Paul J. Meyer, who founded Success Motivation Institute and Leadership Management Institute and lived his life encouraging others, died at his home early Monday morning surrounded by his family. He was 81.

A prolific author (multiple New York Times best seller) and entrepreneur, Paul amassed a fortune with ventures like SMI and LMI. In all, he started 176 companies. Many succeed, some failed, but he never had time to wallow in defeat.

Paul learned he had bladder cancer in May. Although it spread to other parts of his body, he applied the same positive thinking and action to his battle with cancer as he did to the rest of his life.

His expectation was always that the disease would go into remission. However, he said he would be at peace no matter what happened.

"If it doesn't work, I win anyway because I'm only passing through," Meyer told the Waco Tribune-Herald this summer. "My home is in heaven."

Paul made his mark in the insurance industry. At age 25, he was the highest-paid insurance salesman in the country. By the time he turned 27, he was a millionaire.

After a while, though, he got bored. He began to realize he was happiest when teaching others how to succeed.

Paul had gotten a taste of that through mentoring his insurance agents. At first, he gave them self-improvement books to read. But he soon discovered they did not retain the material just from reading it.  So he condensed the book's premise and read it to them six times. That seemed to truly get the message across and he later learned a Harvard University study found that someone needs to hear a message six times before internalizing it.

This experience was the "diamond in the rough" that Paul used to launch SMI and LMI. He discovered the best way to get motivational messages out to the masses was to record them - a new strategy for the self-improvement industry.  Recently, he and Ken Blanchard wrote a book - "Know, Can, Do" - that outlines this strategy.

In 1960, Paul J. Meyer founded Success Motivation Institute. The business started with Meyer and one other man working out of a converted garage. The first record they produced was a condensed version of a book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Soon, SMI was growing by leaps and bounds.

Shortly after that, in 1966, Paul started Leadership Management Inc., which helps businesses improve performance. The combined companies now offer dozens of courses on motivation, goal setting, leadership development and time management. The courses have been translated into 26 languages and are sold in more than 60 countries. Recently, the two organizations joined forces in the USA under the LMI banner.

All told, sales have totaled more than $3 billion, with 80 percent outside the United States. That made him the leader of the self-improvement industry.

Foundation of Paul's Success - Setting Goals

Paul attributed his success to the tenets he espoused in his all his leadership material. Everyone can have the same kind of success, he said, if they set goals and take the steps needed to achieve them.

One of his favorite sayings was, "Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass."

The cornerstone of Paul's life was his love for Jesus and his family.  Beyond his business success, Paul was a generous philanthropist.  His philanthropy organization has been the Paul & Jane Meyer Family Foundation. Launched in 1984, it has given away more than $65 million.

From all of us who have been impacted by the work of Paul J. Meyer, thank you for your legacy of success!