get better there isn't any of us that can't get better so turn on this whole idea of personal development and personal growth that was what my teacher shared with me to change my life starting a few steps from here at that convention i'm telling you for things to get better you got to get better don't ask for it to change out there ask for you to change here don't ask for a more favorable wind we call that naive don't ask for better seed better soil this is the only planet you got just ask that you
can get wiser and stronger and better be able to take care of your own responsibilities get better learn how to handle the seasons better let's go through them just get better at handling the winters you can't change the winter you can't change the seasons but you can change yourself you see what can i do about the upcoming winters of my life the challenges that i know i'm gonna face here's what you can do you can get wiser and stronger and better just make a list of that trio of words wiser stronger and better go home
smarter than you came go home with more ideas than you came with next get stronger you can develop the muscle you can develop the courage muscle you can develop the inspiration muscle you can develop the dedication muscle you can get stronger there's anybody here that can't get stronger next time we see you may not even recognize you how strong you're going to be able to become in language style and personality the ability to cope the ability to handle with anything that happens no matter what happens and the third one is get better we can all
get better i've gotten better first talk i gave i stood up my mind sat back down but here's the secret to my success i stood up and did it again i stood up and i did it again and i did it again and i did it again all those many years ago i did it when i was scared and i didn't when i didn't want to and i did it when i was ill and i did it when it didn't work well and i didn't get it when they didn't appreciate it and i didn't a
lot of times when i didn't know much what i was doing i just did it anyway and now all these years later i'm asked to walk on this stage with the greatest introduction i've ever had greatest response and welcome i've ever had the greatest opportunity i've ever had to touch this many lives with a mixture of words and heart and soul i got better i got better day by day and week by week and month by month and i'm asking you to do the same thing until you can develop a long arm and a long
reach until you can develop influence that won't quit touch people next year you couldn't touch this year touch people now you couldn't touch before conduct a meeting now you couldn't conduct before heart and soul now mixed in there that wasn't theirs missing before i'm asking all of you to get better in spite of the winters in spite of the downturn the money downturn the social downturn the personal downturn whatever it is just get stronger get better the key is not to wish for a better winter the key is to wish for more strength more wisdom
more courage get better get wiser get stronger here's number two learn to take advantage of the spring spring means opportunity and we've got a fresh spring going here it's called a spring like no other a spring an opportunity like no other for you but here's the clue spring is not a guarantee of a harvest in the fall and the autumn harvest time here's what you must learn to do underline the two words if you're taking notes take advantage take advantage of the spring don't just be faked out by the spring because the nice weather has
come looks like everything is going to be a lot better the winter's finally passed the spring is here i'm telling you that's not going to do it for you just because the spring is here it's not going to do it for you you got to seize it with your own two hands and take advantage read the books study the tapes go back through your notes get ready to cash in on the spring and now there's a sense of urgency here here's why spring doesn't last that long generalistic advantage of it it's called take advantage of
the spring and there's also an urgency here how many springs have you got in a lifetime not very many life is brief at the longest the beatles wrote life is very short and for john lennon it was extra short for michael landon it was extra short but it is short there's an urgency here don't waste your springs don't just let them pass past pass hoping the time will pass take advantage last year it was seized the moment and i'm asking you now this season to seize the spring opportunity you've got a new organization going seize
the spring you've got a new distributor going seize the spring you've got a new life situation going seize the spring take advantage of it don't let it pass without giving it the best of your two hands and your attention number three first learn how to handle the winter second take advantage of the spring number three in the summer learn to nourish and protect we've got some major challenges now come summertime one is to nourish our values take care of them feed them don't let them go hungry don't let him go wanting in nourishment and care
then here's something else we've got to do in the summer defend ourselves against the enemies summertime is a unique time it's a time of opportunity it's also a time of challenge but whatever threatens you i'm asking you to threaten it back take care of your responsibility but don't take anything off anybody somebody wants to destroy your chances for a good future by their negative talk negative thinking putting it all down i'm telling you walk away if you have to walk away whatever threatens you threaten it back whatever threatens your opportunity threaten it back now some
of our enemies are on the outside but here's the most important thing to understand some of our enemies are on the inside let me give you a quick list indifference you got to do battle with your own indifference boy it's easy to coast especially if you've accomplished something you know extraordinary now somebody says i gotta relax here's the key not too long the weeds will take all you plant if you rest too long don't rest too long indecision you got to make those decisions the ones that don't turn out to be good gives you experience
to make better decisions don't let much time go by without making some decisions the ones that you can make quickly make them quickly the ones that take time take your time but get those decisions made don't let indecision be an enemy rob you the future empty your bank account leave you with zero in the purse don't let that happen the next one is doubt sure there's doubts on the outside people doubt that america is gonna make it people doubt that europe's gonna make it people doubt that russia's gonna make it the poland's gonna make it
the czechoslovakia is gonna make it they doubt the whole world is gonna make it but i'm asking you not to pick up all those doubts i'm asking you to have some faith have some courage believe drive your doubts into a small corner don't let them loose like a mad dog drive you into a small corner don't doubt the future don't doubt the possibilities don't doubt the extraordinary gifts that your distributors bring to your organization don't doubt that here's the most important one of all don't doubt yourself if i've got miracle working power to change my
life so do you if i've got the ability to change so do you if i've got the ability to read so to you if i can discover so can you if i can grow you can grow if i can develop you can develop if i can get an invitation like i got six years ago help take something around the world so can you if i can stand on this platform idaho farm boy raisin obscurity so can you if the millionaire team can do it president's team can do it walk off with the diamonds the trophy
so can you i'm asking you don't sell yourself short we haven't sold you short that's why mark larry and dr castle and i have decided to invest a big share of our life these four days and being with all of you if we didn't think you were worth it we wouldn't have showed up we don't need to conduct another meeting we don't need to walk on another stage we don't need to get up early like we get up don't need it except for the challenge and the opportunity to invest in this many people's lives who
wouldn't get up early to have a chance to work miracles and invest in this many people's lives and help turn the world upside down for better nutrition called herbal life to a lot of people ambition is kind of a mystery the dictionary says it's an eager desire for distinction power or fame but what does that really mean well let's start with the word eager all by itself eager is kind of exciting kids are eager for their birthday parties they expect to be the center of attention get lots of presents eat too much i guess grown-ups
are eager for birthdays too unless of course they're embarrassed that the number of candles on the cake outnumber their achievements but we can be eager to see a ball game eager to see our kids in a dance recital eager to see an old friend eager to shop for a new car eager sounds like a lot of fun but do you ever hear people say they are eager to live a better life eager to have a better family eager to make a lot of money probably not and that's a problem because how i see it living
a better life having a better family and making a lot of money takes an eager desire we have the remarkable ability to get exactly what we must have but there is a difference between wishes and desires we've all heard people say oh i wish i could just drop five pounds i want to be a little lighter and we've probably said it ourselves especially after a big holiday dinner of turkey and homemade pie and every other thing we can possibly stuff ourselves with in one eight hour period of time and even though we may wish we
could breathe a little easier in our clothing we have to have the desire to exercise a little more and eat a little less the i wish i could lose weight has to become i have the eager desire to lose weight i'm also sure you've heard people talk about wishing they had more money to pay the bills or take a vacation or just to take a little pressure off of life but before their lifestyle can change their wish needs to become a desire if they really desired change they wouldn't spend their evenings just watching tv and
wishing they were doing something more the backbone of an eager desire to change is discipline true ambition is disciplined eager desire it's that little part within us that says if i want to be ready for that meeting tomorrow i need to finish preparing for it today if i want to make sure i can pay for my kids college education i need to start saving today if i want a better life tomorrow i need to start working on it today ambition is a minute by minute day by day mentality to have the ambition to work towards
a better family life a newer car a bigger house a financially secure future you have to live it every moment if living a successful life was easy i'm sure more people would be successful if just being ambitious was enough i'm sure all of the broke and perplexed people in the world wouldn't be broke and perplexed while most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way instead of just earning a living the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune
everything just seems to work out for them and here sits the much larger group wondering in awe on how life can be so unfair complicated and unjust so what's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little despite all the factors that affect our lives like the kind of parents we have the schools we attended the part of the country we grew up in none has as much potential power for doing good as the ability to dream dreams are a projection of the kind of life we want
to lead dreams can drive you dreams can make you skip over obstacles when we allow our dreams to pull us they unleash a creative force that can overpower everything in our way to unleash this power though your dreams must be well defined a fuzzy future has little pull power well-defined dreams are not fuzzy wishes are fuzzy to really achieve your dreams to really have your future plans pull you your dreams must be vivid one of the issues mr james dealt with in his lifetime was what does it mean to be a success a significant person
after years of pondering this question william james described success as a combination of two things number one an inner ideal which is followed persistently with courage and number two outer achievement related to that ideal let's go back to number one an inner ideal which is followed persistently with courage i take that to mean defining a goal and having the resolve to complete it no matter what i'll do it or die promise yourself you'll read the books until your skills change go to the seminars until you get a handle on it do it until it makes
sense practice it until you've got it right don't give up until you get where you want to be however long that is step by step piece by piece book by book seminar by seminar do it until go for it until is a very important word it's magic it means that you'll never give up don't miss the chance to grow to pay the price until you learn change grow you'll discover some of life's great treasures when you pay that price william james second part to success dealt with the outer achievement related to that ideal you need
both aspects to really be a success but what dr james realized about his philosophy of success was that the first part is indeed more important than the second going for it as long as you're working toward your inner goal your dream then success is possible but once you give up your inner vision then you can never become successful you never will become successful until doesn't even matter now maybe the person who's been working on a project for ten years can be successful in his own right if he's honestly working toward it doing everything to make
himself worthy of reaching the dream really happy with where he is doing it until then maybe he is a success it's a personal thing going for it one step at a time going for small accomplishments along the way for however long it takes so let's think about this for a moment what outside evidence or results or proof can be seen when you accomplish your goals one step at a time you'll start to see things change around you little things not major things but little everyday things things you may not even notice unless you are paying
attention if you're one of those who'd rather stay up late and get up late only to discover that your workplace doesn't fit your schedule and you roll out of bed cursing the alarm clock every morning maybe you could start with the little change of going to bed half an hour earlier than normal and maybe you'll see in time of course you can't train your body overnight maybe you'll find out that you jump out of bed in a better mood and that your day will start better and that you'll get more done and that the people
around you that caused you problems aren't so hard to work with after all it all starts by making one little change and adding to it every day you see you can't change what's going on around you without first changing what's going on within you start changing how you look at mornings and sure enough people will start changing how they look at you when you start changing how you think how you act how you treat others how you treat yourself when you start responding instead of reacting to life life will start responding to you i'm telling
you that you can do it with your lifestyle you can do it with your sales career you can do it with your management career you can do it with any part of your life you cannot believe what can happen in such a short period of time so you ask yourself what small changes can i start making today well you can start in your car on your way to work if you're sitting on the highway stop and go traffic moving at about 15 miles per hour tops look at the guy or the lady sitting next to
you and give them a smile or thumbs up or even wave now some people might think you're a little strange but hey you'll feel better and tomorrow when you get into the office how about a big cheery hello to the people at the front desk and everyone you see on the way to your office and when you get home tonight how about giving your wife or husband and kids big hugs instead of collapsing on the sofa when you start with the little things that make others happy improve their day you'll find that these little things
add up to big ones so what happens when you start taking charge of your own personal happiness your own life do you think that these little things will somehow make a difference in meeting your goals you bet they will you can't do it alone you can't be successful by yourself it's hard to find a rich hermit you know the ambitious person realizes that each of us needs all of us you all by yourself may have finalized the company's marketing plan or finished up the sales projections or even wrote the mission statement for the year to
come even if you did this all by yourself you really had the help of all of those around you who tolerated and supported your need to be undisturbed or provided service to you during the project maybe you should thank those people every once in a while with a dinner certificate or a bouquet of flowers after all without your support team you probably wouldn't be where you are today you can't be successful by yourself so thank them thank those around you and let them know just how important they are to you be it your office personnel
or your family or your friends a thank you sure goes a long way you don't have to worry about the winds that will most certainly blow around you the obstacles the negativity that will stand in your way you don't have to worry about what other people will say you just have to keep your mind on your course those wins may blow fast and furious but if you know your path if you know where you are going they will help push you toward the dreams and goals and treasures that you have already decided you're going after
your goals will push you forward ahead of the stormy weather there are some amazing people around that we can learn from today people who have already braved the storms and come out on top people who are still alive today people who started with nothing and ended up with something great famous people not so famous people maybe even people you know but don't know their stories people who had an early vision and ambition people who turned their focused dreams into the reality of success one of my friends tells this story about her dad she thinks he's
cheap she gives him a hard time every time they go to one of those all-you-can-eat places because he eats all he can eat until he can't move until he needs to take something for indigestion but she knows where he came from his history and understands just why he is the way he is he eats all he can eat because he was raised in an orphanage a place where you had to grab all you could or you'd be hungry but the real story behind her father is that he made himself a millionaire with nothing more than
a dream he watched his own father drown when he was four was taken away from his mother a few years later and put into an orphanage because he was so bad raised by other people strangers after growing up in foster homes he decided to go out on his own he barely finished high school but he found a job as a vacuum cleaner salesman he did well really well but the woman he loved didn't want to marry a vacuum cleaner salesman and he really didn't want to be one so he went to college went on to
medical school prospered really prospered led a tremendously successful life as a radiologist and is now retired goes fishing rides his harley stories of success are all around us everywhere take the time to talk to these people or read their stories you might learn something you might find out that they have already traveled the path you are now on many of these people have written books on their journeys these books tell the stories and give the secrets that we can all learn from let's say you decided to take a trip just a short one maybe for
a weekend let's say you want to go away to a place you've never been before wouldn't you want to find someone who had been there ask them a few questions what's the best way to get there the safest route the quickest route what do i need to bring to be totally prepared what fun thing should i look for on the way what dangers do i need to avoid by talking with someone who has already been there it'll make your trip that much more enjoyable it's the same thing with life by listening to those who are
farther along in the journey the journey you are interested in taking and learning from their successes and failures you just might pick up something that will make your journey that much better listening to the stories of others can be motivating captivating they can provide that extra push you've been looking for they can demonstrate what the power of ambition is truly all about they've been there their knowledge is valuable and when you use that knowledge and motivation to take action you'll gain momentum eventually you will find that the key to motivation true motivation is right there
inside you you won't have to look elsewhere to get pumped up turned on charged up with the right knowledge behind you you will learn how to motivate yourself with the right knowledge you will find yourself becoming inspired on your own and in order to move forward you must be motivated inspired ambitious you must have dreams and goals that create ambition good ambition positive ambition now ambition does not mean being greedy it does not mean being selfish it does not mean getting ahead at the expense of others ambition is not greed ambition is not avarice an
all-consuming desire for wealth ambition is not hoping you can win at the expense of others do you suppose judas was ambitious he ended up with 30 pieces of silver a fortune in those days was judas successful because he had all that money no judas sold out was judas happy when it was all over with no the money didn't make him happy what he did to get the money certainly didn't make him happy what judas became in the pursuit of his fortune caused him to end his own life what drove him was not ambition ambition is
not greed ambition is an eager desire to achieve an eager desire to get ahead in life to do more for your family to prosper in health wealth and relationships now desire does not always translate into ambition desire is what you want for yourself a bigger house a better car a fatter bank account a better life i desire to have these things ambition is how you get there desire is sometimes healthy desire is sometimes unhealthy desire might say i want the tallest building in town the destructive side of desire might urge you to tear all of
the other buildings down i guess that's one way to do it you might get away with tearing down the first one and maybe the second one but in your desire to tear them all down sooner or later some guy is going to be standing out in front of his building saying i'm on to you get out of here and pretty soon you're no longer known as a builder you're known as a destroyer now the second way to have the tallest building in town is to see it dream it and plan it and put your team
on it work on it go through all of the steps to get there do it right have the ambition to be the owner of the tallest building in town and go through all of the right steps to get there if you really want it and have the skills to do it and the patience to weather all of the storms your ambition will lead you there we get paid for bringing value to the marketplace now it takes time to bring value to the marketplace however we do not get paid for time so we cross that out
mistakenly the man says i'm making about 20 for an hour not true if that was true you could just stay home right and have them send your money so that's not true we don't get paid for time we get paid for value brought to the marketplace now since that's true here's one of the key questions of my talk to you today is it possible to become twice as valuable to the marketplace and make twice as much money in the same time is that possible the answer is yes could you become three times as valuable as
you might be right now to the marketplace and make three times as much money in the same time and the answer is yes five times ten times of course america is unique it's a ladder to climb it starts down here let's say at five dollars an hour and it keeps going up top income last year 80 million dollars the guy who runs coca-cola now that's a heck of a ladder that's why everybody wants to come here right the boat people are not headed for vietnam uh people haven't plotted and scheme for 50 years saying if
i could just get to poland everything would be okay not true everybody wants to come to america and the reason is because we've got the best wind ever blowing in our favor we've got the best economic opportunity anybody's had in six and a half thousand years and all you have to do is understand it and take advantage of it now there's some key questions to ask here why would the marketplace pay someone only five dollars an hour very simple answer they're not very valuable to the marketplace now we must underline to the marketplace this person
might be a very valuable brother yes member of the family valuable yes valuable member of the church of course valuable citizen of the country yes valuable in the sight of god no doubt we're all of equal value in the sight of god but if you're not very valuable to the marketplace you don't get much money you say well it shouldn't be that way well then you've got to start your own country you know this one's been in process for 200 years and this is the best we've been able to come up with so far but
here's the key you don't have to stay here now there was a big debate in congress last year that this five dollars was not enough should be six should be six should be six but we don't need legislation six is already on this ladder the next step up you know if you work for mcdonald's they'll pay you five dollars an hour to take out the trash if you whistle while you take out the trash they'll pay you six dollars an hour so we don't need that legislation you just need to take lessons on how to
whistle have a good attitude now as you begin to climb this ladder why would the marketplace pay some people fifty dollars an hour answer evidently they must be more valuable to the marketplace ten times more valuable and is that possible for someone to be ten times more valuable and earn fifty dollars an hour instead of five and the answer is yes that's what america is all about now why would the marketplace pay some people five hundred dollars an hour evidently this person must be much more valuable to the marketplace that's what's important to understand to
the marketplace and would the marketplace pay one person 80 million dollars for one year's work and the answer is of course if you helped a company make a billion dollars would they pay you 80 million i'm telling you it is possible and that's why america is so exciting that's why this financial ladder is so exciting it's possible for all of this to come true for all of you no matter where you start as a student in school just getting started out there in the workplace this is all possible for you now mr shelf gave me
the clue on how to climb this ladder as high as i wanted to climb now we're talking primarily economics here there's a lot of other ways to become valuable to your family valuable to your friends valuable to the community valuable to the team right valuable to the to the team effort valuable to the concert but here's what he said to me in climbing this ladder economically all you have to do is work harder on yourself than you do on your job once i heard that it made sense to me i kept hoping that everything else
would change around me found out that if i went to work on myself worked on my skills worked on my language if i became better than i was each year if i grew in skills and language and vocabulary and competence then i would become attractive to the marketplace not very long ago a company called me and said mr owen we're expanding internationally we'd like to have a bit of your expertise to help us uh would you give us a bit of your time we'll add some millions to your fortune and i said okay and i
thought later isn't that interesting they would call me then my second thought was of course they'd call me who else would they call i can get the job done now what a contrast for me farm boy from idaho raised in obscurity parents of modest means broke when i was 25 how come i would get a telephone call and someone offered me a lot of money to help them in expanding around the world simple answer evidently something happened to me between age 25 and where i am today and i can tell you where it all started
from my teacher mr shelf who said to me we don't have to change what's going on out there that's the wind that's blowing all we have to do is change what's going on in here and now there are several ways to do that on personal development and let me give you those ways here's the first one we must learn from personal experience pretty simple learn from what happens to you take a look back over the last few months did you make some mistakes how could you correct those for the future take a look back over
the last year have you done it right or done it wrong let's correct it for the next year learn from your personal experience mr chef asked me when i first met him he said mr owen how are you doing you've been out there now six years and i said i'm not doing very well he said i suggest you not do that anymore what a simple swift analysis to my situation he said if you keep doing it the next six years will be like the last six you don't want that to happen let's make the changes
so learn from your personal experience now here's number two why i came to share this video experience with you today and that i call it ope other people's experiences that's me other people that's your teacher other people that's your friends and colleagues other people the people you meet that can pass along to you their experiences what's happened to them the mistakes they made how they corrected them how they change their health and change their bank account and change their income and change their future that's it other people now there's two kinds of people to learn
from one is failures it's too bad failures don't give seminars right that would be valuable bring your notebook have them tell you how they lost it all and threw it all away threw their health away and threw their friendships away and things didn't work out well that would be valuable but now then we must also learn from positive people that have done well they've got the health and so we asked them how did you become so healthy they've got the skills so we ask them how did you become this skillful they've got the income so
we ask them how did you get here in such a short period of time so now here's what's important in personal development in learning from other people we learn number one by observation we learn what we see we watch people that are successful in what they do in sports we watch their disciplines in business we watch their disciplines by observation what we can see the reason i created this video is something that you could see someone's experiences translated for you second we learn by what we hear i've got some of my lectures on cassette tape
so you know you can take them with you wherever you go and learn by listening turn your car into a mobile classroom and listen and then listen to the sermon on sunday morning listen to the lectures listen to the teacher listen to someone who's got something good to say and then number three is vitally important on personal development and that is read all the books all the books you can possibly read in your lifetime mr chef got me started on my library i've got one of the better libraries haven't read everything in it but i
feel smarter just walking in it by library at least i was smart enough to buy it now i got to be smart enough to read it then of course i got to be smart enough to decide what's valuable and then do it but this one is very important become a good reader some books that helped change my life mr shelf recommended of course the bible and my parents made sure i was a pretty good scholar by the time i was 18 that's been so beneficial for me drawing from those illustrations uh reading about those stories
people who made it and people who didn't make it and what the difference was and then other books that helped to really change my life one called think and grow rich by napoleon hill and then a book that helped me become financially independent by the time i was 31 and that book is called the richest man in babylon by george clayson and i'm going to share a little bit of that book with you when i get to financial independence today our third subject but i started reading the books attending the classes making sure that i
got in front of people that had something good to say and then i started keeping a journal one of the major things my teacher taught me was to keep a journal he said don't trust your memory if you hear something good just make a little note and write it down now at first i took you know notes on pieces of paper and torn off corners and backs of old envelopes and it didn't serve me well you know thrown in a drawer then i learned to keep a journal a bound copy of all my notes so
i would suggest you do the same things that impress you a poem that impresses you when you attend a class some of the ideas that impressed you jot them down uh you read something in a magazine right some ideas take those out put them in your journal keep a good journal the rest of your life this will serve you well my journals make up a significant portion of my own library and if you saw my library and saw my journals i tell you what you'd have to say this is the library and these are the
journals of a very serious student no wonder mr rohn is invited to lecture and speak on his experiences around the world so i want the same thing to happen to you value captured that you can resort to later go back over it and review it and let it become valuable to you so that's my first subject personal development work harder on yourself than you do on your job develop the skills learn the lessons take the classes absorb all that is being taught to you these days and then later on of course you can sort it
out what's valuable to you and how to refine it for your business and for your life and for your future but the main thing is to get it and start this process of personal change personal development and let me say it one more time if you will change everything will change for you you'll never be the same you'll keep growing as you look back on a few months look back on a few years you won't believe the progress you can make economically your relationship with your family your friends and whether you're in sports or economics
or whatever i'm telling you that whole process of committing yourself for personal change personal value can really make your life unique and worthwhile you
