Transcript of The Most Valuable 10 Minutes You'll Spend Today (Jim Rohn Seminar)

I came up with this. Back in those early days when I was talking to service clubs and you know, once in a while a high school class and a college class and making those little speeches, I come up with this little speech. Here it is, I'll give you the notes on it. It's called the four ifs that make life worthwhile. And if you're looking to make a little speech, you know, these notes might serve you well. Here was the first if.

Life is worthwhile if you learn. You got to know. You got to have the information. When I talk to the kids in school, that's what I say, get the information while you're here. What you're going to do with it, that's up to you. Throw it all away, that's up to you. Just use a little of it, that's up to you. But while you're here, get it all. Right? There's nothing worse than being stupid. Being broke is bad, but being stupid is really bad. So, get the information. What's really, really bad is being broke and stupid.

Nothing worse than that. Unless you're sick.

>> [laughter]

>> That would do it. Sick, broke, and stupid. That's about as far as you can fall, unless you're ugly. But surely that's the ultimate negative life. Ugly, sick, broke, and stupid. That is it. So, you got to know. You got to have the information. So, jot this down now. As I used in my notes, what you don't know will hurt you. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is tragedy. Ignorance is illness. Ignorance is devastation.

Ignorance is going broke. Ignorance is [music] creates a poor life. So, you got to know. You got to have the information. Number one, learn from your personal experience. One way to learn to do it right is first mess it up and do it wrong. That doesn't mean it's the end of your life, but just, you know, clean up the mess, now do it right. From a negative experience, sometimes we learn to do the positive things that saves our life and makes us successful.

They say, "If you survive your first heart attack, if you survive, you may now live to be a very old person." Why is that? That first heart attack was a wake-up call. And then maybe the doctor said, "Another one of these and you're history." And you say, "Wow." And you make it for the health food store. And you start reading every book you can read on health and nutrition. And you start doing the push-ups and you start jogging on the beach and doing all the stuff. And all of that change now could very well help you to live a long, long life having been alerted in an alarm system that serves you well.

Okay. So, learn from your negative as well as your positive experiences. Here's the next, learn from other people's experiences. That's how you get smarter in a shorter period of time. Somebody that's been through it for 5 years and they wrote a book, and the book, if you read it, could save you 5 years, cost $30. So, you just you can't miss that kind of education. Best to get the information before. Yes, we can recover. Yes, we can come back, you know, from the grave practically.

Yes, we can come back from bankruptcy and disaster [music] and poor health. But wow, if we had the information up front that would save us some of those years of disaster, how much better that would be. So, learn from other people's experiences, both negative and positive. In the seminar I do for Jerry, here's what I say, "Too bad failures don't give seminars." We don't want to pay them, so they don't give seminars. But their information would be valuable.

If a guy's messed up his life for 40 years, you just have to say, "John, would you spend the day with me? And I'll bring my notes notebook and take good notes." Good-looking guy like you, beautiful family, every reason to do well, and you threw it all away. Teach me for a day how you messed it all up. Right? And you just take good notes. So that the same thing doesn't happen to you. So, learn from your experience, learn from other people's experiences.

If you learn, life is worthwhile. Here's the second if. If you try, you got to now try something from what you've learned. We've talked about that now earlier. Take action. You never know. My father said, "You never know until you try." If we put the bar up 2 ft and ask the kids to jump over the bar 2 ft high, what will the kids say? Some will say, "No, I can't." Some will say, "Easy." Some will say, "What? I don't know."

So, how are we going to find out for everybody? You got to take a run at it and see if you can jump the 2 ft. So, you got to try it to see. Who knows? You don't know. What if you try to knock the bar down? Does that mean you cannot jump 2 ft? No. You try it what? Again. Then some somebody shows you a little technique, right? Leave the ground a little earlier. It's okay. First thing you know, 2 ft is easy when before you couldn't or didn't think you could.

So, you got to try it. Giving speeches and doing talks. Age 25, I stand up to give my first little training. My mind sat back down. I open my mouth and nothing comes out. My knees are knocking like this. The sweat is pouring. It's called terror, in case you haven't tried it, right? But, I got through it somehow. It was so bad, if I hadn't have been doing the class, I'd have gone home, right? It was bad. I'm so happy you were not there. You would not have paid this kind of money for my first presentation.

Wow. But, I got through it, and then I did it again. You know, I didn't know if I should even try again. But, sure enough, I had the kind of mentor and the kind of teacher who said, "Hey, that's nothing. You know, what if you go up to bat and you strike out? Does that mean it's over?" I said, "No, it's not over. It's just over for one time up at bat." And then another time, and another time, pretty soon you connect. And pretty soon you get good enough to do well, and then pretty soon you get good enough to win the game, and then pretty soon you get good enough to take home the trophy.

So, you just keep trying. The third if that makes life worthwhile is if you stay. You've got to hang in there. Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. When it gets a little hot and a little uncomfortable and it looks like the weeds are winning, and it looks like the bugs are having a feast, and you have a tendency to say, "Hey, I've had it with this." But, the key is if you want the harvest in the fall at harvest time, you've got to stay through the summer.

Even if the harvest doesn't turn out to be good. You just see it through.

>> [music]

>> And then use that experience to do better planting in the spring come the next turnaround of seasons. So, stay in there. If you're going to play the game, you've got to stay until it's over. What if the team was you were on the team and you guys were behind, and you said, "Hey, we're so far behind, we're out of here." And you all walked off the court. Right? We would run you out of town, probably. We wouldn't own you as the home team.

Say, I'm behind, so I'm out of here. No, you stay until what? It's over. We're not talking about a lifetime now, we're just talking about this game. If you're in it, stay till it's over. Who are these people who leave as spectators before the game is over? Because their team is behind. Our team is behind, we're out of here. What if the team said that? Who are these people that walk, you know, push and shove, spill popcorn and Coke down your neck, leaving early? Who are these people?

They're the ones that are saying we're going to beat the traffic. Oh, that's one of the greatest skills on earth, beating the traffic, leaving your team that's behind to fend for themselves. Goodbye, we're out of here, we're gone. No, if you sign up for the game, you don't have to go to every game, but the one you sign up, you stay. Right? You don't have to do everything every time, but when you start it, see it through. See the season through, then you don't have to plant anymore if you don't want to, but when you do sign up, go. Go the go the distance.

Here's a guy who builds a foundation and then he walks off and leaves it. Puts up no walls, no roof, doesn't finish anything. He's got these foundations scattered all across the country. Foundations, foundations. I asked a friend of mine, I said, "Jim, what are you good at?" He said, "Starting over, that's my specialty." Right? He If it doesn't work, I don't stay long. No, come on. See it through. Life is worthwhile if you stay.

Hang in there. Next, life is worthwhile if you care. And for my little talk for the service clubs, here's how I want to end it up. If you care at all, you'll get some results. If you care enough, you can get extraordinary results. If you just care at all, you'll get some. But if you really cultivate your caring character and care enough, you can have such extraordinary returns from productivity, activity, things you're doing, underway.