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Do You Have A Girl Scout Story?

by Emmanuel Segui

You may know Jim Rohn, America's foremost business philosopher. Jim is a multi-millionaire and has shared his philosophies about success for almost 40 years now with more than 6000 audiences and over 4 million people worldwide. He's the author of over 25 books, audio and video programs. He's one of the most influential speakers of our time and has helped train countless of personal development trainers as well as top executives.

But he was not always that way. During his seminars, he tells us about an encounter with a girl scout. He was 25, wandering around in his home. Suddenly, somebody knocked on the door. It was a girl scout. Politely, she asked Jim to buy just one box of cookies. It was only $2. The only problem was that Jim didn't have $2 to give at that time. So he lied to the girl and said that he already bought a lot of cookies and let her go.

While closing the door and sitting down on his coach, he said, "I don't want to live like this anymore."

About 40 years before, a young men, Vash Young, asked himself a question that completely changed his life, overnight.

Vash was born in Salt Lake City on January 18, 1889. His father spent most of his time away from home and contributed very little financial support to his mother and five children, of whom he was second in line. His mother was left with four small children to bring up, and with so little help from his wandering father, he surely had a hard fight for survival.

The first real tragedy of his life occurred when his mother simply gave up the uneven struggle and passed away when he was only twelve years old.

His family lived in a mortgaged house upon which his father was supposed to keep up the interest payments, but he rarely did.

Besides the constant fear of losing the place, they barely had enough to eat. Their menu, week in and week out, consisted of navy beans, homemade bread and oatmeal, or mush as it was used to be called.

His first job was peddling fruit from an old dealer's wagon at twenty-five cents a day.

His next job was labeling bottles in a soft drink factory. All day long he sat with a wet gunnysack over one knee, pasting slimy labels on soda pop and root beer bottles.

Not only was he in danger of being badly cut by the frequent explosions which took place, but also the quart bottles were wired with cork stoppers.

He jumped from $2.00 to $2.50 per week when next he landed a job in a made-to-order tailor shop.

He had to clean the sidewalk, wash windows, mop floors, sew on buttons, press suits and then deliver them.

Without any mother and any father (who was inexistent), without any schooling, he knew, way down deep that in this crowd he was entirely outclassed in learning and know-how. He felt uncomfortable and on the defensive most of the time.

As a result, He developed a bad inferiority complex which made life miserable for himself. His periods of despondency and self-torment were very painful.

He began drinking for moral support, persisted in this ruinous habit, and it was not too long until he could hold his own at drinking parties.

He simply could not get hold of himself. Like a trapped animal, he paced restlessly about in his cage day and night. He was so full of fear and despair that he could not work properly.

To add to his difficulties, he became an almost complete wreck physically.

He had no confidence in himself or his future. Inside, he was as mixed up as a combination salad. He spent most of the time vainly regretting the past and doubting the future.

While feeling extremely sorry for myself at that critical period, this thought-provoking line of reasoning suddenly popped into his mind:

"What is it you want out of life—what is it you are waiting for? If you had never made any mistakes, were in perfect health and adequately educated; if you had a fine job of your own choosing, plenty of money, a national reputation and everything else your heart desired—then what? Just what effect do you think an ideal set-up of this kind would have on you?"

Incredibly, through the power of self-reasoning and deep contemplation, he concluded that under these conditions everything would be perfect. With nothing to ask for or complain about, he could quit moaning about his past mistakes and lost opportunities.

He could let go of all his fears, worries and inhibitions. He could be cheerful, kind and co-operative, instead of being an old grouch. When out in the business world, he could afford to see how much he might contribute or give, instead of scurrying about to see how much He could get.

At this instance, and just as though someone had given me a swift kick, this admonition came to me: "You poor simpleton! Instead of waiting for the ideal conditions under which you believe you would be happy and content, why don't you start right now being the sort of person you think you would be if you had everything your own way?"

Believe it or not, my outlook on life changed right then and there.

Something clicked inside, and in a flash I found myself intensely interested and entirely sold on this fundamental proposition: How can I be more? instead of How can I have more?

While that may not sound very exciting to you, it was full of inspirational dynamite for me.

In fact, the possibilities involved almost took my breath away. I could hardly wait to start putting the idea into practice.

I'm sure you can make your dreams come true. You are not different form Jim Rohn or Vash Young. You are important and you can make a difference in this world.

Emmanuel Segui is a master-practitioner of NLP and nuero-semantics. He is continually helping people develop their potential genius. His vision is to create a new world of possibilities where people are willing to develop their full potential.

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