Read an Excerpt
The Templeton Plan
21 Steps to Success and Happiness
By John Templeton, James Ellison Templeton Press
Copyright © 1996 Templeton Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-59947-428-1
CHAPTER 1
STEP 1 LEARNING THE LAWS OF LIFE
THE WORLD OPERATES on spiritual principles, just as it does on the laws of physics and gravity. These principles, or laws, are as important for our welfare as stopping for a red light at a busy intersection. Our inner life is saved or lost to the extent that we obey or disobey the laws of life.
These laws are the underpinning of The Templeton Plan. We will examine them now, at the start, so that we can have a clear idea of our direction. Just as a baby learns to walk by taking one step at a time, so we will look at the laws of life one at a time to assess the ground that will be covered in our twenty-one steps.
Truthfulness is a law of life. In the farming community where John Templeton grew up, there was a general saying that your word was your bond. People of character would never promise something and then go back on their word. A contract between two parties did not have to be put into writing; there was no need for a court or a judge to enforce it. Civilization, as it was then perceived by many, was a place where the handshake was sacred.
Reliability is a law of life. The shopkeeper or professional who prospers today is the one whose word you can depend on. If he says he will have a certain product available for you Tuesday afternoon, he will have it Tuesday afternoon. If she tells you the product is genuine leather, you can rest assured that genuine leather is what you'll get.
Faithfulness is a law of life. You expect people not to cheat you or put themselves ahead of you. Faithfulness means that they will be faithful to their trust. You can rely on them not to cut corners or try to deceive you.
Perseverance is a law of life. You will always give your business and your trust to those who will see a project through even if difficulties arise—and they usually do. In everything we do, there are problems to solve, and the person who gives up or turns to an easier task is not the kind of person who will find success.
Thirty-six years ago, John Templeton helped to found the Young Presidents' Organization, a worldwide club. Each of the thousands of members, though they come from a wide range of cultural and economic backgrounds, before age forty became president of a company employing over a hundred people. What do these men and women have in common? "Perseverance," Templeton explains. "When they undertake to accomplish something, they accomplish it. The program may change along the way, but they don't give up."
Enthusiasm is a law of life. To be a success you must work at a task with your whole heart. Enthusiasm is contagious. You can infect your suppliers and customers with it.
Energy is a law of life. Successful, deeply fulfilled people have a high degree of energy. They are not lazy, nor do they spend much time on idle matters. They are constantly trying new things, experimenting, searching for a cheaper method of production or for ways to improve the quality of a product.
Humility is a law of life. The young should welcome, not ignore, the advice and experience of their teachers and parents. The majority of parents discipline their children because they love them and want the best for them. For children to rebel against their teachers and parents flies in the face of the simplest common sense. The teacher is in school to help students; students should be humble enough to realize that the teacher knows more than they do. Through a humble approach to life, the successful person will learn at an early age to profit from the knowledge of parents and teachers.
Pleasing others is a law of life. Now, of course, it's impossible to please everyone, but we will be more productive and successful if we try. That means pleasing your colleagues, pleasing your clients and customers. The concept of giving pleasure to others is having a healthy new influence on the business world. There are now dozens of service clubs where businesspeople gather as equals once a week to discuss mutual concerns—the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, among others. As an old Oriental proverb has it, "If you wish your merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people."
Giving is a law of life. Successful people give and give still more; their giving is returned to them in full measure. Watch the top people in business. They are the ones who give more than is expected of them. In return, they receive the rewards. They attract the customers. Their giving leads ultimately to success, both in worldly and spiritual terms.
John Templeton serves on the board of corporators of the oldest corporation in the United States, the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund. It is a life insurance company that insures the lives of ministers of all faiths. The company seal carries a drawing of the sower. The Presbyterian Fund has enjoyed considerable success for more than two centuries. They have given their policyholders more insurance for a lower price than other companies. And their representatives, who are usually Christian ministers, never fail to explain to prospective clients that the fund is founded on the concept that as you sow, so shall you reap.
Learning from others is a law of life. As a child, John Templeton used to observe his schoolmates as well as the adults with whom he came in contact. He watched the farmers in the country. He learned from each of them which things led to success, happiness, and productivity and which did not. He learned what to emulate as well as what to avoid. Most important, he learned to assimilate the wisdom of many lives. You can do the same. If you're alert, it is possible to learn from each person you meet, to avoid mistakes, and to put new virtues into practice.
Joy is a law of life. John Templeton names as the most joyful group of people he has ever met the young women studying to be members of the society of Mother Teresa. He observed that their happiness had an almost visible glow, and it had nothing to do with self-indulgence. They were happy because of the opportunity to serve.
While Templeton was attending the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mother Teresa's order, the Missionaries of Charity, in Calcutta, a young novice approached Mother Teresa and in an overjoyed manner cried out, "Mother, for six hours I've been handling the body of Christ!" She meant that she had found a man in the street whose condition was so bad that it took her six hours to get him cleaned up, comfortable, and in bed. She felt that Christ had come to her in the form of that man. What a joy it was that she could be useful, that she was in a position to help Christ when he came to her in need. Success need not necessarily take a financial form. But real success can never be achieved without the element of usefulness, of serving.
Altruism is a law of life. The altruistic person tries to make our world a better place to live in. There are medical researchers who have improved our lot by discovering penicillin or insulin. Every person—each in his or her own way—can make the world a better place. Those who search for success and happiness will find a way. One man makes the world a better place by developing his farm with more modern agricultural methods. Another man, a widower, raises his six children on his own. They love him so much that, when they marry, they live near home so that the family needn't split apart. That man made the world a better place by loving his six children. They had the benefit and warmth of his love, and that is a form of riches that is always passed on.
The altruist discovers an individual way to make the world a better place than it was before. It may be because he writes a book. Or because she paints a picture. Or because he rears his children with intelligence and compassion. Or because she invents a new cooking recipe. Or because his life serves as a shining light for others. There are large and small ways to make the world a better place, and all the paths, as different as they may be, lead to success.
Templeton recalls a school near where he grew up in Winchester, Tennessee, that tried to teach more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. The Webb School was started by an elderly man named Shaunee Webb. The motto of the school was "We Teach Character." Webb regarded it as his principal purpose to teach students the laws of life along with Latin, history, and mathematics. Many graduates of the Webb School became nationally known, their success based on what they learned from the founder.
Templeton says: "I am now offering prizes for the best essays on the laws of life, written by high school and college students. My hope is that this will create a beautiful snowball effect. The students writing the essays will have to read extensively in the fields of ethics, religion, and philosophy. Consequently, at a very young age, they will have formulated their own laws and will learn to focus on them. When the prizewinning essays are published, they will reach others, and gradually a literature on the laws of life can be built up.
"Taking that thought a step further, it might even be possible to develop a world council on the laws of life. I believe there are such laws that every religion believes in. We might thereby produce a world view, thus eliminating conflicts between individuals and even nations, because we will have developed a more sophisticated understanding of the principles that unify us.
"My guess is that there are literally hundreds of such laws that can be agreed on by 99 percent of all people. It would then be possible to prepare textbooks for high schools and colleges so that there could be courses on the laws of life. I believe that such a program would help religions and governments to cooperate with one another more easily."
Step 1 teaches you to study the laws of life as you proceed on the road to success and happiness. Study those you know and search for new ones. The list of those laws we have examined is small:
Truthfulness Humility
Reliability Pleasing others
Faithfulness Giving
Perseverance Learning from others
Enthusiasm
Joy
Energy
Altruism
There are many more laws, perhaps hundreds more. Start with these twelve and apply the meaning of each law to your own life. Are you lacking in energy? Could you use an extra dose of enthusiasm? Consider this a checklist to use to monitor your own strengths and weaknesses. Remember: The laws of life are the basic building blocks for a successful and happy life.
CHAPTER 2
STEP 2 USING WHAT YOU HAVE
DURING JOHN TEMPLETON'S four decades as an investment counselor, he has seen many families who have left their children great wealth. But that kind of inheritance can create more problems than it solves. He likes to quote the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, who said, "He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care."
In studying hundreds of clients, Templeton has never been able to discern a connection between happiness and inherited wealth. In fact, in most cases the inheritance of wealth has done more harm than good. It tends to give people false values and causes them to show personal pride without having earned that pride. It causes people to take the edge off their efforts.
Templeton is convinced that the young should earn their own spending money. A child needs to learn to work as early as six years old. Although it takes an expenditure of time and imagination for the parent to figure out what a child of six can do that is useful, there are many activities that will teach a child the meaning of pride in work. In the country, children can tend a lemonade stand, or grow radishes to sell to the grocery store, or collect cans for the return of the deposit. In the city, children can be assigned chores around the apartment.
Templeton, who grew up in the rural South, feels that it's rare for a country child to get in trouble with the law later in life. On a farm, children can feed the farm animals or help with the preparation of food; they are more likely than their city counterparts to become useful members of the family at a very young age. As a result, they will mature earlier and have a firmer grasp of the laws of life.
Contrary to current psychological opinion, children in many respects are miniature adults. They have a burning desire to stand on their own two feet. Thus, when a mother does her daughter's homework, feeling she's helping the child, she is actually doing her harm in the long run. Granted, the child will get good grades the next day in school. But it's far better to take the longer and more arduous route and show the girl how to do the long division herself. She will then have more personal pride and self-confidence, feel more adult, and be better able to take the next step in school, because today's lesson is based on what was learned the previous day. If the mother causes her daughter to miss out on that single step in her progress, then the daughter may have trouble picking it up later.
As mentioned in Step 1, the successful person learns from others. By careful observation, you can monitor the mistakes of others and not make them yourself. You can also begin to see who is happy and why they are happy. Train yourself to watch those in your school, at your place of employment, in your own family. And listen to what they say. Listening intelligently is a key to success, because you are storing up the wisdom and the folly of others and beginning to discriminate between the two.
Never forget that learning is a lifetime activity of vast importance. John Templeton recalls a friend from his high school who, upon graduating, got a job and never read another book. He watched television in his spare time, went to movies, did some hunting and fishing, but made no effort to expand the frontiers of his mind. At age forty, he was no better educated than he'd been at sixteen, and that's the sign of a wasted life. Wasted lives are never successful lives.
In fact, we're in a position to learn more once we're out of school, because school is a kind of hothouse environment; it is later, out in the world, that we meet the realities of life. Once we are involved in the world of work, books should take on an even greater importance. We can test them against our greater maturity and knowledge. We can absorb their messages with a more profound understanding.
Years ago John Templeton set himself a goal to learn something new each day. It is important not to let a day go by without learning the meaning of an unfamiliar word, without a new insight, without experiencing a fresh taste, thought, or sensation. If you travel to your job by bus, watch the other passengers. You will discover that the majority of them do absolutely nothing. They simply sit there. Are they thinking something significant? Are they working out a problem? The chances are they are letting time die, unused.
But those who are going to get ahead, who will achieve success, will refuse to waste their moments on that bus. They will study. They will read or write. They will use their time, to and from school or work, for self-improvement, production, and continued learning.
By listening to the passengers on that bus you can guess with fair accuracy who is going to achieve success and who is not. If you hear someone saying that "he said so and so and she said so and so and then he said so and so," you can bet that person is not forging ahead. But the one who is saying that "this is what I learned yesterday; this is what I hope to accomplish today" is a person on the road to success.
Besides perfecting the art of listening, the successful person is the one who asks questions. You don't learn much if you're doing the talking. Form the habit of asking yourself, "What can I learn from this person?" Discover what the individual likes to talk about and then ask questions in that area of interest. This practice will pay off in two ways: You will please the person by asking intelligent questions and at the same time you will learn something yourself.
Successful people seek advice more often than they give it. John Templeton gives an illustration of this strategy from his days as a young man working for the National Geophysical Company in Dallas, Texas. It was his first major job after college and he was bent on succeeding. At least once a month he approached his employer and said, "What can I do to improve my work?" Again, there was a twofold benefit: While Templeton learned how to do a better job, his boss realized how sincere he was in his desire to improve. Within a year, he became financial vice-president of the company; the key to his advancement, he's convinced, was his attitude of constantly asking questions.
The question "What would you do if you were me?" is a stepping-stone toward success. By asking that question, you'll not only get creative suggestions but other people will realize that you're the type of person whose career course is decidedly on the upward swing.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Templeton Plan by John Templeton, James Ellison. Copyright © 1996 Templeton Press. Excerpted by permission of Templeton Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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