Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
There must be live starning brighter somewhere. Got to be birds.
Why I am high the sky? Four of you.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning, welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you. Well, today's
episode number four and forty Right Thinking with Steve Copeland
is very pleased to announce that this week's show is
called if tune in, and here Steve speak directly to
one of the main reasons why so many people fail
to be successful. They make excuses its stead of taking accountability.
(01:01):
When you stop making excuses and start taking ownership for
your actions, you will be way down the road towards success. Well,
a couple of mornings ago, my wife Don and I
were in a beautiful conversation where we were discussing Matthew
Chapter seven, verses three through five. Why do you look
at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and
(01:24):
pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, let me take
the speck out of your eye, when all the time
there was a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite,
First take the plant out of your own eye, and
then you will see clearly to remove the speck from
your brother's eye. This passage speaks directly to when people
(01:46):
choose to blame other people for their own shortcomings instead
of taking responsibility and accountability for themselves. It's just a
common behavior that so many people have where they just
want to blame someone else for something that they should
have taken responsibility themselves for. Back in December of twenty twenty,
(02:08):
I publish my book From the Lip to the Hip
is a pretty far distance Doing what you say you're
going to do lessons in character and integrity. Well, in
chapter one of that book, I had permission from the
poll and Hill Foundation to publish some of the most
powerful words that were ever written on why people make
(02:32):
excuses and they don't succeed. It's in the Paul and
Hills book Thinking Grow Rich that was published in nineteen
thirty seven. The very last chapter, how to Outwit the
sixth Ghost of Fear and the fifty seven famous alibis
by Old man If appears there, and I needed to
get permission from the poll and Hill Foundation, so I
(02:54):
spoke to my good friend Don Green, and he spoke
to their illegal and he did get me permission to
be able to use these pages from Think and Grow Rich.
But it's important that I share this. I had in
my book the following Language fifty seven famous alibis by
Old man If. Special thanks to the Napoleon Hill Foundation
(03:15):
for granting permission for the use of the below excerpt
from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, an official
publication of Napoleon Hill Foundation. You can find them at
www dot naphill dot org. I want to start to
read the last couple pages of chapter one, from the
Lip to the Hip, where I use the fifty seven
(03:37):
famous alibis of Old man If. It's pretty self explanatory.
What's going to come out of this? So I don't
think I need to give any more introduction. So here
I'm going to start on page ten, from the Lip
to the Hip. I want you to be thinking as
if you were one of the people Napoleon Hill refers
to who use these types of alibis. A lot of
(03:57):
people think the word alibi is synonymous excuses. Back in
nineteen thirty seven, I believe that Napoleon Hill was using
it as excuses Alibi is a legal word for I
wasn't there. I can prove that I wasn't there when
something happened. The definition of excuse from the Dictionary is
(04:17):
excuse a burd an attempt to lessen the blame attaching
to a fault, or an offense seeking to defend or justify.
Alibi is more of a claim or piece of evidence
that one was elsewhere when an act, typically a criminal one,
is alleged to have taken place. For the purpose of
what I'm going to read, these are all excuses, starting
(04:39):
with the word if. If you were using any of
these excuses, and I bet yare, then now's the time
to stop using them. I say I bet yr because unfortunately,
I too have recently used some of these excuses myself.
Now it is my pleasure and my honor, and with
great appreciation to the Napoleon Hill Foundation, I'm going to
(05:00):
read Napoleon Hills fifty seven Famous alibis by Old Man.
If fifty seven alibis by Old Man. If people who
do not succeed have one distinguishing trait in common, they
all know the reason for failure and have what they
believe to be airtight alibis to explain away their own
lack of achievement. Some of these alibis are clever, and
(05:23):
a few of them are justifiable by the facts, But
alibis cannot be used for money. The world wants to
know only one thing. Have you achieved success? A character
analyst compiled a list of the most commonly used alibis.
As you read the list, examine yourself carefully and determine
how many of these alibis if any, or your own property.
(05:46):
Remember too, the philosophy presented in this book makes every
one of these alibis obsolete. If I didn't have a
wife and family, if I had enough pull, if I
had money, if I had a good edge, if I
could get a job, if I had good health, if
I only had time, if times were better, if other
(06:08):
people understood me, if conditions around me were only different.
If I could only live my life over again. If
I did not hear what they would say. If I
had been given a chance, if I had a chance,
if nothing happens to stop me, if I were only younger,
if I could only do what I want, if I
had been born rich, if I could meet the right people,
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if I had the talent that some people have, if
I dared assert myself. If I only had embraced past opportunities,
if people didn't get on my nerves. If I didn't
have to keep house and look after the children. If
I could save some money, if the boss only appreciated me.
If I only had someone to help me, if my
family understood me. If I lived in a big city,
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if I could just get started, if I were only free,
if I had the personality of some people, if I
were not so in fact, if my talents were known,
if I could just get a break. If I could
only get out of debt, if I hadn't failed, if
I only knew how, if somebody didn't oppose me, if
I didn't have so many worries, if I could marry
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the right person, if people weren't so dumb, if my
family were not so extravagant. If I were served myself.
If luck were not against me. If I had not
been born under the wrong start, if I were not true,
if it were not true that what is to be
will be. If I did not have to work so hard,
if I hadn't lost my money, if I had lived
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in a different neighborhood, if I hadn't if I didn't
have a past, if I only had a business of
my own, if other people would only listen to me,
If and this is the greatest of them all, if
I had the courage to see myself as I really am,
I would find out what is wrong with me and
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correct it. Then I might have a chance to profit
by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others.
For I know that there is something wrong with me,
or I would not be where I would have been
if I'd spent more time analyzing my weaknesses and less
time building alibis to cover them. Building alibis with which
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to explain away failure is a national pastime. The habit
is as old as the human race and is fatal
to success. Why do people cling to their pet alibis.
The answer is obvious. They defend their alibis because they
create them. A man's alibi is the child of his
own imagination. It is human nature to defend one's own brainchild.
(08:43):
Building alibis is a deeply rooted habit. Habits are difficult
to break, especially when they provide justification for something we do.
Plato had this truth in mind when he said, quote
the first and best victory is to conquer self. To
be conquered by self is, of all things, the most
shameful and vile end quote. Another philosopher had the same
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thought in mind when he said, quote, it was a
great surprise to me when I discovered that most of
the ugliness I saw on others was but a reflection
of my own nature. End quote. It has always been
a mystery to me, said Elbert Hubert, why people spend
so much time deliberately full of themselves by creating alibis
to cover their weaknesses. If used differently the same time
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would be sufficient to cure the weakness, then no alibis
would be needed. In parting, I remind you that life
is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you as time.
If you hesitate before moving, or the luc to move promptly,
your men will be wiped off the board. By time.
You're playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision. Well,
(09:55):
that's the end of those excerpts, and then I'm going
to include a few other things here that I put
in my book. Well, I think that sums up everything
we're trying to say here. He finishes up the chapters
by saying this. This isn't back to Napoleon Hill. The
Master Key is intangible, but it is powerful. It is
the privilege of creating in your own mind a burning
(10:16):
desire for a definite form of riches. There is no
penalty for the use of the key, but there is
a price you must pay if you do not use it.
The price is failure. There is reward of stupendous proportions
if you put the key to use. It is a
satisfaction that comes to all who conquerself and force life
to pay whatever is asked. The reward is worthy of
(10:39):
your effort. Will you make the start and be convinced?
Na Poland Hill was absolutely brilliant. Think and Grow Rich
contains some of the greatest wisdom found anywhere. It teaches
about human nature and gives you tools to be able
to move your life forward and become successful. Here's another
positive thought from Napoleon Hill from a thought for the Day.
(11:01):
It is a free service brought to you by Napoleon
Hill Foundation at www dot naphill dot org. Napoland Hill says,
offer results, not alibis. There are many people who, perhaps
with the best of intentions, make alibis. These somehow never
get around to keeping. These folks have usually developed a
(11:22):
number of perfectly plausible explanations for not meeting their commitments.
They have become experts at explaining away their failures. Successful people, though,
are those who accept responsibility for their lives. They know
that talk is cheap. Actions are all that really matter.
The world is waiting for men and women who seek
the opportunity to render real service, the kind of service
(11:46):
that lightens the burdens of their neighbors, the kind of
service that ninety five percent of people do not render
because they do not understand it. When you provide a
truly useful service enthusiastically and a spirit of genuine helpfulness,
success will automatically followed. The world seeks out such individuals
and rewards them accordingly. The reason that I chose to
(12:09):
talk about excuses today is because I really care about
people who are struggling. Many are people who can't understand
why they are not doing better with their lives. I
found that people make excuses. Napoleon Hill expressed throughout his
fifty seven famous alibis to act and stop making excuses.
Now go back and listen to what I've read you again,
(12:30):
You know. That was my message for today that I
really wanted to get out is that it's really simple
that if you're one of these people that seem to
just kind of know it all, but you're not getting anywhere,
and you find that you're making excuses all the time
for why you aren't making progress, stop and just take
(12:51):
a real deep breath, take a good look at yourself
and consider what I'm going to tell you now. Just
like Napoleon Hill suggest that that you stop making excuses
and start taking action, I'm going to say that to
you also when you move forward instead of get stuck
in the president lost in the past. There are things
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that you can do to figure out what you could
do to make your life better. Part of it is
to get a mentor part of it is to just
go into self improvement whatever you want. But the single
most important thing you can do is recognize within yourself
that you're making excuses. Stop making excuses, and start moving
(13:37):
your life forward. I think it's a big part of
maturity is to be able to take responsibility and to
become accountable and take the ownership for things that you
need to claim. When you do that, you can develop
the buck stops here attitude and say hey, I'm going
(13:59):
to take take care of this anyone, anyone else that
wants to be involved. I'm here to see it through
the end, to help you through it. But please just
listen to what I've had to say today because it
will change your life when you start having that type
of an attitude. Well, you can go back to episode
(14:20):
number one fifty nine in the Right Thinking with Steve
Copeland archives there and here the original full length version
of where this famous fifty seven alibis voh man if
first appeared when I first talked about it, and that
was done back in March of twenty twenty, episode number
(14:41):
one fifty nine titled from the Lip to the Hip
is a pretty far distance, yea. That actual show is
the same title as the book. Well, I hope everyone
has a wonderful week and you move closer to your
own personal success. God bless you.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Right Thinking with Steve Coper.
I'll look forward to being with you again next week,
and remember, don't quit plan ahead. It will get better.
God bless you, and have a great week.