As a teenager, I walked into a bookstore one day and saw Anthony Robbins pointing at me.
It was a huge poster of him advertising his book, Awaken the Giant Within. That poster caught my attention, so I stopped to look at the book with the bright gold cover. And because of that I ended up picking up a book that has had a great impact on my life.
I can still remember the opening words of that book. Robbins told the story of how he used to be a janitor in a big office building, spending most of his time cleaning toilets and mopping floors. He spent a great deal of time alone with just his own thoughts, and he soon realised that if he didn’t improve himself, he would be a janitor forever. So he started reading self-help books and attending courses, trying to figure out how to improve his situation. Then the book suddenly skips ahead, and the next paragraph opens with him in a private helicopter, heading to a seminar as the speaker.
This dramatic change in his life really motivated me, because I was reading it as a young man, just after I had dropped out of Singapore Polytechnic and was feeling very down about my life. I was also scrubbing toilets, except in a McDonald’s instead of an office building, and I, too, was wondering if I would be stuck doing that for the rest of my life. His story gave me hope, and I resolved to read his book closely to see what wisdom I could glean from him. And the principles he shared in that book have stayed with me my whole life.
I’ve always enjoyed reading, and I believe books and language have a special kind of power to change lives. Language is what makes humans different from other creatures. Because we had a mind that could create language, we became the dominant species on Earth: we passed down knowledge to our descendants, we grew, and we formed civilisations and cities.
Books have shaped my mind and given me control over my life – Robbins’ book, for instance, taught me essential principles for business and communication, such as how to maximise the understanding of someone I’m talking to by changing the tone of my voice, the speed of my speech, how I articulate and how many pauses I take. When I was a child, I devoured Enid Blyton books, which expanded my imagination and set a foundation for my enjoyment of language. And while I joke that Robbins’ book is like the Bible to me, I read the Bible too, and that has inspired me more than any other book. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is great truth there – language is holy, and powerful. Never underestimate the power of words to create great change.
Authored by Kenneth Kam
Produced by Callio Media