A legend of personal development and widely recognized business philosopher Jim Rohn left a great legacy for the future generation of successful entrepreneurs. In this article, we will talk about Rohn’s biography and his greatest life and business lessons as well as his inspiring quotes that will change your life.
Who is Jim Rohn?
Over 46 years he had been sharing the principles of his success philosophy with about 5 million people around the world. And even after his death, the words of his wisdom are being quoted, and new readers look for his books in the bookstores. Jim Rohn is called America’s Foremost Business Philosopher for his extraordinary way of thinking, ability to put complicated things in simple words and capture the imagination of the audience.
Jim Rohn was born in 1930 in a poor family of farmers. Since the early years, he showed great talent in storytelling, inherited from his father. Disappointed with education, Rohn left college after just one year, in order to learn real life that was not taught at school. However, by the age of 25, already supporting a wife and a child, he became bankrupt with big debts impossible to pay out.
Luckily for him, at that time Rohn attended a seminar of Earl Shoaff’s, and his life started to turn another way. Shoaff started coaching Rohn for the work at Nutri-Bio direct selling company. According to Shoaff’s ideas of success, personal growth and constant development stood above having a regular job. Thus Rohn adopted this road of self-improvement, and even though he worked as a clerk at a Sears departmental store, his teacher’s philosophy gave him a ground.
In a few years, Jim Rohn moved to Beverly Hills and performed his first significant speech in local Rotary Club ‘Idaho Farm Boy Makes it to Beverly Hills”. His story won applause, so soon enough Rohn was invited to make more performances at local schools, colleges, and clubs. Step by step he started speaking on a regular basis and became recognized in the field of personal assistance internationally.
Since 1963, Jim Rohn started to gather big audiences; the number of his listeners reached up to 6,000 people per time. He wrote 25 books, produced in paper, audio and video formats. The most famous of all become ‘The Art of Exceptional Living’ and ‘Challenge to Succeed’ that are still popular worldwide. In 1985 Rohn was awarded CPAE award from the National Speakers Association and the Master of Influence Award for his influential speeches able to change lives.
Jim Rohn was mentoring a number of successful business people, such as the founder of Herbalife International Mark R. Hughes, life coach Tony Robbins, authors Brian Tracy, Chris Widener and many others. He also inspired other speakers such as Darren Hardy, Les Brown and so many more…
Throughout his lifetime, Jim Rohn had helped people to develop their life strategies by revealing imagination and focusing on the basics of human behavior. He is famous for bringing extraordinary insights to ordinary events and principles, provoking people to learn and act.
Jim Rohn died on December 5, 2009, from a respiratory disease, leaving a rich heritage to the people he loved to inspire.
Jim Rohn Inspirational Quotes
On Motivation, Success and Failure
- “If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.”
- “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
- “Motivation alone is not enough. If you have an idiot and you motivate him, now you have a motivated idiot.”
- “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
- “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.”
- “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”
- “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”
- “Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
- “Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.”
- “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.”
- “Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”
- “If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.”
- “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
- “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
- “You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.”
- “We get paid for bringing value to the market place.”
- “The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.”
- “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.”
- “Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune.”
- “Make measurable progress in reasonable time.”
- “Money is usually attracted, not pursued.”
- “To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?”
- “Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.”
- “The book you don’t read won’t help.”
- “It isn’t what the book costs; it’s what it will cost you if you don’t read it.”
- “When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.”
- “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”
- “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.”
- “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
- “We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.”
- “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”
- “Don’t join an easy crowd; you won’t grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high.”
- “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
- “A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.”
Life, Health, and Happiness
- “For things to change, you have to change.”
- “Life and business is like the changing seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. Therein lies the opportunity to live an extraordinary life–the opportunity to change yourself.”
- “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
- “Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
- “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
- “Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.”
- “Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”
- “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”
- “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.”
- “You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”
- “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.”
- “If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.”
- “Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”
- “The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.”
- “The more you know the less you need to say.”
- “The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.”
- “Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.”
- “Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
- “It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.”
- “Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness – great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.”
- “Days are expensive. When you spend a day you have one less day to spend. So make sure you spend each one wisely.”
- “Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.”
- “Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.”
- “Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.”
- “Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.”
- “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
Jim Rohn has taught the American Dream and inspired millions of people around the world. If you love these insightful quotes from Rohn, feel free to share this post. And as Rohn would say, “For things to change, you have to change. For things to get better, you have to get better. For things to improve, you have to improve. When you grow, everything in your life grows with you.” Remember: “Never wish life were easier, wish that you were better and Let others lead small lives, but not you”.
