Paul Blake - From 'dunce' to motivational speaker and counsellor

If anyone knows what it feels like to be put down and made to feel small, then motivational speaker, author, minister and counsellor Paul Blake can relate.

Throughout his primary-school years, Blake was called a dunce because he was a slow learner. He said that the only persons who were confident that he would make it to high school were his parents. His teachers didn't bother to pay attention to him and others like him.

Things turned around for Blake when he was in grade six. He passed the Common Entrance Examination in 1986 for Knox but opted instead to attend Manchester High School.

However, during his adolescent years, Blake said that he battled low self-esteem as a result of the dysfunctional family in which he grew up.

"My parents divorced in 1988 during my third year of high school, and that placed me on a path to self-destructive behaviours. I got to a point in my life where I did not care if I lived or died. I did not expect to live past age 25," he shared with The Gleaner.

School for him was misery as he went without books, lunch; or money for taxi fare, which, most times, left him behind in his class work.

"When I completed high school, I only managed to get passes in three subjects and had to repeat fifth form between 1991 and 1992," he said, admitting now that the worst thing about being told that he would not be successful at anything, was believing that it was true.

Blake said that for the major part of his life, he lived that lie, doing things but never accomplishing anything. It was one bad decision after another, he said, sharing that nothing turned out right.

HOPELESS AND DEPRESSED

"The only solace I found was in partying, smoking, drinking, and those were only temporary fixes. I became hopeless and depressed watching the world go by, with me trying desperately to figure out my place in it. Nothing made sense, and it seemed that all the negative pronouncements about my life were finally coming true," he said.

Thankfully, Blake said, God had other plans for him, and on June 10, 1998, the day the World Cup began in France, he made the bold decision to accept Christ as his Saviour. That decision, he said, set in motion several changes in his life.

Through his new-found lease on life, Blake, with the encouragement of his minister, Carl Powell of the Mandeville Church of Christ, who encouraged him, went into training and also rediscovered his passion for writing, which started in high school.

In 2007, he graduated from The University of the West Indies with an upper-second class honours degree in theology, and with it, the confirmation of his belief in the power of positive thinking.

"I know words to make the difference between a life of success or failure. I spend much of my time working with persons who were written off by society for one reason or another. I believe people can change the course of their lives by learning how to channel their energy into positive thinking," he said.

Blake, who now runs the company Words Worthit Motivational Speaking and Training Co Ltd, along with his wife, Racquel, said that they offer courses in personal development, public speaking, counselling, career development, and motivational speaking.