John Spence - Strategies for Success: The Keys to Success in College, Career and Life

Before you get into this workbook, I want to give you some background on how it came into being.

By many different standards, a lot of people would most likely consider me successful. I have owned and run several companies, traveled around the globe, written several books, cohosted a TV show, met some of the wealthiest and most famous people in the world, and lived what some people might consider an extraordinary life. But my life has not always been like that. As youll see later in this book, there was a time that I was failing miserablya time when I was not happy and definitely not headed in the right direction. During this time, I had an experience that motivated me to really take stock of my life (youll hear about it soon). What I decided from that event was that if I wanted my life to get better, I needed to become an expert on successso that is what I set out to do. I read everything in sight, talked to anyone whom I felt could help me, spent thousands of hours studying what it truly took to build a happy, joyful, and highly successful life.

In my quest, I began to collect ideas, concepts, tools, and workshops that I found especially meaningful. I think it is fair to say that I have read well over 500 books, listened to several hundred audiobooks and attended dozens of seminars all in an effort to learn everything I possibly could about what it truly takes to create a successful and rewarding life. Because the amount of information soon became overwhelming, I decided to create my own success handbook. This handbook was not originally intended for anyone else but meI just wanted a simple, clean, concise workbook that I could use to keep myself on track, something I could read and work in to keep the very best ideas I had collected at the forefront of my mind. The result is the book you now hold in your hands.

I never intended to teach this information to anyone, but one day a friend saw me carrying my book and asked what it was. I told him that it was my success workbook, and that I was using it to build my life plan. He was intrigued and literally begged me to show the book to him, so I made him a copy and explained what I had written. A few weeks later, he called and said he had a few other friends who really wanted a copy too, and asked if Id be willing to teach a short class on the ideas in the book. We rented a small conference room at a local hotel, and 14 people showed up.

Nearly 20 years later, I have taught this material to hundreds of thousands of people. From college campuses to the top companies in the Fortune 100, I have visited classrooms and conference rooms around the world and helped people learn how to apply the ideas in this book to their lives and their careers. I am happy that many people have sent me notes and emails to tell me that this little book has changed their lives. I smile, with great humility, because I know that the ideas in this book are NOT my ideasthey are timeless truths about what it honestly takes to create and live a successful life. I simply gathered together the things that really work and put them all in one short workbook.

I want to make it clear that I do not claim to be the worlds leading expert on happiness and success. Yes, some might look at my life and say I have achieved a high level of success, and I do get up every single day excited about my future and all the great things happening in my life and the lives of those I lovebut my life is not perfect, nor will it ever beno ones is. What I can tell you with great confidence is that your life does not need to be unnecessarily difficult. There are specific things you can do to move your life in a much, much more positive direction. There is a set of principles that, when properly applied, can completely transform your life. There are key ideas and tools that truly successful people use to build extraordinary lives. Those ideas are in this bookthey are ideas and workshops that can touch you deeply and have a profound impact on the rest of your life. And even after two decades, I still take this book out every month and go through it again. These ideas are that important.

Please read the following paragraph and give it careful thought. Do your best to follow the prescriptions on this pagesuspend your normal way of thinking, question everything, and accept only what actually makes sense to you. Do not believe what I tell you; do not believe what others tell you; believe only what you believe in your heartwhat you know to be true for you.

It is also critical that you be brutally honest with yourself in examining this information, and especially in doing the exercises. You will be asked to consider some things that may be challenging, difficult, or uncomfortable for you to confront. Please face these questions with courage, and tell yourself the absolute truth. You do not have to discuss these things with anyone else, but you must be totally honest with yourself if these exercises are to help you at all. If you will do these things, today will be a very important day for you and those you love.

Do not believe what you have heard.

Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations.

Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times.

Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage.

Do not believe in authority or teachers or elders.

But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.