Jack Canfield(^)
CANFIELD
You know, it’s funny, I don’t think I’ve had a lot of major failures
and setbacks where I had to start over. My life’s been on an intentional
curve. But I do have a lot of challenges. Mark and I are always setting
goals that challenge us. We always say, “The purpose of setting a really
big goal is not so that you can achieve it so much, but it’s who you
become in the process of achieving it.” A friend of mine, Jim Rohn,
says, “You want to set goals big enough so that in the process of
achieving them you become someone worth being.”
I think that to be a millionaire is nice but so what? People make the
money and then they lose it. People g et the big houses and then they
burn down or Silicon Valley goes belly up and all of a sudden they don’t
have a big house anymore. But who you became in the process of
learning how to be successful can never be taken away from you. So
what we do is c onstantly put big challenges in front of us.
We have a book called Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul. (You’ll
have to make sure to get a copy for your wife.) I was a teacher and a
teacher trainer for years. But because of the success of the Chicken Soup
books I haven’t been in the education world that much. I’ve got to go
out and relearn how I market to that world. I met with a
Superinte ndent of Schools. I met with a guy named Jason Dorsey who’s
one of the number one consultants in the world in that area. I found
out who has the bestselling book in that area. I sat down with his
wife for a day and talked about her marketing approaches.
I believe that if you face any kind of adversity, whether it’s losing
your job, your spouse dies, you get divorced, you’re in an accident like
Christopher Reeve and become paralyzed, or whatever, you simply do
what you have to do. You find out who’s already handled the problem
and how did they’ve handled it. Then you get the support you need to
get thro ugh it by their example. Whether it’s a counselor in your church
or you go on a retreat or you read the Bible, you do something that
gives you the support you need to get to the other end.
You also have to know what the end is that you want to have. Do
you want to be remarried? Do you just want to have a job and be a
single mom? What is it? If you reach out and ask for support I think
you’ll get h elp. People really like to he lp other people. They’re not