go make the sales calls, and I was going through some of my drawers at home, and there were two twenty-dollar bills and a ten-dollar bill. It looked like all the money in the world!
I’ve been confused many times in my life. I didn’t know what I’d be doing tomorrow, much less next week, next month or five years down the path. I don’t believe there’s anybody who’ll ever read this who has been as despondent on occasion in those early years, and as puzzled and as curious. I’ve been down that route. Yes, I’ve hurt—as much as anybody, I believe. On May 13th of 1995 my oldest daughter went home to be with the Lord. I know what it is to feel pain. I’ve felt your feelings; I’ve walked in your shoes. I know what does work. I know what does not work, and that’s the reason I believe hope is such an important ingredient. John Johnson put it this way: “It’s not the color of your skin. It’s not the place of your birth. It’s the size of your hope that’s going to determine where you’re going to go in your life.”
John Johnson was born in a shotgun house with a tin roof in Arkansas City, Arkansas. For those of you who don’t know what a shotgun house is, let me tell you. It’s a house with a roof on it and it’s so named because you could point a shotgun and fire it through that house and it wouldn’t hit anything at all because it’s just a shell. Today John Johnson lives next door to Bob Hope part of the time; he lives in a high rise on the Gold Coast overlooking Lake Michigan the rest of the time. He’s been a guest in the White House with every president since Eisenhower. One of the 400 wealthiest people in America. Owns his own insurance company, own cosmetic company, and Ebony magazine. And when he says, “It’s not the place of your birth or the color of your skin, it’s the size of the hope," I take him very seriously because I do believe he knows what he is talking about.
How do you get all of the things? What’s involved? If an individual really wants to be happy, healthy, prosperous, secure and have friends, peace of mind, good family relationships and hope, you’ve got to deal with all facets of life. You’ve got to deal with your personal life, your family life and your career—you cannot separate them. The January 8, 1990, issue of USA TODAY said the number one cause of a productivity decline in America today is marital difficulty at home. You can’t have a knockdown drag-out at home and go to a job and be as productive as you otherwise would be. You cannot get fired or chewed out by the boss on the job and go home with the same attitude as you’d have if you had just been given a significant raise or recognition. You cannot separate all of these things.
I will attempt to make one thing crystal clear: You go for quality of life first; invariably standard of living goes up. But if you just go for standard of living, there is no assurance that quality of life is going to go up.
The principles I’m going to teach are the principles that made our country great. Did you ever wonder why it is that in 1776, three million Americans produced Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Franklin and the whole bit? And why it is that in 1995, two hundred sixty-five million Americans produced….I’ll let you fill in the blank, as you read this. I don’t think you can name one person with the stature of the individuals I have just named. Let me ask you: Could it be what they were taught?
As you reflect on it, do you believe that what you teach has anything to do with what you believe, and what you believe has anything to do with what you do, and what you do has anything to do with what you have? Well, let me tell you what they were taught. According to the Thomas Jefferson Research Institute, in the 1770s over ninety percent of all the educational thrust was of a moral/ethical/faith basis. Solid foundation stuff. That’s the reason we produced all the people we did in that period of our history. So many times people think, “Well, I’m just a….” and then they say an accountant or a bookkeeper or a salesperson or a household executive or a doctor or a lawyer or whatever. “What can I do?” Let me tell you something which I believe has genuine significance. Now, I’ll precede by saying again, yes, you were designed for accomplishment. You were engineered for success. You were endowed with the seeds of greatness. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You literally were born to win, but it takes a plan.
As I conclude this first chapter, I want to do so with a story. I had finished writing my book, Over the Top. My daughter was the editor and we had fun writing that book together. She’s the best editor, by far, I have ever had. We had completed the manuscript, we’d sent it to the publisher, and he promptly packed it up and sent it back and said, “How can you tell people how to go ‘over the top’ when you haven’t identified what ‘the top’ is?” I thought to myself, ‘Well, that will be a snap!’ I worked for two solid months! I would write and, No, that’s not it! I’d write some more, No, that’s not it! I’d try again. I’d get out and take long walks and nothing was happening. I mean, I didn’t have a clue. And then one day the Redhead and I were in Shreveport, Louisiana. We were there visiting her sister who is in a nursing home; she had MS. Many of the people in that home are beyond human help. When we walked in there, somebody said, “Here’s a problem.”
I said, “Step number one is this, step number two is this, step number three is that.”
Some of those people, unfortunately, are beyond that human help I spoke of.
The Redhead is not burdened with the belief that she’s got to solve people’s problems. She just walks in and grabs them and hugs them and tells them how pretty they are, how much she loves them, how glad she is to see them, and they gather around her like bees at a hive. And on that particular day I watched it and I couldn’t handle it. I walked out. And as I walked out I was praying, I said, “Lord, give me that kind of heart. Make me have that kind of compassion for my fellow human being. Touch me so I will have that kind of spirit.” In a few minutes I felt better. I walked back in—they were in the big meeting room. My wife and her sister were seated at the table. I walked in and sat down and all of a sudden it started to come. The only piece of paper I had was the back of the motel bill which I had just paid. I took the sheet of paper out, the bill out, and I started writing. Ninety percent of what this is what I wrote in a few minutes after I’d struggled for two months.
You are at the top when you clearly understand that failure is an event, not a person; that yesterday ended last night. Today is your brand new day.
You are at the top when you’ve made friends with your past, are focused on the present and are optimistic about the future.
You are at the top when you know that success (a win) doesn’t make you, and failure (a loss) doesn’t break you.
You are at the top when you are filled with faith, hope and love, and live without anger, greed, guilt, envy or thoughts of revenge.
You are at the top when you are mature enough to delay gratification and shift your focus from your rights to your responsibilities.
You are at the top when you know that failure to stand for what is morally right is the prelude to being the victim of what is criminally wrong.
You are at the top when you are secure in who you are, so you are at peace with God and in fellowship with man.
You are at the top when you make friends of your adversaries and have gained the love and respect of those who know you best.
You are at the top when you understand that others can give you pleasure, but genuine happiness comes when you do things for others.
You are at the top when you are pleasant to the grouch, courteous to the rude, and generous to the needy.
You are at the top when you love the unlovable, give hope to the hopeless, friendship to the
