Interview with Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn is one of the fathers of personal development he was Tony robbins's personal mentor and influenced other greats like Jack Canfield Mark Victor Hansen and Brian Tracy what you're about to watch is the last video interview that Jim Rohn ever did he sits down with Chris Weidner to talk about how to get the right mentors set meaningful goals and stop being broke and we got Chris's permission to put it up on our YouTube channel enjoy my guest today is Jim Rohn Jim has been hailed over the years as one of the most influential thinkers of our time and considered to be America's foremost business philosopher he has been sharing his success philosophies for over 40 years to over 4 million people worldwide Jim Rohn has helped motivate and train an entire generation of personal development trainers as well as hundreds of Executives from America's Top corporations he is a master motivator author and a living legend welcome Jim wow Chris thank you very much good to have you here I'll take you with me around the world just enter yeah so I want to ask you you know we we were talking as we did the run through for the promo there about being a living legend and you really are I mean you have had an incredible life an exceptional life where you've been able to influence so many people how do you go from the kid that you started out to you know where you're at now speaking all over the world how do you get started in that well part of it is living long enough to have a chance to be a legend right there you go and I just celebrated birthday number 75. but uh 25 years old I'm living in uh Idaho where I was born and raised and um you know I'm married I've got a little family started and struggling to pay my bills but you know working hard doing the best I can and uh then you've heard the story this I get this knock on the door and um there's a little girl scout selling Girl Scout cookies and she gives me this incredible presentation Girl Scouts best organization in the world everybody wants to support the Girl Scouts we've got these cookies only two dollars and she very politely asked me to buy no problem I wanted to buy big problem I didn't have two dollars in my pocket you know and I'm not destitute but my pockets are empty I'm a grown man I'm 25 years old I've been to one year of college I got a little family going I live in America and I don't have the two dollars in my pocket and I didn't want to tell her that so I did what I thought was next best I lied to her and I said hey look I've already bought lots of Girl Scout cookies we've still got plenty in the house we haven't eaten yet she said oh that's wonderful thank you very much and she leaves when she leaves I say to myself I don't want to live like this anymore I mean how low can you get lying to a Girl Scout right exactly so that was one of those days I call the day that turns your life around when I really made the commitment I must start a search for finding ways to to do better I always wanted to but I just hadn't found the person or the ways shortly after that I found someone who became my mentor over a five-year period after that between ages 25 and uh and 30 31. um what he taught me made me a millionaire um entrepreneur changed my life refine My Philosophy help me develop skills and disciplines that I didn't have before totally revolutionized my life over that five-year period and that was the beginning of my change of uh mind and and circumstances and then that led to where I am today I wonder how many people have that dramatic moment like you did you shut that door and you went I just lied to a Girl Scout person some people could have just said well yeah I had to do what I had to do other people like yourself Say Never Again yeah you don't know I call it the mystery and the magic why one experience affects a person one way and another person passes it off and doesn't let out doesn't let it change their life for the better or they might not do it now and maybe later something else will happen and that that'll be the moment you just don't know as you know lecturing giving seminars teaching training you know why some people pick it up do something with it change their lives and others don't I remember at the 2004 weekend leadership event we had someone come back who had been to the 2001 and they were in real estate and they had bought some outrageous amount of real estate you know 50 million dollars in the lab because they walked out of the last one so and then another guy was there and he said I was at the same one but he went out and did it and I didn't well he was back for 2004 he said in 2007. he said I'm coming back and I will have built my fortune yeah that's that's part of the mystery you know I've written how many books now five or six and uh um I should have written 26. so what happened to those other 20 books that's the mystery you know the magic is the six and the Mystery is the 20 that are missing so we're a bit of a mystery to ourselves right yeah sure I should have but I didn't you know I had the skills but I didn't put them to work uh so we all have a bit of that but then the things we do that sort of dramatically change our life that's the magic that's the that's the power yeah part of it is the law of averages you know I tell this little Bible story about the sore went out to sow the seed and he was highly ambitious and he had good seed but the first part of the seed that he sowed the birds got and the next he keeps going and the next seed falls on uh Thorn uh Stony ground where the soil is shallow and the little plant starts to grow in the first hot day it Withers and dies so he keeps on going the next seed that he sowed fell on thorny ground yeah a little plant starts to grow and then the Thorns choke it to death and it called the Thorns little cares little things that keep people from doing the bigger things and then finally he keeps on sowing and the seed Falls finally on good ground but then the good ground was a bit of a an interesting idea that some of it produced 30 percent some of it produced 60 and some of it produced a hundred so it's the full range from the birds getting some and the hot weather and the Thorns to the good ground even though good ground has a variety of 30 60 100. so when I started out lecturing I wondered why I couldn't get everybody to do the 100 then I found out you know this this is not to be right you know so that when I say to John you should have been at the meeting last night and he said well hey the screen screen door came off the hinges I had to fix and do some repairs and so I say now I understand yeah that some people are going to let little things cheat them out of doing better things but maybe that'll change yeah yeah you know a week from now somebody wakes up and has an experience like I did with the with the Girl Scout and uh and everything changes so the doer usually is always open unless somebody totally resists the idea of self-improvement I think there's enough experiences along the way to protest and push us a little bit or we hear a testimonial or read a book right or somebody buys us a ticket and we go to a seminar and we're never the same again you share an idea with someone two people one of them says I see it and the other one says it isn't clear to me why not and it's perfectly clear when you shared it yeah why can't you see what I see yeah true we all how come you don't feel like I feel so you have to allow for that and then we have to allow for it happening Even in our own experience like me with the missing books I should have and I didn't I let it go and I should have picked it up um so I guess the key is to do the best we can and the key is to keep learning from every experience possible our own personal experiences or from someone else's experiences by sermon the lyrics of a song a personal testimonial someone gives you sitting at Denny's for a Tuesday morning breakfast and something clicks and something happens you never know yeah those moments are a kind of a mixture of everything coming together right timing and your own personal circumstances so you end up going to work for Earl shelf and you had lots of lessons to learn what was that secure seven year period I was he was with me about five years then he died but at the early age of 49. but uh those were such dramatic days of incredible change and the stuff he taught he only went to the ninth grade in school so he puts things very simply for the excuses I gave he said no those are not the reasons I said things cost too much he said no you can't afford him you know little philosophies like that that opened my eyes to see what was the story where you brought him a paycheck he said this is all they pay yeah this is all the page no this is all they pay you right I guess so don't Summit the company make three four five times as much and I said well yes and he says well this is not all they pay this is all they pay you yeah if you qualified for the 10 times this wouldn't they pay you that amount and I said I guess they would of course he said well let's go to work on that yeah we don't have to go to work on the company for more pay we got to go to work on you to become more qualified yeah they have pay structure already set up for somebody you got to fit into that then when I in my lectures I show the this little economic staircase you know ladder to climb it starts at five dollars an hour and goes all the way up to 32 million for one year right one year's annual income and uh somewhere along the way by what we hear and what we experience we try to make ourselves better qualified for the next to move up yeah and that's the key is to keep moving up keep growing keep developing see what all you can do with your life what uh he was really the first person to give you the idea of personal development right what kinds of things was he telling you about the importance of developing yourself what were some of those lessons that he does want to use which got really got my attention he said why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire I'm 25 years old he said this is America land of opportunity why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire and then he said for what it will make of you to achieve it and I thought wow that's a whole different philosophy set a goal to become a millionaire for what for the person you have to become in order to be worth a million dollars then he said once you've become a millionaire you give the money away because what's important is not what you got but the person you became and I got the message and that's where I started hearing those phrases from him work harder on yourself than you do on your job um bringing value to the marketplace is how you get paid the more value you bring to the marketplace the better your pay and also you get paid for what you become a leader an entrepreneur a manager somebody who has the ability to inspire other people so somebody's watching and they're saying okay work harder on yourself than you do on your job and they they're they're they agree with it in principle they say yeah that sounds right I know I need to work on myself what is what would you recommend people do I started out with developing a list of skills I didn't have you know I'm raised in farm country Southwest Idaho right I know how to milk cows but the pay is not good that's right so the first thing and I started part-time um a little uh sales Adventure on how to get customers it was in health and nutrition and I believed in the product and I was taught here's how you get a customer and then here's how you ask them who do they know that wants to be healthier um then um expand your business from there so that was the first extra skill I learned from just the regular Farm skills that started to change my life so this is part of the personal development learning that extra skill in my seminars I now teach in the 21st century you need more than one skill one is for economic safety right here's the guys that's worked for General Motors they just what closed a couple of plants and laid off what I don't know 25 000 people this guy has been there let's say for 15 years now he's laid off and he tells us he's already having economic difficulty and the reason is Chris he only had one skill you know over the last three or four years if he would have taken accounting two nights a week or something yeah so that when this crisis occurred he would have something to fall back on so in my seminars I teach a whole list of skills I learned uh but the time I was uh 30 31 that not only made me Rich but uh really broadened the whole scope of my ability to be an entrepreneur affect other people's lives and then I got into of course teaching and training but that's part of it I learned sales I learned to find good people I learned to get people to work together interesting phrase in the Bible says if two or three agree on a common purpose nothing's impossible I thought wow two or three not all alone but two or three so if you can get inspired and inspire a couple of people to go with you you could do some pretty extraordinary things I learned how to do that then I learned uh recognition and reward rewarding people for steps of progress you may work for a company and they reward people for the big steps I've learned to reward people for little small steps of progress anything you can think of to give them a reward for making uh some progress it doesn't have to be a big reward it doesn't have to be something small kind word then it comes to a philosophy that says be so busy giving other people recognition you really don't need it for yourself now you've arrived at a very good place your greatest happiness is other people getting rewards not necessarily yourself but then Zig comes back with the old philosophy that's so true if you help enough people get what they want from either money to recognition or success you can have everything you want yeah I heard ziggs say that I think almost 50 years ago 45 Plus and uh when he said you can have everything you want I underlined the word everything I think Zig is a right if you help enough people get what they want yeah but that's another skill then I think the ultimate skill is the skill of communication and I divided that one into three parts one is training right showing somebody how to do the job next is teaching and I simply use the two words for a purpose teaching life skills because one of the things that helped me really revolutionize my life age 25 was learning how to set goals decide what you want write it down start checking them off where do you want to go make that list what do you want for your family make that list I started doing all that that's called teaching teaching life skills so if you combine job skills with life skills your chances now really start to multiply then the ultimate in communication is learning to inspire helping somebody to see themselves better than they are transporting them into the future say Mary here's who you could become with just a few changes I promise you you'll never be the same again here's the kind of person you could become confident strong able to cope with circumstances and changes you could be that person I think that that is something that anybody can do I mean when typically when people think of leaders they think of the heads of you know captains of industry and presidents and you know leaders of social movements is that something somebody do middle management in their own sure career parents parents should even learn to do it at home here's the person you could become um we try every means possible right especially for our children yeah to expose them ideas that we know we translate best we can or from church or hopefully from school um from the neighborhood from the business Community where they might get a job and go to work we just hope and pray that they will be constantly exposed to things that will cause them to think change refine habits develop skills have personal satisfaction of the success they want we hope that happens but it's going to come from a variety of sources not just one it's like mentoring I happen to find somebody who you know was the business employer uh business partner that I worked with as well as being a mentor sometimes you know somebody mentors you in good health somebody else mentors you in spiritual matters someone else mentors you in family relations and someone else mentors you in business and developing skills did you go looking actively looking for mentors throughout your life uh no after that girl scout experience um I said to myself I must find something and sure enough a friend of mine said I've gone to work with this man you've got a meeting that was shortly after that I met Mr Show and who knows the mystery of that right yeah um when a student is ready the teacher appears yeah when you have that determination like things start you know happening and coming your way yeah at least the odds are better yeah everything's a matter of odds but if you do certain things I think you can increase your odds the better things will happen for you so after you became successful in your business then uh there was a phone call you got a phone call right and somebody said hey come and talk it to us yeah I moved to Beverly Hills because that's what you should do when you become successful yeah a kid from the farm country of Idaho moved to if you got rich Beverly Hills so when I get there a friend of mine said you've got to come and tell your story to my service Club you belong to the Rotary and he said if I arrange this uh breakfast meeting I think our luncheon meeting he said would you come you know just do a little 30 minute talk and tell your story and he said we'll call it Idaho Farm Boy makes it to Beverly Hills I said okay suits me so I did this little talk and uh evidently they enjoyed it before the day was over I got a couple more invitations you got to come talk to our service Club tell that same story share those same ideas that started me thinking about um you know really becoming involved in teaching and training I've done a lot of training yeah and inspiring in my own entrepreneurial organizations but uh not not for the public so I started doing these little talks for service clubs and once in a while a high school class college class enjoying it very much then one day a man said to me uh I've heard your talk now two or three times and I've got this little company going and he said if you would come make a presentation I'd be happy to pay you and I thought incredible there's a job yeah could I really share my story and get paid he said I'll be happy to do it wow so I did that then that led to another one and another one then later on the idea occurred why not have uh some Representatives out selling tickets to come and hear a public seminar yeah and we finally put that together and that was you know all those many many years ago tell us a little bit about that this is a kind of a peek behind the scenes of because you're really one of the Pioneers you and Zig and some of the other folks cavitt Roberts and some of those what was the what was the culture like back then when when you guys were out barnstorming America and really developing the whole personal development culture that now is so prominent in America what was that like it was exciting of course mine I gave it all away in all the speeches I did and colleges the high schools and first service clubs and so on that was all free then when somebody offered to pay me that put a whole new look on it and then I began this process of creating something valuable enough to where someone would buy a ticket and go and listen and those were exciting days the first one I did for pay I think I had about 45 or 50 participants that bought tickets a lot of them were friends of mine that I'm sure bought because they were friends of mine but there were some others that you know legitimately bought at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and that first public seminar for people buying tickets I think was 1961 or 62 1962. wow and then that started it started growing from there yeah and uh developed to where I am now traveling the world and telling my story and still sharing ideas yeah but uh it was it was a fantastic time Earl Nightingale right yeah it was way back in the beginning Napoleon Hill with his lecture series way back before was probably one of the first they started calling it self-help movement yeah and uh then came along the phrase personal development shof talked about personal development work harder on yourself than you do on your job he said yeah if you work hard on your job you can make a living which is fine if you work hard on yourself you can make a fortune which is super fine I thought this is good philosophy yeah so did you guys ever get together and do big events with you know you and Zig and Norman Vincent Peale yeah finally over the years American Sales Masters all of that way back that goes way back huh yeah I remember the first time I did a multi-speaker and I think was in St Louis it was about uh I don't know nine ten thousand people there in one of the big auditoriums Zeke was there and I was there Norman Vincent Pio was there a couple of others and uh this is the time when sieg said to me said Jim Rohn said you got to pay attention and you got to really be good today in your presentation because he said if ten thousand people turn on you it is going to be a difficult day foreign I gotta do my best Zig may be right if I don't do well you know I will incur the wrath of these 10 000 people but that was uh that was good advice I learned along the way to pay more attention to the audience way back in the early days I was more absorbed in my lecture and what I was having to say you know people could have left and I probably wouldn't have really known it but then I got to where I could look up and you know find out what's going on out in the audience are they getting it and is it coming across and I teach that now in some of my seminars yeah when you think back to those speakers who really stands out in your mind as as being somebody that you really admired and respected yeah Zig Ziglar was you know we've traveled gone to other countries to lecture uh on the same venue um Earl Nightingale was a was unique you know a unique person in his own his own right the stuff that he wrote as well as his uh speeches and lectures uh or captivating uh interesting made you listen thought-provoking and that's all we're really trying to do right yeah the minister on Sunday morning right just wants to share ideas get people thinking pondering about their life how do we find things spiritually as well as how to refine things economically and personally yeah and we can all use a little coaching whether it's one-on-one person or whether it's in a seminar setting or whether it's church or Sunday school class or wherever it is or ideas are being shared there's always a chance to pick up something that you hadn't quite thought about before there's Chris Weidner and I hope that you're really enjoying this interview that I did with Jim uh you can tell that it was a little while ago you can see how young I looked in that video it was such an amazing opportunity uh to be able to work with Jim Rohn but then to be able to interview him which we didn't know at the time this would become the last video interview that Jim ever did so I hope that you're enjoying it uh some uh some wisdom from one of the great Legends and I've got some amazing resources for entrepreneurs uh that are available to you all you have to do is just go down and check in the uh in the comments in the links below and you'll be able to see some other great resources so let's get back to uh listening to the great wisdom of the legendary Jim Rohn in 2004 summer 2004 um you got the masters of influence award at the National Speakers Association and I was there to be able to to be there and see that and one of the things that really amazed me was they asked the crowd and there was maybe 2 000 people there two three thousand people there um how many of you would say that Jim Rohn has significantly influenced your life or your speaking career and nearly two-thirds of the hands went up how do you feel about that it's you know it's it's so extraordinary from where I came from yeah Southwest Idaho Farm country I still have the old Family Farm overlooking the Snake River where I make a little wine and you know grow a few crops and live The Good Life there but it is extraordinary um one of the greatest experiences and you've heard me say before is when someone puts your name in in their testimonial oh here's the person that found me here's the person that got me started here's the person that wouldn't let me quit gave me more reasons for staying than for leaving here's the person who believed in me until I could believe in myself and then they mentioned your name yeah yeah that's Big Time stuff yeah you can't buy it with money yeah you have to earn it what's extraordinary for me now is to go to Russia and lecture uh I started lecturing in Russia 12 years ago to go back now again and have someone say 12 years ago here's what's happened to me my family I want to introduce you to some people I've helped change their lives since you changed my life that's so extraordinary I guess that's why at age 75 I am still off to uh Chile in Santiago in a few days after that Australia then uh three cities I think in India and South Korea one little trip yeah I want to talk to you about your travels and it's one of the fun things about having speakers like yourself who come in who do World Travel and to really just ask them what what's the world like you know there's a lot of people who are watching the show who they don't get a chance to travel that much you know and we hear things in the American Media or whatever but what are some of the countries that you've loved to spend time in and what do you think the average person should know about some of these countries and cultures uh speaking of the travel you know I used to travel to Concord oh before they shut it all down three hours from London to New York so extraordinary now Singapore's got this new flight Los Angeles to Singapore Direct uh uh 17 and a half hours so that's quite an experience yeah you know it's like nine meals and four movies and uh finally you get there yeah but uh first class is you know exciting and caviar and champagne and you know all the amenities but um traveling to other countries it you know people are basically the same you know they've got families and they want to do well and they want the Next Generation to be better off than than they are um people have hopes and dreams want to know how they can achieve success what could I do seems like I've been stuck for four or five years what could I do to make a difference everybody wants to know and then they want to be fulfilled people want to you know have satisfaction whether it's a spiritually socially personally satisfaction of personal development I'm better than I used to be and I think if I keep working hard I stand an excellent chance of being better in the future than I've been in the past uh those kind of aspirations no matter where I go from South Africa to Scandinavia from Korea to India to uh Vladivostok Russia doesn't matter people are basically the same have the same desires some of the forms of government are a bit different yeah but not the aspirations of the people do you take particular Joy going to countries where there's burgeoning capitalistic societies yeah yeah what is fun for me is uh is uh the opportunity to teach capitalism in Russia over the last 12 years I've been there like five times in all the major cities because they didn't have any concept of capitalism all those years under communism because communism taught Capital belongs to the state not the people and of course we believe Capital belongs to the people not the state a total different economic philosophy but now since the walls came tumbling down in Germany what 14 15 years ago now they have the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and capitalism personal responsibility instead of uh they're always relying on the state so it's all changing and they're hungry aren't they just you know they're ready for it and uh of course the same mystery and Magic occurs in Russia like it does everywhere else yeah you tell you here's how you can dramatically change your life from pennies to Fortune and uh some say yes that's great I will and some say I'm not sure that's for me and I have to learn to accept that right I want to talk a little bit about kids because you have a lot of a lot of thoughts and theories about things that kids should learn lessons they should learn uh tell us about something one of the easiest is capitalism because I use it even in Russia teaching capitalism that even kids can you know become capitalists yeah because all it involves is um here's a 12 year old couldn't he search the neighborhood doesn't have to be twelve seven or eight eight years old let's say this little kid and he searches the neighborhood finds a little broken wagon and pays a dollar for it and brings it home fixes it up paints it until it shines straighten out the wheels until they're true takes it back to the neighborhood and sells it for five dollars makes a four dollar profit could that be possible and everybody says well yes it could be possible and all he would do have to have is the idea so I'm teaching kids how to have two bicycles one to ride and one to rent right you don't have to be General Motors to make a profit yeah so just a bit of Ingenuity you know from the lemonade stand or whatever those are just all examples of of capitalism at work where you make something and sell it or you buy something and sell it um then teaching kids a little bit about money management yeah I think is important what are the things that they ought to learn don't spend more than 70 cents out of every dollar and then 10 cents for charity or church another 10 cents for active capital like find a broken wagon pay a dollar for it fix it sell it for five that's active capital and then last 10 percent is a passive capital let someone else use your money invest it and let them pay you interest or whatever so a good good program for kids to learn 70 10 and 10. yeah and if you do that over a reasonable period of time you'll become financially independent isn't it funny how human nature even at that little kid level is to spend it all yeah and then some more yeah and borrow and spend some more so the way you teach it is could a child buy a bottle of soap for two dollars and sell it for three the answer is yes he goes Johnny goes next door and says Mrs Brown Mama uses this soap it's really good it's only three dollars and Mrs Brown says Johnny I've really got plenty of soap and he says you better let me come in and check kids don't have to go to class that's right they don't take no for an answer so they don't need sales training so she says well okay probably I do here's three dollars and so she buys this bottle of soap that Johnny bought for two dollars she pays him three dollars now we say to John here's what you must learn to do with the three dollars and we just ask obvious questions what if you took this three dollars now that you just collected from Mrs Brown and went and spent it all he says well no you can't do that because then you'd be out of business that's right I mean some adults don't know that I think the money they got in their hand you know if someone comes up you know why not spend it say no you'd be out of business yeah you got to save at least two dollars back so you can go and buy another bottle so yeah and uh sell it for three and make another dollar then kids learning to employ other kids yeah Johnny Moes Mrs Brown's lawn she pays five dollars the idea occurs to him why couldn't I get Pete to mow Mrs Brown's lawn collect the five dollars and uh give him a dollar or two for mowing the lawn and I keep the three for getting the business he says good idea Mrs Brown gets her lawn mower Pete gets a couple of dollars johnny makes three for getting the job and he said if you do a good job Pete I'll have another person I'll have another place to mow a lawn and first thing you know it doesn't have to be huge amounts just so you understand what capital is all about capital is any value you set aside to be invested in an Enterprise that brings value to the marketplace hoping to make a profit that's capitalism in one sentence and it can be uh Capital money or Capital time you set aside to be invested then I teach in Russia that the time and the money you set aside to be invested is like Seed corn if a farmer has Seed corn that he's going to plant hoping for a harvest come Harvest Time would he eat it the seed corn the answer is no would he feed it to his family and the answer is no of course not right would he give it away and be generous and say well no you can't be generous with your seed corn he would protect it by all means because it's the only way it can multiply and grow into more than what it is and that's what capitalism is all about a chance for something to grow and multiply into more than what it is but you've got to protect it the same is true with your time let's say you set aside a certain amount of time every week to invest in this Enterprise that's going to bring value to the marketplace hoping to make a profit you can't let anybody have that time you know why is it that we what if you asked a farmer what if you asked a farmer to go bowling in the spring he would say that's insane he can't do it you can't go probably him that's free call me the winner it's just like a little short Seasons free we got the lights on the tractors now where we go you know around the clock yeah Springtime short season got to get the crops in so that that's capital time and you have to learn the value of capital time it's so easy to let somebody steal your time that should be invested why do we let people steal our time because it seems to be Universal I don't know we just don't set it up and you know stick to it yeah it's just like wasting time on a lot of things years and years ago I asked a young man one time because I knew we watched television a lot I said how much did your television cost and he said uh four hundred dollars and I said well you really miscalculated he said no it costs 400 I said that's to buy it do you think it costs to watch it wow because I knew he had some skills that he really wasn't employing and was letting it all slide I said in my personal opinion because the average American now watches television six seven hours a day I said in my personal opinion this television is costing you about forty thousand dollars a year not to own it but to watch it huh and I said that's too much to pay right I'll pick maybe 4 000 but not right come on pay the four thousand and throw it away and don't use it you'll still be ahead of the game so it sometimes all it takes is a revolutionary idea like that someone says I think Jim rohn's right this television is costing me too much money to watch it because if I would use that same time employing myself finding ways to make a profit whatever no telling what would happen yeah what about but unless somebody comes along and sort of you know shakes up the basket and talks about things like that uh on our own we could think about it eventually but uh sometimes it's you know it's a bit late yeah because that's why when shof I said things cost too much and he said no you can't afford him I hadn't thought about that before you know and I said this is all the company pays he says no that's all they pay you and without that kind of sort of counsel or guidance or reminder it's easy to drift along a few more years without making the necessary changes to make your life better and he was pointing the responsibility back to you always always about you yeah he said you've been working now six years I quit school when I was 19 I'm now I'm now 25 that's six years he said you've been working now six years how are you doing and I said not very well he said I suggest you not do that anymore he said would you like to repeat the next six years like the last six and I says not really he said would you like to revolutionize the next six years versus the last six and I said yes and over the next six year period I became a millionaire you say isn't that amazing it is I mean from the first six to the second sixth same period of Time same period of time with a whole totally different philosophy yeah multiple skills learning to be an entrepreneur uh you know zigzole philosophy if you help enough people get what they want you have everything you want understanding all of that John Kennedy said don't ask what the country can do for you that's not how you get rich ask what could I do for my country starting with my neighbors starting with my family is there some service I could render some product I could represent what could I do for the people of the country and if you start thinking about that entrepreneurially now you can have some extraordinary life change and it happened to me over that next six years versus the last six what a difference and the difference was not the country you don't have to leave the country and the difference was not the economy the economy that second six years of my working life was about the same as it was the first six years so the difference was not and the difference was not circumstances you know some Winters are long and some are short you know that's going to happen in any six year period but uh the difference now is your own refined philosophy and how you think about things that's why you've got to welcome every chance to listen to the lyrics of a song um or uh the sermon on Sunday morning the teacher the professor someone who like you recommends good ideas to someone who will take the time to listen that is all so valuable and collected over a period of time compounded into activity and disciplines fortunes can come your way yeah you and your friend Charlie Jones talk an awful lot about books that we become the product of the books we read and the people we meet audio programs we listen to what books have shaped your life the most you know it started with the Bible my parents made sure I was a pretty good scholar by the time I was 19. that's 66 books now that's not very politically correct to say that the Bible right so but that's but it's a collection of 66 books you know whatever you might think about it yeah uh it's had such excellent recommendation over such a long period of time that it's not a bad idea to at least have a look yeah yeah you don't have to agree but it would be I think not wise not it would be unwise not to look at least check it out what are your what are your favorite thoughts from the Bible one I'm using currently which I think is so valid is the paraphrasing it the Storyteller says there were two nice people the story of two nice people not an evil person and a good person but two nice people and the Storyteller goes on to say however and this is where the drama of Life Begins however one built his house on the rock and the other built his house on the sand and in just one sentence we we understand we comprehend well yes no matter how nice you are if you build your house on the sand come on then it says the storms came as they always do and everybody says well yes we've got to recognize that and the one that built his house on the rock was saved and the one that built his house on the sand was lost both nice people which means nice people can make errors in judgment nice people can make careless decisions nice people can make foolish decisions sometimes even fatal here's a nice guy he's married got a wonderful family he lives in Los Angeles he's a good citizen of the community this is a nice guy he's ambitious he does well he's in Los Angeles driving his car and he's late for an appointment and he's pushing it pushing it pushing it and he comes to the intersection and the light turns red and a little voice in his head says go ahead you're late you can make it and now he's dead nice guy but he's dead when in a split second of time he made a foolish decision so you don't have to go off to some foreign country and die in some foreign war to be dead all you have to do is make a careless decision or a foolish decision at the wrong time and we're all tempted what was that voice I heard this morning that said you don't have to do your exercises this morning you hear that voice too you're running like voice too you can make up for it you know when you get back from your seminar trip and I said no I've got to do at least a modified version even though I'm late and you just you know that's every day Chris the waitress irritates you and now you've got a choice Let It Go or make a big deal out of it and embarrass everybody 's got the choice here's a good one I'm walking into Nate now's in Beverly Hills where by the way uh two mornings ago there was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I had a nice chat with him um I walked before I walk into the restaurant I I've got two quarters to put into the machine to get my paper a man walks up just ahead of me puts in two quarters opens it up takes out his paper and he holds the door of the dispenser open and says to me go ahead and take you a copy said you know the newspaper can certainly afford it and he offered for me to take my life right new newspaper for free what do you do yeah here's a nice person I got a judgment call to make fortunately maybe because I mama was watching I don't know no my upbringing I said no thank you and he looks very shocked said okay close the door and I put in my two quarters and got my paper because the key is if you take the free paper it could affect you for the rest of the day something will sort of nag at you and say why would you want to feel like this to save two quarters right and sometimes when you do it now that's a good lesson then you won't do it anymore because you just don't want to feel that way anymore that means Maybe part of that's how you've been raised right those little moral questions that you you go through and guilt can be a good teacher yeah it is yeah yeah I don't want to feel like this and maybe it nags at you for a whole week and you say wow for two lousy quarters I took me the free newspaper never again and uh but sure enough uh you know the next time we're tempted again it doesn't mean that the Temptation goes away we get a little bit stronger about you know saying yes to the positive side yeah because that's the way I really want to live my life after the Bible what uh what other books would you recommend for people to pick up that shaped and influence your life you know I'm big on Shakespeare and um Think and Grow Rich change my life um the richest man in Babylon helped me become a millionaire by the time I was 31. um then all of the I'm a big student of History Durant will and Ariel Durant wrote all these books on history I go through some of those one book I've got to help lay the foundation for my own Library it was a book called how to read a book by Mortimer Hadler yeah and in this book he's got a list of what he considers you know the best books ever written yeah and I use that as sort of a centerpiece for my for my library yeah did you ever meet David Schwartz uh Magic of thinking big no never meant that's a good book yeah yeah terrific book yeah then there's a book that years ago when I was in my late 20s um as a man thinketh by James Allen yeah where each sentence is almost like a whole seminar short little book yeah but uh Dynamic yeah in its effect become a good reader I say now in my seminars right the books you don't read won't help two books a week in a 10-year period and you've read it read a thousand books and if over the next 10 years you read a thousand books it will dramatically affect every phase and part of your life yeah you talk about uh the two pains everybody has to experience one of two pains and I think that it it it's one of my favorites that you talk about because it's so profound and it's so true and it's so final it is it is universal that you will experience one of the two pains can you talk a little bit about yeah the little illustration about the newspaper is a good illustration the pain of discipline or the pain of regret go for the discipline because it weighs ounces uh the regret weighs tons because it can accumulate discipline versus regret um the discipline could be painful but the regret is usually an accumulation that could eventually become overwhelming so better the discipline now but it's true and you know real life if you discipline yourself to plant the crop in the spring you now have a chance for a multiply to harvest in in the fall um what you don't plant won't multiply what you neglect I neglected to buy from my friend eight years ago he offered me this little tiny condo one bedroom little small place in Carmel California yeah Ron said I want eighty thousand dollars for this condo I said Ron that's insane uh nobody's gonna pay eighty thousand dollars for this condo he said okay if you change your mind let me know I'm ready to sell and uh he put it on the market last year toward the end of last year for six hundred fifty thousand dollars you know that was one of those times I should have listened to the positive side of the voice it's sitting why not buy and he kept it for another eight years right so it's in his prayers every night before he goes to sleep you know thanks the good Lord I didn't buy this condo eighty thousand to six hundred and fifty thousand wow um everything's lessons to learn right I could have I should have I'll do a better job in the future of making wiser decisions that's the best counsel we can possibly have yeah um whether it's you know a bit of waste of time that we could tighten up on or whatever it is uh why not do it then I think one of the greatest joys for me and of course I've made it now has become a business is passing along and sharing ideas with others that have profoundly affected your own personal life it's a great joy whether I do it in a novice Siberia or whether I do it in South Africa or India or anywhere in the world um the opportunity that if you say something uniquely enough that it could affect somebody's life or begin the process of affecting somebody's life it's an awesome experience yeah you have a list of things that people should do everybody should what does it have a Manhattan in Manhattan and oh yeah those life what are some of those experiences you think everybody should do drink a Manhattan in Manhattan yeah should have Australian lobster tails in Australia yeah you should eat Boston baked beans in Austin Maui onions are delicious but you have to eat Maui onions in Maui it's a lot better than the Walla Walla onions I'd rather eat onions if you have to eat onions Maui better than it's a fun list to make yeah yeah we gotta drink Canada Dry in Canada yeah yeah if you think long enough you can come up with a pretty good list of saying hey that sounds like experiences that I'd like to have how are you spending your time gotta have a Singapore Sling in Singapore Singapore yeah yeah I just I was there just uh three or four months ago Singapore yeah it's a fun list and it's just deck them off yeah but then I talked about you know you gotta drink in an Arizona Sunset and you know walk the white beaches of Carmel and you know just start making this list let it inspire you yeah um I started teaching this long time ago and it's surprising how many people come up to me and say you know I've added to my list I'm working on the list you know 20 years ago when I heard you say this here's some of the places I've gone and I probably never would have gone if I had never heard your seminar that's that's exciting yeah how are you gotta have an Idaho baked potato in Idaho yeah you're spending a little you can have one in Beverly Hills and it's okay but you know make the trip yeah just to say you know I had an Idaho baked potato in Idaho yeah so how are you spending your time now when you're not traveling you uh well I used to ride the Jeep trails on my dirt bike but my daughter finally persuaded me daddy she said you know age 75 I'm not so sure so that's sort of passing away but I used to love to do that yeah it was one of my getaway times you know up on top of the mountains riding the Jeep trails and uh either alone or with somebody and and uh good good way to get away yeah no traffic no traffic lights uh time alone I think is is really essential sure um to get away contemplate think Wonder something I'm doing now is working on the multi-purpose seventh day it says you know work six rest the seventh but I'm calling the seventh day now multi-purpose spirituality and friendship and get away and so on but I'm also saying Chris that seventh day shouldn't be a little bit of time spent reviewing the last six days who did I not meet what didn't I do what did I miss what should I tighten up and then make better plans for the next six days I'm gonna catch up the next six days some of this that I've missed the last six so that's part of the multi-purpose of the seventh day review six get better ready for the next six yeah well this has been fascinating 57 minutes and uh we could have been here all day and sometimes we do we go to this yeah we do the all day or the two-day Jim Rohn seminar and so I just want to say thanks for coming in and pleasure and spend a little bit of time and giving us some of your stories that you tell all around the world and truly have impacted so many lives including my own and I appreciate that thanks Chris yeah I appreciate it it's fun to be here thank you to see my recent one-on-one with Jim rohn's Protege Tony Robbins check the video right there next to me I think you'll love it continue to believe and I'll see you there the quality of your life has nothing to do with how much money you have on me beautiful children you have how many people love you the quality of your life is where you live emotionally

Jim Rohn is one of the fathers of personal development he was Tony robbins&#39;s personal mentor and influenced other greats like Jack Canfield Mark Victor Hansen and Brian Tracy what you&#39;re about to watch is the last video interview that Jim Rohn ever did he sits down with Chris Weidner to talk about how to get the right mentors set meaningful goals and stop being broke and we got Chris&#39;s permission to put it up on our YouTube channel enjoy my guest today is Jim Rohn Jim has been hailed over the years as one of the most influential thinkers of our time and considered to be America&#39;s foremost business philosopher he has been sharing his success philosophies for over 40 years to over 4 million people worldwide Jim Rohn has helped motivate and train an entire generation of personal development trainers as well as hundreds of Executives from America&#39;s Top corporations he is a master motivator author and a living legend welcome Jim wow Chris thank you very much good to have you here I&#39;ll take you with me around the world just enter yeah so I want to ask you you know we we were talking as we did the run through for the promo there about being a living legend and you really are I mean you have had an incredible life an exceptional life where you&#39;ve been able to influence so many people how do you go from the kid that you started out to you know where you&#39;re at now speaking all over the world how do you get started in that well part of it is living long enough to have a chance to be a legend right there you go and I just celebrated birthday number 75. but uh 25 years old I&#39;m living in uh Idaho where I was born and raised and um you know I&#39;m married I&#39;ve got a little family started and struggling to pay my bills but you know working hard doing the best I can and uh then you&#39;ve heard the story this I get this knock on the door and um there&#39;s a little girl scout selling Girl Scout cookies and she gives me this incredible presentation Girl Scouts best organization in the world everybody wants to support the Girl Scouts we&#39;ve got these cookies only two dollars and she very politely asked me to buy no problem I wanted to buy big problem I didn&#39;t have two dollars in my pocket you know and I&#39;m not destitute but my pockets are empty I&#39;m a grown man I&#39;m 25 years old I&#39;ve been to one year of college I got a little family going I live in America and I don&#39;t have the two dollars in my pocket and I didn&#39;t want to tell her that so I did what I thought was next best I lied to her and I said hey look I&#39;ve already bought lots of Girl Scout cookies we&#39;ve still got plenty in the house we haven&#39;t eaten yet she said oh that&#39;s wonderful thank you very much and she leaves when she leaves I say to myself I don&#39;t want to live like this anymore I mean how low can you get lying to a Girl Scout right exactly so that was one of those days I call the day that turns your life around when I really made the commitment I must start a search for finding ways to to do better I always wanted to but I just hadn&#39;t found the person or the ways shortly after that I found someone who became my mentor over a five-year period after that between ages 25 and uh and 30 31. um what he taught me made me a millionaire um entrepreneur changed my life refine My Philosophy help me develop skills and disciplines that I didn&#39;t have before totally revolutionized my life over that five-year period and that was the beginning of my change of uh mind and and circumstances and then that led to where I am today I wonder how many people have that dramatic moment like you did you shut that door and you went I just lied to a Girl Scout person some people could have just said well yeah I had to do what I had to do other people like yourself Say Never Again yeah you don&#39;t know I call it the mystery and the magic why one experience affects a person one way and another person passes it off and doesn&#39;t let out doesn&#39;t let it change their life for the better or they might not do it now and maybe later something else will happen and that that&#39;ll be the moment you just don&#39;t know as you know lecturing giving seminars teaching training you know why some people pick it up do something with it change their lives and others don&#39;t I remember at the 2004 weekend leadership event we had someone come back who had been to the 2001 and they were in real estate and they had bought some outrageous amount of real estate you know 50 million dollars in the lab because they walked out of the last one so and then another guy was there and he said I was at the same one but he went out and did it and I didn&#39;t well he was back for 2004 he said in 2007. he said I&#39;m coming back and I will have built my fortune yeah that&#39;s that&#39;s part of the mystery you know I&#39;ve written how many books now five or six and uh um I should have written 26. so what happened to those other 20 books that&#39;s the mystery you know the magic is the six and the Mystery is the 20 that are missing so we&#39;re a bit of a mystery to ourselves right yeah sure I should have but I didn&#39;t you know I had the skills but I didn&#39;t put them to work uh so we all have a bit of that but then the things we do that sort of dramatically change our life that&#39;s the magic that&#39;s the that&#39;s the power yeah part of it is the law of averages you know I tell this little Bible story about the sore went out to sow the seed and he was highly ambitious and he had good seed but the first part of the seed that he sowed the birds got and the next he keeps going and the next seed falls on uh Thorn uh Stony ground where the soil is shallow and the little plant starts to grow in the first hot day it Withers and dies so he keeps on going the next seed that he sowed fell on thorny ground yeah a little plant starts to grow and then the Thorns choke it to death and it called the Thorns little cares little things that keep people from doing the bigger things and then finally he keeps on sowing and the seed Falls finally on good ground but then the good ground was a bit of a an interesting idea that some of it produced 30 percent some of it produced 60 and some of it produced a hundred so it&#39;s the full range from the birds getting some and the hot weather and the Thorns to the good ground even though good ground has a variety of 30 60 100. so when I started out lecturing I wondered why I couldn&#39;t get everybody to do the 100 then I found out you know this this is not to be right you know so that when I say to John you should have been at the meeting last night and he said well hey the screen screen door came off the hinges I had to fix and do some repairs and so I say now I understand yeah that some people are going to let little things cheat them out of doing better things but maybe that&#39;ll change yeah yeah you know a week from now somebody wakes up and has an experience like I did with the with the Girl Scout and uh and everything changes so the doer usually is always open unless somebody totally resists the idea of self-improvement I think there&#39;s enough experiences along the way to protest and push us a little bit or we hear a testimonial or read a book right or somebody buys us a ticket and we go to a seminar and we&#39;re never the same again you share an idea with someone two people one of them says I see it and the other one says it isn&#39;t clear to me why not and it&#39;s perfectly clear when you shared it yeah why can&#39;t you see what I see yeah true we all how come you don&#39;t feel like I feel so you have to allow for that and then we have to allow for it happening Even in our own experience like me with the missing books I should have and I didn&#39;t I let it go and I should have picked it up um so I guess the key is to do the best we can and the key is to keep learning from every experience possible our own personal experiences or from someone else&#39;s experiences by sermon the lyrics of a song a personal testimonial someone gives you sitting at Denny&#39;s for a Tuesday morning breakfast and something clicks and something happens you never know yeah those moments are a kind of a mixture of everything coming together right timing and your own personal circumstances so you end up going to work for Earl shelf and you had lots of lessons to learn what was that secure seven year period I was he was with me about five years then he died but at the early age of 49. but uh those were such dramatic days of incredible change and the stuff he taught he only went to the ninth grade in school so he puts things very simply for the excuses I gave he said no those are not the reasons I said things cost too much he said no you can&#39;t afford him you know little philosophies like that that opened my eyes to see what was the story where you brought him a paycheck he said this is all they pay yeah this is all the page no this is all they pay you right I guess so don&#39;t Summit the company make three four five times as much and I said well yes and he says well this is not all they pay this is all they pay you yeah if you qualified for the 10 times this wouldn&#39;t they pay you that amount and I said I guess they would of course he said well let&#39;s go to work on that yeah we don&#39;t have to go to work on the company for more pay we got to go to work on you to become more qualified yeah they have pay structure already set up for somebody you got to fit into that then when I in my lectures I show the this little economic staircase you know ladder to climb it starts at five dollars an hour and goes all the way up to 32 million for one year right one year&#39;s annual income and uh somewhere along the way by what we hear and what we experience we try to make ourselves better qualified for the next to move up yeah and that&#39;s the key is to keep moving up keep growing keep developing see what all you can do with your life what uh he was really the first person to give you the idea of personal development right what kinds of things was he telling you about the importance of developing yourself what were some of those lessons that he does want to use which got really got my attention he said why don&#39;t you set a goal to become a millionaire I&#39;m 25 years old he said this is America land of opportunity why don&#39;t you set a goal to become a millionaire and then he said for what it will make of you to achieve it and I thought wow that&#39;s a whole different philosophy set a goal to become a millionaire for what for the person you have to become in order to be worth a million dollars then he said once you&#39;ve become a millionaire you give the money away because what&#39;s important is not what you got but the person you became and I got the message and that&#39;s where I started hearing those phrases from him work harder on yourself than you do on your job um bringing value to the marketplace is how you get paid the more value you bring to the marketplace the better your pay and also you get paid for what you become a leader an entrepreneur a manager somebody who has the ability to inspire other people so somebody&#39;s watching and they&#39;re saying okay work harder on yourself than you do on your job and they they&#39;re they&#39;re they agree with it in principle they say yeah that sounds right I know I need to work on myself what is what would you recommend people do I started out with developing a list of skills I didn&#39;t have you know I&#39;m raised in farm country Southwest Idaho right I know how to milk cows but the pay is not good that&#39;s right so the first thing and I started part-time um a little uh sales Adventure on how to get customers it was in health and nutrition and I believed in the product and I was taught here&#39;s how you get a customer and then here&#39;s how you ask them who do they know that wants to be healthier um then um expand your business from there so that was the first extra skill I learned from just the regular Farm skills that started to change my life so this is part of the personal development learning that extra skill in my seminars I now teach in the 21st century you need more than one skill one is for economic safety right here&#39;s the guys that&#39;s worked for General Motors they just what closed a couple of plants and laid off what I don&#39;t know 25 000 people this guy has been there let&#39;s say for 15 years now he&#39;s laid off and he tells us he&#39;s already having economic difficulty and the reason is Chris he only had one skill you know over the last three or four years if he would have taken accounting two nights a week or something yeah so that when this crisis occurred he would have something to fall back on so in my seminars I teach a whole list of skills I learned uh but the time I was uh 30 31 that not only made me Rich but uh really broadened the whole scope of my ability to be an entrepreneur affect other people&#39;s lives and then I got into of course teaching and training but that&#39;s part of it I learned sales I learned to find good people I learned to get people to work together interesting phrase in the Bible says if two or three agree on a common purpose nothing&#39;s impossible I thought wow two or three not all alone but two or three so if you can get inspired and inspire a couple of people to go with you you could do some pretty extraordinary things I learned how to do that then I learned uh recognition and reward rewarding people for steps of progress you may work for a company and they reward people for the big steps I&#39;ve learned to reward people for little small steps of progress anything you can think of to give them a reward for making uh some progress it doesn&#39;t have to be a big reward it doesn&#39;t have to be something small kind word then it comes to a philosophy that says be so busy giving other people recognition you really don&#39;t need it for yourself now you&#39;ve arrived at a very good place your greatest happiness is other people getting rewards not necessarily yourself but then Zig comes back with the old philosophy that&#39;s so true if you help enough people get what they want from either money to recognition or success you can have everything you want yeah I heard ziggs say that I think almost 50 years ago 45 Plus and uh when he said you can have everything you want I underlined the word everything I think Zig is a right if you help enough people get what they want yeah but that&#39;s another skill then I think the ultimate skill is the skill of communication and I divided that one into three parts one is training right showing somebody how to do the job next is teaching and I simply use the two words for a purpose teaching life skills because one of the things that helped me really revolutionize my life age 25 was learning how to set goals decide what you want write it down start checking them off where do you want to go make that list what do you want for your family make that list I started doing all that that&#39;s called teaching teaching life skills so if you combine job skills with life skills your chances now really start to multiply then the ultimate in communication is learning to inspire helping somebody to see themselves better than they are transporting them into the future say Mary here&#39;s who you could become with just a few changes I promise you you&#39;ll never be the same again here&#39;s the kind of person you could become confident strong able to cope with circumstances and changes you could be that person I think that that is something that anybody can do I mean when typically when people think of leaders they think of the heads of you know captains of industry and presidents and you know leaders of social movements is that something somebody do middle management in their own sure career parents parents should even learn to do it at home here&#39;s the person you could become um we try every means possible right especially for our children yeah to expose them ideas that we know we translate best we can or from church or hopefully from school um from the neighborhood from the business Community where they might get a job and go to work we just hope and pray that they will be constantly exposed to things that will cause them to think change refine habits develop skills have personal satisfaction of the success they want we hope that happens but it&#39;s going to come from a variety of sources not just one it&#39;s like mentoring I happen to find somebody who you know was the business employer uh business partner that I worked with as well as being a mentor sometimes you know somebody mentors you in good health somebody else mentors you in spiritual matters someone else mentors you in family relations and someone else mentors you in business and developing skills did you go looking actively looking for mentors throughout your life uh no after that girl scout experience um I said to myself I must find something and sure enough a friend of mine said I&#39;ve gone to work with this man you&#39;ve got a meeting that was shortly after that I met Mr Show and who knows the mystery of that right yeah um when a student is ready the teacher appears yeah when you have that determination like things start you know happening and coming your way yeah at least the odds are better yeah everything&#39;s a matter of odds but if you do certain things I think you can increase your odds the better things will happen for you so after you became successful in your business then uh there was a phone call you got a phone call right and somebody said hey come and talk it to us yeah I moved to Beverly Hills because that&#39;s what you should do when you become successful yeah a kid from the farm country of Idaho moved to if you got rich Beverly Hills so when I get there a friend of mine said you&#39;ve got to come and tell your story to my service Club you belong to the Rotary and he said if I arrange this uh breakfast meeting I think our luncheon meeting he said would you come you know just do a little 30 minute talk and tell your story and he said we&#39;ll call it Idaho Farm Boy makes it to Beverly Hills I said okay suits me so I did this little talk and uh evidently they enjoyed it before the day was over I got a couple more invitations you got to come talk to our service Club tell that same story share those same ideas that started me thinking about um you know really becoming involved in teaching and training I&#39;ve done a lot of training yeah and inspiring in my own entrepreneurial organizations but uh not not for the public so I started doing these little talks for service clubs and once in a while a high school class college class enjoying it very much then one day a man said to me uh I&#39;ve heard your talk now two or three times and I&#39;ve got this little company going and he said if you would come make a presentation I&#39;d be happy to pay you and I thought incredible there&#39;s a job yeah could I really share my story and get paid he said I&#39;ll be happy to do it wow so I did that then that led to another one and another one then later on the idea occurred why not have uh some Representatives out selling tickets to come and hear a public seminar yeah and we finally put that together and that was you know all those many many years ago tell us a little bit about that this is a kind of a peek behind the scenes of because you&#39;re really one of the Pioneers you and Zig and some of the other folks cavitt Roberts and some of those what was the what was the culture like back then when when you guys were out barnstorming America and really developing the whole personal development culture that now is so prominent in America what was that like it was exciting of course mine I gave it all away in all the speeches I did and colleges the high schools and first service clubs and so on that was all free then when somebody offered to pay me that put a whole new look on it and then I began this process of creating something valuable enough to where someone would buy a ticket and go and listen and those were exciting days the first one I did for pay I think I had about 45 or 50 participants that bought tickets a lot of them were friends of mine that I&#39;m sure bought because they were friends of mine but there were some others that you know legitimately bought at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and that first public seminar for people buying tickets I think was 1961 or 62 1962. wow and then that started it started growing from there yeah and uh developed to where I am now traveling the world and telling my story and still sharing ideas yeah but uh it was it was a fantastic time Earl Nightingale right yeah it was way back in the beginning Napoleon Hill with his lecture series way back before was probably one of the first they started calling it self-help movement yeah and uh then came along the phrase personal development shof talked about personal development work harder on yourself than you do on your job he said yeah if you work hard on your job you can make a living which is fine if you work hard on yourself you can make a fortune which is super fine I thought this is good philosophy yeah so did you guys ever get together and do big events with you know you and Zig and Norman Vincent Peale yeah finally over the years American Sales Masters all of that way back that goes way back huh yeah I remember the first time I did a multi-speaker and I think was in St Louis it was about uh I don&#39;t know nine ten thousand people there in one of the big auditoriums Zeke was there and I was there Norman Vincent Pio was there a couple of others and uh this is the time when sieg said to me said Jim Rohn said you got to pay attention and you got to really be good today in your presentation because he said if ten thousand people turn on you it is going to be a difficult day foreign I gotta do my best Zig may be right if I don&#39;t do well you know I will incur the wrath of these 10 000 people but that was uh that was good advice I learned along the way to pay more attention to the audience way back in the early days I was more absorbed in my lecture and what I was having to say you know people could have left and I probably wouldn&#39;t have really known it but then I got to where I could look up and you know find out what&#39;s going on out in the audience are they getting it and is it coming across and I teach that now in some of my seminars yeah when you think back to those speakers who really stands out in your mind as as being somebody that you really admired and respected yeah Zig Ziglar was you know we&#39;ve traveled gone to other countries to lecture uh on the same venue um Earl Nightingale was a was unique you know a unique person in his own his own right the stuff that he wrote as well as his uh speeches and lectures uh or captivating uh interesting made you listen thought-provoking and that&#39;s all we&#39;re really trying to do right yeah the minister on Sunday morning right just wants to share ideas get people thinking pondering about their life how do we find things spiritually as well as how to refine things economically and personally yeah and we can all use a little coaching whether it&#39;s one-on-one person or whether it&#39;s in a seminar setting or whether it&#39;s church or Sunday school class or wherever it is or ideas are being shared there&#39;s always a chance to pick up something that you hadn&#39;t quite thought about before there&#39;s Chris Weidner and I hope that you&#39;re really enjoying this interview that I did with Jim uh you can tell that it was a little while ago you can see how young I looked in that video it was such an amazing opportunity uh to be able to work with Jim Rohn but then to be able to interview him which we didn&#39;t know at the time this would become the last video interview that Jim ever did so I hope that you&#39;re enjoying it uh some uh some wisdom from one of the great Legends and I&#39;ve got some amazing resources for entrepreneurs uh that are available to you all you have to do is just go down and check in the uh in the comments in the links below and you&#39;ll be able to see some other great resources so let&#39;s get back to uh listening to the great wisdom of the legendary Jim Rohn in 2004 summer 2004 um you got the masters of influence award at the National Speakers Association and I was there to be able to to be there and see that and one of the things that really amazed me was they asked the crowd and there was maybe 2 000 people there two three thousand people there um how many of you would say that Jim Rohn has significantly influenced your life or your speaking career and nearly two-thirds of the hands went up how do you feel about that it&#39;s you know it&#39;s it&#39;s so extraordinary from where I came from yeah Southwest Idaho Farm country I still have the old Family Farm overlooking the Snake River where I make a little wine and you know grow a few crops and live The Good Life there but it is extraordinary um one of the greatest experiences and you&#39;ve heard me say before is when someone puts your name in in their testimonial oh here&#39;s the person that found me here&#39;s the person that got me started here&#39;s the person that wouldn&#39;t let me quit gave me more reasons for staying than for leaving here&#39;s the person who believed in me until I could believe in myself and then they mentioned your name yeah yeah that&#39;s Big Time stuff yeah you can&#39;t buy it with money yeah you have to earn it what&#39;s extraordinary for me now is to go to Russia and lecture uh I started lecturing in Russia 12 years ago to go back now again and have someone say 12 years ago here&#39;s what&#39;s happened to me my family I want to introduce you to some people I&#39;ve helped change their lives since you changed my life that&#39;s so extraordinary I guess that&#39;s why at age 75 I am still off to uh Chile in Santiago in a few days after that Australia then uh three cities I think in India and South Korea one little trip yeah I want to talk to you about your travels and it&#39;s one of the fun things about having speakers like yourself who come in who do World Travel and to really just ask them what what&#39;s the world like you know there&#39;s a lot of people who are watching the show who they don&#39;t get a chance to travel that much you know and we hear things in the American Media or whatever but what are some of the countries that you&#39;ve loved to spend time in and what do you think the average person should know about some of these countries and cultures uh speaking of the travel you know I used to travel to Concord oh before they shut it all down three hours from London to New York so extraordinary now Singapore&#39;s got this new flight Los Angeles to Singapore Direct uh uh 17 and a half hours so that&#39;s quite an experience yeah you know it&#39;s like nine meals and four movies and uh finally you get there yeah but uh first class is you know exciting and caviar and champagne and you know all the amenities but um traveling to other countries it you know people are basically the same you know they&#39;ve got families and they want to do well and they want the Next Generation to be better off than than they are um people have hopes and dreams want to know how they can achieve success what could I do seems like I&#39;ve been stuck for four or five years what could I do to make a difference everybody wants to know and then they want to be fulfilled people want to you know have satisfaction whether it&#39;s a spiritually socially personally satisfaction of personal development I&#39;m better than I used to be and I think if I keep working hard I stand an excellent chance of being better in the future than I&#39;ve been in the past uh those kind of aspirations no matter where I go from South Africa to Scandinavia from Korea to India to uh Vladivostok Russia doesn&#39;t matter people are basically the same have the same desires some of the forms of government are a bit different yeah but not the aspirations of the people do you take particular Joy going to countries where there&#39;s burgeoning capitalistic societies yeah yeah what is fun for me is uh is uh the opportunity to teach capitalism in Russia over the last 12 years I&#39;ve been there like five times in all the major cities because they didn&#39;t have any concept of capitalism all those years under communism because communism taught Capital belongs to the state not the people and of course we believe Capital belongs to the people not the state a total different economic philosophy but now since the walls came tumbling down in Germany what 14 15 years ago now they have the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and capitalism personal responsibility instead of uh they&#39;re always relying on the state so it&#39;s all changing and they&#39;re hungry aren&#39;t they just you know they&#39;re ready for it and uh of course the same mystery and Magic occurs in Russia like it does everywhere else yeah you tell you here&#39;s how you can dramatically change your life from pennies to Fortune and uh some say yes that&#39;s great I will and some say I&#39;m not sure that&#39;s for me and I have to learn to accept that right I want to talk a little bit about kids because you have a lot of a lot of thoughts and theories about things that kids should learn lessons they should learn uh tell us about something one of the easiest is capitalism because I use it even in Russia teaching capitalism that even kids can you know become capitalists yeah because all it involves is um here&#39;s a 12 year old couldn&#39;t he search the neighborhood doesn&#39;t have to be twelve seven or eight eight years old let&#39;s say this little kid and he searches the neighborhood finds a little broken wagon and pays a dollar for it and brings it home fixes it up paints it until it shines straighten out the wheels until they&#39;re true takes it back to the neighborhood and sells it for five dollars makes a four dollar profit could that be possible and everybody says well yes it could be possible and all he would do have to have is the idea so I&#39;m teaching kids how to have two bicycles one to ride and one to rent right you don&#39;t have to be General Motors to make a profit yeah so just a bit of Ingenuity you know from the lemonade stand or whatever those are just all examples of of capitalism at work where you make something and sell it or you buy something and sell it um then teaching kids a little bit about money management yeah I think is important what are the things that they ought to learn don&#39;t spend more than 70 cents out of every dollar and then 10 cents for charity or church another 10 cents for active capital like find a broken wagon pay a dollar for it fix it sell it for five that&#39;s active capital and then last 10 percent is a passive capital let someone else use your money invest it and let them pay you interest or whatever so a good good program for kids to learn 70 10 and 10. yeah and if you do that over a reasonable period of time you&#39;ll become financially independent isn&#39;t it funny how human nature even at that little kid level is to spend it all yeah and then some more yeah and borrow and spend some more so the way you teach it is could a child buy a bottle of soap for two dollars and sell it for three the answer is yes he goes Johnny goes next door and says Mrs Brown Mama uses this soap it&#39;s really good it&#39;s only three dollars and Mrs Brown says Johnny I&#39;ve really got plenty of soap and he says you better let me come in and check kids don&#39;t have to go to class that&#39;s right they don&#39;t take no for an answer so they don&#39;t need sales training so she says well okay probably I do here&#39;s three dollars and so she buys this bottle of soap that Johnny bought for two dollars she pays him three dollars now we say to John here&#39;s what you must learn to do with the three dollars and we just ask obvious questions what if you took this three dollars now that you just collected from Mrs Brown and went and spent it all he says well no you can&#39;t do that because then you&#39;d be out of business that&#39;s right I mean some adults don&#39;t know that I think the money they got in their hand you know if someone comes up you know why not spend it say no you&#39;d be out of business yeah you got to save at least two dollars back so you can go and buy another bottle so yeah and uh sell it for three and make another dollar then kids learning to employ other kids yeah Johnny Moes Mrs Brown&#39;s lawn she pays five dollars the idea occurs to him why couldn&#39;t I get Pete to mow Mrs Brown&#39;s lawn collect the five dollars and uh give him a dollar or two for mowing the lawn and I keep the three for getting the business he says good idea Mrs Brown gets her lawn mower Pete gets a couple of dollars johnny makes three for getting the job and he said if you do a good job Pete I&#39;ll have another person I&#39;ll have another place to mow a lawn and first thing you know it doesn&#39;t have to be huge amounts just so you understand what capital is all about capital is any value you set aside to be invested in an Enterprise that brings value to the marketplace hoping to make a profit that&#39;s capitalism in one sentence and it can be uh Capital money or Capital time you set aside to be invested then I teach in Russia that the time and the money you set aside to be invested is like Seed corn if a farmer has Seed corn that he&#39;s going to plant hoping for a harvest come Harvest Time would he eat it the seed corn the answer is no would he feed it to his family and the answer is no of course not right would he give it away and be generous and say well no you can&#39;t be generous with your seed corn he would protect it by all means because it&#39;s the only way it can multiply and grow into more than what it is and that&#39;s what capitalism is all about a chance for something to grow and multiply into more than what it is but you&#39;ve got to protect it the same is true with your time let&#39;s say you set aside a certain amount of time every week to invest in this Enterprise that&#39;s going to bring value to the marketplace hoping to make a profit you can&#39;t let anybody have that time you know why is it that we what if you asked a farmer what if you asked a farmer to go bowling in the spring he would say that&#39;s insane he can&#39;t do it you can&#39;t go probably him that&#39;s free call me the winner it&#39;s just like a little short Seasons free we got the lights on the tractors now where we go you know around the clock yeah Springtime short season got to get the crops in so that that&#39;s capital time and you have to learn the value of capital time it&#39;s so easy to let somebody steal your time that should be invested why do we let people steal our time because it seems to be Universal I don&#39;t know we just don&#39;t set it up and you know stick to it yeah it&#39;s just like wasting time on a lot of things years and years ago I asked a young man one time because I knew we watched television a lot I said how much did your television cost and he said uh four hundred dollars and I said well you really miscalculated he said no it costs 400 I said that&#39;s to buy it do you think it costs to watch it wow because I knew he had some skills that he really wasn&#39;t employing and was letting it all slide I said in my personal opinion because the average American now watches television six seven hours a day I said in my personal opinion this television is costing you about forty thousand dollars a year not to own it but to watch it huh and I said that&#39;s too much to pay right I&#39;ll pick maybe 4 000 but not right come on pay the four thousand and throw it away and don&#39;t use it you&#39;ll still be ahead of the game so it sometimes all it takes is a revolutionary idea like that someone says I think Jim rohn&#39;s right this television is costing me too much money to watch it because if I would use that same time employing myself finding ways to make a profit whatever no telling what would happen yeah what about but unless somebody comes along and sort of you know shakes up the basket and talks about things like that uh on our own we could think about it eventually but uh sometimes it&#39;s you know it&#39;s a bit late yeah because that&#39;s why when shof I said things cost too much and he said no you can&#39;t afford him I hadn&#39;t thought about that before you know and I said this is all the company pays he says no that&#39;s all they pay you and without that kind of sort of counsel or guidance or reminder it&#39;s easy to drift along a few more years without making the necessary changes to make your life better and he was pointing the responsibility back to you always always about you yeah he said you&#39;ve been working now six years I quit school when I was 19 I&#39;m now I&#39;m now 25 that&#39;s six years he said you&#39;ve been working now six years how are you doing and I said not very well he said I suggest you not do that anymore he said would you like to repeat the next six years like the last six and I says not really he said would you like to revolutionize the next six years versus the last six and I said yes and over the next six year period I became a millionaire you say isn&#39;t that amazing it is I mean from the first six to the second sixth same period of Time same period of time with a whole totally different philosophy yeah multiple skills learning to be an entrepreneur uh you know zigzole philosophy if you help enough people get what they want you have everything you want understanding all of that John Kennedy said don&#39;t ask what the country can do for you that&#39;s not how you get rich ask what could I do for my country starting with my neighbors starting with my family is there some service I could render some product I could represent what could I do for the people of the country and if you start thinking about that entrepreneurially now you can have some extraordinary life change and it happened to me over that next six years versus the last six what a difference and the difference was not the country you don&#39;t have to leave the country and the difference was not the economy the economy that second six years of my working life was about the same as it was the first six years so the difference was not and the difference was not circumstances you know some Winters are long and some are short you know that&#39;s going to happen in any six year period but uh the difference now is your own refined philosophy and how you think about things that&#39;s why you&#39;ve got to welcome every chance to listen to the lyrics of a song um or uh the sermon on Sunday morning the teacher the professor someone who like you recommends good ideas to someone who will take the time to listen that is all so valuable and collected over a period of time compounded into activity and disciplines fortunes can come your way yeah you and your friend Charlie Jones talk an awful lot about books that we become the product of the books we read and the people we meet audio programs we listen to what books have shaped your life the most you know it started with the Bible my parents made sure I was a pretty good scholar by the time I was 19. that&#39;s 66 books now that&#39;s not very politically correct to say that the Bible right so but that&#39;s but it&#39;s a collection of 66 books you know whatever you might think about it yeah uh it&#39;s had such excellent recommendation over such a long period of time that it&#39;s not a bad idea to at least have a look yeah yeah you don&#39;t have to agree but it would be I think not wise not it would be unwise not to look at least check it out what are your what are your favorite thoughts from the Bible one I&#39;m using currently which I think is so valid is the paraphrasing it the Storyteller says there were two nice people the story of two nice people not an evil person and a good person but two nice people and the Storyteller goes on to say however and this is where the drama of Life Begins however one built his house on the rock and the other built his house on the sand and in just one sentence we we understand we comprehend well yes no matter how nice you are if you build your house on the sand come on then it says the storms came as they always do and everybody says well yes we&#39;ve got to recognize that and the one that built his house on the rock was saved and the one that built his house on the sand was lost both nice people which means nice people can make errors in judgment nice people can make careless decisions nice people can make foolish decisions sometimes even fatal here&#39;s a nice guy he&#39;s married got a wonderful family he lives in Los Angeles he&#39;s a good citizen of the community this is a nice guy he&#39;s ambitious he does well he&#39;s in Los Angeles driving his car and he&#39;s late for an appointment and he&#39;s pushing it pushing it pushing it and he comes to the intersection and the light turns red and a little voice in his head says go ahead you&#39;re late you can make it and now he&#39;s dead nice guy but he&#39;s dead when in a split second of time he made a foolish decision so you don&#39;t have to go off to some foreign country and die in some foreign war to be dead all you have to do is make a careless decision or a foolish decision at the wrong time and we&#39;re all tempted what was that voice I heard this morning that said you don&#39;t have to do your exercises this morning you hear that voice too you&#39;re running like voice too you can make up for it you know when you get back from your seminar trip and I said no I&#39;ve got to do at least a modified version even though I&#39;m late and you just you know that&#39;s every day Chris the waitress irritates you and now you&#39;ve got a choice Let It Go or make a big deal out of it and embarrass everybody &#39;s got the choice here&#39;s a good one I&#39;m walking into Nate now&#39;s in Beverly Hills where by the way uh two mornings ago there was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I had a nice chat with him um I walked before I walk into the restaurant I I&#39;ve got two quarters to put into the machine to get my paper a man walks up just ahead of me puts in two quarters opens it up takes out his paper and he holds the door of the dispenser open and says to me go ahead and take you a copy said you know the newspaper can certainly afford it and he offered for me to take my life right new newspaper for free what do you do yeah here&#39;s a nice person I got a judgment call to make fortunately maybe because I mama was watching I don&#39;t know no my upbringing I said no thank you and he looks very shocked said okay close the door and I put in my two quarters and got my paper because the key is if you take the free paper it could affect you for the rest of the day something will sort of nag at you and say why would you want to feel like this to save two quarters right and sometimes when you do it now that&#39;s a good lesson then you won&#39;t do it anymore because you just don&#39;t want to feel that way anymore that means Maybe part of that&#39;s how you&#39;ve been raised right those little moral questions that you you go through and guilt can be a good teacher yeah it is yeah yeah I don&#39;t want to feel like this and maybe it nags at you for a whole week and you say wow for two lousy quarters I took me the free newspaper never again and uh but sure enough uh you know the next time we&#39;re tempted again it doesn&#39;t mean that the Temptation goes away we get a little bit stronger about you know saying yes to the positive side yeah because that&#39;s the way I really want to live my life after the Bible what uh what other books would you recommend for people to pick up that shaped and influence your life you know I&#39;m big on Shakespeare and um Think and Grow Rich change my life um the richest man in Babylon helped me become a millionaire by the time I was 31. um then all of the I&#39;m a big student of History Durant will and Ariel Durant wrote all these books on history I go through some of those one book I&#39;ve got to help lay the foundation for my own Library it was a book called how to read a book by Mortimer Hadler yeah and in this book he&#39;s got a list of what he considers you know the best books ever written yeah and I use that as sort of a centerpiece for my for my library yeah did you ever meet David Schwartz uh Magic of thinking big no never meant that&#39;s a good book yeah yeah terrific book yeah then there&#39;s a book that years ago when I was in my late 20s um as a man thinketh by James Allen yeah where each sentence is almost like a whole seminar short little book yeah but uh Dynamic yeah in its effect become a good reader I say now in my seminars right the books you don&#39;t read won&#39;t help two books a week in a 10-year period and you&#39;ve read it read a thousand books and if over the next 10 years you read a thousand books it will dramatically affect every phase and part of your life yeah you talk about uh the two pains everybody has to experience one of two pains and I think that it it it&#39;s one of my favorites that you talk about because it&#39;s so profound and it&#39;s so true and it&#39;s so final it is it is universal that you will experience one of the two pains can you talk a little bit about yeah the little illustration about the newspaper is a good illustration the pain of discipline or the pain of regret go for the discipline because it weighs ounces uh the regret weighs tons because it can accumulate discipline versus regret um the discipline could be painful but the regret is usually an accumulation that could eventually become overwhelming so better the discipline now but it&#39;s true and you know real life if you discipline yourself to plant the crop in the spring you now have a chance for a multiply to harvest in in the fall um what you don&#39;t plant won&#39;t multiply what you neglect I neglected to buy from my friend eight years ago he offered me this little tiny condo one bedroom little small place in Carmel California yeah Ron said I want eighty thousand dollars for this condo I said Ron that&#39;s insane uh nobody&#39;s gonna pay eighty thousand dollars for this condo he said okay if you change your mind let me know I&#39;m ready to sell and uh he put it on the market last year toward the end of last year for six hundred fifty thousand dollars you know that was one of those times I should have listened to the positive side of the voice it&#39;s sitting why not buy and he kept it for another eight years right so it&#39;s in his prayers every night before he goes to sleep you know thanks the good Lord I didn&#39;t buy this condo eighty thousand to six hundred and fifty thousand wow um everything&#39;s lessons to learn right I could have I should have I&#39;ll do a better job in the future of making wiser decisions that&#39;s the best counsel we can possibly have yeah um whether it&#39;s you know a bit of waste of time that we could tighten up on or whatever it is uh why not do it then I think one of the greatest joys for me and of course I&#39;ve made it now has become a business is passing along and sharing ideas with others that have profoundly affected your own personal life it&#39;s a great joy whether I do it in a novice Siberia or whether I do it in South Africa or India or anywhere in the world um the opportunity that if you say something uniquely enough that it could affect somebody&#39;s life or begin the process of affecting somebody&#39;s life it&#39;s an awesome experience yeah you have a list of things that people should do everybody should what does it have a Manhattan in Manhattan and oh yeah those life what are some of those experiences you think everybody should do drink a Manhattan in Manhattan yeah should have Australian lobster tails in Australia yeah you should eat Boston baked beans in Austin Maui onions are delicious but you have to eat Maui onions in Maui it&#39;s a lot better than the Walla Walla onions I&#39;d rather eat onions if you have to eat onions Maui better than it&#39;s a fun list to make yeah yeah we gotta drink Canada Dry in Canada yeah yeah if you think long enough you can come up with a pretty good list of saying hey that sounds like experiences that I&#39;d like to have how are you spending your time gotta have a Singapore Sling in Singapore Singapore yeah yeah I just I was there just uh three or four months ago Singapore yeah it&#39;s a fun list and it&#39;s just deck them off yeah but then I talked about you know you gotta drink in an Arizona Sunset and you know walk the white beaches of Carmel and you know just start making this list let it inspire you yeah um I started teaching this long time ago and it&#39;s surprising how many people come up to me and say you know I&#39;ve added to my list I&#39;m working on the list you know 20 years ago when I heard you say this here&#39;s some of the places I&#39;ve gone and I probably never would have gone if I had never heard your seminar that&#39;s that&#39;s exciting yeah how are you gotta have an Idaho baked potato in Idaho yeah you&#39;re spending a little you can have one in Beverly Hills and it&#39;s okay but you know make the trip yeah just to say you know I had an Idaho baked potato in Idaho yeah so how are you spending your time now when you&#39;re not traveling you uh well I used to ride the Jeep trails on my dirt bike but my daughter finally persuaded me daddy she said you know age 75 I&#39;m not so sure so that&#39;s sort of passing away but I used to love to do that yeah it was one of my getaway times you know up on top of the mountains riding the Jeep trails and uh either alone or with somebody and and uh good good way to get away yeah no traffic no traffic lights uh time alone I think is is really essential sure um to get away contemplate think Wonder something I&#39;m doing now is working on the multi-purpose seventh day it says you know work six rest the seventh but I&#39;m calling the seventh day now multi-purpose spirituality and friendship and get away and so on but I&#39;m also saying Chris that seventh day shouldn&#39;t be a little bit of time spent reviewing the last six days who did I not meet what didn&#39;t I do what did I miss what should I tighten up and then make better plans for the next six days I&#39;m gonna catch up the next six days some of this that I&#39;ve missed the last six so that&#39;s part of the multi-purpose of the seventh day review six get better ready for the next six yeah well this has been fascinating 57 minutes and uh we could have been here all day and sometimes we do we go to this yeah we do the all day or the two-day Jim Rohn seminar and so I just want to say thanks for coming in and pleasure and spend a little bit of time and giving us some of your stories that you tell all around the world and truly have impacted so many lives including my own and I appreciate that thanks Chris yeah I appreciate it it&#39;s fun to be here thank you to see my recent one-on-one with Jim rohn&#39;s Protege Tony Robbins check the video right there next to me I think you&#39;ll love it continue to believe and I&#39;ll see you there the quality of your life has nothing to do with how much money you have on me beautiful children you have how many people love you the quality of your life is where you live emotionally

Transcript for:Interview with Jim Rohn

Transcript for:
Interview with Jim Rohn