I love teaching – more than I could have ever imagined and yet I didn’t like it when I first started as a Dale Carnegie instructor.  After some pretty rigorous training, I got my first class – 44 adults.  Before the first break, one student said (in front of the class) “You’re going to teach us to speak, but you always talk with your hands.”  Yikes, I’m dead!

I went to the sponsor, Wynn Etter and shared my concern – it just didn’t feel comfortable and his advice changed me forever – he said, “just be yourself, you know what to do”.

So, I enjoyed teaching that great course for 11 years and went on to become a professor at USC and NYU following his excellent advice.

As the new semester starts, I share this because I’m refreshing Wynn’s comments for the school year ahead and paying it forward in a way to remind my learners and anyone who will listen to just be yourself – you know what to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

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