“I grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger. I never woke up saying, 'I'm an orphan again today, isn't this terrible? Poor me.'”

American self-help author and motivational speaker

Wayne Dyer was an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He earned advanced degrees in psychology and counseling, and taught counselor education at St. John’s University before his ideas were turned into books. His first book, Your Erroneous Zones, appeared in 1976 and helped make him a widely known public speaker and writer. Dyer went on to publish 20 more best-selling books and produced several popular PBS specials. His early work focused on motivation, self-actualization, and assertiveness, while his later writing shifted toward spirituality. He drew on figures such as Abraham Maslow, Albert Ellis, Swami Muktananda, and New Thought, promoted the idea of the power of intention, and often appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.