What Made Me Who I Am

First-person accounts of growing up and becoming successful, from thirty-four of the speakers William Swain represented as co-founder of the Washington Speakers' Bureau.

Starting a business is a wonderfully naïve venture. Only a fortunate few will survive--and very few of those who thrive will have something special to say about failure, success, and leadership. Bernie Swain is one of those few very fortunate people. He quit his job in 1980 to start a lecture agency with his wife and a friend. By the end of their first rocky year--just as his savings were running out--Swain's first revenues trickled in. He began signing every speaker with a handshake; this proved to be the hallmark of trust that helped accelerate the company's growth. Years later, his roster of speakers would be the greatest in history since America's first agency represented a host of notables such as Mark Twain, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass. The best of Swain's fortunes turned out to be the speakers themselves because these remarkable leaders had become his personal friends. What Made Me Who I Am captures the leadership transformations of 34 of those friends--from Doris Kearns Goodwin to Colin Powell, Terry Bradshaw to Tom Brokaw, and Tony Blair to Dave Barry. This assembly of people defines a generation. What were their most powerful influences? Defining moments? Decisions that contributed the most to their character and accomplishments? Swain captures answers to these questions and more in an inspiring, practical collection of true-life stories for leaders today. What Made Me Who I Am is also a terrific gift book for graduates and others who are just starting out in life.

For author Doe Running Deer, life has been a series of tragedy and healing. In My Past Decisions Have Made Me Who I Am Today, she narrates the stories of her trials and tribulations, sharing how faith helped her get through the difficult periods. Using personal anecdotes to illustrate how God has worked in her life, she explores the doubts, fears, and perplexities she experienced and describes how she found comfort and guidance in the Bible and through prayer. In this memoir, she recalls growing up as the oldest of four in a small Texas town against the backdrop of her parents’ alcoholism and marital issues; being molested by a cousin at an early age; being introduced to Jesus Christ in her teenage years; marrying an alcoholic; and enduring his subsequent suicide. With scriptural examples to highlight key points, My Past Decisions Have Made Me Who I am Today serves to communicate the message that there is healing and that God is listening and is rescuing his people from their hurts and pains.

"You Made Me What I Am" is all about the tragedy, romance and experiences that a simple boy, a student of B.Tech faces in his life. It is a romantic suspense novel. Arya, a student of B.Tech tall, gangly and introvert, he is not every girls dream boy falls in love with Ayesha who reminds him of Promises and Forever. Ayesha was from the same college but she never talk with Arya during the course. Their first conversation start through Facebook and they fall in love. There was no similarity between the two. Only one thing common between them is they are 'HRF' Hrithik Roshan's fan. Everything was going good between them and they were at the peak of their romantic relationship. But suddenly destiny played a cruel role which Arya had never expected and that created a vast differences in their happy relationship. Everything got shattered in a single blow, his love, his hope and his dream were also in the row... The book contains the craziness of Arya, Rahul and Abhi, their friendship and the bond of brotherhood they carry in every iota of their blood. The novel also describes the lifestyle of an engineering student, experiences of the later and the dilemma faced during the course. This book is based on my Real Life Experiences. I don’t want to reveal how much fiction, how much fact is there in my book rather I want my reader to find it their own.

Award-winning activist journalist and motivational speaker Jeff Johnson dares the post - Civil Rights generation to stop making excuses, overcome personal challenges, and create lives filled with passion, meaning, and service in Everything I'm Not Made Me Everything I Am. This empowering strategic guide for manifesting and achieving your personal B.E.S.T. highlights Johnson's unique blend of political consciousness and street-smart inspiration. A committed youth advocate, Johnson offers a lifeline to those who feel lost in a sea of choices, distractions, and self-imposed limits. Everything I'm Not Made Me Everything I Am offers practical guidance for learning how to unplug from the programmed expectations of family and society in order to discover and fulfill your unique life's mission.

Just as authors create books, books create authors — and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most. What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children’s and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers — for good. Some of the contributors include: Ambelin Kwaymullina Mal Peet Shaun Tan Markus Zusak Randa Abdel-Fattah Alison Croggon Ursula Dubosarsky Simon French Jaclyn Moriarty

Award-winning activist journalist and motivational speaker Jeff Johnson dares the post-Civil Rights generation to stop making excuses, overcome personal challenges, and create lives filled with passion, meaning, and service in Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am. This empowering strategic guide for manifesting and achieving your personal B.E.S.T. highlights Johnson’s unique blend of political consciousness and street-smart inspiration. A committed youth advocate, Johnson offers a lifeline to those who feel lost in a sea of choices, distractions, and self-imposed limits. Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am offers practical guidance for learning how to unplug from the programmed expectations of family and society in order to discover and fulfill your unique life’s mission.

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times