Fladlien Productions

I had just tasted my first bit of Internet marketing success.
I was ghostwriting, and had made enough to move out of my
dad’s two room apartment and into my own.

It wasn’t much mind you – about 350 square feet – a garage
converted into an efficiency apartment.  But it was a start.

The first day I moved in there,  I decided to sit down and
write my goals.

The first one was that I’d do $100,000 in the next 12 months.
I accomplished that.

The second one was that I’d own my home in the next 18 months.
I accomplished that.

Another was my “give back” goal to donate a certain amount
of my time/wealth to noble causes.
I accomplished that.

My last goal was my role model goal. At the time, there was
a guy I listened to that had a more positive impact on my
life than anyone else. His motivational trainings got me
through so many hard times…

And I listened to them so often… I could literally repeat
them word for word.

My goal was to meet and have a conversation with him in
the next 2 years. That man was Jim Rohn.

On December 5th Jim Rohn passed away.

I’d like to honor the man by sharing some of the wisdom and
experiences I had while listening to him.

The FIRST TIME

I remember when I first heard him speak. I had just got
bitten by the “self help” bug and someone loaned me a ton
of self help audio programs. I loaded them into my iPod.
At the time, I was running a music record label by night
and managing a retail flooring warehouse by day. In the
warehouse, I had my iPod on while I worked and listened
to those self help programs.

Most sucked. But then one popped on – a motivational speech
given to a group of network marketers.

Who the hell was this guy? I thought I knew who the greats were,
guys like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracey & Tony Robbins. Who was
this?

I looked at the iPod – it said Jim Rohn.

Even though I was broke at the time, on lunch break I went home
and ordered his “Take Charge Of Your Life” audio training course,
which I still listen to this day.

Teachings Of The Great Man

Jim is speaking, and is sharing a story from the Bible, which
he calls “a story from antiquity”. It’s about two nice guys…
one builds his house on a strong foundation, the other on sand.

The one on sand doesn’t last. Two nice guys. Both do-gooders. Both
have “good karma”. But the guy who built his house on the sand
lost it.

You have to do more than be nice and know that if you do good,
then good things will happen to you. To think otherwise – as Jim
Rohn put it – is naive.

The Story Of Cookie

On one of his programs, Jim talks about how – in order to be a
more effective communicator – he spends a day or two on the
“other side”.

He spends a day down in a seedy place in San Diego, CA called
the “Tenderloin”. There he talks to this bartender named Frank.

Frank says, “You see that woman over there? That’s Cookie. How
old do you think she is?”

Jim Rohn guesses 45… Frank tells her she’s 25… and that she
used to be a dancer back in the go-go days. Then she developed
some sort of bone disease and she can no longer dance and is crippled.

And she has a son who is 5 and is dying of leukemia. To try to
cheer herself up a few times a week she comes down to this bar
in the Tenderloin… plays a little music… usually drinks too
much… and Frank has to call a cab to take her home.

Jim concludes this story by saying “Why did her life turn out like
that, and mine turn out like it did? How is it that I get to travel
the world, yet Cookie has trouble even getting home?”

Affected By Two Things…

Jim Rohn says, “You’re affected by two things. What you know and
how you feel about what you know.” This really helped me both as
an information consumer and as an information producer.

See I could give you the best training in the world. But if you
felt nervous, unsure, scared or uncomfortable acting on it, then
that will affect the value of the information.

So the lesson is twofold. First create products that remove as much
of those “uncertainties” as possible, so your clients will get results
(that’s one of the big “secrets” of how I’ve created such high
value training programs…)

And the other is to learn how to FEEL really good about learning
new things. That’s why I made it a point to study and use NLP and self-hypnosis, so I could feel good about acting on new ideas.

Two Pains

Jim Rohn says we all experience one of two pains in life:  the pain
of discipline and the pain of regret. The pain of discipline weighs
ounces, but the pain of regret weighs tons.

This is something I always think about when things get hard, and
I want to quit early, put something off until later, procrastinate,
or when I’m about to finish up a big project.

It’s easy to put things off. But if you make it a habit, what would
you life end up being? You’d regret so many things. That pain is
worse than the “pain of discipline” to finish up the task at hand
and give it your best, so you have no regrets.

Profits Are Better Than Wages

Jim Rohn says wages make you a living but profits make  a fortune.
Most people earn wages which is good enough to get a pair of shoes,
a piece of bread and a place to get out of the rain.

But those who wish to enjoy the higher pleasures of life, work for
profits, not wages. That means they create and utilize enterprises.
It means teaching your children to have two bicycles. One to ride
and one to rent out.

See it doesn’t take long to start making profits. A bit of ingenuity
and you’re on your way.

The Magic Of Part-Time

And you can start making profits part time. And best of all, you
can start today. You can begin telling people “I’m working full
time on my job to earn wages, but I’m working part time on my
profits to earn my fortune! And it won’t be long until I’ll be
working full time on my fortune…”

That’s how I started – working part time on my profits with
ghostwriting, and full time painting houses to earn my wages.
Within a short period of time, I no longer had to work for
wages to earn a living… but could work FULL TIME for profits
to earn a fortune!

Profits are better than wages.  Wages make you a living but
profits make you a fortune! I teach kids to have two bicycles:
one to ride, one to rent. How long does it take to start making
a profit? A bit of ingenuity and you’re on your way.

Perfect.  Jim Rohn said it best, “Work harder on yourself than
you do on your job.”

Wishing

Jim Rohn says, “Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were
better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills.”

The key takeaway Jim Rohn gave me was that you can’t “pursue”
success. That’s like trying to change the order of the seasons.

Instead, you must ATTRACT success, by becoming an attractive
person. People who “pursue” success wish things were easier.

People who attract success decide to get BETTER instead of
wasting their time wishing it was easier.

People who try to pursue success wish there were less problems
and challenges to obtain it. People who attract success wish
for more skill to handle those problems and challenges, more
wisdom to turn opportunity into wealth.

Or as Jim Rohn says, “To get more, you have to become more.”

FAILURE

Jim Rohn says failure is often not some single, cataclysmic event…
But a few small errors in judgment repeated every day.

This always has rung true for me. Some people make a small error

in judgment when they almost finish something but “put it off until tomorrow…” They make it a habit, and repeat it every day. No
wonder they can’t make progress!

Some people decide to spend their limited free time watching DVDs
and playing video games. And they do this every day. But what if
they spent some of that time reading more books? As Jim Rohn
said, “The book you miss can’t help!” And as he also said, “Formal
education will make you a living; self-education will make you a
fortune!” And he also said, “Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t
miss a book!”

What if these people instead spent some of that time improving
themselves and their skills? That could be the whole difference!

One of the things I did after listening to Jim Rohn say this is
write down a list of “small errors in judgment” I was repeating
every day. And then I worked on each one to improve it or reverse
it.

SUCCESS

Jim Rohn says, Success is doing seemingly “ordinary things” extraordinarily
well.” It’s not that I’m a naturally gifted and great writer. It’s that I
sit down and write EVERY SINGLE DAY. That’s the secret.

It’s not that I have some incredible, deep insights and some sort of genius
that makes me create great products for the marketplace. It’s just
that I create a lot of products, one after the other. I’m good at
creating ordinary products extraordinarily well.

I’m good at acting on good ideas immediately. I’m good at reducing complex
tasks down to simple systems. These are really just ordinary things that
I’ve learned to do – through discipline – extraordinarily well.

Or as Jim Rohn says another way, “Success is nothing more than a few
simple disciplines, practiced every day.”

Dedicated To Jim Rohn

I’d like to close this by expressing my thanks to the man who has had
one of the biggest impacts on my life – Jim Rohn. You have been a blessing
on this world and it has become a better place because of you.

And the way you’d close most of programs now rings truer in my heart
than ever.

You’d often finish a program by saying, “I go with you in all the experience
that we’ve had. But I promise you this as we leave here,  I will not leave
you behind. I’ll take you with me in my thoughts and in my heart.”

You’re right Jim. Even in passing you are still here with all of us
you have positively helped.

Thank You.