Discovering Laws of Success From The Book That Inspired Napoleon Hill | #Success - Ep. 69

So good, so good, so good.

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Do you have a funnel but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next selling online event by going to sellingonline.com/podcast. That's sellingonline.com/podcast. This is the Russell Brunson Show. To be successful, you have to have an ego. If you don't have an ego, it's hard to do the things you need to be successful. Think about business, you are stepping out into a stage, right, where you've got thousands of other people competing for your audience's attention. Like, why should they listen to you? And if you struggle with that, like, well, I don't know, why should they listen to me? Like, if you don't have, yes, confidence, yes, positive attitude, but having that egotism, which most people won't ever talk about, but if you don't have that, it's really difficult for you to create a movement, to get people to move, to follow where you can actually change their life. Be okay with the healthy egotism, like having that, 'cause it's the thing that gives you the edge to actually win the battle that we call business. Hey, this is Russell. Welcome back to the vault. Today I've got a really cool book set. I guarantee you've never seen before. I'd never seen it, and the story about how I got it is really fascinating. I will tell you how much I spent for it, but first I gotta tell you a story about how I got it. Last December, I was actually at my son's wrestling tournament in Reno, Nevada. It was the Reno Tournament of Champions, and I was there, watched my son, coaching him. He did amazing, and then that night, one of the guys I buy a lot of books from saw that I was in Reno. He's like, I'm 45 minutes away. Can I come see you? I'd never met him before. We've done a lot of deals through text messaging, And so his name's Milton, and Milton drove out, and of course he showed up with a car full of old books and things to sell me. I wasn't planning on that. So he pulled up his car, and we ended up pulling, I don't know, 100 different books and things into the lobby of the hotel. It was a little bit awkward, and he was showing me all the different things, and there were a lot of cool books, but this was one I was like, what is this? Like, it just, it looked cool, it was unique, it was different. The book set is called Allen's Working Plan, comprising the 10 basic laws of success. This is a book set that was sold through direct mail in the early 1900s. And I just recently purchased Napoleon Hill's "Law of Success," first edition. I spent $1.5 million on that. You may have seen one of the videos of me talking about it. And so I was really excited. And he said, he showed me this. He said, this right here is called the "10 Basic Laws of Success." He's like, and this was written before Napoleon Hill wrote his "Laws of Success." He's like, there's actually evidence Napoleon Hill worked with Irving Allen, who's the author of these books. And he's like, I think that Napoleon got a lot of his ideas from this book set. And I was like, I was like, what in the world? And so he told me the good story about it and I was so excited. And I asked Mike, how much do you want for this book set? He's like, well, it's one of one. There's none other out there. So I'm like, are you sure? So I'm on, I've got my phone and I'm searching everywhere. And sure enough, I can't find it anywhere. I did some research on who the person was. And I was like, I want to personally read it just to see like what he's teaching. Like, is it different than Napoleon Hill? Did Napoleon Hill borrow ideas from this guy? I was just curious. And so we ended up negotiating back and forth and the end price tag for this book set was $30,000. And so that's how much I spent to find out Allen's working plan. After I got back home, I started studying Irving Allen, who is the author, Irving R. Allen, and I found out that he worked for a university called LaSalle Extension University, which there's some of the greatest marketers ever. Napoleon Hill was a copywriter for this university, and Dan Kennedy, my other mentor, was also at one time a copywriter. So they both worked for this company. He was one of the main guys there, and he was one of the best in the world at being efficient. Companies would hire him to come and do efficiency to get all their employees more efficient. And after doing this and making these companies millions of dollars, a bunch of people told him like, you should write a book about how to make people successful. And that's where this whole book came from. This is almost 10 years before Napoleon Hill wrote his "Law of Success." And so just a fascinating look at like what people were thinking about and talking about back then. So in the book, each booklet goes deep into one law. So there's a lot of different ones and all of them have a lot of really cool things. The very first law that he talks about, he calls it the opportunity is ever present and you need to seize it. I think about nowadays, like there's so much opportunity in our world for all of us today, right? Like with the internet and social media and stuff, there's like so much opportunity. But this is back in 1918, right? I'm like, was there opportunity then? Like I can't imagine, like it must've been so different. I even look at like my parents when they were growing up, it didn't seem like there was hardly any opportunities. But this guy's coming back way back then, he's like, there's opportunity everywhere, you just have to seize it. He goes on and he talks about how people always say like, you know, opportunity only knocks once. And he's like, that's not true, opportunity comes every single day if you're actually looking for it, actively trying to find it. And I thought that was interesting just to see back in that time that there were opportunities that people were having. One of my favorite lessons, this little deeper here in the book set, ties to one of Napoleon Hill's laws of success, which is positive mental attitude. He talks about having a positive mental attitude, but he also says that it's important to have optimism and egotism. He said that, you know, obviously you gotta be positive and you gotta be optimistic, but he said, he's like, to be successful, you have to have an ego. If you don't have an ego, it's hard to do the things you need to be successful. I've talked about it in other videos before, and a lot of people struggle with it 'cause our whole society teaches like, don't have an ego, don't be selfish, don't be, you don't put yourself out there. And I think this is an interesting one because if you think about people that are really, really successful, most of them do have an ego, they do have an edge. And even if they're not willing to talk about it, I remember I was doing an interview with Dan Kennedy about this and I'm curious if you guys have the same thing, but in my own head I have this thing where it's like, I want to be a humble person. I want to like, for me to drive and to push forward and to like have a team and a staff, like I have to have an ego that I know what I'm doing and know what I'm talking about. People are looking for certainty, right? And a lot of times we look at certainty and ego as like the same kind of thing, right? But then there's like the dark side of ego where you see like the horrible things that happen where it's like people's egos come in and it crushes other people. And so there's this weird yin yang in there. And I was asking Dan Kennedy about that. And he shared this quote from Carnegie, which has become one of my favorite quotes. If you know Carnegie, at the time, Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in the world. That's where Napoleon Hill like got his commission to go, right, do all Napoleon Hill's work. But Carnegie was the richest man in the world. And this is the quote Dan told me from Carnegie. He says, "No man achieves any great things in life unless in his private thoughts he believes he is superior to all other men." And I heard that, I was like, oh my gosh. And I think that's part of like, you look at the most successful people, like most of them are humble outwardly and they treat people well, but the ones that are most successful, they have exactly what Carnegie said here. In their private thoughts, they believe that they're superior to all other men. Like you have to have that kind of ego to be successful, especially in business, right? You think about business, you are stepping out into a stage, right, where you've got thousands of other people competing for your audience's attention, like why should they listen to you? And if you struggle with that, like, well, I don't know, why should they listen to me? Like if you don't have, yes, confidence, yes, positive attitude, but having that egotism, which most people won't ever talk about, but if you don't have that, it's really difficult for you to create a movement, to get people to move, to follow where you can actually change their life. And so it's one of those laws that was fascinating that even back in 1918, he was talking about it. I'm sure it was even more controversial than it is nowadays. But I do think that to be really, really successful in your own mind, in your private thoughts, you have to believe that or else it makes it very difficult to go and do the things you need to do to actually be successful. So there's this like, there's this dichotomy, right? Where it's like, we need to be humble, but we need to have an ego, right? And it's a hard thing. And I think, at least for me, when I was an early entrepreneur, I started doing this back when I was like, 21 years old, right? I started building a business and there was a window where I started having success and one of the worst things happened that happens to a lot of entrepreneurs, especially the first time they have success, is that they start believing their own bio. They start thinking like, wow, I'm amazing, look how good I am. They have this thing, right? And I think I definitely started having that where it's like everything I was doing was working and it kept happening. I'm like, I'm the smartest man alive, right? I'm a genius. And then I remember as my business started growing, I had the first big crash, right? Where I had 100 employees, we were making a bunch of money and then everything fell apart. And I remember at the backside of that having the realization, I'm like, wow, like, yes, obviously I have a skillset, I'm talented, but it's not all based on me. Like, there's other forces. Like, there's a quote in the scriptures where it says that God will have a humble people. Either you can humble yourself or he will humble you. And every time I hear that, it's like, ooh, I do not want God to humble me. That sounds horrible. And so I'm like, okay, I need to be humble. So it was funny, at the end of that transition, my business had collapsed, everything had failed, and I was like just wrestling with this, 'cause then my own self-confidence, my own egotism started going away, and I was struggling even more because you need that edge also to become a driver and a producer, right? And I remember I was at this mastermind in Mexico, and one of the days we're sitting there, and I'm at this dinner table, and sitting next to me is this guy, and he was like the keynote speaker for the mastermind, like crazy successful guy. He had like bought and sold like 50 different companies and all sorts of stuff. And we're having this conversation talking to each other. And I remember he asked me, he's like, well, tell me about your business. Like, tell me about what's been happening. And so of course I flip into like highlight mode. Like, oh, well I did this and I did that. You know, I'm listing all the highlights. And he's like, I remember he looked at me, he's like, so have you ever cycled? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, cycled. Like, have you ever failed and come back again? I was like, actually yes. And I told him my first cycle and I was like, and if I'm completely honest, I'm in the middle of a cycle right now. It is very, very painful. And he's like, oh good. He's like, I will never work with an entrepreneur who hasn't cycled at least once. And I was like, why not? And he's like, the first time someone's an entrepreneur, they have success, they believe that they are the reason they were successful. Like, yes, they have to have skill sets, right? But he's like, but there's people, there's the market, there's a million other things that make you successful. And like, yes, you grabbed the opportunity by the horns and you ran with it, but he's like, if they haven't cycled once, they still, he's like, I remember he's like, they still believe their own bio, they're still drinking their own Kool-Aid. He's like, after they've cycled and they realize that, then I'm willing to invest in them as an entrepreneur, but prior to that I won't. And I remember the first thing was like, I remember hearing the word cycle, I'm like, oh, that sounds so much better than failure. Like, okay, there's a word, I didn't fail, I'm just cycling right now, which sounds better. And hopefully for all you entrepreneurs, like you can reframe that, 'cause failure's so painful, where cycling's like, hey, everyone does this, right? Every good entrepreneur cycles, they all go through the ups and the downs. In fact, I believe like the bankruptcy laws from the founding fathers of this country were literally a gift from God. Right? It gives entrepreneurs like us the ability to go and try, test, and risk. Because if it wasn't for bankruptcy laws, like other countries, at least back in the day, like you would fail a business, they lock you up for the rest of your life, right? It's like, who would risk? Like, it's the scariest thing in the world. Like, the Founding Fathers gave us these laws so that you could try, you could try to create something. If you failed, it wasn't the end of your life. Like, you could try again, right? It took the ultimate risk away. And so for me, it was like, understand that cycling was really big. And so as I started growing the business the second time, right, my second big business run was ClickFunnels. It was 3 or 4 years after our big cycle. I met my business partner, Todd Dickerson. We had the idea for ClickFunnels. He built the software and we started going out there. And I remember the second time around, I was like, okay, what are the lessons I learned from the first time that I don't wanna make this time, right? The first lesson for me was like, God will have a humble people. Either you can humble yourself or he will humble you. I was like, okay, I don't wanna be humbled. I did that once and it was very painful, right? And I do believe part of my first, the first big cycle was because of that. Like, I wasn't humble. So I'm like, hey, I need to remember to be humble. What does that mean for me, right? It means I need to give credit where credit's due. I need to be thankful for the people that work with me. I need to like acknowledge God's hand in everything that I'm doing because it's not just me. There's a lot of things that make this thing happen, right? And yes, I still need to develop my skillset, but I gotta remember that. Like I need to stay humble. Number 2, it's like I learned this along the way. It's like when you are building a business, when you succeed, you have to give credit to the people around you, to your team. But if you fail, you have to take the credit yourself. And that's a hard thing to do, right? You as the producer, as the entrepreneur who's going out there risking your money, your livelihood, your everything, you can't be taking the credit for it, right? When you succeed, you give credit to your team. When you fail, you take the failures on yourself. That's how you build a team of people who will go to war with you, right? And so that was my thoughts as we're building. It's like, hey, this is my fault. We fail, it's 100% my fault, right? I have to take that. And then I have to be so grateful for people on my team 'cause I couldn't do it without them, right? And we try to acknowledge that as often as we can. Whenever I'm meeting with our, and staff and our employees, you'll hear me say almost every single time, like, I fully am aware that people know who Russell Brunson is, but it is not me, it is the team of people behind us that make this all possible. And then third thing though, it's like, and it comes back to the Carnegie quote, like, in my private thoughts though, right, not publicly, but in my private thoughts, if I'm going to be the person who is coming through here and I have to develop a market, I have to smash through things, I gotta show up every single day and get my face kicked in by the trolls and the haters and all that kinda stuff, like, if I'm gonna be successful with this, Like, I have to, inside of my mind, believe that I am superior to all other men. I have to believe I'm the best. I learned this in wrestling too. When I was wrestling, I remember there's a, I had an old VHS tape from Dan Gable. Those who don't know Dan Gable, he was the Michael Jordan of my sport, right? He only lost one match his entire career. He went to Olympics, won the Olympics, and nobody scored on him. And then he became the coach of Iowa Hawkeyes and was, at the time, the most winning coach of all time, I think, in any sport. They won like 20 championships in a row. And I watched this DVD and he had this little clip where he said, I'd never let an athlete step on the mat for me unless in their mind, they know they're gonna win. I remember having that impact as a wrestler. I was like, okay, if I step on the mat, I have to believe I'm gonna win. I have to believe that I'm superior to that person or else I'm gonna lose. Half of the battle on the mat is always a mental battle. So I was like, that's the attitude I have to go into this. Now I transition to business. And business is a competition. And I'm very competitive, so when I'm looking at this, the reason why when we started ClickFunnels, I wasn't just, I'm trying to build a business. I looked for a competitor, like who do I have to beat? Initially for me it was LeadPages, like that was the brand. Alright, Clay Collins was the owner, that's who I have to beat, right? And it was a mental game, like it was like, okay, I have to in my head, so I listened to every Clay Collins talk and interview he did, and I was like, hey, I have to get in, I have to believe that I'm better than him so I can go and compete against him, right? Until we passed him, and then who's next? It was Infusionsoft, Clay Mask was number 2, and I love Clay, but he was my competitor, and I had to get in my head to get to the spot where I am better than him, right? Right now as we are on the second half of the ClickFunnels journey right now, I know who my competitors are. I know exactly who they are by name. I watch them, I study them, because I have to beat them, right? And so in my mind, I have to believe I'm superior to them. If I don't, that's when you come up in a wrestling match, if you don't believe you're superior to somebody, that's when you pull your punches. That's when you're gonna shoot, but you're like, ah, that guy's good, so you don't quite shoot all the way, and that's when you lose, right? You have to believe you're better than when you step on the mat. And the same thing is true in business. You have to believe you are superior to them in your own private thoughts. There's the yin yang, right? How do you remain humble outside and actually be humble, not just like, this isn't placating to like acting like you're humble, but actually being humble. But mentally, the mental game inside yourself, as Carnegie said, again, in his private thoughts, he believes he's superior to all other men. You have to have that edge if you're gonna win. And so I love this book set 'cause it re-brought out that idea again, that be okay with the healthy egotism, like having that, 'cause it's the thing that gives you the edge to actually win the battle that we call business. All right, if you wanna go deep into this book set, which you cannot find anywhere, it is not online, Like, I don't know anywhere you can find it other than right here. Luckily for you, I went through this entire thing and I have my notes going through booklet by booklet, all the ideas, the highlights, the keynotes. There's some really cool doodles and images inside of here as well. I love— he taught very similar to me. I did make a note sheet. You can get my notes for free. There's a link in the description. Click on that, it'll take you to the note sheet. We have a chance to go and actually see what's inside this book and hopefully pull out some nuggets and some ideas to help change you and help give you that edge. Other than that, I appreciate you guys. Hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please let other people know about it, and we'll see you guys on the next one.