I go by principles: Author Jack Canfield

In 1990, author and motivational speaker Jack Canfield shared an idea with co-author Mark Victor Hansen. That the idea would create history, he didn’t know. It was the idea of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Three years of hard work led to compiling 68 stories that are now read by millions the world over. A Harvard graduate and a Guinness Book World Record holder for writing seven books simultaneously, Jack sticks to his own success principles. In town for a four-hour session, Jack was slated to touch upon the 64 principles from his bestselling book, The Success Principles, yesterday.

He lets us in to some of his own secrets. “I go by principles. If you have to take the first 25 chapters of my book, when I embark on a mission, I go through the same process. Step by step. That’s why it’s all in order in writing, it’s not accidental you see,” he laughs. Jack says that one needs to give up complaining and blaming when on a journey to success. “You have to know the purpose of your goal, and need to have a plan of action, a support team, someone you’re going talk to every day.” Does he have a support team in place? “Oh yes! It’s about that little bit of extra push that’s required. So if you’re a bunch of writers, you set a goal, and say you’ll write these many pages. And you’re asked every day — ‘How did it go?’ That’s what you need and that’s what I’m talking about. It’s good to have people from the same profession to brainstorm and be the support team to remain focused. And listen. People don’t listen nowadays. Most people talk too much,” Jack rues.
A brand in itself, one of Jack’s most favourite stories from the bestselling Chicken Soup series is Puppies for sale.

He gushes almost: “It’s such a powerful story of the power of love. The first time I read that story, I cried. I couldn’t even tell you the whole story without crying. It’s about compassion, about how we need to slow down a bit, and appreciate.” And that’s his mantra for life as well. “I feel the more service you do to others, the more successful you become. It’s almost like a paradox but the idea is to be of value. Only then will people serve you better,” asserts the author.

At his classes, he not just goes through the principles, he makes people do exercises as well. “One of the difficult things is to change people’s behaviour, so that’s where I start. I want people to drop ‘I can’t’ from their vocabulary and replace with ‘I want to’,” he smiles.

And does being successful himself come with the tag of pressure? “We’ve done a lot of books over the years and I continue to do them, I always want my book to be the best book that can be. But I don’t worry about disappointing my readers. I only want people to get impacted by what I say, but I don’t have anxiety,” he says. At the moment, Jack’s hatching another idea for a book in his head. It’ll be called Effortless Success, and he’s waiting to put it all down on paper.