On this episode of World Class, Host Travis Chappell interviews Jack Canfield the author of the Success Principles and co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series.
Topics Discussed:
- What’s Jack most excited about right now?
- He’s spent the last fifty years training people to be more successful.
- He’s now training trainers, 3,000 from over 100 countries and doing online training.
- His life purpose statement is to inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in a context of love and joy.
- Tell us about your journey?
- He grew up in the hippie period of history.
- He started changing his mind about success – the more money you have the more good you can do.
- In college, he started to wake up in terms of liberation and fairness.
- He applied to Harvard, Yale, and Brown.
- He went to Harvard and majored in Chinese history.
- Why Harvard?
- What stood out was that there were 25 girl schools nearby.
- It was near big cities, etc.
- He took a course and encounter group where people talked about feelings and relationships.
- He woke up in this class and realized that’s what he wanted to do.
- He taught in an all-black inner city school and became more interested in motivating students.
- What kind of relationship did you have with your first mentor?
- He was taken under the wings of several mentors.
- His mentors taught him not to waste his time on what we don’t agree on.
- He was surrounded by gurus of positive belief.
- What happened after you taught in the inner city?
- He went back to Chicago and then to the University of Massachusetts.
- He got arrogant that he didn’t need a Ph.D. and wrote a book.
- He had a best-selling author professor and asked him how he did it.
- He left school and started a growth center leading weekend workshops.
- At what point did Chicken Soup for the Soul begin?
- He learned that the only time the kids paid attention is when he told a story.
- He started looking for stories of African Americans who’d “made it.”
- He decided to write two stories every week and in a year he’d have a book.
- His co-author came in and rounded out the book.
- Talk about finding strategic partnerships.
- Every entrepreneur has a genius.
- Find people who love to do what you don’t love to do.
- Talk about the name Chicken Soup for the Soul
- They meditated for a week to come up with a title.
- After pitching the name Chicken Soup for the Soul 144 times, they were rejected.
- One publishing company agreed and it ended up selling millions of copies.
- Talk about how to be persistent without being annoying.
- If you’re coming from desperation people want to push you away.
- If you start with passion and your “why” people get excited about it.
- Jack talks about the 9 No’s Exercise.
- Was there ever a time when you were open to workshopping the name?
- He trusted the name and people who weren’t publishers loved the name.
- Talk about entitlement vs. perseverance.
- There’s a difference and a lot of people feel that they deserve a yes because they ask.
- Negativity does not get you anywhere.
- Talk about the marketing part of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
- Chicken Soup for the Soul got to the top of the Best Seller List and stayed there for three years.
- You’ve got to do at least one radio interview every day – three a day when you first start.
- There are over 200 books in the series.
- Talk about the difference between putting together Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Success Principles.
- He wrote what he taught in the Success Principles.
- Chicken soup was more aggregated content.
- Both books utilize stories to inspire.
- Which success principle means the most to you personally, of the ones in the book?
- Take 100% responsibility. If you don’t get the outcomes you want, don’t blame the even, change your response.
- Go within – meditation. Every great breakthrough came from a meditation.
- You’ve got to act, respond to the feedback and persevere.
- Talk about the difference between taking fault vs. responsibility.
- It’s not about blame, it’s that if you don’t want it to keep happening, see what you might be doing.
- The hard part is changing your behavior once you figure it out.
- Touch on E+R=O
- Everything you experience in your life is the direct effect of something else you did.
- If I’m not getting what I want, what am I doing that’s producing that outcome.
- You have control over your actions including what you say.
- You have control over your visual images.
- What do you think makes you a great networker?
- It’s not natural, he was very shy as a kid.
- He learned early on that who you know is as important as what you know.
- He started attending conferences, workshops, and church.
- When you go somewhere, act like a host.
- Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important, and why?
- They’re both important, but you need expertise of some kind.
- If nobody knows you’re good at something, it’s useless.
- The third thing is focusing on your being – if you come off like a jerk you’ve disqualified yourself.
- You’ve got to be present.
- His morning routine is divided into three parts.
- How do you balance being more confident with looking cocky or arrogant?
- True confidence is not arrogant.
- If you’re truly confident, arrogance just doesn’t happen.
- If someone is over-pushing their message they’re not confident.
- Confidence comes from surviving a risk.
- You have to be okay with someone not liking you.
- How does someone go about finding a mentor?
- You have to find the people who are doing what you want to do or know what you want to know.
- Always go a couple levels up, not five levels up.
- If you’re really passionate about what you do then tell the person why.
- Ask for ten minutes a month.
- How many mentors is a good amount to have?
- It depends on how many things you’re interested in.
The Random Round:
- What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
- Tennis, movie director
- If you could sit on a park bench with anyone for an hour who would it be, and why?
- Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed
- How do you like to consume content?
- Experiential workshops going through a process
- Second, books
- What is a book you’d recommend?
- The One Thing
- Give us a glimpse of your morning routine?
- 20 minutes of meditation
- Blender Drink
- Workout for 20-30 minutes
- Shower
- Read in the office for a half hour.
- Plan the day the night before
- What is something that you are not very good at?
- Math, numbers, finances
- What is your go-to pump up song?
- Gonna Be Startin Somethin by Michael Jackson
- What is one place where we can find you the most?
- com
- facebook/jackcanfield
Tweetable Quotes:
- We know too much now for people to be suffering.
- Find people who love to do what you don’t love to do.
- How committed are you? There’s a yes out there.
- Fear is self-created by imagining something in the future that hasn’t happened yet.
- When you’re just yourself, the people who would be responsive to you are attracted in.
