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The Laws of Success

 

The most successful men and women on earth have had to correct certain weak spots in their personalities before thy began to succeed.  The most outstanding of these weaknesses which stand between men and women and success are : INTOLERANCE, CUPIDITY, GREED, JEALOUSY, SUSPICION, REVENGE, EGOTISM, CONCEIT, THE TENDENCY TO REAP WHERE THEY HAVE NOT SOWN, and the HABIT OF SPENDING MORE THAN THEY EARN.

You can not enjoy outstanding success in life without power, and you can never enjoy power without sufficient personality to influence other people to co-operate with you in a spirit of harmony. 

Chapters are:

  1. A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM
  2. SELF-CONFIDENCE
  3. HABIT OF SAVING
  4. INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP
  5. IMAGINATION
  6. ENTHUSIASM
  7. SELF-CONTROL
  8. THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR.
  9. PLEASING PERSONALITY
  10. ACCURATE THINKING
  11. CONCENTRATION
  12. CO-OPERATION
  13. PROFITING BY FAILURE
  14. TOLERANCE
  15. PRACTICING THE GOLDEN RULE

Success is the development of the power with which to get whatever one wants in life without interfering with the rights of others.

1.DEFINITE PURPOSE/CHIEF AIM

Your definite chief aim in life should be selected with deliberate care, and after it has been selected it should be written out and placed where you will see it at least once a day, the psychological effect of which is to impress this purpose upon your subconscious mind so strongly that it accepts that purpose as a pattern or blueprint that will eventually dominate your activities in life and lead you, step by step, toward the attainment of the object back of that purpose.

Be sure that your definite purpose is constructive; that its attainment will bring hardship and misery to no one; that it will bring you peace and prosperity, then apply, to the limit of your understanding, the principle of self-suggestion for the speedy attainment of this purpose.

The sub-conscious mind may be likened to a magnet, and when it has been vitalized and thoroughly saturated with any definite purpose it has a decided tendency to attract all that is necessary for the fulfillment of that purpose.

There is much evidence to justify the belief that nothing within reason is beyond the possibility of attainment by the man whose definite chief aim has been well developed.

In your struggle for success you should keep constantly in mind the necessity of knowing what it is that you want – of knowing precisely what is your definite purpose – and the value of the principle of organized effort in the attainment of that which constitutes your definite purpose.

The object of this chapter is not in inform you as to what your life-work should be, for indeed this could be done with accuracy only after you had been completely analyzed, but it is intended as a means of impressing upon your mind a clear conception of the value of a definite purpose of some nature, and of the value of understanding the principle of organized effort as a means of attaining the necessary power with which to materialize your definite purpose.  Careful observation of the business philosophy of more than one hundred men and women who have attained outstanding success in their respective callings, disclosed the fact that each was a person of prompt and definite decision.  The habit of working with a definite chief aim will breed in you the habit of prompt decision, and this habit will come to your aid in all that you do.  Moreover, the habit of working with a definite chief aim will help you to concentrate all your attention on any given task until you have mastered it.  Concentration of effort and the habit of working with a definite chief aim are two of the essential factors in success which are always found together.  One leads to the other.  The best known successful business men were all men of prompt decision who worked always with the one main, outstanding purpose as their chief aim.

First the burning desire, then the crystallization of that desire into a definite purpose, then sufficient appropriate action to achieve that purpose.  Remember that these three steps are always necessary to insure success.

Whatever you want you may get if you want it with sufficient intensity, and keep on wanting it, providing the object wanted is one within reason, and you actually believe you will get it.  Every noteworthy achievement met with some sort of temporary setback before success came.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated.  She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price, which is continuous, unyielding, persistent effort.

2.SELF-CONFIDENCE

Skepticism is the deadly enemy of progress and self-development.  Science has found a deadly weapon with which to put it to fight, and this chapter on self-confidence has brought you this weapon for use in your battle with the world-old enemy of progress, fear.

The six basic fears are:

·         The fear of Poverty.

·         The fear of Old Age.

·         The fear of Criticism.

·         The fear of Loss of Love of Someone

·         The fear of Ill-Health

·         The fear of Death.

Any inter-personal human relationship is on account of physical level, mental level, interactive level, emotional and sentimental level and spiritual level; mental includes knowledge, intelligence, and smartness, etc and interactive includes attitude, approach, behaviour, etc.

Every man’s living is for materialistic satisfaction, sentimental satisfaction, or egoistic satisfaction, or combination of the above, or for spiritual satisfaction.

Nothing brings man so much suffering and humiliation as does poverty.  No wonder man fears poverty.

Fear of old age is on account of fear of dependency and fear of poverty.

Fear of criticism is on account of one’s personal moral values not accepting his act.

The fear of loss of love of someone grew out of man’s nature to steal his fellow man’s mate; or at least to take liberties with her, unknown to her rightful “lord” and master. This fear plays more havoc with the human mind than do any of the other six basic fears, often leading to the more violent forms of permanent insanity.

The fear of ill-health has its origin, to considerable extent also, in the same sources from which the fears of poverty and old age are derived.

The major source of fear of death cometh from that no man knows nor has any man ever known where we go at death.

Lack of knowledge of the advantages accruing from struggle has prompted many parents to say, “I had to work hard when I was young, but I shall see to it that my children have an easy time!” Poor foolish creatures.  An “easy” time usually turns out to be a greater handicap than the average young man or woman can survive.

Not only does lack of the necessity for struggle lead to weakness of ambition and will-power, but what is more dangerous still, it sets up in a person’s mind a state of lethargy that leads to the loss of Self-Confidence.

A great leader is he who, with maturity, kindness and empathy, leads by suggestions and guidance.

The human mind may be likened to an electric battery.  It may be positive or it may be negative.  Self-confidence is the quality with which the mind is re-charged and made positive.  Let us apply this line of reasoning to salesmanship and see what part Self-confidence plays in this great filed of endeavor.  One of the greatest salesmen a country, has ever seen was once a clerk in a newspaper office.  It will be worth your while to analyze the method through which he gained his title as “the world’s leading salesman”. He was a timid young man with a more or less retiring sort of nature.  He was one of those who believe it best to slip in by the back door and take a seat at the rear of the stage of life.  One evening he heard a lecture on the subject of this lesson; self-confidence, and that lecture so impressed him that he left the lecture hall with a firm determination to pull himself out of the rut into which he had drifted. He went to the Business Manager of the paper and asked for a position as solicitor of advertising and was put to work on a commission basis.  Everyone in the office expected to see him fail; as this sort of salesmanship calls for the most positive type of sales ability.  He went to his room and made out a list of a certain type of merchants on whom he intended to call.  One would think that he would naturally have made up his list of the names of those whom he believed he could sell with the least effort, but he did nothing of the sort.  He placed on his list only the names of the merchants on whom other advertising solicitors had called without making a sale.  His list consisted of only twelve names.  Before he made a single attempt, he went out to the city park, took out his list of twelve names read it over a hundred times, saying to himself as he did so, “You will purchase advertising space from me before the end of the month.”

Then he began to make his calls.  The first day he closed sales with three of the twelve ‘impossibilities.”  During the remainder of the week he made sales to two others.  By the end of the month he had opened advertising accounts with all but one of the merchants that he had on the list.  For the ensuing month he made no sales, for the reason that he made no calls except on this one obstinate merchant.  Every morning when the store opened he was on hand to interview this merchant and every morning the merchant said “No”.  the merchant knew he was not going to buy advertising space, but this young man didn’t know it.  When the merchant said No the young man did not hear it, but kept right on coming.  On the last day of the month, after having told this persistent young man No for thrity consecutive times, the merchant said: “Look here, young man, you have wasted a whole month trying to sell me; now, what I would like to know is this – why have you wasted your time?”  “Wasted my time nothing,” he retorted, “I have been going to school and you have been my teacher.  Now I know all the arguments that a merchant can bring up for not buying, and besides that I have been drilling myself in self-confidence.”  Then merchant said, “I will make a little confession of my own.  I, too, have been going to school, and you have been my teacher.  You have taught me a lesson in persistence that is worth money to me, and to show you my appreciation I am going to pay my tuition fee by giving you an order for advertising space.”  And that was the way in which the Philadelphia North American’s best advertising account was brought in.  Likewise, it marked the beginning of a reputation that has made that same young man a millionaire.

Make a copy of the following creed and keep it on your table and daily read it before starting your work, it will not only improve your efficiency but also will bring you more prosperity in your career.

“I believe in myself.  I believe in those who work with me.  I believe in my employer.  I believe in my friends.  I believe in my family.  I believe that god will lend me everything I need with which to succeed if I do my best to earn it through faithful and honest service.  I believe in prayer and I will never close my eyes in sleep without praying for divine guidance to the end that I will be patient with other people and tolerant with those who do not believe as I do.  I believe that success is the result of intelligent effort and does not depend upon luck or sharp practices or double-crossing friends, fellow men or my employer.  I believe I will get out of life exactly what I put into it, therefore I will be careful to conduct myself toward others as I would want them to act toward me.  I will not slander those whom I do not like.  I will not slight my work no matter what I may see others doing.  I will render the best service of which I am capable because I have pledged myself to succeed in life and I know that success is always the result of conscientious and efficient effort.  Finally, I will forgive those who offend me because I realize that I shall some day offend others and I will need their forgiveness.”

Analyze this creed and you will notice how freely the personal pronoun is used.  It starts off with the affirmation of self-confidence which is perfectly proper.  No man could make this creed his own without developing the positive attitude that would attract to him people who would aid him in his struggle for success.

Habit is created by repeatedly directing one or more of the five senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling, in a given direction.  Voluntarily, and by force if necessary, direct your efforts and your thoughts along a desired line until you have formed the habit that will lay hold of you and continue, voluntarily, to direct your efforts along the same line.

Any statement that you repeatedly make to yourself, or any desire that you deeply plant in your mind through repeated statement, will eventually seek expression through your physical, outward bodily efforts.

It is strange but true, that the most important turning-points of life often come at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways.

You should be cautioned, however, to learn the difference between self-confidence, which is based upon sound knowledge of what you know and what you can do and egotism, which is only based upon what you wish you knew or could do.  Learn the difference between these two terms or you will make yourself bore some ridiculous and annoying to people of culture and understanding.  Self-confidence is something which should never be proclaimed or announced except through intelligent performance of constructive deeds.

If you have self-confidence those around you will discover this fact.  Let them make the discovery.  They will feel proud of their alertness in having made the discovery, and you will be free from the suspicion of egotism.  Opportunity never stalks the person with a highly developed state of egotism, but brickbats and ugly remarks do.  Opportunity forms affinities much more easily and quickly with self-confidence than it does with egotism.  Self-praise is never a proper measure of self-reliance.  Bear this in mind and let your self-confidence speak only through the tongue of constructive service rendered without fuss or flurry.

Self-confidence is the product of knowledge.  Know yourself, know how much you know (and how little), why you know it, and how you are going to use it.  “Four-flusher’ come to grief, therefore, do not pretend to know more than you actually do know.  There’s no use of pretense, because any educated person will measure you quite accurately after hearing you speak for three minutes.  What you really are will speak so loudly that what you ‘claim’ you are will not be heard.

Believe in yourself, but do not tell the world what you can do – SHOW IT!

The supreme mystery of the universe is life!  We come here without our consent, from whence we know not!  We go away without our consent, whither, we know not!  The greatest of all miracles is faith.

One thing is certain that you possess a great potential and can easily become great, if you begin to learn more about yourself and with determination and self-confidence acquire the abilities which directly attract your attention. What is most essential is, never feel shy in learning and in the long run you are bound to be happy with your achievements. Confidence comes by doing the work without bothering about failures but with determination to achieve, which in turn is called experience; so experience is nothing but hard work and those who have initiative can actually do and repeatedly perform such work through imagination and even create the likely hurdles and solve them.

In the 40th Chapter of Yajur Veda as also in Ishopanishad, we have been advised:Aspire. Doing your duty for the sake of duty and most efficiently that may have the stamp of your individuality on it should be your aim in life. In Sanskrit, there is a quotation: One, who does not recognize his own self, knows nothing. Hence please concentrate on your own abilities and never try to belittle them when the time to put them into action presents in your life. This is also self-assessment and certainly you have immense powers, but you do not know these.

In Rig-Veda it is stated, a man who does not work but remains idle, is an enemy of the society. Ability comes by doing the work and it is much better to start from the lowest rung of the ladder and ultimately reach the top, rather than sit at the top and then feel frustration! 

 

3.HABIT OF SAVING 

The saving of money is solely a matter of habit.  It is literally true that man, through the Law of Habit, shapes his own personality.  Through repetition, any act indulged in a few times becomes a habit, and the mind appears to be nothing more than a mass of motivating forces growing out of our daily habits.  When once fixed in the mind a habit voluntarily impels one to action.  Formation of the habit of saving does not mean that you shall limit your earning capacity; it means just the opposite – that you shall apply this law so that it not only conserves that which you earn, in a systematic manner, but it also places you in the way of greater opportunity and gives you the vision, the self-confidence, the imagination, the enthusiasm, the initiative and leadership actually to increase your earning capacity.

Debt is a merciless master, a fatal enemy of the savings habit.  Poverty , alone, is sufficient to kill off ambition, destroy self-confidence and destroy hope, but add to it the burden of debt and all who are victims of these two cruel task-masters are practically doomed to failure.  No man can do his best work, no man can express himself in terms that command respect, and no man can either create or carry out a definite purpose in life, with heavy debt hanging over his head.  The man who is bound in the slavery of debt is just as helpless as the slave who is bound by ignorance, or by actual chains.

It is a terrible thing even to think of going through life like a prisoner in chains, bound down and owned by somebody else on account of debts.  The accumulation of debts is a habit.  It starts in a small way grows to enormous proportions slowly, step by step, until finally it takes charge of one’s very soul.

Debt for consumption is allowed if EMI (i.e installment) is in excess of necessity and debt for safe investment is a fast increasing savings. 

No sacrifice is too great to avoid the misery of debt!

The habit of saving money requires more force of character than most people have developed, for the reason that saving means self-denial and sacrifice of amusements and pleasures in scores of different ways.  For this very reason one who develops the savings habit acquires, at the same time, many of the other needed habits which lead to success: especially Self-Control, Self-Confidence, Courage, Poise and Freedom from Fear.

Careful analysis of all the men who are known to be successful disclosed the fact that all had failed many a times before arriving at success.

If a man follows the systematic habit of saving a definite proportion of all money he earns or receives in other ways, he is practically sure to place himself in a position of financial independence.  If he saves nothing, he is absolutely sure never to be financially independent, no matter how much his income may be.

It is better to sacrifice during the age of youthfulness, than it is to be compelled to do so during the age maturity, as all who have not developed the habit of saving generally have to do.

To admit that you lack the courage to trim down your expenditures so that you can save money, even if only a small amount, is the equivalent of admitting at the same time a lack of the sort of character which leads to success.

The late J.P.Morgan once said he would rather loan a million dollars to a man of sound character, who had formed the habit of saving money, than he would a thousand dollars to a man without character, who was a spendthrift.  Generally speaking, this is the attitude which the world takes toward all men who save money.

The greatest thing in life is freedom!  There can be no real freedom without a reasonable degree of financial independence.

 

4.INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP

No one could become an efficient leader or take the initiative in any great undertaking without belief in himself.

And what is initiative?  It is that exceedingly rare quality that prompts – nay, impels – a person to do that which ought to be done without being told to do it.  It is doing the right thing without being told..

One of the peculiarities of leadership is the fact that it is never found in those who have not acquired the habit of taking the initiative.  Leadership is something that you must invite yourself into:  it will never thrust itself upon you.  If you will carefully analyse all leaders whom you know you will se that they not only exercised initiative, but they went about their work with a definite purpose in mind.  You will also see that they possessed self-confidence.

Initiative is the pass-key that opens the door to opportunity.

Herein below you find the formula for initiative and leadership, which you copy and place it conspicuously in your room where you will see it as you retire at night and as you arise in the morning:-

Having chosen a definite chief aim as my life-work I now understand it to be my duty to transform this purpose into reality.  Therefore, I will form the habit of taking some definite action each day that will carry me one step nearer the attainment of my definite chief aim.  I know that procrastination is a deadly enemy of all who would become leaders in any undertaking, and I will eliminate this habit from my make-up by:

(a)    Doing some one definite thing each day, that ought to be done, without anyone telling me to do it.

(b)    Looking around until I find at least one thing that I can do each day, that I have not been in the habit of doing, and that will be of value to others, without expectation of pay.

(c)    Telling at least one other person, each day, of the value of practicing this habit of doing something that ought to be done without being told to do it.

I can see that the muscles of the body become strong in proportion to the extent to which they are used, therefore I understand that the habit of initiative also becomes fixed in proportion to the extent that it is practiced.  I realize that the place to begin developing the habit of initiative is in the small, commonplace things connected with my daily work, therefore I will go at my work each day as if I were doing it solely for the purpose of developing this necessary habit of initiative.  I understand that by practicing this habit of taking the initiative in connection with my daily work I will be not only developing that habit, but I will also be attracting the attention of those who will place greater value on my services as a result of this practice.

The only way to get happiness is by giving it away, to others.  The same applies to the development of initiative.  You can best develop this essential quality in yourself by making it your business to interest those around you in doing the same.

There are two brands of leadership, and one of them is as deadly and destructive as the other is helpful and constructive.  The deadly brand, which leads not to success, but to absolute failure, is the brand adopted by pseudo-leaders who force their leadership on unwilling followers.

You have already learned that no man can accomplish enduring results of a far-reaching nature without the aid and co-operation of others.  You have already learned that when two or more persons ally themselves in any undertaking, in a spirit of harmony and understanding, each person in the alliance thereby multiples his own powers of achievement.

So important is this principle of co-operation that no leader can become powerful or last long who does not understand and apply it in his leadership.

Leadership is a composite of a number of qualities. Among the most important I would list Self-Confidence, Moral Ascendency, Self-Sacrifice, Paternalism, Fairness, Initiative, Decision, Dignity, Courage.  Self-Confidence results, first, from exact knowledge; second the ability to impart that knowledge.  You may bluff all of your men some of the time, but you can’t do it all the time.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge.

Be an example to your men.  An officer can be a power for good or a power for evil.  Don’t preach to them – that will be worse than useless.  Live the kind of life you would have them lead, and you will be surprised to see the number that will imitate you.  A loud-mouthed, profane captain who is careless of his personal appearance will have a loud-mouthed, profane, dirty company.  Your company will be the reflection of yourself!  If you have a rotten company it will be because you are a rotten captain.  Self-Sacrifice is essential to leadership.

Moral courage further demands that you assume the responsibility for your own acts.  Courage, however, is that firmness of spirit, that moral backbone which, while fully appreciating the danger involved, nevertheless goes on with the undertaking.  Bravery is physical; courage is mental and moral.  You may be cold all over; your hands may tremble; your legs may quake; your knees are ready to give way – that is fear.  If, nevertheless, you go forward; if, in spite of this physical defection you continue to lead your men against the enemy, you have courage.  The physical manifestations of fear will pass away.

A definite aim will never be anything else but a mere wish unless you become a person of initiative and aggressively and persistently pursue that aim until it has been fulfilled.

The materialization will come through your own determination, backed by your own carefully laid plans and your own initiative in putting those plans into action, or it will not come at all.  One of the major requisites for leadership is the power of quick and firm decision.

Organized effort is effort which is directed according to a plan that was conceived with the aid of imagination, guided by a definite chief aim, and given momentum with initiative and self-confidence.

The bitterest intolerance grows out of religious, racial and economic prejudices and differences of opinion.

Faith, wealth and lust are reasons for conflict.

Intolerance binds man’s legs with the shackles of ignorance and covers his eyes with the scales of fear and superstition.  Intolerance closes the book of knowledge and writes on the cover, “open not this book again.  The last word has been herein written.”  It is not your duty to be tolerant; it is your privilege.

Leaders of the future must possess these qualities:-

·         Complete mastery over the six basic fears

·         Willingness to subordinate personal interest for the good of their followers.  Complete mastery over avarice and greed.

·         Singleness of purpose, represented by a definite programme of leadership which harmonises with the needs of the times.

·         Understanding and application of the ‘Master Mind’ principle, through which power may be achieved through co-ordination of effort in a spirit of harmony.

·         Self-Confidence in its highest form.

·         Ability to reach decisions quickly and to stand by them firmly.

·         Imagination wufficient to nable them to anticipate the needs of the times and to create plans for supplying those needs.

·         Initiative in its keenest form.

·         Enthusiasm and the ability to transmit it to their followers.

·         Sel-Control in its highest form.

·         A willingness to render more service than that for which direct compensation is received.

·         A pleasing, magnetic personality.

·         The ability to think accurately.

·         The ability to co-operate with others in a spirit of harmony.

·         The persistence to concentrate thoughts and efforts upon a given task until it has been completed.

·         The ability and ‘hind-sight’ to profit by mistakes and failures.

·         Tolerance in its highest form

·         Temperance in all of its forms.

·         Intentional honesty of both purpose and deed.

·         Last, but by no means lest, strict adherence to the Golden Rules, as the basis of all relationships with others.

This may appear to be a formidable list of qualities with which the leader of the future must be equipped, but time will prove that those leaders who endure will possess and make use of every one of these qualities.

 

5.IMAGINATION

The modern dictionary defines imagination as: “The picturing power of the mind; the information of mental images, pictures, or mental representation of objects or ideas, particularly of objects of sense perception and of mathematical reasoning!”

You will never have definite purpose in life, you will never have self-confidence, and you will never have initiative and leadership, unless you first created these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.

The greatest and most profitable thing you can do with your imagination is the act of rearranging old ideas in new combinations.  If you properly use your imagination, it will help you convert your failures and mistakes into assets of priceless value; it will lead you to discovery of a truth known only to those who use their imagination; namely, that the greatest reverses and misfortunes of life often open the door to golden opportunities.

Every person should be somewhat of a dreamer.  Every business needs the dreamer.  Every industry and every profession needs him.  But, the dreamer must be, also, a doer; or else he must form an alliance with someone who can and does translate dreams into reality.

Discover how to make the success generating imagination work for you

The secret power of positive thinkers is their faith. And this faith is the power of God working through their imagination. A sparked imagination is a sacred channel through which God performs his great projects.

How can you make your imagination work for you?

1. Pick a goal.

Positive thinkers are people who believe in setting goals for personal achievement. Almost these goals, at first inception, are unrealistic. But the positive thinker intuitively knows that nothing is impossible until he stops setting goals.

Make up your mind that goal setting is absolutely necessary. Goals give meaning to living. Goals are necessary to motivate you. They are essential to really keep you alive. Not having a goal is more to be feared than not reaching a goal.

2. Imagine a variety of possible ways to reach your goal.

You should have at least three or more possible ways to reach your goal before you plunge. Whatever your goal may be, draft a possibility list of ways in which you could conceivably reach your desired objective.

3. Get fear out of your imagination.

Don’t let fear push you down. It is amazing how fear will crop in as you begin to imagine yourself moving forward in an enterprise. Once you have created a noble goal in your mind you must discipline your thinking, prohibiting that fear from making his entrance into you imagination. It’s amazing what fears can rise and none rises more quickly than the fear of failure.

4. Imagine yourself getting started.

The hardest part of any job is getting started. It requires very little to begin something big. The first sale is always the hardest. The odds are great that if you will begin, you will achieve. For positive ideas are immortal. Even if your dream seems impossible, begin !

Begin by writing your idea on paper. Sketch an impression of what you hope to build or the name of the business you hope to launch.

5. Imagine goals beyond your goals.

The positive thinker holds goals beyond his goals in the back of his imagination. Challenge and achievement are the very ebb and flow of the tide of life. Without challenge and achievement we are living as dead men. When you catch up with your goals you are in trouble.

What are you hunting for A job ? An education ? A marriage ? A business ? Whatever it is, you will never succeed at anything until you turn your imagination loose and imagine success at it. There are opportunities all around you ! Imagination is the power of the universe.

6.ENTHUSIASM

Enthusiasm is a state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand.  Enthusiasm bears the same relationship to a human being that steam does to the locomotive – it is the vital moving force that impels action.  Enthusiasm is the main spring that keeps you go on trying to achieve the success.

Mix enthusiasm with your work and it will not seem hard or monotonous.  Enthusiasm will so energise your entire body that you can get along with less than half the usual amount of sleep and at the same time it will enable you to perform from two to three times as much work as you usually perform in a given period, without fatigue.

Enthusiasm is not merely a figure of speech; it is a vital force that you can harness and use with profit.  Without it you would resemble an electric battery without electricity.  Enthusiasm is the vital force with which you recharge your body and develop a dynamic personality.  Some people are blessed with natural enthusiasm, while others must acquire it.  The procedure through which it may be developed is the service which one likes best.  If you should be so situated that you cannot conveniently engage in the work which you like best, for the time being, then you can proceed along another line very effectively by adopting a definite chief aim that contemplates your engaging in that particular work at some future time.

Your thoughts constitute the most important of the three ways in which you apply the principle of suggestion, for the reason that they control the tone of your words and, to some extent at least, your actions.  If your thoughts and your actions and your words harmonize, you are bound to influence those with whom you come in contact, more or less towards your way of thinking.

If you would plant a suggestion ‘deeply’, mix it generously with enthusiasm; for enthusiasm is the fertilizer that will insure its rapid growth as well as its permanency.

You cannot afford to suggest to another person, by word of mouth or by an act of yours, that which you do not believe.

Men of outstanding achievement have, by accident or design, discovered ways and means of stimulating themselves to a high state of enthusiasm. 

Opposite words:

Intolerance X tolerance

Greed X contentment

Revenge X forgiveness.

Until you master intolerance you will never become an accurate thinker. This enemy of mankind closes up the mind and pushes reason and logic and facts into the background.

Greed warps and twists man’s brain so that he wants to build a fence around the earth and keep everyone else on the outside of it.  This is the enemy that drives man to accumulate millions upon top of millions of dollars which he does not need and can never use.  This is the enemy that causes man to twist the screw until he has wrung the last drop of blood from his fellow man.  And, thanks to revenge which rides alongside of cruel twins is not satisfied to merely take away his fellow man’s earthly belongings; he wants to destroy his reputation in the bargain.  If you would know how deadly are envy and greed, study the history of every man who set out to become ruler of this world!

Turn your attention, now, to two more twins of destruction –egotism and suspicion.  Observe that they, also, ride side by side.  There is no hope of success for the person who suffers either from too much self-love or lack of confidence in others.

Without faith no man may enjoy enduring success.

Egotism thrives where suspicion exists.

The man who can forget himself while engaging in useful service to other people is never cursed with suspicion.

Jealousy is a form of insanity.

You will notice that jealousy rides just back of suspicion.

Get your foot on jealousy’s neck before it gets its clutches on your throat.

 

7. SELF-CONTROL

you com, now, to the study of self-control, through which you may direct your enthusiasm to constructive ends.  Without self-control, enthusiasm resembles the unharnessed lightning of an electrical strm – it may strike anywhere; it may destroy life and property.  Enthusiasm is the vital quality that arouses you to action, while self-control is the balance wheel that directs your action so that it will build up and not tear down. To be a person who is well ‘balanced’, you must be a person in whom enthusiasm and self-control are equalized.  Study the records of those whom the world calls great, and observe that every one of them possesses this quality of sefl-control.

Lack of self-control is the average salesman’s most damaging weakness.  The prospective buyer says something that the salesman does not wish to hear, and, if he has not this quality of self-control, he will ‘strike back’ with a counter remark that is fatal to his sale.

Men who control themselves usually boss the job, no matter what it may be.

No doubt all people who refuse or neglect to exercise self-control are literally turning opportunity after opportunity away without knowing it.

A person with well-developed self-control does not indulge in hatred, envy, jealousy, fear, revenge, or any similar destructive emotions.  A person with well-developed self-control does not go into ecstasies or become ungovernably enthusiastic over anything or anybody.

A person with well-developed self-control will not permit himself to be influenced by the cynic or the pessimist; nor will he permit another person to do his thinking for him.  A person with well-developed self-control will stimulate his imagination and his enthusiasm until they have produced action, but he will then control that action and not permit it to control him.  A person with well-developed self-control will never, under any circumstances, slander another person or seek revenge for any cause whatsoever.  A person with self-control will not hate who do not agree with him; instead, he will endeavour to understand the reason for their disagreement, and profit by it.

No one has any right to form an opinion that is not based either upon that which he believes to be facts, or upon a reasonable hypothesis.

Another grievous form of lack of self-control is the ‘spending’ habit.

You have established the savings habit, for this habit marks you as a person who exercises an important form of self-control.

Self-discipline is the most essential factor in the development of personal power, because it enables you to control your appetite and your tendency to spend more than you earn and your habit of ‘striking back’ at those who offend you and the other destructive habits which cause you to dissipate your energies through non-productive effort that takes on forms too numerous.

Repressed emotions, especially the emotion of hatred, resemble a bomb that has been constructed of high explosives, and unless they are handled with as much understanding of their nature as an expert would handle a bomb, they are as dangerous.

Thought is your most important tool; the one with which you may shape your worldly destiny according to your own liking.

Self-control is solely a matter of thought-control.

Place in your own mind, through the principle of Auto-suggestion, the positive, constructive thoughts which harmonize with your definite chief aim in life, and that mind will transform those thoughts into physical reality and hand them back to you, as a finished product.  This is thought-control.  When you deliberately choose the thoughts which dominate your mind and firmly refuse admittance to outside suggestion, you are exercising self-control in its highest and most efficient form.  Man is the only living animal that can do this.

You are but the sum total of your dominating or most prominent thoughts.

Self-Control is the result of thought-control!  Deliberately place in your own mind the sort of thoughts that you desire there, and keep out of your mind those thoughts which others place there through suggestion, and you will become a person of self-control.  This privilege of stimulating your mind with suggestions and thoughts of your own choosing is your prerogative power that Divine Providence gave you, and if you will exercise this holy right there is nothing withing the bounds of reason that you cannot attain.

The chief one of these fundamentals is the privilege of choosing the thoughts that dominate the mind.  A student in one of my classes once asked how one went about controlling one’s thoughts when in a state of intense anger, and I replied: “in exactly the same way that you would change your manner and the tone of your family and heard the door bell ring, warning you that company was about to visit you.  You would control yourself because you would desire to do so.”  If you have ever been in a similar predicament, where you found it necessary to cover up your real feelings and change the expression on your face quickly, you know how easily it can be done, and you also know that it can be done because one wants to do it!  Back of all achievement, back of all self-control, back of all throught-control, is that magic something called desire!  It is no misstatement of fact to say that you are limited only by the depth of your desires!

The energy which most people dissipate through lack of self-control would, if organized and used constructively, bring all the necessities and all the luxuries desired.  The time which many people devote to ‘gossiping’ about others would, if controlled and directed constructively, be sufficient to attain the object of their definite chief aim (if they had such an aim).  All successful people grade high on self-control!  Ass ‘failures’ grade low, generally zero, on this important law of human conduct.  study those around you and observe, with profit, that all the successful ones exercise self-control, while the ‘failures’ permit their thoughts, words and deeds to run wild!  One very common and very destructive form of lack of self-control is the habit of taking too much.  People of wisdom, who know what they want and are bent on getting it, guard their conversation carefully.  There can be no gain from a volume of uninvited, uncontrolled, loosely spoken words.  It is nearly always more profitable to listen than it is to speak.  A good listener may, once in a great while, hear something that will add to his stock of knowledge.  It requires self-control to become a good listener, but the benefits to be gained are worth the effort.

Self-control was one of the marked characteristics of all successful leaders whom I have analyzed, in gathering material for this course.  Luther Burbank said that, in his opinion, self-control was the most important of the 15 chapters.  During all his years of patient study and observation of the evolutionary processes of vegetable life he found it necessary to exercise the faculty of self-control, despite the fact that he was dealing with inanimate life.  John burroughs, the naturalist, said practically the same thing; that self-control stood near the head of the list, in importance, of the 15 chapters mentioned above.  The man who exercises complete self-control cannot be permanently defeated, as Emerson has so well stated in his essay on Compensation, for the reason that obstacles and opposition have a way of melting away when contronted by the determined mind that is guided toa definite end with complete self-control.  Every wealthy man whom I have analyzed (referring to those who have become wealthy through their own efforts) showed such positive evidence that self-control had been one of his strong points that I reached the conclusion that no man can hope to accumulate great wealth and keep it without exercising this necessary quality.

Before you can develop the habit of perfect self-control you must understand the real need for this quality.  Also, you must understand the advantages which self-control provides those who have learned how to exercise it.  By developing self-control you develop, also, other qualities that will add to your personal power.  Among other laws which are available to the person who exercises self-control is the Law of Retaliation.  You know what ‘retaliate’ means!  In the sense that we are using here it means to ‘return like for like,’ and not merely to avenge or to seek revenge, as is commonly meant by the use of this word.  If I do you an injury you retaliate at first opportunity.  If I say unjust things about you, you will retaliate at first opportunity.  If I say unjust things about you, you will retaliate in kind, even in greater measure!  On the other hand, if I do you a favour you will reciprocate even in greater measure if possible.  Through the proper use of this law I can get you to do whatever I wish you to do.  If I wish you to dislike me and to lend your influence toward damaging me, I can accomplish this result by inflicting upon you the sort of treatment that I want you to inflict upon me through retaliation.  If I wish your respect, your friendship and your co-operation I can get these by extending to you my friendship and co-operation.  The man who attracts you to him through his pleasing personality is merely making use of the law of harmonious.  Attraction, or the law of retaliation, both of which, when analysed, mean that ‘like attracts like.’  If you will study, understand and make intelligent use of the law of retaliation you will be an efficient and successful salesman.  When you have mastered this simple law and learned how to use it you will have learned all that can be learned about salesmanship.  The first and probably the most important step to be taken in mastering this law is to cultivate complete self-control.  You must learn to take all sorts of punishment and abuse without retaliating in kind.  This self-control is a part of the price you must pay for mastery of the law of retaliation.  When an angry person starts in to vilify and abuse you, justly or unjustly, just remember that if you retaliate in a like manner you are being drawn down to that person’s mental level, therefore that person is dominating you!  On the other hand, if you refuse to become angry, if you retain your self-composure and remain calm and serene you retain all your ordinary faculties through which to reason.  You take the other fellow by surprise.  You retaliate with a weapon with the use of which he is unfamiliar, consequently you easily dominate him.

Through the principle of retaliation we can actually convert our enemies into loyal friends.  If you have an enemy whom you wish to convert into a friend you can prove the truth of this statement if you will forget that dangerous millstone hanging around your neck, which we call ‘pride’ (stubbornness).  Make a habit of speaking to this enemy with unusual cordiality.  Go out of your way to favour him in every manner possible.  He may seem immovable at first, but gradually he will give way to your influence and ‘retaliate in kind!’  How true it is that ‘we receive only that which we give’!  It is not that which we wish for that comes back to us, but that which we give. 

The two great major influences that cause the mind of man to grow are the urge of necessity and the urge of desire to create.  Some minds develop only after they have undergone failure and defeat and other forms of punishment which arouse them to greater action.  Other minds wither away and die under punishment, but grow to unbelievable heights when provided with the opportunity to use their imaginative forces in a creative way.

To be practical the imaginative mind should be always on the alert for ways and means of diverting whast motion and power into useful channels.

Force your mind to think: proceed by combining old ideas into new plans.  Every great invention and every outstanding business or industrial achievement that you can name is, in final analysis, but the application of a combination of plans and ideas that have been used before, in some other manner.

The theoretical focal point of the oldest research project on personality development is the developmental significance of the concept of self-control and differences in it. Results from this study have revealed that in primary school classes differences in children’s' self-control reflect their tendency to cope with matters confronting them in life. Good-natured behaviour that takes others into account paves the way for adapting to school work and society. In the case of women, the importance of social activity is also apparent as a source of power in development. Coupled with self-control it predicts e.g. career development. Social helplessness among girls is a risk factor for development. Weak self-control in expressing feelings and concentration leads, especially in boys, to difficulties that easily pile up, first at school and then in working life and in relationships with society. School age differences in self-control may be due to both an inherited temperament and to upbringing. The results indicate that facets of social behaviour depend on both hereditary factors and the environment. Moreover, two kinds of environmental factors have to be distinguished. The first includes influences such as the family's economic status, common to both the twins, while the other includes the child's individual environment, such as his or her own relationships with other people and personal hobbies. It can be said that as a general rule the shared environment has proved less significant from the standpoint of development than the individual, non-shared environment.

 

Discipline

Discipline is not doing extraordinary things but doing ordinary things extraordinarily well through proper actions. Achievement does not come from feverish attempts; it comes from disciplined action. Take something that you have been shirking for long, whether it is a certain area of mathematics, which you don't find interesting, or payment of a bill or a visit to a friend. By using will power, you overcome.

To strengthen your will power, select a small project rather than a big one. If you say "this week I am going to write one essay", you are likely to accomplish this task. But if you say, "today I am going to finish this book" the chances are that, you will not. When you finish one job do not relax. Instead allow yourself another reasonable task, which enables you to proceed at a steady pace. A break in steady and disciplined effort pushes you away from long range goal. Go on adding one link to another which forms an unbreakable chain.

When you come into a task, prepare yourself as thoroughly as you can if you have to write an essay, it is better if you keep your side the reference matter. This ensures concentration, and you have no excuse for leaving the work incomplete. Do not be overawed by obstacles. Instead, look upon each step as a definite move towards the ultimate goal. Then look back and you will be thrilled to see a string of small success behind you. These inspire you to more efforts. They strengthen your sense of discipline. You have results to your credit.

Be on guard against your so-called friends. They will tell you that you are gaining nothing from your efforts. In such circumstances, remind your self of your tangible success. Bad suggestions have a banal influence. Counter them. Your effort to cultivate self-discipline go waste if you do not master the art of dealing with time wasters. They are chronophages. Every successful person has either cultivated or adopted a way of life to keep time wasters out of his life. Einstein says “have to work now", and excuses himself from the time-wasting scene. It is important to have a reasonable, workable plan of work, and a rational spur to it. Hurry is an evidence of inner stress. There is time and ways for action and reflection. Don't 'escape' from time. Fill every bit of it with positive action. This is the core and crux of discipline.

 

 

8        HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR

Many work but few love the work, those who love the work become master of the work and eventually master of the industry.

A man is most efficient and will more quickly and easily succeed when engaged in work that he loves, or work that he performs on behalf of some person whom he loves.  Whenever the element of love enters into any talk that one performs, the quality of the work becomes immediately improved and the quantity increased, without a corresponding increase in the fatigue caused by the work.

It really pays to render more service and better service than one is paid to render.

By performing more service and better service than that for which you are paid, you not only exercise your service-rendering qualities, and thereby develop skill and ability of an extraordinary sort, but you build reputation that is valuable.  If you form the habit of rendering such service you will become so adept in your work that you can command greater remuneration than those who do not perform such service.  You will eventually develop sufficient strength to enable you to remove yourself from any undesirable station in life, and no one can or will desire to stop you.  If you are an employee you can make yourself so valuable, through this habit that you can practically set your own wages and no sensible employer will try to stop you.  If your employer should be so unfortunate as to try withhold from you the compensation to which you are entitled, this will not long remain as a handicap because other employers will discover this unusual quality and offer you employment. 

“Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be served,” says Emerson, “for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”

Instead of ‘quitting’ the job because there were obstacles to master and difficulties to be overcome, you should have faced the facts and then you would have known that life, itself, is just one long series of mastery of difficulties and obstacles.  The measure of a man may be taken very accurately by the extent to which he adapts himself to his environment and makes it his business to accept responsibility for every adversity with which he meets, whether the adversity grows out of a cause within his control or not.

 

  1. PLEASING PERSONALITY

This chapter emphasizes the importance of making it your business to take a keen interest in other people and in their work, business or profession. 

In the famous case of Mark Antony’s speech on the death of Casear, suppose that Antony had mounted the platform in a ‘strutting’ attitude, and had begun his speech in this wise: “Now let me tell you Romans something about this man Brutus – he is a murderer of heart and…” he would have gone no further, for the mob would have howled Antony down.  Clever salesman and practical psychologist that he was, Antony so presented his case that it appeared not to be his own idea at all, but that of the Roman mob, itself.  You will observe how carefully he assumed the ‘you’ attitude: so carefully that the Roman mob was sure that its decision was of its own making.  While Antony displayed evidence of great self-control in being able to assume, at the beginning of his speech, an attitude toward Brutus that was not real, at the same time it is obvious that his entire appeal was based upon his knowledge of how to influence the minds of the Roman mob, through flattery.  The value of the ‘you’ and the fatality of the ‘I’ appeal.  Go back and read these letters again and observe how the more successful of the two follows closely the Mark Antony appeal, while the other one is based upon an appeal of just the opposite nature.  Whether you are writing a sales letter, or preaching a sermon or writing an advertisement, or a book, you do well to follow the same principles employed by Antony in his famous speech.

Control your thoughts and keep your mind vitalized with thoughts of a positive nature.  Let the dominating thought of your mind be a picture of the person that you intend to be: the person that you are deliberately building, through this procedure.

Find at least one person each day and more if possible, in whom you see some good quality that is worthy of praise, and praise it.  Remember, however, that this praise must be genuine.  Speak your words of praise with such earnestness that they will impress those to whom you speak; then watch what happens.

I now wish to direct your attention to the reason for speaking, aloud, the affirmation that you are developing the desired qualities which you have selected as the materials out of which to develop an attractive personality.  This procedure has two desirable effects; namely:-

First; it sets into motion the vibration through which the thought back of your words reaches and imbeds itself in your subconscious mind, where it takes root and grows until it becomes a great moving force in your outward, physical activities, leading in the direction of transformation of the thought into reality.

Second: it develops in you the ability to speak with force and conviction which will lead, finally, to great ability as a public speaker.  No matter what your calling in life may be, you should be able to stand upon your feet and speak convincingly, as this is one of the most effective ways of developing an attractive personality. 

Put feeling and emotion into your words as you speak and develop a deep, rich tone of voice.  If your voice is inclined to be high pitched, tone it down until it is soft and pleasing.  You can never express an attractive personality, to best advantage, through a harsh or shrill voice. You must cultivate your voice until it becomes rhythmical and pleasing to the ear.  Remember that speech is the chief method of expressing your personality, and for this reason it is to your advantage to cultivate a style that is both forceful and pleasing.

Let us now summarize the chief factors which enter into the development of an attractive personality, as follows:

First: Form the habit of interesting yourself in other people; and make it your business to find their good qualities and speak of them in terms of praise.

Second: Develop the ability to speak with force and conviction both in your ordinary conversational tones and before public gatherings, where you must use more volume.

Third Clothe yourself in a style that is becoming to your physical build and the work in which you are engaged.

Fourth: Develop a positive character, through the aid of the formula outlined in this lesson.

Fifth: Learn how to shake hands so that you express warmth of feeling and enthusiasm through this form of greeting.

Sixth: attract other people to you by first ‘attracting yourself’ to them.

Seventh: Remember that your only limitation, within reason, is the one which you set up in your own mind.

These seven points cover the most important factors that enter into the development of an attractive personality, but it seems hardly necessary to suggest that such a personality will not develop of its own accord.  It will develop, if you submit yourself to the discipline herein described, with a firm determination to transform yourself into the person that you would like to be.

No person with a grievance can be also a person with an attractive personality.  The art of being agreeable – just that one simple trait – is the very foundation of all successful salesmanship.

Get what you want in seven seconds by making a great impression

 

Whether you are going on a job interview or meeting with a client, your first impression can literally make or break the deal. It usually takes an average of just seven seconds for a person to make a judgment about you based on your initial meeting. If yours is not a good impression, chances are you won’t get the job or seal the deal. But if you make a great first impression you can bet that people are going to take you seriously, whether it’s a potential client, boss or other business contact.

You do not have time to waste so it pays for you to understand how people make their first judgment and what you can do to be in control of the results. Here are some practical tips on making a lasting first impression.

LEARN WHAT PEOPLE USE TO FORM THEIR FIRST OPINION.

When you meet someone face-to-face, 93% of how you are judged is based on non-verbal data---your appearance and your body language. Only 7% is influenced by the words that you speak. Whoever said that you can’t judge a book by its cover failed to note that people do. When your initial encounter is over the phone, 70% of how you are perceived is based on your tone of voice and 30% on your words. Clearly, it’s not what you say--- it’s the way that you say it.

CHOOSE YOUR FIRST FEW WORDS CAREFULLY.

Although research shows that your words make up a mere 7% of what people think of you in a one-on-one encounter, don’t leave them to chance. Express some form of thank you when you meet the potential boss, client or contact. People will appreciate you more when you appreciate them.

USE THE OTHER PERSON’S NAME IMMEDIATELY.

There is no sweeter sound than that of our own name. When you use the other person’s name in conversation within your first few words and the first seven seconds, you are sending a message that you value that person and are focused on him or her. Nothing gets other people’s attention as effectively as calling them by name.

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR HAIR.

Everyone else will. In fact, people will notice your hair and face first. Putting off that much-needed haircut or color job may cost you the job or promotion. Very few people want to be connected with someone who is untidy or unkempt. Don’t let a bad hair day cost you the connection.

CHOOSE YOUR SHOES WISELY.

People will look from your face to your feet. If your shoes aren’t well maintained, some people will question whether you pay attention to other details, especially in a business setting. Shoes should be polished and well-kept in addition to being appropriate for the business environment. Also pick shoes that are right for the event you are going to, whether it’s a client meeting or job interview. They may the last thing you put on before you walk out the door, but shoes are often the first thing other people see.

WALK FAST.

Studies show that people who walk 10-20% faster than others are viewed as important and energetic---just the kind of impression you would like to make on others. Pick up the pace and walk with purpose if you want to impress. You never know who may be watching.

FINE TUNE YOUR HANDSHAKE.

The first move you make when meeting someone of importance is to put out your hand. You will be assured of giving an impressive grip and getting off to a good start if you position your hand to make complete contact with the other person’s hand. Once your palm has connected with the other palm, close your thumb over the back of the other person’s hand and give a slight squeeze. This is especially important to remember in a business setting.

NEVER GO WITHOUT YOUR BUSINESS CARDS.

Your business cards and how you handle them contribute to your total image. Have a good supply of them with you at all times since you never know when and where you will encounter a potential client, employer or boss. How unimpressive is it to ask for a person’s card and have them say, Oh, I’m sorry. I think I just gave my last one away. You get the feeling that this person has already met everyone he wants to know. Keep your cards in a card case or holder where they are protected from wear and tear. That way you will be able to find them without a lot of fumbling around, and they will always be in pristine condition.

MATCH YOUR BODY LANGUAGE TO YOUR VERBAL MESSAGE.

A smile or pleasant expression tells the other person that you are glad to be with them. Eye contact says you are paying attention and are interested in what is being said. Leaning in toward the client makes you appear engaged and involved in the conversation. Use as many signals as you can to look interested and interesting.

In the business environment, you plan your every move with potential clients. You arrange for the appointment, you prepare for the meeting, you rehearse for the presentation, but in spite of your best efforts to anticipate opportunity, potential clients pop up in the most unexpected places and at the most bizarre times. For that reason, leave nothing to chance. Every time you walk out of your office, be ready to make a powerful first impression.

In any situation you can get one step closer to getting what you want by making the right first impression in the first seven seconds. Use the techniques you’ve learned to your advantage and get what you are going after.

 

 

  1. ACCURATE THINKING

Accurate thought involves two fundamentals which all who indulge in it must observe.  First, to think accurately you must separate facts from mere information. There is much ‘information’ available to you that is not based upon facts.  Second, you must separate facts into two classes, namely, the important and the unimportant, or the relevant and the irrelevant.  Only by so doing can you think clearly.  All facts which you can use in the attainment of your definite chief aim are important and relevant; all that you cannot use are unimportant and irrelevant.

The person who forms the habit of directing his attention to the important facts out of which he is constructing his temple of success, thereby provides himself with a power.

The accurate thinker has but one standard by which he conducts himself, in his intercourse with his fellow men, and that standard is observed by him as faithfully when it brings him temporary disadvantage as it is when it brings him outstanding advantage: for, being an accurate thinker, he knows that, by the law of averages, he will more than regain at some future time that which he loses by applying his standard to his own temporary detriment.

As an accurate thinker, it is both your privilege and your duty to avail yourself of facts, even though you must go out of your way to get them.

With the supposition that these ’hints’ are sufficient to impress upon your mind the importance of searching for facts until you are reasonably sure that you have found them, we will take up the question of organizing, classifying and using these facts.

The man who knows that he is working with facts goes at his task with a feeling of self-confidences which enables him to refrain from temporizing, hesitating or waiting to make sure of his ground.

The question now arises as to what constitutes an important and relevant fact.  The answer depends entirely upon what constitutes your definite chief aim in life, for an important and relevant fact is any fact which you can use, without interfering with the rights of others, in the attainment of that purpose.  All other facts, as far as you are concerned, are superfluous and of minor importance at most.

Desire:-Desire is the seed of all achievement; the starting place, back of which there is nothing, or at least there is nothing of which we have any knowledge.  A definite chief aim, which is only another name for desire, would be meaningless unless based upon a deeply seated, strong desire for the object of the chief aim.  Many people ‘wish’ for many things, but a wish is not the equivalent of a strong desire, and therefore wishes are of little or no value unless they are crystalised into the more definite form of desire. 

Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion: - Sense impressions arising out one’s environment, or from statements or actions of other people, are called suggestions, while sense impressions that we place in our own minds are placed there by self suggestion, or Auto-Suggestion.  All suggestions coming from others, or from environment, influence us only after we have accepted them and passed them on to the subconscious mind, through the principle of Auto-Suggestion, thus it is seen that suggestion becomes, and must become Auto-Suggestion before it influences the mind of the one receiving it.  Stated in another way, no one may influence another without the consent of the one influenced, as the influencing is done through one’s own power of Auto-Suggestion.  Auto-suggestion is a powerful weapon with which one may rise to heights of great achievement, when it is used constructively.  Used in a negative manner, however, it may destroy all possibility of success, and if so used continuously it will actually destroy health.

From the very day that you reach a definite decision in your own mind as to the precise thing, condition or position in life that you deeply desire, you will observe, if you read books, newspapers and magazines, that important news items and other data bearing on the object of your definite chief aim will begin to come to your attention; you will observe, also, that opportunities will begin to come to you that will, if embraced, lead you nearer and nearer the coveted goal of your desire.  No one knows better than the author of this course how impossible and impractical this may seem to the person who is not informed on the subject of mind operation; however, this is not an age favourable to the doubter or the skeptic, and the best thing for any person to do is to experiment with this principle until its practicability has been established.

It seems appropriate to state here that a strong desire, to be transformed into reality, must be backed with persistency until it is taken over by the subconscious mind.  It is not enough to feel very deeply the desire for achievement of a definite chief aim, for a few hours or a few days, and then forget all about that desire.  The desire must be placed in the mind and held there, with persistence that knows no defeat, until the automatic or subconscious mind takes it over.  Up to this point you must stand back of the desire and push it; beyond this point the desire will stand back of you and push you on to achievement.

Thought magnetizes your entire personality and attracts to you the outward, physical things that harmonise with the nature of your thoughts.

Don’t question; don’t wonder if the principles of Auto-suggestion will work; don’t doubt, but believe.

You are the ‘master of your fate’ and the ‘captain of your soul,’ by reason of the fact that you control your own thoughts, and, with the aid of your thoughts, you may create whatever you desire.

Failure:-

Failure is generally accepted as a curse.  But few people ever understand that failure is a curse only when it is accepted as such.  But few ever learn the truth that failure is seldom permanent.  Failure teaches men lessons which they would never learn without it.  Moreover, it teaches in a language that is universal.  Among the great lessons taught by failure is that of humility.

Most conditions which people look upon as failure are nothing more than temporary defeat.

If you have the real seed of success within you, a little adversity and temporary defeat will only serve to nurture that seed and cause it to burst forth into maturity if you are undergoing what you believe to be failure, have patience: you may be passing through your testing time.

There is no failure.  That which looks to be failure is usually nothing but temporary defeat.  Make sure that you do not accept it as permanent.

11.CONCENTRATION

A habit is a ‘mental path’ over which our actions have traveled, for some time, each passing making the path a little deeper and a little wider.

Every time you resist a temptation, the stronger do you become, and the easier will it be for you to do so the next time.  But every time you yield to the temptation, the easier does it become to yield again, and the more difficult it becomes to resist the next time.  You will have a fight on at the start, and this is the critical time.  Prove your determination, persistency and will-power now, at the very beginning.

Through habit, an act repeatedly performed in the same manner has a tendency to become permanent, and eventually we come to perform the act automatically or unconsciously.  Auto-Suggestion is the tool with which we dig a mental path; concentration is the hand that holds that tool; and habit is the map or blueprint which the mental path follows.  And idea or desire, to be transformed into terms of action or physical reality must be held in the conscious mind faithfully and persistently until habit begins to give it permanent form.  Let us turn our attention, now, to environment.  As we have already seen, we absorb the material for thought from our surrounding environment.  The term “environment” covers a very broad field.  It consists of the books we read, the people with whom we associate, the community in which we live, the nature of the work in which we are engaged, the country or nation in which we reside, the clothes we wear, the songs we sing, and, most important of all, the religious and intellectual training we receive prior to the age of fourteen years.  The purpose of analyzing the subject of environment is to show its direct relationship to the personality we are developing, and the importance of so guarding it that its influence will give us the materials cut of which we may attain our definite chief aim in life.  The mind feeds upon that which we supply it, or that which is forced upon it, through our environment; therefore, let us select our environment, as far as possible, with the object of supplying the mind with suitable material out of which to carry on its work of attaining our definite chief aim.  If your environment is not to your liking, change it!  The first step is to create in your own mind an exact, clear and well rounded out picture of the environment in which you believe you could best attain your definite chief aim, and then concentrate your mind upon this picture until you transform it into reality.

Concentration, in the sense in which it is here used, means the ability, through fixed habit and practice, to keep your mind on, one subject until you have thoroughly familiarized yourself with that subject and mastered it.  It means the ability to control your attention and focus it on a given problem until you have solved it.  It means the ability to throw off the effects of habits which you wish to discard, and the power to build new habits that are more to your liking.  It means complete self-mastery.  Stating it in another way, concentration is the ability to think as you wish to think; the ability to control your thoughts and direct them to a definite end; and the ability to organize your knowledge into a plan of action that is sound and workable.  You can readily see that in concentrating your mind upon your definite chief aim in life you must cover many closely related subjects which blend into each other and complete the main subject upon which you are concentrating.  Ambition and desire are the chief factors which enter into the act of successful concentration.

Forget the mistakes you have made and the failures you have experienced.  Quit living in the past, for do you not know that your yesterdays never return?  Start all over again, if your previous efforts have not turned out well, and make the next five or ten years tell a story of success that will satisfy your most lofty ambitions.  Make a name for yourself and render the world a great service, through ambition, desire and concentrated effort! 

With regard to mob psychology, Diall, in his Psychology of the Aggregate Mind of an Audience, holds that the mind of an assemblage listening to a powerful speaker undergoes a curious process called “fusion”, by which the individuals in the audience, losing their personal traits for the time being, to a greater or less degree, are reduced, as it were, to a single individual, whose characteristics are those of an impulsive youth of twenty, imbued in general with high ideals, but lacking in reasoning power and will. Tards the French psychologist, advances similar views.

The term ‘revival’ is used in the narrower signification indicating the typical religious emotional excitement known by the term in question; revivals occur in all religions.  When one takes place a large number of personal who have been comparatively dead or indifferent to spiritual considerations simultaneously or in quick succession become alive to their importance, alter spiritually and morally, and act with exceeding zeal in converting others to their views.  To the student experienced in the experimental work of the psychological laboratory there is the very closest analogy observed in the respective phenomena of the revival and hypnotic suggestion.  In both cases the attention and interest is attracted by the unusual procedure; the element of mystery and awe is induced by words and actions calculated to inspire them, the senses are tired by monotonous talk in an impressive and authoritative tone; and finally the suggestions are projected in a commanding, suggestive manner familiar to all students of hypnotic suggestion.  The subjects in both cases are prepared for the final suggestions and commands, by previously given minor suggestions, such as:’ stand  up”, or “look this way,” etc., in the case of the hypnotist; and by “All those who think so-and-so, stand up,” and “All who are willing to become better, stand up,” etc., in the case of the revivalist.  The impressionable subjects are thus accustomed to obedience to suggestion by easy stages.

12.COOPERATION

There are tow forms of Co-operation to which your attention will be directed here namely:  Firstly, the co-operation between people who group themselves together or form alliances for the purpose of attaining a given end, under the principles known as the Law of the Master Mind.  Secondly, the co-operation between the conscious and the subconscious minds, which form a reasonable hypothesis of man’s ability to contact, communicate with and draw upon infinite intelligence.

The conception which was at first only vaguely recognized is restored to the objective mind in a definite and workable form, and then the objective mind, acting through the frontal brain – the area of comparison and analysis – proceeds to work upon a clearly perceived idea and to bring out the potentialities that are latent it.

When you impress any idea on your subconscious mind, through the principle of Auto-suggestion, you do so with the aid of this dual nervous system; and when your subconscious mind works out a definite plan of any desire with which you impress it, the plan is delivered back to your conscious mind through this same dual nervous system.

We will now take up the subject of Co-operation between men, who unite, or group themselves together for the purpose of attaining a given end.  We referred to this sort of co-operation as organised effort.

Co-operation is the very foundation of all successful leadership.

Power is organised effort.  The three most important factors that enter into the process of organising effort are: concentration, co-operation and co-ordination.

Mere organized effort is not sufficient to insure outstanding success; the organization must consist of individuals each of whom supplies some specialized talent which the other members of the organization do not possess.

The subject of organized effort has been indicating the necessity of forming alliances or organizations consisting of individuals who supply all of the necessary talent that may be needed for the attainment of the object in mind.

Analyse power, no matter where, or in what form, it may be found, and you will find organization and co-operation as the chief factors back of it.

Your definite chief aim in life should be supported by a burning desire for its realization.  You can have no burning desire for achievement when you are in a negative state of mind, no matter what the cause of that state of mind may be.

Your thoughts register themselves on the cells of your own body and affect those cells in a manner that harmonises with the nature of the thoughts.

A man who can induce others to co-operate and do effective team-work, or inspire others so that they become more active, is no less a man of action than the man who renders affective service in a more direct manner.  In the field of industry and business there are men who have the ability so to inspire and direct the efforts of others that all under their direction accomplish more than they could without this directing influence.

Properly selected music would stimulate any class of workers to greater action, a fact which does not seem to be understood by all who direct the efforts of large numbers of people.

Plain co-operative effort produces power; there can be no doubt about this; but co-operative effort that is based upon complete harmony of purpose develops super-power.

The degree of power created by the co-operative effort of any group of people in measure, always, by the nature of the motive which the group is laboring to attain.  This may be profitably borne in mind by all who organise group effort for any purpose whatsoever.  Find a motive around which men may be induced to rally in a highly emotionalized, enthusiastic spirit of perfect harmony and you have found the starting point for the creation of a Master Mind.

What man can and will accomplish to please the woman of his choice (providing the woman knows how to stimulate him to action) has ever been a source of wonderment to students of the human mind.  There are three major motivating forces to which man responds in practically all of his efforts.  These are: (1) The motive of self-preservation; (2) The motive of sexual contact; (3) The motive of financial and social power.  Stated more briefly, the main motives which impel men to action are money, sex and self-preservation.  Leaders who are seeking a motivating force out of which to secure action from a following may find it under one or more of these three classifications.

The extent to which people may be induced to co-operate, in harmony, depends upon the motivating force which impels them to action.  Perfect harmony such as is essential for creating a Master Mind can be obtained only when the motivating force of a group is sufficient to cause each member of the group completely to forget his or her own personal interests and work for the good of the group, or for the sake of attaining some idealistic, charitable or philanthropic objective.  The three major motivating forces of mankind have been here stated for the guidance of the leader who wishes to create plans for securing co-operation from followers who will throw themselves into the carrying out of his plans in a spirit of unselfishness and perfect harmony.  Men will not rally to the support of a leader in such a spirit of harmony unless the motive that impels them to do so is one that will induce them to lay aside all thoughts of themselves.  We do well that which we love to do and fortunate is the leader who has the good judgment to bear this fact in mind and so lays his plans that all his followers are assigned parts that harmonize with this law. 

If you plan to attain the object of your chief aim through the co-operative efforts of others you must set up in the minds of those whose co-operation you seek a motive strong enough to insure their full, undivided, unselfish co-operation.

 

RECAP

Nothing is impossible for a man with a will to achieve a definite purpose.

Visualize your mind with a definite purpose and immediately your mind becomes a magnet which attracts everything that harmonises with that purpose.

The powerful man is the man who has developed, in his own mind, the entire fifteen qualities represented by the fifteen commanding officers shown in the picture.  Before you can have power you must have a definite purpose; you must have self-confidence with which to back up that purpose; you must have initiative and leadership with which to exercise your self-confidence; you must have imagination in creating your definite purpose and in building the plans with which to transform that purpose into reality and put your plans into action.  You must mix enthusiasm with your action or it will be insipid and without ‘kick’.  You must exercise self-control.  You must form the habit of doing more than paid for.  You must cultivate a pleasing personality.  You must acquire the habit of saving.  You must become an accurate thinker, remembering, as you develop this quality, that accurate thought is based upon facts and not upon hearsay evidence or mere information.  You must form the habit of concentration by giving your undivided attention to but one task at a time.  You must acquire the habit of co-operation and practice it in all your plans.  You must profit by failure of your own and that of others.  You must cultivate the habit of tolerance.  Last, but by no means the least important, you must make the golden rule the foundation of all you do that affects other people.  Keep this picture where you can see it each day and, one by one call these fifteen soldiers out of the line and study them.  Make sure that the counterpart of each is developed in your own mind.

The first step in one’s development process is to realize what qualities are missing in your naturally acquired equipment.  The second step is the strongly planted desire to develop yourself where you are now defieient.

It always works when backed with unqualified faith.

Take inventory of yourself.  Find out how many of the fifteen qualities you now possess.  Add to this inventory the missing qualities until you have, in your mind, the entire fifteen.  You will then be ready to measure your success in whatever terms you desire.  These qualities are the brick and the mortar and the building material with which you must build your temple of success.  Master these fifteen qualities and you may play a perfect symphony of success in any undertaking, just as one who has mastered the fundamentals of music may play any piece at sight.  Make these fifteen qualities your own and you will be an educated person, because you will have the power to get whatever you want in life without violating the rights of others.

13.PROFITING BY FAILURE

Under ordinary circumstances the term ‘failure’ is a negative term.

Failure comes to all at one time or another.  Make sure, when it comes your way, that you will learn something of value from its visit.  Make sure, also, that it would not visit you if there was not room for it in your make-up.

In the outset, let us distinguish between ‘failure’ and ‘temporary defeat.’  Moreover, let us see if this temporary defeat is not usually a blessing in disguise, for the reason that it brings us up with a jerk and redirects our energies along different and more desirable lines.

Neither temporary defeat nor adversity amounts to failure in the mind of the person who looks upon it as a teacher that will teach some needed lesson.  As a matter of fact, there is a great and lasting lesson in every reverse, and in every defeat; and, usually, it is a lesson that could be learned in no other way than through defeat.

There can be no failure for the man who ‘still fights on.’  A man has never failed until he accepts temporary defeat as failure. There is a wide difference between temporary defeat and failure.

Failure is Nature’s plan through which she hurdle-jumps men of destiny and prepares them to do their work.  Failure is Nature’s great crucible in which she burns the dross from the human heart and so purifies the metal of the man that it can stand the test of hard usage.  I have found evidence to support this theory in the study of the records of sores of great men, from Socrates and Christ on down the centuries to the well known men of achievement like Mahatma Gandhi of our modern times.  The success of each man seemed to be in almost exact ratio to the extent of the obstacles and difficulties he had to surmount.  No man ever arose from the knock-out blow of defeat without being stronger and wiser from the experience.  Defeat talks to us in a language all its own; a language to which we must listen whether we like it or not.

Be thankful for the defeat which men call failure, because if you can survive it and keep on trying it gives you a chance to prove your ability to rise to the heights of achievement in your chosen field on endeavour.  No one has the right to brand you as a failure except yourself.

Let us remember that the wheel is always turning.  If it brings us sorrow today, it will bring us joy tomorrow.  Life is a cycle of varying events – fortunes and misfortunes.  We cannot stop this wheel of fate from turning, but we can modify the misfortune it brings us by remembering that good fortune will follow, just as surely as night follows day, it was but keep faith with ourselves and earnestly and honestly do our best.  In his greatest hours of trial the immortal Lincoln was heard, often, to say: “And this, too, will soon pass.”

  1. TOLERANCE

Intolerance is a form of ignorance which must be mastered before any form of enduring success may be attained

The 3 great organized forces though which social heredity orates are: parents, religion and schools.

The outstanding and most promi8nent of man’s beliefs are those which were forced upon him, or which he absorbed of his own volition, under highly emotionalized conditions, when his mind was receptive.  Under such conditions the evangelist can plant the idea of religion more deeply and permanently during an hour’s revival service than he could through years of training under ordinary conditions, when the mind was not in an emotionalized state.

These are but a few of the ways in which the principle of social heredity might be used to advantage in business.  Attract the children and you attract the parents!

When the dawn of intelligence shall have spread its wings over the eastern horizon of progress, and ignorance and superstition shall have left their last footprints on the sands of Time, it will be recorded in the book of man’s crimes and mistakes that his most grievous sin was that in intolerance!  The bitterest intolerance grows out of differences of opinion, as the result of early childhood training. 

  1. GOLDEN RULE

The Golden Rule means, substantially, to do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you if your positions were reversed.

There can never be success without happiness, and no man can be happy without dispensing happiness to others.  Moreover, the dispensation must be voluntary.

The time is at hand when failure to adopt the Golden Rule as the foundation of one’s business or professional philosophy is the equivalent of economic suicide.

When honesty means either a temporary or a permanent material loss, then it becomes an honour of the highest degree to all who practice it.  Such honesty has its appropriate reward in the accumulated power of character and reputation enjoyed by all who deserve it.  Those who understand and apply the Golden Rule philosophy are always scrupulously honest, not alone out of their desire to be just with others, but because of their desire to be just with themselves.

Golden Rule philosophers are honest because they understand the truth that honestly adds to their own character that ‘vital something’ which gives it life and power.  The law through which the Golden Rule philosophy operates is none other than the law through which the principle of Auto-suggestion operates.

Positive thought develops a dynamic personality.  Negative thought develops a personality of an opposite nature.  The main purpose of helping you consciously to direct the power of thought in the development of a personality that will attract to you those who will be of help in the attainment of your definite chief aim.

Your reputation is made by others, but your character is made by you!

Every personality is the sum total of individual’s thought and acts – that we com to resemble the nature of our dominating thoughts.  Thought is the only power that can systematically organise, accumulate and assemble facts and materials according to a definite plan.  A flowing river can assemble dirt and build land, and a storm can gather and assemble sticks into a shapeless mass of debris, but neither storms nor river can think; therefore, the materials which they assemble are not assembled in organised, definite form.  Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

The power of thought has been given the dominating position throughout these chapters, for the reason that it belongs in that position.  Man’s dominating position in the world is the direct result of thought, and it must be this power that you, as an individual, will use in the attainment of success, no matter what may be your idea of what represents success.

TIME

The man of decision gets that which he goes after, no matter how long it takes, or how difficult the task.

The man of decision cannot be stopped and the man of indecision cannot be started: choose your own choice!

That the successful men and women are those who reach decisions quickly and then stand firmly by those decisions after they are made

The world will forgive you if you make mistakes, but it will never forgive you if you make no decisions.

Many a times, all the fifteen qualities mentioned above will not be of any use to reach the definite purpose, if the purpose is not achieved in TIME; that is the vitality of this fourth dimension in life.

ADDITIONAL FACTORS

 Importance of Humour

Laugh, you laugh and the world laughs with you; weep, you weep and you alone weep; however, if you’ve wisdom, the world laughs with you, but if you are an idiot, the world laughs at you. A sense of humour acts like a wine in social life. It increases warmth and lubricates our relationship with other human beings. Thus, it enriches social life.

 

Vital Three Step Formula for Success

 

Believe it or not, there is a special 3-step formula that makes people successful.

Unfortunately, you can't buy the formula. But if you could, it would be hotter than reality television shows!

So, what is this amazing 3-step formula I'm talking about?

Okay. Here it is:

1. Have a goal.

2. Do what you love.

3. Have relentless desire and determination.

That's it. That's the formula.

Now don't be fooled by the simplicity of the formula. After all, if it were easy, everyone would be successful and we all know that's not the case.

However, the formula is definitely viable for anyone whom religiously follows the steps.

Let's start with the first part of the formula:

(1.) Have a goal.

Every ounce of human progress--our inventions big and small, our medical and scientific discoveries, our engineering achievements, our business successes--was first visualized before they became realities. High-tech satellites orbit the earth because scientists made it their goal to conquer space.

So, what is a goal?

A goal is an objective, a purpose. A goal is more than just a dream, it's a dream acted upon. A goal is more than just sitting back and "wishing you could." A goal is a clear-as- glass, "This is what I'm working toward."

Nothing happens, no steps forward are taken, until a goal is established. Without goals, individuals just wander aimlessly through life under-achieving. They stumble and bumble along, not having a clue where they're going. So, as a result, they never get anywhere.

Goals are as essential to success as air is to life. No one ever stumbles into success, without having a clear-cut goal. (Winning the lottery doesn't count). Develop a clear picture of where you want to go.

Write your goals down and review them every single day. Formulate a game plan. Ask yourself where you want to be a month from now--a year from now--3 years, 5 years, 10 years.

Tape a picture of your goal on your bathroom mirror and on your refrigerator--whether it's a new house, a new car, whatever.

Make visualizing and thinking about your goals a daily exercise. Because it is only by constantly visualizing your goals will they become a reality.

And don't worry about setbacks, detours or little bumps in the road or big bumps either for that matter. Setbacks happen to everyone. That's life. Forget about it. Make the necessary adjustments and keep going.

Up next is the second part of the formula:

(2.) Do what you love.

There's an old saying, "Do what you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life!"

Do you understand what that means? It means if you work at doing something you truly love and enjoy, it won't really seem like work at all.

A few years ago, I made it my goal to have a successful business on the Internet, even though I had no computer experience and knew absolutely nothing about the Internet.

At that time, I didn't even own a computer. All I had was my WebTV and a boatload of determination.

Well, my friends, to make a long story short, I'm happy to say that I've achieved that goal, and now I get to stay home all day, every day and play on my computer, writing articles like this one and helping people with my E-mail Consultation Service.

So, how did I do it?

I went to the library and taught myself how to use a computer. I read book after book on how the Internet works and I taught myself basic HTML (very basic).

Anyway, the bottom line is, I'm now doing what I love. Most mornings I get up at six o'clock, because I can't wait to get started. And most nights, I don't get offline until about eight or nine o'clock.

Now by my calculations, those are 14 or 15 hour hour work days. But it doesn't seem like work to me, because I'm doing what I love. Those 14 or 15 hour days fly right by--and that's the whole point!

"Do what you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life!"

If you hate your job, find a way to do what you love so that you can quit. You may even have to work another part-time job or something to get to that point. But if you really and truly want it badly enough, you'll do whatever it takes.

Finally, we come to the third and last part of the formula:

(3.) Relentless desire and determination.

It is also the main reason why most people don't succeed. They don't have relentless desire and determination. I want you to commit the following words to memory:

"Any success you achieve will be in direct proportion to your desire and determination. The more desire and determination you have, the greater will be your success."

Here's another example to illustrate my point:

Most people think it's Kobe Bryant's amazing talent that sets him apart from the other players in the NBA. And make no mistake, his talent does play a significant role in his success. But what really makes Kobe Bryant special is his "relentless desire and determination." He just wants to win more than everybody else.

It's no secret that Kobe practices longer and harder than anyone else in the NBA. He also works out like a demon.

But that's exactly what it takes. You have to be as maniacal about success as Kobe Bryant is. I'll repeat something I said earlier in this article:

"Any success you achieve will be in direct proportion to your desire and determination. The more desire and determination you have, the greater will be your success."

 

     THE  END

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