Napoleon Hill Laws of Success Full Length

my name is W Clement Stone as general manager of the Napoleon Hill Associates it is my privilege to introduce you to Napoleon Hill how do you do I'm very happy to have this personal visit with you won't you be seated please and now may I request that you forget all your problems and just relax while I bring you the master key with which you may unlock the door to any opportunity that your mind can conceive uh the master key consists of 17 principles the first of which is uh definiteness of purpose uh right here at the beginning of our visit I'm going to make you a promise if you will decide definitely what you want most during your entire lifetime and write it down on paper so that I can read it I will give you the master key with which you may open the door to the attainment of your desires whatever they may be at the exact moment when I will deliver this mag key to you will depend entirely upon when you are ready to receive re it uh this is the first of 13 messages that I will deliver to you now in each message I will describe the master key in terms that you will understand if you are ready to understand and now I shall give you the first cue as to the nature of the great master key which has been responsible for all the great successes in every calling in every part of the world uh please listen carefully to what I have to say because you may discover the SE secret of the master key in this first visit you may get your first cue as to the nature of the great Ma key when I tell you that psychologists have discovered a natural law which is the very Foundation of all personal successes and I can describe it to you in one short sentence so you can understand it whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve isn't that a profound statement you will notice that it says nothing about uh the need for education but simply that whatever your mind can conceive and believe your mind can achieve now if you want evidence that the mind can achieve whatever the mind can conceive without the benefit of formal education you all have to remember that Thomas a Edison conceived the idea of becoming an inventor and live to become the world's greatest scientists in the field of invention with only 3 months of common school education when I first heard Andrew Carnegie described this natural law which makes it possible for you and I and everyone else to write his own price tag in life and attain it I became so enthused over it that I began to search for the power back of it and my curiosity led me finally to the discovery of the master key which I shall reveal to you if you are ready to receive it my search led me to the study of the spiritual forces with which all of us are blessed and it was in this field that I Came Upon a clue which has enable me to help millions of people to find their Earthly Destinies I want to describe my Discovery in the simplest terms possible because it will reveal to you why it is true that whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past or how L day your aims and hopes may be I caught my first pleading glimpse of the profound law which provides the means by which we may choose our own purpose in life and attain it while I was being coached by Andrew Carnegie during the organization of the science of success philosophy I had just finished telling Mr Carnegie that I feared he had chosen the wrong person to give the world the first practical philosophy of personal success because of my youth my lack of Education and my lack of finances well at this point Mr Carnegie delivered a lecture that I shall never forget because it changed my entire life and pave the way for my helping to change the lives of millions of people some of them not yet born let me call your attention to a great power which is under your control said Mr Carnegie a power which is greater than poverty greater than the lack of Education greater than all of your fears and superstitions combined it is the power to take possession of your own mind and direct it to whatever ends you may desire this profound power Mr Carnegie continued is the gift of the Creator and it must have been considered the greatest of all of his gifts to man because it is the only thing over which man has the complete and unchallengeable right of control and Direction when you speak of your poverty and lack of Education Mr Carnegie explained you are simply directing your mind power to attract these undesirable circumstances because it is true that whatever your mind feeds upon your mind attracts to you now you see why it is important that you recognize that all success begins with definit of Purpose with a clear picture in your mind of precisely what you want from Life uh then Mr Carnegie continued his speech with a description of a great universal truth which made such an impact upon my mind that I began then and there to give myself a new outlook on life and set up for myself a goal so far above my previous achievements that it shocked my friends and relatives when they heard about it everyone said Mr Carnegie comes to the Earth plane blessed with the privilege of controlling his mind power and directing it to whatever ends he may choose but he continued everyone brings over with him at Birth the equivalent of two sealed envelopes one of which is clearly labeled the riches you may enjoy if you take possession of your own mind and directed to ends of your own choice and the other is labeled the penalties you must pay if you neglect to take possession of your mind and direct it and now let me reveal to you said Mr Carnegie the contents of those two sealed envelopes in the one labeled riches is uh this list of blessings one Sound Health two Peace of Mind three a labor of love of your own choice four Freedom From Fear and worry five a positive mental attitude six material Riches of your own choice and quantity in the sealed envelope labeled penalties Mr Carnegie continued is this list of the prices one must pay for neglecting to take possession of his own mind one ill health two fear and worry three indecision and doubt four frustration and discouragement throughout life five poverty and want six and a whole flock of evils consisting of Envy greed jealousy anger hatred and Superstition now my mission in life is to help you and everyone who needs my help to open up and use the contents of the sealed envelope labeled riches and the starting point from which you must take off if you wish to write your own ticket from here on out for the remainder of your life I will describe for you in these simple instructions one procure a neat pocket sized notebook well something on the order this one here loose leaf of fire and on page one write down a clear description of your major desire in life the one circumstance or position or thing which you will be willing to accept as your idea of success and remember before you begin writing that your only limitations are those which you set up in your own mind or permit others to set up for you and two on page two of your notebook write down a clear statement of precisely what you intend to give in return for that which you desire from life and then start in right where you stand now to begin giving and three memorize both of your statements what you desire and what you intend to give in return for it and repeat them at least a dozen times daily and always end your statements with this expression of gratitude for the blessings with which you were gifted at Birth I ask not for Divine Providence for more riches but more wisdom with which to accept and use wisely the riches I received at Birth in the form of the power to control and direct my mind to whatever ends I desire if you are not too successful or self-satisfied to accept and express this profound prayer if you accept it and express it in the same Spirit of humble sincerity in which I pass it on to you a new and a better world will reveal itself to you a world in which you will see reflected the circumstances and the things which you yourself have created in my next visit I will give you a description of the second principle of Success Through the application of which you may make use of the education and experience of other people and get the necessary help you may need in attaining your definite major purpose in life and now let me close this our first visit with my favorite expression of gratitude oh Divine Providence I ask not for more riches but more wisdom with which to make wiser use of the riches you gave me at Birth consisting in the power to control and direct my own mind to whatever ends I desire we come now to the second of the 17 principles which lead to the master key with which you may open the door to the attainment of your definite major purpose in life uh this principle of success is called the master mind principle I want you to understand the nature of the Mastermind Principle because you must use it before you can take possession of the master key an understandable definition of The Mastermind is this it consists of two or more people who work in perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose now here are some interesting facts about the Mastermind which uh give you an idea of how important it is and how necessary that you Embrace this principle and make use of it in attaining success in your chosen occupation first of all it is the principle through which you may borrow and use the education the experience the influence and perhaps the capital of other people in carrying out your own plans in life it is the principle through which you can accomplish in one year more than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime if you you depended entirely upon your own efforts for success and I have heard well informed Bible students say that the first known application of The Mastermind was that which existed between the Nazarene and his 12 disciples of one fact I am absolutely sure when you form a true Mastermind alliance with others and uh work with them in a spirit of Perfect Harmony you can draw freely upon the spiritual forces within you in carrying out your plans and desires I also know that the Mastermind Principle can give you absolute protection against failure provided always that your purpose is in using this principle is beneficial to all whom you influence in my research while organizing the science of success I had the collaboration of practically every outstanding successful man this country has produced during the past 50 years and I can tell you definitely that their success was due in the main to their knowledge and application of The Mastermind Principle I wish also to call your attention to the fact that our Great American way of life and our unmatchable system of free enterprise have been built upon the Mastermind Principle the greatest document ever conceived by the mind of man is a perfect example of The Mastermind Principle in action it is the Declaration of Independence and the best evidence of the importance of maintaining Perfect Harmony in a mastermind Alliance may be found in the fact that the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence knew full well that it might turn out to be either a license of Freedom For All Mankind or a death warrant which would cause each of the signers to be hang now let us see how the Mastermind Principle has brought success to people whom we all know first uh consider when Kate Smith began her career as a singer she had difficulty in earning enough from her singing to pay her living expenses and she perhaps never would have made her singing pay if she had not discovered and applied The Mastermind Principle which gave her access to the master key success when she formed a mastermind alliance with Ted Collins and according to a report I saw in reader digest Kate Smith has earned upwards of $30 million and she is still in the upper brackets of income two I remember when Edgar Bergen and that cute little Bak of wood known as Charlie McCarthy used to play anywhere they could get an engagement and I rather suspect that often all they got for their services was a meal uh but Edgar Bergen is a smart man in the field of entertainment so he formed a mastermind Alliance which introduced him and Charlie to millions of people by radio and television and I suspect he is not concerned about money any longer and you may be surprised when I tell you that the great for for industrial Empire started with the formation of a mastermind alliance between Henry Ford and his wife at the beginning of his career Henry Ford was shy and lacking self-confidence it was M Ford who inspired Henry Ford with the faith and the courage to go ahead with the Perfection of his Horseless Carriage although his relatives and neighbors generally tried to discourage him from wasting his time with the contraption as they called it four the Federation of States known as the United States of America is the richest and the most powerful Nation civilization has yet produced and the secret of our strength and riches consists in our form of government through which all our states function in a Spirit of Harmony based on the Mastermind principal through a central federal government located at Washington and now a word to you personally if you work for a salary or wages you have a marvelous opportunity to promote yourself into a higher income and a more responsible position by forming a mastermind alliance with your associate workers including the management in my next visit I will give you further instructions on how to apply The Mastermind Principle so as to increase your own income and promote yourself to a higher position with the full cooperation of your management yes that is correct I will show you how to write your own price tag fix your own wages establish your own working hours and give yourself Financial Independence but right now I want you to do three things before our next visit first decide definitely where you wish to be and what you wish to be doing during the next 3 years and second decide how much money you desire to be making and what you are going to do to earn it and third form a mastermind alliance with at least one person in your immediate family and at least one other person among those to whom you are selling your services by taking these three steps you will have gone a long way toward appropriating the great master key to success there is no such thing is something for nothing everything including your personal success has a price that must be paid and the only price you are requested to pay for the present is the effort necessary to do three simple things that I have suggested now before you begin to tick the three steps I have suggested there is one important fact I wish to you to remember and it is this control your mental attitude and make yourself friendly and agreeable with everyone with whom you are closely associated uh if you expect friendly cooperation in return indifference cannot create a mastermind Alliance for you a negative mental attitude can bring you nothing but failure remember always you are where you are and what you are because of your mental attitude in which you relate yourself to other people remember also your mental attit attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control success is something which has to be planned and success is something which has to be earned in advance true there is such a thing as luck but just remember that luck is something you can create for yourself if you know the rules and follow them just as I give them to you remember too that success in the higher brackets of achievement is something that can be had only by taking others along with you and the best definition of success which I know is this success is the knowledge with which to get whatever you want from life without violating the rights of others and by helping others to acquire it uh there is a known formula for the attainment of success and it is as definite and certain as are the rules of mathematics or the principles of science my purpose in these visits is to bring you that formula in simple terms that you can understand and apply but I can never give you that for which you are not ready if you are ready to advance into the higher brackets of success uh you will recognize this fact by your willingness to follow the simple instructions I shall give you as we go along if Kate Smith had not been ready for Success when she formed a mastermind alliance with Ted Collins he couldn't have brought her success uh this thing called success is a very profound and interesting thing because the the line of demarcation between success and failure is so slight that it is often hard to tell where one ends and the other Begins for example in my association with the late Henry Ford I recognized that he had thousands of people working for him who had much more education than he more magnetic personalities more ability to make friends and a much better chance of succeeding than Mr Ford had when he was working for wages but Mr Ford had one simple quality the others who worked for him did not possess the same quality I will clearly describe for you in my future visits with you meanwhile I would be interested in knowing if you can describe this one simple quality Henry Ford possessed which made him the greatest industrialist this nation has ever produced in my next visit I will give you a definite clue as to the success quality which helped Henry Ford spread his influence throughout the world and make himself richer than crusis despite the fact that he had only a meager common school education until then please be of good cheer will you and just remember that your only real limitation is the one you accept and set up in your own mind well this our third visit brings us to the success principle which has marked the turning point of every person who has promoted himself or herself from the lower brackets of success to the higher planes of achievement where one acquires everything he desires this principle is called the habit of going the extra mile which means the habit of rendering more service and better service than one is expected to render and doing it in a positive mental attitude I'm going to tell you all I know about this magic principle of self- advancement because it is the one rule you must follow if you expect to write your own price tag and to be sure of getting it uh let me describe this sucess principle for you in a brief formula which you can easily remember I call it the qqm formula which means the quality of service you render plus the quantity of service you render plus the mental attitude in which you render service determines the space you occupy in your chosen calling and the compensation you get from your services if you will examine carefully the people whom you know to be unusually successful you will discover that they follow the QQ ma formula although they may do so unconsciously now I wish to give you a big advantage over those who follow this formula unconsciously I wish to show you how to make use of it deliberately with purpose of forethought so you may make the principle pay off in a big way and do it quickly and now I shall tell you some of the benefits you will enjoy by following the habit of going the extra mile one this habit will bring you to the favorable attention of those who can't can and will provide you with opportunities to promote yourself into a better circumstance two it will place back of you that great natural law of increasing returns through which the service you render will bring back greater than average compensations and three following this habit will make you indispensable in your chosen occupation or calling therefore it will place you in a position to write your own ticket and four this habit will help you to excel in your line of work because each time you render service you Endeavor to do a better job than you did previously and five if you work for a salary or wages this habit will give you preference when work is slack and others are laid off and six it will help you to benefit by the law of contrast because the others around you will not be going the first mile let alone the Second Mile and seven following this habit of doing your very best in all of your efforts and doing it in a pleasing mental attitude will improve your personality and make you liked by others and eight it will also help you to develop a keen alert imagination because you will be continuously seeking new and better ways of rendering useful service nine it will inspire you to move on your own personal initiative instead of waiting to be told what to do a habit which is the first step in leadership in all callings the habit of going the extra mile definitely develops greater self-reliance and gives one more courage to move ahead without the fear of criticism from others and here is one thing it does which if it benefited you in no other way would justify you in adopting it it helps you to master the destructive habit of procrastination the one habit which heads the list of causes of failure 12 going the extrem mile influences other people to respect your integrity and inspires them to go out of their way to cooperate with you in a friendly spirit and 13 The Habit helps you to develop definiteness of purpose which is the starting point of all personal success and it stops you from drifting through life without knowing what you want or where you are going and number 14 and here is the grand payoff which this habit gives you it provides you with the one and only excuse for asking for a promotion to a better station in Life or a higher pay obviously if you are doing no more than you are being paid for then you are receiving pay for all to which you entitled and you have not a single excuse for asking for more pay or a better position you understand this point and uh appreciate its significance do you not 15 last but not least the habit of going the extra mile conditions your mind to maintain a mastermind alliance with others ever so often I hear people complain about they're not receiving receiving favorable breaks in their relations with others I never hear this sort of complaint from one of my students of the science of success nor from anyone who has ever read any book that I have written because all of my students have learned the secret of how to create their own favorable breaks they do it by following the habit of going the extra mile I can tell you frankly I have never received a major favorable break during my entire life that did not come from having applied the principle of going the extr m sometimes I hear people complain also that their positions are such that they are not permitted to go the extra mile and my counsil to these people is always the same change positions and Market your services where it pays to go the extra mile I am sincere in giving this advice because I know that no one can do better than earn a m living unless and until he begins going the extra mile during my business career I suppose I have employed at one time or another at least a score of private secretaries all of whom followed the habit of going the extra M but I have never been able to keep but one of those secretaries for more than a year because invariably they promoted themselves into better paying jobs elsewhere and they did so with my full blessings the one exception is my present Chief secretary who has been with me for over 10 years I married her to make sure I wouldn't lose her the reason I I know definitely that the habit of going the extra mile is a sound procedure is the fact that I have checked this Principle as I did all of the other 16 success principles to make sure they were in harmony with natural laws I can give you a fine example of how nature forces man to go the extra mile in order that he may produce the food with which to exist the farmer for example must follow the habit of clearing the ground fencing it plowing it and planting the seed at the right SE season of the year all of which he must do in advance without compensation of any kind if he does his part of the work properly he then hands the job over to Nature sits down and waits for her to do her part and within a brief period nature germinates the seed the farmer plants matures it and yields back to him the seed he planted plus perhaps an increase of 100 times that amount to compensate him for having gone the extra mile thus we see that the law of increasing returns comes to the aid of the man who goes the extra mile and this principle applies the same in rendering service in a job as it does in the fields of a farmer if the farmer did not follow the habit of going the extra mile the human race would starve to death in one season and I am sure you will agree that any time we can copy Mother Nature's habits we will not go wrong in doing so you'll now have a possession of the Third principle of Personal Achievement which brings you three steps nearer the secret by which you may take possession of the master success in order that you may test the magic power of this third principle I'm going to offer you a suggestion which uh may bring you such overwhelming success that you will not need to attend further visits with me my suggestion is this first start tomorrow in whatever occupation you are engaged to render some form of useful service to some one near you which you are not expected to render and for which you neither expect nor ask for compensation and two render this service in a pleasing mental attitude which will show clearly that you enjoy doing it and three follow this practice 7 Days in succession and then notice what a changed atmosphere you will enjoy in your association with those nearest you in carrying out these instructions do not uh make known your plan to anyone but go ahead and do it in the most natural way possible by the end of the seventh day you will find yourself so much happier and so much better liked by those around you that you will never desire to give up the Habit then you will be within easy reach of the Supreme secret of success which comes through the master key to success in my fourth visit with you I will give you a very definite clue as to the means by which you may appropriate and use the great master key and in this same clue I will introduce you to the source of a form of power which does not recognize the word impossible and helps you to transmute all failures and defeats and all adversities into assets of great benefit to you and now until our next visit may I remind you that if you believe it you can do it we come now to the fourth visit where I shall introduce you to your greatest asset and with this introduction the master success will be within your easy reach I say this is your greatest asset because it is the fourth of the 17 success principles with which you may tap and draw upon the supreme power which created you and runs this entire universe the name of this principle is applied faith and I want you to remember it is not something I am bringing to you but it is something you already possess although you may not have made use of it in the past and now let me tell you what applied faith is and what you can do with it applied faith is the mental attitude wherein you may clear your mind of all fears and doubts and direct it to the attainment of whatever you desire in life in our first visit I told you that you and I and every person were blessed with the privilege of complete control over but one thing and that is the exclusive right to take possession of our own minds and direct them to the attainment of whatever we desire in life applied faith is a mental attitude we must cultivate and maintain before we can take complete possession of our minds it is the means by which we may break the seal of that envelope I mentioned in our first visit and take full possession of the six forms of riches we get in return for taking possession of our minds and using them those six riches were as you may remember Sound Health peace of mind a labor of love of your own choice Freedom From Fear and worry a positive mental attitude and material Riches of your own choice and quantity we are now this very moment standing in front of the Gateway which can be opened only with the great master key to success and I'm giving you the closest clue I have yet mentioned as to how you may take possession of this key in order that you may condition your mind to embrace and use applied Faith you must understand that there are two ways in which you can use Faith you can put it into reverse gear and uh use it in a negative way by allowing your mind to dwell upon the circumstances and the things you do not want such as poverty ill health failure defeat and uh this is precisely what the majority of people do which explains why the majority of people go through life in misery and want or you can take possession of your mind and direct it to think of the six riches which came over with you in that sealed envelope and you will attract these riches to bless and serve you all through your life isn't it a strange fact that most people make a negative application of their great power of Faith by thinking about and believing in poverty ill health fear failure and defeat when it would be so easy for them just to change their thinking over to the circumstan and things they desire now let me give you a description of the one thing which represents the main difference between a successful person and a failure please listen carefully and think for yourself as I speak because failure to recognize the truth I am about to give you is the starting point of most failures successful people in all occupations all professions and all callings have one trait which distinguishes them from the failures it is their capacity for belief the failures see the hole in the donut but do not see the donut around the hole the successes see the hole also but they see the donut around the hole Thomas a Edison believed that he could perfect an incandescent electric lamp and despite the fact that he failed over 10,000 times before he was crowned with success he made his belief uncover the secret for which he was searching uh give one guess as to how many times the average person must fail before he quits fails because of the lack of capacity for belief how many times can you meet with defeat before you give up The Ghost and quit Henry Ford believed he could build a self-propelled vehicle which would take the place of the horse and buggy and despite the ridicule of relatives and neighbors and the lack of finances he transmuted his belief into an industrial Empire which changed the entire American way of life mind you Ford did this with very little education and no operating Capital to begin with right here let me ask you a question which may well change your entire life you perhaps have an idea or a plan which would be useful to other people but you have done nothing about it because you lack the self-confidence to give you a start in other words you are now where Henry Ford was before he built the first model of His World Famous Auto M uh Mr Ford broke through that wall of fear which may now be holding you back and put his idea into operation by making use of The Mastermind Principle I mentioned in our second visit through an alliance with his wife now the question I wish to ask you is this why don't you form a mastermind alliance with someone and begin putting your ideas to work for you belief is truly a magic word because because it is the beginning of all successes it is the very Foundation of civilization it is the one quality you must develop before you can make use of the great master key to success to be successful you must become a person with a great capacity for belief and the place to start believing is with yourself you should begin by recognizing that you were born with the privilege of complete control over your own mind you should also recognize that by the application of the master key to success which I am passing on to you through these visits you can take full possession of your mind and make it yield you whatever you demand in life observe I use the word demand not beg the Creator never intended for you to beg for anything if he had he would not have blessed you with full control over your own mind if your life is not what you want it to be you can change it as a matter of fact you can do anything within reason that you desire to do if you embrace the principle of Applied faith and keep it directed to the attainment of the things you want and off the things you do not want I should know what I'm talking about because I was handicapped at Birth by The Four Horsemen which keep most people in bondage all the days of their lives poverty fear illiteracy and Superstition I have discovered the master key which gives one deliverance from all the evils one does not want and opens wide the gateway to the riches which the Creator intended every person to enjoy on this Earth applied faith is the only means by which the master key can be appropriated and used therefore I give you these instructions through which you may create a mental attitude which is f favorable for the expression of Faith one know what you want and believe that you can and will get it two give expressions of gratitude many times daily for having received that which you want even before you actually get physical possession of it possession starts first in the mind please remember this third keep your mind open for hunches from within and when you are inspired to action do not wait but move on your own personal initiative at once remember there can be no application of Applied faith without action fourth when overtaken by defeat as you may be many times remember that man's faith is tested many times before he is crowned with final Victory and accept your defeat as nothing more than a challenge to keep on trying and five a burning desire for for the things or circumstances you want is the starting point of all applied Faith be definite believe and act and keep on acting if at first you meet with a defeat six when doubt creeps into your mind remember that uh whatsoever a man believeth that shall he also reap remember faith is not something you get Faith is something you already have but you may be using it in reverse gear by believing in the circumstances and things you do not want the things you fear remember also that faith is guidance only it is not a power which will bring you what you want but a power that can guide you to go after what you want and get it remember two that your faith is limited only by your own capacity to believe you you can do whatever you make up your mind to do I believed I could give the world a practical philosophy of success which would free men and women from their fears and limitations I stood firmly back of that belief through 20 odd years of effort and saw my belief give freedom to millions of people do the thing said Emerson and you shall have the power may I paraphrase this great Truth by saying believe and you shall receive and now until our next visit will you please remember that your life is exactly what you make it by your own mental attitude I'm happy to be with you for our fifth visit and our subject is a pleasing personality your personality determines whether people are attracted to you or shy away from you it is the show window in which your you display your character to the world and it is the one thing which distinguishes you from all other human beings it is your trademark by which people recognize you and it is the thing which determines your success or failure in selling yourself through life therefore you should see your personality just as others see it so you may improve it where it needs Improvement uh your personality consists of more than different factors traits and characteristics because of the limit of time I can devote to this visit with you I can mention only the more important of your traits of personality but before I begin to describe these traits I want you to know that every trait which goes into your personality is under your control and you can improve it so it will be whatever you want it to be let us start with the most important trait of your personality your mental attitude this is the trait with which you attract people to you and cause them to like you or repel them and cause them to dislike you your mental attitude must be positive if you attract people to you how do other people know whether your mental attitude is positive or negative you may ask well the answer is easy first of all other people tune in and pick up your mental attitude by telepathy without your saying a word or making a move uh but there are other ways they can tell whether your mental attitude is negative or positive you disclose this information by the tone of your voice whether it is Pleasant or harsh by the expression on your face whether it is soft and pleasing or harsh and scowling by the courtesy and consideration you show other people or the lack of these so you see There Is No Escape from revealing to others the exact nature of your person ality the next most important trait of your personality consists of your flexibility of your mental attitude or your lack of it if you have flexibility you adjust yourself to all the circumstances in your relations with others without losing your composure or allowing yourself to become irritable or angry uh just remember if you have flexibility of your mental attitude it will be impossible for anyone to make you angry or to irritate you without your consent or coop operation now this is worth knowing isn't it you cannot control the actions of other people which might justify you in becoming irritated by them but you can control your reaction to all such circumstances by exercising your trait of flexibility and you will observe that all people in the higher brackets of success have this flexibility and they do control their reaction to the influences of other people the third most important trait of a pleas personality is the ability to control and direct your emotion of enthusiasm uh enthusiasm is one of the means by which you can give forcefulness to your words but you must be able to turn it on and off at will as definitely as you can turn on and off water at the spigot uncontrolled enthusiasm often makes people boresome it also may open wide the window to one's Mind through which other people may enter and influence wants one in ways he does not wish to be influenced the fourth most important trait of a pleasing personality is a sincerity of purpose the person who is not sincere in all relationships with others is soon detected and rejected because no one is attracted to the person who thus Endeavors to deceive others sincerity is one quality of character which cannot be successfully faked not even by the most astute Rascal or the most efficient actor because because insincerity everm more carries with it some warning sign which other people recognize you have only to go back into your own experience with insincere people to prove the truth of what I have stated there are 26 other important traits which give one a pleasing personality but uh I do not have time to give them to you in this visit uh now let us turn our attention to some of the common habits which destroy a pleasing personality uh please uh check yourself as I describe these negative habits and you may make discoveries about yourself sufficient to enable you to rebuild your entire personality so it will become a master salesman in your behalf one one of the most uh destructive habits which make one's personality objectionable is that of breaking in and running away with the conversation when others are speaking and two sarcasm expressed by insinuations and Wise Cracks which are not so wise is near the head of the list of habits which give one a negative personality and third vanity expressed by either words or actions is sure to make one unpopular and four indifference in listening While others are speaking is sure to be noticed and resented it is more profitable to be a good listener than it is to be a good talker because one is always apt to learn something while listening to others uh but never learns anything from hearing himself talk five the attempt to flatter where flattery is obviously not deserved will bring quick resentment from others also it will put them on notice if they are wise that the flatterer wants something he perhaps should not get and six the habit of finding Fault With The World At Large and people in general is never a popular habit and it is no part of a pleasing personality it is far better to direct conversation to the circumstances and things which are right than to complain of those which One Believes to be wrong and seven one of the very worst habits which destroy a pleasing personality is that of openly and directly challenging those with whom one may not agree where there is no obvious reason for doing so except the desire to be on the opposite side and Eight the habit of volunteering unsolicited advice to others who have not requested it can make one an intolerable boore uh free advice usually is considered to be worth just what it costs which is nothing but the patience with which to listen to it and nine the habit of speaking of one's physical ailments worries and personal problems may be tolerated by others but this habit will never make one welcome or pleasing if you wish to make yourself welcome in your relations with others manage to talk about things which interest and concern those to whom you're speaking you will never be Bome to the person to whom you are speaking of himself and the things which interest him a truth which all master salesmen understand and respect and 10 uh the habit of endeavoring to convey an impression of superiority through the use of words and topics unfamiliar to others is a Surefire destroyer of popularity if you wish to sell yourself to others successfully you must negotiate with them on their own level through terms which they understand and 11 Envy of those who are successful is a trait which destroys a pleasing personality the truly great men and women have all been known to be generous sympathetic and joyous in connection with the good fortunes of others and 12 slovenliness in body posture and in clothing never attracts but always repels others clothes make not the man as has been said but they surely give him a mighty good start if they are appropriate and properly warn carelessness in body carriage and posture is immediately traceable to a negative mental attitude if you are free from these 12 common habits which make one unpopular you probably have a very pleasing personality there are five other negative habits which make one unpopular which I have not had the time to mention remember this please if you are not like by other people you may be sure there is a reason which you can detect and correct it is unnatural for one person to dislike another Without a Cause before you can make full use of the master key to success you will need to make your personality pleasing uh this will require courage on your part and honesty with yourself a pleasing personality stands near the head of the list of assets which make one truly rich I was impressed with this truth many years ago when I heard Andrew Carnegie say that he paid his right-hand Mastermind Ally char M Schwab $75,000 a year for the services he rendered directly but he often gave Mr swab a bonus at the end of the year of a million dollars for the influence he exerted on his associate workers because of his pleasing personality you see therefore Andrew Carnegie who has been said to have been the greatest judge of men this nation has ever known placed a value on a pleasing personality of more than 10 times as much as he valued the person Services of his right-hand man uh perhaps this will give you a clue that may help you up the market value of your personality and now until we meet again may I wish you health wealth and peace of mind this visit brings us to the sixth principle of success without which the five principles I have given you previously would be useless it is the principle of self-discipline self-discipline as I am presenting it to you here has reference not only to your Mastery of negative habits which stand in the way of your success but more particularly to your development and enforcement of the positive habits you will need in order to Avail yourself of the six assets you brought over with you in that sealed envelope I mentioned in our first visit now let me give you a list of the more important things over which you will have to exercise self-discipline before you can Embrace and use the great master key to riches one you will have to gain Mastery over your tongue by acquiring the habit of thinking first and then speaking after you are sure that what you say will benefit you and not injure others a loose tongue often is one's greatest liability two you will have to exercise self-discipline in mastering the common tendency to strike back at those at whom you have a cause real or imaginary for a grievance you must remember that everything you do to or for another you do to or for yourself because your every thought and Every Act which benefits or injures another person comes back to you in kind greatly multiplied so if you feel that you must slander another person do not speak it but write it write it in the Sands near the water's edge then move away from it until the tides have flown three you will have to exercise self-discipline over all of your emotions particularly your emotions of love hate fear and sex uh these are the big four of your emotions and they can make you or break you according to the extent of discipline you exercise over them four your mental attitude needs discipline and control at all times lacking this discipline it can and it often does Drive Away friends destroy opportunities to get ahead brings on physical and mental illness develops stomach ulcers and uh makes Peace of Mind impossible five I have reserved the emotion of sex for special mention because failure to exercise self-discipline over this emotion probably heads the list of all the causes of personal failure the emotion of sex is the most powerful of all emotions and it is Nature's great creative instrument with which all species of living things are perpetuated the proper means of self-discipline of the emotion of sex is transmutation the control and direction of this great emotional feeling toward the attainment of worthy purposes such as the Fulfillment of one's major purpose in life the great leaders artists orators industrialists and professional people have learned the art of sex transmutation through the proper system of self-discipline uh because of the delicacy of the subject of sex emotion I am limited as to the information I can give you about it on this visit but I have covered the subject much more in detail in some of my books and six your stomach also needs discipline through the proper habits of dieting and fasting because information on dieting and fasting should come from your own doctor I will not go into details concerning them except to call your attention to the need for knowledge on this subject uh personally I attribute my sound physical health mainly to the habits of dieting and fasting which I have developed through the years and seven you will need to exercise self-discipline in relation to religion and politics because our country which is the most acceptable form of society civilization has yet produced is made up of people of varying beliefs in connection with both of these subjects to be happy and prosperous in our country we must learn to live and to let live to give others the Privileges we ask and demand for ourselves and this often calls for strict discipline over self eight but I have reserved until the last my reference to the most important circumstances over which you must exercise the strictest of self-discipline if you are to embrace and use the great master key to riches I have reference to your profound privilege of taking possession of your own mind and directing it to whatever ends you may desire you cannot take possession of your own mind or direct it to definite ends without a practical system I have devoted the better portion of my past life to the Revelation and presentation of such a system and I know that this system works because it has been successfully used by many millions of people throughout the world the system is not only practical and workable but it is so simple that anyone who is ready for it may Master it and use it successfully its use does not call for a genius nor a great amount of formal education it calls only for a will to take POS of one's own mind and a definite purpose to which the mind is to be directed self disciplined by Thomas a Edison uh made him the world's greatest inventor who revealed to mankind during the first half of the 20th century more of nature Secrets than had been uncovered during the entire previous history of civilization self-discipline carried Wilbur and Orville Wright through a multitude of failures and enabled them finally to give the world its first practical airplane an achievement which has made the world smaller and change the entire trend of civilization self-discipline helped Helen Keller to triumph over deafness blindness and dumbness a combination of Affliction such as most people never experience self-discipline helped me to carry on through years of heart-aching discouragement and defeat and the world the first practical philosophy of success based on the knowhow gained by hundreds of men and women who spent a Lifetime by the trial and error method in discovery of the principles which lead to personal success self-discipline is among the topr ranking features of all the great religions including of course the Christian faith and there are some people who believe that our major purpose on Earth is that of developing wisdom through struggle and self-discipline one thing is certain no one ever becomes very wise without the aid of self-discipline and no one ever finds peace of mind and happiness without the strict exercise of self-discipline self-discipline is the only means of transmuting Sorrow into faith it is the only means by which we may transmute hatred of others into the milder emotions of sympathy for them it is the only means by which we may reveal and profit by the seed of an equivalent benefit which comes with every adversity and every defeat it is the only means by which we may shut out of our minds the deadly effects of past experiences of suffering and unpleasantness and it is the means by which we may discover that other self we carry around with us that self which has great capacity for belief and does not become influenced by failure and defeat self-discipline can give us freedom from the fear of death the most difficult to master of all of our fears it can free us from the disease of hypochondria the fear of imaginary illness with which so many people suffer and sometimes die self-discipline is the means by which we may think our own thoughts live our own lives as we wish to live them and remain forever free from the evils of fears and limitations which we have inherited from the Dark Ages before the dawn of civilization the Creator never gives one an asset or benefit without passing along with it the means by which it may be embraced and used self discipline therefore is the means by which the Creator provided us with a method of embracing and using the only thing over which we have unchallenged aible control the power of our own thoughts and now until our next visit may I remind you that the habit of taking the line of least resistance makes all rivers and some men crooked well this brings us to the seventh visit and I hope to hand you the master key to success before I finish because my subject will lead you so near to the magy that you will be apt to recognize it as I have suggested in previous visits a positive mental attitude can clear away all obstacles which stand between you and your major purpose in life because of the importance of the subject of our visit I shall not only tell you that a positive mental attitude HS the entire list of the 12 great riches in life but I am going to give you explicit instructions as to what you must do to keep your mind positive in all the success books I have written I have never suggested to my readers what they should do without clearly telling them how to do it are you ready if you are ready this visit may bring the most important change in your life you have ever experienced one learn to adjust yourself to other people's state of mind and difficulties so as to get along peacefully with them and to refrain from taking notice of trivial circumstances in your relations with other people by refusing to allow them to become controversial incidents uh great people always avoid small incidents of controversy when possible two establish for yourself a definite fixed system of conditioning your mind at the beginning of each day so you will keep it positive under all circumstances three learn the art of selling yourself to other people by indirection such as asking leading questions which will bring out the sort of reactions from others which you desire and do not permit yourself to be drawn into argument over unimportant subjects four adopt the habit of having a good-hearted laugh every time you become irritated or angry and it will help you if you begin each day with one minute of hearty laughing uh this will change the chemistry of your brain and start you out with a positive mental attitude however you had better get out of sight when you take your laughing exercise five start each day with an expression of gratitude for all the adversities defeats failures you have experienced in the past and search for the seed of an equivalent benefit these have yielded you through the passing of time then give thanks for the blessings you expect to receive during the day six learn to concentrate your attention on the can do portion of all of your problems and desires and start action where you stand in carrying out this portion and no matter what may be your problem or your desire there is always something you can do right now that will help you uh find out what this something is and do it seven learn to transmute all unpleasant circumstances into immediate action which calls for a positive mental attitude and make this a fixed habit for example when you are angry switch your mind to some sort of action in connection with your hobby or your major purpose in life and keep it busy with that subject for 5 minutes eight recognize that every circumstance which influences your life whether it is a pleasant or unpleasant circumstance is gred for your Mill of life and so use it to make it pay you dividends in one form or another remembering meanwhile that your strength grows out of your struggles follow this instruction and you will soon learn that there is no such thing as an unprofitable experience nine look upon your life as a continuous process of Education of learning from all your experiences good and bad and to be always on the alert for gains of wisdom which come to you a little at a time in both your Pleasant and unpleasant experiences 10 make the world over to fit your own pattern if you choose but uh begin with yourself in some sort of self-improvement which will make you more open-minded patient and generous in your relations with others 11 Express gratitude twice daily for your recognition of the fact that you have been given complete control over your own mind and ask for guidance in order that you may use this profound gift wisely in all your thoughts and acts 12 go out of your way daily to comment enthusiastically on the good qualities of those with whom you live and work but do not metion their negative qualities then observe with benefit to yourself how quickly others will begin to concentrate on your good qualities remember I'm still talking about how to keep your mind positive and 13 accept all criticism of yourself as an occasion for self-examination to determine how much of it is Justified and you will be sure to make startling discoveries about yourself which will help you to the remainder of your life 14 do not accept from life or anyone else anything you do not desire and remember that Mahatma Gandhi proved himself to be more powerful than the Great British military forces by this simple method of passive resistance 15 remember always that there are two kinds of circumstances which cause you to worry those you can do something about and those you can do nothing about nothing that is except to use passive resistance and refuse to permit them to worry you 16 keep your mind eternally engaged in thinking of that which you desire most your major purpose in life so no time will be left for you to waste on thinking of that which you do not want and let me digress here while I tell you we are now rubbing elbows with the great master key of success this very moment and 17 if you should ever be so unfortunate as to feel sorry for yourself look around until you find someone who is worse off than yourself and start where you stand to give him help uh make this procedure a habit and you will witness one of the great miracles of life because that which you do to or for another you do to or for yourself and 18 choose some person whom you consider to be the sort of person you would like to be then go to work and emulate that person in every way possible uh great people have always been hero worshippers but they pick the right sort of people to emulate 19 cultivate your tone of voice so that your words have a pleasing musical sound and remember that the sound of your voice is an open window through which other people look into your very Soul it will be a profitable investment if you will get a tape recording machine and record examples of your voice daily while you practice the art of expressing yourself through a friendly sounding voice if you are engaged in selling this practice will quickly pay off in monetary dividends 20 last but by no means the least write out this sentence and paste it in a prominent place where you work and on a mirror where you see yourself in your home whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve remember also that you are the only person who can provide you with a positive mental attitude what are you going to do about it on your answer to this question rests your entire future Frank beter the author of how I raised myself from failure to success and selling listed enthusiasm as the first of his 13 success objectives and his enthusiasm became one of his most powerful assets as he learned to use the great self-motivator to be enthusiastic act enthusiastic as the eminent teacher and psychologist William James has so conclusively proved the emotions are not immediately subject to reason but they are always immediately subject to action we can achieve nothing important until we have enthusiasm now Dr Hill will explain how you can develop a feeling of enthusiasm for all that you do our eighth visit uh brings us to the subject of enthusiasm which may be likened to steam in a boiler which when it is controlled and turned on starts the wheels of Machinery into action some one has said that knowledge is power that is only a half Truth for knowledge becomes power only when it is put into action for the attainment of a definite objective enthusiasm is one of the more powerful means by which we may put into action our education experience and knowledge spoken words without enthusiasm are often ineffective and sometimes they can be actually boresome as you of course know if you have noticed the effect a speaker without enthus I ASM has on his listeners I have known lecturers to hold audiences Spellbound for 2 hours yet when members of the audience were asked to tell what the speaker had said they could not remember but what they did remember was that the speaker got their attention and held it and now let me explain why enthusiasm has such a powerful impact upon the minds of those who come under its influence to begin with I believe you'll be interested in knowing that your brain and every other person's brain is both a broadcasting station and a receiving station which sends out thought vibrations and picks up those sent out by other people when you turn on your enthusiasm you step up the vibrations of thoughts which go out from your brain so that they reach and affect other people more quickly as a matter of fact you can send out thoughts which have been so stepped up with silent enthusiasm that they will reach and influence other people to whom you direct your thoughts this is a fact which has been known to psychologist for ages and it is also known to most Master salesmen who use this method to condition the minds of their prospective buyers before they ever talk with him you must have observed that the enthusiasm is very contagious that it engages the attention of those who come under its influence and cause of them to respond in a similar Spirit of enthusiasm I once heard Andrew Carn say that if you turn loose One Man Who Thought in terms of intense enthusiasm in an industrial plant employing thousands of people this man's enthusiasm would very quickly reach and influence every person in the plant and he said it made not the slightest difference whether the enthusiasm was negative or positive constructive or destructive uh then Mr Carnegie went on to explain that in his selection of employees for promotion to bigger jobs the first thing he looked for was a man's capacity to express himself in terms of intense enthusiasm he said that enthusiasm is is one of the most important traits necessary for leadership the most successful lawyers are not necessarily those who know most about the legal profession but they are those who know how to influence courts and juries with their belief in their cases and have a great capacity for expressing themselves with enthusiasm uh when you are introduced to another person you have a marvelous opportunity to sell yourself favorably to that person by the extent of the enthusiasm you express in accepting the introduction when you shake hands with another person you have also a fine opportunity to make a favorable impression by the warmth of enthusiasm you put into that handshake if there is anything which leaves me flat and unfavorably impressed when I'm introduced it's an extended hand which feels like a piece of cold ham and acknowledges the introduction with a cold Cann pleased to meet you with no signs of enthusiasm back of it now right here let me give you a brief course in salesmanship which may be of value to you the remainder of your life when you meet anyone on whom you wish to make a favorable impression when it is a stranger you have not previously met or someone with whom you are already acquainted do these things one turn on your enthusiasm and so modulate your voice with it that you definitely make the other person feel you happy to communicate with him two when you shake his hand take a firm grip on it and give it a quick firm squeeze at the end of each word you express in your greetings for example say how do you do I am so very glad to meet you uh do not crush the hand however as I have known some people to do three then if you begin the conversation be sure that you direct it to some subject of interest to the other person and four uh follow through by eagerly asking questions which will keep attention focused upon the other person then when you are ready to have the other person he what you have to say about yourself or your interest or your business he will have been prepared to listen attentively I've often told my students of salesmanship that the best possible way for one to sell himself to others is to First sell the others to themselves that Council was sound when I began training salesman over 30 years ago and it is still sound when I was a Youngster in school I discovered that the teachers from whom I learned most were those who expressed the greatest enthusiasm in their teaching and I have heard an experienced doctor say that the enthusiasm he carries into the sick room with him has more to do with helping to bring about a cure than all the medicine he can prescribe enthusiasm is an expression of a positive mental attitude and it has long been known to doctors that a positive mental attitude stands high on the list of influences which give one sound heal I have heard it said for example that only one thing causes stomach cultures and that is worry or a negative mental attitude and only one thing can cure stomach cultures and that is a positive mental attitude it seems that disease germs cannot live and thrive in the bloodstream of one whose mind is always positive I have still another very important observation concerning the power of enthusiasm which I wish to give you I have observed that prayer is expressed with intense enthus enthusiasm bring much quicker and more satisfactory results now you can try this for yourself and be convinced I began experimenting with this idea many years ago and from my experiences I gathered the information which caused me to change my method of prayer entirely I now use the prayer I recommended to you on previous visits with the gratifying results that I get quicker and more favorable action from my prayers than I did when I Express them in a spirit which lacked enthusiasm I suggest that a very practical way to begin learning to express yourself with enthusiasm will be to follow the habit of reading aloud for 10 minutes daily putting all the enthusiasm at your command into your reading uh you will be surprised in a short while at how much this will help you in speaking with enthusiasm in your ordinary conversations I would suggest also that you adopt the habit of practicing enthusiasm in your conversations with your family and your business associates incidentally this habit will make you more popular with those who are close to you you can enjoy the benefits of enthusiasm if you are interested enough to develop a technique by which to acquire this habit so you will follow it in a natural unaffected tone of voice if you follow my suggestion that you read for 10 minutes daily as a means of acquiring the habit of enthusiasm I recommend that you write down a list of 10 subjects things or circumstances in which you have the keenest interest and use this list for your practice purposes you will have no difficulty in Reading any a tone of enthusiasm in connection with the things that you like best and finally if you have not already picked up some useful ideas as to how the habit of enthusiasm can be developed or what causes one to be enthusiastic let me give you an example which may provide you with an interesting cue you perhaps remember when you were courting the person of your choice or being courted as the case may be you needed no one to tell you how or why to be enthusiastic of course not because the motive of Love or affection took care of this without effort on your part just remember that enthusiasm is always easily expressed when one is inspired by a burning desire for something or any motive associated with one's closest interest where there is no motive there is apt to be no enthusiasm remember also that the three basic motives which it has been said practically rule the world are one the emotion of love two the emotion of sex three the desire for financial gain a combination of all three of these motives it has been claimed can convert a mediocre person into a genius and I leave the thought with you for consideration and now until our next visit I ask that you try the habit of moving with enthusiasm in all of your daily work and see how much better you will feel we come now to the ninth visit where we shall analyze the ninth principle of success which is personal initiative personal initiative is the Dynamo which starts the faculty of imagination into action in the process of translating one's definite major purpose into its physical or financial equivalent if you aim for Success above mediocrity you will need to learn to act on your own personal initiative because your success is something which you must achieve for yourself without someone telling you what to do or how to do it incidentally Cyrus HK Curtis the former owner of the Saturday evening post and one of my collaborators in organizing the the science of success philosophy was uh responsible for a motto on personal initiative of such great importance that I want you to have it said he there are two kinds of men who never amount to much those who cannot do as they are told and those who can do nothing else of course Mr Curtis's implication is very clear he implied that those who amount to something worth while in life are those who move on their own personal initiative without being told what to do or why they should do it the men who stand out in the minds of the public as the greatest successes from the days of George Washington onto the present are those who chose their own occupation business or profession and moved on their own personal initiative in achieving their purpose and those who are getting ahead most rapidly today no matter in what position they began are those who promote themselves to a higher place in life by acting on their own personal initiative the habit of personal initiative not only inspires one to move on his own responsibility but it also influences him to carry through until he completes that which he undertakes in a manner pleasing to all concerned because he knows that a winner never quits and a quitter never wins and right here is an appropriate place to say something I perhaps should have said before namely that a big success is made up of a great number of little circumstances Each of which is so small and seemingly insignificant that most people pass it by as not worthy of notice some may think for example that the habit of personal initiative is unimportant but we have only to take a look at the record of some of our greatest successes to recognize that personal initiative was an important factor without which they ever would have achieved success for example no one told FW Woolworth to start a 5 and 10 cent store the idea was his own he acted on his own personal initiative in putting his idea into action and liveed to see it yield him a fortune well above $100 million my distinguished business associate W Clement Stone started his insurance business on his own personal initiative with an operating capital of only $100 but he followed through on that same personal initiative and made his humble beginning yield an annual gross income of many millions of dollars and it was that same habit of acting on his own personal initiative of doing the thing he wanted to do which inspired Mr Stone to join forces with me in taking the science of success philosophy to millions of people throughout the world and undertaking which it is believed may help more people to find their places in the world than has any other in influence during the past 100 years the habit of personal initiative was the chief trait which helped Henry J Kaiser to build a great industrial Empire and raise himself to a high position in the industrial world it was this trait of personal initiative which inspired Mr Kaiser to pile up such an enormous record in the building of ships during World War II despite the fact that he had never built ships before one day when I was lecturing to one of my classes I mentioned Henry J Kaiser's wonderful record in building ships more cheaply and quickly than experienced ship Builders had been able to do when one of my students spoke up and said uh Mr Kaiser's having been a friend of Jesse Jones of the Federal Reserve Bank did not hurt his chances of success in it did it well for a moment it looked as if that question had placed me on a spot but I soon recovered my composure and came back with this reply no is knowing Mr Jones did not HT his chances but think of the thousands of industrialists many of whom may also have known Mr Jones but did not use their personal initiative in getting his financial help personal initiative is one quality which inspires one to form friendships and to make contacts with people who can be of Aid to them in times of need it was my personal initiative which influenced Andrew carneg to give me an opportunity to organize the science of success philosophy opy I now wish to give you an outline of the more important attributes of the person who has sufficient personal initiative to give him leadership in his chosen occupation one first of all the person who follows the habit of personal initiative has a definite major purpose in life and a plan for its attainment two and a mastermind alliance with those whose help is essential in achieving his major purpose three he has the necessary persistence and the will to win to carry him along when the going is hard and he meets with obstacles four he makes decisions promptly when he has the necessary facts on which to base them and changes them slowly if at all five he follows the habit of doing more than he is paid for and he does so in a pleasing positive mental attitude six he accepts full responsibility for everything he undertakes and never passes the book when things go wrong say seven he can take friendly criticism without resentment because he has learned to profit by it eight he knows what the nine basic motives are which inspire all human Endeavors and never requests anyone to do anything for him without giving that person an adequate motive for doing so nine he never expresses an opinion about anything unless he has thought the subject through and is prepared to State how he came by his opinion 10 he follows the habit of listening much and talking only when he has something to say which may benefit himself or others 11 he has a welldeveloped sense of observation of small details and knows his job from the smallest detail to the greatest 12 he never tells anyone to do anything without suggesting why it should be done and how it may be done best 13 He follows the habit of concentrating his full attention on on one thing at a time 14 his mental attitude is positive at all times when he is in communication with other people 15 if you ask him a question he will give you a direct answer even if he has to tell you he does not know the correct answer 16 last but perhaps most important of all he never puts off until tomorrow that which should have been done last week because he knows that the habit of procrastination is near the top of the list of the causes of failure if you can rate okay on each of these 16 traits of personal initiative you are a leader in your field of endeavor uh when you come to examine yourself on the subject of personal initiative just remember that your success or your failure depends very largely on the action you take in connection with your occupation no one will tell you what you should do no one will tell you what not to do the decision must be your own and you must follow through and carry out your decision on your own personal initiative if you work for wages or a salary you should decide to promote yourself through your own personal initiative to the top of the scale in your occupation and remember that your promotion is entirely in your hands in my previous visits I have given you a blueprint of the steps you should take in promoting yourself to whatever station in life you desire now let me give you a brief review of eight principles we have covered previously one definiteness of purpose by now you should know what you want most from life and you should have a plan for getting it here is the most important circumstance of your whole life where you must move on your own personal initiative because no one else can tell you what you should want most two The Mastermind Principle if you have not already formed a friendly alliance with those who can help you in attaining your major purpose in life you should move on your own personal initiative and form this Alliance at once three going the extra mile this is a must if your major purpose is anything above mediocrity four applied Faith this is the principle which gives you power in carrying out your definite major purpose and all minor purposes five a pleasing personality is an asset of Priceless value and it too is something you must acquire through your personal initiative six self-discipline the sixth principle of success is also something you acquire through your personal initiative seven a positive mental attitude which is the most important of the 12 great Riches of life is also the product of your own personal initiative eight enthusiasm is a state of mind which only you can generate through your personal initiative you see therefore that personal initiative enters into every one of the success principles and now until our next visit may I remind you that there are two types of people who never amount to anything those who will not do what they are told and those who will do nothing else our 10th visit brings us to one of the strangest of the 17 principles of success because it is the principle which makes it possible for you to convert into an asset every adversity every disappointment every defeat and every failure you meet with from now on the remainder of your life yes the principle of learning from adversity makes it possible for you to transmute all your past failures and mistakes into an asset which will help you achieve outstanding success in the future at the very outset of this visit I wish to call your attention to an important fact which may give you immediate possession of the great m success namely that your positive mental attitude is the only means by which you may convert adversities defeats and failures into assets it seems to have been intended that everyone should experience adversities defeats and even failures as a part of Nature's method of disciplining people to learn how to take possession of their own minds but the Creator very wisely provided everyone with the means for converting these experiences into benefits of a Priceless value the means being our privilege of maintaining and directing a positive mental attitude despite the benefits which we may get from adversities and unpleasant experiences of every nature no one desires to meet with these experiences once you learn that adversities can be made to pay dividends you will acquire the habit of looking for that seed of an equivalent benefit in each such experience with which you meet my first illustration concerns the man of whom you may have heard and I have no doubt you have eaten some of the food which he produced and marketed throughout the nation as a result of an adversity which would have stopped most men cold the man was Milo C Jones who owned a small farm near Fort Atkinson Wisconsin on which he made only a fire living until he was stricken down with double paralysis which deprived him of every portion of his body except his brain in this hour of his greatest adversity Milo C Jones used his mind took possession of it for the first time in his life perhaps and out of that mind came the idea of raising Hogs and converting them into little pig sausage and on that same Farm where previous to that adversity he made only a mere living he found the seed of an equivalent benefit that compensated him for the loss of the use of his body and lived to see little pig sausage yield him a huge Fortune isn't it strange that so often people have to be cut out by failure and defeat before they learn that they have Minds capable of mastering all of their problems my next illustration is based on an adversity of a man whom we all know because he was President of the United States and his name was Franklin D Roosevelt who was stricken in the prime of his life with polio which destroyed the use of his legs instead of sitting on a street corner with a Tin Cup and some lead pencils as many another might have done under similar circumstances Franklin D Roosevelt transmuted his Affliction into a buildup of his self-reliance and lifted himself to the highest position available to mankind anywhere on this Earth got that position and held it until he passed on held it longer than had any previous president verily I tell you with all the enthusiasm at my command that you may find in your adversities the necessary challenge to inspire you on to success such as you never would have known without these experiences right here may I remind you of the great importance of following the principle of a positive mental attitude because this is the principle you will need most in converting unpleasant experiences into assets my next illustration involves a very intimate personal experience of my own which began when my mother passed on I was 8 years of age I know that the loss of one's mother at any age usually is regarded as an irreparable loss which offers no possible benefits but even in the loss of loved ones we may find that there is a seed of an equivalent benefit I found that seed in one of the most wonderful persons I have ever known when my father brought home my new mother it was she who inspired me to prepare myself for the opportunity I was to receive later in life when I met Andrew carnegi and Reed from him the commission to organize the world's first practical philosophy of personal success had it not been for the loss of my mother I would not now be having this visit with you and my books would not now be serving to help millions of people throughout the world to find their places in life nothing is ever so bad or so unpleasant that it may not yield some benefit if we keep a positive mental attitude toward the experience and make it a habit to look for that seed of an equivalent benefit this of course involves the application of that important success principle personal initiative now I come to an illustration which involves our Great American way of life and all the personal freedom and opportunities we enjoy under our way of life and it begins with our defeat of the British in 1778 probably every britisher believed that the loss of the American colonies was an irreparable loss which offered no possible benefits yet you and I know that if we had not defeated the British and made ourselves rich and Powerful the British Empire probably would have been wiped out in World Wars 1 or two we know also that although the British Empire survived those two Wars it was our financial help which saved the British from starvation and bankruptcy so today every britisher should give thanks for the defeat of Lord cornwallis's armac because that defeat finally became the means of survival of the British Empire my next illustration brings us face to face with an adversity which involves you and I and every other person now living I have referenced to the trend in this and all other countries to Rob individuals of their rights of personal freedom a trend which is in direct violation of the obvious purpose of the Creator to give every individual the privilege of freedom of thought and action there is something definite you and I can do about this common Trend to Rob us of our rights of personal freedom we cannot turn it back entirely by our individual efforts but we can and we should do something about it where it affects us individually and where we know what we can do and how we can do it of course you will ask what can I do to influence a world Trend and I shall answer by saying there is something definite that you can do you can refuse to accept this common Trend and take full possession of your own mind thus fulfilling your personal respons ability to your creator remember those two sealed envelopes I mentioned in a previous visit one of them is labeled riches you may enjoy by taking possession of your own mind very well you have a responsibility to yourself your loved ones your creator to take possession of your own mind and to direct it to ends of your own choice this responsibility is yours and no one else can rob you of it or fulfill it for you you also have a responsibility to your country which has given you our Great American way of life our great system of free enterprise which is so designed as to provide one with every possible motive for taking possession of his own mind and writing his own ticket in life it is definitely a part of the overall plan of the universe to give man the benefit only of those blessings he recognizes Embraces and uses constructively tie your arm to your side and take it out of use and nature Rebels immediately by causing the arm to atrophy wither and become usess neglect to keep in contact with your friends and cultivate them and you lose them show indifference to the patrons from whom you earn your living or the employer who pays your wages and very soon you find yourself without a market for your services it is an inevitable law of nature that you lose that which you do not use and if of course this applies to the use of your own mind the same as to everything else and we who so often boast that we are citizens of the richest the greatest and the most powerful Nation civilization has yet produced will do well to remember this law through which we lose that which we do not properly use in this visit I have brought you what may be a surprise or even a shock by introducing this great principle of profiting by University if you are ready for this principle you will embrace it at once and never again as long as you live will you brood over unpleasant experiences without knowing full well that your efforts could be better employed by searching for that seed of an equivalent benefit which is available in those experiences now before I conclude this visit I shall give you this assignment which if you carry it out sincerely May well bring you a new birth of opportunity such as you never dreamed up experiencing go back into your past experiences study each adversity and failure you may have experienced and look for that seed of an equivalent benefit you had not before discovered and you may find yourself richer than you believed yourself to be and now until our next visit just remember nothing can be called failure until you accept it as such we have now come to our 11th visit where I shall present Creative Vision the success principle which is responsible for the building of all of our plans aims and purposes it has been said that the imagination is the workshop wherein we fashion the purposes of our brain and the ideas of our soul I do not know of a better definition of imagination than this there are two forms of imagination first there is synthetic imag ination which consists of organizing and putting together of recognized ideas Concepts and facts arranged in a new combination very seldom does anyone create an idea or anything else absolutely new nearly everything known to civilization is but a combination of something that is old secondly there is creative imagination which operates through the sixth sense and has its base in the subconscious section of the brain and serves as the exclusive medium through which basically new ideas or facts are revealed uh let me give you some examples of synthetic imagination in action one Edison's invention of the incandescent electric lamp was the creation of synthetic imagination because it was created by bringing together in a new combination two old and well-known principles two Clarence saunders's idea on which the pig Wily store system was based was the result of synthetic imagination because he merely borrowed the self-help cafeteria plan and introduced it into the grocery store business but despite the Simplicity of the plan it is said to have yielded its organizer $4 million during the first four years after it was put to work three Henry Ford's first automobile was created through synthetic imagination by the simple procedure of bringing together the well-known method of transport ation the horse and buggy and the steam propelled thrashing machine both ideas were old but it remained for Henry Ford to combine them in a new method of use and he made himself the most distinguished industrialist of his era by his achievement not to mention a fabulous Fortune for the man who dipped a hunk of ice cream in chocolate placed a stick in it for a handle and called it Eskimo Pie used synthetic imagination and started a new industry which still has a widespread outlet and grosses annually a huge sum it is safe to assume that the creator of this Simple Plan of merchandising was well compensated for his use of his synthetic imagination five FW wwth made use of synthetic imagination by the simple procedure of setting up a retail store in which a large variety of merchandise retailing at 5 And1 cents per item was offered to the public and uh live to see his merchandising Innovation start a series of similar retail stores which gross annually many millions of dollars in sales and made Woolworth rich in the bargain now I shall give you some examples of creative imagination one Edison's invention of the phonograph was the outgrowth of creative imagination because no part of his invention had ever been known or used previously two Senor marone's invention of wireless communication was also the outgrowth of creative imagination because it was based on basically new ideas which never had been used previously he was the first to discover the means by which The Ether could be made to take the place of wires in the transmission of sound three Madame C's discovery of radium was also the outgrowth of creative imagination because no one before her had ever revealed either the actual existence of radium or the method by which it could be recovered or refined for Wilbur and Orville W's Perfection of the modern airplane was partly the result of creative imagination and partly the result of synthetic imagination because others previous to their time had discovered some of the ideas they used successfully but they were the first to coordinate those ideas so they worked five Robert G Lal made effective use of creative imagination by building heavy dirt removing Machinery which involved IDE is never before used although he was practically unskilled in engineering and had very little schooling of any kind I worked with Mr lero for a year and a half during which I saw him in action many times when he was drawing entirely upon the faculty of creative imagination and receiving his ideas from sources outside of his own immediate education or knowledge and right here in case you have not already recognize the fact I am bringing you very near the point where people sometimes tune in on their creative imagination and come up with ideas which benefit great numbers of people and make themselves popular and Rich I am going to give you these suggestions solely as inspiration intended to introduce you to your faculty of creative imagination all the good ideas have been used up did I hear you say quite to the contrary the best ideas are yet to be revealed and put into the service of mankind there are no more opportunities to to become rich did I hear you say if you will give me an acceptable plan for influencing married people to adopt and use the master mind principle in their Domestic Relations you may benefit many millions of people in homes where Harmony does not now Prevail and to make for yourself a reputation worthy of a king's Ransom if you have a better idea or plan for the use of salesman in anything the of selling your idea may help millions of salesmen to increase their incomes and bring you a reward worthy of the value of your idea I am still talking to you about exercising your faculty of imagination but I am limited as to the number of ideas I can give you in so short a time but I will give you some more useful ideas in my next visit imagination is a trait which becomes alert only by constant action based on the success principles I have described in these visits you are the one who must Supply this action the rules of accurate thinking are so clear and simple that I often wonder why so few people ever take time to learn the rules since accurate thinking is the very Foundation of all successful achievements in this visit I shall give you a working description of the rules of accurate thinking which all successful people follow first of all accurate thinking is based on two simple fundamentals they are called inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning inductive reasoning is used when the necessary facts on which to base your thinking are not available in this case you act on hypotheses or what you assume the facts to be deductive reasoning is used when you have the facts or what appear to be the facts on which to base your thinking the next step in accurate thinking is to separate facts from fiction or hear say evidence and determine whether you are dealing with hypothesis or real facts when you are sure you have Dependable facts on which to base your thinking you take the Second Step by separating these facts into two classes one is important facts and the other is unimportant facts when you do this you may be surprised that the overwhelmingly greater number of unimportant facts you deal with daily than there are important facts at this point you are almost sure to want to ask the question what is an important fact and how can I distinguish it from an unimportant fact and I shall give you the answer to this very important question by saying that an important fact is any fact which will Aid you to any extent whatsoever in attaining the object of your major purpose in life and all other facts as far as you are concerned are unimportant and you should waste no time with them after this visit is over you can employ the next hour to a great benefit it to yourself if you will set down on paper a list of all the facts you dealed with yesterday separating them into two classes important and unimportant as a matter of fact you will make a profound Discovery regarding accurate thinking if you follow the habit of daily taking inventory of all the facts that claims your attention during the day putting them down on paper in two separate colums one labeled important facts and the other labeled unimportant facts now let us turn our attention to the subject of opinions and see to what extent loose unsound opinions are mistaken for accurate thinking to start with let us recognize the truth that most opinions are without value because they are based on bias Prejudice intolerance guesswork hearsay evidence and out andout ignorance uh these are harsh words I'm using and uh they represent the source of most of the tragedies of Life which people meet with unnecessarily and I would say that of all the tragedies which cause misery and failure none is more merciless or destructive than those which grow out of the indifference of people who make no attempt to learn how to think accurately I shall never forget an experience I had with President woodro Wilson while I was working for him during World War I I asked the president what effect he believed World War I would have on civilization and his reply was brief but it was a masterpiece which you should remember as as long as you live I cannot answer your question said the president because I have no facts on which to base an opinion if you will remember woodro Wilson's 15-word speech every time you are about to express an opinion about anything the chances are that you will soon get out of the habit of expressing or even having opinions not based on something more substantial than biases prejudices and emotional feelings which often serve as fathers to facts you will learn If You observe carefully that the more successful a person is the less he is inclined to express wild unjustified opinions about anything also you must have observed already that The Drifters who are suffering with frustrations because they recognize they are failures usually have an assortment of opinions on about everything you can imagine when I hear someone expressing a definite opinion about something of which I have definite reason to believe he knows little or nothing I think of an exper I had when I stopped a Quaker on the Streets of Philadelphia and asked him the time of day he took out his watch examined it carefully and then in a slow emphatic tone of voice he said well sir according to this alleged time piece it appears to be approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds past 12:00 I was particularly impressed by the care with which this Quaker identified the source of his information which she was passing on to me and I often thought afterward how beneficial it would be if all people who Express opinions or give out information would take the time to identify the source from which they were able to speak I cannot influence all people to engage in this sort of safe thinking but I can suggest that you give it consideration in connection with this visit on the subject of accurate thinking now I shall give you a simple rule which may help you avoid being misled by unsound opinions expressed by other people when you hear someone make a statement which your reason cannot accept as being sound or which you question or should for Sav sake question for any reason whatsoever ask a simple forward question how do you know then stand firm on that question and either Force the speaker to identify the source from which he got the information he is endeavoring to pass on as facts or reject the statement entirely as if it had not been made and do this no matter who is speaking or what may be his reputation for truth and veracity remember you are given as your richest Birthright the privilege of controlling your own thoughts therefore treat this Divine gift with the profound respect to which it is entitled and do not allow anyone to do your thinking for you or to influence your thinking in any manner whatsoever except by the rules of accurate thinking I am passing on to you follow this procedure regardless of what people think or say about your method of thinking if they wish to call you a cynic or a doubting thas let that be their Misfortune but for your own good go right on thinking by rules which will save you from many mistakes and tragedies throughout your life now I will give you seven rules to follow which if you memorize them and follow them as a daily habit may bring you top rating as an accurate thinker one never accept the opinions of other people as being facts until you have learned the source of those opinions and satisfied yourself of their accuracy two remember that free advice no matter from whom it is received will bear the closest of examination before it is acted upon as safe and generally speaking this sort of advice is worth exactly what it costs three alert yourself immediately when you hear anyone speaking of others in a discourteous or slanderous spirit because this very fact should put you on notice that what you are hearing is biased to say the very least about it and it may be out and out misstatement for in asking others for information do not disclose to them what you wish the information to be because most people have the bad habit of trying to please under such circumstances well measured tactful questions can be of great benefit to you in thinking accurately five remember that anything which exists anywhere throughout the universe is capable of proof and where no such proof is available it is safer to assume nothing exists six one of the great unexplainable Miracles consists in the fact that both truth and falsehood no matter by what means they may be expressed carry with them a silent invisible means of identifying themselves as such therefore remember this truth and uh begin developing the necessary intuitive faculty to able you to sense what is false and what is true seven follow the habit of asking how do you know when anyone makes a statement you cannot identify as true follow this habit faithfully and you will see many persons squirm and turn red in the face when you insist upon a direct reply the most accurate thinkers are the scientists they investigate with open minds and never allow their wishes to become the fathers of facts but deal with each fact as it is not as they would like it to be now one final word of warning I feel I should leave with you study yourself carefully and you may discover that your own emotions are your greatest handicap in the business of accurate thinking it is easy for you to believe that which you wish to believe and unfortunately that is precisely what most people do this is a method by which many people condemn themselves to Eternal failure and defeat and it is a method which opens wide that sealed envelope which contains the list of penalties they must pay for neglecting to take possession of their minds and use them for constructive ends beneficial to themselves and now until our next visit may I say goodbye throughout my life I've had a wide variety of very high goals but my major one has always remained the same to change the world and make it better for this and future Generations Napoleon Hill and his philosophy of success have helped me to develop maintain and Advance this goal in his final visit with us Dr Hill discusses the nature of universal law and its impact on us all the 13th visit brings us to the analysis of a law of nature which is the basis of all of our habits both the good habits and the bad this law is a vital part of the 17 success principles because it is the means by which you and every other person can put into operation an irresistible Power by which your aims and purposes are attained almost automatically by the action of your habits I have named this law Cosmic habit Force because it is the law which gives definit of action to everything which moves throughout the entire universe it keeps the stars and planets in their accustom places and it fixes the life patterns of every living thing from the smallest insects to the largest animal excepting only man who has been given the means by which he may use this law to establish his own habits and determine his own desires and movements throughout life Cosmic habits Force binds every living thing lower in the scale of intelligence than man with what we call Instinct but man can rise above these fixed patterns by which lower forms of life live and establish his own pattern uh this privilege is the only thing over which man has complete power of control and Direction and it is interesting to observe that the Creator never gives man any form of riches without sending along with it the means by which man may do whatever he pleases with those riches like every other natural law Cosmic habit Force has both a positive and a negative potential application the negative application of this law is called hypnotic rhythm which means among other possible results it fastens upon individuals that by our neglect to fix our thoughts upon the things we desire in life and thereby gain the power of cosmic habit force in attaining these desires s the law automatically acts through the negative hypnotic rhythm feature and fixes our minds on the things we do not desire and attracts to us the physical counterpart of these desires understand this principle of the law of cosmic habit force and obviously you will have a better conception as to how essential it is to keep your mind occupied with the life pattern and the things and circumstances you desire until this pattern is taken over and and made permanent by Cosmic habit Force Cosmic habit force is the Watchdog so to speak which looks over your shoulder all through life examines every thought you release Every Act in which you engage and forces upon you the penalties or the rewards in those two sealed envelopes I described in a previous visit when you understand the principle of cosmic habit force it is clear enough that you cannot go through life without using the power of this law to carry out the circumstances and the desires you voluntarily choose or by your neglect allow the same Law to force you to pay the penalties I described you have a Power of Choice here the same as in all other things but your neglect to exercise this power brings certain if not always Swift retribution upon you perhaps you now see why I warned you in a previous visit that the two sealed envelopes were not imaginary but real and of course You Now understand that you must Avail yourself of the benefits of one or be forced to accept the penalties of the other there is no halfway compromise for any human being uh ponder over this profound truth and you will probably get a more impressive understanding of the power which is available to you through the application of the 17 success principles of the science of success and you may also acquire a better understanding as to why these 17 principles have spread throughout the world without organized business management behind them why this science of success philosophy is believed to have brought personal success to more people than has any other philosophy designed to help individuals to take possession of their own minds the nearest to a description of the law of cosmic habit Force I have seen is Emerson's law of compensation in which he so clearly established the truth that nothing ever just happens by love but every effect has its definite cause albeit we often observe effects the causes of which we cannot isolate or understand if you will read Emerson's essay on compensation again in view of what I have said about the law of cosmic habit Force you may get much more from it than you absorb from it previously now I shall give you a variety of illustrations as to how the law of cosmic habit Force operates one first of all let me call your attention to the fact that cos mic habit Force fixes the habits of the electrons and protons of matter so that their relationship and chemical behavior always follow the same pattern thus we see that everything throughout the Universe comes under the influence of cosmic habit force and everything moves and exists by a pattern which is immutable and enduring except man who as I have said can break the habits established by Cosmic habit Force which affect him and set up in their place habits of his own choice two Cosmic habit Force fixes the pattern of every form of vegetation which grows from the soil of the earth so that each thing reproduces after its own pattern a grain of wheat always reproduces other grains of wheat but never makes the mistake of producing oats or some other form of growth one atom of hydrogen and two atoms of oxygen combined always produce water never anything else because because the pattern of their chemical reaction has been fixed by Cosmic habit Force three when the human mind is focus on a definite major purpose the law of cosmic habit Force goes into action immediately and attracts to the individual the material equivalent of that purpose and the procedure is inexurable and never varies however hypnotic rhythm the negative application of the law will just as definitely attract to one all the undesirable things and circumstances which the mind is allowed to dwell upon such as poverty ill health failure fear and all other undesirable things for Cosmic habit Force expressing itself through the emotion of sex is the means by which every living thing perpetuates its species understand this truth and you will better understand the irresistible forces of the profound emotion of sex the means by which nature creates all all living things you will also better understand why aims and purposes which are expressed orally under the great creative forces of sex emotion are acted upon so rapidly by Cosmic habit Force Five we sometimes hear people speak of successful men as being on the beam by which they mean that those who enjoy success have established a success thought pattern in their minds which Cosmic habit Force has picked up and carried out to its logical conclusion direct it to definite ends in a spirit of belief in your attainment of those ends and keep your mind busy in carrying out your purpose instead of allowing it to drift to subject you wish to avoid you are on the beam when you can truthfully say I know precisely what I want from life and I have faith I shall get it you are not on the beam when you have no definite major purpose and and you are drifting aimlessly through life people who are failures also are on the beam but they are on the negative side of the beam because they have neglected to use those riches which came over with them in that sealed envelope and they have placed themselves under the influence of hypnotic rhythm which is the negative application of cosmic habit fors there is one word which doctors dread and it is the word fixation which means that a six person believes in sickness as something which cannot be cured fixations can become a Priceless asset by those who have discovered the great master key to success and have learned how to develop fixations in their minds based on the things they desire most in life Cosmic habit force is the power which makes fixations permanent you should have a definite fixation based on your major purpose in life but you are the only one who can create this fixation you can do it by taking possession of your own mind and keeping it directed toward the attainment of your major purpose if you will do this by following all the instructions I have given you in these visits in a short time you will find yourself on the beam and headed directly toward everything you desire and deserve to receive lastly remember that your mental attitude is something you control outright and you must use self-discipline until will you create a thought pattern or thought habits which keep your mental attitude positive at all times your mental attitude is important because it acts as a magnet which attracts to you everything every circumstance which makes you what you are and where you are if you wish to keep on the beam that leads to success be sure that you give Cosmic habit force a thought pattern based on the things you want most in life and it will do the rest

Channel: Love.Inspires.Faith.Empowers

Views: 2,950,481

Keywords: Napoleon Hill (Writer), Business, Education, Success, Napoleon Hill, Passion, Ambition, Motivation, Personal, Attraction, Development, Secret, Inspiration, Life, Marketing, Leadership, Opportunity, Vision, Integrity, Golden Rule, Freedom, Riches, Mindset, Beliefs, Achieve, Thoughts, Control, Self-Discipline, Positive, Enthusiasm, Self-Motivation, MasterMind, Initiative, Pleasing Personality, Applied Faith, Helping Others, Money, Power, Law of Attraction, Energy, 5LINX

Id: 8EQWhQt9OQo

Length: 126min 21sec (7581 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 13 2013