I just completed my intense Las Vegas Boot Camp weekend at the fabulous Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa. Everyone left enriched and inspired (me included).

I invited some of the best presenters in the world to speak on branding, success, laughter, change, social media, fascination, coaching and sales. Each presenter (me included) cited at least one quotation from the same person – a speaker and philosopher they had seen, heard, worked with or been a disciple of. The person was the late (great) Jim Rohn.

As you head into the new year, maybe you should be exposed to Jim’s wisdom, too.

Below are some pearls of his wisdom. If you want more, go to www.jimrohn.com and sign up for his weekly e-zine.

• The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. That is why I wish to pay fair price for every value. If I have to pay for it or earn it, that makes something of me. If I get it for free, that makes nothing of me.

• Showing a profit means touching something and leaving it better than you found it.

• Enterprise is the hope of our future.

• Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune.

• Kids ought to have two bicycles – one to ride and one to rent.

• One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental “I should” list.

• Indecision is the thief of opportunity.

• You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

• Don’t say, “If I could, I would.” Say, “If I can, I will.”

• It takes time to build a corporate work of art. It takes time to build a life. And it takes time to develop and grow. So give yourself, your enterprise and your family the time they deserve and the time they require.

• Americans are incredibly impatient. Someone once said that the shortest period of time in America is the time between when the light turns green and when you hear the first horn honk.

• We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces, while regret weighs tons.

• You cannot succeed by yourself. It’s hard to find a rich hermit.

• There is no greater leadership challenge than parenting.

• Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.

• Don’t take the casual approach to life. Casualness leads to casualties.

• Success is the study of the obvious. Everyone should take Obvious I and Obvious II in school.

• It’s too bad failures don’t give seminars. Wouldn’t that be valuable?

• Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are.

• Success is 20 percent skills and 80 percent strategy. You might know how to read, but more importantly, what’s your plan to read?

• Average people look for ways of getting away with it; successful people look for ways of getting on with it. (I love this one.)

• How sad to see a father with money and no joy. The man studied economics, but never studied happiness.

• We must learn to help those who deserve it, not just those who need it. Life responds to deserve, not need.

• Motivation alone is not enough. If you have an idiot and you motivate him, now you have a motivated idiot.

• Never wish your life were easier; wish that you were better.

How influential is Jim Rohn? I carried his set of tapes (now CDs) called “The Art of Exceptional Living” in my car for 10 years. Acquire some of his wisdom and see for yourself.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2010 Jeffrey H. Gitomer