Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will

The words of Les Brown—“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.”—thunder like a command from the mountaintop. In them we hear the eternal call to sovereignty of the soul. For too often men and women wait for rescue, or blame the fates, or lean upon others for the shaping of their destiny. Brown, with the fire of a teacher and the clarity of a prophet, reminds us that the path of greatness is walked by one’s own feet, guided by one’s own will. Others may aid, encourage, or inspire, but the burden and the glory of the journey rest upon the individual.

The ancients spoke often of this truth. The Stoics, from Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius, declared that while we cannot control fortune, we can control our choices. They taught that the essence of freedom lies not in circumstances but in the mastery of the self. To accept responsibility is to cease blaming fortune, gods, or men, and to claim the power of choice. It is to say, as the heroes of old did, “If the world resists me, still I will carve my path.” This is the very heartbeat of Brown’s wisdom: that life bends to those who take full ownership of it.

History gives us shining witnesses. Abraham Lincoln, born in poverty, taught himself by firelight, failed in business, stumbled in elections, yet rose through perseverance to guide a fractured nation. He did not wait for luck nor complain of misfortune. He bore the weight of his failures, learned from them, and pressed forward. His greatness was not bestowed by others; it was earned through responsibility and endurance. Like Lincoln, countless others who transformed history carried the same truth in their hearts: that you must move yourself forward, for no one else can walk your path.

This principle also resounds in the life of Les Brown himself. Born in hardship, labeled “educable mentally retarded” in school, he could have surrendered to despair. Yet he refused the label, claimed ownership of his destiny, and through relentless work rose to become one of the world’s most powerful motivational voices. His very life is the embodiment of his words: no savior, no chance stroke of luck, but a man who bore the responsibility of his own growth and achieved greatness.

The danger of refusing this truth is clear. Those who wait endlessly for others to change their circumstances live in chains of dependency. They become like ships without rudders, drifting wherever the winds of fortune carry them. But those who accept responsibility take the helm. They may meet storms and shipwrecks, but their course is theirs, and by their own courage they find new harbors. Brown’s words are not gentle comfort, but a summons to awaken the inner captain, to rise from passivity into power.

The lesson for us is this: stop waiting, stop blaming, stop delaying. Look within and ask, What can I do? What choice can I make today that brings me closer to the life I desire? This does not mean denying help from others, but it means never surrendering the core truth that your life belongs to you. No teacher, parent, friend, or leader can live it for you. Their hands may lift you up, but your feet must walk the road.

Therefore, let us live as Les Brown commands. Let us accept responsibility with courage, knowing that within us lies the power to rise, to create, to achieve. Let us cease waiting for fortune to smile and instead become the builders of our destiny. For in the end, life will not ask what others did for us, but what we did with the gifts we were given. And if we rise with responsibility in our hearts, then, like the heroes of old, we shall carve our place upon the earth with honor.