TLDR;
Jim Rohn shares his insights on living an exceptional life in the 21st century, emphasizing the importance of personal development, multiple skills, and a positive attitude. He outlines five key areas: personal philosophy, attitude, activity, measuring progress, and lifestyle, providing actionable advice to increase personal value and achieve success.
- Unprecedented opportunity and keen competition define the 21st century.
- Economic safety requires more than one skill and language.
- Success is attracted by becoming an attractive person through continuous self-improvement.
- A good life balances productivity, good friends, heritage, spirituality, and care for the inner circle.
Introduction [0:01]
Jim Rohn introduces himself and expresses his gratitude to the audience. He shares a brief personal anecdote about quitting school at 19 and struggling until age 25, when an encounter with a Girl Scout selling cookies led him to seek mentorship and change his life. He met Mr. Earle Shoaff, who coached him and taught him how to turn his life around. Rohn credits Shoaff with dramatically impacting his life and shares that the ideas he will present come from that five-year experience.
Jim Rohn's View of the 21st Century [5:20]
Jim Rohn discusses his view of the 21st century, highlighting two key aspects: unprecedented opportunity and keen competition. He emphasizes that technology and transportation have made the world more accessible, creating vast opportunities in every field and industry. However, he also notes that competition is now worldwide, requiring individuals to be prepared to seize opportunities and face challenges.
Advice for Opportunity and Competition [7:20]
Rohn provides advice on how to prepare for both opportunity and competition in the 21st century. He stresses the importance of having more than one skill for economic safety, sharing his personal experience of learning multiple skills, starting with a part-time sales job. He lists skills such as finding customers, finding good people, organizing, promotion and recognition, and communication (training, teaching, and inspiring) as crucial for increasing income and achieving success.
More Than One Language and Economic Formula [12:05]
Rohn advises learning more than one language, noting that multilingual individuals often earn significantly more. He shares a story about a friend who believed learning another language would add another million dollars to his income. Rohn then introduces a simple economic formula: "We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace." He explains that value consists of both the product or service offered and the personal value one develops as an entrepreneur, leader, or teacher.
Becoming an Attractive Person [15:16]
Rohn emphasizes the importance of working on oneself harder than on one's job, quoting his mentor who said working hard on the job makes a living, but working hard on oneself can make a fortune. He introduces the philosophical phrase: "Success is something you attract by becoming an attractive person." He suggests that multiple skills, multiple languages, and the following five fundamentals can increase one's value to the marketplace.
Personal Philosophy [17:05]
Rohn discusses the first fundamental: personal philosophy. He describes it as a guidance system that helps in making decisions. A personal philosophy helps to see dangers to avoid and opportunities to expand. He suggests learning from personal experiences, other people's experiences, and keeping a journal to record and ponder ideas. He also advises learning from what you see, being a selective listener, and reading books to gather valuable information.
Attitude [24:57]
Rohn moves on to the second fundamental: attitude. He emphasizes the importance of learning and gathering information to avoid being "broken and stupid." He highlights four aspects of attitude: how you feel about the past (use it as a mentor), how you feel about the future (set goals for inspiration), how you feel about everybody (each of us needs all of us), and how you feel about yourself (self-confidence from self-esteem).
Activity [31:00]
Rohn introduces the third fundamental: activity, which he describes as the work and labor required to turn ideas into reality. He emphasizes the importance of the original formula for labor: six days of labor and one day of rest. He explains that activity finishes the miracle, illustrating this with the example of building a convention center, which starts with imagination and faith but requires work to become real.
Measure Progress [36:19]
Rohn discusses the fourth fundamental: measuring progress. He emphasizes that life expects us to make measurable progress in reasonable time. He suggests measuring progress daily, weekly, and yearly, and facing the truth about one's progress. He states that progress is one of the greatest motivating factors in the world.
Lifestyle [40:05]
Rohn concludes with the fifth fundamental: lifestyle, emphasizing that the ultimate essence of life is learning to live a good life. He provides a short list for living the good life: productivity (produce to the max), good friends (the best support system), heritage (keep it alive), spirituality (study, practice, and teach), and taking special care of the inner circle (family and close friends). He shares a personal anecdote about calling his father from Israel to make his day special and emphasizes the importance of details and ensuring the mailbox is not empty.