Never let other people define who you become!

'You're Stupid.'

'You'll be a Failure.'

'You will never amount to much.'

'You are not good enough.'

'You are so Dumb.'

'Your ideas are Irrelevant.'

Like so many people through the years, Albert Einstein heard many, if not all of these words and phrases spoken to him, about him. Albert didn't express himself very well and it is widely suggested that he struggled in school with some of his teachers deciding that he was impossible to teach.

There are also many suggestions that he was dyslexic as he exhibited many of the dyslexic traits, but that is not something that has been proven.

This obviously doesn't sound like an auspicious beginning for someone who is now considered to be one of the greatest geniuses of all time?

Einstein seemed to meet failure at almost every turn. He struggled at school with rota learning, memorisation, despised his authoritarian schoolmasters and even hated reading aloud. Einstein struggled with word retrieval and found it hard to express himself in writing as most dyslexics do. He had to take the entrance exam twice before he was admitted to the college he wanted to attend.

Author Abraham Pais relates an amusing story about Einstein's school career in his book, 'Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein' from Einstein's days at secondary school in Munich:

• At the Gymnasium a teacher once said to him that he, the teacher, would be much happier if the boy were not in his class. Einstein replied that he had done nothing wrong. The teacher answered, “Yes, that is true. But you sit there in the back row and smile, and that violates the feeling of respect that a teacher needs from his class.”

This was also the same teacher who said that Einstein would not get anywhere in life!

He did, however, see the world from a unique perspective and excelled in visual imagination and spatial reasoning. Einstein was also aloof, discontented and a daydreamer.

• "Words and language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought."
• "Writing is difficult and I communicate this way very badly."

These are things he said about himself. He accepted he wasn't great at writing or reading, but could easily formulate ideas, see patterns and conceptualise things other people could not.

He neglected mathematics at college and often skipped classes, which led to an ever-deteriorating relationship with the head of the physics department, Heinrich Weber.

This, in turn, led to Einstein not being offered an expected teaching post after graduation. Because of his devil-may-care attitude, many of his professors suggested he was destined for a mediocre physics career and cast him aside. His friend, fortunately, helped Albert to get a fairly well paying, but very mundane job as a clerk in the Swiss patent office.

And this was exactly what he needed because, although he worked 6 days a week, it allowed him to use the time to think through and work out several theories. From the Theory of Relativity to every theory that came after, it soon became evident that Einstein's thoughts, ideas and imaginations were considerable. So much so that he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

Imagine what his critics had to say about him then when he was celebrated by the world for his amazing achievements!

This very short story of the life of Albert Einstein shows all of us not to let the world define we are or who we become.

No one truly knows what you're capable of except you. In fact, like most people, you probably don't even know what you are capable of. The truth is you have the capability to do the most extraordinary things. As long as you have a brain that functions, you have the ability to think and those thoughts can transform the world.

You may not be able to express your ideas, your thought or your dreams well, it doesn't mean they don't have merit and are not potentially world-changing. You may not have done well in school, you may not have been able to read or write well, your spelling may be terrible, but that does not mean you are less than the people around you or anyone else. It does not mean that you are destined to be mediocre or work in a mundane job your entire life.

Einstein is also an excellent example of what it means to do your own thing and to live your own life. He travelled life at his pace, not at the pace others thought he should. His ideas didn't fit in with the way most people typically thought about the world.

During his lifetime, not everyone saw things his way. Not everyone agreed with him and the way he worked things out, but it didn't stop him from expressing himself and standing up for what he believed in.

So don't be afraid to share your ideas with the world, even if you are not as articulate as other people think you should be, but importantly, never let anyone else tell you what you can do, whom you can become, how you can change your world or how you can positively change the world for other people.

For many years, I have been working on what I now call 'SLOW' philosophy and a part of this concept is born out of stories like that of Einstein. It also in part comes from a fantastic little book I read many, many years ago called, 'As a man thinketh...!' by James Allen.

And it goes like this: Thoughts produce mindsets which create attitudes. Attitudes develop habits that manifest into actions. And it is in actions that we find results. So if you want to change your results, don't begin with actions, begin with changing your thoughts.

And this is the underlying idea behind my new book called, 'Rethink!'

So don't be afraid of sharing your ideas and when they are challenged, check them, edit them if necessary and get on down the road. Never again allow anyone or any group of people to define you or try to determine your destiny.