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Helping discover one’s potential

Bob Urichuck - consultant, speaker and trainer - wants to make a difference in people’s lives

He describes himself as a cultivator of human potential. Bob Urichuck is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant, who travels all over the world conducting seminars on motivation, leadership, sales enhancement and building of team skills. He is also the author of two books titled Online for Life - The Twelve Disciplines for Living your Dreams and Up Your Bottom Line.

“My goal is to make a difference in the lives of people. My books and training programmes are designed to help people discover their own needs and desires, to teach them how to set measurable goals for themselves and to motivate them to take necessary action to achieve those goals,” said Urichuck, during a recent visit to Dubai.

Urichuck is a good speaker with a friendly manner and uses humour and his bright smile to great advantage during his training sessions. He uses quotes from Norman Vincent Peale, Henry Ford, Jonas Salk and Mark Twain to illustrate various principles, but the advice he gives is practical. He gets participants to do several exercises that lead to self-discovery and clarification of goals.

In a seminar I attended he spoke to employees of Le Meridien Dubai about maintaining control over the sales process by having control over your attitude towards yourself, your organisation and the market and setting clear personal and business goals.

He speaks with passion and conviction because what he talks about are lessons he has learnt from life and Urichuck is actually living his own dream.

“I set a goal for myself to be a professional speaker and trainer by the time I was 45. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of people. I also wanted to live in my dream house, see the world ‘first class with all expenses paid’ and never ever be in debt. I had to go through many hardships and failures, but I stayed focused on that dream, took determined steps to achieve it and succeeded. The biggest lesson I have learnt from life, one that is part of the 12 disciplines I teach, is to be thankful for what you have, be it health, money or the love of your family,” he said.

Sales training began in childhood for Urichuck, because he had to help with the family business. After graduating in business administration, he got a marketing job.

“Network marketing taught me the power of the mind. I got so intrigued by the concepts of motivation, self-development and trying to understand what makes people succeed that all my reading was focused in that area,” he said.

But despite this preparation, early success in his sales career was followed by a series of misfortunes that led to him being jobless and deep in debt at the age of 30.

Urichuck was then forced to accept a job with a large government organisation in his native Canada. “Although I did not like the job, I saw the opportunity to learn many new skills that would help me to achieve my goal,” he said.

He seized the chance to attend as many training programmes as he could. He distilled the best from each programme, added what he had learnt from his own experiences and devised his own programme, which he tested within the company.

“My first book Online for Life came out of a project I did for my diploma in an adult learning course,” said Urichuck. “I also obtained credentials to be a trainer and honed my training skills by conducting training programmes within the comnpany.

To improve my speaking skills I joined Toastmasters International and later founded the Canadian Toastmasters Club. This is exactly what I teach in my courses. Know where you want to go and take positive steps towards that goal,” he emphasised.

When he finally decided to branch out on his own, he started by doing free programmes for companies, which then led to more work. To gain a foothold in the international market, he wrote to the best hotels in various cities, offering to do free training for their employees in return for a room. The strategy worked and today Urichuck conducts several programmes every year in Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai besides Canada.

He is popular not just for his practical and effective training but also because he develops customised programmes for each company. “Before I conduct the training I try to understand the needs of the client. I study the objectives of the management and also do a confidential survey of the participants to find out what specific problems they would like to deal with. If the industry is new to me, I also take the time to go out with the sales people to understand the business properly,” he said.

Urichuck believes that he can make a lasting difference only if the programme is ongoing. “I have been coming to Dubai for five years and now with the help of Right Selection, who are my agents here, I want to introduce a partnering programme. This way I can work with companies on a regular basis, which will definitely result in attitudinal and hence behavioural changes resulting in a measurable increase in sales,” he said. Urichuck is also keen to train a UAE national to conduct the programmes in Arabic.

“I love Dubai and I believe that there is scope for my work here because the people are very responsive and forward looking,” he said.

Urichuck agreed that many professional speakers and trainers are in this business only for the money. “For me this job is a passion. People come to me because they want to increase their self esteem, self confidence and get more out of life and I want to help them do it. I offer free e-mail coaching because I want to help as many people as I can,” he said.

“My message to people is to live your dreams by having self-discipline, clear goals, doing something daily to achieve those goals and rewarding yourself for every right step you take.”

Right Selection - Event Management invites professional speakers, trainers, and consultants to share their expertise in various fields of learning with the corporate community. The Events division organises: * Success Seminars inviting participation from the corporate community. * Customised Workshops for individual companies

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Helping discover one’s potential