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Lewis Howes5 Principles For A Wealthy & Happy Life (Loving Memory Of Bob Proctor) | Lewis Howes
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Chapter summaries
From Cleaning Floors to Opening Offices
Bob Proctor describes going from earning $4,000 a year to $14,500 a month and says earning money is simple but misunderstood. He recounts passing out on the street from overwork, then deciding to stop cleaning offices himself and instead hire cleaners in many cities.
- •Wealthy people have multiple sources of income
- •Working harder was his early answer, until he passed out on the street
- •He quotes Napoleon Hill: riches come from definite principles applied to a demand, not hard work alone
- •A voice told him that if he couldn't clean all the offices, he shouldn't clean any
- •He dressed up, talked to cleaners about goals, and opened offices from Toronto to London
Getting Out of Debt, Mentors, and Why Paying Means Paying Attention
Asked how struggling people should start, Bob says ignorance is the one problem and that most people are born rich in potential. He urges debt repayment, prosperity goals, and learning from those already wealthy, and Lewis shares the idea that those who pay, pay attention, which Bob illustrates with his aunt and uncle.
- •Most people live paycheck to paycheck because they don't know how to change
- •His book You Were Born Rich is available free on his site, with a chapter on getting out of debt
- •Don't take advice from people who don't know more than you
- •His seminars teach people about themselves
- •His aunt said she kept coming to the seminar because they had paid
Paradigms and Three Daily Habits
Bob defines a paradigm as a program in the subconscious that controls behavior regardless of intelligence or education. Lewis asks for three key daily habits, and Bob answers with studying, having a mentor, and setting a written goal, explaining the gestation period every idea needs.
- •A paradigm is a multitude of habits programmed into the subconscious
- •Until the program changes, nothing changes
- •Habits: study daily, have a mentor, have a goal
- •Ideas are held intellectually and emotionally before they appear physically
- •Life is governed by precise laws that can be studied
Fear, the Terror Barrier, and a Passage on the Mind
Bob says he has many fears but doesn't let them control him, and he describes the terror barrier that appears when you become emotionally involved in a new idea. He then reads a passage from Thomas Troward on the mind as a center of divine operation and asks Lewis to read it daily for 90 days.
- •There's no courage without fear
- •Going through the terror barrier leads to growth, while avoiding it keeps you in safety
- •If something doesn't scare him, he knows he isn't growing
- •Lewis relates this to pushing through pain as an athlete
- •The Troward passage says there is something better coming than the past
Human Potential, Thinking, and Responding Instead of Reacting
Bob marvels at the energy and design of the human body and says thinking is the highest function and can be taught. Using Victor Frankl's idea of the space between situation and response, he explains that reacting hands control to circumstances while responding keeps it with you.
- •The body holds enormous potential energy
- •Thinking is the highest function and isn't taught
- •Frankl: there is a space between situation and response
- •Reacting gives control away; responding keeps it
- •He coached Sandy Gallagher's niece to respond to her mother
Overcoming Doubt and Reshaping Self-Image
Bob says doubt comes from lack of understanding and the cure is studying yourself, including your physical, intellectual and spiritual sides. On self-image, he describes how Maxwell Maltz discovered it and how childhood programming shaped his own insecurity until a mentor gave him a book.
- •Doubt is the cause and fear the effect; understanding is the opposite of doubt
- •Six intellectual faculties separate humans from animals
- •Others will try to shut you down when you follow your dream
- •Maltz found an inner image affects personality beyond physical change
- •A good mentor changed Bob's life and self-image
Studying Daily, Repetition, and Principle Over Precedent
Bob explains that he has studied Think and Grow Rich every day since 1961 and names persistence as its key principle. He discusses good habits, repetition as the way to program the subconscious, and reads a passage on the Wright brothers about principle over precedent.
- •He has studied the same book daily for 60 years
- •Persistence is to character what carbon is to steel
- •Success is forming the habit of doing what failures don't like to do
- •Earl Nightingale told him repetition of an idea is the secret of success
- •Precedent lets the past control you; principle says there's always a better way
Letting Go of a Poor Education and Building Self-Esteem
Bob recounts being kicked out of high school and holding low-level jobs, and how repeated study helped him let go of his lack of formal education. Responding to Lewis's own story of struggling in school, he says people should study themselves and their higher faculties, and that awareness is key.
- •His mentor told him his past didn't matter
- •Edison had grade three, which helped Bob let go
- •You have a body and a mind, and you aren't your body
- •Animals operate by instinct; humans have higher faculties
- •Awareness explains differing results, and his company now operates in 91 countries
The Six Faculties, Imagination, and Holding the Goal
Bob goes through the faculties of perception, will, imagination, memory, reason and intuition, using the phone-frequency analogy and von Braun's answer about the will. He explains working from the goal rather than toward it, and Lewis connects this to Joe Dispenza's idea of remembering the future.
- •Imagination takes you to a higher frequency where what you need can be attracted
- •Will holds one idea in mind to the exclusion of distractions
- •We work from the goal, not toward it
- •The gestation period for an idea is unknown but it follows the same laws
- •Lewis links this to Dispenza's remembering the future
Programming, School, and Reprogramming the Subconscious
Asked why it's hard to imagine a better future, Bob explains that genetic and environmental programming is written by people who didn't know what they were doing. He says school doesn't teach earning, describes his goal card ritual, and explains acting as if you already have the result.
- •Paradigms come from genetic and environmental conditioning
- •Bright people can be broke because school teaches counting money, not earning it
- •Self-esteem is one of the biggest problems and isn't taught
- •His goal card, used since 1961, is to do $100 million in business
- •Imagine what you want, since everything is created twice, first in the mind
Changing a Paradigm: The Insurance Story and Left-Handed Writing
Bob uses Milt Campbell's remark and his work with Prudential's insurance agents to show how conditioned behavior limits results. He says a paradigm should be changed one or two things at a time and describes writing with his left hand for 41 days.
- •Milt Campbell said better athletes quit
- •Insurance agents kept outdated routines, and changing them sharply raised sales
- •Results express the paradigm, not the intellect
- •Change one or two things at a time
- •Writing with his non-dominant hand shows how strong a paradigm is
Building Studio 333 and Reaching Potential
Bob says he wants to sell on a larger scale and describes his plan for a live-streamed show called Studio 333. Asked whether we can reach our potential, he says no, because spirit is always for expansion, and the closest you get is where you are now.
- •He wants a larger sales force and more leads
- •Studio 333 will be a live cast with chats driven by audience questions
- •He has no intention of retiring
- •Neither of them will reach full potential, because spirit seeks expansion
- •Lewis's reach is expanded through imagination, will and intuition
Seeing Beyond Appearances and Recommended Reading
Bob says we are all the same beneath appearances and that perception has to shift. He names what he still wants to learn and recommends Think and Grow Rich, As a Man Thinketh, You Squared, and Genevieve Behrend's Your Invisible Power.
- •We see through our eyes and are programmed to see race
- •He feels he knows only a bit of what he teaches
- •He studies Thomas Troward's work
- •Genevieve Behrend was Troward's only student
- •His top books include Think and Grow Rich, As a Man Thinketh, and You Squared
Death, Change, Technology, and Closing Thoughts
Bob says he isn't afraid of death and sees birth and death as transitions of the soul. He discusses staying young among young people, handling change across decades, his studio, and ends with Earl Nightingale's quote that the learners will inherit the Earth.
- •He views death as a transition, drawing on the book Dry Those Tears
- •He stays young by hanging around young people
- •The 1960s were hardest as his past pulled against his new studies
- •He loves the current era and describes his studio
- •Learning never ends, as Nightingale's quote says
