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A Sense Of Urgency Is Tremendous By Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
If you could add one personality trait to improve yourself, what would you choose? Courage? Wisdom? Enthusiasm? Confidence? We could go on and on and still probably miss the one you might choose. I heard a speaker say it was important to be inspired but still more important to have the desire, the will to want to. I most heartily agree with him. I also like Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s six-point success formula: 1. work, 2. work, 3. work, 4. forget self, 5. set goals, and 6. get along with others. We’ve all heard many, many formulas and they all will work if we will.
Most are ready to accept these success formulas but for some reason never get them into high gear. You’ve noticed many who have great potential and every reason to be tremendously successful, but nothing seems to happen. What is it that chains so many of us to the pit of mediocrity? What is it that dampens the fires of greatness that are lit so many times in our hearts?
Perhaps my findings are not the only solution, but with all my heart I believe the fires of greatness in our hearts can be kept aglow only after we develop a sense of urgency and importance of what we are doing. I mean a sense of urgency to the extent that we feel it is a matter of life and death; and it is a matter of life and death, for in growing we are alive and in quitting we are dying in a sense. If you don’t believe this, talk to anyone who has lost the sense of urgency of getting things done and has been drifting in complacency, mediocrity and failure. If you are without a sense of urgency in your work, you know what I mean.
A sense of urgency is that feeling that lets you know yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow never comes. Today is in your hands. It lets you know that shirking today’s task will add to wasted yesterdays and postponing today’s work will add to tomorrow’s burden. The sense of urgency causes you to accomplish what today sets before you. Thank God for the sense of urgency that can change a dull shabby job into a sparkling career. While this may not be the complete solution, I think we can all agree this will be a tremendous step in the right direction. Right now, ask God to give you a sense of urgency in your work. Believe that He did, and then act accordingly.
To help our sense of urgency help us, let’s look at seven “tremendous” laws of leadership and follow that up with an examination of two important qualities–discipline and loyalty.
1. Learning to Put Excitement In Your Work: Why is it that some people work and work, and never have anything to show for it? And others do less and accomplish more? The secret is learning to put excitement in your work.
If I ‘m not learning to get excited about what I don’t like, I’ll never get much to be excited about that I do like. Everybody looks for “the right job.” Sometimes, you’ll hear “I’m looking for a job that fits me.” I say, “I hope you get something better than that.” We need to be learning that no job can make you, but anyone that can put excitement into their work can make a job.
2. Use or Lose: There’s a law that says we all have certain attributes, characteristics, and talents. If you use what you have, you’ll get more; but if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.”
One night, as I was coming out of a seminar, a person asked do you think it’s possible to be excited about their business, be thrilled and successful, and then, three years later, be sick and sorry they ever heard of the whole business? Here’s a perfect example of one who doesn’t know the law of Use or Lose. Once he was in his glory, using all the talents he had. As a result, he was successful. But one morning, because he wasn’t using what he had, he began losing it. And one morning he woke up and asked, “What went wrong? Who let me down?”
The answer is that nobody let him down. Nothing went wrong. Because he wasn’t using what he had, he was losing it. And the people who lose it always blame somebody else. Remember nobody is ever a failure until they blame someone else.
3. Give to Get: Leadership is learning to give whether or not you get anything in return. If you ever give to get something, you’re not giving; you’re trading. And there’s a big difference between giving and trading.
If a person gives whether or not they get anything in return, then they are learning to give. If you give whether or not you get anything, you get a greater capacity to give more, whether or not you get anything in return. And out of this begins to develop a reservoir of reserve and readiness that becomes a tremendous asset. You can lose your reputation, you can lose your home, you can even lose your family, but you can’t lose your capacity to give once you’ve begun to live this law.
4. Production to Perfection: Someone will say, “I’m a perfectionist. I believe in doing everything perfectly, and if I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it.” That’s the person who never does anything.
There’s a law that says if you’re not learning to make something happen today you’ll never know more than your own whimsical, shallow dreams. Production will teach you a little about perfection, but perfection will never be more than your own fantasy.
5. Exposure to Experience: In the beginning of life, God gives everybody an imaginary key ring. Every time a person exposes himself or herself to another situation they get another key of experience for their key ring. Soon, the key ring begins to fill with thousands and millions of keys of experience.
As a person gets exposure and experience, they get to use the same keys over and over again. The law of exposure to experience gets better with the years. Finally, a person gets to know which keys unlock which doors, while the inexperienced don’t know if they have a key. All they can do is fumble around and hope to add another key of experience to their key ring.
6. Flexible Planning: This is the age of the planner. Everybody’s planning, planning, planning. Don’t ever tellanyone that planning will do it. I believe you have to have a plan to exist, but the real law is not Planning; it’s Flexible Planning. Flexible planning says, “Plan on it going wrong.” You say what if it goes right? We will just have to work it in. Growing is learning that nothing ever goes wrong except to make you more right.
7. Motivated to Motivating: Which would you rather be: a miserable motivator or a happy motivated flop? I would rather be a happy, motivated flop, because if I can be motivated long enough, I’ll get to be motivating, and if I can be motivated long enough, I’ll eventually become a motivator. And I’ll get to enjoy what I get. That’s not the case with the person who has learned to motivate everybody but themselves. Our problem isn’t motivating them, but keeping them from de-motivating me. The motivation will flow when you are totally committed and involved.
Discipline & Loyalty: We live in a world where these two great words–discipline & loyalty are becoming meaningless. Does this mean that they are worthless? On the contrary, they are becoming priceless qualities because they are so hard to develop in the first place. And should you be one of the fortunate few who by God’s grace have caught the vision, your battle has just begun because the greatest battle is to keep what you’ve learned through these two priceless qualities.
Discipline is that great quality that few people use that enables them to be constructively busy all the time. Even in discouragement and defeat, discipline will rescue you and usher you to a new place to keep constructively busy while you forget about doubt, worry and self-pity. Oh, that more men and women in this day would realize the absolute necessity of discipline and the degree of growth and happiness to be attained from it.
Most people think that loyalty is to a thing or to a person when actually it is really to one’s own self. Some think that it is to a goal or an objective, but again it is to one’s own convictions. If loyalty has to be earned then it is deserved and is hardly more than devoted emotion based on a temporary feeling. No, loyalty is the character of a person who has given himself to the task before him and he will always realize that out of a loyal heart will spring all the other virtues that make life one of depth and growth.
Laughter is Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
“The most wasted of all days is that one in which one has not laughed.”—Camfont
There is one fact that will help keep the speaker’s feet on the ground while he soars with the eagles: Young and old, rich and poor, sick and healthy people have something in common. They all experience hurt. Some hurts you live through and some you live with, but no one gets through life without some hurts. Some are self-inflicted, and some are imaginary. But regardless of the cause, they are a part of life. Most listeners know that a speech can’t take away their hurts, but they can experience some relief and even see the positive side of hurt through the Tremendous tool of laughter.
I remember reading in the newspaper about the death of a popular young comedian, Freddie Prinze, who took his own life. The story said that as Freddie’s heart stopped beating, a young nurse fell on his chest, beating on his heart, sobbing, “Please don’t die, Freddie. The world needs all the laughter it can get.”
A speaker can use the laughter tool in a more meaningful way than a comedian. The comedian tells jokes to get people to laugh. The Master Speaker will use humor to get his listeners to laugh at themselves or see a truth.
Laughter never solves the problem, but it helps us to live with it, grow through it, and build on it.
Wisdom Is Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
“Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.”—David Starr Jordan
For the Master Speaker, wisdom is knowing what is worth saying and saying it. Sometimes reading a speech can have just as much impact as hearing a speech.
Roger Hull, one of my first role models, gave me a copy of a speech by Edward Hanify, an attorney who delivered a speech, “Leadership and Exalted Trust,” at a legal convention. His closing words became a part of my life and many of my speeches. “A man,” Hanify said, “can be born with ability. He can acquire knowledge. He can develop skills. But wisdom comes only from God.”
I have over 200 biographies on the life of Lincoln. My love for Lincoln began at Gettysburg, where I bought a plaque which has hung in my office for over forty years. It says, “I must confess that I am driven to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go. My wisdom and all about me is insufficient to meet the demands of the day.”
There are no schools that can grant a degree in wisdom. Even the intellectual elite know that wisdom isn’t reserved for any particular group or person. Wisdom is reflected in the life of one who feels they owe much and deserve little. Wisdom always manifests itself in an attitude of gratitude.
In my youthful ignorance, I would say no one gave me anything—I earned it. Now that I’ve experienced a little wisdom I can say that all I have that matters, I was given. Therefore, my success can never be a reward to be enjoyed, but rather a trust to be administered.
Preparation is Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.”—Abraham Lincoln
Every speaker knows the importance of self-confidence and some, through self-hypnosis or self-affirmation, can convince themselves that they are confident, and even project it. But there is something far better: Preparation.
Self-confidence without preparation will erase those wonderful qualities of sensitivity, empathy, and compassion. You will be speaking at people instead of thinking with them. Preparation allows your delivery to flow, and your audiences to be at ease. And your audience will be at ease when they sense you are at ease.
One of my first talks was to our GIs. The Gideons were giving them a luncheon and a Bible before they went off to Korea. Because of my youth and enthusiasm, I suppose, they selected me to give a ten minute message. I was humbled by the invitation because I knew that every member was better qualified than I to deliver inspirational words. So this motivated me to spend eighteen hours preparing my ten minute talk.
You might think that put me at ease, but it didn’t. My knees still shook, but at least I had a well-prepared message and plenty left over for the next ten talks. I also began learning that preparation has to be followed by practice. After many failures and a few successes, you settle down and your audience follows your lead.
Preparation helps you know what you know and know that you know it. Preparation helps you see the importance of being narrow instead of broad. When you are broad, you know a little about a lot. You are a mile wide and an inch deep. When you are narrow, you know a lot about a little—but what you know, you know you know and your audience will sense you know.
Throw Your Business Cards Away! by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
You are the same today as you’ll be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read. Everything tremendous that happened in my life was because of a book given to me and read at the right time.
How many of you have business cards? Quit wasting your money! What’s wrong with you? I used to have business cards. Do you know what they used to do with my business card? They’d throw them away…sometimes when I was still in their office!
So I don’t use business cards. I do something better that’s made me millions. I decided I’d be a little different. I used a little book entitled The Common Denominator of Success which became my card for the last 45 years. What did it say? It said that successful people had something in common with failures. They hate to do the same things. The only difference between a successful person and a failure is that a successful person makes themselves do what they don’t like to do and the failure waits for the manager to make them do it.
And you know who has trouble with that today? I do! Every single one of us does! The real battle is always selfishness. And when the person I gave that little book to reads it they never forget me. In fact, many will call me on the phone a week later and ask how they can get some more!
Another tremendous reason for giving books is that books are best when shared. John Wanamaker stated, “It is not good enough to be well read. We must help others by what we read.” Hand selecting a book for someone with their specific job or interest in mind makes a positive impression. It’s like selecting a vintage wine label or a choice cut of beef at a five-star restaurant for your guest.
You can also share your fine taste in books by the ones you keep stocked in your office on your desk or on the shelf of your cubicle. Everything is a reflection of the leader and everyone loves to look at what’s in your office. Keep yours stocked and let employees know they are free to take and read and share. I’ve heard it said that, “You may judge a man more truly by the books and papers which he reads than by the company which he keeps” (Haines and Yaggy, The Royal Path of Life). The books on your shelf will lend you a sense of humility. They say, “I don’t have all the answers, but I can show you where to get them.”
If reading is learning, and learning is living, then reading is living. Give your clients, team members and everyone with whom you interact a book to encourage a lifetime of learning. They will never forget you and you may have just given them a gift that will transform the rest of their life!
Enthusiasm is Tremendous by charlie “tremendous” jones
“Enthusiasm is to the personality what steam is to the locomotive: the power that produces action.”—Alfred A. Montapert
“Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.”—Benjamin Disraeli
John Wesley was asked how he attracted such crowds. He replied, “I just set myself on fire and people will come from miles around to watch me burn.” I first heard this quote from Hall Nutt, Director of the Purdue Life Insurance Marketing Institute. He was a perfect example to tell the story because he was totally uninhibited. He was constantly smiling, laughing, moving, waving his arms and dramatizing a point. For example, in speaking to a group of insurance agents, he would throw slices of bread into the audience to remind them that even though dollars are necessary to buy insurance, it’s the food that families need. After that demonstration, you never forgot that you were selling food, not insurance.
There is no word more misunderstood or misused than the word enthusiasm. Many equate enthusiasm with being an extrovert. Nothing could be further from the truth. Enthusiasm is that fire that can burn in every heart and word, if the fire is lit and fueled. There is nothing more beautiful than a soft-spoken grandmother talking about her grandchildren. No one need give her a book or speech on how to act enthusiastic when talking about her grandchildren. Just give her a listening ear and keep your mouth shut, because her inclination to be an introvert will be forgotten as something far greater than being concerned with “What will people think?” takes control of her personality.
We have heard and read the great truth, “Act enthusiastic and you’ll be enthusiastic.” I heard it, believed it, practiced it, and repeated it; but I’m glad I discovered there are two sides to every question and many dimensions of truth.
I now realize that if you act enthusiastically long enough, you can fall in love with your act and your fellow actors will be your only admirers. When you’re acting enthusiastic, the emphasis is on you; when you’re being enthusiastic, the emphasis is on others. Living it out is always better than acting it out. Hopefully, through our failures and successes, we begin to focus our attention on the needs and problems of others and the real enthusiasm will flow!
Energy Is Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
General Patton said, “You can never grow until you push yourself past the point of exhaustion.” What a Tremendous truth! You’ll never discover how much energy you have until you use what you have and put yourself in a situation where you have to draw on energy you didn’t know you had.
Oswald Chambers said, “If you spend yourself physically, you’ll become exhausted; but if you invest your life spiritually, you’ll draw new strength.” Another Tremendous truth!
I remember an experience years ago that I am sure I’d never do again, but it was a tremendous lesson for me. I was doing all I could to book any meeting, anywhere, anytime. First, I booked a luncheon in Winnipeg and a real estate seminar the following morning in Detroit. Soon after those bookings were confirmed, I had an invitation for an early meeting in Montreal and an evening meeting in Honolulu.
I knew it was all but impossible to fly 10,000 miles and speak at four meetings in 24 hours, but being desperate for every meeting, I thought I’d take a look. Because of the time changes between Montreal, Winnipeg, and Hawaii, I was able to make each meeting, get the 11:30 p.m. flight from Hawaii, and be ready to go to work at 10:00 a.m. the next day in Detroit.
Some might say that was insane, but I was young, naive, ambitious, and had six hungry children. I also had the satisfaction of pushing myself past the point of exhaustion, and the realization of a truth that has to be lived out, not thought out.
Humility Is Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
“I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility.” John Ruskin
“Don’t be so humble; you are not that good.” Golda Meir
I remember hearing a speech over forty years ago by Tom Watson, who was the president of IBM and who, at that time, was the standard of excellence in everything. His opening remark was on how he reached the top. He smiled and said, “I was born the son of the founder…” I would have been impressed with his message regardless of that statement, but his humility touched me.
One of the Master Speaker’s greatest tools and one that you should keep in mind as you prepare and deliver every speech is humility. This quality will shape and flavor your every word and idea. A great illustration of this point is the young seminarian who was zealously planning his first sermon. He had written and rewritten his great sermon on what was wrong with the world, and he had all the answers. He continued to rehearse and prepare for the big day when the congregation would see how good he was.
Well, the big day arrived. He proudly marched to the pulpit and began to deliver his message. Almost immediately, he realized that being in the pulpit with all the eyes staring at him was quite different from reading in front of a mirror. In a few minutes, he began to realize that he was in trouble; he began to panic, and his throat became dry. His heart was pounding; the sweat began to come; he began to wish there was a trapdoor behind the pulpit and a push button that would allow him to drop out of sight. But there was no trapdoor or push button, so he said a hasty benediction.
Beaten, discouraged, dejected, head hanging down, he left the platform. As he walked the aisle, an old-timer slipped his arm around his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Son, had you gone up like you came down, you could have come down the way you went up.”
I think I’ve lived this illustration a thousand times. It is good to realize humiliation can be a good experience if you accept it in the right spirit. If you don’t, you will find arrogance will take the place of your humility. If this does happen to you, don’t worry; a dose of honesty and your humility will be on the way back.
“If a man’s faults were written on his forehead, he would draw his hat over his eyes.”—Anonymous
“It’s easy to be humble if you are honest.”—Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
Quotes Are Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
Whether you are a General inspiring your troops, a teacher educating a student, a father or mother lecturing your child, a salesperson making a point, a preacher moving your congregation or a speaker motivating an audience, there is nothing that can empower you more than a Tremendous quote.
If you want to get their attention quickly and be remembered, begin with a tremendous quote, end with a tremendous quote and season your remarks with tremendous quotes.
I began reading quotes thirty-five years ago and now my name is mentioned around the world because of my repeating a quote I read in a book written over one hundred years ago and heard repeated by Mac McMillen forty years ago:
“You are the same today as you’ll be five years from now except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.”
A tremendous quote never gets stale and it becomes more a part of you every time you quote it.
Read and reread a few autobiographies. This will give you a greater appreciation for the quote because you know the life it came from. Two of my favorites are Abraham Lincoln and Oswald Chambers. Everything I say is flavored by their wisdom.
Begin now to memorize a few tremendous quotes. Repeat them to yourself aloud at every opportunity. Repeat them with feeling and enthusiasm. This will make a tremendous difference in you, and your listeners will reward you with attentive minds, hungry hearts and warm smiles.
CHARLIE “TREMENDOUS” JONES QUOTES ON QUOTES
I have somewhere seen it observed that we should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower; she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it.
—Charles Caleb Colton
The art of quotation requires more delicacy in the practice than those conceive who can see nothing more in a quotation than an extract. —Disraeli
To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones.—Abbe Trublet
It has been said that death ends all things. This is a mistake. It does not end the volume of practical quotations, and it will not until the sequence of the alphabet is so materially changed as to place D where Z now stands. —Unattributed author, Harper’s Bazaar
A good saying often runs the risk of being thrown away when quoted as the speaker’s own.-La Bruyere
Every book is a quotation, and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone-quarries, and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.— Ralph Waldo Emerson
When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize.—Benjamin Disraeli
He that borrows the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own; he that uses that of a superior elevates his own to the stature of that he contemplates.—Burke
All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. We quote not only books and proverbs, but art, sciences, religion, customs, and laws; nay, we quote temples and houses, tables and chairs, by imitation.—Ralph Waldo Emerson
An apt quotation is as good as an original remark.
—Proverb
Although quotation may, no doubt, be carried to excess, yet there is frequently as much ability in making a happy application of a thought of another writer as in its first conception. —Ramage
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool. —Joseph Roux
It is generally supposed that where there is no quotation, there will be found most originality. . . .The greater part of our writers, in consequence, have become so original that no one cares to imitate them and those who never quote, in return are seldom quoted. —Benjamin Disraeli
