Chapter 3 Think And Grow Rich

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 autosuggestion.
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 intangib le thought impulse of DESIRE
into its physical counterpart, money. By following the instructions
laid down in the chapters on auto-suggestion, and the
subconscious mind, as summarized in the chapter on auto- suggestion, you
may CONVINCE the subconscious mind that you believe you will receive
that for which you ask, and it will act upon that belief, which your
subconscious mind passes back to you in the form of “FAITH,” followed by
definite plans for procuring that which you desire.
The method by which one develops FAITH, where it does not already exist, is
extremely difficult to describe, almost as difficult, in fact, as it would be to
describe the color of red to a blind man who has never seen color, and has
nothing with which to compare what you describe to him. Faith is a state of
mind which you may develop at will, after you have mastered the thirteen
principles, because it is a state of mind which develops voluntarily, through
application and use of these principles.
Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind i5 the only
known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.
Perhaps the meaning may be made clearer through the following explanation
as to the way men sometimes become criminals. Stated in the words of a
famous criminologist, “When men first come into contact with crime, they
abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become
accustomed to it, and endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough,
they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it.”
This is the equivalent of saying that any impulse of thought which is
repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind is, finally, accepted and acted
upon by the subconscious mind, which proceeds to translate that impulse into
its physical equiva lent, 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 tha t 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 selfconfidence.
This handicap can be surmounted, and timidity translated into
courage, through the aid of the principle of autosuggestion. The application of
this principle may be made through a simple arrangement of positive thought
impulses stated in writing, memorized, and repeated, until they become a part
of the working equipment of the subconscious faculty of your mind.
SELF-CONFIDENCE FORMULA
First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite
Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action
toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.
Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually
reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform
themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for
thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to
become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.
Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any desire that I
persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some
practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I will devote ten
minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of 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
self-confidence for its attainment. Fifth. I fully realize that no wealth or
position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will
engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will
succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of
other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to
serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism,
by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude
toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me,
because I will believe in them, and in myself.
I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud
once a day, with full FAITH that it will gradually influence my THOUGHTS
and ACTIONS so that I will become a self- reliant, and successful person.
Back of this formula is a law of Nature which no man has yet been able to
explain. It has baffled the scientists of all ages. The psychologists have named
this law “auto-suggestion,” and let it go at that.
The name by which one calls this law is of little importance. The important
fact about it is—it WORKS for the glory and success of mankind, IF it is used
constructively. On the other hand, if used destructively, it will destroy just as
readily. In this statement may be found a very significant truth, namely; that
those who go down in defeat, and end their lives in poverty, misery, and
distress, do so because of negative application of the principle of autosuggestion.
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 autosuggestion
will lift you up or pull you down, according to the way you set
your sails of THOUGHT. The law of auto-suggestion, through which any
person may rise to altitudes of achievement which stagger the imagination, is
well described in the following verse:
“If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.
“If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will—
It’s all in the state of mind. “If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
“Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”
Observe the words which have been emphasized, and you will catch the deep
meaning which the poet had in mind. Somewhere in your make-up (perhaps
in the cells of your brain) there lies sleeping, the seed of achievement which,
if aroused and put into action, would carry you to heights, such as you may
never have hoped to attain.
Just as a master musician may cause the most beautiful strains of music to
pour forth from the strings of a violin, so may you arouse the genius which
lies asleep in your brain, and cause it to drive you upward to whatever goal
you may wish to achieve. Abraham Lincoln was a failure at everything he
tried, until he was well past the age of forty. He was a Mr. Nobody from
Nowhere, until a great experience came into his life, aroused the sleeping
genius within his heart and brain, and gave the world one of its really great
men. That “experience” was mixed with the emotions of sorrow and LOVE. It
came to him through Anne Rutledge, the only woman whom he ever truly
loved.
It is a known fact that the emotion of LOVE is closely akin to the state of
mind known as FAITH, and this for the reason that Love comes very near to
translating one’s thought impulses into their spiritual equivalent. During his
work of research, the author discovered, from the analysis of the life-work and
achievements of hundreds of men of outstanding accomplishment, that there
was the influence of a woman’s love back of nearly EVERY ONE OF THEM.
The emotion of love, in the human heart and brain, creates a favorable field of
magnetic attraction, which causes an influx of the higher and finer vibrations
which are afloat in the ether.
If you wish evidence of the power of FAITH, study the
achievements of men and women who have employed it. At the head of the
list comes the Nazarene. Christianity is the greatest single force which
influences the minds of men. The basis of Christianity is FAITH, no matter
how many people may have perverted, or misinterpreted the meaning of this
great force, and no matter how many dogmas and creeds have been created in
its name, which do not reflect its tenets.
The sum and substance of the teachings and the achievements of Christ, which
may have been interpreted as “miracles,” were nothing more nor less than
FAITH. If there are any such phenomena as “miracles” they are produced
only through the state of mind known as FAITH! Some teachers of religion,
and many who call themselves Christians, neither understand nor practice
FAITH.
Let us consider the power of FAITH, as it is now being demonstrated, by a
man who is well known to all of civilization, Mahatma Gandhi, of 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 yo u 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 fullfledged, 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 fifty-three
partners, those other combinations were picayune. They might combine to
their heart’s content but the whole lot of them couldn’t make a dent in the
Carnegie organization, and Morgan knew it.
“The eccentric old Scot knew it, too. From the magnificent heights of 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 copperplate figures, representing to his mind the physical worth and
the potential earning capacity of every steel company he regarded as an
essential star in the new metal firmament.
“Four men pondered over these figures all night. The chief, of course, was
Morgan, steadfast in his belief in the Divine Right of Money. With him was
his aristocratic partner, Robert Bacon, a scholar and a gentleman. The third
was John W. Gates whom Morgan scorned as a gambler and used as a tool.
The fourth was Schwab, who knew more about the processes of making and
selling steel than any whole group of men then living. Throughout that
conference, the Pittsburgher’s figures were never questioned. If he said a
company was worth so much, then it was worth that much and no more. He
was insistent, too, upon including in the combination only those concerns he
nominated. He had conceived a corporation in which there would be no
duplication, not even to satisfy the greed of friends who wanted to unload
their companies upon the broad Morgan shoulders. Thus he left out, by
design, a number of the larger concerns upon which the Walruses and
Carpenters of Wall Street had cast hungry eyes. “When dawn came, Morgan
rose and straightened his back.
Only one question remained.
“‘Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell?’ he asked.
“‘I can try,’ said Schwab.
“‘If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter,’ said Morgan.
“So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he demand?
(Schwab thought about $320,000,000). What would he take payment in?
Common or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash? Nobody could raise a third of a
billion dollars in cash.
“There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath
of the St. Andrews links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in
sweaters against the cold, and Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to
keep his spirits up. But no word of business was mentioned until
the pair sat down in the cozy warmth of the Carnegie cottage hard
by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that had hypnotized eighty
millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out the glittering promises
of retirement in comfort, of untold millions to satisfy the old man’s social
caprices. Carnegie capitulated, wrote a figure on a slip of paper, handed it to
Schwab and said, ‘all right, that’s what we’ll sell for.’
“The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached by taking the
$320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure, and adding to it
$80,000,000 to represent the increased capital value over the previous two
years.
“Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said ruefully to
Morgan, ‘I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.’ “‘If you had asked
for it, you’d have gotten it,’ Morgan told him cheerfully.
* * * * * * *
“There was an uproar, of course. A British correspondent cabled that the
foreign steel world was ‘appalled’ by the gigantic combination. President
Hadley, of Yale, declared that unless trusts were regulated the country might
expect ‘an emperor in 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. T hat
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 Think and Grow Rich

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 selfadministered
stimuli which reach one’s mind through the five senses. Stated in
another way, autosuggestion is self-suggestion. It is the agency of
communication between that part of the mind where conscious thought takes
place, and that which serves as the seat of action for the subconscious mind.
Through the dominating thoughts which one permits to remain in the
conscious mind, (whether these thoughts be negative or positive, is
immaterial), the principle of auto-suggestion voluntarily reaches the
subconscious mind and influences it with these thoughts.
NO THOUGHT, whether it be negative or positive, CAN ENTER THE
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND WITHOUT THE AID OF THE PRINCIPLE OF
AUTO-SUGGESTION, with the exception of thoughts picked up from the
ether. Stated differently, all sense impressions which are perceived through
the five senses, are stopped by the CONSCIOUS thinking mind, and may be
either passed on to the subconscious mind, or rejected, at will. The conscious
faculty serves, therefore, as an outer-guard to the approach of the
subconscious.
Nature has so built man that he has ABSOLUTE CONTROL over the material
which reaches his subconscious mind, through his five senses, although this is
not meant to be construed as a statement that man always EXERCISES this
control. In the great majority of instances, he does NOT exercise it, which
explains why so many people go through life in poverty.
Recall what has been said about the subconscious mind
resembling a fertile garden spot, in which weeds will grow in
abundance, if the seeds of more desirable crops are not sown therein.
AUTOSUGGESTION is the agency of control through which an individual
may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature,
or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into
this rich garden of the mind.
You were instructed, in the last of the six steps described in the chapter on
Desire, to read ALOUD twice daily the WRITTEN statement of your DESIRE
FOR MONEY, and to SEE AND FEEL yourself ALREADY in possession of
the money! By following these instructions, you communicate the object of
your DESIRE directly to your SUBCONSCIOUS mind in a spirit of absolute
FAITH. Through repetition of this procedure, you voluntarily create thought
habits which are favorable to your efforts to transmute desire into its monetary
equivalent.
Go back to these six steps described in chapter two, and read them again, very
carefully, before you proceed further. Then (when you come to it), read very
carefully the four instructions for the organization of your “Master Mind”
group, described in the chapter on Organized Planning. By comparing these
two sets of instructions with that which has been stated on auto-suggestion,
you, of course, will see that the instructions involve the application of the
principle of auto-suggestion.
Remember, therefore, when reading aloud the statement of your desire
(through which you are endeavoring to develop a “money consciousness”),
that the mere reading of the words is of NO CONSEQUENCE—UNLESS
you mix emotion, or feeling with your words. If you repeat a million times the
famous Emil 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 pla n 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 yo ur 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 Think and Grow Rich

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 truthwas
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 ha s done an adequate job with
his studies has a most decided edge over the strictly academic student. Some
of these, because of their all-around qualifications, have received several
offers of positions, a few of them as many as six.
“In departing from the conception that the ‘straight A’ student was invariably
the one to get the choice of the better jobs, Mr. Moore said that most
companies look not only to academic records but to activity records and
personalities of the students. “One of the largest indus trial 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 extens ion 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 SELFDISCIPLINE 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 lo 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 adva ntages 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 Hal-pin. When the
interview was over, Halpin was the new Sales Manager, in charge of the
Acousticon Division. Then, to test young Halpin’s metal, Mr. And rews 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 heroworship 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 ever- increasing opportunity for the person capable of
helping men and women to sell their personal services advantageously.
Capability means IMAGINATION, the one quality needed to combine
specialized knowledge with IDEAS, in the form of ORGANIZED PLANS
designed to yield riches.
If you have IMAGINATION this chapter may present you with an idea
sufficient to serve as the beginning of the riches you desire. Remember, the
IDEA is the main thing. Specialized knowledge may be found just around the
corner—any corner!

Chapter 6 Think and Grow Rich

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 “hunc hes” 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 “t une 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 whic h you
understand, as you read this philosophy for the first time, then,
when you reread and study it, you will discover that something has
happened to clarify it, and give you a broader understanding of the
whole. Above all, DO NOT STOP, nor hesitate in yo ur study of these
principles until you have read the book at least THREE times, for 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 instruc tions an ingredient of which the doctor knew nothing. Read
this story carefully, give your imagination a test! See if you can discover what
it was that the young man added to the secret message, which caused the
kettle to overflow with gold. Remember, as you read, that this is not a story
from Arabian Nights. Here you have a story of facts, stranger than fiction,
facts which began in the form of an IDEA.
Let us take a look at the vast fortunes of gold this idea has produced. It has
paid, and still pays huge fortunes to men and women all over the world, who
distribute the contents of the kettle to millions of people.
The Old Kettle is now one of the world’s largest consumers of sugar, thus
providing jobs of a permanent nature to thousands of men and women
engaged in growing sugar cane, and in refining and marketing sugar.
The Old Kettle consumes, annually, millions of glass bottles, providing jobs to
huge numbers of glass workers. The Old Kettle gives employment to an army
of clerks, stenographers, copy writers, and advertising experts throughout the
nation. It has brought fame and fortune to scores of artists who have created
magnificent pictures describing the product. The Old Kettle has converted a
small Southern city into the business capital of the South, where it now
benefits, directly, or indirectly, every business and practically every resident
of the city. The influence of this idea now benefits every civilized country in
the world, pouring out a continuous stream of gold to all who touch it.
Gold from the kettle built and maintains one of the most prominent colleges of
the South, where thousands of young people receive the training essential for
success.
The Old Kettle has done other marvelous things. All through the world
depression, when factories, banks and business houses were folding up and
quitting by the thousands, the owner of this Enchanted Kettle went marching
on, giving continuous employment to an army of men and women all over the
world, and paying out extra portions of gold to those who, long ago, had faith
in the idea.
If the product of that old brass kettle could talk, it would tell thrilling tales of
romance in every language. Romances of love, romances of business,
romances of professional men and women who are daily being stimulated by
it.
The author is sure of at least one such romance, for he was a part of it, and it
all began not far from the very spot on which the drug clerk purchased the old
kettle. It was here that the author met his wife, and it was she who first told
him of the Enchanted Kettle. It was the product of that Kettle they were
drinking when he asked her to accept him “for better or worse.”
Now that you know the content of the Enchanted Kettle is a world famous
drink, it is fitting that the author confess that the home city of the drink
supplied him with a wife, also that the drink itself provides him with
stimulation of thought without intoxication, and thereby it serves to give the
refreshment of mind which an author must have to do his best work.
Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you may be
engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words “Coca-
Cola,” that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single IDEA,
and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk—Asa Candler—mixed with
the secret formula was. . . IMAGINATION!
Stop and think of that, for a moment.
Remember, also, that the thirteen steps to riches, described in this book, were
the media through which the influence of Coca-Cola has been extended to
every city, town, village, and cross-roads of the world, and that ANY IDEA
you may create, as 8OUfld and meritorious as Coca-Cola, has the possibility
of duplicating the stupendous record of this world-wide thirst-killer. Truly,
thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the world, itself.
WHAT I WOULD DO IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS This story proves
the truth of that old saying, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” It was told to
me by that beloved educator and clergyman, the late Frank W. Gunsaulus,
who began his preaching career in the stockyards region of 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 y ears.
Observe this important fact... HE GOT THE MONEY WITHIN THIRTY-SIX
HOURS AFTER HE REACHED A DEFINITE DECISION IN HIS OWN
MIND TO GET IT, AND DECIDED UPON A DEFINITE PLAN FOR
GETTING IT!
There was nothing new or unique about young Gunsaulus’ vague thinking
about a million dollars, and weakly hoping for it. Others before him, and
many since his time, have had similar thoughts. But there was something very
unique and different about the decision he reached on that memorable
Saturday, when he put vagueness into the background, and definitely said, “I
WILL get that money within a week!”
God seems to throw Himself on the side of the man who knows exactly what
he wants, if he is determined to get JUST THAT! Moreover, the principle
through which Dr. Gunsaulus got his million dollars is still alive! It is
available to you! This universal law is as workable today as it was when the
young preacher made use of it so successfully. This book describes, step by
step, the thirteen elements of this great law, and suggests how they may be put
to use.
Observe that Asa Candler and Dr. Frank Gunsaulus had one characteristic in
common. Both knew the astounding truth that IDEAS CAN BE
TRANSMUTED INTO CASH THROUGH THE POWER OF DEFINITE
PURPOSE, PLUS DEFINITE PLANS. If you are one of those who believe
that hard work and honesty, alone, will bring riches, perish the thought! It is
not true! Riches, when they come in huge quantities, are never the result of
HARD work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite
demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance
or luck. Generally speaking, an idea is an impulse of thought that impels
action, by an appeal to the imagination. All master salesmen know that ideas
can be sold where merchandise cannot. Ordinary salesmen do not know thisthat
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