THINK and GROW RICH BY NAPOLEON HILL

THINK and GROW RICH
BY NAPOLEON HILL
Teaching, for the first time, the famous Andrew Carnegie formula for
money-making, based upon the THIRTEEN PROVEN STEPS TO RICHES.
Organized through 25 years of research, in collaboration with more than
500 distinguished men of great wealth, who proved by their own
achievements that this philosophy is practical.
This electronic edition published in 2002 at www.absolute1.net
This book is an ebook reproduction of the first 6 chapters of the complete
and original 1937 version of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill,
originally published by The Ralston Society and now in the public domain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
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
PART II
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
FOREWORD
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 America's most
successful men. It should be studied, digested, and
meditated upon. No more than one chapter should be
read in a single night. The reader should underline
the sentences which impress him most. Later, he
should go back to these marked lines and read them
again. A real student will not merely read this book,
he will absorb its contents and make them his own.
This book should be adopted by all high schools and
no boy or girl should be permitted to graduate
without having satisfactorily passed an examination
on it. This philosophy will not take the place of the
subjects taught in schools, but it will enable one to
organize and apply the knowledge acquired, and
convert it into useful service and adequate
compensation without waste of time. Dr. John R.
Turner, Dean of the College of The City of New York,
after having read the book, said— ‘The very best
example of the soundness of this philosophy is your
own son, Blair, whose dramatic story you have
outlined in the chapter on Desire.’ 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 (starting on page
52), 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, Government.
Supreme Court of the United States Washington, D. C.
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
United States)
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 Woolworth
Building might properly be called a monument to the
soundness of these principles.’
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 make discoveries of great value to others.
I am deeply impressed by your interpretation of the
'Master Mind' principles which you have so clearly
described.’
WOODROW WILSON
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 will be found the thirteen
principles of money-making 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 12 13 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 OPPORTUNITY.
Roughly speaking, this particular application of the
formula was worth six hundred million dollars. 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 Cincinnati tailor, used his
near-bankrupt business as a ‘guinea pig’ on which to
test the formula. The business came to life and made
a fortune for its owners. It is still thriving,
although Mr. Nash has gone. The experiment was so
unique that newspapers and magazines, gave it more
than a million dollars' worth of laudatory publicity.
The secret was passed on to Stuart Austin Wier, of
Dallas, Texas. He was ready for it— so ready that he
gave up his profession and studied law. Did he
succeed? That story is told too. 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 La-Salle Extension
University, when it was little more than a name, I
had the privilege of seeing J. G. Chapline, President
of the University, use the formula so effectively
that he has since made the LaSalle one of the great
extension schools of the country. 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 Philippines, and is the first President of
the free state. 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 selfdetermination,
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 loco-motive 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, stop 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
17 18 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 Edison.
One of the chief characteristics of Barnes' Desire
was that it was definite. He wanted to work with
Edison, not for him. Observe, carefully, the
description of how he went about translating his
DESIRE into reality, and you will have a better
understanding of the thirteen principles which lead
to riches.
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 Orange, New Jersey.
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 East
Orange on a freight train).
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 Edison office, for that was definitely
against him. It was what he THOUGHT that counted.
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 Edison on his
first interview. He did get a chance to work in the
Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work
that was unimportant to Edison, but most important to
Barnes, because it gave him an opportunity to display
his ‘merchandise’ where his intended ‘partner’ could
see it.
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 Edison.
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
Edison, moreover, he was DETERMINED TO REMAIN READY
UNTIL HE GOT THAT WHICH HE WAS SEEKING.
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 Edison, and I'll accomplish this end if
it takes the remainder of my life.’ He meant it! What
a different story men would have to tell if only they
would adopt a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and stand by that
purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming
obsession!
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 Edison, and promptly
got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he
sold it so successfully that Edison gave him a
contract to distribute and market it all over the
nation. Out of that business association grew the
slogan, ‘Made by Edison and installed by Barnes.’
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 Edison! He thought himself into a
fortune. He had nothing to start with, except the
capacity to KNOW WHAT HE WANTED, AND THE
DETERMINATION TO STAND BY THAT DESIRE UNTIL HE
REALIZED IT.
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
Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few
neighbors of the ‘strike.’ They got together money
for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle
and Darby went back to work the mine.
The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a
smelter. The returns proved they had one of the
richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that
ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big
killing in profits.
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 ‘quitability’ 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 23 24 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 America to be educated in
American ways. He attended the University of Chicago.
One day President Harper met this young Oriental on
the campus, stopped to chat with him for a few
minutes, and asked what had impressed him as being
the most noticeable characteristic of the American
people.
‘Why,’ the Chinaman exclaimed, ‘the queer slant of
your eyes. Your eyes are off slant!’
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 Henley wrote the prophetic lines, ‘I am the
Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul,’ he
should have informed us that we are the Masters of
our Fate, the Captains of our Souls, because we have
the power to control our thoughts.
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, Henley
contented himself by stating a great truth in poetic
form, leaving those who followed him to interpret the
philosophical meaning of his lines.
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 Salem College, Salem, West
Virginia. I emphasized the principle described in the
next chapter, with so much intensity that one of the
members of the graduating class definitely
appropriated it, and made it a part of his own
philosophy. The young man is now a Member of
Congress, and an important factor in the present
administration. Just before this book went to the
publisher, he wrote me a letter in which he so
clearly stated his opinion of the principle outlined
in the next chapter, that I have chosen to publish
his letter as an introduction to that chapter.
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 enheartened to make
the suggestion, because I know your great love for
rendering useful service.
‘In 1922, you delivered the Commencement address at
Salem College, when I was a member' of the graduating
class. In that address, you planted in my mind an
idea which has been responsible for the opportunity I
now have to serve the people of my State, and will be
responsible, in a very large measure, for whatever
success I may have in the future.
‘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 selfinventory,
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 comeback, 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 America today who would like
to know how they can convert ideas into money, people
who must start at scratch, without finances, and
recoup their losses. If anyone can help them, you
can.
‘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,
‘JENNINGS RANDOLPH’
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 Orange, N. J., more than thirty years ago,
he may have resembled a tramp, but his thoughts were
those of a king!
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 Edison's presence. He heard
himself asking Mr. Edison for an opportunity to carry
out the one CONSUMING OBSESSION OF HIS LIFE, a
BURNING DESIRE to become the business associate of
the great inventor.
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 Edison. It
had been Barnes' dominating desire for a long time.
In the beginning, when the desire first appeared in
his mind, it may have been, probably was, only a
wish, but it was no mere wish when he appeared before
Edison with it.
A few years later, Edwin C. Barnes again stood before
Edison, in the same office where he first met the
inventor. This time his DESIRE had been translated
into reality. He was in business with Edison. The
dominating DREAM OF HIS LIFE had become a reality.
Today, people who know Barnes envy him, because of
the ‘break’ life yielded him. They see him in the
days of his triumph, without taking the trouble to
investigate the cause of his success.
Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal,
placed all his energy, all his will power, all his
effort, everything back of that goal. He did not
become the partner of Edison the day he arrived. He
was content to start in the most menial work, as long
as it provided an opportunity to take even one step
toward his cherished goal.
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
Edison business wheel, but in his own mind, HE WAS
THE PARTNER OF EDISON EVERY MINUTE OF THE TIME, from
the very day that he first went to work there.
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 Orange, he did not say to himself, ‘I
will try to induce Edison to give me a job of some
soft.’ He said, ‘I will see Edison, and put him on
notice that I have come to go into business with him.
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 Edison tells me to do,
but before I am through, I will be his associate.’
He did not say, ‘I will keep my eyes open for another
opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the
Edison organization.’ He said, ‘There is but ONE
thing in this world that I am determined to have, and
that is a business association with Thomas A. Edison.
I will burn all bridges behind me, and stake my
ENTIRE FUTURE on my ability to get what I want.’
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 Chicago fire, a group of
merchants stood on State Street, looking at the
smoking remains of what had been their stores. They
went into a conference to decide if they would try to
rebuild, or leave Chicago and start over in a more
promising section of the country. They reached a
decision—all except one—to leave Chicago.
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
Edison organization. It is the same difference which
distinguishes practically all who succeed from those
who fail.
Every human being who reaches the age of
understanding of the purpose of money, wishes for it.
Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches
with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then
planning definite ways and means to acquire riches,
and backing those plans with persistence which does
not recognize failure, will bring riches.
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 America has there been so
great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now
exists. The six year economic collapse has reduced
all men, substantially, to the same level. A new race
is about to be run. The stakes represent huge
fortunes which will be accumulated within the next
ten years. The rules of the race have changed,
because we now live in a CHANGED WORLD that
definitely favors the masses, those who had but
little or no opportunity to win under the conditions
existing during the depression, when fear paralyzed
growth and development.
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 remoulded 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, Columbus dreamed of an Unknown
world, staked his life on the existence of such a
world, and discovered it!
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 America.
Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put
his dream into action, and barely missed living to
see a united North and South translate his dream into
reality.
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 manor house
side by side. It made the people of every nation on
earth back-door neighbors. It gave the President of
the United States a medium by which he may talk to
all the people of America at one time, and on short
notice. It may interest you to know that Marconi's
‘friends’ had him taken into custody, and examined in
a psychopathic hospital, when he announced he had
discovered a principle through which he could send
messages through the air, without the aid of wires,
or other direct physical means of communication. The
dreamers of today fare better.
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 OPPORTUNITY
which the dreamers of the past never knew.
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
Tennessee, and witness what a dreamer President has
done in the way of harnessing, and using the great
water power of America. A score of years ago, such a
dream would have seemed like madness.
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.
O. Henry discovered the genius which slept within his
brain, after he had met with great misfortune, and
was confined in a prison cell, in Columbus, Ohio.
Being FORCED, through misfortune, to become
acquainted with his ‘other self,’ and to use his
IMAGINATION, he discovered himself to be a great
author instead of a miserable criminal and outcast.
Strange and varied are the ways of life, and stranger
still are the ways of Infinite Intelligence, through
which men are sometimes forced to undergo all sorts
of punishment before discovering their own brains,
and their own capacity to create useful ideas through
imagination.
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, Milton was blind, but their names
will last as long as time endures, because they
dreamed and translated their dreams into organized
thought.
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. Openmindedness
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 had 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 Tipperary.’ On one occasion, he played
that piece over and over, for almost two hours,
standing in front of the victrola, with his teeth
clamped on the edge of the case. The significance of
this self-formed habit of his did not become clear to
us until years afterward, for we had never heard of
the principle of ‘bone conduction’ of sound at that
time.
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 gone 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 NORMAL HEARING BECAME A REALITY!
For the first time in his life he heard practically
as well as any person with normal hearing. ‘God moves
in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.’
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 New York. When be arrived,
he was escorted through the factory, and while
talking with the Chief Engineer, telling him about
his changed world, a hunch, an idea, or an
inspiration— call it what you wish— flashed into his
mind. It was this impulse of thought which converted
his affliction into an asset, destined to pay
dividends in both money and happiness to thousands
for all time to come.
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 America has ever known.
It is reasonable to presume that the message may come
to the attention of many who have been wounded by the
depression, those who have lost their fortunes,
others who have lost their positions, and great
numbers who must reorganize their plans and stage a
comeback. To all these I wish to convey the thought
that all achievement, no matter what may be its
nature, or its purpose, must begin with an intense,
BURNING DESIRE for something definite.
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 autosuggestion,
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 is 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 MIND WHICH MAY BE INDUCED BY
AUTO-SUGGESTION
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 autosuggestion,
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 SELFCONFIDENCE.
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 selfconfidence
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 lifework
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 India. In this
man the world has one of the most astounding examples
known to civilization, of the possibilities of FAITH.
Gandhi wields more potential power than any man
living at this time, and this, despite the fact that
he has none of the orthodox tools of power, such as
money, battle ships, soldiers, and materials of
warfare. Gandhi has no money, he has no home, he does
not own a suit of clothes, but HE DOES HAVE POWER.
How does he come by that power?
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
America.
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 Pittsburgh, had arranged the dinner to
introduce the thirty-eight-year-old steel man to
eastern banking society. But they didn't expect him
to stampede the convention. They warned him, in fact,
that the bosoms within New York's stuffed shirts
would not be responsive to oratory, and that, if he
didn't want to bore the Stilhnans and Harrimans and
Vanderbilts, he had better limit himself to fifteen
or twenty minutes of polite vaporings and let it go
at that. ‘ 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 Chicago bankers. And
still later, when the Government brought suit to
dissolve the Steel Trust, he gave his own version,
from the witness stand, of the remarks that
stimulated Morgan into a frenzy of financial
activity.
‘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 Moore boys, Bill
and Jim, Chicago stock jobbers who had glued together
a match trust and a cracker corporation, had urged it
and failed. Elbert H. Gary, the sanctimonious country
lawyer, wanted to foster it, but he wasn't big enough
to be impressive. Until Schwab's eloquence took J. P.
Morgan to the heights from which he could visualize
the solid results of the most daring financial
undertaking ever conceived, the project was regarded
as a delirious dream of easy-money crackpots.
‘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 American Bridge
companies were two more Morgan concerns, and the
Moore Brothers had forsaken the match and cookie
business to form the 'American' group— Tin Plate,
Steel Hoop, Sheet Steel— and the National Steel
Company.
‘But by the side of Andrew Carnegie's gigantic
vertical trust, a trust owned and operated by fiftythree
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 Skibo Castle he had viewed,
first with amusement and then with resentment, the
attempts of Morgan's smaller companies to cut into
his business. When the attempts became too bold,
Carnegie's temper was translated into anger and
retaliation. He decided to duplicate every mill owned
by his rivals. Hitherto, he hadn't been interested in
wire, pipe, hoops, or sheet. Instead, he was content
to sell such companies the raw steel and let them
work it into whatever shape they wanted. Now, with
Schwab as his chief and able lieutenant, he planned
to drive his enemies to the wall.
‘So it was that in the speech of Charles M. Schwab,
Morgan saw the answer to his problem of combination.
A trust without Carnegie—giant of them all—would be
no trust at all, a plum pudding, as one writer said,
without the plums.
‘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 Pittsburgh to run
the steel business for 'Wee Andra Carnegie,' while
Gary and the rest went back to their stock tickers,
to fiddle around in anticipation of the next move.
‘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
Philadelphia, J. P. Morgan might also 'happen' to be
there. When Schwab arrived, however, Morgan was
inconveniently ill at his New York home, and so, on
the elder man's pressing invitation, Schwab went to
New York and presented himself at the door of the
financier's library.
‘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 copper-plate 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 frostcracking
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
cosy 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
Washington within the next twenty-five years. ' But
that able stock manipulator, Keene, went at his work
of shoving the new stock at the public so vigorously
that all the excess water— estimated by some at
nearly $600,000,000— was absorbed in a twinkling. So
Carnegie had his millions, and the Morgan syndicate
had $62,000,000 for all its 'trouble,' and all the
'boys, ' from Gates to Gary, had their millions.
* * * * * * * * *
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 America, employing thousands
of people, developing new uses for steel, and opening
new markets; thus proving that the $600,000,000 in
profit which the Schwab IDEA produced was earned.
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, auto-suggestion 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 outerguard
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. AUTO-SUGGESTION 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 Coué 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 Chicago newspaper published
certain editorials in which, among other statements,
Henry Ford was called ‘an ignorant pacifist.’ Mr.
Ford objected to the statements, and brought suit
against the paper for libeling him. When the suit was
tried in the Courts, the attorneys for the paper
pleaded justification, and placed Mr. Ford, himself,
on the witness stand, for the purpose of proving to
the jury that he was ignorant. The attorneys asked
Mr. Ford a great variety of questions, all of them
intended to prove, by his own evidence, that, while
he might possess considerable specialized knowledge
pertaining to the manufacture of automobiles, he was,
in the main, ignorant.
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
America. It was not essential that he have this
knowledge in his own mind. Surely no person who has
sufficient inclination and intelligence to read a
book of this nature can possibly miss the
significance of this illustration.
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 Columbia
University.
‘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 has 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 U. S. mails go, on all subjects that can
be taught by the extension method. One advantage of
home study training is the flexibility of the study
programme which permits one to study during spare
time. Another stupendous advantage of home study
training (if the school is carefully chosen), is the
fact that most courses offered by home study schools
carry with them generous privileges of consultation
which can be of priceless value to those needing
specialized knowledge. No matter where you live, you
can share the benefits.
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 America,
and the free public libraries, do not impress people
because they are free. This is the major reason why
so many people find it necessary to acquire
additional training after they quit school and go to
work. It is also one of the major reasons why
EMPLOYERS GIVE GREATER CONSIDERATION TO EMPLOYEES WHO
TAKE HOME STUDY COURSES. They have learned, from
experience, that any person who has the ambition to
give up a part of his spare time to studying at home
has in him those qualities which make for leadership.
This recognition is not a charitable gesture, it is
sound business judgment upon the part of the
employers.
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 OPPORTUNITY.
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 Dallas, Texas; in
fact he is turning away clients.
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 OPPORTUNITY, so they remain at
the bottom. It should be remembered, also, that the
outlook from the bottom is not so very bright or
encouraging. It has a tendency to kill off ambition.
We call it ‘getting into a rut,’ which means that we
accept our fate because we form the HABIT of daily
routine, a habit that finally becomes so strong we
cease to try to throw it off. And that is another
reason why it pays to start one or two steps above
the bottom. By so doing one forms the HABIT of
looking around, of observing how others get ahead, of
seeing OPPORTUNITY, and of embracing it without
hesitation.
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 Halpin. 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 Florida for three
months, leaving him to sink or swim in his new job.
He did not sink! Knute Rockne's spirit of ‘All the
world loves a winner, and has no time for a loser
inspired him to put so much into his job that he was
recently elected Vice-President of the company, and
General Manager of the Acousticon and Silent Radio
Division, a job which most men would be proud to earn
through ten years of loyal effort. Halpin turned the
trick in little more than six months.
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 America ever knew, planted in his mind the same
brand of DESIRE to excel which made the Notre Dame
football team world famous. Truly, there is something
to the idea that hero-worship is helpful, provided
one worships a WINNER. Halpin tells me that Rockne
was one of the world's greatest leaders of men in all
history.
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 OPPORTUNITY lurking in this suggestion
will find valuable aid in the chapter on Organized
Planning. Incidentally, an efficient merchandiser of
personal services would find a growing demand for his
services wherever there are men and women who seek
better markets for their services. By applying the
Master Mind principle, a few people with suitable
talent, could form an alliance, and have a paying
business very quickly. One would need to be a fair
writer, with a flair for advertising and selling, one
handy at typing and hand lettering, and one should be
a first class business getter who would let the world
know about the service. If one person possessed all
these abilities, he might carry on the business
alone, until it outgrew him.
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 everincreasing
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 New York, and lunch in San Francisco.
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 your
study of these principles until you have read the
book at least THREE times, for 95 96 then, you will
not want to stop.
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's 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 sound 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 South Chicago.
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
years.
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