In his office study near Beth Israel in suburban Brookline, Shama is far from the "6 foot 6 big hulk of a guy" that he claimed to be in his recent Boston talk. He is balding, well under six feet and a little goofy looking in the picture of himself in a clown suit that he keeps near the window.

His desk is covered with a collection of inspirational books. The bookcase is filled with dermatology texts, and the walls hold his degrees, including a Master's of Public Health conferred by Harvard in 1974.

Shama now spends half of his time in his study preparing his speeches and his book, Stories from the Doctor's Dining Room as Recorded on Paper Napkins, which he hopes to have finished next year.

He eagerly lays out enormous, pink paper napkins, on which he has scrawled his book notes, as he explains that every motivational speaker has to have a book, but he writes from the heart.

"I have to write the book because it's an expression of who I am," he says. " It's not the book that's gonna get me places, it's who I am."

The long-time doctor now says his true aspiration is to give sterling speeches that will affect his colleagues' lives.

"A good speech is like a beautiful piece of music," he says. "It will last forever. People will want copies of it--want to listen to it over and over again. I wish most of us had no time for idle conversation. I wish everything we said was recordable."