Lessons Learned from Jim Rohn

It was Saturday, December 5, 2009 at the Hilton Hotel in Columbia, Maryland. I was sitting in the back of the room during our 2-Day Sales Excellence Seminar listening to Cedrick Harris share his best ideas on how to grow your business using marketing techniques.

I glanced down at my Blackberry Bold phone to read an email:

Subject: The Passing of a Legend.

“With great sadness we share that Jim Rohn, our mentor and friend, left us December 5, 2009 for a better place.

Over the past 18 months, in his battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis, Jim assured us with a smile that all is good, that he would fight until the last breath, yet he had no fear as to what would be next.

Jim’s faith was as much a part of his life as his desire to inspire and challenge us all to be the best we could be and to live our dreams.

Jim’s courage in his final months and days were a testament to his message that we should all fight the good fight. He never gave up and never gave in.”

Jim Rohn (September 17, 1930 – December 5, 2009) was an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker.

I immediately stood up, left the room and went to have a private moment to silently thank Jim Rohn for the significant impact he had on my business and life.

While training for the Washington, DC Marine Corp Marathon (26.2 miles), which I ran on Sunday, October 25, 2009, I listened to his audios over and over again. In fact, I started closing each seminar with my two favorite quotes:

“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better” – Jim Rohn

“Don’t wish for less problems, wish from more skill” – Jim Rohn

I will forever be a student of Jim’s. Implementing what he taught me in my life, sharing his philosophy with my family and friends as well as teaching his life principles to my students.

As a sales expert, one of the things that separates me from other sales trainers teaching selling skills is I help people master the fundamentals of sales. The simple things that when done consistently will result in an extra income of $15,000 to $20,000 per month, each month, over and beyond the monthly income they are making today.

Jim Rohn was considered a “Business Philosopher”. He did not claim to teach novel truths, only fundamentals – and as he was fond of saying: “There are no new fundamentals. Truth is not new, it’s old. You’ve got to be a little suspicious of the guy who says, ‘come over here, I want to show you my manufactured antiques!’ No, you can’t manufacture antiques.”

Jim Rohn’s “Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle”

• Philosophy – how you think
• Attitude – how you feel
• Action – what you do
• Results – measure often to see if you are making progress
• Lifestyle – the kind of life you can make for yourself out of the first four pieces

As the words are typed on this computer and as I glance at the email dated December 5, 2009, The Passing of a Legend, I can hear Jim’s voice utter the words in the header:

I wish for you a life of wealth, health and happiness; a life in which you give to yourself the gift of patience, virtue of reason, the virtue of knowledge, and the influence of faith in your own ability to dream about and achieve worthy rewards. – Jim Rohn, 1920 – Dec. 5th, 2009 (America’s Foremost Business Philosopher).

Enjoy some of the best of the best quotes from Jim Rohn. These were pulled from many different sources, but the message is the same: “Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long after they have departed” ~ Jim Rohn

18 Jim Rohn Quotes

1. How long should you try? Until.
2. Either you run the day or the day runs you.
3. Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.
4. Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.
5. Commit yourself to something bigger than yourself.
6. Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
7. Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.
8. Don’t blow your own horn, or you might just miss the music.
9. Learn to say NO to the good, so you can say YES to the great.
10. Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
11. Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.
12. Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
13. If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.
14. You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.
15. Give so much to the improvement of yourself, that you don’t have time to criticize others.
16. You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
17. Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.
18. If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.

“Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” Jim Rohn

“Let others lead small lives, but not you.
Let others argue over small things, but not you.
Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.
Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”
Jim Rohn

“Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library.”
Jim Rohn

“To have more than you’ve got, become more than you are.”
Jim Rohn

“It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.”
Jim Rohn

“Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.”
Jim Rohn

“For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.”
Jim Rohn

“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you.
If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you.
Whatever good things we build end up building us.”
Jim Rohn