Jim Rohn [(September 17, 1930 - December 5, 2009) was an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker. His rags to riches story played a large part in his work, which influenced others in the personal development industry.] said, "To have more than you've got, you've got to become more than you are." He learned this at 25 years of age when he met
Earl Shoaff [(March 21, 1916 - September 6, 1965) was an American entrepreneur who was widely known as "The Millionaire Maker."] who became his mentor.
Too many people in our culture today don't know the value of hard work and why it is necessary for all Americans to work hard. The biggest thing people need to learn is how to make and set goals. Jim has mentored over 10's of millions of men in this skill. This seems to be a dying art today, working toward success. There are two videos below that I would like to recommend to you to watch:
Jim Rohn: Setting Goals Part 1
Jim Rohn: Setting Goals Part 2
Jim says that one of the first books he read as an adult was,
How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler [((December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001). Adler was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author]. In this book, Mortimer outlines a "must read" or Ultimate Goals of Reading list (see link above for list). One goal every person should have according to both of these highly successful men is to make your own list of books YOU want to read in your lifetime. Include in the list the classics and also add some that are of interest to you. Jim says that if you read just two books a week in 10 years you will have read a 1,000 books. According to Jim you can't read that many books and not be changed. It has to change you. I encourage you to pick your list of books to begin reading. Carefully choose this list and then do it and watch how success will follow you! Jim goes on to outline some of his success. Below is the outline.
I. Attract People: Another philosophy that Jim picked up from Shoaff was that, "Success is something that you attract by becoming an attractive person. It is not something that you pursue. What you pursue, more often than not alludes you but become an attractive person." Jim's whole life became a series of things that he learned or began to think about. Another quote, "Work harder ON yourself than you do FOR yourself."
II. Find and Seek: He then moved into how to find good people. He said the Bible encouraged him with this concept, "if you search you will find. Finding is reserved for the searching." He made this another philosophy that he lived by. Jim saw that the Bible talked about knocking on doors. So he said, go knocking on doors! He picked up this principal and started in sales which helped him develope more skills.
III. Agreement: The next skill he learned was how to get people to work together. This too he found from the Bible. If two or three agree on a common purpose, nothing is impossible. He said if you can get someone to join you, you will find success. "Let's do it!" is a very powerful phrase. He learned the value of the "Let's...let US!"
IV. Recognize and Reward: He learned the power of recognition and reward. Reward small steps of accomplishment in those who work for you. Be so busy rewarding and acknowledging and giving other people recognition that you really don't need it for yourself. He heard Zig Zigler quote it this way, "if you help enough people get what they want, you can have everything you want." Jim heard Zig say this over 50 years ago.
V. Communication: Then he learned communication:
1) Training: First - Training...showing someone here is how the job works.
2) Teaching: Second - Teaching...this is how life works (set goals). One day, early in his walk, Jim's mentor said to him, let me see your list of goals. Jim was a bit surprised as he didn't have a list of goals. Mr. Shoaff said, really? I can tell you right now that if you don't have list of goals, I can guess your bank account balance within a few hundred dollars and he did. Jim said you mean my bank balance would change if I had a list of goals? Earl said, drastically. That changed everything for Jim and he began to set goals! Jim began to make goals and create lists:
- Decide what you want. Write it all down.
- Who do you want to meet? Make that list!
- The books you want to read. Make that list!
- The places you want to go. Make that list!
- The experiences you want to have. Make that list!
- Education for your family. Make that list!
Jim stated that he started with the lists having every little thing on it so he could have lots to check off . Checking off was what was fun. Then his mentor said, if you check off something significant, celebrate. This motivated him to make longer and bigger lists and dreams.
3) Inspire: Finally the third thing on communications list was to inspire other people.
Jim shares some of the first things that he had to correct in his thinking was:
1) Learning: He had to learn to have an appetite for learning. He would just get by before this. Earl told him to pursue learning. Become a searcher for learning and understanding.
2) Developing His Library: Mr. Shoaff said that what you think about is like a sail on a sailboat. You don't arrive on a boat in a storm by cursing your sail, you adjust it. This, Mr. Shoaff told him, was what his thinking was like to his life. He had to change the way he thought to change his course. This too is Biblical as the word says, as a man thinks, he is!
3) Financial Plan: Mr. Shoaff wanted to know Jim's financial plan and Jim had none. He had to develop a plan because he was financially spent when they met. At 25 Jim had nothing and by 31 was a millionaire.
4) Attract Other People: He made dramatic changes to his personality to draw people to him. Jim stopped making excuses. Like Jim thought he wasn't paid enough and he blamed the company. Jim said showing Mr. Shoaff his paycheck, "This is all that they pay." Mr. Shoaff said, "No, that is not all they pay. That is all they pay you! Aren't there other's working for the company who are making more?" See, Jim had to change his thinking and stop blaming! "If you will change, Mr. Rohn, everything will change for you." - Earl Shoaff. You have to change YOU!
Jim would say that "it" cost too much or that taxes were too high or whatever and Mr. Shoaff would say, no it's not "it", it's not circumstances, it's you. Change you!
Daily Habits that Jim Began to Change:
1) Time Management: Jim would say, "Don't start the day until you have finished it." In other words, know what you are going to do tomorrow before you go to bed today. He likened it unto when do you start building the house? When the house is finished! In other words, you have to have a plan finished before you start to lay the bricks.
Be inspired! I was!
A great book to have:
The Treasure of Quotes by Jim Rohn. Here are some more quotes by Jim Rohn:
- A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.
- A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.
- Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.
- Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won't laugh at you.
- Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.
- Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.
- Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
- Don't bring your need to the marketplace, bring your skill. If you don't feel well, tell your doctor, but not the marketplace. If you need money, go to the bank, but not the marketplace.
- Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.
- Don't start the day until you have it finished.
- Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.
- Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.
- Either you run the day or the day runs you.
- Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
- Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
- For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.
- Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.
- Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.
- Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.
- Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.
- Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.
- If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.
- If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.
- If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
- If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree.
- If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.
- It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.
- It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.
- Labor gives birth to ideas.
- Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.
- Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you.
- Make measurable progress in reasonable time.
- Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don't go well.
- Miss a meal if you have to, but don't miss a book.
- Money is usually attracted, not pursued.
- Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.
- Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you're signed up for a season, see it through. You don't have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.
- Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
- Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.
- Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.
- Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
- If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.
- If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.
- If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
- If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree.
- If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.
- It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.
- It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.
- Labor gives birth to ideas.
- Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.
- Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you.
- Make measurable progress in reasonable time.
- Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don't go well.
- Miss a meal if you have to, but don't miss a book.
- Money is usually attracted, not pursued.
- Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.
- Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you're signed up for a season, see it through. You don't have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.
- Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
- Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.
- Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.
- Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
- To have more than you've got, you've got to become more than you are
- When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.
- Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness - great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.
- Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.
- Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.
- Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.
- You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
- You don't get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.
- You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.
- Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.
Not that I personally was a big fan of Twinkies' (Hostess Brand) as an adult but as a kid, they have some sweet memories. It's been years since I had one, but there is something nostalgic that has died with the closing of this plant.
