When I was at Tony Robbin’s Unleash the Power Within™ seminar in 2002 he talked about Jim Rohn and the effect that he had on his life. For those that don’t know, Tony went to a Jim Rohn seminar when he was 17 and started working for him immediately after that. In Tony’s book’s he talks about being very successful at a young age and then losing it all.

He was successful when he was running an office for Jim, but lost it all when he allowed his ego to get in the way. He ended up destroying his business by allowing himself to go down a negative spiral and chasing away his customers and employees. He ultimately ended up in a little one bedroom apartment feeling sorry for himself until a friend came and drug him out of the house.

After hearing about Jim I went online to see what I could find out about him.  I found his email list and signed up, I bought a couple of his books and cd series and amazingly I found a seminar only a couple of hours away in Big Sky, Montana that he was supposed to be speaking at and the tickets were only $300.  I think the seminar was called, “Secrets of the Mountain.” I immediately signed up and also bought a ticket for my girlfriend. She kept asking me what the seminar was all about and my only answer was Jim Rohn was going to speaking so we needed to go.

The day the weekend seminar was starting we loaded up and headed to Big Sky. When we got there we noticed that the event was at a pretty small guest ranch and it didn’t seem too crowded. As we were getting checked in we chatted with a nice gentleman named Jim, no not that Jim, but he had worked for that Jim. Over the course of several conversations I found out that this was Jim Britt, the guy that pulled Tony Robbins out of his apartment. I was beginning to get impressed with this event.

Then we got checked in and headed down to the first session. That’s when we found out there were only 25-30 people there. Which I thought was going to be pretty cool. Then I found out that there were going to be several speakers over the weekend in addition to Jim. That was fine and to be honest it was one of the best groups of speakers I’ve ever heard.

That night we ended up at dinner sitting across from Jim Rohn and listened to him and Bill Bailey swap stories. My girlfriend was in Mary Kay. Jim and Bill had worked with Mary Kay Ash, I believe when they were all with Earl Schoef so they talked about her for a while. Then they talked about all sorts of things and I just soaked it up. In fact after dinner we sat in the bar and listened to them swap stories for hours. It was really a great time.

Saturday morning we started our sessions and found that Jim was speaking Sunday morning. I wish I could remember all of the speakers names, but I can tell you it was an amazing line up and that it began to seem like my girlfriend and I were the only people who weren’t speaking, but I didn’t care it was great stuff. I took pages and pages of notes and I noticed that Jim Rohn was actively listening, taking notes and learning from every speaker. I see that as one of the hallmarks of his greatness. He didn’t let any opportunity to learn pass him by. He always had his journal and he was always taking notes.

He also spent a great deal of time answering questions that people were peppering him with. He calmly paid attention to everyone and gave everyone the attention that they craved. I learned many lessons from watching him that weekend.

Saturday night was a repeat of Friday with a kicker. My girlfriend had gone into town and grabbed a birthday card for me because it was my birthday. She had all of the people sign it including Jim Rohn and Bill Bailey. It was an amazing gift. We then sat around and swapped stories for hours again.

As a side note by Saturday night I had come to realize that we had lucked out in getting a ticket to this event. The wealth of knowledge at the small event was unbelievable. Most of the crowd were multi-millionaires and many of them were professional public speakers who charged thousands for an appearance. In fact my girlfriend kept asking me how I found the event. It was a blessing.

Sunday morning Jim spoke and I took dozens of pages of notes. His wisdom and delivery were unparalleled. I’ll never forget one of the things he said “This stuff is hard work; listen to what I say, but don’t watch me too close” But I can tell you from watching him over the previous day and a half that you could learn a lot from simply watching Jim “too close.” He was truly a man who walked his talk.