There seem to be few men who have the courage to speak up in our gutless, weak, compromised society. When they do, I like to promote their words, if for no other reason than to strengthen and encourage others to be real. Sadly, one of the strongest has died. Thankfully, people like Glenn Beck is letting people know who Charlton Heston really was - a giant among men. I urge you to listen to (and read) this wonderful speech he delivered in 1999. If you have a smidgen of a backbone, you will love it.

Jeffrey Ressner writes, “And Heston has never shied away from controversy. In 1992, he condemned the infamous Ice-T rap song “Cop Killer,” then released by a Time Warner-distributed music label. Biting the hand that had fed him, Heston showed up at a Time Warner shareholders’ meeting at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel covered by this reporter. He lashed out against the giant corporation whose studio had cast him in so many movies.

He harshly admonished its top executives for releasing the song, then simply, eloquently read the lyrics. Few there had ever heard the actual words before, and as Heston recited the homicidal, anti-police rant inspired by the Rodney King assault, the room filled with his booming baritone. When he finished, the place was so stunned you could hear a pin drop.”

There’s another real man with a real brain out there. Christopher Hitchins is a beacon of hope and freedom. Read some of  his thoughts here. He pulls no punches, thank goodness. He addresses real issues of great importance with courage and panache. He contributes significantly to freedom, reason, sanity, and Capitalism through his great teachings and writings.

Have a look at the physical toll meth has had on these drug users. You can’t believe the changes in their face in such a short while, however the changes to their minds and hearts are even more devastating. This is all about selling out - the sacred exchanged for the profane, selling your birthright for a bowl of soup. The way of the ignorant, the desperate, the indolent; the prostitute, the mercenary. But before you judge, ask yourself what YOUR addiction is.

It all starts with the “Road Less Traveled” - a choice at a crossroads, and then the consistent choice to remain on that chosen path. And though the choice to leave that destructive path may get harder to make as time goes by, the level of pain also increases the motivation available to those who would recover their very souls.

Your addiction may be acceptance (usually from the wrong people), or comfort, or pride (not wanting to appear to fail), or your job - whatever it is, it’s taking you down the wrong road and you need a point of decision, a momentous moment, which is usually initiated by someone stronger and more objective about your present situation than you are. This is crucial; getting advice from a fellow prisoner or junkie seldom works. In the movie, School for Scoundrels, “Dr. P” asks his class, “How many of you read self-help books? You can’t help yourself, because you’ll be getting help from a complete asshole!” Actually, he’s right. We need a good mentor, and we need to continually, consistently, work on getting freed from our addictions. “So cut through the strap and the thong and the rope. Loosen the fastenings. Unbolt the doors of sleep and awake” - the Buddha.

The negative effects of compromising your values and ideals are even more destructive than meth or crack. And the resulting downward spiral of self-destruction can take you to a place where you no longer believe it’s possible to escape, so you cloak your fear and self-loathing in arrogance and cynicism. Your favorite retort becomes, “It’s simply too good to be true - a ripoff. Anyway, I don’t have time.” You’re right, in a way - you’re ripping yourself off and your time is running out. You deserve to reach your full potential. Your family deserves it. It’s not too late.

Come out of hiding. Too many of you are hiding in seminars, programs, dead-end jobs, and other poor excuses for procrastination and avoidance. Pull your head out of the sand and see the abundance of opportunities surrounding you. Get addicted to success.

Did you know that there is a simple “Mental Switch” that you can throw, that will dramatically increase your business results? What would you pay to discover that switch and find out how to make it work? How badly do you want it? On a scale of one to ten, one being “I don’t care” and ten being, “I will walk naked with my hair on fire over broken glass and scorpions in front of my worst enemies during the Superbowl”, are you a fifteen? Will you INSIST on success?

Many salespeople and entrepreneurs drag a smelly old “employee mindset” to their efforts; they focus on what they did, reporting on their actions, without majoring on the results they have achieved, almost as though they have to justify themselves. They accept the results they get based on three things: Their level of motivation, their history (past results) and the history of others in their industry, and those from whom they learn.

Years ago, I trained the salespeople in a Nissan car dealership. The average salesperson sold four  cars in their first month. We agreed that we would all tell new salespeople that the average sales by a new salesperson in their first month was fifteen cars, and that they would be summarily fired if they sold anything less. Then we partnered them with the top salespeople as mentors in their first month. The average sales soared to 13 in the first month by new salespeople. BUT, as soon as they found out what the REAL sales average was, and that they wouldn’t be fired as threatened, their sales immediately plummeted like a lead balloon to the average level!

At the same dealership, a character arrived at my training session with a long, hippy, dirty, environmentalist beard. I said, “If I was your boss, I would tell you to shave off that scraggly beard or find another job. Your sales will immediately quadruple if you shave it off.” The next day, he showed up without having removed the pathetic beard. Why? He was not sufficiently motivated; his beard was more important to him than keeping his job. What would happen if I threatened to kill his inbred family if he didn’t shave his beard off?

Here is how to throw the switch that will switch you to high octane rocket fuel, unprecedented success, and make you rich:

1. You have to be highly motivated. I ask salespeople, “Can you double your sales next month?” They naturally answer, “No”, because they have to justify their past results, their expectations are limited to those around them, and their present beliefs and self-esteem put a glass ceiling on what they can achieve, and they are reasonably comfortable with their present income. So then I ask, “If you knew without a doubt that your beloved family would be slaughtered if you don’t double your sales next month, can you do it now?” Oh, yes. What changed? Their WHY. The HOW and their lame excuses suddenly became irrelevant. Find your WHY. Understand the consequences of failure.
2. You can do a lot more than you think once you have a serious, compelling, urgent reason to accomplish a specific, measurable goal within a definite time frame,  with terrible consequences looming should you miss the mark. You called ten people yesterday? Could you call thirty or forty if I had a gun to your head? Could you quadruple your intensity, discipline, activity, enthusiasm, and determination? Sure you could, if I was standing next to your bare butt with a red-hot branding iron! (The brand has a dollar sign on it.)
3. You have to have very specific RESULT goals, so you can’t hide behind lukewarm, half-hearted activity. And there has to be a wonderful reward to accomplishing them and a scary consequence if you don’t.
4. You are only allowed to deal with, communicate with, learn from, associate with, and sell to WINNERS. No losers or their friends are allowed within four miles of you, or in your e mail, on the phone, or in the mail. Nothing. And you have to learn to ASK for what you want. The more you ask for, the more you will get. Ask for the sale every time.
5. ALL your input - what you see, read, listen to, watch, and hear, has to be a diet of success, carefully chosen for the maximum results. Input = output.
6. When you reach this level of self discipline and clarity, commitment and motivation, especially when you are surrounded by people who are more successful than you are and to whom you are committed and responsible, your self-esteem will skyrocket and you will start expecting a lot more of yourself and others. You will have very little competition. You will no longer compromise, make or accept excuses, or focus on actions. You will only measure RESULTS.

Remain flexible on the HOW, but never shift on your WHY. Become a laser-focused money machine, a determined DollarMaker, a warrior, an unstoppable, bullet-proof missile. See my DVD, ‘How to Create a Bulletproof Mindset’.

Daily, consistent, persistent, focused, passionate action will be the combination that opens any safe you want. You can do this.

Robin J. Elliott
www.jvwisdom.com