Articles by Jim Rohn

• A Dollar and Some Ambition
  Capital in your business isn't what matters. It isn't the money that buys you a future; it's your skills that buy you a future. Money and no skills, I'm telling you, you are still poor. Money and no ambition, where are you? Money and no courage, you're broke. A little bit of money and a whole lot of courage is all we need.
  
  
• Achieving Your Dreams
  While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?
  
  
• Action vs. Self Delusion
  Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action. Action is the ingredient that ensures results. Only action can cause reaction. Further, only positive action can cause positive reaction.
  
  
• All Life Wishes to Reward Its Benefactors
  Parents, leaders, employers, teachers and volunteers have you discovered one of the great positive mysteries of life? Here it is - All life seems to wish to reward its benefactor. If you become the benefactor, you will receive these incredible rewards. If you are the benefactor to the garden, the flowers seem to bloom and say, "Look at me. Look how bright and beautiful I am because you took care of me. I wish to reward you by being beautiful, lovely, spectacular."
  
  
• Ambitiously Pursuing Your Own Self
  What is the origin of true ambition? There exists really only one place to find true ambition and that is within you – in every thought, in every movement, in every motivation. Your ambition is an expression of who you truly are, your own self-expression.
  
  
• America, A Depository Of The Gifts Of The World
  Guess what has made America powerful? The blending of many ethnic streams that have come to America over the last 200 years. No country has been such a depository of the gifts of the world like America. For over 200 years, people have come from all over the world to America, bringing with them their recipes and their food. Their music and their dance and their artistic ability. The gift of law and the gift of government. The gift of medicine and the gift of healing. The gift of religion and the gift of the work ethic.
  
  
• Attitude Is Everything
  The process of human change begins within us. We all have tremendous potential. We all desire good results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to work hard and to pay the price that success and happiness demand. Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to acquire a desired result. But the one thing that determines the level of our potential, that produces the intensity of our activity, and predicts the quality of the result we receive is our attitude.
  
  
• Become a Good Observer
  We must never allow a day to pass without finding the answers to a list of important questions such as: What is going on in our industry? What new challenges are currently facing our government? Our community? Our neighborhood? What are the new breakthroughs, the new opportunities, the new tools and techniques that have recently come to light? Who are the new personalities that are influencing world and local opinion?
  
  
• Being Fruitful
  Fruitful is kind of an interesting word; it denotes abundance. Here's what I think fruitful, abundance and productivity mean - to go to work on producing more than you need for yourself. I think we fulfill that command given to us so long ago to be productive, to produce far more than we need for ourselves, by blessing others, blessing our nation and blessing our enterprise.
  
  
• Building a Successful Team
  Once you've set a goal for yourself as a leader - whether it is to create your own enterprise, energize your organization, build a church, or excel in sports - the challenge is to find good people to help you accomplish that goal. Gathering a successful team of people is not only helpful, it's necessary.
  
  
• Change Begins With Choice
  Any day we wish we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish; we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish; we can start a new activity. Any day we wish; we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.
  
  
• Creating Opportunity
  An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.
  
  
• Creating Your Character is Like an Artist Creating a Sculpture
  Could creating your character be likened to an artist creating a sculpture? In my opinion, I believe that character is not something that just happens by itself, any more than a chisel can create a work of art without the hand of an artist guiding it. In both instances, a conscious decision for a specific outcome has been made. A conscious process is at work.
  
  
• Doing the Remarkable
  When it comes to meeting and conquering the negativity in your life, here is a key question: what can you do, starting today, that will make a difference? What can you do during economic chaos? What can you do when everything has gone wrong? What can you do when you've run out of money, when you don't feel well and it's all gone sour? What can you do?
  
  
• Don't Be a Complainer
  Complaining. There's room for legitimate complaining, but if you let this deadly disease of attitude - complaining – loose, it will conquer you. Complaining can take over your life. Destroy you and leave you without anything.
  
  
• Ending Procrastination
  Perseverance is about as important to achievement as gasoline is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, but you'll always get out of the rut with genuine perseverance. Without it, you won't even be able to start your engine.
  
  
• Enterprise Is Better than Ease
  Our philosophy about activity and our attitude about hard work will affect the quality of our lives. What we decide about the rightful ratio of labor to rest will establish a certain work ethic. That work ethic - our attitude about the amount of labor we are willing to commit to future fortune - will determine how substantial or how meager that fortune turns out to be.
  
  
• Establishing Dreams and Goals
  One of the amazing things we have been given as humans is the unquenchable desire to have dreams of a better life, and the ability to establish goals to live out those dreams.
  
  
• Evaluating Your Associations (Part One)
  If you were to evaluate the major influences in your life that have shaped the kind of person you are, this has to be high on the list: the people and thoughts you choose to allow into your life. Mr. Shoaff gave me a very important warning in those early days that I would like to share with you. He said, "Never underestimate the power of influence." Indeed, the influence of those around us is so powerful! Many times we don't even realize we're being strongly affected because influences generally develop over an extended period of time.
  
  
• Evaluating Your Associations (Part Two)
  Two weeks ago we took a look at the power of influence in our lives and how it is possible to be nudged off course a little at a time until finally, we find ourselves asking, "How did I get here?"
  
  
• Facing the Enemies Within
  We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you, by what you've read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like walking alone in a bad part of town at two o'clock in the morning. But once you learn to avoid that situation, you won't need to live in fear of it.
  
  
• Four Words that Make Life Worthwhile
  Over the years as I've sought out ideas, principles and strategies to life's challenges, I've come across four simple words that can make living worthwhile.
  
  
• From Making a Living to Creating a Lifestyle
  After having struggled for so long, it took a shift in attitude for my family and me when success started to happen. When I started making a little extra money at age 25, Schoaf taught me to also let it serve as a new inspiration for lifestyle. To take my family to dinner after I'd had 2 or 3 pretty good weeks and it looked like it was going to continue. I would say, "Today we get to order from only the left hand side of the menu, we don't have to look at the right hand side". Didn't cost much, just a little extra. But you can't believe the effect on the family, wow, that these are new days.
  
  
• How Do You Attract Opportunity Into Your Life
  Someone recently asked me the question: "How can I have more opportunities come into my life?" Good question, but I think my answer surprised them a bit.
  
  
• How to Turn Nothing Into Something
  Have you ever wondered how to turn nothing into something?
  
  
• It is a Challenge to Succeed
  It is a challenge to succeed. If it were not, I'm sure more people would be successful, but for every person who is enjoying the fruit from the tree of success, many more are examining the roots. They are trying to figure it all out. They are mystified and perplexed by what seems to be some strange, complex and elusive secret that must be found if ever success is to be enjoyed.
  
  
• It Is Up To You
  One of the first things successful people realize is the old adage, "if it is to be, it is up to me." That is, for you, the fact that your success and your course is up to you. This doesn't mean that you do it all alone. It simply means that you take responsibility for your life and your career.
  
  
• Keep Track of Your Results
  Three key words to remember: weigh, count and measure.
  
  
• Keeping a Journal - One of the Three Treasures to Leave Behind
  If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual, keep a journal. Don't trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down. When you come across something important, write it down.
  
  
• Labor That Works Miracles
  Two thousand years ago on April 15th one of Jesus' disciples came to him and said it was time to pay taxes (that's how I know it was around April 15th), but they had no money. In response to his disciple's statement Jesus said "no problem". Now why could he say "no problem"? Well, word had it that Jesus was a miracle worker. If you hand a problem to a miracle worker what they are inclined to say is "no problem". You've got to hang out with people like that.
  
  
• Leading a World Class Life
  Every four years the world is given the gift of the Olympics. For a few weeks nations lay down their arms and come together to let their world class athletes compete on a level playing field to see who the best is in the many events. Such amazing athleticism was on display the past few weeks. It boggles the mind what these young men and women can accomplish with their bodies. Great feats of skill and determination bring them to the pinnacle of athletic achievement. Incredible
  
  
• Learn to Deal in Challenges
  To really help people in extraordinary ways, learn to deal in challenges. That is what sports is all about, challenges. That is what music is all about. The challenge to play so well, someone is inspired. The challenge to say it so well someone gets it. The challenge to be so gifted in language that someone sees it. Insight is unbelievable, only human beings can do this.
  
  
• Let It Be You
  Each and every day, there are people all around the country and world who are living their dreams. Millionaires are made every day. Families are experiencing tremendous relationships. People are becoming more and more healthy. Life-long learners are growing intellectually and improving their chances for success.
  
  
• Life is Art
  In my years teaching people to be successful, I have seen that basically people break their lives down in to two major parts: Wealth-building and the rest of their lives. Having done a lot of reflection on these two topics - wealth and life - I am coming to some new conclusions about how to perceive the two.
  
  
• Life Is Worthwhile If You
  What you don't know WILL hurt you. You have to have learning to exist, let alone succeed. Life is worthwhile if you learn from your own experiences, negative and positive. We learn to do it right by first sometimes doing it wrong. We call that a positive negative. We also learn from other people's experiences, both positive and negative. I've always said it is too bad failures don't give seminars. We don't want to pay them so they don't tour around giving seminars. But the information would be very valuable – how someone who had it all, messed it up. Learning from other people's experiences and mistakes.
  
  
• Love the Opportunity
  Somebody said you have to love what you do, but that's not necessarily true. What is true is that you have to love the opportunity. The opportunity to build life, future, health, success and fortune.
  
  
• Maintaining Honesty and Integrity
  For a leader, honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survival. A lot of business people don't realize how closely they're being watched by their subordinates. Remember when you were a kid in grammar school, how you used to sit there staring at your teacher all day? By the end of the school year, you could do a perfect imitation of all your teacher's mannerisms. You were aware of the slightest nuances in your teacher's voice - all the little clues that distinguished levels of meaning, that told you the difference between bluff and "now I mean business".
  
  
• Mr. Shoaff's Simple Strategies to Success
  My first mentor, Mr. Shoaff, over a six-year period from the time I was 25 to age 31, taught me some extraordinarily simple things, before his untimely passing at age 49. He only went through the 9th grade in school. He never finished high school, never went to college, never went to a university. So he put his experiences and ideas in very simple language, which, I think for me - kid from the farms of Idaho - was so important. When I would say, "This is all the company pays." Mr. Shoaff would say, "No, that is all they pay You." I thought, "That is a new to look at it." I told him things cost too much. But he said, "No, you can't afford them."
  
  
• Multiple Skills for the 21st Century
  I find it's important to not walk into the 21st Century without multiple skills. But what I also find is that if you are already in sales, network marketing or have an entrepreneurial business (or plan to in the future), you can gain the needed skills for the future while you create your income now.
  
  
• Nine Things More Important than Capital
  When starting any enterprise or business, whether it is full-time or part-time, we all know the value of having plenty of capital (money). But I bet we both know or at least have heard of people who started with no capital who went on to make fortunes. How? You may ask.
  
  
• Nitty-Gritty Reasons
  Wouldn't it be wonderful to be motivated to achievement by such a lofty goal as benevolence? I must confess, however, that in the early years of my struggle to succeed, my motivation was a lot more down-to-earth. My reason for succeeding was more basic. In fact, it fell into the category of what I like to call "nitty-gritty reasons." A nitty-gritty reason is the kind that any one of us can have -- at any time, on any day -- and it can cause our lives to change. Let me tell you what happened to me . . .
  
  
• Be Thankful for What You Already Have
  Is thankfulness a survival skill? Perhaps most of you would respond with, "No, Jim, thankfulness is not key to survival", and I would tend to agree with you. Most of us have probably already solved the necessary problems of survival, gone beyond that and are now working to achieve our desires. But let me give you this key phrase, "Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want." I believe one of the greatest and perhaps one of the simplest lessons in life we can learn is to be thankful for what we have already received and accomplished.
  
  
• Personal Development - The Plan
  The Plan - This week we'll talk about the plan. All good things in life are upstream, but the natural flow of life is that downward, negative pull. To combat that downward pull, you need a plan, a map to help you reach your desired destination. We'll talk about the plan and break down the keys to creating and following a successful plan.
  
  
• Personal Development Legend Jim Rohn Turns 70 and Still Going Strong
  Jim Rohn, noted leader and speaker in the personal development industry, recently celebrated his 70th birthday in international style - 21 birthday cakes in 15 different cities.
  
  
• Personal Philosophy is Like The Set of The Sail
  We have all experienced the blowing winds of disappointment, despair and heartbreak. Why, then, would each of us, in our own individual ship of life, all beginning at the same point, with the same intended destination in mind, arrive at such different places at the end of the journey? Have we not all been blown by the winds of circumstances and buffeted by the turbulent storms of discontent?
  
  
• Practice Being Like a Child
  Remember the master teacher once said 2000 years ago, "Unless you can become like little children, your chances are zero, you haven't got a prayer." A major consideration for adults. Be like children and remember there are four ways to be more like a child no matter how old you get.
  
  
• Preparation for Your Presentations
  Persistence in your presentations, this is one secret to success. After my first presentation, I got up and did it again. Even though I was scared to death, I did it again. And that second one wasn't too good, but guess what. I did it again, and I did it again. And I worked up my courage, and I did it again. I committed to it, and I did it again. And finally, it got to be a little bit easier. I got a little more acquainted with the art of presenting. So have something good to say in your presentations. Preparation for your presentations, this is another key aspect. Here are some words to help you in preparation.
  
  
• Profits Are Better Than Wages
  My mentor, when I was 25 years old, dropped a phrase on me that changed my life forever when he said, "profits are better than wages. Wages will make you a living, profits can make you a fortune."
  
  
• Read All the Books
  All of the books that we will ever need to make us as rich, as healthy, as happy, as powerful, as sophisticated and as successful as we want to be have already been written.
  
  
• Reaping a Multiple Reward
  For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards. That's one of life's great arrangements. In fact, it's an extension of the Biblical law that says that if you sow well, you will reap well.
  
  
• S-M-A-R-T Goals
  The only way we can reasonably decide what we want in the future and how we will get there, is to first know where we are right now and secondly, what our level of satisfaction is for where we are in life. As we focus this month on goal-setting, our first order of business and our topic two weeks ago was evaluation and reflection.
  
  
• Scolding: One of Communication's Tools of Last Resort
  You have to be very careful of scolding. Scolding, as a last resort, may be necessary but you must be very careful. Scolding someone is like giving them a cut, giving them a small cut with your words on the hand. Maybe it will serve its purpose, and the cut will heal and everything will be okay. You needed to get their attention. But you must not do it everyday, all the time.
  
  
• Skills Make Labor More Valuable
  As you know by now, if you have been a long time subscriber to our weekly E-zine, I'm a very big proponent of activity, labor and discipline. In fact I devoted one of the five major pieces to the life puzzle (in my book under the same name) to the subject of activity and labor. But now let me add another key word to the labor equation - skillful. Yes, skillful labor.
  
  
• Success Is Easy, But So Is Neglect
  People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter.
  
  
• Success Is Everything
  Someone once said to me that success isn't everything and I think I know what they really meant. I believe they really meant that money wasn't everything and I certainly agree with that. But I do believe that success IS everything.
  
  
• The Ant Philosophy
  I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That's a good philosophy. If they're headed somewhere and you try to stop them; they'll look for another way. They'll climb over, they'll climb under, they'll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you're supposed to go.
  
  
• The Best Gift to Give Yourself and Others
  I'm often asked the question, "How can I best help my children, spouse, family member, staff member, friend etc. improve/change?" In fact that might be the most frequently asked question I receive, "How can I help change someone else?"
  
  
• The First Step for Getting Better Results
  How dramatically we can change our results is largely a function of imagination. In 1960, it was a technological impossibility for man to travel into outer space. Within ten years, however, the first man stepped out onto the surface of the moon. The miraculous process of converting the dream into reality began when one voice challenged the scientific community to do whatever was necessary to see to it that America "places a man on the moon by the end of this decade."
  
  
• The Formula For Failure and Success
  Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.
  
  
• The Four Emotions that Can Lead to Life Change
  Emotions are the most powerful forces inside us. Under the power of emotions, human beings can perform the most heroic (as well as barbaric) acts. To a great degree, civilization itself can be defined as the intelligent channeling of human emotion. Emotions are fuel and the mind is the pilot, which together propel the ship of civilized progress.
  
  
• The Great Challenge of Life
  Here's the great challenge of life - You can have more than you've got because you can become more than you are.
  
  
• The Major Key to Your Better Future is You
  Of all the things that can have an effect on your future, I believe personal growth is the greatest. We can talk about sales growth, profit growth, asset growth, but all of this probably will not happen without personal growth. It's really the open door to it all. In fact I'd like to have you memorize a most important phrase. Here it is, "The major key to your better future is YOU."
  
  
• The Miracle of Personal Development
  One day Mr. Shoaff said, "Jim, if you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job."
  
  
• The Qualities of Skillful Leadership
  If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the great challenge of life.
  
  
• The Rose
  Lifestyle is style over amount. And style is an art - the art of living. You can't buy style with money. You can't buy good taste with money. You can only buy more with money. Lifestyle is culture - the appreciation of good music, dance, art, sculpture, literature, plays and the art of living well. It's a taste for the fine, the unique, the beautiful.
  
  
• The Seasons of Life, Part 1 of 5
  Life is about constant, predictable patterns of change. For the six thousand years of recorded history, as humans have entered this world, received parental instruction, classroom instruction, and gathered the experience of life; many have set for themselves ambitious goals, and dreamed lofty dreams.
  
  
• The Seasons of Life, Part 2 of 5
  This week we will begin our discussion of the four seasons. I'll start by making two comments. First, life and business are like the changing seasons. That's one of the best ways to illustrate life: it's like the seasons that change. Second, you cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself.
  
  
• The Seasons Of Life, Part 3 of 5
  This week we talk about spring. Fortunately, following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort.
  
  
• The Seasons Of Life, Part 4 of 5
  This week we will talk about the third major lesson in life to learn; how to nourish and protect your crops all summer. Sure enough, as soon as you've planted, the busy bugs and noxious weeds are out to take things over. Here is the next bit of truth: they will take it, unless you prevent it.
  
  
• The Seasons Of Life, Part 5 of 5
  Now, in our fifth and final week, we will talk about fall, the time of harvesting the fruits of our springtime labor. Fall also presents us with our forth major lesson to learn in life, and that is to learn how to reap in the fall without apology if you have done well and without complaint if you have not.
  
  
• The Secret to Success in 2004 (or any year)
  People often ask me how I became successful at the early age of 31, while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: During that 6-year period of time (age 25 to 31), the things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter.
  
  
• The Subtlety of Language
  I have found that sometimes the subtle difference in our attitude, which of course can make a major difference in our future, can be as simple as the language we use. The difference in even how you talk to yourself or others. Consciously making a decision to quit saying what you don't want and to start saying what you do want. I call that faith. Believing the best, hoping for the best and moving toward the best.
  
  
• The Time to Act
  Engaging in genuine discipline requires that you develop the ability to take action. You don't need to be hasty if it isn't required, but you don't want to lose much time either. Here's the time to act: when the idea is hot and the emotion is strong.
  
  
• The Two Choices We Face
  Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation. And the second choice?
  
  
• Thinking Like A Farmer
  One of the difficulties we face in our industrialized age is the fact we've lost our sense of seasons. Unlike the farmer whose priorities change with the seasons, we have become impervious to the natural rhythm of life. As a result, we have our priorities out of balance.
  
  
• Three Keys to Greatness
  Ten years ago I went into the studio and recorded a 56-minute video for teenagers called "Three Keys To Greatness." Although my focus was for teenagers, the principles I shared certainly apply to adults as well.
  
  
• Thriving Through the Holidays
  The holidays are upon us; a time of celebration and joy. I love the last days of November through the beginning of the New Year. The pure magic of the holidays is something that I anticipate and enjoy each and every year. For some though, the holidays have lost the joy and excitement they at other times have had. The pace of life has grown so fast - much faster than those first holidays I remember in my life - that some people don't enjoy the times they get to spend with their family and friends during what is supposed to be days filled with joy and peace.
  
  
• Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow
  The problem with waiting until tomorrow is that when it finally arrives, it is called today. Today is yesterday's tomorrow. The question is what did we do with its opportunity? All too often we will waste tomorrow as we wasted yesterday, and as we are wasting today. All that could have been accomplished can easily elude us, despite our intentions, until we inevitably discover that the things that might have been have slipped from our embrace a single, unused day at a time.
  
  
• Walking a New Road
  Here is a good question to ask yourself. Ten years from now you will surely arrive. The question is, where? We don't want to kid ourselves about where; we don't want to kid ourselves about the road we're walking.
  
  
• What Constitutes a Good Life?
  The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes. The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home. Here's the ultimate expression of life in my opinion, and that is living the good life. Here's what we must ask constantly, "What for me would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list. A list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation. What would constitute a good life? I've got a short list.
  
  
• Where Do You Go For Your Intellectual Feast?
  Pity the man who has a favorite restaurant, but not a favorite author. He's picked out a favorite place to feed his body, but he doesn't have a favorite place to feed his mind!
  
  
• Wherever You Are, Be There
  One of the major reasons why we fail to find happiness or to create unique lifestyle is because we have not yet mastered the art of being.
  
  
• You are a Genius - Unlocking the Power of the Mind
  This month we focus on accelerating our learning processes. How exciting! First, understand we possess the ability to improve and accelerate our learning curve. And second, this creates the potential of what we can continue to become. Wow! So let's get started. Here is an overview of the month.