Principle VII
Every single person on the face of this Earth has a seed of prosperity within them. We’re given our seed of prosperity on the most important day of our lives—our birthday. When we are born, we enter the world on equal playing ground. We have the same opportunities as everyone else to prosper. I know some of you are probably saying, “John, I was born poor. How did I have the same opportunities as a rich person?” You must look past the adversity that you were born into and focus on being born into a world of endless possibilities.
It’s not the problems that were already there when you were born that really matter. It’s just the sheer fact that as a child you were blessed with a clean slate and a tiny little heart that was open to believing anything was possible. Yes, I know things do happen during our developmental years that deter our ability to achieve our dreams. However, no one can take away that seed of prosperity that was planted in your heart by God. When you’re faced with a challenge, have you ever felt that little tug in your heart telling you that you can do it? It’s that tiny seed that is deep rooted in your heart that keeps reminding you that you were born for greatness.
The problem is that 97% of people don’t know this truth and quiet their heart with fear, doubt and procrastination. They actually believe that the remaining 3% of people in this world that have made the decision to be successful are “lucky”. As you know, I don’t believe in luck. I refuse to believe in luck! I create my own future based upon the vision that I hold inside of me. I am allowing my seed to harvest. In order for my seed to harvest, I need to feed it. I need to water it. I need to take care of it. As soon as I start ignoring my seed, it starts to die. The roots start to wither. I just simply will not allow the unnecessary death of my seed to happen.
The success process is not incredibly difficult. All it takes is daily focused committed action. That’s it! Successful people simply do what unsuccessful people won’t do. They immerse themselves in self-development, they build their business, they face obstacles, and they get uncomfortable. More importantly, when they feel the fear rising up, they take that step of faith anyway! They’re simply willing to get uncomfortable and fail their way towards success. Am I saying that the process is easy? No. The process is not easy. However, it simply takes daily actions that bring you closer to your goal. Those actions feed and cultivate your success seed.
The most powerful part of harvest time is the process. The process is when you’re cultivating the seed. Cultivating the seed requires time. I’ll tell you right now that the fastest way to failure is a shortcut. If you skip essential steps, such as breaking the seed open and expecting to see the fruit, the seed will crumble before your eyes. Instead, gradually take those daily success action steps. Allow your seed to become strong and deepen its roots in your heart.
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus told a story of a farmer that went out to plant some seed. As he scattered the seed across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly, because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted.
What does this parable have to do with your success? Everything! If the seed of prosperity in your heart isn’t nurtured, it will die. As you see from the story, the only time the seed flourished was when it was planted in fertile soil. Many times, we try to position ourselves in the places where the world tells us that we belong instead of taking those daily action steps to determine where we are really meant to be in life. Let me ask you a serious question, “Are you surrounded by thorns that are slowly choking your dream?” If so, it’s time that you replant your seed in fertile soil. How? I’m going to teach you how to take care of your seed of prosperity by breaking down the word “seed”.
The first letter in the word seed is “S”, which stands for submerge. Visualize an overflowing chocolate fondue fountain with chocolate gushing out everywhere. You place a marshmallow on a dipping stick and just barely place it in the stream of chocolate. No, that’s ridiculous. We all know that you stick that marshmallow in the chocolate until it is fully covered…submerged. I’ve actually seen little kids stick their whole hand in the fountain just to make sure that they have as much chocolate on their marshmallow as possible.
When it goes to growing your seed, you have to be like that little kid at the fondue fountain who believes that there is no limit to the amount of chocolate that he can receive. You must submerge yourself in personal development on a daily basis to build your belief in yourself and that little seed in your heart. As the success and motivation enters your eyes and ears, the belief nutrients flow through your heart and the roots of the seed deepen and become stronger. You begin to truly see that all your dreams and goals are possible. Poverty and lack are no longer a reality for you in any area of your life. Remember, you were blessed with this seed of prosperity at birth, and it’s ready and willing to accept that vital nutrition from the positive messages that you are immersing yourself in daily.
We are surrounded by negativity in the world, and you must clean out all the garbage that you allowed to enter your mind. I call this brainwashing. You wash your physical body to rid it of dirt so why wouldn’t you wash your mind of all the negative nonsense that the world tells you? For example, suppose you are building your business but still work at a job to fund your entrepreneurial dream. All day long, your coworkers tell you how impossible it will be for you to build a business in this economy. When you go home and start focusing on your business, you are distracted by those naysayer thoughts still lingering in your head. This is the exact time that you have to wash those thoughts right out of your mind.
How? Watch a motivational DVD, listen to an inspirational CD or read a book about other successful entrepreneurs. Say your affirmations out loud and declare that you will achieve your dream. Focus on the pictures on your dream board of your family and visualize your freedom date. Submerge yourself in personal development. The roots of your seed will grow strong and you will be able to withstand any type of adversity that gets between you and your dream.
The next letter is “E” for explore. Thus far, we’ve talked about feeding your seed so that it can become stronger, but now I want to explore what lies inside your seed. Let’s go back to the day that you were born into this great world and that tiny little seed of prosperity came alive in your heart. As you grew, the seed absorbed whatever you fed it. Imagine a four year old dreaming of being a superhero. He’s running around the house with a pillowcase draped around his neck as a cape and his arms stretched out in front of him. There is nothing that you could say to him to make him believe that it isn’t possible for him to fly around and save the world from bad people. That child’s belief in his dream and the words that he speaks about that dream constantly feed the seed in his heart no matter how unrealistic that dream may seem to everyone else. The seed is sprouting and the roots begin extend deep into the child’s heart.
Now, imagine that same child fourteen years later. He’s getting ready to go off to college and start his own life or maybe he’s taking over the family business. In his mind, he knows that it will be difficult but believes that it is possible. That belief in his dream and encouragement from his support system feeds the seed in his heart. No matter what challenges he has faced thus far, his seed of prosperity is strong and protected by his dedication to his dream and determination to succeed.
Then around the age of twenty-five, it happens. He starts to let others tell him what he’s capable of achieving, and he begins to limit himself based on the ideals of society. The seed in his heart starts to wither and is no longer receiving the nutrients from his belief that it needs to survive. Unless he makes the decision to rebuild that belief and refuses to listen to the naysayers, his seed of prosperity will die and the likelihood of him achieving his dreams will diminish.
Is this where you are in your life? Have you allowed the naysayers and adversities that you face to determine your level of success? If so, it’s not too late. Right now, your seed may be buried underneath years of fear, procrastination and doubt but you can change that. It’s not the end of your dream unless you give up, which leads right into the next letter of the word “seed”.
It’s another “E”, but this time it stands for excavate. There are many definitions of this word but the one that I like the most is “to expose or uncover by digging.” If your seed of prosperity is covered up by the rocky soil of fear, doubt, and procrastination, then it’s time that you take out your big shovel of faith and start digging. Don’t stop until you’ve uncovered that tiny little seed that is fighting to stay alive. During this process, you have to put an end to all the outside influences in your life controlling your level of success. If you are hanging out with negative friends, STOP! If you are watching trash television shows, STOP! Whatever you are doing or allowing to enter your mind that is burying your seed deeper in that rocky soil STOP!
The final letter in the word seed is “D” for devotion, which is defined as a commitment to some purpose. You must be completely, undeniably devoted to your seed of prosperity. You will do ANYTHING that’s legal, moral and ethical to protect your seed…your dream…your Why in life. To develop this type of devotion, you simply take a step back to the first letter in this teaching – “S” for submerge. If you aren’t completely submerged in personal development, then it will be easy for the enemy to annihilate your self-belief. No matter how much you want to achieve your dreams, there’s no way that your seed of prosperity will flourish if you don’t believe in yourself. The only person that can make you give up is YOU!
Of all the battles that a Navy Seal must fight, none is more important than the first – mind over body, and this battle is fought during “Hell Week”, which is one of the most grueling times for the trainees. They are constantly cold, hungry, wet, sleep-deprived and continuously moving. Throughout Hell Week, the instructors continually remind candidates that they can “Drop-On-Request” (DOR) any time they feel that they can’t go on by simply ringing a shiny brass bell that hangs prominently within the camp for all to see. One instructor actually said “The belief that it’s all about physical strength is a common misconception. Actually, it’s 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. Trainees just decide that they are too cold, too sandy, too sore or too wet to go on. It’s their minds that give up on them not their bodies.”
You have to be as devoted to your dream as the Navy Seal is to conquering Hell Week. Don’t let those negative thoughts that have been planted in your mind by naysayers be the reason that you DOR and ring that shiny brass bell that signifies that you gave up on yourself and that little seed of prosperity in your heart. Devote yourself to achieving what some see as unrealistic by immersing yourself in personal self-development. Your devotion will yield results that you’ve only dreamed of!
So many people aren’t willing to devote themselves to their dreams and pay the price for success. I can tell you right now that if you don’t pay the price for success, you will fail. Whatsoever you sow, you shall reap. If you sow a failure mentality, that’s what you’ll get—failure. If you sow a success mentality, that’s what you’ll get—success. Some people don’t agree, but I just tell them to take a good look at their life. It’s impossible for them not to see that their life results are a result of their willingness to pay the price.
I’ve got to forewarn you. The information I’m going to share with you now is not for everyone. Not everyone can handle the truth. The truth is that you must take responsibility for where you are at in your life. If you don’t take responsibility for your life, that means you place the blame elsewhere. You blame the weather, the economy, your friends, your relatives, your employer, etc. The list goes on and on, because it’s easier for most people to point fingers at someone else for their failure than to say it was their own fault.
As long as you place blame elsewhere, your success will always be determined by those outside factors. You will only be successful when the weather, the economy, your friends, your relatives, and your job are perfect. You will only reach success when all of the outside forces are aligned and everything falls into place on its own. Guess what? That day is never going to come! The longer you delay claiming responsibility for your life, the longer you are delaying your success. You will become a success once you take responsibility for your life and make a decision to change and stretch yourself.
I don’t want you to finish this book, stick it on a shelf and forget everything that I’ve taught you and that you’ve learned about yourself. To tie all this together and give you a plan of action to start implementing as soon as you finish this book, I’m going to unveil thirteen secrets behind the success seed process that will catapult your life results. I’m going to pull back the curtain and lay out what your future’s going to look like once you decide to make a difference. Some people think that thirteen is an unlucky number, and there are even hotels that don’t have a thirteenth floor. Of course, there’s a thirteenth floor, but they just refuse to call it that because of foolish superstition. I’m shattering the myth about the number thirteen by giving you these thirteen life-changing secrets.
Secret number one is to find the possible. So often, people focus on if something is impossible or why something is possible. It’s the “only if” mentality that makes them think that something major has to happen for their dreams to even be a remote possibility. They choose to see the reasons why their success seed cannot be cultivated and grown instead of focusing on the possibilities within their own hearts.
One of the laws of the universe is the law of opposites. This law states that everything must have an opposite, and that without an opposite, something cannot exist. Inside the word impossible is possible. Within every impossibility is a possibility. Both exist simultaneously just as failure and success exist simultaneously. You have both a success seed and a failure seed within you. It’s just a matter of which one you choose to focus on and cultivate.
You have to create a legacy for your life. A legacy is defined as a gift of personal property, something handed down from the past. You have to make a decision to stretch out beyond your comfort zone and move beyond all of your excuses. I refuse to accept excuses, either from myself or someone else. I refuse to accept excuses from people who are highly capable of achieving success. How do you know if you’re capable of achieving success? If you have a pulse and a birthday, then you are highly capable of achieving success. Start seeing the possible that lies within the impossible, and you will begin to cultivate the success seed process.
Secret number two is that a seed is powerless until it’s planted. What happens to the seeds that remain in an unopened package? Nothing. They could be the most expensive and highest quality seeds available, but unless you open the package and plant them, they will never sprout and grow. They remain lifeless in a paper bag that is preventing them from reaching fertile soil.
The same thing can be said about your dream. Your dream is never going to harvest unless you plant it. You could have the most elaborate, well thought out, highly creative dream ever developed on the face of the Earth. However, if you don’t plant your seed in fertile soil and provide the nutrients that it needs to survive, then your seed of prosperity will be trapped inside its own paper bag of fear, doubt and procrastination.
I’ve seen photos of dream walls of people from all over the world. These walls are made up of pictures and writings that describe that particular person’s ultimate dreams in life. Sadly, most of these people will never achieve that level of success that they so desire, because they didn’t plant those seeds of hope anywhere other than on that wall. They do nothing else to cultivate the harvest that they’ve dreamed of for so long. These same people have stood up in my boot camps and passionately read about their Why in life and what they will do to achieve it. Yet, they don’t take the next step…action! Remember, if the seed is not planted, then it is powerless. Take the action steps that you’ve learned in this book, and it’s nearly impossible for you not to achieve your dreams.
Secret number three states that your success seed must be in protective and moist ground. You want your seed to be in a healthy and protective environment. Everyone instinctively knows to put seeds in soil and not in between rocks. They know that in order for the seed to grow, they must keep the soil moist by continually watering it. They don’t just water it once and walk away expecting it to water itself. They plant it in healthy soil and feed it by keeping it moist.
How do you keep your success seed moist? What sort of thing provides your success seed with moisture? The moist ground for your success seed is your mastermind team. The people that you surround yourself with on a daily basis either moisten or dehydrate your success seed. Do you notice how the importance of your mastermind team keeps appearing over and over again in these different success principles? Your mastermind team literally affects every area of your life as do the negative people in your life.
One of my great friends, Vic Johnson, says, “It is a fool that thinks he or she can run a business in complete isolation.” The larger your business gets, the larger your goals get, the more people you will need. Not only will you benefit from having a large mastermind team, but your teammates will benefit from being a part of your team. They’re working towards a common goal while achieving their own personal goals. You are planting seeds of greatness in their lives.
The negative people in your life are just as important as your mastermind team. Your negative associations show you how NOT to think, how NOT to feel, and how NOT to treat people. They show you what habits NOT to cultivate, and how NOT to spend your free time. I’m not encouraging you to hang out with these people, but I do want you to learn what NOT to do so that you don’t end up with their life results. These people are rocky soil so don’t plant your success seeds in that type of environment.
Secret number four for the success seed process is to be incorruptible. When something is incorruptible, it can’t be destroyed. It can’t rot or decay. Once you plant the seed, it doesn’t change. You just need to place it in the right soil with the right people and continually moisten it through your daily actions. Let me give you an example of an incorruptible process of growth. If you plant a tomato seed, water it and protect it from insects, then you will harvest a red, juicy tomato. Growing a tomato requires continuous action. When you cease taking action, the growth process is corrupted.
Similarly with your success seed, you’ve got to be moving and taking action in order for it to grow and harvest. As long as you’re taking daily actions that move that seed towards fruition, that seed is incorruptible. Your enemies and naysayers can try and destroy it, but that seed cannot be destroyed. It’s protected from all outside negative influences that could try to kill it and stop you from achieving your dreams.
Secret number five is the realization that your success seed is undeniable. Once your seed becomes incorruptible and nothing stands between you and your dream, your success is undeniable. Your seed is going to sprout, and the fruit is going to ripen. It’s inevitable that seed is going to grow! The reason I’m here today as a speaker, coach, and trainer is because I made a decision and paid the price through hard work, perseverance, and dedication to my Why in life. I knew that my success was undeniable, and I created massive action in my life to make my dreams a reality. Your success is undeniable when you take consistent daily action towards achieving your goals and dreams. Start taking action today to create your results for the future.
Secret number six deals with the importance of the seed husk. Let me explain. Every seed has a protective husk. If the husk is removed too early in its growth process, then the seed is vulnerable to things that can kill it. You must develop this same type of protective covering for your success seed especially in the early stages of building your belief system. It’s nearly impossible for you to protect that little seed of prosperity in your heart that hasn’t even begun to flourish if your belief in yourself and your dreams is not strong enough to withstand the negative storms of life.
Think of a beautiful butterfly that fights to get out of the cocoon that has protected it from danger during its developmental stages. As it struggles to get out of the cocoon, the strength of its wings increases. Have you ever seen a butterfly being blown about aimlessly by a strong breeze? Of course not! The wings are able to withstand the strong force. How are they able to do that? The wings developed their strength during the struggle of the cocoon process.
Just like the seed husk and butterfly cocoon, you must develop a protective covering over your success seed (your dream) until it’s ready to be exposed to the world. To create this shield for your dream, you will simply no longer listen to or read garbage that hinders your growth plus you will get away from negative associations that cause you to doubt yourself. As long as your dream stays inside of its cocoon, you don’t risk failure. You don’t risk ridicule. Yet when you choose to go for your dream and break the cocoon, that’s when you develop your strength. That’s when you grow and become the person that God created you to be.
Secret number seven is this…the vulture will steal your harvest unless your seed is planted. You have the right to own your seed, because it’s YOUR seed. As we’ve discussed, you’ve got to plant and protect that seed. Just as a farmer needs to plant and protect his seed in order for it to harvest, you must plant and protect your dream. Otherwise, the vultures, the enemies of your life, will steal it from you.
I talk a lot about the strength of an eagle, and the admiration that I have for these great birds. It’s interesting that the vulture and the eagle look a lot alike from a distance yet they have very different habits and habitats. A vulture hangs out on the side of the road looking for dead, smelly, and nasty road kill. They eat the leftovers of rotten animals. An eagle protects its territory and soars above the beautiful canyons. Its food consists of fresh salmon, which makes it stronger not disgusting rotting animal corpses. When a storm comes, the eagle rises above the storm. It gets its strength and energy from the winds generated by the storm. For a vulture, when a storm comes, it goes behind a dirty and disgusting area, waits for something that’s about to die, and takes it.
Champion, I want you to ask yourself a question. Who’s your vulture that lurks around every corner and tries to steal something that doesn’t belong to him like your dream? Is your vulture your belief structure, procrastination, fear or possibly a friend that you know doesn’t believe in you. Your vulture is anything that is keeping you from living the life that you desire to live. Make the decision today to stop allowing the vulture(s) in your life to feast on your success seed. Start to soar with eagles and realize that you too have the strength to make it through life’s storms. You too are majestic and deserve only the best!
Secret number eight deals with the fact that you are going to shed some blood, sweat and tears to get to where you want to go in life. The process isn’t going to be easy. You’re going to have to push yourself like you’ve never pushed yourself before. Just remember that the struggle makes the victory that much sweeter.
Are you willing to put up with the blood, sweat, and tears for your dream? If you’re not, then you might as well quit now. Stop wasting your time, because when times get tough, you won’t make it. You’ll quit at the sign of the first hurdle. If it were easy, then 97% of people would be successful, and only 3% would be broke. Unfortunately, that’s not the success statistics of today. People that have been in the success game for a while are starting to give up. They stop associating with other champions. They stop attending events. They stop reading motivational books. They stop watching motivational movies. Instead, they start listening to the naysayers and believing the gloom and doom prophesized daily by the media. These people simply aren’t willing to fight for their dream!
Are you willing to put up with the blood, sweat, and tears? My trials and tribulations caused by my stuttering were so rough that some people still simply don’t believe it. It’s hard for people to grasp the fact that I contemplated suicide, because I was unable to speak like everyone else. I’m here to tell you that I fought the fight of my life to learn how to speak fluently and become a motivational speaker. I shed blood, sweat and tears to get to where I am today. I’m living proof that you can overcome adversity in your life, but you have to be willing to fight and I mean fight hard for your dream.
Be silent, listen closely and you will hear secret number nine. Do you hear it? It’s that little seed of prosperity in your heart screaming out for you to take charge of your dream. It knows EXACTLY what you need to do. It knows how to get you from where you are now to where you want to be for the rest of your life. If you listen, you can hear it. What is it saying? It’s telling you to take action in order to achieve your dreams and be willing to take risks to cultivate your harvest.
What else is that seed saying to you? It’s saying, “Please delete the negative, know-it-all, nasty people from your life.” Your success seed knows who those people are. YOU know who they are so why haven’t you disassociated with them yet? What’s stopping you? Are you afraid of what other people will think? Let me give you a reality check. Those people, whose opinions you’re so concerned with, are not your mastermind team. They do not want you to succeed! Chances are they’re going to tell you not to even think about it. Listen to your seed and your heart! It’s time to move on from your negative associations.
Your seed is also telling you that the harvest is plenty, but the committed, dedicated people are few. The harvest, the success life, is available to everyone. Everyone can become a success. It is entirely possible for 100% of people to be successful and for 0% of people to be failures. We live in an infinitely abundant universe. Opportunities are endless. You can literally be, do, and have whatever you want. People just aren’t willing to be dedicated and committed to their dream. The seed in their hearts is screaming, shouting, jumping up and down, and banging its fists. Yet what do 97% of people do? They tell that seed to shut up! They drown it out and stunt its growth forever by refusing to believe that they too can succeed. You must listen to your seed and be willing to do what it takes to achieve your dream.
This brings me to secret number ten, which is to be confident in yourself and your success seed. Know that you deserve to achieve your dreams. The enemy will do all that it can to attack your seed. It will try to cause doubt and confusion. How do you handle such confrontation? Don’t argue or become defensive. Refuse to be drawn into controversy. Instead, remain cool, calm, and collected, because you know who you are and what you are capable of achieving.
The enemy often tries to create chaos to distract you from your daily action steps. This chaos often involves gossip and some other form of useless conversation that causes you to waste time and/or lose complete focus on your dream. It also involves some type of activity that throws you off course. For example, let’s say that you’ve been planning on attending a success seminar for months. You have your plane tickets and hotel room. You are pumped and ready to go. When your so-called friend hears about your trip, he starts telling you that it’s a waste of money and time. Instead of defending your position, simply don’t allow his comments to affect you. He’s entitled to his opinion, but it’s YOUR life!
Remember, the enemy wants to cause chaos and controversy. Your ultimate defense is serenity and confidence. There’s always going to be friction or some type of challenge that hinders your success. However, it’s how you deal with it that determines its impact on your level of success.
Secret number eleven in the success seed process is that you will achieve explosive results with daily, laser-focused attention. When you start to pay attention to the seed process, you will start to get paid from your dream process. Just by staying focused, your dream will begin to build upon itself. One of the greatest reasons for failure in life is a lack of focus. There’s a baseball coach by the name of Beetle Bailey who understood the vast importance and power of focus. He believed that the key to baseball is pitching, and he had an exercise that he had the players go through. This exercise separated the pro baseball players from the amateurs.
He would give the player a crystal ball. He would say, “When you’re ready, throw that ball into the catcher’s mitt without his glove having to move. You’ve got one shot, one tryout, one pitch practice. You know what needs to be done as a pitcher. Get laser focused. If you miss the mitt, you’re not playing for me.” He knew that he wanted the best baseball team in the world. This seemingly simple exercise helped him to separate the pros from the amateurs. As a result of his laser focused decision to recruit the best, he won eight collegiate World Series championships in a row.
Champion, let me ask you a question. Listen