From Barnes & Noble

Jack Canfield's success credentials are incontestable: The co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise has sold more than 80 million books. (In fact, he once had seven books on New York Times bestseller lists simultaneously.) His Success Principles set out 64 keystones ("Become an inverse paranoid," "Reject rejection") for achieving the kind of life that you've always wanted. Canfield bolsters these precepts with uplifting quotations from famous role models. A manual for the upward bound.

From the Publisher

The author of the phenomenal bestselling Chicken Soup series--with over 80 million books sold and 11 #1 Bestsellers--turns to the secrets of success as the cornerstone of his next franchise.

Publishers Weekly

When it comes to success, Canfield knows of what he speaks: he is co-creator, with Mark Victor Hansen, of the seemingly endless Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He presents 64 success principles that he claims "always work"-and draws on his own experience and that of others to illustrate them. Sixty-four principles may seem like a lot, but each receives a concise, easy-to-digest chapter that challenges readers to risk creating their lives exactly as they want them. Many of the principles are familiar-e.g., "Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life"-but Canfield has a nifty way of summarizing them ("Reject rejection"), and some are inventive: "Become an Inverse Paranoid" means see the world as out to help you instead of out to get you. He also offers specific techniques, such as positive-thinking exercises and visualizations. A section on transformation provides even more on how to overcome self-defeating beliefs, fears and habits. Further sections offer principles on building good teams and better relationships at the office. Canfield acknowledges his predecessors in the success advice field, such as Napoleon Hill, and is also clear that while he gives information, motivation, and inspiration, readers must contribute their own hard work. Canfield's energy and enthusiasm bounce off the page; many will flock to this inspiring (and very rich) teacher. And those starting off in business or in need of a refresher course may consider this title required reading. Agent, Bonnie Solow. (Jan. 1) Forecast: Harper is putting Canfield in a class with Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. A Today show appearance, 11-city tour and 250,000-copy first printing will demonstrate whether they're right. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A prescription for achieving life goals and aspirations, this book by the coauthor of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series is destined for best-sellers lists all over the country. Canfield guarantees results if readers decide what they want, believe they deserve it, and practice his 64 principles, laid out here with evangelical zeal. Based on sound psychological, spiritual, and economic truths gathered from interviews, research, and personal experience, these principles include urging readers to take 100 percent responsibility for their own lives, continually ask for feedback, tell the truth faster, and master the spending game. Canfield has an easy style and talks directly to readers, responding to potential "what ifs" and "buts" with encouragement and sound advice. The book's layout is superb-small paragraphs are punctuated by italicized quotes, questions for self-study, and several appropriate cartoons. One could easily pick and choose principles of interest, although a thorough reading is recommended. Lest this all sound too good to be true, Canfield stresses that "Success takes times, effort, perseverance and patience." Essential for all libraries.-Deborah Bigelow, Leonia P.L., NJ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Success expert Jack Canfield, the co-creator of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, has collected 64 essential lessons for attaining goals in The Success Principles. These principles include the personal basics, such as "Be clear why you're here," and "Believe in yourself," as well as those aimed at creating better relationships, such as "Speak with impeccability," and "Say no to the good so that you can say yes to the great." He also presents the essential ideas that can create success with money, teams, and starting the journey. Copyright © 2006 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Product Details

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Read a Sample Chapter

The Success Principles

HarperResource

Principle One

Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot
change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind,
but you can change yourself.

Jim Rohn
America's foremost business philosopher

One of the most pervasive myths in the American culture today is that we are entitled to a great life -- that somehow, somewhere, someone (certainly not us) is responsible for filling our lives with continual happiness, exciting career options, nurturing family time, and blissful personal relationships simply because we exist.

But the real truth -- and the one lesson this whole book is based on -- is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live.

That person is you.

If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life. This includes the level of your achievements, the results you produce, the quality of your relationships, the state of your health and physical fitness, your income, your debts, your feelings -- everything!

This is not easy.

In fact, most of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don't like. We blame our parents,our bosses, our friends, the media, our coworkers, our clients, our spouse, the weather, the economy, our astrological chart, our lack of money -- anyone or anything we can pin the blame on. We never want to look at where the real problem is -- ourselves.

There is a wonderful story told about a man who is out walking one night and comes upon another man down on his knees looking for something under a streetlamp. The passerby inquires as to what the other man is looking for. He answers that he is looking for his lost key. The passerby offers to help and gets down on his knees and helps him search for the key. After an hour of fruitless searching, he says, "We've looked everywhere for it and we haven't found it. Are you sure that you lost it here?"

The other man replies, "No, I lost it in my house, but there is more light out here under the streetlamp."

It is time to stop looking outside yourself for the answers to why you haven't created the life and results you want, for it is you who creates the quality of the life you lead and the results you produce.

You -- no one else!

To achieve major success in life -- to achieve those things that are most important to you -- you must assume 100% responsibility for your life. Nothing less will do.

One Hundred Percent Responsibility For Everything

As I mentioned in the introduction, back in 1969 -- only 1 year out of graduate school -- I had the good fortune to work for W. Clement Stone. He was a self-made multimillionaire worth $600 million at the time -- and that was long before all the dot-com millionaires came along in the '90s. Stone was also America's premier success guru. He was the publisher of Success Magazine, author of The Success System That Never Fails, and coauthor with Napoleon Hill of Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.

When I was completing my first week's orientation, Mr. Stone asked me if I took 100% responsibility for my life.

"I think so," I responded.

"This is a yes or no question, young man. You either do or you don't."

"Well, I guess I'm not sure."

"Have you ever blamed anyone for any circumstance in your life? Have you ever complained about anything?"

"Uh ... yeah ... I guess I have."

"Don't guess. Think."

"Yes, I have."

"Okay, then. That means you don't take one hundred percent responsibility for your life. Taking one hundred percent responsibility means you acknowledge that you create everything that happens to you. It means you understand that you are the cause of all of your experience. If you want to be really successful, and I know you do, then you will have to give up blaming and complaining and take total responsibility for your life -- that means all your results, both your successes and your failures. That is the prerequisite for creating a life of success. It is only by acknowledging that you have created everything up until now that you can take charge of creating the future you want.

"You see, Jack, if you realize that you have created your current conditions, then you can uncreate them and re-create them at will. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, sir, I do."

"Are you willing to take one hundred percent responsibility for your life?"

"Yes, sir, I am!"

And I did.

You Have to Give Up All Your Excuses

Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from
people who have a habit of making excuses.

George Washington Carver
Chemist who discovered over 325 uses for the peanut

If you want to create the life of your dreams, then you are going to have to take 100% responsibility for your life as well. That means giving up all your excuses, all your victim stories, all the reasons why you can't and why you haven't up until now, and all your blaming of outside circumstances. You have to give them all up forever.

You have to take the position that you have always had the power to make it different, to get it right, to produce the desired result. For whatever reason -- ignorance, lack of awareness, fear, needing to be right, the need to feel safe -- you chose not to exercise that power. Who knows why? It doesn't matter. The past is the past. All that matters now is that from this point forward you choose -- that's right, it's a choice -- you choose to act as if (that's all that's required -- to act as if ) you are 100% responsible for everything that does or doesn't happen to you ... Continues...

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Excerpted from The Success Principles by Canfield, Jack Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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