Ralph Zuranski: Do you take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
JJ Childers: Absolutely. It is kind of funny that you mentioned that question because last night I went to see a movie. I went to see Batman Begins and there were a couple different points in that movie where they said “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again.”
JJ Childers: I think it is crucial, if you haven’t had any setbacks or pitfalls, you haven’t been out there doing anything.
JJ Childers: We are all going to be faced with those obstacles, those things that come in to our way and it is our ability to face those obstacles head on, not try to avoid them but go right at them and learn how to overcome any obstacles that are placed in front of us whether those obstacles are placed by other people or by other organizations.
JJ Childers: And often many times they are placed in front of us by ourselves and we need to learn to overcome those obstacles, overcome our fears and go out there and do what it takes to make ourselves accomplish the goals we set for ourselves.
Ralph Zuranski: Are you an optimist?
JJ Childers: I think it is extremely important to be optimistic. You know sometimes I don’t like to think I go about my business with blinders on.
JJ Childers: Sometimes I consider myself maybe more of a realist then an optimist but an optimistic realist, if there is such a thing.
JJ Childers: I like to look at it and say, ok when I encountered difficulties what lesson is there to be found in this particular situation, because one of the things I learned early on is that we should be thankful of the problems we are faced with.
JJ Childers: It is strange to say that but we should be thankful because it is our ability to overcome those problems that enables us to get the rewards in life. The rewards in life go to those people that do what other people are not willing to do.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas?
JJ Childers: At first it takes a lot of courage and that is the thing, there is an ancient proverb that says ‘The journey of 1,000 miles comes with a single step’ and if you have the courage to take that single first step, every step there after becomes so much easier because it becomes who you are.
JJ Childers: This becomes a way of life for you so that all of the sudden it doesn’t seem like you are doing something so courageous, but that first step it takes a lot of courage but pretty soon you just become a courageous person by nature.
JJ Childers: So it is one of things that you have got to take that first step so that you can become accustomed to continually taking those steps.
Ralph Zuranski: Were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
JJ Childers: I think you have to be willing to experience the discomfort. In becoming an attorney I guess I always to some extent wanted to become an attorney. And it was very difficult right out of school, right out of college, I had a lot of my friends that were making good money, money that none of us had ever able to make before.
JJ Childers: And it was difficult having to work jobs just to help pay my way through school and not be able to go out there and make money with a full time sales position or any other type of endeavor because I had to focus on my studies and that was three years of my life.
JJ Childers: But in retrospect you think “Hey three years is not that big a deal” but at the time that was a pretty substantial amount of my overall life experience. When you think about it at that time I spent ten percent of my life in law school, so that was really a discomforting situation but one that was essential to accomplish certain things.
JJ Childers: I look at doctors in many instances, doctors make a lot of money and that is because they put forth a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of energy of studying to get the type of grades to go to medical or to go to law school or where ever you are trying to go to accomplish your objectives there is going to be some discomfort.
JJ Childers: There are going to be times where you are questioning yourself of “What have I gotten myself in to” but you have got to be willing to overcome that because once again, the rewards in life go to those that are willing to do what others are not willing to do.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you believe your dreams would eventually become reality?
JJ Childers: I think that is one of the most important ingredients in the overall path to success. You have got to believe that this is going to happen and you have got to act right now.
JJ Childers: I don’t care if you are nine, ten, twelve years old, how ever old you are you need to envision where ever it is that you want to go, and that may sound difficult to some people listening to this because they might say, “I don’t even know all of the different things” but I think we all have certain images of where we want to be in life. If you can ask yourself “What would the person in that position do in this situation right now?”
JJ Childers: It becomes very simple, you know a lot of times I see these people with these bracelets on that say WWJD for what would Jesus do in this situation, well that is a very good model to emulate because if you think in the same type of situation what would the person you most want to become do in this situation, pretty soon the answer to everything you face in life becomes a lot simpler.
JJ Childers: So now you have taken some of the, I guess some of the fear out of the situation and some of the uncertainty, because now you can say, “Well what would they do? Well I know what they would do and I need to do the same thing.”
Ralph Zuranski: How were you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
JJ Childers: Well one thing is I try to follow some of the principles as outlined in the Bible but also as outlined in what I would refer to as the Bible of business success which is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
JJ Childers: I highly recommend anybody that is interested in building wealth or having any success in life to read that book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In the book he says one of the most important things you can do is to surround yourself with a mastermind team.
JJ Childers: Now whatever that is for you in your particular situation you need to surround yourself with a team of like minded individuals that can help you to reach your objective.
JJ Childers: Now another thing we have talked about is the power of prayer in your life, the power of prayer is something I definitely take advantage of because if you are trying to do everything on your own you are setting yourself up for failure. You have got to seek assistance from other individuals that can help you that are part of your team.
JJ Childers: If you look at the definition of the word team it is really a group of individuals working toward a common objective. Well, somebody that is out for themselves is not a part of a team. You have got to surround yourself with those people that can help you accomplish the goals that you set for yourself and it makes it that much more easy, not only for you to accomplish your objectives.
JJ Childers: But if you are helping enough people, Zig Ziggler said, “You can get anything you want in life if you help enough people accomplish the objectives that they have for themselves.”
Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
I think it is crucial. I try to forgive people. I like to try to think that those people didn’t mean anything by what they said or did and sometimes I think that some of the offenses that we take are self-imposed.
JJ Childers: I kid sometimes and I would say “I have gone through a process in my life where I use to be very concerned about what people thought about me” and then I would say “I am not going to be overly concerned about what people say about me” and then I would say to get to the point, “You know what, people aren’t really thinking about me” you know the fact is they are thinking about themselves.
JJ Childers: And that was a major realization to me because it was almost as if I was looking for what negative people may be looking down on me and different things and it can consume you if you are constantly focused on it and worried about that, but it can also be a motivating factor.
JJ Childers: Because I don’t care who you are, where your from or who you surround yourself with you will always encounter people who will tell you what you can’t do and if you use that as a motivational tool to say “Ok, this is going to drive me” What is going to drive me is proving those nay sayers wrong. That can be a great force for you so that you can accomplish any objective you set for yourself.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are HEROES so important in the lives of young people?
In order to truly believe that you can accomplish certain things you have got to see that there are people out there who have faced certain obstacles and they were able to overcome those certain obstacles.
JJ Childers: That is what heroes are, people who encounter certain situations yet see those obstacles, see those pitfalls, see those challenges and they embrace those challenges and face them head on and they say “You know what I am not going to let that stop me.” Too many people focus on the too many different things in front of them and say “Well this is too daunting of a task.”
JJ Childers: It is like what I was talking about with Matt Rainier, if you just stood at the base and looked just how high it is that you have got to climb you would say “I can’t ever do that” but you have to ask yourself “Can I take this first step? You bet I can and now that I am here, can I take this next step?
JJ Childers: Sure I can.” You keep taking that next step that is what heroes have been able to do, those trail blazers that have been out there and shown us the way, now we can follow in their footsteps and we can accomplish what ever it is that we want to accomplish.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you think are the HEROES today that are not getting the recognition they deserve?
JJ Childers: I think teachers, I think teachers can be heroes, that is not to say that just because you are a teacher that you are automatically a hero but I think in any profession those people who are willing to put others before themselves.
JJ Childers: And I don’t mean putting others before yourself to where you are always sacrificing and saying “Well I hate to do anything for myself” Ian Ranid??? Wrote a book called The Virtue of Selfishness which the premise of the book was basically saying “Hey the reason that people have accomplished a lot of what they have accomplished in life is for selfish reasons.”
JJ Childers: I am not advocating that everyone be selfish but what I am saying is that you have to understand that there is a little bit of selfishness in what you are trying to do. So if you say “I want to help people” then ok I am going to get a good feeling from helping people.
JJ Childers: That is not truly being selfish but that is also saying “I want to help other people” and the more success I am the more I am going to continually do that. So I have mentioned teachers, we have got fire fighters who do amazing things each and every day.
JJ Childers: One of my best friends is a volunteer fire fighter in addition to being a money manager. He takes some of his spare time and he helps put fires out in the rural county where he lives and he does that and I really respect how he does that because it is taking time that is over and above his vocation just to help other people and to do what he can.
JJ Childers: I think entrepreneurs are often times overlooked as heroes because they are out there making things possible for other people. I was listening to something the other day as I continue to do is build upon my knowledge base.
JJ Childers: And I was listening and it said, “Each one of us in today’s society lives with the equivalent of over two hundred servants, if you compared it to ancient times, the fact that we have running water, they didn’t have running water back then.
JJ Childers: In fact we have got electricity, we have got air conditioning, and we have got water that can be either hot or cold. We have got all of that and if you think back at the time, in order to have those things we would have to have over two hundred servants doing all of those things for us.
JJ Childers: Well we have got that right now but we do not truly take advantage of it. I think people put too many obstacles in front of themselves that aren’t really obstacles if they understand how good we have it.
JJ Childers: We have got to take advantage of that. Entrepreneurs are doing things each and everyday to create new things such as the internet, different things on the internet that make our lives easier, I think those are heroes because they are making things better for the world around them. Those are some of my top heroes are those entrepreneurs that are doing things to make life easier and better for society as a whole and I think that they should be rewarded for that.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think about the “In Search Of Heroes” Program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
JJ Childers: I think it is phenomenal which is part of the reason I am willing to do this today. This is just a great program because it can not be stated enough, certainly can’t be overstated the impact of heroes on the success of individuals.
JJ Childers: You have got to have role models that you can follow. You have got to have heroes that you can say “You know what, that is a goal, I want to follow that goal and if they can do it I can do it” and the fact that you are getting this information out to people, helping them to overcome negative information and down right misinformation that they are getting from other sources like from the television, from their friends.
JJ Childers: I mean kids can be cruel, kids can be very cruel and the biggest obstacle that we have got if having kids believe what other kids tell them. They need to have heroes that they can say “You know what I am not worried about what these people may have said, I am going to focus on setting goals for myself, working hard, persevering and making sure that I accomplish those goals.” That is what this program does and that’s why I think it is so valuable and beneficial.
Ralph Zuranski: What are the things parents can do that will help their children realize they too can be HEROES and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
JJ Childers: They can continually tell their kids that their kids have value. As a parent myself I know that kids can make your life a little more difficult but you know what, there is nothing more rewarding as seeing your kids succeed, seeing your kids with positive attitudes and that is something that doesn’t just happen.
JJ Childers: I mean if you continually tell your kids that they are a pain or you continually get on to your kids when they do wrong they are eventually going to think that everything they do is wrong.
JJ Childers: Point out their little successes because you have never seen anything as gorgeous as a child who has just a beaming smile, a sense of accomplishment, just a sense of recognition from a parent because whether we like it or not, we can be heroes in our children’s eyes.
JJ Childers: We are now heroes in our children’s eyes. Now you can either build upon that or you can destroy your image as a hero. If you continually tell your kids how valuable they are and what a wonderful person they are they will become what you tell them because as it says in the Bible, as it says in literature over the ages, one essential truth holds true and it is this; you become what you think about.
JJ Childers: And if you continually fill your kids heads with positive thoughts and the idea that they can be anything that they want to be, they will follow those principles and they will become anything they want to be.
JJ Childers: Now whether it is becoming something bad or becoming something good you will become what it is you think about.
JJ Childers is an Attorney, Author, Speaker, and Mentor. For the past two decades, he has devoted his professional life to helping clients and students learn and employ the strategies necessary to build a life of real wealth. He does this through his “3G Approach” in which he provides people with the information and knowledge to “Get it, Grow it, and Guard it.”
He is a dynamic speaker and has appeared on stages throughout the United States and Canada with such notable figures as Armand Morin, Stephen Pierce, Robert Allen, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Brown, Jay Conrad Levinson, Marshall Sylver, Harv Eker, and many others.
Perhaps his most widely acknowledged claim to fame is as the author of multiple educational programs and books, including the best-seller “Asset Protection 101″ in conjunction with Donald Trump.
As an accomplished attorney, author, speaker and mentor, JJ has helped literally thousands and thousands of people to get, grow, and guard millions and millions of dollars. He continues to make his strategies available through his growing line of educational products, live trainings, and personalized coaching programs. Through his wide variety of products and services, clients and students can gain access to JJ and learn the art of proper business and wealth structuring for maximum profit and protection.