It’s an unfortunate subject for the holidays, death. Jim Rohn very recently passed away, at, I believe, age 78 or so.

I knew Jim very well as a student of his written and recorded works, and reasonably well, personally. We appeared on a number of events together, including a multi-city tour in Canada; some of the SUCCESS events; and twice, at my SuperConferences. On the trek through Canada, we spent quite a few hours talking, largely about a shared favorite topic: philosophy. We corresponded from time to time.

In his career, Jim went from being a MLM-industry flak, a speaker promoting one such company after another – a characterization he would not find flattering, to a venerated elder statesman of the personal development field. Of the Earl Nightingale school, he was a compiler of material, author, philosopher, and speaker. As a speaker on personal development, he was the Sinatra. I’ve not seen anybody with better stuff who could put it across better, as smooth, as relaxed, as seemingly personal – regardless of audience size, each person felt Jim was talking only to them. And like Sinatra, long after this year’s departure, he will be remembered, shown on film, talked about, his books and CD’s popular. Not long enough by as many, and not as long as Sinatra, I suppose. But for quite some time. Unlike a great many speakers, Jim was sincere and authentic; he knew he spoke truth. There is no gimmickry to his material, nor were there gimmicks to his presenting. No proprietary, made-up language or psycho-babble, no way-out-there concepts, no Power Points or props or firewalks or costumes. He just went out there, for years with only a chalkboard, later, grudgingly, a whiteboard, and talked. And could for hours or days. Plain-spoken. A little Will Rogers-y.  Every time I saw him, I thought of Sinatra’s own disdainful statement: “Anybody who needs more than a microphone and a spotlight is a punk.”  Although he could do so persuasively, he grew less and less willing to sell his own products from the platform in later years, and he was one of only two speakers I’ve ever seen who connected with audiences well enough that significant buying occurred even when neither he or a surrogate “did a pitch”.  He was a consummate professional: honest, reliable, respectful of audience and client/host and peers. He worked entirely “clean” 100% of the time. And he did affect people deeply, and motivate a goodly number to making significant and sometimes dramatic changes in their lives, in which he genuinely took great pride.
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