The Resilient Mind - The 3 Keys to Greatness - Jim Rohn

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Jim Rohn was a renowned motivational speaker who has been widely regarded as one of the best in his field during his time. He had an incredible ability to inspire and motivate people from all walks of life with his speeches and teachings. One of his most notable achievements was serving as a mentor to Tony Robbins, one of the most successful and well-known motivational speakers in the world today.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to The Three Keys to Greatness with Jim Rohn. Get access to the Mental Mastery Program and other exclusive episodes by becoming a subscriber. Enjoy. Hi everybody, I'm Jim Rohn. What a pleasure it is for me to come and visit with you for just a few minutes here today. Tell you briefly a little bit about my story and share some ideas that might be beneficial. I've lectured in some high school classrooms in California and Arizona and some universities and colleges, Pepper Dine University, San Diego State, Arizona State University.

And so I've had a chance to talk to kids that are interested in themselves and interested in their future, interested in America, interested in what they can do with their lives, and listening to stories that might be benefited. official and I don't have a chance to, you know, visit all of the schools and universities around the world. So this is a great chance for me by video to have a chance to tell you my story. Just briefly, let me tell you my story. I grew up in Idaho farm country. My father still lives on the old homestead where I grew up southwestern Idaho. He'll be 91 his next birthday and I'm very proud of him. I went to high school. I'd I graduated. I went to college one year. Halfway through my second year, I decided I was smart enough, so I quit. One of my major mistakes. I should have stayed in school, but I thought, you know, heck, I'm smart enough to get a job and back then I thought, you know, that was it. If you're smart enough to get a job, what else would you need?

Found out later a big mistake. But anyway, I quit school at age 19, went to work a little while later persuaded a beautiful young lady to marry me with a lot of lot of fancy promises and fortunately for me we got married a little while later I started my family and I'm out there working hard doing the best I thought I could but year by year I kept falling a little further behind you know buying a little more than I could conveniently pay for on time and the creditors are finally starting to call saying hey you told us the check was in the mail I'm not feeling it all good about that. About age 25, I've got pennies in my pocket, I've got nothing in the bank, and way behind on my big mouth promises to my family, and wondering, what could I do to make my life

better? I was willing to work hard. That was not my problem, but I just wasn't making the progress I wanted to make. And then good fortune came my way. Sometimes it's difficult to describe good fortune, why something remarkable happens to you at a particular time. One of my friends says, well, hey, things don't just happen. Things happen just. And maybe that's it. I don't know. But my good fortune was I had a chance to meet a very wealthy man. His name was Mr. Schof, Mr. Earl Schof. A friend of mine had gone to work for him. And he started telling me about this man. He said, you've got to meet this man. He's rich, but he's easy to talk to. And he's got a remarkable philosophy of life and he kept going on and I thought well I've got to meet this man

so shortly after that I had a chance to meet this mr. Schof and I was impressed he was rich he was easy to talk to within a few minutes I was dazzled and I said to myself I would give anything if I could be like that rich and easy to talk to what would it take and then I thought if I could just get around somebody like him And if he would teach me and coach me, I would do it all. And that was my good fortune. A few months later, this wealthy man, Mr. Schof, hired me and gave me a job, and I went to work for him, and I spent the next five years in his employ.

And then, unfortunately, at age 49, he died. But I got to spend five years with this remarkable man, his last five years of his life, and the first five years of my new life. And my dream came true during that five-year period. This man took the time to teach me and coach me. He taught me the books to read. He taught me the disciplines and he taught me the skills. And he taught me the changes to make in my language and personality.

And the things he shared with me during that five years changed my whole life, change my income, change my bank account, changed my future. I've never been the same. By the time I was 31 years old, I was a millionaire. So he taught me economics as well. So how lucky can you get to meet the right person at the right time who takes the time to share with you ideas that can change your life? A lot of rich people, right, don't take the time, but he did.

And he also had the ability. Some people want to share their experiences, but they don't quite know how to say it. But he had it all, and he used language that I could understand. and those ideas greatly affected my life. I wish he was still alive today. If he was, I'd be calling him today one more time, thanking him for the time he spent with me sharing his life and his experiences

that so dramatically affected my life. Then how I really came to be invited to speak to you today, 30 plus years ago, I was living in Beverly Hills, California. And a friend of mine one day said, Jim, you've got to come and tell your story to my service club. He belonged to the Rotary Club. And he said, I know your story. Idaho Farm Boy makes it to Beverly Hills. But he said, I know my club members would love to hear your story. Would you come and at our breakfast meeting and tell your story? And I said, okay. So I arranged a little talk, went and shared my

story that morning, and guess what? They liked it. And my phone rang. Another club called and said, would you come and tell us that story? My phone rings. Another club calls that we've heard about your story. We have a luncheon meeting. Would you come share your story? First thing I know, I'm spending a little piece of my time giving these breakfast talks and luncheon talks. And then one day, a man who heard my talk about three times said, would you come and talk to my management and salespeople? He said, I've got this little company going. And he said, if you would spend some time talking with my management and salespeople, I'd be happy to pay you. And I thought, wow, wouldn't that be something? Tell my story and my experiences and get paid. He said, I'd be happy to. A little did I know.

That was the beginning of a whole new, brand new adventure for me in sharing my story and speeches and talks and seminars and lectures. And now this business, become one of my most flourishing enterprises, takes me around the world. I went to many countries just this year. Had my largest audience early this year in Spain, 12,000 people, 10 different languages being translated at the same time. The whole audience with the earphones on. It's interesting when you lecture with multilanguages.

You know, when you hit the punchline, you know, the Spanish laugh first, and then the French get it, and then finally the Italians get it. And last, the Germans finally get it. And then I say, hey, the Germans finally got it. I guess we can continue. Some languages take longer to translate than other languages. But what an exciting adventure for me.

I was in Israel this year. I lectured in France, my first trip to Prague, Czechoslovakia, Lisbon, Portugal. Last year, I was in London lecturing. Happened to be there the same night Pavarotti was singing in London. So a big dilemma for the people in London. Shall we go see Jim Rohn or shall we go listen to Pavarati?

Well, I must admit he had more people and I did like 150,000 more. He did a free concert in Hyde Park and they expected a quarter of a million, but only 150,000 showed up because it rained. And they all got soaked from Prince Charles on down, but they sat in the rain and listened to Pavarati. I would have been happy that evening right to cancel my seminar and go sit in the rain and listen to Pavarati. Anyway, he and I have agreed now not to appear in the same city on the same day anymore.

Not really, but how exciting for me to be able to travel all around the world and share my story. And then especially to have this chance today to come and visit with you. And when I get a chance to speak at a high school class or a university class, I'm always excited about it. I'm limited in time. So I wanted to use this way to come and share my story with you and some ideas that might be helpful in your career for the future, in your now busy life as a student, and then wherever you find yourself in the years to come, some of the things I'm going to share with you. I want you to remember for a long, long time because the ideas I want to translate for you drastically affected my life. And if I can share now and affect your life and you write me a letter or tell me in person someday,

Mr. Rohn, I listened to your video and I watched it carefully. And sure enough, some of the ideas that you shared greatly affected me. And here's what's happened to my bank account. Here's what happened to me in school. Here's what's happening to my future. That'll give me great, great satisfaction. So the man who shared with me ideas that changed my life, I want to share with you three of those basic subjects.

When I met him, I was 25 years old. And when I first got acquainted with him, I used a lot of excuses as to why I wasn't doing well. And he said, well, tell me a little bit about your story. And I told him, you know, I was behind on my bills, had pennies in my pocket and nothing in the bank, that I was embarrassed about being behind on my big mouth promises to my family. And then he gave me one little simple phrase that really forever changed my life. And here's what he said. Mr. Rohn, if you want the future to change for you, you've got to change. And he said, if you don't change, the next six years of your life is going to be just like the last six.

You'll still be behind on your bills. You'll still be behind on your promises. But then he gave it to me in the form of a promise. When I was 25 years old, I've remembered it all these years, and I've shared this promise now with probably over three million people in the last 30 plus years. And it's going to be valid for you. So listen carefully to this promise. My teacher said to me, young man, if you will change, everything will change for you. If you will get better, everything will get better for you. What a clear message that was for me. He said, if you'll change your philosophy, if you'll change your habits, if you'll refine your thinking, if you'll change and accept some new disciplines, if you'll turn the corner, where you've been in the past,

go for a new life for the future, he said, all kinds of remarkable things will happen for you, if you will change. Before I met Mr. Schoeff, I used to cross my fingers and say, I sure hope things will change. I was hoping the government would change and the tax structure would change and that my boss would change and pay me more money. I was hoping that, you know, economics would change and prices would come down. And I was hoping that circumstances would get better. And then I discovered from my teacher that those things are going to continue the same. In fact, all of those things that happened to us is kind of like the wind that blows. And the wind blows on us all. In fact, in America, especially, the last six and a half thousand

years of recorded history, we've got probably the most favorable wind that's ever blown. Economics and circumstances living in a free country, democracy and freedom, an excellent economy. Sure, we struggle at times, but compared to the rest of the world in the last six and a half thousand years, we've got the best wind ever. But if you just let the wind blow, I'm telling you, it won't take you where you want to go. All of us must use this wind to take us to the dreams we've got, to the equities we want, to the money we want, to the income we want, and to all the things we want our life to have, this is where we want to go, and we've got to. a good wind, but we must not leave our future just to the wind, just to the economy, just to the structure of the way things are happening today. Here's what we must learn to do, and that is

set a good sail. And if you'll learn to set a good sail, and that's what my teacher taught me in those early days, he said, Mr. Rohn, the wind is going to blow, however it's going to blow. Politics are going to be politics, and the economy is going to be the economy, and however it turns out, that's the way it's going to be. What you must learn to do is not to wish for a better wind. That's naive. The key is to wish for the wisdom and the skills and the learning so that you can set a better sale. And so that's what I did at age 25. I went to work not on the economy. I went to work not on the community. I didn't go to work to try to change the government. I didn't go to work to try to change my boss or the company. I didn't go to work to try to change circumstances. I didn't go to work to try to change

circumstances. I went to work to try to change myself. And I picked up that promise. My teacher shared with me that if I would change, my income would change. If I would change, my bank account would change. If I would change, my future would change. And sure enough, his promise came true for me. The first six years of my economic life, I wound up broke. Those pennies in my pocket, nothing in the bank behind on my promises. The second six years of my economic life, I wound up rich. But interestingly enough, the second six years of my economic life, the government was about the same and the economy was about the same. You know, the companies were about the same. What they paid was the same. Circumstances around me were the same. You know, my negative relatives were the same, but I was not the same.

That's how my life changed. That's how things started working for me changing my life all those years ago. So that's what I wanted to share with you to begin with this beginning of what Mr. Schoeff shared with me that if I wanted my life to change, this was what I was going to have to do. And so he broke it down into three subjects that really made an impact on my life and I want to share those with you. The first subject he called personal development. And the second subject he called setting goals. And the third was how to become financially independent. And I'd like to give you just a few clues. from those three major subjects that so dramatically affected my life and let's get started.

The first one is personal development. Now, in illustrating personal development, Mr. Schoeff, my teacher, started with money. You know, money is not the only place to start in talking personal development, but it's where he started. So let me share the thoughts he shared with me back then. Let me share them with you. Here's the best lesson I can give you on economics. It's very simple. We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. That's about as simple as I can put economics. We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. Now, it takes time to bring value to the marketplace. However, we do not get paid for time. So we cross that out. mistakenly, the man says, I'm making about $20 for an hour. Not true. If that was true, you could just stay home, right? And have them send your money. So that's not true. We don't get paid for time. We get paid for value brought to the marketplace. Now, since that's true, here's one of the key questions of my talk to you today. Is it possible to become twice as valuable to the marketplace and make twice as much money in the same time? Is that a

possible? The answer is yes. Could you become three times as valuable as you might be right now to the marketplace and make three times as much money in the same time? And the answer is yes. Five times, 10 times, of course. America is unique. It's a ladder decline. It starts down here, let's say, at $5 an hour and it keeps going up. Top income last year, $80 million. The guy who runs Coca-Cola. Now, that's a heck of a ladder. That's why everybody wants to come here, right? The boat people are not headed for Vietnam. People haven't plotted in scheme for 50 years saying if I could just get to Poland, everything would be okay. Not true. Everybody wants to come to America. And the reason is because we've got the best wind ever blowing in our favor. We've got the best economic opportunity anybody's had in six and a half thousand years. And all you have to do is understand it and take advantage of it.

Now, there's some key questions to ask here. Why would the marketplace pay someone only $5 an hour? Very simple answer. They're not very valuable to the marketplace. Now, we must underline to the marketplace. This person might be a very valuable brother. Yes, member of the family, valuable. Yes.

Valuable member of the church, of course. Valuable citizen of the country? Yes. Valuable in the sight of God. no doubt. We're all of equal value in the sight of God. But if you're not very valuable to the marketplace, you don't get much money. You say, well, it shouldn't be that way. Well, then you've got to start your own country. You know, this one's been in process for 200 years, and this is the best we've been able to come up with so far. But here's the key. You don't have to stay here. Now, there was a

big debate in Congress last year that this $5 was not enough, should be six, should be six, should be six, But we don't need legislation. Six is already on this ladder. The next step up. You know, if you work for McDonald's, they'll pay you $5 an hour to take out the trash. If you whistle while you take out the trash, they'll pay you $6 an hour. So we don't need that legislation. You just need to take lessons on how to whistle.

Have a good attitude. Now, as you begin to climb this ladder, why would the marketplace pay some people $50 an hour? Answer, evidently. They must be more valuable to the marketplace, 10 times more valuable. And is that possible for someone to be 10 times more valuable and earn $50 an hour instead of five? And the answer is yes. That's what America is all about. Now, why would the marketplace pay some people $500 an hour? Evidently, this person must be much more valuable to the marketplace.

That's what's important to understand to the marketplace. And would the marketplace pay one person $80 million for one year's work? And the answer is, of course. If you helped a company make a billion dollars, would they pay you $80 million? I'm telling you, it is possible. And that's why America is so exciting. That's why this financial ladder is so exciting. It's possible for all of this to come true for all of you, no matter where you start.

As a student in school, just getting started out there in the workplace, this is all possible for you. Now, Mr. Schof gave me the clue on how to climb this ladder as high as I wanted to climb. Now, we're talking primarily economics here. There's a lot of other ways to become valuable to your family, valuable to your friends, valuable to the community, valuable to the team, right? Valuable to the team effort, valuable to the concert. But here's what he said to me in climbing this ladder economically. All you have to do is work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

Once I heard that, it made sense to me. I kept hoping that everything else would change around me, found out that if I went to work on myself, worked on my skills, worked on my language, if I became better than I was each year, if I grew in skills and language and vocabulary and competence, then I would become attractive to the marketplace. Not very long ago, a company called me and said, Mr. Owen, we're expanding internationally. We'd like to have a bit of your expertise to help us.

Would you give us a bit of your time? We'll add some millions to your fortune. And I said, okay. And I thought later, isn't that interesting they would call me? Then my second thought was, of course they'd call me. Who else would they call? I can get the job done. Now, what a contrast for me,

farm boy from Idaho, raised in obscurity, parents of modest means, broke when I was 25. How come I would get a telephone call and someone offer me a lot of money to help them in expanding around the world? Simple answer, evidently, something happened to me between age 25 and where I am today. And I can tell you where it all started.

From my teacher, Mr. Schof, who said to me, we don't have to change what's going on out there. That's the wind that's blowing. All we have to do is change what's going on in here. And now there's several ways to do that on personal development. And let me give you those ways. Here's the first one. We must learn from personal experience. Pretty simple. Learn for what happens to you. Take a look back over the last few months. Did you make some mistakes? How could you correct those for the future? Take a look back over the last few months. Take a look back over the last. the last year. Have you done it right or done it wrong? Let's correct it for the next year. Learn from your personal experience. Mr. Schof asked me when I first met him. He said, Mr. O'n, how are you doing? You've been out there now six years and I said, I'm not doing very well. He said, I suggest you not do that anymore. What a simple swift analysis in my situation. He said, if you keep doing it, the next six years will be like the last six. You don't want that to happen. Let's make the changes. So learn from your personal experience. Now,

here's number two why I came to share this video experience with you today. And that I call it OPE, other people's experiences. That's me, other people. That's your teacher. Other people. That's your friends and colleagues. Other people. The people you meet that can pass along to you their experiences. What's happened to them? The mistakes they made, how they corrected them, how they changed their health and change their bank account. and change their income and change their future. That's it. Other people.

Now, there's two kinds of people to learn from. One is failures. It's too bad failures don't give seminars, right? That would be valuable. Bring your notebook. Have them tell you how they lost it all and threw it all away, through their health away and threw their friendships away, and things didn't work out well.

That would be valuable. But now then we must also learn from positive people that have done well. They've got the health. And so we asked them, how did you become so healthy? They've got the skills. So we asked them, how did you become this skillful? They've got the income. So we ask them, how did you get here in such a short period of time?

So now here's what's important in personal development. In learning from other people, we learn number one by observation. We learn what we see. We watch people that are successful in what they do. In sports, we watch their disciplines. In business, we watch their disciplines. disciplines by observation what we can see. The reason I created this video is something that you could see someone's experiences translated for you. Second, we learn by what we

hear. I've got some of my lectures on cassette tapes so you know you can take them with you wherever you go and learn by listening. Turn your car into a mobile classroom and listen and then listen to the sermon on Sunday morning. Listen to the lectures. Listen to the teacher. Listen to someone who's got something good to say. And then number three is vitally important on personal development, and that is read all the books. All the books you can possibly read in your lifetime. Mr. Schof got me started on my library. I've got one of the better libraries. Haven't read everything in it, but I feel smarter just walking in it by library. At least I was smart enough to buy it. Now I got to be smart enough to read it. Then of course, I got to be smart enough to

Decide what's valuable and then do it. But this one is very important. Become a good reader. Some books that helped change my life. Mr. Schof recommended, of course, the Bible. And my parents made sure I was a pretty good scholar by the time I was 18. That's been so beneficial for me,

drawing from those illustrations, reading about those stories, people who made it and people who didn't make it and what the difference was. And then other books that helped to really change my life. One called Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. And then a book that helped me become

financially independent by the time I was 31. And that book is called The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clayson. And I'm going to share a little bit of that book with you when I get to financial independence today, our third subject. But I started reading the books, attending the classes,

making sure that I got in front of people that had something good to say. And then I started keeping a journal One of the major things my teacher taught me was to keep a journal. He said, don't trust your memory. If you hear something good, just make a little note and write it down. Now, at first I took, you know, notes on pieces of paper and torn off corners and backs of old envelopes. And it didn't serve me well, you know, thrown in a drawer.

Then I learned to keep a journal, a bound copy of all my notes. So I would suggest you do the same. Things that impress you, a poem that impresses you, When you attend a class, some of the ideas that impressed you, jot them down. You read something in a magazine, right? Some ideas. Take those out, put them in your journal. Keep a good journal.

The rest of your life, this will serve you well. My journals make up a significant portion of my own library. And if you saw my library and saw my journals, I tell you what you'd have to say. This is the library and these are the journals of a very serious student. No wonder Mr. Rohn is invited to lecture and speak on his experience. around the world. So I want the same thing to happen to you. Value captured that you can resort to later, go back over it and review it and let it become valuable to you. So that's my first subject, personal development. Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Develop the

skills, learn the lessons, take the classes, absorb all that is being taught to you these days. And then later on, of course, you can sort it out what's valuable to you and how to refurb. it for your business and for your life and for your future. But the main thing is to get it and start this process of personal change, personal development. And let me say it one more time, if you will change. Everything will change for you. You'll never be the same. You'll keep growing.

As you look back on a few months, look back on a few years, you won't believe the progress you can make. Economically, your relationship with your family, your friends, and whether you're in sports or economics or whatever, I'm telling you, That whole process of committing yourself for personal change, personal value can really make your life unique and worthwhile. Now let's cover the second subject on setting goals. Mr. Schofe gave me some tips on setting goals that changed my life forever and I want to share those with you. So let's talk about setting goals and I also want to tie it to personal development and you'll see how I'm going to do it as I progress. here. Setting goals. We need to take a look into the future. There are four things to consider in terms of attitude. One is how you feel about the past. Best advice I can give you on that is treat the past as a school. Let it teach you the mistakes you've made, the things that went wrong, the things that didn't work.

Don't use the past as a burden to carry and don't use the past as a club to beat yourself to death. Past losses, past failures, past mistakes. But let the past be a school. school, tough school maybe. We've all been through some tough stuff. So if you feel good about the past, draw from it for experience and let it teach you. Then next is how you feel about the future. We've got to have the future well designed. The future is called the promise. And here's what we teach in our leadership series. The promise of the future can be an awesome force for your own future. The promise of the future. designing the future. There's two ways to face the future. One is with apprehension and the other is with anticipation. I promise you in my travels around the world, most people face the future with apprehension. And here's why they don't have it well designed. They've sort of left that up to someone else to fix. But here's the best way to face the future with anticipation. And you can face the future

with anticipation if the future is clear, if the future is well designed. And I would like to have you consider some thoughts with me that help me to really change my future by giving it some thought and some consideration. And here it is. In setting goals, it's very simple. Number one, decide what you want. You just take a little time. You sit down and say, what do I want? What kind of skills do I want? What kind of skills do I want? What kind of income do I want for the future? What would I like, where would I like to go, places I'd like to visit, habits I'd like to acquire, skills I'd like to have. You just take a little time to think about what you want. Economics, friendships, people you'd like to meet, places you'd

like to go, you just take some time. And then I suggest when you've thought about what you want for the future, make a list. Just jot it all down. So really a very very very very very, very simple process. And then here's number three. Keep all the old lists. I'm telling you this served me so well keeping my old list of goals. I look back now 10, 20 years ago at goals I set, lists I made, and I smile now because here's what I thought was so important, you know, 20 years ago. Now some of those things aren't even on my list. I've got a new list. I've grown. I've changed. I've matured. But I give you that advice. Decide what you want number two write it down number three keep the old lists and then here's number four

when you get something that's on one of these lists check it off part of the fun of having a list is checking it off and then if you can add some drama to checking it off see that's what really helps i set a goal to go to go to spain many many years ago and when i finally made my first trip to spain i had that journal with me that had that list in it and while i had my journal on my lap waiting for the wheels to touch down in Madrid. I waited until the wheels touched the runway and I checked it off. Just adding a little drama. So part of the fun of having a list is checking it off. Now here's what's important about the lists and designing your future. If the future gets clear, the price gets easier. Because you got to remember for every promise there's a price

to pay. Everybody's got to pay the price. Everybody's got to do the deal. Everybody's got to do the disciplines. Everybody has to pay. But here's what I've discovered. If the promise is clear and powerful, the price is easy to pay. The price is some classes. The price is a few books. The price is a few disciplines. The price is finding something that'll make your life better, make you grow, make you change make you develop. So the first part of the key is to design the promise. Then what is the price to pay? I'm telling you the price will be easy. Anybody in my audience can pay it. No matter where you are, where you come from. Color doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, where you grew up doesn't matter, circumstances don't matter. I'm telling you, if you'll make

the promise of the future clear for yourself, the things you want, the places you want to go, the things you want to have, the person you want to become, the skills you want, the homes you want, the future you want, the friends you want, all of the values of life that you could possibly want. If you'll make that clear, make those lists and be serious about it. I promise you it's an easy price to pay. Anybody can pay it. And the best advice I can give you is if I can do it, you can do it. Farm boy from Idaho raised in obscurity. I changed my life, turned it upside down, turned it all around, found economics, found future, found promise, and if I can do it, you can do it. So start setting your goals and see if you can't get a better excitement going for the things you want to accomplish for the future.

Now here's my third subject and that's called financial independence. Oh, by the way, before I get to financial independence, let me cover one more point. One of the major reasons for setting goals is for what they make of you in achieving them. My teacher advised me when I first got started at age 25. He said, Jim, why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire? He said, it's got a nice ring to it. You know, enough zeros to impress your accountant. And he said, I'm here to help you.

You're only 25 years old. You've been to one year of college. You've got a beautiful family. Every reason to do it. Why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire? And he said, here's why. And I thought, he doesn't need to be a millionaire. to teach me why. Wouldn't it be nice to have a million dollars? He said, no, then you'll miss it.

He said, here's why. For what it will make of you to achieve it. I'm telling you that statement changed my life. Set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them. He said, now, once you become a millionaire, what's important is not the money. I thought that's kind of strange teaching. He said, honest, it isn't important. He said, you could just give the money away. Now I did better than that. I lost it all. By the time I was 31 I was a millionaire, by the time I was 33, I was broke. And I'll tell you a little bit about that story later. But when I lost all my money, guess what? I found out Mr. Schoff was right. What was valuable was not the money. What was valuable was what I became to earn the money, the skills I had,

the knowledge I had about the marketplace, the values that I had going for me. They were more valuable than the money. And here's an important statement to remember. It's not what you get that makes you valuable. It's what you become. So part of the key here is to set the kind of goals that will make something of you. Don't set them too low so that you don't have to grow and you don't have to read and you don't have to try and you don't have to stretch. Don't set them too low. And then don't sell out. Don't go for something that's going to cost you your virtue or cost you your values or sell out your principles. There's a good middle road here to follow. Goals that will inspire, goals that will help you grow, change, develop, and become better

than you are. Okay. Now let's talk about financial independence. How to become rich by 40, 35 if you're extra bright, much sooner if you find an opportunity like I did. Let me show you how I did it. Financial independence. First of all, I like the phrase financial independence. Some people are a little bit concerned about using the word becoming rich or becoming wealthy. And I can understand that. I struggled a little bit with this. Is it okay to go for becoming rich, go for becoming wealthy? And maybe that's a bit too strong a word or strong a term. So here's what I've come up with that I think is comfortable for me. And that is how to become financially independent. I think it's every person's heritage here, especially in America, uh, to become financially independent. Now, let me give you my definition of financial independence. Financial independence is the ability to live from the income of your own personal resources. Financial independence. Now it depends on how you want to live. If you need two, three thousand dollars a month, if you need four or five thousand a month, if you need 10,000 a month, some

people may need, you know, 100,000 a month, but whatever you would need to live and you could earn that living from the income of your own personal resources, that's what I call financial freedom, financial independence. And let me show you how to acquire it. If you start at age 15, between ages 15 and 35 is 20 years, and in my personal opinion, based on my own studies and my own experience 20 years in my opinion is enough time to become financially independent. If you're not, you don't live in the wrong country. Probably what's happened is you have the wrong plan. And it's easy to be a nice person with the wrong plan. I found that when I was 25 years old. I was broke at age 25 and I was a nice

guy. You would have liked me. But I'm telling you my plans up until then, especially my financial plan, left me broke. I totally changed it the next years and I became financially independent. So I know what I'm talking about. It is possible in a reasonable amount of time, 15 to 35, whatever, 20 years time, enough time. You can do it in much shorter period of time like I did if you want to, but this is a reasonable enough time. But here's number one. First of all, you've got to have the right philosophy. Philosophy is our ability to gather knowledge and sort through it and decide what's valuable to develop a philosophy. about life, a philosophy about our health, a philosophy about our family relationships, a philosophy about economics.

And if you develop the right philosophy, that's what helps to set this sale so that in six years it takes you where you want to go instead of winding up like I did that first six years of my economics broke, no money, empty bank account. The right philosophy. Now let me give you a couple of philosophies to consider. Here's the first one. It's called the philosophy of the poor and here in the it is. Poor people usually spend their money and invest what's left. That's the philosophy of the poor. Now here's the philosophy of the rich. Rich people invest their money and spend what's left. And here's the startling answer. It really doesn't matter what the amount is. What's most important is not the amount. What's really important is the philosophy. So I would ask you to adopt this philosophy of spending after you have invested, invest first, then spend. And I've got a little formula that I'm going to share with you. Now, what should a child do with a dollar? I mean,

there's a lot of debate going on, I'm sure, across the country on what a child should do with a dollar. Here's one opinion. It's only a child and it's only a dollar. What difference does it make? Well, in my opinion, it makes all the difference in the world. A person's economic future starts with a child with a dollar. Somebody says, oh no, you're only young once. Let him spend it all. Well, when would you hope that would stop? Somebody says, well, wait a least 50 and broke like me and you know, and then he'll learn. Well, no, we don't want to wait that long. If I would have known earlier than age 25, I would have changed in high school. If I, if they would have had classes called wealth one, wealth two, I had to take in both classes. I would not have waited until age 25.

So the earlier the better. So what should a child do with a dollar? Here's the simple premise to begin with. Don't spend it all. And if a child wants to spend the whole dollar, you got to say, hey, don't spend it all. You know, don't spend it all. They'll say, why not? It's my dollar. I earned it. You say, I know you earned it, but don't spend it all. They'll still say, why not? Say, let me show you why not. So you put them in your car, take him to the other side of town and show them where people live that spend the whole dollar. Just drive them around. Kids learn best by visual. Just drive around and say, would you like to live here? Kid says, no. Would you like to live like these people live? Kid says no, no. Then you can't spend the whole dollar. So kids will get the message. So, you know, take them to other side of town and show them around unless you already live there and then just show them around. Anyway, don't spend the whole dollar. Now let me give you my best view of what to do with the dollar. And I promise you if you started at age 15. Now, if you're over 15, right, you've still got plenty of time. You still got 20 years. You know, if you're 30, you're still got 20 years. I mean, you know, you still got plenty of time to start what I'm about to share with you. What to do with a dollar. Here's my first bit of advice. Never spend more than 70 cents. Never spend more than 70 cents. Now, you've got to pick some number and the number you pick is going to to be determined by your philosophy. It's going to be determined by what you've been taught or your

experience teaching yourself. When I first met my teacher, Mr. Schof, I was at about 110% of each dollar. You know, I'm down at budget finance, hawking my furniture and my car one more time. And then I learned a whole better formula for financial independence. Number one, don't spend more than 70 cents. Now kids say to me, well, okay, what do I do with the other 30? cents and here's what I teach them. Ten cents for charity. Charity or church or helping people that can't help themselves. Ten cents to support worthy projects, projects that you feel good about. Ten cents out of every dollar. It's called being generous with part of what you've taken out of society. Now, in my opinion, nothing teaches us character.

better than generosity. No class, no teacher, no book. Teachers generosity teaches character better than generosity. And the best time to start is when the amounts are small. And I know if kids learn these lessons well, they'll give a dime out of a dollar, help people that can't help themselves, support worthy projects. Or if you belong to a church, they teach tithe, peace of. That's very important. Now, because when the amounts get larger, sometimes it's a little more difficult. You know, giving a hundred thousand out of a million. Someone says, oh, if I had a million, I'd give a hundred thousand. I'm not sure. That's a lot of money.

So the time to start is when the amounts are small. Ten cents out of the dollar. Okay. Next ten cents. I call active capital. Active capital means do something to make a profit. Active capital. Set aside a portion of your income.

Wages are okay, but I'm telling you, wages will make you a living. profits will make you a fortune. So set aside part of your income as capital called active capital. Any kind of project you can possibly think of you can possibly come up with. I'm going to write a new book. I think for kids. I think the title is going to be of course kids should pay taxes. It's kind of an interesting title. In California, kids do pay taxes. When a child walks into 7-Eleven, buy something that costs a dollar, the proprietor says, give me seven more pennies. And the child says, hey, what's these seven pennies for? And the proprietor says that's the taxes.

Kid says, well, hey, I'm only eight years old. Proparieter says, congratulations. You're my youngest taxpayer. Give me the money. So in California where I live, kids do pay taxes. Big question is, should they? And my book will answer that question. Of course, kids should pay taxes. Nothing is for free. If you want to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk instead of in the mud, you got to pay the seven pennies. Nothing is free. So we all have to pay. So 10 cents out of your living, out of the money you earn, set aside for capital. Capital to try your best to show a profit. And in my book's going to be all kinds of ways kids can make money, right? Two bicycles, one to ride, one to rent. I mean, you know, it doesn't take long to figure out some enterprise that'll start making a profit.

Then you must jot this down if you're taking notes. Profits are better than which. wages. One, you can't usually start wages until you're about 16, 15, 16, but you can make a profit long before you're eligible to start earning wages. And then there's no limit to profits. And they can, they can double and triple and quadruple. You know, there's no limit. It's incredible how fast profits can grow. So profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living. Profits make you a fortune. Now the third 10 cents is vitally important. I call it passive capital. Capital you let somebody else use. A financial institution, stocks and bonds, mutual funds, whatever. Let someone else use it. You furnish the money. They use it to make a profit, but they pay you for the use of it called interest. And here's one of the things that'll make you financially independent fairly quickly, and that's called compound interest. And this is how you get it. Letting someone else use a portion of your money, substance. They show the profit. They pay you interest. And this passive capital, I'm telling

you, over a sustained period of time, if you'll develop this little 10, 10, 10, and 70, especially starting at age 15, I'm telling you by the time you're 35, you will be financially independent. You'll have the ability to live from the income of your own resources. And then one more point on passive capital. There's a Bible philosophy. I'm an amateur on the Bible, But there's a Bible philosophy that teaches the borrower is servant to the lender. And if you want to be in a powerful position as you grow older, finally when you become mature, maybe have your own business, things have worked out for you for the future, the position you always want to be in is the power position.

And that's called the lender. The lender is the power position. So if kids learn early enough and then you ask them what they'd like to be when they grow up, I'm telling you once they understand, they'll say, well, one of the things I want to be is one of those lenders. That's the power position, not the spender. No, you'll be pitied the rest of your life if you just become a spender. You've got to become a lender. And I think this is the one formulas to follow.

10 cents out of every dollar, let someone else use it be the lender, power position, then try to show a profit. Can't we teach our children how to take a dollar, search the neighborhood, find a broken wagon, pay a dollar, for it, bring it home, you know, clean it up, sand it until it's clean, paint it red till it shines, straighten out the wheels till they're true, take it back to the neighborhood, sell it for $5. Anybody can do that. Now does the child deserve $4 profit? And the answer is yes, society now has a mended wagon. And that's what America's all about. Finding something, touching it, making it better, making a profit, taking part of your resources helping people who can't help themselves? Let someone else use it to make a profit.

Some projects require more capital than one person has. Exciting. And then let them pay you for the use of it. America's had this philosophy now all these years. Communism has taught all these years. Capital belongs in the hands of the state, not in the hands of the people. We've been teaching all these years. Capital belongs in the hands of the people, not in the hands of the state. And we turned out to be right. Capital in the hands of the kids, capital in the hands of the people. Enterprises that make a profit, enterprises that grow. It's the hope of our future. So that little simple formula, I hope will help you.

Now one more key on financial independence and that is attitude. Attitude. Here's number one. I used to say I hate to pay my bills. My teacher straightened me out on that. He said, let's see, Mr. Rohn, what you hate to do is pay $100. on an account and reduce your liabilities and increase your assets. I said, well, no, not if you look at it that way. He said, well, it all depends on how you look at it. So wouldn't you love to pay your bills,

reduce your liabilities, increase your assets? You've got to have that kind of attitude. I found out the same attitude about taxes. I used to say, I hate to pay my taxes. And Mr. Schoeb said, well, that's one way to live. But don't you understand taxes is how we care and feed the goose that lays the golden eggs. wouldn't you want to do your share? Someone says, yes, but the goose eats too much. Probably true. But hey, we all eat too much. We all need to go on a diet. Better a fat goose than no goose.

So I finally became a happy taxpayer. Now, I think taxes are too high, so I'm working to get taxes lowered for our economic future. But then whatever they turn out to be, I gladly pay and do my part because that's what makes the whole system run each of us doing our part. Now, I want these three sub-subjects.

to be valuable for you. I want them to have meaning for you. I want you someday to be financially independent. I want you to have the personal development so that you feel good about yourself. If I had a chance to meet you someday, I'd like to have you show me the list of goals that you got started and say, Mr. Rohn, here's some I've already checked off. Here's the books I'm reading. Here's what's happened. I'm developing the skills. I'm better this year than I was last year. I've got more self-confidence. My skills are developing. That's what I want for you. And that's why I took the time to come and share in this video message with you. I do seminars all around the world, but this is one way that I can reach out and touch you in case you can't

come to my seminars wherever I am. Maybe this video will reach you somewhere and it'll have an impact on your life. And what I'd like to do is later hear about it, a letter, phone call, or to have a chance to meet you in person. And now I'd like to leave you with these four questions called questions to ponder. These questions were valuable for me, and I want to make them valuable for you. Here's the first one, why. We all ask why we should work this hard. Why take that many classes?

Why go to school that many years? You know, why take the notes? Why read the books? Why work that hard? Why put yourself through the push up? and the disciplines. Why? Good question. Why? Best answer to why I think is the second question. Why not? Why not see how many books you can read, how many classes you can take, how many skills you can develop? Why not see how valuable you can become to the marketplace and to your friends and to your family?

Why not see what you can make of yourself? Why not see how far you can go, how much you can see, how much you can earn, how much you can share? Why not? That's the heritage all of us have in America especially is to see what we can make out of our lives now that we've been given this extraordinary opportunity. Now my third question, I'd love to ask you in person. But since I can't do it in person, I want to ask it of all of you, but I want you to take it personally. And my third question is, why not you? Why not you with good self-esteem? Why not you starting to change and setting goals?

Why not you starting to make progress toward financial independence? If I can do it, you can do it. I wish I had a lot more testimonials here today besides mine, a whole steady stream that would come by and tell you their story. Someone who started with nothing, finally run a big enterprise, a mother who was on welfare, now she owns her own business. In addition to my story, I wish I had a lot more. And if all of them told their story, guess how they would probably wind up their story.

probably say just like me, why not you? If we can read, you can read. If we can change, you can change. If we can figure it out, you can figure it out. If we can turn it around, you can turn it around. There isn't anything you can't accomplish. That's what those testimonials would say. And so I want to say it to you personally. Why not you? You've got the brains, you've got the stamina, you've got the vitality, you've got the interest, you've got your life ahead of you, you've got the future. You can do it. If anybody can do it, you can do it. If one of us can do it, Hey, we all can do it. And now here's my last question.

Why not now? This is a good time as the 20th century starts to wind down a few more years as we get ready for century 21. What a good time to set your goals, work on yourself, work on your skills. What a good time to get it together. What a good time to start this process. Personal development, growing, changing, developing, having a good plan for your money and for your life and for your future, why not now?

And I hope I have a chance to see you one of these days and share with you the experience, the reaction, response you might have had from my message today. And until I get a chance to see you on this side of the world or the other side of the world in some school or some seminar or maybe I'll come and speak for a company that you work for someday, I hope I get a chance to meet you. Until then, I wish you the best. I want all that I have gotten to be. yours and much, much more. God bless. Goodbye. Thank you for tuning into this episode.

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