THINK
And
GROW RICH
By Napoleon
Hill
Author of
The Law of
Success
Philosophy
Brought to
you by
This e-Book is one of the many free
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This publication is an e-Book
reproduction of the complete and original 1937 version of Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill that is in the public domain. This new reformatted and
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword - WHAT DO YOU WANT MOST?
Tributes - From Great American Leaders
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2 - DESIRE
Chapter 3 - FAITH
Chapter 4 - AUTO-SUGGESTION
Chapter 5 - SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
Chapter 6 - IMAGINATION
Chapter 7 - ORGANIZED PLANNING
Chapter 8 - DECISION
Chapter 9 - PERSISTENCE
Chapter 10 - POWER OF THE MASTER MIND
Chapter 11 - THE MYSTERY OF SEX TRANSMUTATION
Chapter 12 - THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Chapter 13 - THE BRAIN
Chapter 14 - THE SIXTH SENSE
Chapter 15 - HOW TO OUTWIT THE SIX GHOSTS
OF FEAR
WHAT DO YOU
WANT MOST?
Is It Money, Fame, Power, Contentment, Personality,
Peace of Mind, Happiness?
The Thirteen Steps to Riches described in this book offer the
shortest dependable philosophy of individual achievement ever presented for the
benefit of the man or woman who is searching for a definite goal in life.
Before beginning the book you will profit greatly if you
recognize the fact that the book was not written to entertain. You
cannot digest the contents properly in a week or a month.
After reading the book thoroughly, Dr. Miller Reese Hutchison,
nationally known Consulting Engineer and long-time associate of Thomas A.
Edison, said this is not a novel. It is a textbook on individual achievement
that came directly from the experiences of hundreds of
Dr. John R. Turner, Dean of the
Dr. Turner had reference to the author’s son, who, born without
normal hearing capacity, not only avoided becoming a deaf mute, but actually
converted his handicap into a priceless asset by applying the philosophy here
described. After reading the story, you will realize that you are about to come
into possession of a philosophy which can be transmuted into material wealth,
or serve as readily to bring you peace of mind, understanding, spiritual
harmony, and in some instances, as in the case of the author’s son, it can help
you master physical affliction.
The author discovered, through personally analyzing hundreds of
successful men, that all of them followed the habit of exchanging ideas,
through what is commonly called conferences. When they had problems to
be solved they sat down together and talked freely until they discovered, from
their joint contribution of ideas, a plan that would serve their purpose.
You, who read this book, will get most out of it by putting into
practice the Master Mind principle described in the book. This you can do (as
others are doing so successfully) by forming a study club, consisting of any
desired number of people who are friendly and harmonious. The club should have
a meeting at regular periods, as often as once each week. The procedure should
consist of reading one chapter of the book at each meeting, after which the
contents of the chapter should be freely discussed by all members. Each member
should make notes, putting down ALL IDEAS OF HIS OWN inspired by the
discussion. Each member should carefully read and analyze each chapter several
days prior to its open reading and joint discussion in the club. The reading at
the club should be done by someone who reads well and understands how to put
color and feeling into the lines.
By following this plan every reader will get from its pages, not
only the sum total of the best knowledge organized from the experiences of
hundreds of successful men, but more important by far, he will tap new
sources of knowledge in his own mind as well as acquire knowledge of priceless
value FROM EVERY OTHER PERSON PRESENT.
If you follow this plan persistently you will be almost
certain to uncover and appropriate the secret formula by which Andrew Carnegie
acquired his huge fortune, as referred to in the author’s introduction.
TRIBUTES TO
THE AUTHOR
From Great American Leaders
THINK AND GROW RICH was 25 years in the making. It is Napoleon
Hill’s newest book, based upon his famous Law of Success Philosophy. His work
and writings have been praised by great leaders in Finance, Education,
Politics, and Government.
Supreme Court of the
Dear Mr. Hill,
I have now had an opportunity to finish reading your Law of
Success textbooks and I wish to express my appreciation of the splendid work
you have done in the organization of this philosophy.
It would be helpful if every politician in the country would
assimilate and apply the 17 principles upon which your lessons are based. It
contains some very fine material which every leader in every walk of life
should understand.
I am happy to have had the privilege of rendering you some
slight measure of help in the organization of this splendid course of common
sense philosophy.
Sincerely yours,
(Former President and former Chief Justice of the
KING OF THE 5
AND 10 CENT STORES
By applying many of the 17 fundamentals of the Law of Success
philosophy we have built a great chain of successful stores. I presume it would
be no exaggeration of fact if I said that the
F. W. WOOLWORTH
A GREAT
STEAMSHIP MAGNATE
I feel greatly indebted for the privilege of reading your Law of
Success. If I had had this philosophy fifty years ago, I suppose I could have
accomplished all that I have done in less than half the time. I sincerely hope
the world will discover and reward you.
ROBERT DOLLAR
FAMOUS AMERICAN
LABOR LEADER
Mastery of the Law of Success philosophy is the equivalent of an
insurance policy against failure.
SAMUEL GOMPERS
A FORMER
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
May I not congratulate you on your persistence? Any man who
devotes that much time . . . must of necessity makes discoveries of great value
to others. 1 am deeply impressed by your interpretation of the Master Mind
principles which you have so clearly described.
WOODROW
A MERCHANT
PRINCE
I know that your 17 fundamentals of success are sound because I
have been applying them in my business for more than 30 years.
JOHN WANAMAKER
WORLD’S LARGEST
MAKER OF CAMERAS
I know that you are doing a world of good with your Law of
Success. I would not care to set a monetary value on this training because it
brings to the student qualities which cannot be measured by money, alone.
GEORGE EASTMAN
A NATIONALLY
KNOWN BUSINESS CHIEF
Whatever success I may have attained I owe, entirely, to the
application of your 17 fundamental principles of the Law of Success. I believe
I have the honor of being your first student.
W. M. WRIGLEY, JR.
PUBLISHER'S
PREFACE
THIS book conveys the experience of more than 500 men of great
wealth, who began at scratch, with nothing to give in return for riches except
THOUGHTS, IDEAS and ORGANIZED PLANS.
Here you have the entire philosophy of moneymaking, just as it
was organized from the actual achievements of the most successful men known to
the American people during the past fifty years. It describes WHAT TO DO, also,
HOW TO DO IT!
It presents complete instructions on HOW TO SELL YOUR PERSONAL
SERVICES.
It provides you with a perfect system of self-analysis that will
readily disclose what has been standing between you and the big money in the
past.
It describes the famous Andrew Carnegie formula of personal
achievement by which he accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars for himself
and made no fewer than a score of millionaires of men
to whom he taught his secret.
Perhaps you do not need all that is to be found in the book no
one of the 500 men from whose experiences it was written did but you may need
ONE IDEA, PLAN OR SUGGESTION to start you toward your goal. Somewhere in the
book you will find this needed stimulus.
The book was inspired by Andrew Carnegie, after he had made his
millions and retired. It was written by the man to whom Carnegie disclosed the
astounding secret of his riches; the same man to whom the 500 wealthy men
revealed the source of their riches.
In this volume you will find the thirteen principles of
moneymaking essential to every person who accumulates sufficient money to
guarantee financial independence. It is estimated that the research which went
into the preparation, before the book was written, or could be written,
research covering more than twenty-five years of continuous effort, could not
be duplicated at a cost of less than $100,000.00.
Moreover, the knowledge contained in the book never can be
duplicated, at any cost, for the reason that more than half of the 500 men who
supplied the information it brings have passed on.
Riches cannot
always be measured in money!
Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and
mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be
evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, harmonious family
relationships, sympathy and understanding between business associates, and
introspective harmony which brings one peace of mind measurable only in
spiritual values!
All who read, understand and apply this philosophy will be
better prepared to attract and enjoy these higher estates which always have
been and always will be denied to all except those who are ready for them.
Be prepared, therefore, when you expose yourself to the
influence of this philosophy, to experience a CHANGED LIFE which may help you
not only to negotiate your way through life with harmony and understanding, but
also to prepare you for the accumulation of material riches in abundance.
THE PUBLISHER
AUTHOR'S
PREFACE
IN EVERY chapter of this book, mention has been made of the
money making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred
exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of
years.
The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, more
than a quarter of a century ago. The canny, lovable old Scotsman carelessly
tossed it into my mind, when I was but a boy. Then he sat back in his chair,
with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and watched carefully to see if I had brains
enough to understand the full significance of what he had said to me.
When he saw that I had grasped the idea, he asked if I would be
willing to spend twenty years or more, preparing myself to take it to the
world, to men and women who, without the secret, might go through life as
failures. I said I would, and with Mr. Carnegie’s cooperation, I have kept my
promise.
This book contains the secret, after having been put to a
practical test by thousands of people, in almost every walk of life. It was Mr.
Carnegie’s idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous fortune,
ought to be placed within reach of people who do not have time to investigate
how men make money, and it was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the
soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every
calling. He believed the formula should be taught in all public schools and
colleges, and expressed the opinion that if it were properly taught it would so
revolutionize the entire educational system that the time spent in school could
be reduced to less than half.
His experience with Charles M. Schwab, and other young men of
Mr. Schwab’s type, convinced Mr. Carnegie that much of that which is taught in
the schools is of no value whatsoever in connection with the business of
earning a living or accumulating riches. He had arrived at this decision,
because he had taken into his business one young man after another, many of
them with but little schooling, and by coaching them in the use of this
formula, developed in them rare leadership. Moreover, his coaching made
fortunes for everyone of them who followed his instructions.
In the chapter on Faith, you will read the astounding story of
the organization of the giant United States Steel Corporation, as it was
conceived and carried out by one of the young men through whom Mr. Carnegie
proved that his formula will work for all who are ready for it. This
single application of the secret, by that young man, Charles M. Schwab, made
him a huge fortune in both money and
These facts-and they are facts well known to almost everyone who
knew Mr. Carnegie, give you a fair idea of what the reading of this book may
bring to you, provided you KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT.
Even before it had undergone twenty years of practical testing,
the secret was passed on to more than one hundred thousand men and women who
have used it for their personal benefit, as Mr. Carnegie planned that they
should. Some have made fortunes with it. Others have used it successfully in
creating harmony in their homes. A clergyman used it so effectively that it
brought him an income of upwards of $75,000.00 a year.
Arthur Nash, a
The secret was passed on to Stuart Austin Wier,
of
I gave the secret to Jennings Randolph, the day he graduated
from College, and he has used it so successfully that he is now serving his
third term as a Member of Congress, with an excellent opportunity to keep on
using it until it carries him to the White House.
While serving as Advertising Manager of the
The secret to which I refer has been mentioned no fewer than a
hundred times, throughout this book. It has not been directly named, for it
seems to work more successfully when it is merely uncovered and left in sight,
where THOSE WHO ARE READY, and SEARCHING FOR IT, may pick it up. That is why
Mr. Carnegie tossed it to me so quietly, without giving me its specific name.
If you are READY to put it to use, you will recognize this
secret at least once in every chapter. I wish I might feel privileged to tell
you how you will know if you are ready, but that would deprive you of much of
the benefit you will receive when you make the discovery in your own way.
While this book was being written, my own son, who was then
finishing the last year of his college work, picked up the manuscript of
chapter two, read it, and discovered the secret for himself. He used the
information so effectively that he went directly into a responsible position at
a beginning salary greater than the average man ever earns. His story has been
briefly described in chapter two. When you read it, perhaps you will dismiss
any feeling you may have had, at the beginning of the book that it promised too
much. And, too, if you have ever been discouraged, if you have had difficulties
to surmount which took the very soul out of you, if you have tried and failed,
if you were ever handicapped by illness or physical affliction, this story of
my son’s discovery and use of the Carnegie formula may prove to be the oasis in
the Desert of Lost Hope, for which you have been searching.
This secret was extensively used by President Woodrow Wilson,
during the World War. It was passed on to every soldier who fought in the war,
carefully wrapped in the training received before going to the front. President
Wilson told me it was a strong factor in raising the funds needed for the
war.
More than twenty years ago, Hon. Manuel L. Quezon
(then Resident Commissioner of the Philippine Islands), was inspired by the
secret to gain freedom for his people. He has gained freedom for the
A peculiar thing about this secret is that those who once
acquire it and use it, find themselves literally swept
on to success, with but little effort, and they never again submit to failure!
If you doubt this, study the names of those who have used it, wherever they
have been mentioned, check their records for yourself, and be convinced.
There is no such thing as SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!
The secret to which I refer cannot be had without a price,
although the price is far less than its value. It cannot be had at any price by
those who are not intentionally searching for it. It cannot be given away, it
cannot be purchased for money, for the reason that it comes in two parts. One
part is already in possession of those who are ready for it.
The secret serves equally well, all who are ready for it.
Education has nothing to do with it. Long before I was born, the secret had
found its way into the possession of Thomas A. Edison, and he used it so
intelligently that he became the world’s leading inventor, although he had but
three months of schooling.
The secret was passed on to a business associate of Mr. Edison.
He used it so effectively that, although he was then making only $12,000 a
year, he accumulated a great fortune, and retired from active business while
still a young man. You will find his story at the beginning of the first
chapter. It should convince you that riches are not beyond your reach, that you
can still be what you wish to be, that money, fame, recognition and happiness
can be had by all who are ready and determined to have these blessings.
How do I know these things? You should have the answer before
you finish this book. You may find it in the very first chapter, or on the last
page.
While I was performing the twenty year task of research, which I
had undertaken at Mr. Carnegie’s request, I analyzed hundreds of well known
men, many of whom admitted that they had accumulated their vast fortunes
through the aid of the Carnegie secret; among these men were:
HENRY FORD
WILLIAM WRIGLEY JR. JOHN WANAMAKER JAMES J. HILL GEORGE S. PARKER E. M. STATLER HENRY L. DOHERTY CYRUS H. K.
CURTIS GEORGE EASTMAN THEODORE ROOSEVELT JOHN W. DAVIS ELBERT HUBBARD WILBUR WRIGHT
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN DR. DMTID
STARR JORDAN J. ODGEN ARMOUR CHARLES M.
SCHWAB HARRIS F. WILLIAMS DR. FRANK GUNSAULUS DANIEL WILLARD KING GILLETTE
RALPH A. WEEKS JUDGE DANIEL T.
WRIGHT JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER THOMAS A.
EDISON FRANK A. VANDERLIP F. W. WOOLWORTH COL. ROBERT A. DOLLAR EDWARD A. FILENE EDWIN C. BARNES ARTHUR BRISBANE WOODROW WILSON WM. HOWARD TAFT LUTHER BURBANK EDWARD W. BOK
FRANK A. MUNSEY ELBERT H.
GARY DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL JOHN H. PATTERSON JULIUS ROSENWALD STUART AUSTIN WIER DR. FRANK CRANE GEORGE M. ALEXANDER J. G. CHAPPLINE HON. JENNINGS RANDOLPH ARTHUR
NASH CLARENCE DARROW
These names represent but a small fraction of the hundreds of
well known Americans whose achievements, financially and otherwise, prove that
those who understand and apply the Carnegie secret, reach high stations in
life. I have never known anyone who was inspired to use the secret, who did not
achieve noteworthy success in his chosen calling. I have never known any person
to distinguish himself, or to accumulate riches of any consequence, without
possession of the secret. From these two facts I draw the conclusion that the
secret is more important, as a part of the knowledge essential for
self-determination, than any which one receives through what is popularly known
as education.
What is EDUCATION, anyway? This has been answered in full
detail.
As far as schooling is concerned, many of these men had very
little. John Wanamaker once told me that what little schooling he had, he
acquired in very much the same manner as a modern locomotive takes on water, by
scooping it up as it runs. Henry Ford never reached high school, let alone
college. I am not attempting to minimize the value of schooling, but I am
trying to express my earnest belief that those who master and apply the secret
will reach high stations, accumulate riches, and bargain with life on their own
terms, even if their schooling has been meager.
Somewhere, as you read, the secret to which I refer will jump
from the page and stand boldly before you, IF YOU ARE READY FOR IT! When it
appears, you will recognize it. Whether you receive the sign in the first or the
last chapter, stops for a moment when it presents itself, and turn down a
glass, for that occasion will mark the most important turning-point of your
life.
We pass now, to Chapter One, and to the story of my very dear
friend, who has generously acknowledged having seen the mystic sign, and whose
business achievements are evidence enough that he turned down a glass. As you
read his story, and the others, remember that they deal with the important
problems of life, such as all men experience.
The problems arising from one’s endeavor to earn a living, to
find hope, courage, contentment and peace of mind; to
accumulate riches and to enjoy freedom of body and spirit.
Remember, too, as you go through the book, that it deals with
facts and not with fiction, its purpose being to convey a great universal truth
through which all who are READY may learn, not only WHAT TO DO, BUT ALSO
HOW TO DO IT! And receive, as well, THE NEEDED STIMULUS TO MAKE A
START.
As a final word of preparation, before you begin the first
chapter, may I offer one brief suggestion which may provide a clue by which the
Carnegie secret may be recognized? It is this. ALL ACHIEVEMENT, ALL EARNED
RICHES, HAVE THEIR BEGINNING IN AN IDEA! If you are ready for the
secret, you already possess one half of it, therefore,
you will readily recognize the other half the moment it reaches your mind.
THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
THE MAN WHO THOUGHT HIS WAY INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH THOMAS
A. EDISON
TRULY, thoughts are things, and powerful things at that, when
they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE
for their translation into riches, or other material objects.
A little more than thirty years ago, Edwin C. Barnes discovered
how true it is that men really do THINK AND GROW RICH. His discovery did not
come about at one sitting. It came little by little, beginning with a BURNING
DESIRE to become a business associate of the great
One of the chief characteristics of Barnes Desire was that it
was definite. He wanted to work with
When this DESIRE, or impulse of thought, first flashed into his
mind he was in no position to act upon it. Two difficulties stood in his way.
He did not know Mr. Edison, and he did not have enough money to pay his
railroad fare to
These difficulties were sufficient to have discouraged the
majority of men from making any attempt to carry out the desire. But his was no
ordinary desire! He was so determined to find a way to carry out his desire
that he finally decided to travel by blind baggage, rather than be defeated.
(To the uninitiated, this means that he went to
He presented himself at Mr. Edison’s laboratory, and announced
he had come to go into business with the inventor. In speaking of the first
meeting between Barnes and Edison, years later, Mr. Edison said, He stood there
before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the
expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined
to get what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with
men, that when a man really DESIRES a thing so deeply that he is willing to
stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is
sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked for, because I saw he had
made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved
that no mistake was made.
Just what young Barnes said to Mr. Edison on that occasion was
far less important than that which he thought. Edison, himself, said so!
It could not have been the young man’s appearance which got him his start in
the
If the significance of this statement could be conveyed to every
person who reads it, there would be no need for the remainder of this
book.
Barnes did not get his partnership with
Months went by. Apparently nothing happened to bring the coveted
goal which Barnes had set up in his mind as his DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE. But
something important was happening in Barnes mind. He was constantly
intensifying his DESIRE to become the business associate of
Psychologists have correctly said that when one is truly ready
for a thing, it puts in its appearance.
Barnes was ready for a business association with
He did not say to himself, Ah well, what’s the use? I guess I’ll
change my mind and try for a salesman’s job. But, he did say, I came here to go
into business with
Maybe young Barnes did not know it at the time, but his bulldog
determination, his persistence in standing back of a single DESIRE, was
destined to mow down all opposition, and bring him the opportunity he was
seeking.
When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and
from a different direction than Barnes had expected. That is one of the tricks
of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often
it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this
is why so many fail to recognize opportunity.
Mr. Edison had just perfected a new office device, known at that
time, as the Edison Dictating Machine (now the Ediphone).
His salesmen were not enthusiastic over the machine. They did not believe it
could be sold without great effort. Barnes saw his opportunity. It had crawled
in quietly, hidden in a queer looking machine which interested no one but
Barnes and the inventor.
Barnes knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine. He
suggested this to
The business alliance has been in operation for more than thirty
years. Out of it Barnes has made himself rich in money, but he has done
something infinitely greater, he has proved that one really may Think and Grow
Rich.
How much actual cash that original DESIRE of Barnes has been
worth to him, I have no way of knowing. Perhaps it has brought him two or three
million dollars, but the amount, whatever it is, becomes insignificant when
compared with the greater asset he acquired in the form of definite knowledge
that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical
counterpart by the application of known principles.
Barnes literally thought himself into a partnership with
the great
He had no money to begin with. He had but little education. He
had no influence. But he did have initiative, faith, and the will to win. With
these intangible forces he made himself number one man with the greatest
inventor who ever lived.
Now, let us look at a different situation, and study a man who
had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three
feet short of the goal he was seeking.
THREE FEET FROM GOLD
One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of
quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is
guilty of this mistake at one time or another.
An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the gold fever in the
gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more
gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the
earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going
was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.
After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the
shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he
covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in
The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The
returns proved they had one of the richest mines in
Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then
something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end
of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on,
desperately trying to pick up the vein again, all to no avail.
Finally, they decided to QUIT.
They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars,
and took the train back home. Some junk men are dumb, but not this one! He
called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating.
The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not
familiar with fault lines. His calculations showed that the vein would be found
JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where
it was found!
The Junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine,
because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.
Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured
through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money
came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid
back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.
Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when
he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The
discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.
Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED
three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by
the simple method of saying to himself, I stopped three feet from gold, but I
will never stop because men say no when I ask them to buy
insurance.
Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell
more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his stickability to the lesson he learned from his quit ability
in the gold mining business.
Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with
much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man,
the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the
majority of men do.
More than five hundred of the most successful men this country
has ever known, told the author their greatest success
came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.
Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great
delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.
A FIFTY-CENT LESSON IN PERSISTENCE
Shortly after Mr. Darby received his degree from the University
of Hard Knocks, and had decided to profit by his experience in the gold mining
business, he had the good fortune to be present on an occasion that proved to
him that No does not necessarily mean no.
One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old
fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of colored
sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small colored
child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.
The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly,
what do you want?
Meekly, the child replied, My mammy say
send her fifty cents.
I’ll not do it, the uncle retorted, Now
you run on home.
Yas sah, the child replied. But she
did not move.
The uncle went ahead with his work, so busily engaged that he
did not pay enough attention to the child to observe that she did not leave.
When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, I told
you to go on home! Now go, or I’ll take a switch to you.
The little girl said yas sah, but she did not budge an inch.
The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the
mill hopper, picked up a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an
expression on his face that indicated trouble. Darby held his breath. He was
certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a fierce
temper. He knew that colored children were not supposed to defy white people in
that part of the country.
When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing,
she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at
the top of her shrill voice, MY MAMMY’S GOTTA HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS!
The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid
the barrel stave on the floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a
dollar, and gave it to her.
The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door,
never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered. After she
had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for
more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had
just taken. Mr. Darby, too, was doing some thinking. That was the first time in
all his experience that he had seen a colored child deliberately master an
adult white person. How did she do it? What happened to his uncle that caused
him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power
did this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other
similar questions flashed into Darby’s mind, but he did not find the answer
until years later, when he told me the story.
Strangely, the story of this unusual experience was told to the
author in the old mill, on the very spot where the uncle took his whipping.
Strangely, too, I had devoted nearly a quarter of a century to the study of the
power which enabled an ignorant, illiterate colored child to conquer an
intelligent man.
As we stood there in that musty old mill, Mr. Darby repeated the
story of the unusual conquest, and finished by asking, What
can you make of it? What strange power did that child use, that so completely
whipped my uncle?
The answer to his question will be found in the principles
described in this book. The answer is full and complete. It contains details
and instructions sufficient to enable anyone to understand, and apply the same
force which the little child accidentally stumbled upon.
Keep your mind alert, and you will observe exactly what strange
power came to the rescue of the child, you will catch
a glimpse of this power in the next chapter. Somewhere in the book you will
find an idea that will quicken your receptive powers, and place at your
command, for your own benefit, this same irresistible power. The awareness of
this power may come to you in the first chapter, or it may flash into your mind
in some subsequent chapter. It may come in the form of a single idea. Or, it
may come in the nature of a plan, or a purpose. Again, it may cause you to go
back into your past experiences of failure or defeat, and bring to the surface
some lesson by which you can regain all that you lost through defeat.
After I had described to Mr. Darby the power unwittingly used by
the little colored child, he quickly retraced his thirty years of experience as
a life insurance salesman, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that
field was due, in no small degree, to the lesson he had learned from the
child.
Mr. Darby pointed out: every time a prospect tried to bow me
out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big
eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself, I’ve gotta
make this sale. The better portion of all sales I have made, were made after
people had said NO.
He recalled, too, his mistake in having stopped only three feet
from gold, but, he said, that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught
me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson
I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.
This story of Mr. Darby and his uncle, the colored child and the
gold mine, doubtless will be read by hundreds of men who make their living by
selling life insurance, and to all of these, the author wishes to offer the
suggestion that Darby owes to these two experiences his ability to sell more
than a million dollars of life insurance every year.
Life is strange, and often imponderable! Both the successes and
the failures have their roots in simple experiences. Mr. Darby’s experiences
were commonplace and simple enough, yet they held the answer to his destiny in
life, therefore they were as important (to him) as life itself. He profited by
these two dramatic experiences, because he analyzed them, and found the
lesson they taught. But what of the man who has neither the time, nor the
inclination to study failure in search of knowledge that may lead to success? Where, and how is he to learn the art of converting defeat
into stepping stones to opportunity?
In answer to these questions, this book was written.
The answer called for a description of thirteen principles, but
remember, as you read, the answer you may be seeking, to the questions
which have caused you to ponder over the strangeness of life, may be found in
your own mind, through some idea, plan, or purpose which may spring into
your mind as you read. One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success.
The principles described in this book, contain the best, and the most practical
of all that is known, concerning ways and means of creating useful ideas.
Before we go any further in our approach to the description of
these principles, we believe you are entitled to receive this important
suggestion. WHEN RICHES BEGIN TO COME THEY COME SO QUICKLY, IN SUCH GREAT
ABUNDANCE, THAT ONE WONDERS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING DURING ALL THOSE LEAN
YEARS. This is an astounding statement, and all the more so, when we take into
consideration the popular belief, that riches come only to those who work hard
and long.
When you begin to THINK AND GROW RICH, you will observe that
riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or
no hard work. You, and every other person, ought to be interested in knowing
how to acquire that state of mind which will attract riches. I spent
twenty-five years in research, analyzing more than 25,000 people, because I,
too, wanted to know how wealthy men become that way.
Without that research, this book could not have been
written.
Here take notice of a very significant truth, viz:
The business depression started in 1929, and continued on to an
all time record of destruction, until sometime after President Roosevelt
entered office. Then the depression began to fade into nothingness. Just as an
electrician in a theatre raises the lights so gradually that darkness is transmuted
into light before you realize it, so did the spell of fear in the minds of the
people gradually fade away and become faith.
Observe very closely, as soon as you master the principles of
this philosophy, and begin to follow the instructions for applying those
principles, your financial status will begin to improve, and everything you
touch will begin to transmute itself into an asset for your benefit. Impossible? Not at all!
One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man’s
familiarity with the word impossible. He knows all the rules which will NOT
work. He knows all the things which CANNOT be done. This book was written for
those who seek the rules which have made others successful, and are willing to stake
everything on those rules.
A great many years ago I purchased a fine dictionary. The first
thing I did with it was to turn to the word impossible, and neatly clip it out
of the book. That would not be an unwise thing for you to do.
Success comes to those who become SUCCESS CONSCIOUS. Failure
comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become FAILURE
CONSCIOUS.
The object of this book is to help all who seek it, to learn the
art of changing their minds from FAILURE CONSCIOUSNESS to SUCCESS
CONSCIOUSNESS.
Another weakness found in altogether too many people, is the
habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own impressions
and beliefs. Some who will read this, will believe
that no one can THINK AND GROW RICH. They cannot think in terms of riches,
because their thought habits have been steeped in poverty, want, misery,
failure, and defeat.
These unfortunate people remind me of a prominent Chinese, who
came to
What do we say about the Chinese?
We refuse to believe that which we do not understand. We
foolishly believe that our own limitations are the proper measure of
limitations. Sure, the other fellow’s eyes are off slant, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT
THE SAME AS OUR OWN.
Millions of people look at the achievements of Henry Ford, after
he has arrived, and envy him, because of his good fortune, or luck, or genius,
or whatever it is that they credit for Ford’s fortune. Perhaps one person in
every hundred thousand knows the secret of Ford’s success, and those who do
know are too modest, or too reluctant, to speak of it, because of its
simplicity. A single transaction will illustrate the secret perfectly.
A few years back, Ford decided to produce his now famous V-8
motor. He chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one
block, and instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The
design was placed on paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was
simply impossible to cast an eight cylinder gas engine block in one
piece.
Ford said, Produce it anyway.
But, they replied, it’s impossible!
Go ahead, Ford commanded, and stay on the job until you succeed
no matter how much time is required.
The engineers went ahead. There was nothing else for them to do,
if they were to remain on the Ford staff. Six months went by, nothing happened.
Another six months passed, and still nothing happened. The engineers tried
every conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of the
question; impossible!
At the end of the year Ford checked with his engineers, and
again they informed him they had found no way to carry out his orders.
Go right ahead, said Ford, I want it, and I’ll have it.
They went ahead, and then, as if by a stroke of magic, the
secret was discovered.
The Ford DETERMINATION had won once more!
This story may not be described with minute accuracy, but the
sum and substance of it is correct. Deduce from it, you who wish to THINK AND
GROW RICH, the secret of the Ford millions, if you can. You’ll not have to look
very far.
Henry Ford is a success, because he understands, and applies the
principles of success. One of these is DESIRE: knowing what one wants. Remember
this Ford story as you read, and pick out the lines in which the secret of his
stupendous achievement have been described. If you can do this, if you can lay
your finger on the particular group of principles which made Henry Ford rich,
you can equal his achievements in almost any calling for which you are
suited.
YOU ARE THE MASTER OF YOUR FATE, THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL,
BECAUSE…
When
He should have told us that the ether in which this little earth
floats, in which we move and have our being, is a form of energy moving at an
inconceivably high rate of vibration, and that the ether is filled with a form
of universal power which ADAPTS itself to the nature of the thoughts we hold in
our minds; and INFLUENCES us, in natural ways, to transmute our thoughts into
their physical equivalent.
If the poet had told us of this great truth, we would know WHY
IT IS that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls. He should
have told us, with great emphasis that this power makes no attempt to
discriminate between destructive thoughts and constructive thoughts, that it
will urge us to translate into physical reality thoughts of poverty, just as
quickly as it will influence us to act upon thoughts of riches.
He should have told us, too, that our brains become magnetized
with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with
which no man is familiar, these magnets attract to us the forces, the people,
the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.
He should have told us, that before we can accumulate riches in
great abundance, we must magnetize our minds with intense DESIRE for riches,
that we must become money conscious until the DESIRE for money drives us to
create definite plans for acquiring it.
But, being a poet, and not a philosopher,
Little by little, the truth has unfolded itself, until it now
appears certain that the principles described in this book, hold the secret of
mastery over our economic fate.
We are now ready to examine the first of these principles.
Maintain a spirit of open-mindedness, and remember as you read, they are the
invention of no one man. The principles were gathered from the life experiences
of more than 500 men who actually accumulated riches in huge amounts; men who
began in poverty, with but little education, without influence. The principles
worked for these men. You can put them to work for your own enduring
benefit.
You will find it easy, not hard, to do.
Before you read the next chapter, I want you to know that it
conveys factual information which might easily change your entire financial
destiny, as it has so definitely brought changes of stupendous proportions to
two people described.
I want you to know, also, that the relationship between these
two men and myself, is such that I could have taken no
liberties with the facts, even if I had wished to do so. One of them has been
my closest personal friend for almost twenty-five years,
the other is my own son. The unusual success of these two men, success which
they generously accredit to the principle described in the next chapter, more
than justifies this personal reference as a means of emphasizing the far-flung
power of this principle.
Almost fifteen years ago, I delivered the Commencement Address
at
It gives you an idea of the rewards to come.
My dear Napoleon: My service as a Member of Congress having
given me an insight into the problems of men and women, I am writing to offer a
suggestion which may become helpful to thousands of worthy people.
With apologies, I must state that the suggestion, if acted upon,
will mean several years of labor and responsibility for you, but I am
en-heartened to make the suggestion, because I know your great love for
rendering useful service.
In 1922, you delivered the Commencement address at
The suggestion I have in mind is, that you put into a book the
sum and substance of the address you delivered at Salem College, and in that
way give the people of America an opportunity to profit by your many years of
experience and association with the men who, by their greatness, have made
America the richest nation on earth.
I recall, as though it were yesterday, the marvelous description
you gave of the method by which Henry Ford, with but little schooling, without
a dollar, with no influential friends, rose to great heights. I made up my mind
then, even before you had finished your speech that I would make a place for
myself, no matter how many difficulties I had to surmount.
Thousands of young people will finish their schooling this year,
and within the next few years. Every one of them will be seeking just such a
message of practical encouragement as the one I received from you. They will
want to know where to turn, what to do, to get started in life. You can tell
them, because you have helped to solve the problems of so many, many
people.
If there is any possible way that you can afford to render so
great a service, may I offer the suggestion that you include with every book,
one of your Personal Analysis Charts, in order that the purchaser of the book
may have the benefit of a complete self-inventory, indicating, as you indicated
to me years ago, exactly what is standing in the way of success.
Such a service as this, providing the readers of your book with
a complete, unbiased picture of their faults and their virtues, would mean to
them the difference between success and failure. The service would be
priceless.
Millions of people are now facing the problem of staging a
come-back, because of the depression, and I speak from personal experience when
I say, I know these earnest people would welcome the opportunity to tell you
their problems, and to receive your suggestions for the solution.
You know the problems of those who face the necessity of
beginning all over again. There are thousands of people in
If you publish the book, I would like to own the first copy that
comes from the press, personally autographed by you.
With best wishes, believe me,
Cordially yours,
CHAPTER 2
DESIRE
THE STARTING POINT OF ALL ACHIEVEMENT
The First Step toward Riches
WHEN Edwin C. Barnes climbed down from the freight train in
As he made his way from the railroad tracks to Thomas A.
Edison’s office, his mind was at work. He saw himself standing in
Barnes desire was not a hope! It was not a wish! It
was a keen, pulsating DESIRE, which transcended everything else. It was
DEFINITE.
The desire was not new when he approached
A few years later, Edwin C. Barnes again stood before
Five years passed before the chance he had been seeking made its
appearance. During all those years not one ray of hope, not one promise of attainment
of his DESIRE had been held out to him. To everyone, except himself, he
appeared only another cog in the
It is a remarkable illustration of the power of a DEFINITE
DESIRE. Barnes won his goal, because he wanted to be a business associate of
Mr. Edison, more than he wanted anything else. He created a plan by which to
attain that purpose. But he BURNED ALL BRIDGES BEHIND HIM.
He stood by his DESIRE until it became the dominating obsession
of his life and finally, a fact.
When he went to
He did not say, I will work there for a few months, and if I get
no encouragement, I will quit and get a job somewhere else. He
did say, I will start anywhere. I will do anything
He did not say, I will keep my eyes
open for another opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the
He left himself no possible way of retreat. He had to win or
perish!
That is all there is to the Barnes story of success! A long
while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to
make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to
send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He
loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded
soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn
the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle, he
said, You see the boats going up in smoke. That means
that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice-we
win or we perish! They won.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn
his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of
maintaining that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE TO WIN, essential to
success.
The morning after the great
The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a finger at
the remains of his store, and said, Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build
the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down.
That was more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It
stands there today, a towering monument to the power of that state of mind
known as a BURNING DESIRE. The easy thing for Marshal Field to have done, would have been exactly what his fellow merchants did.
When the going was hard, and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went
where the going seemed easier.
Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other
merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin C.
Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the
The method by which DESIRE for riches
can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definite,
practical steps, viz:
First. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you
desire. It is not sufficient merely to say I want plenty of money. Be definite
as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will
be described in a subsequent chapter).
Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for
the money you desire. (There is no such reality as something for nothing.)
Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess
the money you desire.
Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire,
and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of
money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state
what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan
through which you intend to accumulate it.
Sixth. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once
just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU
READ, SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE
MONEY.
It is important that you follow the instructions described in
these six steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the
instructions in the sixth paragraph. You may complain that it is impossible for
you to see yourself in possession of money before you actually have it. Here is
where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly DESIRE money so
keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in
convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and
to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it.
Only those who become money conscious ever accumulate great
riches. Money consciousness means that the mind has become so thoroughly
saturated with the DESIRE for money, that one can see one’s self already in
possession of it.
To the uninitiated, who has not been schooled in the working
principles of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical. It may
be helpful, to all who fail to recognize the soundness of the six steps, to
know that the information they convey, was received from Andrew Carnegie, who began
as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but managed, despite his humble
beginning, to make these principles yield him a fortune of considerably more
than one hundred million dollars.
It may be of further help to know that the six steps here
recommended were carefully scrutinized by the late Thomas A. Edison, who placed
his stamp of approval upon them as being, not only the steps essential for the
accumulation of money, but necessary for the attainment of any definite
goal.
The steps call for no hard labor. They call for no sacrifice.
They do not require one to become ridiculous, or credulous. To
apply them calls for no great amount of education. But the successful
application of these six steps does call for sufficient imagination to
enable one to see, and to understand, that accumulation of money cannot be left
to chance, good fortune, and luck. One must realize that all who have
accumulated great fortunes, first did a certain amount
of dreaming, hoping, wishing, DESIRING, and PLANNING before they acquired
money.
You may as well know, right here, that
you can never have riches in great quantities, UNLESS you can work yourself
into a white heat of DESIRE for money, and actually BELIEVE you will possess
it.
You may as well know, also that every great leader, from the
dawn of civilization down to the present, was a dreamer. Christianity is the
greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an intense
dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental
and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form.
If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will
never see them in your bank balance.
Never, in the history of
We who are in this race for riches, should be encouraged to know
that this changed world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways of
doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching, new methods
of marketing, new books, new literature, new features for the radio, new ideas
for moving pictures. Back of all this demand for new and better things, there
is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is DEFINITENESS OF
PURPOSE, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning DESIRE to possess it.
The business depression marked the death of one age, and the
birth of another. This changed world requires practical dreamers who can, and
will put their dreams into action. The practical dreamers have always been,
and always will be the pattern-makers of civilization.
We who desire to accumulate riches, should remember the real
leaders of the world always have been men who harnessed, and put into practical
use, the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and have converted
those forces, [or impulses of thought], into sky-scrapers, cities, factories,
airplanes, automobiles, and every form of convenience that makes life more
pleasant.
Tolerance, and an open mind are practical necessities of the
dreamer of today. Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they
start. Never has there been a time more favorable to pioneers than the present.
True, there is no wild and woolly west to be conquered, as in the days of the
Covered Wagon; but there is a vast business, financial, and industrial world to
be remolded and redirected along new and better lines.
In planning to acquire your share of the riches, let no one
influence you to scorn the dreamer. To win the big stakes in this changed
world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose
dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit which
serves as the life-blood of our own country, your opportunity and mine, to
develop and market our talents.
Let us not forget,
Copernicus, the great astronomer, dreamed of a multiplicity of
worlds, and revealed them! No one denounced him as impractical after he
had triumphed. Instead, the world worshipped at his shrine, thus proving once
more that SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES, FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.
If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it, go
ahead and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what they say if you
meet with temporary defeat, for they, perhaps, do not know that EVERY FAILURE
BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT SUCCESS.
Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a horseless
carriage, went to work with what tools he possessed, without waiting for
opportunity to favor him, and now evidence of his dream belts the entire earth.
He has put more wheels into operation than any man who ever lived, because he
was not afraid to back his dreams.
Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by
electricity, began where he stood to put his dream into action, and despite
more than ten thousand failures, he stood by that dream until he made it
a physical reality. Practical dreamers DO NOT QUIT!
Whelan dreamed of a chain of cigar stores, transformed his dream
into action, and now the United Cigar Stores occupy the best corners in
The Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through
the air. Now one may see evidence all over the world, that
they dreamed soundly.
Marconi dreamed of a system for harnessing the intangible forces
of the ether. Evidence that he did not dream in vain, may be found in every
wireless and radio in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the humblest
cabin, and the most stately ma nor house side by side. It made the people of
every nation on earth back-door neighbors. It gave the President of the
The world has become accustomed to new discoveries. Nay, it has
shown a willingness to reward the dreamer who gives the world a new idea.
The greatest achievement was, at first, and for a time, but a
dream.
The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in
the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. DREAMS ARE THE SEEDLINGS
OF REALITY.
Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world.
Your star is now in the ascendancy. The world depression brought the
opportunity you have been waiting for. It taught people humility, tolerance,
and open-mindedness.
The world is filled with an abundance of
A BURNING DESIRE TO BE, AND TO DO is the starting point from
which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness,
or lack of ambition.
The world no longer scoffs at the dreamer, nor calls him
impractical. If you think it does, take a trip to
You have been disappointed, you have undergone defeat during the
depression, you have felt the great heart within you
crushed until it bled. Take courage, for these experiences have tempered the
spiritual metal of which you are made-they are assets of incomparable
value.
Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad
start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they arrive. The
turning point in the lives of those who succeed,
usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced
to their other selves.
John Bunyan wrote the Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the
finest of all English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely
punished, because of his views on the subject of religion.
0. Henry discovered the genius which slept within his brain,
after he had met with great misfortune, and was confined in a prison cell, in
Edison, the world’s greatest inventor and scientist, was a tramp
telegraph operator, he failed innumerable times before
he was driven, finally, to the discovery of the genius which slept within his
brain.
Charles Dickens began by pasting labels on blacking pots. The
tragedy of his first love penetrated the depths of his soul, and converted him
into one of the world’s truly great authors. That tragedy produced, first,
David Copperfield, then a succession of other works that made this a richer and
better world for all who read his books. Disappointment over love affairs, generally has the effect of driving men to drink,
and women to ruin; and this, because most people never learn the art of
transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams of a constructive nature.
Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly after birth.
Despite her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly in the
pages of the history of the great. Her entire life has served as evidence that
no one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.
Robert Burns was an illiterate country lad,
he was cursed by poverty, and grew up to be a drunkard in the bargain. The
world was made better for his having lived, because he clothed beautiful
thoughts in poetry, and thereby plucked a thorn and planted a rose in its
place.
Booker T. Washington was born in slavery, handicapped by race
and color. Because he was tolerant, had an open mind at all times, on all
subjects, and was a DREAMER, he left his impress for good on an entire
race.
Beethoven was deaf,
Before passing to the next chapter, kindle anew in your mind the
fire of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind,
and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need
will come to you, when you are READY for it. Let Emerson state the thought in
these words, Every proverb, every book, every byword
that belongs to thee for aid and comfort shall surely come home through open or
winding passages. Every friend whom not thy fantastic
will, but the great and tender soul in thee craveth,
shall lock thee in his embrace.
There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being
READY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he
can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish.
Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith,
courage, and belief.
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to
demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these
lines:
I
bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However
I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store. For Life is a just
employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have
set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial’s hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.
DESIRE OUTWITS MOTHER NATURE
As a fitting climax to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of
the most unusual persons I have ever known. I first saw him twenty-four years
ago, a few minutes after he was born. He came into the world without any
physical sign of ears, and the doctor admitted, when pressed for an opinion,
that the child might be deaf, and mute for life.
I challenged the doctor’s opinion. I had the right to do so, I was the child’s father. I, too, reached a decision,
and rendered an opinion, but I expressed the opinion silently, in the secrecy
of my own heart. I decided that my son would hear and speak. Nature could send
me a child without ears, but Nature could not induce me to accept the
reality of the affliction.
In my own mind I knew that my son would hear and speak. How? I
was sure there must be a way, and I knew I would find it. I thought of the
words of the immortal Emerson, The whole course of things goes to teach us
faith. We need only obey.
There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.
The right word? DESIRE! More than anything else, I DESIRED that my son
should not be a deaf mute. From that desire I never receded, not for a
second.
Many years previously, I had written, Our
only limitations are those we set up in our own minds. For the first time, I
wondered if that statement were true. Lying on the bed in front of me was a
newly born child, without the natural equipment of hearing. Even though he
might hear and speak, he was obviously disfigured for life. Surely, this was a
limitation which that child had not set up in his own mind.
What could I do about it? Somehow I would find a way to
transplant into that child’s mind my own BURNING DESIRE for ways and means of
conveying sound to his brain without the aid of ears.
As soon as the child was old enough to cooperate, I would fill
his mind so completely with a BURNING DESIRE to hear, that Nature would, by
methods of her own, translate it into physical reality.
All this thinking took place in my own mind, but I spoke of it
to no one. Every day I renewed the pledge I bad made to myself, not to accept a
deaf mute for a son.
As he grew older, and began to take notice of things around him,
we observed that he had a slight degree of hearing. When he reached the age
when children usually begin talking, he made no attempt to speak, but we could
tell by his actions that he could hear certain sounds slightly. That was all I
wanted to know! I was convinced that if he could hear, even slightly, he might
develop still greater hearing capacity. Then something happened which gave me
hope. It came from an entirely unexpected source.
We bought a victrola. When the child
heard the music for the first time, he went into ecstasies, and promptly
appropriated the machine. He soon showed a preference for certain records,
among them, It’s a Long Way to
Shortly after he appropriated the victrola,
I discovered that he could hear me quite clearly when I spoke with my lips
touching his mastoid bone, or at the base of the brain. These discoveries
placed in my possession the necessary media by which I began to translate into
reality my Burning Desire to help my son develop hearing and speech. By
that time he was making stabs at speaking certain words. The outlook was far
from encouraging, but DESIRE BACKED BY FAITH knows no such word as
impossible.
Having determined that he could hear the sound of my voice
plainly, I began, immediately, to transfer to his mind the desire to hear and
speak. I soon discovered that the child enjoyed bedtime stories, so I went to
work, creating stories designed to develop in him self-reliance, imagination, and
a keen desire to hear and to be normal.
There was one story in particular, which I emphasized by giving
it some new and dramatic coloring each time it was told. It was designed to
plant in his mind the thought that his affliction was not a liability, but an
asset of great value. Despite the fact that all the philosophy I had examined
clearly indicated that EVERY ADVERSITY BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT
ADVANTAGE, I must confess that I had not the slightest idea how this
affliction could ever become an asset. However, I continued my practice of
wrapping that philosophy in bedtime stories, hoping the time would come when he
would find some plan by which his handicap could be made to serve some useful
purpose.
Reason told me plainly, that there was no adequate compensation
for the lack of ears and natural hearing equipment. DESIRE backed by FAITH,
pushed reason aside, and inspired me to carry on.
As I analyze the experience in retrospect, I can see now, that
my son’s faith in me had much to do with the astounding results. He did
not question anything I told him. I sold him the idea that he had a distinct advantage
over his older brother, and that this advantage would reflect itself in
many ways. For example, the teachers in school would observe that he had no
ears, and, because of this, they would show him special attention and treat him
with extraordinary kindness. They always did. His mother saw to that, by
visiting the teachers and arranging with them to give the child the extra
attention necessary. I sold him the idea, too, that when he became old enough
to sell newspapers, (his older brother had already become a newspaper
merchant), he would have a big advantage over his brother, for the reason that
people would pay him extra money for his wares, because they could see that he
was a bright, industrious boy, despite the fact he had no ears.
We could notice that, gradually, the child’s hearing was
improving. Moreover, he had not the slightest tendency to be self conscious,
because of his affliction. When he was about seven, he showed the first
evidence that our method of servicing his mind was bearing fruit. For several
months he begged for the privilege of selling newspapers, but his mother would
not give her consent. She was afraid that his deafness made it unsafe for him
to go on the street alone.
Finally, he took matters in his own hands. One afternoon, when
he was left at home with the servants, he climbed through the kitchen window,
shinnied to the ground, and set out on his own. He borrowed six cents in
capital from the neighborhood shoemaker, invested it in papers, sold out,
reinvested, and kept repeating until late in the evening. After balancing his
accounts, and paying back the six cents he had borrowed from his banker, he had
a net profit of forty-two cents. When we got home that night, we found him in
bed asleep, with the money tightly clenched in his hand.
His mother opened his hand, removed the coins, and cried. Of all
things! Crying over her son’s first victory seemed so inappropriate. My
reaction was the reverse. I laughed heartily, for I knew that my endeavor to
plant in the child’s mind an attitude of faith in himself
had been successful.
His mother saw, in his first business venture, a little deaf boy
who had gone out in the streets and risked his life to earn money. I saw a
brave, ambitious, self-reliant little business man whose stock in himself had been increased a hundred percent, because he had
go ne into business on his own initiative, and had
won. The transaction pleased me, because I knew that he had given evidence of a
trait of resourcefulness that would go with him all through life.
Later events proved this to be true. When his older brother
wanted something, he would lie down on the floor, kick his feet in the air, cry
for it and get it. When the little deaf boy wanted something, he would plan a
way to earn the money, then buy it for himself. He
still follows that plan!
Truly, my own son has taught me that handicaps can be converted
into stepping stones on which one may climb toward some worthy goal, unless
they are accepted as obstacles, and used as alibis.
The little deaf boy went through the grades, high school, and
college without being able to hear his teachers, excepting when they shouted
loudly, at close range. He did not go to a school for the deaf.
WE WOULD NOT PERMIT HIM TO LEARN THE SIGN LANGUAGE. We were
determined that he should live a normal life, and associate with normal
children, and we stood by that decision, although it cost us many heated debates
with school officials. While he was in high school, he tried an electrical
hearing aid, but it was of no value to him; due, we believed, to a condition
that was disclosed when the child was six, by Dr. J. Gordon Wilson, of Chicago,
when he operated on one side of the boy’s head, and discovered that there was
no sign of natural hearing equipment.
During his last week in college, (eighteen years after the
operation), something happened which marked the most important turning-point of
his life. Through what seemed to be mere chance, he came into possession of
another electrical hearing device, which was sent to him on trial. He was slow
about testing it, due to his disappointment with a similar device. Finally he
picked the instrument up, and more or less carelessly, placed it on his head,
hooked up the battery, and lo! as if by a stroke of
magic, his lifelong DESIRE FOR
Overjoyed because of the Changed World which had been brought to
him through his hearing device, he rushed to the telephone, called his mother,
and heard her voice perfectly. The next day he plainly heard the voices of his
professors in class, for the first time in his life! Previously he could hear
them only when they shouted, at short range. He heard the radio. He heard the
talking pictures. For the first time in his life, he could converse freely with
other people, without the necessity of their having to speak loudly. Truly, he
had come into possession of a Changed World. We had refused to accept Nature’s
error, and, by PERSISTENT DESIRE, we had induced Nature to correct that error,
through the only practical means available.
DESIRE had commenced to pay dividends, but the victory was not
yet complete. The boy still had to find a definite and practical way to convert
his handicap into an equivalent asset.
Hardly realizing the significance of what had already been
accomplished, but intoxicated with the joy of his newly discovered world of
sound, he wrote a letter to the manufacturer of the hearing-aid,
enthusiastically describing his experience. Something in his
letter; something, perhaps which was not written on the lines, but back of
them; caused the company to invite him to
The sum and substance of that impulse of thought was this: It
occurred to him that he might be of help to the millions of deafened people who
go through life without the benefit of hearing devices, if he could find a way
to tell them the story of his Changed World. Then and there, he reached a decision
to devote the remainder of his life to rendering useful service to the hard of
hearing.
For an entire month, he carried on an intensive research, during
which he analyzed the entire marketing system of the manufacturer of the
hearing device, and created ways and means of communicating with the hard of
hearing all over the world for the purpose of sharing with them his newly
discovered Changed World. When this was done, he put in writing a two-year
plan, based upon his findings. When he presented the plan to the company, he
was instantly given a position, for the purpose of carrying out his
ambition.
Little did he dream, when he went to work, that he was destined
to bring hope and practical relief to thousands of deafened people who, without
his help, would have been doomed forever to deaf mutism.
Shortly after he became associated with the manufacturer of his
hearing aid, he invited me to attend a class conducted by his company, for the
purpose of teaching deaf mutes to hear, and to speak. I had never heard of such
a form of education, therefore I visited the class, skeptical but hopeful that
my time would not be entirely wasted. Here I saw a demonstration which gave me
a greatly enlarged vision of what I had done to arouse and keep alive in my son’s
mind the DESIRE for normal hearing. I saw deaf mutes actually being taught to
hear and to speak, through application of the self-same principle I had used,
more than twenty years previously, in saving my son from deaf mutism.
Thus, through some strange turn of the Wheel of Fate, my son,
Blair, and I have been destined to aid in correcting deaf mutism
for those as yet unborn, because we are the only living human beings, as far as
I know, who have established definitely the fact that deaf mutism
can be corrected to the extent of restoring to normal life those who suffer
with this affliction. It has been done for one; it will be done for
others.
There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been a deaf
mute all his life, if his mother and I had not managed to shape his mind as we
did. The doctor who attended at his birth told us, confidentially, the child
might never hear or speak. A few weeks ago, Dr. Irving Voorhees, a noted
specialist on such cases, examined Blair very thoroughly. He was astounded when
he learned how well my son now hears, and speaks, and said his examination
indicated that theoretically, the boy should not be able to hear at all. But
the lad does hear, despite the fact that X-ray pictures show there is no
opening in the skull, whatsoever, from where his ears should be to the
brain.
When I planted in his mind the DESIRE to hear and talk, and live
as a normal person, there went with that impulse some strange influence which
caused Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf of silence between
his brain and the outer world, by some means which the keenest medical
specialists have not been able to interpret. It would be sacrilege for me to
even conjecture as to how Nature performed this miracle. It would be
unforgivable if I neglected to tell the world as much as I know of the humble
part I assumed in the strange experience. It is my duty, and a privilege to say
I believe, and not without reason, that nothing is impossible to the person who
backs DESIRE with enduring FAITH.
Verily, a BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting itself
into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing; now he has it! He
was born with a handicap which might easily have sent one with a less defined
DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin cup. That handicap now
promises to serve as the medium by which he will render useful service to many
millions of hard of hearing, also, to give him useful employment at adequate
financial compensation the remainder of his life.
The little white lies I planted in his mind when he was a child,
by leading him to BELIEVE his affliction would become a great asset, which he
could capitalize, has justified itself. Verily, there is nothing, right or
wrong, which BELIEF, plus BURNING DESIRE, cannot make real. These qualities are
free to everyone.
In all my experience in dealing with men and women who had
personal problems, I never handled a single case which more definitely
demonstrates the power of DESIRE. Authors sometimes make the mistake of writing
of subjects of which they have but superficial, or
very elementary knowledge. It has been my good fortune to have had the
privilege of testing the soundness of the POWER OF DESIRE, through the
affliction of my own son. Perhaps it was providential that the experience came
as it did, for surely no one is better prepared than he, to serve as an example
of what happens when DESIRE is put to the test. If Mother Nature bends to
the will of desire, is it logical that mere men can defeat a burning desire?
Strange and imponderable is the power of the human mind! We do
not understand the method by which it uses every circumstance, every
individual, every physical thing within its reach, as
a means of transmuting DESIRE into its physical counterpart. Perhaps science
will uncover this secret. I planted in my son’s mind the DESIRE to hear and to
speak as any normal person hears and speaks. That DESIRE has now become a
reality.
I planted in his mind the DESIRE to convert his greatest
handicap into his greatest asset. That DESIRE has been realized. The modus
operandi by which this astounding result was achieved is not hard to describe.
It consisted of three very definite facts; first, I MIXED FAITH with the DESIRE
for normal hearing, which I passed on to my son. Second, I communicated my
desire to him in every conceivable way available, through persistent,
continuous effort, over a period of years. Third, HE BELIEVED ME!
As this chapter was being completed, news came of the death of
Mme. Schuman-Heink. One short paragraph in the news
dispatch gives the clue to this unusual woman’s stupendous success as a singer.
I quote the paragraph, because the clue it contains is none other than
DESIRE.
Early in her career, Mme. Schuman-Heink
visited the director of the Vienna Court Opera, to have him test her voice.
But, he did not test it. After taking one look at the awkward and poorly
dressed girl, he exclaimed, none too gently, With such
a face, and with no personality at all, how can you ever expect to succeed in
opera? My good child, give up the idea. Buy a sewing machine, and go to work.
YOU CAN NEVER BE A SINGER.
Never is a long time! The director of the Vienna Court Opera
knew much about the technique of singing. He knew little about the power of
desire, when it assumes the proportion of an obsession. If he had known more of
that power, he would not have made the mistake of condemning genius without
giving it an opportunity.
Several years ago, one of my business associates became ill. He
became worse as time went on, and finally was taken to the hospital for an
operation. Just before he was wheeled into the operating room, I took a look at
him, and wondered how anyone as thin and emaciated as he, could possibly go
through a major operation successfully. The doctor warned me that there was
little if any chance of my ever seeing him alive again. But that was the
DOCTOR’S OPINION. It was not the opinion of the patient. Just before he was
wheeled away, he whispered feebly, Do not be
disturbed, Chief, I will be out of here in a few days. The attending nurse
looked at me with pity. But the patient did come through safely. After it was
all over, his physician said, Nothing but his own
desire to live saved him. He never would have pulled through if he had not
refused to accept the possibility of death.
I believe in the power of DESIRE backed by FAITH, because I have
seen this power lift men from lowly beginnings to places of power and wealth; I
have seen it rob the grave of its victims; I have seen it serve as the medium
by which men staged a comeback after having been defeated in a hundred
different ways; I have seen it provide my own son with a normal, happy,
successful life, despite Nature’s having sent him into the world without
ears.
How can one harness and use the power of DESIRE? This has been
answered through this, and the subsequent chapters of this book. This message
is going out to the world at the end of the longest, and perhaps, the most
devastating depression
Through some strange and powerful principle of mental chemistry
which she has never divulged, Nature wraps up in the impulse of STRONG DESIRE
that something which recognizes no such word as impossible, and accepts no such
reality as failure.
CHAPTER 3
FAITH
VISUALIZATION OF, AND BELIEF IN ATTAINMENT OF DESIRE
The Second Step toward Riches
FAITH is the head chemist of the mind. When FAITH is blended
with the vibration of thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the
vibration, translates it into its spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to
Infinite Intelligence, as in the case of prayer.
The emotions of FAITH, LOVE, and SEX are the most powerful of
all the major positive emotions. When the three are blended, they have the
effect of coloring the vibration of thought in such a way that it instantly
reaches the subconscious mind, where it is changed into its spiritual
equivalent, the only form that induces a response from Infinite
Intelligence.
Love and faith are psychic; related to the spiritual side of
man. Sex is purely biological, and related only to the physical. The mixing, or
blending, of these three emotions has the effect of opening a direct line of
communication between the finite, thinking mind of man, and Infinite
Intelligence.
How To Develop Faith
There comes, now, a statement which will give a better
understanding of the importance the principle of auto-suggestion assumes in the
transmutation of desire into its physical, or monetary equivalent; namely:
FAITH is a state of mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmation or
repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of
auto-suggestion.
As an illustration, consider the purpose for which you are,
presumably, reading this book. The object is, naturally, to acquire the ability
to transmute the intangible thought impulse of DESIRE into its physical
counterpart, money. By following the instructions laid down in the chapters on
auto-suggestion, and the subconscious mind, as summarized in the chapter on
auto-suggestion, you may CONVINCE the subconscious mind that you believe you
will receive that for which you ask, and it will act upon that belief, which
your subconscious mind passes back to you in the form of FAITH, followed by
definite plans for procuring that which you desire.
The method by which one develops FAITH, where it does not
already exist, is extremely difficult to describe, almost as difficult, in
fact, as it would be to describe the color of red to a blind man who has never
seen color, and has nothing with which to compare what you describe to him.
Faith is a state of mind which you may develop at will, after you have mastered
the thirteen principles, because it is a state of mind which develops
voluntarily, through application and use of these principles.
Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind i5
the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.
Perhaps the meaning may be made clearer through the following
explanation as to the way men sometimes become criminals. Stated in the words
of a famous criminologist, When men first come into
contact with crime, they abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a
time, they become accustomed to it, and endure it. If they remain in contact
with it long enough, they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it.
This is the equivalent of saying that any impulse of thought
which is repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind is, finally, accepted
and acted upon by the subconscious mind, which proceeds to translate that
impulse into its physical equivalent, by the most practical procedure
available.
In connection with this, consider again the statement, ALL
THOUGHTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EMOTIONALIZED, (given feeling) AND MIXED WITH FAITH,
begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent or
counterpart.
The emotions, or the feeling portion of thoughts, are the
factors which give thoughts vitality, life, and action. The emotions of Faith,
Love, and Sex, when mixed with any thought impulse, give it greater action than
any of these emotions can do singly.
Not only thought impulses which have been mixed with FAITH, but
those which have been mixed with any of the positive emotions, or any of the
negative emotions, may reach, and influence the subconscious mind.
From this statement, you will understand that the subconscious
mind will translate into its physical equivalent, a thought impulse of a
negative or destructive nature, just as readily as it will act upon thought
impulses of a positive or constructive nature. This accounts for the strange
phenomenon which so many millions of people experience, referred to as
misfortune, or bad luck.
There are millions of people who BELIEVE themselves doomed to
poverty and failure, because of some strange force over which they BELIEVE they
have no control. They are the creators of their own misfortunes, because of
this negative BELIEF, which is picked up by the subconscious mind, and
translated into its physical equivalent.
This is an appropriate place at which to suggest again that you
may benefit, by passing on to your subconscious mind, any DESIRE which you wish
translated into its physical, or monetary equivalent, in a state of expectancy
or BELIEF that the transmutation will actually take place. Your BELIEF, or
FAITH, is the element which determines the action of your subconscious mind.
There is nothing to hinder you from deceiving your subconscious mind when
giving it instructions through autosuggestion, as I deceived my son’s
subconscious mind.
To make this deceit more realistic, conduct yourself just as you
would, if you were ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MATERIAL THING WHICH YOU ARE
DEMANDING, when you call upon your subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind will transmute into its physical
equivalent, by the most direct and practical media available, any order which
is given to it in a state of BELIEF, or FAITH that the order will be carried
out.
Surely, enough has been stated to give a starting point from
which one may, through experiment and practice, acquire the ability to mix
FAITH with any order given to the subconscious mind. Perfection will come
through practice. It cannot come by merely reading instructions.
If it be true that one may become a criminal by association with
crime, (and this is a known fact), it is equally true that one may develop
faith by voluntarily suggesting to the subconscious mind that one has faith.
The mind comes, finally, to take on the nature of the influences which dominate
it. Understand this truth, and you will know why it is essential for you to
encourage the positive emotions as dominating forces of your mind, and
discourage ☔ and eliminate negative
emotions.
A mind dominated by positive emotions, becomes a favorable abode
for the state of mind known as faith. A mind so dominated may, at will, give
the subconscious mind instructions, which it will accept and act upon
immediately.
FAITH
IS A STATE OF
All down the ages, the religionists have admonished struggling
humanity to have faith in this, that, and the other dogma or creed, but they
have failed to tell people HOW to have faith. They have not stated that faith
is a state of mind, and that it may be induced by self-suggestion.
In language which any normal human being can understand, we will
describe all that is known about the principle through which FAITH may be
developed, where it does not already exist. Have Faith in yourself; Faith in
the Infinite.
Before we begin, you should be reminded again that:
FAITH is the eternal elixir which gives life, power, and action
to the impulse of thought!
The foregoing sentence is worth reading a second time, and a
third, and a fourth. It is worth reading aloud!
FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches! FAITH
is the basis of all miracles, and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the
rules of science!
FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE! FAITH is the
element, the chemical which, when mixed with prayer, gives one direct
communication with Infinite Intelligence. FAITH is the element which transforms
the ordinary vibration of thought, created by the finite mind of man, into the
spiritual equivalent.
FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of
Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used by man. EVERY ONE OF THE
FOREGOING STATEMENTS IS CAPABLE OF PROOF!
The proof is simple and easily demonstrated. It is wrapped up in
the principle of auto-suggestion. Let us center our attention, therefore, upon
the subject of self-suggestion, and find out what it is, and what it is capable
of achieving.
It is a well known fact that one comes, finally, to BELIEVE
whatever one repeats to one’s self, whether the
statement be true or false. If a man repeats a lie over and over, he will
eventually accept the lie as truth. Moreover, he will BELIEVE it to be the
truth. Every man is what he is, because of the DOMINATING THOUGHTS which he
permits to occupy his mind. Thoughts which a man deliberately places in his own
mind, and encourages with sympathy, and with which he mixes any one or more of the
emotions, constitute the motivating forces, which direct and control his every
movement, act, and deed!
Comes, now, a very significant statement of truth:
THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OF EMOTIONS, CONSTITUTE A MAGNETIC FORCE WHICH ATTRACTS, FROM
THE VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER, OTHER SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS. A thought thus
magnetized with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in
fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again,
until that which was originally one small seed, becomes countless millions of
seeds of the SAME BRAND!
The ether is a great cosmic mass of eternal forces of vibration.
It is made up of both destructive vibrations and constructive vibrations. It
carries, at all times, vibrations of fear, poverty, disease, failure, misery;
and vibrations of prosperity, health, success, and happiness, just as surely as
it carries the sound of hundreds of orchestrations of music, and hundreds of
human voices, all of which maintain their own individuality, and means of
identification, through the medium of radio.
From the great storehouse of the ether, the human mind is
constantly attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which DOMINATES the
human mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose which one holds in one’s
mind attracts, from the vibrations of the ether, a host of its relatives, adds
these relatives to its own force, and grows until it becomes the dominating,
MOTIVATING MASTER of the individual in whose mind it has been housed.
Now, let us go back to the starting point, and become informed
as to how the original seed of an idea, plan, or purpose may be planted in the
mind. The information is easily conveyed: any idea, plan, or purpose may be
placed in the mind through repetition of thought. This is why you are
asked to write out a statement of your major purpose, or Definite Chief Aim,
commit it to memory, and repeat it, in audible words, day after day, until
these vibrations of sound have reached your subconscious mind.
We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which
we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.
Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate
environment, and to build your own life to ORDER. Taking inventory of mental
assets and liabilities, you will discover that your greatest weakness is lack
of self-confidence. This handicap can be surmounted, and timidity translated
into courage, through the aid of the principle of autosuggestion. The
application of this principle may be made through a simple arrangement of
positive thought impulses stated in writing, memorized, and repeated, until
they become a part of the working equipment of the subconscious faculty of your
mind.
SELF-CONFIDENCE FORMULA
First. I know that I have the
ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I
DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I
here and now promise to render such action.
Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will
eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually
transform themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my
thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend
to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that
person.
Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any
desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression
through some practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I
will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of
SELFÂCONFIDENCE.
Fourth. I have clearly written down a description of my
DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have
developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment. Fifth.
I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon
truth and justice, therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not
benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces
I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to
serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred,
envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity,
because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me
success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them,
and in myself.
I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and
repeat it aloud once a day, with full FAITH that it will gradually influence my
THOUGHTS and ACTIONS so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful
person.
Back of this formula is a law of Nature which no man has
yet been able to explain. It has baffled the scientists of all ages. The
psychologists have named this law auto-suggestion, and let it go at that.
The name by which one calls this law is of little importance.
The important fact about it is, it WORKS for the glory
and success of mankind, IF it is used constructively. On the other hand, if
used destructively, it will destroy just as readily. In this statement may be
found a very significant truth, namely; that those who go down in defeat, and
end their lives in poverty, misery, and distress, do so because of negative
application of the principle of auto-suggestion. The cause may be found in the
fact that ALL IMPULSES OF THOUGHT HAVE A TENDENCY TO CLOTHE THEMSELVES IN THEIR
PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT.
The subconscious mind, (the chemical laboratory in which all
thought impulses are combined, and made ready for translation into physical
reality), makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought
impulses. It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses.
The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by FEAR just
as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by COURAGE, or
FAITH.
The pages of medical history are rich with illustrations of
cases of suggestive suicide. A man may commit suicide through negative
suggestion, just as effectively as by any other means. In a midwestern
city, a man by the name of Joseph Grant, a bank official, borrowed a large sum
of the bank’s money, without the consent of the directors. He lost the money
through gambling. One afternoon, the Bank Examiner came and began to check the
accounts. Grant left the bank, took a room in a local hotel, and when they
found him, three days later, he was lying in bed, wailing and moaning,
repeating over and over these words, My God, this will kill me! I cannot stand
the disgrace. In a short time he was dead. The doctors pronounced the case one
of mental suicide.
Just as electricity will turn the wheels of industry, and render
useful service if used constructively; or snuff out life if wrongly used, so
will the law of auto-suggestion lead you to peace and prosperity. or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death,
according to your degree of understanding and application of it.
If you fill your mind with FEAR, doubt and unbelief in
your ability to connect with, and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence, the
law of auto-suggestion will take this spirit of unbelief and use it as a
pattern by which your subconscious mind will translate it into its physical equivalent.
THIS STATEMENT IS AS TRUE AS THE STATEMENT THAT TWO AND TWO ARE
FOUR!
Like the wind which carries one ship East,
and another West, the law of auto-suggestion will lift you up or pull you down,
according to the way you set your sails of THOUGHT.
The law of auto-suggestion, through which any person may rise to
altitudes of achievement which stagger the imagination, is well described in
the following verse:
If
you think you are beaten, you are, If you think
you dare not, you don’t If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll
lose, you’re lost For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you
are outclassed, you are, You’ve got to think high
to rise, You’ve got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a
prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go To the
stronger or faster man, But soon or late the man who wins Is the man WHO THINKS
HE CAN!
Observe the words which have been emphasized, and you will catch
the deep meaning which the poet had in mind.
Somewhere in your make-up (perhaps in the cells of your brain)
there lies sleeping, the seed of achievement which, if aroused and put
into action, would carry you to heights, such as you may never have hoped to
attain.
Just as a master musician may cause the most beautiful strains
of music to pour forth from the strings of a violin, so may you arouse the
genius which lies asleep in your brain, and cause it
to drive you upward to whatever goal you may wish to achieve.
Abraham Lincoln was a failure at everything he tried, until he
was well past the age of forty. He was a Mr. Nobody from Nowhere, until a great
experience came into his life, aroused the sleeping genius within his heart and
brain, and gave the world one of its really great men. That experience was
mixed with the emotions of sorrow and LOVE. It came to him through Anne
Rutledge, the only woman whom he ever truly loved.
It is a known fact that the emotion of LOVE is closely akin to
the state of mind known as FAITH, and this for the reason that Love comes very
near to translating one’s thought impulses into their spiritual equivalent.
During his work of research, the author discovered, from the analysis of the
life-work and achievements of hundreds of men of outstanding accomplishment,
that there was the influence of a woman’s love back of nearly EVERY ONE OF
THEM. The emotion of love, in the human heart and brain, creates a favorable
field of magnetic attraction, which causes an influx of the higher and finer
vibrations which are afloat in the ether.
If you wish evidence of the power of FAITH, study the
achievements of men and women who have employed it. At the head of the list
comes the Nazarene. Christianity is the greatest single force which influences
the minds of men. The basis of Christianity is FAITH, no
matter how many people may have perverted, or misinterpreted the meaning of
this great force, and no matter how many dogmas and creeds have been
created in its name, which do not reflect its tenets.
The sum and substance of the teachings and the achievements of
Christ, which may have been interpreted as miracles, were nothing more nor less than FAITH. If there are any such phenomena as
miracles they are produced only through the state of mind known as FAITH! Some
teachers of religion, and many who call themselves Christians, neither
understand nor practice FAITH.
Let us consider the power of FAITH, as it is now being
demonstrated, by a man who is well known to all of civilization, Mahatma
Gandhi, of
HE CREATED IT OUT OF HIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRINCIPLE OF
FAITH, AND THROUGH HIS ABILITY TO TRANSPLANT THAT FAITH INTO THE MINDS OF TWO
HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE.
Gandhi has accomplished, through the influence of FAITH, that
which the strongest military power on earth could not,
and never will accomplish through soldiers and military equipment. He has
accomplished the astounding feat of INFLUENCING two hundred million minds to
COALESCE AND MOVE IN UNISON, AS A SINGLE MIND.
What other force on earth, except FAITH could do as much?
There will come a day when employees as well as employers will
discover the possibilities of FAITH. That day is dawning. The whole world has
had ample opportunity, during the recent business depression, to witness what
the LACK OF FAITH will do to business.
Surely, civilization has produced a sufficient number of
intelligent human beings to make use of this great lesson which the depression
has taught the world. During this depression, the world had evidence in
abundance that widespread FEAR will paralyze the wheels of industry and
business. Out of this experience will arise leaders in business and industry who will profit by the example which Gandhi has set for the
world, and they will apply to business the same tactics which he has used in
building the greatest following known in the history of the world. These
leaders will come from the rank and file of the unknown men, who now labor in
the steel plants, the coal mines, the automobile factories, and in the small
towns and cities of
Business is due for a reform, make no mistake about this! The
methods of the past, based upon economic combinations of FORCE and FEAR, will
be supplanted by the better principles of FAITH and cooperation. Men who labor
will receive more than daily wages; they will receive dividends from the
business, the same as those who supply the capital for business; but, first
they must GIVE MORE TO THEIR EMPLOYERS, and stop this bickering and bargaining
by force, at the expense of the public. They must earn the right to
dividends!
Moreover, and this is the most important thing of all, THEY WILL
BE LED BY LEADERS WHO WILL UNDERSTAND AND APPLY THE PRINCIPLES EMPLOYED BY
MAHATMA GANDHI. Only in this way may leaders get from their followers the
spirit of FULL cooperation which constitutes power in its highest and most
enduring form.
This stupendous machine age in which we live, and from which we
are just emerging, has taken the soul out of men. Its leaders have driven men
as though they were pieces of cold machinery; they were forced to do so by the
employees who have bargained, at the expense of all concerned, to get and
not to give. The watchword of the future will be HUMAN HAPPINESS AND
CONTENTMENT, and when this state of mind shall have been attained, the production
will take care of itself, more effectively than anything that has ever been
accomplished where men did not, and could not mix FAITH and individual interest
with their labor.
Because of the need for faith and cooperation in operating
business and industry, it will be both interesting and profitable to analyze an
event which provides an excellent understanding of the method by which
industrialists and business men accumulate great fortunes, by giving before
they try to get.
The event chosen for this illustration dates back to 1900, when
the United States Steel Corporation was being formed. As you read the story,
keep in mind these fundamental facts and you will understand how IDEAS have
been converted into huge fortunes.
First, the huge United States Steel Corporation was born in the
mind of Charles M. Schwab, in the form of an IDEA he created through his
IMAGINATION! Second, he mixed FAITH with his IDEA. Third, he formulated a PLAN
for the transformation of his IDEA into physical and financial reality. Fourth,
he put his plan into action with his famous speech at the University Club.
Fifth, he applied, and followed-through on his PLAN with PERSISTENCE, and
backed it with firm DECISION until it had been fully carried out. Sixth, he
prepared the way for success by a BURNING DESIRE for success.
If you are one of those who have often wondered how great
fortunes are accumulated, this story of the creation of the United States Steel
Corporation will be enlightening. If you have any doubt that men can THINK AND
GROW RICH, this story should dispel that doubt, because you can plainly see in
the story of the United States Steel, the application of a major portion of the
thirteen principles described in this book.
This astounding description of the power of an IDEA was
dramatically told by John Lowell, in the New York World-Telegram, with whose
courtesy it is here reprinted.
A
PRETTY AFTER-DINNER SPEECH FOR A BILLION DOLLARS
When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of the
nation’s financial nobility gathered in the banquet hail of the University Club
on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from out of the West, not half a
dozen of the guests realized they were to witness the most significant episode
in American industrial history.
J. Edward Simmons and Charles Stewart Smith, their hearts full
of gratitude for the lavish hospitality bestowed on them by Charles M. Schwab
during a recent visit to
Even John Pierpont Morgan, sitting on the right hand of Schwab
as became his imperial dignity, intended to grace the banquet table with his
presence only briefly. And so far as the press and public were concerned, the
whole affair was of so little moment that no mention of it found its way into
print the next day.
So the two hosts and their distinguished guests ate their way
through the usual seven or eight courses. There was little conversation and
what there was of it was restrained. Few of the bankers and brokers had met
Schwab, whose career had flowered along the banks of the Monongahela, and none
knew him well. But before the evening was over, they and with them Money Master
Morgan were to be swept off their feet, and a billion dollar baby, the United
States Steel Corporation, was to be conceived.
It is perhaps unfortunate, for the sake of history, that no
record of Charlie Schwab’s speech at the dinner ever was made. He repeated some
parts of it at a later date during a similar meeting of
It is probable, however, that it was a homely speech, somewhat
ungrammatical (for the niceties of language never bothered Schwab), full of
epigram and threaded with wit. But aside from that it had a galvanic force and
effect upon the five billions of estimated capital that was represented by the
diners. After it was over and the gathering was still under its spell, although
Schwab had talked for ninety minutes, Morgan led the orator to a recessed
window where, dangling their legs from the high, uncomfortable seat, they
talked for an hour more.
The magic of the Schwab personality had been turned on, full
force, but what was more important and lasting was the full fledged, clear-cut
program he laid down for the aggrandizement of Steel. Many other men had tried
to interest Morgan in slapping together a steel trust after the pattern of the
biscuit, wire and hoop, sugar, rubber, whisky, oil or chewing gum combinations.
John W.
Gates, the gambler, had urged it, but Morgan distrusted him. The
The financial magnetism that began, a generation ago, to attract
thousands of small and sometimes inefficiently managed companies into large and
competition-crushing combinations, had become operative in the steel world
through the devices of that jovial business pirate, John W. Gates. Gates
already had formed the American Steel and Wire Company out of a chain of small
concerns, and together with Morgan had created the Federal Steel Company. The
National Tube and
But by the side of Andrew Carnegie’s gigantic vertical trust, a
trust owned and operated by fifty-three partners, those other combinations were
picayune. They might combine to their heart’s content but the whole lot of them
couldn’t make a dent in the Carnegie organization, and Morgan knew it.
The eccentric old Scot knew it, too. From the magnificent
heights of
Schwab’s speech on the night of December 12, 1900, undoubtedly
carried the inference, though not the pledge, that the
vast Carnegie enterprise could be brought under the Morgan tent. He talked of
the world future for steel, of reorganization for efficiency, of
specialization, of the scrapping of unsuccessful mills and concentration of
effort on the flourishing properties, of economies in the ore traffic, of
economies in overhead and administrative departments, of capturing foreign
markets.
More than that, he told the buccaneers among them wherein lay
the errors of their customary piracy. Their purposes, he inferred, bad been to
create monopolies, raise prices, and pay themselves fat dividends out of
privilege. Schwab condemned the system in his heartiest manner. The
shortsightedness of such a policy, he told his hearers, lay in the fact that it
restricted the market in an era when everything cried for expansion. By cheapening
the cost of steel, he argued, an ever-expanding market would be created; more
uses for steel would be devised, and a goodly portion of the world trade could
be captured. Actually, though he did not know it, Schwab was an apostle of
modern mass production.
So the dinner at the University Club came to an end. Morgan went
home, to think about Schwab’s rosy predictions. Schwab went back to
It was not long coming. It took Morgan about one week to digest
the feast of reason Schwab had placed before him. When he had assured himself
that no financial indigestion was to result, he sent for Schwab-and found that
young man rather coy. Mr. Carnegie, Schwab indicated, might not like it if he
found his trusted company president had been flirting with the Emperor of Wall
Street, the Street upon which Carnegie was resolved never to tread. Then it was
suggested by John W. Gates the go-between, that if Schwab happened to be in the
Bellevue Hotel in
Now certain economic historians have professed the
belief that from the beginning to the end of the drama, the stage was set by
Andrew Carnegie, that the dinner to Schwab, the famous speech, the Sunday night
conference between Schwab and the Money King, were events arranged by the canny
Scot.
The truth is exactly the opposite. When Schwab was called in to consummate the
deal, he didn’t even know whether the little boss, as Andrew was called, would
so much as listen to an offer to sell, particularly to a group of men whom
Andrew regarded as being endowed with something less than holiness. But Schwab
did take into the conference with him, in his own handwriting, six sheets of
copperplate figures, representing to his mind the physical worth and the
potential earning capacity of every steel company he regarded as an essential
star in the new metal firmament.
Four men pondered over these figures all night. The chief, of
course, was Morgan, steadfast in his belief in the Divine Right of Money. With
him was his aristocratic partner, Robert Bacon, a scholar and a gentleman. The
third was John W. Gates whom Morgan scorned as a gambler and used as a tool.
The fourth was Schwab, who knew more about the processes of making and selling
steel than any whole group of men then living. Throughout that conference, the
Pittsburgher’s figures were never questioned. If he said a company was worth so
much, then it was worth that much and no more. He was insistent, too, upon
including in the combination only those concerns he nominated. He had conceived
a corporation in which there would be no duplication, not even to satisfy the
greed of friends who wanted to unload their companies upon the broad Morgan
shoulders. Thus he left out, by design, a number of the larger concerns upon
which the Walruses and Carpenters of Wall Street had cast hungry eyes.
When dawn came, Morgan rose and straightened his back. Only one
question remained.
Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell? he asked.
I can try, said Schwab.
If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter, said
Morgan.
So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he demand? (Schwab
thought about $320,000,000). What would he take payment in? Common
or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash?
Nobody could raise a third of a billion dollars in cash.
There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath of
the St. Andrews links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in sweaters
against the cold, and Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to keep his spirits
up. But no word of business was mentioned until the pair sat down in the cozy
warmth of the Carnegie cottage hard by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that
had hypnotized eighty millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out
the glittering promises of retirement in comfort, of untold millions to satisfy
the old man’s social caprices. Carnegie capitulated, wrote a figure on a slip
of paper, handed it to Schwab and said, all right, that’s what we’ll sell
for.
The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached by
taking the $320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure, and adding to it
$80,000,000 to represent the increased capital value over the previous two
years.
Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said
ruefully to Morgan, I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.
If you had asked for it, you’d have gotten it, Morgan told him
cheerfully.
* * * * * * *
There was an uproar, of course. A
British correspondent cabled that the foreign steel world was appalled by the
gigantic combination. President Hadley, of Yale, declared that unless trusts
were regulated the country might expect an emperor in
* * * * * * *
The thirty-eight-year-old Schwab had his reward. He was made
president of the new corporation and remained in control until 1930.☘
The dramatic story of Big Business which you have just finished, was included in this book, because it is a perfect
illustration of the method by which DESIRE CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO ITS PHYSICAL
EQUIVALENT!
I imagine some readers will question the statement that a mere,
intangible DESIRE can be converted into its physical equivalent. Doubtless some
will say, You cannot convert NOTHING into SOMETHING!
The answer is in the story of United States Steel.
That giant organization was created in the mind of one man. The
plan by which the organization was provided with the steel mills that gave it
financial stability was created in the mind of the same man. His FAITH, his
DESIRE, his IMAGINATION, his PERSISTENCE were the real ingredients that went
into United States Steel. The steel mills and mechanical equipment acquired by
the corporation, AFTER IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT INTO LEGAL EXISTENCE, were
incidental, but careful analysis will disclose the fact that the appraised
value of the properties acquired by the corporation increased in value by an
estimated SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, by the mere transaction which
consolidated them under one management.
In other words, Charles M. Schwab’s IDEA, plus the FAITH with
which he conveyed it to the minds of J. P. Morgan and the others,
was marketed for a profit of approximately $600,000,000. Not an insignificant
sum for a single IDEA!
What happened to some of the men who
took their share of the millions of dollars of profit made by this transaction,
is a matter with which we are not now concerned. The important feature of the
astounding achievement is that it serves as unquestionable evidence of the
soundness of the philosophy described in this book, because this philosophy was
the warp and the woof of the entire transaction. Moreover, the practicability
of the philosophy has been established by the fact that the United States Steel
Corporation prospered, and became one of the richest and most powerful
corporations in
RICHES begin in the form of THOUGHT!
The amount is limited only by the person in whose mind the
THOUGHT is put into motion. FAITH removes limitations! Remember this when you
are ready to bargain with Life for whatever it is that you ask as your price
for having passed this way.
Remember, also, that the man who created the United States Steel
Corporation was practically unknown at the time. He was merely Andrew
Carnegie’s Man Friday until he gave birth to his famous IDEA. After that he
quickly rose to a position of power, fame, and riches.
THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS TO
THE MIND EXCEPT THOSE WE ACKNOWLEDGE
BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE OFFSPRING
OF THOUGHT
CHAPTER 4 AUTO-SUGGESTION
THE MEDIUM FOR INFLUENCING THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
The Third Step toward Riches
AUTO-SUGGESTION is a term which applies to al1 suggestions and
all self-administered stimuli which reach one’s mind through the five senses.
Stated in another way, autosuggestion is self-suggestion. It is the agency of
communication between that part of the mind where conscious thought takes
place, and that which serves as the seat of action for the subconscious
mind.
Through the dominating thoughts which one permits to
remain in the conscious mind, (whether these thoughts be negative or positive,
is immaterial), the principle of auto-suggestion voluntarily reaches the
subconscious mind and influences it with these thoughts.
NO THOUGHT, whether it be negative or positive, CAN ENTER THE
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND WITHOUT THE AID OF THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION, with the
exception of thoughts picked up from the ether. Stated
differently, all sense impressions which are perceived through the five senses,
are stopped by the CONSCIOUS thinking mind, and may be either passed on to the
subconscious mind, or rejected, at will. The conscious faculty serves,
therefore, as an outer-guard to the approach of the subconscious.
Nature has so built man that he has ABSOLUTE CONTROL over the
material which reaches his subconscious mind, through his five senses, although
this is not meant to be construed as a statement that man always EXERCISES this
control. In the great majority of instances, he does NOT exercise it, which
explains why so many people go through life in poverty.
Recall what has been said about the subconscious mind resembling
a fertile garden spot, in which weeds will grow in abundance, if the seeds of
more desirable crops are not sown therein. AUTOSUGGESTION is the agency of
control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind
on thoughts of a creative nature, or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a
destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of the mind.
You were instructed, in the last of the six steps described in
the chapter on Desire, to read ALOUD twice daily the WRITTEN statement of your
DESIRE FOR MONEY, and to SEE AND FEEL yourself ALREADY in possession of the
money! By following these instructions, you communicate the object of your
DESIRE directly to your SUBCONSCIOUS mind in a spirit of absolute FAITH.
Through repetition of this procedure, you voluntarily create thought habits
which are favorable to your efforts to transmute desire into its monetary
equivalent.
Go back to these six steps described in chapter two, and read
them again, very carefully, before you proceed further. Then (when you come to
it), read very carefully the four instructions for the organization of your
Master Mind group, described in the chapter on Organized Planning. By comparing
these two sets of instructions with that which has been stated on
auto-suggestion, you, of course, will see that the instructions involve the
application of the principle of auto-suggestion.
Remember, therefore, when reading aloud the statement of your
desire (through which you are endeavoring to develop a money consciousness),
that the mere reading of the words is of NO CONSEQUENCE UNLESS you mix emotion,
or feeling with your words. If you repeat a million times the famous Emil Cou formula, Day by day, in every way, I am getting better
and better, without mixing emotion and FAITH with your words, you will
experience no desirable results. Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts
upon ONLY thoughts which have been well-mixed with emotion or feeling.
This is a fact of such importance as to warrant repetition in
practically every chapter, because the lack of understanding of this is the
main reason the majority of people who try to apply the principle of
auto-suggestion get no desirable results.
Plain, unemotional words do not influence the subconscious mind.
You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious
mind with thoughts, or spoken words which have been well emotionalized with
BELIEF.
Do not become discouraged, if you cannot control and direct your
emotions the first time you try to do so. Remember, there is no such
possibility as SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. Ability to reach, and influence your
subconscious mind has its price, and you MUST PAY THAT PRICE. You cannot cheat,
even if you desire to do so. The price of ability to influence your
subconscious mind is everlasting PERSISTENCE in applying the principles
described here. You cannot develop the desired ability for a lower price. You, and YOU ALONE, must decide whether or not the reward
for which you are striving (the money consciousness), is worth the price you
must pay for it in effort.
Wisdom and cleverness alone, will not
attract and retain money except in a few very rare instances, where the law of
averages favors the attraction of money through these sources. The method of
attracting money described here, does not depend upon
the law of averages. Moreover, the method plays no favorites. It will work for
one person as effectively as it will for another. Where failure is experienced,
it is the individual, not the method, which has failed. If you try and
fail, make another effort, and still another, until you succeed.
Your ability to use the principle of auto-suggestion will
depend, very largely, upon your capacity to CONCENTRATE upon a given DESIRE
until that desire becomes a BURNING OBSESSION. When you begin to carry out the
instructions in connection with the six steps described in the second chapter,
it will be necessary for you to make use of the principle of
CONCENTRATION.
Let us here offer suggestions for the effective use of
concentration. When you begin to carry out the first of the six steps, which
instructs you to fix in your own mind the EXACT amount of money you desire,
hold your thoughts on that amount of money by CONCENTRATION, or fixation of
attention, with your eyes closed, until you can ACTUALLY SEE the physical
appearance of the money. Do this at least once each day. As you go through
these exercises, follow the instructions given in the chapter on FAITH, and see
yourself actually IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY!
Here is a most significant fact, the
subconscious mind takes any orders given it in a spirit of absolute FAITH, and
acts upon those orders, although the orders often have to be presented over
and over again, through repetition, before they are interpreted by the
subconscious mind. Following the preceding statement, consider the possibility
of playing a perfectly legitimate trick on your subconscious mind, by making it
believe, because you believe it, that you must have the amount of money
you are visualizing, that this money is already awaiting your claim, that the
subconscious mind MUST hand over to you practical plans for acquiring the money
which is yours.
Hand over the thought suggested in the preceding paragraph to
your IMAGINATION, and see what your imagination can, or will do, to create
practical plans for the accumulation of money through transmutation of your
desire.
DO NOT WAIT for a definite plan, through which you intend to
exchange services or merchandise in return for the money you are visualizing,
but begin at once to see yourself in possession of the money, DEMANDING and
EXPECTING meanwhile, that your subconscious mind will hand over the plan, or
plans you need. Be on the alert for these plans, and when they appear, put them
into ACTION IMMEDIATELY. When the plans appear, they will probably flash into
your mind through the sixth sense, in the form of an inspiration. This
inspiration may be considered a direct telegram, or message from Infinite
Intelligence. Treat it with respect, and act upon it as soon as you receive it.
Failure to do this will be FATAL to your success.
In the fourth of the six steps, you were instructed to Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and
begin at once to put this plan into action. You should follow this instruction
in the manner described in the preceding paragraph. Do not trust to your reason
when creating your plan for accumulating money through the transmutation of
desire. Your reason is faulty. Moreover, your reasoning faculty may be lazy,
and, if you depend entirely upon it to serve you, it may disappoint you.
When visualizing the money you intend to accumulate, (with
closed eyes), see yourself rendering the service, or delivering the
merchandise you intend to give in return for this money. This is important!
SUMMARY OF INSTRUCTIONS
The fact that you are reading this book is an indication that
you earnestly seek knowledge. It is also an indication that you are a student
of this subject. If you are only a student, there is a chance that you may
learn much that you did not know, but you will learn only by assuming an
attitude of humility. If you choose to follow some of the instructions but
neglect, or refuse to follow others-you will fail! To get satisfactory
results, you must follow ALL instructions in a spirit of FAITH.
The instructions given in connection with the six steps in the
second chapter will now be summarized, and blended with the principles covered
by this chapter, as follows:
First. Go into some quiet spot
(preferably in bed at night) where you will not be disturbed or interrupted,
close your eyes, and repeat aloud, (so you may hear your own words) the written
statement of the amount of money you intend to accumulate, the time limit for
its accumulation, and a description of the service or merchandise you intend to
give in return for the money. As you carry out these instructions, SEE YOURSELF
ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.
For example: Suppose that you intend to accumulate $50,000 by
the first of January, five years hence, that you intend to give personal
services in return for the money, in the Capacity of a salesman. Your written
statement of your purpose should be similar to the following:
By the first day of January, 19.., I will have in my possession
$50,000, which will come to me in various amounts from time to time during the
interim.
In return for this money I will give the most efficient service
of which I am capable, rendering the fullest possible quantity, and the best
possible quality of service in the capacity of salesman of (describe the
service or merchandise you intend to sell).
I believe that I will have this money in my possession. My faith
is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes. I can touch it with
my hands. It is now awaiting transfer to me at the time, and in the proportion
that I deliver the service I intend to render in return for it. I am awaiting a
plan by which to accumulate this money, and I will follow that plan, when it is
received.
Second. Repeat this program night and morning until you can see,
(in your imagination) the money you intend to accumulate.
Third. Place a written copy of your statement where you can
see it night and morning, and read it just before retiring, and upon arising
until it has been memorized.
Remember, as you carry out these instructions, that you
are applying the principle of auto-suggestion, for the purpose of giving orders
to your subconscious mind. Remember, also, that your subconscious mind will act
ONLY upon instructions which are emotionalized, and handed over to it with
feeling. FAITH is the strongest, and most productive of the emotions. Follow
the instructions given in the chapter on FAITH.
These instructions may, at first, seem abstract. Do not let this
disturb you. Follow the instructions, no matter how abstract or impractical
they may, at first, appear to be. The time will soon come, if you do as you
have been instructed, in spirit as well as in act, when a whole new
universe of power will unfold to you.
Scepticism, in connection with ALL new ideas, is characteristic of
all human beings. But if you follow the instructions outlined, your scepticism will soon be replaced by belief, and this, in
turn, will soon become crystallized into ABSOLUTE FAITH. Then you will have
arrived at the point where you may truly say, I am the master of my fate, I am
the captain of my soul!
Many philosophers have made the statement that man is the master
of his own earthly destiny, but most of them have failed to say why he
is the master. The reason that man may be the master of his own earthly status,
and especially his financial status, is thoroughly explained in this chapter.
Man may become the master of himself, and of his environment, because he has
the POWER TO INFLUENCE HIS OWN SUBCONSCIOUS MIND, and through it, gain the
cooperation of Infinite Intelligence.
You are now reading the chapter which represents the keystone to
the arch of this philosophy. The instructions contained in this chapter must be
understood and APPLIED WITH PERSISTENCE, if you succeed in transmuting desire
into money.
The actual performance of transmuting DESIRE into money,
involves the use of auto-suggestion as an agency by which one may reach, and
influence, the subconscious mind. The other principles are simply tools with
which to apply auto-suggestion. Keep this thought in mind, and you will, at all
times, be conscious of the important part the principle of auto-suggestion is
to play in your efforts to accumulate money through the methods described in
this book.
Carry out these instructions as though you were a small child.
Inject into your efforts something of the FAITH of a child. The author has been
most careful, to see that no impractical instructions were included, because of
his sincere desire to be helpful.
After you have read the entire book, come back to this chapter,
and follow in spirit, and in action, this instruction:
READ THE ENTIRE CHAPTER ALOUD ONCE EVERY NIGHT, UNTIL YOU BECOME
THOROUGHLY CONVINCED THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION IS SOUND, THAT IT WILL ACCOMPLISH FOR YOU ALL THAT HAS BEEN
CLAIMED FOR IT. AS YOU READ, UNDERSCORE WITH A PENCIL EVERY SENTENCE
WHICH IMPRESSES YOU FAVORABLY.
Follow the foregoing instruction to the letter, and it will open
the way for a complete understanding, and mastery of the principles of success.
CHAPTER 5
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OR OBSERVATIONS
The Fourth Step toward Riches
THERE are two kinds of knowledge. One is general, the other is
specialized. General knowledge, no matter how great in quantity or variety it
may be, is of but little use in the accumulation of money. The faculties of the
great universities possess, in the aggregate, practically every form of general
knowledge known to civilization. Most of the professors have but little or
no money. They specialize on teaching knowledge, but they do not
specialize on the organization, or the use of knowledge.
KNOWLEDGE will not attract money, unless it is organized, and
intelligently directed, through practical PLANS OF ACTION, to the DEFINITE END
of accumulation of money. Lack of understanding of this fact has been the
source of confusion to millions of people who falsely believe that knowledge is
power. It is nothing of the sort! Knowledge is only potential power. It
becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action,
and directed to a definite end.
This missing link in all systems of education known to
civilization today, may be found in the failure of
educational institutions to teach their students HOW TO ORGANIZE AND USE
KNOWLEDGE AFTER THEY ACQUIRE IT.
Many people make the mistake of assuming that, because Henry
Ford had but little schooling, he is not a man of education. Those who make
this mistake do not know Henry Ford, nor do they understand the real meaning of
the word educate. That word is derived from the Latin word educo,
meaning to educe, to draw out, to DEVELOP FROM WITHIN.
An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of
general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed
the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its
equivalent, without violating the rights of others. Henry Ford comes well
within the meaning of this definition.
During the world war, a
Mr. Ford was plied with such questions as the following:
Who was Benedict Arnold? and How many soldiers did the British
send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?☘ In answer to the
last question, Mr. Ford replied, I do not know the exact number of soldiers the
British sent over, but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number
than ever went back.
Finally, Mr. Ford became tired of this line of questioning, and
in reply to a particularly offensive question, he leaned over, pointed his
finger at the lawyer who had asked the question, and said, If I should really
WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other
questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of
electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon
to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business
to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I
should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able
to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I
require?
There certainly was good logic to that reply.
That answer floored the lawyer. Every person in the courtroom
realized it was the answer, not of an ignorant man, but of a man of EDUCATION.
Any man is educated who knows where to get knowledge when he needs it, and how
to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the
assistance of his Master Mind group, Henry Ford had at his command all the
specialized knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest
men in
Before you can be sure of your ability to transmute DESIRE into
its monetary equivalent, you will require SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE of the service,
merchandise, or profession which you intend to offer in return for fortune.
Perhaps you may need much more specialized knowledge than you have the ability
or the inclination to acquire, and if this should be true, you may bridge your
weakness through the aid of your Master Mind group.
Andrew Carnegie stated that he, personally, knew nothing about
the technical end of the steel business; moreover, he did not particularly care
to know anything about it. The specialized knowledge which he
required for the manufacture and marketing of steel, he found available through
the individual units of his MASTER MIND GROUP.
The accumulation of great fortunes calls for POWER, and power is
acquired through highly organized and intelligently directed specialized
knowledge, but that knowledge does not, necessarily, have to be in the
possession of the man who accumulates the fortune.
The preceding paragraph should give hope and encouragement to
the man with ambition to accumulate a fortune, who has not possessed himself of
the necessary education to supply such specialized knowledge as he may require.
Men sometimes go through life suffering from inferiority complexes, because
they are not men of education. The man who can organize and direct a Master
Mind group of men who possess knowledge useful in the accumulation of money, is
just as much a man of education as any man in the group. REMEMBER THIS, if you
suffer from a feeling of inferiority, because your schooling has been
limited.
Thomas A. Edison had only three months of schooling during his
entire life. He did not lack education, neither did he die poor.
Henry Ford had less than a sixth grade schooling but he has managed
to do pretty well by himself, financially.
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE is among the most plentiful, and the
cheapest forms of service which may be had! If you doubt this, consult the
payroll of any university.
IT PAYS TO KNOW HOW TO PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE
First of all, decide the sort of specialized knowledge you
require, and the purpose for which it is needed. To a large extent your major
purpose in life, the goal toward which you are working,
will help determine what knowledge you need. With this question settled, your
next move requires that you have accurate information concerning dependable
sources of knowledge. The more important of these are:
(a)
One’s own experience and education (b)
Experience and education available through cooperation of others (Master Mind
Alliance) (c) Colleges and
Universities (d) Public Libraries
(Through books and periodicals in which may be found all the knowledge
organized by civilization) (e) Special
Training Courses (Through night schools and home study schools in particular.)
As knowledge is acquired it must be organized and put into use,
for a definite purpose, through practical plans. Knowledge has no value except
that which can be gained from its application toward some worthy end. This is
one reason why college degrees are not valued more highly. They represent
nothing but miscellaneous knowledge.
If you contemplate taking additional schooling, first determine
the purpose for which you want the knowledge you are seeking, then learn where
this particular sort of knowledge can be obtained, from reliable sources.
Successful men, in all callings, never stop acquiring
specialized knowledge related to their major purpose, business, or profession.
Those who are not successful usually make the mistake of believing that the
knowledge acquiring period ends when one finishes school. The truth is that
schooling does but little more than to put one in the way of learning how to
acquire practical knowledge.
With this Changed World which began at the end of the
economic collapse, came also astounding changes in
educational
requirements. The order of the day is SPECIALIZATION! This truth was
emphasized by Robert P. Moore, secretary of appointments of
SPECIALISTS MOST SOUGHT"
Particularly sought after by employing companies are candidates
who have specialized in some field business-school graduates with training in
accounting and statistics, engineers of all varieties, journalists, architects,
chemists, and also outstanding leaders and activity men of the senior
class.
The man who has been active on the campus, whose personality is
such that he gets along with all kinds of people and who ha s done an adequate
job with his studies has a most decided edge over the strictly academic
student. Some of these, because of their all-around qualifications, have
received several offers of positions, a few of them as many as six.
In departing from the conception that the straight A student was invariably the one to get the choice of the
better jobs, Mr. Moore said that most companies look not only to academic
records but to activity records and personalities of the students. One of the
largest industrial companies, the leader in its field, in writing to Mr. Moore
concerning prospective seniors at the college, said:
We are interested primarily in finding men who can make
exceptional progress in management work. For this reason we emphasize qualities
of character, intelligence and personality far more than specific educational
background.
APPRENTICESHIP PROPOSED
Proposing a system of apprenticing students in offices, stores
and industrial occupations during the summer vacation, Mr. Moore asserts that
after the first two or three years of college, every student should be asked to
choose a definite future course and to call a halt if he has been merely
pleasantly drifting without purpose through an unspecialized academic
curriculum.
Colleges and universities must face the practical consideration
that all professions and occupations now demand specialists, he said, urging
that educational institutions accept more direct responsibility for vocational
guidance. One of the most reliable and practical sources of knowledge available
to those who need specialized schooling, is the night schools operated in most
large cities. The correspondence schools give specialized training anywhere the
Anything acquired without effort, and without cost is generally
unappreciated, often discredited; perhaps this is why we get so little from our
marvelous opportunity in public schools. The SELF DISCIPLINE one receives from
a definite programme of specialized study makes up to
some extent, for the wasted opportunity when knowledge was available without
cost. Correspondence schools are highly organized business institutions. Their
tuition fees are so low that they are forced to insist upon prompt payments.
Being asked to pay, whether the student makes good grades or poor,
has the effect of causing one to follow through with the course when he would
otherwise drop it. The correspondence schools have not stressed this point
sufficiently, for the truth is that their collection departments constitute the
very finest sort of training on DECISION, PROMPTNESS, ACTION and THE HABIT OF
FINISHING THAT WHICH ONE BEGINS.
I learned this from experience, more than twenty-five years ago.
I enrolled for a home study course in Advertising. After completing eight or
ten lessons I stopped studying, but the school did not stop sending me bills.
Moreover, it insisted upon payment, whether I kept up my studies or not. I
decided that if I had to pay for the course (which I had legally obligated
myself to do), I should complete the lessons and get my money’s worth. I felt,
at the time, that the collection system of the school was somewhat too well
organized, but I learned later in life that it was a valuable part of my
training for which no charge had been made. Being forced to pay, I went ahead
and completed the course. Later in life I discovered that the efficient
collection system of that school had been worth much in the form of money
earned, because of the training in advertising I had so reluctantly taken.
We have in this country what is said to be the greatest public
school system in the world. We have invested fabulous sums for fine buildings,
we have provided convenient transportation for children living in the rural
districts, so they may attend the best schools, but there is one astounding
weakness to this marvelous system, IT IS FREE! One of the strange things about
human beings is that they value only that which has a price. The free schools
of
There is one weakness in people for which there is no remedy. It
is the universal weakness of LACK OF AMBITION! Persons, especially salaried
people, who schedule their spare time, to provide for home study, seldom remain
at the bottom very long. Their action opens the way for the upward climb,
removes many obstacles from their path, and gains the friendly interest of
those who have the power to put them in the way of
The home study method of training is especially suited to the
needs of employed people who find, after leaving school, that they must acquire
additional specialized knowledge, but cannot spare the time to go back to
school.
The changed economic conditions prevailing since the depression
have made it necessary for thousands of people to find additional,
or new sources of income. For the majority of these, the solution to their
problem may be found only by acquiring specialized knowledge. Many will be
forced to change their occupations entirely. When a merchant finds that a
certain line of merchandise is not selling, he usually supplants it with another
that is in demand. The person whose business is that of marketing personal
services must also be an efficient merchant. If his services do not bring
adequate returns in one occupation, he must change to another, where broader
opportunities are available.
Stuart Austin Wier prepared himself as
a Construction Engineer and followed this line of work until the depression
limited his market to where it did not give him the income he required. He took
inventory of himself, decided to change his profession to law, went back to
school and took special courses by which he prepared himself as a corporation
lawyer. Despite the fact the depression had not ended, he completed his
training, passed the Bar Examination, and quickly built a lucrative law
practice, in
Just to keep the record straight, and to anticipate the alibis
of those who will say, I couldn’t go to school because I have a family to
support, or I’m too old, I will add the information that Mr. Wier was past forty, and married when he went back to
school. Moreover, by carefully selecting highly specialized courses, in
colleges best prepared to teach the subjects chosen, Mr. Wier
completed in two years the work for which the majority of law students require
four years. IT PAYS TO KNOW HOW TO PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE!
The person who stops studying merely because he has finished
school is forever hopelessly doomed to mediocrity, no matter what may be
his calling. The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of
knowledge.
Let us consider a specific instance.
During the depression a salesman in a grocery store found
himself without a position. Having had some bookkeeping experience, he took a
special course in accounting, familiarized himself with all the latest
bookkeeping and office equipment, and went into business for himself. Starting
with the grocer for whom he had formerly worked, he made contracts with more
than 100 small merchants to keep their books, at a very nominal monthly fee.
His idea was so practical that he soon found it necessary to set up a portable
office in a light delivery truck, which he equipped with modern bookkeeping
machinery. He now has a fleet of these bookkeeping offices on wheels and
employs a large staff of assistants, thus providing small merchants with
accounting service equal to the best that money can buy, at very nominal
cost.
Specialized knowledge, plus imagination, were
the ingredients that went into this unique and successful business. Last year
the owner of that business paid an income tax of almost ten times as much as
was paid by the merchant for whom he worked when the depression forced upon him
a temporary adversity which proved to be a blessing in disguise.
The beginning of this successful business was an IDEA!
Inasmuch as I had the privilege of supplying the unemployed
salesman with that idea, I now assume the further privilege of suggesting
another idea which has within it the possibility of even greater income. Also the possibility of rendering useful service to thousands of
people who badly need that service. The idea was suggested by the
salesman who gave up selling and went into the business of keeping books on a
wholesale basis.
When the plan was suggested as a solution of his unemployment
problem, he quickly exclaimed, I like the idea, but I would not know how to
turn it into cash. In other words, he complained he would not know how to
market his bookkeeping knowledge after he acquired it.
So, that brought up another problem which had to be solved. With
the aid of a young woman typist, clever at hand lettering, and who could put
the story together, a very attractive book was prepared, describing the
advantages of the new system of bookkeeping. The pages were neatly typed and
pasted in an ordinary scrapbook, which was used as a silent salesman with which
the story of this new business was so effectively told that its owner soon had
more accounts than he could handle.
There are thousands of people, all over the country, who need
the services of a merchandising specialist capable of preparing an attractive
brief for use in marketing personal services. The aggregate annual income from
such a service might easily exceed that received by the largest employment
agency, and the benefits of the service might be made far greater to the
purchaser than any to be obtained from an employment agency.
The IDEA here described was born of necessity, to bridge an
emergency which had to be covered, but it did not stop by merely serving one
person. The woman who created the idea has a keen IMAGINATION. She saw in her
newly born brain-child the making of a new profession, one that is destined to
render valuable service to thousands of people who need practical guidance in
marketing personal services.
Spurred to action by the instantaneous success of her first
PREPARED PLAN TO MARKET PERSONAL SERVICES, this energetic woman turned next to
the solution of a similar problem for her son who had just finished college,
but had been totally unable to find a market for his services. The plan she
originated for his use was the finest specimen of merchandising of personal
services I have ever seen.
When the plan book had been completed, it contained nearly fifty
pages of beautifully typed, properly organized information, telling the story
of her son’s native ability, schooling, personal experiences, and a great
variety of other information too extensive for description. The plan book also
contained a complete description of the position her son desired, together with
a marvelous word picture of the exact plan he would use in filling the
position.
The preparation of the plan book required several week’s labor,
during which time its creator sent her son to the public library almost daily,
to procure data needed in selling his services to best advantage. She sent him,
also to all the competitors of his prospective employer, and gathered from them
vital information concerning their business methods which was of great value in
the formation of the plan he intended to use in filling the position he sought.
When the plan had been finished, it contained more than half a dozen very fine
suggestions for the use and benefit of the prospective employer. (The
suggestions were put into use by the company).
One may be inclined to ask, Why go to all
this trouble to secure a job? The answer is straight to the point, also it is
dramatic, because it deals with a subject which
assumes the proportion of a tragedy with millions of men and women whose sole
source of income is personal services.
The answer is, DOING A THING WELL NEVER IS TROUBLE! THE PLAN
PREPARED BY THIS WOMAN FOR THE BENEFIT OF HER SON, HELPED HIM GET THE JOB FOR
WHICH HE APPLIED, AT THE FIRST INTERVIEW, AT A SALARY FIXED BY HIMSELF.
Moreover, and this, too, is important, THE POSITION DID NOT
REQUIRE THE YOUNG MAN TO START AT THE BOTTOM. HE BEGAN AS A JUNIOR EXECUTIVE,
AT AN EXECUTIVE’S SALARY.
Why go to all this trouble? do you
ask?
Well, for one thing, the PLANNED PRESENTATION of this young
man’s application for a position clipped off no less than ten years of time he
would have required to get to where he began, had he started at the bottom and
worked his way up.
This idea of starting at the bottom and working one’s way up may
appear to be sound, but the major objection to it is this-too many of those who
begin at the bottom never manage to lift their heads high enough to be seen by
Dan Halpin is a splendid example of
what I mean. During his college days, he was manager of the famous 1930
National Championship Notre Dame football team, when it was under the direction
of the late Knute Rockne.
Perhaps he was inspired by the great football coach to aim high,
and NOT MISTAKE TEMPORARY DEFEAT FOR FAILURE, just as Andrew Carnegie, the
great industrial leader, inspired his young business lieutenants to set high
goals for themselves. At any rate, young Halpin
finished college at a mighty unfavorable time, when the depression had made
jobs scarce, so, after a fling at investment banking and motion pictures, he
took the first opening with a potential future he could find, selling
electrical hearing aids on a commission basis. ANYONE COULD START IN THAT SORT
OF JOB, AND HALPIN KNEW IT, but it was enough to open the door of opportunity
to him.
For almost two years, he continued in a job not to his liking,
and he would never have risen above that job if he had not done something about
his dissatisfaction. He aimed, first, at the job of Assistant Sales Manager of
his company, and got the job. That one step upward placed him high enough above
the crowd to enable him to see still greater opportunity,
also, it placed him where OPPORTUNITY COULD SEE HIM.
He made such a fine record selling hearing aids,
that A. M. Andrews, Chairman of the Board of the Dictograph Products
Company, a business competitor of the company for which Halpin
worked, wanted to know something about that man Dan Halpin
who was taking big sales away from the long established Dictograph Company. He
sent for Hal-pin. When the interview was over, Halpin
was the new Sales Manager, in charge of the Acousticon
Division. Then, to test young Halpin’s metal, Mr.
Andrews went away to
It is difficult to say whether Mr. Andrews or Mr. Halpin is more deserving of eulogy, for the reason that
both showed evidence of having an abundance of that very rare quality known as
IMAGINATION. Mr. Andrews deserves credit for seeing, in young Halpin, a go-getter of the highest order. Halpin deserves credit for REFUSING TO COMPROMISE WITH LIFE
BY ACCEPTING AND KEEPING A JOB HE DID NOT WANT, and that is one of the major
points I am trying to emphasize through this entire philosophy that we rise to
high positions or remain at the bottom BECAUSE OF CONDITIONS WE CAN CONTROL IF
WE DESIRE TO CONTROL THEM.
I am also trying to emphasize another point, namely, that both
success and failure are largely the results of HABIT! I have not the slightest
doubt that Dan Halpin’s close association with the
greatest football coach
My belief in the theory that business associations are vital
factors, both in failure and in success, was recently demonstrated, when my son
Blair was negotiating with Dan Halpin for a position.
Mr. Halpin offered him a beginning salary of about
one half what he could have gotten from a rival company. I brought parental
pressure to bear, and induced him to accept the place with Mr. Halpin, because I BELIEVE THAT CLOSE ASSOCIATION WITH ONE
WHO REFUSES TO COMPROMISE WITH CIRCUMSTANCES HE DOES NOT LIKE, IS AN ASSET THAT
CAN NEVER BE MEASURED IN TERMS OF MONEY.
The bottom is a monotonous, dreary, unprofitable place for any
person. That is why I have taken the time to describe how lowly beginnings may
be circumvented by proper planning. Also, that is why so much space has been
devoted to a description of this new profession, created by a woman who was
inspired to do a fine job of PLANNING because she wanted her son to have a
favorable break.
With the changed conditions ushered in by the world economic
collapse, came also the need for newer and better ways of marketing PERSONAL
SERVICES. It is hard to determine why someone had not previously discovered
this stupendous need, in view of the fact that more money changes hands in
return for personal services than for any other purpose. The sum paid out
monthly, to people who work for wages and salaries, is so huge that it runs
into hundreds of millions, and the annual distribution amounts to
billions.
Perhaps some will find, in the IDEA here briefly described, the
nucleus of the riches they DESIRE! Ideas with much less merit have been the
seedlings from which great fortunes have grown. Woolworth’s Five
and Ten Cent Store idea, for example, had far less merit, but it piled up a
fortune for its creator.
Those seeing
The woman who prepared the Personal Service Sales Plan for her
son now receives requests from all parts of the country for her cooperation in
preparing similar plans for others who desire to market their personal services
for more money. She has a staff of expert typists, artists, and writers who
have the ability to dramatize the case history so effectively that one’s
personal services can be marketed for much more money than the prevailing wages
for similar services. She is so confident of her ability that she accepts, as
the major portion of her fee, a percentage of the increased pay she
helps her clients to earn.
It must not be supposed that her plan merely consists of clever
salesmanship by which she helps men and women to demand and receive more money
for he same services they formerly sold for less pay. She looks after the
interests of the purchaser as well as the seller of personal services, and so
prepares her plans that the employer receives full value for the additional
money he pays. The method by which she accomplishes this astonishing result is
a professional secret which she discloses to no one excepting her own
clients.
If you have the IMAGINATION, and seek a more profitable outlet
for your personal services, this suggestion may be the stimulus for which you
have been searching. The IDEA is capable of yielding an income far greater than
that of the average doctor, lawyer, or engineer whose education required
several years in college. The idea is saleable to those seeking new positions,
in practically all positions calling for managerial or executive ability, and
those desiring re-arrangement of incomes in their present positions.
There is no fixed price for sound IDEAS!
Back of all IDEAS is specialized knowledge. Unfortunately, for
those who do not find riches in abundance, specialized knowledge is more
abundant and more easily acquired than IDEAS. Because of this very truth, there
is a universal demand and an ever-increasing opportunity for the person capable
of helping men and women to sell their personal services advantageously.
Capability means IMAGINATION, the one quality needed to combine specialized
knowledge with IDEAS, in the form of ORGANIZED PLANS designed to yield
riches.
If you have IMAGINATION this chapter may present you with an
idea sufficient to serve as the beginning of the riches you desire. Remember,
the IDEA is the main thing. Specialized knowledge may be found just around the
corner, any corner!
CHAPTER 6
IMAGINATION
THE WORKSHOP OF THE MIND
The Fifth Step toward Riches
The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned
all plans created by man. The impulse, the DESIRE, is given shape, form, and
ACTION through the aid of the imaginative faculty of the mind.
It has been said that man can create anything which he can
imagine.
Of all the ages of civilization, this is the most favorable for
the development of the imagination, because it is an age of rapid change. On
every hand one may contact stimuli which develop the imagination.
Through the aid of his imaginative faculty, man has discovered,
and harnessed, more of Nature’s forces during the past fifty years than during
the entire history of the human race, previous to that time. He has conquered
the air so completely, that the birds are a poor match for him in flying. He
has harnessed the ether, and made it serve as a means of instantaneous
communication with any part of the world. He has analyzed, and weighed the sun
at a distance of millions of miles, and has determined, through the aid of
IMAGINATION, the elements of which it consists. He has discovered that his own
brain is both a broadcasting, and a receiving station
for the vibration of thought, and he is beginning now to learn how to make
practical use of this discovery. He has increased the speed of locomotion,
until he may now travel at a speed of more than three hundred miles an hour.
The time will soon come when a man may breakfast in
MAN’S ONLY LIMITATION, within reason, LIES IN HIS DEVELOPMENT
AND USE OF HIS IMAGINATION. He has not yet reached the apex of development in
the use of his imaginative faculty. He has merely discovered that he has an
imagination, and has commenced to use it in a very elementary way.
TWO FORMS OF IMAGINATION
The imaginative faculty functions in two forms. One is known as
synthetic imagination, and the other as creative imagination.
SYNTHETIC IMAGINATION: Through this faculty, one may arrange old concepts,
ideas, or plans into new combinations. This faculty creates nothing. It
merely works with the material of experience, education, and observation with
which it is fed. It is the faculty used most by the inventor, with the
exception of the who draws upon the creative
imagination, when he cannot solve his problem through synthetic
imagination.
CREATIVE IMAGINATION: Through the faculty of creative imagination, the finite
mind of man has direct communication with Infinite Intelligence. It is the
faculty through which hunches and inspirations are received. It is by this
faculty that all basic, or new ideas are handed over
to man.
It is through this faculty that thought vibrations from the
minds of others are received. It is through this faculty that one individual
may tune in, or communicate with the subconscious minds of other men.
The creative imagination works automatically, in the manner
described in subsequent pages. This faculty functions ONLY when the conscious
mind is vibrating at an exceedingly rapid rate, as for example, when the
conscious mind is stimulated through the emotion of a strong desire.
The creative faculty becomes more alert, more receptive to
vibrations from the sources mentioned, in proportion to its development through
USE. This statement is significant! Ponder over it before passing on.
Keep in mind as you follow these principles,
that the entire story of how one may convert DESIRE into money cannot be
told in one statement. The story will be complete, only when one has MASTERED,
ASSIMILATED, and BEGUN TO MAKE USE of all the principles.
The great leaders of business, industry, finance, and the great
artists, musicians, poets, and writers became great, because they developed the
faculty of creative imagination.
Both the synthetic and creative faculties of imagination become
more alert with use, just as any muscle or organ of the body develops through
use.
Desire is only a thought, an impulse. It is nebulous and
ephemeral. It is abstract, and of no value, until it has been transformed into
its physical counterpart. While the synthetic imagination is the one which will
be used most frequently, in the process of transforming the impulse of DESIRE
into money, you must keep in mind the fact, that you may face circumstances and
situations which demand use of the creative imagination as well.
Your imaginative faculty may have become weak through inaction.
It can be revived and made alert through USE. This faculty does not die, though
it may become quiescent through lack of use.
Center your attention, for the time being, on the development of
the synthetic imagination, because this is the faculty which you will use more
often in the process of converting desire into money.
Transformation of the intangible impulse, of DESIRE, into the
tangible reality, of MONEY, calls for the use of a plan, or plans. These plans
must be formed with the aid of the imagination, and mainly, with the synthetic
faculty.
Read the entire book through, then come back to this chapter,
and begin at once to put your imagination to work on the building of a plan, or
plans, for the transformation of your DESIRE into money. Detailed instructions
for the building of plans have been given in almost every chapter. Carry out
the instructions best suited to your needs, reduce
your plan to writing, if you have not already done so. The moment you complete
this, you will have DEFINITELY given concrete form to the intangible DESIRE.
Read the preceding sentence once more. Read it aloud, very slowly, and as you
do so, remember that the moment you reduce the statement of your desire, and a plan
for its realization, to writing, you have actually TAKEN THE FIRST of a series
of steps, which will enable you to convert the thought into its physical
counterpart.
The earth on which you live, you, yourself, and every
other material thing are the result of evolutionary change, through which
microscopic bits of matter have been organized and arranged in an orderly
fashion.
Moreover, and this statement is of stupendous
importance, this earth, every one of the billions of individual cells of your
body, and every atom of matter, began as an intangible form of energy.
DESIRE is thought impulse! Thought impulses are forms of energy.
When you begin with the thought impulse, DESIRE, to accumulate money, you are
drafting into your service the same stuff that Nature used in creating this
earth, and every material form in the universe, including the body and brain in
which the thought impulses function.
As far as science has been able to determine, the entire
universe consists of but two elements-matter and energy.
Through the combination of energy and matter, has been created
everything perceptible to man, from the largest star which floats in the
heavens, down to, and including man, himself.
You are now engaged in the task of trying to profit by Nature’s
method. You are (sincerely and earnestly, we hope), trying to adapt yourself to
Nature’s laws, by endeavoring to convert DESIRE into its physical or monetary
equivalent.
YOU CAN DO IT! IT HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE!
You can build a fortune through the aid of laws which are
immutable. But, first, you must become familiar with these laws, and learn to
USE them. Through repetition, and by approaching the description of these
principles from every conceivable angle, the author hopes to reveal to you the
secret through which every great fortune has been accumulated. Strange and
paradoxical as it may seem, the secret is NOT A SECRET. Nature, herself, advertises it in the earth on which we live, the
stars, the planets suspended within our view, in the elements above and around
us, in every blade of grass, and every form of life within our vision.
Nature advertises this secret in the terms of biology, in the
conversion of a tiny cell, so small that it may be lost on the point of a pin,
into the HUMAN BEING now reading this line. The conversion of desire into its
physical equivalent is, certainly, no more miraculous!
Do not become discouraged if you do not fully comprehend all
that has been stated. Unless you have long been a student of the mind, it is
not to be expected that you will assimilate all that is in this chapter upon a
first reading.
But you will, in time, make good progress.
The principles which follow will open the way for understanding
of imagination. Assimilate that which you understand, as you read this
philosophy for the first time, then, when you reread and study it, you will
discover that something has happened to clarify it, and give you a broader
understanding of the whole. Above all, DO NOT STOP, nor hesitate in yo
HOW TO MAKE PRACTICAL USE OF IMAGINATION
Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes. Ideas are
products of the imagination. Let us examine a few well known ideas which have
yielded huge fortunes, with the hope that these illustrations will convey
definite information concerning the method by which imagination may be used in
accumulating riches.
THE ENCHANTED KETTLE
Fifty years ago, an old country doctor drove to town, hitched
his horse, quietly slipped into a drug store by the back door, and began
dickering with the young drug clerk.
His mission was destined to yield great wealth to many people.
It was destined to bring to the South the most far-flung benefit since the
Civil War.
For more than an hour, behind the prescription counter, the old
doctor and the clerk talked in low tones. Then the doctor left. He went out to
the buggy and brought back a large, old fashioned kettle, a big wooden paddle
(used for stirring the contents of the kettle), and deposited them in the back
of the store.
The clerk inspected the kettle, reached into his inside pocket,
took out a roll of bills, and handed it over to the doctor. The roll contained
exactly $500.00-the clerk’s entire savings!
The doctor handed over a small slip of paper on which was
written a secret formula. The words on that small slip of paper were worth a
King’ ransom! But not to the doctor! Those magic words were needed to
start the kettle to boiling, but neither the doctor nor the young clerk knew
what fabulous fortunes were destined to flow from that kettle.
The old doctor was glad to sell the outfit for five hundred
dollars. The money would pay off his debts, and give him freedom of mind. The
clerk was taking a big chance by staking his entire life’s savings on a mere
scrap of paper and an old kettle! He never dreamed his investment would start a
kettle to overflowing with gold that would surpass the miraculous performance
of Aladdin’s lamp.
What the clerk really purchased was an IDEA! The old
kettle and the wooden paddle, and the secret message on a slip of paper were
incidental. The strange performance of that kettle began to take place after
the new owner mixed with the secret instructions an ingredient of which the
doctor knew nothing.
Read this story carefully, give your
imagination a test! See if you can discover what it was that the young man
added to the secret message, which caused the kettle to overflow with gold.
Remember, as you read, that this is not a story from Arabian Nights. Here you
have a story of facts, stranger than fiction, facts which began in the form of
an IDEA.
Let us take a look at the vast fortunes of gold this idea has
produced. It has paid, and still pays huge fortunes to men and women all over
the world, who distribute the contents of the kettle to millions of
people.
The Old Kettle is now one of the world’s largest consumers of
sugar, thus providing jobs of a permanent nature to thousands of men and women
engaged in growing sugar cane, and in refining and marketing sugar.
The Old Kettle consumes, annually, millions of glass bottles,
providing jobs to huge numbers of glass workers.
The Old Kettle gives employment to an army of clerks,
stenographers, copy writers, and advertising experts throughout the nation. It
has brought fame and fortune to scores of artists who have created magnificent
pictures describing the product.
The Old Kettle has converted a small Southern city into the
business capital of the South, where it now benefits, directly, or indirectly,
every business and practically every resident of the city.
The influence of this idea now benefits every civilized country
in the world, pouring out a continuous stream of gold to all who touch it.
Gold from the kettle built and maintains one of the most
prominent colleges of the South, where thousands of young people receive the
training essential for success.
The Old Kettle has done other marvelous things. All through the
world depression, when factories, banks and business houses were folding up and
quitting by the thousands, the owner of this Enchanted Kettle went marching on,
giving continuous employment to an army of men and women all over the
world, and paying out extra portions of gold to those who, long ago, had
faith in the idea.
If the product of that old brass kettle could talk, it would
tell thrilling tales of romance in every language. Romances of love, romances
of business, romances of professional men and women
who are daily being stimulated by it.
The author is sure of at least one such romance, for he was a
part of it, and it all began not far from the very spot on which the drug clerk
purchased the old kettle. It was here that the author met his wife, and it was
she who first told him of the Enchanted Kettle. It was the product of that
Kettle they were drinking when he asked her to accept him for better or
worse.
Now that you know the content of the Enchanted Kettle is a world
famous drink, it is fitting that the author confess that the home city of the
drink supplied him with a wife, also that the drink itself provides him with stimulation
of thought without intoxication, and thereby it serves to give the
refreshment of mind which an author must have to do his best work.
Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you
may be engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words
Coca-Cola, that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single
IDEA, and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk, Asa
Candler, mixed with the secret formula was. . . IMAGINATION!
Stop and think of that, for a moment.
Remember, also, that the thirteen steps to riches, described in
this book, were the media through which the influence of Coca-Cola has been
extended to every city, town, village, and cross-roads of the world, and that
ANY IDEA you may create, as 8OUfld and meritorious as Coca-Cola, has the
possibility of duplicating the stupendous record of this world-wide
thirst-killer.
Truly, thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the
world, itself.
WHAT I WOULD DO IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS
This story proves the truth of that old saying, where there’s a
will, there’s a way. It was told to me by that beloved educator and clergyman,
the late Frank W. Gunsaulus, who began his preaching
career in the stockyards region of
While Dr. Gunsaulus was going through
college, he observed many defects in our educational system, defects which he
believed he could correct, if he were the head of a college. His deepest
desire was to become the directing head of an educational institution in
which young men and women would be taught to learn by doing.
He made up his mind to organize a new college in which he could
carry out his ideas, without being handicapped by orthodox methods of
education.
He needed a million dollars to put the project across! Where was
he to lay his hands on so large a sum of money? That was the question that
absorbed most of this ambitious young preacher’s thought.
But he couldn’t seem to make any progress.
Every night he took that thought to bed with him. He got up with
it in the morning. He took it with him everywhere he went. He turned it over
and over in his mind until it became a consuming obsession with him. A
million dollars is a lot of money. He recognized that fact, but he also
recognized the truth that the only limitation is that which one sets up in
one’s own mind.
Being a philosopher as well as a preacher, Dr. Gunsaulus recognized, as do all who succeed in life, that
DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE is the starting point from which one must begin. He
recognized, too, that definiteness of purpose takes on animation, life, and
power when backed by a BURNING DESIRE to translate that purpose into its
material equivalent.
He knew all these great truths, yet he did not know where, or
how to lay his hands on a million dollars. The natural procedure would have
been to give up and quit, by saying, Ah well, my idea is a good one, but I
cannot do anything with it, because I never can procure the necessary million
dollars. That is exactly what the majority of people would have said, but it is
not what Dr. Gunsaulus said. What he said, and what
he did are so important that I now introduce him, and
let him speak for himself.
One Saturday afternoon I sat in my room thinking of ways and
means of raising the money to carry out my plans. For nearly two years, I had
been thinking, but I had done nothing but think!
The time had come for ACTION!
I made up my mind, then and there, that I would get the
necessary million dollars within a week. How? I was not concerned about that.
The main thing of importance was the decision to get the money within a
specified time, and I want to tell you that the moment I reached a definite decision
to get the money within a specified time, a strange feeling of assurance came
over me, such as I had never before experienced. Something inside me seemed to
say, Why didn’t you reach that decision a long time
ago? The money was waiting for you all the time!
Things began to happen in a hurry. I called the newspapers and
announced I would preach a sermon the following morning, entitled, What I would do if I had a Million Dollars.
I went to work on the sermon immediately, but I must tell you,
frankly, the task was not difficult, because I had been preparing that sermon
for almost two years. The spirit back of it was a part of me!
Long before midnight I had finished writing the sermon. I went
to bed and slept with a feeling of confidence, for I could see myself
already in. possession of the million dollars.
Next morning I arose early, went into the bathroom, read the
sermon, then knelt on my knees and asked that my sermon might come to the
attention of someone who would supply the needed money.
While I was praying I again had that feeling of assurance that
the money would be forthcoming. In my excitement, I walked out without my
sermon, and did not discover the oversight until I was in my pulpit and about
ready to begin delivering it.
It was too late to go back for my notes, and what a blessing
that I couldn’t go back! Instead, my own subconscious mind yielded the material
I needed. When I arose to begin my sermon, I closed my eyes, and spoke with all
my heart and soul of my dreams. I not only talked to my audience, but I fancy I
talked also to God. I told what I would do with a million dollars if that
amount were placed in my hands. I described the plan I had in mind for
organizing a great educational institution, where young people would learn to
do practical things, and at the same time develop their minds.
When I had finished and sat down, a man slowly arose from his
seat, about three rows from the rear, and made his way toward the pulpit. I
wondered what he was going to do. He came into the pulpit, extended his hand,
and said, Reverend, I liked your sermon. I believe you can do everything you
said you would, if you had a million dollars. To prove that I believe in you
and your sermon, if you will come to my office tomorrow morning, I will give
you the million dollars. My name is Phillip D. Armour.
Young Gunsaulus went to Mr. Armour’s office and the million dollars was presented to
him. With the money, he founded the Armour Institute
of Technology.
That is more money than the majority of preachers ever see in an
entire lifetime, yet the thought impulse back of the money was created m the
young preacher’s mind in a fraction of a minute. The necessary million dollars
came as a result of an idea. Back of the idea was a DESIRE which young Gunsaulus had been nursing in his mind for almost two y
ears.
Observe this important fact... HE GOT THE MONEY WITHIN
THIRTY-SIX HOURS AFTER HE REACHED A DEFINITE DECISION IN HIS OWN MIND TO GET
IT, AND DECIDED UPON A DEFINITE PLAN FOR GETTING IT!
There was nothing new or unique about young Gunsaulus
vague thinking about a million dollars, and weakly hoping for it. Others before
him, and many since his time, have had similar thoughts. But there was
something very unique and different about the decision he reached on that
memorable Saturday, when he put vagueness into the background, and definitely
said, I WILL get that money within a week!
God seems to throw Himself on the side of the man who knows exactly
what he wants, if he is determined to get JUST THAT!
Moreover, the principle through which Dr. Gunsaulus
got his million dollars is still alive! It is available to you! This universal
law is as workable today as it was when the young preacher made use of it so
successfully. This book describes, step by step, the thirteen elements of this
great law, and suggests how they may be put to use.
Observe that Asa Candler and Dr. Frank
Gunsaulus had one characteristic in common. Both knew
the astounding truth that IDEAS CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO CASH THROUGH THE POWER
OF DEFINITE PURPOSE, PLUS DEFINITE PLANS.
If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty,
alone, will bring riches, perish the thought! It is not true! Riches, when they
come in huge quantities, are never the result of HARD work! Riches come, if
they come at all, in response to definite demands, based upon the application
of definite principles, and not by chance or luck. Generally speaking, an idea
is an impulse of thought that impels action, by an appeal to the imagination.
All master salesmen know that ideas can be sold where merchandise cannot.
Ordinary salesmen do not know this-that is why they are ordinary.
A publisher of books, which sell for a nickel, made a discovery
that should be worth much to publishers generally. He learned that many people
buy titles, and not contents of books. By merely changing the name of one book
that was not moving, his sales on that book jumped upward more than a million
copies. The inside of the book was not changed in any way. He merely ripped off
the cover bearing the title that did not sell, and put on a new cover with a
title that had box-office value.
That, as simple as it may seem, was an IDEA! It was
IMAGINATION.
There is no standard price on ideas. The creator of ideas makes
his own price, and, if he is smart, gets it. The moving picture industry
created a whole flock of millionaires. Most of them were men who couldn’t
create ideas BUT, they had the imagination to recognize ideas when they saw
them.
The next flock of millionaires will grow out of the radio
business, which is new and not overburdened with men of keen imagination. The
money will be made by those who discover or create new and more meritorious
radio programmes and have the imagination to
recognize merit, and to give the radio listeners a chance to profit by it.
The sponsor! That unfortunate victim who now pays the cost of
all radio entertainment, soon will become idea conscious, and demand something
for his money. The man who beats the sponsor to the draw, and supplies programmes that render useful service, is the man who will
become rich in this new industry.
Crooners and light chatter artists who now pollute the air with
wisecracks and silly giggles, will go the way of all light timbers, and their
places will be taken by real artists who interpret carefully planned programmes which have been designed to service the minds of
men, as well as provide entertainment.
Here is a wide open field of opportunity screaming its protest
at the way it is being butchered, because of lack of imagination, and begging
for rescue at any price. Above all, the thing that radio needs is new
IDEAS!
If this new field of opportunity intrigues you, perhaps you
might profit by the suggestion that the successful radio programmes
of the future will give more attention to creating buyer audiences, and less
attention to listener audiences. Stated more plainly, the builder of radio programmes who succeeds in the future,
must find practical ways to convert listeners into buyers. Moreover, the
successful producer of radio programmes in the future
must key his features so that he can definitely show its effect upon the
audience.
Sponsors are becoming a bit weary of buying glib selling talks,
based upon statements grabbed out of thin air. They want, and in the future
will demand, indisputable proof that the Whoosit programme not only gives millions of people the silliest
giggle ever, but that the silly giggler can sell merchandise!
Another thing that might as well be understood by those who
contemplate entering this new field of opportunity, radio advertising is going
to be handled by an entirely new group of advertising experts, separate and
distinct from the old time newspaper and magazine advertising agency men. The
old timers in the advertising game cannot read the modern radio scripts,
because they have been schooled to SEE ideas. The new radio technique demands
men who can interpret ideas from a written manuscript in terms of SOUND!
It cost the author a year of hard labor, and many thousands of dollars to
learn this.
Radio, right now, is about where the moving pictures were, when
Mary Pickford and her curls first appeared on the
screen. There is plenty of room in radio for those who can produce or
recognize IDEAS.
If the foregoing comment on the opportunities of radio has not
started your idea factory to work, you had better forget it. Your opportunity
is in some other field. If the comment intrigued you in the slightest degree,
then go further into it, and you may find the one IDEA you need to round out
your career.
Never let it discourage you if you have no experience in radio.
Andrew Carnegie knew very little about making steel, I have Carnegie’s own word
for this-but he made practical use of two of the principles described in this
book, and made the steel business yield him a fortune.
The story of practically every great fortune starts with the day
when a creator of ideas and a seller of ideas got together and worked in
harmony. Carnegie surrounded himself with men who could do all that he could
not do. Men who created ideas, and men who put ideas
into operation, and made himself and the others fabulously rich.
Millions of people go through life hoping for favorable breaks.
Perhaps a favorable break can get one an opportunity, but the safest plan is
not to depend upon luck. It was a favorable break that gave me the biggest
opportunity of my life but, twenty-five years of determined effort had
to be devoted to that opportunity before it became an asset.
The break consisted of my good fortune in meeting and gaining
the cooperation of Andrew Carnegie. On that occasion Carnegie planted in my
mind the idea of organizing the principles of achievement into a
philosophy of success. Thousands of people have profited by the discoveries
made in the twenty-five years of research, and several fortunes have been
accumulated through the application of the philosophy. The beginning was
simple. It was an IDEA which anyone might have developed.
The favorable break came through Carnegie, but what about the
DETERMINATION, DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE, and the DESIRE TO ATTAIN THE GOAL, and
the PERSISTENT EFFORT OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS? It was no ordinary DESIRE that
survived disappointment, discouragement, temporary defeat, criticism, and the
constant reminding of waste of time. It was a BURNING DESIRE! AN
OBSESSION!
When the idea was first planted in my mind by Mr. Carnegie, it
was coaxed, nursed, and enticed to remain alive. Gradually, the idea
became a giant under its own power, and it coaxed, nursed, and drove me. Ideas
are like that. First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their own and sweep aside all
opposition.
Ideas are intangible forces, but they have more power than the
physical brains that give birth to them. They have the power to live on, after
the brain that creates them has returned to dust. For example, take the power
of Christianity. That began with a simple idea, born in the brain of Christ.
Its chief tenet was, do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Christ has gone back to the source from whence He came, but His IDEA goes
marching on. Some day, it may grow up, and come into its own, then it will have fulfilled Christ’s deepest DESIRE. The
IDEA has been developing only two thousand years. Give it time!
SUCCESS REQUIRES NO EXPLANATIONS
FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS
CHAPTER 7
ORGANIZED PLANNING
THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF DESIRE INTO ACTION
The Sixth Step toward Riches
You have learned that everything man creates or acquires, begins in the form of DESIRE, that desire is taken
on the first lap of its journey, from the abstract to the concrete, into the
workshop of the IMAGINATION, where PLANS for its transition are created and
organized.
In Chapter two, you were instructed to take six definite,
practical steps, as your first move in translating the desire for money into
its monetary equivalent. One of these steps is the formation of a DEFINITE,
practical plan, or plans, through which this transformation may be made.
You will now be instructed how to build plans which will be
practical, viz:
Ally yourself with a group of as many people as you may need for
the creation, and carrying out of your plan, or plans for the accumulation of
money-making use of the Master Mind principle described in a later chapter.
(Compliance with this instruction is absolutely essential. Do not
neglect it.)
Before forming your Master Mind alliance, decide what advantages,
and benefits, you may offer the individual members of your group, in
return for their cooperation. No one will work indefinitely without some form
of compensation. No intelligent person will either request or expect another to
work without adequate compensation, although this may not always be in the form
of money.
Arrange to meet with the members of your Master Mind group at
least twice a week, and more often if possible, until you have jointly
perfected the necessary plan, or plans for the accumulation of money.
Maintain PERFECT HARMONY between yourself and every member of your
Master Mind group. If you fail to carry out this instruction to the letter, you
may expect to meet with failure. The Master Mind principle cannot obtain
where PERFECT HARMONY does not prevail.
Keep in mind these facts:
First. You are engaged in an undertaking
of major importance to you. To be sure of success, you must have plans which
are faultless.
Second. You must have the
advantage of the experience, education, native ability and imagination of other
minds. This is in harmony with the methods followed by every person who has
accumulated a great fortune.
No individual has sufficient experience, education, native
ability, and knowledge to insure the accumulation of a great fortune, without
the cooperation of other people. Every plan you adopt, in your endeavor to
accumulate wealth, should be the joint creation of yourself and every other
member of your Master Mind group. You may originate your own plans, either in
whole or in part, but SEE THAT THOSE PLANS ARE CHECKED, AND APPROVED BY THE
MEMBERS OF YOUR MASTER MIND ALLIANCE.
If the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully,
replace it with a new plan, if this new plan fails to work, replace it, in turn
with still another, and so on, until you find a plan which DOES WORK. Right
here is the point at which the majority of men meet with failure, because of
their lack of PERSISTENCE in creating new plans to take the place of those
which fail.
The most intelligent man living cannot succeed in accumulating
money, nor in any other undertaking, without plans
which are practical and workable. Just keep this fact in mind, and remember
when your plans fail, that temporary defeat is not permanent failure. It may
only mean that your plans have not been sound. Build other plans. Start all
over again.
Thomas A. Edison failed ten thousand times before he perfected
the incandescent electric light bulb. That is, he met with temporary defeat ten
thousand times, before his efforts were crowned with success.
Temporary defeat should mean only one thing, the certain
knowledge that there is something wrong with your plan. Millions of men go
through life in misery and poverty, because they lack a sound plan through
which to accumulate a fortune.
Henry Ford accumulated a fortune, not because of his superior mind,
but because he adopted and followed a PLAN which proved to be sound. A thousand
men could be pointed out, each with a better education than Ford’s, yet each of
whom lives in poverty, because he does not possess the RIGHT plan for the
accumulation of money.
Your achievement can be no greater than your PLANS are sound.
That may seem to be an axiomatic statement, but it is true. Samuel Insull lost his fortune of over one hundred million
dollars. The Insull fortune was built on plans which
were sound. The business depression forced Mr. Insull
to CHANGE HIS PLANS; and the CHANGE brought temporary defeat, because his new
plans were NOT SOUND. Mr. Insull is now an old man,
he may, consequently, accept failure instead of temporary defeat, but if his
experience turns out to be FAILURE, it will be for the reason that he lacks the
fire of PERSISTENCE to rebuild his plans. No man is ever whipped, until he
QUITS, in his own mind.
This fact will be repeated many times, because it is so easy to
take the count at the first sign of defeat.
James J. Hill met with temporary defeat when he first endeavored
to raise the necessary capital to build a railroad from the East to the West,
but he, too turned defeat into victory through new plans.
Henry Ford met with temporary defeat, not only at the beginning
of his automobile career, but after he had gone far toward the top. He created
new plans, and went marching on to financial victory.
We see men who have accumulated great fortunes, but we often
recognize only their triumph, overlooking the temporary defeats which they had
to surmount before arriving.
NO FOLLOWER OF THIS PHILOSOPHY CAN REASONABLY EXPECT TO
ACCUMULATE A FORTUNE WITHOUT EXPERIENCING TEMPORARY DEFEAT. When defeat comes,
accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and
set sail once more toward your coveted goal. If you give up before your goal
has been reached, you are a quitter.
A QUITTER NEVER WINS-AND, A WINNER NEVER QUITS. Lift this
sentence out, write it on a piece of paper in letters an inch high, and place
it where you will see it every night before you go to sleep, and every morning
before you go to work. When you begin to select members for your Master Mind
group, endeavor to select those who do not take defeat seriously. Some people
foolishly believe that only MONEY can make money. This is not true! DESIRE,
transmuted into its monetary equivalent, through the principles laid down here,
is the agency through which money is made. Money, of itself, is nothing but
inert matter. It cannot move, think, or talk, but it can hear when a man who
DESIRES it, calls it to come!
PLANNING THE
The remainder of this chapter has been given over to a
description of ways and means of marketing personal services. The information
here conveyed will be of practical help to any person having any form of
personal services to market, but it will be of priceless benefit to those who
aspire to leadership in their chosen occupations.
Intelligent planning is essential for success in any undertaking
designed to accumulate riches. Here will be found detailed instructions to
those who must begin the accumulation of riches by selling personal
services.
It should be encouraging to know that practically all the great
fortunes began in the form of compensation for personal services, or from the
sale of IDEAS.
What else, except ideas and personal services, would one not
possessed of property have to give in return for riches?
Broadly speaking, there are two types of people in the
world.
One type is known as LEADERS, and the other as FOLLOWERS. Decide
at the outset whether you intend to become a leader in your chosen calling, or
remain a follower. The difference in compensation is vast. The follower cannot
reasonably expect the compensation to which a leader is entitled, although many
followers make the mistake of expecting such pay.
It is no disgrace to be a follower. On the other hand, it is no
credit to remain a follower. Most great leaders began in the capacity of
followers. They became great leaders because they were INTELLIGENT FOLLOWERS.
With few exceptions, the man who cannot follow a leader intelligently,
cannot become an efficient leader. The man who can
follow a leader most efficiently, is usually the man who develops into
leadership most rapidly. An intelligent follower has many advantages, among
them the OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE FROM HIS LEADER.
THE MAJOR ATTRIBUTES OF LEADERSHIP
The following are important factors of leadership:
UNWAVERING COURAGE based upon knowledge of self, and of one’s
occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks
self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such
a leader very long.
SELF-CONTROL. The man who cannot control
himself, can never control others. Self-control sets a mighty example for one’s
followers, which the more intelligent will emulate.
A KEEN SENSE OF JUSTICE. Without a sense of fairness and justice,
no leader can command and retain the respect of his followers.
DEFINITENESS OF DECISION. The man who
wavers in his decisions, shows that he is not sure of himself. He cannot lead
others successfully.
DEFINITENESS OF PLANS. The successful leader must plan his work,
and work his plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical,
definite plans, is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later he
will land on the rocks.
THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR. One of the penalties of
leadership is the necessity of willingness, upon the part of the leader, to do
more than he requires of his followers.
A PLEASING PERSONALITY. No slovenly, careless person can become a
successful leader. Leadership calls for respect. Followers will not respect a
leader who does not grade high on all of the factors of a Pleasing
Personality.
SYMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING. The successful leader must be in
sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their
problems.
SYMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING. The successful leader must be in
sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their
problems.
MASTERY OF DETAIL. Successful leadership calls for mastery of
details of the leader’s position.
WILLINGNESS TO ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY. The successful leader
must be willing to assume responsibility for the mistakes and the shortcomings
of his followers. If he tries to shift this responsibility, he will not remain
the leader. If one of his followers makes a mistake, and shows himself incompetent, the leader must consider that it is he
who failed.
COOPERATION. The successful leader must understand, and apply the
principle of cooperative effort and be able to induce his followers to do the
same. Leadership calls for POWER, and power calls for COOPERATION.
There are two forms of Leadership. The first, and by far the
most effective, is LEADERSHIP BY CONSENT of, and with the sympathy of the
followers. The second is LEADERSHIP BY FORCE, without the consent and sympathy
of the followers. History is filled with evidences that Leadership by Force
cannot endure. The downfall and disappearance of Dictators and kings is
significant. It means that people will not follow forced leadership
indefinitely.
The world has just entered a new era of relationship between
leaders and followers, which very clearly calls for
new leaders, and a new brand of leadership in business and industry. Those who
belong to the old school of leadership-by-force, must acquire an understanding
of the new brand of leadership (cooperation) or be relegated to the rank and file
of the followers. There is no other way out for them.
The relationship of employer and employee, or of leader and
follower, in the future, will be one of mutual cooperation, based upon an
equitable division of the profits of business. In the future, the relationship
of employer and employee will be more like a partnership than it has been in
the past.
Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm of
Men may follow the forced leadership temporarily, but they will
not do so willingly.
The new brand of LEADERSHIP will embrace the eleven factors of
leadership, described in this chapter, as well as some other factors. The man who makes these the basis of his leadership, will find
abundant opportunity to lead in any walk of life. The depression was prolonged,
largely, because the world lacked LEADERSHIP of the new brand. At the end of
the depression, the demand for leaders who are competent to apply the new methods
of leadership has greatly exceeded the supply. Some of the old type of leaders
will reform and adapt themselves to the new brand of leadership, but generally
speaking, the world will have to look for new timber for its leadership. This
necessity may be your
THE 10 MAJOR CAUSES OF FAILURE IN LEADERSHIP
We come now to the major faults of leaders who fail, because it
is just as essential to know WHAT NOT TO DO as it is to know what to do.
INABILITY TO ORGANIZE DETAILS. Efficient leadership calls for
ability to organize and to master details. No genuine leader is ever too busy
to do anything which may be required of him in his capacity as leader. When a
man, whether he is a leader or follower, admits that he is too busy to change
his plans, or to give attention to any emergency, he admits his inefficiency.
The successful leader must be the master of all details connected with his
position. That means, of course, that he must acquire the habit of relegating
details to capable lieutenants.
UNWILLINGNESS TO RENDER HUMBLE SERVICE. Truly great leaders are
willing, when occasion demands, to perform any sort of
labor which they would ask another to perform. The greatest among ye shall be
the servant of all is a truth which all able leaders observe and respect.
EXPECTATION OF PAY FOR WHAT THEY KNOW INSTEAD OF WHAT THEY DO WITH
THAT WHICH THEY KNOW. The world does not pay men for that which they know. It
pays them for what they DO, or induce others to do.
FEAR OF COMPETITION FROM FOLLOWERS. The leader who fears that one
of his followers may take his position is practically sure to realize that fear
sooner or later. The able leader trains understudies to whom he may delegate,
at will, any of the details of his position. Only in this way may a leader
multiply himself and prepare himself to be at many
places, and give attention to many things at one time. It is an eternal truth
that men receive more pay for their ABILITY TO GET OTHERS TO PERFORM, than they
could possibly earn by their own efforts. An efficient leader may, through his
knowledge of his job and the magnetism of his personality, greatly increase the
efficiency of others, and induce them to render more service and better service
than they could render without his aid.
LACK OF IMAGINATION. Without imagination, the leader is incapable
of meeting emergencies, and of creating plans by which to guide his followers
efficiently.
SELFISHNESS. The leader who claims all the
honor for the work of his followers, is sure to be met by resentment. The
really great leader CLAIMS NONE OF THE HONORS. He is contented to see the
honors, when there are any, go to his followers, because he knows that most men
will work harder for commendation and recognition than they will for money
alone.
INTEMPERANCE. Followers do not respect an intemperate leader.
Moreover, intemperance in any of its various forms,
destroys the endurance and the vitality of all who indulge in it.
DISLOYALTY. Perhaps this should have come at the head of the list.
The leader who is not loyal to his trust, and to his associates, those above
him, and those below him, cannot long maintain his leadership. Disloyalty marks
one as being less than the dust of the earth, and brings down on one’s head the
contempt he deserves. Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in
every walk of life.
EMPHASIS OF THE AUTHORITY OF LEADERSHIP. The efficient leader
leads by encouraging, and not by trying to instill
fear in the hearts of his followers. The leader who tries to impress his followers
with his authority comes within the category of leadership through FORCE. If a
leader is a REAL LEADER, he will have no need to advertise that fact except by
his conduct, his sympathy, understanding, fairness, and a demonstration that he
knows his job.
EMPHASIS OF TITLE. The competent leader requires no title to give
him the respect of his followers. The man who makes too much over his title
generally has little else to emphasize. The doors to the office of the real
leader are open to all who wish to enter, and his working quarters are free
from formality or ostentation.
These are among the more common of the causes of failure in
leadership. Any one of these faults is sufficient to induce failure. Study the
list carefully if you aspire to leadership, and make sure that you are free of
these faults.
SOME FERTILE FIELDS IN WHICH NEW LEADERSHIP WILL BE
REQUIRED
Before leaving this chapter, your attention is called to a few
of the fertile fields in which t here has been a decline of leadership, and in
which the new type of leader may find an abundance of
First. In the field of politics
there is a most insistent demand for new leaders; a demand which indicates
nothing less than an emergency. The majority of politicians have, seemingly, become
high-grade, legalized racketeers. They have increased taxes and debauched the
machinery of industry and business until the people can no longer stand the
burden.
Second. The banking business is undergoing a reform. The leaders
in this field have almost entirely lost the confidence of the public. Already
the bankers have sensed the need of reform, and they have begun it.
Third. Industry calls for new leaders. The old type of leaders
thought and moved in terms of dividends instead of thinking and moving in terms
of human equations! The future leader in industry, to endure, must regard
himself as a quasi-public official whose duty it is to manage his trust in such
a way that it will work hardship on no individual, or group of individuals.
Exploitation of working men is a thing of the past. Let the man who aspires to
leadership in the field of business, industry, and labor remember this.
Fourth. The religious leader of the future will be forced to
give more attention to the temporal needs of his followers, in the solution of
their economic and personal problems of the present, and less attention to the
dead past, and the yet unborn future.
Fifth. In the professions of law, medicine, and education, a
new brand of leadership, and to some extent, new leaders will become a
necessity. This is especially true in the field of education. The leader in
that field must, in the future, find ways and means of teaching people HOW TO
APPLY the knowledge they receive in school. He must deal more with PRACTICE and
less with THEORY.
Sixth. New leaders will be required in the field of
Journalism. Newspapers of the future, to be conducted successfully, must be
divorced from special privilege and relieved from the subsidy of advertising.
They must cease to be organs of propaganda for the interests which patronize
their advertising columns. The type of newspaper which publishes scandal and
lewd pictures will eventually go the way of all forces which debauch the human
mind.
These are but a few of the fields in which opportunities
for new leaders and a new brand of leadership are now available. The world is
undergoing a rapid change. This means that the media
through which the changes in human habits are promoted, must be adapted to the
changes. The media here described, are the ones which,
more than any others, determine the trend of civilization.
WHEN AND HOW TO APPLY FOR A POSITION
The information described here is the net result of many years
of experience during which thousands of men and women were helped to market
their services effectively. It can, therefore, be relied upon as sound and
practical.
MEDIA THROUGH WHICH SERVICES MAY BE MARKETED
Experience has proved that the following media offer the most
direct and effective methods of bringing the buyer and seller of personal
services together.
EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS. Care must be taken to select only reputable
bureaus, the management of which can show adequate records of achievement of
satisfactory results. There are comparatively few such bureaus.
ADVERTISING in newspapers, trade journals, magazines, and radio.
Classified advertising may usually be relied upon to produce satisfactory
results in the case of those who apply for clerical or ordinary salaried
positions. Display advertising is more desirable in the case of those who seek
executive connections, the copy to appear in the section of the paper which is
most apt to come to the attention of the class of employer being sought. The
copy should be prepared by an expert, who understands how to inject sufficient
selling qualities to produce replies.
PERSONAL LETTERS OF APPLICATION, directed to particular firms or
individuals most apt to need such services as are being offered. Letters should
be neatly typed, ALWAYS, and signed by hand. With the letter, should be
sent a complete brief or outline of the applicant’s qualifications. Both the
letter of application and the brief of experience or qualifications should be
prepared by an expert. (See instructions as to information to be supplied).
APPLICATION THROUGH PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCES. When possible, the
applicant should endeavor to approach prospective employers through some mutual
acquaintance. This method of approach is particularly advantageous in the case
of those who seek executive connections and do not wish to appear to be
peddling themselves.
APPLICATION IN PERSON. In some in-stances, it may be more
effective if the applicant offers personally, his services to prospective
employers, in which event a complete written statement of qualifications for the
position should be presented, for the reason that prospective employers often
wish to discuss with associates, one’s record.
INFORMATION TO BE SUPPLIED IN A WRITTEN BRIEF
This brief should be prepared as carefully as a lawyer would
prepare the brief of a case to be tried m court. Unless the applicant is
experienced in the preparation of such briefs, an expert should be consulted,
and his services enlisted for this purpose. Successful merchants employ men and
women who understand the art and the psychology of advertising to present the
merits of their merchandise. One who has personal services for sale should do
the same. The following information should appear in the brief:
Education. State briefly, but definitely, what schooling you have
had, and in what subjects you specialized in school, giving the reasons for
that specialization.
Experience. If you have had experience in connection with positions
similar to the one you seek, describe it fully, state names and addresses of
former employers. Be sure to bring out clearly any special experience
you may have had which would equip you to fill the position you seek.
References. Practically every business firm desires to know all about
the previous records, antecedents, etc., of prospective employees who seek
positions of responsibility. Attach to your brief photostatic
copies of letters from:
Former employers
Teachers under whom you studied
Prominent people whose judgment may be relied upon.
Photograph of self. Attach to your brief a recent, unmounted
photograph of yourself.
Apply for a specific position. Avoid application for a
position without describing EXACTLY what particular position you seek. Never
apply for just a position. That indicates you lack specialized qualifications.
State your qualifications for the particular position
for which you apply. Give full details as to the reason you believe you are
qualified for the particular position you seek. This is THE APPLICATION. It
will determine, more than anything else, what consideration you receive.
Offer to go to work on probation. In the majority of instances
if you are determined to have the position for which you apply, it will be most
effective if you offer to work for a week, or a month, or for a sufficient
length of time to enable your prospective employer to judge your value WITHOUT
PAY. This may appear to be a radical suggestion, but experience has proved that
it seldom fails to win at least a trial. If you are SURE OF YOUR QUALIFICA
TIONS, a trial is all you need. Incidentally, such an offer indicates that you
have confidence in your ability to fill the position you seek. It is most
convincing. If your offer is accepted, and you make good, more than likely you
will be paid for your probation period. Make clear the fact that your offer is
based upon:
Your confidence in your ability to fill the position.
Your confidence in your prospective employer’s decision to employ
you after trial.
Your DETERMINATION to have the position you seek.
Knowledge of your prospective employer’s business. Before applying for a
position, do sufficient research in connection with the business to familiarize
yourself thoroughly with that business, and indicate in your brief the
knowledge you have acquired in this field. This will be impressive, as it will
indicate that you have imagination, and a real interest in the position you
seek.
Remember that it is not the lawyer who knows the most law, but
the one who best prepares his case, who wins. If your case is properly prepared
and presented, your victory will have been more than half won at the
outset.
Do not be afraid of making your brief too long. Employers are
just as much interested in purchasing the services of well-qualified applicants
as you are in securing employment. In fact, the success of most successful
employers is due, in the main, to their ability to select well-qualified
lieutenants. They want all the information available.
Remember another thing; neatness in the preparation of your
brief will indicate that you are a painstaking person. I have helped to prepare
briefs for clients which were so striking and out of the ordinary that they
resulted in the employment of the applicant without a personal interview.
When your brief has been completed, have it neatly bound by an
experienced binder, and lettered by an artist, or printer similar to the
following:
BRIEF
OF THE QUALIFICATIONS OF Robert K. Smith APPLYING FOR THE POSITION OF Private Secretary to The President of THE BLANK COMPANY, Inc.
Change names each time brief is shown.
This personal touch is sure to command attention. Have your
brief neatly typed or mimeographed on the finest paper you can obtain, and
bound with a heavy paper of the book-cover variety, the binder to be changed,
and the proper firm name to be inserted if it is to be shown to more than one
company. Your photograph should be pasted on one of the pages of your brief.
Follow these instructions to the letter, improving upon them wherever your
imagination suggests.
Successful salesmen groom themselves with care. They understand
that first impressions are lasting. Your brief is your salesman. Give it a good
suit of clothes, so it will stand out in bold contrast to anything your
prospective employer ever saw, in the way of an application for a position. If
the position you seek is worth having, it is worth going after with care.
Moreover, if you sell yourself to an employer in a manner that impresses him
with your individuality, you probably will receive more money for your services
from the very start, than you would if you applied for employment in the usual
conventional way.
If you seek employment through an advertising agency, or an
employment agency, have the agent use copies of your brief in marketing your
services. This will help to gain preference for you, both with the agent, and
the prospective employers.
HOW TO GET THE EXACT POSITION YOU DESIRE
Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best
suited. An artist loves to work with paints, a craftsman with his hands, a writer
loves to write. Those with less definite talents have their preferences for
certain fields of business and industry. If
First. Decide EXACTLY what kind of a
job you want. If the job doesn’t already exist, perhaps you can create it.
Second. Choose the company, or individual for whom you wish to work. Third. Study your prospective employer, as to policies,
personnel, and chances of advancement.
Fourth. By analysis of yourself, your talents and capabilities,
figure WHAT YOU CAN OFFER, and plan ways and means of giving advantages,
services, developments, ideas that you believe you can successfully
deliver.
Fifth. Forget about a job. Forget whether or not there is an
opening. Forget the usual routine of have you got a job for me? Concentrate on
what you can give.
Sixth. Once you have your plan in mind, arrange with an
experienced writer to put it on paper in neat form, and in full detail.
Seventh. Present it to the proper person with authority and
he will do the rest. Every company is looking for men who can give something of
value, whether it be ideas, services, or connections.
Every company has room for the man who has a definite plan of action which is
to the advantage of that company.
This line of procedure may take a few days or weeks of extra
time, but the difference in income, in advancement, and in gaining recognition
will save years of hard work at small pay. It has many advantages, the main one
being that it will often save from one to five years of time in reaching a
chosen goal.
Every person who starts, or gets in half way up the ladder, does
so by deliberate and careful planning, (excepting, of
course, the Boss son).
THE
NEW WAY OF MARKETING SERVICES JOBS, ARE NOW PARTNERSHIPS
Men and women who market their services to best advantage in the
future, must recognize the stupendous change which has taken place in
connection with the relationship between employer and employee.
In the future, the Golden Rule, and not the Rule of Gold will be
the dominating factor in the marketing of merchandise as well as personal
services. The future relationship between employers and their employees will be
more in the nature of a partnership consisting of:
The employer
The employee
The public they serve
This new way of marketing personal services is called new for
many reasons, first, both the employer and the
employee of the future will be considered as fellow-employees whose business it
will be to SERVE THE PUBLIC EFFICIENTLY. In times past, employers, and
employees have bartered among themselves, driving the best bargains they could
with one another, not considering that in the final analysis they were, in reality,
BARGAINING AT THE EXPENSE OF THE THIRD PARTY, THE PUBLIC THEY SERVED.
The depression served as a mighty protest from an injured
public, whose rights had been trampled upon in every direction by those who
were clamoring for individual advantages and profits. When the debris of the
depression shall have been cleared away, and business shall have been once
again restored to balance, both employers and employees will recognize that
they are NO LONGER PRIVILEGED TO DRIVE BARGAINS AT THE EXPENSE OF THOSE WHOM
THEY SERVE. The real employer of the future will be the public. This should be
kept uppermost in mind by every person seeking to market personal services
effectively.
Nearly every railroad in
The street car companies have experienced a change of times also.
There was a time not so very long ago when street car conductors took pride in
giving argument to passengers. Many of the street car tracks have been removed
and passengers ride on a bus, whose driver is the last word in politeness.
All over the country street car tracks are rusting from
abandonment, or have been taken up. Where-ever street cars are still in
operation, passengers may now ride without argument, and one may even hail the
car in the middle of the block, and the motorman will OBLIGINGLY pick him
up.
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED! That is just the point I am trying to
emphasize. TIMES HAVE CHANGED! Moreover, the change is reflected not merely in
railroad offices and on street cars, but in other walks of life as well. The
public-be-damned policy is now pass. It has been
supplanted by the we-are-obligingly-at-your service,
sir, policy.
The bankers have learned a thing or two during this rapid change
which has taken place during the past few years. Impoliteness on the part of a
bank official, or bank employee today is as rare as it was conspicuous a dozen
years ago. In the years past, some bankers (not all of them, of course),
carried an atmosphere of austerity which gave every would-be borrower a chill
when he even thought of approaching his banker for a loan.
The thousands of bank failures during the depression had the
effect of removing the mahogany doors behind which bankers formerly barricaded themselves. They now sit at desks in the open, where they
may be seen and approached at will by any depositor, or by anyone who wishes to
see them, and the whole atmosphere of the bank is one of courtesy and
understanding.
It used to be customary for customers to have to stand and wait
at the corner grocery until the clerks were through passing the time of day
with friends, and the proprietor had finished making up his bank deposit,
before being waited upon. Chain stores, managed by COURTEOUS MEN who do
everything in the way of service, short of shining the customer’s shoes, have
PUSHED THE OLDTIME MERCHANTS INTO THE BACKGROUND. TIME
Courtesy and Service are the watch-words of merchandising today,
and apply to the person who is marketing personal services even more directly
than to the employer whom he serves, because, in the final analysis, both the
employer and his employee are EMPLOYED BY THE PUBLIC THEY SERVE. If they fail
to serve well, they pay by the loss of their privilege of serving.
We can all remember the time when the gas-meter reader pounded
on the door hard enough to break the panels. When the door was opened, he
pushed his way in, uninvited, with a scowl on his face which plainly said,
what-the-hell-did-you-keep-me waiting-for? All that has
undergone a change. The meter-man now conducts himself as a gentleman
who is delighted-to-be-at-your service-sir. Before the gas companies learned
that their scowling meter-men were accumulating liabilities never to be cleared
away, the polite salesmen of oil burners came along and did a land office
business.
During the depression, I spent several months in the anthracite
coal region of
Through the pressure of a group of overzealous labor leaders,
representing the employees, and the greed for profits on the part of the
operators, the anthracite business suddenly dwindled. The coal operators and
their employees drove sharp bargains with one another, adding the cost of the
bargaining to the price of the coal, until, finally, they discovered they had
BUILT UP A WONDERFUL BUSINESS FOR THE MANUFACTURERS OF OIL BURNING OUTFITS AND
THE PRODUCERS OF CRUDE OIL.
The wages of sin is death! Many have read this in the Bible, but
few have discovered its meaning. Now, and for several years, the entire world
has been listening BY FORCE, to a sermon which might well be called WHATSOEVER
A MAN SOWETH, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP.
Nothing as widespread and effective as the depression could
possibly be just a coincidence. Behind the depression was a CAUSE. Nothing ever
happens without a CAUSE. In the main, the cause of the depression is traceable
directly to the worldwide habit of trying to REAP without SOWING.
This should not be mistaken to mean that the depression
represents a crop which the world is being FORCED to reap without having SOWN.
The trouble is that the world sowed the wrong sort of seed. Any farmer
knows he cannot sow the seed of thistles, and reap a harvest of grain.
Beginning at the outbreak of the world war, the people of the world began to
sow the seed of service inadequate in both quality and quantity. Nearly everyone
was engaged in the pastime of trying to GET WITHOUT GIVING.
These illustrations are brought to the attention of those who
have personal services to market, to show that we are where we are, and what we
are, because of our own conduct! If there is a principle of cause and
effect, which controls business, finance, and transportation, this same
principle controls individuals and determines their economic status.
WHAT IS YOUR QQS RATING?
The causes of success in marketing services EFFECTIVELY and permanently,
have been clearly described. Unless those causes are studied, analyzed,
understood and APPLIED, no man can market his services effectively and
permanently. Every person must be his own salesman of personal services. The
QUALITY and the QUANTITY of service rendered, and the SPIRIT
in which it is rendered, determine to a large extent, the price, and the
duration of employment. To market Personal services effectively, (which means a
permanent market, at a satisfactory price, under pleasant conditions), one must
adopt and follow the QQS formula which means that QUALITY, plus QUANTITY, plus
the proper SPIRIT of cooperation, equals perfect salesmanship of service.
Remember the QQS formula, but do more-APPLY IT AS A HABIT!
Let us analyze the formula to make sure we understand exactly
what it means.
QUALITY of service shall be construed to mean the performance of every
detail, in connection with your position, in the most efficient manner
possible, with the object of greater efficiency always in mind.
QUANTITY of service shall be understood to mean the HABIT of
rendering all the service of which you are capable, at all times, with the purpose of increasing the amount of service
rendered as greater skill is developed through practice and experience. Emphasis
is again placed on the word HABIT.
SPIRIT of service shall be construed to mean the HABIT of agreeable,
harmonious conduct which will induce cooperation from associates and fellow
employees.
Adequacy of QUALITY and QUANTITY of service is not sufficient to
maintain a permanent market for your services. The conduct, or the SPIRIT in
which you deliver service, is a strong determining factor in connection with
both the price you receive, and the duration of employment.
Andrew Carnegie stressed this point more than others in
connection with his description of the factors which lead to success in the
marketing of personal services. He emphasized again, and again, the necessity
for HARMONIOUS CONDUCT. He stressed the fact that he would not retain any man,
no matter how great a QUANTITY, or how efficient the QUALITY of his work, unless
he worked in a spirit of HARMONY. Mr. Carnegie insisted upon men being
AGREEABLE.
To prove that he placed a high value upon this quality, he
permitted many men who conformed to his standards to become very
wealthy. Those who did not conform, had to make room
for others.
The importance of a pleasing personality has been stressed,
because it is a factor which enables one to render service in the proper
SPIRIT. If one has a personality which PLEASES, and renders service in a spirit
of HARMONY, these assets often make up for deficiencies in both the QUALITY,
and the QUANTITY of service one renders. Nothing, however, can be SUCCESSFULLY
SUBSTITUTED FOR PLEASING CONDUCT.
THE CAPITAL VALUE OF YOUR SERVICES
The person whose income is derived entirely from the sale of
personal services is no less a merchant than the man who sells commodities, and
it might well be added, such a person is subject to EXACTLY THE SAME RULES of
conduct as the merchant who sells merchandise.
This has been emphasized, because the majority of people who
live by the sale of personal services make the mistake of considering
themselves free from the rules of conduct, and the responsibilities attached to
those who are engaged in marketing commodities.
The new way of marketing services has practically forced both
employer and. employee into partnership alliances,
through which both take into consideration the rights of the third party, THE
PUBLIC THEY SERVE.
The day of the go-getter has passed. He has been supplanted by
the go-giver. High-pressure methods in business finally blew the lid off. There
will never be the need to put the lid back on, because, in the future, business
will be conducted by methods that will require no pressure.
The actual capital value of your brains may be determined by the
amount of income you can produce (by marketing your services). A fair estimate
of the capital value of your services may be made by multiplying your annual
income by sixteen and two-thirds, as it is reasonable to estimate that your
annual income represents six percent of your capital value. Money rents for 6%
per annum. Money is worth no more than brains. It is often worth much less.
Competent brains, if effectively marketed, represent
a much more desirable form of capital than that which is required to conduct a
business dealing in commodities, because brains are a form of capital which
cannot be permanently depreciated through depressions, nor can this form of
capital be stolen or spent. Moreover, the money which is essential for the
conduct of business is as worthless as a sand dune, until it has been mixed
with efficient brains.
THE THIRTY MAJOR CAUSES OF FAILURE HOW MANY OF THESE ARE
HOLDING YOU BACK?
Life’s greatest tragedy consists of men and women who earnestly
try, and fail! The tragedy lies in the overwhelmingly large majority of people
who fail, as compared to the few who succeed.
I have had the privilege of analyzing several thousand men and
women, 98% of whom were classed as failures. There is something radically wrong
with a civilization, and a system of education, which permit 98% of the people
to go through life as failures. But I did not write this book for the purpose
of moralizing on the rights and wrongs of the world; that would require a book
a hundred times the size of this one.
My analysis work proved that there are thirty major reasons for
failure, and thirteen major principles through which people accumulate
fortunes. In this chapter, a description of the thirty major causes of failure
will be given. As you go over the list, check yourself by it, point by point,
for the purpose of discovering how many of these causes-of-failure stand
between you and success.
UNFAVORABLE HEREDITARY BACKGROUND. There is but little, if
anything, which can be done for people who are born with a deficiency in brain
power. This philosophy offers but one method of bridging this weakness, through
the aid of the Master Mind. Observe with profit, however, that this is the ONLY
one of the thirty causes of failure which may not be easily corrected by
any individual.
LACK OF A WELL-DEFINED PURPOSE IN LIFE. There is no hope of
success for the person who does not have a central purpose, or definite goal
at which to aim. Ninety-eight out of every hundred of those
whom I have analyzed, had no such aim.
LACK OF AMBITION TO AIM ABOVE MEDIOCRITY. We offer no hope for the
person who is so indifferent as not to want to get ahead in life, and who is
not willing to pay the price.
INSUFFICIENT EDUCATION. This is a handicap which may be overcome
with comparative ease. Experience has proven that the best-educated people are
often those who are known as self-made, or self-educated. It takes more than a
college degree to make one a person of education. Any person who is educated is
one who has learned to get whatever he wants in life without violating the
rights of others. Education consists, not so much of knowledge, but of
knowledge effectively and persistently APPLIED. Men are paid, not merely for
what they know, but more particularly for WHAT THEY DO WITH THAT WHICH THEY
KNOW.
LACK OF SELF-DISCIPLINE. Discipline comes through self-control.
This means that one must control all negative qualities. Before you can control
conditions, you must first control yourself. Self-mastery is the hardest job
you will ever tackle. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by
self. You may see at one and the same time both your best friend and your
greatest enemy, by stepping in front of a mirror.
ILL HEALTH. No person may enjoy outstanding success without good
health. Many of the causes of ill health are subject to mastery and control.
These, in the main are:
Overeating of foods not
conducive to health
Wrong habits of thought;
giving expression to negatives.
Wrong use of, and over
indulgence in sex.
Lack of proper physical
exercise
An inadequate supply of fresh
air, due to improper breathing.
UNFAVORABLE ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUEN CES DURING CHILDHOOD. As the
twig is bent, so shall the tree grow. Most people who
have criminal tendencies acquire them as the result of bad environment, and
improper associates during childhood.
PROCRASTINATION. This is one of the most common causes of failure.
Old Man Procrastination stands within the shadow of every human being, waiting
his opportunity to spoil one’s chances of success. Most of us go through life
as failures, because we are waiting for the time to be right to start doing
something worthwhile. Do not wait. The time will never be just right. Start
where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and
better tools will be found as you go along.
LACK OF PERSISTENCE. Most of us are good starters but poor
finishers˜ of everything we begin. Moreover, people are prone to give up at the
first signs of defeat. There is no substitute for PERSISTENCE. The person who makes PERSISTENCE his watch-word, discovers that
Old Man Failure finally becomes tired, and makes his departure. Failure cannot
cope with PERSISTENCE.
NEGATIVE PERSONALITY. There is no hope of success for the person
who repels people through a negative personality. Success comes through the
application of POWER, and power is attained through the cooperative efforts of
other people. A negative personality will not induce cooperation.
LACK OF CONTROLLED SEXUAL URGE. Sex energy is the most powerful of
all the stimuli which move people into ACTION. Because it is the most powerful
of the emotions, it must be controlled, through transmutation, and converted
into other channels.
UNCONTROLLED DESIRE FOR SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. The gambling
instinct drives millions of people to failure. Evidence of this may be found in
a study of the Wall Street crash of ☘29, during which millions of people
tried to make money by gambling on stock margins.
LACK OF A WELL DEFINED POWER OF DECISION. Men who succeed reach
decisions promptly, and change them, if at all, very slowly. Men who fail,
reach decisions, if at all, very slowly, and change them frequently, and
quickly. Indecision and procrastination are twin brothers. Where one is found,
the other may usually be found also. Kill off this pair before they completely
hog-tie you to the treadmill of FAILURE.
ONE OR MORE OF THE SIX BASIC FEARS. These fears have been analyzed
for you in a later chapter. They must be mastered before you can market your
services effectively.
WRONG SELECTION OF A MATE IN MARRIAGE. This a most common cause of
failure. The relationship of marriage brings people intimately into contact.
Unless this relationship is harmonious, failure is likely to follow. Moreover,
it will be a form of failure that is marked by misery and unhappiness,
destroying all signs of AMBITION.
OVER-CAUTION. The person who takes no
chances, generally has to take whatever is left when others are through
choosing. Over-caution is as bad as under-caution. Both are extremes to be
guarded against. Life itself is filled with the element of chance.
WRONG SELECTION OF ASSOCIATES IN BUSINESS. This is one of the most
common causes of failure in business. In marketing personal services, one
should use great care to select an employer who will be an inspiration, and who
is, himself, intelligent and successful. We emulate those with whom we
associate most closely. Pick an employer who is worth emulating.
SUPERSTITION AND PREJUDICE. Superstition is a form of fear. It is
also a sign of ignorance. Men who succeed keep open minds and are afraid of
nothing.
WRONG SELECTION OF A VOCATION. No man can succeed in a line of
endeavor which he does not like. The most essential step in the marketing of
personal services is that of selecting an occupation into which you can throw
yourself wholeheartedly.
LACK OF CONCENTRATION OF EFFORT. The
jack-of-all-trades seldom is good at any.
Concentrate all of your efforts on one
DEFINITE CHIEF AIM.
THE HABIT OF
INDISCRIMINATE SPENDING. The spend-thrift cannot succeed, mainly because he stands
eternally in FEAR OF POVERTY. Form the habit of systematic saving by putting aside
a definite percentage of your income. Money in the bank gives one a very safe
foundation of COURAGE when bargaining for the sale of personal services.
Without money, one must take what one is offered, and be glad to get it.
LACK OF
ENTHUSIASM.
Without enthusiasm one cannot be convincing. Moreover, enthusiasm is
contagious, and the person who has it, under control,
is generally welcome in any group of people.