Over the past few years, I have assembled a decent library. I finally got around to reading a fantastic book called “The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle” by a great man named Jim Rohn. I highly recommend this book. My copy is an eBook on my hard drive, courtesy of my enrolling in Jim Rohn International’s One Year Success Plan. My first exposure to him was when I was learning how to fail at sales in 1998. I was not quite computer literate yet, and I didn’t understand a lot of the changes that were happening around me. I heard the words and I liked what he had to say, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that none of my “friends” at the time had ever heard of him. After all, I had all the arrogance of being around some of the best minds in my hometown, not to mention my education and experience as a nuclear mechanical operator. Surely some of my “successful” friends would have heard of him. A couple of years ago, I realized that what I was listening to in 1998 was called “The Art of Exceptional Living.” It is a compilation of some of the late Mr. Rohn’s best work and, now, a part of my library.

I found myself with not a lot to do on Sunday, so instead of trying to keep up with the NFL scores of the day, I decided to do something productive and read a book. I had revisited the course a couple of nights before and realized that I had not read some of the material they sent me. Since the past couple years of my life have been almost exclusively devoted to creating positive personal change, I thought that I could keep up with football (fun to watch) or do something I have been meaning to do (improve myself by reading a new book). All throughout this book I could hear Mr. Rohn recite the lines he wrote many years ago. All of his ideas are great, inspiring and, best of all, they are true.

Why would I invest in a library of some of the best ideas ever written? Maybe I like to read. Maybe I’m actually serious about creating positive change in my life. Maybe it just looks cool (which I admit, I DO think it looks cool). This is where personal development comes from- the best ideas ever written and left by their authors for us to find. I am compiling this library because I have always had a hunger for knowledge and what I can do with it. It is also a curiosity of what those ideas can help me accomplish. Why not find a new idea that could help my business do better? Why not read something that makes the morning coffee taste a little better? Why not read something that inspires me with hope instead of the daily dread of the morning news?

This is where my greatest source of inspiration comes from…and to think it all started with a library card many years ago. Thank you, Mr. Rohn.