The Success Principles(TM) - 10th Anniversary Edition

by Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer

  Although he was cringing with embarrassment inside, Forrest stayed calm and walked over and sat down. He explained as best he could what had been happening. He was amazed to find it actually felt good to stand up for himself. In the coming days, Forrest tried this with others, and with time talking got easier. He discovered there were people around him who were willing to support him—especially now that Forrest was willing to support himself.

  He also saw that he wasn’t alone in dealing with life’s fears and challenges. Everyone he talked to seemed to have struggles and pain of their own. This insight helped him to overcome the shame he’d been carrying for so long.

  As time passed, he could hardly believe the new successes he was having. Within a year of applying the principles, Forrest was doing all of the things his doctors had said he’d never do again. He returned to school. He got off all medications, both for pain and depression. He started volunteering. He started turning every negative into a positive.

  And he’s been doing that ever since.

  Today, it’s hard to believe there was a time, not that long ago, that Forrest couldn’t speak fluently—nor read or write very well. But he turned that around so completely that he wrote a book about his experiences! As a result, he gets almost daily requests to share his story in front of audiences. And while he never would have believed it possible during the dark days, today he loves public speaking and believes he’s found the work he was meant to do. He’s thrilled to travel and speak to groups around the world.

  Reading The Success Principles also shifted Forrest’s thinking about success in general. Before the accident, “success” to him meant more money and more things—a bigger house, a bigger boat, opening more businesses, owning more stuff. After the accident, he’d given up on ever attaining any success, however you define it.

  Today, thanks to The Success Principles, he’s learned the profound truth that having all the stuff in the world doesn’t mean anything if you’re not truly living—which Forrest now knows means giving and receiving love. If currency were counted in friends and love, Forrest would be the richest man in the world.

  While Forrest Willett used The Success Principles to define and achieve success for himself, how you define success is solely in your power. For you, “success” might be a substantial income, effortless financial reward, and the luxuries of a high-net-worth lifestyle. It may be professional recognition or achievement in your hobby or philanthropic endeavors. It may be healthy, happy, and engaged children—or a family life that provides day-after-day enjoyment and bliss. Or it may be entrance onto the world stage for a project or subject matter you are passionate about. Whatever your definition of success, rest assured that you hold in your hands the road map to achieving it.

  EVEN WHEN YOU’RE SKEPTICAL, THE PRINCIPLES ALWAYS WORK

  One of my favorite stories over the last ten years is from a reader in the Philippines who, at first, was skeptical but who committed to applying the principles anyway—for just one year.

  On the last stop of a six-city Asian tour conducting Success Principles workshops, a young man named John Calub approached me at a book signing in Manila’s largest shopping mall. He was writing a newspaper column about successful people for the biggest newspaper in the Philippines, and asked me for an interview. At the end of a very engaging hour, I told him that he was a great interviewer and asked how long he had been doing it. With a sense of pride, he replied that I was his very first interviewee.

  He went on to say that, up until recently, he and two partners had owned and operated three successful restaurants, but that bickering between the partners had eventually led to the failure of the business. John was now homeless, broke, and sleeping on couches in his friends’ apartments. He had taken public transportation to the book signing because he no longer owned a car. And all the money he had in the world was the $3.00 cash left in his pocket.

  When I heard this, and because I liked John, I bought him a copy of The Success Principles from the bookstore and offered him a free seat in the next day’s workshop. Giving him $20 to buy some food, I extracted a promise that, if he liked it, he would write a feature article about the workshop.

  Two and a half years later, I returned to Manila to conduct another workshop. As I was getting ready to begin, I noticed a well-dressed man in a blue blazer and gold Doc Marten shoes followed by an entourage of ten people all wearing the same polo shirt with a bright logo on it. I was curious, so I walked over to the group, and—to my surprise and delight—the man in the blue blazer was John Calub!

  He told me that he had become one of the most successful businessmen in Manila. When John related the story of how he’d accomplished his success, I was so moved that I asked John to share it—in his own words.

  Sitting in the seminar, with my arms crossed tightly across my chest, I listened carefully as Jack Canfield described his principles for success. At first I was very skeptical. He had crazy ideas—like cutting out pictures, pasting them on a board and looking at it every day, then feeling as though you already had what you wanted. My rational mind said, What a joke. Like looking at some pictures is going to help me get what I want.

  At one point, Jack even talked about Dr. Masaru Emoto’s famous experiment with water crystals and showed pictures of how water can be affected by thoughts, words, and feelings. Though I was intrigued, I still wasn’t convinced.

  With my mind full of doubts and questions, I returned home from the seminar and thought more about what Jack had shared. It soon dawned on me: Jack was a very, very successful guy who had used these principles—and here I was totally broke. Who would you listen to? I asked myself. Besides, I had lost everything—I had nothing else to lose.

  I decided to read the book he had given me and diligently follow the principles for one year.

  Every week I worked with a different principle. I began using visualization and even created one of those “crazy” dream boards I’d been so skeptical about.

  The first image I cut out was a picture of a BMW—my dream car. At the time, I was so far away from affording any car, let alone a BMW. To get around, I walked or rode in a Jeepney, a very crowded mode of public transportation in the Philippines. Soon, however, I used the principle to turn my doubt into trust. It worked! And within a year, I bought my first BMW.

  Another principle I discovered was Principle 2: “Be Clear Why You’re Here.” When I was younger, I bounced from job to job—just to make a living and pay my bills. Then, during the seminar, Jack led us through an exercise to identify our deepest passion. I not only realized I have a love for teaching, but I began to identify it as my true gift and purpose. To begin taking action on this purpose, I created a breakthrough goal at the seminar to become the Philippines’ leading success coach.

  I launched a series of seminars—teaching the principles I had learned from Jack. I started coaching and began consulting for different companies. My income quickly rose, and soon I was earning over a million pesos—which in the Philippines is a lot of money! Next, I combined my interest in travel with my passion for teaching and began conducting seminars around the world.

  Today, my training company is the biggest profit center of all the companies I own. Before, I hadn’t been doing what I loved—so my success was hit-or-miss. Now I’m so enthusiastic about teaching these principles that people flock to see me—I’ve even earned seven-figures in one day!

  Jack has helped me see that you really can have it all. My first vision board was created in 2006, and since then I’ve achieved more than 70% of what I set out to do. Because of The Success Principles, I’m the highest paid motivational speaker in the country and am well on my way to becoming the Philippines’ number one success coach. If I can go from broke to becoming a star in my field just by living these principles, anyone can.

  I’ve also seen the results in the lives of my clients as thousands of my countrymen have achieved their dreams. Many were living a hand-to-mouth existence but are now on their way to beco
ming multi-millionaires. We are all living proof that the principles always work, if you always work the principles.

  John Calub experienced the power of The Success Principles—and you, too, will see changes in your life when you apply these classic principles along with the new insights contained in this 10th Anniversary Edition.

  I salute you. I congratulate you. I welcome you on this journey.

  To your success,

  Jack Canfield

  INTRODUCTION

  If a man for whatever reason has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.

  JACQUES-YVES COUSTEAU

  Legendary underwater explorer and filmmaker

  If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

  JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

  German poet, novelist, playwright, and philosopher

  This is not a book of good ideas. This is a book of timeless principles used by successful men and women throughout history. I have studied these success principles for over 30 years and have applied them to my own life. The phenomenal level of success that I now enjoy is the result of applying these principles day in and day out since I began to learn them in 1968.

  My success includes being the author and editor of more than 200 books—including 60 New York Times bestsellers with over 500 million copies in print in 50 languages around the world; holding a Guinness World Record title for having seven books on the May 24, 1998, New York Times bestsellers list; earning a multimillion-dollar net income every year for the past 20 years; living in a beautiful California estate; appearing on every major talk show in America (from Oprah and Montel to Larry King Live and Good Morning America); having a weekly newspaper column read by millions every week; commanding speaking fees of $25,000 to $60,000 a talk; speaking to Fortune 500 companies all over the world; being the recipient of numerous professional and civic awards; having outrageous relationships with my amazing wife and wonderful children; and having achieved a steady state of wellness, balance, happiness, and inner peace.

  I get to socialize with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies; movie, television, and recording stars; celebrated authors; and the world’s finest spiritual teachers and leaders. I have given speeches to members of Congress, professional athletes, corporate managers, and sales superstars in many of the best resorts and retreat centers in the world—from the Four Seasons Resort in the British West Indies to the finest hotels in Acapulco and Cancun. I enjoy skiing in Idaho, California, and Utah; go river rafting in Colorado; and hike in the mountains of California and Washington. Plus I get to vacation in the world’s finest resorts in Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, Morocco, France, Bali, and Italy. All in all, life is a real kick!

  Yet like most of you reading this book, my life started out in a very average way. I grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, where my dad worked in a florist’s shop, making $8,000 a year. My mother was an alcoholic and my father was a workaholic. I worked during the summers to make ends meet (as a lifeguard at a pool and at the same florist’s shop as my father). I went to college on a scholarship and worked serving breakfast in one of the dorms to pay for books, clothes, and dates. Nobody handed me anything on a silver platter. During my last year of graduate school, I had a part-time teaching job that paid me $120 every 2 weeks. My rent was $79 a month, so that left $161 to cover all my other expenses. Toward the end of the month, I ate what became known as my 21¢ dinners—a 10¢ can of tomato paste, garlic salt, and water over an 11¢ bag of spaghetti noodles. I know what it is like to be scraping by on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

  After graduate school, I started my career as a high school history teacher in an all-black school on the South Side of Chicago. And then I met my mentor, W. Clement Stone. Stone was a self-made multimillionaire who hired me to work at his foundation, where he trained me in the fundamental success principles that I still operate from today. My job was to teach these same principles to others. Over the years, I have gone on from my time with Mr. Stone to interview hundreds of successful people—Olympic and professional athletes, celebrated entertainers, bestselling authors, business leaders, political leaders, successful entrepreneurs, and top salespeople. I have read literally thousands of books, attended hundreds of seminars, and listened to thousands of hours of audio programs to uncover the universal principles for creating success and happiness. I then applied those principles to my own life. The ones that worked are the principles I have taught in my speeches, seminars, and workshops to well over 2 million people in all 50 U.S. states . . . ​and in 36 countries around the world.

  These principles and techniques have not only worked for me but they have also helped hundreds of thousands of my students achieve breakthrough success in their careers, greater wealth in their finances, greater aliveness and joy in their relationships, and greater happiness and fulfillment in their lives. My students have started successful businesses, become self-made millionaires, achieved athletic stardom, received lucrative recording contracts, starred in movie and television roles, won political offices, had huge impact in their communities, written bestselling books, been named teacher of the year in their school districts, broken all sales records in their companies, written award-winning screenplays, become presidents of their corporations, been recognized for their outstanding philanthropic contributions, created highly successful relationships, and raised unusually happy and successful children.

  THE PRINCIPLES ALWAYS WORK IF YOU ALWAYS WORK THE PRINCIPLES

  All of these same results are possible for you. I know for a fact that you, too, can attain unimagined levels of success. Why? Because the principles and techniques always work—all you have to do is put them to work for you.

  A few years before I wrote this book, I was interviewed on a television show in Dallas, Texas. I had made the claim that if people would use the principles I was teaching, they could double their income and double their time off in less than 2 years. The woman interviewing me was highly skeptical. I gave her a copy of one of my audio programs and told her that if she used the principles and techniques for 2 years and she didn’t double her income and double her time off, I would come back on her show and write her a check for $1,000. If they did work, she had to ask me back and tell her viewers the principles had worked. A short 9 months later, I ran into her at the National Speakers Association convention in Orlando, Florida. She told me that not only had she already doubled her income but she had also moved to a bigger station with a substantial pay increase, had started a public speaking career, and had already finished and sold a book—all in just 9 months!

  The fact is that anyone can consistently produce these kinds of results on a regular basis. All you have to do is decide what you want, believe you deserve it, and practice the success principles in this book.

  The fundamentals are the same for all people and all professions—even if you’re currently unemployed. It doesn’t matter if your goals are to be the top salesperson in your company, get straight As in school, lose weight, buy your dream home—or become a world-class professional athlete, rock star, award-winning journalist, multimillionaire, or successful entrepreneur. The principles and strategies are the same. And if you learn them, assimilate them, and apply them with discipline every day, they will transform your life beyond your wildest dreams.

  “YOU CAN’T HIRE SOMEONE ELSE TO DO YOUR PUSH-UPS FOR YOU”

  As motivational philosopher Jim Rohn so aptly put it, “You can’t hire someone else to do your push-ups for you.” You must do them yourself if you are to get any value out of them. Whether it is exercising, meditating, reading, studying, learning a new language, creating a mastermind group, setting measurable goals, visualizing success, repeating affirmations, or practicing a new skill, you are going to have to do it. No one else can do these things for you. I will give you the road map, but you will have to drive the car. I will teach you the principles, but you will have to apply them. If you choose to put in t
he effort, I promise you the rewards will be well worth it.

  HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED

  To help you quickly learn these powerful principles, I have organized this book into six sections. Part I, “The Fundamentals of Success,” consists of 25 chapters that contain the absolute basics you must do to get from where you are to where you want to be. You’ll start by exploring the critical importance of taking 100% responsibility for your life and your results. From there, you’ll learn how to clarify your life purpose, your vision for your ideal life, and what you truly want to achieve.

  Next we’ll look at how to create an unshakable belief in yourself and your dreams. Then I’ll help you turn your vision into a set of concrete goals and an action plan for achieving them. I’ll also teach you how to harness the incredible power of affirmations and visualization—two of the greatest success secrets of all Olympic athletes, top entrepreneurs, world leaders, and high achievers. The next few chapters have to do with taking those necessary but sometimes scary action steps that are required to make your dreams come true.

  Part II, “Transform Yourself for Success,” addresses the important inner work you’ll need to do—work that will help you remove any mental and emotional blocks you may have to success. It’s not enough to know what to do. You also need to understand the methodology for removing self-defeating beliefs, fears, and habits that are holding you back. Like driving your car with the emergency brake on, these blocks can significantly slow your progress. You must learn how to release the brakes, or you will always experience life as a struggle and fall short of your intended goals.

  Part III, “Build Your Success Team,” reveals how to build different kinds of support teams so you can spend your time focusing exclusively on your core genius. You’ll also learn how to redefine time, utilize the benefits of a personal coach, and access your own inner wisdom—an untapped but ultrarich resource.