You Were Born Rich - Ernest L. Martin

1 YYYYYouWWWWWereBBBBBornRRRRRich ByBob ProctorYou were born rich The Razor s Edge2 YYYYYou were born RichChapter 8 The Razor s EdgeBy Bob ProctorYou are only one inch .. one idea .. away from turningonto the boulevard of beautyin your own has often been said the line whichseparates winning from losing is as fine asa razor s edge and it is. (I am talking aboutwinning in a big way and in all areas of yourlife.)W. Somerset Maugham wrote an entirebook entitled The Razor s Edge, and Daryl3 Bob ProctorF. Zanuck spent four million dollarsproducing a movie which had the same of these great men author and moviemaker alike knew there wasn t a bigdifference among people; there was only abig difference in the things theyaccomplished. (That was the theme of themovie as well as the book.)One person just about starts a project,the other person starts it.

2 One individual almost completes a task, the other doescomplete it. One person sees an opportunity,the other acts on it. One student nearly passes the exam, the other does pass it andalthough the difference in their marks maybe only one percentage point out of ahundred, it s that one point that makes allthe annals of sport s history are richwith dramatic illustrations of the Razor sEdge concept. For example, at the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal, Canada, therewere eight finalists competing in the one-hundred meter dash, but the runner who wonthe Olympic gold medal was only one-tenthYou were born rich The Razor s Edge4of a second faster than the runner whofinished in last 1947, ARMED the first race horsein the history of United States racing to winover one million dollars in prize money overthe duration of his career had earnings of$761,500.

3 But the horse which finishedsecond in earnings that same year a horsewhich often lost races a mile long by only a nose won only $75,000. Now, if onewere to look at their winnings alone, itwould appear that ARMED was thirteentimes better than his closest , when you compare the times that were actually registered by those twohorses in their races, you discover he reallywasn t even four percent superior!Now, you may have grown up with theidea that some people have it and somepeople don t. Or, because some people aremuch better than others, they enjoy muchmore of the abundance of life. But I wantyou to understand, right here and now, thisidea is absolutely false! For you are everybit as good, or as powerful, as anyone you5 Bob Proctorsee, know, or even hear about.

4 Remember,since the difference between them and youis only in the area of accomplishments, andsince there is something you can do that willvastly improve the results you are achievingpresently, you have the potential to becomeeven more successful than they are. Youmay already know how to do what othersare doing (if you don t, you can learn), andsince your potential power is unlimited, youcan do even greater things than they are something that you must do tobecome more successful may not be whatyou think it is. But whatever it may be, restassured, you are quite capable of doing bear in mind, however, that becauseeach person s world is just a little bitdifferent, the something which you must dois not necessarily the same thing the personyou live with or work with, must , there is no question that youwill eventually find out what it is that youmust do.

5 So make up your mind immediately when you do figure out whatthat Razor s Edge is for you, you will do were born rich The Razor s Edge6 Heinz Daues StoryAs I was writing this chapter, a very dearfriend of mine Heinz Daues telephonedto thank me for an idea I had given him. Butbefore I let you in on what that idea was,permit me to give you some backgroundinformation. Heinz Daues works for a largeinsurance company in Toronto and everyOctober his company holds a contest whichis referred to as, A President s Month. Allof the salespeople in the company gear themselves up for this contest and they eachperform at their peak level of reward, if they should win the contest,is both fame and fortune. (The companyalways recognizes its proven leaders.)As he does every year, Heinz had anexceptional President s Month.

6 But, inkeeping with his practice of previous years,he was planning to relax a bit inNovember, or at least to revert to what heconsidered to be normal production. As Iwas talking to him one afternoon, however,I noticed that his usual high degree ofenthusiasm had levelled off considerably. I7 Bob Proctorknew something was amiss, so I asked himwhat was bothering him. He then explainedhe was experiencing a big let down, nowthat his big month had come to an end. Inan attempt to raise Heinz s spirits, I askedhim the following question: Heinz, whatwould you do with the extra commission youwould earn, if you were to repeat yourOctober performance in November? (Heactually earned three times his usualmonthly income in October.)Seeing the true meaning behind myquestion, Heinz s face brightenedconsiderably and a broad smile appearedacross his face.

7 Then I quickly added, Weboth know you are quite capable ofrepeating your October performance inNovember; there is absolutely no questionabout that. By this time Heinz had becomethoroughly convinced, that not only was hecapable of repeating his performance, but hedefinitely would repeat it. He said, with hiscustomary confidence and vigor fullyrestored, All right Bob, I m going to do it. The Razor s Edge he did it HeinzYou were born rich The Razor s Edge8 Daues beat his own record of October inNovember! Think of the difference this willmake in his annual income, not to mentionhis standing in the company. You just knowhe will duplicate or better his performancenext November, following President sMonth. The something for Heinz Daues turnedout to be nothing more sophisticated, thandeciding to do the same thing in November,which he had already done in you are saying to yourself, anyonecould have figured that out, and you reright they could have.

8 But there are a fewthousand people selling for the samecompany that Heinz sells for and I ll bet you dollars to donuts, there weren t five otherswho did!Vince Lombardi, former football coachof the outstanding Green Bay Packersfootball team, described the Razor s Edgeconcept in football very well when he said, Most games are won or lost in the last twominutes of the first and second half. Butwhat Lombardi is best remembered for 9 Bob Proctorwith respect to football s Razor s Edge isthe Second Effort concept, which heintroduced for the edification of his a nutshell, the Second Effort conceptsimply meant, that when a player wasinitially stopped by the opposing team, hewould always surge forward a second time,with the added thrust of a second effort. Now, just consider the tremendousdifference you could create in your own lifeif you were to adopt a similar mentalattitude.

9 For example, if you are a personwho is working in sales and currently sellingonly three units a week, what would theconsequences be for you if you were todecide to make one additional sale per week,through a conscientious application of thesecond effort concept? Well, on a weeklybasis, it might not appear to be a majorbreakthrough. However, viewed over thetime frame of an entire career, it wouldactually amount to well over two thousandextra sales. Moreover, from a monetarystandpoint, it would mean you wouldactually receive an extra ten years incomeover the span of a forty-year career. Yes,You were born rich The Razor s Edge10that one sale would be the Razor s Edgedifference, which could catapult you into the big leagues in your chosen Campbell s TriumphOne individual who discovered theRazor s Edge difference for himself, in hisown life, is Milton Campbell.

10 You see, Miltwent to the Olympic Games in 1952, tocompete in the decathlon event. Heperformed with distinction, finishing insecond place in the world and as a result,brought home an Olympic silver , Milt s ambition has always beento win the Olympic gold medal. Therefore,when he returned home, he gave it that oldsecond effort and he started his trainingprogram all over again. For the next fouryears, Milt Campbell dedicated himselfsinglemindedly to a training schedule, whichwould culminate with his winning theOlympic gold medal for his country at the1956 Olympic the aftermath of that spectacularachievement, I had the pleasure of speaking11 Bob Proctorwith Milt on numerous occasions. He oftenconfided to me that many of the athletesagainst whom he competed in high schoolwere far superior to him at that time.