Stein - How Successful People Win

Other Hay House Titles by Ben Stein

HOW TO RUIN YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE (hardcover)
(also available as an audio book)

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LOVE LIFE

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE
(tradepaper that comprises the three titles above)

Other Titles by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth
(New Beginnings Press imprint)

CAN AMERICA SURVIVE?:
The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do about It

YES, YOU CAN BE A SUCCESSFUL INCOME INVESTOR!:
Reaching for Yield in Todays Market

YES, YOU CAN STILL RETIRE COMFORTABLY!:
The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and How to Beat It

All of the above are available at your
local bookstore, or may be ordered by visiting:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House South Africa: orders@psdprom.co.za
Hay House India: www.hayhouseindia.co.in

Y ouve decided what you want. Youve asked for what you want. And youve realized that you cant win if youre not at the table. Now youve stepped up to the table, and its time for you to learn the Rules of the Game.

Only an idiot plays a game without knowing the rules. The successful people of this world only play the games whose rules they know. You wouldnt expect to get on a tennis court without knowing how to play by the rules and then win. You would never go to a poker game totally ignorant of the rules and expect to come out ahead. You would never in a million years dream of going to a craps table without any idea of what the come line is and still expect to win.

By the same token, in the game of getting what you want out of lifeand thereby restoring self-esteemyou must also know exactly how the game is played. Luckily, those who are truly successful have left behind a complete manual of instructions as to how to play and win.

The rules arent detailed models of every conceivable game. There are far too many subgames in life for any one book to tell you the rules of every single possibility. But I can do something even better for you: I can tell you the rules for the one game that matters, the one that controls all the others: getting what you want from life.

Bunkhouse Logic lays out the rules that you must apply to yourself to win that game. The rules of this game arent such things as Collect $200 when you pass Go. Those are trivial rules that you can pick up in an hour. The rules that really control who wins and who loses are rules of the mindpatterns of thought, behavior, attitude, and expectationwhich make all the difference in everything you do, no matter what the particular instruction manual may say.

Remember that Bunkhouse Logic tells you that when you ask for what you want, the key person to ask is yourself. In understanding the Rules of the Game, you are once again the key. It doesnt matter if anyone else in your circle or family or business knows the Rules of the Game, explicitly or implicitly. As long as you know them, you will triumph.

Rule of the Game No. 1:
Concentrate on How to; Forget Why Not

One of the greatest American success stories involves Herbert Hoover. In 1893 he went to Northern California to become a prospector and speculator. The Panic of 1893 was raging in the East, Hoover later said, and everyone there was going broke. But I didnt know a thing about it. So I came west and made my fortune. I was a millionaire many times over before I learned that what I had done was impossible.

Hoovers story was and is a perfect example of what the human spirit can do when its not hobbled by artificial restraints. You can achieve your hearts desire by repeated effort, imagination, inner mobility, activity, and the application of Bunkhouse Logic. But you cannot do it if you tell yourself that its impossible. You cannot do it if you lock yourself in your own prison of thought.

Has this ever happened to you? Youre lying on your bed on a Sunday afternoon, reading the newspaper. You pick up the news section and read about someone exactly your age, without any special hereditary background, without any particular skills, without having been touched on the shoulder by an angel of the Lord. Yet that person is doing exactly what youve always wanted to do. Hes a successful commodities broker or a renowned artist or has the most perfectly behaved childrenall superb scholarsthat you could ever imagine.

But wait a minute. Just hold on. Why cant I become that person in the newspaper? That is just what you ask yourself. Im just as able (or talented or good-looking) as that person. What happened?

You lie on your bed, staring at the afternoon football game, explaining why you cant get the things you want: My mother was mean to me. I always played on the bench in high school basketball. My nose is too long. I was the wrong religion. I didnt go to boarding school. I dont have the right kind of car. My father is a drunk. Before long, you have a incredibly supportive list of all the reasons why youre not getting the things you want out of life. Now you can enjoy the third and fourth quarters of the football game on TV without any psychic interruptions.

Forget it. Thats exactly the way to prolong your failure, the perfect way to ensure that your feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing persist throughout all history. If you dredge up a lot of excuses for not doing anything, then you will surely not do anything. And then, when you pick up the newspaper next Sunday and read about the newest man or woman whos doing exactly what you want to do, youll ensure that you feel even worse than you did the weekend before. Dont do it. Let yourself out of the Why not? jail.

Bunkhouse Logic suggests that if you consider the following proposition, youll unquestionably find that its true: Within the limits of mortality, you can do what you think you can do and you cannot do what you think you cannot do. Once again, the key thoughts are your own.

Every moment that you spend collecting excuses is time wasted. Every reason you make up for why you havent accomplished the things you want to is a nail in the coffin of your self-respect over the long run. Yes, in the short run, its great comfort to realize that the reason your college roommate is rich and youre poor is that he has blond hair and you dont. Also, just as surely, you would be a lot happier if you went out and made yourself rich instead of making up an excuse for why youre so far from what you want.

If an army burns its bridges behind it, the soldiers mouths will likely go dry from fear. But by the same token, theyll have a powerful incentive to succeed. If you tell yourself that youre only giving yourself points for success, you give yourself a similar incentive.

This particular ruleConcentrate on how to; forget why notrequires shedding the habits of a lifetime. Almost all of us have been brought up with great acquired skills in rationalizing. Were all far more adept at planning the rationalizations of failure than in planning how to succeed. Its all a waste of time.

But, again, imagine yourself as a cowboy, tending a large herd of cattle. Your map tells you that you have 100 miles to go to get the cattle to market. If you dont get the cattle to market, all is lost. No rationalization, however appealing to a Freudian, will help. You simply have to get the job done. So you do it.