THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260239
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Susie Stoughton
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Ramon Williamson grew up in Suffolk, sometimes getting into trouble in elementary school just by opening his mouth.
He'd ask so many questions that his teacher thought he was disruptive and would make him sit in the hall.
Today, at 29, Williamson makes his living with his silver tongue. A nationally acclaimed motivational speaker, he is the head of a corporation that includes a seminar company, a cassette publishing business and a travel agency.
He and his wife, Antoinette, live in Wilmington, Del., but he is rarely home. He travels around the world giving motivational talks and conducting sales training programs.
He tells people to believe in themselves and not to be bound by the past.
``I'm sort of a regular person with a message that will basically help people, to let them know the past never determines the future,'' he said in a recent telephone interview from Wilmington.
He grew up in the Holland section of Suffolk, where his mother and a younger brother and sister still live. But he had a difficult time adjusting after his father's death in 1981 and didn't feel like he would ever amount to much.
``In a sense, we are our own worst enemies,'' he said.
Earlier this month, he won the Les Brown Golden Microphone Award at a New York seminar conducted by Brown, another motivational speaker and author of ``Live Your Dreams.''
One of Williamson's dreams is to come ``home'' this fall and bring his message to local high school students and to conduct a community motivational rally.
His mother, Callie Williamson, teaches at Joseph P. King Jr. Elementary School in Franklin. She says her oldest son was known for his typical, trouble-making school pranks, like chewing gum and passing notes in class.
``He was brilliant,'' she said. ``But he didn't function well in the regular classroom.''
He said he flunked senior English but eventually graduated from Franklin High School and went to Virginia Union University for a year before dropping out. And twice he failed at attempts to manage successful businesses.
``But today, I'm an author and motivational speaker.''
He has written ``No Cold Call Selling'' as part of ``The Great Speaker's Anthology,'' a book published by Royal CBS Publishing, Glendora, Calif. It's available through the publisher or through Williamson, who said ``No Cold Call Selling'' will be published soon under its own title, ``The Power of Personal Marketing.''
A new book, ``Successipes'' - which outlines simple ``recipes'' to solve life's problems, is scheduled to hit the book stores in the spring, he said.
Williamson's love of public speaking goes back to his youth and his days in the Suffolk 4-H program, where he delivered his first speech when he was 9.
``I still remember it: `After 200 Years, America, What Now?' My mom wrote the speech, and I gave it and won. That's what really birthed my passion.''
He got a standing ovation.
``Nobody can write a speech like my Mama,'' he said.
Today, his message is simple.
``I learned we don't need to compete. We didn't show up on this planet without an assignment. No one can play the music you were created to play.''
Attitude is important, he said.
``You have the power within you to shape your destiny. You can let fear control you, or you can decide at this very moment to take charge.''
Everyone is going to make mistakes, ``even some whoppers,'' but you can turn things around, he said.
``I think we all get down, but some of us just take longer to get up than others. It has a lot to do with how we approach life. Do we see our results as failures or as learning experiences? In every adversity is the seed of equal or greater benefit.''
Williamson advises teachers to try to understand all their students.
``I tell them, `You're going to have some kids in your class who you think are nuts.' That's probably what they thought about me.''
But he has never lost the desire to learn. ``I probably read 700 books on self-help,'' he said.
``It can happen. Whatever your dream is, it can happen.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ramon Williamson
Motivational speaker
by CNB