Hi everybody. I'm Jim Rohn. What a pleasure it is for me to come and visit with you for just a few minutes here today, tell you briefly a little bit about my story and share some ideas that might be beneficial. I've lectured in some high school classrooms in California and Arizona and some universities and colleges, Pepperdine University, San Diego State, Arizona State University, and so I've had a chance to talk to kids that are interested in themselves and interested in their future.
Comfort is the silent killer of dreams. Jim Rohn's timeless insights inspired this high impact blueprint, your shortcut to relentless action. Download self-discipline hacks for everyone on Gum Road now. Hit the link in the show notes and unleash the champion within. Interested in America, interested in what they can do with their lives and listening to stories that might be beneficial. And I don't have a chance to, you know, visit all of the schools and universities around
the world. So this is a great chance for me by video to have a chance to tell you my story. Just briefly, let me tell you my story. I grew up in Idaho farm country. My father still lives on the old homestead where I grew up, southwestern Idaho. He'll be 91 his next birthday, and I'm very proud of him. I went to high school. I graduated. I went to college one year. Halfway through my second year, I decided I was smart enough, so I quit.
One of my major mistakes, I should have stayed in school, but I thought, you know, heck, I'm smart enough to get a job. And back then I thought, you know, that was it. If you're smart enough to get a job, what else would you need? Found out later a big mistake. But anyway, I quit school at age 19, went to work a little while later, persuaded a beautiful young lady to marry me with a lot of fancy promises, and fortunately for me, we got married a little while later.
I started my family, and I'm out there working hard, doing the best I thought I could. But year by year, I kept falling a little further behind, you know, buying a little more than I could conveniently pay for on time. And the creditors are finally starting to call saying, hey, you told us the check was in the mail. I'm not feeling at all good about that. About age 25. I've got pennies in my pocket.
I've got nothing in the bank. And way behind on my big mouth promises to my family and wondering what could I do to make my life better. I was willing to work hard. That was not my problem. But I just wasn't making the progress I wanted to make. And then good fortune came my way. Sometimes it's difficult to describe good fortune, why something remarkable happens to you at a particular time. One of my friends says, well, hey, things don't just happen. Things happen just.
And maybe that's it. I don't know. But my good fortune was I had a chance to meet a very wealthy man. His name was Mr. Shoaf. Mr. Earl Shoaf, a friend of mine, had gone to work for him and he started telling me about this man. He said you got to meet this man, He's rich, but he's easy to talk to and he's got a remarkable philosophy of life. And he kept going on and I thought, well, I've got to meet
this man. So shortly after that I had a chance to meet this Mr. Shoaf, and I was impressed. He was rich, he was easy to talk to. Within a few minutes I was dazzled. And I said to myself, I would give anything. If I could be like that, rich and easy to talk to, what would it take? And then I thought if I could just get around somebody like him, and if he would teach me and coach me, I would do it all. And that was my good fortune.
A few months later, this wealthy man, Mr. Shoaf, hired me and gave me a job, and I went to work for him. And I spent the next five years in his employ. And then unfortunately, at age 49, he died. But I got to spend five years with this remarkable man, his last five years of his life and the first five years of my new life. And my dream came true. During that five year period, this man took the time to teach me and coach me. He taught me the books to read.
He taught me the disciplines and he taught me the skills, and he taught me the changes to make in my language and personality. And the things he shared with me during that five years change my whole life, change my income, change my bank account, change my future. I've never been the same. By the time I was 31 years old, I was a millionaire. So he taught me economics as well.
So how lucky can you get to meet the right person at the right time who takes the time to share with you ideas that can change your life? A lot of rich people, right, don't take the time, but he did, and he also had the ability. Some people want to share their experiences, but they don't quite know how to say it. But he had it all, and he used language that I could understand, and those ideas greatly affected my life. I wish he was still alive today.
If he was, I'd be calling him today one more time, thanking him for the time he spent with me, sharing his life and his experiences that so dramatically affected my life. Then how I really came to be invited to speak to you today, 30 plus years ago I was living in Beverly Hills, CA and a friend of mine one day said, Jim you've got to come and tell your story to my service club. You belong to the Rotary Club.
And he said I know your story, Idaho farm boy makes it to Beverly Hills. But he said I know my club members would love to hear your story. Would you come and and at our breakfast meeting and tell your story. And I said OK. So I arranged a little talk, went and shared my story that morning. And guess what? They liked it. And my phone rang. Another club called and said, would you come and tell us that
story? My phone rings, another club calls, said we've heard about your story, we have a luncheon meeting. Would you come Share your story? First thing I know I'm spending a little piece of my time giving these breakfast talks and luncheon talks. And then one day a man who heard my talk about three times said, would you come and talk to my management and salespeople? He said I've got this little company going and to see if you.
He said if you would spend some time talking with my management and sales people, I'd be happy to pay you. And I thought, wow, wouldn't that be something? Tell my story and my experiences and get paid. He said I'd be happy to. Little did I know that was the beginning of a whole new brand new adventure for me in sharing my story and speeches and talks and seminars and lectures. And now this business become one of my most flourishing enterprises, takes me around the world.
I went to many countries just this year, had my largest audience early this year in Spain, 12,000 people, 10 different languages being translated at the same time. The whole audience with the earphones on. It's interesting when you lecture with the multi languages, you know when you hit the punch line, you know the Spanish laugh 1st and then the French get it and then finally the Italians get it and last the Germans finally get it and then I say hey, the Germans finally got it.
I guess we can continue. You know some languages take long longer to translate than other languages. But what an exciting adventure for me. I was in Israel this year. I lectured in France. My first trip to Prague, Czechoslovakia, Lisbon, Portugal last year. I was in London lecturing. Happened to be there the same night Pavarotti was singing in London. So a big dilemma for the people in London. Shall we go see Jim Rohn or
shall we go listen to Pavarotti? Well, I must admit he had more people than I did, like 150,000 more. He did a free concert in Hyde Park and they expected 1/4 of a million, but only 150,000 showed up because it rained and they all got soaked from Prince Charles on down. But they sat in the rain and listened to Pavarotti. I would have been happy that evening, right?
To cancel my seminar and go sit in the rain and listen to Pavarotti. Anyway, he and I have agreed now not to appear in the same city on the same day anymore. Not really. But how exciting for me to be able to travel all around the world and share my story. And then especially to have this chance today to come and visit with you. And when I get a chance to speak at a, at a high school class or a university class, I'm always excited about it. I'm limited in time.
So I wanted to use this way to come and share my story with you and some ideas that might be helpful in your career for the future in your now busy life as a student. And then wherever you find yourself in the years to come, some of the things I'm going to share with you, I want you to remember for a long, long time because the ideas I want to translate for you drastically affected my life.
And if I can share now and affect your life and you write me a letter or tell me in person someday. Mr. Owen, I listened to your video and I watched it carefully. And sure enough, some of the ideas that you shared greatly affected me. And here's what's happened to my bank account. Here's what happened to me in school. Here's what's happening to my future that'll give me great, great satisfaction. So the man who shared with me ideas that changed my life, I want to share with you three of
those basic subjects. When I met him, I was 25 years old. And when I first got acquainted with him, I used a lot of excuses as to why I wasn't doing well. And he said, well, tell me a little bit about your story. And I told him, you know, I was behind on my bills, had pennies in my pocket and nothing in the bank. But I was embarrassed about being behind on my big mouth promises to my family. And then he gave me one little simple phrase that really
forever changed my life. And here's what he said. Mr. Owen, if you want the future to change for you, you've got to change. And he said if you don't change, the next six years of your life is going to be just like the last six. You'll still be behind on your bills. You'll still be behind on your promises. But then he gave it to me in the form of a promise when I was 25 years old.
I've remembered it all these years and I've shared this promise now with probably over 3 million people in the last 30 plus years and it's going to be valid for you. So listen carefully to this promise. My teacher said to me, young man, if you will change, everything will change for you. If you will get better, everything will get better for you. What a clear message that was for me.
He said if you'll change your philosophy, if you'll change your habits, if you'll refine your thinking, if you'll change and accept some new disciplines, if you'll turn the corner where you've been in the past, go for a new life of the future. He said all kinds of remarkable things will happen for you if you will change. Before I met Mr. Schoof, I used to cross my fingers and say I sure hope things will change.
I was hoping the government would change and the tax structure would change and that my boss would change and pay me more money. I was hoping that, you know, economics would change and prices would come down, and I was hoping that circumstances would get better. And then I discovered from my teacher that those things are going to continue the same. In fact, all of those things that happened to us is kind of like the wind that blows, and
the wind blows on us all. In fact, in America, especially the last 6 1/2 thousand years of recorded history, we've got probably the most favorable wind that's ever blown. Economics and circumstances, living in a free country, democracy and freedom, an excellent economy. Sure, we struggle at times, but compared to the rest of the world in the last 6 1/2 thousand years, we've got the best wind ever. But if you just let the wind blow, I'm telling you, it won't take you where you want to go.
All of us must use this wind to take us to the dreams we've got, to the equities we want, to the money we want, to the income we want, and to all the things we want our life to have. This is where we want to go, and we've got a good wind. But we must not leave our future just to the wind, just to the economy, just to the structure of the way things are happening today. Here's what we must learn to do,
and that is set a good sail. And if you'll learn to set a good sail, and that's what my teacher taught me in those early days, he said, Mr. Owen, the wind is going to blow, however it's going to blow. Politics are going to be politics, and the economy is going to be the economy. And however it turns out, that's the way it's going to be. What you must learn to do is not to wish for a better wind.
That's naive. The key is to wish for the wisdom and the skills and the learning so that you can set a better sail. And so that's what I did at age 25. I went to work not on the economy. I went to work not on the community. I didn't go to work to try to change the government. I didn't go to work to try to change my boss or the company. I didn't go to work to try to change circumstances. I went to work to try to change
myself. And I picked up that promise my teacher shared with me that if I would change, my income would change. If I would change, my bank account would change. If I would change, my future would change. And sure enough, his promise came true for me. The first six years of my economic life, I wound up broke those pennies in my pocket, nothing in the bank behind on my promises. The second six years of my economic life, I wound up rich.
But interestingly enough, the second six years of my economic life, the government was about the same and the economy was about the same. You know, the companies were about the same. What they paid was the same. Circumstances around me were the same. You know, my negative relatives were the same, but I was not the same. That's how my life changed and that's how things started working for me, changing my life
all those years ago. So that's what I wanted to share with you to begin with, this beginning of what Mr. Schoaf shared with me, that if I wanted my life to change, this was what I was going to have to do. And so he broke it down into 3 subjects that really made an impact on my life, and I want to share those with you. The first subject he called personal development, and the second subject he called setting goals. And the third was how to become
financially independent. And I'd like to give you just a few clues from those three major subjects that that so dramatically affected my life. And let's get started. The first one is personal development. Now, in illustrating personal development, Mr. Shelf, my teacher started with money. You know, money's not the only place to start in talking personal development, but it's where he started. So let me share the thoughts he shared with me back then. Let me share them with you.
Here's the best lesson I can give you on economics. It's very simple. We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. That's about as simple as I can put economics. We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. Now, it takes time to bring value to the marketplace. However, we do not get paid for time, so we cross that out mistakenly. The man says I'm making about $20.00 for an hour. Not true. If that was true, you could just stay home, right? And have him send your money.
So that's not true. We don't get paid for time, we get paid for value brought to the marketplace. Now, since that's true, here's one of the key questions of my talk to you today. Is it possible to become twice as valuable to the marketplace and make twice as much money in the same time? Is that possible? The answer is yes. Could you become three times as valuable as you might be right now to the marketplace and make three times as much money in the same time?
And the answer is yes, 5 * 10 times. Of course, America is unique. It's a ladder decline. It starts down here, let's say at $5.00 an hour, and it keeps going up. Top income last year, $80 million. The guy who runs Coca-Cola, now that's a heck of a ladder. That's why everybody wants to come here, right? The boat people are not headed for Vietnam. People haven't plotted in scheme for 50 years saying if I could just get to Poland, everything would be OK. Not true.
Everybody wants to come to America. And the reason is because we've got the best wind ever blowing in our favor. We've got the best economic opportunity anybody's had in 6 1/2 thousand years, and all you have to do is understand it and take advantage of it. Now there's some key questions to ask here. Why would the marketplace pay someone only $5.00 an hour? Very simple answer. They're not very valuable to the
marketplace. Now we must underline to the marketplace this person might be a very valuable brother, yes. Member of the family, Valuable, yes. Valuable member of the church, of course. Valuable citizen of the country? Yes. Valuable in the sight of God. No doubt we're all of equal value in the sight of God. But if you're not very valuable to the marketplace, you don't get much money. You say, well, it shouldn't be that way. Well, then you've got to start your own country.
You know, this one's been in process for 200 years, and this is the best we've been able to come up with so far. But here's the key. You don't have to stay here now. There was a big debate in Congress last year that this $5 was not enough. Should be 6, should be 6, should be 6. But we don't need legislation. 6 is already on this ladder. The next step up, you know, if you work for McDonald's, they'll pay you $5.00 an hour to take
out the trash. If you whistle while you take out the trash, they'll pay you $6.00 an hour. So we don't need that legislation. You need just need to take lessons on how to whistle. Have a good attitude now as you begin to climb this ladder. Why would the marketplace pay some people $50.00 an hour? Answer. Evidently they must be more valuable to the marketplace. 10 times more valuable. And is that possible for someone to be 10 times more valuable and earn $50.00 an hour instead of five?
And the answer is yes, that's what America is all about. Now, why would the marketplace pay some people $500.00 an hour? Evidently, this person must be much more valuable to the marketplace. That's what's important to understand to the marketplace. And would the marketplace pay one person $80 million for one year's work? And the answer is, of course, if you helped a company make a billion dollars, would they pay you 80 million? I'm telling you it is possible. And that's why America is so
exciting. That's why this financial ladder is so exciting. It's possible for all of this to come true for all of you, no matter where you start as a student in school, just getting started out there in the workplace, this is all possible for you now. Mr. Schoof gave me the clue on how to climb this ladder as high as I wanted to climb. Now we're talking primarily
economics here. There's a lot of other ways to become valuable to your family, valuable to your friends, valuable to the community, valuable to the team, right, valuable to the to the team effort, valuable to the concert. But here's what he said to me. In climbing this ladder economically, all you have to do is work harder on yourself than
you do on your job. Once I heard that, it made sense to me. I kept hoping that everything else would change around me, found out that if I went to work on myself, worked on my skills, worked on my language, if I became better than I was each year, if I grew in skills and language and vocabulary and competence, then I would become attractive to the marketplace. Not very long ago, a company called me and said, Mr. Owen, we're expanding internationally.
We'd like to have a bit of your expertise to help us. Would you give us a bit of your time? We'll add some millions to your fortune. And I said, OK. And I thought later, isn't that interesting? They would call me. Then my second thought was, of course they'd call me. Who else would they call? I can get the job done now. What a contrast for me. Farm boy from Idaho, raised in obscurity, Parents of modest means broke when I was 25.
How come I would get a telephone call and someone offer me a lot of money to help them in expanding around the world? Simple answer. Evidently something happened to me between age 25 and where I am today. And I can tell you where it all started from my teacher, Mr. Schoof, who said to me, we don't have to change what's going on out there. That's the wind that's blowing. All we have to do is change what's going on in here. And now there's several ways to do that on personal development,
and let me give you those ways. Here's the first one. We must learn from personal experience. Pretty simple. Learn from what happens to you. Take a look back over the last few months. Did you make some mistakes? How could you correct those for the future? Take a look back over the last year. Have you done it right or done it wrong? Let's correct it for the next year. Learn from your personal experience. Mr. Schauff asked me when I first met him. He said, Mr. Owen, how are you
doing? You've been out there now six years, and I said, I'm not doing very well. He said, I suggest you not do that anymore. What a simple, swift analysis to my situation. He said, if you keep doing it, the next six years will be like the last six. You don't want that to happen. Let's make the changes. So learn from your personal experience. Now here's #2 why I came to share this video experience with you today, and that I call it
OPE. Other people's experiences. That's me, other people, that's your teacher, other people, that's your friends and colleagues. Other people, the people you meet that can pass along to you their experiences, what's happened to them, the mistakes they made, how they corrected them, how they change their health and change their bank account and change their income and change their future. That's it. Other people. Now there's two kinds of people
to learn from. 1 is failures. It's too bad failures don't give seminars, right? That would be valuable. Bring your notebook. Have them tell you how they lost it all and threw it all away, threw their health away and threw their friendships away. And if things didn't work out well, that would be valuable. But now, then we must also learn from positive people that have done well. They've got the health. And so we asked them, how did you become so healthy? They've got the skills.
So we asked them, how did you become this skillful? They've got the income. So we asked them, how did you get here in such a short period of time? So now here's what's important. In personal development, in learning from other people, we learn, number one, by observation. We learn what we see. We watch people that are successful in what they do. In sports, we watch their disciplines. In business, we watch their disciplines by observation, what
we can see. The reason I created this video is something that you could see someone's experiences translated for you. Second, we learn by what we hear. I've got some of my lectures on cassette tape, so you know you can take them with you wherever you go and learn by listening. Turn your car into a mobile classroom and listen. And then listen to the sermon on Sunday morning. Listen to the lectures, listen to the teacher, listen to someone who's got something good
to say. And then #3 is vitally important on personal development. And that is, read all the books, all the books you can possibly read in your lifetime. Mr. Schoof got me started on my library. I've got one of the better libraries. Haven't read everything in it, but I feel smarter just walking in it by library. At least I was smart enough to buy it. Now I got to be smart enough to read it. Then, of course I got to be smart enough to decide what's valuable and then do it.
But this one is very important. Become a good reader. Some books that helped change my life, Mr. Schoaf recommended, of course, the Bible, and my parents made sure I was a pretty good scholar by the time I was 18. That's been so beneficial for me, drawing from those illustrations, reading about those stories, people who made it and people who didn't make it, and what the difference was.
And then other books that helped to really change my life, one called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and then a book that helped me become financially independent by the time I was 31. And that book is called The Richest Man in Babylon by George Claeson. And I'm going to share a little bit of that book with you when I get to financial independence today, our third subject.
But I started reading the books, attending the classes, making sure that I got in front of people that had something good to say. And then I started keeping a journal. One of the major things my teacher taught me was to keep a journal. He said, don't trust your memory. If you hear something good, just make a little note and write it down. Now, at first I took, you know, notes on pieces of paper and torn off corners and backs of old envelopes. And it didn't serve me well, you
know, thrown in a drawer. Then I learned to keep a journal, a bound copy of all my notes. So I would suggest you do the same things that impress you, a poem that impresses you. When you attend a class, some of the ideas that impressed you, jot them down. You read something in a magazine, right? Some ideas, Take those out, put them in your journal. Keep a good journal the rest of your life. This will serve you well. My journals make up a significant portion of my own library.
And if you saw my library and saw my journals, I'd tell you what you'd have to say. This is the library and these are the journals of a very serious student. No wonder Mr. Roan is invited to lecture and speak on his experiences around the world. So I want the same thing to happen to you, value captured, that you can resort to later. Go back over it and review it and let it become valuable to you. So that's my first subject, personal development. Work harder on yourself than you
do on your job. Develop the skills, learn the lessons, take the classes, absorb all that is being taught to you these days. And then later on, of course, you can sort it out what's valuable to you and how to refine it for your business and for your life and for your future. But the main thing is to get it and start this process of personal change, personal development. And let me say it one more time, if you will change, everything will change for you.
You'll never be the same. You'll keep growing As you look back on a few months, look back on a few years. You won't believe the progress you can make economically, your relationship with your family, your friends, and whether you're in sports or economics or whatever. I'm telling you that whole process of committing yourself for personal change, personal value, can really make your life unique and worthwhile.