the choice is yours.
Number two is this: it is not what is going on out there. A lot of that you cannot change. There is something you can do about you and your future and that's what I want to talk about. It’s not what happens out there that makes a difference in your life, it’s what goes on between your own two ears. That's what makes the difference.
Neil Rudenstine was the president of Harvard University. His mother was a part-time waitress and his father was a prison guard. It’s not who your mama and your daddy might've been; it’s not what they have done. The question is what kind of legacy will you leave to your children and your grandchildren? It is what you do. A lot of times we encounter people who have a pity party on a regular basis. They have what we call the PLOM disease—PLOM, that’s “poor li’l ol’ me,” and the problem with pity parties is that very few people come, and those who do don’t bring presents.
Let me point out, there was a study of 300 world-class leaders. Now, I'm talking about Roosevelt and Churchill; I'm talking about Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. I’m talking about Clara Barton, Helen Keller and Mother Teresa. Seventy-five percent of them were either raised in poverty or abused as children, or had some serious physical impairment. They understood point number three: it’s not what happens to you—it’s how you handle what happens to you that is going to make the difference.
I think of the Edsel automobile, which many people recognize as being by far the most profitable motorcar that Ford built. Now, I know what you’re thinking right now. You’re thinking, ‘Ziglar, that sucker was a dog! Why, you know, it cost ‘em a whole lot of money! They stopped production! Whaddya mean it was the most profitable one?’ Remember I said a moment ago it’s not what happens to you, it's how you handle it? Out of the Edsel came the Mustang; out of the Mustang came the Taurus. They took the mistake, learned from it, capitalized on it, and look at what happened as a result. It’s not what happens to you, it's how you handle it.
John Foppe was recognized as one of the Top Ten Young Americans by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce. I met John when he was speaking for the Department of Defense up in Colorado Springs. He had admirals and generals, CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies in front of him. As a 19-year-old young man, he spoke with confidence, clarity, conviction and power. John had graduated from college three and a half years cum laude, working his way partially through. You ought to see John drive a car and scramble eggs and go skiing and paint portraits and do those sorts of things. You ought to watch him just eat. You see, John Foppe was born without any arms. But as John said to me one day, “You know, Zig, if I had the longest, strongest arms ever put on a human being, there’d still be only so high I could reach, only so much weight I could lift. I don’t care how long and tall and strong and big your arms might be, they have a limit. But, Zig, you know, I’ve faced more situations every day where I have to use my creative imagination than the average person does in a month, and there is no limit to what we can do internally.”
Now this message, basically, is the power of hope, because if there's hope in the future, there is power in the present. My objective in this book is to share with you how you can get more of the things money will buy and all of the things money won't buy. Money is important. There are some people who are literally struggling for survival. Part of our objective is to help those people. All of us—at least in one or two instances in our life—have been in that situation where if we had a flat tire it was a financial disaster; if we spilled something on a dress or tore a suit or something, it really represented difficulty.
I want to share with you how to move from survival to stability, from stability to success, and from success to significance. Money is important. Now, don't misunderstand, it’s not everything, but it rates reasonably close to oxygen. It's got to be in the picture. Anybody who says they’re not interested in money is going to lie about other things, too. A lot of people just don't have any concept about money. They talk about cold, hard cash, which is silly. It’s neither cold nor hard; it’s soft and warm. It feels good! Feel it.
I confess I like the things money buys. I like to wear nice clothes, I like to drive a nice car, I like to live in a nice house, I like to take nice trips, I like to take my wife out to nice restaurants. I like all of those things, and all of them cost money. But I love the things money won’t buy. Money bought me a nice house, but it’ll never buy me a home. Money will buy me a bed; it won’t buy me a good night’s sleep. Money will buy me a companion; it won’t buy me a friend. Money will buy me a good time but it won't buy peace of mind. All of those things are available. Now, I’ll never tell you it’s easy, but they are available.
I want to share with you in this book how to achieve employment security in a world where job security no longer exists. And I think everybody would recognize that, and we’re going to look at that very carefully. How do you live well and how do you finish well? I think it’s very important we understand that. How do you develop the qualities that are necessary to accomplish all of these things, and do you have what it takes?
I’m going to give you an awful lot of stories and examples. The Center for Creative Research out of Greensboro, North Carolina, said that the parable—the story, the example—is the best way to teach, particularly if you are teaching values. Seems that a couple thousand years ago somebody else used the parable quite effectively in teaching the truths that really do make a difference. I think of the thoughts that might go through your mind as you sit there reading this, wondering, ‘Well, you know, Zig is saying some pretty significant things there about what is available. I wonder if poor li'l ol’ me can accomplish those things?’
Well, let me tell you about Vince Robert. He was thirty-seven years old and had a fifth grade education. He drove a taxi. The question is, where do you think Vince Robert was going to end up in the minds of a lot of people? I know many would say, “Well, there’s the perfect candidate for governmental assistance before he passes on.” But one day when Vince was waiting on a fare at the airport or downtown in front of a hotel, lightning struck. I don’t know what happened, but he bought a book. It was a dictionary. A fifteen-pound Webster's Dictionary. Vince Robert put that dictionary on the front seat of his automobile, and starting on word one, page one, he started learning those words. By the time he’d barely gotten into the dictionary, maybe an eighth of an inch thick, all of a sudden he started understanding things he’d only heard; understanding things he'd only read. Now, this is validated by Georgetown Medical School, which said in their studies that in one hundred percent of the cases when your vocabulary increases, your IQ goes up—every single case. You can build a magnificent vocabulary and not invest any time at all. All you’ve got to do is get your dictionary and put it in the bathroom. Now, when you analyze what I just said, it really will take you no time at all. That IQ goes up.
Let me tell you what happened to Vince Robert. As he started hearing things and listening to things, he started understanding them. He started investing in the stock market, took every dime he could spare. He ended up buying a nineteen-car cab company. He kept investing. Today he’s a wealthy man, and travels Canada telling people how he did it.
You know what I believe with all my heart? There will be tens of thousands of people like Vince Robert who will listen to what I just said and say, “If that guy can do it, I can do it, too!” That’s what this is all about.
I want to share with you a basic concept which you will hear me repeat over and over—namely, that failure is an event, not a person; yesterday really did end last night. Today is a brand new day, and it gives us another choice to do with it whatever we wish to do.
One of the things I'm going to cover in the series is how do you get along with other people? How do you get along with that bloodsucker of a boss who wants to squeeze every ounce of blood out of you and only pays you minimum wage because it’s the law? How do you get along with that lazy, irresponsible employee who wants all the benefits and does none of the work, who thinks they ought to show up when they want to, where they want to, how they want to and do what they want to?
How do you get along with that man I’m married to that no human being alive could ever tolerate? How do you get along with that woman? How do you handle that irresponsible, lazy teenager? How do you get along with all of these people?