10. Nick Vujicic
Nick Vujicic formally known as Nicholas James Vujicic was born in December 4 1982 and is a motivational speaker and Christian evangelist from Australia. He was born with Phocomelia, a disorder in which the person is born with absence of arms and legs. Originally he was born with the toes of his deformed foot fused together which were later operated on and separated, so that he could use them to grab things.
He started giving talks at his prayer group after his mother showed him an article about a man dealing with his severe disabilities. He started official speaking engagements at the age of nineteen, in the year 2005 founded a non-profit organization “Life without Limbs” and in 2007 founded a motivational speaking company “Attitude is Attitude”.
9. Brian Tracy
Born in January 5 1944, Brian Tracy is an author along with being a motivational speaker, he has authored 65 books, the most well known of which are “Earn What You’re Really Worth” “Eat That Frog” and “The Psychology of Achievement” along with others have been translated to 42 languages.
His company the Brian Tracy International was founded in 2009; it is headquartered in San Diego, California and provides counseling on self-esteem, strategy, leadership, creativity, selling, success psychology and goals.
8. Robin Sharma
The former lawyer, left behind his legal career due dissatisfaction with his life. He then went on to self-publish MegaLiving and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari later was distributed by HarperCollins and went on to become an international best seller. Robin has given motivational speeches in organizations such as PwC,Microsoft,HP and nick and has over 20 years of experience in the field.He later on established the Sharma Leadership International to provide leadership training programs in 2007.He is also referred to as one of the most influential leadership gurus in the world.
7. Dr. Wayne Dyer
The American self-help author, motivational speaker and philosopher published his first book Your Erroneous Zones in 1976 which is estimated to have sold 35 million copies and is considered one of the bestselling books ever. He had spent his first 10 years of his life in an orphanage in Detroit because his mother had to provide for three boys after their father walked out of the family.
Dyer served in US Navy for four years between 1958 and 1962. He worked as a guidance counselor for a high school in Detroit, then went on to become a counseling psychology professor at St. John’s University at the big apple. After the success of his book Your Erroneous Zones, he quit his teaching job and began a publicity tour of US and went on to give many more successful books. Dyer proceeded to build on his success and started making audio tapes, PBS programs and new books. His self mad man success story played a major role in his appeal to the public. He died from a heart attack on August 29, 2015.
6. Zig Ziglar
Is an American salesman, motivational speaker and author and was born in November 6 1926 in Alabama. Ziglar worked as a salesman for multiple companies and around 1968 he had obtained the vice president and training director position for the Automotive Performance Company. An accident in 2007 led him to have short term memory problems but he still went on to give motivational speeches.
Ziglar is well known to integrate Christianity into his motivational speeches. He died on November 28th 2012 from pneumonia.
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold is a pro bodybuilder who was born in Austria. Apart from being a bodybuilder he is also famous for his work as a producer, author, business man and a politician. In 2003 he was elected as the governor of California and served for 8 years. Growing up, Arnold showed great passion in bodybuilding which resulted in him winning Mr. universe title when he was just 20 years old and has ever since been an important figure in body building.
He even has some amazing movies under his belt, some of which are sword-and-sorcery, Conan the barbarian, the terminator, total recall and many more. His dedication to bodybuilding was so much that he once escaped from army training to take part in a bodybuilding competition.
4. Jim Rohn
Jim was born in Washington on September 1930. He started his career as a stock clerk and just like him he once attended a lecturer given by an entrepreneur which motivated him to become a successful business man and a motivational speaker. He didn’t actually choose to become a motivational speaker but had it inside him all the while and he realized it when he was asked to give a speech in a Rotary club meeting.
He became so popular after that he ended up giving speech through the country from then on. For his brilliance in and efforts in educating and motivating people he received National Speakers Association award in 1985.
3. Les Brown
Brown is an official motivational speaker and a RJ from Miami, Florida. Brown is an also a well-known politician who was a member of Ohio House of Representatives. Unlike most of the people in the list, brown hosted his own TV show ‘The Les Brown Show’ and often used the phrase “it’s possible” in his speeches.
Brown had a really hard time being a kid. He lived in an abandoned building with no income for the most part of his childhood before being adopted by a single woman of age 38. Even he had to face tough times in school where he was declared “educable mentally retarded”. But his self-belief, hard work and dedication makes him the man that he today is.
2. Tony Robbins
Born in February 29th 1960 in Los Angeles he had to face his parents’ divorce at a young age of 7 and it got even worse when his mother who had is custody became an alcohol addict. According to Tony he was thrown out of his house at the age of 17 by his mother and had to work as a janitor. Because of this issues he could not attend college.
During the early stages of his career he did seminars for Jim Rohn and his idea of motivation is to help his listeners push through their fears. During the peak of his career Tony wrote motivational books like ‘Unleash the power within’, ‘Unlimited Power’ and ‘Awaken the giant within’. Tony’s infomercials are currently being followed by over 100 million people.
1. Eric Thomas
Eric Thomas is a celebrity in YouTube and an author and minister in real life. Even Eric didn’t have a good childhood. A heated argument with his parents resulted in him dropping out of school after which he had was homeless. He eventually went back to school after he was inspired by a preacher.
Inspired by him Eric became a preacher himself and helped many underprivileged people and students. Many people in America owe their success to this great guy, whose motivational speeches gave them the courage to push that extra mile. As a writer, Eric has released a few books like ‘the secret to success’, ‘average skill phenomenal will’ and many more. His voice is the most important feature of his speech and almost all YouTube videos on motivation has a background voice of Eric Thomas.
