Selling Point

His first step into transitioning into a career of motivational speaking was in the early ’90s when he volunteered in an American prison,running self-esteem programmes in jails. “Once I saw life change for prisoners there,I decided to take it to the corporate world.” The rest is history,as Khera has been giving motivational speeches to corporate clients for over 15 years. His first book,You Can Win,was released in 1998 and made famous by his quote “Winners don’t do different things,they do things differently.” Khera’s subsequent books didn’t achieve as much success; he was accused of plagiarism by author Amrit Lal in his third,Freedom Is Not Free. Khera firmly dismisses the topic,stating that “within a few weeks,there was an unconditional withdrawal of all allegations after we took some action.” A 2004 article by a national magazine,however,implies that Khera and Lal reached an out-of-court settlement.

It is interesting to note that Khera feels that you can be a genuine motivational speaker once you have formed your convictions and values. “You probably have a long list of so-called motivational speakers out there. Unless you practise these things,motivational speaking is all acting,” Khera insists.

The 60-year-old also maintains that he would not be surprised if the number of phony motivational writers could be higher than 50 per cent. When asked what role publishers play in facilitating such phony books,Khera says that he wouldn’t write something purely for sales if his publisher asked him to. “I’ve heard that some publishers do that sometimes. Maybe they do the kind of things which are topical; they then catch hold of somebody and just get them to write a book on that topic.”

For some of us who are wary of the concept of motivational books and speeches as a whole,we questioned why anyone needs such material. Khera says,“Even I need motivation everyday. If we don’t feed our minds with positive thoughts everyday,we all slip.” We suggest that such books simply make content people feel the need to be more ambitious (maybe even unsatisfied); Khera retorts saying that there is a thin line between contentment and complacency. “All over the world,people want to succeed and they want to win. Success is an ongoing process as when we achieve something,we want to achieve something next.” Khera points out since success is so subjective,he aims to make people feel successful as it is internal. “People such as celebrities may seem successful but it doesn’t matter if they feel hollow.”

Khera doesn’t convince us of the need to buy motivational books,but we can understand the appeal to readers. The man has excellent inter-personal skills and a casual,even comforting demeanor. A fan of his sums it up perfectly,saying “it isn’t what he says—we know these things already—it’s the way he puts it across.”