What Are You Becoming In Your Pursuits? Behold and Beware!

For the last half year or so there was one man that have impacted my life and philosophy. That man is the late Jim Rohn. I've been absorbing lotsa stuffs from many sources but Mr Rohn stood up high, head and shoulders above them all. There are good reasons why he's considered one of the most influential thinkers and business philosophers of our time.

I'm recording this here for myself, and for a young man I talked to recently.

In his twenties, when he was broke and aimless, Jim Rohn was blessed with a mentor Earl Shoaff that came alongside and changed his philosophies, and inevitably turned his whole life around. In one of the goal-setting sessions Mr. Shoaff suggested why not he set a goal to be a millionaire among many of his goals, and here's why. Jim was thinking to himself, "Now, the man doesn't have to teach me why. Wouldn't it be great to have a million dollars?" Mr. Shoaff said "No. That's not it. Here's why...." And Jim Rohn received the greatest lesson of his life in one sentence that his mentor was about to give him.

"Set a goal to become a millionaire and here's why.....for WHAT IT WILL MAKE OF YOU to achieve it."

What a brand new way of setting goal, Jim thought. Set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them. Many of Jim Rohn's philosophies are derived from that single sentence.

"If I set this goal and go for it, not only what will I achieve, but more importantly, what will it make of me in the process?"  

"Success is not what you pursue. Success is what you become."

 "The greatest value in life is not what you get. That greatest value in life is what you become."

 "Major question we should ask in our jobs is not "what am I getting here?" Major question we should ask is "what am I becoming here?""

 "It's not what you get that makes you valuable. It's what you become that makes you valuable."  

I don't know about you, but in my search in my personal journey, this major lesson blew a huge hole right though many things I thought I knew and created a clear path. Thank God it simplified my philosophy!

In spiritual matters, Jim Rohn confessed that he's just an amateur. But he could expound stuffs from the Scriptures so well, better than many preachers I know. He said when it comes to spirituality, the most important thing boils down to these three things: study, practice and teach it. That summary sounds over-simplistic, but it's not.

It's great that he drew references to the Bible on some of the major lessons. Here's one.

"....Here's the last part on goal-setting. Don't compromise, don't sell out. There were some things I went for back in the early years that I paid too big a price for. If I'd known how much it'd cost me, I never would've have paid, but I didn't know. Don't sell out. The ancient phrase said 'Count the cost, count the cost, count the cost'." 

"An ancient story said 'Judas got the money'. You may say that's a success story. No, no. It's true thirty pieces of silver in those days was a sizeable fortune. If you say if a guy's got a fortune that's a success story. No, you don't understand. His name was Judas. Doesn't that ring a bell? Judas. You say 'Judas the traitor'? That's right! The traitor got the money. Doesn't that change the story? The answer is of course it changes the story. Interestingly enough when Judas got the money for becoming a traitor, he got the money in his hot little hands and now he's unhappy. Some say if you got a fortune how can you be unhappy? Well he was not unhappy with his money, he was unhappy with....himself. Key phrase: the greatest source of unhappiness is self-unhappiness...." 

"Judas was unhappy and thought 'well what I'd do is just take the money back', walked in where he got the money and said 'here, take this money, I'm unhappy'. They said 'Hey Judas, we got what we wanted, you got what you wanted. Out!' They threw him out with the money. Judas wondered what he'd do, he thought, 'I'll just throw the money away'. And he proceeded to throw his fortune away. Why would he throw his fortune away? He was so unhappy with....himself. That's not the end of the scenario. After he threw away his fortune, he couldn't change what he became, a traitor, and now in total frustration he goes out and hang his worthless self. Why such a tragic end? Because he was so unhappy with....himself. He sold out, he paid too big a price. The ancient script summed it all up: 'what if you gain the whole world and it costs you your soul. Too big a price to pay..."

"Don't sell out, don't compromise your values, don't compromise your virtues, don't compromise your philosophy." 

"....Two good words from ancient script. One, Behold. The positive word. Behold the possibility. Behold the opportunity. Behold the awesomeness. Behold the uniqueness. Behold the majesty. Behold, Behold. What a good word! But here's another word. Beware, Beware, Beware. Don't sell out...."

Behold! And Beware!