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 found so interesting; I want to share it with you.
Then I want to talk about personal development, the subject that I started listening to at age 25, which revolutionized my whole life from my mentor, Mr Earl Sha. Here's an interesting subject: jot this down. It's called "enlightened self-interest.
" Enlightened self-interest is a fascinating study; it examines the idea of self-interest. But just note that all of us, you know, have self-interest. The key is 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 and everyone benefits. A key phrase is: 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 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.
An interesting Bible phrase says, "If you keep knocking, you'll find open doors. " Good phrase to jot down: 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 unique business colleague. If you keep knocking, 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's as if you search, you will find.
So make the note: 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. 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, gotten 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, and imagination will stir you 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'll 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. 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 says, "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'll get the $450. " Step by step, a new life is emerging, learning the process of deserving it—not just needing it.
We teach our children at home, right? The child says, "I need $10. " 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, "Wow, how can I get that $10?
" That is 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; we all 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 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 fors for the future—not necessarily for the money, because I don't need the money. I take the money, but 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've 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'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. Do 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, riches, greatness, and respect: it's to be disciplined when the amounts are small. Someone finds it unique, right, that this many people would come to 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.
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 are 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.
