7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness is written by America’s best business philosopher and motivational speaker, Jim Rohn (September 17, 1930 – December 5, 2009). Many famous authors and speakers like Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Jack Canfield, T. Harv Eker, Mark Victor Hansen and Darren Hardy credit Jim Rohn for his influence on their careers.
Jim Rohn was born in a middle-class family. He finished his high school and then he went to college. Half way through 2nd year of college, he dropped out. He thought that he was smart enough to get a job and start his career. He admitted that it was one of the major mistakes of his life. At the age of 19, he started working. He got married and at the age of 25, after working 6 years, he found himself broke.
Then one day, he met with his mentor, Earl Shoaff. This man was very rich and Jim decided to become like him. Fortunately Mr. Shoaff hired him, gave him a job. Jim Rohn worked 5 years for him before Mr. Shoaff died. During these 5 years, Mr. Shoaff taught him some lessons about which books he should read, which disciplines he should follow, which skills he should acquire to become financially free. Jim Rohn followed his instructions and he became a Millionaire in next 6 year, at the age of 31.
In this book Jim Rohn is going to share with you some of the important lessons he learned from his mentors. Wealth and Happiness are two major desires of human being. Jim says that you should not choose one between wealth and happiness because you can have both.
The 7 strategies to achieve wealth and happiness are following:
- Unleash the Power of Goals
- Seek Knowledge
- Learn How to Change
- Control Your Finances
- Master Time
- Surround yourself with Winners
- Learn the Art of Living Well
Jim Rohn says that you must define happiness and wealth before going in the search of them. Each of us views wealth from a different prospective. For some people wealth is having a lot of money in their bank account while for others wealth is freedom from debt or an opportunity to grow and to achieve more. You must define wealth for yourself. For me wealth is simply symbolized by one word -Millionaire. Happiness can be defined as discovering the true purpose of one’s life, expanding experiences, getting good rewards from actions, giving and receiving, ability to handle the setbacks and continually progressing on the road to success. For me happiness is doing a job that I love to do.
1. Unleash the Power of Goals
One morning while having breakfast together, Mr. Shoaff said “Jim show me your list of goals so that we can make a strategy to achieve them.” “But I don’t have a list of goals” Jim replied. Mr. Shoaff said “If you do not have a list of goals, I can guess your bank account within few hundreds of dollars.” Jim said “You mean if I had a list of goals, my bank account would change?” “Drastically” Mr. Shoaff replied. From that day Jim Rohn became a student of art and science of goal setting.
2. Seek Knowledge
When one day Jim Rohn asked Mr. Shoaff that what is the reason he was not progressing in his life despite working hard on his job. Mr. Shoaff replied “You need to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Jim, tell me how many books have you read in last 6 months?” Jim replied ” Zero” Mr. Shoaff asked “How many classes and seminars you have taken in last 6 months to improve your skills?” Jim replied, guess what “Zero” Mr Shoaff said “Jim to get paid more, you need to become more valuable in the marketplace. Why some people get $6 per hours, some get $60 per hour and some others get $600 per hour? The difference is the skills. When you work harder on yourself and become more valuable, they will have to pay you more.”
Mr. Shoaff recommended that you should read good books like The magic of Thinking Big, The Richest Man in Babylon, Think and Grow Rich. You should work to improve your skills. You should become attractive to the marketplace. “Don’t bring your needs to the marketplace, bring your skills.”
3. Learn How to Change
You don’t have to change what is going on out there in the marketplace, all you have to change is what is going inside you. You must learn from your personal experiences. Take a look back at your past what mistakes did you make, how could you correct them for the future? Don’t worry about the wind that is blowing in the opposite direction, learn to set the sail. It is the set of the sail, not the direction of the wind that determines which way you will go. If you keep doing what you did in the last 5 years, you next 5 years will be the same. Let’s make some changes.
You can learn also from other people’s experiences. Learn which mistakes they make, how do they correct them, how do they improve their health, income and bank accounts. You must ask them what they do to become successful? You can also learn from books, most successful people have written books about the difficulties of their life and what actions they took to become successful. Read all the books you can to become smarter and a better person. “If you will change everything will change for you.”
4. Control Your Expenses
Jim Rohn recommends if you want to manage your money well then you must read the famous book “The Richest Man in Babylon.” Jim Rohn says that you should become financial independent to live a beautiful life. To achieve this goal, you would have to work for maximum 20 years but no more than that. You could do it in much shorter period of time as Jim did in 6 years. First of all, you need to improve your skills and increase your income. The second step you should never spend more than 70% of your monthly income. Jim rohn was spending 110% of his monthly income before he met his mentor Mr. Shauff. You should donate 10%, save 10% and invest aggressively 10% of your monthly income.
Final Thoughts on this Book Jim Rohn says that you must learn to be happy with what you have now because life is so short! You should continually try to learn and live a better life. Let others live a small life, but not you. If you will work harder on yourself, you will feel as A crown is waiting for you and you deserve that. At the end, Jim Rohn says “You can live a better life. If I can change, you can change, there is nothing in this world that you can’t accomplish. You have got the brain, you have got the interest, you have got the future if anybody can achieve financial freedom, you can also do it. Hey! We all can do it! So Why not start now?
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