{ Think and Grow Rich

Index

Author: & Napoleon Hill
Reference: Hill, N. (1987). Think and grow rich. New York: Fawcett Books. Chicago (Author-Date, 15th ed.).
Tags: #Motivation #lifeAdvice
Status: #notesInProgress
Date finished reading: May 31, 2021
rating: 4/5 objectively, 5/5 as motivation
ISBN: 978-1-585-42433-7
Publish Date:
Review Date:

Think and Grow Rich

There is no such thing as SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!

These facts - and they are facts well known to almost everyone who knew Mr Carnegie - give you a fair idea of what the reading of this book may bring to you, provided you know what you want.

all achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea

CHAPTER 1 - THE POWER OF THOUGHT

Success comes to those who become success conscious. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious.

I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win.

When one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.

That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity.
Whatever the amount, it becomes insignificant when compared with the greater asset he acquired, the definite knowledge that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles.

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.

Desire can be transmuted into gold

Stickability: R.U. Darby was a gold miner and stopped digging three feet from a vein of gold worth millions.

This motivated him to "stick with" whatever he was doing

“R. U. Darby, who later became one of the most successful insurance salesmen in the country, owes his ‘stickability’ to the lesson he learned from his ‘quitability’ in the gold mining business.

More than 500 of the most successful people America has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.

Mr Darby pointed out: ‘Every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself, “I’ve gotta make this sale.”The better portion of all sales I have made were made after people had said “NO”.’

WHEN RICHES BEGIN TO COME, THEY COME SO QUICKLY, IN SUCH GREAT ABUNDANCE, THAT ONE WONDERS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING DURING ALL THOSE LEAN YEARS

When you begin to think and grow rich, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work.
Just as an electrician in a theatre raises the lights so gradually that darkness is transmuted into light before you realize it, so did the spell of fear in the minds of the people gradually fade away and become faith.

Another weakness found in altogether too many people is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own impressions and beliefs. Some who read this will believe that no one can think and grow rich. They cannot think in terms of riches because their thought habits have been steeped in poverty, want, misery, failure and defeat.

Producing the 8-cylinder engine

Ford asked his engineers to produce an engine with 8 cylinders cast in one block
- "Sir, this is impossible"
- Response: "Produce it anyway. Stay on the job until you succeed, no matter how much time is required. Go right ahead. I want it, and I'll have it."
Henry Ford is a success because he understands and applies the principles of success. One of these is desire: knowing what one wants.

You are the Master of your Fate, the Captain of your Soul

W.C. Henley should have told us that the ether in which this little planet floats, in which we move and have our being, is a form of energy moving at an inconceivably high rate of vibration, and that the ether is filled with a form of universal power which adapts itself to the nature of the thoughts we hold in our minds; and influences us, in natural ways, to transmute our thoughts into their physical equivalent.
He should have told us that before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must magnetise our minds with intense desire for riches, that we must become ‘money conscious’ until the desire for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it

Chapter 2: DESIRE: the Starting Point of All Achievement

Edwin C. Barnes succeeded in becoming a business associate of Edison because he chose a definite goal, and placed all his energy, all his willpower and all his effort into achieving that goal.
- He did not say, ‘I will work there for a few months, and if I get no encouragement, I will quit and get a job somewhere else.’ He did say, ‘I will start anywhere. I will do anything Edison tells me to do, but before I am through, I will be his associate.’ He did not say, ‘I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization.’ He said, ‘There is but one thing in this world I am determined to have, and that is a business association with Thomas A. Edison. I will burn all bridges behind me, and stake my entire future on my ability to get what I want.’
- He left himself no possible way of retreat. He had to win or perish
- Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success.

The method by which desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of six definite, practical steps:

Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say, ‘I want plenty of money.’ Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be described in a subsequent chapter.)
Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as ‘something for nothing’.)
Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire. Name the time limit for its acquisition. State what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after rising in the morning. AS YOU READ, SEE AND FEEL, AND BELIVE YOUTSELF ALREADY IN POSESSION OF THE MONEY.

But the successful application of these six steps does call for sufficient imagination to enable one to see, and to understand, that accumulation of money cannot be left to chance, good fortune and luck. One must realise that all who have accumulated great fortunes first did a certain amount of dreaming, hoping, wishing, desiring and planning before they acquired money.

Behind this demand for new and better things there is one quality one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

We who desire to accumulate riches should remember that the real leaders of the world have always been people who harnessed, and put into practical use, the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity

Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start

success requires no apologies, failure permits no alibis.

every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.

Practical dreamers do not quit!

Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they ‘arrive’

If you have the fire of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance, and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need will come to you when you are ready for it

There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it
The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope or wish

Poem

“I bargained with Life for a penny
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”

Mary Kay

“In an article in Personal Excellence, she suggested some exercises to help create your image of excellence and begin to establish an atmosphere of success in your life. Here are some of her suggestions:

IMAGINE YOURSELF SUCCESSFUL. Always picture yourself successful.Visualise the person you desire to become. Set aside time each day to be alone and undisturbed. Get comfortable and relax. Close your eyes and concentrate on your desires and goals. See yourself in this new environment, capable and self-confident.
REFLECT ON YOUR PAST SUCCESSES. Every success, be it large or small, is proof that you are capable of achieving more successes. Celebrate each success.You can recall it when you begin to lose faith in yourself.
SET DEFINITE GOALS. Have a clear direction of where you want to go. Be aware when you begin to deviate from these goals and take immediate corrective action.
RESPOND POSITIVELY TO LIFE. Develop a positive self-image.Your image, your reactions to life and your decisions are completely within your control.”

The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.

Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds’

“Despite the fact that all the philosophy I had examined clearly indicated that every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage, I must confess that I had not the slightest idea how this affliction could ever become an asset”

It is my duty and a privilege to say I believe, and not without reason, that nothing is impossible to the person who backs desire with enduring faith.

Achieve the definite thing which you desire

Hill's son was born deaf, or near deaf. His son as able to combat this ailment and begin to hear through Hill's efforts. This is how he accomplished this seemingly impossible feat:

I MIXED FAITH with the DESIRE for normal hearing, which I passed on to my son.
I communicated my desire to him in every conceivable way available, through persistent, continuous effort, over a period of years.
HE BELIEVED ME!

“I believe in the power of desire backed by faith because I have seen this power lift people from lowly beginnings to places of power and wealth; I have seen it rob the grave of its victims; I have seen it serve as the medium by which people staged a comeback after having been defeated in 100 different ways; I have seen it provide my own son with a normal, happy, successful life, despite Nature having sent him into the world without ears”

...all achievement, no matter what its nature or purpose, must begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualizing and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

Love and faith are psychic; related to our spiritual side. Sex is purely biological, and related only to the physical. The mixing, or blending, of these three emotions has the effect of opening a direct line of communication between the finite, thinking mind and Infinite Intelligence

Faith

FAITH is a state of mind that may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of autosuggestion
ALL THOUGHTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EMOTIONALISED (given feeling) AND MIXED WITH FAITH begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart.
Your belief or faith is the element that determines the action of your subconscious mind.
“There is nothing to hinder you from ‘deceiving’ your subconscious mind when giving it instructions through autosuggestion, as I deceived my son’s subconscious mind.
- To make this ‘deceit’ more realistic, conduct yourself just as you would if you were ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MATERIAL THING WHICH YOU ARE DEMANDING when you call upon your subconscious mind.”

Perfection will come through practice

Understand this truth and you will know why it is essential for you to encourage the positive emotions as dominating forces of your mind, and discourage - and eliminate - negative emotions.
FAITH is the ‘eternal elixir’ which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought!
FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used.

THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OR EMOTIONS CONSTITUTE A ‘MAGNETIC’ FORCE WHICH ATTRACTS, FROM THE VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER, OTHER SIMILAR OR RELATED THOUGHTS.

A thought thus ‘magnetised’ with emotion may be compared to a seed that, when planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows and multiplies itself over and over again, until that one small seed becomes countless millions of seeds of the same brand !
Taking an inventory of mental assets and liabilities, you will discover that your greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence.

202108021439 - The Self-Confidence Formual

I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life. Therefore I demand of myself persistent, continuous action towards its attainment, and I here and now promise to take such action.
I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action and gradually transform themselves into physical reality. Therefore I will concentrate my thoughts for 30 minutes daily upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.
I know through the principle of autosuggestion that any desire I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object. Therefore I will devote 10 minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence .
I have clearly written down a description of my Definite Chief Aim in life. I will never stop trying until I have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.
I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure unless built upon truth and justice. Therefore I will engage in no transaction that does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism by developing love for all humanity because I know that a negative attitude towards others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will be live in them, and in myself. I will sign me name to this formula, commit it o memory and repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant and successful person.

In this statement may be found a significant truth: those who go down in defeat and end their lives in poverty, misery and distress do so because of negative application of the principle of autosuggestion. The cause may be found in the fact that ALL IMPULSES OF THOUGHT HAVE A TENDENCY TO CLOTHE THEMSELVES IN THEIR PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by fear just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by courage or faith.

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

If you fill your mind with fear, doubt and disbelief in your ability to connect with and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence, the law of autosuggestion will take this spirit of unbelief and use it as a pattern which your subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent.

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man But soon or late the one who wins Is the one WHO THINKS HE CAN!

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

Their purposes, he inferred, had been to create monopolies, raise prices, and pay themselves fat dividends out of privilege. Schwab condemned the system in his heartiest manner. The shortsightedness of such a policy, he told his hearers, lay in the fact that it restricted the market in an era when everything cried for expansion.

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

Actually, though he did not know it, Schwab was an apostle of modern mass production.

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

This dramatic story of big business was included in this book because it is a perfect illustration of the method by which desire can be transmuted into its physical equivalent

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

His faith, his desire, his imagination, his persistence were the real ingredients that went into United States Steel. The steel mills and mechanical equipment acquired by the corporation after it had been brought into legal existence were incidental, but careful analysis will disclose the fact that the appraised value of the properties acquired by the corporation increased in value by an estimated six hundred million dollars by the mere transaction that consolidated them under one management.

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

Riches begin in the form of thought

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

Faith removes limitation

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS TO THE MIND EXCEPT THOSE WE ACKNOWLEDGE.

January 6, 2021

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH: Visualising and Believing in the Attainment of Desire

BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE OFFSPRING OF THOUGHT.

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

After you have read the entire book, come back to this chapter, and follow in spirit, and in action, this instruction: READ THE ENTIRE CHAPTER ALOUD ONCE EVERY NIGHT, UNTIL YOU BECOME THOROUGHLY CONVINCED THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTOSUGGESTION IS SOUND, THAT IT WILL ACCOMPLISH FOR YOU ALL THAT HAS BEEN CLAIMED FOR IT. AS YOU READ, UNDERSCORE WITH A PENCIL EVERY SENTENCE THAT IMPRESSES YOU FAVOURABLY. Follow this instruction to the letter and it will open the way for a complete understanding and mastery of the principles of success.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

Autosuggestion is a term that applies to all suggestions and all self-administered stimuli that reach one’s mind through the five senses.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

Stated in another way, autosuggestion is self-suggestion.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

NO THOUGHT, whether it is negative or positive, CAN ENTER THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND WITHOUT THE AID OF THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTOSUGGESTION,

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

Autosuggestion is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed the subconscious mind thoughts of a creative nature or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of the mind.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

Emil Coué formula, ‘Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better’, without mixing emotion and faith with your words, you will experience no desirable results.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

The price of ability to influence your subconscious mind is everlasting persistence in applying the principles described here.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

When you begin to carry out the first of the six steps, which instructs you to ‘fix in your own mind the exact amount of money you desire’, hold your thoughts on that amount of money by concentration, or fixation of attention, with your eyes closed, until you can actually see the physical appearance of the money

This can be applied to other things you designer - say, a marathon or a ideal body type etc.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

When visualising the money you intend to accumulate (with closed eyes), see yourself rendering the service, or delivering the merchandise you intend to give in return for this money.

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

The instructions given in connection with the six steps in Chapter 2 will now be summarised and blended with the principles covered by this chapter: 1. Go into some quiet spot (preferably in bed at night) where you will not be disturbed or interrupted. Close your eyes and repeat aloud (so you may hear your own words) the written statement of the amount of money you intend to accumulate, the time limit for its accumulation, and a description of the service or merchandise you intend to give in return for the money. As you carry out these instructions, see yourself already in possession of the money. For example: suppose you intend to accumulate $100,000 by the first of January, five years hence, and that you intend to give personal services in return for the money in the capacity of a sales representative. Your written statement of your purpose should be similar to the following: ‘By the first day of January 20 ... I will have in my possession $100,000, which will come to me in various amounts from time to time during the interim. ‘In return for this money I will give the most efficient service of which I am[…]

January 7, 2021

CHAPTER 4 - AUTOSUGGESTION: the Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

People may gain control of themselves and their environment because they have the power to influence their own subconscious minds, and through it gain the cooperation of Infinite Intelligence

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

I believe that close association with one who refuses to compromise with circumstances he does not like is an asset that can never be measured in terms of money.

January 10, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

There are two kinds of knowledge. One is general, the other is specialised. General knowledge, no matter how great in quantity or variety it may be, is of but little use in the accumulation of money. The faculties of the great universities possess, in the aggregate, practically every form of general knowledge known to civilisation. They specialise in teaching knowledge, but they do not specialise in the organisation, or the use, of knowledge.

January 10, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

This ‘missing link’ in all systems of education known to civilisation today may be found in the failure of educational institutions to teach their students HOW TO ORGANISE AND USE KNOWLEDGE AFTER THEY ACQUIRE IT.

January 10, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

That word is derived from the Latin ‘educo’, meaning to educe, to draw out, to develop from within.

January 10, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

If I should really want to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid people who can answer any question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have people around me who can supply any knowledge I require?’

January 10, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

Before you can be sure of your ability to transmute desire into its monetary equivalent, you will require specialised knowledge of the service, merchandise or profession you intend to offer in return for fortune.

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

The more important of these are: a. One’s own experience and education b. Experience and education available through cooperation of others c. Colleges and universities d. Public libraries (through books and periodicals in which may be found all the knowledge organised by civilisation) e. Special training courses (through evening classes and distance-learning courses in particular)

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

that you have accurate information concerning dependable sources of knowledge.

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

Those who are not successful usually make the mistake of believing that the knowledge-acquiring period ends when they finish school.

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

The person who stops studying merely because they have finished school is forever hopelessly doomed to mediocrity, no matter what their calling.

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

The answer is, DOING A THING WELL IS NEVER TROUBLE! THE PLAN PREPARED BY THIS WOMAN FOR THE BENEFIT OF HER SON HELPED HIM GET THE JOB FOR WHICH HE APPLIED, AT THE FIRST INTERVIEW, AT A SALARY FIXED BY HIMSELF

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

THE POSITION DID NOT REQUIRE THE YOUNG MAN TO START AT THE BOTTOM. HE BEGAN AS A JUNIOR EXECUTIVE, AT AN EXECUTIVE’S SALARY.

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

This idea of starting at the bottom and working one’s way up may appear sound, but the major objection to it is this - too many of those who begin at the bottom never manage to lift their heads high enough to be seen by opportunity, so they remain at the bottom

January 12, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

That is one of the major points I am trying to emphasise through this entire philosophy - that we rise to high positions or remain at the bottom because of conditions we can control if we desire to control them.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

When the economy slows down and jobs become scarce, a means of creating newer and better ways of marketing our services is needed

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

One would need to be a fair writer with a flair for advertising and selling, one handy at graphic design, and one should be a first-class business getter who would let the world know about the service. If one person possessed all these abilities, he or she might carry on the business alone until it became too big for one person to handle.

...is this me...?!

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

If you have the imagination and seek a more profitable outlet for your services, this suggestion may be the stimulus for which you have been searching.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

The idea is capable of yielding an income far greater than that of the ‘average’ doctor, lawyer or engineer whose education required several years in college.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

The idea is saleable to those seeking new positions in practically all positions calling for managerial or executive ability, and those desiring rearrangement of incomes in their present positions.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 5 - SPECIALISED KNOWLEDGE: Personal Experiences or Observations

Capability means imagination, the one quality needed to combine specialised knowledge with ideas in the form of organised plans designed to yield riches

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

The earth on which you live, you yourself and every other material thing are the result of evolutionary change, through which microscopic bits of matter have been organised and arranged in an orderly fashion. Moreover - and this statement is of stupendous importance - this earth, every one of the billions of individual cells of your body and every atom of matter began as an intangible form of energy. Desire is a thought impulse! Thought impulses are forms of energy. When you begin with the thought impulse desire to accumulate money, you are drafting into your service the same ‘stuff ’ that nature used in creating this earth and every material form in the universe, including the body and brain in which the thought impulses function.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

First you give life, action and guidance to ideas, and then they take on a power of their own and sweep aside all opposition.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Our only limitation, within reason, lies in the development and use of our imagination.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

SYNTHETIC IMAGINATION: Through this faculty one may arrange old concepts, ideas or plans into new combinations

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

CREATIVE IMAGINATION: Through the faculty of creative imagination, the finite mind of humankind has direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Your imaginative faculty may have become weak through inaction. It can be revived and made alert through use

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Desire is only a thought, an impulse. It is nebulous and ephemeral.

January 13, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Centre your attention, for the time being, on the development of the synthetic imagination. Transformation of the intangible impulse of desire into the tangible reality of money calls for the use of a plan, or plans.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

the ‘secret’ is not a secret. Nature, herself, advertises it on the earth on which we live, the stars, the planets suspended within our view, in the elements above and around us, in every blade of grass and every form of life within our vision.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

The conversion of desire into its physical equivalent is certainly no more miraculous!

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

What the clerk really purchased was an idea!

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

All through the Depression of the 1930s, when factories, banks and business houses were folding up and quitting by the thousands, the owner of this enchanted kettle went marching on, giving continuous employment to an army of men and women all over the world, and paying out extra portions of gold to those who, long ago, had faith in the idea.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you may be engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words ‘Coca-Cola’, that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single idea, and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk - Asa Candler - mixed with the secret formula was . . . imagination!

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Every night he took that thought to bed with him. He got up with it in the morning. He took it with him everywhere he went. He turned it over and over in his mind until it became a consuming obsession with him. A million dollars is a lot of money. He recognised that fact, but he also recognised the truth that the only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s own mind

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Being a philosopher as well as a preacher, Dr Gunsaulus recognised, as do all who succeed in life, that definiteness of purpose is the point from which one must begin.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Observe this important fact: HE GOT THE MONEY WITHIN 36 HOURS OF REACHING A DEFINITE DECISION IN HIS OWN MIND TO GET IT, AND DECIDING UPON A DEFINITE PLAN FOR GETTING IT!

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

IDEAS CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO CASH THROUGH THE POWER OF DEFINITE PURPOSE, PLUS DEFINITE PLANS

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty alone will bring riches, perish the thought! It is not true! Riches, when they come in huge quantities, are never the result of hard work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance or luck.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

That, as simple as it may seem, was an idea! It was imagination. There is no standard price on ideas. Creators of ideas make their own price, and, if they are smart, they get it.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

The story of practically every great fortune starts with the day when a creator of ideas and a seller of ideas got together and worked in harmony. Carnegie surrounded himself with experts who could do all that he could not do, people who created ideas and men who put ideas into operation and made themselves and the others fabulously rich.

January 14, 2021

CHAPTER 6 - IMAGINATION: the Workshop of the Mind

Herb Kelleher gives this advice to success-minded people: • Stick to your ideas. Despite the efforts of its giant competitors to keep Southwest from entering the business, a positive attitude kept them going during three years of court fights and no operating income. • Think of what the customers want and then give it to them. • Overcome obstacles put in your path by taking positive steps to break them down - even while the battle is being fought, find ways to get around them. • Keep open to new opportunities, and when they arise, take positive steps to meet them.

January 15, 2021