The 10 Best Motivational Speakers

The 10 Best Motivational Speakers in the World
by Dan Western - Nov 11, 2014

Motivational speakers have had an enormous impact on my life, and millions of others, no matter what their personal situation in life may be. Their words are so powerful and inspirational, you just have to listen to their stuff on a daily basis. So it brings me to this post.
I’ve been enjoying a lot of motivational videos recently, have been creating my own, and have ended up listening to a lot of wonderful speeches.
But who are the best motivational speakers in the world? Here’s my list of the top 10 motivational speakers in the world. These are the people you need to be following, listening to and watching on YouTube. They have transformed many people’s lives including mine.

1) Eric Thomas

Eric Thomas, born on September 11th 1965 in Tuscan, Arizona, was homeless at the age of 16 years old. But Eric decided that he wanted to make a better life for himself, to become someone with a life he could be proud of.

E.T did just that, and pushed himself to end up playing 9 seasons as a cornerback in the NFL.

He also managed to get the education he missed out on whilst he was homeless, and pushed himself further to achieve all the qualifications he dreamed of being able to achieve.
Since playing in the NFL, Eric Thomas has become one of the best motivational speakers in the world. His YouTube videos are legendary and his best selling books have taken in millions of dollars in revenue.
E.T’s speeches are so popular, that you’ll find he’s featured in roughly 90% of the motivational videos that others create and upload to YouTube, using compilations of clips, speeches and music.


“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” – Eric Thomas

2) Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins was born on February 29th, 1960 in Los Angeles. His life at home when he was young was described by him as abusive and chaotic, and it was because of this that he left home at the age of 17.

Originally when starting out in the world of motivational speaking, Robbins was promoting seminars for Jim Rohn. He later decided to begin his own journey hosting his own seminars.
Tony has affected and changed so many people’s lives in a positive way through his seminars, motivational speeches, inspirational quotes and best selling books. If you search for him on YouTube several videos will pop up in which he’s changed someone’s life within the time space of the recording.
The favorites of mine that I’ve watched, are where he cures a young man’s stutter in 7 minutes and saves another guys marriage in 8.

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” - Tony Robbins


3) Les Brown

Les Brown was born on February 17th 1945 in Miami, Florida. Les was adopted by Mamie Brown, and whilst in grade school, was declared “educably mentally retarded”.
Despite this and emotional issues it brought upon him, he was encourage by others to continue to learn and be the best he could be, leading him to unlock his full potential.

Les is another motivational speaker who is incredibly popular among the motivational video compilations that others create, because his speeches are so deep and meaningful that they really get through to people.
His top selling books: ‘It’s Not over until You Win!’ and ‘Live Your Dreams’ are truly inspirational, and well worth the read.


“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up.” - Les Brown


4) Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn was born September 17th 1930 in Yakima, Washington, and passed away on December 5th 2009. Jim was a very successful entrepreneur, at one time being a Vice President of a very successful sales company, Nutri-Bio.

However, after the company eventually went out of business, he was invited to speak at a meeting of one of his clubs.
After this meeting, he was invited to speak at many other events and began making a name for himself. Jim Rohn was a wise businessman and managed to impart much of this wisdom into others.
He’s definitely earned the right to be on this list of the best motivational speakers in the world.


“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

5) Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30th 1947, in Austria. We all know him as the world famous professional bodybuilding champion, and there’s a very inspirational story behind Arnie’s bodybuilding success.


Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian army at the age of 18 years old for 1 year, which at the time was compulsory for all 18 year old males.


During this time, he would still manage to fit in his workouts between all the training and drills, whilst most people were resting. He snuck out of camp to compete in the Junior Mr. Europe contest, which he ended up winning.


Arnold’s discipline towards his training was incredible, and the fact that he was willing to disobey the rules of the army and sneak out of camp to compete in the contest, just goes to show how badly he wanted it. Nowadays, he’s an inspiration to many bodybuilders and a great source of motivation for anyone wanting to be successful.

“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger


6) Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar was born on November 6th, 1926 in Alabama, and passed away on November 28th in 2012. Ziglar has 11 siblings, and at the age of five years old, his father died of a stroke, and his sister passed away two days later. Zig actually served in the army from 1935 – 1946 during World War II.


Ziglar met his wife Jean when he was just 17 years old, and after the war began to work as a salesman for many different companies, eventually becoming the vice president for the Automotive Performance company.
He started taking part in motivational seminars, and also wrote his first book in 1975 titled: ‘See You at the Top’. This was the first of at least 15 books he’d written during the period of 1975 and 2012.

A lot of wisdom has come from Zig Ziglar over the years and he is definitely one of the best motivational speakers in the world.

“You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.” - Zig Ziglar


7) Wayne Dyer


Dr. Wayne Dyer was born on May 10th 1940 in Detroit, and spent the majority of his childhood in an orphanage. Dyer was in the U.S Navy after graduating high school, from 1958 to 1962. He then received his degree in counselling, a profession that he chose to work in for a while before taking it one step further.
Dyer left his teaching job and started pursuing a career in motivational speaking, holding various lectures across the states and becoming an incredibly popular author.
The first book that Dyer ever wrote has now had over 35 million copies sold and he’s proceeded to continue with his lecture tours, release various audio tapes and publish a regular stream of books.

“Passion is a feeling that tells you: this is the right thing to do. Nothing can stand in my way. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says. This feeling is so good that it cannot be ignored. I’m going to follow my bliss and act upon this glorious sensation of joy.” – Wayne Dyer
8) Robin Sharma

Robin Sharma was born in 1964 in Nepal, and straight out of the Dalhousie University School of Law, became a professional lawyer. But he went much further in his career than being a fully qualified and successful lawyer.


Sharma has written a total of 15 published books, from 1995 – 2011, on the subjects of self-help and leadership. One of his most popular books written; ‘The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari‘, has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
The book is all about a character called Julian, who decides to sell his home and Ferrari to go on a spiritual journey, after being the victim to a sudden heart attack.
Some may say that Robin Sharma’s more of a motivational author rather than speaker, but he deserves to be on this list. He’s written 12 global best sellers, and is an expert author in the world of leadership and self development.


“Dreamers are mocked as impractical. The truth is they are the most practical, as their innovations lead to progress and a better way of life for all of us.” – Robin S. Sharma

9) Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy was born on January 5th 1944 in Vancouver, Canada, and is the CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company that specifically sets out to help individuals and organizations develop, train and grow.


Brian’s ultimate goal is to help other people achieve their goals more efficiently and be able to achieve their full potential.
That definitely sets the foundation for a world class motivational speaker. His lifetime achievements are phenomenal, consulting huge numbers of businesses, hosting huge numbers of seminars and conducting years and years of research in Business, Economics, Psychology and Philosophy.
There’s no more to say other than the title given on his website: Professional Speaker, Best Selling Author, Entrepreneur and Success Expert. Check out some of the best Brian Tracy quotes.

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” – Brian Tracy
10) Nick Vujicic
Nick Vujicic was born on December 4th 1982 in Melbourne, Australia. Nick was born with Tetra-Amelia syndrome, a very rare disorder whereby someone is born with an absence of all four limbs.


This no doubt ably, made things incredibly tough for Nick growing up, as he struggled both mentally and physically.
It led to him founding his very own non-profit organization called ‘Life Without Limbs’. Nick Vujicic is a true inspiration to us all, and if you’ve watched some of his motivational speeches on YouTube, you’ll realize just how much he’s been able to adapt to a life without limbs.
Many people with this disorder might not be willing to work hard in order to truly push their abilities.
Nick can type 43 words a minute on a computer. That’s right, you heard me correctly. This is a guy who has an absence of all four limbs, but can type 43 words per minute on a computer. I encourage you to watch some of his videos on YouTube, and see exactly what I’m talking about.


“It’s a lie to think you’re not good enough. It’s a lie to think you’re not worth anything.” - Nick Vujicic


Source: http://wealthygorilla.com/