Jim Rohn's comments...Session 2

["Larry S. Anderson -- NCTP" <lsa1@Ra.MsState.Edu>]

On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Jeff Nesbitt wrote:

[snip]

> I enjoyed the introductions Thursday night.  I listened to the tape and
> took notes, but I have heard what he said before.  When he says "Learn to
> handle the winters. You can't change them" he is saying the same thing my
> father told me about ballgames and life.  The phrase was "You win
> some, you lose some, some get rained out, but you got to dress for them
> all." 
> When he says "Difficulty follows opportunity" and "Opportunity follows
> difficulty," that is a premise that I heard in my first upper-division
> history class, that is "history is cyclical" and a corollary to that is
> that he who does not take heed of the past and seek to emulate the deeds
> of greatmen of the past is doomed to fail...paraphrased from
> Miachiavelli's The Prince.
> I am not sure how what he said applies to technology, but I do know
> what he said is not original.  The importance of his points are how much
> we take them to heart.  I have never been much of a "cheerleader" so my
> reaction may not be as visible as someone like Dr. A, but I listened and
> heard what he said, now I have to place those bits of information into my
> map of the scheme of things and ponder them just as I listened and heard
> my father and grandfather and others who I consider mentors.

I appreciate Jeff's candid remarks.  Now, I have given his words some
thought and what I say here goes not only to Jeff but to all of us (note
that I did NOT say all of *you*....I'm talking to myself, too!).

Yes, I've heard all this before, too.  As a matter of fact, I heard much
of that philosophy, those words of wisdom from my wonderful parents, also.
Moreover, I've heard Mr. Rohn's words many times previously, as I
mentioned in class Thursday night.  I've listened to this video at least a
dozen times before.  Yet, as I said, I had a fresh *understanding*
Thursday night, on some points.

What if we heard everything only once?  I just wonder how shallow our
grand experiences would be!  Aren't we glad we get to hear things over and
over and over?  There are so many examples of this in our world that
I could give stories for hours.  Mr. Rohn even says, "You can *never*
learn it all in one listening.  You can *never* learn it all in just one
experience."  I agree.

Now, here's the critical part.  What do we do with what we hear after
we've heard it?  Do we take *action* on what we've heard?  How can we tell
or how can others tell that we've done something with what we've heard?
The doctor tells us that, to restore our health, we should walk 30 minutes
each day.  We nod in agreement.  Then, we leave the doctor's office.

What do we do about our walking tomorrow...or the next day...or the next
day?  What do we do with that information that we agreed, at the point
when the wisdom was imparted to us, was such a good idea....that was so
crucial to the future of our health?  What if we say, "Oh, I've heard that
before...and there are people out on the streets who are dropping dead of
heart attacks, trying to kill themselves with all this exercise stuff."
Maybe that's true.  Maybe we can neglect what the doctor says and it seems
like there's no degradation of our health, no disintegration of our
condition.  But....remember what I told you the first night of class.  One
key to failure is:
	Simple errors in judgement, repeated every day.
One key to success is:
	Simple disciplines, repeated every day....that seem to make no
difference in the act of doing them, but when the cumulative effect kicks
in, it makes all the difference in the world.

Now, as for the impact of what Mr. Rohn said upon technology planning, I
can see immense impact.  Can you just imagine the difference between
people in a community who are making decisions about the implementation of
technologies...and some of them have the "selfish mentality" while, with
the proper encouragement, they could exhibit the "abundance mentality"?

As we work together to develop a clear understanding of the myriad of
capacities, challenges, opportunities, abilities, interests, and
personalities that exist within a school, business, military, or public
service organization, we strengthen immensely the propensity that we will
craft positive, aggressive, mutually-beneficial resolutions to the
plethora of dilemmas that we face.  We will capitalize on the
opportunities that come our way.  We will avoid conflicts that might arise
during our lengthy deliberations.  We will be able to understand how to
disagree without being disagreeable.  We will hunt, we will *seek*
avenues to ensure the swift, sensible implementation of technologies in
the most appropriate fashion.  And, we go on and on and on....

Lest I wax philosophical excessively here, I offer these words as
encouragement to each of us that we will go back, consider the notes we
took when we listened to Mr. Rohn, and construct a collection of ideas on
how Mr. Rohn's advice can be as meaningful as veritable gold to the human
spirit.

I look forward to hearing from more of you.  Remember, I told you Thursday
night that the words I hear Mr. Rohn saying to me are, "Now, don't be lazy
in this!!!"  So, I offer that to you.

Any ideas?  Any rebuttals?  Any agreements?

[This is one of those times when I wish all of you who are "distance ed" 
students could have been with us.  I don't believe I'm going to be able to
put this video up on our RealVideo server for you to watch, because it's
copyrighted, but I'll check.  I can tell you how you can watch the same
programming I'm watching...where I taped Mr. Rohn's speeches...right from
the comform of your home, via a PrimeStar satellite dish...channel
703...the "Success Channel."  Here's the catch, though.  You can't
subscribe to this channel directly from PrimeStar.  I can tell you how you
can, though...for only $9.95 per month!  Oh, well.....]

Larry S. Anderson, Ed.D.                              LSA1@Ra.MsState.Edu
Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Technology & Education       Voice: (601) 325-2281
Founder, National Center for Technology Planning      Fax: (601) 325-7599
                    Mississippi State University
Chair, Council for Education Technology              State of Mississippi
         My personal home page URL-- http://www2.msstate.edu/~lsa1