Mastering The Art Of Success

(^) Jack Canfield
Jesse Jackson’s church with a friend one time. What happened for me
was that I saw somebody with a vision. (This was before Martin Luther
King was killed and J esse was of the lieutenants in his o rganization.) I
just saw people trying to make the world work better for a certain
segment of the population. I was inspired by that kind of visionary
belief th at it ’s possible to make change.
Later on, John F. Kennedy was a hero of mine. I was very much
inspired by him.
Another is a therapist by the name of Robert Resnick. He was my
therapist for two years. He taught me a little formula: E + R = O. It
stands for Events + Response = Outcome. He said, “If you don’t like
your outcomes quit blaming the events and start changing your
responses.” One of his favorite phrases was, “If the grass on the other
side of the fence looks greener, start watering your own lawn more.”
I think he helped me get off any kind of self-pity I might have had
because I had parents who were alcoholics. It would have been very easy
to blame them f or problems I might have had. They weren’t very
successful or rich; I was surrounded by people who were and I felt like,
“God, what if I’d had parents like they had? I could have been a lot
be tter.” He just got me off that whole notion and made me realize that
the hand you were dealt is the hand you’ve got to play. Take
responsibility for who you are and quit complaining and blaming o thers
and g et on with your lif e. That was a turning point for me.
I’d say the last person who really affected me big-time was a guy
named W. Clement Stone who was a self-made multi-millionaire in
Chicago. He taught me that success is not a four-lett er word—it’s
nothing to be ashamed of—and you ought to go for it. He said, “The
best thing you can do for the poor is n ot be one of them.” Be a model
for what it is to live a successful life. So I learned from him the
principles of success and that’s what I’ve been teaching now f or more
th an thirty years.
WRIGHT
He was an entrepreneur in the insurance industry, wasn’t h e?