When James Ferguson was seven or eight years old, the roof of his father’s cottage in Scotland fell in, and he saw his father take a beam to pry up the fallen roof. The boy was astonished because the beam seemed to give his father the strength of a giant. He watched how it was used, then experimented with sticks, and discovered, unaided, the mechanical principle of the lever.
But observing that the long end of a lever had to be moved through an inconveniently great distance in order to produce a slight movement of the weight to be raised, he reasoned upon the matter so closely that he invented a wheel and axle to do more easily the work of a long lever. Thus, by simple concentration of mind, this boy discovered for himself a great mechanical truth, which, as he did not then know, had occupied the inventive powers of famous men for centuries.
The habit of mental concentration which he established at so early an age made him afterward one of the most celebrated and influential men of his time.
These are concrete examples of concentration. They could be multiplied a thousandfold, but let us glance at the principle that underlies them. That principle is simply CLOSE UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. The thing that makes men failures is dissipation of the mind. Don’t let your attention wander; hold your mind firmly upon the subject before it! Stick to it until you have got to the bottom of it. Avoid darting from one thing to another, leaving each half finished! If you are learning to pitch a baseball, you keep at it until, gradually, your hand and arm appear to have acquired magical power over the ball. You can do the same thing with your mind; you can make it so effective by concentration that you will be able to control events and turn them to advantage.
But you have to make a start! You have to try! Success only comes to those who look for it – those who try! Success never collided with a procrastinator – the man who says, “I’ll think it over until tomorrow.” Tomorrow never comes! So make use of today while your light is yet shining.
I want you to be guided by my recommendations and purchase a copy of a little book, by Dr. F. W. Sears, entitled CONCENTRATION. It will cost you only a half-dollar and you can probably get it at any bookstore. If not, send a half-dollar direct to the Institute, and they will purchase a copy and send it to you. This little book can be read in less than an hour. It will give you a better understanding of Concentration than you ever had before. It will show you exactly how to concentrate! I have read it many times as has Mrs. Hill. We find something new every time we read it.
I also recommend that you purchase a copy of As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen. This will give you an understanding of the mind power which you possess, from a new viewpoint, unless you have read the book already. You can get it at any bookstore for a quarter. I have read this book more than a dozen times. It is of great practical value to a student of Life and Success and Salesmanship.
GITOMER NOTE: Both books can be found at HillsFirstWritings.com.
From time to time, as you go along with your course, I will recommend to you good, helpful books. I will recommend no book that will not be of practical value to you as a student of Success and Salesmanship. Furthermore, I will recommend only books that are within your means. Every student of Success and Salesmanship ought to keep well informed through the numerous magazines and books on the subject of Success and Selling. For ten dollars a year or less you may have the pick of the best publications available on the subject of Success and Salesmanship. To read these magazines and analyze them carefully is a splendid education within itself. They will keep your mind directed in the field in which you are interested, and you will pick up many a good practical idea that will serve you well in the years to come.
Yours for a successful career,
Napoleon Hill
GITOMER’S THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THIS LESSON
Since the Bible and the 10 Commandments, everyone has been given their rules for success or ideas about how to succeed better. This is a set of rules about how YOU can get better. These rules apply to everyday life as well as years in your future. This is a lesson to read, study, memorize, and practice EVERY DAY.
List the seven rules and rate yourself from 1-10 on your present success level. Between your rating and 10 lies your GAP. Taking daily steps toward improving EACH ONE will ultimately get you closer to the goal – but the secret to actually taking these steps is in the previous lesson: ALLOCATE TIME. Make appointments with yourself to create success time.
Lesson Number
10
ADOPT A “CHIEF AIM IN LIFE”!
(An after-the-lesson visit with Mr. Hill)
GITOMER INSIGHT: Keep in mind that this lesson and philosophy were written 20 years BEFORE Think and Grow Rich. And this is the first writing where “Chief Aim” is defined. Hill was perfecting this success and wealth-building strategy at the very outset of his own career. There’s a free booklet offered in this lesson that reveals Hill’s source for this concept. It’s as fascinating as it is accurate.
Among the thousand and one little things which go to make up the qualifications necessary in the thoroughly efficient man is the all-important faculty of working with a definite purpose in view – with a “chief aim in life.”
I was reminded of this very forcibly one summer at a bathing beach here in Chicago. It was Sunday, and I was taking a little outing with my wife and two boys; I was strolling along, watching the bathers in the surf and the happy children playing in the sand. Not far from me a boy was playing with a large shepherd dog; a little farther down on the beach was a family consisting of a father, mother, and child. The child had a little half-grown fox terrier puppy; and as I looked on, the antics of the two dogs reminded me of life and men.
The boy with the shepherd dog would throw a stick out into the breakers and tell the dog to go after it, and the noble fellow would look up into his master’s face, and one could almost fancy that he said, “You watch me, I’ll get the stick,” and he did get it every time.
He would plunge into the surf and fight his way out to it and bring it back to shore, and after laying it at his master’s feet would look up into his face with an expression that seemed to say, “There, I did it, didn’t I?” He had accomplished something; he knew it and was pleased, no matter that time and time again the breakers carried him almost back to shore. He had made up his mind that he would get that stick, and he got it.
Now, all this time, what was the little fox terrier doing? Was he watching the older and wiser dog and profiting by his example? No, not he! He was digging a hole in the sand! What for? Oh, just to be digging! Perhaps there were rats or gophers in the sand and he was after them? No, that was not it, and, besides, he wouldn’t know a gopher from a sand crab; he was just digging a hole in the sand. Just wasting his energy and accomplishing nothing, and all the time he was making a great fuss over it.
He would dig a while, and bark a while, and dig a while, and bark a while, and the mere fact that no one seemed to notice him didn’t seem to bother him in the least. He just kept on digging and barking, and all the time the shepherd dog continued to go after the stick and get it every time.
He was digging, too, but with a definite purpose in view, and he wasn’t making a sound; and each successive time he came in with the stick, he received a little fonder pat on the head, which assured him that his efforts were appreciated. He was making good, and, oh, the satisfaction of it! And then he barked, and his bark seemed to say to the boy, “Throw it out again, I’ll bring it back; the breakers are never too high for me.”
And – well, I declare, we almost forgot the puppy dog. What was he getting for his labor? Most of the time they did not pay any attention to him at all, but once in a while they noticed him long enough to give him a cuff on the ear and say, “Quit that you little fool, you’re scratching sand all over the lunch,” but he kept on digging the hole in the sand, and finally it was so deep that we couldn’t see him at all.
He had been digging so long and so persistently that he had disappeared from our visi
on, and if he had not continued to make such infernal noise with his barking, we would have forgotten that he was in the land of the living.
Do you see anything in this, I wonder?
Figuratively speaking, what are You? Are you a shepherd or a fox terrier? Do you work with a purpose in view? Or are you digging a hole in the sand and barking all the time you are digging it? If you are, look out! You may dig it so deep that you can never climb out of it, and the walls, being sand, may crumble and fall on you, and you will find yourself buried under the foolish mistakes of the past, while your friend, the shepherd dog, will have graduated from the stick-chasing stage because he has demonstrated that he always gets it when he goes after it, and he can be depended upon to do things.
And so it goes. We go from day to day, year to year, accusing opportunity of playing favorites because she doesn’t knock at our door. All the time she is standing before us, just begging us to embrace her. She stands up by our couch when we sleep, and she cries out in a loud voice, “WAKE UP! I’M HERE!” But we sleep on, and when we are told that she was there and that she tried with all her might to wake us, we rub our eyes and say, “Oh, well, she didn’t try very hard, I guess; why didn’t she shake me?” And we go out and dig a little more in the sand.
But don’t lose heart! She is still there, standing right outside of your door now, and all that is necessary is for you to call her and convince her that you want her, and she’ll come in and prove that at least one old adage is a joke, and that is that “Opportunity never knocks but once.”
Cover up the hole you have been digging. Stop your barking. Get your eyes on the stick as it floats out on the breakers of life. Go after it. And don’t come back until you get it! If the breakers knock you down time and time again, spit out the water, shake your head and go after it; and when you get back to shore, you’ll be more than glad you did it.
Never mind the hole you were so long in digging; just go back and look for it, and you’ll find that it has disappeared. That charitable waves of life smoothed it all down at high tide; they will always do that when they see that you are through with it. Turn your back on it! Hold out your arm to Opportunity, and as you stroll down life’s sands, with her at your side, keep your eye on the breakers as they roll in from the mighty ocean and LOOK OUT FOR MORE STICKS! When you see them, GO AFTER THEM.
You will be better prepared to go after the sticks after you read the little booklet that you will receive with this lesson, entitled “The Law of Financial Success.” (Go to HillsFirstWritings.com and get your free copy.)
But before you start on the booklet, draw up your chairs and let me tell you how it came to be a part of your lesson in life. One Sunday morning I was on my way to my home to write this “visit.” Across the aisle from me in the streetcar, sat an old man who was fumbling with a little brown-covered booklet. A strange feeling of curiosity to see the booklet came over me, so I walked over and sat down beside him and looked over his shoulder until I caught the name of the publisher. Next day, I requested my Secretary to write for a copy, which came in due time.
As I began to read it, I saw an unusual resemblance between my own philosophy and that of the writer of the booklet, to say nothing of the resemblance in our style of writing. I turned back hurriedly to see the date of the copyright, believing that someone had “cribbed” some of my work, when lo! I discovered that the booklet had been written nearly ten years previously.
I never saw the booklet until then, and had never even heard of it. Just why I was so strongly drawn to it, even before I saw the title is a bit of strange phenomena which I shall not undertake to explain. I have tried out every one of the principles which it champions, in the great workshop of life, and can heartily endorse them as being sound and practical. Through the operation of these principles you can acquire not only money, but any material thing that exists in this world.
The booklet is presented to you at this time for the reason that we will be making application of the principles which it sets forth throughout your course. Do not stop by reading the booklet once. Read it twice, three times – even a dozen times. Mark the points which you can corroborate with your own experience. It will give you a wonderful grip on the philosophy of life generally.
Earnestly yours for a great understanding of the powers that are within your mind,
Napoleon Hill
GITOMER’S THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THIS LESSON
This is the turning point of the book. This is where you focus and dedicate or rededicate yourself to a life of personal excellence with a definite major aim and purpose. Take the time to write yours down. Start your focus every morning. Stay on the path until you have grown past it. That’s correct, you will achieve and grow to “what’s next?” But the same rule applies. Create the aim and the purpose, and with dedication and desire, all is possible.
“Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.”
– Napoleon Hill
Lesson Number
11
THE “LAW OF HARMONIOUS ATTRACTION”
(An after-the-lesson visit with Mr. Hill)
GITOMER INSIGHT: It’s amazing how ahead of his time Napoleon Hill really was. “The Law of Attraction” has been bantered around for more than a century, but here Hill, with one simple adjective, makes the reader understand that simply saying, “The Law of Attraction” does not bring clarity to the law. Add “harmonious” to the law and it becomes both understandable AND actionable.
One of the best lessons on Salesmanship that I ever learned was drawn from my experience with the Chicago Press Club, as related to “The Psychology of Salesmanship.”
The next best lesson in Salesmanship that I ever learned was drawn from an experience with my two small boys. Every Sunday morning we are in the habit of walking across the park to the lakefront for a little visit. The boys always stop at the peanut stand on the corner and take along some nuts for the squirrels in the park. On this particular Sunday morning “Nap, Junior” got a bag of peanuts and “Jimmy” purchased a box of popcorn called “Crispettes.”
As we walked along through the park, Jimmy reached over and made a grab for the bag of peanuts which Nap was carrying. He missed the bag, and by way of retaliation Nap struck at him and said, “Let ’em alone!”
Then I said to Jimmy, “Now let me show you how to get some of those peanuts. You open up your box of Crispettes and offer some to Nap and see what happens.” Jimmy did as I told him, but before Nap would accept any of the popcorn, he insisted on opening up the bag of peanuts and pouring some of them into Jimmy’s pocket.
Now this may seem to you to be a very simple illustration of the Psychology of Salesmanship, and it is! However, I wish to leave this thought with you – most of us are just children, like Nap and Jimmy when it comes to returning favors. If I do you a favor, it makes no difference how slight, you will be pretty apt to reciprocate. You may take the meanest and most unpolished man of your acquaintance, give him a good reputation and let him know that you are willing to help him, and he will do everything in his power to live up to that reputation in nine cases out of ten.
The world is a great big looking glass in which we reflect that which is in our own hearts and minds!
I will admit that sometimes that glass becomes blurred and apparently it does not reflect the true image before it. However, you can wipe off the blur, polish the surface of the glass, and behold! You will see exactly what the world sees in you. If you will radiate hope, sunshine, good cheer, and optimism, you will be sure to see those same qualities in those around you.
There is nothing new or revealing about this. It is according to well-established and generally accepted laws of both physiology and psychology.
“AS A MAN THINKETH IN HIS HEART, SO IS HE.”
This quotation is more than an axiom – it is a scientific truth that you and I can and should make use of. The facts are that WE ARE MAKING USE OF IT whether we realize it
or not. We are either consciously or unconsciously creating a material condition in life that is an exact reproduction of that which we are creating in thought!
Tell me, if you can, of any material thing that man ever created in the physical world, of any house he ever built, of any automobile he ever invented, of any machinery he ever constructed, that was not first created in THOUGHT in his or in another’s mind!
Go back and again read that little booklet, “The Law of Financial Success,” (HillsFirstWritings.com) that came with your last lesson. In it you will find all of the philosophy that you will need with which to ATTRACT TO YOU anything that you DESIRE! The DESIRE that you hold uppermost in your mind may be likened to CAUSE while the object of that desire may be likened to EFFECT. Remember, then, that if the effect is not satisfactory, you should reshape the cause.
I have told this little story concerning my two boys as a simple illustration of a great and powerful principle that will aid you in everything you do if you will understand and apply it. In writing collection letters, you can especially make use of this principle, because most people respond readily to friendly suggestion whereas they rebel violently at force or threats of any nature.
Yes, it will help you over many a tough spot if you remember that little “peanut and popcorn” story of the Hill Juniors. Watch the person who comes to you laden with gifts and seeking the opportunity to please you, for such a person is a master salesman and may prove to be your match. Without even attempting to understand the reason why, you will agree that it is better to please than to antagonize the person of whom you intend to ask favors. You will just as readily agree that the best way to gain the cooperation of others is by first having cooperated with them or indicated your willingness to do so.
Truthful Living Page 9
