Pain can be transformed into power with the intention to transform pain into power. Every great hero was broken. Now, if you were to look at Nelson Mandela, he suffered more than most people. If you to look at Mother Teresa, she went through incredible adversity over the course of her journey. If you were to study Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy, if you look at any great artist, a Picasso, a Jean-Michel Basquiat, if you look at the great world builders, they all suffered. Let me put it to you this way, with great love and respect, they all outsuffered the majority. You see what most people do is this is why most good people lose, they stumble and they fall. They become heartbroken or disappointed by life’s challenges. That happens to every single one of us. I’ve gone through a lot of hardship in my life. When I was going through school, very few people believed in me and I was dismissed and called very, very average. The principal at the school I was at said, “You’re not even going to get into university.” You might know my backstory on The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, but that was a self-published book. I was at the American Booksellers’ Conference in Chicago with a cover of one of my books around my neck, shaking hands with all the agents that were coming up the escalator. When I was a self-published author, I used to go into bookstores and say,” Would you take three copies of my book? I’ll sign them. Could you put it on the shelf?” I was treated rudely and I was laughed at. I was on radio shows and I was ridiculed, and then I’ve gone through a lot of personal pain in my own life. I’ve been on the top of the mountain of victory and, I must tell you, I have walked the lonely path in the valley of darkness. But Rumi, the great philosopher, said it so beautifully. He said, “Allow your heart to be broken over and over and over until it opens.” What I’m suggesting to you is really to dial into this insight. All great heroes have been broken, but rather than blaming 27 years in imprisonment, in the case of Nelson Mandela, rather than blaming his naysayers and his detractors in the case of Mahatma Gandhi, rather than saying, “Life is hard, why isn’t greatness easy?” in the case of a Mother Teresa or Martin LutherKing Jr., rather than saying, “Why did this happen to me?” in the case of Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat to someone on a bus because she was being treated like a second class citizen because of the color of her skin, these great ones all had one thing in common. They leveraged their pain and power. They turned their tragedies into victories. I’m not going to suggest to you that that’s an easy process, but if you simply start asking yourself,” Where am I blaming my current external conditions for my lack of prosperity, my lack of energy, my lack of mastery, my lack of joyfulness and soulfulness?” you actually start assuming something that very powerful. I’ve written about it in my books. It’s called APR: Absolute Personal Responsibility. The day I grew up was the day I looked into the mirror and said, “You know what? I’m responsible for my life,” and I took absolute personal responsibility. It wasn’t because of the energy vampires, and it wasn’t because of the external conditions, and it wasn’t because of my past. It was because of me. Start saying to yourself, “How can I turn my stumbling blocks into stepping stones? How can I turn my hard times into monuments of strength of character and the great virtues, and transform pain into power?”
