Before we begin, take a moment. Most people don't fall short
because they lack information. They fall short because what
they learn never becomes part of how they live.
Jim Rohn taught principles, but he also understood something
deeper. Principles only shape a life
when they're built into structure.
That idea is what led to the creation of the self-discipline
Hacks playbook. It isn't motivation, and it is
an inspiration. It's a simple operating system
for turning ideas into daily action consistently, quietly,
and without constantly starting over.
If you're ready to move from understanding to execution,
you'll find it in the description.
Now let's begin. And you got to underline the
word wish because part of your future now is what you wish and
what you want. How much property will they let
you own in America? As as much as you want.
This is wish, want country. You've dropped into the right
place. As much as you want, as much as
you wish, and not to have any when you live in a country where
you can have as much as you want and as much as you wish.
See that? Wouldn't that be puzzling to
people outside the country? As much as you wish to climb
this ladder as high as you wish in terms of bringing value to
the marketplace and becoming valuable to the marketplace, as
high as you wish. Here's all you have to do.
And Don and Greg heard it all those years ago.
And it's a simple analysis, but it's so true.
Here it is one more time. Learn to work harder on yourself
than you do on your job. That's the simple philosophy
that changed my life forever starting age 25.
If you work hard on your job, you can make a living, which is
fine. If you work hard on yourself,
you can make a fortune, which is super fine.
Everything changed for me when I understood this philosophy.
I didn't mind working hard on my job, but things didn't seem to
change that much. Then I started working hard on
myself to qualify. So let me put it in a
philosophical phrase. Now this is worth the price of
whatever it cost for you to be here today.
Here it is. Success is something you attract
by becoming an attractive person.
Success is not something you pursue.
It's something you attract by becoming attractive.
Here's what we teach in leadership.
To attract attractive people, you must be attractive.
And the whole scope of this we call now personal development.
You can have more than you've got, because you can become more
than you are. If you can multiply your value
by three by five, you can easily multiply your income by 3, by 5,
by 10. But the key to doing it is to
work hard on yourself. What is that?
All right, You can have more than you've got because you can
become more than you are now. That's why I mentioned this
personal development part is learning multiple skills.
If it would serve you multiple languages, OK working hard on
yourself. You know, people are fun to work
with. The key sometimes it's not fun
to work with is yourself. How come I'm reluctant when I
should be excited, right. You just go through this
dilemma. The work we do is fairly easy.
Mr. Shoaf, my first mentor, taught me.
You know, the world is mostly full of real nice people.
In fact, he said there's only about 11 or 12 real nasty,
miserable, horrible people in the whole world.
Now, he said they move around a lot, so you're bound to find one
once in a while. But if you found one, you say,
hey, there's only 11 more like you.
I can handle that. I mean, there's not 1000.
But here's the big challenge. Working hard on yourself,
personality and temperament and mindset talked about culture,
all the stuff necessary to individually be responsible, be
a growing, attractive, powerful, skillful, communicating human
being and the world belongs to you now to get others to do the
same. That's part of the challenge,
but these multiple skills can help you to do that.
Now jot down these five key ideas that can help us all to
take advantage of the 21st century.
Here's number one, work on your personal philosophy.
Your personal philosophy is like a guidance system, personal
philosophy, A guidance system. Now the subject of philosophy is
a big subject, you know, spiritual philosophy and
economic philosophy and social, all the rest.
But your personal philosophy now is like a guidance system.
Just draw you an arrow. That'll be your guidance system.
And your guidance system only does two things.
One helps you to see the dangers over here.
So you don't build on the sand, even though at the moment it
looks attractive. Blue sky, fleecy clouds.
Why not build on the sand? See, you just have to get
smarter and smarter at that. Not to do that.
Now, your guidance system also helps you to find the
opportunities over here. And this is what the drama of
life is all about. Danger riding side by side with
opportunity. Los Angeles, a place for the
most extraordinary opportunity probably in the world.
Side by side with danger in Los Angeles, when the light turns
green, you better not go. Wait two or three seconds for
those maniacs right that are running the red light.
Did you ever blink and say I can't believe the light is green
and there's cars going this way in front of me?
That's Los Angeles. If you're a pedestrian and the
light turns green, you better not go.
If it says walk, you better not walk for a second or two.
To what? Save your life.
Save your Life OK Danger and opportunity side by side
Learning to understand 1 so you can avoid it.
How to cash in on the other. Now jot this down because it's
got to be taught early. The guidance system must start
early. When a child goes to school,
they've got to have a good guidance system working so they
can spot the dangers to their health, the dangers to their
person, the dangers to their thinking, the dangers to their
future early. This system has to start from
early training, ideas, information, parents, teachers,
and the temptation is always there.
When I was a little kid growing up, I saw this cartoon of a
little boy with a little devil on one shoulder and a little
Angel right on the other shoulder, both whispering in his
ear. The little devil says go ahead
and do it, it'll be OK. A little Angel says no, no, no,
no, no, no. Won't be OK.
No, no, no. Yes, yes.
Go ahead. You can get by with it this
time. No, no, no.
What is that? It's called high drama.
This is this is high drama. Every day of our life we are
tempted. Cross the line, tempted.
Run the light, tempted. Sometimes it could be fatal in a
moment. Here's a father who loves his
family. He's a respected citizen of the
community. He's got a thriving business.
But he's late for an appointment and he's pushing it in Los
Angeles. And the light turns red and the
voice says, go, you can make it this time.
Besides, you're late. Go.
And now he's dead. This is not an evil man.
This is not a bad man. This is a careless man who in
just a moment of thoughtlessness loses his life.
So everybody's guidance system has got to be alert and working,
whether it's in business crossing the line, whether it's
a moral question, ethical question, all the rest, all of
us. That's why the great prayer
says, lead us around temptation. Help us to manage this dangerous
side. And then it just goes on and on.
This is part of the great drama, the spoiler and the creator.
Over here is what evil and over here is what good.
Over here is darkness, here's light.
Over here is illness. Over here is what health.
Over here is death. Over here is what life?
Here's tyranny, liberty. Why this drama?
Because it's the only way to create a human drama.
So make this note one of the best I have for the day.
Here's what it seems like. Opposites are in conflict and we
are in the middle. That's the game of life, whether
it's in business, whether it's home, social, marriage, personal
friendship, health, no matter what it is, it's the drama in
your bloodstream. There are red corpuscles to
nourish and give life like a mother, and white corpuscles to
fight and kill like a father. And you got to have both.
Thank God for white corpuscles that think negative all day.
White corpuscles say, just show me some infection.
I'll kill it. Because if I don't kill it,
what, it kills you? Somebody's going to get killed
today. White corpuscles say it's up to
me to make sure it's not you. So the war is going on.
Friendly bacteria and unfriendly bacteria.
This is the game. But what if you picked up a book
and the first chapter said everything's fine. 2nd chapter,
everything's fine, 3rd chapter, hey, everything is just fine.
4th chapter, everything's fine. Would you finish the book?
And the answer is no. What kind of a book is this?
That is not the book. First chapter, the war is on.
Let me read the second chapter. The third chapter, isn't this
the deal? Let me give you the last
illustration. Would it be possible to win if
you couldn't lose? And the answer is no.
This is called winning and losing.
What if you put a football under your arm and we all went with
you to the nearest football stadium and you, with this under
your arm, cross the goal line? Would we cheer and call it a
touchdown? No, it's not a touchdown until
you face the 300 pounders that want to smash your face in the
turf. And if you can muscle by them
and dance past the and then cross the goal line, we'd cheer
and call it a touchdown and maybe a championship, but not
without the contest. So it looks like God started
this whole thing with the angels.
A third of them rebelled and he threw them out and that started
what we call high drama. And the high drama continues
today between the spoiler and the creator.
And all we have to do now is figure out in our business,
social, personal, economic, daily life, how to multiply all
life systems by two, by three, by 5, by 10, by following a few
simple guidelines. 1 is understanding.
First of all, philosophy being like the set of the sail on a
sailboat, the winds are always blowing.
Contrary winds and political winds and social winds, familiar
winds and unfamiliar winds and upside down winds and storms
like hit Florida. So the wind is always blowing.
But to get to your dreams and the things you want for yourself
and for your family and the money and all the rest, you
don't have to curse the wind. All you have to do is set a
better sail. And that's what sermons are for.
Lyrics from songs, dialogue with conversation with friends.
And that's what classes like this are for, is to help keep
setting better sail so that no matter what happens in 205,
2006, 7810, you will get so good at setting sail that no matter
what winds blow, it still takes you toward your destination.
That's called the high drama and the game of life.
That's it. Making sure you're not building
on sand. Making sure your Casa Grande is
built on the rock. It starts with personal
philosophy. Now to develop personal
philosophy. And only humans have this
remarkable ability. Every form seems to be driven by
instinct in the genetic code, except human beings.
In the winter, the goose flies S because he's a goose.
What else could he do? But not true human beings.
Human beings go north-south, east, West, all by choice.
Human beings can live one way for five years, tear up that
script, live another way for the next 5 years.
You can tear up the old script and design a new one starting at
this convention. And you can change a little or
you can change a lot. Here's what's extraordinary
about human beings. Let's say that you're here.
Just draw your little star. You're here.
And it looks like if you keep going like you're going in five
years, you're going to be here, just without kidding yourself.
You know, looks like if I keep up my present daily activities
and all, looks like I'm going to be here in five years and you're
not happy with this five year destination.
Would it be possible to set a new five year destination and
say I would much rather be up here in five years than where it
looks like I'm going to be in five years?
Is it possible to make that design, make these little
necessary corrections here, errors and judgments corrected
and all that, and start going this way and wind up here in
five years instead of here? Is that possible?
And the answer is yes. And it's all a matter of
personal choice, right? You can change a little or you
can change a lot. You can go with the old script
or with the new script, either one.
At age 25, I decided to tear up the old script.
My mentor said, Mr. Owen, you've been working six years.
How are you doing? I said, not very well.
He said I suggest you not do that anymore.
That's a pretty simple analysis. He said couldn't we go over the
last six years and find out where your errors and judgement
were and couldn't we correct those and invest that correction
in the next 6 years? I said I guess we could.
That's what we did. That's how I went from pennies
to fortune. Incredible.
Only humans can do this. See, if you were a tree, you'd
be stuck, right? If you used up all the
nourishment around you couldn't move, then you would die.
But that's not true. So however little, what much you
want to change, that's up to you.
But see, if there's a class and you don't take it, and a skill
and you don't learn it, and a discipline and you don't try it,
and if there's a possibility and you don't explore it, then who
are we going to blame? Nobody but yourself.
This is the land of extraordinary opportunity.
So jot this down in case some of you have to leave early.
I've got to leave in about 35 minutes to rush away.
I wish I didn't have to, but that's the way it is for today.
I jot this little phrase down and it wouldn't hurt to memorize
it. I'll give you time to write it
down. Here it is from testimonials and
personal experience. From testimonials and personal
experience, we have enough information to conclude that
it's possible to design and live an extraordinary life.
It's possible to design and live an extraordinary life.
Now I'm going to have you repeat that back to me.
Let's all say it together. From testimonials and personal
experience, we have enough information to conclude that
it's possible to design and live an extraordinary life.
I'd like to have you remember that for the rest of your life.
We are surrounded by testimonials and all of you
wouldn't arrive here if you didn't have sufficient personal
experience that we all should keep concluding it's possible to
design and live an extraordinary life.
And whether you do it more slowly than someone else, or
whether you've, you know, set aside the design for a while and
you've been coasting, this would be a good time today during
these days of training and teaching.
To get better at the design and living this extraordinary life.
Now let me give you the rest of my ideas.
The first one was personal philosophy, learning to judge
between darkness and light. Then here's the key to cooperate
with the positive side. It's like your health, just
learn to cooperate with the positive side.
But what if the body calls for a banana and the guy sends it a
Budweiser? Good health calls for a banana.
Now, if you sent the wrong material, couldn't the body now
say, whose side are you on? Good health says, I'm working
overtime trying to keep you healthy and push illness into a
strong corner. I need some cooperation, and
that's what the game of life is all about.
To find out where the dangers are, Minimize those.
Push them into a small corner. For a long time in the world,
there was more tyranny than liberty.
Now that the walls came down in Germany, there's now a lot more
liberty than tyranny. Along with all of the
difficulties and stresses and terrorism and all the rest.
Nothing new there. But this is a time of more
liberty than tyranny, more light than darkness, more health than
illness, more opportunity than danger.
These are extraordinary times. If there was ever a time to
quickly learn, put it all in order, and move forward on all
life systems to multiply their values by 23510, this would be
the time to do it now. Here's four more key ideas.
One is personal philosophy. Here's the next one, attitude.
How we feel plays such a major part in our future. 1st, it's
what we know so we can make wise decisions about danger and
opportunity. But second is how we feel 1st.
It's how you feel about the past.
You need a healthy attitude about the past so that you use
it. Not live in it, but use it.
Not carry it like a burden. But let the wise lessons you
learn from the past now serve as fuel to furnish the future.
Next, a good attitude about the future.
You got to set your goals. We look back for experience, but
we look forward for inspiration. We must be instructed and
inspired. No better inspiration than to
set your goals. I started this process when I
was 25. Literally rocked my world,
changed my life. I had no idea it was so simple.
Here's how simple it is. Decide what you want.
Write it all down. Make a list of the people you
want to meet. Make a list of the books you
want to read. Make a list of the classes you
want to take. Make a list of the skills you
want to learn. Make a list of the cities you
want to visit. Make a list of the investments
you want to have.