d15)Reasons_Come_First__Answers_Come_Second___Jim_Rohn___Powerful_Motivational_Speech360P

Mr. Shelf put it to me this way. 

He said, Jim, if you had enough reasons, you could do the most incredible things. 

I never forgot how he put that. If you have enough reasons. 

 See, reasons will change your whole life. 

Mr. Shelf said to me, said, Mr. Owen, I think you've got plenty of intelligence. You've got plenty of talent. 

You've got plenty of ability. Probably what you lack is plenty of reasons. 

He said, I don't think your current bank balance is a true indication of your level of intelligence. 

 I was happy to hear that. 

He said, I think you're much smarter than your present bank balance indicates. 

And that turned up true. I was much smarter. 

But, of course, my first question was, well, then why isn't it bigger? 

And he said, you don't have enough reasons. You've got enough intelligence, but not enough reasons. 

So see, reasons can change your life. Here's what else I found out. 

Reasons come first, answers come second. 

You don't get the answers to do well till you get the reasons. 

Life has a mysterious way of hanging on all and only gives them up to the people that are inspired by reasons. 

So reasons make the difference in how your life works out. 

Now what are some of the reasons for doing well? 

Let's go through a quick list called reasons for doing well. 

First is personal reasons. Some people do well for recognition. 

Some people do well for respect. 

Some people do well for the way it makes them feel. 

They love the feeling of being a winner. Those are good reasons. 

I have some millionaire friends that keep working 10, 12 hours a day, making more millions. 

And it's not because they need the money. 

It's because they need the joy. 

And the satisfaction and the pleasure that comes from being a constant winner. 

And see, it's not just the money anyway. It's the journey, not the money. 

Once in a while, somebody says to me, boy, if I had a $1,000,000, I'd never work another day in my life. 

That's probably why the good lord sees to it. They don't get their 1,000,000. Right? They'd quit. They'd quit. 

Okay Next is family reasons. 

Some people do extremely well for other people. And that's powerful. 

Human beings can greatly affect each other. Sometimes we will do things for somebody else. 

We will not do for ourselves. We're made that way. 

I met a man one time who said, Mister Rowan, to do all the things I want to do with my family around the world, he said I got to have at least a quarter of a $1,000,000 a year. 

I thought incredible. Could a guy's family affecting that much And the answer is, of course. 

How fortunate are the people that fend themselves greatly affected by somebody for personal achievement. 

And we are affected The writer of a recent song said, if not for you, the winter would hold spring, couldn't hear a Robin sing. 

I just wouldn't have a clue, if not for you. So we can be affected That might be one of the most stimulating reasons to do well, finding somebody. 

When Andrew Carnegie died, the wee little Scotsman that built a big steel industry When he died, they opened up his desk. 

And in one of the desk drawers, they found a slip of paper on that piece of paper. 

Mister Carnegie had written his old for his life. And he wrote it when he was in his twenties. 

And on that piece of paper, it said, I'm going to spend the first half of my life accumulating money. 

I'm going to spend the last half of my life giving it all away. 

 What a goal? 

He got so inspired by that goal that the first half of his life He accumulated $450,000,000. 

 And the last half of his life, he gave it all away Good question tonight. 

What's got you turned on? What's got you bombed out of sight to get up early and stay up late and hit it all day. 

Next question: What's got you turned off? 

When I found the answers to those two questions, my life exploded into change. 

I finally found out what had me turned off, and I got that cured. 

And then I got me a long enough list of reasons to turn me on. 

And once the lights went on for me, age twenty five, they've never gone out. 

I've fallen out of the sky a few times, but I've never lost that drive to make something unique out of my life. 

See, reasons altered my whole life. Now there's another list of reasons. 

Called nittygritty. Hard little reasons. 

Sometimes those little reasons are the most powerful reasons that can change your life. 

Sometimes it doesn't take much. 

I now carry several $100 in my money clip. 

It's only a few $100, but it was one of those reasons. Turn my life around. 

Just before I met Mr. Shelf, I heard a knock at the door. 

I go to the door, and there's a little girl standing there about this tall selling girl scout cookies. 

And she gave me one of the finest sales presentations I've ever heard. 

Special deal, several flavors, this whole package of stuff. $2. 

And with a big smile, she very politely asked me to buy. 

And I wanted to Big problem. I'm broke. I don't have $2 And to this day, I can remember the pain and the embarrassment I'm a father. 

I'm a husband. I've been to college. I'm working. I'm 25. I don't have $2 And I didn't wanna tell her that for some reason. 

So I did what I thought was next best. 

I lied to. 

I said, hey. Look. I've already bought lots of girl scout cookies. 

I've still got plenty stacked in the house, which was not true. 

But it seemed to get me off the hook for the moment. 

She said, well, gosh, that's wonderful. Thank you very much And she went away. 

When she left, I closed the door, and that was the day I said to my self, I don't want to live like this anymore. 

I've had it with lion, and I've had it with being broke. 

I'm never gonna let this happen to me ever again. 

I promised that day I would work as hard as possible and would always carry plenty. 

 It took me a little while, but now I do. 

It was one of those reasons And I guess I carry plenty for 2 reasons. 

One is the way it makes me feel, but also in case I bump into another girl scout selling cookies, right, I'm ready.