Jim Rohn is happy and healthy!
Strategy 1. Unleash the Power of Goals
Chapter 2 Objectives: What Motivates People?
“Be kind and merciful.
Let no one ever come to you
without coming away better and happier.” – Mother Teresa
One morning,
two weeks after
I started working for Shoaff,
he and I were having breakfast together.
Just as I was almost done with my eggs,
he said,
“Jim, let’s go over your list of goals and discuss them.
Maybe that’s the best way
for me to help you right now.”
I replied, “But I don’t have this list with me.”
“Yeah, so are you leaving it in the car
or somewhere at home?”
“No sir, I don’t have this list anywhere.”
Shoaff sighed.
“Yes, young man, this seems
to be the point where we should start.”
Then, looking me straight in the eye,
he said, “If you don’t have your target list,
I’m guessing your bank account is only a few hundred dollars.
” He guessed right.
That really caught my attention.
I feel amazed. I asked,
“What do you mean
if I had my list of goals my bank account would change?”
He replied, “A lot has changed.”
That was the day I became a student of the art
and science of goal setting.
Of all the things I’ve learned since then,
goal setting has had the most profound effect on my life.
Every aspect of my life
– achievements,
income,
bank accounts, lifestyle,
even personality
– has changed for the better.
I truly believe that mastering goal setting will also have
a profound effect on your life,
and I’d be happy to devote my energy
to discussing this often misunderstood way.
In fact, I hope you’ll do more than just read the next chapters.
Study them.
And if you have a notebook with you,
even better.
“The best way to get what you want is
to help other people get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar
**************
The power of dreams
Each of us is influenced by several factors
such as the environment we live in
(where we live,
the schools we attend,
our parents and friends);
life events;
knowledge
or lack of knowledge;
the results we get from our own efforts;
our ability to dream…
Of all these factors,
however,
none has as much potential power to do good
as our ability to dream.
Dreams are specific visions of the life we want to lead.
So when we allow our dreams to “pull” us,
they unleash a creative force that can overcome any obstacles
that prevent us from achieving our goals.
However, to harness this power,
dreams must be well defined.
The future is dim,
the traction will be weak.
To really achieve your dreams,
for your future plans to really pull you along,
your dreams have to be really strong.
You now have two ways to face the future:
By planning ahead
or by worrying.
Guess how many people face the future with anxiety?
The correct answer is most.
You’ve seen that kind of person
– always worried,
worried and worried.
Why are these people always so worried?
Because they didn’t take the time to design their future.
In many cases,
they live their lives trying
to get other people’s approval.
In the process,
they end up “clinging”
to other people’s views on how to live a life.
There’s nothing surprising about them being nervous
– always looking around
and expecting approval for everything they do.
In contrast,
those who faced the future with foresight planned
for a future worth being excited about.
They can “see” this future with their intellectual eyes,
and it looks magical.
The future captures their imagination
and it exerts a tremendous traction with them.
“If you work just for money,
you’ll never make it,
but if you love what you’re doing
and you always put the customer first,
success will be yours.” – Ray Kroc
******************
The strength of the target is clearly defined
Dreams are great,
but that’s not enough.
Having a brilliant picture of desired outcomes is not enough.
In order to build a great project,
it is necessary to have a detailed design step
by step on how to pour the foundation,
load-bearing structure…
Therefore, we need goals.
Similar to a well-defined dream,
well-defined goals act like blocks of magnets.
They draw you in their direction.
The better you define them,
the better you describe them,
the harder you work to achieve these goals
or in other words,
the stronger they attract.
When life’s “voles” threaten
to stop you on your way to success,
you need a strong magnet
to pull you forward.
To understand the importance of goals,
observe people
who do not have any goals.
There are many people like that in society.
Instead of designing their own lives,
these misguided people simply make a living.
They have to fight every day
for a living in the fierce economic battlefield,
choosing to survive
for the sake of material things.
It’s not surprising that Thoreau said,
“Most people live lives of quiet despair.”
Reason
Shoaff told me: “Jim, I think the account
Your current bank isn’t a true representation of your intelligence.”
(Oh, man, how happy I was to hear that!)
He continued:
“I think you have a lot of talent
and you are much smarter than you think.”
And that turned out to be true;
I was smarter than I thought at the time.
I asked, “Then why not more in my bank account?”
“Because you don’t have enough reason to get there,”
my friend replied.
And then he added:
“If you had enough motivation,
you could have done incredible things;
You’re smart enough,
but you don’t have enough reasons.”
One important idea, indeed:
There should be enough reasons.
From there I discovered this:
Reason comes first,
the answer comes second.
It seems that life has an unusually mysterious ability
to disguise its answers
so that they become evident only to those who are inspired enough
to seek them out
– those who have a reason to seek them.
Let’s look at the problem in a different way.
When you know what you want
and want it strong enough,
you’ll find a way to get it.
The answers,
methods and solutions
that you need to solve your problems will open up
to you on this path of search.
Hey, what if you had to get rich?
What if the lives of those you love depended on your ability
to pay for the best medical care?
Let’s push the hypothesis further
that you’ve just learned about a book
or tape that will show you how to become rich.
Do you buy? Of course you will buy.
Since you are reading a book on success,
you will know that there are many good books
and tapes on the topic of getting rich.
But if you weren’t forced to become rich,
you probably wouldn’t read books
or waste time listening to tapes.
There is an old saying:
“Necessity is the mother of invention”.
True! Keep that in mind to always start
with your reasons and then the answers.
“Successful salespeople know
how to make things happen.” – Aysa Angel
************
Four magical motives
Answer the question:
“What motivates me?”
Everyone is motivated by different motivations.
We all have our own “hot spots”.
And if you put your mind to it,
I’m sure you’ll find a list of what you really need.
In addition to the obvious desire for financial gain,
there are four other motivations that can propel you to excellence.
That is:
The first is ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
****************************
Acknowledgment
Great companies
and wise business managers know
that some people will work more for recognition than
for material rewards.
That’s why successful business organizations,
especially those involved in direct selling,
seek to show recognition for any achievement,
big or small.
They know that in our crowded world most people feel too small
and unpopular.
Recognition is a way of asserting their worth.
In fact, people who acknowledge others often say,
“Hey, you’re special,
you make a difference.”
I believe that if companies pay more attention
to the recognition of their employees
– not only sales staff but also executives,
secretaries and maintenance staff
– that company will get better productivity unexpected spike.
The second reason some people are excellent is
because they love FEELING WIN.
***********************
Feeling Win
This is one of the most important reasons.
If you are forced to be addicted to something,
try to be addicted to winning.
I have a few friends,
all of them millionaires,
who still work 10 to 12 hours a day to make millions more.
It’s not because they need the money.
What they need is the joy,
enjoyment and satisfaction that their “victory” brings.
For them money is not a big motivator;
they had a lot.
Do you know what that is?
It is a journey where the excitement comes from winning.
Sometimes, usually right after I finish a seminar,
someone comes up to me and says,
“Mr. Rohn, if I had a million dollars,
I would never work another day in my life. .”
That may be the reason people
who say such things never make a fortune.
They will all give up.
The third magic motivator is FAMILY.
***********************
Family
Some people will work for the people they love,
not for themselves.
A man I once met said to me,
“Mr. Rohn, my family
and I have a goal of traveling around the world.
We would need a quarter of a million dollars a year
to do all the things we wanted to do.”
Unbelievable! Does a man’s family influence him much?
Of course! Those who are motivated
by love are indeed the lucky ones!
***********************
Benefits
Benefits, the desire to share in one’s own prosperity,
is the fourth magic motivator.
When the great iron king Andrew Carnegie died,
a drawer was opened in his desk
and a yellowed sheet of paper was found.
On that piece of paper,
the date is written from his time
In his twenties,
Carnegie wrote down his main life goal:
“I will spend the first half of my life accumulating money.
I will spend the second half of my life giving away all that money.”
You know what?
This goal inspired Carnegie so much that he amassed $450 million
(or $4.5 billion at the time of writing this book!).
And indeed, for the rest of his life,
he enjoyed giving away all that money.
“Your greatness is limited only
by the investments you make in yourself.”– Grant Cardone
****************
Deep Reasons
It’s great to be motivated to work by
such an incredibly generous goal.
However, I must confess that in the early years
of my struggle for success,
my motivation was much more pragmatic.
I call it the deep reason and
I will tell you what happened to me…
One day, shortly
before I met Shoaff,
I was lounging at home
when I heard a knock on the door,
timid and hesitant.
When I opened the door
I looked down and saw big brown eyes staring at me.
A sick little girl about ten years old was standing there.
With all the courage and determination her little heart could muster,
she told me she was selling cookies
to the Girl Scouts of America.
It was a masterful introduction
– many flavors,
special prices and only two dollars per box.
Who can refuse? Finally,
with a wide smile and extremely polite,
she invited me to buy.
And I want to buy.
I really want to buy!
There’s only one problem.
I don’t have two dollars!
God, how confused I was! I – a father,
went to college,
used to make money
– but I don’t have two dollars.
Of course, I couldn’t say that to the girl with those big brown eyes.
So I had to do the best at that time.
I lied to the girl.
I said,
“Thanks, I bought the Girl Scout cookies this year.
I still have a lot in the house.”
That is not the truth.
But it was the only way
I could think of to get out of that awful situation.
It’s effective.
The little girl said,
“Uncle, it’s okay.
Thank you very much.”
And then she turned away to continue her work.
I stared after her for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, I closed the door and leaned my back against it,
crying loudly.
“I cannot continue to live like this any longer.
I can’t stand this empty pocket anymore,
I can’t stand lying anymore.
I’ll never have to be awkward again
because I don’t have any money in my pocket.”
That day I made a promise to myself
that I would make enough money
to always have a few hundred dollars in my pocket.
That’s what I mean by the underlying reason.
It may not have made me win any prestigious awards,
but it was enough to make an impact for the rest of my life.
My Girl Scout cookie story has a happy ending.
A few years later,
walking out of the bank,
where I had just deposited a large sum of money,
I saw two little girls selling sweets to a girls’ organization.
One of the girls came up to me and said,
“Sir, will you buy some candy?”
I happily said,
“I’ll buy it. What kind of candy do you have?”
“Almond moca .”
“Almond moca?
That kind of annotation!
How much?”
“Yes, it’s only two dollars.”
Two dollars! Unbelievably cheap!
I excitedly:
“How many boxes of candy do you have?”
“Five.”
Looking at her friend, I asked,
“So how many boxes do you have left?”
“I have four left.”
“A total of nine.
All right, I’ll take it all.”
At this time, both girls shouted in unison, “Really?”
“Certainly,” I replied.
“I have a few friends,
so I’ll pass some on to them.”
Excited, the two rushed
to put all the candy boxes together.
I reached into my pocket
and handed the two girls 18 dollars.
As I was about to go with the boxes under my arm,
a little girl looked at me and said,
“Uncle, you are so kind!”
How great!
Can you imagine spending only $18
to have someone look at you and say,
“You are so kind!”
Now you know why I always carry a few hundred dollars with me.
I will never lose an opportunity like that again.
I will give another example of the deeper reason.
I have a friend named Robert Depew. Bobby
(Robert’s nickname)
was once a teacher in Lindsay, California,
the capital of olives.
After a few years as a teacher,
Bobby wishes to quit and start a new career.
One day, without telling anyone,
he left teaching and jumped into business.
When Bobby’s family learned about it,
he became the target of many criticisms.
But the worst reaction was from the older brother,
who seemed to take great pleasure in scolding him.
“You’ll be a loser,” the older brother scoffed.
“You have a good teaching job.
Now you lose everything you got.
You must have lost your mind.”
Bobby’s brother berated Bobby every chance he got.
As Bobby recounts:
“My brother’s behavior made me so angry
that I decided to become rich.”
Today, Robert Depew is one of my millionaire friends.
This story, as well as my “cookie” story,
shows that even anger and
The awkwardness of getting the right direction can also act
as powerful deep-rooted motivators
for goal attainment.
Do you have something similar to say?
Do you have some past dilemmas you want to erase from your mind?
You know, the old saying:
“Great success is the sweetest revenge” is always true.
As many people there are as many reasons to do good deeds.
The key is to have enough reason.
How does one find the “hot spot” (or spots)
that can transform a life of modest achievements into a life
of prosperity and happiness?
That is the subject of the next chapter.
“Cash flow is not bragging rights.
It’s financial freedom.” — Grant Cardone