Peter J Daniels - How to handle a major crisis ?

Or something like that. But I've got to be very careful in telling jokes because my wife is up the back and she knows that if I start telling jokes and you laugh, then I will not stop. And so I'm going to try you on one just to give you some relief. I purchased a new car for Robina a couple of years ago, a beautiful motor car. And she said, now you bought it for me, I want you to drive it and take me on a holiday. She said, I want to see some of our own country. We see so much of the rest of the world, but we live in a wonderful country and I'd like to have some eye food and see our own country. So we set off for a couple of weeks and we finished up in the Murrumbidgee river, which is a. A wide river up to a mile wide, covers 1500 miles. We saw the old paddle steamers and we saw so much wildlife, thousands of eagles. We have wedged tail eagles that go to 11 foot wingspan and we probably have millions of them. We don't have a shortage of them. We saw the kangaroos, we saw the emus and the wild dingoes and sometimes you can see wild horses and wild camels and wild pigs and wild goats and wild donkeys. But as we were going past a particular town, we saw a beautiful cottage and it had on it to let for holidays. We chased up the owner and we spoke to him and he was a very elderly man and he was partly deaf. But we asked to have a look at this cottage and we had a look through it and it was beautiful. And we decided we might like to rent it and bring our grandchildren back. We thanked him and 100km down the track Robina said to me, pull over the car. I said, why, what's going on? She said, did you notice if there was a WC in that place? Now, WC in Australia stands for water closet. You call a bathroom a toilet, a lavatory. We call it a wc. I said, well, of course there's one there. There's one in every house. She said, I didn't see it with my eyes. She said, let's go back and check it. I said, I'm not driving back 100 kilometers. She said, well, I'm not going to have my grandchildren going down the backyard to a long drop. That's where they have a hole and so on. I said, I'll write him a letter. So I wrote him a letter and asked him whether there was a WC near the house. This poor ignorant old landlord didn't Call it a WC he had some unmentionable name. He'd come from another era, but he thought we meant Wesleyan Chapel. And he sent back a letter to me. Dear Mr. And Mrs. Daniels, I have great pleasure in informing you that the WC Is situated only nine miles from the house and has a seating accommodation for 250 persons. He said, this is an unfortunate situation for you. If you are in the habit of going regularly, no doubt you'll be glad to know that a great number of people take their lunch with them and make a day of it, while others who cannot spare the time go by motor car and usually arrive just in time. It'll be interesting for you to know that my daughter was married in the WC it was there, in fact, she first met her husband. I remember the marriage well on account of the seat rush. There were usually 10 persons on a seat occupied by two. It was wonderful to watch the expression on their faces. He went on to say, my brother was there too. He'd gone there regularly since the day he was christened. He said, on Wednesdays and Fridays there is an organ accompaniment. And I would mention that the wealthy residents in the district erected a bell over the WC last week to be rung every time a member enters. A fair is to be held next week, the proceeds of which will help provide plush seats as members feel that this was a long felt want. And he concluded, he said, my wife and I are getting too old now and we do not go as regularly as we used to. As a matter of fact, it's been over six years since we last went. And I can assure you it pains us not to be able to go more often. And I see you're in a better frame of mind. I'm looking up there for my wife to see if she's going like that. Because, you see, once I start telling jokes, that's the end. I should have been a comedian. I enjoy it. I'm reminded of the man that went to sell Bibles and he. And he had this awful stutter. And the British Environment Bible Society said, we can't get you selling Bibles door to door. You wouldn't make any money at all. You've got this terrible stutter. He said, well, I think I'd make a good Bible salesman. They said, well, if you can sell 12 Bibles a day, we'll keep you here. He came back the first night, he sold 250 Bibles. They said, you haven't got the money for that. He said, here's the money. They said, how in the world, could you sell 250Bibles door to door? With a stutter? He said, well, I knocked on the door and when the lady come out, I said, I'm a Bible salesman. He said, would you like to buy a Bible or do you want me to read it to you? Now, I can go on for least eight hours, but we should shift gears. I'm now going to talk to you about how to handle a major crisis. I wrote a book called how to Handle a Major Crisis. And because some mornings when I went to work, there were 10 or 15 phone calls from all over the world, people that had financial crisis. I thought that maybe if I wrote this book, it would save all of that. And today one of our companies, my son, spends 40% of his time free of charge helping people get out of bankruptcy. Because there is another policy that we should come to grips to as Christians, and it's called the good policy. Get out of debt. Get out of debt. And I wasn't ready for the avalanche that would take place with this book, how to Handle a Major Crisis. I was speaking at a church in Sydney one time and as I finished, there was a young couple I saw over in my right hand corner doing some, what I call creative hanging around. And I could see they wanted to speak to me. I went over and I said, you want to talk to me? My husband said, yes, I want to tell you something. My wife and I were so heavily in debt. We'd made some very bad decisions, we'd had some bad advice and we were so heavily in debt. Even working hard, the two of us working, we would not have been able to pay it back under 20 years. We wanted to have a family. We love each other very much. And we decided that we would not go through with it and we would have a double suicide. I bought the gun at 8 o' clock this particular night I was going to shoot my wife and then shoot myself. We both agreed on it. And then he broke down and started to sob and his wife took over, she said, and there we were. About a half hour before 8 o', clock, the gun was on the table. We were having a cup of tea. But that day my pastor gave me your book, how to Handle a Major Crisis. And not wanting to look at my husband and wondering what to do with the tears coming down my cheeks, I started to read it. And then I started to read some of it aloud to my husband. And by that time the husband had composed himself. He said, we stayed up all night and read that book. And the Next day, we sold the gun, and everything is fine now. And one time I was in the Hilton Hotel and I was dealing with a cosmetic group, all ladies. And a man came along, dragging his foot and holding his stomach. And he said, you're Peter Daniels. I said, yes, that's right. He said, I shouldn't be here. I said, well, of course you shouldn't. This is a ladies seminar. He said, no. He said, you don't understand. I was the victim of an unprovoked knife attack and my stomach was slashed to pieces. He said, and when I was in the hospital and they were trying to stitch me up and push everything back in and correct everything, they told me to prepare for death. But they didn't realize I'd read the book how to Handle a Major Crisis. And I applied those same principles to that. And I'm alive today. And we have so many reports of that. I want to share some of the contents of that book. How do you handle a major crisis? Well, first of all, your attitude is more relevant than facts. Your attitude is more versatile than circumstances. Your attitude is far more powerful than positioning. Your attitude is far more resilient than pressure. Your attitude is far more flexible than time. Your attitude is far more valuable than money. Your attitude is far more influential than positioning. Your attitude is far more forceful than markets. And the first principle of handling a major crisis is to get the worst known facts and fears down on paper. And I suggest you get a large piece of cardboard and you write out the facts in black, texture, color, and pin it behind your bedroom door. Why? Because during the night is when it hits you and you start imagining all kinds of gobbledygook. But if you've got the facts before you, you know exactly what the situation is. And you've got to take control of your attitude and understand that you must take control of the situation. Accept total responsibility. Document the facts in two areas, cost and Tim. I had a phone call some years ago from a friend of mine who was devastated with an incredible, enormous reversal. And he phoned me in panic. And I said to him, I know exactly how you feel. Now, a lot of people say that. How can you understand how someone feels with a broken leg if you haven't had one? I said, I understand that you are frightened that your home's going to be taken away. No one will employ you. You feel shame, your friends will reject you, and everybody will be talking and looking at you. He said, how do you know that? That's exactly how I feel. I said, you feel that no One will trust you again. He said, that's right. I said, well, you use my phone, reverse the calls. Anytime you want to talk to me, you just call me and we'll talk about it. And I told him to think positively and present a cheerful disposition. I'll never forget the last time that I went broke. I came out of a creditors meeting into the sunshine and a person walked past me called Ronan Norton, a lady I knew. And she looked at me and I'd just come out of a dreadful creditors meeting and she said, peter, she said, life must be wonderful for you. Every time I see you, you've got a smile on your face, you've got a happy disposition. You can handle it. The first thing is, get the worst known facts and fears down on paper and don't kid yourself. The second thing is get alone and role play past victories over difficulties. You see, you have had some victories. Everybody has victories the same as everybody has failures and difficulties. Go for a walk along the beach. Now, I know it's not quite the same here in the United States, in Australia, I could put you down on a beach with rolling surf and white sand that would just seep through your toes and you'd be the only person for a thousand miles. But going along the beach with the rhythmic sound of the waves allowing the wind to blow through your hair, if you've got any, does wonders for you. I have what I call a victory book. I have a foolscap book and I have written down there all the things I've done well in my life. And if any pressure comes in in those directions, I get out my victory book and I read it and I'm a shouting optimist within the hour. You see, looking back on victories, you can gain strength. The third principle of handling a major crisis. Remember that a threat perceived is more horrible than a threat performed. You've got to put a threat into perspective. Remember that problems are always magnified under pressure. Some years ago, I had to speak at a beach resort. They said, please come casual, wear an open X shirt. Well, I did. I came casual. I even had a cap on. And they did not know. But I was recovering from a shocking operation that went all wrong and it blew all my hair out. And I intended to keep that hat on. And during the question time, someone said, while I was talking about handling crisis, someone said, but it's all right for you now. You have probably lost some of the understanding. You're wealthy, everything goes well with you, you don't have any problems. And I took my hat off. I said, how'd you like to have that? The audience gasped and I put it back on again. The woman came up and apologized. She said, I had no idea the way you were handling that. I thought that you never had a problem in the world. And remember, nothing is final, not even death. We believe the unbelievable. We believe in a life hereafter. And remember that threats test your ethics. And if you are in a difficult situation and the threat you have impending, it's horrible. Compared to what? For goodness sake, have a look at the worst thing that could happen to you. You could lose both arms and both legs and at the same time lose your voice and your sight. That would be horrible. So put that as a 10 on your scale and then measure the crisis that's happened to you on a scale of 1 to 10 against that. It may not even get a listing. Put it in the perspective. And remember that a threat perceived is more horrible than a threat performed. Once the threat has been performed, all the difficulties are over because it's behind you. Principle number four. If you want to handle a major crisis, you must plan a countdown. You have two choices. You can let it happen, take your hands right off and just let it flow, or you can make it happen. You can control the happening. God's greatest power gift is the power of choice. Remember that you are not a slave to attorneys or governments or creditors. You've got to do the honest thing. You've got to do the right thing. Someone called me recently and they said, but my attorney said I have to be there at 10am on Tuesday, 5 June, or whatever it was. He said, and I have no options. I said, yes, you do. He said, what options do I have? I said, well, if you go there, you're going to lose your job. He said, that's right. I said, tell them to meet you at 8 o' clock at night and that's the only time you have available. You want to meet them, but you can't lose your job in the process over one meeting that'll follow another meeting that'll follow another meeting. Take control and work out a planned time frame and don't fill the time frame up. You're probably exhausted. You need some rest and retain your dignity. Tell them you're doing the best that you can. Improve it by doing it. Plan a countdown. Principle number five, if you're in a major crisis, extend the deadline. Let me assure you that no white and shining armor is going to come and help you. These white knights are not around. Only in the movies. So you have some choices to make and I would recommend to you to improve relationships with the people who are oppressing you. Make friends out of them. Reduce your expenditure to create a survival budget. You do have survival needs. Try and extend time frames to allow for solutions. And never ever, ever, ever accept that you are in a non negotiating situation. You can negotiate anything. I'm reminded of a great writer in Russia before the wall came down, when the KGB was strong and he wrote some things against the Russian regime, he was well known by the West. They threw him into prison. He demanded that they release him and they beat him up and he fell onto the concrete floor with his nose bleeding and his eyes cut. And he got on his feet and staggered over again. He said, I demand that you release me. And they beat him up and threw him on the floor again. He got up, barely able to stand, and he said, I demand that you release me. They beat him up again and he crawled up against the wall, leaning against the wall and he just managed to get out the words, I demand that you release me. And one of the officers walked past. He said, what makes you think we're going to release you? He said, because if you don't, the first opportunity I get, I will commit suicide. And no one in the west will believe that you didn't murder me. They released him immediately. You are always in negotiating situation if you use creative thought. Principle number six. If you're in a major crisis, divide and conquer is still good battle strategy. I think of a great general called Ferdinand Foch. In the midst of a crisis, he sent a message to the King. He said, my right flank is in tatters. My rear defense is in disarray. My front line is cut off and my left flank is in retreat. I have the great opportunity to use the element of surprise. I will attack. Divide and conquer is good battle strategy. It's also good for a crisis. All problems are made up of component parts. Dig deep to find opportunities. Divide the big problems into bite sized chunks because every small problem you solve reduces a hole. Principle number seven, work on a backup plan for after the event. When we are in the middle of a crisis, our brain juices are perking. You are thinking more desperately than you ever have before. For maybe many years or before in your entire life. You're thinking of innovations and way that you are going to handle it. But we make a great mistake. What we say in effect is, when all of this is over, I'm going to sit down and plan the rest of my life. Wrong. When all of it's over, your brain juices would have dried up. Your creativity would have collapsed. Don't wait for the wind down to wind up. Think of the future while your brain juices are still perking. Plan for the future while you're in difficulties, not during the rest. You can make some broad outlines, you can dream some dreams, but work on a backup plan for after the event. Because many people, once they've had a major financial crisis, they never move from it again. They are so exhausted and broken by what happens to them, they are prepared to be meek and mild and just get along by going along. Principle number eight if you want to handle a major crisis, there is another way. Phone six people you know and ask if you could take them out to morning tea or just meet with them. And when you meet with them, ask them this question. Jim or Mary or whatever their name is. I've thought about you many times and the way your life has grown. I wonder if you would mind doing me a favor. Could you tell me the biggest problem economically you ever had and how you handle it? Don't take a tape recorder. Whatever you do, don't take a tape recorder. Because Shakespeare said all the world is a stage and all men and women are merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. And if you take your tape recorder, they'll tell you things that sound good. If you take notes, they'll watch what you're writing and they'll give you the public relations results. You want to know bottom line. And after you go through those six people, don't tell them what your problem is. If they ask, keep it from them. Then go back and see those six people again. Remember now you have six ways that people have handled their problems, their biggest problem in their life, and you become innovative. Then you go back and see them again. Hey, Mary or John or whatever their name is. I have a major problem and I'm wondering if I could share the elements of it with you and whether you could give me some input as how I should handle this. I'm going to speak to other people too, so I may or may not use what you're suggesting, but I'd really appreciate your input. Then finish up. You've got 12 ways. The other thing is, it'll put your problem in a better perspective. It will show you that they survived, it will give you diversity, and you'll be able to compile the answers. But write down immediately you leave them. Don't try and keep it in memory. The bluntest Pencil is better than the sharpest mind. Principle number nine. Remember, the kettle only boils when there's water in it. That's a simple, logical statement. But let me explain it. What I used to do in Australia was we have a country property and I had a horse called Chocolate, and he was a little wild thing. And I would put a kettle on a wood stove to make some hot tea in the middle of winter, and I'd throw my leg over this horse and off I would go. And I would get so engrossed with what I was doing, chasing kangaroos and doing all sorts of crazy things with this horse that just had so much spirit. And we'd jump the creeks and we'd chase rabbits and all sorts of things. I lose. I'd lose contact with time and suddenly I'd remember, oh, my goodness, I put the kettle on the stove and I would gallop back and you'd hear me thundering back to the house. And I would get in there and there the kettle would be just aglow. Why do I use that illustration? People put pressure on you under financial or other difficulties because they believe it will produce something. Show them there is no water left in the kettle. There is nothing you can do that will allow you to get any more from me. If you crush me, I cannot produce. But if you release me, there's a possibility I can get rich quick. Remember that dreams transformed into life goals equals power. The only reason that you get pressure from banks or attorneys or anyone else is because they think it will produce something e them monetarily or emotionally, but show them that you're being honest with them. I'm reminded of an interesting little story. A father was preparing a lot of his taxation returns, but the mother had to go to the grocery store and she asked if the husband would just watch their little boy for a while. And he was just a little five year old and the father was delighted to spend a bit of time with his son, but he just had to get all this office work done. So he said to his son he didn't want him to go outside the house and if he needed anything to come to him. And he kept working on his taxation returns. And finally his little son came in and said, daddy, can I have an ice cream? So he went to the refrigerator and got him an ice cream and put it in a biscuit cone. He said, but listen, you have to sit on that chair till you eat it, otherwise it will go all over the carpets. As he was sitting in his study, suddenly a shadow went past the door and he saw his son going past and the ice cream was starting to run down. He got him and he sat him in the chair. He said, now look, you got to stay there. And Daddy said, you got to stay there. And you stay there to let ice cream finish. A few moments later, he was working in his study and the shadow went past again and it was sun and it was coming off his elbow now, dropping on the carpets. He got him and he whacked him. He said, now you sit there till you eat that. Then a little bit later, the shadow went past again and he is in a mess. It's everywhere and it's dripping over the floor and the carpet. And he's been touching things and he gave him a really good wallop and he put him back on the chair. He said, now you stay there until you have finished. I don't want you to get off that chair. And when he walked towards his study, he heard the little whimper of the boy say, I'll stay here because you've whacked me and put me here. But you need to know, inside I'm standing up. And people may knock you down, but inside you need to stand up. God is committed to your development. Might be the battle over, but the war is not finished. Suggest schemes to make you perform. They give you grit. Get rich quick schemes. When you finish up, you go in deeper. Keep your mind on logic. Circumstances might not force you. You are in control of circumstances and keep very short range on your moral obligations. Now, it's interesting to me that as we get pressure on, so our morality tends to change to suit the situation that gives us the least pressure. Principle number 11. Do not be pressured into unwise moves. Don't be forced to sign things by your needs and get into a worse mess. And be careful of family members. This is gonna really shake out. Your family members love you and they want to do the best for you. And so they will give you all kinds of advice. But remember, finally, it's you that has to make the decision. And Uncle Fred, that's on unemployment benefits, he's not in a condition to give you advice. Auntie Mary, that's never run a business who's been a schoolteacher in her early days is not in a position to give you advice. Make sure the advice you get is from people who are qualified to give it. Advice is cheap. The carrying out of the advice sometimes is very expensive. It's your life. Control it and use a formula for handling stress. Principle number 12, go on the attack. Work out the problem. Continually. Don't be like when we were children and we heard strange noises, we hid under the blankets. Be innovative in your thinking. The Asians always beat the white Caucasians in negotiations. Why? Because they give options and they know how to negotiate. Keep your eye on the countdown. It is coming. Don't forget in a relaxed moment that the crisis is going to take place. But go on the attack. You might be surprised if you went on the attack for one week and worked at problem solving that you might reduce a third of it just like that. Principle number 13, if you're in a major crisis, keep on using your time. Don't run out of puff. If you have ever done any distance running, you know, you reach a point where you've got to lean over and you have the stitch and you poke your thumb into your stomach and you keep running and then suddenly you get a second wind and you've got to push when you're handling a crisis to that second wind. And remember that time is your best or worst component. And don't allow waiting time to be wasting time. Use any waiting time for a habit cleanup, for discipline assessment, to reassess your future. And if you have a break in time sometime, allow yourself the privilege of being normal for a week. Say to your family members, we will not talk about this problem for a whole week. I don't want anyone to think about it, I don't want anyone to mention it. I don't want to slip a paper that I'm going to see on it. Allow yourself to be normal for a week. It creates energy. Principle number 14, if you want to handle a major crisis, you've got to keep some funds in reserve, ready to prime the pump. You got to look past survival needs and go back to the first principle on attitude. Resist the temptation to throw all your money at creditors under the cloak of honesty. The honest thing to do is to pay them back. I remember Graham, our son. At 23 years of age, he had 187,000 in the bank. He had a racing car, a corporate jet. He was open mining with Open cut mining. He used to get around in a T shirt and jeans. And one day he lost three quarters of a million dollars through fraud. Just like that. I said, graham, welcome to the big league. I said, let dad help you. He said, dad, I don't need any help. I said, Son, 187,000 does not go into three quarters of a million even when you sell some of your assets. He said, dad, I don't need your help. Now we had a very simple philosophy. When we were training our kids, when they grew up, they could have as much money as they wanted. There were no limitations. They could just say what they wanted and they could have it. All they had to do was go out and earn it. The next week, Graham lost another million. That's one and three quarter million. He had 187,000 in cash at 23 years of age. He's 37 now. Manage our companies worldwide. We've never ever raised our voice to one another. He has the power of attorney over us. He's in charge of everything we do all around the world. I said, son, let your dad help you. Well, the people finally went to prison. Graham turned to me that day when I asked him to let him help me. He said, dad, I don't need your help. You've taught me the formula. He turned to his little wife, Leanne. He said, leanne, we're going to be poor for a while. Don't get used to it. It's not going to last long. And he paid everything back with interest. Keep some funds in reserve, ready to prime the pump. The honest thing to do is to give your people a chance. Dissipating every sense makes you powerless to solve the situation and keeps you financially sterile. Reserves allow you to continue, and without reserves for restitution cannot be made. You can't give something, you've got to have something. The final principle, principle number 15. Write down clearly where you went wrong. Remember that the second time around is not harder, it's easier. I hope you don't have a second time around. But life has its strange turns and stops and changes. Why not try to lock in a formula to prevent a reoccurrence and put your bad moves into reverse and thereby create a success formula. You ever thought about that? If you've had a bad financial reversal, write down every little thing that went wrong and then reverse the whole thing and you've got a formula for success. You see? Treat the whole episode as a learning experience. It may be the greatest opportunity you have ever had for education. It is better than a master's degree in business. With that and a couple of other comments, I am getting ready to wind up. Let me ask you a question. Well, first let me preface it by sharing something with you. I started some years ago what was called the Australian Collegiate School of Entrepreneurs. It became so big that we started the Malaysian School of Entrepreneurs, the New Zealand School of Entrepreneurs, the Singapore School of Entrepreneurs, the South African School of Entrepreneurs, and we were still the Australian Collegiate School of Entrepreneurs. So we changed the name to the World center for Entrepreneurial Studies. We are not like a school or a university. We are quite different. A university says to you, you come to our location in the time frame that we have available, and we will teach you what we think you ought to know. I want to tell you they're failing. People go through those institutions and many people come out and can't get jobs and just don't know how to handle a free enterprise system. They're not street smarts. We are somewhat different, and I'm not suggesting that formal education is not important, but we are different. We go anywhere in the world where people invite us in the timeframe that they have available and we teach them what they want to know. Quite a bit different. I have 36 universities at the moment that want me to write the curriculum for business and entrepreneurship. I have numerous churches that have said to me, if you do economics and how to go into business and entrepreneurship from a Christian perspective, we want to be able to handle that in our church. Because I want to tell you that many Christians are suffering economically today. And in some areas, the church does not have the answer. They have it in the word of God, but they haven't got the experience out there in the world to be able to handle it. What we do in many cases in Christendom, we take someone from the wild world and we bring them in and we tame them. And like animals you bring in from the wild and you domesticate them. You put them back in the wild and they get killed. They're just useless. What we need to do is to bring them out of the wild and give them the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ and teach them to have mercy and understanding and honesty and integrity and character and then put them back in the rest of the world and show them how to do it. It's time. The good guys won't time. The good guys won. Now, we have produced all kinds of material that we have and give throughout the world. If you'd like me to show it to you, I have five and a half minutes. Would you like to see some of it? Really? Could someone get something? One of the young men get something. Oh, here we are. Look at this. You know, Frank Sinatra sang a song that said, fairy tales can come true. And it's up to you if you're young at heart. Let me just show you some of these and please, I want to make it very clear, very, very clear. I don't want anyone to feel any obligation at all to get any of These. We have not come here to flog material or get you to get involved in any way at all. We're here free of charge. We pay our own hotel bill. We pay our own flight in or out. We will not accept an offering. We're here to minister to you. If you're interested, fine. If you're not, that's okay too. But. But the first book I wrote was called how to Be Happy. Though Rich showed me sitting on my gold Rolls Royce. And it was interesting in a pagan country like Australia that the Australian Broadcasting Commission on Television did a prime time television program nationwide on the Day in the Life of Peter Daniels. Showed me reading my Bible to my wife in the morning, showed me running and doing all sorts of things that offices. And it was just prime time. And it was on a government television channel. And unbeknownst to me, there were Christians that borrowed it from the government channel and put it on free enterprise channels and paid for it to be played again all over Australia. But it talks about money and how you should handle it, how you can make it, how you can be happy with it. I know a lot of miserable people with money. It asks you four questions. One question, what age have you set yourself to reach your full potential that God might maximize your Life? Question number two, could you tell me in 50 pages or more what your full potential is in every area of your Life? Question number three, accepting your full potential is 100%. What percentage rating would you give yourself right now? And question number four, accepting the deficiency between the two scores, what plans are you going to make to take up the shortfall and when? They were the sort of things that I came to grips with at 28 years of age, two years after I came to Christ because I wanted to change the world. I had to ask myself hard questions because I had no one I could relate to. Or I met with a group of men on our knees with an open Bible for two and a half hours every Saturday morning for 15 years. And that solidified my faith. But they knew absolutely nothing about business. The second one was how to reach your life goals. And that was predicated in Africa. I had to speak to the Doctorate School of Management at the Stellingbosch University. And I spoke to him on goal setting, something similar to what I'm going to do with you this afternoon. And it so exploded them that they said, we'd like to buy the rights to that. And they offered me 10,000 rand for the two scrappy pages of notes. I declined and wrote the book how to Reach youh Life Goals that qualifies for the New York Times Bestseller list. We don't sell in bookshops. The third one was one of the subjects I spoke to you this morning about how to be motivated all the time. Don't read it. Going to bed. You'll never get to sleep. And then how to handle a Major Crisis. We have og Mandino and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Ron Glasser, the president of the Hershey Company, endorsing that Many did. Others have Clem Stone, Dr. Robert Schuller, John Haggiay, Richard DeVos, who owns the Amway Corporation, and so on, endorsing him. Because I've probably done more public speaking than most people in the world, I was asked to write a textbook on it. There are 38 leaders around the world that have endorsed it with their photographs and comments. You may find that interesting if you're prepared to endure the glass of milk and the three spoons of sugar and the flour and what comes after that. This book is a formula for handling rejection. And it's called Ms. Phillips yous were Wrong. That was my school teacher that used to get me by the chin and rattle my teeth and say, peter Daniels, you're a bad, bad boy and you're never ever going to amount to anything. And I had a lot of rejection to overcome. Just so many. And when you read this book, I give a formula for overcoming rejection in every area of life that I have used. All of these come from experience. They're not just theoretical gobbledygook. Ms. Phillips is dead. She died many years ago. When she died, they buried her 50ft in the ground because deep down she was a real nice person. This is one of our major programs, and they're expensive. This is how to get more done and have time left over. I'm going to shock you now. I only work five hours a day. I don't even get up early. As I said last night, I think if God wanted me to see the sun rise, he'd have scheduled a little later in the day. I'll watch it on video. But I have an unusual way of handling time and it's seems to work. And I had so many people around the world say, look, put it in a program. Let us people have followed me around and seen the way that I handled time. I gave one of these to my best friend who's an Irishman. He phoned me up two weeks later. He said, sure. Now he says, I got that much time. I don't know what to do with it. Have you got any suggestions? But it has three videos, a cassette and a work manual. As I say, it's very expensive. It's $350. And the president of Ford Motor Company has one of those. If you know anything about the Ford Motor Company, they need it. This is our major program and we have students all around the world on this. If you look at it, you'll see a mirror so you can see. It's amazing. As I travel the world, I meet people, grown men that are 50 and 60 years of age that weep on my shoulder. They're confused, they're hurting and they don't know why. We find people that are trapped and don't know how to get out of the bondage. And we get letters from all over the world that have done the Destiny program. It's a three part tutorial, very expensive only because that's what it costs to produce and we correct the papers and we keep ourselves available for the rest of their lives if they have any need of advice. The first part deals with a Destiny support system. Shows you how to build a support base so that you'll never get knocked down again and know whether or not you are prepared to pay the price to do certain things. We correct that for you. The second part is on imagination. And the first time in the history of science and literature we've shown the imagination vertically and horizontally. Because many people never really use their imagination in its full extent. And if you use your imagination even in partial extent, you'll find that you can do more and make more money in a. In a shorter time than you ever dreamt was possible. I was with my son one day and I said, I haven't made any money this week. He said, dad, you don't need it. I said, I do need it for my brain. He said, go down to the library. I went down the library where I do all my thinking with a cap on and dark glasses in the public library. They have a room down there that they allow me to sit in alone. I came back two hours later and he said, how'd you go? I said, I've got it. I said, I think I'll make 200,000 tomorrow. He said, how? I said, I just thought of an idea. I made one phone call. They put the tickets the airport for me, flew in, gave him an idea and came back with the 200,000. It can be done. If you can use your imagination, you've got to be able to use empathy and put yourself in the position that other people and corporations are in and solve their problems that they can't solve. The last part is on goal setting. And we show you how to set goals for the rest of your entire life. And we correct everything that you do. I just show you that. That's got three videos, three cassettes, and this manual. I think we've only got four of these here. Everywhere we have gone, we've had to fly more in from Australia. They're $750. They're not for everybody. They're not for people that just want to earn $100,000 a year. They're not for people who can't afford it. They're for people who want to make a major, major mark in their life. What we're doing in this visit across America, we're including this one free of charge. Has anyone here been to Australia? There's a couple here. Whereabouts have you been, sir? How long ago? 84. Anyone else? Yes. Where have you been, sir? Cairns. Cairns, yes. How long ago? Oh, you wouldn't recognize, sir, in the services. Yes, you've been to Adelaide, my hometown. Good. How long ago did you enjoy it? Let me tell you that in Australia we have farms bigger than the entire state of Texas. One farm. We have nearly 25,000 kilometers of beaches. And we did a video. I come on on horseback and it cost up to $80 a second to put together. And it shows you the whole of the country. And we're just including that with these four only. We've only got four here. Now, let me wind up. There will be two boxes over there with one with men and one with women on it. If you're interested in participating. Participating in the goal setting. After lunch. I'm going to wind up now, but I'm going to wind up with one of my little poems. I write these in about 90 seconds. And I mentioned to you that I go out into the outback to try and get away from human beings occasionally because I do get people tired. I usually sleep under a huge eucalypt tree out in the open in what we call a swag and that shelters me from the sun and stops me from waking up in the morning. And then the thing that wakes me up is the cry of the eagles. And as I watched those eagles, I wrote this down and I want to share it with you as I wind up. And I'll stay at the back there for a little while. And it says, I wish I was an eagle high above the earth to see tasks that close up seem so hard, but from distance sit at ease. I would forever soar in space both high and very wide and see my life's perspective clear and from nothing could it hide now the big task would seem smaller and the difficulties would falter if I were but an eagle proud amidst the noonday sky now the eagle does not flock with.