- About the Book

THE INVISIBLE PATH TO SUCCESS:
Seven Steps to Understanding and Managing
The Unseen Forces shaping Your Life
by Robert Scheinfeld

If you've ever wondered why self-help techniques don't work for you (such as meditation, self-talk, or even the seven habits of highly-effective people), you'll appreciate this book. After two decades designing and facilitating self-help programs, Scheinfeld wondered *why* so many people don't get the results they expect. The answer is in this book.

So are the answers to many other questions, like how to get through difficult times, how to bring good people into your life, how to build a career that matches your spirit. Scheinfeld finds his answers by looking beyond surface events to their underlying causes. He brings these concepts to life using simple language and modern metaphors such as the Internet and the movies. The end result is an elegant, practical process for directing our life experiences and steering ourselves along a personal path to success.

Scheinfeld's book, written months ago, describes a world in which we're all stars in movies of our own making. He uses the metaphor of a motion picture to describe a life process where we all get to write the script, but we don't always get to call the shots. He uses the Internet as a metaphor for an information network where producers send out casting calls.

Scheinfeld begins "The Invisible Path to Success" with a very unusual premise. A 23-year designer and facilitator of self- help programs, the author explains exactly why these programs don't work for most people and, even when they do work, why the benefits don't last. Most self-help courses, says Scheinfeld, leave people blaming themselves when they don't achieve the health, wealth, and romantic success promised.

Scheinfeld helps readers understand the unseen forces that shape our lives. He explains how we unconsciously attract problems into our lives, and how to handle the set-backs that inevitably come. Using modern metaphors like the Internet and
the movies, Scheinfeld describes a simple but elegant process for directing our life experiences and steering ourselves along a personal path to success.

 

Copyright ©1998 by Robert Scheinfeld, all rights reserved. Please request permission from the author or publisher before duplicating or distributing this file. Thank you.

- Excerpt

 

THE INVISIBLE PATH TO SUCCESS:
Seven Steps to Understanding and Managing
The Unseen Forces shaping Your Life

by Robert Scheinfeld

INTRODUCTION

"The Invisible Path to Success" is a beautifully-written book that takes a fresh look at life's big questions and arrives at practical answers. This book will help free you from your fears so that you can walk more confidently down the path toward your personal definition of success.

The book is divided into two halves: 1) discovering the invisible path to success, and 2) navigating it. The excerpt, below, is taken from the second of seven steps toward discovering the invisible path. It discusses one of the most important concepts developed in the book and gives a good idea of the author's writing style.

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TAKE YOUR SEATS TO THE BEST SHOW IN TOWN

by Robert Scheinfeld

I'm going to spend a lot of time on this step before moving on, because it's the absolute key to discovering and navigating The Invisible Path to Success.

Do you like movies? I'm going to assume you answered yes because so many people I talk to like them. If for some reason you don't like movies, follow along anyway. You'll still see the point I'm trying to make.

So you like movies. Why? Think about it.

When I talk to people from all over the world, they tell me there are four main reasons they like movies:

1. They're fun.
2. They provide an escape from your daily routine.
3. You learn and grow from them.
4. You experience different points of view and have different experiences.

If you come up with another reason, let me know and I'll add it to the list. My address is at the end of this file.

Interestingly, a movie is not what I call a "total immersion experience." No matter how good it is, no matter how involved you are, you know you're in the theater; you're aware of your chair, the other people, and the screen. What is most important, while you get a glimpse, you don't know what the people up on the screen are really thinking or feeling. There's a distance, a barrier between you and them -- a barrier between you and *their* experience.

What if I told you I could take you to a very special movie theater where you'd temporarily forget who you were and totally immerse yourself in any character, story, subject, or experience that interested you. You could actually become the other characters for a while -- think what they think, know what they know, do what they do, experience what they experience -- then come back out of the movie and be yourself again, but be incredibly changed and enriched by the experience.

I'm talking about going way beyond what's now being called virtual reality. I'm talking about totally immersing yourself in any adventure, any character, or any kind of experience that interests you.

You could be the President of the United States, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback, a gold medal-winning athlete, a billionaire, a spy behind enemy lines, a musician, a serial killer, a parent of twins, a general leading an army into battle, a spiritual leader, a researcher trying to solve our pollution problems -- anything that interests you. Anything!

It doesn't need to be grand or dramatic, either. It can be simple and low-key too. There are no judgments here. It's just about what interests you.

You'd actually become one of these characters -- temporarily -- and think everything he thinks, feel everything he feels, say everything he says, be everything he is, and do everything he does. You'd be totally safe and protected so no harm could come to you.

Would you want to go to a movie theater like that? Would you want to experience a total immersion movie adventure like that?

Again, I'm going to assume you said yes because just about everybody I talk to would love to -- as long as they knew they'd be absolutely safe.

If for some reason you wouldn't like to have an experience like that, please continue reading. You'll find tremendous benefit from this line of thinking anyway.

Earth represents the same experience. Think of it as a very special kind of amusement park where three-dimensional, total immersion movies are filmed and where you can choose to totally immerse yourself in any character or experience that interests you.

Stop and think about that for a few seconds.

Many systems of thought -- especially the more metaphysical, new age, or mystical ones -- say Earth is a school. They say we come here to learn lessons, and as we learn them we're allowed to go to more advanced levels.

What do you think of when you think of school? Tests? Pressure? Someone else grading or judging your performance? Someone else deciding what you will or will not study, what you will or will not learn to do? Someone else deciding your daily schedule, whether you graduate, stay where you are, or flunk out?

That idea doesn't make sense to me. I prefer the concept of an amusement park. What do you think of when you think of an amusement park. Consider Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for example. You can go there to study the cultures of other countries at Epcot Center. You can visit the educational pavilions to learn about the human body, Earth's oceans, imagination and creativity, technological innovations, and many other subjects. You can also experience rides and other attractions that scare you, make you laugh, smile, and get your adrenaline flowing.

You go to an amusement park purely out of choice, don't you? You usually go with people you enjoy being with. You go to have fun. You go to explore what you want to explore, do what you want to do, learn what you want to learn. You can go on all the rides or attractions, repeat them over and over again, anything you want. You go when you want to go and you leave when you want to leave. You can return any time.

It's a totally different approach than a school and is the only approach that helps you discover and navigate The Invisible Path to Success.

When it comes to "real life" movies, we like dramas, comedies, romances, horror stories, adventure, action, thrillers -- every kind of subject there is.

Go into a bookstore. There are titles on every conceivable subject. Look at all the things being explored, studied, discussed, and shared on the Internet.

Read the daily newspaper and monthly magazines. Watch or listen to the news. All over the world you see people exploring everything that can possibly be explored. You see people totally immersing themselves in every kind of experience imaginable.

Now think back to why you go to movies in the first place.
The reasons were:

1. They're fun.
2. They provide an escape from your daily routine.
3. You learn and grow from them.
4. You experience different points of view and have different experiences.

I call these four things your "inner experiences." Why? Because they all go on inside of you. Having fun is a feeling you have inside. Having an "escape" from your daily routine is a feeling that happens inside of you. Learning, growing, and experiencing different points of view are mental experiences, thought experiences, and feeling experiences, and they happen inside you, too.

If you really think about it, you don't go to a movie, read a good novel, or go to a football game because of what you see with your eyes and hear with your ears. It really doesn't matter if you're seeing an action film, a drama, or a romance movie. It doesn't really matter if the novel is set in modern times or ancient times or if someone lives, dies, or makes a million dollars. It doesn't really matter if the football team scores ten points or fifty points.

What matters is what's happening in your inner experience -- what you think, what you feel, and what you learn.

Stop and consider that for a few seconds. What goes on *inside* of you is more important than what goes on *outside* of you.

I used to teach this at seminars. I'd ask someone in the audience to tell me something they really wanted in their lives that they didn't have right now. People would say more money, a new job, a new house, a new car, a new relationship.

I'd then ask, if they got what they wanted, what would it give them? When I asked the question enough times and peeled away enough layers, it always came down to a feeling they really wanted -- peace of mind, more self-confidence, a sense of adventure, happiness, love -- the list went on and on.

It was always an inner experience they really wanted, and the money, job, house, car, or relationship was just a possible pathway to the inner experience. It's the same with you and me and everybody else.

I recently saw the movie "Twister," which I really liked. I read a lot of reviews of the movie that criticized it for being unrealistic. Experts said it didn't reflect what really happens with tornadoes. You know what? It doesn't matter!

For the most part, people didn't care. They enjoyed what the movie created in their *inner experience*. That's why they went and why so many people enjoyed it.

That's why you came to Earth in the first place. That's all you're after in your life. Your purpose is:

TO TOTALLY IMMERSE YOURSELF IN SITUATIONS THAT INTEREST YOU AND TO EXPLORE THE INNER EXPERIENCES -- THE THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, AND LEARNINGS -- THAT RESULT.

When the Disney Corporation decided to build Disneyland in California and, later, Disney World in Florida, management got together and decided what rides and attractions they'd offer the public. They still meet from time to time to decide what new attractions to add or old attractions to update and remodel.

It's the same with us here on Earth. Everyone who was involved in the creation of this amusement park got together and decided what kinds of "rides" and "attractions" would be offered -- what kinds of three-dimensional, total immersion movie adventures would be offered.

Just like the folks at Disney, from time to time we add rides, eliminate rides, and update or remodel the old faithfuls.

Everyone is equal -- in power, intelligence, and creative ability. If someone has more money than you, appears smarter than you, or appears to be a better athlete, a better musician, or a better businessperson, it's because they choose those circumstances, or they chose to develop those skills so they could explore what they wanted to explore.

It was a simple decision, and then the movie-making machine (which we'll be talking about later) clicked in and created their situation for them.

You could have created the same exact experiences for yourself. You still could -- if it interests you enough.

Copyright ©1998 by Robert Scheinfeld, all rights reserved. Please request permission from the author or publisher before duplicating or distributing this file. Thank you.

About the Author

For more than 20 years, Bob Scheinfeld has been helping marketers and other entrepreneurs create extraordinary results, in less time, with less effort, and much more fun. His passion is helping others carve out and live what he calls their "Ultimate Lifestyle."

Bob captivates audiences through his unique and memorable personal stories of entrepreneurial success, teaching them the lessons from his own rich life.

Bob is the grandson of Aaron Scheinfeld, who founded Manpower Inc., the world's largest temporary help service. Manpower is currently #176 on the Fortune 500 list with sales of $11 billion a year. When Bob was just 12, Aaron began teaching him his little known wealth building secrets—but passed away before he could finish explaining the complete system. Bob spent the next two decades applying what he learned, and scrambling to gather up the missing pieces of how his Grandfather amassed his wealth.

Along the way Bob became a millionaire (and self-proclaimed stressed-out maniac), plunged more than $150,000 in debt, and spent seven years struggling before discovering the missing pieces, re-building his business empire, becoming a multi-millionaire, and beginning to live what he now calls "The Ultimate Lifestyle."

His journey of triumph over confusion, anger, and desperation qualifies him as an undisputed expert in the arena of business success and personal fulfillment.

Bob is the bestselling author of The Invisible Path to Success and The 11th Element. He's also an 11-year veteran of applying cutting edge sales and marketing strategies and has had in-the-trenches experience of creating profitable million dollar businesses (on and off the Internet).

Most recently, Bob helped grow Blue Ocean Software from $1 million to $44 million in less than four years, resulting in the company being named three times to the Inc. Magazine Inc. 500 list. That tremendous growth, accompanied by outrageous profitability, led to Blue Ocean being acquired by software giant Intuit for $177 million.

He also played a key role in growing a computer store franchise company called Connecting Point of America from $90 million to $350 million in sales. In addition, the marketing model and system Bob created has been used to pack the room at Tony Robbins multi-media seminars.

Bob’s keynote speeches, seminars, books, audios, and other learning resources have helped tens of thousands of people in more than 170 countries transform their definitions of success, and the pathways they follow to create success in their lives. Here are a few of their success stories.

More than providing another "rah-rah" motivational "pump up job" that doesn't last, an interaction with Bob empowers you to see with unusual clarity, act with newfound confidence, and optimize the results you produce in your life and work.

He'll get you on-track, laser-focused, and tapping into a new kind of power to produce the total success you've been searching for.

 

Copyright ©1998 by Robert Scheinfeld, all rights reserved. Please request permission from the author or publisher before duplicating or distributing this file. Thank you.