Jim Rohn - Lesson of the seasons

And that is to learn the lesson of the seasons. Learn the lesson of the seasons. Key phrase to start with, "Life and business is like the changing seasons." Frank Sinatra sings, "Life is like the seasons." And now, here's the second phrase, "You cannot change the seasons." They are set. Winter follows fall, spring follows winter, summer, harvest. The seasons are set. You cannot change those. But here's what you can do. You can change yourself. You cannot change the circumstances but you can change yourself. You cannot change the wind that blows but you can set a better sail. You cannot change what happens but you can change what you do about it. Whereas before, you used to be bewildered by the changes. Now you have more confidence. So we cannot change what's going on out there. It's like the wind that blows. But we can change ourselves by setting sail, working on our philosophy, working on our attitude, working on our disciplines. So, you can't change the seasons but you can change yourself. Learn how to handle the winters, the winter time. We must all understand, and I'm sure our experience has taught us up until now, the winters always come. Right after harvest comes the winter. Some winters are long and some are short, but they always come. Now it's not just the winter of the season but it's the winter when things don't work well, the winter when it all turns dark. It's the winter when problems seem to pile up. Economic winters, social winters, personal winters, when your heart is smashed into thousand pieces and the nights seem unusually long. We call it winter time whether it's economic, the winter of poor health, the winter when things don't go well, winter time. Here's the best advice I can give you when the winter does come whether it's a long one or whether it's a short one. The best advice I can give you is learn how to handle it. Hang in there. Stay steady. When the night comes that follows the day, you just stay steady in the night. Stay steady in the winter. Three things that'll help you to stay steady in the winter: become wiser and stronger and better. All of us can become wiser than we were yesterday, wiser than we were last week, wiser than we were a month ago. You're gonna leave here wiser because you've been here these few days, listening to the testimonials listening to the training that goes on at this podium. You'll be wiser because you've met each other and that wisdom is gonna help you when the tough time comes. That wisdom is gonna help you when the winter sets in. When things don't seem to go well, you'll draw from this experience here. One of the reasons why I wanted to be here is not just to share my experiences with all of you to see if it might create some value for you to take home, but I'm gonna remember this occasion as I leave here, as I go back to America, as I go off to other countries. I'm gonna remember this trip to Taiwan. I'm gonna remember this occasion. I'm gonna remember these lights. I'm gonna remember myself on the big screen. I'm gonna remember the occasion I had to come and meet my friends one more time and I'm gonna carry this experience away with me. It's gonna serve me well as I get on an airplane and go to the next country and the next country and the next country. I want you to draw this kind of wisdom from what's going on here these few days so that this occasion will serve you when you're out there sort of by yourself and you're all alone telling the story and you don't have this many people to support you out there. You this occasion will serve you when you're out there sort of by yourself and you're all alone telling the story and you don't have this many people to support you out there. You will remember this occasion and you'll remember what you heard and you'll remember what you saw and you'll remember how you felt, and it will sustain you through some of those difficult times when seemingly you're all alone. You will remember, I'm not alone. Look how many people have been attracted at this level to the Herbalife opportunity. So, I want you to know this kind of wisdom that you're gathering here will sustain you. Next, in the winter, become stronger. Stronger physically, stronger morally stronger spiritually. All of us can gather muscle, not just the muscle of our physical body but the muscle of your mind that helps you through the tough times, the muscle of your spirit that sustains you when things seem to be going wrong, not in your favor. So become wiser, become stronger. And here's the third one, in the winter, become better. All of us can get better. Our skills can get better. What we've learned can serve us more to where we get better and better at telling the story, better and better at sharing the opportunity, better and better at expressing ourselves. I had those challenges when I started like everybody does. My first meeting I stood up to talk and my mind sat back down. I remember those occasions. But I did it again and I did it again and I did it again and here I am on this June day in Taipei one more time doing it again. I'm getting better. So, hang in there during the winter time. The challenges always come. The dark time always comes. Winter always follows the harvest. But the winters of the future, for you, can be a lot different than the winters of the past if you'll hang on to what you've learned here, hang on to the spirit of the testimonials, hang on to the people that you've heard give their testimonials here and give the training here from this podium. Hang on to that, so that when you're out there and the dark time comes the dark night comes and a tough winter comes, you'll be able to survive. You'll not only be able to survive, you'll be able to flourish. So, that's number one. Learn how to handle the winters. Learn to take advantage of the spring. Spring is called opportunity. But here's what's exciting about the spring. It follows the winter. And pray tell how often does spring follow winter and the good word is every time. For the last 6,000 years that we know of called recorded history, spring has always followed winter. Yes, the night comes but day follows night. Yes, difficulty comes but opportunity follows difficulty. Expansion follows recession. Joy has a good chance of following sadness. It's the rhythm of life. It's six--6,000 years of written history that proves that the winter doesn't last forever, the night does not last forever, the difficult time does not last forever whether it's a political winter or a social winter or an economic winter. Spring always comes. But here's what you must learn to do, underline the two words "Take advantage." Just because spring comes is no sign you're gonna look good in the harvest. You must take advantage of it. The opportunity for Herbalife story to affect your life has come. This could be the spring of a lifetime for you. But here's what you must do, take advantage of it. Don't let this opportunity slip through your fingers. Spring time now is not very long. In space language, we call it the window, the window of opportunity. When they get ready to shoot the rockets off into space, there's a certain period of time where it's time to go. If they don't go when it's time to go, they have to wait for another cycle of time to pass before it's time to go again. Spring doesn't last all summer. Spring doesn't last all year. It's usually a brief period of time. So, make this note, learn to recognize the spring and then learn to recognize the urgency of taking advantage of the spring. You meet someone on the street and have a chance to talk, it's called springtime. The window's open. How long is it gonna stay open? Maybe not very long, to hand someone a brochure, to speak to someone and give an invitation. The window opens but it soon closes. So here's what you must learn to do, take advantage of the brief time called spring. Also, you must get busy on all of your springs. There's just a handful of springs that's been given to each of us. I just lost my father a few weeks ago. He lived to be age 93. But it seemed as though his life still was short even with 93 years. I wanted a few more years. But, I guess, if you had 200 years to live, you would want a couple of more. We always wish for those extra years, but 93 years for my father seemed like a very brief time. And life is fairly brief, short. We've just got a few springs. Sometimes people make the remark, "I've got 20 more years." And here's the real truth about it, "No, you've got 20 more springs, 20 more chances out of springtime." So, here's what you must do. Take advantage of every one. Don't let the opportunity slip through your finger, the opportunity to speak to someone, the opportunity to conduct a meeting. I don't know how many more occasions I have to attend an extravaganza. I don't know how many more. Tokyo is coming up. Australia is coming up. We've had Caracas. We had Las Vegas, you know, a few more this year then next year. How many more years? We don't know. Here's what I'm anxious to do. Take advantage of every one. Every chance I have a chance to speak, I'm gonna speak. Every chance I have to meet with Mark somewhere around the world and tell my story one more time of this extraordinary young man, the extraordinary opportunity called Herbalife, my position in it, how I feel about it, I'm gonna do that to my--the very best of my ability. Because no telling how many more of these opportunities we have. Here's what I urge you to do. Take advantage of every one. Don't miss the chance. At the longest, life is brief. So take advantage of every meeting. Take advantage of every opportunity to talk to someone. Take advantage of every chance to express yourself and give someone a chance to join the Herbalife opportunity. Take advantage of every opportunity to be with your family. Every opportunity to be with a friend. Learn to value life in all of its precious moments. We call these moments of opportunity. The moments don't last forever. My presentation is not gonna last forever. This day is not gonna last for the next six months. It's only gonna last for a little while. But the little while that comes, put your heart into it. Lean into it. Like you're doing today, take notes. Lean forward. Get everything you can while the opportunity is here because the window opens and then it closes. The meeting opens and then it's over. The day starts and then it concludes. So every time the sun comes up, take advantage of that day. Every time somebody presents themselves take advantage of that opportunity. Every time you have a chance to do like I'm doing here today to tell your story, do it and tell your story well. Put you heart and soul into it because life is brief at the longest. In contemplating the seasons, the third season is the season of summer. And the season of summer is an interesting season. Two things are important in the season of summer. Number one, and that is, to give life to your values. If you planted a garden, now you got to give it nourishment. Give life to your values. Once, you've got a Herbalife customer, now you got to give them life by giving them your attention. Make this note. No greater gift than the gift of attention. Giving someone not just your time but your attention. Giving someone your information. Giving someone your inspiration. Like a mother that gives life to a baby, now she nourishes it. Now she feeds it. Now she takes care of it. If you've been so fortunate as to have now a Herbalife organization, I'm asking you to breathe life into it like a mother. Nourish it and feed it like a mother. The summertime is a time to give nourishment to something you've started. Don't leave it to wilt in the sun. Don't leave it to be discarded by time. Give it your life. Give it your heart. Give it your soul. There's one thing I can say about Mark Hughes since the first day I met him all those years ago. Mark puts everything he's got into everything he does. And I'd like to have you make that note and see if we can't follow. Put everything you've got into everything you do. That's called life. That's called mothering. That's called giving it life like a mother. Now, here's what else you must do in the summer. You must guard against the enemies like a father. As soon as you planted the garden, it's gonna be invaded. The busy bugs and the noxious weeds are out to take your garden. So not only must you give life to the plants, not only must you give life to the fruit trees, you must now guard your fruit. You must guard your garden from the enemies that are gonna try to move in and take over. So here's what you must do. Nourish your values like a mother and fight your enemies like a father. And there's all kinds of enemies. There's the outside enemies politically. We've had the war with our enemies against democracy, the enemies against freedom. We've had to fight all these wars. The war has been going on for the last 6000 years of recorded history. Thankfully now, we're winning the war of democracy. We're winning the war of freedom. The walls did come tumbling down a few years ago and now freedom reigns. You can walk the streets of old Prague and talk politics and not be afraid of being thrown into jail. Opportunity has come. There's a fresh breeze of opportunity and freedom blowing around the world. And wherever it goes, Herbalife will follow and teach people how to take advantage of free enterprise, capitalism. But I want you to make this note. The enemies are not far away. Yes, when the light comes, it's wonderful but the darkness is not that far away. The enemies of freedom are not that far away. And the enemies of your life are not that far away. Here's what I'm asking you to do. Stand guard. Stand guard over your distributors. Stand guard over your customers. Stand guard over your family. And stand guard over yourself. Stand guard at the door of your mind. When those things that would come and tempt you to be distracted, stand guard. We've all got to fight the fight. We must give nourishment, yes, like a mother but we must also fight the war like a father. So, I'm asking you to be strong in fighting the enemies. Now, it's not only the enemies that are on the outside, it's the enemies that are on the inside. Let me give you a quick list of some of the enemies to be on the look out for in the season of summer. Number one is indifference. Indifference, the ho-hum attitude. Letting it slide, letting it go. I don't think we have to talk much about that in Taiwan. When I was here 21 years ago, 20 years ago, I made referenced to this when I left and went back to America. Here's what I said when I went back to America. When I was in Taipei, those two years that I was here, here's what I told my American friends, "I never saw an idle person." When I visited this country those two years, I never saw an idle person. Everybody I saw was busy. Everybody was doing something. That's why you built such a fabulous country and such a fabulous city and it's to your credit. And all of us here applaud you for that. I've got a good phrase for you to jot down. You cannot drift to the top of the mountain. If you want to see the view from the top, you have to climb. You have to climb steady. You have to climb true. You have to climb consistently. You cannot drift. You cannot say, "Ho-hum, oh, maybe it will work out. I've got my fingers crossed." That is not a good policy. It is not a good philosophy. If you want values, you got to work for them. If you want to see the view from the top, you've got to steadily climb. So I'm asking you to fight indifference, don't let it be a part of you. Resist it with all of your ability. Next is "indecision." Indecision is the thief of opportunity. You got to decide. Yes, some things, some decisions take longer than others, but don't take any longer than you need to, to make a decision. Give it a try. Sometimes you'll never know until you give it a try. Don't wait and eat up the time and let indecision be the thief of opportunity to do something well, do something right, touch someone else's life. Here's the next one, "doubt." We all have a certain amount of doubt. Nobody can be 100% certain. But here's what you must learn to do, doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. I used to be mixed up on that all those years ago. I use to believe my doubts and doubt my beliefs. And what is that position that's to be in? Learn to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. It's easy to doubt the future with uncertainty. It's easy to doubt the past will serve you. It's easy to doubt the community. It's easy to doubt the country, doubt the government, doubt the banks and doubt the money. It's easy to doubt each other. And here's the worst one of all, it's easy to doubt yourself. Doubt that you can learn, doubt that you can grow, doubt that you can change. But I'm asking you to turn that around. Drive your doubts into a small corner. Don't let them conquer you. Believe in each other. Believe in your country. Believe in Herbalife and its opportunity for the future. Believe in the community. Believe in the rest of the world and their ability to struggle with the problems and come up with the answers. Believe that things are possible. And here's the most important one, believe in yourself. And here's the last season, "The Season of Harvest." There's an interesting phrase from an ancient prophet and it says, "In due season, your harvest will come." First, harvest cannot come unless you're due. Harvest does not come to those who did not plant all those months ago called "The Spring." Harvest does not come to those that hoped. Harvest does not come to those that wish. Harvest does not come to those who have their fingers crossed. Harvest only comes to those for which it is due. Harvest only comes to those that have planted, that did the job, that told the story, that gave the invitations, that conducted the meeting. You've got to make the expenditure upfront. But if you make the expenditure upfront before the harvest is there, you must see the harvest in your mind. You must anticipate the harvest because others have already received the harvest. It gives you hope but we plant in the dark, we plant not knowing for sure. But if you'll take the risk and talk, if you'll take the risk and go, if you'll take the risk and serve, if you'll take the risk and give an opportunity to someone, if you'll take a risk and get on an airplane, if you'll take a risk and go see the people, if you'll take a risk and conduct a meeting, I promise you, as time unfolds, your harvest will come. If you put your heart and soul into it your harvest will come. I want that to happen for you. The lesson of the seasons. One is to hang in there when the nights are long. Hang in there when the winters are tough. Hang in there when the reverses come. Hang in there if you happen to get ill for a while. Hang in there when discouraging times come. Number two, take advantage of the spring, the people you meet. Take advantage of a chance to conduct a meeting. Take advantage of a chance to make a phone call. Take advantage of a chance to write a letter. Take advantage of a chance to hand somebody the Herbalife opportunity and see what kind of miracle might come from them. Take advantage. And number three, in the summer, give life like a mother. Fight enemies like a father. Look over your organization, like a shepherd would look over the flock, the sheep. Take care of it as a leader should but also fight the enemies for people that cannot fight for themselves. You've got to look after a little baby that first cannot look after itself. You've got to have vision for a child in looking into the future when the child has no vision of his own. Here's the key phrase in Herbalife, "Let your distributors borrow your eyes to see into the future." Things they cannot at first see. Let them borrow your vision. That's what we constantly do with Mark. Mark looks out into the future. I remember when Mark said, "We're gonna do 400 million." I said, "Mark, are you gonna say it publicly?" He said, "Yes!" I said, "Mark, are you gonna ask me to say it?" "Yes!" He said, "I'm gonna ask you to say it publicly. We're gonna get to 400 million." I said, "Mark, I'm not sure I can see it. He said, "Borrow my eyes." And just like a mother and a father who lend their vision to their children who cannot see it at first, I'm asking you to be such a mother and such a father to your own organization to help them see things they cannot at first see. Because in due season, plenty of testimonials here, plenty of proof positive, that you can start all those years ago and put yourself through the paces, make the sacrifices, and see the people and the harvest finally comes; not only the harvest of money but the harvest of good health. The harvest of heart and soul. The harvest of taking a lot of good people with you as you make the Herbalife journey. Your harvest will come.