Blessed with success in 2024 – ‘Your how to do list’ – Jim Rohn

Read Time 18 mins

(Full transcription)

Napoleon Hill said number one, a leader needs unwavering courage. And I don’t know if I totally agree with the unwavering part of this or not, because sometimes our courage does waver a little, you know, bend but not break. You know, Courage mounts up. And then sometimes we have the doubts that creep in. And we reach a little deeper to find that courage that overcomes our doubts and our fears. So I would probably debate a little bit with Napoleon on this unwavering courage. Because sometimes courage does waver. But as long as it stays, as long as the in the end, there it is to serve you. The courage to do what you didn’t think you could do the courage to step into territory, that might be a little unfamiliar, the courage to talk to somebody you don’t know, the courage to attempt conducting a meeting, the courage to give your first testimonial, the courage to, you know, solve problems you couldn’t solve before that kind of courage, the courage to stand up when it’s sort of dark in your corner, the courage to do it, when it isn’t going your way, seemingly, the courage to try to have a good day in the midst of a bad day, that kind of courage. wavering a little at times, yes, because we all have doubts that attack us, we all have small fears that creep in, that is the nature of life. But that’s what faith is all about. That’s what courage is all about, to serve us. When our doubts will not serve us well, faith to overcome fear and courage to overcome our doubts. But that is a good quality, a good attribute for the leader. And that’s unwavering courage. Second, Napoleon said self control. That, of course, is the very essence of life itself, is self control. Because we all have this warfare going on, you know, it’s going on in the world, the warfare between liberty and tyranny. In our own body, the warfare between health and illness, the struggle is on the struggle between light and darkness, the struggle between good and evil. I call it opposites in conflict. And as soon as you’re born into the world, as soon as you find yourself and discover yourself on this spinning planet headed somewhere, you know that this exists. To be a civilized society, we must drive the dark side of our nature into a small corner and let the positive side flourish early, we must learn to exercise self control. Power is a wonderful thing, but it must be exercised properly, it must be exercised to benefit not to destruction. So self control is certainly necessary to be a strong leader. So that you can become the best example. The example of having your temper, well managed to having that dark side of your nature under control. The best example of choosing wise words of not being careless, that kind of control, control of your appetite, control of your desires, so that they fit into the positive side of life and not the negative side, self control, very important. Then he said a leader must have a keen sense of justice. How very true justice we become familiar with, you know, even when we’re small, when certain things that happened, or were done to us that we something told us that wasn’t right. Something did us someone did us wrong. We have that sense of right and wrong. And it starts very early, then we have to have that sense of utilizing what’s right and what’s wrong. So that we develop the sense of justice, the sense of being fair. The sense of being on the positive side, on the right side, to minimize a person’s mistakes. They need to have this sense of justice. We have to have justice when we’re building an organization. You know, what’s fair, what, what is a good balance. The marketing system that Mark put together has to be fair for everyone. If you have a customer and you take care of that customer, someone else cannot come along and and take that customer. The same is true with the distributor, certain rules and regulations. So that all of us have a chance to fit within this framework of fairness, justice, and what’s right otherwise enterprise cannot work. Otherwise, we have what we call in the political sense anarchy. Where there is no justice, when might is the order of the day power of the order of the day, not the law, not the rule, not what’s right. But power. And we would all dismiss that. It’s been a catastrophe in the last 6000 years. The government’s that resorted to power instead of democracy, that resorted to intimidation instead of freedom. And we all know the terrible toll that that takes. But it takes a toll not only politically in a country, or politically around the world, but it takes a toll. Even in enterprise, it takes a toll in school, if a teacher is unfair, it takes a toll and working on a team where someone is unfair, or where the leadership is not fair in the administration of justice. So this is true, a keen sense of justice and what’s fair and what’s right. Part of this, we have to learn as we go, you know, you don’t have it all the first year, you haven’t got it all the second year, the third year, after all the years that I’ve, you know, been around, both as a human being and as a, as a business person. We’re still even at these years, trying to decide what’s best, what’s fair, what’s right, to give balance to our life, and to build on a firm foundation for the future. So I agree with Napoleon, good idea, a sense of justice. Here’s another one, he said definiteness of decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. If you don’t decide the opportunity could slip away. If you don’t decide what you’re going to do today, the day could get away, and you’re not very effective. I talked about in my recent travels, about time management, and here’s one of the best ideas of time management. Don’t start the day until you have it finished. Is it possible to finish the day before you start it? And the answer is yes. If you don’t finish it, to the best of your ability, have some idea, some good plan, sure enough, the day escapes. And in the morning, you say let’s see, what should I do now in the afternoon, you say hey, time’s getting away from me, what should I do now. And now most of the day is lost. Most of the day escapes not being utilized, and doesn’t work for you simply because you didn’t make those decisions early at the early part of the day. The decisions we make in the early part of our life sometimes lasts for a lifetime. The early decisions that you make about what you’re going to do with your life. As far as Herbalife is concerned, those decisions are vitally important. If you neglect them, and don’t make them Sure enough, the time passes. And the opportunity sometimes is diminished. And sometimes you spend a lot of time now catching up simply because you didn’t make those early decisions. So what’s the decision is that the first of the day, it’s the decisions that the early part of the month, gets the decisions at the early part of the year. That greatly determines what kind of year you’re going to have. The decisions you make in the early days of your marriage, sometimes those are the decisions that affect the marriage for a lifetime. The decisions you make at the first chance you see opportunity, those decisions, what you’re going to do with it, how far you’re going to take it what is going to be meaning to you, in the years to come. Those early decisions are vitally important. Then we need decisions to correct poor decisions. To overcome our mistakes. It’s possible of course for all of us to make unwise decisions. And at the end of one year, at the end of one week, one month or at the end of a few years, we say that decision cost me too much. cost me a lot of time cost me a lot of money. Cost me maybe a good relationship cost me a chance to be productive. But as long as you’re alive, there’s still a chance to use new decision power to correct the mistakes of decisions that were bad in the past. All of us have the opportunity to do that but I think Napoleon was right here too. You got to be definite and making decisions so that the opportunity doesn’t pass you by take advantage. Here’s the next one. Napoleon Hill said a good leader has definite plans how important that is. And of all the years I think to cash in on Herbalife momentum and make some plans for the future. This has got to be one of the greatest years. Herbalife in these 18 years now has created some incredible momentum not only in opening up the countries but momentum in the refinement of our marketing momentum in developing new products, momentum and developing In our support system, the key is now for you to make plans to ride on that momentum. Herbalife is like the tide that comes in and the rising tide lifts all the ships. If they’re in the water if your ship and your boat is not in the water even though the tide comes in that would lift all the ships. If yours is not in the water, then it doesn’t benefit you. So here’s what you should do have the same intensity to make your plans for the future. As Mark Hughes has, as the President’s team Chairman’s club, especially make the plans for the Herbalife company future. You’ve got to now make your plans. Don’t let this momentum pass you by don’t let this momentum go un-cashed in on. Don’t let it be like a lost cause for you. And maybe you’ve because of the lack of plans of last a month or two or you’ve lost a week or two. Or maybe you’ve lost a year and you were 10% effective instead of 100%. Now’s the time to change all that and start making some plans. Your Herbalife plans. They’re vitally important. You might as well cash in on the Herbalife plans for world expansion. The Herbalife plans for expansion within your country the Herbalife plans for the expansion of the business the incentives you know cash in on that capture that and say I’ve got to have some plans that match Herbalife not necessarily match Herbalife in numbers, but that can match Herbalife in momentum that can match Herbalife and cashing in on the opportunity. Your plans for Herbalife expansion. You got to have some plans for your family. You’re right, you got to take your family along don’t leave them out. One of the challenges all of us have and making our plans is how to balance everything. To make sure that we don’t regret that the end of the year I spent too much time on that. I spent too much money. And then if you have say how can I not do that again, and construct some better plans so that you won’t have any regrets at the end of the year to come five years to come through for five years to come. definite plans, the plans for the use of your money. One thing I’ve admired about Mark Hughes since I’ve met him all those years ago, once he started becoming successful, he had a splendid plan not only for his personal success in terms of financial security, but in terms of the company because Mark has to look after the company and make sure that the company is secure, that the company has plenty of reserves, so that no matter what happens around the world, and when you’re doing business in 37 countries, you can imagine what the challenge is to make sure the plans for each country are there, the backup plans, the financial plans as well as products and opportunity and marketing. It is a challenge beyond comprehension to most of us what kind of planning that takes in terms of trying to make Herbalife secure for the future. I described it in one of the summit classes as Mark takes the same pledge that the President of the United takes the thing that the United States takes, and that is to preserve and protect and defend the Constitution, says the president. But Mark has to preserve and protect and defend the company to make sure it’s viable, not just in America where it started. But all around the world and each country. It’s an awesome responsibility. But now for you your plans, your plans to be financially secure. If you’re starting to make some big money in Herbalife, I’m telling you, you got to have a good plan for your resources so that you find yourself secure regardless of what happens. I agree with Napoleon here. You got to have good plans. One more on plans and that is the plan for your personal development. The plan to be better this year than last year, the plan to take the classes, attend the workshops, do everything you possibly can to show personal progress, not just financial progress, not just the progress of having one more car or one more home, but the progress of personality, the progress of communication skills, the progress of recruiting skills, the progress and how to deal with people progress in using your influence so that it multiplies its power by five by 10 versus what it used to be. You need those kinds of plans. A plan for personal growth, personal development, a plan to be all that you can possibly be in the years to come as you develop your Herbalife business and your life business and your family business. All that got to have good plans

Napoleon Hill had a good thing. It was something my father had, and passed it on to me as a good philosophy. And here’s what he said, a good leader has the habit of doing more than what he gets paid for. What an incredible philosophy, this is, the habit of doing more than you get paid for. It’s what we call the service that you put out like seeds in the ground, that doesn’t bring the harvest immediately. But the harvest is yet to come. It’s called like putting out the capital in capitalism.

Doing more than you get paid for means that you’re getting ready for the next move up. Because if you do more than you get paid for you’ve made an investment.

The average person might think if I do more than the company requires, you know, then they’re ripping me off. You know, I’m not getting paid for that extra time, that extra attention, but you must not view it that way. You must say I’m getting there a little earlier, staying a little later as an investment in my own personal future. Because I want that kind of reputation. I want that kind of philosophy to work in my life do more than you get paid for. And this philosophy works incredibly well. In Herbalife, you make the Herbalife sale of the Herbalife products, now you must do more than you’ve gotten paid for. Right, they’ve got the product, you’ve got the money, but you can’t stop your investment there. Now you must develop the investment in time, effort and energy in turning that new customer into a testimonial. And sometimes that’s the most difficult work the work after the sale. Because the sale might be fairly easy. Someone says hey, I’ve been looking for this product, I need it, here’s my money. But now you’ve got to stay with them, make sure they don’t just buy the product, but that they use the product. And that they don’t just use the product, they keep using the product. That’s the work after the sale. But if you learn to make that kind of an investment, and do more than you get immediately paid for the payoff in the future can be fantastic. Because as we all know, in Herbalife, what really pays off is not a sale of the product. What really pays off is a testimonial, a testimonial that gives you more sales, and you can keep up with a testimonial that takes you places you could never go by yourself introduces you to people you’d never see on your own. That kind of investment is so powerful. So you do more than you get paid for upfront.

It’s happened for me making the investment. When I first started lecturing 36 years ago, I talked to high school classes, college classes, service clubs, and I gave it all away. I went and talked for free. Someone said, Mr. Owen, would you come and do this breakfast talk? I said, Sure. Could you do this luncheon talk for the service club. I said of course. And all of that in the beginning was for free. Primarily because I’d made my fortune, you know, I didn’t need the money. But I did it for free. But look what it’s made for me by giving that kind of service in those early days. And finally, it led to business and lead to an enterprise. And I was giving a seminar all those years ago here in Los Angeles, and Mark Hughes was in my audience. So what you don’t get paid for don’t worry about that. Just render the service with the vision of the future, that it’ll come back multiplied. If you have this kind of habit, this kind of philosophy.

Next, Napoleon Hill talks about personality, you need a pleasing personality. There’s many parts to your personality. One is your working personality. You know the kind of behavior the kind of attitude that you need, especially in the public. Some things you can kind of get by with being a little careless, maybe in private, but in public, where it counts so much in your paycheck, it counts so much in building your business for the future, your own personality. But here’s what you also must remember, you develop your personality in private

Sometimes we get the mistaken idea. I can be careless with just these few and be more careful when I have 1000. But see that doesn’t work that way. careless with a few Sure enough, that will creep into your presentation for 1000 people. Here’s the best practice and the Herbalife opportunity in our marketing systems gives you the best chance to do that. The influence you have one on one, that’s what really counts. You say Well, I’m only talking to two people, it doesn’t matter much. That’s when it really matters. Because if you’ll practice well they’re using your personality using your influence, to get someone’s attention, to get them to listen, to get them to participate. The kind of personality that someone says I’d like to be around this person. They’re unusual. They’re not like the average person I meet on my every day experience, that kind of personality, but you’ve got to practice it behind the scenes, you got to practice it one on one. And if you’re effective one on one, one on three, one on five, I promise you, that will get you ready to now perform with the kind of personality, that kind of charisma that wins people when you’re in front of 500 people 1000 People 5000.

So this is a good point, working on your personality. Here’s the best gift you can give someone. And that’s the gift of attention. Attention is so powerful. When I was a young man, I met Nelson Rockefeller, one of the richest men in America at that time, he’s gone now. But he was a unique individual ran for vice president of the United States. And I had a chance to be where he was holding a press conference. And I got close enough so that when he walked out, I had a chance to step up. Right when security was not all that severe in those days. And I had a chance to put up my hand, shake his hand and say, Mr. Rockefeller, my name is Jim Rohn. And what I remember most was the attention he gave me with the lights of the cameras around and everybody all around, he looked right at me and said, Jim Rohn, where are you from? I said, Idaho. He said, I really like Idaho. It’s one of the My Favorite states and all of the country. And for just a few seconds, he gave me his attention, shook my hand, I’ll never forget the handshake, right, one of those multi million dollar handshakes. But I’ll never forget that personal attention he gave me just for a few seconds, it was powerful, made an impression on me that’s lasted until this day. That’s why I remembered to tell the story. So same thing you can learn to do. Utilize your personality, utilize your influence, give people the gift of attention.

Here’s the rest of my list. Now, as we finish up. Next, Napoleon Hill said a leader needs sympathy and understanding. We have to develop that early in our lives. All of our lives, we have to look at those that are less fortunate than we are those who need a helping hand. And especially now we learn to look at those who need an opportunity, those who need a change in their health, those who need to change in their life and in their lifestyle. It’s this kind of sympathy and understanding that drove Mark used to construct the company. It took that kind of understanding, that kind of sympathy, that kind of deep emotional feeling. Then mark understood what it meant to be poor. He understood what it meant not to have, he understood what it meant to be short, on finances on resources. He understood what it meant to lack, you know, full formal education, he knew all of those lacks. And instead of crying about it, he said, what I will do is change it for myself. And then I’ll help other people that have the same challenge, lack of education, lack of the money, lack of the resources, lack of good health, faced with all kinds of difficulties they can’t solve, I’ll get mine solved and then I’ll be strong enough and have the skills to where I can help other people.

That kind of leadership quality is so powerful that kind of under standing.

Here’s the next one. A leader must have Napoleon said a mastery of the details. How very true all can be lost. With just a couple of missing details. On the trip to the moon everything has to work. Right there’s 1000 several 1000 moving parts there’s several 1000 pieces to the project of getting to the moon and coming back and all of them have to work you can’t have 10% of them working 190% or 80% They’ve all got to work and then there’s the backup systems for something if something goes wrong to back it up. That kind of mastery of detail is so vitally important but here’s what else to remember as far as Herbalife is concerned, the drama is in the details. Someone says you know I lost 30 pounds. Well 30 pounds is 30 pounds but that’s not the drama. The drama is where were you before you found Herbalife How did you feel? What kind of circumstances now someone begins to give us some of the details. And then after they’ve lost the weight now how they feel now their self confidence has been restored. Now they feel better about themselves. The drama is in the details. But this is also important The details of your day, the details of your business, the details of good communication, master the details. Good advice, Napoleon Hill.

Now, here’s the next three, willingness to assume full responsibility. All of us have been taught that, especially these herbal life years to take full 100% responsibility. Mark, you says, what happened to me might not have been my responsibility. But what I do about it is my full responsibility. I’ve had some things some people did me wrong. In his first couple of business experiences, he was done wrong. Some people ran off with the money, he was left holding the bag. But he said, that’s what happened. And I was not responsible for what happened. But I am responsible for saying to myself now what am I going to do about what’s happened? If a hailstorm destroys the farmers crop, he wasn’t responsible for that. But his responsibility now begins when the hailstorm is over, when he asked the question of himself, What should I do now? Now that this catastrophe is over now that the damage is done now, what should I do about it? And a philosophy I’ve taught all these years, it’s not what happens to you, that determines your future. It’s what you do about what happens, that determines your future. And this is a major part of it, accepting full responsibility. If you’ve got an organization, you’re conducting meetings, and you’re the leader, the responsibility ends with you. Someone else may mess up, make some mistakes, still your responsibility, some things over which you have no control, understandable. But what you do about it now how you fix it, the diplomacy you use, the strategy you use. That’s the kind of responsibility now that depends on you. Also, you’ve got to be responsible for your future. Nobody’s going to fix it. No one else is going to design it. No one else is going to come along and say, Hey, I will make sure it all works well for you. You’ve got to take all the input. You’ve got to take all the testimonials, all the teaching, all the training, all the influence, then you’ve got to have the responsibility of designing your life. You can design a life of prosperity, or you can design a life just to coast and get by the responsibility belongs to you.

Now here’s the last two. Next is cooperation. One of the great things we learned in Herbalife is how to cooperate so that we take advantage of each other’s ideas we take advantage of each other’s input. We take advantage of each other’s enthusiasm. We take advantage of each other’s testimonial, and we take advantage of each other’s willingness to grow. That kind of cooperation has built Herbalife in those early days, Mark got the group together. Jerry Shaitana’s the rest and made some plans to cooperate, said no telling what kind of powerful meetings we can have if we work together. No telling how many people we can affect even right away. If we work together, you do this part you do this part, I’ll do this part. We’ll make it work together and we’ll get the ball rolling. There’s an ancient phrase that says if two or three agree nothing is impossible. If they agree on the same project, if they agree on the same vision, if they agree on how to get there, I’m telling you, nothing is impossible. Nothing can stand in their way, just two or three.

What’s exciting about Herbalife is now we have more than two or three. The President’s team now is well populated. Even the chairman’s club is growing. The Millionaire team is awesome in its numbers, as well as in its power. And the cooperation between all of us on the tabulator teams as distributors, home office, support staff 15th floor wherever we come from. If we cooperate, there’s nothing we can’t do. There isn’t anyone we can’t touch. There is no country we can’t finally get to with this incredible story.

Cooperation toy I’m here, wanting to do my part HBM. Send out some ideas, give you some notes to take something to think about and ponder something to talk about with the people that you associate with in rebuilding your business. That kind of cooperation is going to make this a powerful year. It’ll get us to the 2 billion, 3 billion, 5 billion. But it’ll get us to much more than just those numbers. It’ll get us to a place of honour, respect, prestige, influence, feeling good about ourselves, for the hard work that we’re doing cooperating with each other. I want to cooperate with you, helping build your business. All of us cooperate with the support system of Herbalife, we’re on our way, we will have the billions we’ll have the stories we’ll have the experiences. Now here’s the last one Napoleon Hill said, a major attribute of leadership is vision. Vision is in many parts one a vision for your own course to follow a vision for you for yourself, a vision for your financial future a vision for your health, a vision for your wealth, a vision for you to latch on to and make something out of a vision for your family. Because vision must now lift others as well as ourself. Guess what our family is counting on that we’ll be able to see things that at first, they cannot see that we’ll be able to look further into the future than perhaps they will be able to look. The same is true with your organization, the people that are around you, they’re counting on your vision, perhaps you’ve been there a little longer than they have. Maybe you’ve been there a lot longer than they have. And they will look to you to help them see things that they can’t see in the beginning. And if you will do that, develop that attribute of leadership, I’m telling you, you’ll have such a dramatic effect on your organization, it will be unbelievable. A vision for yourself. A vision for your family, a vision for your organization, a vision for the people that you’re close to do old prophet said without vision, we die. We perish. Unless we can see into the future.

Life loses its meaning. Unless we can look further than just where we are at the moment, then we have no reason for faith, no reason for activity. But if we’ll develop this skill, beyond any other skill, I’m telling you it will help us touch people because they’ll want to be around us because we have this look into the future. Not only the short range vision of what we’re going to do this week, this month this year, but the long range vision like Mark as taking us to the 5 billion you can have a vision that will take your organization into the future and bless everybody with success