Chapter
Twelve ~
ATTRACT—DON'T REPEL—WEALTH
~
Pilot No.
12
Whoever you
are regardless of your age, your education, or your
occupation you can attract wealth. You can also repel it. We
say: "Attract-don't repel-wealth."
This chapter tells you how you can make money. Would you like
to be rich? Be truthful with yourself. Of course you would.
Or are you afraid to be rich?
Perhaps you're sick and because of this, you don't try to
acquire wealth. If this be the case, just remember the
experience of Milo C. Jones about whom you read in Chapter
Two.
Or, if you are a patient in a hospital, you can attract wealth
by engaging in study, thinking, and planning time as George
Stefek did.
In a hospital bed think! Time after time as we have studied
the careers of successful men, we have discovered that they
date their own success from the day they picked up a
self-improvement book. Never underestimate the value of a
book. Books are tools, providing inspiration which can launch
you onto a bold new program and which can also light the dark
days that any such program entails.
George Stefek was convalescing at the Hines Veterans Hospital.
There he discovered by accident the value of thinking time.
Financially—he was broke. While George was convalescing, he
had a great deal of time on his hands. There wasn't too much
to do except read and think. He read Think and Grow Rich. And
he was ready.
An idea occurred to him. Many laundries, George knew, fold
their newly ironed shirts over a piece of cardboard to keep
the shirts stiff and free from wrinkles. By writing a few
letters, George learned that these shirt boards cost the
laundries about $4.00 per thousand. His idea was to sell the
boards for $1.00 a thousand; however, each one would carry an
advertisement. The advertisers would, of course, pay for the
space, and George would make a profit.
George had an idea and he tried to make it work.
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When he left the hospital, he got into action!
New in the advertising field, he had his problems. But he
finally developed successful sales techniques through what
others term "trial and error" and we term "trial and success."
George continued the custom he had started in the hospital to
engage in study, thinking and planning time each day.
Even when George's business was moving ahead swiftly, he
decided to increase his sales by increasing the efficiency of
his service. The shirt boards, when withdrawn from the shirts,
were not retained by the laundries' customers.
Now, he asked himself the question: "How can I get families to
keep these shirt boards with the advertisements on them?" The
solution flashed into his mind.
What did he do? On one side of the shirt board he continued to
print an advertisement in black and white or in colors. On the
other side he added something new—an interesting game for the
children, a delicious recipe for the wife, or a provocative
crossword puzzle for the whole family. George tells about one
husband who complained that his laundry bill had gone up in a
sudden, unaccountable way. Then he discovered that his wife
was sending in shirts to the laundry which ordinarily he could
have worn another day, just to get more of George's recipes!
But George didn't stop there. He was ambitious. He wanted to
expand his business still further. Again he asked himself the
question: "How?" And he found his answer.
George Stefek gave the entire $1.00 per thousand he received
from the laundries to the American Institute of Laundering.
The Institute, in turn, recommended that each member help
himself and his trade association by using George Stefek's
shirt boards exclusively.
And thus George made another important discovery: the more you
give of that which is good and desirable—the more you get!
Now a carefully planned thinking time session brought George
Stefek considerable wealth. He discovered that a time apart is
essential to any successful attraction of riches.
It is in quiet that our best ideas occur to us. Don't make the
mistake of believing that by a frantic kind of dashing around
you are being your most effective and efficient self. Don't
assume that you are wasting time when you take time out for
thought. Thought is the foundation upon which all else is
built by man.
Now it isn't necessary for you to go to a hospital to
establish the habit of reading good motivating books, to think
or to make plans. And your thinking, study, and planning
sessions need not be too lengthy. If you invest only one per
cent of your time in a study, thinking, and planning session
it will make an amazing difference in the speed with which you
reach your goals.
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Your day has 1,440 minutes in it. Invest one per cent of that
time in a study, thinking and planning session. And you will
be astounded at what those fourteen minutes do for you. For it
may surprise you to find that when you develop this habit you
will receive constructive ideas almost any time or anywhere
you might be: while doing the dishes, or riding the bus, or
while taking a bath.
Be certain to use two of the greatest, yet simplest working
tools ever invented—tools used by a genius like Thomas
Edison a pencil and a piece of paper. For he always had
handy—paper and pencil. And thus you, like him, will record
the ideas that come to you day or night.
Another requirement to attract wealth is to learn how to set
your goal. It is important for you to understand this. Few
people, even when they realize its importance, really
understand how to set a goal.
Learn how to set your goal. There are four important things to
keep in mind.
(a) Write down your goal. You will crystallize your thinking. The very act of thinking as you write will create an indelible impression in your memory.
(b) Give yourself a deadline. Specify a time for achieving your objective. This is important in motivating you: to set out in the direction of your goal and keep moving towards it.
(c) Set your standards high. Now there seems to be a direct relationship between ease in achieving a goal and the strength of your motives. You have discovered for yourself in Chapter Nine how to motivate yourself and in Chapter Ten how to motivate others.
And the higher you set
your major goal, generally speaking, the more concentrated
will be the effort you make to achieve it.
The reason logic will make it mandatory that you at least aim
at an intermediate objective as well as an immediate one. So
aim higher. And then have immediate and intermediate steps
leading towards its achievement. This may stimulate your
thinking! Where will you be and what will you be doing ten
years from today if you keep doing what you are doing now?
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(d) Aim high. It is a peculiar thing that no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand prosperity and abundance, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
I bargained with life
for a penny, And life would pay no more, However, I begged at
evening when I counted my scanty store.
For life is a just employer, it gives you what you ask, But
once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial's hire, only to learn, dismayed, That
any wage I had asked of life, Life would have willingly paid.
You have to be bold enough to ask of life more than you may,
right now, feel you are worth because it is an observable fact
that people tend to rise to meet demands that are put upon
them.
While it is exceedingly desirable that you blueprint your
program from beginning to end, this is not always feasible.
One doesn't always know all the answers between the beginning
of a great enterprise or journey and its ending. But if you
know where you are and where you want to be and you start from
where you are to get to where you want to be, you will, if you
keep properly motivated, move forward step by step until you
get there.
Take that first step. The important thing after setting a goal
is taking action. Recently a sixty-three-year-old grandmother,
Mrs. Charles Philipia, decided that she was going to walk from
New York City to Miami, Florida. She reached Miami and, while
there, was interviewed by newspapermen. They wanted to know if
the idea of such a long journey on foot hadn't frightened her.
How did she ever summon courage to make such a journey with
her feet as her only mode of travel?
"It doesn't take courage to take one step," replied Mrs.
Philipia. "And that's all I did really. I just took one step.
And then I took another step. And then another and another and
here I am."
133
Yes, you must take that first step. It makes no difference how
much thinking and study time you spend, it will avail you
little unless you also act.
One of the authors was introduced to a man in Phoenix,
Arizona, by a friend. It was a rather odd introduction.
"Meet the man who received a million dollars cash for a gold
mine and now has the million dollars and also owns the mine."
"How in the world did you manage such a thing?" came the
question, asked with considerable awe.
"Oh, I had an idea, but I didn't have any money. I did have a
pick and a shovel. So I took my pick and my shovel and went
out to make my idea a reality," he responded.
"And then it occurred to me: if I would search for a gold mine
and dig around the vein, should I find a mine, one of the
large mining corporations could afford to work the mine
whereas I wouldn't have the necessary capital. You know,
mining machinery costs money today.
"So I searched for and found a vein of gold. Every indication
was that I had made a very rich strike. I sold it for two
million dollars. The terms were a million dollars in cash and
a first mortgage of a million dollars. While mining operations
were underway the vein ran out. I informed the owners of the
mining company that if they wanted to abandon the mine, I
would take it back and cancel their mortgage. They accepted.
So you see, I got a million dollars cash for the mine and
still have the million dollars and the mine."
Wealth repelled with NMA. A positive mental attitude will
attract wealth but a negative mental attitude will do just the
opposite.
With a positive mental attitude you will keep trying until you
achieve the wealth you are seeking. Now you might start with a
positive mental attitude and make your first step forward. Yet
you may become influenced by the negative side of your
talisman and stop when you are just one step from reaching
your destination. You may fail to employ one of the 17 success
principles. Here's a very good example:
Let's call our man Oscar. In the latter part of 1929, he was
at the railroad station in Oklahoma City where it was
necessary for him to wait several hours for a train connection
east. He had spent months in the western deserts in
temperatures as high as 110 degrees. He was seeking oil for an
eastern concern. And he was successful Oscar was a graduate of
M.I.T. It is said that he had combined the old divining rod,
galvanometer, magnetometer, oscillograph, radio tubes, and
other instruments, into a Doodle Bug for detecting oil
deposits.
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Now Oscar had received word that the company he represented
was insolvent. It had become bankrupt because the president
had used the firm's large cash resources in speculation in the
stock market. The market crashed in late 1929. Oscar was on
his way home. He was out of a job, and the outlook was rather
dismal.
The influence of NMA began to exert a powerful influence on
him.
Because he had to wait several hours, he decided to occupy
himself by setting up his instrument in the railroad station.
The reading on his instrument was so high in its positive
indication of oil deposits that Oscar in a rage impulsively
kicked the instrument and destroyed it.
You see, Oscar was frustrated.
"There couldn't be that much oil! There couldn't be that much
oil!" he shouted repeatedly in disgust.
But Oscar was frustrated. He was under the influence of a
negative mental attitude. The opportunity for which he had
been searching lay at his very feet. He only had to make one
step to reach it. But, because of the influence of NMA, he
refused to recognize it.
He lost faith in his own invention. Had he been under the
influence of PMA, he would have attracted wealth, not repelled
it.
Applied faith is one of the important 17 success principles.
The test of your faith is whether you apply it at the time of
your greatest need.
NMA had led Oscar to believe that many of the things that he
had faith in were wrong. As you recall: the Depression brought
a fear consciousness into the minds of many persons—Oscar was
one. He had worked hard and sacrificed, yet he was out of a
job through no fault of his own. The president of his company
had been held in high esteem by Oscar, yet this man whom he
trusted embezzled the company's funds. Now the machine that
had proved its value in the past seemed to have gone haywire.
Yes—Oscar was frustrated.
When Oscar boarded the train at the Oklahoma City railroad
station that day, he left his Doodle Bug behind. And he also
left one of the nation's richest oil deposits.
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A short time later, Oklahoma City was found to be literally
floating on oil. Oscar has become a living demonstration of
the application of two principles:
A positive mental attitude attracts wealth and a negative
mental attitude repels it.
Wealth can be acquired on a modest salary. But you may say:
"All this about positive and negative mental attitudes is very
fine for someone who's out to make a million dollars. But I'm
not really interested in making a million.
"Of course, I want security. I want enough to live well and
take care of the needs I will have some day when I retire.
"What about me if I am an office employee? What about me when
I have just a fair salary?" Now here's our answer:
You too can acquire wealth. Wealth enough for security. Or,
even wealth enough to become rich in spite of what you say.
Just let the PMA influence of your talisman affect you
favorably.
We'll prove that this can be done.
And if for some reason you aren't fully convinced, just read a
book: The Richest Man in Babylon. And then make your first
step forward. Keep going and you'll have the financial
security or wealth you are seeking. Now that's exactly what
Mr. Osborne did.
Mr. Osborne was a salaried employee, yet he acquired wealth.
It wasn't so many years ago that he retired with the
statement: "I now spend my time having my money make money for
me while I do what I want to do."
Again, the principle used by Mr. Osborne is so obvious that it
is often unseen.
The principle he learned and the one that you also can employ
will now be stated in a very few words. In reading The Richest
Man in Babylon, Mr. Osborne found that wealth could be
acquired if you:
(a) Just save one dime out of every dollar you earn;
(b) Each six months, invest your savings and interest or dividend returns from these savings and investments; and
(c) When you invest, seek expert advice on safe investments and thus you won't gamble and lose your principal.
Let us repeat: that's
exactly what Mr. Osborne did. Just think of it. You can have
security or wealth by saving only a dime out of each dollar
you earn and investing it safely.
When should you start? Do It Now!
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Now let's contrast Mr. Osborne's experience with that of a man
who had good physical health and read an inspirational book.
He was fifty years old when he was introduced to Napoleon
Hill.
This man smiled when he said, "I read your book Think and Grow
Rich many years ago—but I'm not rich.
Napoleon Hill laughed and then replied seriously:
"But you can be rich. Your future is ahead of you. You must
prepare yourself to be ready. And in making yourself ready for
the opportunities that are available to you, you must first
develop a positive mental attitude." And the interesting thing
is that this man did heed the author's advice. This happened
only five years ago and the man isn't rich, but he has
developed a positive mental attitude. And he is on his way to
wealth. As an example: he was in debt many thousands of
dollars. Now he is out of debt. And now he is making
investments with the money he has saved.
Now he has PMA!
When the NMA side of his talisman was influencing him, he was
like those workmen who blame their tools for poor
craftsmanship.
Have you ever blamed your tools?
Where does the fault lie: If you own a perfect camera and use
the right film; if you have the proper set of rules to take
perfect pictures under all types of circumstances; if someone
else takes perfect photographs with your camera but yours are
failures?
Does the fault lie with the camera?
Could it be that you have read the rules but haven't taken the
time to understand them? Or, if you do understand them, that
you don't apply the rules? Could it be that you have already
read a book that might change the entire course of your Me,
but you did not take time: to digest and understand it, to
learn the principles and to apply them?
Now, it's not too late to learn.
If you haven't learned by now, you might as well learn now:
you will not succeed consistently unless you know and
understand the rules; you will not continuously succeed unless
you apply the rules. Therefore, take the time to understand
and apply what you are reading in this book. PMA will help
you.
"The home of my dreams." Remember, the thoughts that you think
and the statements you make regarding yourself determine your
mental attitude. If you have a worthwhile objective, find the
one reason why you can achieve it rather than hundreds of
reasons why you can't
One of the rules in obtaining what you want through PMA is to
act once you have your sights on a goal. Another is: "Go the
extra mile." W. Clement Stone tells of the following
experience which illustrates both rules.
PAGE: 137
One April evening, while I was visiting Frank and Claudia
Noonan in Mexico City, Claudia commented, "I wish we could
have a home in the Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel." (This
is the most desirable section of that beautiful city.)
"Why don't you?" I asked.
Frank laughed and answered, "We don't have the money."
"Does that make any difference, if you know what you want?" I
inquired, and then, without waiting for a response, I asked a
question that I might ask of you.
"By the way, have you ever read an inspirational, motivating
book like Think and Grow Rich, The Power of Positive Thinking,
I Can, I Dare You, TNT, Applied Imagination, Turn on the Green
Lights in Your Life, Acres of Diamonds, or The Magic of
Believing?"
"No," was the response.
Thereupon I told of several experiences of those persons who:
knew what they wanted; read an inspirational book; listened to
its message; and then got into action.
And I even told how years ago I purchased a new $30,000 home
on my own terms with a $1500 down payment and how in due
course it was completely paid for. I promised to send one of
the recommended books. I did.
Frank and Claudia Noonan were ready.
It was the following December, while studying in my library
that I received a telephone call from Claudia who said, "We
just arrived from Mexico City, and the first thing Frank and I
wish to do is to thank you."
"Thank me for what?"
"We want to thank you for our new home in the Jardines del
Pedregal de San Angel."
A few days later at dinner Claudia explained, "Late one
Saturday afternoon Frank and I were relaxing at home. Some
friends from the States telephoned and asked if we would drive
them to the Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel.
"It just so happened we were both rather exhausted. And
besides, we had taken them there earlier in the week. Frank
was ready to be off when an expression used in the book
flashed through his mind Go the extra mile.
PAGE: 138
"While driving them through this man-made paradise, I saw the
home of my dreams—even the swimming pool I longed for."
(Claudia is the swimming champion, Claudia Eckert.)
"Frank bought it."
Frank said, "You might like to know that although the property
cost in excess of a half million pesos, I only made a deposit
of five thousand pesos. It costs less for our family to live
in the Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel than in our former
home."
"Why is this?" I asked in surprise.
"Well, we bought the two homes that were on the property
instead of one. The rent from the one house is enough to make
payments on the entire enterprise."
Now this wasn't so surprising after all. It's quite common for
a family to buy a duplex apartment and rent one and live in
the other. What is surprising to a person without experience
is how easy it is to get what you want by understanding and
applying the success principles to be found in an
autobiography or self-improvement book.
"Attract wealth with PMA," we say. You say: "Money makes money
and I have no money." This is a negative mental attitude. If
you don't have money, use OPM. That's what the next chapter is
all about.
12
Pilot No. 12
THOUGHTS
TO STEER BY
ATTRACT—DON'T REPEL—WEALTH
1. Take the first step!
2. The test of your faith is whether you apply it even at the time of your greatest need.
3. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. If you don't succeed when you read this book where does the fault lie?
4. The house of your dreams: You can have itl Like Frank and Claudia Noonan, you may buy two houses and rent one to pay for both.
5. In a hospital bed think! But you don't need to go to a hospital to establish the habit of engaging in study, thinking, planning time.
6. Learn how to set your goals: (a) Write down your goals, (b) Give yourself a deadline, (c) Set your standards high.
7. Where will you be and what will you be doing ten years from today if you keep on doing what you are doing now?
8. The Richest Man in Babylon: This book gives you a proved formula of success:
(a) Just save one dime out of every dollar you earn.
(b) Each six months invest your savings, and the interest or dividend returns from these savings and investments.
(c) Before you invest, seek expert advice on safe investments.
ENGAGE IN:
STUDY . . . THINKING . . . PLANNING