Transcription
[Music]
Now, I want to get busy on the first couple of subjects for today. Everybody that's okay, say, "I'm okay." Here's the first subject that I I found so interesting, I want to share with you. Then I want to talk about personal development.
Of the subject that I started listening to age 25 that revolutionized my whole life from my mentor Mr. Earl Schae, here's an interesting subject. Just jot it down now. It's called enlightened self-interest. Enlightened self-interest. It's a fascinating study to study the idea of self-interest. But just make this note. All of us, you know, have self-interest. The key is it for it to be enlightened so that everybody wins and no one loses.
Our first interest is to survive. What does it take to survive? Our second interest is to succeed. What does it take to succeed? What does it take for me personally to survive and to succeed? Can I legitimately be interested enough in the things that help me both succeed and survive? And here's what I discovered. The answer is yes. It's possible to exercise self-interest, but to do it in such a way that no one loses, everyone benefits.
Key phrase, life was not designed to give us what we need. Life was designed to give us what we deserve. We do not reap a harvest in the fall because we need it. We reap a harvest in the fall because we deserve it. Not necessarily from a moral standpoint. Of of course, there are some moral laws as well, spiritual and moral laws. But just the basic laws that simply say if you wish to reap, you must plant. So jot this down. Reaping is reserved for the planters. And the reason they reap is because they deserve it. They're the planters. They deserve to reap.
Interesting Bible phrase that says if if you keep knocking, you'll find open doors. Good phrase to jot down. And if you keep knocking, you'll find open doors. Doors of opportunity, doors of a chance to meet someone, doors open for association, doors open to find someone special, doors open to find a a unique business colleague. If you keep knocking the door, the phrase says, doors of opportunity are open to those who continually knock. So we don't find open doors of opportunity because we need them. We find them because we deserve them. Only those who knock deserve to find an open door. But the promise is if you continually knock, you'll find doors of opportunity.
It says if you search, you will find. So make the note. It's good. Finding is reserved for the searchers because they deserve it. Now, at first they may have needed it, but they now know that just needing it is not sufficient. But if they need it, now they must qualify for it. The reason why you're going to be blessed with good ideas this weekend is because you've come searching. You've gotten on an airplane to come searching. Got in your automobile to come searching. You got here searching. Now you're ready to receive. And for those who search, they will find answers. They will find plans, imagination to stir yourself into action for future benefit. So if you search to find a good idea, you must go looking, go searching. You've got to go to church. You've got to go to class. You've got to go to the seminar. You've got to go to the library. You've got to go to the books if you wish to find. Rarely does a good idea interrupt you. Rarely. But if you will search, you will find.
So we get not what we need, but we get what we deserve. It says if you ask, someone has an answer. If you keep asking, the answers belong to you. Because by virtue of asking, you have qualified. So we don't get what we need, we get what we deserve. The mother on welfare should be taught in some small manner that hopefully she can begin deserving the welfare check. Not getting it because she needs it, but now starting to get it because she deserves it. If the welfare worker says to Mary, "Mary, I brought a bucket of paint and a paintbrush, and the next time I come, if the door is painted and the fence here in front is painted, I give you the check for $450." Not that painting the door and painting the fence is worth $450. It's not worth that much, but it is the beginning of the process.
So, make that note. I want to begin the process of deserving. What would that be? What process should I begin engaging in to deserve good health? To deserve a good relationship, to deserve prosperity, to deserve an enterprise, to deserve the opportunity to build a city. What must I do to begin the process of deserving? So now the welfare worker comes back and the door is painted and the fence is painted and now Mary gets the $450 to help take care of her children, not because she needs it, but because she's beginning to deserve it. Then the welfare worker thinks of some other project. She said, "Mary, if these weeds are gone and this little garden is cultivated, when I come back, now that the door is painted and the fence is painted, if the weeds are gone and this little garden is cultivated, you get the $450." And step by step, a new life is emerging. Learning the process of deserving, not just needing.
We teach our children at home, right? Child says, "I need $10." So that language doesn't work here. There's plenty of money here and the vaults are full. But to say, "I need $10," is not how you open the vault. So the child says, "What?" Wow, how can I get that $10 that I need? So, here's what they learned to say. How could I earn $10? Now, the vault opens up. Now, the money starts to flow. How could I earn $10? What could I do to earn the money? Not to get the money because you need it. Maybe you need the money. That's all of us have needs. But here, the key is to figure out how to open the vault, how to open the bank, how to open this unbelievable flow of resources to come our way. And here's the key. To deserve it, not to need it.
You can't walk out to the field and say to the field, I need a crop. Here's what the field says. Here's what the ground says. Who is this clown that brings me his need but brings me no seed? So jot that down. Take your seed to the marketplace, not your need. Don't disclose your need to the marketplace, only your willingness. We'll talk about that a little later today. Because the marketplace is not interested in your need, but they are interested in your seed. They're interested in your willingness to work. They're interested in your disciplines. They're interested in your eagerness. They're interested in your vitality and your work ethic. That's what the marketplace is interested in. Not your need, but your seed. Okay?
We get what we deserve. Old Testament, God says, "If you'll move toward me, I'll move toward you." See, that's that's how you get those occasions to meet God. You must make the move. God could say, "You don't move. I don't move." You say, "Well, that's arbitrary." Well, when you're God, you can make it that way. So, the law says if you wish to receive, now let's talk about enlightened self-interest. If you wish to receive, and we would call the wish to receive self-interest, but if it's enlightened self-interest, here's what it says. I understand that in order to receive, I must give. Receiving is reserved for those who give. Receiving is not reserved for those who need it. It's reserved for those who deserve it. We deserve the receiving by giving. In fact, there's an extraordinary phrase in this little context, and here's what it says. It's better to give than it is to receive. Now, the uneducated person would find that difficult to ponder. Why would it be better to give than it is to receive? So, let me give you one of the better phrases for the day. Here it is. Giving starts the receiving process. So, of course, it's better to give than it is to receive.
How much receiving do you wish? You must start the giving process for me to receive my additional fortunes for the future. Not necessarily for the money because I don't need the money. I take the money, but I don't I don't need the money. But here's what I do need for someone to say a year from now, five years from now, Mr. Ran, that seminar helped to change my life. And for whatever reason, I was brought here to this place for this time. And later someone says that see to receive that kind of thanks it's unbelievable. Here's what you cannot buy that kind of thanks. You can't buy it with money. You have to earn it.
Now let's expand a little further. Now that it's called the law of riches and wealth in our own self-interest, if we wish to be rich and wealthy and prosperous and healthy and all the valuable things we can think of for the human experience, how could we get there? It's understanding the law of enlightened self-interest and the law of deserving. The question was asked in the Bible, how can we be great? What is the key to greatness? Great wealth, great return, great accolades, trophies to put on the mantle above the fireplace. How can we get great respect, great riches, great abundance for ourselves? How can we get that? And the answer was given. And here was the answer. Find a way to serve. Find a way to serve the many. So I paraphrase it to read this. Service to many leads to greatness. Service to many leads to greatness.
Someone says, "Well, about the best I can do is take care of myself." That's okay. Self-care, you know, has its own reward, but it's very limited. Somebody says, "I can't be worried about other people's problems. I got enough problems of my own." That's okay. Self-defense is okay. Self-preservation is okay, but it has a very limited reward. If you wish to change that into abundance and prosperity and uniqueness, then here's what you must do. Help solve other people's problems. Help find answers for someone else. Not just for yourself, but for someone else. And in that kind of service, you now begin the process of greatness.
Someone asked the question, how can I be ruler over many? How could I manage a lot of people? How could I be the leader of a vast movement or enterprise? Here was the answer. Nothing wrong with that wish. We call that self-interest of the highest kind. Wishing to be the manager, the ruler, wishing to be presiding over many people. Here was the answer. Be faithful when the amounts are small. Be faithful when there's just a few. Be disciplined when there's only a few. That starts to entitle you to someday be ruler over many. You say, "Well, if I had a big organization, you know, I'd really run it with a strong hand and I'd be a fabulous leader, but I've only got a few and I don't know where they are." See, that that's not going to work. If you wish to preside over riches, you must start when the amounts are small. Someone says, "Oh, if I had a fortune, I'd really take good care of it, but I've only got a paycheck. I don't know where it goes." See, not knowing where it goes disqualifies you now for presiding over the fortune. We've all heard that, right? I don't know where it all goes. You ever hear that expression? Oh, we'd love to have you run the company. You don't know where it all goes. Somebody says, "It just gets away from me." Oh, we'd love to have you run the world. Right? It just gets away from you. Somebody says it's only pennies and it's only a few. Here's where you begin to qualify for abundance and riches and greatness and respect is to be disciplined when the amounts are small.
Someone finds it unique, right, that this many people would come and hear what I've got to say for a whole weekend. But this is not where I started. I started with just a few. But I was so on fire with the few, trying to translate for them in my awkward ways back then. What had happened to me? My life got changed, my income got changed, my health got changed, everything got changed for the better. And now I've lived the most extraordinary life. But it started with my passion for just a few. To translate for just the few. Someone says, "Well, there's just a few here. You know, does this meeting matter when there's only a few?" And the answer is yes. Jot this down. You never know who's in the audience, whether it's a few or a thousand or whatever. But you got to be faithful when there's just a few. Tell your story when there's just a few. Be just as passionate about ideas that can change someone's life when there's just a few. Now you begin. You're not fully qualified, but you begin the qualification to someday speak to many. Someday preside over a vast crowd. Someday be the manager or the leader of millions. It starts in those early days to deserve it.
Now, jot this down. Also, give yourself a chance to change. Some things I held on to that I thought this was it. This was it. I'm telling you, after a while, I gave it up, found out it wasn't it. So, give yourself a chance to change. Refine your philosophy. Refine your direction. If you'll give yourself a chance to do that, here's what will happen down the roadways. A new door will open that you haven't discovered before. Give yourself a chance to change, re-evaluate. Okay?
So let your library be a testimonial of your dedicated interest in accelerated personal development that you will read whatever you have to read. You will hear whatever you must hear and you will watch and see whatever you must see in order to make your life refined and worthwhile and achieve all of your purposes. That's what I want this stopping station to be these three days. Just to come here and sit for a while and listen and ponder and take notes and work hard and see if you can't absorb, get all that you possibly can here so that it will start to refine your life even before you get on an airplane and fly back to wherever you came from before you get in your car and drive away. What we share with you here with whatever all the rest that you've learned. This will be a catalyst to start a process even before you get home that'll start working for you.
Some of you are going to set some goals. We're going to do the workshop tomorrow designing the next 10 years. Hopefully, you'll come up with some new promises, some new objectives, some new ideas. And by the time we're finished here, these two, three days, I'm telling you, you'll you'll see yourself able to accomplish two times, three times, five times more than you ever thought was possible, which will make this cost of this seminar small price to pay. And hopefully it'll make the time you spent here small price to pay compared to making this an investment in your future in what will flow in in terms of money and income and return and reward and respect and dignity and accolades, trophies, all the stuff that can be yours. A marriage that lasts forever. A friendship that nourishes you forever. Things that you'll find that you'll keep and treasure for a lifetime. Hopefully, this is one of those weekends.
It takes a lot of effort to learn, takes a lot of effort to grow, it takes a lot of effort to decide and debate. But jot this down. It's all worth the price. Whatever stimulates you to think, whatever stimulates you to wonder, whatever stimulates you to react or even to debate, even if you hear something you say, "Well, that's not right." See, that's still valuable. It means you're awake. It means you're alert. It means you're alive. It means your mind is ready to take on something. Whether it's agreeable or not agreeable, something right, something wrong. Who cares what it is? We've got to listen to a variety of voices. And some are going to come from the left and some are going to come from the right. And some are going to come from mysterious sources. And some will try to entice you with all kinds of stuff. But that's okay. Just so you're alive and alert and awake, ready to process anything that comes your way. Take the best of it and make it beneficial for you so that tomorrow you walk with a stronger step. Next month you see a clearer vision and a month from now the purpose for your life is multiplied by 2,35. That's what I want to create here.
So now to hurry and get through because we have so many subjects to cover. Let's cover now some other things under personal development. Here's one that's important. As you read and as you listen and as you study and as you grow and as you take notes and as you fill up your journal and then try to work on the ideas to make yourself valuable in the marketplace. Here's something to remember under personal development. Some things I had to learn. First steps to success. First of all, you need good ideas. Just decide right now you're going to accelerate your plan for collecting good ideas. Ideas for your life, ideas for your health, ideas for your marriage, your relationships, ideas that stimulate one idea sometimes lead to leads to the next leads to the next. And the four or five ideas in the future that really thrust acceleration into your life, you couldn't have gotten unless you went through the first one and the second one and the third one.
Next, you need good plans. We're going to talk about time management and game plans tomorrow. Need a good health plan. Traveling around the world, you can imagine the kind of health plan I have to have. If I didn't have a superb extreme, got to underline the word extreme. If I didn't have a superb extreme health plan, do you think I could travel all over the world? People look at my calendar and say, "Impossible. I'm the only one that can do it. Everyone else is too young." Incredible. But I've got to be extremely healthy. I can't let up at all in terms of diet and nutrition, exercise, all that stuff in order to stay healthy. So, a good health plan, a good family plan. Here's a good one. A good marriage plan. Some people just go along married with their fingers crossed. You got to have a better plan than that. Some are whistling in the dark, hoping everything will work out. Not Not a good plan. You need a good plan for how to use the day. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Best kept secret of the rich, how to use your time. A good plan to meet the right people over the right amount of time to stimulate your life. You need a game plan for lifestyle. We'll talk about that later. So to succeed, we need good ideas and good plans.
Here's the next. We have to learn to handle the passing of time because all of this takes time to learn, to grow, to change. Getting through the seasons takes time. The spring has a certain amount of time. The summer has time. The harvest has time. The winter has time. Learning to handle the passing of time. Jot this down. If you're involved in business, you got to give your project time. You've got to give your people time. Give people a chance to learn, chance to grow, chance to change. One of the great requirements, especially in such an industrialized, busy, mad, dashing society, and that is to have people patience. First, we exercise it with our children and our family. Getting people to work together. Got to have patience. Even with your family, if you're involved with independent people, it's it's a challenge. It's like hurting cats, trying to get them to work together. Hurting sheep is easy. They very quickly get going the same direction. But try hurting cats. It's like your children. Different ages and different personalities and different opinions to get the family all going the same direction kind of working together to make things work. I'm telling you, it is a challenge. But if you'll have some patience, you can do it.
Now, here's the big one. To have patience with yourself. Give yourself time to learn. Give yourself time to understand good ideas. Give yourself time to make changes and then grow into those changes. Give yourself time to refine your personality to fit the business, whatever business you're engaged in. In some you may have to speak up a little stronger and some you may have to calm down just a little bit more. Just learn to refine your personality and your temperament to suit. All of us can do that, but it takes it takes time. Have patience with yourself. We had to do that from the beginning. Learning to tie the shoestrings of your shoes. If you tried a couple of times and says, "I'll never learn this. It's over." Say, "No, you can't go through life with your shoes untied." Come on. Some people, maybe it happens for them a little quicker than others. Some people get the hang of it almost overnight. Someone else, it takes a little longer. If it takes you a little longer, have patience with yourself because patience has its own reward. Patience is a virtue of the extraordinary kind.
We have to have patience with our employers. We have to have patience with government officials. You got to have patience with IRS. You got to have patience with the army. You got to have patience with the FBI. Here's a good thing to remember while you're exercising patience. Usually enough good people will finally make it right. You just got to jot that down. Usually enough good people will finally make it right. Not everyone in the community is going to tow the line and do the moral thing. But let me tell you what, most will. That's how we create a society that we can live in. Most will. Every teenager will not obey all the rules and regulations and live a model life. Not everyone will. But jot this down. Most will. Enough will. When the good Lord recruited 12, not every disciple, not every one of the 12, but it was enough of the 12 to start a movement that's lasted for 2,000 years. Not everyone, but enough will.
There's only been a couple of exceptions to that rule. One was the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God was going to destroy Sodom and G and Gomorrah for their evil ways. Abraham had a friend that lived there. And Abraham implored and said, "God, if I can go to Sodom and Gomorrah and find 50 righteous people, will you spare the city?" And God said, "Abraham, you've been such an excellent friend of mine. Yes, I'll spare the city if you can find 50." So he searches the city. Can't find 50 good people. Comes back and says, "Lord, would you take 40?" God says, "Abraham, for you, come on, I'll do it if you can find 40." So, he searches for 40. Can't find 40. And he comes back and says, "Would you take 30?" Good Lord says Abraham only for you will I reduce it to 30. Can't find 30. Can't find 20. Abraham said this is my last request. Would you take 10? God said only for you Abraham. So he went searching for 10. And you know the story. Couldn't find 10. That's the exception to the rule. So he said, Abraham, get your friend Lot and his family out of there because the end has come. But that's the exception to the rule. So jot down the general rule. Most will. In a civilized society, most will obey the rules. In government, most will. Not every senator will, but what? Enough will to build a stable government and a future. Not everyone in the armed forces will, but enough will. Not everyone in the community will, but enough will. Not every teenager in that high school will, but I'm telling you, the most will. And that's how we survive in a civilized society, because most will. And that's a good feeling to know. Most will. Okay? So, have patience.
Next under personal development is learning to solve problems. By the way, having patience with the seasons takes time to develop the crop. You can't plant the seed, dig around it in a few days saying, "Where is it? Where is it?" And you can't really help. All you can do is nourish. Some people plant in the spring, leave in the summer. Just haven't got the patience to last. So, next comes solving problems. Business problems, family problems, personal problems, financial problems, emotional problems. There's all kinds. Here's a good idea I found in solving problems. Every once in a while, you've got to haven't got it here, but I can just describe it for you. Take a piece of paper, put a line down the center of the paper, and on the left side, describe the problem. So, just jot that down. A piece of paper in half, on the left side, describe the problem. Sometimes it's a good idea to take a problem out of your head and put it on paper. We'll talk a little bit more tomorrow about how to think on paper. This is one of the ways to think on paper. Our mind usually is too busy sometimes to sort things out. So if you take it out of your mind, put it on paper, what is the problem? And you to describe to the best of your ability what the problem is and then ask this question. Is that all of it? Because if you're going to prescribe something for the problem, you need to know what all of it is.
When you've got it all listed on the other side now of the paper is called answers and solutions. The problem on one side, answers and solutions on the other side. And now let me give you three questions. Three questions that can help solve most any problem. Here are those questions. Number one, what could I do? So just jot that down. What could I do? Then you start developing what we call working papers. And the working papers consist of making a list of the things you could do to solve this problem. Number one, and you say, "Well, number one would take too long." I can see that right now. Let's go to number two. Maybe that's the answer. Number three, no, that isn't it. And let's say you've got several points now and you've done your best to try to solve the problem yourself and you can't solve it yourself. Here's the second question. What could I read? Maybe somebody spent a lifetime researching the problem you've got and they've got some excellent answers from a lifetime of research. Maybe in your own journal you've taken notes before on something. You say, "Hey, I remember a class I took. Seems like there were some answers there." So you go back, do a little research. So under number two is research. And if you search what you will find, if you research, you will find search and research. Now, research as soon as possible because if the problem is severe, you don't want to wait till too late. My friend Kenny comes to me and says, "We just lost a beautiful lady, fabulous lady. They got a divorce. She was really something." Then after his divorce, he comes to me and says, "You know, it's over." But he says, "You know, something strange." And she said, "I found a book in my own library that I think would have saved my marriage if I had read it before my divorce, and it was a book entitled How to Live with Another Person." He said, "I should have read that book a long time ago." He finally read it, but it was a little late. It's like reading a book on nutrition after you've had a heart attack, right? I mean, that's good. That is good. But gosh, it's so much better to read it before. Spare yourself the agony and the lost time and maybe the loss of your life.
Now, if you if you tried to solve it yourself and you can't solve it and you've researched and it doesn't seem like you've got the answer, here's number three. The third question is, who could I ask? Is there someone around me that might have the answer to my problem? Now under that put here put this don't ask first now try to solve it yourself develop some working papers what you think you might do that still isn't it here's some books I've read this guy's crazy this guy no answers haven't got it now I ask but if you now can show your working papers to who you ask you can't believe how swift the answer will come all of us have heard this but let's remind ourselves one more time and put it in your notes we all love to help people who first of all try to help themselves. And back to the philosophy of deserve. I've tried to work it out. Haven't got the answer. Maybe you can help me. Somebody is very willing to help you if they know you've tried first to help yourself. It works that way with our children, right? My daughter Linda before she got married used to travel a lot. She comes to me and say, "Daddy, I'm headed for Thailand." I said, "Wonderful." She said, "I've saved up my money." I said, "Fantastic." She said, "I've got $1,000." I said, "Wonderful." She said, "The kids wanted to go here, wanted to go there. I didn't go. They wanted to buy this, wanted to buy that. I didn't buy. I got my money put aside. $1,000." I said, "Linda, unbelievable. You must be my daughter." That's fantastic. Now, she said, "To make the trip, I only need a couple of thousand more." An easy $2,000, right? But she knew she couldn't get the whole three, but she knew that if she worked hard to the best of her ability and put that first thousand together, the next two was easy, right? Okay. So, develop your working papers. Do your best to solve problems. Here's why you try to solve it on your own first. You need the mental and emotional muscle. You need the discipline. If you just quickly go to the answer, somebody that's got it. Now, you're not developing the muscle. You're not developing the discipline to solve your own problems because there may come a day when there's no one else to ask. So, you need the rhythm of learning, the rhythm of trying, the rhythm of seeing if you can do it first to build the emotional mental muscle. Okay?