Byrne Rhonda - Hero (The Secret)

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

Pay attention to the vital few. Ignore the trivial many.

LIZ MURRAY

Be careful letting other people define things for you. People have their opinions and they’re very quick to tell you what’s possible and what’s impossible. It’s unfortunate the conviction that people speak with. No one knows what’s possible until they’re already doing it. No one.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Mark Twain

Author

When I decided to make The Secret, I didn’t tell another person about my dream until I had it fully formulated in my mind. I spent four months researching, planning, and integrating it within me, until I knew no one could dissuade me. Only then did I share it with others, when a thousand naysayers could have said my dream would never happen and not one of them would have affected me.

Work on your dream, work on your belief in your dream, and formulate your dream in your mind until the picture of it is crystal clear before you share it with others.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

When I was growing up surfing at Manly Beach, there would be two guys on my right telling me to get out of the water and two guys on my left saying, “We think you’re great, and we enjoyed surfing with you.” So who do you think I’m going to listen to? The two guys on my left, of course.

PETE CARROLL

What gave me the strength to really grow from getting fired and come out of it stronger was that I didn’t sanction the decision. I just didn’t accept it. I challenged the thought that they were right and I knew that there was reason to feel otherwise.

The truth about naysayers is they are often people who have closed their minds and are not living their full potential themselves. If they were living their full potential they would know from their own experience that anything is possible.

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

When I was in the eleventh grade, in front of the whole class our business teacher told my friend Michelle and me that we would never amount to anything. We knew he was wrong. We would definitely do something with our lives. Michelle became a superstar. That’s Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.

I had many experiences with naysayers when we were making The Secret film, but one stands out above all the others. I was doing a presentation of the first cut of the film to a large group of television executives. It had taken a year of work and sacrificing everything I had to get to that point. And at the end of the screening the executives responded to the film with not a single compliment. Instead, they were severely critical, and found fault with every aspect of the film. I left the presentation in shock, and in a daze I wandered the streets after leaving the building where the meeting was held. Eventually I pulled myself together and headed to the airport for the one-hour flight home. On that flight I realized there was no way I could possibly resolve all of the executives’ endless criticisms. And I didn’t need to. By the time the plane landed I had been inspired with a few changes that could be made to the film. We followed those inspirations and put them into the film, and they were the very elements that would go on to make the film a huge success. Allies

While you will almost certainly encounter naysayers on your Hero’s Journey, you are also destined to meet many, many allies, angels already in your life or who appear, even if only briefly, to support you and help you on your journey.

MASTIN KIPP

I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a self-made success or a self-made person, because everybody’s had help along the way.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

All successful people have achieved by standing on the shoulders of others, and it’s important, no matter how successful you are, that you remember and realize who has helped you along in this journey.

No one achieves a dream on his or her own. There are untold numbers of people who will support you and go out of their way to help you on the path to your dream. Of all the experiences we have on the Hero’s Journey, the surprises of people you know and those you barely know who support and help you along the way, are perhaps the most wonderful.

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

I work with huge supporting networks. Everyone from my family, who has supported me, to investors who put money into the business, to employees who came to work for me even when ideas were just a sketch on the napkin.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

Setting an auspicious goal to become a world champion as an eight year old was obviously very challenging, and there were times when I wanted to quit and I wanted to walk away and put my hands up in the air and say, “This is all just too hard.” Fortunately I had individuals in my life at those poignant times who picked me up and went, “You can do this. I believe in you.” And when someone who you respect and appreciate in your life tells you that they believe in you, it instills so much belief in you. It’s really important that you have those people in your life.

During the making of The Secret film, there were an endless number of people who came into our lives and helped us with the next step we needed to take. In addition to all of those allies, I had a team of people who worked with me to create the film, and without their dedication and support my dream would never have come true.

There was a time when I didn’t have enough money to pay my team their salaries. I had mortgaged my home to the limit, taken out overdrafts, and maxed out every credit card I had to keep the production of the film going, but I reached this heartbreaking day where I did not have the money to pay my team. Do you know what they did? A couple of my senior team members got together and withdrew cash on their credit cards to pay those who couldn’t survive without their salary. Without a doubt, the people in my team were my greatest allies.

ANASTASIA SOARE

Life is a challenge. If you think life is smooth and it’s perfect, you are wrong or you are delusional.

PETER BURWASH

Every day has hurdles. There’s nobody who wakes up in the morning without something wrong physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Accept the fact that you’re going to have hurdles. Everybody has them. People say, “Why me?” Why not you?

“The path to your goal is not always going to be smooth. Obstacles will arise and problems will develop, but you have to remember what you’re striving for… don’t forget the big picture and don’t let small mishaps or small failures stop you.”

Derek Jeter

American Baseball Champion Challenges and Obstacles

Every obstacle or challenge you encounter on the Hero’s Journey transforms you as you acquire strength of character and the qualities and abilities you need to overcome the obstacle or challenge. The emergence of these qualities and abilities shape you into the kind of person you need to become to achieve your dream. For that reason, challenges and obstacles are great indications that you are well along the way on your Hero’s Journey. In fact, the bigger the obstacles and challenges you face, the bigger your success will be, and the closer you are to achieving it.

MASTIN KIPP

The number-one thing people gain from challenges is not the stuff they get, but who they become. When you face a challenge and you overcome that challenge, you have greater faith in yourself, you have greater faith in your abilities, you have greater trust of the divine, and you can do something even bigger. Overcoming obstacles is perhaps the greatest gift – far greater than the stuff that you get. Because that’s something that can’t ever be taken from you.