Some Cautions, and Concluding Observations
MANY people will scoff at the idea that there is an exact science
of getting rich; holding the impression that the supply of wealth is
limited, they will insist that social and governmental institutions
must be changed before even any considerable number of people can
acquire a competence.
But this is not true.
It is true that existing governments keep the masses in poverty,
but this is because the masses do not think and act in the Certain
Way.
If the masses begin to move forward as suggested in this book,
neither governments nor industrial systems can check them; all
systems must be modified to accommodate the forward movement.
If the people have the Advancing Mind, have the Faith that they
can become rich, and move forward with the fixed purpose to become
rich, nothing can possibly keep them in poverty.
Individuals may enter upon the Certain Way at any time, and under
any government, and make themselves rich; and when any considerable
number of individuals do so under any government, they will cause
the system to be so modified as to open the way for others.
The more men who get rich on the competitive plane, the worse for
others; the more who get rich on the creative plane, the better for
others.
The economic salvation of the masses can only be accomplished by
getting a large number of people to practice the scientific method
set down in this book, and become rich. These will show others the
way, and inspire them with a desire for real life, with the faith
that it can be attained, and with the purpose to attain it.
For the present, however, it is enough to know that neither the
government under which you live nor the capitalistic or competitive
system of industry can keep you from getting rich. When you enter
upon the creative plane of thought you will rise above all these
things and become a citizen of another kingdom.
But remember that your thought must be held upon the creative
plane; you are never for an instant to be betrayed into regarding
the supply as limited, or into acting on the moral level of
competition.
Whenever you do fall into old ways of thought, correct yourself
instantly; for when you are in the competitive mind, you have lost
the cooperation of the Mind of the Whole.
Do not spend any time in planning as to how you will meet
possible emergencies in the future, except as the necessary policies
may affect your actions today. You are concerned with doing today's
work in a perfectly successful manner, and not with emergencies
which may arise tomorrow; you can attend to them as they come.
Do not concern yourself with questions as to how you shall
surmount obstacles which may loom upon your business horizon, unless
you can see plainly that your course must be altered today in order
to avoid them.
No matter how tremendous an obstruction may appear at a distance,
you will find that if you go on in the Certain Way it will disappear
as you approach it, or that a way over, though, or around it will
appear.
No possible combination of circumstances can defeat a man or
woman who is proceeding to get rich along strictly scientific lines.
No man or woman who obeys the law can fail to get rich, any more
than one can multiply two by two and fail to get four.
Give no anxious thought to possible disasters, obstacles, panics,
or unfavorable combinations of circumstances; it is time enough to
meet such things when they present themselves before you in the
immediate present, and you will find that every difficulty carries
with it the wherewithal for its overcoming.
Guard your speech. Never speak of yourself, your affairs, or of
anything else in a discouraged or discouraging way.
Never admit the possibility of failure, or speak in a way that
infers failure as a possibility.
Never speak of the times as being hard, or of business conditions
as being doubtful. Times may be hard and business doubtful for those
who are on the competitive plane, but they can never be so for you;
you can create what you want, and you are above fear.
When others are having hard times and poor business, you will
find your greatest opportunities.
Train yourself to think of and to look upon the world as a
something which is Becoming, which is growing; and to regard seeming
evil as being only that which is undeveloped. Always speak in terms
of advancement; to do otherwise is to deny your faith, and to deny
your faith is to lose it.
Never allow yourself to feel disappointed. You may expect to have
a certain thing at a certain time, and not get it at that time; and
this will appear to you like failure.
But if you hold to your faith you will find that the failure is
only apparent.
Go on in the certain way, and if you do not receive that thing,
you will receive something so much better that you will see that the
seeming failure was really a great success.
A student of this science had set his mind on making a certain
business combination which seemed to him at the time to be very
desirable, and he worked for some, weeks to bring it about. When the
crucial time came, the thing failed in a perfectly inexplicable way;
it was as if some unseen influence had been working secretly against
him. He was not disappointed; on the contrary, he thanked God that
his desire had been overruled, and went steadily on with a grateful
mind. In a few weeks an opportunity so much better came his way that
he would not have made the first deal on any account; and he saw
that a Mind which knew more than he knew had prevented him from
losing the greater good by entangling himself with the lesser.
That is the way every seeming failure will work out for you, if
you keep your faith, hold to your purpose, have gratitude, and do,
every day, all that can be done that day, doing each separate act in
a successful manner.
When you make a failure, it is because you have not asked for
enough; keep on, and a larger thing then you were seeking will
certainly come to you. Remember this.
You will not fail because you lack the necessary talent to do
what you wish to do. If you go on as I have directed, you will
develop all the talent that is necessary to the doing of your work.
It is not within the scope of this book to deal with the science
of cultivating talent; but it is as certain and simple as the
process of getting rich.
However, do not hesitate or waver for fear that when you come to
any certain place you will fail for lack of ability; keep right on,
and when you come to that place, the ability will be furnished to
you. The same source of Ability which enabled the untaught Lincoln
to do the greatest work in government ever accomplished by a single
man is open to you; you may draw upon all the mind there is for
wisdom to use in meeting the responsibilities which are laid upon
you. Go on in full faith.
Study this book. Make it your constant companion until you have
mastered all the ideas contained in it. While you are getting firmly
established in this faith, you will do well to give up most
recreations and pleasure; and to stay away from places where ideas
conflicting with these are advanced in lectures or sermons. Do not
read pessimistic or conflicting literature, or get into arguments
upon the matter. Do very little reading, outside of the writers
mentioned in the Preface. Spend most of your leisure time in
contemplating your vision, and in cultivating gratitude, and in
reading this book. It contains all you need to know of the science
of getting rich; and you will find all the essentials summed up in
the following chapter. |