Emanuel James Rohn (September 17, 1930 – December 5, 2009), professionally known as Jim Rohn, was an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker.
He was born in Yakima, Washington, to Emmanuel and Clara Rohn. The Rohns owned and worked a farm in Caldwell, Idaho, where Jim grew up as an only child. He was born to a poor family, became a millionaire at age 30, and went broke when he was 33. He later became a millionaire again. Rohn left college after one year.
He started his professional life as a human resource manager for Sears. Around this time, a friend invited him to a lecture given by entrepreneur John Earl Shoaff. In 1955, Rohn joined Shoaff's direct selling business AbundaVita as a distributor.
In 1957, Rohn resigned his distributorship with AbundaVita and joined Nutri-Bio, another direct selling company. The company's founders, including Shoaff, started to mentor him. After this mentorship, Rohn built one of the largest organizations in the company. In 1960, when Nutri-Bio expanded into Canada, Shoaff and the other founders put Rohn in charge of the organization.
After Nutri-Bio went out of business in the early 1960s, Rohn was invited to speak at his Rotary Club. He accepted, and soon, others began asking him to speak at various luncheons and other events. In 1963, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he gave his first public seminar. He then began presenting seminars across the country, telling his story and teaching his personal development philosophy.
Throughout the 1970s, Rohn conducted seminars for Standard Oil. At the same time, he participated in a personal development business called "Adventures in Achievement", which featured live seminars and personal development workshops. He presented seminars worldwide for more than 40 years.
Rohn mentored Mark R. Hughes (the founder of Herbalife International) and life strategist Tony Robbins in the late 1970s. Others who credit Rohn for influencing their careers include authors/lecturers Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup book series), Everton Edwards (Hallmark Innovators Conglomerate), Brian Tracy, Todd Smith, and T. Harv Eker. Rohn coauthored the novel Twelve Pillars with Chris Widener.
