If you asked me what the best investment I ever made, I would have to say it was the $12 I paid to take the Christopher Leadership Course back in 1957. It might have been $16 now that I think about it. And maybe it was one night a week for six or was it eight nights including the competition? Our leader was a Dale Carnegie instructor and I believe I received six books free and I won a nice pen one evening. Three of us competed in one of the sections and I came in a distant third. The winner could not speak English. But I felt like a winner because I stood up and spoke. When I started the course I could not lead a group in silent prayer.
The morning we graduated I went in and made my first outside speech. It was in my bosses office and I asked him for a raise. He gave me a $25 a month raise and that is somehow reflected in the pension checks I receive today. I sort of laugh when I hear some people say they do not take courses because their employer does not pay for such things. It took a great deal of change in me before the results of that course might be seen but every time I get up to give a speech, some of what I learned in those classes is apparent. It changed my life. What have I done lately in the way of continued education? Well, I went alone to a local place called The Depot and I stood up at the open mike and did five minutes of comedy. I had never done “Open mike” before and I knew only one fellow in the audience and I did not attend with him. I went along. Never could have dared that without that course I took just fifty four years ago.
Is it time for you to make an investment in yourself?
Curious: What is/was a ‘Christopher Leadership Course’? I’m familiar with Dale Carnegie but not the Christopher course. In any case, indeed a great return on your investment Art!