Lesra Martin

We are often told that the best way to succeed in life is to create a plan or to adopt a formula.

This adage may be true.  My life experience, however, also compels me to share with you the importance of simply lending a hand when you can. I grew up in an inner-city ghetto of New York. Unable to read or write at the age of 15, my future, no doubt, looked very bleak. Yet, when strangers came into my life and didn’t look the other way, everything changed.  They offered me a hand.  I took it. Like a butterfly effect, the moment I grabbed hold of that hand, I would rise above difficult challenges and succeed. 

My life is an example of what can happen when simple kindness is our guide. I want to share this journey with you.

-Lesra Martin

Life can present us with many challenges, testing our strength and inner capacity for growth. 

One thing I know for sure is that universally we all want to make a difference, a contribution, and we all wonder if ever we can. Often, we think that in making a real difference means doing something “BIG”.  We think that the individual small impact we can have doesn’t really matter.

I don’t believe this. I believe that in each of us, there is the power of one, and it is this power that gives us the greatest ability to have a ripple effect to make a difference.

Engaging the power of one, means putting yourself in the picture and recognizing that individually you have a role to play and an ability to make your community the best it can be. The power to make a difference exists in each of us. Activating this ability starts with embracing hope, having heart, and believing in the strength of the human spirit to keep on trying. When you allow yourself to imagine you can, when you imagine the best, you put yourself in the picture and you come to realize that you can’t spell success with “you”. Embrace the power of one.

Start that change with me today. 

-Lesra Martin