CHAPTER 1
Getting what you want is success, and success is an effect that comes from applying a cause. Success is essentially the same in every case. Successful people differ in the things they want, but not in the success itself.
Success is the same whether it brings health, wealth, personal development, or position. Success is attainment, regardless of what is attained. It is also a law of nature that like causes always produce like effects. Since success is the same in all cases, its cause must also be the same in all cases.
The cause of success always lies in the person who succeeds. This must be true, because if the cause lay in nature, outside the person, then everyone in a similar situation would succeed.
Nor is the cause in a person’s environment. If it were, everyone within a certain distance would be successful, and success would depend entirely on the neighborhood. Yet people whose surroundings are practically the same, living in the same neighborhood, show every degree of success and failure. We therefore know that the cause of success must lie in the individual and nowhere else.
It follows with mathematical certainty that you can succeed if you discover the cause of success, develop it until it is strong enough, and apply it properly to your work. Applying a sufficient cause cannot fail to produce its effect. Wherever failure of any kind occurs, it is because the cause was either too weak or not properly applied.
The cause of success is some power within you. You are able to develop any power without limit, because there is no end to mental growth. You can strengthen this power indefinitely, until it is strong enough to do what you want to do and get what you want to get.
Once it is strong enough, you can learn how to apply it to your work, and so you can certainly succeed. All you have to learn is what the cause of success is and how it must be applied.
Developing the special faculties your work requires is essential. We do not expect anyone to succeed as a musician without developing the musical faculty. It would be absurd to expect a machinist to succeed without developing mechanical ability, a clergyman without developing spiritual understanding and skill with words, or a banker without developing a talent for finance.
When choosing a business, you should choose one that calls for your strongest faculties. If you have good mechanical ability but are not spiritually minded and have no command of language, do not try to preach. If you have the taste and talent to combine colors and fabrics into beautiful hats and dresses, do not learn typing or shorthand.
Get into a business that will use your strongest faculties, and develop those faculties as far as you can. Even this, however, is not enough to guarantee success.
There are people with fine musical talent who fail as musicians, and people with good mechanical ability who fail as carpenters, blacksmiths, and machinists. Some with deep spirituality and fluent speech fail as clergymen, and some with keen, logical minds fail as lawyers, and so on.
The special faculties used in your work are your tools. Success does not depend only on having good tools; it depends more on the power that uses and applies them. Make sure your tools are the best and keep them in the best condition, since you can cultivate any faculty to whatever extent you wish.
Applying the musical faculty brings success in music. Applying the mechanical faculty brings success in mechanical work, applying the financial faculty brings success in banking, and so on. The something that applies these faculties, or causes them to be applied, is the cause of success.
The faculties are tools, and the user of the tools is you. The cause of success is whatever in you can make you use those tools in the right way, at the right time, and in the right place.
What is this something in a person that makes him use his faculties successfully? What it is and how to develop it will be fully explained in the next section. Before turning to that, however, you should read this section several times, so as to fix in your mind the unshakable logic behind the statement that you can succeed.
You can. If you study the argument above carefully, you will be convinced that you can. And becoming convinced that you can succeed is the first requirement for success.
CHAPTER 2
The faculties of the human mind are the tools with which success is achieved. Applying these tools rightly to your work or business will carry it through successfully and get you what you want.
A few people succeed because they use their faculties successfully. The majority, whose faculties are just as good, fail because they use them unsuccessfully. Something in the successful person enables him to use his faculties well, and everyone who succeeds must cultivate it. The question is: what is it?
It is hard to find a word for it that will not mislead. This something is Poise, and poise is peace and power combined. But it is more than poise, because poise is a condition, while this something is an action as well as a condition.
This something is also Faith, but it is more than faith as the word is usually understood. In the usual sense, faith is the act of believing things that cannot be proved. The something that causes success is more than that. It is Conscious Power in Action. It is ACTIVE POWER-CONSCIOUSNESS.
Power-Consciousness is what you feel when you know that you can do a thing and you know HOW to do it. If I can make you KNOW that you can succeed, and know that you know HOW to succeed, I have placed success within your reach.
If you know you can do a thing and know that you know how to do it, you cannot fail to do it, provided you really try. When you are in full Power-Consciousness, you will approach the task in a completely successful frame of mind.
Every thought will be a successful thought, and every action a successful action. If every thought and action is successful, the sum of all your actions cannot be failure.
My task in these lessons, then, is to teach you how to create Power-Consciousness in yourself, so that you will know you can do what you want to do. Then I will teach you how to do it.
Read the preceding section again. It proves by unanswerable logic that you CAN succeed. It shows that everything found in any mind is also in your mind; the only difference, if there is one, lies in development. It is a fact of nature that what is undeveloped can always be developed. The cause of success, then, is in you, and it is capable of full development.
Having read this, you must believe that it is possible for you to succeed. But believing that you can is not enough. You must know that you can, and your subconscious mind must know it as well as your objective, conscious mind.
People like to say, “He can who thinks he can,” but this is not true. It is not even true that he can who knows he can, if only the objective mind is meant. The subconscious mind will often completely override what the objective mind knows for certain.
It is true, however, that he can whose subconscious mind knows that he can. This is especially true if his objective mind has been trained to do the work. People fail because they think, objectively, that they can do things, but do not know, subconsciously, that they can.
Your subconscious mind is very likely impressed even now with doubts about your ability to succeed. These doubts must be removed, or it will hold back its power when you need it most.
The subconscious mind is the source of the power behind the action of every faculty. A doubt will cause this power to be withheld, and the action will be weak. Your first step, therefore, must be to impress on your subconscious mind the fact that you CAN. This must be done by repeated suggestion.
Practice the following mental exercise several times a day, and especially just before going to sleep. Think quietly about the subconscious mind, which permeates your whole body the way water permeates a sponge. As you think of this mind, try to feel it. You will soon be able to become conscious of it.
Hold this awareness, and say with deep, earnest feeling: “I CAN succeed! Everything that is possible to anyone is possible to me. I AM successful. I do succeed, for I am full of the Power of Success.”
This is the simple truth. Realize that it is true, and repeat it again and again until your whole mind is saturated with the knowledge that YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.
You can. Other people have, and you can do more than anyone has ever done, because no one has yet used all the power that is available to be used. It is within your power to achieve greater success in your business than anyone before you.
Practice this autosuggestion persistently for a month, and you will begin to KNOW that you have within you something that CAN do what you want to do. Then you will be ready for the next section, which will tell you how to go about doing it.
But remember: it is absolutely essential first to impress on your subconscious mind the knowledge that you CAN.
CHAPTER 3
Once you have filled your mind, both conscious and subconscious, with the faith that you CAN get what you want, the next question is one of method. You know that you can do it if you go about it the right way. But which way is the right one?
This much is certain: to get more, you must make constructive use of what you already have. You cannot use what you do not have. Your problem, therefore, is how to make the most constructive use of what is already yours. Do not waste any time imagining how you would use certain things if you had them. Consider only how to use what you have.
It is also certain that you will progress faster if you make the most perfect use of what you have. In fact, how quickly you reach what you want depends on how perfectly you use what you have. Many people are at a standstill, or find things coming their way very slowly, because they are making only partial use of their present means, powers, and opportunities.
An analogy from nature may make this point clearer. In the process of evolution, squirrels developed their leaping power to its fullest extent. Then a continuous effort to advance produced the flying squirrel. It has a membrane joining its legs that forms a kind of parachute, allowing the animal to glide some distance beyond an ordinary leap.
A slight extension of the flying squirrel’s parachute jump produced the bat, which has membranous wings and can truly fly. Continuous flight then produced the bird with feathered wings. Each move from one plane of life to the next was accomplished simply by perfecting and extending existing functions.
If the squirrels had not kept leaping farther and farther, there would have been no flying squirrel and no power of flight. Making constructive use of the leaping power produced flight. If you are only jumping half as far as you can, you will never fly.
In nature, we see that life advances from one plane to another by perfecting its function on the lower plane. Whenever an organism contains more life than it can express by functioning perfectly on its own plane, it begins to perform the functions of the next higher, or larger, plane.
The first squirrel that began to develop the parachute membrane must have been a truly perfect leaper. This is the fundamental principle of evolution, and of all attainment.
In keeping with this principle, you can advance only by more than filling your present place. You must do perfectly everything you can do now. It is the law that by doing perfectly all that you can do now, you will become able to do later the things you cannot do now.
Doing one thing perfectly always equips us to do the next larger thing, because it is a principle built into nature that life continuously advances. Every person who does one thing perfectly is immediately presented with an opportunity to begin doing the next larger thing. This is the universal law of all life, and it never fails.
First, do perfectly all that you can do now. Keep on doing it perfectly until it becomes so easy that you have surplus power left over after doing it. With that surplus power, you will get a hold on the work of a higher plane and begin to widen your connection with your environment.
Get into a business that will use your strongest faculties, even if you must start at the bottom. Then develop those faculties to the utmost. Cultivate power-consciousness so that you can apply your faculties successfully. Apply them to doing perfectly everything you can do now, where you are now.
Do not wait for a change of environment; it may never come. The only way to reach a better environment is to make constructive use of your present one. Only the most complete use of your present environment will place you in a more desirable one.
If you want to expand your present business, remember that you can do it only by conducting the business you already have in the most perfect way. When you put enough life into your business to more than fill it, the surplus will bring you more business.
Do not reach out for more until you have life to spare after doing perfectly everything you have to do now. There is no advantage in having more work or more business than you have the life to do perfectly. If that is your situation, increase your vital power first.
And remember: it is the perfection with which you do what you have to do now that widens your field and brings you into contact with a larger environment.
Keep in mind that the driving force that gets you what you want is life. What you want, in the final analysis, is only an opportunity to live more. Therefore, you can get what you want only through the operation of the universal law by which all life continuously advances into fuller expression.
That law is this: whenever an organism has more life than it can express by functioning perfectly on a given plane, its surplus life lifts it to the next higher plane. When you put enough of yourself into your present work to do it perfectly, your surplus power will extend your work into a larger field.
It is also essential to keep in mind what you want, so that your surplus power is turned in the right direction. Form a clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish, but do not let it interfere with doing perfectly what you have to do now.
Your idea of what you want guides your energies. It also inspires you to apply them to the utmost in your present work. Live for the future now.
Suppose you want to own a department store, but you have only enough capital to start a peanut stand. Do not try to open a department store today on a peanut stand’s capital. Instead, start the peanut stand in full faith and confidence that you will be able to develop it into a department store. Look on the peanut stand as simply the beginning of the department store, and make it grow. You can.
Get more business by using constructively the business you have now. Get more friends by using constructively the friends you already have. Get a better position by using constructively the one you hold now. Get more happiness at home by using constructively the love that already exists in your home.
CHAPTER 4
You can get what you want only by applying your faculties to your work and your environment. You become able to apply your faculties successfully by acquiring Power-Consciousness. And you move forward by concentrating on today’s work and by doing perfectly everything that can be done at the present time.
You can get what you want in the future only by concentrating all your energies on the constructive use of whatever you are connected with today. An indifferent or half-hearted use of the elements in today’s environment will be fatal to tomorrow’s achievement.
Do not desire today what is beyond your ability to get today. But be sure that today you get the very best that can be had. Never accept less than the very best available at the present time, yet do not waste energy wanting what cannot be had at the present time.
If you always have the best that can be had, you will go on having better and better things. This is because it is a fundamental principle of the universe that life must continually advance into more life, and into the use of more and better things. This principle is what causes evolution. But if you are satisfied with less than the best that can be had, you will stop moving forward.
Every transaction and relationship of today, whether in business, at home, or in society, must be made a stepping-stone to what you want in the future. To accomplish this, you must put into each one more than enough life to fill it. There must be surplus power in everything you do.
This surplus power is what causes advancement and gets you what you want. Where there is no surplus power, there is no advancement and no attainment.
It is the surplus of life, above and beyond what your present environment requires, that causes evolution. And evolution is advancing into more life, which is the same as getting what you want.
Suppose, for example, that you are in trade or a profession and want to increase your business. When you sell goods or services, it will not do to treat the sale as a merely routine transaction. You must not simply take the customer’s money, give him good value, and let him leave feeling that your only interest was to deal fairly with him and make a profit.
Unless he feels that you take a personal interest in him and his needs, and that you honestly want to improve his welfare, you have failed and are losing ground. When you can make every customer feel that you are truly trying to advance his interests as well as your own, your business will grow.
You do not need to give premiums, heavier weights, or better values than others give in order to accomplish this. It is done by putting life and interest into every transaction, however small.
If you want to change your occupation, make your present business a stepping-stone to the one you want. As long as you remain in your present business, fill it with life. The surplus will tend toward what you want.
Take a lively interest in every man, woman, and child you meet, whether in business or socially, and sincerely want the best for them. They will soon begin to feel that your advancement matters to them, and they will unite their thoughts for your good. This will form a battery of power in your favor and will open ways for you to advance.
If you are an employee and want a promotion, put life into everything you do. Put more than enough life and interest into each piece of work to fill it. But do not be servile; never be a lackey.
Above all, avoid the intellectual prostitution that is the vice of our times in many trades and most professions. By this I mean being a mere hired apologist for and defender of immorality, graft, dishonesty, or vice in any form. The intellectual prostitute may rise in the service, but he is a lost soul.
Respect yourself, and be absolutely just to everyone. Put LIFE into every act and thought, and fix your Power-Conscious thought on the fact that you are entitled to promotion. It will come as soon as you can more than fill your present place every day.
If it does not come from your present employer, it will come from another. It is the law that whoever more than fills his present place must be advanced. Without this law there could be no evolution and no progress. But pay close attention to what follows.
It is not enough simply to put surplus life into your business relations. You will not advance far if you are a good businessman or employee but a bad husband, an unjust father, or an untrustworthy friend.
Failing in these respects will make you incapable of using your success to advance life, and so you will not come under the operation of the constructive law. Many a man who fulfills the law in business is held back because he is unkind to his wife, or falls short in some other relationship of life. To come under the operation of the evolutionary force, you must more than fill EVERY present relationship.
A telegraph operator wanted to get away from the telegraph key and onto a small farm. He began moving in that direction by being “good” to his wife. He “courted” her, without any reference to his desire. She had been half indifferent, but she became interested and eager to help.
Soon they had a little piece of ground at the edge of town. She raised poultry and managed a garden while he “pounded the key,” sending messages at his job. Now they have a farm, and he has achieved his desire.
You can win the cooperation not only of your wife but of all the people around you by putting life and interest into all your relations with them.
Put into every relationship, whether business, domestic, or social, more than enough life to fill it. Have faith, which is Power-Consciousness. Know what you want in the future, but have today the very best that can be obtained today.
Never be satisfied at any time with less than the best that can be had at that time, but never waste energy wanting what cannot be had now. Use all things to advance life, both for yourself and for everyone connected with you in any way.
Follow these principles of action and you cannot fail to get what you want. The universe is so constructed that all things must work together for your good.
CHAPTER 5
Wealth-culture means making constructive use of the people and things around you. The first step is to form a clear mental picture of what you want.
If your present business or profession is not the one that best suits your talents and tastes, decide which one does. Then resolve to get into that business or profession and to achieve the greatest possible success in it.
Get a clear idea of what you want to do. Then form a mental concept of the highest success in that business or profession, and determine that you will reach it.
Spend a great deal of time forming this concept, or mental picture. The clearer and more definite it is, the easier your work will be. A man who is not quite sure what he wants to build will put up a wobbly, shaky structure.
Know what you want, and keep the picture of it in the back of your mind night and day. Let it be like a picture hanging on the wall of your room, always present in your awareness. Then begin to move toward it.
Remember that if you do not have the fully developed talent now, you can develop it as you go. You can certainly do what you want to do.
Quite possibly you cannot do the thing you want right now, because you are not in the right environment and do not have the necessary capital. But this does not stop you from beginning to move toward the right environment, or from beginning to build up capital. Remember that you move forward only by doing what you can in your present environment.
Suppose you have only enough capital to run a newsstand, and your great desire is to own a department store. Do not imagine there is some magical method that lets you successfully run a department store on a newsstand’s capital.
There is, however, a mental science method by which you can run a newsstand in such a way that it will certainly grow into a department store. Think of your newsstand as one department of the store you are going to have. Fix your mind on the department store, and begin to take in the rest of it.
You will get it if you make every act and thought constructive. For every act and thought to be constructive, each one must convey the idea of increase.
Steadily hold in mind the thought of your own advancement. Know that you are advancing toward what you want, and act and speak in that faith. Then every word and act will convey the idea of advancement and increase to others, and they will be drawn to you. Always remember that what all people are looking for is increase.
First, study the facts about the great abundance that exists until you know that there is wealth for you, and that you do not have to take it from anyone else.
Avoid the competitive spirit. You can easily see that if abundance is limitless, there is enough for you without robbing anyone else.
Next, knowing that nature intends you to have what you want, reflect on the fact that you can get it only by acting. Consider that you can act only on your present environment, so do not try to act now on the environment of the future.
Then remember that in acting on your present environment, you must make every act a success in itself. In doing this, you must also hold the purpose of getting what you want.
You can hold this purpose only if you have a clear mental picture of what you want, so be sure that you have one. Remember, too, that your actions will have no real moving power unless you have unwavering faith that you will get what you want.
Form a clear mental picture of what you want, and hold to the purpose of getting it. Do everything perfectly, not in a servile spirit, but because you are a master mind. Keep unwavering faith that you will finally reach your goal, and you cannot fail to move forward.