The Resilient Mind - The power of the Mastermind (2) - Napoleon Hill

Episode Date: August 31, 2024

The is a rare recording of one of Napoleon Hill's lecture. In this lecture he talks about the power of harmonious team work (a Mastermind) and how it is critical to the development of massive success. Napoleon Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to study 500 of the wealthiest individuals in the USA in the 1900s. He spent over 20 years studying success and created his original work The Law of Success in 16 Lessons.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First of all, the first premise is that the master mind principle is the medium through which one may procure the full benefits of the experience, the training, the education, and the specialized knowledge and influence of others as completely as if their minds were in reality one's own. Isn't that a marvelous thing to contemplate that whatever it is that you lack in education or in knowledge or influence, you can always obtain it through somebody who has. has it. The exchange of favors, the exchange of knowledge, is one of the greatest exchanges in the world. It's a very nice thing to engage in business where the exchange of money makes you a profit, but I would a whole lot rather exchange ideas with somebody, give a man an idea that he didn't have before and receive in return one that I didn't have, and I would do it, make an exchange of money. You, of course, know that Thomas A. Edison was perhaps the greatest inventor of the world has ever known. He was dealing all the time with many of the science.

and yet he knew nothing at all about any of the scientists. You'd say it would be impossible for a man to succeed in any undertaking unless he were educated in that field. I was astounded when I first talked to Andrew Carnegie to hear him say that he personally didn't know anything about the making or the marketing of Steve. And I was so astounded at that statement. I said, well, Mr. Carnegie, just what is your part in this job here? What part do you play? Well, he said, I'll tell you the part that I play. my job is to keep the members of my mastermind alliance working in a state of perfect harmony.

And I said, is that all you have to do? He said, well, have you ever tried to get any two people to agree on anything for three minutes in succession in your life? I said, well, I don't know that I have. Well, you said, you try it someday to see just what kind of a job it is. To get people to work together in the spirit of harmony is one of the greatest of human achievements. And then Mr. Carnegie went on to break down his mastermind group, to describe each one individually to tell what part he played. One was his metallurgist. One was his chief chemist. One was his plant works manager. And one was his legal advisor. One was the chief of his financial staff. And so on down the line, there were over 20 of those men working together whose combined

education, experience, and knowledge constituted all there was known about the making and the marketing of steel at that time. And Mr. Carnegie said it wasn't necessary for him to know about it. He had men all around him who did understand the making and the marketing of steel. And that was his job to keep them working in perfect harmony.

And the second premise, an active alliance of two or more minds in a spirit of perfect harmony for the attainment of a common objective, stimulates each individual mind to a higher degree of courage than that which is ordinarily experienced and prepares the way for that state of mind known as faith. You know, in driving an automobile, every so often, the battery runs down, and you have to do something about it.

You come out some morning, you step on the starter, nothing happens. I know people who get out of bed in the morning do the same thing. Nothing happens, except they feel badly, they don't want to put all their shoes, they don't want to get dressed, they don't even eat breakfast. No, they need a, what do they need? You need the batteries charge, of course, and they have to have a source for doing it. It's a fine thing if a man gets up a morning feeling like that, and if he can have a little talk with his wife, for instance,

and she's a good coordinator, and she helps to charge his batteries. The chances are when he comes home that night, he will come home with all of the rabbit skins that he went out to get. And the third premise, a mastermind alliance properly conducted, conducted, stimulates each mind in the alliance to move with enthusiasm, personal initiative, imagination, and courage to a degree far above that which the individual experiences when moving without such an alliance. In my own early beginning, I had a mastermind alliance of

three people. I had an alliance with Mr. Carnegie and with my stepmother. And we through three people nursed this philosophy through the stages when everybody else was laughing at me and making fun of me, were undertaking to serve the richest man in the world for 20 years without any compensation. And there was a whole lot of logic to what they were saying, because at that time I wasn't getting very much compensation out of it in the way money at least. There came a time, however, when the laughing was on the other side of the face. But that took a long time and there was plenty of blood and tears said, I'll assure you, before I got to the point at which I could laugh back when the people laughed at me. But the relationship between we three people, my stepmother and Mr. Carnegie and myself,

enable me to offset all of this fun-making that were thrown at me by my relatives and my friends and everybody who knew what I was engaged in. Now, there are times, you know, when if you undertake anything above mediocrity, you're going to meet with opposition. you're going to meet with people who will chide you and to poke fun at you, and most of them will be right close to you, some of them perhaps your own relatives. You need some source to which you can turn when you're going to aim above mediocrity to get your battery charged and to keep them charged so that you won't quit and the going is hard and so you won't pay any attention when somebody criticizes.

You know, criticism falls off my back just like a water off a duck's back, or more than that, like a bullet off of a rhinocuses hide. I'm absolutely immune. immune to all forms of criticism. Whether it's friendly or unfriendly, makes no difference to me whatsoever. I just immune to it, that's all. And I became immune because of by relationship with certain people through whom I built up an immunity under my mastermind of lives.

If it had not been for the relationship with my stepmother and Mr. Carnegie, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you folks tonight. You wouldn't be here as students of this philosophy, and this philosophy would not be spread all over the world, helping me. millions of people, because I had a million opportunities to quit, at least a million opportunities. And every one of them looked very alluring. And almost sometimes it seems as if I were stupid if I didn't quit. But this marvelous relationship, I could always go back to Mr. Carnegie, I could always run into my stepmother,

and we'd sit down and have a little chat and she say, stand by your guns, you'll come out on top. I know you will. She once said at a time when I didn't have two nickels to rub together, as my enemies were saying. She once said that you are going to be the richest member of the Heel family far and away. I know it. I can see it in the future. Well, if you would take all of my riches and put them together, I suspect that I have more riches and all of my relatives put together for three generations back on both sides of the house. That's true. And my stepmother could see that. She could see that what I was doing. It was bound to make me rich. I don't have

reference alone to monetary riches. I have a reference to those higher and broader riches that you find when you get to where you can render service to so many people. And the fourth premise, to be effective, a mastermind alliance must be active. It must be active. You can't just form an alliance with somebody and say, now we, that's it, we've got it. I'm lined up with this person, that person, the other person, we've got a mastermind alliance. It amounts to you absolutely nothing until you become active. Every member of the alliance. It's got to stand. Step right in there and start pitching. Mentally, spiritually, physically, financially, every way that is necessary.

They must engage in the pursuit of a definite purpose and they must move with perfect harmony. Do you know the difference between perfect harmony and ordinary harmony? Do you know what it is? How many of you know the difference between perfect harmony and ordinary harmony? How many of you have ever had a relationship of perfect harmony with anybody? I'll tell you the truth. I suspect that I have had harmonious relationships with about as many people, maybe more people than any person living today, beyond any question of it out.

But I want to tell you that perfect harmony in relationship is about the rarest thing in the world. And I think I could count on the fingers of my two hands all of the people that I now know with whom I have a relationship of perfect harmony. I have a speaking acquaintance, a very nice, polite speaking acquaintance with a lot of the people, but that's not perfect harmony. I have a working alliance with a lot of people. That's not harmony. Perfect harmony. Perfect harmony consists only when your relationship to the other fellow is such that if he wanted everything you have, you willingly turn it over to him.

Now it takes a lot of unseilternish to put yourself in that frame of mind. Mr. Carnegie stressed time and time again the importance of this relationship of perfect harmony, because he said if you don't have perfect harmony in your match your mind's alliance, It's not a mastermind alliance after all. It's just cooperation, a coordination of effort. Without this factor of harmony, the alliance may be nothing more than ordinary cooperation or friendly coordination of effort.

The mastermind gives one full access to the spiritual powers of the other members of the alliance. I want you to underscore that party in your notes. The mastermind gives one full access to the spiritual powers of the other members of his alliance. I'm not talking now about just the mental powers of the financial powers, but the spiritual powers.

The feeling that you have when you begin to establish permanency in your master mind relationship is going to be one of the most outstanding and pleasant experiences of your entire life. When you're engaged in a mastermind activity, I want to tell you that you have so much faith, you know that you can do anything that you start out to do. You have no doubts, you have no fears, you have no limitations. And that's a marvelous frame of mind to be it. and the sixth premise yes

I just want to know if you're following me it is a matter of established record that all individual successes based upon any kind of achievement above mediocrity are attained through the mastermind principle and not by individual effort alone just imagine how little you could accomplish if you didn't have the cooperation of other people

suppose that you're in a profession suppose you're a dentist or a lawyer or a doctor or mastopath or anybody in the profession. And suppose that you didn't understand how to convert each one of your clients or patients into a salesman for yourself. Imagine how long would it take to build up a clientele or a following. The outstanding professional men understand how to make a salesman out of every person that they serve. And they do it in direction. They don't go about it directly.

They do it by going the extra mile, by going out of their way to be of unusual service, but they do make salesmen out of all of their clients. Most successes are the result of personal power and personal power of sufficient proportions to enable one to rise above mediocrity is not possible without the application of the mastermind principle. Now, during the first term of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House, I had the privilege of working with him as a confidential advisor, and it was I who laid out the skeleton of the propaganda plan that took the words business depression off of the headlines of the papers and substituted in their stead business recovery.

Those of you who remember what happened on that Black Sunday when we had a meeting down to the White House when the banks were closed the following Monday morning, remember what a stampede there was in this country. People were lined up in front of the banks all over the country to draw out their deposits. They were scared to death. They had lost confidence in their country, in their banks, in themselves, and everybody else. I suppose they still had some confidence in God, but it didn't show much signs of it. It was a scary time, I'll tell you.

And we sat down there and worked out a skeleton of a plan of procedure that created one of the most outstanding applications of the mastermind that this nation has ever seen, and I doubt that any nation on earth has ever had the equal of it. because there was only a matter of weeks until we had taken all that fear out of people it was only a matter of days until salesman on the road who had to run out of funds who couldn't get money were laughing about it and not in any way scared about it my own funds were closed up I had no money none at all I had a yes I did I must tell you this is funny I got very smart when I found off what was coming and I ran down to the bank and got a thousand dollar bill well I might just as

Well, I had only 10 cents. Nobody could change it. It wasn't worth a nickel. Not a nickel. But I wasn't scared because everybody else was the same. Both of that is there. But something had to be done about it. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a great leader.

He had great imagination. He had great courage. And here is what we did. First of all, we got both houses of Congress working in harmony with the president. The first time in the history of this nation that both houses of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, got behind. the president and forgot about what their political faiths happened to be. In other words, there were no Democrats, there were no Republicans,

they were just Americans down there backing the president everything that he needed in order to stop that stampede of fear. I have never seen anything to equal it in my life. I never hope to see it again. I wish I could, but I don't hope to. Because there was a great emergency on them, and something had to be done about. Second, the majority of the newspaper publishers of America.

Everything that we set out, the newspapers published it. They gave it marvelous space. And then the radio station operators, they gave us marvelous health, despite their political bleeps. And the churches, all denominates, all that was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in this country. Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, and all of the rest, pulling together as Americans. I want to tell you, it was a wonderful sign. A wonderful sign. What a wonderful thing it was.

They all got behind the president. Every one of them made some sort of a contribution toward reestablishment. faith in the people of this country. But during these hectic days, I want to tell you that there wasn't any doubt in the minds of the majority of the people. I don't know. I didn't come in contact with anybody. Who didn't think that Mr. Roosevelt was the only man, the finest man, that could possibly have handled that chaotic condition? And don't get me wrong politically.

I'm just talking about a great man who did a great job at a time when it needed to be done. And he did it because he had a mastermind alliance work out there. that was unbeatable. Now let's take up the different kinds of mastermind alliances that you may have. First of all, there are alliances for purely social or personal reasons, consisting of one's relatives, friends, and religious advisors where no material gain is sought. The most important of this type is the mastermind alliance which may exist between the man and his wife. I couldn't emphasize if I were brilliant and if I had the great magnetic powers, I couldn't over-emphasize the importance to you who are married of going to work immediately

and rededicating that marriage to a mastermind alliance based upon this lesson to mind. It'll bring joys into your life that you never dreamed of. It'll bring success into your life that you never dreamed of. It'll bring health into your life that you never dreamed of. It's a perfectly marvelous thing when the real mastermind alliance exists between a man and his wife. I don't know of anything that equates it. And then there are alliances for business or professional advancement consisting of individuals who have a personal motive of a material or a financial nature connected with the object of their alliances. Now, I imagine that the majority of you who are in this class now will be forming your first mastermind alliances for purely economic or financial advancement purposes.

And that's perfectly legitimate. That's one of the reasons why you're taking this course. you want to improve your economic and financial condition and you should start in immediately now to to form a mastermind alliance for that purpose and if you only have confined to begin with one person that's all right start out with one and then look around until the two of you select another one

now you can't select another but the two of you when you go to select the third party be sure that the one the second one that you've already selected is in a corner you understand that that's important and then when you go to select the four the three of you then will pass on the fourth and you'll go over the matter very carefully before you make you a member of the alliance and then when you go to select the fifth

the four of you will select the fifth you see in the mastermind alliance there's no such thing as one person dominating except in this respect that generally speaking one person is the leader he's the coordinator and the leader but he in no way undertakes to dominate his associates because the very moment you start to dominate anybody

you find resistance and rebellion even though it's not open rebellion it's rebellion nevertheless and in the mastermind alliance it must be one continuous spirit of perfect harmony where you move and act as if you were only one mind the American system of free enterprises is another example of efficiencies

through the mastermind principle this system is the envy of the world because it has raised the standard of living of the American people to an all-time high level. And that despite the fact that there's not perfect harm. But there is motive. There is motive to the American system of free enterprise to inspire every individual to do his best. There is a motive there. And incidentally, more and more industry and business is coming to understand that they can go a step further and instead of just having cooperation or coordination of effort between management and the workers, that they

can have the mastermind principle by sharing the management problems, by sharing the profits, by sharing the profits by sharing everything. And wherever I have been successful in influencing any business to adopt that policy, the business has made more money than it's ever made before and the employees have received more wages and everybody has happened.

General instructions for the farming and the maintenance of the Mastermind Alliance. First, adopt a definite purpose as an objective to be attained by the alliance, choosing individual members whose education, experience, and influence are such as to make them of the greatest value.

in achieving the purpose. A lot of times I'm asked by students, what is the most favorable number for a mastermind alliance? And how do you go about selecting the right sort of people for your mastermind alliance? And the nearest answer that I can give you that is that the procedure is exactly the same as if you are starting into a business and you are choosing employees. What kind of an employee would you choose? Marvelous. I see the sparks flying. Wonderful. Wonderful. Dependability at the top of the list. If a person is not dependable, I don't want any part of him in a business transaction. No part of him, no matter how a brilliant he may be, no matter how well-educated he may be,

the more educated he is the more dangers he may be if he's not dependable. And if he's not loyal, I would say the same thing. If an individual is not loyalty to those to whom he owes loyalty, then he's, me he has no character whatsoever and I want no part of him. Defendability and loyalty and then after that comes what? Ability to do the job. Ability. Notice where I place ability down in third place.

I'm not interested in the man's ability and so I found out whether he's dependable and whether he is loyal. And then what would you say he came after that in my category, my book, Ruth? Number four, positive metal. attitude, of course. What good is a negative wet blanket around you? Why you could claim to stay away and then be ahead of the game? And number five, what would that be? Going the extra mile, that is right. And number six, what would you say that is? Faith. Applied faith.

Now let me tell you, when you find people that come up to all of those six traits, I won't tell you, you've really found somebody. You're in the presence of royalty. Some businesses, if you're running a peanut stand, or two, you may need only one person, but if you're running a chain of peanut stands, you might need 100 persons. And then as to the qualifications of a mastermind ally, first of all, take those six points that I gave you and there are the qualifications there are the qualifications for your mastermind that there must be dependability there must be uh loyalty must be ability

must be a positive mental attitude must be willing to go the extra mile applied faith now there you are if you want to know what the qualitative qualifications of your mastermind allies are there it is and don't settle for anything left if you find the man that has to have five of those qualities and doesn't have all six of them you better beware of him before you stop because they're all essential in a mastermind relationship you can check very carefully and see that that's true you couldn't have perfect harmony unless you are working with somebody who checked 100% on all of those six points you just couldn't have a mastermind alliance you might have a working arrangement like so many people do but it wouldn't be it

wouldn't embrace all of the potential values of the mastermind next determine what appropriate benefit each member may receive in return for his cooperation in this alliance. And remember, ladies and gentlemen, nobody ever does anything for nothing. No, they never do. You say when you give love to somebody, you don't get anything out of that, you don't do that for nothing? Well, let me tell you something. You get plenty out of that because you've had the privilege of loving.

It's a great privilege. And even though the love is not returned, you still have had the benefits of that state of mind have known as love and you've enjoyed the development and growth as a result of it. No, there's no such thing is something for nothing. Nobody works without some sort of a compensation. There are very many different forms of compensation. So don't expect that your master-bind allies are going to jump in and help you make a fortune or help you do anything unless they are equally participating in the benefits that come out of that

master-minded alliance. Now, there's the criterion by which you go. They must approximately, each individual must approximately benefit equally with yourself, whether it's a monetary benefit or a happiness or peace of mind benefit, social benefit, or whatever it happens to be. Never ask anybody to do anything, if you want to be sure if he's doing it, unless you give him us an adequate motive for doing it. If I went down to the bank and wanted to borrow $10,000, what would be an adequate motive for the bank lending me that money? Two motives. all of them under the heading of the desirable gains.

Now, they'd want a bank to be delighted to loan me as much money as I could take away if I give them free-for-one security. Collateral. They want collateral, and they want the profit on that loan. That's what they're in business for. Now, there are other transactions, not based upon the monetary motive. For instance, when the man asks the girl of his choice to marry him, what's the motive there? Love.

Oh, sometimes. Theoretically, love, yes. Money. Well, isn't this interesting? I bet out of all the people sitting here, everyone would have a different idea, a definition is to what the motive is when a man asks the girl who is choice to marry him and she accepts. Why does she accept him? I want to tell you that when my father brought my stepmother home, he was just a farmer. He never had had on a white shirt or a tie.

He was afraid of white shirts and ties. He wore blue cotton shirts. And my stepmother was a college woman. She was well educated. And they were as different as the North Pole and the South Pole. And I wondered all of my life until one day just how he happened to be able to sell himself to her. Of course, she cleaned him up and put a white shirt. and maybe it looked like somebody, but nevertheless, it took her quite a little while to do it.

And she finally got him into the money, and he became an outstanding man. And at that point, I said to her, wondering, how in the world did my father, I remember what he looked like and what he'll talk like. He abused the Queen's English. I've seen him coming and done my duty and all that sort of thing. I said, how in the world did he ever sell himself to him? What was the motive? She said, well, I'll tell you. First of all, I recognize that he had good blood in his veins and if he had possibilities

that I believe that I could bring them out. And she did bring them out. Mrs. Henry Ford and Mrs. Thomas A. Edison, there are two of the out. If you had a definite major purpose, knew exactly what you wanted to do, had a mastermind alliance of people that could help you do it, and then had the sufficient faiths to keep you going while you did it, don't you see, that would be about all you would need? Why, then, do we need the 14-ditional process?

principles do you suppose? Well, I'll tell you why. We need 14 additional principles to induce you to make use of these three. You need personal initiative, you need imagination, you need enthusiasm. In other words, this philosophy is something like baking a cake. When you go to bake a cake, you don't put in just one ingredient. You put in a pinch of this, a pinch of that, and a dash of the other thing, and then you put it in the stove and bake it. And if you took out any one of those ingredients, you wouldn't have the same kind of a cake. And it's the same way with this philosophy. You can't leave out any one of these 17 principles.

It'd be just like taking a link out of a chain. You wouldn't have a chain anymore. You'd have two parts of a chain, but not a whole chain. And these other 14 principles are supporting principles of these three. Faith is a state of mind that has been called the mainspring of the soul through which one's aims, desires, plans, and purposes may be translated into their physical. or financial equivalent. And here are the fundamentals of faith.

Now, when you speak of applied faith, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about something vastly different from just mere belief. Applied, the word applied means what? Action. That's the action part of faith. And without action, faith is nothing to just daydreaming. And there are a lot of people, you know, who believe in things,

but they don't do anything about them. They are engaging only in daydreaming. applied faith is an active faith now the fundamentals of faith are first of all definiteness of purpose supported by personal initiative and action action the more action the better it means continuous action not only on your part but on the part of those that may be cooperating with you or may be mastermind allies of yours and next a positive mind free from all negatives such as fear and hatred jealousy and greed is essential mental attitude determines the effect of this effect, mental attitude.

Did you know that that is a fact? The frame of mind that you're in when you go to pray determines what happens as a result of that prior. There's no two ways about that. You can test it for your own selves and find out, I have no doubt you have. I have no doubt that you've had the experiences I have had of sending out prayers that didn't produce anything, but a negative result. You've had that experience, haven't you? How many of you have had that experience? Oh, come on now, be modest.

Do you suppose there ever was anybody that didn't have that experience at one time or another? I will tell you that when you go to prayer, unless you have such absolute faith that whatever you are going after that you're going to acquire that you can see it in advance in your possession before you start asking for it, the chances are that the effect of your prayer is going to be negative. And next, a mastermind alliance with one or more people who radiate courage based on faith and are,

suited mentally and spiritually to one's needs in carrying out a given purpose. I'm talking to you now about the elements or the constituent parts or the premises that go into the business of applied faith. And next, recognition of the fact that every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit and temporary defeat is not failure until it has been accepted as such. Do you know where the majority of people fall down in connection with their application of their faith? it's when they're defeated and they accept that defeat as being something we can't do anything about

instead of beginning immediately to search for that seed of an equivalent benefit that's in every defeat they become moody and broody they become discouraged they build up inferiority complexes instead of reversing that order

and using that defeat as nothing more than temporary and making another effort. Next, the habit of affirming one's definite major purpose in the form of a prior at least once daily. Now, the subconscious mind only knows what you tell it or what you allow other people to do it or what you allow the circumstances of life to tell them. And it doesn't know the difference between the lie and the truth.

It doesn't know the difference between a penny and a million dollars. It accepts the things that you send over. And if you send over a predominating thought on poverty and ill, health and failure, that's exactly what you'll get. No matter how much faith that you may have later on, you find out that the subconscious responds to the mental attitude that you're maintaining during the day. And it's necessary for you to affirm over and over again the objects that you are going to attain in life until you educate your subconscious mind to attract automatically to you

the things that are related to what you're aiming to attain in life. You'll find that your mind is like an electromagnet. And once you charge it with a clear picture of what you want, it'll attract to you from the highways and the byways, the things that you need to carry out that purpose. And next, recognition of the existence of infinite intelligence that gives originals to the entire universe. That the individual, you, that is, is a minute expression of this intelligence. And as such, you, the individual, your mind has no limitations except those accepted are set up in your own mind. your mind has no limitations whatsoever except those that you allow it to be established there or that you deliberately set up in your own mind or accept

now that's a pretty broad statement isn't it but the the achievements of men like mr edison and mr ford and mr carnegie and napoleon hill if you please certainly definitely supports the idea that there is no limitation except that what you set up in your own mind and if i had ever wavered for one second from the time that I started with Mr. Carnegie up until the time I gave this philosophy to the world. If I had wavered one second, in my belief that I would do it, I would never have done it. How did I happen to do it? Do you have any idea what played the strongest part in what I've achieved?

It wasn't my brilliancy. It wasn't my outstanding intelligence. I have no more brilliancy than the average person, no more intelligence than the average person. But there was something in there that was responsible for it. Bye. Grand. In other words, I believed I could do it, and I never stopped believing it. The harder the going wilds, the more I believed I would do it.

And I want to tell you that if you can take that attitude towards yourself, if you can throw yourself over on the side of yourself, so to speak, when you're overtaken by adversity, when people are against it, if you can do that, if you can stand by and not also go over against yourself, then you're using applied faith. And you've got to do that. Do you know they're testing times for people? Has you ever thought of that? Nobody is permitted to attain high state in life and stay there without being tested

any more than anybody is allowed to go into a well-managed business and go up to a high position and stay there without he's been tested with lower position step by step until he earns the right to be up to the top. I don't know how the creator runs his business entirely, but I can catch a pretty good idea of how he does it from observing that part which I can understand. Of course, there's much more that I can't understand. But I can see definitely that he allows nobody to attain to a high estate in life without giving him severe testings. And one of the most astounding things that I found in my research was that the men of great achievement in all walks of life back down to the ages were great only in proportion as they had been defeated and as they had met with opposition.

Now that's an astounding thing. It couldn't have been a coincidence that every one of these outstanding men was great in proportion exactly as he had been small and as he had been opposed and as he had had had had. had to struggle. I used to tell of my early struggles and tell of some of my defeats. My business management got after me about it and said it wasn't a good idea. I still think it's a good idea. I think it's a fine idea because if you only knew the amount of major defeats that I met with and still kept my head above water and still he'll deliver this philosophy, you'd say that if a hill can do it, I can do it too. And that was the only reason, of course, that I ever spoke of it.

The habit of affirming one's definite major purpose in the firm of a prayer at least daily. and the recognition of infinite intelligence. I don't mind what terms you use. You can call that God or you can call it Jehovah or you can call it Buddha or you can call it Muhammad. Anything you want to. No matter what you call it, we're all talking about the first cause. There isn't two first causes.

There's only one. There couldn't be two. There's one first cause that's responsible for this great universe we're living in, for you and for me and for everything that's in the universe. I call it infinite intelligence, because I have students of all faiths and all religions all over the world as my students. And the infinite intelligence happens to be a sort of a neutral in-between term

that nobody can object to. Nobody at all. But unless you not only believe in that, unless you can prove to yourself, unless you can absolutely put down on paper evidence that there is first cause that you can draw on, why then you are not going to be able to make the fullest use of applied things. One of my students asked me one day about my concept of God, about my concept of intimate intelligence, and if I meant the same thing as God. I said, why, yes, I do.

Well, he said, can you prove the existence of your concept of God? I said, why, everything in the universe is the finest of the evidence of the existence of it, because of the orderliness of the universe. Everything's orderly, from the electrons and protons of the smallest part of a matter, on up to the largest suns that float through the heavens. Everything's in orderliness. No chaos, no running together to the planets. Why, there's more evidence of a first cause than there isn't anything that I know of.

And if you don't believe that, if you don't accept it, if you don't see it, if you don't feel it, if you don't know that, then you won't know that you are a minute part of that infinite intelligence expressing through your brain. And if you once recognize that, then you recognize the truth of what I said, that your own limitations are those which you set up in your own mind or permit somebody. to set up there or circumstances to establish for you. Next, careful inventory of your past defeats and adversities from which it becomes obvious that all such experiences do carry the seed of an equivalent benefit. Now, just to hear me say that every adversity carries with at the seed of an equivalent

benefit, that ever a defeat, every failure carries with at the seed of an equivalent benefit, wouldn't mean the thing in the world to you, unless I made application of it and gave you illustration after illustration, and unless you examine enough illustrations in your own experience, to see that it always works out that way. That's why I want you to examine these adversities that come to you. Do you know that oftentimes your adversities are your greatest blessings? Do you have any idea?

Do you have any idea of the greatest blessing that ever came into my life? Those of you who know considerable about me, would you have any idea what it is? Of course, it was the loss of my mother. And ordinarily, you would say that. that would be the greatest catastrophe that could overtake a child would be to lose his mother at the age of nine years. Why do I say that was the greatest blessing? Because it brought me a new mother to take her place that's been responsible for everything that I've achieved, everything that I shall achieve.

Very largely responsible at least. And without her influence, I'd still be up there fighting rattlesnakes, drinking mountain liquor and fighting fused. For my relative stiller doing that same thing. no reason to expect that I wouldn't be I've had a lot of other adversities and I want to tell you that without some 20 major adversities I've gone through with I would never been able to approve

the soundness of this philosophy and that there is a seed of an equivalent benefit in every adversity can you imagine any worse adversity coming to a man and to walk down to the hospital and to be informed that his son was born without any sign of ears and that he would be a death and dumb mood all of his life

Can you imagine any worse adversity than that? I will always be thankful that that happened because by my contact with infinite intelligence, he was improvised with a hearing system of some sort that gave him 65% of his normal hearing, and with a hearing aid, 100%. He learned to live in normal life, and I got the greatest demonstration of my entire experience

of the power of faith. I couldn't have gotten it any other way I couldn't have gotten it second hand I had to get it first hand I never accepted that affliction of that child not even before I saw him not even after I saw him

I never accepted it his relatives accepted it they wanted to put him in the school of underprivileges where he learned the sign language learned a lip reading I didn't want him to know there were such things

and when he got up to where he was old enough to go to school I had a fight with the school authorities every year just as regular as the time came around they wanted to send him over to school for underprivileged children where he'd mix with the other children and see that there were afflictions. I didn't want him to know there were such things. And I taught him from the very beginning that he is not having any ears was a great blessing. And he believed it.

And it turned out to be because people took compassion on him. They did things far and they wouldn't have done otherwise. He got a job as a salesman for the Saturday Evening Post. And he led every salesman throughout the United States. oftentimes he'd go out with five dollars worth of merchandise and come back with ten dollars in cash he did that many times people had looked at him that poor little fellow no ears out selling papers i guess his parents are poor

give him a dollar a bill and instead of giving him back he giving him back ninety five cents and say oh just sunny you just keep that and very often he'd get a dollar apiece for saturday evening post not at all conscious today of any affliction he's living a perfectly normal life because i heart in that an affliction, any kind of an affliction, can be transmuted into a benefit. Now that's an astounding thing, isn't it, to consider that that is true. But it is true. Now, as I said, you're just hearing me say that won't mean the thing in the world unless you

begin to look around in your own experiences, take inventory, and watch what happens in the future. There'll be things happen to you in the future that are unpleasant, and maybe some to me too. But I tell you what I'm going to do when anything unpleasant happens to me, I'm going to immediately transmuted into something pleasant, immediately. And then I'm still talking about the fundamentals of faith. Self-respect expressed through harmony with one's own conscience. It's certainly an important factor in applied faith. Self-respect expressed through harmony with one's own conscience.

Isn't it a marvelous thing that the creator set up in everybody a judge advocate that tells you the right thing and the wrong thing? You don't have to ask anybody. It's not a marvelous thing. You don't have to ask anybody what's right or wrong. Your own conscience tells you, unless you convert it into a conspirator instead of a cooperator by choking it off and not responding to it, as so many people do.

Your conscience can be not only a guide, but it can also be corrupted towards a conspirator. It'll help you cover up your meanness. And a lot of people use it for just that purpose. Who, believe me, they have it choked off. If that weren't true, there couldn't be so many brutes loose in the world today Uncockting plans for starting bigger and better wars They have no conscience

They killed off the conscience That conscience is a marvelous thing And next, to create a mental attitude favorable for the expression of faith Now here's what you do First of all, know what you want and determine What you have to give in return for it Know what you want in life And I mean not only in your major purpose but in your minor purposes

What kind of a house you want to live in? What kind of a car you want to drive? What kind of a wardrobe you want? What kind of an education you want your children to have? What kind of a present you're going to buy your wife for a birthday? And you better be sure to buy her one every time if you're going to keep on good terms with it. What kind of a cake you're going to bake for your husband on his birthday?

And you better make it a good one. Did you know, ladies and gentlemen, married ladies and gentlemen in particular, did you know it's not the big things in the relationship between a man and his wife that counts? The little nice it is, the little things that count. Well, it's a little nice it is, the little things, the little things that my wife cooks up for me. I don't mean in food, but the little parties, the little visits, the trips that she cooks up for me when I'm home.

They don't amount to so much in one way and yet another way. They're very sentimental and keeps that relationship alive that we had before we were married. We're still courting each other. I think I do more of a courting job now than I did before because, after all, I only got her. I have to keep her. far. Well, we have a lot of fun with these off-the-cuff remarks. Not that you don't find any of that in the notes at all.

But I just know that these are very super intimate things that make joy in my life would be just as acceptable in your life, too. I know it's the little things in your life that make the difference between the happiness and unhappiness. And next, when you affirm the object of your desires through prayer, Let your imagination see yourself already in possession of the thing that you're going at. Now, you might say that takes a lot of willpower, a lot of determination, but if you keep at it, you'll find it's not so hard to do.

In the first place, it's easy to meet as that because I never go after anything that I have first sold myself thoroughly on the idea that I not only have the right to get it, but that I am going to earn that right by giving something in return. And that's the best salesmanship in the world. When you go out to sell a person, an idea, or a merchandise or a service, if you know positively that you're going to give him his money's worth and more to do before you start. It does something to you that enables you to do something to him. That enables him in return do something for you.

It's the very acme of master salesmanship. You know, I've said this ladies and gentlemen several times, and at the risk of being borsome to you, I'm going to repeat that if you want your prayers to be effective, don't wait until the time of need to utter them. build up the habit of prayer when you don't need anything and what do you pray for then for what you already have you give gratitude for what you already have

don't you? Wouldn't it be an interesting thing if I gave you a lesson assignment right now to write down before the night before you go to bed tonight everything that you have in this world will be thankful for her and I'm giving you that assignment every one of you and I want you to carry it out and it's going to be one of the surprises of your life you may have a lot of things you don't want but you have a lot of things you do want write down on this of them and express gratitude that you have these things

that you like and you certainly can start with the fact that you're associated here in a country where you have freedom of speech freedom of action, freedom of thought and freedom of opportunity certainly that would head the list there are in other countries we don't have that much

and then you could come right on down from that and put down all the things that you have to be grateful for and then start in expressing gratitude every night and every day keep your mind open for guidance from within. Now what do I mean by that, you suppose? Yes, hunches. You'll get hunches. Don't be, what is the word I want to use? Disrespectful. Don't be disrespectful of huntsers. Treat them with civility. Examine them. And you may find that some of these very unusual hunches that you come are

bringing you messages that you need to get you over the hump and whatever it is that you're doing. and when you are inspired by hunches to move on some plan created by your imagination which leads in the direction of that which you desire accept the plan and act upon at once and remember always that there can be no such state of mind as faith without appropriate action faith without deeds is dead and when overtaken by defeat as you may be many times remember that man's faith is tested many times and your defeat may be only one of your testing times isn't that an astounding and an encouraging thing to recognize recognize that when you're meeting with defeat that probably in the eyes of your creator, you're only being tested to see whether you're a man or a worm. And believe you, me, we all go through that testing time. And the ones that survive, these tests, and come out on top with an abiding thing, are the ones that become truly great in life.

I don't think there's any doubt in the world, but what is the part of the creator's plan, to see that everybody that amounts to anything above mediocrity must pay the price of undergoing test after test as to his faith. I don't think there's any doubt about that. I see evidence everywhere that that's true. Any negative state of mind will destroy the power of faith and result in a negative climax. Your state of mind is everything. Why do you suppose that in my notes here, you notice that I have underscored your state of mind is everything.

I underscored for emphasis. Why do you suppose I want to emphasize that state? That's right. That's the only thing you have control over. The only thing in this world that you have control over is your state of mind, and certainly that connotes. The fact that the creator intended that to be the most important asset that you have, and it is, because with the use of that mind, you can project it into any objective or to the attainment of any end you choose. Your education, your background, your nationality, your creed has nothing whatsoever to do with your ability to achieve.

It's the state of mind that you maintain. That's the thing that determines how and what and when you achieve. To me, that's the most profound thing in all of the knowledge of mankind. The most profound of all knowledge is the fact that the humblest person can take possession of his own mind, he can color it any way he chooses, he can project it into high places or into the gutter. He can make it a success or he can make it a failure. Just the change of his mental attitude changes from success to failure almost instantly.

A burning desire is the sort of material of which faith is created. Do you know what a burning desire is? that's right obsessional desire an obsessional means a desire that takes possession on you and obsesses you

there are a lot of desires in the world but they're not burning desires and they're not obsessional desires and most people in their whole life never expressed or never experience

an obsessional desire for anything we start out with hopes not too definite but faint hopes for things and wishes we wish for everybody wishes for a lot of money without having to work for it. Well, maybe not everybody, but of course my students don't.

But a lot of people do. Most people are, I say, wish for things. Wish for a Cadillac when they're driving a Ford. If you want a Cadillac car and you make up your mind to have it, get out and see that the men under you or the job that you're holding and see that you put into it unless that which it'll entitle you the Cadillac car. But if you don't want a Cadillac car, chances are you'll drive a ford or something else the rest of your life you have to want things you have to want them with a burning desire and then you have to do something about that burning desire what is it action you've got to start in right where you stand showing that you do have faith in your ability start right where you stand with action now here's a lot of examples of men of achievement i'm not going to go over them you know them but there is one down here that i particularly want to call your attention to that of miss helen keller who believed that she would learn to talk despite the fact that she had lost the use of her speech her science

on her hearing. Can you imagine that? Lost the use early life of her speech, her sight, and her hearing. She couldn't hear, she couldn't see, and she couldn't speak. And yet, did you know, of course you do know, that Ms. Helen Keller became one of the best educated women in the world. She's in contact with more of public affairs and civic affairs and conditions all over the world and the nine-tenths of the women who have all of their senses. Isn't it the story? standing thing and all she has to go by is the vibration. If you speak to her, she put your fingers up to her lips and she can tell what you're saying by her fingertips. Partly by vibration. Think with a woman with a handicap of that kind all the way through

life, getting joy out of life, rendering useful service, making speeches. She's learned after a fashion to talk. Doing a great work where the majority of people would have settled for a tin cup and a bunch of lead pencils on a street corner with any one of those afflictions. While I was on the staff of Franklin D. Roosevelt, I passed at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue in the street running by the White House. Every day I passed a man sitting there with a tin cup and some pencils. I became acquainted to that man. He had lost the use of his legs. He had the same affliction as Franklin D. Roosevelt, exactly. And it happened at about the same time. And I found out that he had even a better

education than Franklin D. Roosevelt had, but there he was, out there with a tin cup and pencils, Frank, eke out a living by begging. There was a, just a block away, there was the man with the most important and responsible position in the whole world, running a great nation who also had lost the use of his legs, but he had lost the use of his brain. He had lost confidence in himself. These afflictions have come along. Sometimes they turn out to be a great blessing. They teach us that, very often they teach us that we can get along without an eye or without both eyes. or without legs or without hands, we can get along with out a lot of things.

If we have the right mental attitude toward what's left of us, that's important. If you would have faith, keep your mind on that which you want and not on that which you do not want. Now, how do you go about that? How does one go about keeping his mind off of the things he doesn't want? Look up that word transmute and see what it means. Look at it up in the dictionary.

You know in the general way, but look it up just because it'll be more impressive in your subconscious mind. The way you keep your mind off of things you don't want is to transfer your mind over to things you do want and start talking about them. Start giving thanks for already possessing them. It sounds perfectly silly to anybody who doesn't know what you're doing. It won't sound silly to you because you know what you're doing. You're talking to your subconscious mind. You're re-educating yourself.

You're keeping your mind fixed on things you want and off of the things you don't want. And in order to do that, you have to keep talking. You have to keep thinking. You can't talk without thinking. Well, some people can, but most of them can't. Keep on talking about things you want. And if you ever feel blue or discouraged or lacking in courage, I'll tell you a good remedy for it. May I?

Sit down and take a tablet and start number one, the thing that you want most in life. Number two, the thing that you want next most. Number three, the thing you want next most. And when it gets down to the kind of a house you live, described a lot that you want. it on whether you want it on a lot of acreage on top of the hill or down below the road or above the road how many rooms you want that house to have how you want each room furnished why you have a grand time furnishing those rooms well that'll be the one of the most well it'll be better than window shopping because you can go the limit in your own mind and window shopping you only have two legs you can only

walk so far do a little mental winter shopping and believe you me you'll get you'll get your mind off of that mootiness you'll get it on to something that's constructive and you'll be educating your subconscious mind to keep on the right side of the street and away from the other side of the railroad tracks the assignment i'm giving you now is not foolish it's not facetious it's a real assignment and you'll get real joy out of doing it start right in doing something physically writing down the things that you want when anything bothers you i don't know why it is that when a person makes up his mind what he wants and becomes determined to get it that the whole powers of the universe seem to come to his aid to see that he gets you i don't know why that is

but I'll tell you one thing I know that it is and that's enough for me there are a lot of things in this world that I can see a lot of advantages I can use that I don't understand but I don't need to understand them

I know which button to press to get the result I want and I don't need to know what happens between the pressing of that button and the result that happens I know that if you follow the instructions in this philosophy

I know that you will be able to take possession of your own mind you'll be able to get the things out of life that you want you will be able to make life pay off on your own. your own terms. I know that. How would I know, do you suppose, that any person can actually make life pay off point by point on his own terms instead of accepting the circumstances? How do, how would I know that? There is only one way in this world that I could possibly know that, and that's by my own

experiences. I can tell you as sincerely as I'm standing here on this platform talking to you tonight, there is a blessed thing in this world that I want that I don't have or can't get easily. Not anything. What an astounding statement that is. If you go back just a few years ago, what an astounding statement is, because it's so broadly in contrast to what I might have said a few years back before I'd learned the secret of getting everything that I want. Do you know there was a time when I was carrying around in my own pocket the matches with which I was setting my house of opportunity afar and didn't know it?

And I finally got rid of those matches. I began to build that house of opportunity. And they come in us to find out that the house resembled the picture of it that I built in my mind, right down to the finest detail. Well, there is no such thing as a blanket faith. You must have a definite objective, a purpose, a goal before you can have faith in anything. Faith is a mental attitude wherein the mind is cleared of all fears and doubts and directed toward the attainment of something definite through the inspiration of infinite intelligence. Faith is guidance.

It is nothing more. Had you ever thought about that? Faith is guidance. It's nothing more than that. Faith's not going to go out and get you that Cadillac or that Minkgo or that new house. that you want or that better job or that better business or all those clients that you need if you're a professional faith's not going to do that but faith will guide you as to how you can do it and you find that there is always a part you must play the creators wisely arranged it so that we

can produce our food from the soil of the earth everything that we eat use or where comes from the earth everything and infinite intelligence is very wisely provided a system whereby you can to be sure of getting your food out of the soil of the earth. How? By complying with the laws of nature. You go out there and you plant the seed. You plant it in soil that you have examined to make sure it has the elements in there that you want into the plant. You plant it at the right season. You plant it at the right depth in the ground. All of those things you do by in way of going the extra mile. You do them in advance. And then what do you do? You go back the next day and start harvesting, do you? No. No, you're tying it properly. You're trying it properly. You're

find out what nature requires in order to produce a, to convert or transmute a seed of wheat into a stalk of wheat with 500 or 1,000 grains on it. And you comply with nature's laws. That's what you do. And it's the same thing identically in connection with this subject of faith in anything else. You expect guidance. You do your part. You have to do your part. You always find that there's a part that you must do in connection with any example of a demonstration of faith. faith will do nothing for you if you expect everything to be done for you outside of yourself it's guidance that you expect to get the answer there you'll have it and faith probably now notice that word probably down there why do you think i say faith

probably works through the subconscious section of the mind i'll tell you why i put it there because nobody knows definitely whether it does or not it's a theory and for one of a better theory I'm using it. It appears to work through the subconscious section of the mind, the subconscious acting as the gateway between the conscious section of the mind and infinite intelligence. My picture, my mental picture of what happens when you pray properly is that you first condition your mind, you know what it is you want, and then you transfer over to your subconscious mind a clear picture. That subconscious is the intermediary or the gatekeeper between you and infinite intelligence. It's the only one that can turn on the power of

of infinite intelligence for you. It's the only way you can reach into infinite intelligence in my book of ruse. And if that isn't correct, as far as I'm concerned, might as well be correct because that's the way I get it to work. Now, the definite essential steps in the development of self-reliance based on faith. If there's anything that people need more than everything else, it's self-reliance, belief in yourself. Here are the steps. I'm not going to go up all of them, but I'm going to call your attention to the most important ones. First of all, adopt a major purpose and begin at once to attain it. That's the first step in building self-confidence. You know, when you know what you want and you start in getting it, you have a measure

of self-reliance. You're demonstrating a measure of self-reliance because if you didn't believe in yourself, you wouldn't even begin, would you? The very fact that you start, even though you're a long way from attaining the thing you're going after, shows that you have a measure or a degree of self-reliance. And the more you pursue that idea, the stronger that belief will be. And next, associate as many as possible of the nine basic motives with the object of the definite major purpose in other words have yourself inspired by as many as possible all those nine basic motives when you go after anything you know you've had this experience that you wanted

something very badly and in order to get to something that you want a very bad now material something it meant extra money that you couldn't lay your hands on you didn't have it in the bank you weren't earning it now what do you do in case that kind. Borrow? Well, a lot of people do. There's always something else, too, that you can do that's more important than borrowing. Why, you begin to connive and work out some sort of the scheme to earn some more money, don't you? That's what you do. My little son, Blair, when he's about six or seven years old, wanted a nice, an electrical train. It cost $50. dollars. And it was more than we felt we could give him at that time because we'd had to give

the other two children a $50 gifts too. And I told by that, he said, oh, I didn't ask you to buy me anything. I said, well, that's different. Fine. He said, I just wanted your approval to buy the train. And he made out the order. Lionel train, $50. And there came of snow, a big snow the next day, and he borrowed a shovel from the janitor, and he went down the street cleaning off sidewalk. Did ask anybody if he could do it. Just started cleaning off their sidewalks. And it all would come out and get into a conversation with him and say, oh, I thought it would be a nice thing to just clean off your sidewalk. I see you haven't started doing it yet.

I thought it'd be nice if you'd appreciate it. And invariably, they'd give him a quarter, a half a half a dollar, sometimes a dollar. One man gave him $5. And before the end of the month, long before the end of the month, he had his $50 and $10 more. He'd earned himself. His mother thought that he ought not to be permitted to do that. It kind of disgraced us to let him go down the street clean.

off the side of the world. I say, disgrace my eye. They ought to find out who we are that we can raise a child like this. How do we do it. Motive. And write out a list of all the advantages of your definite major purpose and call these into your mind many times daily, thereby making your mind success conscious. Did you know that in order to be healthy, you have to be health conscious? Did you know that? No matter what other precautions you take, if your mental attitude is not health conscious. If you're not thinking, terms of health you're not expecting that you're going to be healthy you're not going to be no matter what else you do and it's the same thing with reference success that you accept any kind

of a fear complex or an inferiority complex if you don't expect success of yourself and develop a success expectation or consciousness you're not going to be a success you just have to do that if your major purpose is to achieve some material thing or money see yourself already in possession of it when you call it into your consciousness this is a vital importance because there, again, is coming into play your power of faith. And if your faith isn't great enough that you can see the thing already in your possession, even before you start to get it, then you are not making use of applied faith. And associate with people who are in sympathy with you and your major purpose

and lead them to encourage you in every way possible. This has reference only to close friends or members of your mastermind alliance. Don't disclose your aims and purposes to people who are not absolutely dependable, loyal, and close to you. especially loyal. It's surprising how sometimes people to whom you disclose your ideas, if they're good ideas, they go around the corner and beat you to the draw, and they're using your ideas before you use them. Or they're saying something to discourage you. And let not a single day pass without making at least one definite move toward the attainment of your major purpose.

Faith is a positive mental attitude in action. And your mental attitude is reflected in every word you speak, and it speaks louder than your words. Your mental attitude is the sum total of your thoughts at a given time. A positive mental attitude has its roots in the spiritual wells of one's soul. How true that is, and what a wonderful statement that is. A positive mental attitude has its roots in the spiritual wells of one's soul. Mental attitude is the medium by which adversities may be transmuted into benefits. And so the list goes.

Now, you'll find some of those that appear to me more than others, print them out in a card or in some form where you can put them up where you can see them each day make them your own surround yourself with suggestions everywhere you look you'll see something that suggests a positive mental attitude you'll notice when you go into the office of a successful person or into the home of a successful person if you can find his den the place where he himself withdraws unto himself you find that oftentimes he has himself surrounded with pictures of those whom he whom he considers great. Oftentimes he'll have

mottoes on the walls. I've seen hundreds of them. I walked into Ed Barnes' office one time, and I found out that he had over 500 matos that were done up in beautiful cards, hand-lettered every one of them.

It must have cost him a small fortune. I walked into my friend Jennings Randolph's office when he was in Congress in Washington, and I found he had all of the walls of his congressional office covered with the pictures of men whom he considered great.

He did that live in the in the environment of the great, in the environment of things that kept his mind positive, start in where you are, in your home, in your business, in your office, wherever you stay the most. Maybe it's in your bedroom. You certainly sleep every night. Start in there to put up something that will give you a positive thought just before you go to bed. And it will remind you every time you go in there.