opportunity because if you do you will be missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity.