I want to talk a little bit about goals
on the light of how do you lose 37
pounds and write a book I’m just going
to kind of give you that as an example
for 24 years of my adult life by choice
I weighed well over 200 pounds I say by
choice because you see I have never
accidentally eaten anything I mean it’s
always been deliberate and when I choose
to eat too much today I have chosen to
weigh too much
tomorrow you can choose to set goals and
realize your potential or you can choose
not to set them now if you choose not to
set them you got to understand but the
consequences are not going to be good
down the road for 24 years I was going
to lose that way as a matter of fact in
24 years I lost several thousand pounds
of weight how many of you already know
exactly what I’m talking about
but it was it until I wrote it down put
a date on it list of the obstacles I had
to overcome identified the people the
groups organizations I needed to work
with spelled out a plan of action set
that time limit in there and identified
all of the benefits to me it was only
when I did that that the goal became a
reality and I lost the weight for 10 or
15 years I was going to write a book you
know anybody who’s gonna do just a whole
lot of things folks I was going to write
a book but it wasn’t until I got busy
writing the book and writing the plans
first before the book ever materialized
now they sound like I’m trying to sell
you on heaven goals how many of you are
getting close already how many of you
being coming convinced right quick like
but you need to have those gold there’s
no question about it
being mortal jcpenney many many years
ago said give me a stock clerk with a
goal and I’ll give you a man will make
history but give me a man without a goal
and I’ll give you a stock clerk now the
interesting thing is Gold’s do not care
who has them let me give you a classic
example of the way they work in 1950 a
war-torn devastated Japan
a nation who had lost an incredibly high
percentage of its young men their cities
were in ruins had been bombed out but in
1950 they got together they meaning
industry and government got together and
said ago the goal was we’re gonna be the
number one nation in the world during
the 1950s in the production of textiles
in 1959 ladies and gentlemen they
accomplished that objective in 1960 they
said another Gold we’re going to be the
number one nation in the world in the
production of steel now when you
understand there’s no iron ore in Japan
of any significance there’s no coal of
any significance there we’re gonna be
the number one nation in the world in
the production of steel it seemed like
an absurd goal and yet they reached
their objectives they’ve taken all of
the steps in 1970 the Japanese said
another goal they said you’re in the
seventies
we’ll be the number one nation in the
world in the production of automobiles
they missed it folks one year it took
them until 1980 in 1980 they said
another gold and this time their goal
was we’re going to be the number one
nation in the world of the production of
computers and electronics yes indeed
ladies and gentlemen you absolutely must
have those goes you got to write them
down you got to put a date on it you got
to identify those obstacles you’ve got
to identify the people the groups you
need to work with you got to find out
what it is you need to know you got to
develop a plan of action and you got to
write it down what’s in it for me now
that’s a formula that I have just given
you pure and simple now if I were to ask
you what three times three was there is
that a person here who could not
instantly answer it but if I were to ask
you what is 5,000 128 times 2
165 odds are enormous but very few of
you could pop out the answer that
quickly buddy if I were to say to you
get your pencil and paper out figure it
out then all of you could figure it out
why you know the formula now you see if
you know the formula it really doesn’t
make any difference ladies and gentlemen
what the goal really is when I started
to write the book I took precisely the
same steps that I’m talking about I
wrote down the objective I wrote down
the time I completed or expected to
complete the book identify the obstacles
there and yes I know this is repetitious
it’s the mother of learning I wrote out
and identified the people the groups
organizations I needed to work with I
devised a plan of action to do it I
spelled out what I needed to know and I
wrote it all down what’s in it for me
you see the basic problem is most people
when they’re working on their job they
get to thinking you know I really ought
to be spending time at home with my
family and then when at home with a
family get it fakin you really ought to
be out there working for my family and
so in that they’re working for the
family their mind is back home and when
they’re back home their mind is back out
there in the field and then they tell
everybody well I don’t ever have time to
do anything no wonder you’re always
you see the basic problem is not lack of
time it is lack of direction we all have
exactly the same amount of time whether
we’re a millionaire or a pauper all of
us have 24 hours every single day the
truth is ladies and gentlemen we must
have goals if we’re gonna do anything
goals do a lot of things for example
they enable you to chase the blues away
I’ve never known anybody who was truly
depressed who had specific and
long-range goals and what goals do is
they create activity and you see
activity as you work towards reaching
them creates the very excitement which
you need in order to accomplish our
reach your objectives the psychologist
put it this way logic will not change
and emotion but action will and as you
get busy working towards of these dreams
of yours and yes you absolutely must
have your dreams ladies and gentlemen
and what we’re gonna do is look at the
ways you build a foundation underneath
those dreams several years ago they did
an experiment with a number of college
students and in this particular
experiment they let them go to sleep and
they hook these brain machines up to
them with these brain machines they
could determine precisely within a
matter of sex with the student went to
sleep then they could tell when that
student started to dream and as the
student would start to dream they would
awaken him or her and then they’d let
him go back to sleep and that is no
problem but when they started a dream
they would awaken them again and with
those brainwave machines they can tell
exactly when they start to dream at the
end of one night of this kind of
treatment many of the students were
nervous and fidgety at the end of two
nights of this kind of treatment where
they had a reasonable amount of sleep
but no dreaming they became very
irritable and very short and very cross
at the end of just three nights of
reasonable amount of sleep but no
dreaming they could tell that some of
them were headed for some psychological
difficulties and so what they did was
they aborted the experiment now about 24
hours later most of the students were
back to normal within a week all of them
had returned 100% but the experiment
proves something very conclusively and
that’s this when you’re asleep ladies
and gentlemen you need your dreams I’m
here to tell you that when you’re wide
awake you also need your dreams you must
have your goals you’ll never make it as
a wandering generality you must become a
meaningful specific if you’re going to
work tomorrow because that’s what you
did yesterday you’re not going to be as
good tomorrow as you are yesterday
because now you’re two days older and no
closer to the gold which you do not have
you can’t make it as a wandering
generality most people understand you’ve
got to become a meaningful specific it
reminds me of an experiment done some
little while ago by John Henry Fabray
the great French naturalist he took a
number of processionary caterpillars so
named because they follow each other in
a procession and he land them around a
flower pot until they formed a
never-ending circle and they started
going round and round 24 hours that
first day and then they went the next
day and the next and by the about the
third of the fourth day he put some pine
needles into the center of that flower
pot that’s the food of the processionary
caterpillar they kept going round and
round seven full days and seven full
nights but they went round and round
until they literally drop dead from
starvation and exhaustion with an
abundance of food less than six inches
away they had starved to death because
they confused activity with
accomplishment you’ve got some friends
that are in the same shape they’re busy
busy bee all the time they’re going
going going going and they’re here
they’re there somewhere else but they
never really accomplished anything
because they don’t have those specific
clearly identifiable objectives you
gotta have those goals first real
breakthrough that you have as a team
that started you on your path and how
did you get there are so many other one
of the first ones I think was probably
just anchoring in when I met my mom and
my dad I ported father’s when I was a
powerful woman so she kicked my father
out whose name I carry and he adopted me
and when he went out she decided wasn’t
inside so she kicked me out too by Jason
Hale with a knife and I wasn’t worried
she’s gonna stab me or anything but I
decided this is freedom I’ve got to find
a way to make my life work but I had no
money at a 1960 Volkswagen I worked $40
a week as a janitor to buy and pay for
and so I had no car and no money I don’t
know anything
I went slept in a person’s laundry room
and then I decided I’ve gotta figure out
what to do and I needed to feed my mind
because I was so depressed I was so
overwhelmed I’m missing my brother and
sister and feeling just completely out
of sorts so I I got on a bus and I
traveled 14 miles the members I had were
at one time and I went to his book store
and I bought this book called the magic
of believing my quad head Bristol’s the
first real book other than maybe
thinking grow rich or Emerson’s essays
and I started on this journey of saying
every single day I’m gonna feed my mind
I’m not going to hopefully thoughts show
up I’m gonna read biographies I’m gonna
I’m gonna find out what makes people
tick I’m gonna understand what makes me
tick and I wanted to read a book a day
but I didn’t do that
click to the speed reading class and I
read 700 bucks over seven years and
they’re all personal development human
development psychology physiology and
then what I try to do is take anything
that I learned and apply it and then
when I applied it you know I was 5-1
with my sophomore in high school I’m 6-7
now I talk people differences personal
growth
but sincerely I I became mr. solution
because I wanted to help everybody so I
was this little fat guy and I couldn’t
lose weight and I lost weight all my
buddies are like how’d you do that I
said well here’s what I did they lost
weight man we all got girls and as a
young kid you know that led to where you
know if you have problem I was mr.
solutions specially if your girl has
motivated so the breakthrough was really
understanding the power of compressing
decades in the days then if someone has
spent decades of their life and they
compress it into a book and you can read
it in an hour or a few days you have
such an advantage when you learn by your
own experience it’s painful and it’s
slow when you learn about other people’s
experience everybody knows in the
financial world other people’s money is
left but right what other people’s
experience it’s more powerful in other
people’s mind because you can have the
money and lose it but if you get the
experience you can change it all so I
think that was the beginning for me and
it set me on a lifelong path of hunger
you know I never lost my hunger this
story really covers all of the concepts
all of the ideas in which we believe
that’s the reason we’re going to give
you the story in the detail which we are
when I met Bernie you know we had a
little discussion about what he was
doing in Kansas City and he said I came
down to hear the surgeon and I said yeah
but he cost a lot of money to come this
far he laughed he said with zigge thanks
to my son David I don’t have to worry
about money I said Bernie that sound
like a story why don’t you tell me he
said I’ll be glad to this is the story
he said you know zinc when our son David
was born our joy literally knew no
bounds we already had our two daughters
now we had our son and that was what we
had hoped that we would have when we got
married but he said it wasn’t long
before we noticed that something was
wrong with David his little head hung to
limply to the right side of his body for
it to be a normal situation and he drew
too much and so we went to the doctor
and the family doctor said no problem
he’ll outgrow it but he says you know
Zig we knew that it wasn’t quite that
simple so we took him to a specialist
and the specialist after a very thorough
examination told us that he had
the reverse of clubs feet and he said we
treated him for that for several weeks
and then it dawned on us that this
wasn’t it it was more serious than there
so we found who the top specialist was
in all of Canada and we went to him and
this specialist after a very thorough
examination said to us that David is a
spastic
yes cerebral palsy he’s never going to
be able to walk or talk or count to ten
and I suggest that you put him in an
institution for his own good and for the
good of the quote normal members of the
family but Bernie laughs he looked at me
and he said you know Ziggy I’m not a
buyer I’m a seller
I could not buy the idea that my son was
going to grow up and be a vegetable all
that doctor had really convinced me to
do was to go find a doctor who was not
problem conscious and looked for one who
was solution conscious so we went to
other Dottie’s that as a matter of fact
we went to 30 different doctors and all
30 of them in essence said of the same
thing and that is that there is no hope
for this little boy and then they heard
of a dr. Pearlstein down in Chicago
reputedly the foremost authority in the
world but he was so good that he was
booked for two solid years in advance
now that didn’t particularly bother
Bernie because hope for the first time
had reared its elusive head and Bernie
just figured that somehow another he was
going to get his son in front of dr.
Pearlstein well he found out that dr.
Pearlstein was a bridge player found out
his home number found out that he played
every Friday night with his son he
called him there and they made a deal at
the first cancellation that they had dr.
Pearlstein was going to call Bernie and
they would put David or take him on an
airplane
Emelia to Chicago well just 11 days
later they got the call they loaded
David on the airplane they took him down
there and dr. Pearlstein gave them even
of the most thorough examination I
believe that any child has ever had when
the examiner
was all over he said to Bernie this boy
is a spastic he has cerebral palsy he
will never be able to walk or to talk or
counter to him if you listen to the
prophets of doom but he said I want you
to know that I am not problem conscious
I want you to know that I am solution
conscious and I firmly believe there is
something which can be done for David if
you are willing to do your part well
rather obviously the logic said doctor
what is it you wanted to do spell it out
dr. Pearlstein and his nurses spelled it
out in my new detail he said first of
all you’re gonna have to work this
little boy beyond all human endurance
then you’re gonna have to work him some
more you don’t have to push him until he
literally falls and then you are going
to have to push him some more you’ve got
to understand now that once you start
this process that there is no backing up
or slowing down or staying away from it
this is a lifetime process because if
you ever discontinue this then he will
revert back to where he was before one
last thing don’t let him see any other
victims of cerebral palsy taking therapy
because if he watches them take therapy
he will pick up the awkward inadvertent
movements they make and subconsciously
he will make them a part of his own
movements Bernie and Elaine left Chicago
enormous ly excited because dr.
Pearlstein had given them extra hope he
had added believability to it he had
presented them with a plan to tell you
the truth that’s what we’ve attempted to
do all the way through born to win every
time we make you a promise we give you a
plan of action you see folks motivation
without instruction and education is
ultimately frustrating for me to tell
you you can do something and not to tell
you how is accrual hopes that we have
studiously avoided throughout every time
we’ve said you can do it we’ve always
said here’s the
to do it well they went back to Winnipeg
and they went to work with David they
built a little gymnasium down in the
basement of their home we hired a
physical therapist and a body builder
and they went to work it took him a lot
of much but finally one day David Lyfe
chick could move the length of his own
body it took him several years but then
one day Bernie got a call from the
therapist he said come on home I believe
David is ready and he raced home and
David was down in the gymnasium on a mat
and as he was attempting to do a push-up
and as that little body it started to
rise into the air the physical and
emotional exertion was so great there
was that a dry inch of skin on that
little body and the mat appeared as if
somebody had sprinkled it with water
when that one perfect push-up was
completed David and Bernie and Elaine
and the therapist and the bodybuilder
and the two sisters and the neighbors
all broke down and said those tears
which clearly say that happiness is not
pleasure happiness is victory no you
don’t pay the price you enjoy the
benefits that Diane was so beautifully
singing about now the story is even more
remarkable when you understand that one
of America’s leading universities had
also examined David and they said there
are no motor connections to the
right-hand side of his body he has no
sense of balance he will never be able
to swim or to skate or to ride a bicycle
he just simply will be different it’d
probably take him two years even to
learn how to float on October the 23rd
1971 my wife and I flew to Winnipeg
Canada to attend the bar mitzvah of
quote little David lofty oh I wish the
television cameras had been turned on
then
I wish the movie cameras of the world
had been there to have witnessed what we
saw especially since I’ve been working
with Bernie a couple of times each year
between of that first day back in 1965
and I had watched David as
he grew and as he made all of that
progress but this particular day as this
boy walked tall and straight and strong
to the front of the synagogue as he
uttered those words that moved him into
the manhood of the faith of his
forefathers knowing what I knew at that
particular time but he had already done
as many as eleven hundred push-ups in a
single day that he had runs six miles
non-stop that he was shooting golf in
the high eighties but he was one of the
best table tennis players in all of
Winnipeg Canada that he was skating on
the neighborhood hockey team that he was
running the wheels off his fourth
bicycle oh I tell the story about David
in a lot of the details because you see
I happen to believe that this story
literally covers all of the areas that
we cover in born to win you see to begin
with they dealt with David on a very
honest basis they never said it’s going
to be easy the parents were never told
it’s going to be easy they were told
that you’ve got to stay with it but if
you’ll suck it up and tough it out and
stay with it their results are going to
be dramatic they dealt with the thing
character because you see character is
the ability to carry out a good
resolution long after the excitement of
the moment has passed and there were
many times when the excitement was no
longer there but David stayed with it as
did his parents integrity they dealt
integrity of course means basic
wholeness and they dealt with the entire
person of David logic physical mental
and spiritual the whole bit
as far as loyalists concerned nobody I
mean those two big sisters and the
mother and the dad and the doctors and
the therapists they all were loyal to an
incredible degree as they worked with
David helping him to accomplish his
objectives and rather obviously Trust is
deeply involved there because it takes a
lot of trust for a youngster year after
year after year to be willing to do
these things when his buddies are all
out playing and having a marvelous time
now you talk about love when I think of
the story of David logic I think it’s
one
most beautiful love stories I have ever
heard you see when he was about two
years old every night they had to put
heavy leg braces on his legs now David
is a beautiful boy olive complexion
beautiful green eyes cold black hair and
every night as he would lay there
getting ready to go to bed
he would ask his mom and ask his dad mom
do we have to put the bracelets on the
night or dad do we have to put them on
so tight a new parents obviously will
relate to this here a child is whom you
love deeply and with tears in his eyes
he’s asking do you have to do it but
Bernie and Alain life seek love David so
much that they said no to the tears of
the moment so they could say yes to the
laughter of a lifetime when you love
someone you do what is best for that
person I want to know more about my
clients than anybody that they know
about themselves I know a man that from
Australia decided he’s a dentist
and he decided he was tired of people
not showing up he was tired of trying to
bill and not getting paid you know
properly there’s insurance he was tired
all these things one day he just decided
to sit down with everyone was patients
101 and he said I’m changing my practice
I’m gonna practice where I’m gonna take
a lot less clients and let go probably
have two clients laughs right now I only
want to do business with people who I
personally like who when they come in I
want to sit down have a cup of tea with
them won’t understand what’s going on in
their life what their goals are and I
want to make sure that everything in my
psyche is taken care of him and helping
them augment the way they look the way
they feel and their vitality and the
health of their system and he sat down
and said so to do that I want you to
know I have some simple things I’m
promising I’ll give you the best dental
care of your entire life I’m promising
that if you come in your appointment you
will not be delayed more maximum of five
minutes ever I’m any late on all these
things so you’re the best care that’s
this the most most attention he goes but
this is what I require
patience that work with me I’ll refer
them out someone else that this is
uncomfortable he said I require that
they cancel they’re gonna have to pay
for it I require they show up on time
because I’m gonna respect them they
respect me I’m going to also require
that in the next six months that if I do
the quality work that I promise they’ll
give me two or four also to other
quality people but I’d probably want to
take care of as well and he said I’m
shutting down any other form of my
business and I’m gonna spend more
quality time with you and I want the
referrals because I don’t spend time
with marketing and selling how I spend
time putting my attention and making
your life better
he or Glu pulled his income and cut the
time he spent doing dental work by more
than sixty percent
I mean just because he became an owner
who owned his business instead of
running around trying to please
everybody a big frustrated people are
cancelling and so forth most of us just
don’t own ourselves enough right I’m not
gonna spend much time on work and don’t
look shocked it’s not that I don’t think
it’s tremendously important because it
is we’ve got to accept responsibility
we’ve got to accept the fact that we’ve
got to perform and as I tell the kids
all over America today now is the best
time you’ll ever have in life to get
ahead now is the most opportune time in
America that it has ever been to get
ahead here’s what I say if you show up
for work on time and stay there until
the appointed departure time if you do
what they pay you to do and then they
pay you then nobody owes anybody
anything now if you want to raise get
there a few minutes early ask for extra
things to do be cheerful and positive
and optimistic and helpful don’t goof
off and try to get out of work
deliberately seek the boss to find extra
work and then I will absolutely
guarantee you a raise in short order now
your current employer might not be the
one to give you the raise but somebody
down the streets going to see what
you’re doing and they’re gonna say if
that’s the boy I want working for me
that’s the girl I want working for me
because he or she are doing more than
they’re paid to do that’s the way you
get a raise oh don’t misunderstand you
got to work you you can’t be like this
old boy down home and you’re gonna find
out earlier an awful lot of old boys
down home somebody at least they’re
worth when I was down there somebody
asked him how long you been working for
his accountant and he said ever since
they threatened to fire me
so that’s about the size of a chair but
here’s what we’ve discovered if you got
a good self-image if you have your goals
set in life if you’ve got the right
mental attitude nobody has to tell you
go to work that just follows naturally
so this is what we’re going to work on
and you got to have a desire to succeed
you can’t just casually want the good
things in life it’s got to become a
passion for you your dream has got to be
more than just an idle thoughts you’ve
got to be willing to build a foundation
under it and that’s for sure are we
going to be taking these steps and quite
honestly ladies and gentleman I believe
that these steps are what is necessary
but let me let me identify to you or one
of the major problems in America is one
of the problems as you see we have said
to people all of these things are
available we’ve shown in the big homes
the big cars the swimming pools the jet
set the you know that style of living
that a lot of people say yeah I’d kind
of like that then on the other side of
the ledger we have said everybody not
only can get these things but everybody
deserves these things America is a rich
and affluent land and everybody can get
them then we have another segment of
society that says that crime is caused
by poverty with one segment saying you
deserve these things and you ought to
have them and another segment saying
that crime is caused by poverty we
subliminally subconsciously plan a
thought don’t wait to get it go get it
right now there has never been a
definitive study that establishes any
correlation between crime and poverty
during the Great Depression the crime
rate was much lower in 1939 than it was
in 1930 a thin of a decade of the
roughest depression our country has ever
had so what we’re saying is let’s start
climbing some steps you see we could
draw you an elevator to the top but I’d
have to be honest and say the elevator
doesn’t work you’re gonna have to start
taking these steps and you’re going to
have to take them one at a time but I’ve
discovered that people don’t mind taking
the steps if you tell them whether
show them how many of there are and then
tell them exactly how to climb the steps
but you see you gotta climb the steps
you can’t skip them on September the
15th 1944 in Jackson Mississippi at the
YWCA at exactly 18 minutes after 8
o’clock I saw the participant anding
over by the Nickelodeon now some of you
won’t know what a Nickelodeon is that’s
a jukebox ok what I’d really like to do
is I’d like to go over there and I’d
like to grab her in my arms and I’d like
to start hugging her and kissing her
right now that’s exactly what I wanted
to do but if I had she wouldn’t be
sitting here as my wife of over 30 years
today because I would have skipped too
many steps so I did something real
original I walked up to her and I said
hi and she said hi and the first thing
you know since it was a dance that we
were little YWCA dance and we were
dancing and I got a telephone number
that night and we had a lot of telephone
calls and and then one day I said hey we
ought to be going out and she said ok so
we had a date then we had another one in
another one and then you know it wasn’t
but 2 years and 2 months and 11 days and
one hour later that she became my very
own but we took some steps along the way
I don’t care a bright you are in school
you cannot move from 2 x 2 equals 4 into
analytical geometry you got to take some
steps now the mistake a lot of people
make is they get on one step and sit
there you know that’s not what I’m
talking about either what I’m talking
about is taking these steps and then you
will get these
it was the night it was the night before
we were putting drywall in our house we
were redoing a house and he had put in
all the plastic piping you know and I
was going to test the joints see they’re
supposed to be glued together with this
pipe glue right and I said oh I told him
I had to test the joints and he said
well you don’t have to test my joints
they never leak and I thought yeah
that’s okay how about if I test them so
I went up on the third floor and filled
the pipes with water capping them in the
basement like you’re supposed to it like
half an hour later had two inches of
water in the basement there were thirty
leaking joints that was the night before
the drywallers were supposed to show up
so well so he wasn’t particularly
competent that’s the point of that story
but even more so he had put a bunch of
the plastic pipe outside where the
drywall would be so it would have been
sticking through the wall so I spent a
frenetic night you know sawing through
plastic pipe and reglue enjoins so that
my hope well so that the dryer owners
could come in what’s the point if you’re
gonna be a plumber man be a good plumber
because otherwise all you do is go out
there and cause trouble we don’t need
people to cause more trouble we need
people to solve problems you know and so
you can be a tradesman and you can be
you can make a lot of money as a trades
person it’s a bloody reliable honorable
forthright productive way of making a
living and there is a hell of a lot of
difference between a working man who
knows what he’s doing and one who
doesn’t both in terms of skill and
ethics right and you work with someone
who knows what they’re doing it’s a
bloody pleasure they tell you what
they’re gonna do they tell you how much
it will cost they go and do it it works
and you pay them perfect everyone’s
happy and that’s what happens when you
have genuine hierarchies of competence
and so you till you listen to these
panderers of egalitarian al gely
egalitarianism and equity and they fail
to recognize completely that there are
differences in rank between people it’s
not such a terrible thing man maybe you
wouldn’t be a great lawyer like it’s
certainly possible most people aren’t
but that doesn’t mean there isn’t
something you could be great at there’s
lots of hierarchies to attempt to climb
and if you fail in one go try in another
but the point is you’re still trying to
aim for the top and what the hell are
you gonna do if you don’t try to aim for
the top you know flap about uselessly
and whine
about your life it’s not helpful it’ll
just make you miserable
you’re not reliable to anyone you can’t
help out in a crisis it’s like so you
tell young people and this is another
message for conservatives like I don’t
care what you’re gonna do but go out
there make something of yourself for
God’s sake be an honest person and work
and get to the top of whatever it is
that you want to get to the top of you
know and and and and then stand up for
yourself like a respectable human being
and be a bit of a light on the world
instead of a blight you know and you can
tell young people that and they haven’t
been told that by anyone now and so the
young men are so hungry for that that
it’s it’s painful to watch
they’re so relieved when finalists
someone finally comes up and says hey
you know you should get your act
together a bit discipline yourself see
if you can learn to tell the truth
concentrate on something for a year or
two you could be a bloody world beater
they think really that’s possible wow
that would be that would be interesting
that might make life or life worth
living it’s like yeah it might so why
don’t you go do it that’s what the damn
universities were supposed to be
teaching people they’ve forgotten that I
went to Harvard month ago month and a
half used to teach there and I talked to
a bunch of students you know and I told
them it’s not easy to get into Harvard
you know like you’re a valedictorian if
you’re at Harvard and not only are you a
valedictorian you’re way better than
most people at at least two other things
or you don’t get in and so like it’s I
don’t know what the acceptance rate is
like 5% and believe me not everybody
applies so it’s a very selective school
and so why am I saying now it’s like
these are high quality kids so I told
them what I just told you it’s like here
you are at Harvard like get yourself
educated man read some books learn to
talk learn to think make yourself into
something get the hell out there and
make the world that put you here happy
that you were put there in that great
institution you know and they came up to
me afterwards and said god I wish
someone would have told us that when we
were in our first year it’s like Jesus
why didn’t someone tell the math for
God’s sake it’s supposed to be the
greatest university in the world is it
so difficult to figure that out
my most interesting discovers and I’ve
now written a book on him it won’t be
out for quite a little while yet but how
to develop a creative imagination the
more you know about anything the more
creative you become when you add
additional information to that when I
wrote secrets are flows in the sail
which is the first book and only booked
as a manual on how the processes that
you follow in sales only book in New
York Times first time in that category
that ever reached the bestseller stayed
now what happened was very important
when I read that book when I had 98% of
it written somebody sent me a little
three short three paragraph summation
and what this little three paragraph
said was this is the heart of a sail it
was three short paragraphs I read those
three paragraphs and I added 50 pages to
the book I’d been selling since I was
eight been sales training since I was 21
I knew a lot about sales the new
information revolutionized a whole lot
of things keep on going it helps a whole
lot of people when you talk about
relationships harvard business class in
1949 almost a little over 49% of all of
the graduates study was done on them in
this class of 1949 forty-nine percent of
them were at least vice presidents in
major corporations when asked how do
they accounted for that and CNN did a
telecast on these men he said well
number one our wives were supportive
their careers were built on integrity
they were risk takers but they did not
where they were not gamblers what do we
do in our company how many of the things
that we teach and what do I teach that
are so important to me and as I’m
talking of
now our mission statement includes a big
frying pan to be the difference-maker in
the personal family professional and
spiritual lives of enough people to make
a positive difference in the world
that’s a pretty audacious mission
statement ladies and gentlemen but it’s
got to be built on character
are we being successful in that well
over 40 languages of what I’ve been
teaching have been represented printed
and used we’ve got several several ends
from information bits that really really
have made a difference in the lives of
other people
in short with 40 translations of our
work in different languages we’re
reaching an awful lot of people and we
teach things that are generally not
taught in school is I already have said
but I want to talk about another little
factor 90% of the visits to medical
doctors are directly or indirectly
related to stress 90% if we can reduce
stress and incidentally the same process
that reduces stress is exactly the same
process that will enable you to have a
long-term balanced career my stress
level and I face as many deadlines as
anybody you know it’s always a book
production a class I’m teaching a
seminar I’m presenting and each one of
them requires time and concentration
example how many of you feel like I’ve
made this talk before can I see your
hand please
several hundred times I made it
yesterday you know what I did between
yesterday and today I spent over six
hours getting ready for today you see I
think it would be arrogant if I thought
I could stand up and spit it out just
because I did it yesterday are hundreds
time’s that’s arrogance that’s when
Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson
that’s when an expansion team in Houston
beats an established NFL team in Dallas
I dare not look at the people here
several thousand I’m taking over an hour
that’s several hours of time why would
my integrity be if I came here
unprepared to make something a
presentation that could make a
difference in your life there is no way
you gotta prepare for it ladies and
gentlemen
when stress does hit you how many of you
will admit that after 9/11 maybe you had
a little stress gonna see your hands
please all right let me tell you
something folks if you take their words
stressed and spell it backwards its
desserts when you respond to life
instead of react to it react is negative
you get sick go to the doctor she gives
you a prescription says Sigma tomorrow
you walk in the next day she said oh
it’s not working we got have to change
their prescription you get little
nervous but if she smiles and says hey
it’s working and so you have just she’s
just responded and you feel better
because now you see some real hope in order to get ahead in life
on the light of how do you lose 37
pounds and write a book I’m just going
to kind of give you that as an example
for 24 years of my adult life by choice
I weighed well over 200 pounds I say by
choice because you see I have never
accidentally eaten anything I mean it’s
always been deliberate and when I choose
to eat too much today I have chosen to
weigh too much
tomorrow you can choose to set goals and
realize your potential or you can choose
not to set them now if you choose not to
set them you got to understand but the
consequences are not going to be good
down the road for 24 years I was going
to lose that way as a matter of fact in
24 years I lost several thousand pounds
of weight how many of you already know
exactly what I’m talking about
but it was it until I wrote it down put
a date on it list of the obstacles I had
to overcome identified the people the
groups organizations I needed to work
with spelled out a plan of action set
that time limit in there and identified
all of the benefits to me it was only
when I did that that the goal became a
reality and I lost the weight for 10 or
15 years I was going to write a book you
know anybody who’s gonna do just a whole
lot of things folks I was going to write
a book but it wasn’t until I got busy
writing the book and writing the plans
first before the book ever materialized
now they sound like I’m trying to sell
you on heaven goals how many of you are
getting close already how many of you
being coming convinced right quick like
but you need to have those gold there’s
no question about it
being mortal jcpenney many many years
ago said give me a stock clerk with a
goal and I’ll give you a man will make
history but give me a man without a goal
and I’ll give you a stock clerk now the
interesting thing is Gold’s do not care
who has them let me give you a classic
example of the way they work in 1950 a
war-torn devastated Japan
a nation who had lost an incredibly high
percentage of its young men their cities
were in ruins had been bombed out but in
1950 they got together they meaning
industry and government got together and
said ago the goal was we’re gonna be the
number one nation in the world during
the 1950s in the production of textiles
in 1959 ladies and gentlemen they
accomplished that objective in 1960 they
said another Gold we’re going to be the
number one nation in the world in the
production of steel now when you
understand there’s no iron ore in Japan
of any significance there’s no coal of
any significance there we’re gonna be
the number one nation in the world in
the production of steel it seemed like
an absurd goal and yet they reached
their objectives they’ve taken all of
the steps in 1970 the Japanese said
another goal they said you’re in the
seventies
we’ll be the number one nation in the
world in the production of automobiles
they missed it folks one year it took
them until 1980 in 1980 they said
another gold and this time their goal
was we’re going to be the number one
nation in the world of the production of
computers and electronics yes indeed
ladies and gentlemen you absolutely must
have those goes you got to write them
down you got to put a date on it you got
to identify those obstacles you’ve got
to identify the people the groups you
need to work with you got to find out
what it is you need to know you got to
develop a plan of action and you got to
write it down what’s in it for me now
that’s a formula that I have just given
you pure and simple now if I were to ask
you what three times three was there is
that a person here who could not
instantly answer it but if I were to ask
you what is 5,000 128 times 2
165 odds are enormous but very few of
you could pop out the answer that
quickly buddy if I were to say to you
get your pencil and paper out figure it
out then all of you could figure it out
why you know the formula now you see if
you know the formula it really doesn’t
make any difference ladies and gentlemen
what the goal really is when I started
to write the book I took precisely the
same steps that I’m talking about I
wrote down the objective I wrote down
the time I completed or expected to
complete the book identify the obstacles
there and yes I know this is repetitious
it’s the mother of learning I wrote out
and identified the people the groups
organizations I needed to work with I
devised a plan of action to do it I
spelled out what I needed to know and I
wrote it all down what’s in it for me
you see the basic problem is most people
when they’re working on their job they
get to thinking you know I really ought
to be spending time at home with my
family and then when at home with a
family get it fakin you really ought to
be out there working for my family and
so in that they’re working for the
family their mind is back home and when
they’re back home their mind is back out
there in the field and then they tell
everybody well I don’t ever have time to
do anything no wonder you’re always
you see the basic problem is not lack of
time it is lack of direction we all have
exactly the same amount of time whether
we’re a millionaire or a pauper all of
us have 24 hours every single day the
truth is ladies and gentlemen we must
have goals if we’re gonna do anything
goals do a lot of things for example
they enable you to chase the blues away
I’ve never known anybody who was truly
depressed who had specific and
long-range goals and what goals do is
they create activity and you see
activity as you work towards reaching
them creates the very excitement which
you need in order to accomplish our
reach your objectives the psychologist
put it this way logic will not change
and emotion but action will and as you
get busy working towards of these dreams
of yours and yes you absolutely must
have your dreams ladies and gentlemen
and what we’re gonna do is look at the
ways you build a foundation underneath
those dreams several years ago they did
an experiment with a number of college
students and in this particular
experiment they let them go to sleep and
they hook these brain machines up to
them with these brain machines they
could determine precisely within a
matter of sex with the student went to
sleep then they could tell when that
student started to dream and as the
student would start to dream they would
awaken him or her and then they’d let
him go back to sleep and that is no
problem but when they started a dream
they would awaken them again and with
those brainwave machines they can tell
exactly when they start to dream at the
end of one night of this kind of
treatment many of the students were
nervous and fidgety at the end of two
nights of this kind of treatment where
they had a reasonable amount of sleep
but no dreaming they became very
irritable and very short and very cross
at the end of just three nights of
reasonable amount of sleep but no
dreaming they could tell that some of
them were headed for some psychological
difficulties and so what they did was
they aborted the experiment now about 24
hours later most of the students were
back to normal within a week all of them
had returned 100% but the experiment
proves something very conclusively and
that’s this when you’re asleep ladies
and gentlemen you need your dreams I’m
here to tell you that when you’re wide
awake you also need your dreams you must
have your goals you’ll never make it as
a wandering generality you must become a
meaningful specific if you’re going to
work tomorrow because that’s what you
did yesterday you’re not going to be as
good tomorrow as you are yesterday
because now you’re two days older and no
closer to the gold which you do not have
you can’t make it as a wandering
generality most people understand you’ve
got to become a meaningful specific it
reminds me of an experiment done some
little while ago by John Henry Fabray
the great French naturalist he took a
number of processionary caterpillars so
named because they follow each other in
a procession and he land them around a
flower pot until they formed a
never-ending circle and they started
going round and round 24 hours that
first day and then they went the next
day and the next and by the about the
third of the fourth day he put some pine
needles into the center of that flower
pot that’s the food of the processionary
caterpillar they kept going round and
round seven full days and seven full
nights but they went round and round
until they literally drop dead from
starvation and exhaustion with an
abundance of food less than six inches
away they had starved to death because
they confused activity with
accomplishment you’ve got some friends
that are in the same shape they’re busy
busy bee all the time they’re going
going going going and they’re here
they’re there somewhere else but they
never really accomplished anything
because they don’t have those specific
clearly identifiable objectives you
gotta have those goals first real
breakthrough that you have as a team
that started you on your path and how
did you get there are so many other one
of the first ones I think was probably
just anchoring in when I met my mom and
my dad I ported father’s when I was a
powerful woman so she kicked my father
out whose name I carry and he adopted me
and when he went out she decided wasn’t
inside so she kicked me out too by Jason
Hale with a knife and I wasn’t worried
she’s gonna stab me or anything but I
decided this is freedom I’ve got to find
a way to make my life work but I had no
money at a 1960 Volkswagen I worked $40
a week as a janitor to buy and pay for
and so I had no car and no money I don’t
know anything
I went slept in a person’s laundry room
and then I decided I’ve gotta figure out
what to do and I needed to feed my mind
because I was so depressed I was so
overwhelmed I’m missing my brother and
sister and feeling just completely out
of sorts so I I got on a bus and I
traveled 14 miles the members I had were
at one time and I went to his book store
and I bought this book called the magic
of believing my quad head Bristol’s the
first real book other than maybe
thinking grow rich or Emerson’s essays
and I started on this journey of saying
every single day I’m gonna feed my mind
I’m not going to hopefully thoughts show
up I’m gonna read biographies I’m gonna
I’m gonna find out what makes people
tick I’m gonna understand what makes me
tick and I wanted to read a book a day
but I didn’t do that
click to the speed reading class and I
read 700 bucks over seven years and
they’re all personal development human
development psychology physiology and
then what I try to do is take anything
that I learned and apply it and then
when I applied it you know I was 5-1
with my sophomore in high school I’m 6-7
now I talk people differences personal
growth
but sincerely I I became mr. solution
because I wanted to help everybody so I
was this little fat guy and I couldn’t
lose weight and I lost weight all my
buddies are like how’d you do that I
said well here’s what I did they lost
weight man we all got girls and as a
young kid you know that led to where you
know if you have problem I was mr.
solutions specially if your girl has
motivated so the breakthrough was really
understanding the power of compressing
decades in the days then if someone has
spent decades of their life and they
compress it into a book and you can read
it in an hour or a few days you have
such an advantage when you learn by your
own experience it’s painful and it’s
slow when you learn about other people’s
experience everybody knows in the
financial world other people’s money is
left but right what other people’s
experience it’s more powerful in other
people’s mind because you can have the
money and lose it but if you get the
experience you can change it all so I
think that was the beginning for me and
it set me on a lifelong path of hunger
you know I never lost my hunger this
story really covers all of the concepts
all of the ideas in which we believe
that’s the reason we’re going to give
you the story in the detail which we are
when I met Bernie you know we had a
little discussion about what he was
doing in Kansas City and he said I came
down to hear the surgeon and I said yeah
but he cost a lot of money to come this
far he laughed he said with zigge thanks
to my son David I don’t have to worry
about money I said Bernie that sound
like a story why don’t you tell me he
said I’ll be glad to this is the story
he said you know zinc when our son David
was born our joy literally knew no
bounds we already had our two daughters
now we had our son and that was what we
had hoped that we would have when we got
married but he said it wasn’t long
before we noticed that something was
wrong with David his little head hung to
limply to the right side of his body for
it to be a normal situation and he drew
too much and so we went to the doctor
and the family doctor said no problem
he’ll outgrow it but he says you know
Zig we knew that it wasn’t quite that
simple so we took him to a specialist
and the specialist after a very thorough
examination told us that he had
the reverse of clubs feet and he said we
treated him for that for several weeks
and then it dawned on us that this
wasn’t it it was more serious than there
so we found who the top specialist was
in all of Canada and we went to him and
this specialist after a very thorough
examination said to us that David is a
spastic
yes cerebral palsy he’s never going to
be able to walk or talk or count to ten
and I suggest that you put him in an
institution for his own good and for the
good of the quote normal members of the
family but Bernie laughs he looked at me
and he said you know Ziggy I’m not a
buyer I’m a seller
I could not buy the idea that my son was
going to grow up and be a vegetable all
that doctor had really convinced me to
do was to go find a doctor who was not
problem conscious and looked for one who
was solution conscious so we went to
other Dottie’s that as a matter of fact
we went to 30 different doctors and all
30 of them in essence said of the same
thing and that is that there is no hope
for this little boy and then they heard
of a dr. Pearlstein down in Chicago
reputedly the foremost authority in the
world but he was so good that he was
booked for two solid years in advance
now that didn’t particularly bother
Bernie because hope for the first time
had reared its elusive head and Bernie
just figured that somehow another he was
going to get his son in front of dr.
Pearlstein well he found out that dr.
Pearlstein was a bridge player found out
his home number found out that he played
every Friday night with his son he
called him there and they made a deal at
the first cancellation that they had dr.
Pearlstein was going to call Bernie and
they would put David or take him on an
airplane
Emelia to Chicago well just 11 days
later they got the call they loaded
David on the airplane they took him down
there and dr. Pearlstein gave them even
of the most thorough examination I
believe that any child has ever had when
the examiner
was all over he said to Bernie this boy
is a spastic he has cerebral palsy he
will never be able to walk or to talk or
counter to him if you listen to the
prophets of doom but he said I want you
to know that I am not problem conscious
I want you to know that I am solution
conscious and I firmly believe there is
something which can be done for David if
you are willing to do your part well
rather obviously the logic said doctor
what is it you wanted to do spell it out
dr. Pearlstein and his nurses spelled it
out in my new detail he said first of
all you’re gonna have to work this
little boy beyond all human endurance
then you’re gonna have to work him some
more you don’t have to push him until he
literally falls and then you are going
to have to push him some more you’ve got
to understand now that once you start
this process that there is no backing up
or slowing down or staying away from it
this is a lifetime process because if
you ever discontinue this then he will
revert back to where he was before one
last thing don’t let him see any other
victims of cerebral palsy taking therapy
because if he watches them take therapy
he will pick up the awkward inadvertent
movements they make and subconsciously
he will make them a part of his own
movements Bernie and Elaine left Chicago
enormous ly excited because dr.
Pearlstein had given them extra hope he
had added believability to it he had
presented them with a plan to tell you
the truth that’s what we’ve attempted to
do all the way through born to win every
time we make you a promise we give you a
plan of action you see folks motivation
without instruction and education is
ultimately frustrating for me to tell
you you can do something and not to tell
you how is accrual hopes that we have
studiously avoided throughout every time
we’ve said you can do it we’ve always
said here’s the
to do it well they went back to Winnipeg
and they went to work with David they
built a little gymnasium down in the
basement of their home we hired a
physical therapist and a body builder
and they went to work it took him a lot
of much but finally one day David Lyfe
chick could move the length of his own
body it took him several years but then
one day Bernie got a call from the
therapist he said come on home I believe
David is ready and he raced home and
David was down in the gymnasium on a mat
and as he was attempting to do a push-up
and as that little body it started to
rise into the air the physical and
emotional exertion was so great there
was that a dry inch of skin on that
little body and the mat appeared as if
somebody had sprinkled it with water
when that one perfect push-up was
completed David and Bernie and Elaine
and the therapist and the bodybuilder
and the two sisters and the neighbors
all broke down and said those tears
which clearly say that happiness is not
pleasure happiness is victory no you
don’t pay the price you enjoy the
benefits that Diane was so beautifully
singing about now the story is even more
remarkable when you understand that one
of America’s leading universities had
also examined David and they said there
are no motor connections to the
right-hand side of his body he has no
sense of balance he will never be able
to swim or to skate or to ride a bicycle
he just simply will be different it’d
probably take him two years even to
learn how to float on October the 23rd
1971 my wife and I flew to Winnipeg
Canada to attend the bar mitzvah of
quote little David lofty oh I wish the
television cameras had been turned on
then
I wish the movie cameras of the world
had been there to have witnessed what we
saw especially since I’ve been working
with Bernie a couple of times each year
between of that first day back in 1965
and I had watched David as
he grew and as he made all of that
progress but this particular day as this
boy walked tall and straight and strong
to the front of the synagogue as he
uttered those words that moved him into
the manhood of the faith of his
forefathers knowing what I knew at that
particular time but he had already done
as many as eleven hundred push-ups in a
single day that he had runs six miles
non-stop that he was shooting golf in
the high eighties but he was one of the
best table tennis players in all of
Winnipeg Canada that he was skating on
the neighborhood hockey team that he was
running the wheels off his fourth
bicycle oh I tell the story about David
in a lot of the details because you see
I happen to believe that this story
literally covers all of the areas that
we cover in born to win you see to begin
with they dealt with David on a very
honest basis they never said it’s going
to be easy the parents were never told
it’s going to be easy they were told
that you’ve got to stay with it but if
you’ll suck it up and tough it out and
stay with it their results are going to
be dramatic they dealt with the thing
character because you see character is
the ability to carry out a good
resolution long after the excitement of
the moment has passed and there were
many times when the excitement was no
longer there but David stayed with it as
did his parents integrity they dealt
integrity of course means basic
wholeness and they dealt with the entire
person of David logic physical mental
and spiritual the whole bit
as far as loyalists concerned nobody I
mean those two big sisters and the
mother and the dad and the doctors and
the therapists they all were loyal to an
incredible degree as they worked with
David helping him to accomplish his
objectives and rather obviously Trust is
deeply involved there because it takes a
lot of trust for a youngster year after
year after year to be willing to do
these things when his buddies are all
out playing and having a marvelous time
now you talk about love when I think of
the story of David logic I think it’s
one
most beautiful love stories I have ever
heard you see when he was about two
years old every night they had to put
heavy leg braces on his legs now David
is a beautiful boy olive complexion
beautiful green eyes cold black hair and
every night as he would lay there
getting ready to go to bed
he would ask his mom and ask his dad mom
do we have to put the bracelets on the
night or dad do we have to put them on
so tight a new parents obviously will
relate to this here a child is whom you
love deeply and with tears in his eyes
he’s asking do you have to do it but
Bernie and Alain life seek love David so
much that they said no to the tears of
the moment so they could say yes to the
laughter of a lifetime when you love
someone you do what is best for that
person I want to know more about my
clients than anybody that they know
about themselves I know a man that from
Australia decided he’s a dentist
and he decided he was tired of people
not showing up he was tired of trying to
bill and not getting paid you know
properly there’s insurance he was tired
all these things one day he just decided
to sit down with everyone was patients
101 and he said I’m changing my practice
I’m gonna practice where I’m gonna take
a lot less clients and let go probably
have two clients laughs right now I only
want to do business with people who I
personally like who when they come in I
want to sit down have a cup of tea with
them won’t understand what’s going on in
their life what their goals are and I
want to make sure that everything in my
psyche is taken care of him and helping
them augment the way they look the way
they feel and their vitality and the
health of their system and he sat down
and said so to do that I want you to
know I have some simple things I’m
promising I’ll give you the best dental
care of your entire life I’m promising
that if you come in your appointment you
will not be delayed more maximum of five
minutes ever I’m any late on all these
things so you’re the best care that’s
this the most most attention he goes but
this is what I require
patience that work with me I’ll refer
them out someone else that this is
uncomfortable he said I require that
they cancel they’re gonna have to pay
for it I require they show up on time
because I’m gonna respect them they
respect me I’m going to also require
that in the next six months that if I do
the quality work that I promise they’ll
give me two or four also to other
quality people but I’d probably want to
take care of as well and he said I’m
shutting down any other form of my
business and I’m gonna spend more
quality time with you and I want the
referrals because I don’t spend time
with marketing and selling how I spend
time putting my attention and making
your life better
he or Glu pulled his income and cut the
time he spent doing dental work by more
than sixty percent
I mean just because he became an owner
who owned his business instead of
running around trying to please
everybody a big frustrated people are
cancelling and so forth most of us just
don’t own ourselves enough right I’m not
gonna spend much time on work and don’t
look shocked it’s not that I don’t think
it’s tremendously important because it
is we’ve got to accept responsibility
we’ve got to accept the fact that we’ve
got to perform and as I tell the kids
all over America today now is the best
time you’ll ever have in life to get
ahead now is the most opportune time in
America that it has ever been to get
ahead here’s what I say if you show up
for work on time and stay there until
the appointed departure time if you do
what they pay you to do and then they
pay you then nobody owes anybody
anything now if you want to raise get
there a few minutes early ask for extra
things to do be cheerful and positive
and optimistic and helpful don’t goof
off and try to get out of work
deliberately seek the boss to find extra
work and then I will absolutely
guarantee you a raise in short order now
your current employer might not be the
one to give you the raise but somebody
down the streets going to see what
you’re doing and they’re gonna say if
that’s the boy I want working for me
that’s the girl I want working for me
because he or she are doing more than
they’re paid to do that’s the way you
get a raise oh don’t misunderstand you
got to work you you can’t be like this
old boy down home and you’re gonna find
out earlier an awful lot of old boys
down home somebody at least they’re
worth when I was down there somebody
asked him how long you been working for
his accountant and he said ever since
they threatened to fire me
so that’s about the size of a chair but
here’s what we’ve discovered if you got
a good self-image if you have your goals
set in life if you’ve got the right
mental attitude nobody has to tell you
go to work that just follows naturally
so this is what we’re going to work on
and you got to have a desire to succeed
you can’t just casually want the good
things in life it’s got to become a
passion for you your dream has got to be
more than just an idle thoughts you’ve
got to be willing to build a foundation
under it and that’s for sure are we
going to be taking these steps and quite
honestly ladies and gentleman I believe
that these steps are what is necessary
but let me let me identify to you or one
of the major problems in America is one
of the problems as you see we have said
to people all of these things are
available we’ve shown in the big homes
the big cars the swimming pools the jet
set the you know that style of living
that a lot of people say yeah I’d kind
of like that then on the other side of
the ledger we have said everybody not
only can get these things but everybody
deserves these things America is a rich
and affluent land and everybody can get
them then we have another segment of
society that says that crime is caused
by poverty with one segment saying you
deserve these things and you ought to
have them and another segment saying
that crime is caused by poverty we
subliminally subconsciously plan a
thought don’t wait to get it go get it
right now there has never been a
definitive study that establishes any
correlation between crime and poverty
during the Great Depression the crime
rate was much lower in 1939 than it was
in 1930 a thin of a decade of the
roughest depression our country has ever
had so what we’re saying is let’s start
climbing some steps you see we could
draw you an elevator to the top but I’d
have to be honest and say the elevator
doesn’t work you’re gonna have to start
taking these steps and you’re going to
have to take them one at a time but I’ve
discovered that people don’t mind taking
the steps if you tell them whether
show them how many of there are and then
tell them exactly how to climb the steps
but you see you gotta climb the steps
you can’t skip them on September the
15th 1944 in Jackson Mississippi at the
YWCA at exactly 18 minutes after 8
o’clock I saw the participant anding
over by the Nickelodeon now some of you
won’t know what a Nickelodeon is that’s
a jukebox ok what I’d really like to do
is I’d like to go over there and I’d
like to grab her in my arms and I’d like
to start hugging her and kissing her
right now that’s exactly what I wanted
to do but if I had she wouldn’t be
sitting here as my wife of over 30 years
today because I would have skipped too
many steps so I did something real
original I walked up to her and I said
hi and she said hi and the first thing
you know since it was a dance that we
were little YWCA dance and we were
dancing and I got a telephone number
that night and we had a lot of telephone
calls and and then one day I said hey we
ought to be going out and she said ok so
we had a date then we had another one in
another one and then you know it wasn’t
but 2 years and 2 months and 11 days and
one hour later that she became my very
own but we took some steps along the way
I don’t care a bright you are in school
you cannot move from 2 x 2 equals 4 into
analytical geometry you got to take some
steps now the mistake a lot of people
make is they get on one step and sit
there you know that’s not what I’m
talking about either what I’m talking
about is taking these steps and then you
will get these
it was the night it was the night before
we were putting drywall in our house we
were redoing a house and he had put in
all the plastic piping you know and I
was going to test the joints see they’re
supposed to be glued together with this
pipe glue right and I said oh I told him
I had to test the joints and he said
well you don’t have to test my joints
they never leak and I thought yeah
that’s okay how about if I test them so
I went up on the third floor and filled
the pipes with water capping them in the
basement like you’re supposed to it like
half an hour later had two inches of
water in the basement there were thirty
leaking joints that was the night before
the drywallers were supposed to show up
so well so he wasn’t particularly
competent that’s the point of that story
but even more so he had put a bunch of
the plastic pipe outside where the
drywall would be so it would have been
sticking through the wall so I spent a
frenetic night you know sawing through
plastic pipe and reglue enjoins so that
my hope well so that the dryer owners
could come in what’s the point if you’re
gonna be a plumber man be a good plumber
because otherwise all you do is go out
there and cause trouble we don’t need
people to cause more trouble we need
people to solve problems you know and so
you can be a tradesman and you can be
you can make a lot of money as a trades
person it’s a bloody reliable honorable
forthright productive way of making a
living and there is a hell of a lot of
difference between a working man who
knows what he’s doing and one who
doesn’t both in terms of skill and
ethics right and you work with someone
who knows what they’re doing it’s a
bloody pleasure they tell you what
they’re gonna do they tell you how much
it will cost they go and do it it works
and you pay them perfect everyone’s
happy and that’s what happens when you
have genuine hierarchies of competence
and so you till you listen to these
panderers of egalitarian al gely
egalitarianism and equity and they fail
to recognize completely that there are
differences in rank between people it’s
not such a terrible thing man maybe you
wouldn’t be a great lawyer like it’s
certainly possible most people aren’t
but that doesn’t mean there isn’t
something you could be great at there’s
lots of hierarchies to attempt to climb
and if you fail in one go try in another
but the point is you’re still trying to
aim for the top and what the hell are
you gonna do if you don’t try to aim for
the top you know flap about uselessly
and whine
about your life it’s not helpful it’ll
just make you miserable
you’re not reliable to anyone you can’t
help out in a crisis it’s like so you
tell young people and this is another
message for conservatives like I don’t
care what you’re gonna do but go out
there make something of yourself for
God’s sake be an honest person and work
and get to the top of whatever it is
that you want to get to the top of you
know and and and and then stand up for
yourself like a respectable human being
and be a bit of a light on the world
instead of a blight you know and you can
tell young people that and they haven’t
been told that by anyone now and so the
young men are so hungry for that that
it’s it’s painful to watch
they’re so relieved when finalists
someone finally comes up and says hey
you know you should get your act
together a bit discipline yourself see
if you can learn to tell the truth
concentrate on something for a year or
two you could be a bloody world beater
they think really that’s possible wow
that would be that would be interesting
that might make life or life worth
living it’s like yeah it might so why
don’t you go do it that’s what the damn
universities were supposed to be
teaching people they’ve forgotten that I
went to Harvard month ago month and a
half used to teach there and I talked to
a bunch of students you know and I told
them it’s not easy to get into Harvard
you know like you’re a valedictorian if
you’re at Harvard and not only are you a
valedictorian you’re way better than
most people at at least two other things
or you don’t get in and so like it’s I
don’t know what the acceptance rate is
like 5% and believe me not everybody
applies so it’s a very selective school
and so why am I saying now it’s like
these are high quality kids so I told
them what I just told you it’s like here
you are at Harvard like get yourself
educated man read some books learn to
talk learn to think make yourself into
something get the hell out there and
make the world that put you here happy
that you were put there in that great
institution you know and they came up to
me afterwards and said god I wish
someone would have told us that when we
were in our first year it’s like Jesus
why didn’t someone tell the math for
God’s sake it’s supposed to be the
greatest university in the world is it
so difficult to figure that out
my most interesting discovers and I’ve
now written a book on him it won’t be
out for quite a little while yet but how
to develop a creative imagination the
more you know about anything the more
creative you become when you add
additional information to that when I
wrote secrets are flows in the sail
which is the first book and only booked
as a manual on how the processes that
you follow in sales only book in New
York Times first time in that category
that ever reached the bestseller stayed
now what happened was very important
when I read that book when I had 98% of
it written somebody sent me a little
three short three paragraph summation
and what this little three paragraph
said was this is the heart of a sail it
was three short paragraphs I read those
three paragraphs and I added 50 pages to
the book I’d been selling since I was
eight been sales training since I was 21
I knew a lot about sales the new
information revolutionized a whole lot
of things keep on going it helps a whole
lot of people when you talk about
relationships harvard business class in
1949 almost a little over 49% of all of
the graduates study was done on them in
this class of 1949 forty-nine percent of
them were at least vice presidents in
major corporations when asked how do
they accounted for that and CNN did a
telecast on these men he said well
number one our wives were supportive
their careers were built on integrity
they were risk takers but they did not
where they were not gamblers what do we
do in our company how many of the things
that we teach and what do I teach that
are so important to me and as I’m
talking of
now our mission statement includes a big
frying pan to be the difference-maker in
the personal family professional and
spiritual lives of enough people to make
a positive difference in the world
that’s a pretty audacious mission
statement ladies and gentlemen but it’s
got to be built on character
are we being successful in that well
over 40 languages of what I’ve been
teaching have been represented printed
and used we’ve got several several ends
from information bits that really really
have made a difference in the lives of
other people
in short with 40 translations of our
work in different languages we’re
reaching an awful lot of people and we
teach things that are generally not
taught in school is I already have said
but I want to talk about another little
factor 90% of the visits to medical
doctors are directly or indirectly
related to stress 90% if we can reduce
stress and incidentally the same process
that reduces stress is exactly the same
process that will enable you to have a
long-term balanced career my stress
level and I face as many deadlines as
anybody you know it’s always a book
production a class I’m teaching a
seminar I’m presenting and each one of
them requires time and concentration
example how many of you feel like I’ve
made this talk before can I see your
hand please
several hundred times I made it
yesterday you know what I did between
yesterday and today I spent over six
hours getting ready for today you see I
think it would be arrogant if I thought
I could stand up and spit it out just
because I did it yesterday are hundreds
time’s that’s arrogance that’s when
Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson
that’s when an expansion team in Houston
beats an established NFL team in Dallas
I dare not look at the people here
several thousand I’m taking over an hour
that’s several hours of time why would
my integrity be if I came here
unprepared to make something a
presentation that could make a
difference in your life there is no way
you gotta prepare for it ladies and
gentlemen
when stress does hit you how many of you
will admit that after 9/11 maybe you had
a little stress gonna see your hands
please all right let me tell you
something folks if you take their words
stressed and spell it backwards its
desserts when you respond to life
instead of react to it react is negative
you get sick go to the doctor she gives
you a prescription says Sigma tomorrow
you walk in the next day she said oh
it’s not working we got have to change
their prescription you get little
nervous but if she smiles and says hey
it’s working and so you have just she’s
just responded and you feel better
because now you see some real hope in order to get ahead in life
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