by Mohammed Lodhi Hussain

So how did I become the great public speaker that I am today?  

It took years of practice.  I started childhood out as a son of a business family.  There I began interacting with the employees, customers and neighborhood stores.  I was a curious child.  Although, quite shy.  I started out life better than most.  Going to early learning and private school.  My journey is a long one.  Even though it started out humbly.

I was born cesarian section on November, 27, 1981 at beekman hospital in Manhattan.  Although I spent most of my life in Brooklyn and my weekends and summers in the poconos. I always had a gift for the gab.  

I remember chatting with Montessori academy’s Principal Mrs.  Singh and I would tell her wonderful stories.  Even at an early age I was cultivating a speakers mentaility.  I just enjoyed telling stories.  But I was terribly shy growing up as a single child until I was seven.  Then the best thing happened in my life.  My Mother gave birth to Ali.  My little brother.  Now I had someone to play with.  

I started speaking in school.   But my fondest memories was about the 6^th grade when I moved to park slope and I met my new teacher Ms. Mead.  My father kicked me and my brother out of the starret city 200 bethel loop apartment 13H.  So I called my uncle from the payphone. 

I digress.  I started speaking a lot in school.  Every chance I got. I spoke. It took courage.  But I had tons of it.  Blacking out the past.  I decided to reinvent myself here in park slope.  I moved on to 7^th grade.  Where I befriended a boy in my class Justin Fergouson the typical class clown.  He would crack jokes and I would be rolling in laughter.  Don’t remember 8^th grade.  I ran for class president in the 7^th grade and lost badly.  Ali and Noshi were there campaigning for me.  We made flyers and handed them out.  

High school was a different story.  After getting beat badly in the campaign in middle school. I set to remaking my image as a class clown.  I got lots of words from my teachers and I would crack jokes in the middle of class.  A tremendous disruption.  One time, I said they are “jerking off” during the leanardo dicaprio version of Romeo and Juliet in Ms. Young’s English class.  Which got me a ticket to the dean’s office.  First time.  I think she over reacted.  And I was a young guy navigating life.  It’s fine.  A step back on a record I could care less about.  My goal was college.  And that was it. I didn’t get a regents diploma because I failed Spanish.  But I did graduate in 4 years and went on to a terrible community college BMCC.  Designed to keep you from succeeding.  It was high school all over again.  The students, teachers and others.  They even put me in remedial writing.  Can you believe that.  What a broken system.  

I spent a year there full knowing that I would never graduate from this school.  It was designed to keep you from succeeding.  The only bright spot was my intro to political science class.  It was interesting.  I had grown accustomed to coming in early and reading the New York times.  I later kept a log of interesting facts that I heard on online news when I transferred to Brooklyn college.  

In high school, that I had all the time in the world to figure out what I wanted to do.  I never once stepped into my college advisors office. And I met with my guidance councler Mr.  Weinberg only for class assignements.  I wish I had taken harder classes now that I think about high school.  Because calculus in college is horrible.  Do not take it kids.  You will do bad.  While im at it.  Avoid all the sciences.  They are awful.  Get a liberal arts education is what I would tell my kids when they were young.  I believe that a liberal arts education bests prepares you for life.  Go to a small school where you can get individualized attention and skip all the competitive hoopla that I got swept into.  

Back to the story.  I entered a real college.  But first you had to cross the junction.  I lamented that maybe I made another wrong choice.  My mother, noshi, came with me. I started speaking on a leadership retreat.  Thinking that it would be like my youth of ethical society retreats.  Where I made a ton of friends.  It was, but I realized not at the time that but through others that I was a fearless communicator.  I played basketball one night there and was awesome.  I was the playmaker.  Years of playing hooky afterschool in Telecom left me with all around basketball skills.  Combined that with my natural leadership qualities.  Developed and honed at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical culture.  I had the makings of a great leader.  But politics was where my heart remained.  Eventhough I was clueless at the time.   

At Brooklyn college I got involved with the political party and student government.  A con man’s son. And son to a protecting mother.  I blossomed.  I studied everything I could.  I spoke out and lead by example.  To this day I hate Roberts rules of order.  But on the campaign trail for elected office I spoke to thousands of people over the five years I was studying there.  It was one of the most formulative years of my life.  I spoke in debates, with the college newspapers the kingsman and the excelsior I wrote op-eds and even near the end was a photographer for both papers.  Even a phd-led newspaper the excelsior.  

I had lots of practice on the campus working crowds, forming talking points and selling myself.  I worked hard and I worked all year round for a number of years.  While taking political science and biology classes and over doing it. 

I began speaking in public and I got addicted.  It was so exhilarating talking to new people.  I owe it all to ethical culture.  They broadened my horizons.  That’s where my true home is.  Sometimes I get tired.  But now I am recommitted to improving myself.  Becoming a successful life coach, change ally, thinker, visionary, partier, public speaking specialist, self-development guru, teacher, money manager, value investor and overall amazing person.  It took two pages today and hopefully this…