As a student, Les Brown was labelled as retarded and spent his school career in special education classes.

But the renowned motivational speaker, who spoke last night to a sold-out audience at Whitney Institute Auditorium, refused to be stereotyped and says he is living proof that you can choose the way that you want your life to go.

Mr. Brown became a motivational speaker because: ?I saw a need for people to be reinforced on their potential for greatness, because of my own personal experience.

?I was labelled retarded and I stayed in special education throughout school. I failed twice and I have no college training, but I had a high school teacher who believed that you don?t get in life what you want ? you get in life what you are.

?The speeches and seminars that I conduct are designed to remind people that they are born with greatness, but greatness is a choice ? it is not your destiny. We live in a world where we are taught more about our limitations than our potential.?

Mr. Brown?s own life story is an example of that. He got a job at a radio station as a relief announcer, but through tenacity, became a presenter on the station?s morning show. He then went on to become an elected legislator and has since found a love for public speaking.

The father and grandfather of seven said the aim was also to align people with a new story, because he said: ?Most of us what we do and achieve is directly related to what we believe and the story that is in our minds that we play back when we are presented with something.

?So, our conversation, our speeches, and our seminars be it developing yourself personally, on health, or your finances, is designed to introduce a new conversation in your mind that will allow you not only to have hope, but apply menthes that would allow you to move your life in the way that you want it to go.?

Often people attend seminars and conferences, get very excited, but do not see their dreams through, he said.

?People do not come to our conferences, go home and do nothing, because the way that I train speakers, the message is designed to create a shift in their attitudes.

?Our aim is to introduce a new behaviour that desire comes from within. They are self-motivated and self-directed and leave with a feeling to do better.?

While in politics, he found two kinds of people.

?I used to help people to get registered to vote and they would ask, ?who should I vote for?? I realised when people have a larger vision of themselves and see they can make a difference, you don?t have to tell them to register to vote ? they do that automatically.

?And they won?t ask who to vote for, as they are informed people who believe in lifelong learning and self education. They are active participants in life!?

When it was suggested to him that some of the Island?s ?mental impoverishment? came from deep seated beliefs in statements like, ?it would be harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle?, he said: ?I think that this is not unique to Bermuda.

?Usually people of colour are to a very large extent so heavenly focused they are of no earthly good. They don?t understand the value of lifelong learning, the value of developing relationships with people who they can learn from, of having goals that will constantly stretch and encourage them to reinvent themselves.

?You must be born again to a new state of consciousness. But most people resign themselves to where they are and say this is it. They don?t put any effort to improve their situation to go to the next level.?

Asked if his message was young-black-male specific, he said: ?The message is geared for young people because even though they are forty percent of the population, they are one hundred percent of our future.

?Right now Bermudians have the opportunity to do something that we in the USA don?t have the opportunity because the numbers are too big. This is an Island where it is restricted and it is contained.

?What they listen to in Hip Hop music, they begin to emulate. It is a culture that does not believe in education, a culture that dresses like outcasts, a culture that prides itself with going against the grain.

?All of this stuff is what causes what I call the Hood Infected Virus (HIV), which leads to An Incarceration and Death Syndrome (AIDS).?

Mr. Brown, who has received both the Golden Globe Award from Toastmasters International and the CPAE Award, is a great supporter of PBS or the Public Broadcasting Station because he sees it as an opportunity to view alternative programming that is designed to enlighten, without sensationalism.

Many people innately feel they don?t deserve to live or fulfil their dreams. But he believes that all of us have a calling on our lives.

?We survived one of four hundred million sperm,? he said, ?And when you beat those kind of odds you showed up to do something beyond raising a family, earning a living and dying.?

Mr. Brown often mentions his adopted mother Mamie Brown, but when asked whether a Mr. Brown was present, he said: ?She was not married and at 46 she adopted seven children. She only had a third grade education, was a domestic worker, and a cook for a very long period of time.

?She was both my mama and my daddy all wrapped into one. I gave her a Father?s Day card, as I don?t believe in the saying that a woman can?t raise a boy to be a man.?

When asked who most inspired him the most in his life, it was not surprising when he said: ?Without question ? my mother!

?I always quote Abraham Lincoln and say ?all that I am and all that I ever hoped to be ? I owe to my mother?.?

So, does he think that everything in his life has brought him to this point?

?I believe that everything, every pain, every disappointment, every setback, all the beautiful things, all the people that I met and those I haven?t met, I am grateful as I look back on my life. I know there are no accidents.

?Everything happens as it should, although you can?t believe it at the time, but there are lessons in all of it. Things just don?t happen ? they happen just!?