Dear Reader July 2011

Happy Independence Day! I challenge you to ponder that statement for a moment or two. On the surface it is meant as a simple holiday greeting, but beneath that is a pure expression of provocation. Summer is in full swing and chances are you have a bit more down time than normal. A chance to evaluate the elements of your regular routine and identify potential habits from which you would like to seek freedom.

As I am sure many of you did, I recently watched the final three episodes of Oprah. Though I was never a fanatic, I did watch the show occasionally and read her magazine. Although I was aware of many of the contributions she has made in the last 25 years, I was still overwhelmed by the two part celebrity tribute. Then in her final episode as she recited her love letter to her audience, it struck me on more than one occasion how as aestheticians, but really just as people you possess the same power and desires. Whether you like Oprah or not, whether you watched her show a little, a lot or never there is no denying that she touched many lives and inspired others to touch lives as well.

The ability and desire to touch and to change lives is the commonality that resonates the greatest between the work she did and the stories I hear from so many of you regularly. I am inspired by her and by you, not to go out and change the world but to change my world. By doing so I hope to impact the lives around me and inspire those people to free themselves from the mindset that one person cannot make a difference. Are you going to single-handedly change the entire world, it is not likely. However, if you change one life that person may change two lives and those two people will go on to change others and so the chain goes. And here I find myself back at the “Starfish” story. An old man sees a young man throwing starfish back into the sea and then sees the thousands of starfish on the beach. He says to the young man, “What are you doing, you can’t make a difference.” And the young man picks up another and tossing it back into the sea says, “I made a difference to that one.”

If Dr. Peter Pugliese, the newest member of the Academy of Legends, had followed the logic of the old man, the world of aesthetics would be a different place. Thankfully, he was more interested in making a difference to one, until he had ultimately made a difference to a whole industry.

So once again I say, Happy Independence Day! Free yourself from the belief that you cannot make a difference and just start doing so one client at a time. Maybe someday we will be publishing your story.

All my best,

Saundra S. Brown

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