Step number ten says we continue to take personal inventory. And when we’re wrong, promptly admitted it. Now, I do not believe that this means I don’t see how a man can fall out of a chair when he’s sitting in it. Can you? I don’t me- believe this means that we go back through our lives and redo the step four. I think this means that we look at our day. How closely are we living according to these principles today? How are we doing today? Step ten has been very, very, very important to me because up until the time I got into this program, there was no way that I could say, “I don’t know.” There’s no way I could say, “I don’t know,” particularly in business. People say, “I don’t know” in business. They ask you anything, and you answer. Yeah. No way could I say, “I don’t know.” I’m quite sure that if you’d asked me to explain Einstein’s theory, I’d explained it. If you asked me how God created the Earth, I’d have told you. And I’d very likely would’ve said, “Now, on the third day, we did thus and so.” I couldn’t say, “I don’t know.” I came to the program, and I learned that the truth was the most powerful thing on Earth by doing the things that the program told me to do, just by doing them. In business, I learned to say, “I don’t know, but that question’s important. Tomorrow I’ll know the answer to it.” And tomorrow I did. In anything where I didn’t know, I said, “I don’t know.” And that’s very easy because you don’t have to remember what you said when you don’t tell them something that you don’t know. You don’t have to remember. Tell them the truth. You don’t have to remember it. Another thing is I was wrong. Hell, I didn’t go around saying I was wrong. I think I told you this morning. Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken. Now, the 24th day of June of this year, if we live, and unless she don’t divorce me between now and then, we allow 50 years, a double harness. A little time out for bad behavior. And I catch myself now saying to my wife, “I was wrong. You were right all the time.” I would’ve sworn that I was right, but I was wrong all the time. Now, that’s awful, you know. You’ve married the same broad for 50 years and tell her you’re wrong. Isn’t that awful? But it’s real good. It’s real good because you’re comfortable. When you do it that way, you’re comfortable. The most powerful thing on the face of the Earth is the simple, unadulterated truth, so much so that somebody said one time, “Know the truth, and the truth will make you free. The truth will make you free.” And in all of our affairs, this holds true, in business, in play, in family, in anything, the works. I’ve known many over the years, particularly those who have become, and maybe still are, so-called circuit speakers, who have felt that a little embellishment might make their story more interesting, so they gotta build it up a little. And first thing you know, they’re drunk. Or they get to thinking they’re big in the program. You know, they’re experts in this program because people tell them how good they are, and they believe the press. And the next thing you know, they’re drunk. You can’t get big in this program of ours. No way. If you and I could’ve handled this deal, we would have done so, and we would not be members of Alcoholics Anonymous. We had plenty of time. I had 43 years to run my life, during which time I was the star of the show and the director of energies. And I gave it my best shot. All my wit and wisdom I put in, and I lost. I lost. As I told you, at the ripe old age of forty-three, I was a failure as a husband, a father, a businessman, a man, and a drunk. And that’s all the departments I had. If I’d had any more departments, I’d have been a failure in those, too. That’s all. And I take credit for that. The last twenty-nine years, I take no credit for at all. I thank God. And you. And maybe I should put it the other way. I thank you and God. Because it was people like you that rocked me to sleep on my first night. And it was living with people like you that I came to see that I had a God of my very own. And I didn’t even know when it took place. So in my thinking, maybe I should say first that I’m grateful to you, and then I’m grateful to God. It don’t make any difference to me because I have come to see that God is people. God is people. And so it don’t make any difference. Now, in all of our affairs, means is home. You see, the sa– thing that makes this program work for us is Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share, who share their experience, strength, and hope, one with another in love. Who share. There are very few people in Alcoholics Anonymous that’ll tell you anything. We don’t tell. We share. I have a guy that calls me “sponsor,” who tells. And he makes it stick pretty good. I tell him, says I to him, I says, “You’re not even a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is made up of people who share. You don’t share with anybody. You tell them. But whatever you do, keep doing it.” Because I go over there on his birthday, and there are sixty-five sober kooks in his backyard. Sixty-five of them. And every one of them are his babies. And every one of them are people I couldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. And they’re sober. So whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. The society could not do without one classy. But if it had two, it’d wreck the whole goddamn business. Now, I shared when I had discovered I was sober. I started sharing with drunks. I like to think of it like this. Many of you have heard me t– say this before. I like to think of me as a glass of dirty water, a dirty glass full of dirty water. And during my drinking days, I was always knocking it off, quitting. Every time it got too bad, I’d quit. And when you quit, it was like pouring out the dirty water. And now you got an empty glass, and it’s dirty and empty. And it can only be empty so long, and you gotta fill it again. And you fill it back up with dirty water. When I came to the program, I didn’t quit. I haven’t quit drinking yet. And I came with a dirty glass full of dirty water. And at the first meeting, a little stream of clear water started running in there. And I liked it, and I came back and came back, and the little stream of clear water kept running in. And after a while, I discovered that the glass was clean, and the water was clean, and the glass was full. And then I had to start trying to give it away. And it was only kept to the drunk because the drunks gave it to me. And I shared with the drunks. And as time went on, she started straightening up. And eventually, it was straight. And the water was still running in because I’m still going to meetings, the clear water. And then it was spilling in all directions to whomsoever will. Isn’t it good? And I shared with lots of people, Jews, Gentiles, and Greeks, Blacks, whites, all kinds of people. I shared. But my youngest son, I told. I didn’t share with him. When he came along, he was born with a gooseberry in his ears, and I was born with a pitchfork in my hand, and I couldn’t understand him. I just couldn’t understand him. When he was little, we lived over in Beverly Hills, and we had alleys behind the houses. We picked up the garbage and stuff from behind the alley. Old Dick used to run the alleys, and he’d find where somebody had thrown away a colorful dress or something, and he’d get it, and he’d bring it into the garage, and he’d make a costume out of it. And he’d get himself some earrings, and he’d paint himself all up and have this costume, and he’d come out and put on a show. Six years old, seven years old. And I’d look at him, and I’d say to myself, “What the goddamn hell have I got here?” And I started trying to make him over after my design. Tried to put a pitchfork in his hand. He didn’t know what a pitchfork was. And he, he was 10, I guess, or 11 when I sobered up. And he got to, uh, be a little older, and we sent him to Mona School. And he, uh, he got pretty much the whole package. The kid can paint, and draw, and play, and sing, and dance, and stuff, you know. And he was taking art. He was taking art and philosophy, as a matter of fact. Art was his major, and philosophy was his second. And so I’d go out there and take him to dinner once in a while, and he’d tell me the, uh, values of modernistic and futuristic painting. And he shouldn’t have done that. Now, mind you, I’m telling it everybody else, but he tells me about the values of modernistic and futuristic painting, and I said, “The very idea of a guy with my blood in his veins thinking there’s value in that stuff. Why,” I says, “I have seen a better picture than that when the old cow slapped her tail up against the side of the barn.” Now, that’s a good way to win friends and influence people if they happen to be your son. And of course, when he talked with his friends about philosophy, he’s got a painter friend by the name of Martin. He’s doing a good job. Has his own show now. And they were talking philosophy in my house, and I sat and listened to them a while, and it was obvious to me that they didn’t know what they were talking about, so I had to straighten them out. And I made him sit there and listen to me for an hour and a half. It’s a wonder they hadn’t killed me, but they didn’t. Well, I couldn’t understand why we couldn’t get along. I couldn’t understand. And I was trying my damnedest to get acquainted with that kid, and I could not understand why I couldn’t. And we had been living in the house we live in now for about, oh, 10 years. And we have a tremendous view out of the… well, every room in the house, as a matter of fact, but particularly out of the living room. And people have been telling me for 10 years what they saw out of my window. And it gradually dawned on me, as people kept telling me what they saw out of my window, that nobody that ever looked out of that window told me what I saw. And eventually, I came to see that nobody sees what I see out that window. And something started clicking in my mind. Now, up until that time, it had never occurred to me that nobody sees what I see. It had never occurred to me. I grew up thinking that white was white, and black was black, and a cow was a cow. And anybody that looked at a cow saw a cow, and if they were looking at the same one I saw, they saw the same cow. But they don’t. And the word I found is out is people telling me what they saw out of my window. And I started thinking, “Something wrong with me. It isn’t the kid. It’s me. He sees things that I don’t see.” And then I got to thinking about this philosophy deal, and I saw that I was trying to make a kid cross the street in St. Louis when they was in Chicago. You can’t do that, kids. You gotta be in St. Louis to cross the street in St. Louis. So I said to my wife, “We’re going to London.” And she says, “Why?” I said, “To get acquainted with my kid.” And we went to London, and we went to dinner, and I told this kid how blind I’d been, totally unaware of the fact that people don’t see what I see, how blind I’d been, and how I came to see by people telling me what they saw out of my window, what he was talking about when he said the values in these things. And I come over to apologize to him, to make my amends. And then I told him about the philosophy, and I apologized for that. And I made my amends, and the first thing you know, we pretty nearly got thrown out of this restaurant. We were laughing, and hollering, and having a picnic. They pretty near threw us out because, you see, the dam went out, and we shared with each other. After that, we went pretty well all over Europe. And when we came home, he came with us. And we were due in, uh, Roanoke to talk on the way home. We got off the plane in Chicago, visited some of my people, and he’d never wanted to do that. But he wanted to go. And we got down to my mother’s place. Mother is 96. Still going. She’s not mobile, but she’s keen as a whip. And we were visiting there, and then we were going to drive on down local, visit a park there, and on over to Roanoke. And the kid says, “I’ve got to go back to New York, but I’ll be in Roanoke on Friday.” Says, “I’ve got some business to do in New York.” And he went. And I said to my wife, “He’ll never be in Roanoke.” Because you see, both Miss C and I were talking there, and I knew he wouldn’t come. And Friday, he was in Roanoke. And I told him before he went, I said, “Dick, these people down there are our people. They love Miss C and I. And they won’t, uh, they won’t leave you alone. You can’t be anonymous there because they won’t leave you alone.” And he says, “Don’t care.” And he was there. And he listened to his wife talk, to his mother talk, my wife talk. He listened to Miss C on Friday, Friday night or Saturday, I forgot. And he listened to me the next morning. And the tables were round, and there were about ten people at each table. And they told me afterwards that Dick would sit there, listen a little bit, and he’d say, “I never knew. I never knew.” And a little later, “I never knew.” Now, what are we talking about? We’re talking about taking this thing home, to share our experience, strength, and hope. At home, nobody likes to be told anything. We think that we’re old enough and smart enough that we should be able to tell our kids. They don’t want to be told. They want to share, and they want– don’t want to know how smart we are. They want to know how we beat ourselves to death and what we did to get out of it. They want to share with us. The language of the heart has no age. One of the great experiences of my life, I guess it’s been near two years now. They carried me up to North Battleford, Saskatchewan, to the interprovincial Alateen meeting, where we had twelve or fifteen hundred kids for me to share with. It’s a fabulous weekend. Don’t think that they can’t understand you when you share with them, because they can. If you share and don’t tell, fantastic. And these women that we married, if the shoe would’ve been on the other foot, my wife wouldn’t have lasted sixty days. Not sixty days would I put up with the performance out of my wife that she put up with me. And she put up with me for twenty years. Twenty years. Now, you and I, I suppose you’re like me. I sort of dreamed all my life, you know, about getting up every morning and having a new woman across the table from me. I thought that was a great deal. I thought a guy ought to have that, you know, particularly you shouldn’t get in a rut. Be married to the same broad for fifty years, you know. That’s indecent in California. But I came to see that every morning I have a new woman across the, across the table from me because you see, we’re changing people. We’re changing people. You never heard me before. I’m not the guy I was yesterday. I’m the guy I was yesterday, plus yesterday’s experience and its lessons. So we’re always new, and that woman that you’re married to is always new. One of the greatest handicaps we put on ourselves is categorizing each other, and particularly the members of our own family. When we live close to them, we come to think that we know every thing they’re gonna do, the way they’re gonna react to everything. We’ve got ’em categorized. But we haven’t, you see, because they’re changing, too. That’s one of the jobs we have in Alcoholics Anonymous, and particularly it’s one of the great jobs that we have for our mates, whether they be the lady who is in Al-Anon or the man who is in Al-Anon or who isn’t the alcoholic, maybe not in any program. But when a guy gets sober in Alcoholics Anonymous and does these things, he grows like a weed. If he does these things, he can’t keep from growing, growing like a weed. Now, my wife went to meetings with me for six years before Al-Anon was born, and she thought she knew this thing real good. She knew all the words, but she listened to me for six years– listened for me for six years. She’d liked to have had me right there where she could punch me. And when I was there, she punched me. You know? She was listening for me. And we moved to… Well, wait a minute. Al-Anon was born, and she started a meeting in Beverly Hills. And I let her, and it grew and prospered. And she thought she was doing great because she was the mother hen, and she told them. And we moved to Laguna. When I was eleven years sober, we moved to Laguna. And here she was with nobody to, uh, tell. Wasn’t any Al-Anon in Laguna. And I, my business was still in town. And whilst when we lived in Beverly, I could go get her and take her to meetings with me every night, you know. Have dinner at home, take her to meetings. But when we were at Laguna, that couldn’t happen. And so she got very, very depressed. She put the B on me to slow down. I must stay home a little bit because she wasn’t, she, she wasn’t getting her, the attention that she ought to have. She had no friends down there. And I lasted, lasted from February to Thanksgiving trying to slow down. And I got so uncomfortable I couldn’t live. So after we’d had a Thanksgiving dinner on this year, the kids were there, and Mrs. C, and I told them, I says, “Kids, and Mrs. C, I got an announcement to make. From now on, when that phone rings, I gotta go. I can’t pick and choose what I’m gonna do. I can’t tell this guy that I’ll talk for you and this one I won’t talk for you. There’ll be drunks in both places, and I can’t do it. And when that phone rings, I’ve got to do what they want me to do if it’s within my power. And if you don’t like it, get yourself another husband and get yourself another father.” I had to do it because I was, I couldn’t live that way. Suppose the guy hadn’t have been there when I went, you know? So Dick sort of came into that picture, too. He says, “Mom, why don’t you start another Al-Anon group?” Because his mother was deeply depressed, and she started another Al-Anon group. And the next thing you know, she was going to town because this time she started it for her. And she started growing like a weed. And she’s found the same thing I found, and it’s a beautiful thing. And we share. We share all the time. Now, we don’t always agree, but it isn’t necessary. We’ve learned how to disagree and not be disagreeable, and that’s a good thing, you know. And we share. We don’t tell. I don’t tell her anything. She don’t tell me anything. We share. Now, this is what we’re talking about, to practice these principles in all of our affairs, in all of our affairs. Now, we said this morning that when we learned why people did what they did, they couldn’t hurt us. That people do what they do because they have to, not because they want to. When we know better, we do better. One of the things that we didn’t speak of yet was this, that in simple psychology, they told us that the two great needs of the individual are to be needed and to be loved. Everybody gets that in psychology, I guess. The two great needs are to be needed and to be loved. And that’s just as backwards as everything else they told me. What about business and about God? Totally backwards. The two great needs of the individual are to love and to do. These are the great needs of the individual, to love and to do. Certain doctor that writes on my blackboard called me one night at midnight, and he says, “Chuck, what’s your definition of love?” I says, “It’s the same at ten o’clock in the morning as it is midnight.” “What the hell are you calling me at midnight for?” He says, “What’s your definition of love?” I says, “You wouldn’t like it.” Well, he says, “What is it?” I says, “Action.” He says, “What do you mean, action?” I says, “Action. If you love somebody, you do things for ’em. You do things. You don’t trade with ’em. There’s no barter in love. There’s no barter in love. You do things because you want to, with no strings on it at all.” Marriage isn’t a fifty-fifty thing. It isn’t a seventy-five, twenty-five thing. Marriage is a thousand to nothing. You don’t barter. You don’t barter with God, and you don’t barter with each other. The simple, unadulterated truth. The motivation, love, and love is the fulfillment of the law. You do it because you love it, for free and for fun. Fantastic thing. Yes, you do have a new woman across the table from you every morning, and it’s beautiful. How much more interesting life is. And I had one more thing that was fantastic in my life that, uh, I want to share with you. Came out of total collapse, total failure, and the fact that I had already practically ruined my body and my mind. Many of you have heard me say that when I got here, it took me over six months to put the Serenity Prayer together in English. Not spiritually, in English. I couldn’t make that thing make sense. That’s the kind of a mind I brought. And it took me two and a half years to get up and fall in on my face after my last drink. That’s the kind of body I brought. I guess I had as many related disorders as you usually have. My wife was divorcing me. I believe that to be a related disorder. My kids wouldn’t come home when I was around. I think that’s a sort of a related disorder. My boss’s son went to the house with a private step, put in the plant again and throw stones through the window. I think that’s a related disorder because that means that you ain’t got nothing coming in. I had no health, no sanity, no job, no nothing. But I came here merely for sobriety, just for sobriety, so that I might rub out what I could of the record before I died. As I told you yesterday, I knew I was gonna die because I’d come that close to it the next to the last time out, and this was worse. So I’d accepted the fact that everything good to me in life was gone and should be gone, and I wasn’t entitled to have it back. And I had accepted death. So I wanted nothing for me, not even sobriety. And incidentally, it’s the greatest freedom on the face of the earth. Freedom is to not want nothing, no time for yourself. This is total freedom. Now, my first surrender, done by the bottle, lasted three and a half years. The greatest period of miracles through which I ever lived, and it was a period of total non-expectancy. Total non-expectancy from God or man. My wife, my kids, nobody. My boss, nobody. The greatest period of miracles through which I ever lived. Every little piece of the jigsaw puzzle of life fell together in that first three and a half years. But a bad thing happened. I became somebody again in those three and a half years. And when you’re somebody, you’ve got rights. And when you’ve got rights, you have to defend them. So here I find myself, after three and a half years of peace, freedom, having to consciously surrender. And it griped the hell out of me. I couldn’t make sense out of it at all. Here for two and a half years, I’ve been free, and now I have to start consciously surrendering. And I’m saying to myself, “Why does this thing come back? Why? Why? Why?” And I looked at it for the next sixteen years. And I was sixteen years and six months sober before I got an answer to that thing that was satisfactory to me. And after sixteen years and six months, I got an answer that’s totally satisfactory. I found something good in the human ego. It’s the bone in the saddle. It’s the thing that keeps us walking. And when you and I have committed ourselves knowingly, we made a decision to turn the world of right over to the care of God. When we have made this commitment, there’s no way that we can stop walking. We get fat and complacent, and we stop walking, and we get our tit caught in the wringer. And the harder we pull, the worse it hurts. And we find that we either have to surrender again, and so we start consciously surrendering I did. But I didn’t like it, and I never liked it for the sixteen years, for the thirteen more years before I got the answer. Now I am convinced that we will never reach a point where we won’t have to surrender. That time will never come. An infinite father, an infinite child, and an infinite journey. Now, it took me seventy years to learn that it isn’t what we know that makes this life so consumingly interesting. It’s what we don’t know. It’s what we don’t know. The thing that makes this life so fantastic is the discoveries as we walk up these stairs. There will always be as much ahead of us as there is right now. An infinite father. Infinity. I don’t even know what it means. Infinity. An infinite father, an infinite child, and an infinite journey. No destination. An infinite journey. And there will always be as much ahead of us as there is right now. Fantastic. And that’s the wonder of this thing called life. That’s what makes it so consumingly interesting. It’s not what we know. It’s what we don’t know. Sharing our experience, strength, and hope one with another in love in all the departments of our lives. The language of the heart has no age. And when we see that this life does not contain barter, even in the business world, it’s, it’s, it’s amazingly wonderful. Amazingly wonderful. Now we’re going to talk about the business world. What time did we start? Thirteen-thirty. We got some more time? Twenty seconds. Good. I was afraid I was running out of time. We won’t get through with this, but we’re gonna talk about it a little. On the Thursday before Christmas, nineteen forty-five, I hated my job. I hated my boss, and I hated the people who worked for him. The job was beneath my dignity. Anybody with my ability should be at least a senator, if not President of the United States. And here I was in the picture business, you know. And it was obvious to me that I was the only one around that had any brains. And the boss had all the money, and he was telling me what to do. And the bold injustice of the situation, uh, caused me to do a little drinking. That was the Thursday before Christmas. The Friday before Christmas, he called me in, gave me that little talk, and gave me two thousand bucks for a Christmas present. And I got drunk on the way home. Came to after the middle of January. Finally went down there by the end of January, and he came in and threw me out. Promised me the world, but he didn’t. And being in, in the state I was in, physically and mentally, it took everything I had to do the simplest things. To dress myself was a major operation. And it forced me, by necessity, to give my entire interest, attention, and love to the thing I was doing or I couldn’t do it. And this is one of the greatest lessons I ever learned. And of course, this too was out of absolute necessity. I didn’t figure this out. But anything that we give our entire interest, attention, and love to is the most interesting thing in the world, even if it’s nothing but shaving and dressing. It’s the most interesting thing in the world. Now, I went down to that office to clear out my desk. That was the s– the, the office and the home were the two things that I’d fouled up the worst. And so there’s where I had to do my stuff. Mainly, that was my big job, to rub out the record, you see. And I started rubbing out a record in the business, helping people do things that they needed to have done because I wanted to, and by necessity, giving my entire interest, attention, and love to the thing at hand. And I got lost in doing that. And as I told you yesterday, after maybe two years I discovered that I was still trying to clean up my desk, lest I forget it. When I was eleven years sober, I bought the business, and I owned it until three years ago when I sold out. And when I sold out, about this many men worked for me, and many of them had been with me for many years, and they had an eighth of an inch of skin inside their hands. They were mechanics. They were machine men. They were metal men. They were carpenters. They were installers. And they worked with their hands. And when I sold that business, everyone was monkeys balls. Every one of them cried, and I cried. I had learned to love that business and love the guys that was in it working with me. And that was the business I hated on the Thursday before Christmas. Well, this is what we’re talking about. When you give your entire interest, respect, and love to the thing at hand, it becomes the most interesting thing in the world. Now, a few years before, I wouldn’t have drawn a plan for Jesus Christ. I was too big a man. You know, I had a guy working for me, and I told him what to draw. And if he didn’t draw it like I told him, he got hell, you know. I went back down there last January nineteen forty-six, and I didn’t have anybody working for me. And I stopped drawing those plans myself. And I drew them till I got out of the business. I never had anybody in there drawing plans. I drew them. And it was amazingly interesting, you know. It’s beautiful. Now, what are we talking about? We’re talking about rubbing out a record. You can’t rub out a record thinking I want or don’t want or like or don’t like. You guys, guys, guys. You rub out a record by doing something to somebody without a price tag on it. And it’s amazing what happens. It’s amazing. For instance, after I’d been sober a while, there was a Jewish gentleman who had been in the business for a long time, food business. And he’d retired. Made a lot of dough, and he retired. And he had two sons-in-law. And he was going to build a building for his kids, for his two sons-in-law. Set them up in the market business. And at that time, it was the biggest single floor operation in the country. It was Panorama Market. Some of you have seen it. And it came time for me to go see him. Now, he, he was officing in the what was called at that time the Palace Market on Manchester, on, uh, Sepulveda, just south of Manchester. One of his sons-in-law was running that market. They called it Palace Market. And over the meat department, there was a series of offices and a little balcony. And it came time for me to go see this guy. And I went to see him. And there were a lot of people on the balcony waiting to go in. And I waited my turn, and by the time I got ready, there were a lot of other people waiting to see him. And the door was open into the office. And I went in, and this guy’s name was Morris Weinstein. God rest his soul. He’s gone now. And Morris sat there looking like an accident going someplace to happen. And he told me what I was going to have to do if I got his business. And it took him about five minutes to tell me. And when he got through, I says, “Morris, I think you’ve gotten it wrong. You’re talking like I came out here to sell you something. I didn’t. I came out here to help you if I can. And if I can’t, you’re busy and so am I.” And he leaned back in his chair, and he says, “I know it, Charlie.” And I put in his market for him from seventy-five thousand dollars. And when his market opened, a bunch of these people that were on the balcony were out there to see the opening. You know, which all the vendors did in those days. And I stood up, and they grabbed me, and they took me off in the corner, and they says, “Charlie,” I was Charlie in business. Says that was the greatest piece of reverse psychology that we’ve ever seen. Says we’ve been talking about it ever since. That’s what you’re talking about. Well, he says, “We heard you.” Says, “You wanted to make three more.” And he says, “I’ve never been so.” Said, “You come out with a seventy-five thousand dollar order. Greatest piece of reverse psychology that we’ve ever seen.” This is what Teddy’s talking about. If that guy was subject to reverse psychology, he wouldn’t have the two million dollars put in. He knows more about reverse psychology than all of us put together. I told him the simple, unadulterated truth, and he knew it. That’s what I’m talking about. He knew it. He says, “So she doesn’t know.” You think I came out here to sell you something? I do. I’m here to help you if I can, and if I can’t, you’re busy. It’s all mine. And I meant every syllable of it, and he knew it. You see, this thing we call the truth is, is a very powerful thing. It’s the most powerful force on earth, and there’s no barter in it. Now, people sat across the desk from me for twenty-five years. First, they would tell me, “You’re a damn liar. Business cannot be done this way. You’re a damn liar.” And that didn’t even make me mad. I just laughed because they didn’t know something I knew because I’d been doing it that way for ten years, and it was all right. So I went ahead doing it, and, uh, pretty soon they were coming in. Everybody in like business, we would call them competitors if we called anybody competitors, but I didn’t have any competitors because I wasn’t competing with anybody. I was just helping my people do things they needed to have done because I wanted to. And everybody came in the last few years who were like business, and they’d sit down, and they’d say to me, “Well, how do I– how do you do these things?” You know. The ones that told me I was a darn liar because they couldn’t even bid the business I was working with, you know. They’d go to see bonds, and they’d say, “Look, uh, you’re putting it into the market. I, I want to bid on it.” They’d say, “Charlie’s gonna put it in.” They’d say, “What do you mean?” I said, “Charlie’s gonna put it in.” “Well,” he says, “uh, how do you know? He’s only gonna pick the high piece. You gotta have some bids to, to compare.” He says, “Charlie’s gonna put it in.” Says, “Of course I need to bid one of these jobs. Go, go see somebody else.” And so they started coming in to see me, and they’d say, “How do you do these things?” So I’ll take two hours out and I’ll tell them. I tell them exactly. And they’d leave thinking, “I got his, I got his number now. I’ll get him. I know how he does it. I’ll get him.” But they didn’t get me. They didn’t get the business because, you see, they weren’t motivated as I was. They weren’t motivated that way. They thought you had to outthink, outperform, and outmaneuver. I knew better because I did it that way for years and ended up in the bottom of the safe pit. And I did it for free and for fun, helping God’s kids do things they needed to have done because I wanted to. For twenty-five years, and I got rich, and I wasn’t even trying to get rich. They made me rich. Now, I’m gonna tell you a couple other things because nearly all you guys are still in business. And you know, you’ll know very well that this is impossible. So you can say when you get through, “Well, I heard that much, but he’s a liar.” You know? Couple of my dearest friends had a market at, at, uh, Flint Hill on a hundred and one called Foods Company. Now, these boys were a couple of youngsters about your age. I had done business with their dad years before when they were little bitty kids running around the store. And, uh, I did business with them. And they wanted to change the fixtures in the liquor department, and they had an architect, designer design some fixtures and stuff, and called me and says, “Come down and take a look at this. Tell me what they’re worth.” And I went and looked at them, and I said, “Hey, this guy’s drawn up some pretty fancy stuff. I’ve never drawn up anything that fancy because it’s very expensive.” Well, he says, “What do you think it’s gonna cost?” And there was one of them, and I says, “A, my guess is it cost you forty-five hundred dollars.” He says, “Put them in.” And I put them in, and they were in the store in the autumn working. They were doing a good job for him. And I had my costs in, and I had fifty-seven hundred dollars in. My money, fifty-seven hundred bucks. And I called him, and I says, “Hey, do you remember what I quoted you to those fixtures?” And he said, “No,” but he says, “I suppose I have it written down here someplace on my desk.” Well, I says, “Don’t look for it. I’ll tell you. It’s forty-five hundred dollars.” And I says, “Well, you can have them for forty-five hundred. They’re in your store, and they’re doing a good job. And you can have them for forty-five hundred dollars because that’s what I guessed on it, but I was wrong. I have fifty-seven hundred dollars in those fixtures.” He says, “Charlie had a profit and sent him the bill.” And I says, “Don’t want that. I made the mistake, but I would like to get my money out of it.” He says, “Charlie, put a profit on it and send me a bill, and I’ll pay you.” I said, “No, but I’ll bill you for its seven hundred dollars if that, if that’s all right with you.” He says, “If that’s the way you want to do it.” Now, you know better than that. Nobody’d do that. I billed him for its seven hundred dollars and paid. I had another outfit that I did business with. The last deal I put in for him was at, uh, it was called Pride Center, and it was Fallbrook and Victory out in the West Valley. It was a big deal. And we put his head in the door open, and it was running about maybe ninety days. Did a good job. Beautiful thing. And, uh, Dave Steele called me one day, and he says, “Charlie, you haven’t billed me.” And I says, “No, Dave, I didn’t know what to bill you. But I got costs in now, and I can get it together for you pretty fast.” He says, “How fast?” I says, “Probably an hour, and I can call you back.” “Well,” he says, “please do. We want to finance this thing, and we have to know the amount.” So go on the back streets again. An hour, I have a quote for it. And I called him. I said, “Dave, are you sitting down?” And he said, “Yeah.” I said, “Are you alone in the office?” He says, “No, Charlie, sitting across the desk from me.” I says, “You’re hiring all right.” He goes, “I’ve had no trouble with it.” Then I said, “Here it comes. You owe me two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.” And he said, “Well, that’s not too bad.” He says, “I just wrote on a slip of paper, ‘Two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars,’ and handed it over to Charlie across the desk.” He says, “You ought to hire me as an estimator.” Says, “Send me a bill.” Now, you know that’s wrong. He’s got to say, “Well, how about sales tax? Can you take off the sales tax?” You know? Not a word. “Send me a bill.” I was in trouble. Nineteen hundred and fifty-eight. Pretty bad trouble. And I had to have some business. I had a vacant plant. And it cost me thirteen thousand five hundred dollars a week to keep the doors open. And I had to get some business, so I went out to get it. And I had five deals that I thought I could get, deals that I’d worked on, and it looked like they were mine. And I went to get them. And one after another, they evaporated. But the last one could not evaporate because the two owners of the deal were members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Two of the highest echelon were members of Alcoholics Anonymous. I report you. And that was my deal, and it couldn’t be anybody else’s deal because I’d done all the thinking, all the planning, everything. I’d gotten the deal together for them. And it was mine. And I went down to get it. And about four or five of us went to lunch and had a good time down at Welsh’s on Atlantic, came back, and everybody left like rats from a sinking ship. There’s nobody left but Harold Hodges and myself. And we went into his office, and I reached for the money. And he says, “Chuck,” he says, “I thought you could never get yourself out of that mess you were in up there. And I gave this deal to Hill.” He was the last to get wind in the morning. And about five minutes later, he says, “Chuck, why don’t you sue them?” I said, “Harold, there’s nothing to say.” And I went out and started to drive back to town. They were– Their office was in Long Beach. My plant was in Forties, Alameda, and I couldn’t drive, so I drove off the road. And I sat there, and I looked at myself for a while, and I couldn’t, I couldn’t get myself together. Here, everything, it just evaporated right in front of my eyes. And I finally came to see that here I had gone out for the first time in years to get some business. Twelve years before, I’d started making twelve-step calls in business, helping people do things they need to have done because I wanted to. And here, I was in a pinch, and I had to go get it. And I went out there to get it, and everything evaporated. And I said to myself, “Can’t get any worse. Why don’t you start making twelve-step calls in business like you did twelve years ago?” Left the chips forward and made twelve years of business back to my partner and started making twelve-step calls. And here’s something that every one of you will know is impossible, even those who, who, who aren’t in business. The judges will know this is no good. Where is that judge? Oh, there he is. He was pretty good this morning when you guys weren’t here. So, I got back to the office, and either that day or the next, I got a call from a guy, Sam Mardina. And he says, “Charlie, I have a feeling you’re in trouble. And I have written out a check for fifty thousand dollars in your name, and it’s lying here on this desk of mine. You don’t sign a note. You don’t pay any interest.” I need it. I don’t know whether you do or not, but I have to see you. And I says, “I’m going to Miami tonight. I’m going to be gone a week to the FMI Institute.” That was the Supermarket Institute. “You can either come and get it now, or you can come after I get back.” And boy, I’m telling you something, that was something. And I says, “Milton, go ahead to Miami. And if I need it when you come back, I’ll come and get it. But I want you to know that I’ll never forget what you just said to me. It’s beautiful.” And by the time he got back from Miami, I didn’t need it. The place had filled up, and it was full until I sold it. Now, gentlemen, what am I talking about? Am I trying to tell you how good I am? No, sir. No, sir. I’m trying to tell you how good this is. The gift of God was made at the foundations of the earth. In my book, God hasn’t got anything to give me, not because He hasn’t got anything, but because He already did. The gift of God was made at the foundations of the earth. He gave us the universe. He gave us Himself at the foundations of the earth. When I was sitting in that same chair I sit in now, with everything gone, the blackest moment of my life, the universe was mine, God was mine, and all that He had was mine. He knew it, but I didn’t. I had to discover it. And being an alcoholic, I had to discover it in my own way and in my own time. God loved me just as much that day as He does now. Just the same, no different. But He never kept me from making mistakes. He’s a gentleman, God. He don’t intrude where He’s not wanted. So He never kept me from making mistakes. He loved me enough to allow me to make my own mistakes, that I might the sooner run out of my own resources and come back home where I belong. So my business is to go about His business, and His business to take care of them. That is not my business. That’s His business. Now, what is His business that I’m going about? Helping His kids do things they need to have done because I want to. A twelve-step call in business, a twelve-step call at home, a twelve-step call in AA, a twelve-step call in play. Just going about our Father’s business. That’s my business. It’s His business to take care of them. And He’s done an infinitely better job than I ever did, and I’m most grateful. Now, we talked about prayer a little this morning, wondering why we didn’t start these meetings and close them, maybe with prayer. And I told you, as far as I’m concerned, this is a prayer. This is a prayer. My life is a prayer. If you’d asked me, “What’s your religion?” I would say, “It’s the way I live.” That’s my religion. Doesn’t make any difference what I call myself. It’s the way I live. That’s my religion. And so that’s my business, to go about His business because I want to. Now, there are a couple little things that I learned many, many years ago that fit right into this picture. There’s an old Upanishad that comes out of India. Most of you scholars know about the Upanishads and the Vedas of India. I had a guy down in Palm Springs when we were down there last who was a Vedantist, and he was telling me what a bunch of butchers we were in AA as far as spiritual things were concerned. He was telling me that we had to purify our hearts so we would be worthy to see God. We had to purify our hearts. I said, “Yeah?” I said, “I went through that route myself. I purified the hell out of my heart. And the purer I got, the drunker I got.” I said, “You know something, bud? I’m sitting here looking at you, and I see God.” And he didn’t know what I was talking about. He couldn’t know, you know? Because he thought there was another thing, and there was four different things you got to do. You’ll get this, and you’ll get that, and you’ll get these two things, and you, you’ll give your he– yourself right into a purified spirit. Then you see God. Hmm. I’m sure glad that that ain’t the way it is. I’m sure ga– glad that the God that there is is not anything like the God that I was told about. I’m most happy about that. Now, this New Panic Guide says this: “The whole world is the garment of the Lord. Renounce it and receive it back as a gift of God.” What does it mean? It means that as long as these things were important to me, I couldn’t have them. I beat my brains out for thirty years to get the things I thought I was born without and ended up in the bottom of the snake pit. Now, I wasn’t a fast buck artist. I wasn’t a confidence man. I worked hard to get, and I ended up in the bottom of the snake pit. And then I put in twenty-five years trying to add to, and all the things I beat my brains out to get are mine and infinitely more so. When they’re un- unimportant to me, they belong to me. The whole world is the garment of the Lord. Renounce it and receive it back as a gift of God. It’s beautiful. And they say another thing. They say that anything that’s worth doing is an end in itself. That anything that’s done as a means to an end is self-robbery. Now, what does that mean? I had, we’ll say, fifty men working for me. Thirty-five of them worked for a paycheck. They lost five days and lived two out of every week. They worked for a paycheck. Fifteen of them worked for fun. They had picnics. They never lost any time, and they were my premium men. They got more money than anybody else, and they lived seven days a week, lost no time. Anything done as a means to an end is self-robbery. Even to be good for something is self-robbery, even if it’s being good to go to heaven. It’s a pretty good motivation, but it’s self-robbery because there’s no barter in this deal, no barter at all. We do it for free and for fun because we love it. Fascinating. To be good for nothing, this is the freedom of life. Just to be good for nothing. That’s not self-robbery. That’s for fun and for free. Now, I said a while ago, in my opinion, the gift of God was made at the foundation of the earth. I’m not the first guy that’s ever said that. It’s written, “Fear not, little flock. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Fear not, little flock. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.” It don’t say you gotta earn it. “It is written, take no thought for tomorrow what you shall eat, what you shall drink, or wherewithal you should be clothed. Your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of before you ask Him. It is written, whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe that you have it, and you’ll receive it.” Now, how in the world are you gonna believe that you got something that you ain’t got? How you gonna believe it? There’s a trick to it. You gotta know that the gift of God was made at the foundation of the earth, that God’s will for you, His child, is fulfillment, peace, and joy, and that every good and perfect gift is from His hand. So when we recognize this, then we know that what we might pray for is already ours. It’s already ours, the gift of God to His kids. No barter. Now, lastly, for this session, I’m doing pretty good. You know, I’m holding the time limit right, right, put nearly on the dot. This is a new deal for me. It’s reported in the fellowship. They say, “What comes after Chamberlain?” And they say, “Tuesday.” I may end up right on time. The easy way is the right way. The tough way is the wrong way. There’s an easy way and a hard way to do this program. The hard way is trying to do it yourself. The easy way is to know that you can’t. To know that you can’t. To recognize the need for help. Now, I have never asked God one time in twenty-nine years to keep me sober. Never asked Him once. I’ve thanked Him a million times, but I’ve never asked Him once to keep me sober because that’s not the way I read my book. The way I read my book, it’s the year the steps we took. When we took them, something happens. When we don’t took them, nothing happens. So I told Father Bonny, I said, “I’ve never asked God to keep me sober.” He says, “Why not?” I said, “I think that’s not His business. I think it’s my business to do these things, and it’s His business to tell them. And He’s done it. I don’t have to tell Him what to do about His business. And you guys told me what to do about mine, and I do it. These are the steps I take. I’m sober.” And many, many good things have happened in my life. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Fear not, little flock. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.” It don’t say you gotta earn it. “It is written, take no thought for tomorrow what you shall eat, what you shall drink, or wherewithal you should be clothed. Your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of before you ask Him. It is written, whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe that you have it, and you’ll receive it.” Now, how in the world are you gonna believe that you got something that you ain’t got? How you gonna believe it? There’s a trick to it. You gotta know that the gift of God was made at the foundation of the earth, that God’s will for you, His child, is fulfillment, peace, and joy, and that every good and perfect gift is from His hand. So when we recognize this, then we know that what we might pray for is already ours. It’s already ours, the gift of God to His kids. No barter. Now, lastly, for this session, I’m doing pretty good. You know, I’m holding the time limit right, right, put nearly on the dot. This is a new deal for me. It’s reported in the fellowship. They say, “What comes after Chamberlain?” And they say, “Tuesday.” I may end up right on time. The easy way is the right way. The tough way is the wrong way. There’s an easy way and a hard way to do this program. The hard way is trying to do it yourself. The easy way is to know that you can’t. To know that you can’t. To recognize the need for help. Now, I have never asked God one time in twenty-nine years to keep me sober. Never asked Him once. I’ve thanked Him a million times, but I’ve never asked Him once to keep me sober because that’s not the way I read my book. The way I read my book, it’s the year the steps we took. When we took them, something happens. When we don’t took them, nothing happens. So I told Father Bonny, I said, “I’ve never asked God to keep me sober.” He says, “Why not?” I said, “I think that’s not His business. I think it’s my business to do these things, and it’s His business to tell them. And He’s done it. I don’t have to tell Him what to do about His business. And you guys told me what to do about mine, and I do it. These are the steps I take. I’m sober.” And many, many good things have happened in my life.