Be a student of possibility. Number one. Next, be a student of opportunity. Possibility is one study,
opportunity is another study. Then third, be a student of ability. Here's the next one that's vitally important,
and that's the study of inevitability. Some things at certain times become
inevitable, and we'll go through that. And the last one is rationality,
how to be a speed thinker, how to grasp problems and take them apart and put them back together
in rapid fashion. How to ponder something
and then make sure you know that it fits you, it fits your philosophy,
it fits what you want to accomplish. Rationality, very important
subject to study. So that's the list: Possibility, Opportunity, Ability, Inevitability, and Rationality. Now, let's start with possibility. I heard a sermon just a few weeks ago. I'm gonna abbreviate it, but I think you're gonna
get the points that I'm gonna cover here. I thought it was one of the
classic sermons I've ever heard. And it had three major points,
not thirty, just three. But they were so classic,
and here they were for your notes. Number one, if you think
it's impossible, it isn't. Point number two: If you think you
know everything, you don't. Here is number three.
If you think you're alone, you're not. I thought those are some classic points. If you think it's impossible, it isn't. If you think you know
everything, you don't. If you think you're alone, you're not. Now, under the title,
if you think it's impossible, it isn't, he told a unique story. It's the story of Rich DeVos,
founder of Amway. Rich DeVos needed a heart transplant. Critical.
Now, fast forward. Rich DeVos gets his heart transplant. That's one part of the story. But here's
the rest of the story that's remarkable. Later and not too long ago, Rich
DeVos has the opportunity to have dinner with the lady who gave him her heart. You say. That's impossible. When I heard this,
that's exactly what I said. The congregation
that listened to the sermon, this is exactly what they all
said. Impossible. You couldn't possibly have dinner
with the person who gave you their heart. Here's what happened. There was a lady who needed,
I believe it was, a liver transplant. And many times it's best if the liver and
the heart go together in a transplant. So someone who dies
has donated their organs. This lady gets the liver
and the heart as a single transplant. And now her heart is left over. And her heart goes to Rich DeVos. And that's how it was possible
for Rich DeVos to have dinner with the lady
who gave him her heart. Fantastic story! No telling what technology will
do in the years to come. No telling what your faith can produce.
No telling what can be done. That was a great point.
If you think it's impossible, it isn't. Then the next point was classic.
If you think you know everything, you don't. How often we've learned this. Right? From the time we were just young
until probably the present time, to where there were times along the way
when we thought we knew it all. You know, we thought we knew everything.
We thought we had it down. We thought we had it made. You know, we thought
we had this one locked. And sure enough. We were surprised later
that we didn't know everything. We thought we had the answer to this problem.
We thought we had all the answer. But as it turned out, sure enough,
we didn't have all the answers. Thinking we know everything,
thinking we've got it. Then sure enough, something
comes along to prove us wrong. But that's how we grow. Our own ego at times wants to believe
that we do have the answers that we've arrived. And then a touch of humility has to come to prove to us that
that we really don't know everything. We think we know everything about our business.
But I'm telling you, we have a lot to learn. No telling what we can do
if we keep this learning process. So that was a valid point. If you think you know
everything, you don't. But this next one was good. If you think you're alone, you're not. Now, here was the next one.
Possibility is one study. Let me finish now, the rest of these.
Next is to be a student of opportunity. Opportunity means springtime
to be able to recognize this is a good time. Someone you see standing there
and you say, I should introduce myself and tell my story or at least say hello and see
if the window will open, a new opportunity. But seizing the moment,
not letting opportunity slip away. Be a student of when it's the right time. Be a student of when this is the moment. This could be the year, the first three months of the
next year to set up the year 2000. Say, I'm gonna recognize this as a new opportunity
for me to really pour it on these first three months. I'm calling it springtime. Learning to recognize opportunity,
be a student of opportunity. Now, here's the others. Next is ability. Human ability, as we ponder and think back over
as much history as, you know, we've mastered of what human beings have done
in the last six thousand years, and especially what human beings have done that we know more particular
about the last couple of hundred years since the birth of America,
especially us who are Americans. But the last, let's say,
thousand years of the Renaissance walking hopefully out of the dark ages when there was a whole burst of freedom
of thought, craft, artist, genius, music. It seems like all of these
unique architecture, all of these things sort of began
to awaken almost simultaneously. And within a few short years, everything seemed to be bursting forth like a variety garden called the Renaissance. But that helps us to understand
human ability is just incredible. Given the right moment,
given the right opportunity, given the right climate,
given the right season, human beings can think, create
and do the most extraordinary things. That's general ability. There's a unique story
talking about incredible ability of a university student who was
being given an incredible award. He was in mathematics and this was
an incredible award of mathematics. And the ceremony was extra
special and here's why. This young student in his mathematics class
one day was just sort of nodding off, and when he sort of woke up,
the class was leaving. So he gathered up his books and prepared to leave,
and then he looked up at the blackboard and saw two mathematical problems. When he looked at these two mathematical problems on
the board, he thought, well, that's the assignment, you know, for the next class.
I better jot those down. And so he jotted down those two problems,
mathematical problems, and then hurried out
with the rest of the class. When he got home that evening,
he started working on these problems. And he said these are the toughest
mathematical problems I have ever seen. There seems to be no answer,
there seems to be no answer. And he worked with both of them,
and he just literally almost tore his hair out, saying
at first they seemed fairly simple. But I can see right now
there is no answer. There is no answer. But finally, one of them
that he had really struggled with, he finally found the answer
or thought he had the answer. And he, you know, packed up his notes. And when the next class was opened up,
he offered his paper to the teacher. And little did he know when he
offered his paper to the teacher, the teacher looked at what he had done and he said, you know, I jotted those two
mathematical problems down. He said, I've wrestled with them. There
didn't seem to be any answer. Finally, I got a breakthrough on
one of them, and here's the best I can do. Well, the teacher was astounded. And the reason is because the
teacher had put up on the blackboard the two mathematical problems
that the world had said was unsolvable. These were the two mathematical problems
that could not be solved, and everybody agreed. And low and behold, the teacher checked
and for sure he had solved one of the world's unsolvable problems. And he was getting this incredible award
for having solved this problem. Now, here's the unique part of the story. When he wrote those two problems down and took them home to go to work on them, he didn't know that they were two of the world's
mathematical unsolvable problems. Great story. The human genius is limitless,
the possibility for thought is so incredible. The unique thing about thought
and spirit, it has no restriction. It has no a physical body
moving through space and time. You know, an airplane
now can only go so fast. Even the speed of light can only go so fast
but here's what's incredible, a thought and spirit, you know, travels faster
than the speed of light. And has components that, you know,
nothing else can match. These are the possibilities of the
human brain. The ability to think and to ponder and
to wonder and to figure things out. Now, here's what I want you to discover
in this study, and that is your own ability. Part of it you discover as you go. That's what happened to Mark. You know, when he first got into sales,
you know, in the clothing store, you know, he found out he could, you know, represent a product and he could do pretty good. And that was a discovery for him. And if he hadn't gotten that job,
you know, who knows, you know, he might have gotten
off into something else and that wouldn't have really started
to tap his unique abilities. Then, of course, when he put the
Herbalife program together, those abilities that were there all the time
started developing and started developing. And he soon discovered, hey, I can do this
and I can do that. Not only can I do
all of this, I can do all of this. And when it reaches this level now,
I've got the confidence that since I've mastered this,
I can master the rest. I can master the rest. And that's not only the Mark Hughes story,
that's everybody's story. Skill by skill, language by language, abiity by ability, yours can grow just as well
as Mark's or anyone else's. You've got it. The key is to use it. Yes, you can learn to do this.
But how about this? And how about the next step
and how about the next step? Don't stop! Now that you've gotten started,
don't stop on your journey to study and tap and utilize
your own personal ability. Next is, as leaders,
we must be students of inevitability. What is inevitable?
Here's a little scene. Three hundred feet from Niagara Falls
in a little boat with no motor and no oars. We call this scene inevitable. It's over. If you find yourself in such an
unfortunate position, it's already lost. Three hundred feet from Niagara
Falls. Little boat. No motor, no oars. It's over. It's already done. Even though you haven't crashed over the falls,
even though that experience hasn't yet occurred, you're now in this unfortunate position
and it's called inevitable. I raised this issue because what
you don't want to be caught in is in those inevitable positions where either through
carelessness or whatever. Rather than find yourself three
hundred feet from Niagara Falls, if if someone would have painted the roar of
the falls sufficiently for you way upstream, or maybe they had seen
an experience of someone who reached that inevitable point,
you know, and then they were lost. If enough of those scenes were painted, then you probably wouldn't have been so careless
to have found yourself in that position. And that's really what life is all about,
learning from the experiences of others that have either witnessed or have been
in these, you know, inevitable positions where because of mistakes and because
of failure and because of carelessness, they have found themselves
in this inevitable position. And sure enough, it was too late. We must teach our children that there
are certain points in life that are inevitable. The disaster is inevitable.
The heartbreak is inevitable. I learned it in economics. I found out early. You know, you could
make five thousand a month and go broke. Way back then, five thousand
a month was a lot of money. And I used to say, how could you go broke
if you made five thousand a month? And the answer was simple.
Spend six thousand. And if you're making five thousand, it's just easy to
spend that other thousand. And just not realize it.
It just gets away. So it is easy to go broke, making five thousand
a month. Just spend six thousand. And it's inevitable. Yeah. You know, if you don't change your ways,
if you don't recognize it soon enough, if somebody doesn't come along
and sort of ring the alarm bells quick enough, sure enough,
the inevitable will come. To spend more than you make. One of my friends says, you know,
if your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall. And there finally comes a point
when it's inevitable. So don't find yourself there,
but be a student. You know, if I keep up my present
direction, where will it take me? If I keep up my present disciplines
where will that take me? And my lack of disciplines accumulated
over some period of time, where will that lead me? So the key is to be
a student of inevitability so that you don't find yourself
in that impossible position where you've crossed the line
and now it's too late. Next, and the last one is to be
a student of rationality, learning to put things
through your own mind. And here's, we are usually only going
to act on something that's important, if it makes sense to us. Now, sometimes what makes sense to us leaves us still a little bit short
of what we should know, you know, for the full expanse
of knowledge to do a lot more things but we can only really move as quickly
as things make sense to us. Sometimes we step out by faith,
but it makes sense to us to to use a little faith. It makes sense to us to take a chance. It makes sense to us to make the investment
first and then hope for the harvest. But if it doesn't make sense,
if it isn't rational, then we're probably not gonna act. We have to learn to study, you know, our own rationality,
what makes sense to us, and then try our best to make it make sense to somebody else. If you make the presentation in such a way
that it's obvious, it's logical, I can see it,
it makes sense to me, that's the way it seems to be,
so, we will act on that. If you'll get good at that, I'm telling
you can affect a lot of people's lives. Now, here's the best rationality,
We call it common sense. Humans have been given this extraordinary ability to use their brainpower
to come up with what we call common sense. Right? Yes, I've heard all of this.
But common sense tells me that looks like that's an
exaggerated story, not a real story. Common sense tells me. So part of it is
to trust your common sense, but also to be willing
to expand your common sense. What seem to be common sense,
you know, four or five years ago was a little short. Now, I understand common sense
is to think of it this way and this way. So this subject of rationality
is vitally important.
