Only a few people on the planet now have not heard of “The Secret”, the DVD produced by Rhonda Byrne of Australia. Members of The Secret team have appeared on Oprah, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Larry King Live. To date, since The Secret DVD produced by Rhonda Byrne was released late last year, it has sold 4 million copies. Buzz and excitement about “The Secret” continues to grow day by day. To learn more, visit http://thesecret.tv/

Through a few recent coincidences I was able to interview Bob Proctor (www.bobproctor.com) who is listed as a “philosopher” and is one of the 12 dynamic teachers teaching “The Secret” around the world. Bob has a longstanding presence in the training field where he started teaching salespeople 38 years ago. With 2,000 trainers around the world The Bob Proctor Seminars are quite well known. As a seasoned trainer, I thought Bob would be able to provide some great insight on the organizational aspects of “The Secret.”

Only after the interview with Bob did I discover that I already know two of the other “teachers” personally. Fred Alan Wolf, the physicist in the group, happens to be a friend of mine. We participated in a dialogue project a decade ago, exploring what happens when groups go beyond dialogue and “metalogue” or group dialogue with suspended agenda. Years ago, by another coincidence, I managed to spend a weekend dining with “Conversations With God” author Neale Donald Walsh, his wife and their entourage while he led a seminar in a city nearby, which I also attended. Dinner conversations, I recall, were fascinating.

Involved as I am in leading training programs on intuition & teaching organizations how to create I shouldn’t be surprised. Everything is connected.

Here’s my recent interview with Bob.

Arupa: What is the central theme of “The Secret”?

Bob: The Secret is about The 2nd Law, a universal principle called The Law of Attraction - how we attract things to us by our thoughts. But to use that law we have to first understand The 1st Law - The Law of Vibration - which is that everything in the universe has a vibration and we have the ability to alter the vibration. In order to do this we need to understand what we are and who we are.

Arupa: How did you get started in this work?

Bob: I’ve been studying these principles for 46 years. I was 26 when I “woke up”. I thought that was kind of late but now when I look back I realize most people never get there. I began to understand these principles when I was a fireman in EastYork (Toronto) and I read Think & Grow Rich. I was only the second person to quit the department sinc 1934. No one quit. It was a great job and they stayed until retirement. At the time I was earning $4,000 per year and owed $6,000. So I set a goal to get 25,000. I did what Hill suggested and wrote it down on a piece of paper that I kept in my pocket. A year later I was earning $125,000 per year, cleaning offices, it was a very successful business

Arupa: What is the most important thing that you learned?

Bob: “That we are really spiritual beings living in physical bodies. It’s our responsibility to develop them. As humans we have six abilities - Perception. Will, Reason, Intellectual, Intuition & Wisdom. Take intuition, for example, because you teach this. Most people’s intuition just happens and they have no idea how or what it is. They aren’t taught these skills usually.”

Arupa: When you were teaching salespeople originally, what were you teaching them?

Bob: “The trick wasn’t to teach them how to sell, because they already knew that. Instead it was to teach them to know what they already knew but weren’t using. Intead I taught them about themselves and showed them how to learn about the root cause of what they did, how to understand the thought paradigm that was behind it, and then change their behavior. It worked. Most increased their sales performance in amazing ways.”

“Let me explain. Behavior is an effect. We treat it as the cause. But it’s not the cause, it’s the paradigm within the person that is the cause. Our behaviour is what tells people what we’re like. When we’re children we get a report card, which reflects who are for a certain point in time. But that’s really not “who” we are, that’s just a snapshot of what we looked like to others at that point in time.”

Arupa: Can you relate this to a performance review?

Bob: “It’s the same thing. The review tells us where the paradigm is set. It’s like looking at the thermometer and trying to change that, rather than changing the thermostat. Xrays are another example. It’s a feedback but not the cause. Instead, we need to work on self-image, because it’s underneath that.”

Arupa: What do you think is the best way to develop people in an organization?

Bob: “Corporations are wrong track. We teach people about the job when we should be teaching them about themselves. We’ve historically neglected our human resources the most. We need to revamp our Human Resources departments. Most of them are extensions of Personnel departments. They should be teaching the people about their potential, maybe for a half hour everyday. If companies did this, they would see their bottom line increase phenomenally. Instead they put people in cubicles and tell them to think out of the box. That last one is actually from my son who is writing a book about this.”

Arupa: How can organizations implement “The Secret?”

Bob: “They need to get all their people focused on positive concepts. Successful people attract business. You don’t just tell people to think positive. You need to explain what positive means, what the Law of Polarity is. Desire is the triggering mechanism.”

“Even schools are on the wrong track when they believe that some people have more potential than others. Everyone has potential”

“Take my organization as an example. Today I have the greatest employees in the world. We all focus on the same things, the goals that we set together and developing our potential. We have very ambitious goals.”

Arupa: How can organizations be completely positive when people have all kinds of different reasons for being there?

Bob: “We’re taught to see “what’s wrong” rather than “what’s right.” Whenever we go into a company, things change. People today are looking for their leisure; they look forward to quitting time, not their labour. People who love their work are very successful.

Arupa: Where does it start?

Bob: “It starts at the top. If the president doesn’t understand the value of attitude, they’re always going to struggle. They will say they want the right attitude. But, if you ask him or her what the definition of attitude is, they can’t anwer it. They should all have the same definition. Here’s what it is: Attitude is the composite of thoughts, feelings, actions. When people understand this they can start taking control. Instead most people react to it.”

Arupa: What do you do about the people who don’t want to be there?

Bob: Help them find the right thing for them to do. You’ll be better off and so will they.

Arupa: What about stress?

Bob: We should calm down, not slow down.

Arupa: What do you think trainers need to do?

Bob: “Trainers should take a look at what they’re doing and look at the great opportunity they have to create an awareness in a person of their true potential. They need to get away from techniques and systems. A trainer should always be learning and developing herself or himself.”

Arupa: What about the learning process itself?

Bob: “Most people are observers, not participants. They should be getting involved and loving it. We are either learning or we’re not. I’ve got an autographed picture on the wall of Earl Nightingale receiving a Gold Record from Columbia Records. It was the first time an educational record sold over 1,000,000 copies. It was called “The Strangest Secret” and it contained 40 minutes of the best philosophy from leaders in the field. That ‘We become what we think about...’ is about the only thing leaders can agree on.

I remember a great quote from the 1984 HR Congress in Chicago. Hoffer, who was leading the Congress said this: “In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.”

Contact:  Arupa Tesolin, 905.271.7272; Cell 905.301.7461, email intuita@intuita.com, www.intuita.com