- Hello there and welcome.
Do you know, attitude is a real key word.
Earl Nightingale referred to it as a magic word,
and I'm inclined to agree with him.
I'm continually asked one question
any time I do an interview.
What are the key attributes of prosperous people?
Well, do you know, that's something
I studied for a long time.
I was not prosperous when I first picked up this book,
Think and Grow Rich, and I started to study it,
and that got me studying all kinds of books.
One thing led to another.
That was one of the keys I was looking for.
What do prosperous people do, what do,
how do they approach things?
I believe they have certain attributes
and certain attitudes that they form.
The first one, I believe, is they have a definite
and measurable financial goal.
They have a definite and measurable financial goal.
They know exactly what they're working toward.
Now, prior to studying this,
I never had any financial goals.
I used to hope I would earn some more money,
I always wanted more money,
but I never really,
never really accomplished it.
I think that was for a very good reason,
and that was because I never really studied,
I never changed.
I was trying to change my results without changing myself.
So I've got six different points here
that I think are really the key,
and the first one is the one I've just mentioned.
You've got to have a definite, measurable financial goal
if you want to be prosperous.
Now, prosperity doesn't just come in money,
it comes in all kinds of areas,
but you've got to measure it,
you've got to have a target,
you've got to know where you're going.
The second one is that they have, all these people
have definite planned study programs.
They don't just study periodically,
they have definite program for study.
It's like they have definite time to eat,
they'll have definite time to sleep.
But they have a definite time to study.
I found, without exception, every one of them
had a study program.
So many years ago, I started, and I had a study program.
Now I've got thousands books today,
although in '61, this is the first book I read.
I often mention, I didn't even read comic books.
I have a book here open on my desk
with a book holder right here.
I picked that up, had a, it was a habit, actually,
I picked up from Earl Nightingale.
First time I visited him,
I saw he had a book holder on his desk
and I asked him what it was, he says,
"a book holder, holds a book open."
He says, "I study the same page sometimes for weeks."
I thought, that's really interesting.
The third one is, I personally believe
that prosperous people are continually looking
for a new source of income.
I found out a long time ago,
you can go right back to the ancient Babylonians,
prosperous people have multiple sources of income.
They don't have one, and they don't have three or four,
they have multiple sources of income.
So I believe the prosperous person
is continually looking for ways to create
a new source of income.
I know I'm working on it all the time,
constantly working on it.
The fourth one is you've got to mix with successful people.
You cannot mix with people that are going nowhere
and expect to go somewhere,
you're just not going to do it,
'cause they just wonder around in circles.
Up until I picked up Think and Grow Rich,
I had no goals,
the people I hung around with didn't have any goals.
You see, I was a product of my environment,
and I think everybody else is.
The beautiful truth is, we can create our own environment.
Today, the people I mix with are directed.
They know exactly where they're going.
They're into the right ideas.
They mix with other very successful people.
The fifth attribute that prosperous people have,
they listen, they listen.
Now, there's a distinction here,
and a mentor of mine brought this out
years and years ago,
and I don't think I understood it until he said it.
We hear with our ears, but that's not listening.
You hear with your ears,
you listen with your emotions.
You've got to permit yourself,
let yourself get involved
in the other person's conversation, what they're saying.
You've got to let yourself get emotionally involved,
that you listen with your emotions.
Last but not least, all prosperous people I know
expect to be prosperous.
They fully expect to win.
They don't have any plans for losing.
They don't have any exit strategies.
They really believe that they're going to be prosperous.
So the six of them, if we just take a look at them,
the first one is that they have very definite
and measurable financial goals.
The second one, they have a planned program of study,
and they stick to it religiously.
The third one, they're constantly thinking
of new, creative sources of income.
The fourth one, they mix with successful people.
They don't spend a lot of time,
they don't think anybody's any better
than anybody else,
but there's some people have a lot better attitudes.
They mix with successful people.
The fifth one, they listen.
They listen very carefully.
Number six, they expect to the prosperous,
they fully expect it.
It's no shock when they become that way,
they expect it.
I found these after studying for a long, long time,
and I've tested them,
and I've found out they work.
You might want to take, listen to this again,
and write them down, and then adopt them,
turn them into a habitual part of your program.
That's a prosperous attitude.
This is Bob Proctor, thanks.