Larry Winget: “Your Rewards in Life are in Direct Proportion to Your Service."

Larry Winget delivers a no-nonsense message about commitment, responsibility, and the laws that govern success. Through powerful stories and hard-earned lessons, he reminds you that winning requires total commitment, serving others, and boldly asking for what you want — no excuses, no escape routes. Want Ad-Free Episodes? Join QOD Club and hear zero ads inside our Circle community. Plus, book clubs, mentorship calls, weekly business trainings, and new likeminded friends. Get started for only $9. Source: The Ya Gottas For Success circa 1991. Hosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  And the next one is this, once you've gotten started, we've already alluded to it, you gotta stay, you gotta stay no matter what, even when it gets tough, when it gets ugly, you gotta stay. Some people don't stay. Some people get started and they get started on something else, as we already talked. My favorite story about staying is about George Washington. You can look it up in the history books, I'll give you the short version. Y'all will remember the picture of George standing on the bow of the boat, you know, one of these, as he crosses the Delaware. What most people don't know is there is a story behind that, and I'll tell you what it was. George, the night before they crossed the Delaware to engage themselves in one of the biggest battles of the Revolutionary War, met with all of his troops.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  And in meeting with all of his troops, he said, "Fellas, I know how it is for you. One, we haven't been able to pay you like we promised. And I know that you're cold, and most of you have frost bites. And I know that you're hungry too, because we ran out of food a while back. But do us some good news. The good news is this, tomorrow we're gonna cross the Delaware, and we're gonna fight the British. And I just have one order. This is the order. When we get to the other side of the river, we're gonna burn the boats." Now can you imagine the looks on these guys' faces? We're gonna do what, George? Yep, we're gonna burn those boats! See, that's not what they had in mind at all. But George was way ahead of them.

• 1:26Speaker 00

  You see, what they thought was they'd get in those boats, and they would paddle across to the other side of the river, and they'd go ahead and they'd start fighting the battle. In the thick of the battle, if it was not going their way, what they'd do is go back down, get inside those boats, paddle back across the river, go home, get warm, get some food, to heck with the pay, see their families, right? George was ahead of them. He removed all avenues of retreat. And see, when you remove all avenues of retreat, you cut down on your options. In fact, George only left them with two options. You're either gonna win, or you're gonna die. When those are your only two options, you get real committed to winning.

• 2:06Speaker 00

  Now I bet that's not what you heard growing up, was it? I bet your mama said, "Now, you make sure you leave yourself a way out."

• 2:14Speaker 00

  I bet you heard, "Don't burn your bridges," or in essence, "Don't burn your boats." Make sure you always got a way back, right? Never win when it's like that. You gotta absolutely become optionless. You gotta know that you've gotta win no matter what. And the more committed you are to winning, your chances of success will go way up.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  Let me briefly tell you what my story is and tell you how these principles tie into my life. 1983, I left AT&T and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'd been the area sales manager for AT&T. When I moved back to Tulsa, I decided to start my own telecommunications company.

• 2:53Speaker 00

  And starting my own telecommunications company, I had no business going into business because I didn't have any money to go into business. I just started. And I found a technician that was willing to throw in with me and his wife would become a part-time secretary for us. And we started a company with three people with no money. But we did pretty good. In a few short months, I was able to sell more than he was able to install. We hired more installers and soon they were able to install more than I was able to sell. And we had to hire more salespeople and the company grew. Until in a period of three short years, we became the second-largest independent telecommunications company in the state of Oklahoma. I had two offices, one in Tulsa, one in Oklahoma City. Close to $2 million a year in business telephone system sales. I had 35 people working for me, a big fleet of trucks, and we were extremely successful.

• 3:38Speaker 00

  I started going around doing speeches for little groups, telling them what I had learned to become a success as a small business person, saying, "If you'll do these things, you too can be a success." I lost interest in my company, hired a general manager and a vice president of finance, said, "You guys run it while I go off and pursue some other things." And then one day I walked in my house, there was this note from my bank.

• 3:59Speaker 00

  And when I opened the note, it told me that my paycheck from my very successful company had bounced due to insufficient funds. I walked in my company the next day, pulled my vice president of finance together, my general manager, and said, "Fellas, do we have a problem?" They said, "Larry, you better sit down. Anytime your financial manager tells you to sit down before he talks to you, you've got a problem."

• 4:20Speaker 00

  I said, "Tell me again, do we have a problem?" And they said, "Larry, you have a problem." I noticed they didn't say, "We had a problem."

• 4:28Speaker 00

  They said, "Larry, you have a problem." That's when I learned, as my friend Joe Sharbino, another professional speaker, says, "Out of all the people who will never leave you, you are the only one."

• 4:42Speaker 00

  And I found out that my company was bankrupt. And in three months, we were bankrupt, and because I owned the company, it took me with it. And it did get very lonely around my company. Things changed dramatically for me in my life. I went to work one day, thinking I was extremely successful, had all the trappings of success, drove the big cars, had the nice clothes and the jewelry and so forth. Then one day, it was all gone, lost everything. And yet, that was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. The best thing. Because it allowed me to get out of my wrong work and into my right work. It allowed me to not just go to work anymore to make a living,

• 5:23Speaker 00

  but to begin to live my making, and by living my making, to make my living. That's what life's really all about. Now, I tell you that to give you a perspective, to say that no one has the market cornered on failure or success. Everybody has a story like that. I wouldn't trade my problems for any you've got. You wouldn't trade yours for anybody else's. We all have things that happen to us in our lives. It's not important what happens to us. What is important is what we choose to do about what happens to us. The principles that I'm telling you tonight worked for me in my life. The ones that I've just given you were the keys to my success the first time, and were the keys to me becoming a success the second time. And they will work for you. I promise. They work for thousands of people across the country that I speak to,

• 6:07Speaker 00

  and tell the story to, and tell these principles to. So I would suggest that you, in all of your heart, don't look at what has happened to you, no matter how good it has been or how bad it has been. Because things can change.

• 6:19Speaker 00

  They can change, and you always have the opportunity to make it better. You can take responsibility, you can make a decision for things to be different. You can set some goals for things to be different in your life, you can violently attack those goals. With a great passion, and start to achieve the excellence that I know everybody in this room deserves. And then, once you start, no matter how ugly it gets, you stay for all it's worth, and you become committed to winning. And then you go to the next "you got it", which says, "You gotta know the law." You gotta know the law. Now, I am not talking about the law of our city, our county, our state, or our federal government. I'm talking about a much bigger law than that.

• 6:58Speaker 00

  It's called the Law of Reciprocity. The Law of Reciprocity. And you may be saying, "Larry, I don't know that law." Oh, yes, you do. You know that law. You just haven't heard it called the Law of Reciprocity before, maybe. It's a law that's been stated a lot of different ways, I'll give you a few of them. Sig Ziglar stated the law this way. He says that you can have everything in life you want, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want. You can have everything in life you want, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want. Earl Nightingale stated the law this way. That your rewards in life are in direct proportion to your service. Your rewards are in proportion to your service. Science calls it the Law of Cause and Effect. It says for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

• 7:44Speaker 00

  The Bible states it this way, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." And the world says it this way, "What goes around, comes around." And it's a law. And there are no exceptions to this law. And we think we can break this law because we don't like it. The law doesn't care. And we think, "Well, maybe we'll be the exception to the law." There are no exceptions to this law, it works every single time, it's kinda like the law of gravity. You see, if you step off the top of a 10-story building, and you go splat on the pavement below, are you okay?

• 8:17Speaker 00

  Splat on the pavement below, if you had a breath of life left in you, and if you had that breath of life, there would be somebody there with a microphone, and if somebody ran up to you with that microphone, stuck it in your face, and said, "Why did you step off the top of that 10-story building?" You see, some stupid people might say, "I didn't know this would happen."

• 8:36Speaker 00

  Well, that's too bad, you're still dead.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  It works that way with the law of reciprocity too. If you say, "Well, I didn't think this was gonna happen." It's too bad, you're still dead. You can never break this law. So you gotta know the law if you're gonna be truly successful. Understand this law, teach it to your children. Practice it every single day and don't look for the exceptions because there are none. And then the next you gotta says, "You gotta ask." You gotta ask. There's an ancient saying that says, "Ask and ye shall receive." You know, we get so confused about that. And yet such a simple statement. "Ask and ye shall receive." But we think it says something different. We think that sometimes it says, "Deserve and ye shall receive."

• 9:22Speaker 00

  Folks, I gotta tell you, I used to sit in my office and deserve all the business I did not get. Because life doesn't care how deserving you are. It just doesn't care. It doesn't care at all. See, life's not set up for the deservers. Life's set up for the askers. And then the next one, once you get caught in that deserve and you shall receive trap, you get caught in the next trap that says, "Need and ye shall receive." Have you ever needed it? I mean, really needed the business? And it wasn't there? You know why? That's because life will play a dirty trick on you. It'll find out that you need it and it'll go, "Mm-hmm. I'm not giving it to you."

• 10:05Speaker 00

  Because the more you need it, the more of it you won't get. That's the way life is. Have you ever found that to be true? Sure, we need to remember what the Bible says. "The poor will be with you always." That's the way it is. You see, I believe the best thing we can do for the poor is not be one of them. Wouldn't you agree? Say yes. You can't help anybody when you're broke. Have you noticed that? That's right. So we have a commitment to be all we can be, don't we? Say yes. Yes. Absolutely. So life's not set up for the deservers. It's certainly not set up for the needers. And then we get mixed up about that statement again, "Ask and ye shall receive." And we think that it says, "Gripe and ye shall receive."

• 10:50Speaker 00

  You know, folks like that? They think that the more they gripe, the louder they gripe, the more of it they ought to get, because after all, they deserve it and they need it, right?

• 11:00Speaker 00

  It's not set up that way. Life's not set up for the grippers, the needers, or the deservers. It's only set up for the askers. You've got to learn to ask more. You have to ask more people to do business with you. You have to ask more from the people around you. Most of all, you have to ask more from yourself. You have to ask, ask, ask, ask, ask.