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Chapter
Two ~ YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR WORLD ~
Pilot No. 2
LISTEN ~ LEARN ~ SHARE
We now know that
PMA is a positive mental attitude. And we also know that a Positive Mental
Attitude is one of the 17 success principles. When you begin to apply a
combination of these principles with PMA in your chosen occupation or to a
solution of your personal problems, you are on the road to success. Then you are
on the right track and headed in the right direction towards getting what you
want.
To achieve anything worthwhile in life, it is imperative that you apply PMA,
regardless of what other success principles you employ. PMA is the catalyst
which makes any combination of success principles work to attain a worthwhile
end. It is NMA, combined with some of the same principles, that is the catalyst
which results in crime or evil. And grief, disaster, tragedy sin, disease,
death are some of its rewards.
17 success principles. The authors have for many years given lectures,
instructed classes, and conducted a correspondence course on the 17 success
principles. The title of the course is: PMA, The Science of Success. These 17
principles are:
These 17 success principles are no creation of the authors. They were extracted from the lifetime experiences of hundreds of the most successful persons our nation has known during the past century.
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As long as you live, from this day forward, you can analyze your very success
and every failure that is, if you imprint these 17 principles indelibly in your
memory.
You may develop and maintain a permanent Positive Mental Attitude by making it
your responsibility to adopt and apply these 17 principles in your daily living.
There is no other known method by which you may keep your mind positive.
Analyze yourself courageously, now, and learn which of these 17 principles you
have been using and which of them you have been neglecting.
In the future analyze both your successes and your failures, using the 17
principles as a measuring device, and very soon you will be able to lay your
finger on what has been holding you back.
If you have PMA and don't succeed, then what? If you use PMA and don't succeed,
it may be because you are not using each of the principles that are necessary in
the combination for success to attain your specific goal.
You may wish to check the stories of S. B. Fuller, Clem Labine, Henry J. Kaiser,
the woodcutter, Al Allen, and Henry Ford, to recognize which of the 17 success
principles each person applied or neglected to apply. You might analyze someone
you know who is a has-been in real life. As you read the case histories in the
chapters which follow, do the same thing. Ask yourself: Which of the 17 success
principles are used? Which are omitted? At first it may be difficult to
understand and apply the principles. But as you continue to read Success Through
a Positive Mental Attitude, each of these principles will become more clear to
you. You will then be able to use them. When you get to Chapter 20, you will be
able to check yourself accurately by the 17 success principles. There you will
find a self-analysis chart under the heading "Success Quotient Analysis."
Has the world given you a raw deal? The students who enroll in the PMA Science
of Success course are often people who consider themselves failures in some area
of their lives. The very first question such a person might be asked when he
enters the class is: Why? Why are you taking this course? Why haven't you had
the success you would like to have? And the reasons which they give tell us a
tragic story about the causes of failure.
"I never really had a chance to get ahead. My father was an alcoholic, you
know."
"I was raised in the slums and that's something you can never get out of your
system "I only had a grammar school education."
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These people are all saying, in essence, that the world has given them a raw
deal. They are blaming the world and circumstances outside themselves for their
failures. They blame their heredity or their environment. They start out with a
negative mental attitude. And, of course, with that attitude, they are
handicapped. But it is NMA that is holding them down, not the external handicap
which they give as the cause of their failure.
A lesson learned from a child. There is a wonderful little story about a
minister who, one Saturday morning, was trying to prepare his sermon under
difficult conditions. His wife was out shopping. It was a rainy day and his
young son was restless and bored, with nothing to do. Finally, in desperation,
the minister picked up an old magazine and thumbed through it until he came to a
large brightly colored picture. It showed a map of the world. He tore the page
from the magazine, ripped it into little bits and threw the scraps all over the
living room floor with the words:
"Johnny, if you can put this all together, I'll give you a quarter.'
The preacher thought this would take Johnny most of the morning. But within ten
minutes there was a knock on his study door. It was his son with the completed
puzzle. The minister was amazed to see Johnny finished so soon, with the pieces
of paper neatly arranged and the map of the world back in order.
"Son, how did you get that done so fast?" the preacher asked.
"Oh," said Johnny, "it was easy. On the other side there was a picture of a man.
I just put a piece of paper on the bottom, put the picture of the man together,
put a piece of paper on top, and then turned it over. I figured that if I got
the man right, "the world would-be right.",
The minister smiled, and handed his son a quarter. "And you've given me my
sermon for tomorrow, too," he said. "If a man is righty his world will be
right."
There's a great lesson in this idea. If you are unhappy with your world and want
to change it, the place to start is with yourself, Hjjou are right, your world
will be right. This is what PMA is all about. When you have a Positive Mental
Attitude, the problems of your world tend to bow before you.
You were born a champion. Have you ever thought about the battles you won before
you were born? "Stop and think about yourself," says Amram Scheinfeld, an
expert on genetics. "In all the history of the world there was never anyone else
exactly like you, and in all the infinity of time to come, there will never be
another."
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You are a very special person. And many struggles took place that had to be
successfully concluded in order to produce you. Just think: tens of millions of
sperm cells participated in a great battle, yet only one of them won the one
that made you! It was a great race to reach a single object: a precious egg
containing a tiny nucleus. This goal for which the sperms were competing was
smaller in size than the point of a needle. And each sperm was so small that it
would have to be magnified thousands of times before it could be seen by the
human eye. Yet it is on this microscopic level that your life's most decisive
battle was fought.
The head of each of the millions of sperms contained a precious cargo of 24
chromosomes, just as there were 24 in the tiny nucleus of the egg. Each
chromosome was composed of jelly-like beads closely strung together. Each bead
contained hundreds of genes to which scientists attribute all the factors of
your heredity.
The chromosomes in the sperm comprised all the hereditary material and
tendencies contributed by your father and his ancestors; those in the
egg-nucleus the inheritable traits of your mother and her ancestors. Your mother
and father themselves represented the culmination of over two billion years of
victory in the battle to survive. And then one particular sperm the fastest, the
healthiest, the winner united with the waiting egg to form one, tiny living
cell.
The life of the most important living person had begun. You had become a
champion over the most staggering odds you will ever have to face. For all
practical purposes you had inherited from the vast reservoir of the past all the
potential abilities and powers you need to achieve your objectives.
You were born to be a champion, and no matter what obstacles and difficulties
lie in your way, they are not one-tenth so great as the ones that have already
been overcome at the moment of your conception. Victory is built in to every
living person. Take the case of Irving Ben Cooper, who is one of Americas most
respected judges. But this is very far from the way young Ben Cooper thought of
himself as a young boy.
How a frightened boy developed PMA. Ben grew up in a near-slum neighborhood in
St. Joseph, Missouri. His father was an immigrant tailor who earned little
money. Many days there simply wasn't enough to eat. To heat their small home,
Ben used to take a coal scuttle, and walk down to the railroad tracks that ran
nearby. There he would pick up pieces of coal. It embarrassed Ben to have to do
it. He'd often try to sneak through the back streets so children from school
wouldn't see him.
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But they often did. There was one gang of boys in particular who found great
sport in ambushing Ben on his way home from the tracks and beating him up. They
would scatter his coal all over the street and send him home with tears
streaming from his eyes. Thus it was that Ben lived in a more or less permanent
state of fear and self-despising.
Something happened, as it always must when we break the pattern of defeat. The
victory within us does assert itself until we are ready. Ben was inspired to
positive action because he read a book. It was Robert Coverdale's Struggle by
Horatio Alger.
In it Ben read the adventures of a youngster like himself who was faced with
great odds, but who overcome these odds with the courage and moral strength
which Ben, wished to possess.
The Toy read every one of the Horatio Alger books he could borrow. As he read,
he lived the part of the hero. All winter he sat in the cold kitchen reading
stories of courage and success, unconsciously absorbing a Positive Mental
Attitude.
Some months after he had read his first Horatio Alger book, Ben Cooper was again
making a trip down to the railroad tracks. Off in the distance he saw three
figures dart behind a building. His first thought was to turn and run. Then he
remembered the courage that he had admired in his book heroes, and, instead of
turning his hand gripped the coal scuttle more tightly and he marched straight .
ahead, as if he were one of the Alger heroes.
It was a brutal
fight. The three boys jumped Ben all at the same time. His bucket dropped, and
he started flailing his arms with a determination that caught the bullies by
surprise. Ben's right hand smashed into the lips and nose of one of the boys his
left hand into his stomach. To Ben's surprise, the boy stopped fighting and
turned and ran. Meanwhile the other two boys were hitting and kicking him. Ben
managed to push one boy away and knock the other down. He jumped on the second
boy with his knees, while he plowed punch after punch into his stomach and
jaw as if he were mad. Now there was just one boy left. This was the leader. He
had jumped on top of Ben. Ben managed to pull him aside and get on his feet. For
a second the two boys stood and looked each other squarely in the eyes.
And then, bit by bit, the leader stepped backwards. He, too, ran away. Perhaps
it was righteous indignation, but Ben picked up a chunk of coal and threw it at
the retreater.
It wasn't until then that Ben realized that his nose was bleeding and that he
had black and blue marks on his body from the punches and kicks he had received.
It was worth It was a great day in Eton's life. In that moment he overcame
fear.
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Ben Cooper wasn't much stronger than he had been a year earlier. His attackers were no less tough. The difference came in Ben's own mental attitude. He had faced danger in spite of fear. He decided that no longer was he going to be pushed around by bullies. From now on, he himself was going to change his world. And, of course, this is exactly what he did.
Identify yourself with a successful image. The boy gave himself an identity. When he fought the three bullies on the street that day, he was not fighting as frightened, undernourished Ben Cooper. He was fighting as Robert Coverdale or any other of the plucky and daring heroes of Horatio Alger's books.
Identifying one's self with a successful image can help break the habits of self-doubt and defeat which years of NMA set up within a personality. Another and equally important successful technique for changing your world is to identify yourself with an image that will inspire you to make the right decisions. It can be a slogan, a picture, or any other symbol that is meaningful to you.
What will your picture say to you? The president of a Midwest concern operating internationally was visiting his San Francisco office. He noticed a large photograph of himself on the wall of the office of Dorothy Jones, a private secretary. "Dotti, that's a rather large picture for this size room, isn't it?" he asked.
Dorothy responded, "When I have a problem, do you know what I do?" Without waiting for an answer, she demonstrated by placing her elbows on her desk, propping her head on the fingers of her folded hands, and looking up at the picture. "Boss, how the heck would you solve this problem?" she asked.
Dotti's remarks
seem rather humorous. Yet the essence of her idea is startling. Perhaps you have
a picture in your office, your home, or in your wallet, that could give you the
right answer to an important question in your life. Yours may be a picture of
your mother, father, wife, husband of Benjamin Franklin or Abraham Lincoln. It
may be that of a saint.
What will your picture say to you? There is one way to find out. When you are
faced with a serious problem or decision, ask your picture a question. Listen
for the answer.
Another essential ingredient for changing your world is to have definiteness of
purpose, one of the 17 principles of success.
Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement
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Definiteness of purpose, combined with PMA, is the starting point of all worthwhile achievement. Remember your world will change whether or not you choose to change it. But you have the power to choose its direction. You can select your own targets. When you determine your definite major aims with PMA, there is a natural tendency for you to use seven of the * success principles:
(a) Personal initiative.
(b) Self-discipline.
(c) Creative vision.
(d) Organized thinking.
(e) Controlled attention (concentration of effort).
(f) Budgeting of time and money.
(g) Enthusiasm.
Robert
Christopher had definiteness of purpose with PMA.
Now, let's see how the natural tendencies for these additional principles
manifested themselves in this success story. For, like many boys, Bob's
imagination was stimulated while he read Jules Verne's thrilling, imaginative
story Around the World in 80 Days. Bob told us:
"I used to
daydream a great deal but when I grew older, I read two books on motivation:
Think and Grow Rich and The Magic of Believing.
"Around the world in 80 days. Now, why couldn't I go around the world on $80.00?
I believed that any given aim could be accomplished if I had faith and
confidence that it could be. That is: if I started from where I was to get to
where I wanted to be.
"I thought: 'Others had worked on freighters to earn their transatlantic
passages and hitchhiked all over the world, so why couldn't I?"
And then Bob took his fountain pen from his pocket and wrote on a piece of note
paper a list of the problems with which he would be faced. Also, he made notes
of what he thought were workable answers to each.
Now Bob Christopher was an expert photographer and he did have a camera. It was
a good one at that. When he reached his decision, he went into action:
(a) Entered a contract with Charles Pfizer Company, a commercial laboratory, to
collect soil samples from the various countries he intended .*»> *****
* See Page 127
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(b) Obtained an international driver's license and a set of maps in return for a promised report on Middle East road conditions.
(c) Picked up seamen's papers.
(d) Obtained a letter from the New York City Police Department to prove that he had no criminal record.
(e) Arranged for a Youth Hostel Membership.
(f) Contacted a freight airline which agreed to transport him by plane over the Atlantic on his promise to obtain photographs which the company intended to use for publicity.
And when his plans were completed, this young man of 26 left New York City by plane with $80.00 in his pocket. Around the world on $80.00 was his definite major aim. And here are a few of his experiences:
• Had breakfast at Gander, Newfoundland. How did he pay for it? He photographed the cooks in the kitchen. And they were pleased.
• Bought four cartons of American cigarettes at Shannon, Ireland that cost him $4.80. At that time cigarettes were as good as money as a medium of exchange in many countries.
• Arrived at Vienna from Paris. The fee one carton of cigarettes to the driver.
• Gave the conductor four packs of cigarettes to take him from Vienna to Switzerland on a train through the Alps.
• Rode a bus to Damascus. A policeman in Syria was so proud of the picture that Bob had taken of him that he ordered the bus driver to take him.
• Took a photograph of the president and staff of the Iraq Express Transportation Company. This earned him a ride from Bagdad to Teheran.
• In Bangkok, Siam, the owner of a very fine restaurant fed him like a king. For Bob gave him the information he wanted a detailed description of a specific area and a set of maps.
• Was brought from Japan to San Francisco as a crew member of S.S. The Flying Spray.
Around the world in 80 days? No—Robert Christopher went around the world in 84 days. But he did accomplish his objective. He went around the world on $80.00.
And because he
had definiteness of purpose with PMA, he was automatically motivated to use an
additional 13 of the 17 success principles to achieve his specific goal.
The starting point of all achievement. Let us repeat: The starting point of all
achievement is definiteness of purpose with PMA.
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Remember this statement and ask yourself, what is my goal? What do I really
want?
Based on the people we see in our PMA Science of Success course, we estimate
that 98 out of every 100 persons who are dissatisfied with their world do not
have a clear picture in their minds of the world they would like for themselves.
Think of it! Think of the people who drift aimlessly through life, dissatisfied,
struggling against a great many things, but without a clear-cut goal. Can you
state, right now, what it is that you want out of life? Fixing your goals may
not be easy. It may even involve some painful self-examination. But it will be
worth whatever effort it costs, because as soon as you can name your goal, you
can expect to enjoy many advantages. These advantages come almost
automatically.
1. The first great advantage is that your subconscious mind begins to work under a universal law: "What the mind can conceive and believe—the mind can achieve." Because you visualize your intended destination, your subconscious mind is affected by this self-suggestion. It goes to work to help you get there.
2. Because you know what you want, there is a tendency for you to try to get on the right track and head in the right direction. You get into action.
3. Work now becomes fun. You are motivated to pay the price. You budget your time and money. You study, think, and plan. The more you think about your goals, the more enthusiastic you become. And with enthusiasm your desire turns into a burning desire.
4. You become alerted to opportunities that will help you achieve your objectives as they present themselves in your everyday experiences. Because you know what you want, you are more likely to recognize these opportunities.
These four
advantages are illustrated by an early experience of the man who was later to
become editor of the Ladies Home Journal. Edward Bok came from Holland as a boy
with his parents. He was imbued with the idea that some day he was going to run
a magazine. With this specific goal before him he was able to seize upon an
incident so trivial that with most of us it would have passed unnoticed.
He saw a man open a package of cigarettes, take a slip of paper from it, and
drop the paper on the floor. Bok stooped and picked up the scrap of paper. On it
was a picture of a famous actress.
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Below the picture was a statement that this was one of a series. The cigarette
buyer was urged to collect the complete set of pictures. Bok turned the piece
of paper over and noticed that the back side was perfectly blank.
Bok's mind, filled as it was with a purpose, sensed an opportunity here. He
reasoned that the value of the picture enclosed in the package of cigarettes
would be greatly enhanced if the blank side were devoted to a brief biography of
the person pictured. He went to the lithograph firm which printed the enclosure
and explained his idea to the manager. The manager promptly said:
"111 give you ten dollars each if you will write me a 100-word biography of 100
famous Americans. Send me a list, and group them you know: presidents, famous
soldiers, actors, authors, and so on."
This is the way Edward Bok got his first literary assignment. The demand for his
short biographies became so great that he needed help, so he offered his brother
five dollars each if he would help him. Before long, Bok had five journalists
busy turning out biographies for the lithograph presses. Bok—he was the editor!
You have success born in you. Notice that none of the men we have been talking
about had success handed to him on a platter. At first the world was not
particularly kind to Edward Bok or Judge Cooper. And yet each carved from the
raw material around him a career of great satisfaction. And each one did it by
developing the many talents he found within himself.
Everyone has many talents for surmounting his special problems. It is
interesting to note that life never leaves us stranded. If life hands us a
problem, it hands us also the abilities with which to meet the problem. Our
abilities vary, of course, as we are motivated to use them. And even though you
are in ill health, you can nonetheless lead a useful and happy life.
You may fear ill health is too great a handicap to overcome. If this is true,
take courage from the experience of Milo C. Jones. Milo had not tried to acquire
wealth when he had good health. And then he became sick. When he became sick,
the odds were stacked heavily against him.
Here's the story of his experience.
When Milo C. Jones had been in good health he had worked very hard. He was a
farmer and he operated a small farm near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. But somehow
he seemed unable to make his farm yield much more than the bare necessities for
himself and his family. This kind of existence went on year after year. Then
suddenly something happened!
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Jones was stricken with extensive paralysis and confined to his bed. Here was a
man who late in life became completely incapacitated. He was barely able to
move his body. His relatives were certain he would be permanently unhappy as a
hopeless invalid. And he would have been had not something more happened to him.
And he made it happen. It brought the kind of happiness to him that comes with
achievement and financial success.
What was it Jones used to bring about this change? He used his mind. Yes, his
body was paralyzed. But his mind was unaffected. He could think and he did think
and plan. One day while engaged in thinking and planning, he recognized the most
important living person with the magic talisman with PMA on one side and NMA on
the other. He saw clearly that he was a mind with a body. He made his own
decision right then and there!
PMA attracts wealth. Milo C. Jones chose to develop a positive mental attitude.
He chose to be hopeful, optimistic, happy and to convert creative thinking into
reality by starting right from where he was. He wanted to be useful. And he
wanted to support his family, instead of being a burden to them. But how could
he turn his disadvantage into advantage? He didn't let this vital problem stop
him. He found the answer.
First, Jones counted his blessings. He discovered that he had so very much for
which to be thankful. This thankfulness led him to search for additional
blessings which he might enjoy in the future. And because he was searching for,
among other things, a way to be useful, he found and recognized that for which
he was looking. It was a plan and it required action.
So Jones went into mental action.
He revealed the plan to members of his family.
"I am no longer able to work with my hands," he began, "so I have decided to
work with my mind. Every one of you can, if you will, take the place of my
hands, feet, and physical body. Let's plant every tillable acre of our farm in
corn. Then let's raise pigs and feed them the com. Let's slaughter the pigs
while they are young and tender and convert them into sausages. And then we can
package and sell them under a brand name. We'll sell them in retail stores all
over the country." And then he chuckled as he said:
"They'll sell like hot cakes!"
And they did sell like hot cakes! In a few years the brand name "Jones' Little
Pig Sausages" became a household byword. And these four words became a symbol
that tantalized the appetites of men, women, and children throughout the nation.
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And Milo C. Jones lived to see himself a millionaire. He had achieved something
even more through a positive mental attitude. For he had flipped his talisman to
PMA. And thus although he was physically handicapped, he became a happy man.
He was happy because he was useful.
A formula to help you change your world. Fortunately not every life is faced
with such great difficulties. Yet everyone has problems. And everyone reacts to
motivating symbols. A most effective type of symbol is an idea expressed by a
slogan, platitude, fable, or the like. We call these self-motivators.
I DARE YOU!
What, then, is a formula that can help you change your world? Memorize,
understand, and repeat frequently throughout the day: What the mind can conceive
and believe, the mind can achieve. It is a form of self-suggestion. It is a
self-motivator to success. When it becomes a part of you, you dare to aim
higher.
Bill was a sickly farm boy in the southeastern Missouri country. A dedicated
grammar school teacher motivated young William Dan-forth to change his world.
The teacher did this with a challenge: 7 Dare You! "I dare you to become the
healthiest boy in school!" I Dare You! became William Danforth's self-motivator
throughout life.
He became the healthiest boy in his school. Before he died at the age of 85, he
helped thousands of other youths to develop good health and something more: to
aspire nobly, to adventure daringly, and to serve humbly. During his long career
he never lost a day at work because of illness.
I Dare You! motivated him to build one of America's largest corporations, The
Ralston Purina Company. I Dare You! motivated him to engage in creative thinking
and turn liabilities into assets. I Dare You! motivated him to organize The
American Youth Foundation: its purpose is to train young men and women in
Christian ideals and to prepare them for the responsibilities of life.
I Dare You! motivated William Danforth to write a book entitled I Dare You!
Today this book is inspiring boys and girls, men and women, to have the courage
to make this world a better world to live in.
What a remarkable testimony to the power of a self-motivator to develop a
positive mental attitude!
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Are you, yourself, ever tempted to blame the world for your failures? If so,
pause and reconsider. Does the problem lie with the world, or with you? Dare to
learn the 17 success principles! Dare to memorize self-motivators! Dare to apply
them with the full assurance that they will work for you just as effectively as
they are working every day for hundreds of others.
Perhaps you don't know how. Perhaps you need to learn to think more accurately.
Be guided by Pilot No. 2. Then turn to Chapter Three. Its purpose is to help
you—clear the cobwebs from your thinking.
11
Pilot No. 2
THOUGHTS TO STEER BY
You can change your
world!
LISTEN ~ LEARN ~ SHARE
1. You can change your world! To achieve anything worthwhile in life, use the PMA side of your invisible talisman.
2. Imprint the 17 success principles indelibly in your memory.
3. Do you tend to "blame the world"? If you do, memorize the self-motivator: If the man is right, his world will be right.
4. You were born to be a champion. For all practical purposes, you have inherited from the vast reservoir of the past all the potential abilities and powers you need to achieve your objectives.
5. Identify yourself with a successful image, as Irving Ben Cooper did.
6. What will your picture say to you? Listen for the answer.
7. Definiteness of purpose with PMA is the starting point of all worthwhile achievement. Have you selected some specific goals?
8. When you determine your definite aims, there is a tendency for several additional success principles to begin to operate automatically.
9. Everyone has many talents for surmounting his special problems. What special talents do you have that you can develop?
10. Here is a formula that has helped many to change their world: What the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve. Have you memorized this formula?
WHATEVER THE
MIND OF MAN
CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE
THE MIND CAN ACHIEVE!