The Prosperity & Wealth Bible. Kahlil Gibran
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Most lives, as we have already pointed out, are poor and mean in their outward expression and conditions because the individuals are mentally poor and poverty-stricken. Little thoughts, plans, ideals beget little interest, little effort, little zeal in the individual, and awaken little or no interest in other minds. The radical difference between the pop-corn man on the corner and the Captain of Industry or the financial magnate, is in the size of their ideas and conceptions. Pop-corn ideas beget a ‘pop-corn life; great ideas, projects, enterprises, on the other hand, rouse the soul of the individual to zeal, effort, courage, daring, commensurate with the great ideas.
Great men cannot be approached with any project of a trifling character; time and mental force are too valuable to waste on things not “worth while.” If we accept the theory of an overshadowing spiritual universe thronged with guardian intelligences of humanity, we may well believe that the noblest intelligences over there will not enter into alliance with any mortal here, who is not doing something “worth while.”
A man should continually plan greater and still greater enterprises for himself should have the courage and daring to embark upon these new enterprises trusting in the unfolding powers of his own soul, in the great law of evolution, in the angelic help, and in the “Star of Destiny” to crown his efforts with success. Great Ideas and Projects if accompanied by sound judgment, proper, plans and proportionate zeal produce Great Men and Great Success.
Cultivate Strength of Will Power
The Will is the directive faculty oi the soul and when in harmony with Nature may become the channel of personal and spiritual energy as real as the force of gravitation or electricity. If wrongly directed it cannot of itself insure success, for the human will must ever be subject to, and in harmony with, the Divine Will. Some teachers and writers speak as though the individual man simply by will power could set aside the laws of nature, or thwart the divine will as expressed in general law.
Not so. As well assert that a man by taking hold of his boot straps could lift himself over a mountain. But where a man wills truth and righteousness or formulates any great plan in harmony with Nature’s ordination, the will of man thus becomes one with the Universal Will, which is a channel of the divine forces of the Universe. There seems to be no real limit to human achievement in harmony with nature’s laws if pursued unfalteringly by a strong and unconquerable will. The basis of all personal power resides in this will. All great and successful characters possess it in high degree.
A strong will is a mighty cyclonic force in human nature that creates a current of vibrations toward its possessor, along which are brought to him the very objects willed.
It operates by natural law yet its results seem at times miraculous.
The pupil should by frequent affirmation to himself, in the temple of his own Soul, assert his Will and Ability to conquer all difficulties. Many have suggested this affirmation for constant use: “I can and I will.”
The human will, that force unseen
The offspring of a deathless soul,
Can hew a way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.
It was this Will Power developed in high degree, which transformed the little Corsican into the most magnificent military leader and conqueror the world ever saw, Napoleon Buonaparte. He would regard nothing as impossible, insisting that the word “impossible” was only found in the dictionary of fools, that it was not a French word at all. When told that the Alps stood in the way of his victorious march into Italy he simply said: “There shall be no Alps,” and the Simplon Pass was the result.
Keep a Watchful Eye for Opportunities
The seeker of wealth must keep all his mental faculties alert in watching for “openings” “chances,” “favorable tides.” and be fertile enough in plans and bold enough in courage, to turn them to account.
“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.” Shakespeare says,
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at its flood, leads on to fortune.”
A man should be ready in advance for these open doors. The man in service should always be ready for a higher post.
He who does not more than fill his position is not fitted for a higher one. Read the lives of men who have risen from the lowest to the highest rung of the ladder and you will find men who have prepared themselves in advance, and by extra service prepared their own advance.
When the door opens, enter. When Opportunity comes your way, seize her by the forelock for as the ancients declared she is bald behind. The Spanish have a motto:
“Half the misfortunes in life come from holding in one’s horse when he is leaping.”
“Remember: Money Comes from Doing”
The pupil will bear in mind that if great stress has been laid on right thinking, feeling, willing, and much labor spent in the psychology of the subject, it is all with one object in view: right action at the right time. Nothing can take the place of patient, plodding industry; ideas expressed in action; zeal, will-power, faith and energy translated into work.
Helen Wilmans says most truly: “Money comes from doing.”
WALLACE D. WATTLES’
PRACTICAL IDEAS
In a little pamphlet, “How to Get What You Want” Mr. Wallace D. Wattles gives some very valuable and pertinent advice on Money Making, as well as on other lines of success. We summarize a few of his most practical teachings:
The cause of success is always in the person who succeeds ; all minds are formed of the same essential elements, and contain the same faculties, the difference in men is the degree of their development; it is certain, therefore, that you can succeed if you can find out the cause of success, develop it to sufficient strength and apply it properly in your work; you can develop any power to an unlimited extent, therefore you can develop enough success power to succeed; you must develop special faculties to be used in your own special work; you must choose for a business the one which will call for the use of your strongest faculties, and then develop these strongest faculties to the highest point possible; success depends not alone or chiefly on the possession of these special faculties which are only the tools of success but more upon the power which uses the tools; this something in the person which causes him to use his special faculties successfully we call Active Power-Consciousness; it is poise and more than poise, it is faith and more than faith, it is what you feel when you know you can do a thing and know how to do the thing ; you must learn how to create this Power-Consciousness so you will know you can do what you want to do ; you must not only believe you can succeed, but must also know you can succeed; and the sub-conscious mind must know you can succeed as well as the objective mind; people may think objectively they can succeed, but sub-consciously doubt that they will and the sub-conscious doubt will thwart success: the sub-conscious mind must be thoroughly impregnated with the knowledge that you have the power and know how to use it and will use it.
Repeated affirmations for a month, especially just before sleep, of such statements as the following will help you create the sub-conscious knowledge of success: “I can succeed:” “I am successful:” “what others have done I can do:” “I can do what I want to do;” “I can have what I want to have.”
To get more you must make the best constructive use of what you have: progress depends on the perfection of your use of what you have; the squirrel by jumping, through the law of evolution, in time obtains wings; you will never have wings if you only jump half as far as you can. Every person who does one thing perfectly is instantly presented with an opportunity of doing some larger thing; the law is that wherever an organization has more life than can find expression by functioning on a given plane, its surplus life lifts it to the next higher plane; live for the future now but do not live in the future now ; get more business, more friends, better position by using constructively what you have now; concentrate all your constructive energies on the