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By Empresario Tips · 747 caption lines · Watch on YouTube
Two things will change your life, how to do it and why to do it. And we're going to cover both of them. But before we get into the details of what to do, let me first give you the general answer. Tomorrow you can do the most extraordinary things no matter what. Let's start with that. Human beings can do incredible things, extraordinary things. A man can do the most amazing things with the least amazing circumstances. A woman can do the most extraordinary things with the most disastrous circumstances. There's plenty of evidence for that. I discovered that children could do extraordinary things, that is, when they have extraordinary things to do. I also discovered that if they don't have extraordinary things to do, who knows what they'll do. But children could, everybody can do extraordinary things.
I'll tell you why we can do extraordinary things. Because we are extraordinary. That's why we're not dogs, animals, fish, birds, amoebas. Humans are unlike any other creation. When a dog starts with weeds, it ends with weeds. And the reason is because it's a dog. But that's not true of human beings. Humans can start with weeds and turn them into gardens. That's the advantage of being a human instead of a dog. Turning weeds into gardens. Humans can turn nothing into something, pennies into fortunes, disaster into success. And the reason we can do extraordinary things is because we are. So if I could talk to you tonight face to face, you and I, I guess my personal advice to you would be this year 1981. Reach deep inside yourself and bring out more of those extraordinary human gifts. They're sitting there waiting to be used and change whatever it is that you want to change in your life. And I challenge you to do it because you can change. If you don't like the way things are, change them. If they don't suit you,
change them. If they don't satisfy you, change them. If they're not good enough , change them. And I challenge you to do it because you can change. You don't have to be the same person after tonight, only if you choose to be. If you don't like the way you're going, change it. You're not a tree. I'll give you three steps to personal development. Let's get down to business . What does it really take to make changes starting tomorrow? It takes more than a philosophical statement, I know that. It also takes more than enthusiasm. We hear a lot about enthusiasm these days, but that alone won't do the job. You still hear clichés from the 1930s. To be enthusiastic you have to act enthusiastically. That's not going to help. After you've jumped up and down with excitement, there are some things you have to do or nothing is going to change. You can get excited about lifting 200 pounds until you get to the gym and then you need a new excitement and that new excitement is called discipline, a fundamental step in human
progress, discipline. If there's anything to get excited about, it's that. Get excited about your ability to make yourself do the necessary things. What could you make yourself do starting tomorrow that would change everything? Who knows? Now that's exciting. On any given day you can massively change the direction of your life. Murder is a prime example of how a single person on any given day can alter the course of your life forever.
It just happens to be a negative act. But just as surely as you can commit a negative act, you can also commit a positive act and alter your life forever whenever you want. Now that's a thrill, and whatever that act is, it changes your life. The guy finally takes a shotgun to his car and blows out all the windows, destroys the tires , puts 100 rounds into that rickety thing and says, "I've driven this damn thing for the last time. And not only will I never drive it again, no one else will ever drive it again," and he leaves that thing there, wobbly for a while as a monument to the day he said, "Today my life changes.""Who can do that? Anyone. When can you do it? Any day you choose. Here's the key to discipline. Start with small disciplines. Get excited about the small disciplines and get started on them, because those will lead you to the big ones. You won't do the big challenges in life if you don't take on the small ones. Make a list of everything you can do. Get on with it, discipline yourself to do it, both for
the results and for the muscle and for the practice, so that when life throws you big challenges, you'll be prepared and you'll have the muscle. But if you don't handle the small ones, you won't be able to handle the big ones. Well, to change your life, you also need self-motivation. Key phrase, self-motivation. I don't know why we call it that. It's the only kind there is. You have to motivate yourself. You can't change people. They change themselves, but you can't. God knows I've tried that with some, but look, it doesn't work. People have to change themselves. I learned that early on. I built a small sales organization. I was 25 years old and I had good people. I said," I'm going to make everybody successful, even if it kills me. I almost died, right? "I mean, you can't do that. I've found that good people aren't trained, they're found. You find good people, you don't make them good, you find them good. Training is for the purpose of finding them. You don't need training to be good. Too much training
means you have the wrong people. Find the right people. That's the key to doing a job well. One of the main things we learn in management is don't send your ducks to eagle school because it won't help. I'm telling you, it won't help. No matter how good your school is. And the little eagle badge and the hat, I'm telling you, it won't help. It won't help. You can tell if your school has done anything, right?
And that's when it ends, right? The duck goes to his first rabbit and makes friends with it. You say," No, no, no. "Ultimately, it takes self-motivation to really change your life. And you don't want to give your self-motivation away to somebody else and have them become someone else motivating you. The guy says," Wow, if only somebody would come along and turn me on. "And if that somebody doesn't come along, look, you've got to have a better plan for your life. Okay, if you're excited and you're ready to change, let me give you three steps to start a life change that can change your personality, your lifestyle, everything can change. Here are the steps. Number one, discover how things work. The first key to doing that is discovering. In order to really change your life, you need ideas.
There's nothing an idea can't change. Up until that point, I had always thought that, right? At first I didn't have any money. I told Mr. Shof," I don't have any money. "He said," That's not the problem. Up until that point I always thought I did, right? I was confused. "The problem is the lack of any clear idea on how to create wealth. It’s not a lack of money, it’s a lack of ideas. If you get them, you can change anything. To get ideas, you need constant study to discover. Shaf also told me, “When you discover something that works, write that information in your journal. Don’t use your head as a filing cabinet. Write it in your journal so that you can do the next thing better. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Go over it. And if you repeat and go over it, surely some mysterious day, the idea will take root, start growing, and appear in your bank account, in the way you dress, in your personality, and in your lifestyle. But capture the ideas in your journal. Discover how things work.” Shaf gave me this word for my life change. He told me, “ Study.”" Great word. If you want to be successful, study success. If you want to be happy, study happiness. If you want to be rich, study wealth.
Don't leave it to chance. Make it a study. Some people go through life crossing their fingers. That's not going to do it. You have to study the things that can change your life economically, socially, spiritually, and personally. "A clarifying phrase, and we'll have several of these phrases throughout the seminar. Here's the first one. You may not be able to do everything you discover. I get it. You may not be able to do everything you discover, but you should discover everything you can do. So you don't want to get to the end of your life and find that you've only lived a tenth of it and the other nine tenths went down the drain. Not for lack of opportunity, but for lack of information. Number one , discover how things work. This is the greatest human virtue for discovering curiosity. Make a note of that.
Curiosity. Be curious. Add another word that will help childlike curiosity. What do children do when they want to know something? Do they bother you? That's the phrase. They can ask 1,000 questions. Do you think they're finished? They'll ask 1,000 more. Push you to the limit. It's a virtue. When you have to know, be like a child. Jesus, the master teacher, said," Unless you can become like a child, forget about it. You don't stand a chance. "" Excellent advice. You have to be like a child. Four ways, in my opinion, to be like a child. Number one , curiosity. Number two, enthusiasm. Be excited like a child about your ability to make yourself do anything to change.
Number three is faith. Have faith like a child. Adults are too skeptical. And number four is trust. It's a childish virtue, but the rewards are incredible. So be like a child. Now, if you're curious, let me give you three ways to discover how to change anything, any direction in your life, any dimension. Three ways to discover how to change anything. Number one is to read. Become a good reader. The successful people I work with around the world are good readers. Curiosity drives them to read.
They have to know. They just read, read , read, read, read, read, read, read. Become a good reader. Now, that's my opinion. Listen to other lectures, listen to me, and form your own opinion . Don't be a Follower, be a student. Okay? I say that to really change your life you have to read. You can learn through your own experiences, but another way to learn is through other people's experiences. A single book could save you 5 years if you read it.
Did you know that there are books on how to become stronger, more decisive? Be a speaker, be a leader, have a better effect on other people, develop your personality. Did you know that there are books on that? And people don't read them? How would you explain that? And they know how to read. Did you know that hundreds of successful people have written their stories in books and written about how they did it and people don't read them? How would you explain that? I guess the guy is busy. You know, you get confused. The guy says, "If you worked where I work by the time you get home, it's late.
You have to eat dinner, watch some TV, go to bed. You can't stay up all night reading, reading, reading, reading." And the guy is behind on his car payment. Good worker. Hard worker, sincere. But you have to be better than sincere and hardworking. Otherwise, at the end of your life you will end up completely broke. You have to be better than a good worker. You have to be a good reader. My opinion. Now you don't have to read midnight. Although if you are broke it's not a bad place to start , is it? Go ahead and cure yourself, but write this down in your notes. 30 minutes a day. Just spend 30 minutes a day reading. Extend it to an hour if you can, but at least 30 minutes.
Halfway rich is not bad. 30 minutes a day read something positive, something challenging, something inspiring, something instructive. At least 30 minutes a day. And here's the next key. Every day. Don't miss out. Once you get that down, don't miss out. Skip a meal, but not your 30 minutes. Because you can get by without some meals, but not without some books. There's a Bible saying that a human being cannot live on bread alone or on food alone. He says that what matters most after food are, in fact, the words. Words nourish the mind, they make us different from animals. Words nourish the soul. So we must have food and words to be happy and healthy. I told my team the other day, some people read so little that they have mental rickets, they are mentally malnourished. So to have a good diet of words I suggest good reading habits, 30 minutes a day. Now, some people don't read because they don't read well. I get it. And the national average is quite low. People have no reading skills. They are still
trying to function with old clumsy skills from the past, reading one word at a time, and with such poor skills. When you read, your mind usually wanders. Because you can think of many things, the mind is an incredible mechanism and if you read badly, your mind wanders off thinking about other things while you are trying. Have you ever read a page and wondered what it said? Sure. Then I have to read it again because the mind is doing its job , just wandering. You've never read yourself to sleep. That's another problem. The mind says, "Who needs this ?" And it shuts down without being asked. Poor skills. Or a guy looks at a 500-page book and says, "No, don't even start." I mean, I'd never finish this one. Anyway, in our weekend seminar we devote a two or three hour section to reading skills like reading a book a day is the title. And I'll tell you something, if you can read a book daily , it changes your life. A book a day will change your whole life. Expose yourself to a whole variety of things,
spiritual, moral, personal, economic, historical, geographical, you can really change everything if you read a book a day. So you might want to take the reading skills classes. It's incredible. A book a day will change your life. But hey, whether you read slowly, quickly, whether you read sloppily or whether you read well, here's the key. Read, don't fail. That's what reading is all about. Reading is accessing the treasure trove of ideas. That's reading, tapping into the treasure trove of ideas. And ideas can change any part of your life. And if you have a good excuse for not tapping into the treasure trove of ideas, at least 30 minutes a day or for not spending money on books, I'd love to hear it. Some people have excuses you wouldn't believe. I say, "John, look, I've got gold stamina. I've got so much gold I don't know what to do with it all. Come on and dig." John says, "I don't have a shovel." I say, " Well, John, get one." He says, "Do you know how much they're asking for shovels? Let me give you the two books
that started my library when I was 25. My library is now worth many, many, many thousands of dollars, but it started with two books. Mr. Schof recommended them to me and got me started. Schof said," Become self-taught. "He said standard education will give you standard results. And you can look at those numbers and see if that's what you want , but if you want to go beyond that, now you have to become self-taught. So he helped me start my library. He said you had to build your library. I had a Bible, it was 66 books, it was a good deal. But what he recommended to me was , number one, the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich if you don't already have it. The title should intrigue you. Think and Grow Rich. I found that book in a used bookstore. I paid 47 cents for it. I still have it. It's a rare hardcover edition. I read it several dozen times.
Shof taught me Repetition. It's the mother of skill. Some of the ideas in that book changed my life. Looking back on it, the book was worth several hundred thousand dollars and I bought it for 47 cents. What lesson did I learn? The difference between cost and and value. Before I met Mr. SH, I used to ask, “How much does this cost?” After I met Mr. SHF, I started asking, “How much is this worth?” I started basing my life on value, instead of cost, and everything changed. The first book, Think and Grow Rich. The second book he recommended to me was a book on nutrition. Sho said, “Study nutrition .” I think that first book was by Adel Davis. Eat Right to Stay Fit. I have a lot of them, but I think that was the first one. Shof said, “Study nutrition and there are a lot of nutrition books. Read them all. Some are weird, but read them all. If you’re weird, do weird things, whatever, but read them and then form your own opinion. Remember, don’t read to become a follower, read to become a student. Form your opinion,
find a plan that works for you, but get nutrition books. That’s what Mr. Shof told me. Vitality plays a big part in how well you do. Vitality. He said that some people don't do well because they don't feel well. It's not that they're not smart, it's that they're sick. They don't have the spark, the fire, the vitality to do well. So he insisted that I study nutrition. He said," Jim, you wouldn't believe this. I have a friend who raises racehorses and he has nine books on how to feed horses. He doesn't have a single book on how to feed yourself. "My friend said," He studies horse nutrition. "He studies vitamins, minerals, trace elements, proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, fats, enzymes, the right balance for his horses. Shof said," He's a fanatic.
"And he said," You should see his horses. "They are magnificent, beautiful, and powerful animals that run like the wind. And he said, See him . And he said," You should see him. He's a disaster. "He said," The guy feeds his horses better than he feeds himself. Can you believe that? "" In my later studies I discovered that some people feed their dogs better than they feed their children. Can you believe that? Anyway. I didn't want to give you a health talk tonight, but hey, take care of yourself, work on that part because it's one of the answers to doing well. There's a Bible phrase that says that many times the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. That's where the conflict is and that's a problem. You wake up and the mind says, "Let's go for it." And the body says, " I can't get out of bed." So you work both sides. Okay, but start your library. Get the books. Gather them.
Books are the hallmark of civilization. It's fascinating to go into someone's house and look through their library because your library says something about you. So organize your reading. Very important. Here's the second way to discover how to change your life and that is to listen. Surround yourself with successful people and listen. Learn from the unsuccessful ones too. Take notes of both the negative and the positive. On the negative side, the notes are called what not to do. You have to learn what not to do as well as what to do. Learn from the negative as well as the positive. Okay, find out what the poor people read and don't read it, right? That's good information . Learn from the negative. You can also learn from the positive. Surround yourself with successful people. Listen to what they say. Listen to how they say it. That's important. We're all awake about 16 hours a day. Practice listening during those hours. And I say practice listening because listening is not easy. I've found that it's easier
to talk than to Listen. But if you practice listening, all 16 hours that you're awake, you'll hear great ideas from amazing sources. In sales training we teach, if you want to learn sales, listen to kids. Kids have to be the greatest salespeople of all time. They have no equal. The father tells his son , "No, you can't have ice cream." 30 minutes later he's licking it. 30 minutes worth of listening has moves you wouldn't believe. Persistence runs deep like the ocean and kids have never had a class on overcoming objections.
They already know how to do it. They don't need classes. You tell them no, they pass them by. They give you three good reasons. You say no, they pass them by. They give you three more. They're masters. So listen and learn. Here's one of the best pieces of advice of the whole night. It doesn't get any better than this. This is poor people should invite rich people over for dinner and listen. That's one of my best pieces of advice. If a guy isn't doing well, one of the first things he should do is find someone who is and offer to buy his dinner. Spend 60, 80, 100. Go through the full nine-course meal. Start with juice and appetizers.
Get him talking. Salad takes 15 minutes . Keep the conversation going. The largest steak in town takes 45. Keep the conversation going. Throw in dessert. Make that meal last about 2 hours. If you can get a successful person to eat and talk for 2 hours, chances are he'll drop ideas in your lap that will change your life, multiply your income by two, three, five times. But you're right, poor people don't usually invite rich people to dinner. That's the problem. He says, "He's rich, let him pay for his dinner; I'm not putting in money." And he says, "Besides, if you had my job when you get home exhausted, it's already late.
Hopefully you'll make yourself dinner. I can't go looking for a rich person to feed." And the guy is behind on his house payment. Good worker, hard worker , sincere, but you have to be more than sincere and hard worker or you'll end up broke. You have to be better than a good worker. You have to be a good listener. And remember, whatever you read and whatever you hear, write it down in your journal. Here's the third way to change your life and that's to observe. You can pick up a lot of ideas just by watching. Surround yourself with successful people and watch here for the why. Success leaves clues.
Watch how that man shakes hands. Watch how that woman responds. People who do well do certain things over and over and over again. And if you're smart you can pick them up. Watch everything. If a guy makes $ 10,000 a month, I would watch the way he walks. Maybe that's it . Copy his little funny walk. Someone says, "He walks a little ridiculous." Say it's $ 10,000. I don't have the money, but I do have the walk. It's got to start somewhere. What I'm asking you tonight is to be unusual and to be a good observer of what's happening. You can pick up life-changing insights starting tomorrow. Just be a careful observer. Remember, there are two ways of seeing. One is called sight. Seeing with your eyes. The other is called perception. Seeing with your mind. Look with your eyes and you'll see things.
Look with your mind and you'll see answers. Put your eyes and your mind to work. The best way to develop sight and perceptions is to pay attention. Don't miss a thing. In the weekend seminar we teach that one of the greatest threats to success is worry. When lacking concentration, the wandering mind ends up being quite mediocre. You have to learn to focus and concentrate. I once read a great article in Readers Digest.
The title was Wherever You Are, Stay There. Excellent. Don't miss a thing. We've gone a little bit deeper into number one in personal development. Discover how things work. Discovering is very, very important and I've given you three ways to do it. Here's the second step in personal development. Number one was to discover how things work. Here's number two, get to work. Now you have to take action on what you've discovered. In doing business around the world, we call it a game plan. Make your game plan. We teach this in our weekend seminars. Game plan . If you're in sales, you need a game plan. Kids need a game plan. Another game plan for home. A social plan.
Another for business. Everybody needs one, a game plan for financial independence and for investing. Don't just think about it in your head, put it on paper. Don't operate from your head, operate from paper. I often ask people, "What are you going to do in the next 6 months?" and they start telling me. I say, "No, no, don't tell me. Show me. Your game plan for the next 6 months. Then I can look and maybe help. But you have to operate from paper. Put it in a game plan. Take action on what you've discovered. The best word I know for action is massive.
That will change everything. Massive action is called the cure for everything. If you're going to make calls, make a few thousand. If you're going to network, make a few thousand. If you're going to knock on doors, knock on a few thousand. That will change everything. This is the language of the poor. I'll try it once or twice and see what happens. That's how the poor talk. The guy says," I'll give it 30 days. "30 days. You could guess his bank balance. You gotta have a better game plan. This is one of the things you gotta do tomorrow. Look at your game plan. If it's not loaded with massive action, change it tomorrow.
Action. The formula really works like this. Take one good idea, act hard. Take a couple of good ideas, act hard. That's the formula for sexit success. Action hard. The formula for success acts hard on one good idea. Okay? That's the ratio. Here's the key. Don't wait until you've learned two or 3,000 things, because that'll just consume all your time and you could end up smart and broke. And hey, it's okay to be dumb and broke, but if a guy is smart and broke, that's a shame. Don't let your learning just lead to knowledge. You'll just become a fool.
Let your learning lead to action. You can become rich. And there's many kinds of wealth, I get it. It's not just money. Money is one of the lesser values. I know some people with a lot of money who are very poor. Avoid singing about fortune and fame. They are illusions, they are not the solutions they promise to be. There are all kinds of wealth out there, but in order to get a big chunk of it to come to you, you have to have a strong game plan of action. Here is the third step to personal development and that will wrap this up. Step number three is a little warning and throughout life we need little warnings. This one simply says," Don't try to cheat the system.
Find out how it works, but don't try to cheat it. Some people learn just enough to start cutting corners, manipulating it, looking for shortcuts and cheap answers. Don't fall for that. You'll end up living a cheap life. Find out how it works best and do it that way. Even if it seems to take a little longer, do it right. Don't compromise on what's right. "Underneath this step is another key. Be a fast learner.
Don't take too long to learn your lesson. Learn fast. Don't run into the wall too many times. Learn faster. A guy broke his nose seven times in the same place. Someone says," It sounds like you should avoid that place. Learn faster. "Now, the third point here is, don't be stubborn. Some people don't change even when something better comes along. They say," I've been doing it this way for 30 years. Be prepared to change if it's better. "Go for it, but don't try to trick it. Or you'll be like the guy who went to Vegas. He didn't have much money, so he didn't want to risk his money gambling. But he gets to Vegas and the prize bells are ringing. The money is flowing and the lights are flashing. And he can't help himself. He has to gamble. But instead of betting with his money, he decides to play the mental gambling game. And the brilliant plankeideo works like this. He would pick a number like three . He would mentally bet some money on that number and whether he won or lost, he would write that amount down in his
little notebook. He would have won $ if he had done it. He just kept track, whether he won or lost. So by midnight he could calculate how he was doing, winning or losing, how much, only it wasn't his money, he was keeping it, he was just playing this mental gambling game. So he's at the gambling table, everyone else is throwing their money away. He has this brilliant plan. Instead of betting with his money, he's betting with his mind and he lost his mind. Which means don't try to cheat the system, I guess. Okay, so we've covered personal development. By the way, it's the longest topic, so cheers.
The others are much shorter.