Speaker 1: One of the greatest temptations is to just ease up
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 2: The slightest lack of doing.
Speaker 1: Your best starts to erode the psyche. Instead of doing
Speaker 1: your best, doing just a little less than your best.
Speaker 1: Sure enough, you say, well, it's just going to affect myself. No,
Speaker 1: it's going to affect your consciousness.
Speaker 2: It's going to affect your philosophy.
Speaker 1: Now you've begun in the slightest way to affect your
Speaker 1: own philosophy. You've got to get excited over some very
Speaker 1: basic things. One is get excited over your ability to
Speaker 1: make yourself do the necessary things. Because discipline is major
Speaker 1: step one toward personal progress, and anytime a person wishes to,
Speaker 1: they can make major changes in their life personally and
Speaker 1: socially and financially. It doesn't ever have to be the
Speaker 1: same after today, No telling what you.
Speaker 2: Could do today if you really wish to. The act
Speaker 2: of murder.
Speaker 1: Is a clear indication that a person, in one drastic act,
Speaker 1: can forever change the course of their life. It just
Speaker 1: happens to be in the negative direction. What I would
Speaker 1: ask you to do starting today is get excited about
Speaker 1: committing an act, an act that's positive, an act that's constructive.
Speaker 1: To make the changes in your life that you want made,
Speaker 1: and to go the direction that you want to go.
Speaker 1: Make your failures give birth to great opportunity, not prolonged agony.
Speaker 1: Make your disgust lead to inspiration, not depression. The world
Speaker 1: will willingly sit by and let you wallow in your
Speaker 1: sorrows until you die broken alone. And here's what else
Speaker 1: the world will do. The world will step aside and
Speaker 1: let you buy once you decide that your present situation
Speaker 1: is only temporary, Once you decide to get back on
Speaker 1: your feet and make your mark, the world doesn't care
Speaker 1: which choice you make to stop here or to go on.
Speaker 2: The world doesn't really care, So you have to.
Speaker 1: You have to care in your own enlightened self interest.
Speaker 1: Give a run at adventure, keep your eyes firmly on
Speaker 1: the achievement on your ambition and not merely existence and
Speaker 1: self pity. You got to get going, You got to
Speaker 1: take action. The disciplines is the miracle process. And here's
Speaker 1: how to get the miracle of your future going. As
Speaker 1: far as disciplines are concerned, Number one, do what you can.
Speaker 1: You might go home and set a whole new pace
Speaker 1: for yourself and recall it cleaning up neglect.
Speaker 2: Should walk around the block. Could walk around the block
Speaker 2: for your good health.
Speaker 1: Don't walk around the block. See you're on the wrong track.
Speaker 1: Should read, could read, don't read?
Speaker 2: On the wrong track.
Speaker 1: Should call, could call, don't call?
Speaker 2: On the wrong track? Could change, should change, don't change.
Speaker 2: You're on the wrong track.
Speaker 1: Letters you haven't written, Conversations you have with your family,
Speaker 1: somebody you should sit down with when you get back home.
Speaker 2: Get that job done. Don't let neglect destroy.
Speaker 1: Your days, destroy your life, and destroy your future. Go
Speaker 1: back and do what you can. And if you'll do
Speaker 1: what you can, then life will give you some extraordinary
Speaker 1: things to do. Make a commitment to excellence. This is
Speaker 1: called the possibility for life. Change starts with education. Don't
Speaker 1: be lazy in learning, don't be lazy in picking up
Speaker 1: the ideas. Don't be lazy in learning from your own experience.
Speaker 1: Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning
Speaker 1: of life change. We're all aware that many people feel
Speaker 1: that we must be careful when focusing on money or
Speaker 1: affluence or abundance, that in the pursuit of those things
Speaker 1: there is danger.
Speaker 2: And I do agree.
Speaker 1: If you make money, your love and pursue affluence to
Speaker 1: the exclusion of other values in life life you have
Speaker 1: lost not one. However, let's consider this question, if you
Speaker 1: could do better financially, should you? That's not a bad
Speaker 1: question in the time you've allotted to labor, economics, success, achievement, productivity,
Speaker 1: the creation of value, the development of skills, and creativity.
Speaker 2: If you could do better, should you?
Speaker 1: I think that one of the greatest satisfactions of living
Speaker 1: life to the fullest is doing the best you can
Speaker 1: with whatever you have. Doing less than your best has
Speaker 1: ways of eroding the psyche. We seem to be creatures
Speaker 1: of enterprise. Surely this is the reason for the seasons.
Speaker 1: The soil, and the sun, and the rain and the
Speaker 1: seed all seem to say, what can you do with us?
Speaker 1: Do you have the genius to make something unique of us?
Speaker 1: Life says, here is the raw material? What splendid things
Speaker 1: can you produce from all there is? So go for
Speaker 1: high productivity, the full use of your genius, the full
Speaker 1: development of your potential in all areas of your life,
Speaker 1: including earning money. That is the essence of an enterprising life.
Speaker 1: I've decided that enterprise is better than ease. If you
Speaker 1: rest too long the weeds take over the garden in
Speaker 1: the summer. Life doesn't stand still, and random negativity will
Speaker 1: start overwhelming the positive arrangements of life if you just
Speaker 1: let things go. So we've all got to have a
Speaker 1: positive attitude about activity. Let me give you one of
Speaker 1: the best examples I know. An ancient phrase states, whatever
Speaker 1: your hands find to do, do it with all your might.
Speaker 1: That's a powerful philosophy. Many people are getting by with
Speaker 1: using half their might. That may be their own personal
Speaker 1: philosophy of activity. But how much more could they achieve
Speaker 1: if they used all of their might.
Speaker 2: You've got to evaluate that.
Speaker 1: Question for yourself and apply it to your own life.
Speaker 1: Put it on your mental scale well, and come up
Speaker 1: with your own answers of how it applies to you.
Speaker 1: How should you live your life? Are you working to
Speaker 1: your full potential? Now I'm teaching children about the ant philosophy.
Speaker 1: I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing
Speaker 1: four part philosophy. And here is the first part. Ants
Speaker 1: never quit. That's a good philosophy. If they're headed somewhere
Speaker 1: and you try to stop them, they'll look for another way.
Speaker 1: They'll climb over, they'll climb under, they'll climb around.
Speaker 2: They keep looking for another way.
Speaker 1: What a neat philosophy to never quit looking for a
Speaker 1: way to get where you're supposed to go. Second, ants
Speaker 1: think winter all summer. That's an important perspective. You can't
Speaker 1: be so naive as to think summer will last forever.
Speaker 1: An ancient story says, don't build your house on the
Speaker 1: sand in the summer. Why do we need that advice,
Speaker 1: Because it's important to be realistic in the summer. You've
Speaker 1: got to think storm. You've got to think rocks as
Speaker 1: you enjoy the sand and sun.
Speaker 2: Think ahead.
Speaker 1: The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants
Speaker 1: think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter,
Speaker 1: ants remind themselves this won't last long. We'll soon be
Speaker 1: out of here. And the first warm day the ants
Speaker 1: are out. If it turns cold again, they'll dive back down.
Speaker 1: But then they come out the first warm day. They
Speaker 1: can't wait to get out. This philosophy applies to leadership skills.
Speaker 1: Average people look forward to getting off of work, while
Speaker 1: successful people look forward to getting on with it. Once
Speaker 1: you switch from wanting to quit to wanting to work harder,
Speaker 1: you start to transform your life into the activity here's
Speaker 1: the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will
Speaker 1: an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter,
Speaker 1: all that he possibly can?
Speaker 2: What an incredible philosophy.
Speaker 1: The all that you possibly can philosophy. Ants can surely
Speaker 1: teach us a lot when it comes to working hard.
Speaker 1: An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile
Speaker 1: of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture.
Speaker 1: An enterprising person is one who drives through an old,
Speaker 1: decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development.
Speaker 1: An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all
Speaker 1: areas of life. To be enterprising is to keep your
Speaker 1: eyes open and your mind active. It's to be skilled enough,
Speaker 1: confident enough, creative enough, and disciplined enough to seize opportunities
Speaker 1: that present themselves, regardless of the economy. An enterprising mortgage
Speaker 1: banker will develop creative financing strategies during slow markets. An
Speaker 1: enterprising lawyer will study new laws and market herself to
Speaker 1: people who may need help in those areas. An enterprising
Speaker 1: salesman will do extra research to find new prospects for
Speaker 1: his products or services. He will isolate a secondary market
Speaker 1: and develop another benefit for his customers. A person with
Speaker 1: an enterprising attitude says, find out what you can before
Speaker 1: action is taken. Do your homework, do the research, be prepared,
Speaker 1: be resourceful, do all you can in preparation of what's
Speaker 1: to come. Think of a few people you know who
Speaker 1: are enterprising. Think of people in the news, in your office,
Speaker 1: in your neighborhood. What do these people have in common. Well,
Speaker 1: they're probably always on the go, developing a plan, following
Speaker 1: a plan, wrooking the plan.
Speaker 2: Until it fits.
Speaker 1: They're probably very resourceful, never letting anything get in their way.
Speaker 1: They probably don't understand the word no when it applies
Speaker 1: to their visions of the future, and when faced with
Speaker 1: a problem, they probably say, let's figure out a way
Speaker 1: to make it work instead of it won't work. Enterprising
Speaker 1: people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people
Speaker 1: will always find a way to take advantage of a situation,
Speaker 1: not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren't lazy.
Speaker 1: They don't wait for opportunities to come to them. They
Speaker 1: go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way
Speaker 1: to keep yourself actively working towards your ambition. Enterprise requires
Speaker 1: two things. The first is creativity. You need creativity to
Speaker 1: see what's out there and to shape it to your advantage.
Speaker 1: You need creativity to look at the world a little differently.
Speaker 1: You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.
Speaker 1: What goes hand in hand with the creativity of enterprise
Speaker 1: is the second requirement, the courage. To be creative, you
Speaker 1: need courage to see things differently, Courage to go against
Speaker 1: the crowd, Courage to take a different approach, Courage to
Speaker 1: stand alone. If you have to, courage to choose activity
Speaker 1: over inactivity. How much activity you pursue generally relates to
Speaker 1: how you feel about yourself.
Speaker 2: How valuable are you?
Speaker 1: What could you do if you had all the skills,
Speaker 1: if you took the classes, read the books, and burn
Speaker 1: the midnight oil, what could you do? What true value
Speaker 1: could you develop? This is a good exercise. Ask yourself,
Speaker 1: what could I become? What could I really do in
Speaker 1: the marketplace? In enterprise, family, home, experience, love, friendship, marriage?
Speaker 1: How valuable could I become? Am I valuable enough to
Speaker 1: work on what's not working so I can reach my
Speaker 1: full capacity? If I'm operating at twenty percent, What could
Speaker 1: I possibly do with the other eighty percent. Once you
Speaker 1: start understanding how valuable you are, you will have many
Speaker 1: new experiences. That's why the understanding of self worth plays
Speaker 1: a major role in our ability to be enterprising. Our
Speaker 1: self worth makes the difference between being lazy and being active.
Speaker 1: If we don't feel good about ourselves, we won't feel
Speaker 1: good about our lives.
Speaker 2: And if we don't feel.
Speaker 1: Good about our lives, we won't be very interested in
Speaker 1: looking for opportunities. So you see, being enterprising doesn't just
Speaker 1: relate to the ability to make money. Being enterprising also
Speaker 1: means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self worth
Speaker 1: to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make
Speaker 1: a difference in your future.
Speaker 2: Enterprise is always better than ease.
Speaker 1: Every time we choose to do less than we possibly can,
Speaker 1: it affects our self confidence. If we keep doing a
Speaker 1: little less every day, we are also becoming a little
Speaker 1: less every day. Can you imagine what you'd end up
Speaker 1: being after ten years of doing a little less every day.
Speaker 1: It's devastating think about it. Doing less could ruin your life.
Speaker 1: You can reverse this process by using your self direction,
Speaker 1: your self reliance, your self discipline. You can alter your
Speaker 1: life by doing a little more each day. Pretty soon
Speaker 1: you'll develop a new habit of doing rather than not doing.
Speaker 1: And what will days and weeks and months of doing
Speaker 1: a little more ultimately do for you? It will increase
Speaker 1: your confidence, your courage, your creativity, and your self worth,
Speaker 1: your enterprising nature. Enjoying true business success requires you to
Speaker 1: set careful priorities. Sometimes priorities are determined by the season.
Speaker 1: For a farmer, the season dictates his most important activities.
Speaker 1: During the spring, a farmer must work around the clock,
Speaker 1: burn the midnight oil, and keep the equipment running because
Speaker 1: he only has this small window of time for the
Speaker 1: planting of his crops. One of the difficulties of living
Speaker 1: in an industrialized society is the loss of the sense
Speaker 1: of seasons. When to pour it on, when to ease back,
Speaker 1: when to take advantage.
Speaker 2: It's easy to keep.
Speaker 1: Going from nine to five year in and year out
Speaker 1: and lose a natural sense of priorities and appropriate time.
Speaker 1: Don't let one year just blend into the next. Keep
Speaker 1: an eye on your own seasons less you lose track
Speaker 1: of values and substance. Part of setting priorities is learning
Speaker 1: to separate major activities from minor activities. This is a
Speaker 1: whole skill in itself, but once you have learned it,
Speaker 1: it will pay dividends you won't believe. So learn to
Speaker 1: put everything on your mental scales to be fully weighed
Speaker 1: before you spend time or money. And here's a good
Speaker 1: question to ask yourself constantly, is this a major or
Speaker 1: minor activity? By asking that question, you will reduce the
Speaker 1: amazingly natural tendency to spend major time on minor things.
Speaker 1: In sales training, we are taught that major time is
Speaker 1: the time spent in the presence of the prospect, while
Speaker 1: minor time is the time spent the way to the prospect.
Speaker 1: If you're not careful, you will spend more time on
Speaker 1: the way too than in the presence of. So in
Speaker 1: sales we teach don't go across town until you've gone
Speaker 1: across the street. Wouldn't it be wise to ask yourself
Speaker 1: how much time am I spending in the presence of
Speaker 1: and how much time on the way to majors and minors?
Speaker 1: What a great discipline to exercise. You also don't want
Speaker 1: to spend minor time on major things. It's easy to
Speaker 1: get values mixed up. If a man spends three hours
Speaker 1: watching TV and only thirty minutes playing with his kids.
Speaker 1: Something is probably out of line there, right, Don't spend
Speaker 1: major money on minor things. If you spend more on
Speaker 1: candy than on programs or books, wouldn't that be foolish?
Speaker 1: So set careful priorities. Do it like your life depends
Speaker 1: on it, because it does.