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00:00So let's talk about setting goals. Mr. Shoaff gave me some tips on setting goals that changed
00:05my life forever. And I want to share those with you. We need to take a look into the future.
00:12There are four things to consider in terms of attitude. One is how you feed the past.
00:20Best advice I can give you on that is treat the past as a school. Let it teach you the
00:24mistakes
00:24you've made, the things that went wrong, the things that didn't work. Don't use the past
00:28as a burden to carry and don't use the past as a club to beat yourself to death.
00:33Past losses, past failures, past mistakes. But let the past be a school, tough school maybe. We've
00:39all been through some tough stuff. So if you feel good about the past, draw from it for experience
00:45and let it teach you. Then next is how you feel about the future. We've got to have the future
00:52well designed. The future is called the promise. And here's what we teach in our leadership
00:58series. The promise of the future can be an awesome force for your own future. The promise
01:06of the future, designing the future. There's two ways to face the future. One is with apprehension
01:12and the other is with anticipation. I promise you in my travels around the world,
01:17most people face the future with apprehension. And here's why they don't have it well designed.
01:23They've sort of left that up to someone else to fix. But here's the best way to face the future
01:28with
01:28anticipation. And you can in, you can face the future with anticipation if the future is clear,
01:35if the future is well designed. And I would like to have you consider some thoughts with me that help
01:43me
01:44to really change my future by giving it some thought and some consideration.
01:50And here it is. In setting goals, it's very simple. Number one, decide what you want.
01:56You just take a little time. You sit down and say, what do I want? What kind of skills do
02:01I want?
02:01What kind of income do I want for the future? What would I like? Where would I like to go?
02:07Places I'd like to visit, uh, habits I'd like to acquire, skills I'd like to have.
02:14You just take a little time to think about what you want. Economics, friendships, people you'd like
02:20to meet, places you'd like to go. You just take some time. And then I suggest when you've thought
02:25about what you want for the future, make a list. Just jot it all down. It's really a very simple
02:32process. And then here's number three. Keep all the old lists. I'm telling you this served me so well,
02:40keeping my old list of goals. I look back now 10, 20 years ago at goals I set, lists I
02:47made,
02:47and I smile now because here's what I thought was so important, you know, 20 years ago. Now some of
02:53those things aren't even on my list. I've got a new list. I've grown, I've changed, I've matured.
02:59But I give you that advice. Decide what you want. Number two, write it down. Number three,
03:03keep the old lists. And then here's number four. When you get something that's on one of these lists,
03:09check it off. Part of the fun of having a list is checking it off. And then if you can
03:14add some drama
03:15to checking it off, see, that's what really helps. I set a goal to go to Spain many, many years
03:21ago.
03:22And when I finally made my first trip to Spain, I had that journal with me that had that list
03:27in it.
03:28And while I had my journal on my lap, waiting for the wheels to touch down in Madrid,
03:34I waited until the wheels touched the runway and I checked it off. Just adding a little drama.
03:40So part of the fun of having a list is checking it off. Now, here's what's important about the lists
03:46and designing your future. If the future gets clear, the price gets easier. Because you got to remember,
03:56for every promise, there's a price to pay. Everybody's got to pay the price. Everybody's got to do the deal.
04:04Everybody's got to do the disciplines. Everybody has to pay. But here's what I've discovered. If the
04:10promise is clear and powerful, the price is easy to pay. The price is some classes. The price is a
04:18few
04:18books. The price is a few disciplines. The price is finding something that'll make your life better,
04:23make you grow, make you change, make you develop. So the first part of the key is to design the
04:28promise.
04:28Then what is the price to pay? I'm telling you, the price will be easy. Anybody in my audience can
04:35pay,
04:36no matter where you are, where you come from. Color doesn't matter. Religion doesn't matter.
04:40Where you grew up doesn't matter. Circumstances don't matter. I'm telling you,
04:43if you'll make the promise of the future clear for yourself, the things you want, the places you want
04:49to go, the things you want to have, the person you want to become, the skills you want,
04:53the homes you want, the future you want, the friends you want, all of the values of life that
04:58you could possibly want. If you'll make that clear, make those lists and be serious about it. I promise
05:04you it's an easy price to pay. Anybody can pay it. And the best advice I can give you is
05:10if I can do it,
05:11you can do it. Farm boy from Idaho raised in obscurity. I changed my life, turned it upside down,
05:17turned it all around, found economics, found future, found promise. And if I can do it,
05:22you can do it. So start setting your goals and see if you can't get a better excitement going
05:30for the things you want to accomplish for the future. Now, here's my third subject,
05:35and that's called financial independence. Oh, by the way, before I get to financial independence,
05:42let me cover one more point. One of the major reasons for setting goals is for what they make
05:48of you in achieving them. My teacher advised me when I first got started at age 25. He said,
05:56Jim, why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire? He said, it's got a nice ring to it.
06:03You know, enough zeros to impress your accountant. And he said, I'm here to help you.
06:09You're only 25 years old. You've been to one year of college. You've got a beautiful family,
06:13every reason to do it. Why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire? And he said, here's why.
06:19And I thought, he doesn't need to teach me why. Wouldn't it be nice to have a million dollars?
06:24He said, no, then you'll miss it. He said, here's why. For what it will make of you
06:30to achieve it. I'm telling you that statement changed my life.
06:36He said, set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them.
06:40He said, now, once you become a millionaire, what's important is not the money.
06:43I thought, that's kind of strange teaching. He said, honest, it isn't important. He said,
06:48you could just give the money away. Now, I did better than that. I lost it all.
06:52By the time I was 31, I was a millionaire. By the time I was 33, I was broke.
06:56And I'll tell you a little bit about that story later.
06:59But when I lost all my money, guess what? I found out Mr. Shoaff was right.
07:03What was valuable was not the money. What was valuable was what I became to earn the money.
07:08The skills I had, the knowledge I had about the marketplace,
07:13the values that I had going for me, they were more valuable than the money.
07:17And here's an important statement to remember. It's not what you get that makes you valuable.
07:22It's what you become. So part of the key here is to set the kind of goals that will make
07:27something
07:27of you. Don't set them too low so that you don't have to grow and you don't have to read
07:32and you
07:32don't have to try and you don't have to stretch. Don't set them too low. And then don't sell out.
07:39Don't go for something that's going to cost you your virtue or cost you your values
07:44or sell out your principles. There's a good middle road here to follow. Goals that will inspire.
07:50Goals that will help you grow, change, develop and become better than you are.
07:55Okay. Now let's talk about financial independence. How to become rich by 40, 35 if you're extra bright,
08:02much sooner if you find an opportunity like I did. Let me show you how I did it.
08:08Financial independence. I like the phrase financial independence. Some people are a little bit
08:13concerned about using the word becoming rich or becoming wealthy. And I can understand that.
08:20I struggled a little bit with this. Is it okay to go for becoming rich, go for becoming wealthy?
08:26And maybe that's a bit too strong a word or strong a term. So here's what I've come up with
08:31that I
08:31think is comfortable for me. And that is how to become financially independent. I think it's every
08:37person's heritage here, especially in America, to become financially independent. Now, let me give you
08:43my definition of financial independence. Financial independence is the ability to live from the
08:50income of your own personal resources. Financial independence. Now it depends on how you want to live.
08:57If you need two, $3,000 a month, if you need four or 5,000 a month, if you need
09:0110,000 a month,
09:02some people may need, you know, 100,000 a month. But whatever you would need to live,
09:08and you could earn that living from the income of your own personal resources,
09:13that's what I call financial freedom, financial independence. And let me show you how to acquire it.
09:20If you start at age 15, between ages 15 and 35 is 20 years. And in my personal opinion,
09:30based on my own studies and my own experience, 20 years, in my opinion, is enough time to become
09:35financially independent. If you're not, you don't live in the wrong country. Probably what's happened
09:43is you have the wrong plan. And it's easy to be a nice person with the wrong plan. I found
09:48that when
09:48I was 25 years old, I was broke at age 25. And I was a nice guy, you would have
09:53liked me. But I'm
09:54telling you, my plans up until then, especially my financial plan left me broke. I totally changed
10:00it the next six years. And I became financially independent. So I know what I'm talking about.
10:05It is possible in a reasonable amount of time, 15 to 35, whatever 20 years time, enough time, you can
10:13do
10:13it in much shorter period of time, like I did if you want to. But this is a reasonable enough
10:19time.
10:20But here's number one. First of all, you got to have the right philosophy.
10:25Philosophy is our ability to gather knowledge and sort through it and decide what's valuable.
10:31To develop a philosophy about life, a philosophy about our health, a philosophy about our family
10:37relationships, a philosophy about economics. And if you develop the right philosophy,
10:42philosophy, that's what helps to set this sale. So that in six years, it takes you where you want
10:50to go instead of winding up like I did that first six years of my economics broke, no money, empty
10:55bank
10:55account. The right philosophy. Now, let me give you a couple of philosophies to consider. Here's the
11:01first one. It's called the philosophy of the poor. And here it is. Poor people usually spend their money
11:12and invest what's left. That's the philosophy of the poor. Now, here's the philosophy of the rich.
11:19Rich people invest their money and spend what's left. And here's the startling answer.
11:26It really doesn't matter what the amount is. What's most important is not the amount. What's
11:32really important is the philosophy. So I would ask you to adopt this philosophy of spending
11:40after you have invested. Invest first, then spend. And I've got a little formula that I'm going to
11:46share with you. Now, what should a child do with a dollar? I mean, there's a lot of debate going
11:53on,
11:53I'm sure, across the country on what a child should do with a dollar. Here's one opinion. It's only a
11:57child and it's only a dollar. What difference does it make? Well, in my opinion, it makes all the
12:03difference in the world. A person's economic future starts with a child with a dollar. Somebody says,
12:10oh, no, you're only young once. Let him spend it all. Well, when would you hope that would stop?
12:16Somebody says, well, wait till he's 50 and broke like me and, you know, and then he'll learn.
12:20Well, no, we don't want to wait that long. If I would have known earlier than age 25, I would
12:26have
12:26changed. In high school, if I, if they would have had classes called wealth one, wealth two,
12:31I'd have taken both classes. I would not have waited until age 25. So the earlier, the better.
12:38So what should a child do with a dollar? Here's the simple premise to begin with. Don't spend it all.
12:44And if a child wants to spend the whole dollar, you got to say, hey, don't spend it all. You
12:49know,
12:50don't spend it all. They'll say, why not? It's my dollar. I earned it. You say, I know you earned
12:55it, but don't spend it all. They'll still say, why not? Say, let me show you why not. So you
13:00put them
13:00in your car, take them to the other side of town and show them where people live that spend the
13:05whole
13:05dollar. Just drive them around. Kids learn best by visual. Just drive around and say, would you like to
13:11live here? Kid says, no. Would you like to live like these people live? Kid says, no, no.
13:18Then you can't spend the whole dollar. So kids will get the message. So, you know,
13:23take them to the other side of town and show them around unless you already live there and then just
13:26show them around. Anyway, don't spend the whole dollar. Now, let me give you my best view of what
13:33to do with the dollar. And I promise you, if you started at age 15, now, if you're over 15,
13:39right,
13:40you've still got plenty of time. You still got 20 years. You know, if you're 30, you're still got 20
13:44years. I mean, you know, you still got plenty of time to start what I'm about to share with you,
13:49what to do with a dollar. Here's my first bit of advice. Never spend more than 70 cents.
14:01Never spend more than 70 cents. Now, you got to pick some number and the number you pick is going
14:07to be
14:07determined by your philosophy. It's going to be determined by what you've been taught or your
14:12experience teaching yourself. When I first met my teacher, Mr. Shoaff, I was at about 110% of each
14:18dollar. You know, I'm down at budget finance, hawking my furniture in my car one more time.
14:24And then I learned a whole better formula for financial independence. Number one, don't spend more
14:30than 70 cents. Now kids say to me, well, okay, what do I do with the other 30 cents? And
14:39here's what I
14:39teach them. 10 cents for charity.
14:45Charity or church, we're helping people that can't help themselves. 10 cents to support worthy
14:52projects, projects that you feel good about 10 cents out of every dollar. It's called being generous
15:00with part of what you've taken out of society. Now, in my opinion, nothing teaches us character
15:09better than generosity. No class, no teacher, no book teaches character better than generosity.
15:16And the best time to start is when the amounts are small. And I know if kids learn these lessons,
15:22well, they'll give a dime out of a dollar, help people that can't help themselves, support worthy
15:27projects. Or if you belong to a church, they teach tithe, peace of. That's very important.
15:33Okay. Now, because when the amounts get larger, sometimes it's a little more difficult.
15:38You know, giving 100,000 out of a million, someone says, oh, if I had a million, I'd give
15:42100,000. I'm not sure. That's a lot of money. So the time to start is when the amounts are
15:47small,
15:4810 cents out of the dollar. Okay, next 10 cents, I call active capital.
15:56Active capital means do something to make a profit.
16:01Active capital. Set aside a portion of your income. Wages are okay, but I'm telling you,
16:08wages will make you a living. Profits will make you a fortune. So set aside part of your income
16:15as capital called active capital. Any kind of project you can possibly think of, you can possibly
16:20come up with. I'm going to write a new book, I think, for kids. I think the title is going
16:25to be,
16:25of course, kids should pay taxes. It's kind of an interesting title. In California, kids do pay
16:30taxes. When a child walks into 7-Eleven, buy something that costs a dollar, the proprietor says,
16:36give me seven more pennies. And the child says, hey, what's these seven pennies for? The proprietor
16:42says, that's the taxes. Kid says, well, hey, I'm only eight years old. Proprietor says, congratulations,
16:48you're my youngest taxpayer. Give me the money. So in California, where I live, kids do pay taxes.
16:54Big question is, should they? And my book will answer that question. Of course, kids should pay
16:59taxes. Nothing is for free. If you want to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk instead of in the mud,
17:05you got to pay the seven pennies. Nothing is free. So we all have to pay.
17:1210 cents out of your living, out of the money you earn, set aside for capital. Capital to try your
17:20best
17:21to show a profit. And in my book, it's going to be all kinds of ways kids can make money,
17:26right? Two
17:26bicycles, one to ride and one to rent. I mean, you know, it doesn't take long to figure out some
17:32enterprise that'll start making a profit. Then you must jot this down if you're taking notes. Profits
17:38are better than wages. One, you can't usually start wages until you're about 16, 15, 16. But you can
17:46make a profit long before you're eligible to start earning wages. And then there's no limit to profits.
17:53And they can, they can double and triple and quadruple. You know, there's no limit. It's incredible how
17:59fast profits can grow. So profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living, profits make you a
18:05fortune. Now the third 10 cents is vitally important. I call it passive capital.
18:14Capital you let somebody else use. A financial institution, stocks and bonds, mutual funds,
18:20whatever. Let someone else use it. You furnish the money. They use it to make a profit, but they pay
18:26you for the use of it called interest. And here's one of the things that'll make you financially
18:30independent fairly quickly. And that's called compound interest. And this is how you get it.
18:36Letting someone else use a portion of your money, your substance. They show the profit, they pay you
18:45interest. And this passive capital, I'm telling you over a sustained period of time, if you'll develop
18:51this little 10, 10, 10 and 70, especially starting at age 15, I'm telling you by the time you're 35,
18:56you will be financially independent. You'll have the ability to live from the income of your own
19:02resources. And then one more point on passive capital. There's a Bible philosophy. I'm an amateur
19:08on the Bible, but there's a Bible philosophy that teaches the borrower is servant to the lender.
19:16And if you want to be in a powerful position, as you grow older, finally, when you become mature,
19:22or maybe have your own business, things have worked out for you for the future, the position you always
19:27want to be in is the power position. And that's called the lender. The lender is the power position.
19:33So if kids learn early enough, and then you ask them what they'd like to be when they grow up,
19:37I'm telling you, once they understand, they'll say, well, one of the things I want to be
19:41is one of those lenders. That's the power position, not the spender. No, you'll be pitied the rest of your
19:48life. If you just become a spender, you got to become a lender. And I think this is the one
19:52formula
19:53is to follow. Ten cents out of every dollar, let someone else use it, be the lender, power position,
19:59then try to show a profit. Can't we teach our children how to take a dollar, search the neighborhood,
20:05find a broken wagon, pay a dollar for it, bring it home, you know, clean it up, sand it until
20:12it's clean,
20:12paint it red till it shines, straighten out the wheels till they're true, take it back to the
20:17neighborhood, sell it for $5. Anybody can do that. Now, does the child deserve $4 profit? And the
20:24answer is yes, society now has a mended wagon. And that's what America's all about. Finding something,
20:31touching it, making it better, making a profit, taking part of your resources, helping people who
20:36can't help themselves, let someone else use it to make a profit. Some projects require more capital
20:41than one person has. Exciting. And then let them pay you for the use of it. Capital in the hands
20:49of
20:49the kids, capital in the hands of the people, enterprises that make a profit, enterprises that
20:54grow. It's the hope of our future. So that little simple formula, I hope will help you. Now, one more
21:00key on financial independence, and that is attitude. Attitude. Here's number one. I used to say,
21:10I hate to pay my bills. My teacher straightened me out on that. He said, let's see, Mr. Rohn, what
21:16you
21:16hate to do is pay $100 on an account and reduce your liabilities and increase your assets. I said,
21:22well, no, not if you look at it that way. He said, well, it all depends on how you look
21:27at it. So, wouldn't
21:29you love to pay your bills, reduce your liabilities, increase your assets? You got to have that kind of
21:34attitude. I found out the same attitude about taxes. I used to say, I hate to pay my taxes. And
21:39Mr.
21:39Shoaff said, well, that's one way to live. But don't you understand? Taxes is how we care and
21:44feed the goose that lays the golden eggs. Wouldn't you want to do your share? Someone says, yes, but
21:50the goose eats too much. Probably true. But hey, we all eat too much. We all need to go on
21:55a diet.
21:55Better a fat goose than no goose. So I finally became a happy taxpayer. Now, I think taxes are too
22:01high,
22:02so I'm working to get taxes lowered for our economic future. But then whatever they turn out to be,
22:07I gladly pay, do my part, because that's what makes the whole system run, each of us doing our part.
22:14Now, I want these three subjects to be valuable for you. I want them to have meaning for you.
22:21I want you someday to be financially independent. I want you to have the personal development so that
22:28you feel good about yourself. And now I'd like to leave you with these four questions called
22:33Questions to Ponder. These questions were valuable for me. And I want to make them valuable for you.
22:40Here's the first one. Why? We all ask why we should work this hard. Why take that many classes?
22:47Why go to school that many years? You know, why take the notes? Why read the books? Why work that
22:54hard?
22:54Why put yourself through the push-ups and the disciplines? Why? Good question. Why?
23:01Best answer to why, I think, is the second question. Why not? Why not see how many books you can
23:07read,
23:07how many classes you can take, how many skills you can develop? Why not see how valuable you can become
23:13to the marketplace and to your friends and to your family? Why not see what you can make of yourself?
23:18Why not see how far you can go, how much you can see, how much you can earn, how much
23:23you can share?
23:25Why not? That's the heritage all of us have in America, especially, is to see what we can make out
23:31of our lives now that we've been given this extraordinary opportunity. Now, my third question,
23:37I'd love to ask you in person. But since I can't do it in person, I want to ask it
23:42of all of you. But I
23:46third question is, why not you? Why not you? With good self-esteem, why not you starting to change
23:53and setting goals? Why not you starting to make progress toward financial independence?
23:59If I can do it, you can do it. I wish I had a lot more testimonials here today besides
24:04mine,
24:05a whole steady stream that would come by and tell you their story. Someone who started with nothing,
24:11finally run a big enterprise, a mother who was on welfare. Now she owns her own business.
24:17In addition to my story, I wish I had a lot more. And if all of them told their story,
24:23guess how they
24:23would probably wind up their story? They'd probably say, just like me, why not you? If we can read,
24:28you can read. If we can change, you can change. If we can figure it out, you can figure it
24:32out. If we
24:33can turn it around, you can turn it around. There isn't anything you can't accomplish. That's what
24:37those testimonials would say. And so I want to say it to you personally. Why not you?
24:43You've got the brains. You've got the stamina. You've got the vitality. You've got the interest.
24:49You've got your life ahead of you. You've got the future. You can do it. If anybody can do it,
24:53you can do it. If one of us can do it, hey, we all can do it. And now here's
24:58my last question. Why not
24:59now? This is a good time. What a good time to set your goals, work on yourself, work on your
25:06skills,
25:07what a good time to get it together. What a good time to start this process, personal development,
25:15growing, changing, developing, having a good plan for your money and for your life and for your
25:20future. Why not now? Then I wish you the best. I want all that I've gotten to be yours and
25:29much,
25:29much more. God bless. Goodbye.
25:31Bye.
25:33Bye.
25:33Bye.
25:43Bye.