Acting on Your Dream by Les Brown

I have not often admitted this, but I was inspired to become a public speaker by perhaps the worst motivational speaker I've ever heard in my life.

This fellow is still working, surprisingly, so I won't give his name. He was the opening speaker in a seminar I attended early in my speaking career and he nearly closed the show early with his monotone, unenthusiastic presentation. As he spoke, the room grew as quiet as a graveyard between funerals.

I went to sleep to be awakened by what could only be called courtesy applause for his presentation. You could make more noise clapping with one hand. After the less-than-stirring speech, I leaned over to the guy sitting next to me and said, “That was really boring." And he said, "You should be so boring for the kind of money he makes." The fellow told me this terrible speaker was making $5,000 for each terrible speech.

After hearing how much money a really bad speaker could make, I decided it was time for me to go after this dream. A few days later, I caught a Greyhound bus from Miami to Orlando, where I'd signed up for a seminar for beginners held by the National Speakers Association. It seemed like the bus ride took weeks. I know it took every last dollar I could scrape together. And so I was road-weary but eager to hear some inspiring, motivational and dynamic speaking when I finally took a seat at the event. But who should walk out to lead the first session but that same terrible $5,000-per-speech speaker? I could not believe it!

All that time on a stinking bus, stopping in every one-horse town between Miami and Orlando, to hear this guy again? I nearly got up and walked out. By the time he'd gotten halfway through his speech, nearly half the audience had fled. But I stayed on until the bitter end and the speaker's parting shot, as it turned out, was worth the price of admission. He obviously had noted the exodus of the audience and the drooping eyelids of those who remained because, as he built up to his anticlimax, he stopped suddenly, looked out at the remaining numbers of aspiring public speakers and said, "You know, the only reason that I am standing up here and you are sitting down there is that I represent the thoughts that you have rejected for yourself."

I don't know about the other dozen or so people in the audience, but Mr. Monotone hit me right between the eyes with that shot. It was true. He had acted upon something that I had only dreamt of doing. I'd spent years dreaming of becoming a public speaker. But dreaming was all I had done. This guy may not have had any talent for it. He may have been the most un-dynamic public speaker in history. But he was up there while I was still dreaming. And so that is how I became motivated to start a new career by perhaps the worst motivational speaker I have ever heard.

From Jim Rohn’s newsletter on learning to follow your own dreams and goals as a person not following that of others.

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How to Turn Nothing into Something

by Jim Rohn

Have you ever wondered how to turn nothing into something?

First, in order to turn nothing into something, you've got to start with some ideas and imagination. Now, it might be hard to call ideas and imagination nothing; but how tangible are those ideas? That is a bit of a mystery. I don't believe that ideas that can be turned into a hotel, ideas that can be turned into an enterprise, ideas that can be turned into a new vaccine or ideas that can be turned into some miracle product, should be called nothing. But tangibly, you have nothing. Interesting! Think of it; ideas that become so powerful in your mind and in your consciousness that they seem real to you even before they become tangible. Imagination that is so strong, you can actually see it.

When I built my first home for my family in Idaho all those years ago, before I started construction, I would take my friends and associates out to the vacant property and give them a tour of the house. Is that possible? Is it possible to take someone on a tour through an imaginary house? And the answer is, "Yes, of course." "Here is the three-car garage," I used to say, and my friends would look and say, "Yes, this garage will hold three cars. " I could really make it "live." I would take them on a tour throughout the house…. "Here is the fireplace, and look, this side is brick and the other side is stone." I could make it so real…. "Follow me through the rest of the house. Take a look through the picture window here in the kitchen, isn't the view great?" One day, I made the house so real that one of my friends bumped his elbow on the fireplace. I mean, it was that real.

So, the first step of turning nothing into something is to imagine the possibilities. Imagine all of the possibilities. One of the reasons for seminars, sermons, lyrics from songs and testimonials of others is to give us an idea of the possibilities; to help us imagine and to see the potential.

Now here is the second step for turning nothing into something: You must believe that what you imagine is possible for you. Testimonials, like "If I can do it, you can do it," often become a support to our belief. And we start believing. First we imagine it's possible. Second, we start to believe that what's possible is possible for us.

We might also believe because of our own testimonial. Here is what your testimonial might say: "If I did it once, I can do it again. If it happened for me before, it could very well happen again." So we believe not only the testimonials of others who say, "If I can do it, you can do it; If I can change, you can change; If I can start with nothing, you can start with nothing; If I can turn it all around, you can turn it all around." Then we also have the support of our own testimonial, if we've accomplished something before. "If we did it once, we can do it again. If we did it last year, we can do it this year." So those two things together are very powerful. Now, we do not have actual substance yet, although it is very close.

Again, step one is to imagine the possibilities. Step two is to imagine that what is possible is possible for you. Here is what we call step two: faith to believe. In fact, one writer said this, "Faith is substance." An interesting word: "substance," the powerful ability to believe in the possibilities that are possible for you. If you have faith to believe, that faith is substance, substance meaning "a piece of the real." Now it's not "the real," it's not this podium, but it is so powerful that it is very close to being real, and so the writer said, "The faith is a piece of, the substance of." He then goes on to call it evidence, substance and evidence. It is difficult to call substance and evidence "nothing." It is nothing in the sense that it cannot be seen except with the inner eye. You can't get a hold of it because it isn't yet tangible. But it is possible to turn nothing, especially ideas and imaginations, into something if you believe that it is now possible for you. That substance and evidence becomes so powerful that it can now be turned into reality.

So the first step is to imagine what is possible, the second is to have the faith to believe that what is possible is possible for you. And now the third step is that you go to work to make it real. You go to work to make it a hotel. You go to work to make it an enterprise. You go to work and make it good health. You go to work and make it an association. You go to work and make it a good marriage. You go to work and make it a movement. You make it tangible. You make it viable. You breathe life into it and then you construct it. That is such a unique and powerful ability for all of us human beings. Put this to work and start the miracle process today!

From Jim Rohn’s newsletter on turning something into nothing. Wow a powerful article.

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Vitamins for the Mind by Jim Rohn

Education/Learning

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

We must learn to apply all that we know so that we can attract all that we want.

Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.

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.

Don’t see the mind for more than it is, but don’t misread it for all that it can be.

Sharpen your interest in two major subjects: life and people. You will only gather information from a source if you are interested in it.

Education must precede motivation.

While you are in school, make sure you get the information. What you think about it, that’s up to you. What you are going to do with it that will soon be up to you. But while you are there, make sure you get it. In fact, my advice is, don’t leave school without it!

Never begrudge the money you spend on your own education.

If you step up the self-education curve, you will come up with more answers than you can use.

"Vitamins for the Mind" is a weekly sampling of original quotes on a specific topic taken from The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn. The burgundy hardbound book with gold-foil lettering is a collection of more than 365 quotes on 60 topics gathered from Jim's personal journals, seminars and books and spanning more than 40 years. Click here to order The Treasury of Quotes.

From Jim Rohn’s Newsletter on self education and educating ourselves.

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"Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got." —Jim Rohn

"Let's start with what we can be thankful for, and get our mind into that vibration, and then watch the good that starts to come. Because one good thought leads to another good thought.
Bob Proctor
Author and Speaker
From Insight of the Day emails