00:00I came up with this. Back in those early days when I was talking to service clubs and, you know,
00:05once in a while a high school class and a college class and making those little speeches. I came up
00:11with this little speech. Here it is. I'll give you the notes on it. It's called the four ifs that
00:16make
00:16life worthwhile. And if you're looking to make a little speech, you know, these notes might serve
00:20you well. Here was the first if. Life is worthwhile if you learn. You got to know. You got to
00:27have
00:27the information. When I talk to the kids in school, that's what I say. Get the information
00:31while you're here. What you're going to do with it, that's up to you. Throw it all away, that's up
00:35to
00:35you. Just use a little of it, that's up to you. But while you're here, get it all. Right? There's
00:40nothing worse than being stupid. Being broke is bad, but being stupid is really bad. So get the
00:48information. What's really, really bad is being broke and stupid. Nothing worse than that. Unless
00:55you're sick. That would do it. Sick, broken, stupid. That's about as far as you can fall,
01:04unless you're ugly. But surely that's the ultimate negative life. Ugly, sick, broken, stupid.
01:13That is it. So you got to know. You got to have the information. So jot this down now,
01:17as I used in my notes. What you don't know will hurt you. Ignorance is not bliss.
01:25Ignorance is tragedy. Ignorance is illness. Ignorance is devastation. Ignorance is going broke.
01:34Ignorance creates a poor life. So you got to know. You got to have the information.
01:41Number one, learn from your personal experience.
01:45One way to learn to do it right is first, mess it up and do it wrong. That doesn't mean
01:49it's the
01:49end of your life. But just, you know, clean up the mess. Now do it right. From a negative experience,
01:55sometimes we learn to do the positive things that saves our life and makes us successful.
02:00They say, if you survive your first heart attack, if you survive,
02:07you may now live to be a very old person.
02:11Why is that? That first heart attack was a wake-up call.
02:17And then maybe the doctor said, another one of these and your history. And you say, wow.
02:24And you make it for the health food store. And you start reading every book you can read on health
02:30and nutrition. And you start doing the push-ups and you start jogging on the beach and doing all the
02:34stuff. And all of that change now could very well help you to live a long, long life, having been
02:40alerted in an alarm system that serves you well. Okay. So learn from your negative as well as your
02:49positive experiences. Here's the next, learn from other people's experiences. That's how you get
02:54smarter in a shorter period of time. Somebody that's been through it for five years and they wrote a book
03:00and the book, if you read it, could save you five years, cost $30.
03:09So you just, you can't miss that kind of education.
03:15Best to get the information before. Yes, we can recover. Yes, we can come back, you know, from the
03:21grave practically. Yes, we can come back from bankruptcy and disaster and poor health. But wow, if we had the
03:28information up front that would save us some of those years of disaster, how much better that would
03:34be. So learn from other people's experiences, both negative and positive. In the seminar I do for Jerry,
03:41here's what I say. Two bad failures don't give seminars. We don't want to pay them so they don't
03:46give seminars. But their information would be valuable. If a guy's messed up his life for 40 years,
03:52you just have to say, John, would you spend a day with me? And I'll bring my notebook and take
03:58good
03:59notes. Good looking guy like you, beautiful family, every reason to do well, and you threw it all away.
04:06Teach me for a day how you messed it all up. Right? And you just take good notes
04:15so that the same thing doesn't happen to you. So learn from your experience, learn from other
04:20people's experiences. If you learn, life is worthwhile. Here's the second if. If you try,
04:30you've got to now try something from what you've learned. We've talked about that now earlier. Take
04:35action. You never know. My father said, you never know until you try. If we put the bar up two
04:42feet and
04:43ask the kids to jump over the bar two feet high, what will the kids say? Some will say,
04:48no, I can't. Some will say easy. Some will say what? I don't know. So how are we going to
04:55find out
04:55for everybody? You got to take a run at it and see if you can jump the two feet.
05:03So you got to try it to see. Who knows? You don't know. What if you try to knock the
05:08bar down? Does
05:09that mean you cannot jump two feet? No. You try it. What? Again. Then somebody shows you a little
05:17technique. Right? Leave the ground a little earlier. Okay. First thing you know, two feet is easy.
05:24When before you couldn't or didn't think you could. So you got to try it. Giving speeches and doing talks.
05:31Age 25, I stand up to give my first little training. My mind sat back down. I opened my mouth
05:38and nothing
05:38comes out. My knees are knocking like this. The sweat is pouring. It's called terror in case you
05:46haven't tried it. Right? But I got through it somehow. It was so bad if I hadn't been doing the
05:54class, I'd have gone home. Right? It was bad. I'm so happy you were not there. You would not have
06:00paid
06:00this kind of money for my first presentation. Wow. But I got through it. And then I did it again.
06:09You know, I didn't know if I should even try again. But sure enough, I had the kind of mentor
06:14and the
06:14kind of teacher who said, hey, that's nothing. You know, what if you go up to bat and you strike
06:19out?
06:19Does that mean it's over? Say, no, it's not over. It's just over for one time up at bat. Then
06:24another
06:25time and another time. Pretty soon you connect. And pretty soon you get good enough to do well.
06:30And then pretty soon you get good enough to win the game. And then pretty soon you get good enough
06:34to take home the trophy. So you just keep trying. The third if that makes life worthwhile is if you
06:40stay, you've got to hang in there. Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer
06:48when it gets a little hot and a little uncomfortable and it looks like the weeds are winning and it
06:57looks
06:58like the bugs are having a feast. And you have a tendency to say, hey, I've had it with this.
07:05But the key is if you want the harvest in the fall at harvest time, you've got to stay through
07:11the summer.
07:14Even if the harvest doesn't turn out to be good, you just see it through and then use that experience
07:21to do better planting in the spring come the next turnaround of seasons. So stay in there.
07:28If you're going to play the game, you've got to stay until it's over. What if the team was,
07:31you were on the team and you guys were behind and you said, hey, we're so far behind, we're out
07:35of here.
07:36And you all walked off the court, right? We would run you out of town, probably. We wouldn't own you
07:42as the home team. Say I'm behind so I'm out of here. No, you stay until what? It's over. We're
07:50not
07:51talking about a lifetime now. We're just talking about this game. If you're in it, stay till it's over.
07:58Who are these people who leave as spectators before the game is over? Because their team is behind. Our team
08:05is behind. We're out of here. What if the team said that? Who are these people that walk, you know,
08:12push and shove, spill popcorn and coke down your neck, leaving early? Who are these people? They're
08:21the ones that are saying we're going to beat the traffic. Oh, that's one of the greatest skills on
08:25earth is beating the traffic, leaving your team that's behind to fend for themselves. Goodbye.
08:30We're out of here. We're gone. No. If you sign up for the game, you don't have to go to
08:36every game,
08:37but the one you sign up, you stay, right? You don't have to do everything every time,
08:41but when you start it, see it through, see the seasons through. Then you don't have to plant
08:46anymore if you don't want to. But when you do sign up, go, go, go the distance.
08:53Here's a guy who builds a foundation and then he walks off and leaves it.
08:56Puts up no walls, no roof, doesn't finish anything. He's got these foundations scattered
09:01all across the country. Foundations, foundations. I asked a friend of mine, I said, Jim, what are you
09:06good at? He says, starting over. That's my specialty, right? He's, hey, if it doesn't work, I don't stay
09:11long. No, come on. See it through. Life is worthwhile if you stay. Hang in there. Next,
09:22life is worthwhile if you care. And for my little talk for the service clubs, here's how I wound it
09:30up.
09:30If you care at all, you'll get some results. If you care enough, you can get extraordinary results.
09:39If you just care at all, you'll get some. But if you really cultivate your caring character
09:47and care enough, you can have such extraordinary returns from productivity,
09:52activity, activity, things you're doing underway.
09:55make your best life.
09:59You'll enjoy your life.
10:00You'll enjoy your life.
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