Yawn and Grow Rich Course
By Paul Adams – The Yawn Guy
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
- Text in black (after legend) = original text of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Text in blue = paragraph numbers and course instructions to you, the student
- DEMO = draw out pictures of real-life situations on paper using stick figures for you, your partner, your boss etc. Demos will help considerably with your understanding. Do not use a lot of words in the demo. Demo the ideas as they apply to your own life. You can also do demos at your discretion to help with any "non-demo" paragraph too. If you are feeling "light-headed" from too much theory, do lots of real-life demos until the light-headedness goes away.
- PRACTICAL = an assignment for you to do now before continuing to read further in the text. Sometimes it will be something for you to do later in the day, or a continuing action, and if so this will be stated.
- Text in green = explanation, not written by Napoleon Hill
- Mark the radio buttons ( | ) honestly as you do each paragraph. Note that these buttons will clear when you close your browser. It is not a good idea to leave lots of "Hmmm"s behind you. (That doesn't mean close your browser often!)
- Look up any word you don't understand when you first encounter it. This is important—don't guess or slide by without getting it. Use it in sentences of your own until you fully get it. This might take a few or it might take ten or more sentences.
- If you really can't understand a paragraph and it does seems like you understand every word, click on the "Didn't get it" link at the end of that paragraph. Follow the instructions you find there. This is different to a "negative reaction". "Didn't get it" means you have gone foggy or blank and didn't understand the paragraph, either the whole of it or some part of it.
- If you understood the paragraph, but have a negative reaction to the text, first make sure you understand the words the author is using, and the idea he is trying to put across. In other words, make sure your reaction is to what the author is saying, not to what you misunderstand him to be saying. If the reaction persists, click on the "Negative reaction" link and follow the instructions there. An example of a negative reaction would be "Oh! I'll never be able to do that!"
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
THE MAN WHO "THOUGHT" HIS WAY INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH THOMAS A. EDISON
1.1 TRULY, "thoughts are
things," and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with
definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their
translation into riches, or other material objects.
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1.2 A little more than thirty
years ago, Edwin C. Barnes discovered how true it is that men really do
THINK AND GROW RICH. His discovery did not come about at one sitting. It
came little by little, beginning with a BURNING DESIRE to become a
business associate of the great Edison.
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1.3 One of the chief characteristics of Barnes' Desire was that it was definite. He wanted to work with Edison, not for
him. Observe, carefully, the description of how he went about
translating his DESIRE into reality, and you will have a better
understanding of the thirteen principles which lead to riches.
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1.4 When this DESIRE, or impulse
of thought, first flashed into his mind he was in no position to act
upon it. Two difficulties stood in his way. He did not know Mr. Edison,
and he did not have enough money to pay his railroad fare to Orange, New
Jersey.
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1.5 These difficulties were
sufficient to have the majority of men from making any attempt to carry
out the desire. But his was no ordinary desire! He was so determined to
find a way to carry out his desire that he finally decided to travel by
"blind baggage," rather than be defeated. (To the uninitiated, this
means that he went to East Orange on a freight train).
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1.6 He presented himself at Mr.
Edison's laboratory, and announced he had come to go into business with
the inventor. In speaking of the first meeting between Barnes and
Edison, years later, Mr. Edison said, "He stood there before me, looking
like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of
his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get
what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with
men, that when a man really DESIRES a thing so deeply that he is
willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in
order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked
for, because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved that no mistake was made."
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1.7 Just what young Barnes said
to Mr. Edison on that occasion was far less important than that which he
thought. Edison, himself, said so! It could not have been the young
man's appearance which got him his start in the Edison office, for that
was definitely against him. It was what he THOUGHT that counted.
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1.8 If the significance of this
statement could be conveyed to every person who reads it, there would be
no need for the remainder of this book.
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1.9 Barnes did not get his
partnership with Edison on his first interview. He did get a chance to
work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work that was
unimportant to Edison, but most important to Barnes, because it gave him
an opportunity to display his "merchandise" where his intended
"partner" could see it.
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1.10 Months went by. Apparently
nothing happened to bring the coveted goal which Barnes had set up in
his mind as his DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE. But something important was
happening in Barnes' mind. He was constantly intensifying his DESIRE to
become the business associate of Edison.
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1.11 Psychologists have
correctly said that "when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its
appearance." Barnes was ready for a business association with Edison,
moreover, he was DETERMINED TO REMAIN READY UNTIL HE GOT THAT WHICH HE
WAS SEEKING.
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1.12 He did not say to himself,
"Ah well, what's the use? I guess I'll change my mind and try for a
salesman's job." But, he did say, "I came here to go into business with
Edison, and I'll accomplish this end if it takes the remainder of my
life." He meant it! What a different story men would have to tell
if only they would adopt a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and stand by that purpose
until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession!
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1.13 Maybe young Barnes did not
know it at the time, but his bulldog determination, his persistence in
standing back of a single DESIRE, was destined to mow down all
opposition, and bring him the opportunity he was seeking. When the
opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different
direction than Barnes had expected. That is one of the tricks of
opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and
often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.
Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity.
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1.14 Mr. Edison had just
perfected a new office device, known at that time, as the Edison
Dictating Machine (now the Ediphone). His salesmen were not enthusiastic
over the machine. They did not believe it could be sold without great
effort. Barnes saw his opportunity. It had crawled in quietly, hidden in
a queer looking machine which interested no one but Barnes and the
inventor.
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1.15 Barnes knew he could sell
the Edison Dictating Machine. He suggested this to Edison, and promptly
got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he sold it so
successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it
all over the nation. Out of that business association grew the slogan,
"Made by Edison and installed by Barnes."
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1.16 The business alliance has
been in operation for more than thirty years. Out of it Barnes has made
himself rich in money, but he has done something infinitely greater, he
has proved that one really may "Think and Grow Rich."
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1.17 How much actual cash that
original DESIRE of Barnes' has been worth to him, I have no way of
knowing. Perhaps it has brought him two or three million dollars, but
the amount, whatever it is, becomes insignificant when compared with the
greater asset he acquired in the form of definite knowledge that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles.
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1.18 Barnes literally thought
himself into a partnership with the great Edison! He thought himself
into a fortune. He had nothing to start with, except the capacity to
KNOW WHAT HE WANTED, AND THE DETERMINATION TO STAND BY THAT DESIRE UNTIL
HE REALIZED IT.
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1.19 He had no money to begin
with. He had but little education. He had no influence. But he did have
initiative, faith, and the will to win. With these intangible forces he made himself number one man with the greatest inventor who ever lived.
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1.19.1 DEMO: The basic strategy Edwin C. Barnes adopted that resulted in his achieving his dream. Include the THOUGHT as well as the physical universe actions he took. Demo done
1.20 Now, let us look at a different situation, and study a man who had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three feet short of the goal he was seeking.
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THREE FEET FROM GOLD
1.21 One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.
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1.22 An uncle of R. U. Darby was
caught by the "gold fever" in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG
AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.
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01.23 After weeks of labor, he
was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to
bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced
his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives
and a few neighbors of the "strike." They got together money for the
needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work
the mine.
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1.24 The first car of ore was
mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the
richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the
debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.
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1.25 Down went the drills! Up
went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of
gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the
pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to
pick up the vein again—all to no avail.
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1.26 Finally, they decided to QUIT.
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1.27 They sold the machinery to a
junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some
"junk" men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to
look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that
the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with
"fault lines." His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST
THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly
where it was found!
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1.28 The "Junk" man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.
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1.29 Most of the money which
went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby,
who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and
neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of
it, although he was years in doing so.
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1.30 Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.
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1.31 Remembering that he lost a
huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by
the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to
himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance."
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01.32 Darby is one of a small
group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in
life insurance annually. He owes his "stickability" to the lesson he
learned from his "quitability" in the gold mining business.
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1.33 Before success comes in any
man's life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and,
perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most
logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of
men do.
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1.34 More than five hundred of
the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author
their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which
defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of
irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success
is almost within reach.
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A FIFTY CENT LESSON IN PERSISTENCE
1.35 Shortly after Mr. Darby
received his degree from the "University of Hard Knocks," and had
decided to profit by his experience in the gold mining business, he had
the good fortune to be present on an occasion that proved to him that
"No" does not necessarily mean no.
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1.36 One afternoon he was
helping his uncle grind wheat in an old fashioned mill. The uncle
operated a large farm on which a number of colored sharecrop farmers
lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small colored child, the
daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.
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1.37 The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, "what do you want?"
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1.38 Meekly, the child replied, "My mammy say send her fifty cents."
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1.39 "I'll not do it," the uncle retorted, "Now you run on home."
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1.40 "Yas sah," the child replied. But she did not move.
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1.41 The uncle went ahead with
his work, so busily engaged that he did not pay enough attention to the
child to observe that she did not leave. When he looked up and saw her
still standing there, he yelled at her, "I told you to go on home! Now
go, or I'll take a switch to you."
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1.42 The little girl said "yas sah," but she did not budge an inch.
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1.43 The uncle dropped a sack of
grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a barrel
stave, and started toward the child with an expression on his face that
indicated trouble.
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1.44 Darby held his breath. He
was certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a
fierce temper. He knew that colored children were not supposed to defy
white people in that part of the country.
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1.45 When the uncle reached the
spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step,
looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, "MY MAMMY'S GOTTA HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS!"
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1.46 The uncle stopped, looked
at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on the floor, put
his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her.
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1.47 The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered.
After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the
window into space for more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe,
over the whipping he had just taken.
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1.48 Mr. Darby, too, was doing
some thinking. That was the first time in all his experience that he had
seen a colored child deliberately master an adult white person.
How did she do it. What happened to his uncle that caused him to lose
his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did
this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other
similar questions flashed into Darby's mind, but he did not find the
answer until years later, when he told me the story.
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1.49 Strangely, the story of
this unusual experience was told to the author in the old mill, on the
very spot where the uncle took his whipping. Strangely, too, I had
devoted nearly a quarter of a century to the study of the power which
enabled an ignorant, illiterate colored child to conquer an intelligent
man.
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1.50 As we stood there in that
musty old mill, Mr. Darby repeated the story of the unusual conquest,
and finished by asking, "What can you make of it? What strange power did
that child use, that so completely whipped my uncle?"
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1.51 The answer to his question
will be found in the principles described in this book. The answer is
full and complete. It contains details and instructions sufficient to
enable anyone to understand, and apply the same force which the little
child accidentally stumbled upon.
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1.52 Keep your mind alert, and
you will observe exactly what strange power came to the rescue of the
child, you will catch a glimpse of this power in the next chapter.
Somewhere in the book you will find an idea that will quicken your
receptive powers, and place at your command, for your own benefit, this
same irresistible power. The awareness of this power may come to you in
the first chapter, or it may flash into your mind in some subsequent
chapter. It may come in the form of a single idea. Or, it may come in
the nature of a plan, or a purpose. Again, it may cause you to go back
into your past experiences of failure or defeat, and bring to the
surface some lesson by which you can regain all that you lost through
defeat.
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1.53 After I had described to
Mr. Darby the power unwittingly used by the little colored child, he
quickly retraced his thirty years of experience as a life insurance
salesman, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that field was
due, in no small degree, to the lesson he had learned from the child.
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1.54 Mr. Darby pointed out:
"every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that
child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance,
and I said to myself, 'I've gotta make this sale.' The better portion of
all sales I have made, were made after people had said 'NO'."
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1.55 He recalled, too, his
mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold, "but," he said,
"that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything."
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1.56 This story of Mr. Darby and
his uncle, the colored child and the gold mine, doubtless will be read
by hundreds of men who make their living by selling life insurance, and
to all of these, the author wishes to offer the suggestion that Darby
owes to these two experiences his ability to sell more than a million
dollars of life insurance every year.
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1.57 Life is strange, and often
imponderable! Both the successes and the failures have their roots in
simple experiences. Mr. Darby's experiences were common-place and simple
enough, yet they held the answer to his destiny in life, therefore they
were as important (to him) as life itself. He profited by these two
dramatic experiences, because he analyzed them, and found the
lesson they taught. But what of the man who has neither the time, nor
the inclination to study failure in search of knowledge that may lead to
success? Where, and how is he to learn the art of converting defeat
into stepping stones to opportunity?
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1.58 In answer to these questions, this book was written.
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1.59 The answer called for a
description of thirteen principles, but remember, as you read, the
answer you may be seeking, to the questions which have caused you to
ponder over the strangeness of life, may be found in your own mind, through some idea, plan, or purpose which may spring into your mind as you read.
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1.60 One sound idea is all that
one needs to achieve success. The principles described in this book,
contain the best, and the most practical of all that is known,
concerning ways and means of creating useful ideas.
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1.61 Demo: Before we go any
further in our approach to the description of these principles, we
believe you are entitled to receive this important suggestion. . . .
WHEN RICHES BEGIN TO COME THEY COME SO QUICKLY, IN SUCH GREAT ABUNDANCE,
THAT ONE WONDERS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING DURING ALL THOSE LEAN
YEARS. This is an astounding statement, and all the more so, when we
take into consideration the popular belief, that riches come only to
those who work hard and long.
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1.62 When you begin to THINK AND
GROW RICH, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind,
with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work. You, and
every other person, ought to be interested in knowing how to acquire
that state of mind which will attract riches. I spenttwenty-five years
in research, analyzing more than 25,000 people, because I, too, wanted
to know "how wealthy men become that way."
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1.63 Without that research, this book could not have been written.
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1.64 Here take notice of a very
significant truth, viz: The business depression started in 1929, and
continued on to an all time record of destruction, until sometime after
President Roosevelt entered office. Then the depression began to fade
into nothingness. Just as an electrician in a theatre raises the lights
so gradually that darkness is transmuted into light before you realize
it, so did the spell of fear in the minds of the people gradually fade
away and become faith.
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1.65 Observe very closely, as
soon as you master the principles of this philosophy, and begin to
follow the instructions for applying those principles, your financial
status will begin to improve, and everything you touch will begin to
transmute itself into an asset for your benefit. Impossible? Not at all!
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1.66 One of the main weaknesses
of mankind is the average man's familiarity with the word "impossible."
He knows all the rules which will NOT work. He knows all the things
which CANNOT be done. This book was written for those who seek the rules
which have made others successful, and are willing to stake everything on those rules.
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1.67 A great many years ago I
purchased a fine dictionary. The first thing I did with it was to turn
to the word "impossible," and neatly clip it out of the book. That would
not be an unwise thing for you to do.
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1.68 Success comes to those who become SUCCESS CONSCIOUS.
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1.69 Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become FAILURE CONSCIOUS.
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1.70 The object of this book is
to help all who seek it, to learn the art of changing their minds from
FAILURE CONSCIOUSNESS to SUCCESS CONSCIOUSNESS.
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1.71 Another weakness found in altogether too many people, is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own
impressions and beliefs. Some who will read this, will believe that no
one can THINK AND GROW RICH. They cannot think in terms of riches,
because their thought habits have been steeped in poverty, want, misery,
failure, and defeat.
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1.72 These unfortunate people
remind me of a prominent Chinese, who came to America to be educated in
American ways. He attended the University of Chicago. One day President
Harper met this young Oriental on the campus, stopped to chat with him
for a few minutes, and asked what had impressed him as being the most
noticeable characteristic of the American people.
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1.73 "Why," the Chinaman exclaimed, "the queer slant of your eyes. Your eyes are off slant!"
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1.74 What do we say about the Chinese?
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1.75 We refuse to believe that
which we do not understand. We foolishly believe that our own
limitations are the proper measure of limitations. Sure, the other
fellow's eyes are "off slant," BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS OUR OWN.
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1.76 Millions of people look at
the achievements of Henry Ford, after he has arrived, and envy him,
because of his good fortune, or luck, or genius, or whatever it is that
they credit for Ford's fortune. Perhaps one person in every hundred
thousand knows the secret of Ford's success, and those who do know are
too modest, or too reluctant, to speak of it, because of its simplicity. A single transaction will illustrate the "secret" perfectly.
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1.77 A few years back, Ford
decided to produce his now famous V-8 motor. He chose to build an engine
with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block, and instructed his
engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was placed on
paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight cylinder gas engine block in one piece.
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1.78 Ford said, "Produce it anyway."
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1.79 "But," they replied, "it's impossible!"
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1.80 "Go ahead," Ford commanded, "and stay on the job until you succeed no matter how much time is required."
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1.81 The engineers went ahead.
There was nothing else for them to do, if they were to remain on the
Ford staff. Six months went by, nothing happened. Another six months
passed, and still nothing happened. The engineers tried every
conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of
the question; "impossible!"
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1.82 At the end of the year Ford
checked with his engineers, and again they informed him they had found
no way to carry out his orders.
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1.83 "Go right ahead," said Ford, "I want it, and I'll have it."
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1.84 They went ahead, and then, as if by a stroke of magic, the secret was discovered.
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1.85 The Ford DETERMINATION had won once more!
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1.86 This story may not be
described with minute accuracy, but the sum and substance of it is
correct. Deduce from it, you who wish to THINK AND GROW RICH, the secret
of the Ford millions, if you can. You'll not have to look very far.
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1.87 Henry Ford is a success, because he understands, and applies
the principles of success. One of these is DESIRE: knowing what one
wants. Remember this Ford story as you read, and pick out the lines in
which the secret of his stupendous achievement have been described. If
you can do this, if you can lay your finger on the particular group of
principles which made Henry Ford rich, you can equal his achievements in
almost any calling for which you are suited.
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YOU ARE "THE MASTER OF YOUR FATE, THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL," BECAUSE . . .
1.88 When Henley wrote the
prophetic lines, "I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my
Soul," he should have informed us that we are the Masters of our Fate,
the Captains of our Souls, because we have the power to control our
thoughts.
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1.89 He should have told us that
the ether in which this little earth floats, in which we move and have
our being, is a form of energy moving at an inconceivably high rate of
vibration, and that the ether is filled with a form of universal power
which ADAPTS itself to the nature of the thoughts we hold in our minds;
and INFLUENCES us, in natural ways, to transmute our thoughts into their
physical equivalent.
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1.90 If the poet had told us of
this great truth, we would know WHY IT IS that we are the Masters of our
Fate, the Captains of our Souls. He should have told us, with great
emphasis, that this power makes no attempt to discriminate between
destructive thoughts and constructive thoughts, that it will urge us to
translate into physical reality thoughts of poverty, just as quickly as
it will influence us to act upon thoughts of riches.
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1.91 Demo: He should have told
us, too, that our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts
which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man is familiar,
these "magnets" attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances
of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.
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1.92 He should have told us,
that before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must
magnetize our minds with intense DESIRE for riches, that we must become
"money conscious" until the DESIRE for money drives us to create
definite plans for acquiring it.
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1.93 But, being a poet, and not a
philosopher, Henley contented himself by stating a great truth in
poetic form, leaving those who followed him to interpret the
philosophical meaning of his lines.
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1.94 Little by little, the truth
has unfolded itself, until it now appears certain that the principles
described in this book, hold the secret of mastery over our economic
fate.
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1.95 We are now ready to examine
the first of these principles. Maintain a spirit of open-mindedness,
and remember as you read, they are the invention of no one man. The
principles were gathered from the life experiences of more than 500 men
who actually accumulated riches in huge amounts; men who began in
poverty, with but little education, without influence. The principles
worked for these men. You can put them to work for your own enduring
benefit.
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1.96 You will find it easy, not hard, to do.
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1.97 Before you read the next
chapter, I want you to know that it conveys factual information which
might easily change your entire financial destiny, as it has so
definitely brought changes of stupendous proportions to two people
described.
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1.98 I want you to know, also,
that the relationship between these two men and myself, is such that I
could have taken no liberties with the facts, even if I had wished to do
so. One of them has been my closest personal friend for almost
twenty-five years, the other is my own son. The unusual success of these
two men, success which they generously accredit to the principle
described in the next chapter, more than justifies this personal
reference as a means of emphasizing the far-flung power of this
principle.
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1.99 Almost fifteen years ago, I
delivered the Commencement Address at Salem College, Salem, West
Virginia. I emphasized the principle described in the next chapter, with
so much intensity that one of the members of the graduating class
definitely appropriated it, and made it a part of his own philosophy.
The young man is now a Member of Congress, and an important factor in
the present administration. Just before this book went to the publisher,
he wrote me a letter in which he so clearly stated his opinion of the
principle outlined in the next chapter, that I have chosen to publish
his letter as an introduction to that chapter.
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1.100 It gives you an idea of the rewards to come.
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1.102 "My service as a Member of
Congress having given me an insight into the problems of men and women,
I am writing to offer a suggestion which may become helpful to
thousands of worthy people.
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1.103 "With apologies, I must
state that the suggestion, if acted upon, will mean several years of
labor and responsibility for you, but I am en-heartened to make the
suggestion, because I know your great love for rendering useful service.
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1.104 "In 1922, you delivered
the Commencement address at Salem College, when I was a member of the
graduating class. In that address, you planted in my mind an idea which
has been responsible for the opportunity I now have to serve the people
of my State, and will be responsible, in a very large measure, for
whatever success I may have in the future.
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1.105 "The suggestion I have in
mind is, that you put into a book the sum and substance of the address
you delivered at Salem College, and in that way give the people of
America an opportunity to profit by your many years of experience and
association with the men who, by their greatness, have made America the
richest nation on earth.
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1.106 "I recall, as though it
were yesterday, the marvelous description you gave of the method by
which Henry Ford, with but little schooling, without a dollar, with no
influential friends, rose to great heights. I made up my mind then, even
before you had finished your speech, that I would make a place for
myself, no matter how many difficulties I had to surmount.
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1.107 "Thousands of young people
will finish their schooling this year, and within the next few years.
Every one of them will be seeking just such a message of practical
encouragement as the one I received from you. They will want to know
where to turn, what to do, to get started in life. You can tell them,
because you have helped to solve the problems of so many, many people.
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1.108 "If there is any possible
way that you can afford to render so great a service, may I offer the
suggestion that you include with every book, one of your Personal
Analysis Charts, in order that the purchaser of the book may have the
benefit of a complete self-inventory, indicating, as you indicated to me
years ago, exactly what is standing in the way of success.
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1.109 "Such a service as this,
providing the readers of your book with a complete, unbiased picture of
their faults and their virtues, would mean to them the difference
between success and failure. The service would be priceless.
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1.110 "Millions of people are
now facing the problem of staging a come-back, because of the
depression, and I speak from personal experience when I say, I know
these earnest people would welcome the opportunity to tell you their
problems, and to receive your suggestions for the solution.
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1.111 "You know the problems of
those who face the necessity of beginning all over again. There are
thousands of people in America today who would like to know how they can
convert ideas into money, people who must start at scratch, without
finances, and recoup their losses. If anyone can help them, you can.
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1.112 "If you publish the book, I would like to own the first copy that comes from the press, personally autographed by you.
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1.113 "With best wishes, believe me,
"Cordially yours,
"JENNINGS RANDOLPH"
| Didn't get it Negative reaction …1.FDS PRACTICAL: Skim over the chapter again to refamiliarize yourself with the main ideas, then check over the False Data Stripping questions with regard to it, using the PaulsRobot3 FDSing module. Remember the idea is to FIND and deal with False Data, not to confirm that of course you don't have any. :). Once you have found and dealt with any false data, study this chapter once more before going on to the next one. You can decide which demos and practicals you should do again.
1.LEC FINAL PRACTICAL: Deliver a 3-5 minute
lecture (by the clock) on the main points of this chapter, without using
any notes at all. You don't have to use people for an audience; use
the dog or the wall if you prefer. If you don't know the subject well
enough to do this, do the entire section again, paragraphs 1.1 to 1.FDS,
including all demos. This is a test of your understanding, not your
ability to remember a few words or phrases. Working out how to explain
the main points to someone else—in words, ALOUD—is usually a very
valuable aid to your own understanding.