Jim Rohn: Your Philosophy

Now, I used to think of the circumstances that ordered my life. If someone would have asked me at age 25, Mr. Rohn! How come you are not doing well?  pennies in your pocket, creditors are calling, nothing in the bank, behind on your promises to your family, you live in America, 25 years old, got a beautiful family every reason to do well, and things are not going that well for you, what is wrong here? It would not have occurred to me to blame my philosophy. I mean it would not have occurred to me say I have got this lousy philosophy and that’s how come I have got pennies in my pocket, nothing in the bank, things aren’t working well. That would not have occurred to me. I found it much easier to blame the government; Much easier to blame the tax problem. I used to say taxes are too high. Top tax rate when I first started paying taxes: 91 percent. Back then, when your income reached a certain level, all your income over that, 91 percent. So I used to say that is too high. Now the tax, top tax rate is about 33 percent. But people are still saying what? Taxes are too high. See, but you can’t use that anymore, if it has gone from 91 to 33, how could it be too high? Come on!  I threw all that old excuse stuff away, some people found it though and they are using it these days. My old list, I used to blame the traffic, the weather, I used to blame the circumstances, right. People say I am too tall, I am too short, I’m too old, I was raised in obscurity, I was raised in a farm, parents of modest means; all the stuff. If you would have asked me how come you find yourself here Mr. Rohn, age 25 living in America, the land of abundance and opportunity, pennies, zero in the bank, not doing well, creditors calling, it would not have occurred to me to blame my philosophy. I found it easier to blame the company; Company policy. I used to say if this is all they pay, how do they expect you to do well? So I figured that my future was going to be tied to whatever everybody else was arranging, the economy, and right, interest rates, I used to say things cost too much. That was my whole explanation. Not my philosophy, until my teacher taught me that this is where the problem was, my old personal philosophy. Here is what’s exciting about each person’s personal philosophy. That is what makes us different than dogs and animals and birds and cats and spiders and alligators. That is what makes us different than all of the other life forms, the ability to think, the ability to use your mind, the ability to process ideas and not just operate by instinct. In the winter I am telling you the goose can only fly south. What if south doesn’t look too good? Tough luck! It can only fly south. But see human beings are not like a goose that can only fly south. I mean you can turn around go north you can go east you can go west you can order the entire process of your own life and we do that, by the way we thing we do that. By exercising our mind we do that. By processing ideas and come up with a better philosophy, a better strategy for our life; Goals for the future; Ok? Plans to achieve those goals; all this comes from developing our philosophy. Philosophy helps us to process what’s available. Well when we get here we have got seed and we have got soil and we have got some rain and we have got some what? Sunshine and we have got some seasons and what the miracle of life. Now the key is what do you do with all this stuff? How do you turn all this stuff that is available here into equity and promise and life style and dreams and future, possibilities, all the list that’s possible I mean how do you take all of this stuff and turn it into this equities and values ? Well, it starts with philosophy. What is the seed? What is the soil? What is the sunshine? What is the rain? Is it possible to take some of each of all the stuff that’s available and turn it into food and turn it into value and turn it into nourishment, turn it into something spectacular, unique that no other life form can do and the answer is yes. But you cannot deal with all this stuff and what to do with it unless you start refining your philosophy. Think use your mind, come up with ideas. And strengthen your philosophy. So the seed and the soil and the rain and the sunshine and this is called you know the economy and the banks and the money and the schools and everything that’s available out there, processing information what to do with all that and turn it into equity and value. That is the major challenge of life; my personal opinion. So each person’s personal philosophy now is going to determine what you are going to do with seed and soil and sunshine and rain the miracle the change of seasons. That is it; my personal opinion. Each person’s personal philosophy is like the set of the sail. That is what the seminar is for today. Help …

In Brief:
Each person’s personal philosophy is going to determine what you are going to do with what's available out there. Each person’s personal philosophy is like the set of the sail.