Interview of Dean Graziosi with Jack Canfield

Dean Graziosi:    Dean Graziosi.  How are you?

Jack Canfield:    Hey, Dean.  How are you?  I'm really good.

Dean Graziosi:    Yeah, good to hear.  I appreciate you jumping on the phone today.

Jack Canfield:    No problem.

Dean Graziosi:    Well, Jack it is an absolute pleasure to have you here.  Jack where – where would you like to start – you know, today in Empowering Conversations, in our audios, we – we want to get these realistic views on – of course what you promote and in your last book on how to take people from where they are to where they want to be.  So, with that – uhm, what's – what do you say to people who need to take a hundred percent responsibility for their life?

Jack Canfield:    Well – you know, I think it's the most important principal there is and that's why I put it first in my book, the Success Principals, because I think that if you don't take responsibility for your life, you basically end up being a blamer and a complainer and a whiner and – uh, my experience was when I was – uh, just getting out of – uh, graduate school, I met a man named W. Clement Stone who was literally – uh, worth probably today's standards a billion dollars, back then $600 million and he – uh, hired me to work in his foundation and he asked me three questions when I went in for my intake interview – my orientation, and he said No. 1, do you take a hundred percent responsibility for your life and I said – you know, I don't even know what that means.  He says well have you ever blamed anybody for anything?  I said yeah.  You every complained?  Yeah.  So then you don't.  And he said if you want to be successful you have to act as if – that everything in your life, you've either created it, promoted it or allowed it to continue to happen.  And then he taught me a formula that said E plus R equals O.  He said there are events in your life, you have a response to those events and that equals the outcomes you get.  Your health, your wealth, your happiness, the quality of your relationships, those are all outcomes of how you've responded to earlier events, the choices you've made.  And then he taught me there were three kinds of responses.  The thoughts I think, the images I hold in my head and my behaviors in what I say and do.  And he said if you want to be more successful you have to change your responses because your current responses are only getting you what you're currently getting and if your current responses would have got you more, more would have already showed up.  And so that really became the underlying formula if you will, for everything I teach in my workshops and in my books and – and it really is the – the core basis of success.  I'll give you a – a good example of a business – uhm – uh, application of that.  During the Gulf War – the first Gulf War, one of my friends is a Lexus dealer and everyone stopped coming in to buy Lexuses.  They were all watching CNBC and CNN and they were holding on to their discretionary income because we had a recession and – uh, the owner said – you know, if we keep doing what we've been doing, the R to the E called the Gulf War, the outcome is gonna be decreased income.  We're not gonna go out of business but we're gonna take a heavy hit and so he said we've got to try some new responses.  And what he did was eventually, the one that work was – they started wait – instead of waiting for people to bring – you know, come into the car dealership, they started taking the cars to where the people were.  So they would take a fleet of cars out to the golf course, the country club, the marina, parties in Beverly Hills and things like that.  And they would walk up and say hi, what's your name and the guy would answer and they'd start a little conversation.  Eventually, the guy would say what do you do?  And he'd say well, I'm a Lexus dealer and I've got a new LS400 outside.  Have you ever driven a Lexus?  He'd say no.  He'd say would you like to go out and take a little test drive in my car?  He said sure.  So they go out.  Now think of this Dean.  Have you ever gotten out of nice new luxury car and then got back into an old car?

Dean Graziosi:    Yeah, exactly you feel like a million bucks on the way in and you feel horrible getting back into your . . .

Jack Canfield:    . . . You're right.  So they were selling 65 percent of everyone they did that with a new car within two weeks.  They actually sold more cars during the recession than they did during – you know, their – their peak times and they keep that – uh – uh, formula up to date.  So the key is – uh, you got to take a hundred percent responsibility.  Quit blaming the economy, the president, the Chinese, the Japanese . . .