Reasons Come First, Answers Come Second...

If you had enough reasons

you could do the most incredible things

i never forgot how he put that

if you have enough

reasons

see reasons will change your whole life

mr shelf said to me said mr owen i think

you've got plenty of intelligence you've

got plenty of talent you've got plenty

of ability

probably what you lack is plenty of

reasons

he said i don't think your current bank

balance

is a true indication of your level of

intelligence

i was happy to hear that he said i think

you're much smarter

than your present bank balance indicates

and that turned out to be true

i was much smarter but of course my

first question was

well then why isn't it bigger and he

said you don't have enough

reasons you've got enough intelligence

but not enough reasons so see reasons

can change your life

here's what else i found out reasons

come first

answers come second

you don't get the answers to do well

till you get the reasons

life has a mysterious way of hanging on

to all the answers

and only gives them up to the people

that are inspired by reasons

so reasons make the difference in how

your life works out

now what are some of the reasons for

doing well let's go through a quick list

called reasons for doing well

first is personal reasons some people do

well for recognition

some people do well for respect

some people do well for the way it makes

them feel

they love the feeling of being a winner

those are good reasons

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i have some millionaire friends that

keep working 10 12 hours a day making

more millions

and it's not because they need the money

it's because they need the joy

and the satisfaction and the pleasure

that comes from being a constant winner

and see it's not just the money anyway

it's the journey

not the money

once in a while somebody says to me boy

if i had a million dollars i'd never

work another day in my life

that's probably why the good lord sees

to it they don't get their million right

they'd quit they'd quit

okay next is family reason

some people do extremely well for other

people

and that's powerful human beings can

greatly

affect each other

sometimes we will do things for somebody

else we will not do for ourselves

we are made that way

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i met a man one time who said mr owen to

do all the things i want to do with my

family around the world

he said i got to have at least a quarter

of a million dollars a year

i thought incredible

could a guy's family affect him that

much

and the answer is of course

how fortunate are the people that find

themselves greatly

affected by somebody for

personal achievement

and we are affected

the writer of a recent song said if not

for you

the winter would hold no spring couldn't

hear a robin sing

i just wouldn't have a clue if not for

you

so we can be affected that might be one

of the most

stimulating reasons to do well finding

somebody

when andrew carnegie died the wee little

scotsman that built the big steel

industry

when he died they opened up his desk and

in one of the desk drawers they found a

slip of paper

on that piece of paper mr carnegie had

written his goal

for his life and he wrote it when he was

in his twenties

and on that piece of paper it said i'm

going to spend the first half of my life

accumulating money i'm going to spend

the last half of my life

giving it all away

what a goal he got so inspired by that

goal

that the first half of his life he

accumulated 450 million dollars

and the last half of his life he gave it

all away

good question tonight what's got you

turned on

what's got you bombed out of sight to

get up early and stay up late and hit it

all day

next question what's got you

turned off

when i found the answers to those two

questions my life exploded into change

i finally found out what had me turned

off and i got that cured

and then i got me a long enough list of

reasons to turn me on

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and once the lights went on for me age

25 they've never gone out

i've fallen out of the sky a few times

but i've never lost that drive

to make something unique out of my life

see reasons altered my whole

life

now there's another list of reasons

called nitty gritty

hard little reasons sometimes those

little reasons are the most powerful

reasons that can change your life

sometimes it doesn't take much

i now carry several hundred dollars in

my money clip

it's only a few hundred dollars but it

was one of those reasons

turned my life around just before i met

mr show

i heard a knock at the door i go to the

door

and there's a little girl standing there

about this tall selling girl scout

cookies and she gave me one of the

finest sales presentations i've ever

heard

special deal several flavors this whole

package of stuff two dollars

and with a big smile she very politely

asked me to buy and i wanted to

big problem i'm broke

i don't have two dolls

and to this day i can remember the pain

and the embarrassment i'm a father

i'm a husband i've been to college i'm

working

i'm 25. i don't have two

dollars and i didn't want to tell her

that

for some reason

so i did what i thought was next best i

lied

to

i said hey look i've already bought lots

of girl scout cookies

i've still got plenty stacked in the

house

which was not true

but it seemed to get me off the hook for

the moment

she said well gosh that's wonderful

thank you very much

and she went away when she left

i closed the door and that was the day i

said to myself

i don't want to live like this anymore

i've had it with lion and i've had it

with being broke

i'm never gonna let this happen to me

ever again

i promised that day i would work as hard

as possible

and would always carry plenty

it took me a little while but now i do

it was one of those reasons and i guess

i carry plenty for two reasons one is

the way it makes me feel

but also in case i bump into another

girl scout selling cookies

right i'm ready