Motivational speaker Les Brown (born 1945) made his name encouraging others to overcome any odds that might stand in their way.

Les Brown has a dream, and he is living it. In 1986, broke and sleeping on the cold linoleum floor of his office, he began to pursue a career as a motivational speaker. By the early 1990s, he was one of the highest paid speakers in the nation. His company, Les Brown Unlimited, Inc., earned millions of dollars a year from his speaking tours and the sale of motivational tapes and materials. Brown's audience is wide: from Fortune 500 companies to automobile workers to prison inmates to special-education classes to ordinary individuals. His mission is to "get a message out that will help people become uncomfortable with their mediocrity," he explained to a reporter for Ebony magazine. "A lot of people are content with their discontent. I want to be...