The Creed of a Champion

As I began my long journey from complete failure in selling to millionaire success, I had a lot of self-image building to do. You see, I was the kid in school who was too shy to read out loud in class. I was more interested in playing sports and making mischief in high school than in studying. I dropped out of college after 90 days because it just wasn’t “for me.” When I did that, my dad told me, “Son, your mother and I will always love you…even though you’ll never amount to anything.” You can imagine where my self-image was as I took on the responsibility of a wife and baby with no real plan for my life. Not being a great student, it was a real struggle for me to get my real estate license after deciding construction work had no future for me.

Once I got my license, though, and started hanging around people who were making pretty good money, I wanted to do the same. I wanted it bad enough to do whatever it would take to succeed. I started learning what they knew. Every personal development seminar that was available had Tom Hopkins sitting in the front row absorbing every word the speakers uttered. This was a whole new world for me.

However, even though I was hearing the messages and learning what to do and say, my self-image hadn’t yet improved enough to help me achieve that great life of my dreams. The encouragement to keep working at it had to come from within. I started writing down what I would like to hear a mentor or coach say to me in order to stay motivated on those days when everything I touched turned to something other than gold. The words I used and have taught my students since one of my first training events in 1974 are these:

I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail…and keep trying.

It wrote it out and put it where I’d see that creed multiple times in every day. Today, it’s part of my training in nearly every seminar I teach. Take it, use it, and keep trying until you achieve the success of your dreams.

To get a frame-able copy of this creed, visit http://www.tomhopkins.com/pdf/PrintChampionCreed.pdf.

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