The late great Wayne Dryer (May 10, 1940 – Aug. 29,2015) was a man who practiced what he preached. He quit his college job lecturing on positive thinking and motivational thinking techniques and went on the road to sell his first book Your Erroneous Zones.
He sold so many books out of the back of his station wagon and showed up to so many book stores and made so many media appearances that he made the best-selling list before book publishers even notice what was happening.
Dyer was born in Detroit and spent much of his first ten years in an orphanage on the East side of town. His father walked out on his mom, leaving her to raise three young boys. I was also born in Detroit and spent the first nine years with my mom.
My mom was starting over after having left her first five kids with their dad in Mississippi. He was so abusive that the last time he beat her, he said next time he would kill her, so she left in the middle of the night and headed North.
Dyer built his success with lecture tours a series of audio tapes a PBS program and regularly publishing new books. He would recount anecdotes from his family life and use his own personal experiences. The fact that he was also Navy veteran just added another level of experience. https://youtu.be/4nIAwUJv2Eo
I wrote an blog about AARP coverage of those approaching the end of life and they featured comments from Bronnie Ware’s book “The top five regrets of the dying”. Nobody wished they had worked more. Almost all of them had wished they had lived the life they were destined to life.
Dyer worked as a high school guidance counselor before he became a Professor of Counseling Psychology at St. John’s University in New York City. His focus was on positive thinking and motivational techniques.
I started blogging because I was taking early retirement. I chose personal development because it kept me straight during tough times. My mom sent me to stay with my dad while she went into the hospital. When she came out they decided to let me stay with him, so I spent the next nine years with him.
I dedicate my first book to my mom. “Standing in the Shadows, Listening to the Greats!!!” Subtitled – A blog novel of true stories of ordinary people who overcame all kinds of odds to become extraordinary, who then turned around to help others. If you don’t write your own story, nobody else will.
When Dyer talked about listening to that infinite voice I took heed. I didn’t cross the police line (The 1967 Detroit Riots) but I worked on the Chrysler assembly line, I walked the flight line in Libya, North Africa, and I supported the front lines in Germany as a two-time military veteran (US Air Force and US Army).
That is my story and my legacy. What will be yours?
H.G.M.
Hackett Global Marketing 