In this episode of Shine On Success, we dive deep with Jim Shorkey, a Pittsburgh auto dealership magnate, on his journey from the brink of bankruptcy to building a thriving empire while executing the principles of Think and Grow Rich which he has read 160 times.. Jim shares tips from his eight-step blueprint for success, a testament to the power of resilience, strategic thinking, and the profound influence of Napoleon Hill's principles. His story is not just about overcoming adversity but about the transformative power of mentorship, self-development, and unwavering commitment to personal growth. Join us as we explore how Jim's journey can inspire us to apply these timeless principles in our own lives for success and abundance.
Connect with Dionne Malush
Connect with Dionne Malush
In this episode of Shine On Success, we dive deep with Jim Shorkey, a Pittsburgh auto dealership magnate, on his journey from the brink of bankruptcy to building a thriving empire while executing the principles of Think and Grow Rich which he has read 160 times.. Jim shares tips from his eight-step blueprint for success, a testament to the power of resilience, strategic thinking, and the profound influence of Napoleon Hill's principles. His story is not just about overcoming adversity but about the transformative power of mentorship, self-development, and unwavering commitment to personal growth. Join us as we explore how Jim's journey can inspire us to apply these timeless principles in our own lives for success and abundance.
Connect with Dionne Malush
Connect with Dionne Malush
Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Shine On Success. Have you ever wondered what it takes to not just succeed in business, but to thrive in all areas of your life? Today we're talking with Jim Shorkey, a Titan in the auto dealership industry right here in Pittsburgh, who has mastered the art of success across nine businesses. Jim's unique eight-step blueprint for success has not only propelled him to great heights, but has also been a beacon for those seeking abundance, health, joy and much more. Let's find out how Jim transforms principles into action. So hi, jim, it's so nice to see you. It's been way too long.
Jim Shorkey:It's great to see you, it's lovely. I'm doing great, I'm doing really well.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, you look fantastic, so I'm glad to see you. So I want to get started with asking some questions. I've known you now, for it's been about since 2015, when we first met, so it's been nine years since we met and I know to tell you how much you mean to me and how much you helped me through some very tough times in my life when I was going through a lot personally and professionally. And since then, you know, I've started my own company and things are just so different than they once were. You and Chuck Bellino were a real big part of that. So I want to first start by saying thank you.
Jim Shorkey:You're welcome.
Dionne Malush:So let's start with this. At any point in your life, was there a moment that truly tested your resolve, and how did you use the mindset and strategies from Think and Grow Rich to navigate through those challenges and emerge stronger on the other side?
Jim Shorkey:Well, you know, first of all, that's a great question and you just caused a massive chill to go through my body. So this is going to be a long answer to a very short question, but I have to answer it. So back my father died on March 24, 1996. And if I was half as smart as I thought I was when my father died, I would have been pretty darn smart. So this is my chance, my big chance. I wanted to show my dad what I could do, even though he was deceased. The family, my dad, the world at large. I wanted to run this business exactly the way I dreamed that it should have been run, in terms of how I wanted to run, I should say. And so I proceeded to do that. And again, if I was half as smart as I thought I was, I would have been pretty darn smart.
Jim Shorkey:So two years later, in 1998, I'm bankrupt. The imminent, my business is going out of business because I just messed up. I messed up big time and so I was in bad shape too much month. At the end of the money I had a negative, negative $100,000 in the bank account. Fortunately, my bank was very, very good to me and they honored all my checks and we worked through it and figured it out. But one of the things that I was doing at that time was I had got, I started my self-development career, so to speak, on March the 1st 1993. And that led me to just a wonderful adventure into how to improve.
Jim Shorkey:So here I am 1998, bankruptcy imminent and I remember having a personal conversation with Napoleon Hill Now, please understand, napoleon Hill was long dead at that point, but I'm talking to him. And I said to Napoleon Hill I said, hey, napoleon Hill, if you can get me out of this mess, I promise you I will do exactly what you tell me to do. I will dot the I's and I will cross the T's. And my second promise to Napoleon Hill was I will never be arrogant again, never, never be arrogant again. And so I want to work on thinking for a rich.
Jim Shorkey:And one of the things that's very, very prominent in the book Now I've read this book 160 times and one of the things that's very prominent in the book is this idea called Seek Expert Counsel, which basically in essence means find somebody who is smarter than you and successful at doing what you want to do and have a conversation. You could have this conversation through a book that this person wrote through a YouTube video, through a one on one meeting, through a group setting, like what is called a think bank, and so the only thing I could think of was Mr Hamilton.
Jim Shorkey:Mr Hamilton. If I get emotional, I apologize, it's just, it always gets me, so I'll try to keep it under control. But so Mr Hamilton brought my father into the business. Mr Hamilton mentored my father. Mr Hamilton, my father, ended up being partners and when my dad died, they Mr Hamilton, my dad and I my mom and I should say and I had bought out Mr Hamilton, the individual owners of the company. My mom and dad owned 75%, I owned 25%, basically.
Jim Shorkey:But the only guy I could think of that really knew what to do was Mr Hamilton. Mr Hamilton had the boat, had the cars, had the houses, had the money, was very, very successful. So I went into Mr Hamilton's office and I told him point blank. I said Mr Hamilton, I'm lost, I don't know what I'm doing, I need help. And I asked him for a list of 10 things that I should be doing to be a successful automobile dealer. And so he called me James. He said James, let me think about that, come back tomorrow morning and I'll have a list for you. So I go back the next morning and he hands me this list, and it was neatly typed up. It was really cool. I wish I had it. I don't know what I did with it. I don't have it anymore. It's really should be framed and on a wall somewhere. But anyways, he hands me this list and I I looked at the list and I remember very, very consciously looking at the list and very quickly scanning the list and thinking I'm not doing anything on this list.
Jim Shorkey:Nothing, I wonder how I'm failing. I went back to the dealership and I started to do the things on that list One of them, by the way you business owners out there is cash is king. You've got to protect your cash. You've got to guard your cash. You've got to. You really got to be aware of how much cash you have. What is your day supply of working capital and things like this.
Jim Shorkey:So that was one of the biggies, and I didn't. I didn't know that and I learned it and I started to apply. But anyways, I did those 10, I started doing those 10 things, one at a time, and I could see the needle start to move in terms of my results. And so I did the 10 and I did the 10. Every day, every single day. I did these 10 things.
Jim Shorkey:And then I went back to Mr Hamilton for more ideas, more ideas, more ideas. He was, we had our own little mastermind alliance and I went to lunch with Mr Hamilton. I spent a lot of time with Mr Hamilton. I miss him. He did, in fact, die. And when with Mr Hamilton, there is no Jim Schroekie family auto group. And for those of you who are looking for evidence to what I say is true, just remember that date, 1998. And then Google Jim Schroekie family auto group. It is a huge company. It's $20 ships, it's over a thousand employees and I'm retired. I'm not involved anymore, but the legacy of my dad and Mr Hamilton lives on through that great organization.
Jim Shorkey:So that's what I learned from Napoleon Hill, and there were many, many other items. It's a really great book and, as I've said already, I read it 160 times. But that was a moment where I really wasn't sure. I really wasn't sure Can I do this? Can I be a success? Can I be a successful car dealer? Can I turn it around? I mean, did I have self doubt? You betcha, I betcha, I did.
Jim Shorkey:I had to turn it around. Excuse me because you got me emotional. I got to blow my nose. Excuse me real quick. That's okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for getting you emotional.
Dionne Malush:I like how you're emotional. I like that side of you. I see it, I've seen it a couple times over the years. But, we've had some emotions, for sure, but so let me tell you say this reading thing in garbage 160 times is no small feat. Can you share one principle from the book that has been the game changer for your success? And I know you always used to say there's one thing. So tell me what your one thing is today.
Jim Shorkey:Well, that's a hard question to answer, because there are. Napoleon Hill even tells you that there is a secret to the book and in my opinion, my humble opinion, there's many, many secrets to the book. One of the biggest it's really hard to say because it's so important, right? And that would be the six steps in the chapter on desire. You have to do those six steps and it's very clear cut. You've got to figure out what it is that you want and it's got to be clear and definite and distinct. You got to be able to draw a picture of it. You got to be able to have pictures of it if possible, like, if you want a certain card, get a picture of that card. You got to have a crystal clear idea of what it is that you want to have. Right, what is your goal? Very clear, very specific, and I've added this to it. I think it's really as important, if not more important, is you have to ask yourself this question so I want this such and such. What is your reason why? Why do you want this thing, this house, this boat, this certain amount of money, whatever that would be? What is your reason why?
Jim Shorkey:And I would propose to you today that if you don't, if your reason why, excuse me? Doesn't make you cry, you're probably on the wrong goal. And when I say cry, I do mean emotion. Not necessarily you break down and become hysterical, but it's got to make you emotional. You've got to put passion into this thing, you've got to put love into it and also hate Hates a good emotion.
Jim Shorkey:If I wanted to quit smoking, I would get very, very close to lung cancer and I would say what is that? How's it working? I hate that, I don't want that. And then that would motivate me to go do the things I need to do to quit smoking, because it's really not a good idea. So hate is a good emotion. It's programmed into us for a reason.
Jim Shorkey:So that's the step number one is to figure out what it is you want. Step number two is to figure out why you want it. Step number three for me, within those six steps, is to seek expert counsel. Find somebody who has done what you want to do successfully quit smoking and let's have a conversation. By the way, I don't smoke, so don't keep me saying that. Find somebody who's done what you want to do and have a conversation. That's the seek expert counsel and that person or people. You might go to four or five or six different people to find out what. That's what Napoleon Hill did. Napoleon Hill interviewed 500 of the wealthiest people in America over a 25 year stretch, and that's where the book thinking Goritch came from was the word was from those interviews.
Jim Shorkey:So, anyway, so so find out from expert counsel what is it that you should be doing to achieve your goal. And that becomes two things. One is your to do list. These are the things I need to do to hit my goal, based on expert counsel. Two is your to not do list and I think that's vitally important the to not do list and this is a wrinkle I put in that Napoleon Hill did not put in. So what is it that I need to do? What is it that I need to stop doing?
Jim Shorkey:And I learned so much from Mr Hamilton about that second list. Not that he gave me a list, but in our conversations he would maybe say something like, yeah, you can't do that. It's like I'm doing that, dang, I need to stop doing that. So what's my to do list? What's my to not do list? The next step will be to get into action every single day action, action, action, and the action produces the results. People will tell me that they're going to prey on it. I think praying is a good idea. I just don't recommend that you pray all day long. You might want to throw in a few push-ups, throw in a few crunches go for a mile walk, cut your expenses, put some money in the bank, different things like that.
Jim Shorkey:Praying is a very good idea, but it's not enough. It's not enough. The book is called Think. Okay, we get that and Grow, think and Grow. So we need to think and grow. We can't just think.
Jim Shorkey:Thinking all day long is going to mess you up. So we start doing the actions that Mr Hamilton recommended, or whomever, and then we start to produce results and then we have to analyze those results and if the results are good, that's a good probability that I have the right list. If the results are bad, it's a pretty good indication or probability that I have the wrong list or some of the things are wrong. So I go back and I look, and I go back and talk to expert counsel saying you know I'm doing this but I'm not getting the results. Here's what I'm doing. I'm misinterpreted. Number three that's not what I said, that's not what I meant. Here's how number three works. Oh, back to work. Go work on number three and the results continually will improve. And what's that? What that is called in the Jim Schroeky parlance is pivot P-I-V-O-T pivot. So when life hands us a certain set of circumstances that are unfavorable, we might have to consider pivoting. And so you say, yeah, but I did this for all these years and it works so well. Yeah, but the circumstances have shifted, so that's where we go back to expert counsel. So here's what I'm faced with. Yeah, I understand that letter campaign that you're doing, but people aren't opening up anymore. Letters aren't the answer. Here's the answer. So you got a new answer. That's the pivot and you start to. Covid-19 comes to mind, the businesses that understood the business. They did very well during COVID-19.
Jim Shorkey:I'm going to give you some accounting real quick, real quick, real quick. What a business person should do is they should look at their financial statement, their income statement. The income statement is a statement of income, outgo, bottom line, net profit or loss. And so when you look at your income statement, you should really look at your expenses on a monthly basis, including what you pay yourself. Add all those up, so my expenses let's just say, to pick a number let's say my expenses are $100,000 a month. So what does that mean? That means I'm spending $100,000 a month to run my business, including paying myself. That's just what it is. And so for you to be financially stable, you should have six months supply of working capital, which means that your bank accounts should reflect $600,000. Now that's pretty much bulletproof. The minimum you want to be at would be three months supply, which would be $300,000. So somewhere between three and six.
Jim Shorkey:Now, the businesses that didn't follow that prudent accounting advice when COVID-19 hit, the revenues dropped and they could not withstand it, so they went out of business. The people that really understood accounting. This is good times, bad times, it doesn't matter. Right now, if your expenses are 50 grand a month, you should have $300,000 cash on hand for six months supply, which six months supply makes you really, really stable. So remember, I said I had a negative, I was in trouble. So the companies that had that working capital on hand, they were okay. They could sustain the losses. The second thing that they did if they were smart is they execute a pivot. An example of a pivot is if you were in a restaurant business would be home delivery.
Dionne Malush:Okay, what a pivot. Yeah, they would have been right.
Jim Shorkey:People aren't coming in anymore. What am I going to do? Sit down and wait for them to come in, with no revenue? Yeah, I've got the right working capital, but there's going to come a time where I'm not going to have it anymore. So I had to execute a pivot.
Jim Shorkey:So the pivot would be the delivering of food to home. The pivot would to homes. Excuse me, the pivot would be upping my service, upping my quality, like everything is just going to be up, up, up, up up. So maybe before I had a, maybe my food was in was a B, which is pretty decent. I'm going to work on making it a B plus. I'm going to work on making it an A minus. I'm going to work on making an A plus, because that way people are going to say, hey, I got this pizza, this hamburger, whatever, from from Dion uh, uh, matt Dion's restaurant and it was great you should check these people and actually delivered it to me. It was so awesome. They said to be there in half an hour. They were here in 27 minutes. I'm telling you, these guys are great, these girls are great. So, so the pivot would be and, by the way, I did a pivot during the great recession and we knocked it out of the park.
Jim Shorkey:We knocked out the park. I developed what was called at the time, what I call it, a prosperity plan. I decided that I was going to profit during the great recession. Now, understand, this was the worst recession since the great depression. The auto industry went from 16 million new cars per year, I think it was down to 12 million or something like that. It was quite a loss Four million people. And I decided very early on. I said guys and girls, I don't want to talk to the four or five million people that aren't buying cars. I want to talk to the 11 million, 11 million people who are buying cars and I want to get my fair share Plus.
Jim Shorkey:Oh wait, there's a little. I'm going to take some of the some of the some of the competitions share too. So I want to get really, really aggressive. And what I did is it wasn't like I got aggressive with pricing, I got aggressive with service Service. I told my people, I said we are going to give these clients the best service in the history of the Jim Shrick and family owner group.
Jim Shorkey:And I did it intuitively because I knew that the typical automobile operator, business person in general, would be cutting back on that kind of a thing. We can't afford it right now. We're in a recession. So I wanted to do the opposite, and here's the point of the of the prosperity plan. I said to my people I said if somebody comes in here today with a dent in their car that was caused by another dealer, I want you to fix it. We're not going to argue, we're going to fix that dent. And we know we didn't do it. We were, we weren't even open, you never even been here before, but we're going to fix it because we wanted to make impressions. Well, what happened was the results. Results in the name of the game, right, results in the name of the game. That's what Napoleon Hill is telling us. Results in the name of the game. What happened was we were so busy that you couldn't get in the place.
Dionne Malush:We're busy doing fixing dents, or what were you busy? No, no, no just busy Right.
Jim Shorkey:Just busy, okay, not fixing dents. No, that that that really believe it or not, people are very, very, very reasonable. People do not command saying you know, I'm not going to name names this other dealer causes dent, I expect you to fix it. No, that's not what happens. People are very nice, very reasonable, very willing. My point was I want you to give them exemplary, the best ever service that we possibly can make an impression, and then I felt that the business would, would, would do well from there. Well, anyways, the the.
Jim Shorkey:The result of that was that you couldn't get into place. We actually had to bring P. Amy came in. My sister Mary came in just to talk to the customers. We couldn't get to everybody. We actually had one of our car washers, our car detailers, dan Garber, came up. We called him up from the back and said you know we need help. We just want you to talk to the customer, say hi, if they want to go for a ride, take it for a ride. We started this. Well, he's a full-time salesman though he is, isn't that wild?
Dionne Malush:So, cool. Yes, yeah.
Jim Shorkey:But all from the, from the prosperity plan. So we decided that I felt that if I was going to lose money which is what I kind of thought would happen it didn't, but I thought it, we actually made it. We made record profits. We made more money during the great recession than ever in the history of the Jim Shorkey family autograph, including one of my dad ran it. It was just incredible. But we, I said, if I'm going to, if I'm going to, if I'm going to lose money, which is, which was a high probability it was the greatest recession, recession since the Great Depression. I felt, okay, at least I'm going to do it by taking care of my customers. I'm going to do it by growing my business. I didn't want to cut back on inventories, I didn't want to cut back on advertising, I didn't want to cut back on anything. And it turned out my my again. My intuition told me that there's going to be deals out there. There's going to be deals on cars there were. There's going to be deals on advertising, because everybody starts advertising. It's like you get two ads for the price of one, and so I have my advertising, but I also got more bang for my buck, my bang for my buck. Everything got better in terms of the deals that were there to be had.
Jim Shorkey:Well then, this little thing happened. It was just a tiny little thing called cash for clunkers, cash wise Cash for clunkers Okay, president Obama thing, where they people brought their old cars in. It was a way to get the thing going. Well, guess who had all the cars? Guess, who had all the advertising. Guess who had all the firepower? Guess who had the who kept? I never laid anybody off, not one person. Guess, who had everything in line, so that when this thing did snap open, I would be ready to go yeah, see, cash for clunkers. Just, we hit it out of the park. We hit it out of the park. We were ready because I had, I had done a pivot and installed a prosperity plan.
Dionne Malush:And that's what happened.
Jim Shorkey:The guys are still the guys and girls are still using it today. They have it because it's it's I thought. I think you want to say, but at the very top of the prosperity plan. It said when nature hands you lemons, you make lemonade. That's the very top of it. That's the first statement on the prosperity plan. When nature hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
Dionne Malush:And we did we did, we really did, we really did and you're doing. It's amazing what you have accomplished, but one thing you said to me a years ago that I never forgot was we talked about it as having some bad times. I was going through and you told me you know, you can't live in the bad day. You can have a bad minute or a bad hour, but you can't make it consume you.
Jim Shorkey:Can you?
Dionne Malush:talk a little bit about that, because I think a lot of people they they live in it, they live in the bad days. And I don't my dad, I don't know if you know my dad passed away like five months ago.
Jim Shorkey:I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know that he was my person.
Dionne Malush:I love him so much and I miss him terribly.
Jim Shorkey:He gives me chills.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, and you know I it sucks because he's 55. I got to have him every day of my life, you know. So, but if I live in that and I don't honor him and do the best that I can from this point forward, what's it all for? So can you talk to the audience a little bit about why you shouldn't live in every day in that negative state? It's just not healthy. Number one and number two you have bad minutes, have bad hours, but don't have bad days and don't live.
Jim Shorkey:That's going to be. This is going to be a long one. I can tell you right now. Okay, so think and grow rich. Do you think that's true?
Dionne Malush:Yes.
Jim Shorkey:Think and grow poor. Do you think that's true? Yes, think and grow healthy. True or false? True Think and grow unhealthy. True Think and grow a happy marriage. True Think and grow an unhappy marriage.
Dionne Malush:Really true.
Jim Shorkey:Because it comes down to a very, very, very simple formula. It's called thoughts, feelings, actions, results. So we think at first, which creates an emotion, a feeling. We turn that feeling into specific actions based on expert counsel, and then we're going to produce results. And so it's really, really unfortunate that your dad died when he died. But if you stay in this negative quagmire you're going to get bad results. It's just, it's a formula. It's a formula You're going to get bad results. And so when this occurs let me back up a little bit.
Jim Shorkey:A year ago I had a really, really bad stroke. I had a hemorrhagic stroke. I had three brain bleeds. I had massively invasive surgery. I should have, could have, would have died. I should have, could have, would have died. And I'm in the hospital and I'm already thinking about goals. How do I get out of this? And I remember saying to the doctor who was my, Mr Hamilton. He did the surgery. I said Dr Rosella says what is the number one thing I can do to get healthy again? He said walking. Walking is the one of the most important things you can do. Guess how many steps I'm walking per day. On an average day for the past six months, 17,000 steps per day.
Dionne Malush:Per day.
Jim Shorkey:Per day, per day.
Dionne Malush:Incredible. Per day so how many do you walk in your first couple of weeks?
Jim Shorkey:I was on a walk, I was. I was zero. I was on a walker, I would. I was in a hospital. I walked down to the end of the hall and this is a hospital and the hall and back with the walker and I had to lay down. I had to lay down, I could. They had they tied me, like they wanted me to stand, so I'd stand for two or three, like, oh, jim, you're doing great, two or three minutes, three minutes, you're new record, three minutes and 25 seconds. And then go lay down and I had to do different tasks, like they had me. Like there was a box of bolts and I had to put the bolts together, a screwing bolt and then put that into a certain place and I had to stand to do that and I moved my arms and it was just so fatiguing. So, to answer your question, I really wasn't. I was walking with a walker, it was an assisted walking scenario and I was in your room.
Jim Shorkey:It was a year, A year ago yeah, when I came home I was walking with a walker around our little circle out here and very early on I said to Amy, I said I'm done, I'm done with this walker, I'm going to walk. And I did, I did and no more walker. And so I was involved with physical therapy at the hospital. You don't have a choice, you have to do it and so I'm doing this physical therapy. And I said to, and so then, to get ready for this, so I had to have the surgery. I had the stroke and then after that, the surgery. So there was a delay and so I had a physical therapist who specifically expert counsel again specifically get me ready for the surgery, and I was in a bad place. So I'm doing this physical therapy really hard and I decided on my own it was home physical therapy. I decided on my own Excuse me, sorry, this makes me emotional I decided on my own that I could sense that this physical therapy was really, really important. So I kept it going and I do physical therapy formally with a coach once a week and then I do physical therapy on my own and probably about four times per day and of course the walking is physical therapy.
Jim Shorkey:I'm doing so many things to bring myself back to great health, and actually so I got an offer the other day by the Murraysville Chamber of Commerce Dan I'm drawing the blank in his last name, excuse me, anyways, dan and so they want me to come speak, and I thought about that. I said I'm in, but I called. We had a conversation so far on the phone. This was an email and I said what do you want me to talk about? And he said well, I'd like you to talk about your journey in the automobile business. And I said well, let me give you an idea. I have. Give me a minute.
Dionne Malush:It's okay, it's okay.
Jim Shorkey:I said. I told him. I said I've read Think and Grow Rich 160 times and I'm actually using that book in my stroke recovery. I said so here's what I'm going to propose to you. I bought another book, this one here. If you don't think you can see this, nobody else can. But if you don't think I've read it.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, I know, because I have one of your books, don't you remember?
Jim Shorkey:Oh, I forgot, I do remember.
Dionne Malush:It's a book on my Eve of our wedding, your book.
Jim Shorkey:So get this. So I got this exact book from Amazon and we'll be here today. It's probably down there right now and I'm going to. I already know what I'm going to do and this is what this is important. It may not seem important, but it's really important. So I want to write on that book and I'll show it to you when I get it done. It's going to say 161 on the front cover and I want to put a circle around 161. And underneath that I'm going to write stroke recovery. And I'm aiming to go into Florida tomorrow and that's the only book I'm taking and I'm going to have a highlighter and I'm going to really focus on stroke recovery.
Jim Shorkey:And what can Napoleon Hill tell me about stroke recovery? Okay, the fact is he can tell me everything, because it's all the same. If you want to improve your marriage, it's in the book. If you want to improve your business, your finances, whatever it would be, your health, it's in the book. And he tells you that I'm not going to go looking for it because that takes time, but he tells you that he was actually speaking to Thomas Edison and he was talking about the six steps, and one of them being the statement, and reading it every day. And Thomas Edison said, yeah, this is absolutely solid. He said this is true for any goal. I'm not going to look at it, but anyways. So if you look at it, you'll see it in there. Thomas Edison, who you know? I don't know, I haven't invented anything. How about you?
Dionne Malush:No, not lately. I haven't.
Jim Shorkey:I haven't, I'm just a guy, I'm just a car salesman, a car Warned out old car salesman. So Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and all kinds of other stuff, the pharmacograph, all kinds of stuff, and at any rate he said that this is how you would achieve a goal of making money, but also any goal that you would have. This is how you would do it, and that was the statement. And you were asking, by the way, about the secret to the thinking garage. Most people miss this, but Napoleon Hill does say that auto suggestion is the keystone to the arch of this philosophy. And all the other principles Notice my choice of words All the other principles are to cause you to do auto suggestion. And what is auto suggestion? Auto suggestion is what are you reading, what are you writing, what are you saying to Jim Schorke, what are you viewing, who are you hanging out with and what are your actions? It's those six things. And so, through the process of auto suggestion.
Jim Shorkey:In my mind, the true secret to the book Is me convincing me that I can. That's the secret of the book for Jim Schorke Is me convincing me that I can. And so I'm going to enter into that process. When I go to Florida, I'll have the book on my hand. I'll start it on the airplane highlighter in hand. That's how I read. You know you have it. You can see it. It's not bullshit, by the way. Who told me to do that?
Dionne Malush:Probably Mr Hamilton.
Jim Shorkey:Nope. Come on, Dan, you're going to know this.
Dionne Malush:Carolina, who Chuck Nope Napoleon Hill? Yes, I got it, I just remember.
Jim Shorkey:I told you that. By the way I said, he told you to underline every word that means something to you.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, If the audience could see this, they would be amazed, and I will share a page out of Jim's book.
Jim Shorkey:I have I have taken up any part of this book.
Dionne Malush:And there's stop everywhere and you can read. You can read into Jim and his energy is all through the book. I love it so much. It's my favorite, amazing, amazing.
Jim Shorkey:Yeah, so anyways. So that's what I'm going to do, but I'm going to do it with the idea. I want to do it with the idea of my stroke recovery and because, believe it or not, recovering from a stroke is the same exact thing as building the Jim Schroek family auto group. It's the same thing. There's no difference. There's different disciplines of absolutely. If you want to run a marathon, there's things you need to do. If you want to build a bank account, there's things you need to do. They're different, they're different things, but it's the same idea.
Jim Shorkey:If you want to run a marathon, you find somebody that's running a marathon successfully. Sit down, have a conversation. Do you have a coach that I can maybe go see? Yeah, billy Bob, over here, he's an expert on coaching. I'm going to go see him. So he coaches me and he says well, here's what you need to do, jim. Guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to run a marathon. I don't want to run a marathon. By the way, that's what I would do. That's what I would do. That's what I've learned.
Dionne Malush:So let's pivot a little bit into coaching. So I know that together you and Chuck were doing coaching and you were training and teaching. So are you still doing that?
Jim Shorkey:Yes, yes.
Dionne Malush:Can you tell us a little bit about that and what that looks like? Because something about blueprint to success, eight step blueprint to success. Is that what you're working on?
Jim Shorkey:What's evolved? It's evolved. So what happened? Was you keep asking me these freaking questions that take a long time to answer?
Dionne Malush:I'm sorry, I'm not going to be living on time, but anyway.
Jim Shorkey:So what happened was, as this guy here, jim Shorkey, this Jim Shorkey guy who was like not for me but for other people, larger than a life guy like he's, this guy right, jim Shorkey? Oh, you're talking to Jim Shorkey, holy cow. Well, I got a lot of awards and I got a lot of pats on the back and I got a lot of hugs and a lot of handshakes and a lot of trophies and a lot of trips, all this different stuff. Like, yeah, you're amazing, jim, but I knew I never was really totally comfortable with that because I knew what happened and it wasn't me. Right, it wasn't me, it was Napoleon Hill, it was Mr Hamilton, it was Jim Rohn, it was Bob Proctor, it was all these different people that either I went to them or they came to me into my, whatever it was. But I had these mentors and I knew that it was the mentors and I was very uncomfortable with the idea that I was the guy I really was, because I knew what happened. I had great help. Mr Hamilton gave me that list. Without that list, there is no Jim Shorkey family auto group. So how important am I? Yeah, I was the guy that executed the list. But Mr Hamilton was the guy that provided the list.
Jim Shorkey:So I knew in my heart of hearts that someday or that, I knew in my heart of hearts that if I took this information to the grave with me, that I would be an incredibly selfish person, and I didn't want that energy, that karma, that I didn't want that in my life. I just didn't want to be that guy. So I decided, when I was before I retired from the automobile business. I decided that someday I'm gonna bring this to the world. I'm gonna bring what I know to the world, which I'm doing right now. I'm doing it right now. This is what this is all about. So I'm doing it right now. I wanna bring this message to the world, and so that's where this thing launched from, and so the program that we developed, which is available for purchase through the name of our little company, is called Results From Thinking. Chuck was involved in that part of it. Results From Thinking. The name of our program within Results From Thinking is called Rethink you, rethink you. The thinking that you have is what God should aware you are. In order to get to someplace different than where you are right now, you've got to rethink. You've got to rethink. All the masters for 5,000 years ago said this you've got to change your thinking. You asked earlier about how do I get out of this negative thing. Well, you just have to. I have to, you have to.
Jim Shorkey:When you get up in the morning and somebody says, somebody comes into your room, says and this happens when you were a little girl, it happened, I guarantee it it says rise and shine. How about we mean it? How about we mean it? Let's rise, let's go, let's get up, let's get moving and let's shine. Let's shine today.
Jim Shorkey:I know your dad died five days ago, but your dad wants you to shine today. I want you to shine. So let's shine. Let's do something good for the world, let's do something good for our community, let's do something good for our partner, whoever that would be. And it's hard, this is not easy stuff. It's not easy. But what else would you do, what else would your dad if you could have a? I know you can have a spiritual conversation with your dad today and I want you to do that. But what if you could have a? Like, pick up the phone call, excuse me, pick up the phone, call your dad and say dad, what should I do? I'm very sad You're not here. I miss you, I love you, I want to hug you. I want to have dinner with you. What should I do? And he would say something to the effect of Deon, get your head out of your ass and get to work, go sell a house today.
Jim Shorkey:That's what I want you to do. In order to do that, you better have the right ad to. In order to do that, you better have the right strategy. In order to do that, you better come with your A game, and that's what he would want you to do.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, he wants me to be the best of me. So let me ask you a question, because I think this is important for a lot of people that are having adversity, and I feel like I'm at this point where I'm just about to bust through to the next level, but I feel something is stopping me. So when you're talking about rethinking right, where would I start? What is one thing you can tell me to say okay, deon, tomorrow I want you to start here to rethink how you're going to get through to the next level of where you're going, because I feel like I've fulfilled everything at this point. I'm ready to bust through. I just don't know how to get through.
Jim Shorkey:I doubt that very much. I doubt that very much. I don't care what you tell me. If you tell me you're out of gas, you're not. You're not. The human body, the human brain, is an incredible edifice. You think you're out Like if you're doing exercise, for example.
Jim Shorkey:I'm exhausted, I can't go any further. There's more in a tank. There's always more in a tank. So you're not out. You're not, so you can do more. But that said, the questions that I would ask. I would always go back to thinking grow rich. And I would ask myself these questions. Number one do I have a clear, distinct goal? And Napoleon Hill tells us this. Is it clear? Is it distinct? Well, I've achieved everything I want to achieve, ok. Well, what's next then? What's next? Do you want a bigger boat, bigger car? Do you want more money in your bank account? Do you want to go to Europe? But what's next? You've got to have a goal. So let's start here. Let's start here. I'm driving the car, you're in the passenger seat. I pull up to an intersection. I say, dion, where do you want to go? And your answer is I don't really care. Well, guess what? Left or right doesn't matter.
Dionne Malush:It doesn't matter.
Jim Shorkey:Doesn't matter. So, no matter what the circumstance, we have to have a clear, defined goal. Maybe it's grieving. So go get a grieving expert and you find all these ideas and it's like holy cow, these are good ideas. Let me do that. Maybe there's something Buy a book on grieving. What should I do to get this thing turned around? Maybe that would be the goal to become more comfortable with your father's passing. It doesn't mean you're going to celebrate, it doesn't mean you're going to have some kind of a party, but you've got to get more comfortable, comfortable with that, and there are people out there that are really experts in the right books. So I'll show you how to do this. Watch this. So I'm going to go. I'm on the internet, all right, hold on Hold, on, hold on Hold on Google, ok, oops, I'm not real good with this stuff. Grieving process let's see what it says Every time you want.
Dionne Malush:Every time. Let me see. I can't see Grieving process. I see it. What's it say, don't look you have to hold it up. I can't see Five stages right there. There are five stages of what you can expect, according to the experts. So that's just that easy, or do you want to know now? Yeah, it's that easy, it's that easy.
Jim Shorkey:So I'm going to get me. I'm going to go get that, and that's going to lead me to something else on the other, and maybe it would lead to a foundation, or maybe it would lead to a normal problem. I don't know, maybe it would lead to a walk in the woods. Whatever they tell me to do, they're the experts. And I didn't do that. I didn't know. You were going to ask me that. I just did that. I did that. You know, rod Little.
Dionne Malush:I don't.
Jim Shorkey:He's a top dog therapy. He's hooked up with Omar.
Dionne Malush:OK, yeah, of course yeah.
Jim Shorkey:Well, it's the same. They're working with veterans and I was at one of his meetings and I'm listening to this total freaking BS and I'm like, at the end of the thing I said to Rod, I said, rod, this isn't for me, there's just too much excuse making. Jim Rohn said life is part difficult. Life is not all difficult.
Dionne Malush:Part difficult.
Jim Shorkey:Life is part difficult. Life is not all difficult. If you think life is difficult, you're wrong. You're wrong, you're wrong. It's not difficult. It's not. It's part difficult.
Dionne Malush:Right.
Jim Shorkey:You know you've already won. You talk about victories. Are you into victories? You're into winning.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, absolutely, are you into?
Jim Shorkey:hitting goals.
Dionne Malush:Yes.
Jim Shorkey:You've already won the biggest race you're ever going to win. You'll never duplicate this, never. You can't do it. You can't beat this race that you've already won. Do you know what it is?
Dionne Malush:No.
Jim Shorkey:There's this little thing that entered your mother's body called a sperm.
Dionne Malush:Yeah.
Jim Shorkey:There's a gazillion of them and yours won, and if another one won, you're a guy.
Dionne Malush:Whatever?
Jim Shorkey:I wouldn't give. You there's no, you there's no you.
Dionne Malush:I guess the world is so lucky that that's sperm. Well, you know what?
Jim Shorkey:No, no, no. The world, yeah, the world's lucky to have you, Of course, of course, but you're lucky to have you, you're right. You know the odds of you being from that come on, we're adults. That act of sex between your mother and your father, the odds of you being the result, are some look it up Some like a billion to one or something. It's crazy, crazy. And so you've already won the biggest race you're ever going to win. You were born let's. You know, really, what you need to do is you need to give your dad a call today and thank him. And is your mom still living?
Dionne Malush:Yeah, she's living with me now.
Jim Shorkey:I want you to call your mom today and thank and just thank her, and she's going to say what are you talking about? Are you going goofy, dion? I want to thank you for the fact that I'm here. I was just talking to a good friend of mine and he pointed it out to me and I never really thought about it that way before.
Dionne Malush:But, mom, that's a new one.
Jim Shorkey:Dang, I love you dearly and I love dad and I miss dad. But you know what? I'm still. I'm happy for him because without him and you, there is no me. You know, there's no me. There's no Jason Because you wouldn't. You wouldn't be here to meet him. There's no Jason, there's no Rialty one, there's nothing, nothing. All this stuff vanishes without that victory, bullshit, stop.
Dionne Malush:I'm good. I'm just asking you for the for the listeners. I'm good.
Jim Shorkey:I'm sorry. Well, these are triple questions.
Dionne Malush:I'm doing good I am.
Jim Shorkey:You know it's hard, you know you know, you know I'm rousing you, but at the same time. Do it? Don't you talk about an attitude of gratitude? The ultimate gratitude is the fact that you're here, and you know what? You could have also been born someplace else. You're born in America. America, we hit the. We hit a home run, sweetie, we hit a home run, we're in America.
Dionne Malush:So let me ask you this. So, for those inspired by your story and want to learn more, how do they get in touch with you?
Jim Shorkey:Well, my email is is Jim Schorke. Okay, all one word 1957, which is my date of birth, or my year, fourth year she'd be.
Dionne Malush:So Jim Schorke 1957 at gmailcom.
Jim Shorkey:Okay, the name of the company results from thinking. We're on Facebook very aggressively and we have we have a program called rethink you, which you can find it there and it's uh, I'm not sure I really stay out of it. I, because I I you know, as you know, dion, I'm the One of the world's greatest sales. I'll drive you crazy and I I just really try to stay away from Salon per se because I just feel like it's up to you to say I'm gonna go get this thing right. Yeah, so Derek runs all kinds of specials, derek Kelly, you know Derek, so Derek Kelly would be, you know you can set that up, but it's results from thinking and that the program is called rethink you. It's all one word. I like that. Read that all.
Jim Shorkey:Great website is great. Yeah, I'm doing a good job. Okay, so that's it.
Dionne Malush:And then you.
Jim Shorkey:I'm sorry you've been on the website.
Dionne Malush:I have. Well, because I subscribed a long time ago. I've been a subscriber for many years of you, so, yeah, I know exactly where it's at. I pulled up and I will share that on my post. So I just want to say you know, you've had an incredible journey and you've had some good times and you've had some really difficult times. Last year was difficult, but difficult time. It wasn't a difficult life right there. So I hear what you're saying and it makes so much sense for the serve, from the depth of challenges to the peak of success. Jim's story is a testament to the power of resilience, strategy and the right mindset. Remember, success is not just about what you achieve, but how you achieve it. If you're inspired to take your own steps toward greatness, connect with us on social media and share your journey. And, jim, I Am so thankful for you in my life I don't really know if you know how much you help me.
Jim Shorkey:I don't, I don't, I don't, but I'm grateful for you saying that. I will say that.
Dionne Malush:I was in a such a different place before I met you and I remember getting on Facebook trying to find you and I Heard that you had read thinking very rich a lot by that. That time is that was you probably read it 40 times at that point and I've heard about it. And so I reached out and I found you on Facebook and I didn't answer and I was like man, how do I find him? And then one day, I don't know how we connected, but we ended up meeting in Irwin and having, you know, having time together, and from that point I was, I was addicted, addicted to Jim and Chuck it was careful here.
Jim Shorkey:Now it's a mental addiction. My best girl, my best buddy, we're two, we in Barry. Yeah, baron Cody other there. There one and that's what they have on bark. One time I was gonna say something. Okay, so People hear this, not Name. Jim Schorke has read this book 160 times. Who told me to do that?
Dionne Malush:Napoleon Hill that's correct.
Jim Shorkey:He said keep reading the pieces before you put it down. Read it from cover to cover and then read it again, because then you're not gonna want to stop. And so I've got a massive chill in my body right now, but I experienced that. I read it and I read it and I read it and I was Actually kind of afraid to stop Because it worked so darn well that I thought I'm gonna jinx this thing. So that's what happened.
Jim Shorkey:I just kept reading it and reading and reading it and so, interestingly enough, the hand that picks up, think and grow rich and Reads it like I have one time Highlighting and starring and doing following the directions exactly. Do you realize that the hand that puts the book down is not the same hand? It's a different hand that changes, and I mean that figuratively speaking. So the person that puts the book down is not the same person, because they've read it and they're starting to do the six steps, and they're doing these, the auto suggestion, all these things, so they're changing. So do you realize that when you read it the second time, it's not the same book because you're not the same person? You're seeing a different message as you read it that second time and you do it again and I actually have read the book like I. Like you heard me say 160 times and I guarantee you Because I'm not the same guy today, that I was a year ago when I read it for 161, with my stroke recovery in mind.
Jim Shorkey:I'm gonna come across some wards and I'm gonna, I'm gonna have the book on my hand, I'm gonna be reading, I'm gonna say what's this? I never read this. What I don't remember? This holy kind of stick has your brain changes. So it will be a different reading. It'll be a stroke recovery reading and I'm excited about it. I truly am. It'll be 161 and I'm gonna. I'm gonna keep reaffirming in my brain that the the Jim Shrugger family auto group, as we know it today, is An outgrowth of thinking grow rich and and a lot of other things, mr Hamilton, a lot of stuff, the team, the whole thing. But I can tell you that the same thing, that same things excuse me that made me successful in the automobile business Are gonna make me successful with my stroke recovery. And I can already tell you, when I meet people like I'm meeting you right now, they're like you didn't stroke.
Dionne Malush:Yeah, it's hard to believe.
Jim Shorkey:I can remember this. This is true. I'll call. I know it, we're done. I'll tell you Chuck Baleena story. I know how much you loved Chuck.
Jim Shorkey:So I'm sitting at my other house I mean our old, old house you were there very bush drive. I'm sitting in the dining room table with Chuck Baleena and I'm talking about bankruptcy a minute. And I read people really well. That's part of the gift of being a salesperson. I can read body language really well. And I said to Chuck you can? You can ask Chuck, if this is true. You don't believe me, do you Come on? Yeah, you're salesman. You tend to exaggerate. Okay, that's, I'm gonna call my cotton right now.
Jim Shorkey:So I put the phone in the middle thing called Tom, you can, who's my content? I said. I said Tom. I said this is Jim's work. I said I'm sitting here with Chuck Baleena. I want you to know your own speakerphone, so let's not do any f-bombs, okay. Every other war with them was, if there's that, you know, no f-bombs, right, okay? So I said. I said to Tom.
Jim Shorkey:I said let me ask you a question, tom. When you came to be my accountant in 1998, that was one thing I had to do. My my previous account was not reporting properly to me so I didn't, which was my fault too. But I got a new accountant based on a recommendation. So, tom, you was my new account. Unfortunately he has since passed, but he was a. We were buddies. So I said, tom, I said let me ask you a question. When you came to the dealership back in 1998, was I bankrupt? The imminent. He started laughing. He said oh man. He says you were way beyond that. You're ready to fall off a cliff? Oh, my goodness, you were. It was bad. It was really really, really bad. And I said, okay, right, you heard that, chuck. I said did you, did you think I was gonna make it? And his exact words, I quote him no chance in hell no chance.
Jim Shorkey:You're not making, you weren't getting out of that. No chance in hell. I said, did I make it? And Again he's laughing boy, did you ever man? Did you ever? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you made it done. You made it, man. So I'm emotional again.
Jim Shorkey:It was a emotional experience, but that's why, when I speak about thinking grow rich, I, I don't believe that it works. I don't believe that it works. I know that it works, you are it.
Jim Shorkey:There's a strong difference between believing and Knowing. I know that it works, just like when I I'm pointing out the window here right now. I know that if I take this book and I drop it out my window, I know I don't have faith. There's no faith. I know it's gonna drop I. I know that it's called the law of gravity. Right, I know that thinking Grow Rich works. The trick is, the key is, the secret for me is you've got to dot the i's across the t's. You've got to do everything this man tells you to do and one of the things perhaps the people that have read the book haven't done when you get to the chapter on the, on auto suggestion, he tells you that's the keystone to the art of this philosophy and all the other principles that cause you to do auto suggestion, and he tells you to read that chapter out loud every night, underlining with a pencil what you feel to be is important, and so I'm going to walk you through this.
Dionne Malush:You guys can't see this, but I can. There's two pages. There's lines everywhere, highlighters everywhere.
Jim Shorkey:Second, two pages. Third, two pages. Fourth, two pages. Fifth, two pages Actful.
Dionne Malush:Lots of lines.
Jim Shorkey:Last page and the last page. This is the only chapter. So I want you to think about this, ladies and gentlemen. This is the only chapter that he tells you to do this. He doesn't tell you and that's what I didn't like about some of my mentors, like they've got me reading the chapter on persistence. Napoleon Hill didn't tell you to do that.
Dionne Malush:No he did.
Jim Shorkey:Don't you read this chapter? And here's what he says at the end Follow the foregoing instruction to the letter and it will open the way for a complete understanding and mastery of the principles of success. To the letter. I did that. I did that. Proof positive, I can prove it. And I wrote. I said master, I wrote master. This is my own writing, Oops.
Dionne Malush:I see.
Jim Shorkey:Get that over there. They get it. You see the red, see you. Ok, I see, I'll read it to you. So it says mastery of the principles of success. That's Napoleon Hill's quote.
Jim Shorkey:Number one this happened to me. This is Jim Shorke's writing. Number two this is happening to me right now. The right now is underlined. Number three this will happen to me in the future. I believe this. I'm just reading this right now. I don't even know I'm reading this. I wasn't planning on reading this. I just discovered it right now. Holy shit, excuse my fringe. Number three this will happen to me in the future. I believe this Strong faith. I am 100% convinced of this. Ie Right there. I know this. Look at it, I see it. I know this and that's what I just said. And I didn't know that. I didn't know that was written there. I mean, I forget, right, right. So I do know this and I know that it worked and I know that it will work for you as well. Anybody that wants to really take this thing on the guy interviewed 500 of the wealthiest people in America over 25 years stretch. I mean it's expert counsel. That's the book expert counsel.
Dionne Malush:Great. Well, thanks, jim, and I'm going to go and thank you guys for listening. This has been an awesome having you, jim, I adore you and I miss you guys.
Jim Shorkey:I adore you as well. I do. You're my buddy. Thank you, everybody.