4 minute read
Melin Pillay
Melvin Pillay
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Q. Thanks for interviewing with us. Please give us your backstory and what led you to your career path.
A. I was born into poverty in rural South Africa during the
Apartheid era. I lived in a tin shack with five siblings. My family had to rely on prayer to get through our hardships.
Yet, even with the unending challenges I had faced early in my life, I had my eye for success.
At age 7, I saw an airplane fly overhead, and I started to chase after the plane to take me away from poverty and hopelessness. I thought to myself, one day, I’m going to fly and never stop flying. That spark of belief led me to manifest my dream decades later.
Growing up in such dire situations served to be highly enlightening. I understood that poverty is not the way for me, and that people would never listen to my ideas if I were poor. However, after the tragic death of my older brother, a
law student, and the family’s only economic hope, the entire responsibility of the family, fell on my shoulders.
Q. What inspired you to become a motivational speaker?
A. I experienced many misfortunes, but my uninterrupted ambitions for success led me to take up a job in New Zealand. I went door to door selling home security systems. I was a total failure.
People liked me, but they didn’t like me that much to give me the money for the alarms. I was broke. I was forced to leave the boarding house. So, I slept in the board room of the sales company and had to get up very early and shower at a local gym and hit the road before the company opened daily.
During the lowest point in my life, I stumbled upon an interesting audio cassette, which I found at a public library in Auckland. The cassette tape had Zig Ziglar’s name on it, and it cost $2 to rent. So instead of using that money to eat, I invested my last two dollars and did not regret it. My education in sales and business started right there with that first audiotape. Ziglar’s thought-provoking words and charisma were exhilarating, and I knew what I needed to do for the rest of my life.
It was right then when I developed my love for sales, success, and leadership. & [Zig] said, & I wish I could get my arms around you and look you in your eyes and tell you I believe in you because I truly do & I believed him.
Q. How do you ensure your speeches are captivating and informative?
A. Research has shown that it takes the brain 0.07 seconds to decide whether you like the other person or not because a person’s intuition is so powerful.
I believe that a captivating and informative speech must connect spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I spend a lot of time thinking deeply about my audience and praying for them. I always want to sense their anxieties and feel their pain. I ensure that jokes and stories, and anecdotes are precisely selected to suit my audience. My desire as a speaker is to make a friend in less than 60 seconds. But to achieve this, I must be a friend. Ninety percent of a speaker’s life is off stage, so I built my life on this philosophy. I want to have a pure heart, clean hands, and an innocent mind.
Q. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
A. As a global citizen, I have been blessed with opportunities around the world. I do see myself working with World leaders and highly influential business owners.
Q. What would you say has been the most challenging in your career?
A. At first, it was overcoming the fear of public speaking, and then it was being unknown. But patience, perseverance and practice helped me overcome these two prevalent challenges in the professional speaking world.
Q. Tell us the biggest factor that has helped you to become successful?
A. Two words. Love and Respect. I genuinely love people, and I treat every person I meet as if they are the most important people in the world.
Q. Can you tell us the top three things you love about South Africa?
A. People, Food and Adventure.
South African people love to laugh at just about anything. We have a strange yet refreshing sense of humor.
The food is so good. A lot of it is organic and grown by subsistence farmers. You have heard of the term Wild Africa, and that it is. It’s in your blood. Africa stirs something deep in a person’s spirit.
Q. What is one message you would like to give to your fans?
A. You are wonderfully and carefully created. And there never will be another person like you ever again.
So, dream big, believe in yourself, and believe in almighty God because if you do, a day will come when I will see you at The Top!
Q. Are you working on any new events or upcoming projects?
A. At this very moment, I am in South
Africa; our country has gone through a crisis. I am here helping with several projects, but my main focus is launching my Get Activated
Leadership and Business Growth
Seminar. I plan on hosting these events throughout Africa and
America.
Q. Where can our readers connect with you?
A. https://www.facebook.com/melvin. pillay www.linkedin.com/in/melvinpillay https://www.melvinpillay.com/
