Wings of fire apj Abdul Kalam book summary

THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH

BY WALLACE D. WATTLES

This book is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual and not a treatise upon
theories. It is intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money;
who wish to get rich first, and philosophize afterward. It is for those who have, so far,
found neither the time, the means, nor the opportunity to go deeply into the study of
metaphysics, but who want results and who are willing to take the conclusions of science
as a basis for action, without going into all the processes by which those conclusions
were reached.
It is expected that the reader will take the fundamental statements upon faith, just as he
would take statements concerning a law of electrical action if they were promulgated by a
Marconi or an Edison; and, taking the statements upon faith, that he will prove their truth
by acting upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will
certainly get rich; for the science herein applied is an exact science, and failure is
impossible. For the benefit, however, of those who wish to investigate philosophical
theories and so secure a logical basis for faith, I will here cite certain authorities.
The monistic theory of the universe the theory that One is All, and that All is One; That
one Substance manifests itself as the seeming many elements of the material world -is of
Hindu origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western
world for two hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies, and of
those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Emerson. The reader
who would dig to the philosophical foundations of this is advised to read Hegel and
Emerson for himself.
In writing this book I have sacrificed all other considerations to plainness and simplicity
of style, so that all might understand. The plan of action laid down herein was deduced
from the conclusions of philosophy; it has been thoroughly tested, and bears the supreme
test of practical experiment; it works. If you wish to know how the conclusions were
arrived at, read the writings of the authors mentioned above; and if you wish to reap the
fruits of their philosophies in actual practice, read this book and do exactly as it tells you
to do.
The Author
CHAPTER 1 - The Right To Be Rich
WHATEVER may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to
live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his greatest
possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold
the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these
things unless he has money to buy them with.
A man develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so
organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things;
therefore, the basis of all advancement for man must be the science of getting rich.
The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to
all the development it is capable of attaining. Man's right to life means his right to have
the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest
mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other words, his right to be rich.
In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not
mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No man ought to be satisfied with a little if
he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and
unfoldment of life; and every man should have all that can contribute to the power;
elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.
The man who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich;
and no man who has not plenty of money can have all he wants. Life has advanced so far,
and become so complex, that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great
amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness. Every
person naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming; this desire to
realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all
that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be; you can become what
you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only
as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is
therefore the most essential of all knowledge.
There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for
a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy. The man who
does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the man who does not desire
to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal. There are three motives for which
we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of these
is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three�body,
mind, or soul � can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression.
It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body; and it is wrong to
live for the intellect and deny body or soul.
We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and
denying both mind and soul; and we see that real life means the complete expression of
all that man can give forth through body, mind, and soul. Whatever he can say, no man
can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in every function, and
unless the same is true of his mind and his soul. Wherever there is unexpressed
possibility, or function not performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility
seeking expression, or function seeking performance.
Man cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm
shelter; and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary
to his physical life.
He cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity
for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship. To live fully in mind
he must have intellectual recreations, and must surround himself with all the objects of
art and beauty he is capable of using and appreciating.
To live fully in soul, man must have love; and love is denied expression by poverty.
A man's highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love
finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The man who has nothing to
give cannot fill his place as a husband or father, as a citizen, or as a man. It is in the use
of material things that a man finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds
his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to him that he should be rich.
It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich; if you are a normal man or woman
you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to
the Science of Getting Rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you
neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God and humanity; for you
can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.
CHAPTER 2 - There is A Science of Getting Rich
THERE is a Science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic.
There are certain laws that govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are
learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.
The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way;
those who do things in this Certain Way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich;
while those who do not do things in this Certain Way, no matter how hard they work or
how able they are, remain poor.
It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects; and, therefore, any man or
woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich. That the above
statement is true is shown by the following facts:
Getting rich is not a matter of environment, for, if it were, all the people in certain
neighborhoods would become wealthy; the people of one city would all be rich, while
those of other towns would all be poor; or the inhabitants of one state would roll in
wealth, while those of an adjoining state would be in poverty.
But everywhere we see rich and poor living side-by-side, in the same environment, and
often engaged in the same vocations. When two men are in the same locality, and in the
same business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it shows that getting rich
is not, primarily, a matter of environment. Some environments may be more favorable
than others, but when two men in the same business are in the same neighborhood, and
one gets rich while the other fails, it indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things
in a Certain Way. And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely
to the possession of talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while
other who have very little talent get rich.
Studying the people who have got rich, we find that they are an average lot in all
respects, having no greater talents and abilities than other men. It is evident that they do
not get rich because they possess talents and abilities that other men have not, but
because they happen to do things in a Certain Way.
Getting rich is not the result of saving, or "thrift"; many very penurious people are poor,
while free spenders often get rich.
Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do; for two men in the same
business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other
remains poor or becomes bankrupt. From all these things, we must come to the
conclusion that getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way.
If getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way, and if like causes always
produce like effects, then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become
rich, and the whole matter is brought within the domain of exact science.
The question arises here, whether this Certain Way may not be so difficult that only a few
may follow it. This cannot be true, as we have seen, so far as natural ability is concerned.
Talented people get rich, and blockheads get rich; intellectually brilliant people get rich,
and very stupid people get rich; physically strong people get rich, and weak and sickly
people get rich.
Some degree of ability to think and understand is, of course, essential; but in so far
natural ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense enough to read and
understand these words can certainly get rich. Also, we have seen that it is not a matter of
environment. Location counts for something; one would not go to the heart of the Sahara
and expect to do successful business.
Getting rich involves the necessity of dealing with men, and of being where there are
people to deal with; and if these people are inclined to deal in the way you want to deal,
so much the better. But that is about as far as environment goes.
If anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you; and if anybody else in your state
can get rich, so can you. Again, it is not a matter of choosing some particular business or
profession. People get rich in every business, and in every profession; while their next
door neighbors in the same vocation remain in poverty.
It is true that you will do best in a business that you like, and which is congenial to you;
and if you have certain talents that are well developed, you will do best in a business that
calls for the exercise of those talents. Also, you will do best in a business, which is suited
to your locality; an ice-cream parlor would do better in a warm climate than in
Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed better in the Northwest than in Florida,
where there are no salmon.
But, aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not dependent upon your
engaging in some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a Certain
Way. If you are now in business, and anybody else in your locality is getting rich in the
same business, while you are not getting rich, it is because you are not doing things in the
same Way that the other person is doing them.
No one is prevented from getting rich by lack of capital. True, as you get capital the
increase becomes more easy and rapid; but one who has capital is already rich, and does
not need to consider how to become so. No matter how poor you may be, if you begin to
do things in the Certain Way you will begin to get rich; and you will begin to have
capital. The getting of capital is a part of the process of getting rich; and it is a part of the
result that invariably follows the doing of things in the Certain Way. You may be the
poorest man on the continent, and be deeply in debt; you may have neither friends,
influence, nor resources; but if you begin to do things in this way, you must infallibly
begin to get rich, for like causes must produce like effects. If you have no capital, you can
get capital; if you are in the wrong business, you can get into the right business; if you are
in the wrong location, you can go to the right location; and you can do so by beginning in
your present business and in your present location to do things in the Certain Way which
causes success.
CHAPTER 3 - Is Opportunity Monopolized?
NO man is kept poor because opportunity has been taken away from him; because other
people have monopolized the wealth, and have put a fence around it. You may be shut off
from engaging in business in certain lines, but there are other channels open to you.
Probably it would be hard for you to get control of any of the great railroad systems; that
field is pretty well monopolized. But the electric railway business is still in its infancy,
and offers plenty of scope for enterprise; and it will be but a very few years until traffic
and transportation through the air will become a great industry, and in all its branches
will give employment to hundreds of thousands, and perhaps to millions, of people. Why
not turn your attention to the development of aerial transportation, instead of competing
with J. J. Hill and others for a chance in the steam railway world?
It is quite true that if you are a workman in the employ of the steel trust you have very
little chance of becoming the owner of the plant in which you work; but it is also true that
if you will commence to act in a Certain Way, you can soon leave the employ of the steel
trust; you can buy a farm of from ten to forty acres, and engage in business as a producer
of foodstuffs. There is great opportunity at this time for men who will live upon small
tracts of land and cultivate the same intensively; such men will certainly get rich. You
may say that it is impossible for you to get the land, but I am going to prove to you that it
is not impossible, and that you can certainly get a farm if you will go to work in a Certain
Way.
At different periods the tide of opportunity sets in different directions, according to the
needs of the whole, and the particular stage of social evolution which has been reached.
At present, in America, it is setting toward agriculture and the allied industries and
professions. Today, opportunity is open before the factory worker in his line. It is open
before the business man who supplies the farmer more than before the one who supplies
the factory worker; and before the professional man who waits upon the farmer more than
before the one who serves the working class.
There is abundance of opportunity for the man who will go with the tide, instead of trying
to swim against it. So the factory workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not
deprived of opportunity. The workers are not being "kept down" by their masters; they
are not being "ground" by the trusts and combinations of capital. As a class, they are
where they are because they do not do things in a Certain Way. If the workers of America
chose to do so, they could follow the example of their brothers in Belgium and other
countries, and establish great department stores and co-operative industries; they could
elect men of their own class to office, and pass laws favoring the development of such
co-operative industries; and in a few years they could take peaceable possession of the
industrial field.
The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in
a Certain Way; the law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others. This they
must learn; and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do.
The individual worker, however, is not held down by the ignorance or the mental
slothfulness of his class; he can follow the tide of opportunity to riches, and this book
will tell him how.
No one is kept in poverty by a shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than
enough for all. A palace as large as the capitol at Washington might be built for every
family on earth from the building material in the United States alone; and under intensive
cultivation, this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to cloth each
person in the world finer than Solomon was arrayed in all his glory; together with food
enough to feed them all luxuriously.
The visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really IS
inexhaustible. Everything you see on earth is made from one original substance, out of
which all things proceed.
New Forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all are shapes
assumed by One Thing. There is no limit to the supply of Formless Stuff, or Original
Substance. The universe is made out of it; but it was not all used in making the universe.
The spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and
filled with the Original Substance; with the formless Stuff; with the raw material of all
things. Ten thousand times as much as has been made might still be made, and even then
we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material. No man, therefore, is
poor because nature is poor, or because there is not enough to go around.
Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. Original
Substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. When
the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced; when the soil is
exhausted so that food stuffs and materials for clothing will no longer grow upon it, it
will be renewed or more soil will be made. When all the gold and silver has been dug
from the earth, if man is still in such a stage of social development that he needs gold and
silver, more will produced from the Formless. The Formless Stuff responds to the needs
of man; it will not let him be without any good thing. This is true of man collectively; the
race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor, it is because they
do not follow the Certain Way of doing things which makes the individual man rich.
The Formless Stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. It is alive, and is always
impelled toward more life. It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live
more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to
extend its boundaries and find fuller expression. The universe of forms has been made by
Formless Living Substance, throwing itself into form in order to express itself more fully.
The universe is a great Living Presence, always moving inherently toward more life and
fuller functioning. Nature is formed for the advancement of life; its impelling motive is
the increase of life. For this cause, everything which can possibly minister to life is
bountifully provided; there can be no lack unless God is to contradict himself and nullify
his own works. You are not kept poor by lack in the supply of riches; it is a fact which I
shall demonstrate a little farther on that even the resources of the Formless Supply are at
the command of the man or woman will act and think in a Certain Way.
ll
CHAPTER 4 - The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich
THOUGHT is the only power which can produce tangible riches from the Formless
Substance. The stuff from which all things are made is a substance which thinks, and a
thought of form in this substance produces the form.
Original Substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in
nature is the visible expression of a thought in Original Substance. As the Formless Stuff
thinks of a form, it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is
the way all things were created. We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought
universe. The thought of a moving universe extended throughout Formless Substance,
and the Thinking Stuff moving according to that thought, took the form of systems of
planets, and maintains that form. Thinking Substance takes the form of its thought, and
moves according to the thought. Holding the idea of a circling system of suns and worlds,
it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks. Thinking the form of a
slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree, though centuries
may be required to do the work. In creating, the Formless seems to move according to the
lines of motion it has established; the thought of an oak tree does not cause the instant
formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces which will produce
the tree, along established lines of growth.
Every thought of form, held in thinking Substance, causes the creation of the form, but
always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.
The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon Formless
Substance, might not cause the instant formation, of the house; but it would cause the
turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as
to result in the speedy building of the house. And if there were no
existing channels through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be
formed directly from primal substance, without waiting for the slow processes of the
organic and inorganic world.
No thought of form can be impressed upon Original Substance without causing the
creation of the form. Man is a thinking center, and can originate thought. All the forms
that man fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought; he cannot shape a thing
until he has thought that thing.
And so far man has confined his efforts wholly to the work of his hands; he has applied
manual labor to the world of forms, seeking to change or modify those already existing.
He has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new forms by impressing his
thoughts upon Formless Substance.
When man has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature, and makes an
image of the form which is in his mind. He has, so far, made little or no effort to cooperate
with Formless Intelligence; to work "with the Father." He has not dreamed that
he can "do what he seeth the Father doing." Man reshapes and modifies existing forms by
manual labor; he has given no attention to the question whether he may not produce
things from Formless Substance by communicating his thoughts to it. We propose to
prove that he may do so; to prove that any man or woman may do so, and to show how.
As our first step, we must lay down three fundamental propositions.
First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff, or substance, from which all
things are made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one
element; all the many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different
shapes, made from the same stuff. And this stuff is thinking stuff; a thought held in it
produces the form of the thought. Thought, in thinking substance, produces shapes. Man
is a thinking center, capable of original thought; if man can communicate his thought to
original thinking substance, he can cause the creation, or formation, of the thing he thinks
about. To summarize this:-
There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state,
permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this
substance, Produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.
Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless
substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. It may be asked if I can
prove these statements; and without going into details, I answer that I can do so, both by
logic and experience.
Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original
thinking substance; and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to man's
power to cause the formation of the thing he thinks about.
And by experiment, I find the reasoning true; and this is my strongest proof.
If one man who reads this book gets rich by doing what it tells him to do, that is evidence
in support of my claim; but if every man who does what it tells him to do gets rich, that is
positive proof until some one goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until
the process fails; and this process will not fail, for every man who does exactly what this
book tells him to do will get rich.
I have said that men get rich by doing things in a Certain Way; and in order to do so, men
must become able to think in a certain way.
A man's way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things.
To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think
the way you want to think; this is the first step toward getting rich.
To think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances.
Every man has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it
requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by
appearances. To think according to appearance is easy; to think truth regardless of
appearances is laborious, and requires the expenditure of more power than any other
work man is called upon to perform.
There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and
consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth
is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a
corresponding form in the mind which observes it; and this can only be prevented by
holding the thought of the TRUTH.
To look upon the appearance of disease will produce the form of disease in your own
mind, and ultimately in your body, unless you hold the thought of the truth, which is that
there is no disease; it is only an appearance, and the reality is health.
To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own
mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.
To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease, or to think riches when
in the midst of appearances of poverty, requires power; but he who acquires this power
becomes a MASTER MIND. He can conquer fate; he can have what he wants.
This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all
appearances; and that fact is that there is one Thinking Substance, from which and by
which all things are made.
Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form,
and that man can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and
become visible things.
When we realize this, we lose all doubt and fear, for we know that we can create what we
want to create; we can get what we want to have, and can become what we want to be. As
a first step toward getting rich, you must believe the three fundamental statements given
previously in this chapter; and in order to emphasize them. I repeat them here:-
There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state,
permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this
substance, Produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.
Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless
substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.
You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe than this monistic one; and you
must dwell upon this until it is fixed in your mind, and has become your habitual thought.
Read these creed statements over and over again; fix every word upon your memory, and
meditate upon them until you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast
it aside as a sin. Do not listen to arguments against this idea; do not go to churches or
lectures where a contrary concept of things is taught or preached. Do not read magazines
or books which teach a different idea; if you get mixed up in your faith, all your efforts
will be in vain.
Do not ask why these things are true, nor speculate as to how they can be true; simply
take them on trust. The science of getting rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this
faith.
CHAPTER 5 - Increasing Life
YOU must get rid of the last vestige of the old idea that there is a Deity whose will it is
that you should be poor, or whose purposes may be served by keeping you in poverty.
The Intelligent Substance which is All, and in All, and which lives in All and lives in
you, is a consciously Living Substance. Being a consciously living substance, It must
have the nature and inherent desire of every living intelligence for increase of life. Every
living thing must continually seek for the enlargement of its life, because life, in the mere
act of living, must increase itself. A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity,
and in the act of living produces a hundred more seeds; life, by living, multiplies itself. It
is forever Becoming More; it must do so, if it continues to be at all.
Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. Every thought we think
makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually
expanding. Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is
continually increasing. Every talent we cultivate brings to the mind the desire to cultivate
another talent; we are subject to the urge of life, seeking expression, which ever drives us
on to know more, to do more, and to be more. In order to know more, do more, and be
more we must have more; we must have things to use, for we learn, and do, and become,
only by using things. We must get rich, so that we can live more. The desire for riches is
simply the capacity for larger life seeking fulfillment; every desire is the effort of an
unexpressed possibility to come into action. It is power seeking to manifest which causes
desire. That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the
plant grow; it is Life, seeking fuller expression.
The One Living Substance must be subject to this inherent law of all life; it is permeated
with the desire to live more; that is why it is under the necessity of creating things.
The One Substance desires to live more in you; hence it wants you to have all the things
you can use. It is the desire of God that you should get rich. He wants you to get rich
because he can express himself better through you if you have plenty of things to use in
giving him expression. He can live more in you if you have unlimited command of the
means of life. The universe desires you to have everything you want to have.
Nature is friendly to your plans. Everything is naturally for you. Make up your mind that
this is true. It is essential, however that your purpose should harmonize with the purpose
that is in All. You must want real life, not mere pleasure of sensual gratification. Life is
the performance of function; and the individual really lives only when he performs every
function, physical, mental, and spiritual, of which he is capable, without excess in any.
You do not want to get rich in order to live swinishly, for the gratification of animal
desires; that is not life. But the performance of every physical function is a part of life,
and no one lives completely who denies the impulses of the body a normal and healthful
expression. You do not want to get rich solely to enjoy mental pleasures, to get
knowledge, to gratify ambition, to outshine others, to be famous. All these are a
legitimate part of life, but the man who lives for the pleasures of the intellect alone will
only have a partial life, and he will never be satisfied with his lot.
You do not want to get rich solely for the good of others, to lose yourself for the salvation
of mankind, to experience the joys of philanthropy and sacrifice. The joys of the soul are
only a part of life; and they are no better or nobler than any other part.
You want to get rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do
these things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant
lands, feed your mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love men and do
kind things, and be able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth.
But remember that extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness;
both are mistakes. Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others,
and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind.
What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others;
and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.
You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich; so it is right and praiseworthy
that you should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth.
Remember, however, that the desire of Substance is for all, and its movements must be
for more life to all; it cannot be made to work for less life to any, because it is equally in
all, seeking riches and life.
Intelligent Substance will make things for you, but it will not take things away from some
one else and give them to you.
You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for
what is already created. You do not have to take anything away from any one. You do not
have to drive sharp bargains. You do not have to cheat, or to take advantage. You do not
need to let any man work for you for less than he earns.
You do not have to covet the property of others, or to look at it with wishful eyes; no man
has anything of which you cannot have the like, and that without taking what he has away
from him.
You are to become a creator, not a competitor; you are going to get what you want, but in
such a way that when you get it every other man will have more than he has now.
I am aware that there are men who get a vast amount of money by proceeding in direct
opposition to the statements in the paragraph above, and may add a word of explanation
here. Men of the plutocratic type, who become very rich, do so sometimes purely by their
extraordinary ability on the plane of competition; and sometimes they unconsciously
relate themselves to Substance in its great purposes and movements for the general racial
upbuilding through industrial evolution. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, et al., have been
the unconscious agents of the Supreme in the necessary work of systematizing and
organizing productive industry; and in the end, their work will contribute immensely
toward increased life for all. Their day is nearly over; they have organized production,
and will soon be succeeded by the agents of the multitude, who will organize the
machinery of distribution.
The multi-millionaires are like the monster reptiles of the prehistoric eras; they play a
necessary part in the evolutionary process, but the same Power which produced them will
dispose of them. And it is well to bear in mind that they have never been really rich; a
record of the private lives of most of this class will show that they have really been the
most abject and wretched of the poor.
Riches secured on the competitive plane are never satisfactory and permanent; they are
yours to-day, and another's tomorrow. Remember, if you are to become rich in a
scientific and certain way, you must rise entirely out of the competitive thought. You
must never think for a moment that the supply is limited. Just as soon as you begin to
think that all the money is being "cornered" and controlled by bankers and others, and
that you must exert yourself to get laws passed to stop this process, and so on; in that
moment you drop into the competitive mind, and your power to cause creation is gone for
the time being; and what is worse, you will probably arrest the creative movements you
have already instituted.
KNOW that there are countless millions of dollars' worth of gold in the mountains of the
earth, not yet brought to light; and know that if there were not, more would be created
from Thinking Substance to supply your needs.
KNOW that the money you need will come, even if it is necessary for a thousand men to
be led to the discovery of new gold mines to-morrow.
Never look at the visible supply; look always at the limitless riches in Formless
Substance, and KNOW that they are coming to you as fast as you can receive and use
them. Nobody, by cornering the visible supply, can prevent you from getting what is
yours.
So never allow yourself to think for an instant that all the best building spots will be
taken before you get ready to build your house, unless you hurry. Never worry about the
trusts and combines, and get anxious for fear they will soon come to own the whole earth.
Never get afraid that you will lose what you want because some other person "beats you
to it." That cannot possibly happen; you are not seeking any thing that is possessed by
anybody else; you are causing what you want to be created from formless Substance, and
the supply is without limits. Stick to the formulated statement:
There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state,
permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this
substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.
Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless
substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.
CHAPTER 6 - How Riches Come to You
WHEN I say that you do not have to drive sharp bargains, I do not mean that you do not
have to drive any bargains at all, or that you are above the necessity for having any
dealings with your fellow men. I mean that you will not need to deal with them unfairly;
you do not have to get something for nothing, but can give to every man more than you
take from him.
You cannot give every man more in cash market value than you take from him, but you
can give him more in use value than the cash value of the thing you take from him. The
paper, ink, and other material in this book may not be worth the money you pay for it; but
if the ideas suggested by it bring you thousands of dollars, you have not been wronged by
those who sold it to you; they have given you a great use value for a small cash value.
Let us suppose that I own a picture by one of the great artists, which, in any civilized
community, is worth thousands of dollars. I take it to Baffin Ray, and by "salesmanship"
induce an Eskimo to give a bundle of furs worth $ 500 for it. I have really wronged him,
for he has no use for the picture; it has no use value to him; it will not add to his life.
But suppose I give him a gun worth $50 for his furs; then he has made a good bargain. He
has use for the gun; it will get him many more furs and much food; it will add to his life
in every way; it will make him rich. When you rise from the competitive to the creative
plane, you can scan your business transactions very strictly, and if you are selling any
man anything which does not add more to his life than the thing he give you in exchange,
you can afford to stop it. You do not have to beat anybody in business. And if you are in
a business which does beat people, get out of it at once.
Give every man more in use value than you take from him in cash value; then you are
adding to the life of the world by every business transaction.
If you have people working for you, you must take from them more in cash value than
you pay them in wages; but you can so organize your business that it will
be filled with the principle of advancement, and so that each employee who wishes to do
so may advance a little every day.
You can make your business do for your employees what this book is doing for you. You
can so conduct your business that it will be a sort of ladder, by which every employee
who will take the trouble may climb to riches himself; and given the opportunity, if he
will not do so it is not your fault.
And finally, because you are to cause the creation of your riches from Formless
Substance which permeates all your environment, it does not follow that they are to take
shape from the atmosphere and come into being before your eyes.
If you want a sewing machine, for instance, I do not mean to tell you that you are to
impress the thought of a sewing machine on Thinking Substance until the machine is
formed without hands, in the room where you sit, or elsewhere. But if you want a sewing
machine, hold the mental image of it with the most positive certainty that it is being
made, or is on its way to you. After once forming the thought, have the most absolute and
unquestioning faith that the sewing machine is coming; never think of it, or speak, of it,
in any other way than as being sure to arrive. Claim it as already yours. It will be brought
to you by the power of the Supreme Intelligence, acting upon the minds of men. If you
live in Maine, it may be that a man will be brought from Texas or Japan to engage in
some transaction which will result in your getting what you want.
If so, the whole matter will be as much to that man's advantage as it is to yours.
Do not forget for a moment that the Thinking Substance is through all, in all,
communicating with all, and can influence all. The desire of Thinking Substance for
fuller life and better living has caused the creation of all the sewing machines already
made; and it can cause the creation of millions more, and will, whenever men set it in
motion by desire and faith, and by acting in a Certain Way.
You can certainly have a sewing machine in your house; and it is just as certain that you
can have any other thing or things which you want, and which you will use for the
advancement of your own life and the lives of others.
You need not hesitate about asking largely; "it is your Father's pleasure to give you the
kingdom," said Jesus. Original Substance wants to live all that is possible in you, and
wants you to have all that you can or will use for the living of the most abundant life.
If you fix upon your consciousness the fact that the desire you feel for the possession of
riches is one with the desire of Omnipotence for more complete expression, your faith
becomes invincible.
Once I saw a little boy sitting at a piano, and vainly trying to bring harmony out of the
keys; and I saw that he was grieved and provoked by his inability to play real music. I
asked him the cause of his vexation, and he answered, "I can feel the music in me, but I
can't make my hands go right." The music in him was the URGE of Original Substance,
containing all the possibilities of all life; all that there is of music was seeking expression
through the child.
God, the One Substance, is trying to live and do and enjoy things through humanity. He
is saying "I want hands to build wonderful structures, to play divine harmonies, to paint
glorious pictures; I want feet to run my errands, eyes to see my beauties, tongues to tell
mighty truths and to sing marvelous songs," and so on. All that there is of possibility is
seeking expression through men. God wants those who can play music to have pianos
and every other instrument, and to have the means to cultivate their talents to the fullest
extent; He wants those who can appreciate beauty to be able to surround themselves with
beautiful things; He wants those who can discern truth to have every opportunity to travel
and observe; He wants those who can appreciate dress to be beautifully clothed, and
those who can appreciate good food to be luxuriously fed.
He wants all these things because it is Himself that enjoys and appreciates them; it is God
who wants to play, and sing, and enjoy beauty, and proclaim truth and wear fine clothes,
and eat good foods, "it is God that worketh in you to will and to do," said Paul.
The desire you feel for riches is the infinite, seeking to express Himself in you as He
sought to find expression in the little boy at the piano.
So you need not hesitate to ask largely. Your part is to focalize and express the desire to
God. This is a difficult point with most people; they retain something of the old idea that
poverty and self-sacrifice are pleasing to God. They look upon poverty as a part of the
plan, a necessity of nature. They have the idea that God has finished His work, and made
all that He can make, and that the majority of men must stay poor because there is not
enough to go around. They hold to so much of this erroneous thought that they feel
ashamed to ask for wealth; they try not to want more than a very modest competence, just
enough to make them fairly comfortable.
I recall now the case of one student who was told that he must get in mind a clear picture
of the things he desired, so that the creative thought of them might be impressed on
Formless Substance. He was a very poor man, living in a rented house, and having only
what he earned from day to day; and he could not grasp the fact that all wealth was his.
So, after thinking the matter over, he decided that he might reasonably ask for a new rug
for the floor of his best room, and an anthracite coal stove to heat the house during the
cold weather. Following the instructions given in this book, he obtained these things in a
few months; and then it dawned upon him that he had not asked enough. He went through
the house in which he lived, and planned all the improvements he would like to make in
it; he mentally added a bay window here and a room there, until it was complete in his
mind as his ideal home; and then he planned its furnishings.
Holding the whole picture in his mind, he began living in the Certain Way, and moving
toward what he wanted; and he owns the house now, and is rebuilding it after the form of
his mental image. And now, with still larger faith, he is going on to get greater things. It
has been unto him according to his faith, and it is so with you and with all of us.
CHAPTER 7 - Gratitude
THE illustrations given in the last chapter will have conveyed to the reader the fact that
the first step toward getting rich is to convey the idea of your wants to the Formless
Substance.
This is true, and you will see that in order to do so it becomes necessary to relate yourself
to the Formless Intelligence in a harmonious way.
To secure this harmonious relation is a matter of such primary and vital importance that I
shall give some space to its discussion here, and give you instructions which, if you will
follow them, will be certain to bring you into perfect unity of mind with God.
The whole process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word,
gratitude. First, you believe that there is one Intelligent Substance, from which all things
proceed; second, you believe that this Substance gives you everything you desire; and
third, you relate yourself to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude.
Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their
lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect
them with Him by failing to make acknowledgment.
It is easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth
we shall receive; and it is easy also to understand that the soul that is always grateful
lives in closer touch with God than the one which never looks to Him in thankful
acknowledgment. The more gratefully we fix our minds on the Supreme when good
things come to us, the more good things we will receive, and the more rapidly they will
come; and the reason simply is that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into
closer touch with the source from which the blessings come.
If it is a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony
with the creative energies of the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true.
The good things you already have come to you along the line of obedience to certain
laws. Gratitude will lead your mind out along the ways by which things come; and it will
keep you in close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into
competitive thought.
Gratitude alone can keep you looking toward the All, and prevent you from falling into
the error of thinking of the supply as limited; and to do that would be fatal to your hopes.
There is a Law of Gratitude, and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the
law, if you are to get the results you seek.
The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal, and
in opposite directions.
The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the Supreme is a liberation or
expenditure of force; it cannot fail to reach that to which it addressed, and the reaction is
an instantaneous movement towards you.
"Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you." That is a statement of
psychological truth. And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in Formless
Substance will be strong and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be
always toward you. Notice the grateful attitude that Jesus took; how He always seems to
be saying, "I thank Thee, Father, that Thou hearest me." You cannot exercise much
power without gratitude; for it is gratitude that keeps you connected with Power.
But the value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the
future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things
as they are.
The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are,
you begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the ordinary, the poor, and
the squalid and mean; and your mind takes the form of these things. Then you will
transmit these forms or mental images to the Formless, and the common, the poor, the
squalid, and mean will come to you.
To permit your mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and to surround
yourself with inferior things. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to
surround yourself with the best, and to become the best.
The Creative Power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our
attention. We are Thinking Substance, and thinking substance always takes the form of
that which it thinks about. The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best; therefore it
tends to become the best; it takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the
best. Also, faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things,
and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one' s own mind produces
faith; and every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. He who has no
feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith; and without a living faith you cannot
get rich by the creative method, as we shall see in the following chapters.
It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that
comes to you; and to give thanks continuously.
And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all
things in your gratitude.
Do not waste time thinking or talking about the shortcomings or wrong actions of
plutocrats or trust magnates. Their organization of the world has made your opportunity;
all you get really comes to you because of them.
Do not rage against, corrupt politicians; if it were not for politicians we should fall into
anarchy, and your opportunity would be greatly lessened. God has worked a long time
and very patiently to bring us up to where we are in industry and government, and He is
going right on with His work. There is not the least doubt that He will do away with
plutocrats, trust magnates, captains of industry, and politicians as soon as they can be
spared; but in the meantime, behold they are all very good. Remember that they are all
helping to arrange the lines of transmission along which your riches will come to you,
and be grateful to them all. This will bring you into harmonious relations with the good in
everything, and the good in everything will move toward you.
CHAPTER 8 - Thinking in the Certain Way
TURN back to chapter 6 and read again the story of the man who formed a mental image
of his house, and you will get a fair idea of the initial step toward getting rich. You must
form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want; you cannot transmit an idea
unless you have it yourself.
You must have it before you can give it; and many people fail to impress Thinking
Substance because they have themselves only a vague and misty concept of the things
they want to do, to have, or to become.
It is not enough that you should have a general desire for wealth "to do good with";
everybody has that desire. It is not enough that you should have a wish to travel, see
things, live more, etc. Everybody has those desires also. If you were going to send a
wireless message to a friend, you would not send the letters of the alphabet in their order,
and let him construct the message for himself; nor would you take words at random from
the dictionary. You would send a coherent sentence; one which meant something. When
you try to impress your wants upon Substance, remember that it must be done by a
coherent statement; you must know what you want, and be definite. You can never get
rich, or start the creative power into action, by sending out unformed longings and vague
desires.
Go over your desires just as the man I have described went over his house; see just what
you want, and get a clear mental picture of it as you wish it to look when you get it.
That clear mental picture you must have continually in mind, as the sailor has in mind the
port toward which he is sailing the ship; you must keep your face toward it all the time.
You must no more lose sight of it than the steersman loses sight of the compass.
It is not necessary to take exercises in concentration, nor to set apart special times for
prayer and affirmation, nor to "go into the silence," nor to do occult stunts of any kind.
There things are well enough, but all you need is to know what you want, and to want it
badly enough so that it will stay in your thoughts.
Spend as much of your leisure time as you can in contemplating your picture, but no one
needs to take exercises to concentrate his mind on a thing which he really wants; it is the
things you do not really care about which require effort to fix your attention upon them.
And unless you really want to get rich, so that the desire is strong enough to hold your
thoughts directed to the purpose as the magnetic pole holds the needle of the compass, it
will hardly be worth while for you to try to carry out the instructions given in this book.
The methods herein set forth are for people whose desire for riches is strong enough to
overcome mental laziness and the love of ease, and make them work. The more clear and
definite you make your picture then, and the more you dwell upon it, bringing out all its
delightful details, the stronger your desire will be; and the stronger your desire, the easier
it will be to hold your mind fixed upon the picture of what you want. Something more is
necessary, however, than merely to see the picture clearly. If that is all you do, you are
only a dreamer, and will have little or no power for accomplishment.
Behind your clear vision must be the purpose to realize it; to bring it out in tangible
expression. And behind this purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that
the thing is already yours; that it is "at hand" and you have only to take possession of it.
Live in the new house, mentally, until it takes form around you physically. In the mental
realm, enter at once into full enjoyment of the things you want. "Whatsoever things ye
ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them," said Jesus.
See the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time; see yourself as
owning and using them. Make use of them in imagination just as you will use them when
they are your tangible possessions. Dwell upon your mental picture until it is clear and
distinct, and then take the Mental Attitude of Ownership toward everything in that
picture. Take possession of it, in mind, in the full faith that it is actually yours. Hold to
this mental ownership; do not waiver for an instant in the faith that it is real.
And remember what was said in a proceeding chapter about gratitude; be as thankful for
it all the time as you expect to be when it has taken form. The man who can sincerely
thank God for the things which as yet he owns only in imagination, has real faith. He will
get rich; he will cause the creation of whatsoever he wants. You do not need to pray
repeatedly for things you want; it is not necessary to tell God about it every day. "Use not
vain repetitions as the heathen do," said Jesus said to his pupils, "for your Father knoweth
the ye have need of these things before ye ask Him."
Your part is to intelligently formulate your desire for the things which make for a larger
life, and to get these desire arranged into a coherent whole; and then to impress this
Whole Desire upon the Formless Substance, which has the power and the will to bring
you what you want.
You do not make this impression by repeating strings of words; you make it by holding
the vision with unshakable PURPOSE to attain it, and with steadfast FAITH that you do
attain it.
The answer to prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according
to your faith while you are working.
You cannot impress the mind of God by having a special Sabbath day set apart to tell
Him what you want, and the forgetting Him during the rest of the week. You cannot
impress Him by having special hours to go into your closet and pray, if you then dismiss
the matter from your mind until the hour of prayer comes again. Oral prayer is well
enough, and has its effect, especially upon yourself, in clarifying your vision and
strengthening your faith; but it is not your oral petitions which get you what you want. In
order to get rich you do not need a "sweet hour of prayer"; you need to "pray without
ceasing." And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision, with the purpose to cause
its creation into solid form, and the faith that you are doing so. "Believe that ye receive
them."
The whole matter turns on receiving, once you have clearly formed your vision. When
you have formed it, it is well to make an oral statement, addressing the Supreme in
reverent prayer; and from that moment you must, in mind, receive what you ask for. Live
in the new house; wear the fine clothes; ride in the automobile; go on the journey, and
confidently plan for greater journeys. Think and speak of all the things you have asked
for in terms of actual present ownership. Imagine an environment, and a financial
condition exactly as you want them, and live all the time in that imaginary environment
and financial condition. Mind, however, that you do not do this as a mere dreamer and
castle builder; hold to the FAITH that the imaginary is being realized, and to the
PURPOSE to realize it. Remember that it is faith and purpose in the use of the
imagination which make the difference between the scientist and the dreamer. And
having learned this fact, it is here that you must learn the proper use of the Will.
CHAPTER 9 - How to Use the Will
TO set about getting rich in a scientific way, you do not try to apply your will power to
anything outside of yourself.
Your have no right to do so, anyway. It is wrong to apply your will to other men and
women, in order to get them to do what you wish done. It is as flagrantly wrong to coerce
people by mental power as it is to coerce them by physical power. If compelling people
by physical force to do things for you reduces them to slavery, compelling them by
mental means accomplishes exactly the same thing; the only difference is in methods. If
taking things from people by physical force is robbery, them taking things by mental
force is robbery also; there is no difference in principle. You have no right to use your
will power upon another person, even "for his own good"; for you do not know what is
for his good. The science of getting rich does not require you to apply power or force to
any other person, in any way whatsoever. There is not the slightest necessity for doing so;
indeed, any attempt to use your will upon others will only tend to defeat your purpose.
You do not need to apply your will to things, in order to compel them to come to you.
That would simply be trying to coerce God, and would be foolish and useless, as well as
irreverent. You do not have to compel God to give you good things, any more than you
have to use your will power to make the sun rise.
You do not have to use your will power to conquer an unfriendly deity, or to make
stubborn and rebellious forces do your bidding.
Substance is friendly to you, and is more anxious to give you what you want than you are
to get it. To get rich, you need only to use your will power upon yourself. When you
know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think and
do the right things. That is the legitimate use of the will in getting what you want-to use it
in holding yourself to the right course. Use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting
in the Certain Way.
Do not try to project your will, or your thoughts, or your mind out into space, to "act" on
things or people. Keep your mind at home; it can accomplish more there than elsewhere.
Use your mind to form a mental image of what you want, and to hold that vision with
faith and purpose; and use your will