The Greatest Salesman in the World

There’s the essence of the ten “ancient” scrolls!

Habits + Love + Persistence + (seeing we’re) Miracles + Embracing Today + Mastering Emotions + Laughter + Creating Value + Action + Prayer.

Now, let’s dive a little deeper into a few of them, shall we?

Before our hero Hafid received his precious scrolls, he received that wisdom from his mentor and adopted father, Pathros—who was the greatest businessman/salesman in the world.

Obstacles.

How do you perceive them?

As a misfortune and reminder of your ineptitude? (Not helpful!)

Or as a natural and necessary (!) part of the process of actualizing? (Much more helpful!)

We’ve been exploring the power of obstacles a lot recently. Check out the Notes on Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way for a concise look at the power of obstacles.

Here’s how he puts it: “Whatever we face, we have a choice: Will we be blocked by obstacles, or will we advance through and over them?

We might not be emperors, but the world is still constantly testing us. It asks: Are you worthy? Can you get past the things that inevitably fall in your way? Will you stand up and show us what you’re made of?

Plenty of people have answered this question in the affirmative. And a rarer breed still has shown that they not only have what it takes, but they thrive and rally at every such challenge. That the challenge makes them better than if they’d never faced the adversity at all.

Now it’s your turn to see if you’re one of them, if you’ll join their company.”

Remember: Obstacles/challenges/etc. are just like weights in the gym. They make us stronger.

We don’t go to the gym and look for Styrofoam weights. So, let’s not hope life gives us Styrofoam challenges. We want the REAL stuff.

We want to optimize our lives and actualize our potentials and we *know* we can only do that by setting ambitious, challenging goals, and eating the obstacles that come as energy bars!

That’s the essence of “the Scroll marked I.”

Good habits.

That’s where all the magic begins. Or, all the tragedy if we have bad habits running the show, eh?

How are YOUR habits?

My hunch is (if you’re human!) you have some habits you’re proud of and some habits that, quite simply, just don’t serve you.

Is now a good time to STOP doing the things that are preventing you from optimizing your life and actualizing your potential? (Sweet! :)

It’s time to let those habits go and commit to reallyleaning into the core habits that you know will accelerate your life.

Check out our class on this called Habits 101: How to Create Habits that Will Change Your Life. I walk thru my favorite Ideas + practices. And, we have a bunch of Notes on THE best books on how to cultivate your willpower+ build great habits. <— Check ‘em out!

For now, know that the trick is to use your limited willpower wisely by installing habits that’ll run on autopilot and help you crush it. Make a 100% (!!!) commitment to the ONE habit that you think will have themost positive impact on your life.

Habits. They’re HUGE.

Let’s become masters in installing optimal habits and watch our lives take off!!

Love. That’s the essence of the wisdom from the second scroll.

As Leo Buscaglia says in Love (see Notes): “A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.”

It’s time to love it ALL.

The light. The dark. The good times. The not so good. It ALL serves our growth and therefore merits our love.

So let’s say “YES!” to it all as we give it our love!

Welcome to the third scroll: Persistence.

Lots of wisdom in there. First, the prize comes at the END of the journey not the beginning.

Reminds me of Sri Swami Satchidananda’s wisdom from The Golden Present (see Notes): “Life must be a challenge. Only then is it exciting. In an obstacle race, you are forced to surmount all the obstacles: to jump over the hurdles, go through the barrels, crawl under the rugs, climb over walls.

What would happen if, to avoid all that, you went around all the obstacles and asked for the winner’s cup? Would they give it to you? No. They would say, “You must go back and face all the obstacles.”

… Make your life as exciting as possible, but always think of it as fun. The adversities as well as the harmony should be enjoyable. Don’t become sober and morose and have a castor oil face in the name of spirituality. Just be happy. Jump with joy. Even if you make a mistake, say, “Hey, I did this? Great! What a wonderful lesson I learned!” If you really want to, you can make everything fun.”

Second: “Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.”

Reminds me of Napoleon Hill’s wisdom from Think and Grow Rich (see Notes and remember Hill was one of Og’s mentors and bosses!): “If the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully, replace it with a new plan; if this new plan fails to work, replace it in turn with still another, and so on, until you find a plan which does work. Right here is the point at which the majority of men meet with failure, because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.”

Here’s to seeing the obstacles as part of the fun, remembering the prize comes at the end of the journey and persisting until we succeed!

Laughter.

Og tells us we’re the only animal that has the capacity to laugh.

And what better source of our laughter than ourselves? :)

Tony Robbins has a great line. He tells us that in five or ten years we’ll look back at whatever’s currently stressing us out and laugh.

So, he asks, WHY WAIT?

Spotlight on you: What’s stressing you out right now?

Can you fast-forward ten years and see that this will just be a blip on the lifetime radar? Something you can laugh at? Let’s not wait ten years to laugh. Now’s good. :)

P.S. If we actually follow the wisdom above and really *embrace* our current obstacles, we’ll actually CELEBRATE these hard times as the BEST times. No need to wait on that one, either. Let’s celebrate NOW.

Multiplying your value a hundredfold. That’s the essence of the scroll marked VIII.

What’s thatmean? It means we find all the ways to trulyserve profoundly. We go the extra mile. We do WAY more than we’re expected to do/paid to do.

We have fun (yes, it’s fun!) astonishing people.

Astonish.

The word comes from the Latin “to strike with lightning.”

To strike with lightning… How cool is THAT?!

Astonishing people. THAT’s the game we want to play as we increase our value a hundredfold.

How can youdo that today?

Action. Action. Action.

As Og tells us, we’ll never find a map—no matter how perfectly composed—that can take even ONE step for us.

Visions are great. Goals are great. Plans are great.

And they are all absolutely USELESS unless we do one thing: ACT!

When? NOW.

General Patton tells us: “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”

And Og tells us: “I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words again and again and again, each hour, each day, every day, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing and the actions which follow become as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to meet every challenge which the failure avoids.”

There ya go.

Action. Action. Action.