Paying Homage to Jim Rohn

                                                         JIM ROHN  When Mike Klinger of the Renegade University challenged some of his students to submit articles on various subjects to be critiqued for content and style, I knew immediately that I wanted to write about one of my mentors that has been so instrumental in helping me to shape who I am, what I believe, with knowledge that guides my attitude, my choices in life, and my acceptance of“that’s the way things are”. But then, how do you choose one person out of so many that youhave listened to over the years and truly believed that you could say “he was number one”. NEWS THAT I NEVER WANTED TO HEAR: I received a newsletter from Success Magazine on July 15 and one of the announcements that they made in that issue was that Jim Rohn was unable to attend a Symposium that Success Magazine held in Anaheim, CA this past week, but that he had phoned in and let the attendees know that he was ill with “Pulmonary Fibrosis”. The first thing that I did upon hearing that news was to go to Web MD to find out what the illness was and how serious it could be. The information that I received was that it was “scarring of the lungs” which could be caused by many things. I did not learn what the treatment was or what the prognosis is but an odd thing happened to me upon hearing that news. I started immediately to check around my house to find all the books, cd’s, dvd’s and yes even the tapes that I gathered over the years and listened to or watched over and over. It was almost as - if something happened to Jim that we would lose all the teachings and lessons that we had learned from him in the last 50 years. When reality returned to me, I thought what a blessing that Jim has given us through the years, his sharing of his family life as well as his business life, his humor, his Idaho background, his mentor, Mr. Earl Schoaf, and his truisms. THE BIRDS! One of the first things I learned about mlm, network marketing (whatever we call our business) was when Jim told the Parable of the Sower. As so many of us struggled with our recruiting and with learning that a lot of people promised to do something and never did and feeling that it was either something we did or did not do and we kept beating ourselves up. That was until Jim explained about the Sower – how he throws the seed out – some of it lands on good land but the thorns choked them out and they die, some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil, it sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up, but finally, other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Does that not sound like network marketing?Haven’t you had a prospect who let life get in the way? Haven’t you had a prospect who was eager to get started (I remember one that I had who said to me and my upline “You better get ready for the ride because I am going to take you to the top”) Of course, two weeks later we never heard from her again) but the one that always affected me the most and made me laugh the most was when Jim would explain that you have talked to a friend and he promised you that he was eager to learn about your business and would be at the meeting on Tuesday and never shows up. You stood around looking out the window just sure that he would show up in a few minutes but he never did. Jim always explained that “the birds got him” “the birds got him”. His broke brother in law said he was crazy to think about doing this or something similar. The Birds Got Him made me understand that I would no longer worry about those people that promised me to show up, and I was able to laugh it off rather than spending time worrying about it. THAT’S JUST THE WAY THINGS ARE.Have you ever found yourself saying things like “Liars Shouldn’t Lie” or get road rage over someone cutting you off in traffic. Well, Jim has a solution for that as well. It’s amazing how Jim can always come up with ways to laugh at what I call “small things”. I know we have heard many times in our life “don’t sweat the small stuff”. Well, when you say Liars shouldn’t lie, Jim says “of course they should lie, that’s why they are called liars” or if someone cuts you off in traffic and you are ready to give him a signal that you think he is an idiot and that he shouldn’t cut you off. Jim would tell you that, of course, he should do that. That’s what he does, that is why he is called a traffic cutter offer. It always brings a smile to my face when someone cuts me off in traffic because I can hear Jim saying “That’s Just the Way Things Are”. It’ amazing how your blood pressure goes down when you can smile about it rather than wanting to retaliate. So, Jim, I understand that you have just published a new book in two years. I can’t wait to get

a copy. We need you around for a long time