10 Rules of Profitable Self Discipline from Napoleon Hill

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
we’re one day away from the AMA one more
video this one and I’ll be doing my at
least the first AMA asked me anything
episode so that’ll be episode 100 very
excited about that we’re doing an
episode a day every day for this year
and it’s getting more and more fun for
me and today I get to share with you
something that I am passionate about I
am passionate about the book Think and
Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill when I first
read it I must have been I don’t know 13
14 years old and I think a lot of people
are introduced to this early in life and
they think to themselves wow this isn’t
what I thought life was all about this
isn’t what I see in movies and on
television and I listen to from my
friends wow this is great and usually
what you find is people talking about
Napoleon Hills Laws of Success which are
in Think and Grow Rich and they’re just
as relevant today as they were back in
1937 when the book was first published
but along with his rules for success
which are all throughout the book I
heard a rare radio address by him was
actually a live broadcast a meeting he
was speaking at and there instead of
rules of success he gave ten rules for
self-discipline which I find just as
fascinating as be be active and be you
know like all the rules for success you
can go go read the book or listen to the
audiobook there are many many versions
of it it’s it’s just seminal it’s just
awesome but I wanted to share with you
the laws of self-discipline or the rules
of self-discipline that he gave in this
speech the first one is stay cool when
the other fellow gets hot now he did
this speech in some late 30s early 40s
so almost everything is referred to by
the male pronoun so bear with that it
was it’s not meant to offend
stay cool when the other fella gets hot
and that is so hard for some people to
do especially in today’s world of
divisive nough sand tribalism and I’m
right you’re wrong I’m gonna like really
let you have it with all the barrels
because the Internet allows you to do
that you know you have that that
anonymity that lets you be a lot harsher
than you would be if you were within
striking distance of the person that you
were talking to but it makes all the
difference in the world when you can
calm things down and you can just like
say okay I’m not gonna get exercised
about this I know this person is angry
but I’m not going to I’m not going to
match that level of anger I’m just gonna
stay cool and it diffuses things and it
sometimes frustrates people when you’re
not getting as upset as they are and it
makes them cool down anyway so number
one number two remember there are always
three sides to any argument there’s your
side there’s her side and I’m saying her
because he said his side and then
there’s the right side have you ever
been in a situation where you are 100
correct and the person that you’re at
odds with is 100 percent incorrect
usually it’s somewhere in between
sometimes way to one end to the other
but usually it’s about halfway in
between or some version of that right
and if you can remember that then it
makes it easier to accept when maybe you
weren’t quite right in what you were
saying number three never give
directives to subordinates when you’re
angry and that’s kind of along the lines
of never go to sleep with your spouse if
you’re angry you know don’t let things
cool down let things let things have
time to sort of settle and that initial
rush of anger pass because you’ll be a
lot more effective in coming up with a
solution if you’re working from a less
exercise less agitated space number four
he says treat everyone as though they
are rich relatives who you suspect will
remember you in their will I just think
that’s genius I think it is because you
never know it’s like I always say
you never know what golden nuggets are
laying on the floor and you never know
in whose pockets those golden nuggets
are how many times have you been
surprised when you find out somebody’s
background or somebody’s skillset or
somebody’s influence oh wow so you’re
kind of important then hmm
and if you practice that it’s it goes a
whole lot better for you you know treat
everybody as though they are rich
relatives who you suspect will remember
you and their will if you knew somebody
who’s gonna give you a million dollars
if you were nice to them you’d be nicer
to a lot more people number five look
for the seed of an equivalent benefit in
every unpleasant circumstance you’ll
encounter some of these rules are just
poetic in their sentence structure but
this is basically you can always find
something to learn from things that are
considered failures or mistakes or a
waste of time as opposed to successes
and positive movements forward you can
always find that seed of learning in
something that didn’t quite work out and
I love the value of that learn the seed
of an equivalent benefit in every
unpleasant circumstance you’ll encounter
number six he says learn the almost
forgotten art of listening to the answer
to a question that you’ve asked we often
ask questions and we don’t care what the
other person answers we don’t care
because we’ve already got it in our head
what we think the answer should be and
if it isn’t that well then by god
they’re wrong but what if you actually
listen to the answer how many times have
you been surprised by the answer that
someone has given you to a question that
you’ve asked we tend to jump right past
that and go yeah yeah I know that
already I’m gonna ask you this question
is because I want to move the
conversation along so think about that
think about that and always ask this of
someone who you’re still sure of is
mistaken about what they’re saying how
do you know that how do you know
where did you learn that what’s the
source of that it’s not an inquisition
it’s just I’d like some more information
on why you think what you think how do
you know you know if somebody is dead
sure that they’re right that that
bi-monthly is you know every is only
every two months well how do you know
that let’s let’s take a look at the
authority on that number seven never say
or do anything which may influence
another person until you answer this
question for yourself will I help them
or will I hurt them if I tell them what
I know and what I think you know I have
some very strong opinions on certain
things and there are times when I just
simply keep them to myself because I
don’t want to insult somebody I don’t
want to harm them
they are shades of an opinion not fact
and it could be offensive it could be
really saddening for people and I’m sure
you have very similar things now some
people are just hell-bent to let the
world know what they think and be damned
but what we’re talking about here is
getting along with human beings and
human beings are very complex creatures
and they can take offense very easily
even more easily today and they can lash
out so just you know think about whether
what you have to say will be helpful or
hurtful before you say it I think that’s
a good filter to use number eight learn
the difference between friendly analysis
and unfriendly criticism then decide
which you’d like to engage in for the
rest of your life would you like to be
friendly and connected and helpful and
say hey let’s take a look at this and
see if there’s some better way to do
this or would you rather be you did that
wrong there is a better way to do this
and you should do it this way we find
that as an option all through life we
jump to conclusions that people are
doing things wrong and they have to be
corrected and I’m just as guilty of it
as anybody I have a bet Betsy says I
have a very big job because I see things
that are wrong and I want to correct
them I mean it’s natural human thing but
the idea of friendly analysis versus
unfavorable criticism people are going
to be more apt to listen to you if
you’re friendly
about your approach like hey can we talk
about this there’s just some things I’d
like to point out and bring up that
maybe might be more helpful
number 9 he says remember that a good
leader is someone who takes orders as
cheerfully as he gives them or she gives
them taking an order from a subordinate
is something that I relish in I want the
people that I work with and that I
supervise and that I a team around me I
want them to tell me what is happening I
want them to tell me what they want me
to do I don’t want them to think that
I’m the only one that has the answers I
want to surround myself with people that
have a lot more knowledge about things
than I do and that’s hard for the ego
sometimes when you know that the person
that is on your team and that you’re
supervising has more knowledge about
something than you do it can be so just
know that you should be able to take
direction and take an order just as
easily as you give direction and give an
order and then finally number 10 this is
a very interesting one remember that
tolerance in human relations is just as
important as tolerance in the operation
of mechanics and I really had to unpack
that one because that was like what so
when you design an engine for example
mechanics just a simple you know a
switch or a lever or something it’s
designed with a certain tolerance so you
have to push it all the way to make it
work you have to press the button four
times to make something happen whatever
it is but machines are built to have
tolerance meaning if you push it only
three quarters of the way it’ll help you
by going a little bit further the point
is you can’t predict what people are
going to do with mechanics and you
certainly can’t count on the fact that
every human being in the world is
perfect including you so there needs to
be some tolerance about those little
tiny variances even some bigger
variances in the way people behave in
the way they perform in the way they
think in the way they feel and the more
you’re open to those tolerances the more
you’re open to those
variances the easier it’s gonna be for
you in life it just it’s gonna be a lot
easier if you can just go oh well you
know that’s what they do you know demand
perfection if you choose to but be ready
for people to be human right I just love
these I love those I’m probably going to
put them in the actual blog post on vo
to go go comm so you can go check them
out but this is my analysis of this set
of rules of self discipline from
Napoleon Hill do get Think and Grow Rich
because there’s all kinds of stuff in
there that kind of are adjacent to these
and they are awesome
so tomorrow or next time you see this
video it’s gonna be me doing the AMA if
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Lawrence the 17th I thank you so much
for watching and I will talk to you
tomorrow.