J. Martin Kohe

J. Martin Kohe – Life, Work, and Enduring Thoughts

Explore the life and teachings of J. Martin Kohe, an American psychologist and motivational speaker whose thought on choice and personal power continues to inspire. Dive into his background, philosophy, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

J. Martin Kohe is a somewhat elusive figure in the history of American psychology and motivational literature. Though not widely documented in academic circles, he left a lasting imprint as a lecturer, author, and popularizer of ideas about choice, self-responsibility, and personal growth. His most famous line, “The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose,” has circulated in training rooms, classrooms, and inspiration collections for decades.

Because concrete biographical details are scarce or inconsistent in public records, much of Kohe’s life must be reconstructed from his published works, promotional materials, and the rhythms of the motivational movement in mid-20th century America.

Early Life, Education, and Career Beginnings

Reliable sources about Kohe’s birth date, family background, and formal education are limited. Some accounts describe him as having begun his adult life as a practicing lawyer, before abandoning the law to pursue psychology.

One source asserts that Kohe studied psychology at Baldwin-Wallace College after setting aside a legal career. But the details—including where he was born, when he entered and left law practice, and the nature of his psychological training—remain unclear in most public records.

What is clearer is that Kohe aligned himself with the mid-century movement of practical, applied psychology—closer in spirit to motivational and self-help literature than to academic experimental psychology.

Work, Publications, and Public Influence

The Message and Method

Kohe built his reputation primarily through lectures, short books/pamphlets, and recordings addressed to business groups, school audiences, civic clubs, and motivational training sessions.

His style emphasized accessibility and clarity: he often began with everyday dilemmas—relational conflict, procrastination, morale—and showed how reframing choice in small decisions could shift one’s trajectory.

Kohe’s central theme was choice—the idea that individuals repeatedly hold the power to decide how they respond to circumstances. In this view, character, momentum, and resilience emerge from exercising choice in many small moments.

Key Works

Some of his better-known works include:

• Your Greatest Power (often reprinted and translated) — widely considered his signature piece, asserting that choice is the most potent force one wields.

• How to Overcome Discouragement (a recorded lecture) — offering strategies to deal with setbacks and maintain psychological resilience.

• How to Become a Mental Millionaire — another work that combines psychological ideas with success principles.

• Empowered Millionaire — a combined edition that integrates Your Greatest Power and How to Become a Mental Millionaire.

His works enjoyed repeated reprintings and distribution through motivational circuits, and he is sometimes described as having sold over 250,000 copies of Your Greatest Power.

Philosophy, Themes & Influence

Core Themes

1. Choice as Central Power
   Kohe saw choice not as an abstraction but as the hinge between challenge and character. He argued that recognizing one’s capacity to choose in any situation is the pathway to self-confidence and agency.

2. Micro-Decisions Lead to Macro Outcomes
   Small decisions—how to respond to criticism, how to allocate time, how to treat others—were, in his view, cumulative. Positive momentum grows not from grand gestures, but from decisions made repeatedly with intention.

3. Resilience over Circumstance
   Because circumstances are often beyond control, Kohe emphasized the internal locus of power: one can’t always change external events, but one can choose response, attitude, and persistence.

4. Respect, Harmony, and Disagreement
   In some of his aphorisms, Kohe calls for the capacity to differ without being disagreeable, pointing toward respect, listening, and emotional regulation in discourse.

Influence & Legacy

Kohe is not a household name in academic psychology, and there is little evidence of his participating in formal psychological research or institutions. Rather, his legacy lies in the enduring circulation of his phrases and ideas within motivational training, personal development, and self-help milieus.

His teachings resonate with a broader mid-20th century wave of American motivational thinkers (e.g., Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill)—figures who emphasized attitude, will, attitude, and practical application over theory.

Though he left few verifiable personal records or detailed biographical materials, his words live on in anthologies, training programs, and quotation collections. The persistence of his line about choice is perhaps his most durable legacy.

Selected (Famous) Quotes

Kohe’s quotable style is part of what has kept his work alive. Below are several of his more widely circulated lines:

“The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.”

“You possess a potent force that you either use, or misuse, hundreds of times every day.”

“Let us choose to believe something good can happen.”

“Yes, we are all different. Different customs, different foods, different mannerisms, different languages, but not so different that we cannot get along with one another. If we will disagree without being disagreeable.”

“Any person who recognizes this greatest power … the power to choose … begins to realize that he is the one that is doing the choosing … develops real self-confidence based upon his own ability …”

These lines distill his worldview: personal agency, moral respect, and practical wisdom for everyday life.

Lessons from J. Martin Kohe

• Recognize your everyday agency. Even when circumstances feel overwhelming, Kohe reminds us the small choices—how we speak, how we frame a situation—still matter.

• Consistency compounds. Character and momentum are built through lots of small, thoughtful decisions, not occasional grand acts.

• Choose respect in disagreement. Kohe’s appeal to disagree without being disagreeable remains relevant in polarized times.

• Internal locus of control empowers resilience. When external conditions fail, choosing how to respond can be the source of recovery and growth.

• Simplicity can endure. Kohe’s ideas succeed because they are direct and repeatable—ideas that people can carry with them in speech, teaching, and memory.

Conclusion

J. Martin Kohe may not appear in academic histories of psychology, yet his voice echoes in motivational literature and self-improvement traditions. His central insight—that the power to choose undergirds our character—resonates because it offers a bridge between internal attitude and outward life.

Though many personal details about his life remain obscure, his work continues to be a touchstone for people who seek clarity, personal responsibility, and tools for navigating daily decision. If you’d like, I can help you locate original editions of Your Greatest Power or translations of Kohe’s work.