After leaving university I worked in the travel business, then publishing before taking a career gamble to work as freelance in pr for black arts. But things were not geling, I needed direction, and I found it in Live Your Dreams by Les Brown.

I was so excited to find such a book, written by a Black author that seemed to know and understand my fears, hopes and weaknesses, that I bought copies for friends and then purchased hardback and paperback copies to sell at the monthly Sunday market in Willesden Green Library, organised by The Alarm.

The clearest message that Live Your Dreams gave me, and which has stayed with me is that the way you choose to earn you living should be enjoyed and feel impassioned about and that is what I have done for the past 15 years. The second most important message for me, was that helping others to achieve their dreams, helps you to achieve yours, too. This is what I have continued to do, also. And I love fulfilling this part of my dream.

Brown's book is inspirational – He was adopted with his brother at 6 weeks old; at school he was declared a slow learner, he held various jobs before achieving success as a state legislature, disc jockey, and then as a motivational speaker/writer in the 1980's alongside his PBS television programme. he was selected one of America's Top Five Speakers for 1992 by Toastmasters international.

It is motivational – there are bite sized quotes that are easy to remember and ease you through lows, uncertainties, and emotional stresses. I was attracted to the easy language that young adults can appreciate too.

It is a practical book, with exercises at the end of each section to follow through on – to help consolidate new changes in your mind your heart and your life, and to believe that no matter who you are, you can make these changes in your life. I didn't do the exercises and there can be pitfalls in that – as you can become -so wrapped and
excited in embarking on that dream that you 'forget' to seperate personal and business. But it also helped me to start public speaking as a way of combating my shyness – and learning to enjoy it!

Now i'm mid 40's and at a time when people make major changes in their lives – and I'm about to move to a different continent. And I realise that a revisit to this book is long overdue.

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

Live Your Dreams led me to read other books of a similar topic, from Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People to Awaken The Giant Within by Robbins. And then books with a more spiritual inflection, such as The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Chopra. On writing this piece I learned that, Chopra was a warded one of the 5
top speakers in 1995 by Toastmaster International, in the same year as Nelson Mandela. Of the 5 awards that year, only one was given to a woman – a Black woman - congresswoman Barbara Jordan (1936-1996), and so I diverted myself from this task and spent a couple of hours reading about the incredible woman she was. Reading her profile, she could have been a reader of Brown's book herself! Realistically, we can't all
have the 'status' of Barbara Jordan, Nelson Mandela and Les Brown (selected one of America's Top Five Speakers for 1992 by Toastmasters International), but as he says, it is not about your achievement but about the people we become – I would say that it's about both – if you are comfortable with who you are – that is a massive achievement –that so many of us struggle to reach - but once you have that – it is easier
to achieve other things in your life – no matter how small or large the objective or the Dream.

"The only thing that can really stop you from living your dreams is you."

Kadija (George) Sesay
Publisher – SABLE LitMag; literary activist