The Inspirational Story of Weldon Long
This story originally aired on 5/21/16 on The Willie Jolley Wealthy Ways Show on SiriusXM Channel 141
At the age of 15, Weldon Long dropped out of high school and started making other poor decisions with his life. First, he got involved with drugs and alcohol, and then, he started small-time robbing and stealing. At the age of 18, he was arrested for armed robbery and sent to prison. Over the next 16 years, he spent 13 of those years behind bars!
At the start of his third stint in prison (which was a 7-year sentence) Weldon had a conversation with his father that changed his life. He told his dad that he had no reason to stay alive. He was uneducated, a deadbeat dad and a three-time loser that had been sent to prison three times.
Weldon’s father told him that he could change his life whenever he wanted to, if he would just believe in himself as much as his dad believed in him. A few weeks later, Weldon’s dad suddenly died.
On that day, Weldon Long made a commitment to change himself and become the man his father believed he could be.
He went to school while in prison and earned a GED, then a BA Degree and then an MBA. In 2003, Long walked out of prison broke, without a place to call home and virtually alone. Yet, he was determined to be the man his father believed he could be.
Within 60 months of leaving prison, Weldon Long had built an Inc 5000 company with over $20 million dollars in revenue! Today, he is a successful entrepreneur, author of a NY Times Best Selling book, one of America’s top new sales trainers and a happily married husband and father. He has homes in Colorado and Maui and travels the world sharing his message of hope.
How was all this possible? How does a “3-time loser with a 9th grade education” go from walking the yard in a high-security prison to walking the beaches of Maui – virtually overnight?
Weldon shares his secrets for success:
• You can do it…but YOU must be the one to do it.
• As long as you’re breathing, you can change your life.
• To be successful, read what successful people have done and do what they do. Don’t just read the book; devour the book until it devours you – that is the old limited thinking version of yourself.
• Don’t live looking through the mirror of your past…rather live thinking from your future – your imagination.
• Success in life and business is not about the one big thing you do on New Year’s Day, but the little things you do each and every day.
• Focus your thoughts and bring them under control. You must think, about what you will think about! When you focus your thoughts you will learn to think your way into wealth.
• Set goals in the present tense saying, “I am,” rather than “I will be.”
• Read your goals daily and read them with energy, until you start to believe that you can make them come alive in your mind.
• Ask yourself, “What do I want?” Then ask, “What do I need to do to get it?”