On this episode of World Class, Host Travis Chappell interviews Jack Canfield the author of the Success Principles and co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series.

Topics Discussed:What’s Jack most excited about right now?

He’s spent the last fifty years training people to be more successful.

He’s now training trainers, 3,000 from over 100 countries and doing online training.

His life purpose statement is to inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in a context of love and joy.

Tell us about your journey?

He grew up in the hippie period of history.

He started changing his mind about success – the more money you have the more good you can do.

In college, he started to wake up in terms of liberation and fairness.

He applied to Harvard, Yale, and Brown.

He went to Harvard and majored in Chinese history.

Why Harvard?

What stood out was that there were 25 girl schools nearby.

It was near big cities, etc.

He took a course and encounter group where people talked about feelings and relationships.

He woke up in this class and realized that’s what he wanted to do.

He taught in an all-black inner city school and became more interested in motivating students.

What kind of relationship did you have with your first mentor?

He was taken under the wings of several mentors.

His mentors taught him not to waste his time on what we don’t agree on.

He was surrounded by gurus of positive belief.

What happened after you taught in the inner city?

He went back to Chicago and then to the University of Massachusetts.

He got arrogant that he didn’t need a Ph.D. and wrote a book.

He had a best-selling author professor and asked him how he did it.

He left school and started a growth center leading weekend workshops.

At what point did Chicken Soup for the Soul begin?

He learned that the only time the kids paid attention is when he told a story.

He started looking for stories of African Americans who’d “made it.”

He decided to write two stories every week and in a year he’d have a book.

His co-author came in and rounded out the book.

Talk about finding strategic partnerships.

Every entrepreneur has a genius.

Find people who love to do what you don’t love to do.

Talk about the name Chicken Soup for the Soul

They meditated for a week to come up with a title.

After pitching the name Chicken Soup for the Soul 144 times, they were rejected.

One publishing company agreed and it ended up selling millions of copies.

Talk about how to be persistent without being annoying.

If you’re coming from desperation people want to push you away.

If you start with passion and your “why” people get excited about it.

Jack talks about the 9 No’s Exercise.

Was there ever a time when you were open to workshopping the name?

He trusted the name and people who weren’t publishers loved the name.

Talk about entitlement vs. perseverance.

There’s a difference and a lot of people feel that they deserve a yes because they ask.

Negativity does not get you anywhere.

Talk about the marketing part of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Chicken Soup for the Soul got to the top of the Best Seller List and stayed there for three years.

You’ve got to do at least one radio interview every day – three a day when you first start.

There are over 200 books in the series.

Talk about the difference between putting together Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Success Principles.

He wrote what he taught in the Success Principles.

Chicken soup was more aggregated content.

Both books utilize stories to inspire.

Which success principle means the most to you personally, of the ones in the book?

Take 100% responsibility. If you don’t get the outcomes you want, don’t blame the even, change your response.

Go within – meditation. Every great breakthrough came from a meditation.

You’ve got to act, respond to the feedback and persevere.

Talk about the difference between taking fault vs. responsibility.

It’s not about blame, it’s that if you...