Read the full transcript of Dr. Myles Munroe’s talk titled “7 Success Principles of An Eagle”.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
DR. MYLES MUNROE: I want to speak for a few moments on the Eagle Principle. I’m going to give you a list of seven principles to approach this weekend with. I’m going to talk about what I learned in my own life from the principle of the eagle that continues to expand and change my life as an investment in the human race. I’d like you to listen very carefully to these seven principles and apply them to your life.
The Wealthiest Spot on the Planet
I want to begin with a statement that I made last year to remind you that few of us really know who we really are. The wealthiest spot on this planet is not the diamond mines of South Africa. It’s not the gold mines of South America. The wealthiest spot on this planet is not the oil fields of Iran or Iraq or Kuwait.
The wealthiest spot on this planet is not too far from your house. Matter of fact, you probably passed it on your way to the airport. The wealthiest spot on this planet is the cemetery. You may ask why?
Because buried in the cemetery are dreams that were never fulfilled, books that were never written, visions that never became reality. In the cemetery are paintings that were never painted, songs that were never sung, businesses that were never opened. Great men that died as poor men are in the cemetery.
My greatest dream and wish for you this weekend is that you will make a decision to not add to the wealth of the cemetery, that you will go to the cemetery completely empty because you have fulfilled the dreams and accomplished the goals and fulfilled the vision that you have in your heart before you die.
It is my hope that you, as an individual, will die empty, that you will be able to say, “I have done everything I dreamt of doing and I am ready to leave the planet fulfilled.”
The Story of the Old Man and the Junk Wood
There’s a story of a man in my country where I’m from in the Bahamas. It’s a beautiful country. This old man lived in one of our islands outside a plantation where they grew cane.
One day he was passing the plantation and looked over the wall and the owner of the plantation had some men were cutting down a big tree and the old man looked at the men as they chopped the tree in pieces and threw the logs in a heat to burn. The old man stopped for a moment and as he watched them throwing the big pieces of log on the heap of fire, he came to the gate and shouted to the owner of the plantation and said, “Sir, is it possible for me to ask you for a piece of that wood that you’re throwing away?”
And the man said to him, “This is nothing but junk and this tree is a nuisance. We’re cutting it down because it is in the way of our progress and we want to throw this out of our plantation. It is nothing but junk.” And the old man with a twinkle in his eye said to the owner, “Can I have a piece of your junk?”
The plantation owner was irritated by the old man and said, “Go ahead, take it away. I have no need for this junk.”
And the old man picked up a large piece of that trunk of the tree and heisted it on his shoulders and he staggered back to the village in our island with this heavy piece of junk on his shoulder. He walked into his little cabin and he placed the piece of junk in the middle of the floor. And then he did something that was very rare in most of our lives. He picked up his chisel and his hammer and he walked around the piece of junk as if he was possessed with some spirit and he kept stopping for a moment and he looked at the junk and he would seem as if he saw something in the piece of junk.
And then he took his hammer and his chisel as if he was possessed and he began to beat the piece of junk with the hammer and the chisel and as he swung, pieces flew from that piece of junk. And he worked as if he was under a spell and he kept on sweating and beating and chiseling the piece of junk.
Now when he was finished, he freed from that piece of junk a beautiful golden eagle. He was so tired and exhausted, at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, he fell among the chips of wood and fell asleep clutching tightly to the eagle he had freed from that piece of junk.
The next morning he awoken and he took the beautiful eagle that he had chiseled from the junk and he placed it on the porch of his little hut. A few days later, the owner of the plantation came by in his beautiful automobile chauffeured by his driver and as he passed the cabin going toward his plantation, his eyes caught this beautiful bird and he told his driver to stop the car.
And they pulled into the little village yard and asked the old man, “Where did you get that from?”
The old man asked, “Why do you want it?”
He said, “How much would you take for that beautiful eagle?”
The old man said for a few moments with twinkles in his eyes, “I would take five thousand dollars for that eagle.”
The owner of the plantation was so excited because he thought, that is worth more than five thousand.
And as he rode away into the distance, the old man looked at the check and kissed it and said, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”
Fulfilling Your Dreams
I believe that that piece of stump, that log is some of you in this room. People think that your dreams cannot come to pass. Your friends and your family and those who work on your job have been asking you for the last twelve months, “Why are you still with the eagle team? Why don’t you get involved in something that is more secure? Why don’t you do something that is more permanent? There’s no future in this kind of sales business. Why don’t you settle down and do something important?”
But I want you to know that Myles Munroe has come tonight to walk around you. Because I see inside of you an eagle that they can’t see. I believe that entrapped in every person in this building is an awesome, beautiful bird that no one else can see except the one who created you. And I believe that inside of you is the ability to fly to heights that no one has ever believed you could fly. If you believe that, I want you to give yourself a hand because you are confident to believe that.
You see, the poorest man in the world is the man without a dream. And the most frustrated man in the world is the man with a dream that doesn’t become reality. Most men dream, but only a few wake up to fulfill that dream. You are the few. The world has 5.8 billion people on this planet today, and 94,000 was born last night. And most of that 5.8 billion will die never fulfilling their dream, but you are the exception.
You have chosen to walk away from the crowd and to not get lost in the norm. You have decided that you deserve the right and the obligation to give your dream a chance. You have decided that you will not die wishing you had done it. You have decided that you will leave the pack and you will become the rare breed called the eagle.
Seven Principles of the Eagle
I want to give you the seven principles that separate the eagle from every other bird. These principles are for human application. How do I know this? Because the eagle is the only bird in the entire kingdom of animals that has these seven characteristics. Strange enough, the eagle is the only bird that the Creator compares himself to. As a matter of fact, it is this bird that he says he relates to in regards to humanity.
Years ago when I read that, I decided if the Creator said that he is like an eagle and he wants us to be like him, then I must study the eagle. As a matter of fact, I was attracted to Eagle Team Industries when I got the invitation and saw an eagle on it. Because I said anybody and any group who have decided to pursue the characteristics of an eagle, they can be my friend. Are you ready?
Principle 1: Eagles Fly Alone
For the weekend of the rest of your life, then the first thing I want you to write down so you can leave the ranks of the pigeons is this principle, eagles fly alone.
You will never find eagles in a flock. Eagles do not flock. Eagles are lonely birds. Scientists have studied eagles for many years and there’s one conclusion they came to. You find eagles one at a time. That is why when you decide to fulfill your vision and to fulfill your dream, suddenly the people who used to run with you are no longer comfortable. When you decide to become all you were born to be, then your best friends become your problem because no longer can they make you who they want you to be. That is why when you decide to be a success the way you were born to be, you suddenly find yourself very lonely.
If you are going to rise above the clatter of ducks and the chirping of pigeons, you’re going to have to be willing to fly alone. Do not come and join this company if you need the approval of your family, if you need the approval of your community, if you need the approval of your social association because if you’re going to be successful, the first decision you have to make is it’s going to be lonely up here.
Eagles fly alone because they fly at altitudes other birds are not built for. Are there eagles in this room? Then I want you to join me at the top because up here the air is thin. Up here where success lies, the air is light. You are built for this altitude, so get used to people disagreeing with you. Get used to people not approving your dream. Get used to your best friends turning their backs on you. Get used to people not believing in your dream because a true leader and a true eagle knows that loneliness comes with success.
But I got good news for you. If one eagle flies at the altitude of an eagle, then guess who he meets up there? Anytime an eagle meets a bird, it’s definitely not a pigeon. That is why you have come here this weekend. You’ve come here this weekend because most of the people you live among are pigeons. But in order for you to maintain your spirit of progress and your spirit of vision, you have to meet with other eagles who will inspire you and encourage you because if you want to be a success, you don’t keep company with failures.
People who are going nowhere love for you to go with them. People who are doing nothing with their lives, they love for you to do nothing with them. But if you are going to become all you were born to be, then you’ve got to find others who also have the same dream. And this is exactly why this convention is so important because you become just like those you associate with. You become like those you make your friends.
You cannot choose your brothers and sisters. You are stuck with them by biological facts. But you can choose your friends. I want you to say to the person next to you, “It’s good to be sitting next to an eagle.” Now say to them, “If you are a pigeon, sit somewhere else.”
Eagles fly alone. Say it with me. Eagles fly alone. One more time. Eagles fly alone.
Principle 2: Eagles Possess Vision
Second principle of an eagle, eagles possess vision. There is no bird in the entire animal kingdom and there is no animal in the animal kingdom that has the vision of an eagle. The eagle is a strange bird. They say that an eagle has double sight but one vision.
An eagle has been scientifically tested to be able to see five miles away in detail. In other words, an eagle, five miles in the air, can look to the earth and see a rodent, a rat or a snake from five miles above the earth. It’s the only bird that can fly high and yet see in detail.
The eagle, therefore, is known as the most focused bird in the animal kingdom. The eagle has the ability to be aware of everything but only see one thing. Write that down. If you’re going to be successful, you must be aware of everything but only focus on one thing.
In order to be successful, you must not become a jack of all trades. An eagle is successful in its catch of prey because when it sees its target, even though there are millions of other things around the eagle, from five miles in the air, the eagle focuses on the rat and he dives like a bullet toward the rat.
He never takes his eyes off that rat, no matter what kind of clouds he passes through, no matter what kind of wind comes against him, no matter what kind of rain that may be falling. It doesn’t matter what kind of trees that may be present. It doesn’t matter what kind of other animals are running around him. He sets his focus and he targets his prey and he swoops down like a bullet and doesn’t leave the target until he strikes.
I want to say to you, many of you have come here and you’ve lost your focus. You’ve been discouraged the last 12 months, since I saw you last. Some of the people in your down line left you. Some of your people who you thought were going to be faithful and going to be motivated, they’re the ones who didn’t come through.
And you came here hoping that you would hear something to give you encouragement to go back and believe again. Well, I got news for you. Eagles are not distracted by pigeons. I challenge you tonight, this weekend, to put your vision back on paper and put your goal back in sight and leave this convention saying one thing and one thing only, “I won’t quit until I strike.”
Principle 3: Eagles Only Eat Live Food
Don’t allow things that are around you to distract you from that which is in you and your dream is in you. The great principle of an eagle, eagles only eat live food. This is very important to us. Eagles only eat live food. An eagle does not eat grapes. It does not eat apples. It does not eat dead animals. As a matter of fact, vultures eat dead animals. That’s why they’re so ugly.
Now I understand why I’m so beautiful. Come on, tell them. Eagles only eat living food. Why is this important? Because an eagle demands fresh meat because of its metabolism. That means if you are going to ride at the height that God intends you to ride, if you’re going to be as successful as you were created to become, if you are going to maintain your height of experience in life, then you cannot depend on old, dead, frustrated, forgotten information. You need every day to feed yourself new, exciting, refreshing information.
That is why this organization has provided cassette tapes and videos and booklets and magazines that you receive periodically. Why? Because they know that the people around you are dead food. They’re the folks who say to you, “Are you still in that business? You ain’t tired yet?” And your answer is, “Oh no, I just got a tape from Dr. Myles Munroe and I’m ready to go.”
You need to feed your vision fresh motivation. An eagle needs living food in order to survive because your metabolism as a dreamer requires food that feeds your dreams. That is why I am very cautious about the people who keep company with me. As a matter of fact, there are many people I avoid because I consider them dead meat.
There are people in your life who have tried to talk you out of your dream and that is why it’s so important for you to be more protective of your vision than you are in acquaintances because not everybody has the same passion for your dream as you do, but there are people in this organization and in this conference today, this weekend, who also have a dream. You need to receive live food.
Principle 4: Eagles Always Test Before They Trust
The fourth vision and principle of an eagle, I like this one, eagles always test before they trust. Eagles always test before they trust. Please write that down.
You may or may not know about how the eagle mates, so I will give you a little historical review of an eagle’s lifestyle. You’re going to like this. This is very interesting.
Before an eagle mates, the eagle does something that no other bird does. When a female eagle and a male eagle come together and they show interest in each other, the female does something that I hope women will do, and if you do this, you’ll probably get a better husband.
First of all, the female eagle flies down to the ground. She picks up a twig in a beak, and she flies two to three miles up into the sky. The male follows her. As she reaches the height of about two to three miles, and then she does something strange. She drops the twig, and she just watches the twig.
As the twig falls, the male eagle chases the twig, and the faster it falls, the faster he flies, and the faster it falls, the faster he flies, and the faster it falls, the faster he flies, and he tries to target the twig, and he catches the twig in his claws before it hits the ground, and then he takes it back up to the female, and he throws it in the air.
The female catches the twig and flies even higher, and then she drops the twig again, and when the twig falls, and the male flies behind the twig, he chases the twig with all of his might. The twig falls, the faster it falls, the faster he flies, the faster it falls, the faster he flies, and he comes and he catches it, and he brings it back up to the female.
He throws it in the air. She catches it with a beak, and she drops it again, and he flies up to the twig, and they do this for hours, and when the female is convinced that the male is an expert in catching twigs, then and only then does she allow him to mate with her.
Wouldn’t that be great? Before you get married? Some of you are looking at me funny, saying, “Oh, please, Brother Miles, don’t say that. My wife may go out tonight and throw up a twig.” Some of you men are so stiff that I don’t like it, you can’t even catch it, huh?
Here is the principle, don’t commit yourself to people who you haven’t had the time to test. If you’re going to be successful, you don’t waste your energy on people who just have an interest, but don’t have a commitment to your business. Many of you have wasted much time selling your business to people, and try to convince them, rather than they coming to you with an interest. And you have spent hours working on some people, and now they are no longer with you.
And you think sometimes, if I had put those hours into someone else who was interested, I could have had a diamond along with me. When you go back to your town, and your city, and your workplace, take this principle with you of the ego. If you’re going to be a leader, you must be a tester. Give people a project to test them.
Give them an assignment, and then watch to see how they catch it. Encourage them by giving them delegated authority to help you do some things, just to check, just to see if they have the commitment. Because your energy is too important to be wasting on people who have no interest in your vision, and in their own vision. Just remember, you cannot give people vision. You can only cultivate what they have already. Give them a test, before you give them all your trust. As a matter of fact, trust is a result of time and test.
Principle 5: Eagles Love Storms
Number five, an eagle is a strange bird because of this principle, eagles love storms. Eagles love storms. The eagle is the only bird in history, and in the animal kingdom, whenever a storm is on the horizon, the eagle flies toward the storm. It’s the crazy bird. Every other bird, when a storm is threatening, they run for cover.
The pigeons find a hole, and the ducks find a nest. But the eagle, when it sees a problem, or a challenge, the eagle flies into the challenge rather than from it. No wonder why God himself compares himself with an eagle, and then he says, “I will bear you up as humans on wings of eagles,” because you too are eagles.
If you’re going to be successful all the way back there, and if you’re going to be successful over here, and if you’re going to be successful around here, I got one reminder. Challenges are good for a leader. Challenges are good for a dreamer. The question, why does an eagle love storms? Guess why?
Eagles grow to the size of seven feet in wingspan. When a storm approaches, the eagle considers the storm an opportunity to relax. Strange bird. Every other bird runs away, but the eagle runs into the storm because he uses the storm’s fury to set his wings on his pinions, and his pinions catches the wind of the storm.
And suddenly that eagle is pushed up by the storm, and he is able to glide on the wings of the storm without having to work his wings, and so he rests on what others run from.
Can I challenge you tonight? Some of you are going through periods of discouragement. Maybe your business is slow. Maybe the economy in your country has not been doing as well as it should be, or maybe you have lost some downline, or maybe you have come into a situation where your family has turned against you, or maybe you’ve gone through a divorce, or maybe you lost someone in your family through death, and it’s disturbed your concentration.
I want you to learn a lesson from the eagle. No matter what you’re going through, no matter how difficult life may seem, no matter how challenging it may look, that storm has come to make you better. You can use it for depression, you can use it for altitude, you can use it for discouragement, or you can use it to fly at a height you never flew before.
Challenges test your resolve. Challenges test your ability to handle characteristics that make you a leader. You will never be successful without problems. Today, people think that I’m successful because of the things I’ve accomplished.
I am the founder of an organization that is now in 74 countries. I am the director of an incorporated company that is worth millions of dollars. I have been involved in helping people and governments and institutions to also understand that they can do the same. But I’ve got something to tell you tonight.
If you see the front of me, I look very beautiful, don’t I? I’m handsome, I am short, dark, and beautiful. And that’s what you see in the front. But if I show you my back, you will see scars, you will see cuts, you will see sores that have been healed, you would see the cost of success.
Eagles love a challenge because a challenge makes them strong. An eagle is not afraid of difficulty because difficulty makes the eagle better. You take a look at your problems this weekend, look them in the face and say to them, “I’m not going to run from you, I’m going to show you what I’m made of, and I’m going to use you to make me better.”
Principle 6: Eagles Prepare for Training
An eagle is a strange bird because the sixth principle of an eagle is that an eagle prepares for training. Please write that down. An eagle prepares for training. An eagle invests time in the development of others. Some of you are wondering, can a bird think that sophisticated? The answer is yes. Listen to this.
The eagle is the only bird that builds its nest this way. Follow me carefully. When an eagle wants to build a nest, the first thing an eagle does—are you ready for this?—he finds a high cleft in the cold mountain. He makes sure it is high, he makes sure it’s a cleft, and he makes sure it is cold at that altitude. He builds it on the bare rock.
Then he flies away after he finds a spot, and he picks up pieces of twigs. He takes them up to that cold spot, and he lays them in a pattern. Then he flies down to the earth, and he finds cloth and rag. He brings it back, and he lays them on the top of the twigs.
Then he flies back to the earth, and he does the most unorthodox thing. The eagle goes searching for thorns. He finds the thorns, he brings them back to the nest, and he puts the thorns on the top of the cloth. Thick, sharp, dangerous thorns the eagle finds.
Then he flies back to the earth, and he brings back cotton and cloth, and puts on the top of the thorns. When that is completed, he goes back to the earth, and he brings straw and put on the top of the cotton. And then he goes back to the earth, and he brings back cotton on top of the straw. And when that nest is soft, and warm, and comfortable, then the female eagle comes and lays the eggs.
Why did the eagle build the nest that way? Because the eagle invests in training others. You cannot be successful in life unless you are willing to invest in the development of other people. There’s one thing you were designed never to do, and that is to live an isolated life.
This company is built on people, not on money. This company is built on relationships, not on an organization. This company is built on trusting other people with your own word. It’s not built on some cold, callous structure. This company is built on your ability to train other people. If you’re gonna train other people, you have to prepare and invest the time to train them.
Watch the eagle. The eagle, after the eggs are laid, she sits on the egg. And when she’s tired, the male sits on the egg, and they trade places. By the way, that’s good advice for marriages. Don’t let your wife do all the work. Sit on the egg sometime, brothers.
We are in this together if we are married. You cannot be successful in the eagle team if there is a division in your marriage. If there’s friction, if there’s disagreement, because that environment is not conducive to focus like an eagle. If your spouse does not agree with your dream, you’re gonna find it very difficult to focus because the home is the nest.
So I encourage you, if you are here without your spouse, next year bring your spouse with you so they can capture the dream. I am so excited to see so many families here, husband and wives, because that’s the way it was intended to be. Because the key to division is a strange key. I’ll give it to you now.
Please write the word vision down. Everybody say vision. Say it loud. A little louder. I want you to write another word down, but it’s not a word, it’s a prefix. Write the prefix di. The prefix di, it has a meaning. It means two, t-w-o, two.
The Meaning of “Di”
Whenever you see that prefix anywhere, it means two. It splits the word. For example, the word vide means one. If you put di in the front of it, it’s the word divide, which means you split the one.
Cotomy means one. If you put the prefix di in the front of cotomy, it’s the word dichotomy, which means to split in two. If you have the word vorc, v-o-r-c, which is a word, it means single power. If you put the prefix di in the front of the word vorc, you have the word divorce, which means you split the power.
If you have the word vision, the word vision is the word optica, and it means single sight. If you put the prefix di in the front of the word vision, you have what? What do you have? Come on, shout it loud.
If you want to protect yourself from division in your family or division in your company or division in your downline or division in your business, then you as a leader of your downline must constantly communicate and enforce and reinforce the vision of your company to the hearts of those people so that no one comes up with a second vision. Because wherever there are two visions, there is division. That is why this company is headed by one man. They say that any animal with two heads is a monster.
If you’re going to be successful in business, you’ve got to remember that the company should have a single vision. The eagle together have one vision. We are going to produce eaglets so they both sit on the egg.
Raising Eaglets
Now here’s the beauty. When the eggs are hatched and the little eaglets come out, that’s your new recruits. Everybody say eaglets. I want 1998 to be the year of eaglets. I want 1998 to be the year that you hatch 50 to 60 new eaglets in your personal company.
Good. It’s a good place to clap. That means you’ve got to sit down with your spouse or sit down with your friend and your partner and say, “1998, we are going to deliver these babies we carry. We have a vision of a downline of 300 by the year 2000. And this is going to be our dream, 1998, we’re going to hatch 50 of them.”
When they hatch, the eagle does something strange. The birds begin to develop. It takes time. You’ve got to encourage them, you’ve got to meet with them, you’ve got to show them the system of eagle team, you’ve got to desire to be with them and talk to them and have meetings with them. It takes a lot of commitment to prepare and train people to be leaders.
When they have grown their feathers and they have become strong and their wings have been filled out, guess what? They don’t want to fly. Eagles were born to fly, but they are afraid of flight. Isn’t that strange? Grown eagles will stay in a nest even though they are the king of birds and they were born to fly.
That sounds like most of us. We were born to be successful. We were born with dreams on the inside. We were born with vision to accomplish great things. That’s why you’re here tonight. You were born to impact your community economically. You were born to make a footprint in the sand of history in your country. You were born to be an impression on history. You were born with that, but you are afraid to step out.
Why? The greatest fear you know is failure. You’re afraid that if you leave your job and go full-time with Eagle Team, then you might not be successful and all your friends will laugh at you. Or maybe you’re afraid that if you do step out in Eagle Team’s commitment and you become a multimillionaire in the next four years, that you will lose your friends, so you are afraid of success.
Or maybe you are afraid that if you were to step out, it will mean you got to work too hard, so you’re afraid of investing your energy. Or maybe you’re afraid that if you were to decide to go out and fulfill your dream, it’s going to take 10 years to make it happen and you don’t want to wait that long, so you’re afraid to start. But I got news for you, even though you are afraid to start, you still could fly.
Pushing the Eaglets Out of the Nest
What does the eagle do to make the eaglets fly? This weekend, consider me Mama Eagle, because my job this weekend is to do what the mother eagle does. Some of you need some help to fly a little higher in 98, I have come to help you. Some of you need a little help, you need a little help to refocus your dream and get back on track, Mama has come to help you this weekend.
Some of you feel that you have made it, you are now a diamond and you can relax. Don’t you dare sit where I sit, because I have come to turn your diamond into a gem. Don’t be satisfied with what you’ve done. Don’t believe you’ve made it, because no one makes it until they are dead.
So the Mama Eagle does something strange, the same eaglet that she fed, and the same eaglet that she cuddles, and the same eaglet that she encouraged to develop, suddenly the mother eagle goes crazy, because it’s time to fly, everybody says it’s time to fly, oh come on say it with me, it’s time to fly.
Everybody do like this, come on take your hands out, tell your neighbor look out for my wings, watch my wings, alright are you ready, everybody say it’s time to fly, one more time, it’s time to fly, again, it’s time to fly, give yourself a hand because you’re going to fly this weekend.
Okay, you said it, so Mama Eagle’s going to help you. The mother eagle suddenly takes her wings and she puts it next to the nest, big seven feet wings of feathers, and she begins to chirp and begins to hoot, to tell the eagle to come on her feathers, because it’s time to fly, they don’t move, she goes to the nest, she takes her beak and she pushes them out, and she pushes them out, and they fall out of the nest on the cold hard rock of the mountain, and the cold icy mountain makes them uncomfortable, so they jump back into the nest.
She goes back and she pushes them out with her beak, and she nudges them out with her beak, she comes and they fall on the cold mountain, it’s cold and shivering, they begin to scream and cry, and they jump back in the nest, the nest is warm, comfortable, she comes back and she takes her beak and she shoves them out again, they land on the cold rock, it’s cold, and they jump back in the warm nest.
So Mama Eagle does something that seemed to be uncomfortable, suddenly the beak that fed them, and the beak that protected them, and the beak that covered them, and the beak that was the source of their very lives, the Mama Eagle takes that beak, and she begins to rip away the cotton, and rip away the straw, and she rips away the grass, and she rips away the cloth, and she goes crazy, and all the cloth and feather is flying everywhere, all over the mountain, down the mountain, it’s all a frenzy, she just tears up the nest, and the little eagles are screaming, and crying, and shouting, “No, I’m comfortable, leave me alone,” but she’s not even listening to them, she rips the nest, and rips the nest, until she gets down to the thorns.
When the thorns are exposed, the Mother Eagle takes her big wings, and puts them on the rock again, next to the nest, because she knows, it’s better to be on the wing, than in the nest, the little birds began to feel, the thorns pierce their feathers, and begins to pierce the skin, blood begins to show, as they move around on the uncomfortable thorns, they began to literally hurt themselves, because it’s time to fly.
Some of you, some of you, have come to this convention, this year, because your job, is nothing but thorns. Some of you, have come to the point, where it’s uncomfortable to go to work, because eagle team, has become so much of a interest, and success, that it’s now a contest, between your vision, and your job. The thorns, that are piercing you, on your job, are actually messages, that are telling you, fly now, or live on a pension forever. You cannot be successful, in a dream, part-time.
There comes a time, when the part, has to turn into a whole. Stay on your job, until you can’t stay anymore. But when you can’t stay anymore, don’t stay on your job. Otherwise, you’ll never learn, the joy, and the beauty, and the freedom, of flying, like the eagle.
Learning to Fly
The little eagles jump, out of the nest, onto the wings, of the mother. Oh, they’re so excited. Why? It’s soft, and warm, and it’s comfortable, and they hang on with their, their claws, and they, and they begin to, to just settle down on the wing. And you got three eagles on the wing, it’s beautiful. “Oh mama, thank you mama. It’s so good, to be so good to us.” They’re excited.
But then the mother eagle does something, very unorthodox. When they are all on the wing, and they have their grip, in her pinions, then the mother eagle, jumps from the mountain, with the eagles on her wings, and she shoots up, three miles in the air, four miles above the mountain, with the eaglets, screaming on her wings.
When she reaches the point, where she knows, the air is thin, she suddenly, shuts the wings, and the eaglets begin to fall. As they fall, guess who’s watching? Remember the guy who caught the twig? The guy, who caught the twig, now has his job. He has been tested.
So the mother eagle drops them, and the father eagle, his eyes are able to see every detail. As they fall, they scream, and they cry, and they flutter, and they fall over, and there’s no coordination. Why? They are a young member of eagle team.
Some of you, last year, you pushed some people out, with their own little test, their own little down line. You gave them some assignments, and they waddled, and fumbled, and they fell, and they weren’t too steady, and they didn’t show up on time, and didn’t carry out this assignment.
But don’t throw them away. Just watch them, and don’t help them all the time. Let them experience what you experienced. Let them go through a measure of failure, because success is the result of a series of failures.
Let them fall for a while, but don’t be too far from them, because they need your help, as a diamond, or as a ruby. They need to be close to you, even though you don’t need to interfere all the time. Let them learn to fly. As a matter of fact, eagle team will be as successful as your ability to teach others to fly.
If you have to be in touch with all of your down line, you are not a successful eagle. Your ability to release others in flight is the future of this great company. And so they fall. And just before they hit the ground, 50, 60 yards up, the mother eagle is watching the father eagle.
Suddenly, he dies like a bullet. He catches them, and he climbs up, and he goes up, and they are so happy. They’re hanging on saying, “Thank you daddy. Thank you daddy. Oh daddy, we love you.” Sounds like your diamond is coming to help, huh? That’s that phone call you get sometimes, from your up line saying, “How are you doing? I’m working with you.”
“I got faith in you.” That’s the wing come to catch you. And the father eagle takes the eagles up higher and higher. They figure, “We’re going back to the nest. We’re going back to the nest.” And she goes, he goes past the nest. “Oh no.”
And she takes them back to where the mother eagle is. And then he drops the eagles again. And they fall. Catches them again. Takes them up again. He drops them. They scream.
But now they begin to realize, “Hey you know, daddy ain’t going to stop doing this. We better start using our wings.” You see, your diamonds and your rubies and your up line are not going to stop pushing you into responsibility. So you might as well learn to run this business by yourself.
This weekend, I want you to fly to a height you haven’t flown before. Use some vision you’ve never used before. Begin to use the imagination God has given you to become the best you can be. Be like the eaglets who begin to realize it’s time to fly. If we never learn to fly, we’re going to keep going up and down. Life will never be a constant glide if we never learn to fly.
Some days your bills are paid. Some days your bills ain’t paid. Some days your bills are paid. You can’t live like that forever. You’ll have ulcers and depression and growth and cancer and migraine if you try up and down life. Decide today that you are going to make 1998 the year that you extend your wings to the limit where you’ve never been before.
Suddenly, those little birds begin to realize, “Hey, we can do this. Look at me. I’m doing what daddy did. Look at this. Hey, we’re doing it. Oh, there’s the ground. Oh, oh, oh.” And they said, “Hey, I’m mounting up like my papa. Look at that. I’m acting like a diamond.”
That’s why in this company, we want you to dress like a diamond, even if you ain’t one yet. We want you to walk like a diamond. We want you to talk like a diamond. “How you doing?” “Great.” “How’s life?” “Fantastic.” “How’s the business?” “Prospering.” Diamonds talk positive, but every diamond used to be a rock. Don’t be impressed with diamonds, because all diamonds begin as a piece of wood that was petrified under pressure. That was crystallized into crystalline compound that became a crystal, and the pressure made it a diamond.
Diamonds take a thousand years to form. These people you see sitting up here who you are so maybe impressed with, remember there’s a price. They’ve been under pressure for years. It has cost them many, many hours and years and days of frustration. Under pressure, diamonds are made. Everybody begins as a piece of wood, but only those who stay under the pressure become diamonds.
Those eagles have to learn to fly. The day comes that finally the baby eagles are now up at the altitude where mama and daddy are now flying, and they too have become what they were born to be, high-flying eagles.
The Eagle’s Renewal
I want to close tonight on one reminder. An eagle grows old, and an eagle eventually dies, but there’s something about an eagle that is the strangest thing in the world, and I want to close on this point tonight because tomorrow is going to be a good day for you.
When an eagle grows old, his feathers grow old, the eagle finds a quiet place in the mountain. Listen carefully please. And the eagle does something no other birds do. The eagle goes to a quiet place in the mountain, high up in the cleft of the rock, by himself, and the eagle begins to take his feathers, and he would take his wings and put them around the front of himself, and he begins to take his beak.
He begins to yank out his own feathers and throw them on the mountain, and he does it the other way. He yanks out his feathers and throws them on the mountain. He begins to yank the feathers from his chest, throws them on the mountain, and he begins to yank himself free from every feather he can reach. And the eagle stands there, bare skin and bloody. This is a true act of an eagle.
And the eagle stays in that quiet place until new feathers grow. And as he stays there in that quiet place, then you understand the statement of the great prophet Isaiah. In the Bible, Isaiah says, “Wait on the Lord.” In other words, all of us gotta find a refuge in God, in our business. Because we get tired, we get frustrated, ideas grow old, the business becomes boring, we feel that this ain’t working, this ain’t gonna be successful, you feel old.
I have come to tell you in my own success, in my own business experience, that when that happens to me, I always find a quiet place where nobody is. And I begin to beat my feathers and expose my fears and all of my frustrations. I begin to tell my Creator how frustrated I am, and I pull out all of my transparent weaknesses, and how depressed I am, and how things ain’t working, and it ain’t going the way I expected it.
And I begin to confess my frustration in that quiet place. You know what he does? He begins to give me new courage. He begins to give me new vision. He begins to revise my vision. He begins to show me that the temporary discouragement is only an opportunity to have courage. Because you cannot have courage without fear. And he renews my strength. And when the eagle surfaces again, scientists say the eagle is stronger than he was before, because his feathers are new.
Go back to your quiet place when you feel frustrated. Go back to where your dream first started. Find the place of meditation from the source of your true potential and ability. Do not look just to human wisdom.
I promise you, you will be renewed like the eagle. And like Isaiah said, “Wait on the Lord, and he will strengthen your heart. You will mount up with wings as eagles. You will run, not be wary. You will walk and not faint. And you will fly above the pigeons.” My desire and my challenge to you is join me at the top. It’s fun where eagles fly.
See you. Thank you so much.
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