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Jim Rohn
Do something different the next 90 days than you did the last 90 days, like picking up the books to read. Do something different, like the new health disciplines, relationship with your family. Whatever it is, doesn't matter how small it is, you'll start doing different things with the same circumstances. Since we cannot change the circumstances, but we can change ourselves, we can change what we do. And then he gave me another secret to success. Success. When he said, what you have at the moment. Mr. Own, you've attracted by the person you've become. What you have at the moment you've attracted by the person you've become.
Narrator/Host
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Jim Rohn
Few little simple principles here. Once you understand these, it starts to explain so much. Now sometimes it's a little tough to take blaming yourself instead of the marketplace taking responsibility instead of putting it off on someone else. Those that transition sometimes is a challenging mission and this one was a little tough for me.
Audience Member/Interviewer
He said.
Jim Rohn
Mr. And you've got pennies in your pocket. You've got nothing in the bank. The creditors are calling, you're behind on your promises. He says, here's how that occurs. You've attracted up until now, you've attracted the things to you because of the person you've become. Now.
Audience Member/Interviewer
I said, well, how can I change all that?
Jim Rohn
He said, very simple. If you will change, everything will change for you. You don't have to change what's outside. All you've got to change is what's inside. To have more, you simply have to become more. And then he said, don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Start working on yourself, making these personal changes. And he said, it'll all change for you. Shoaff said, here's the secret. Mr. Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Once I got that, it turned my life around. Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. He said, if you work hard on your job, you'll make a living. If you work hard on yourself, you can make a fortune. If you would have known me at age 25, you would have said, jim Rohn's a hard worker. If you'd have known me, you'd have said that I'm the guy. I don't mind coming a little bit early, staying a little bit late. I don't mind that. Have said, well, Jim Rohn's a hard worker.
Audience Member/Interviewer
You say, well, how come he's got
Jim Rohn
pennies in his pocket and nothing in the bank and behind on his promises? Well, I was a hard worker, but I was working hard on my job, not on myself. I'm telling you, if you'll learn that simple little principle and start the process today, latest tomorrow, give you tonight to think it over and start this whole process of personal development. Work on yourself, you make yourself more valuable to the marketplace. I'm telling you, you can so dynamically change your income and economics is the least of the values that you can start earning in terms of equity. If you'll start working harder on yourself than you do on your job, work hard on your skills, work hard on yourself and develop the graces, all of the stuff necessary to become more valuable to the marketplace. I'm telling you, your whole life can explode into change. Promotions, no problem. Becoming more valuable to the company. I'm telling you, no problem. Money, no problem. Economics, no problem. Future, no problem if you just go to work on the right thing, not get things out there to change. Don't try to change the seed, don't change the soil, don't change the sunshine, don't change the rain, don't change the mix of seasons. Let the miracle of everything that's available work for you and start working on the inside. Work on your philosophy, work on your attitude, work on your personality, work on your language, work on the gift of communication, work on all of your abilities and if you'll start making those personal changes, I'm telling you, everything will change for you.
Mr. Shoaff, over a five year period before he died at age 49, who taught me some extraordinarily simple things. He only went to the ninth grade in school, never finished high school, never went to college, never went to university. So he put his ideas and his experiences in very simple language, which I think for me, you know, kid from the farms of Idaho, that simplicity was so important because if it would have been technical, I'd have missed it. If it would have been mystic, I, you know, I would have, you know, backed away. But it was just basic blunt, ABC
Audience Member/Interviewer
familiar stuff that I hadn't thought of before.
Jim Rohn
And he did start to remind me and those ideas changed my life. Mr. Shoaff was the one when I said, you know, this is all they pay. He said, you've been working six years, Mr. Own, how come you're not doing better? And I said, this is all the company pays. He says, well that's not true. I said, no, this is my paycheck, this is all the company pays. He said, no, this is all the company pays you. I thought, that's a new way to
Audience Member/Interviewer
look at it, right?
Jim Rohn
He said, doesn't the company pay 2,
3, 4, 5 times this amount to other people? I said, well, yes. He said, well, then this is not all the company pays. It's all they pay you. And if you qualified, wouldn't your income grow 2, 3, 4, 5 times? I said, I suppose so. He said, we don't have to work on the company. We have to work on you.
Audience Member/Interviewer
See, that was the beginning of what
Jim Rohn
he called the phrase personal development. I told him things cost too much. He said, no, you can't afford them. I thought, well, that's a new concept.
Audience Member/Interviewer
I hadn't thought about that.
Jim Rohn
You know, we put some of the valuable things on the high shelf so you can't get to them until you qualify. If you want the things on the higher shelf, you got to stand on the books you read. Every book you read, you get to stand a little higher so you can get the things on the higher shelf. See, I learned those concepts. It was so incredible. And here was the most important one. Success is something you attract by the person you become. See, that phrase changed my life. Success is something you attract by the person you become. Success is not something you pursue. It's like chasing a butterfly. You can't quite catch it. Success is something you attract by becoming an attractive person. See, those were new concepts to me. I'm just working hard, trying to make a living. Here's what he said to me. This changed my life. I got a chance to teach this in Moscow and across Russia.
Audience Member/Interviewer
Three visits.
Jim Rohn
Now the fourth. Here's what Shof taught me. Profits are better than wages. Nobody taught me that in high school. Nobody taught me that. I went to one year of college. No, nobody taught me Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living. Profits make you a fortune. And how could you work on both a living and a fortune? He said, well, you could start part time working on your fortune while you're working full time on your living. I thought, wow. Now he said, it's fun to get up in the morning. Not just getting up, go to work to pay the rent,
Audience Member/Interviewer
but to get
Jim Rohn
up, to go to work, to make a fortune. First, to make a living for my family. Second, to make a fortune. And he taught me how to make both a living and a fortune. Guess what I did? I learned how to make both a living and a fortune. And I found out anybody could do it once they get the information. And at age 25, I started receiving this extraordinary information. Here's what he said. Your income is directly related to your philosophy, not to the economy. I thought no one ever told me that. I kept hoping the economy would change. He said, no, your philosophy has to change. I assured him that I had my fingers crossed. He said, that won't help. Then what could I do to change my income? And multiplied by 2, by 3, by 5, by 10, and then multiplied by 10 again, what could I do? And he started giving me the disciplines and the process of learning the skills to change my life. This was an extraordinary man. Those were extraordinary times for me. Life changing in every manner that you can imagine, but very simple ABC concepts. Here's what I learned. Not to search for the exotic until you've discovered the basic. And those basic philosophies that he shared with me during that time were life changing.
Audience Member/Interviewer
Success is something you attract by the person you become. Success is not something you pursue, chase, run after. Success is something you develop, something you become. You attract success. So the whole key to unlock all the treasures, whether it's economic treasures or spiritual treasures, financial, social, personal, every way you can possibly think of is by your own personal development. Then he added one more which is so important, and it's probably worth the price of the seminar. Here it is. What you become is much more valuable than what you get. What you become is much more valuable than what you get. The major question to ask on the job is not what am I getting here? The major question to ask on the job is what am I becoming here?
Jim Rohn
Not what am I getting, what am I becoming?
Audience Member/Interviewer
So it's very important what you become, because what you become attracts. If you become cynical, you attract cynicism. What you become attracts. So this whole subject of personal development was so vitally important to me.
Jim Rohn
It changed my life.
Audience Member/Interviewer
I was a millionaire by age 31.
Jim Rohn
And that was just the economic part of it.
Audience Member/Interviewer
Took me six years from age 25 to age 31. It was unbelievable. Remember, be a student, not a follower. And here's what you must always do. Design your own personal life. I'm very happy for people to take notes in my seminar. But I'm also just as happy if somebody says, hey, this is not for me. Tear up all these notes and throw them away. That's just as valid for me, right? Remember, be no one's disciple. Chart your own course. Make what you do the product of your own conclusion. What I'm saying here is, be your own person. You don't have to be a model of someone else. You don't have to do it like anybody else.
Jim Rohn
Right?
Audience Member/Interviewer
Do it like yourself. Buy what you want to buy. Listen to what you want to listen to. Make changes if you want to make changes. And don't make changes. Right? It's your life, I'm telling you. And don't let anybody persuade you any different. Success is not a stereotype. Success is not a Ferrari. Success is not an automobile.
Jim Rohn
It's not a house, it's not a place.
Audience Member/Interviewer
It's not money in the bank. It's not a million dollars. That's not success. Success is the continual unfolding of the design of your own life and pulling it off. That's what success is. The continual unfolding of the design of your own personal life and pulling it off in whatever degree you wish. That is success. Successful in doing whatever you want to do that makes sense to you for you, your family, your responsibilities. Or take on responsibilities or refuse responsibilities. That's strictly all up to you. We've been given the power of choice. Every life form except human beings operates by instinct in the genetic code. Now, why not human beings? Because here it is. We've been given the dignity of choice. We're not like a robot. We're not stuck like a tree, using up all the nourishment, nothing left. Now you die because you can't change location. Not true. Humans can go north, south, east, west. Humans can change, do anything they want to do. We've been given the dignity. But here's what's interesting about all life form except humans. Every life form except humans strives to the max of its potential. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. You never heard of a tree grown half as high as it could? No. No, that is impossible. A tree grows as high as it can, drives down every root it can, produces every leaf it can, extends itself as far as it possibly can. Every life form extends to the max, except human beings. Now, why not human beings? Because we're not robots. We've been given the dignity of choice. And here's a couple of alternatives on the dignity of choice. To be part of, or all of you have the potential to be. And you got the choice. Do a little to make yourself comfortable and forget the rest, or do it all and there's nobody here to dictate. You got to do it all. That's nonsense. You got to be rich because we live in a rich country. That's nonsense. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to do it all. You can do a little, do some, do some more. Take advice, but don't take orders, Take information, take training, take teaching, but don't take orders from no one. That tells you how you need to live and what you need to own and what you need to do. Somebody says, well, you need to be successful. That's a personal choice, being successful. What we teach is the possibilities of possibilities. And everybody chooses. Take a little, take a lot, do some, do nothing. Abraham Lincoln said, since I would be no one's slave, I will be no one's master. Excellent philosophy. If a guy says, hey, I'm soon cashing it in, I'm heading for the mountains, I'm going to live in a little cabin, live off the land and feed the squirrels. If he goes and does that, guess what? He's a smashing success. Why he's doing what he designed to do and went and did it and pulled it off. You can't say no, no, that's not successful. That is. The epitome of success is giving a design to your life and go pull it off. Making progress in that direction that satisfies you. If it doesn't satisfy you, make alternatives and you change. And if you get some better ideas, sure, you may follow someone's suggestion and ideas, but not orders. Design your own life like you want it. That will fit. Now, if you take on some responsibilities now, you got to consider those. Yes, you can ignore your responsibilities, but you won't feel good about that. Guess what? The old prophet said, Some things that taste good now in the mouth turns bitter later in the belly. So you don't want to sacrifice. We all must suffer one of two pains. Regardless of your choice of lifestyle and what you want to do, we must all suffer one of two pains. The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. And what we suggest, everybody, is to consider the disciplines. Because disciplines weigh ounces, regrets weigh tons of. You don't want to substitute a discipline for a regret. In our opinion, that would be a poor choice. Now you can do it, but some things are poor. Trade offs. The old prophet said, what if you gained the whole world but it cost you your soul? Would that be worth it? And with a bit of intelligence we say no, that doesn't seem worth it. Even if you got the whole world, if you traded your soul, that experience would be so bitter and so awful and so devastating it wouldn't be worth it. What if you got some gain by greed instead of legitimate ambition? I'm telling you, it might taste good up front, but it's going to turn bitter in the belly. And a bit of that advice saves some people from devastation, say, well, you're right. I better think twice about that. So we must confront all laws, spiritual laws, agricultural laws, basic laws, fundamental laws. We must confront all of those. But you still now can design your own life. A little, a lot. Go east, north, south, okay?
Date: April 24, 2025
Podcast: JIM ROHN | Host: Jim Rohn Talks
In this episode, Jim Rohn delivers his signature wisdom on personal growth, self-discipline, and the philosophy of success. The central theme revolves around taking responsibility for your own improvement, focusing on personal development over external circumstances, and understanding that small steps and internal changes pave the way to greater achievements. Drawing from his own life story, including the pivotal influence of his mentor Earl Shoaff, Rohn unpacks the essential principles behind lasting transformation and practical success.
Jim Rohn’s tone is direct, encouraging, and thought-provoking. He frequently uses memorable metaphors and stories—like standing on books to reach new heights, or the tree growing to its full potential—to make his lessons accessible and actionable. His narrative draws repeatedly on simple, “ABC” principles, making profound insights easy to grasp for listeners at any stage of personal development.
"Small Steps" underscores that transformation and success don’t require major shifts in circumstances, but rather consistent, incremental self-improvement. The timeless message: work on yourself, value personal development above external factors, and design your own life with the power of choice. The episode is a moving reminder that discipline today prevents regret tomorrow, and that becoming more is the surest route to having more.