A first-grade teacher told him he’d never read, write, or communicate. At 17, after being inspired to return to school, John Demartini scored 27 on his first college exam instead of the required 72. His mother found him crying in the living room, repeating the prophecy: “I’ll never amount to anything.”

Her response changed everything. “Son, whether you become a great teacher and travel the world, or go back to Hawaii and ride big waves, or return to the streets, your father and I are going to love you no matter what you do.”

His hand clenched into a fist. He looked up and saw a vision of himself as a teacher, intelligent and capable. “I’m not going to let anything on the face of the earth stop me from my dream.”

Today, Dr. John Demartini has spent 53 years teaching, researching, writing, and traveling the world as a human behavior specialist and educator. The boy told he’d never communicate now addresses thousands globally. Featured in Pillars of Power: The Hidden Secret Behind Achieving Greatness, Demartini has built his life’s work on one unshakeable foundation: be who you actually are.

“Many people compare themselves to others instead of comparing their daily actions to their own dreams,” Demartini explains. “An individual on a path of greatness is going to live authentically according to their own dreams.”