The School of Greatness - 950 Bob Proctor on The Science of Success (SECRETS TO UNLOCK YOUR MIND)

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

“2% of the people think, 3% think they think and 95% would rather die than think.”QUESTIONSHow do you get people to get back to their most abundant thinking? (1:23)Which are the hardest faculties to master? (4:39)What happens when we try to resist in our life? (9:41)What should we be thinking about the most right now? (11:41)Why do we feed people what scares them? (18:11)What is the path from doubt to confidence? (20:31)How do we reshape our self image to serve us? (25:21)What is the one idea or concept to get yourself to another level? (30:11)What was a lesson from the WWII era that we could learn in this quarantine? (40:11)How important is writing down what we think everyday is important? (44:19)What routines would you go back and tell yourself to do thirty years ago? (47:23)How can those listening get more mentorship from you? (51:21)YOU WILL LEARNHow we grow up through our five senses (3:12)How to view expansion and creation as God’s work (10:01)How faith over fear is key to success (12:11)The steps of fear bringing us to disintegration (15:47) How opposition is key to understanding the world (17:09)Why learning and growing is forever (31:14)How the purpose of life is learning who you are (36:42) How programming yourself with something new can be very powerful (45:15)The secret of why helping others is better than helping yourself (49:10)How intuition informs us everyday (57:36)LINKS MENTIONEDMaxwell MaltzThe Science of Getting Rich by Wallace WattlesLectures on Mental Science by Thomas TrowardThink and Grow RichAs a Man Thinketh by James AllenYou Were Born RichYou Squared by Price PritchettZig ZiglarIn Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo TrineMichael BeckwithIf you enjoyed this episode, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/950 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes

This is episode number 950 with Bob Proctor. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Napoleon Hill said,

whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. And Bruce Lee said, absorb what is useful, discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own. I am so excited about this episode with the iconic and legendary Bob Proctor

and we had Bob on last year and we talked about how to manifest abundance and when I met him in person, his energy, his essence, his just decades of wisdom poured through with his energy. And I loved everything he shared then. And I thought this is a perfect time to bring him back on to truly help us learn the science

of success and the secrets to unlocking our minds. And today, Bob has studied thousands of books and continues to read Think and Grow Rich every single day. And he is considered the world's foremost expert on the human mind. In 1961, he started studying Think and Grow Rich, and it transformed his life. And then Bob listened to Earl Nightingale's condensed recording of the book thousands of times and applied it to his businesses and his life. Then Bob worked shoulder to shoulder with Earl Nightingale at his companies and before leaving to start with his own personal development company in 1974. And today he continues to share stories about this science, about this mindset to speak wisdom into the hearts of millions of people

around the world. And in this interview, we talk about why hearts of millions of people around the world. In this interview, we talk about why faith over fear is one of the main keys to success. Also, Bob shares his three favorite books he recommends to getting rich, the power of setting hard goals that will help you grow, and why realistic goals are things you should never set, how we can reprogram our minds for the better instead of allowing our minds to be run by fear. And why helping others is better than helping yourself, especially when you're feeling stuck or uninspired. That and so much more. This is going to blow you away.

Make sure to share this with your friends right now or at any time you feel moved or inspired during this episode. Copy and paste the link on the Apple podcast or Spotify link or wherever you're listening to this, or just use the link lewishouse.com slash 950. Text a friend during this episode, share it on your Instagram story, tag me, post it on social media, because you have the power to transform someone's life today when you share this message with them right now. And without further ado, let's dive into this episode with the one, the only Bob Proctor. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast.

We have the legendary, the inspirational Bob Proctor in the house. Bob, thank you so much, sir, for giving us your time today. Appreciate it. It's a pleasure to be here. The last time we had you on, I think it was a few years ago, but we were talking beforehand. It felt like a few months ago because we had such a great conversation. People are still talking about it, sharing it like crazy all over the internet. And I'm just so grateful for the years of experience. I won't give your age, but the decades of wisdom that is inside your heart and your mind and your way of being. And I'm just so grateful for all that you do for humanity by constantly lifting the consciousness

up, by lifting people's awareness, their insights, their capability to think abundantly as opposed to scarcely. And I think people are in a place of uncertainty, fear, worry, anxiety right now more than ever. And how have you been coaching and supporting and educating people during a time of scarcity or fearful times for people? How do you get people to start getting back to a place of abundance thinking when? Well, we do a broadcast. We're very fortunate here. We've built our own studio about four years ago, and we can broadcast all over the world from here. And so I've been doing the odd broadcast at least once a week, Good News by Bob Proctor, at least once a week, Good News by Bob Proctor,

and trying to help people become aware that although you cannot change conditions or circumstance, you don't have to let them control you. We can't control what's going on outside, but we can control what's going on inside. And unfortunately, I don't think many of us have been raised to really understand that. Yeah. And it's a lack of understanding that's causing all our problems. You know. But I mean, how can you say that to someone who's like, well, I don't feel like I have control on the inside when it seems like everything has power over me.

What's something they could start to shift? You see, the truth is for that person, that would be true, that they're being controlled by outside. Look at it this way. We are the only creature on the planet that's totally disoriented in our environment. All the little squirrels, the birds, all the animals are completely at home in their environment. They blend in. You and I are totally disoriented in our environment.

We've been given the mental faculties to create our own environment. However, we go right through school and we've never learned that. We have higher faculties and the average person has no knowledge of how to operate with them, how to develop them. We have perception, the will, reason, imagination, memory, and intuition. Now, those mental faculties, they're not just words. They're actually mental faculties that we can use to take control over our world and to create the environment that we want. But unfortunately, we grow up, we don't know that. We've been raised to live through by what we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Our physical senses.

And we've been raised to be controlled by what's going on outside. As little kids, will you listen to what I'm telling you? Will you look at this? And so it's all outside. We get our report card and that tells us what kind of student we are. But it really tells us where our mind was at for a few minutes three weeks ago. Got nothing to do with who we are. So I think we're raised in ignorance, actually. There's a very small percentage of the population that have a reasonably clear understanding of who they are and what they're capable of doing, but the ones that do are in the minority. Our whole company has been dedicated to

teaching that to people for the last 50-some years. Powerful. You talked about the five faculty, the five mental faculties, and I even touched on this briefly in our previous interview, but I'm curious. I have a new question for you. Which of the faculties typically is the hardest to, I guess, master or, you know, become efficient in to use to your advantage in a positive way? And which is the one that you feel like hurts us the most when we don't? Well, I think reason is probably,

it's the one that's spoken about by almost all the great leaders. Yeah. They've all been complete unanimous agreement that we become what we think about. It's our reasoning factor that enables us to think. Ford says thinking's the hardest work there is, which is a probable reason so few people engage in it. Dr. Ken McFarland, who's gone for a long time now, but he was a great educator down in Kentucky. He one time said 2% of the people think, 3% think they think, and 95% would actually rather die than think. Now, you know, that sounds cute, but it's true. If you stop and listen to what most people are saying, it's going to be fairly obvious they're

not thinking. If you stand back and watch what most people are doing, it's going to be fairly obvious they're not thinking. If you stand back and watch what most people are doing, it's fairly obvious they're not thinking, but they would never say or do what they're doing. Most people today have their television on the news and they're just soaking up all the stuff that's going on that's dominating the media right now. So they've become a play thing for what's going on outside. And that's why they're living in such fear. By consuming the media of whether it's true or accurate or not true, you're being manipulated. It's not a matter of whether it's true or not. Is this how you want to spend your life? Just listening to that? That doesn't mean you should deny it. It doesn't mean that you

should say, well, that's all false. I don't know whether it's true or false. It's just bad news. I don't want to be involved in it. Yeah. Am I aware that it's there? Well, you'd almost have to be dead not to be aware that it's there? Well, you'd almost have to be dead not to be aware that it's there. But that doesn't mean you have to spend your time thinking on that. I would much rather activate some of my creative faculties and do something that's constructive. In a time under crisis and worry and fear for a lot of people, what should we be thinking about? How should we be using our imagination in different ways as opposed to fixating on the bad news? Well, I think a good

idea right now would be spend some time thinking about how are we going to adapt when this is gone? Yeah. Because we're going to live in a different world. We're not going to be in the same world when this is all blown over than we're in right now. It's going to be quite different. People are not going to be rushing out to big events where there's a lot of people. They're not going to be rushing to restaurants. I think they're going to be very careful about what they do, where they think, and where they're going. I was listening to Sinek, and he said, if you're a public speaker, don't look for a stage for a little while because you're not going to have one. Now, this also presents great opportunities.

also presents great opportunities. It's for us, for my company, we're going online, you know, full speed ahead. Now, fortunately, we built the studio four or five years ago. So you're prepared. We're equipped and we're ready. Yeah, we can broadcast. we had a training class going in here um just last week with about 300 of our consultants from all over the world we had a three-day training program for them and it was very effective online you didn't have to come together

yeah yeah we did it from right here yeah i mean you you're known for doing these powerful transformational workshops in person so for someone i mean it's very inspiring for me for someone at your age where would be the excuse of most people your age to say well i don't understand this technology thing and i've been doing this this way of business for so long it's always worked this way and i'm not going to try to reinvent or evolve and pivot and grow in this way. So it's really inspiring to see someone your age with your level of experience and say, you know what? I'm embracing it. Maybe I don't like it.

Maybe you do like it, but you're embracing it and making the most of it as opposed to resisting. Because what happens when we start to resist in our life? What truly happens? Well, when we resist it, we create it in our mind. That's all we think about. You see, I guess my age really has nothing to do with it, but I formed that attitude a long time ago. I didn't like the idea that when you've lived for so long, you've got to cut out, you've got to stop. I thought, hell, I don't like that idea at all. First of all, I think we're, I believe we're here to do God's work.

God's work is creation, you know, expansion, fuller expression, greater goodness. And if we're going to do that, we're going to be working at it all the time we're here on this planet. We never stop. So age should have no bearing on it. I had a couple of people ask me when we started to build this place, we put a couple of million dollars into this. And somebody said, how old are you? And I think I was probably 83 when they started to break ground.

They said, you're 83 and you're going to spend $2 million building a studio? I said, yeah, like, why not? I mean, you see, we let things that really have no concern, we let them bother us, we let them control us. Age is a dumb thing to let control you. It's our thinking that controls everything. That's the one point every great leader of the read on. We become what we think about. Well, what's a person thinking? I'm thinking if I get old, I got to stop. Well, then you'll stop. Or I'm thinking, well, if I've been here a long time, I've got a lot

of experience. I want to utilize that experience to keep me going as long as I am here. I mean, anybody had their head screwed on right a few years ago would know that this thing is going to take over. And if we don't learn how to use it, we're toast. And if we don't learn how to use it, we're toast. So, you know, I was doing seminars on my iPad because I can run it right on to monitor an outstripper of the universe. Yeah. What should we be thinking about the most right now, in your mind? I think we should be thinking about our future.

I think we should be thinking about the greatness. I think we should be thinking about the greatness, like it's the school of greatness. I think we ought to be thinking about the greatness that we've got locked up within us and bring it to the surface. Everyone has deep reservoirs of talent and ability within them, and they can bring it to the surface to accomplish anything they want. Now, to sit in fear and wonder what's going to happen, that is a dumb waste of your talent and your time. And unfortunately,

that's what most of the media is promoting right now. To believe in fear is to believe in something you can't see. To believe in faith is to believe in something you can't see. Well, if you have a choice, I think I'd choose faith over fear. Absolutely. I think I believe where I can really see something happen. I believe we're going to have a phenomenal year in our company. In fact, I have a business partner, Sandy Gallagher, and a very bright lady, was a securities attorney prior to joining us. She ran a program this morning for our entire company. We have about 70 people in the company. She was teaching masterminding to them all and saying how this is important that every

one of us get involved in this, that we learn the basics of masterminding that Napoleon Hill brought to the world, let's say, way back in the 30s. Now, I think that's what we should be teaching people. Sandy was on the right track there. So I think we's what we should be teaching people. Sandy was on the right track there. So I think we ought to be thinking about what we're going to build. How big are we going to do it? Where are we going to do it? When are we going to start?

Our goals have not changed. They're very big, they're very ambitious, and we're not letting this virus slow us down one bit. As a matter of fact, we're trying to figure out how can we use this to speed it up. Since it's here and you can't get rid of it, use it to your advantage. There is a way we can use it to our advantage.

People are more dependent upon the phone. I've got a computer here. They're dependent on their phone, their computer, more than they've ever been. We can reach them anywhere in the world through those meetings. Yeah, use them to your advantage. You talked about fear for a second. I'm curious, when we live in a state of fear, what does that do to us? And when we, the second part to this, when we feel that fear and we become aware of it,

what should we be thinking or doing or acting on in order to shift into a more positive state? You know, that is one hell of a good question. And it's a question most people are not able to answer. First of all, the cause of fear is ignorance. That is the cause of fear. And so if you follow the ignorance, it doesn't start out as fear. The ignorance starts out in a conscious level as doubt and worry. That's on a conscious level. We're doubting or we're worrying. Then we take whatever image comes into our consciousness of the doubt and the worry, and we turn it over to our emotional mind. That's what causes the fear. Well, that fear then has to be expressed through the body, through the only instrument it can be

expressed through, our physical body. It sets up a vibration known as anxiety. up a vibration known as anxiety. Anxiety is not expressed. Anxiety becomes suppressed. We suppress it. And the suppression then turns to depression, which turns to disease, which turns to

decay. You see, you're talking about a track a person gets on. It's a very negative track. It's ignorance, don't worry, fear, anxiety, suppression, depression, disease, disintegration. Now the polar opposite of all that, the opposite of ignorance is knowledge. There's only one way to get to knowledge, and that is to study. Now, unfortunately, school didn't do the job that it was designed to do for most of us. School should teach us to love to study. Not to dread studying and homework and tests. They should teach us to love it because study leads to the opposite of don't worry,

which is understanding. See, it's study that leads to understanding. We understand how to handle the fear. It's understanding that enables us to cause us to understand where the fear starts. Understanding that enables us to cause us to understand where the fear starts. The understanding, then, we want to say, what do we understand? We want to understand this whole universe operates by law. One of the laws is the law of opposite. The opposite of don't worry is understanding. Now, if the don't worry leads to fear, what's understanding leads to?

Understanding leads to faith. The faith leads to expression, well-being, and expression. It's not depression. It's not suppression. It's not anxiety. The faith leads to well-being. The well-being then is expression, acceleration, because we're at ease. There's not disease. So you're dealing with polar opposites. There's two different sides to things. And when we understand that, our world starts to change. It's by understanding that that we learn how to deal with these

pandemics when they hit. And they will hit. There will be others. There always has been all down through history. If you look back, there's been things like this happen in the past. And unfortunately, the masses are sort of paralyzed by it. Yeah. Unfortunately, the masses are sort of paralyzed by it.

And as a people, we add to that paralysis by feeding them more of what scares them. What we should be doing is helping them understand what the hell is going on. Why do we do that as people? Why do we feed people more of what scares them as opposed to what you and I do? Because that's what people want. That's what they buy. People don't buy good news. People buy bad news. Why though? Can you imagine if everybody that tunes into CNN tuned into the School of Greatness every week? It'd be amazing. Can you imagine if everybody that tunes into Fox tuned into your School of Greatness every week? Have you any idea the impact you could have on the world?

That's what we're trying to do. It'd be enormous. It'd be enormous. People want bad news. It resonates with where their mind is programmed. They're programmed with negative information. Their paradigm is all bad news. It's what we're programmed with now is everybody new there's a

small select group of people that don't fall into that category and they are always working diligently trying to lift everybody up it's not an easy thing to do but every now and then well a lewis house would come along and start a school of greatness, and he'll call in different people that feed into that concept, that are in harmony with that, that resonate with that, and so it makes it interesting for the listener, and then that's how it goes. And that's what you're doing, and that's what I'm doing. And it's not a losing battle. It just appears like it is. I'm winning. I think you're winning. Now, we're not drawing the numbers that CNN's drawing, but the ones we draw are saying, absolutely. You got it. You got it. We're making an impact on them for sure. I want to ask you more about self-doubt because this

is something I've been fascinated with for the last few years as I spent most of my life dealing with trying to understand how to overcome doubting myself and achieve the sports goals, business goals, relationship goals that I had throughout my younger years. And I became obsessed with learning how to eliminate doubt. And I've been researching this more and just trying to learn from people like yourself on how you have dealt with self-doubt over the years and how you think anyone who feels like they're doubting themselves, what can they do to go from doubt into confidence? What do you think is the path? Okay, that's a good question. It ties in with the previous question. What do we do with fear? Fear comes from the doubt. So the doubt becomes the cause of the fear, which is the cause of the anxiety, et cetera. The doubt is the cause,

fear is the effect. What is the polar opposite to doubt? Understanding. It's understanding. That's the opposite of doubt. So what is it we want to understand? Well, if it's me that's entertaining doubt, why am I entertaining doubt? If I were to find out who I really am, and I believe everything that's been taught down through the centuries, I would have no doubt. I would be realizing that I could do anything. And the only thing that's causing the doubt is lack of understanding. So I'm going to keep studying. I'll gain a better understanding. I don't doubt myself. I don't doubt what I can do. Does that mean that I can do everything? No. When doubt appears, I'll eliminate it. And I'll eliminate it fast

because I'm going to figure out how to do whatever it is I'm doubting. And you see, if it's me that I'm doubting, it's because I don't understand me well enough. I did a broadcast the other day. It was all over the place. We had thousands into it on self-image. And we've got to get a better image of ourself. We have to get a true image of ourself, understand who we are, how our mind functions. Realize this physical instrument we're living in is nothing but an instrument. It's the instrument of the mind. And the mind expresses itself with and through this thing we call our body. Well, let's understand that better. This thing, you've got enough power in your one hand to light up that building you're in for probably a month. There's about 11 million kilowatt hours

per pound potential energy locked up in the electrons and the atoms of the body. Well, that's the invisible power that's in me. I want to understand that better. That's the physical side. What's the higher side? Higher side is my intellectual side. And that is the intellectual factors that I run through earlier, perception, will, reason, imagination, memory, and intuition. There's six of them. And as I understand those more, as I understand my intellectual factors, I'm using the things that I'm utilizing and developing the things that separate me from all the rest of the animal kingdom of which I'm a part. Then I can tap into the spiritual essence of who I am because we're spiritual beings.

And that's where the greatness lies. It lies in understanding the spiritual essence of who we are you see our spiritual dna is perfect it requires no improvement it requires no modification our spiritual essence is perfect and that perfection is within us so the trick is figuring out how to express it in a greater way yeah and not get trapped into a different type of expression through bad news or friends or parents' beliefs or whatever it is that tries to shut us down. Correct? Exactly. And they will try and shut us down because we're coming up and we're saying, I'm going to do this. They'll say, you got to be out of your mind. You're going to quit that good job. Are you crazy?

We got to be strong enough to say, I'm going to follow my dream. Mm. Amen to that. I'm a big believer. Like Martin Luther King, I have a dream. He didn't say I have a plan. He didn't say I have a bank account. He didn't say, you know, I have a dream. I have an image in my mind. I have a beautiful picture that I want to execute in my life. Self-image. I love this topic about self-image. How do we reshape our self-image to serve us as opposed to bring us down? Well, it's interesting.

Maltz, Maxwell Maltz, actually discovered self-image as we know it today. He was a cosmetic surgeon, and he found if he operated on a person, maybe they had a distasteful scar on their face, and he removed the scar. He said sometimes there was a phenomenal change in the person's personality. But he said other times they'd remove the scar, it was very successful, no change in the person's personality. But he said other times they'd remove the scar, it was very successful, no change in their personality. That led him to postulate that we not only have this physical image that reflects back from the mirror, we have an inner image of ourself. It's how we see ourself. Now that inner image is an idea.

Now that inner image is an idea, and that idea is generally planted in our little life when we're infants. And it's planted by virtue of the environment that we're surrounded by, how we're raised. If a child's raised with praise, they're going to grow up very confident individuals. If a child's raised with criticism, they're going to grow up very confident individuals. If a child's raised with criticism, they're going to grow up very insecure. So you see this image that we have, it's a picture of how we see ourself. But most of us, that image was planted by people that didn't know what the hell was going on. They didn't know the war was over. And they were planting, they were developing a little mind. It was going on. They didn't know the war was over. And they were planting, they were developing a little mind. It was a mind. They were shaping it like fresh clay.

They didn't understand that. It was a kid they're looking after, and we feed him, we keep him warm, what the hell? You know, that's our responsibility. No, it was a mind, and they were developing that mind. And if they didn't understand, what were they going to put in? Well, all they could give to the child is the insecurities that they had themselves. So that was the picture that the kid grows up of themselves. Now, I grew up very insecure. I was born during the Depression. When I first went to school, the Second World War had just broken out.

So everybody's rationed for everything. It was hard times. All the men were away fighting in Europe or South Pacific. There was no men doing anything. The women that were there were driving the trucks. They were cops. They did everything. So there wasn't a whole lot of time used for developing a little mind. So I just grew up and picked up what I could. I grew up very insecure. It wasn't until I met a man that gave me this book and gave me some damn good instruction that I started to pay attention to who I was. And I have never stopped being

fascinated with studying me. I am the most fascinating subject that I've ever come across. And I have found out that you and I are exactly the same. We only appear to be different. Our physical body looks different. We choose different vocations. Some earns more or less than the other. But our potential is exactly the same. We both live in a physical body.

We both have these higher mental faculties. We're both spiritual beings. We both draw in an infinite source of supply. We're the same. So the trick, I think, for the person that has insecurities, that hasn't got the strongest image they want, they should find a damn good mentor. That's what changed my life. That's what the School of Greatness is for doing for people that are tuning into it on a regular basis. Because I don't think you have any schlocks on here. I don't think you have people coming on here, don't know what the hell they're talking about. I don't think you have

people come on here just to make a noise. I think you come on to pick the best of their mind. You're going to pick their mind for the listening audience. You've got a big name out there. You know, it's a lot of people listen to you. Pay attention. And that's why, because you're giving them the right information. So as we start to gather this information about ourself, our image starts to change. And I started to see I'm not this skinny kid that doesn't know what the hell's happening that did poorly in school. that did poorly in school. I'm a spiritual being. I have a marvelous mind. I can think. If I can imagine it, I can hold it in my hand. I can do anything that I want.

I've got a little book here. This is a little book I've been studying. What's that called? This is the book The Secret was based on. This is the original. What's that called this is the book the secret was based on this is the original what's it called it's a getting rich science of getting rich wallace d wattles in fact we're going to be teaching that online and i think starts the first of may we have hundreds of people registered and we're going to be teaching it online science of of Getting Rich. It's a wonderful book. I will have it sent. I'll have a book sent to you. Oh, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. But now I've had this book for a long time.

I just keep reading it, keep reading it, keep reading it. Thinking Grow Rich, I keep reading it, keep reading it. And all the books behind me. I've got thousands of books. I am absolutely fascinated with studying who I am. And when I'm studying me, I'm studying you because we're really all the same. The only difference is in results and understanding. What's the thing you want to learn and understand that you feel like, you know what, I haven't fully grasped this concept or idea and I really want to get to another level.

Well, I'm always wanting to get to another level. Hopefully, I'm at a higher level today than I was yesterday. I'm in here around 5.30 every morning studying. That's how I start my day here. Well, you see, there is no end to the growth. You always want to grow. So you're created in God's image. Now, there's a problem with this. Because we're raised on our physical senses, we grow up,

and what we've done is had God created in our image, in our mind. Not that we're creating God's image. We're taught that we created God in our image, in our mind. Not that we're creating God's image. We're taught that we created God in our image. So now we're trying to figure out how can the man be omnipresent? How can that person be everywhere? And because we're locked in on a physical level, we get lost. When we understand that you have infinite potential, there is no top. There's no beginning, no end. See, when it comes to school of greatness, there is no finish line. When it comes to personal development, there is no finish line. So how can you tell how well you're doing?

By the results you're getting. By their fruit, you'll know them by the results they're getting if they're not getting the results they don't know so if you're going to get a mentor get somebody that's getting the results yeah or you don't want them right what's the area of your life you feel like you still want to grow more maybe it's not all the areas all areas i want to grow in all areas of my life yeah right i never started never want to stop growing yeah i never want to stop learning is there a specific area for you that you feel like you you need more work on than others obviously all areas but is there one well there's well all of them because my company

is nowhere near where I want it. I picked up a pen way back in 1973. I was living in Glenview, Illinois. I had just left the Nightingale Conant Corporation. I worked with Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant for five years. And I sat down and I said, I'm going to build a company that operates all over the world. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to do that. But I knew if I could think it, I could do it. Because that's what all the great leaders have agreed on. They've disagreed and everything else. We operate today, the Proctor Gallagher Institute operates in 88 different countries. We have consultants that operate, that teach our material, that represent us in 88 different countries.

When we stream a program, we go into around 115 countries. Now, if you'd asked me, how are you going to do that when I started? No idea. But I did know this. If you set a goal and you know how to do it, the goal probably isn't any good. It probably isn't any good. Because if you know how to do it, you're going to go sideways. It's a repeat performance. You've got to go after something you have absolutely no idea how you're going to do it. I've had the good fortune of working with Edmund Hillary. He was a beekeeper from Auckland, New Zealand. He was the first man to climb Mount Everest. He went there in 51 and he failed.

He went back in 52 and he failed. But in 1953, he and Tenzing Norgay stood on top of the mountain. But he couldn't tell you until after he got there how he was going to do it. And nobody could tell him because nobody had ever done it. Wow. So the trick, pick a goal that you really want, but you have no idea how to do it. Now there's got to be a big learning curve there and I'm still learning. Wow. That's inspiring. I love that. And hopefully you can find mentors that can, who have done it, that can guide you and you pick the right ones.

Right here, this author, the Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. It is a heavy one. Here's another one. The Dory Lectures on Mental Science. Here's another one, the Dory Lectures on Mental Science. These are written by a Thomas Troward. They were written back around 1910, 1912. They are incredible, and they are my mentors today. Wow. He is my mentor.

If you could only recommend five books that the world, no other books would ever exist except these five books for people to read for the rest of eternity, and there would be no other books, hypothetical question, what five books would you recommend for people? Think and Grow Rich. Uh-huh. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. I'd recommend my own book, You Were Born Rich. Everybody's born rich. Most people are a little short of money, that's all.

Well, they should get into this, the Edinburgh Lectures in Mental Science. And then I'm going to give you one that's a long ways away from that, U-Square by Price Pritchett. Huh, okay. It's a little tiny book. Price Pritchett is a consultant over in Dallas. He's written a little book, U-Square.

It's on quantum physics, quantum leaps. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Wow. These books are incredible. And it's funny, Troward taught me, he said, if you come to a point where you can't learn anything from somebody, you go inside. He said, go to the Fonsetto Rego, go to the anything from somebody, you go inside. He said, go to the fun set to re-go, go to the fountain and source, go inside. Now, I mean this in all humility. I've been studying this longer than anybody I know. There's probably people studying longer than me, but I'm studying for 59 years, and I study

it every day. I don't know anybody that teaches what we teach like we teach it. I've had absolutely incredible teachers. So I don't go running around looking for teachers. I've got Troward. What he's written is so rich in truth. He's probably one of the greatest authors in the last 500 years. But the trick, though, Lewis,

is you got to keep studying. And you only will keep studying if you're going after something you have no idea how to get there. But you know you can get there. The way there will be shown as you go after it. Step by step, it will come to you.

Why isn't it shown to us before we start going after it? Why, why does it take us? You wouldn't understand it. You wouldn't understand it. See, the purpose of a goal is not to get, it's not to reach the goal. It's the awareness that you develop as you go after it. You're learning who you are. It's becoming aware of who you are. I was in a seminar years and years ago, and there was a speaker, Bill Gove. Bill Gove was considered the Frank Sinatra

public speakers. He was incredible. He had a handheld mic, and he's looking at the audience and he said, if I want to be free, I've got to be me. Not to me, I think you think I should be. Not to me, I think my kids think I should be. Not to me, I think my wife thinks I should be. If I want to be free, I've got to be me. be free. I've got to be me. He said, I better know who me is. Now, I had a lot of this information at that time. It was years ago, but I was shy, and I wanted to teach it. I was afraid to stand up and ask a question in front of an audience. And so, I made up my mind. I was not only going to learn to speak like him. I was going to get him to teach me. Now, he became a mentor of mine, and I realized then if I take the areas where I'm a little six-foot short,

I'm just not really very good, and I didn't go to school, so there's a lot of areas. I'm going to get the very best, and I'm going to do exactly what they tell me. And that's what I did when the man who gave me this book, he said, do exactly what I'm telling you. I did exactly what he said. 15 years or so ago and well first of all he became my mentor and very good friend

read up until he passed away our company was having financial problems all the time and I could earn all kinds of money but I don't know how to manage it

I wasn't didn't know how to run a company I mean I wasn't designed for that and I didn't want to learn it I didn't even how to run a company. I mean, I wasn't designed for that. And I didn't want to learn it. I didn't even like the subject. But what you need, you will attract. And we had a lady come to the seminar,

was a securities attorney. She fell in love with what we were doing. She was a full partner in a company. And over a period of time, she became our business partner. She owns half the company. But she runs the company. She's the president and chief executive of the company. I mentioned to her last time, you should get her on for an interview sometime

because she is a fascinating person. But she does a phenomenal job here. Well, so I have found in the areas that I'm not very good at, I get the very best, and I work with them. I don't try and learn what they're teaching. I get them to do that. I get somebody else to do something else because it's going to take me to where I want to go.

I have a young guy here that runs our studio. He's the director of the studio. He's absolutely brilliant. He set a goal when he was 13 to work with me. I remember this. He was living in Manchester in England, and he watched The Secret, and he saw me, and he said, I'm going to work with him. Thirteen years later, he's here in the studio, and he runs this place.

I love that. He's incredible. He can record and send it from anywhere in the world. He can come in here and do everything. And I found that's one of the secrets of getting to where you want to go. You need help. You've got to have help. You've got to have a lot of help.

You're saying we can't just do it all on our own, Bob? Never going to do it on your own. It won't go very far if you're doing it alone. I'm curious. I feel like you've got, again, decades of wisdom and knowledge from history that you lived through and experienced personally firsthand. You said you grew up during the Second World War. What was the lesson you learned in the Second World War at that time that people should know about today during this time? Two different crises. Well, it's only

in retrospect that I learned these things because you go back and I have to go back. And we were all, everything was rationed. So people were getting accustomed to live on lack and limitation. It was part of the programming. And in looking back, the great lesson is don't let what's going on program you. In fact, it's a good point to bring out right now because of this pandemic that's going on. We must not let this program us. This does not have to define us, doesn't have to dictate where we're going to go. It's got nothing to do with our destiny. As a kid, everything was rationed. I remember gum,

chewing gum was rationed. In fact, there's a good story I'm going to take the time to tell you about. We would go to the store. Our father was in Europe fighting, and we would send care packages every now and then. They would mail them, and would get through and we'd have pictures, you know, of the family and all this stuff. And we'd put a package of gum in sometimes. We would be at the store and if somebody, if they put a package of gum out, it would just be one little box. It would be gone like that. Because you couldn't buy gum during the war. Wrigleys did not make gum during the war. They couldn't. And one of us would hold the gum while the other one home,

see if there was enough money to buy it. Because there might not have been enough money, we'd have to put it back. During the Second World War, Wrigleys could not make gum. The basic ingredient, apparently, for making gum comes from the Philippine Islands. The Japanese who were in charge of the Philippine Islands, they had occupied the Philippine Islands, you couldn't get in to get the gum. Wrigley seemed to know that the war would be over, they'd be able to get the stuff, we'd win the war, and he'd get the stuff to

build the gum. He never stopped advertising, buy Wrigley's spirit and gum, all during the Second World War, even though they couldn't make it. Great lesson in there about advertising. People wouldn't believe that lived through the Second World War wouldn't believe that they couldn't make gum then, because he just kept enough and he'd leak a little bit out every now and then to different places. Great lesson in advertising there. Wow. It's kind of like a- different places. Great lesson in advertising there. I think the greatest lesson that I've learned is looking back. My mother, God bless her, she was a special woman. She did not let that control her. I think any really good qualities I've got for growing and building came from her

she raised three of us on her own and God only knows how she did it she was like a magician because she sure didn't have any help but she did it and she instilled us that if you want it, you can get it. That's beautiful. It sounds like you were holding Wrigley's gun back then, just like people are doing with a hand sanitizer right now. So that was the... Yeah, but you see, people are permitting this to program them right now. If you're not thinking, this stuff's going right into your subconscious mind. And whatever goes in there, repetition over and over and over becomes part of our behavior.

And it's, you can't deny it. It's there. Absolutely refuse to let it control you. Understand you can be thinking of how to win, how to get it done, how to go and do better. And you may have to adapt. You may have to change the game, but you can change the game. We are probably going to change the way we operate forever over the next few months. We're prepared to do that. That's what Sandy was holding the meeting today with all the company. She was teaching them all. We got to get together. We got to bring our mind together. We've got to get together. We've got to bring our mind together. We've got to understand that this doesn't control us. We control us.

Yeah. How important in your mind is writing down things like affirmations, gratitude, dreams? How important is the act of writing what we think down on a daily basis? Is it important? See this page? Yep. Well, at the top of it, today I am grateful for, there's 10 spaces. That'll be done tomorrow morning. Today was 333 days I've done that. Wow. Every day. Not only that, but then I have a statement here. I am so happy and grateful now that I realize my spiritual DNA is perfect and that perfection is within me. I begin each

day looking for areas of my life where I want to see that perfection expressed habitually. I write that statement out every day with my left hand and I'm not left-handed. I'm programming myself. I've been doing that for 333 days now. I'm changing the way I do something. I want to gain an understanding of just how powerful that paradigm is. I want to go to this hand because I can do it fast. It's very awkward, but I've been doing it for 333 days. I'll do it for 365 days. But I have here written down 10 things I'm grateful for. That's the first thing I do every morning at 5.30. Wow. So you believe it's very important. Yeah. See, the repetition of all good material is very important. It's extremely important. Repetition is how you fix the ideas or the information in your subconscious mind.

It's the ideas that are fixed in the subconscious mind that control our behavior. That's the paradigm. You don't think and then do. When you get up in the morning, you automatically move into action. You're programmed. It's your paradigm in your subconscious mind. What people hear on the School of Great greatness, when they tune into this, they're going to hear great ideas, most of which they probably don't do. If they would hear one and say, that is one hell of a good idea, I am going to do that. They should write it down and then write it out as an affirmation. I'm so happy and grateful now that I am doing it every day. Write it out every day until you see yourself

automatically doing it. See, they're not going to do everything here on here, but if every day they listen, they get one idea and say, I'm going to turn that into a habitual part of my personality, they're going to end up really a big winner. That's where greatness comes from. I think I might've told you the last time I was with you that Robert Russell was a great author. He said, there's no secret to greatness. He said, it's simply doing little things in a great way every day. I love that. That's the school of greatness. It's doing little things in a great way every day. What's the thing that you wish you would have started doing sooner, that habitual habit, you know, 10 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, that you just started doing in the last five years that you're like, man,

I wish I would have done this as my routine 10, 20, 30 years ago. I wished I had got really good financial guidance and listened to it when I first started. Yeah. Did you make some bad choices? I didn't do that. Yeah. You see, there's no sin in not knowing how to do something. The sin is in keep doing it wrong.

Don't follow people's advice. I think the trick is to go to people that have demonstrated by results, they really know what they're doing. Then do exactly what they tell you. I'll give you a good example. I was doing a seminar for Prudential way back in the 70s. And I did seminars for that whole company at one time. And one of the first groups we had was at the Hillside Holiday Inn in Chicago. I had 450 of their agents in the room. The Prudential give out a president's trophy to the number one anything, number one vice president, number one manager, number one salesperson. Ron Sempertrain was the number one agent out of 20,000 agents that year. And I found out he was

in the room. So at one point in the seminar, I said, Ron, I'd like to ask you a question. I said, how many people in the last year have asked you if they could take you out for breakfast or lunch with a half a dozen well-prepared questions and asked you, how did you become number one? Not one, no one had done that. And I thought, wow. Well, you know, I use that as an example. I think I was guilty of that for a long time. Yeah. I was really guilty because I kept losing. I did nothing right. I couldn't go anywhere, do anything. And then I met a man who gave me Think and Grow Rich, Ray Stanford. He always, I didn't know him well, but he always had money, a lot of money. I never had any. I mean, I was always broke. I was unhappy. I had dumb jobs. I was going nowhere.

Left school, two months high school. And he said, if you do exactly what I'm telling you, you can have anything you want. Of course, I didn't believe that. Here I am, I'm in debt, nothing was going right, and you could have anything you want. I don't believe that. Here I am. I'm in debt. Nothing was going right. And you could have anything you want. I don't know why, but I listened to him. I think the key was, he said, listen, your way's not working. Why don't you try mine? I think that's what got me. I started to do exactly what he said. My income went from 44,000 a year to $14,500 a month in a year. I've earned millions of dollars. I found earning money is one of the simplest things in the world to do.

But if you don't know that, you won't believe that. It's the hardest thing to do, yeah. Most people think it's the hardest. That is because we've never been taught how to earn money. I was doing a broadcast here a couple of weeks ago, and I just did Q&A, just open Q&A. People anywhere could ask me anything. We had thousands of people in. And there was one person said, I'm really stuck.

I don't know what to do. What should I do? I said, figure out how to go and help somebody. Stop and think of what you're pretty good at. Go help somebody. Quit looking for somebody to help you. Figure out how to help somebody else. Now, I said, that's probably going to be a difficult thing for you to do because you're probably dominated with the fact that you're stuck right now. Forget that for a moment. Stop and think, how can you go and help somebody?

Because, of course, that's the secret to success. It is. It's the secret of earning money. I like the way Ziegler used to put that, Ziegler. Help other people get what they want. They'll always give you what you want. It's so true. they want, they'll always give you what you want. It's so true.

How can everyone watching and listening right now get more mentorship from you? What's the program they can be a part of? Where can they listen, follow? Because people need to listen to you more. We've got all kinds of programs, Lois. First of all, if they go on our site, go to proctorgallagher.com, they can download the book, You Were Born Rich. It's free. We'll give it away. And I wrote that in 1984. What I did, I sat down and I broke down into parts how I got to where I was then. I was doing very well in 1984 and had been for a number of years. And so I broke it all down and I put it in a book. And the book's in many different languages now and millions of them out

there. We give it away. We have six minutes to success. I think it costs about $25 a month or something like that, where I'll send you a video every morning, every morning. We have coaching programs. If they just leave, we will even do, we've got all kinds of people in our company. We'll do a half hour coaching program for nothing. All a person does is go to proctorgallagher.com and just leave your name and say, I'd like to be coached for an hour, half hour. We'll do it for nothing. What people need to realize, there is a simple way out of their dilemma. They don't have to look at a black wall, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train coming at them. that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train coming at them. You know, they've got to get,

they've got to get the idea that there is a better way and there's places where you can get help. We give help. That's what our company is all about. We have thousands of people, as I say, in 88 countries. So it doesn't matter where a person is in the world, we can help them. And that's what we're all about. That's all we want to do. That's what my whole life's about. And that's what the people in our company is all about. I think everyone needs to be mentored by you. I want to find a way where I can call you once a month or once every couple of months, Bob, and just

chat on the phone. I will have my phone number. You call me anytime you want. I will. I appreciate it. I will see you get my phone. I'll give you my cell number and you can call me anytime you want. Listen, I've got a lot of respect for what you're doing. Thank you. And I think the audience should know you're one of the biggest in the game. You're one of the biggest names out there. And to be on your program is quite an honor. I was humbled that you wanted me to be on in the first place. You do really good work.

Thank you. And I would encourage everybody that comes into your show, they get other people to come on. You've got to lead more people to this kind of information because you're not hearing it every day. And you're not hearing it all on television anymore. And you're not getting it in a newspaper. But this good news is out there. And there is a better way.

I don't care how desperate things look, it can get better. Ralph Waldo Trine wrote a great book, In Tune with the Infinite. And in that book, he said, nothing is good or bad except our thinking makes it so. Everything just is. We make it good or bad through our thinking. I don't care what it is. We make it good or bad through our thinking. I don't care what it is. We make it good or bad through our thinking. Michael Beckwith, who's a dear friend and very wise individual, he said something

interesting that we could apply to this, what's going on in our world today. He said, when anything happens, there's a three-step approach to it. Number one, I don't care what happens to you. It is what it is, accept it. It's either going to control you or you're going to control it. Number two, harvest the good. There's good in everything. I love the term harvest the good. You see a farmer out there harvesting the good. And number three, forgive all the rest. It is what it is, accept it. It's going to control you or you'll control it. Harvest the good and forgive all the rest.

And I think that's what we got to start doing. We got to get more into this. We got to lead other people into it, help other people understand it. There is a way. I always say when a guy that was losing as badly as I was, and I was really losing, when they can turn out and win. And at 86, I've got as much energy as most people at 36. And no intentions of slowing down. I mean, why would I want to do that? And if I can win, anybody can win. I think that's why I'm effective at what I do, because I came from such a horrible place and started winning. Life is good. And I think it's a great trip and we should enjoy

every step of it. But we only do that when we learn to use our higher faculties. I'm going to run through them once more. Perception, the will, reason, imagination, memory, and intuition. Your perception is how you see things. I love the way, I'm trying to blank on his name now, a good friend, used to say, when you change the way you look at something, what you look at changes. It's true. The will is the ability to hold one idea on the screen of the mind to the exclusion of all outside distractions. Memory, there's no such thing as a bad memory. Everybody's got a perfect memory. Reason, it's what gives you the ability to think. That enables you to just pluck stuff out of the ether, spirit, and turn it into a thought.

Imagination, anything you can hold in your head, you can hold in your hand. If you can see it in here, you can turn it into results. What we're doing right now is nothing but the expression of somebody's imagination. The fact we're communicating with the thousands of people right now, the way we are, is the manifestation of somebody's imagination. And the intuition, intuition is that higher faculty

that picks up energy and reads it. It's a psychic ability, it's phenomenal. I have a very highly tuned in intuitive factor, not by accident, by design. I developed it. Anybody can. You pick up the vibration, it's your intuition. Intuition never lies.

It's spirit talking to you. And every time I get to sit down with Bob Proctor, I'm always taking notes. So make sure you guys have your pen and paper out. You're taking notes like I am, because that's how you learn to remember better is by receiving the information from the great mentors and then applying it in the paper and repeating it over and over like you said. Bob, you're such a gift and inspiration to so many of us.

Thank you for speaking light and wisdom into us. Thank you for reminding us of our greatness and for giving us these tools, recommendations. If you guys are enjoying this and you found some value, make sure to share this with your friends online. Tag Bob as well. I think Proctor Gallagher, is that your Instagram and social media? Yeah, it's Proctor Gallagher. If they go Bob Proctor, they'll find me. Yeah. Make sure you tag Bob, follow him, go to the website, get the book. You're doing it away for free, I think. Other stuff, other free content.

You were born rich. You get mentorship on there. You can sign up for the other programs. You are an inspiration, Bob. And I hope you're around for another 86 years, my friend. So thank you for all your goodness, all the greatness you bring to people. And I'm so grateful for you, my friend. Lewis, my pleasure.

Thank you for having me on. There you have it, my friend. Did you enjoy this episode? Like I said, you would at the beginning. If you did, do me a favor and pay it forward. Help a friend today. Inspire a friend. You have the power to change someone's life.

You never know what someone could hear that could impact them in a deep, emotional, core level that could get them moving forward in a more powerful way towards their dream and a life they truly love. Share this with one, two, or three friends right now. lewishouse.com slash 950. Tell them to listen to this episode and ask them what their biggest takeaway was. Text someone. Post it in a WhatsApp group message, post it on Facebook. I don't care where you put this.

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Leave us a review and let me know what you think over in the review comments. And as we bring it back from the beginning, Napoleon Hill said, whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. I want to remind you that your thoughts truly affect your feelings. Your feelings affect your energy and the actions you take, the confidence you partake into the world. It's all working together. This is why it's important to constantly think about growth. Just because you learn something one moment, one time, one day, doesn't mean you're

going to keep it forever. This is one of the great lessons I learned from Bob Proctor. He reads the same book over and over again to continue to remind himself because it's easy for us to get caught back in negative patterns. We're having someone doubting you. We're having something fail and it hurts you. All these different things. People have unmet expectations and it hurts you. All these different things. People have unmet expectations, and it affects you. That's why it's important to constantly learn, to constantly grow, and constantly feed your mind with positivity and tools, stories, and inspirations

that will support you. I hope you enjoy being a listener of the School of Greatness podcast. Again, if this is your first time here, click the subscribe button. Stay on the journey. Stay consistent. You matter. You

deserve it. You are worth it. And if someone hasn't told you lately, just know how much you are loved in this world. Even if you don't feel it, there is so much love surrounding you. I appreciate you. I love you. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.