Transcription
The major key to your better future is you. That's the theme of our seminar tonight. The major key to your better future is you. For things to change for you, you've got to change. Otherwise, it isn't going to change. It's going to be about like it's always been. It isn't going to change.
The tide comes in and then what? It goes out for 6 and a half thousand years that we know of recorded history and probably long before that. So it is not going to change. It gets light and then what? It turns dark 6 and a half thousand years. See, it's not likely to change. And if the sun goes down, the guy says, "What's happen? What's happened?" It means he hasn't been here long, I guess, right? It always goes down about this time. It gets light, then it turns dark. In rotation, the next season after fall is what? Winter. Pray tell. How often does winter follow fall? Every year regularly for the last 6 and a half thousand that we know of. See, it is not going to change.
Now, some winters are long and some are short and some are hard and some are easy. But they always come right after falls. It isn't going to change. The last 6,000 years reads like this. Opportunity mixed with difficulty. That's how it reads. It isn't going to change. The man says, "Well, if it isn't going to change, how will my life ever change?" Answer when you change.
Life and business is like the changing seasons. One of the best ways to describe life, it's like the seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. And see, that's how life gets better for you. Not by chance, but by change.
Now, here's the four major lessons in life to learn. Number one, learn how to handle the winters. That's lesson one. They come right after falls with regularity. Some are long and some are short and some are hard and some are easy, but they keep coming. You must learn to handle the nights. They come right after days. You must learn to handle difficulty. It comes right after opportunity. You must learn to handle recessions. They always follow progressions. For the last 6,000, see, it isn't going to change. The lesson you must learn is how to handle it.
And there's all kinds of winters, right? The winter when you can't figure it out. The winter when it all goes smash. The winter when it turns belly up. The winter when it won't work. When you've run out of money and you've got a broken heart. See, those are winter times, economic winters, social winters, personal winters. But see, the disappointments come. Those are normal. That's part of life. But the question is, how do you handle it? The coming winters and the disappointments and the downtimes. You can't get rid of January by tearing it off the calendar. But here's what you can do. You can get stronger. You can get wiser. And you can get better. The winters won't change, but you can. And that's how life changes for you. So, that's lesson one. Learn how to handle the winters.
Here's lesson two. Learn how to take advantage of the spring. That's the second one. Spring is called opportunity. And spring follows winter. What a great place for it. If you were going to put it somewhere, that'd be the place to put it. Right after winter. And pray. How often does spring follow winter? Every year with regularity 6,000. You can almost count on it. See, opportunity always comes. Days follow nights. Isn't that terrific? Opportunity follows difficulty. But here's what you must learn to do. Underline these two words in that key phrase, take advantage. Underline those two. You must learn to take advantage of the spring.
See, just because spring rolls around is no sign you're going to look good come fall. You got to do something with it. In fact, you have to get good at one of two things in life. Planting in the spring or begging in the fall. Now, here's what else you must do. Take advantage of the springs quickly because there's only a few. Just a handful of springs have been handed to each of us. They don't come forever. Life is fairly brief. So, you got to read every book you can get your hands on on what to do with your springs while they're here. And take advantage they soon run out. So, whatever you're going to do with your life, you got to get at it. Don't just let the springs pass, pass, pass.
Here's the third major lesson in life to learn. Learn how to protect your crops all summer. You got to take care of what you start. Sure enough, as soon as you've planted your garden in the spring, the busy bugs and the noxious weeds are out to take it. And here's the next bit of truth. They will take it unless you prevent it. And that's the third major skill to learn. You've got to learn to prevent the intruder from taking all the good you start. It's one of the challenges.
Here's two key phrases on the number three. First one, all good will be attacked. Every garden will be invaded. Not to think so is naive. And here's the second phrase. All values must be defended. Political values, social values, family values, marriage values, friendship values, business values. Every garden must be tended all summer. Third major lesson.
Now, here's number four. Fourth major lesson in life to learn. Learn how to reap in the fall without complaint. Learn to reap come harvest time without complaint. Take full responsibility for what happens to you. It's one of the highest forms of human maturity. Accepting full responsibility. It's the day you know you've passed from childhood to adulthood. The day you accept full responsibility. And another note, learn to reap in the fall without apology, without apology if you do well, and without complaint if you don't. That's maturity.
See, I used to blame everything outside. And then let me give you a little philosophy that helped turn my life around. For your notes, here it is. It's not what happens that determines the quality or the quantity of your life. It's not what happens. And the reason is because what happens happens to about everybody. No different. The sun went down on all of us last night. A common event, a happening. And I found out that the same things can happen to two different people. One gets rich and one stays poor. Why is that? It's because it's not what happens, but rather it's what you do that changes everything. What happens is about the same. You might put that in parenthesis here. Same. What people do, that's what's different. Anything can happen, right? Everything can happen. I've heard all the stories. I've been one of the stories. But it's not the happenings. It's what you do about it.
Somebody says, "Yeah, but you don't understand the disappointments I've had." Everybody's had their share. Disappointments are not special gifts reserved for the poor. Everybody has them. The difference is what you do about it. It's not the weather. I used to blame the weather and I discovered it rains on the rich. So, see that won't help.
Two men wake up one morning, there's a rainstorm on. One of them looks out his window, sees the rainstorm, and he says, "Wow, what a storm. With weather like this, they can't expect you to go out and make sales." He stays home. Same morning, the other guy looks out his window, sees the same storm, says, "Wow, what a storm." But he says, "You know what? With weather like this, what a great day to go out and make sales. Most everybody will probably be home, especially the salesman." See, that's the difference in how your life works out. It's not what happens, it's what you do.
So, here's one of the key questions of the evening. Starting tomorrow, what are you going to do that'll make a change in your life's direction? Good question. What are you going to do starting tomorrow that'll make a difference? Now, see, if you don't do something starting tomorrow that'll make a difference, guess what? It's going to be the same. And see, that way you can guess what the next five years are going to be like. Look at the last five. Cuz the next five are going to be like the last five. Unless you major key tomorrow change it all or change a little or change something or don't change. It's choice time. You can do whatever you want. But it's nice to know any day you wish you can change your whole life. What can you do starting tomorrow that'll make a difference? Good question.
Life change doesn't start with motivation. Life change starts with education. And the education is a very simple process. One of the best ways to describe it is the truth. There's nothing better than the truth. The ancient prophet said, "The truth will set you free." I do believe in affirmation. As long as you affirm the truth, if you're broke, best thing to affirm is, "I am broke." Right? You put that up on the refrigerator where you can see it every day. It's life-changing. Now, if you need reaffirmation, you put this up there. I'm 40 and broke. And if that still won't do it, put this up there. I live in America and I'm 40 and I'm broke. That's all the truth we need. That's all the affirmation we need is to state the fact because the truth will help us do two things.
Number one, for your notes, correct old errors in judgment. And in order to change your life for the future, we've got to clean up those old errors in judgment. And all we've got to do is first of all establish the truth as to why you're where you are. The truth helps us to clean up old errors in judgment. Now, here's the next thing. The truth helps us to do. Establish new disciplines like the apple a day. First we clean up the error. We haven't had an apple a day. Now we establish the new discipline. Let's go for an apple a day as a beginning point for developing good health for the future. You haven't been doing the things in the past. Let's now start cleaning that up. That's what we call the truth. That's where education begins. And if somebody wants to change their life, that's where we start with the truth.
Now once we've established that however we do need the power of attitude the power of emotion how we feel and now let's go through that it's how you feel about four major things we all need educated attitude about.
Number one, the past. And the best advice I can give you on that is treat the past as a school. Let the past be your teacher. Don't treat the past as a club. Beat yourself to death with past losses, past failures, past mistakes. Uh, so you've messed up. Hey, we've all messed up. Uh, so you've made some mistakes. We've all made our share of mistakes. But let the past now not beat you down, but let the past be your teacher. You know what else is new? We've all been through some tough stuff. But the key is to not let it beat you, but let it teach you.
Now, here's number two. It's how you feel about the future. The future is called the promise. We not only have to look at the past for experience, but we've got to look to the future for incentive. We've got to look to the future for setting goals. We've got to look for the future because that's where we're walking is into the future. Now, the future is called the promise. And the promise of the future can be an awesome force in all of our lives. The promise of the future. Now, make this note. For every promise there's a price. Everything has to be paid for. We learn that if the promise is clear, the price is easy. The reason so many find it difficult to pay the price is because they don't have a clear vision of the promise. If the promise was bright, if the promise was powerful, if the promise was compelling, then paying the little price of a few disciplines would be an easy task.
Now, when I went to Israel this last summer, I said to my Israeli audience, you know, the story of creation is unique. It says, "In the beginning, God Jehovah spoke and he said, let there be light and there was life." It looks like words create light. Someone says, "Well, yes, God's words." Well, humans can get pretty close. What if somebody can't see how they can possibly be successful and you come along and tell them your story, selecting the best words you can possibly choose in telling that story and when you finish they say, "Now I can see. Before you got here, I was blind. Now I can see." Classic in articulating the promise of the future, it's got to be the parents. Because here's the classic truth. If kids can see, they will pay. Kids will do the most extraordinary disciplines if they can see. They will buckle down to the most unique things every day if they can see. But if they can't see, remember this. They don't want to pay. They don't want to read. They don't want to go to school. They don't want to do the disciplines. Many of them because they simply cannot see. But the same is true of all of us. If we can see, we will pay.
There are two ways to face the future. Make these notes. Number one is with anticipation. Another way to face the future is with apprehension. Guess how most people face the future? With apprehension. And here's the major reason why. They don't have it well designed or they've left the design to someone else. And if you've left the design of your future to someone else, you better be apprehensive. But if we're apprehensive, it's it's like taking little small steps, walking into the future, not quite certain, not quite sure. So to clean up all of that and to walk into the future with vitality is to have the vision. To walk into the future and anticipate it, can't wait to get up in the morning. Can't wait for the day to arrive. Can't wait for the opportunity to arrive. Can't wait for the phone to ring. Can't wait to get on the job. Why? Anticipating how the future's going to unfold because you have it well designed. The promise of the future.
Now, here's another one under attitude. It's how you feel about everybody. You've got to have a good educated attitude about the all of us, the everybody. The pledge of allegiance in America. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag starts with I and ends with all. That's the sweep of the country. Each of us and all of us. So, let me put it in a little philosophical phrase. Here it is. Each of us must understand how valuable all of us are. It takes all of us to make a country. It takes all of us to create opportunity. One person doesn't make an economy. One person doesn't make a symphony orchestra. One person doesn't make a church. One person doesn't make a family. It takes a collective effort to create an enterprise. It takes a creative effort from many to create industry. It takes all of us to have a government. It takes all of us to create opportunity for each of us. So that's very important to understand the all of us. And here's why. You can't succeed by yourself. It's hard to find a rich hermit. I mean, you know, you can't succeed off by yourself. It takes all of us to create a good office. It takes all of us to create a working arrangement. So, learn to appreciate the all of us. This is one of the most important parts of our education is the education of attitude that understands the value of all of us. But here's the key. Learn to appreciate it. But if somebody writes a book and you don't read it, somebody creates a song and you won't listen. Somebody sets up a class and you won't attend, somebody has opportunity, you won't take advantage of it, then see that's got to be your fault. Nobody's fault but yours. That's the key that wins. The attitude of understanding the value of all of us.
Now, here's the last one on attitude, and that's how you feel about yourself. Self-esteem is the greatest step toward success, feeling good about yourself. Now, the greatest deterrent to feeling good about yourself is neglecting small disciplines. That's where it starts. Could walk around the block, should walk around the block, but don't. It's those little don'ts that start to add up that make us not feel quite that good about ourselves. And the least neglect of a discipline that you could do but you failed to do start you on what we call the slippery slope. Not the slippery slope of economics but the slippery slope of self esteem. Economics you can cure uh money you can make. Uh classes you can take. But I'm telling you, if you let the insidiousness of that little piece of lack of self-esteem start to grow, I'm telling you, it can be the undoing of so many fortunes and so many lives and so many futures. Don't let that happen to you. That's why I mentioned earlier, clean up all neglect. Here's why. Accepting small disciplines and going for them regularly and consistently is the greatest builder of self-esteem. Changing direction can be the greatest builder of self-esteem. And it doesn't take much to change direction. An apple a day will start it with your health. A new book for your new library will start it for your education. Small disciplines that change direction that lead to selfesteem. And make this note. Direction determines destination. And here's what's exciting. You can't change destination overnight, but you can change direction overnight after today. You don't ever have to walk the same road. You're not a goose. You don't have to keep flying south. You don't have to adopt the neglect of the past and let it mess up the future. You don't have to do that starting today. Starting today, you can lay a whole new track. And if you lay a new track in one week, it leads to a new place. In 90 days, it leads to an incredibly new place. In one year, you won't believe it. In three years, it'll be incredible. In five years, you'll be bonkers. And as you look back and say, "How did I arrive in this grand and glorious place?" And you say, "Five years ago, I took this little step." It's those small changes that prove to yourself you're laying a new health track. Set aside some money, you're laying a new financial track. Pick up a book you haven't read before, you're laying a new educational track. And all those new tracks lead to new places.
Most everybody's counting on this not much list. What if all of your negative relatives turned positive? What would that do for your future and your fortune? What? Not much. What if prices came down a little? What will that do for your future? I'm telling you, not much. If the economy gets a little better, what will that do? Not much. Now that the Democrats are in power, what's that going to do for your future? >> Not much. If the Republicans would have stayed in power, what would that have done? >> Not much. I'm telling you, it's a not much list. If you don't make plans of your own, guess what? You'll probably always fit into someone else's plans. Guess what someone else may have planned for you? >> Then what's going to make the difference? You're going to have to make the difference. You're going to have to take charge.
Now, Mr. Schae, my teacher, gave me a promise and I want to give you that promise. Now, here was the promise I got and I bring it to you. Here's what my teacher said. If you will change, Mr. Ron, he said, "If you will change, everything will change for you. You don't have to change the government. You don't have to change prices. You don't have to change taxes. Forget all that." He said, "If you will change, everything will change for you." And the first thing you start changing is what? Your philosophy. You start changing your mind. You start changing how you think. You start picking up new ideas and information. Gather new knowledge. Make better decisions about what's valuable. And I'm telling you, if you'll do that, your whole life will change. Your health will change. Your relationship with your family will change. Income, promotions, all of it will change. If you will change, it'll all change. If you won't change, it isn't going to change. You can keep your fingers crossed if you want to and hope they'll straighten it out. You can wish for the wind not to blow quite a severe. But I'm telling you, wishing for the wind to change in your favor. We call naive at best. Don't do this any longer. Wish for a better wind. The key is to wish for the wisdom to set a better sail. Utilize whatever wind it blows to take you wherever you want to go. That is the philosophy I picked up at age 25. And it revolutionized my whole life. And here's what I found. I found it was easy. Now, here's my definition of easy. My definition of easy meaning something I could do. I figure if it's something you can do, it's easy. Now, here's a parenthesis. I worked hard at it. I found something I could do which was easy, but I worked hard at it. I got up early and stayed up late. Worked hard that six years. But what I did was easy, meaning it was something I could do. You say, "Well, Mr. Ron, if it was so easy, how come everybody else around you during that six years, how come they didn't get rich? Here's why. It's easy not to. The things that are easy to do are also easy not to do. That's the difference between success and failure. So, you've got the choice here today of one of two eas. I can give you in one sentence how I got rich by the time I was 31. Here it is in one sentence. I did not neglect to do the easy things I could do every day for six years. That's the key. I found something easy I could do that led to fortune and I did not neglect to do it.
Major reason for not having everything you want in America. Major reason for not having more of what you want in America. More health, more money, more power, more influence, more everything. Major reason why you don't get it. Simple answer, neglect. And here's the problem with neglect. It starts as an infection. And if you don't take care of it, it becomes a disease. And here's what else is the problem. One neglect leads to another. Neglect to do wise things with your money, you'll probably neglect to do wise things with your time. Neglect to do wise things with your time. You'll probably neglect to do wise things with your business. Pretty soon, neglect has you by the throat. Emptying your purse, emptying your heart, emptying all of your chances for equities and power and all the good things. What if you should be walking around the block every day for your good health and you don't? I'm telling you, you're on the wrong track. You should do it. You could do it. You don't do it. That's called formula for disaster. All you've got to do is let that and a few other things accumulate for 6 years. And now you're driving what you don't want to drive, wearing what you don't want to wear, living where you don't want to live, doing what you don't want to do, maybe having become what you really didn't want to become. I'm telling you, that's it. Just neglect along, drift along, and it's got you by the throat. It'll take all your values, leave you with just a little bit of dust in a summer wind, and it'll soon be gone. I hope I said that well.
There's usually about a half dozen things that makes 80% of the difference. There's usually about a half dozen things that makes 80% of the difference. Now, it's not exactly halfozen. It's not exactly 80%, but you get my concept here. Here's another way to put it. Keep looking for the few things that makes the most difference. For your good health. There's not a thousand things you have to do. Not a thousand things every day. I'm telling you about a half a dozen good health practices and you'll take care of most of your health challenges. Okay? If you're going to set up an office, there's not a checklist of 500 things you need to look at every day. I'm telling you, there's about a half a dozen. A few things will take care of most of it. Now, here's the challenge. And once you've found the few things that takes care of the most of the challenge, now spend most of your time on those few things. This we simply call time management. What an incredible discovery I made one day when I found out that rich people have about 24 hours a day, right? And poor people have about what? 24 hours a day. Wouldn't that drive you mad till you found out what the difference was? How could you sleep nights till you found out what the difference was? Both have equal time. What an incredible difference in outcome. What makes the difference? Same time, but a totally different outcome. It's called time management. And here's part of it in a nutshell. Look for the few things that makes the most difference. Then spend most of your time working on those few things. Here's why a lot of people don't do well. They major in minor things. They spend too much time on things that don't count. And what else? They spend too little time on things that would count. They've got the ratios mixed up. So we teach our children what? Don't spend major time on minor things, things that don't count. And don't spend major money on minor things, things that don't count. It's easy to get the ratios mixed up and suffer the consequences. So the few things, the half dozen takes care of the big share of it. Good formula to use. Here's what we call these halfozen few. Basics. Basics. Fundamentals. If you're going to play basketball, right, going to be a pro someday, hey, you got to you got to master the fundamentals. Not a thousand things. A few things you get very good at. Then you add your own flare and your own personality. But hey, if you want to do something extremely well and get well paid, you master the fundamentals and master the basics.