by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
417-224-3517
What did we learn from the Great Depression that we can apply to recovering from the Great Recession as the first decade of 2000 comes to an end. Five great business book classics of that recovery era have relevant principles for us today. By applying these principles, we can learn more and move America to an even higher plateau as a civilization.
As the USA was pulling out of the Great Depression, Think and Grow Rich was published by Napoleon Hill in 1935. His first work, the Laws of Success, first released in the mid1920's, was republished as Think and Grow Rich. It became a bestseller and still is today. Following that, W.Clement Stone had great success with Hill's works. Stone and Hill collaborated to write Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Og Mandino kept the ball rolling. He was highly influenced by their works and added The Greatest Miracle in the World. Then going back to the post Depression time, Dale Carnegie released How to Win Friends and Influence People still highly read today. The Secret of the Ages ran ahead of all of them. Author, Robert Collier, released his works in the mid 1920's.
Here's the high points and power principles of their works that we can use even more influentially today. The complete summaries of these great business classics are archived on this blog from September-November, 2008.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is probably the achievement classic of all time. His interviews with the wealthiest men of the early 1900's, commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, resulted in this comprehensive, most thoroughly researched success manual ever written. Hill, before writing Think and Grow Rich, interviewed over 500 multimillionaires of his day introduced to him by Andrew Carnegie.
Thoughts are things. What we think about frequently and with emotion, good or bad, eventually materialize in our lives. When thoughts are mixed with purpose, persistence, and a burning desire, they are translated into riches.
Desire has no retreat... the first step to riches. The way your desire is transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of six definite and practical steps.
1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire.
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning. You must believe that you are already in possession of that money. And read the statement with emotion.
"With the power of desire backed by faith, I have seen this power lift people from lowly beginnings to places of power and wealth. Nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire 'that something' which recognizes no word as impossible."
Faith...visualization of, and belief in, attainment of desire is the next step. When faith is blended with thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibrations.
Autosuggestion, the third step, is the method for influencing the subconscious mind. Autosuggestion is the term that applies to all suggestions and all self-administrated stimuli that reach your mind through your five senses. By allowing certain thoughts in the conscious part of the brain, it programs the subconscious to do what it suggests.
The fourth step to riches is specialized knowledge. Specialized knowledge is from personal experiences or observations. Knowledge alone will attract little money. Knowledge alone is not power, but a potential to power. It becomes powerful when organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end. Acquire specialized knowledge related to your idea... through study, other people who know, other resources you can tap.
Imagination then is the fifth step to riches. This is the workshop where all plans are created. The impulse and desire is given shape. What we can imagine, we can create. Two forms of imagination prevail... synthesized imagination, and creative imagination. Synthesized imagination recreates and re-arranges old ideas, concepts or plans into new combinations. When this doesn't solve a problem, then creative imagination steps in. Creative imagination creates a connection to Infinite Intelligence which produces new, creative ideas.
Organized planning is the sixth step to riches. Those who can assist you with organized knowledge, through the coordinated effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite end in a spirit of harmony.
Decision, not procrastinating, is the seventh step to riches. Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy which practically every person must conquer. Most people who have made millions have a habit of reaching decisions promptly.
Persistence, sustained effort necessary to produce faith, is the eighth step to riches. It's a power of will to keep moving with your desire. Lack of persistence is one of the greatest causes of failure and one of the greatest weaknesses among a majority of people. To accept defeat as only temporary, we must have persistence. Then through persistence defeat is finally turned into victory.
The ninth step to riches is the driving force behind the master mind principle.To make practical plans that work, align yourself with people for the creation and carrying out of the plan. Form, what Hill calls, a mastermind group. The key ingredient is that each person has a benefit or advantage for being part of the group. And, maintain a spirit of harmony in the group. If this part is not carried out, the group will meet with failure.
Sexuality, charisma and creativity, is the tenth step toward riches. The influence of a mate or lover affects sexual energy which can then be transmuted to acquiring great fortunes. Genius and creative imagination also are induced by sexual energy. Love and marriage are powerful forces in achieving wealth.
The Subconscious mind is the connecting link and the eleventh step toward riches.When you plant desires in the subconscious mind mixed with faith and emotional feeling, it goes to work night and day to fulfill your desire.
The brain, the twelfth step toward riches, is your broadcasting and receiving station for thought. Your brain both receives and broadcasts information. It picks up vibrations from other brains across the world. The brain with emotion and at a rapid rate picks up thoughts and it transmits thoughts to others.The subconscious is the sending station of the brain. Autosuggestion stirs the sending part and imagination activates the receiving part.
The thirteenth step to riches, the door to the temple of wisdom, is the Sixth Sense. The sixth sense is somewhat of a mystery too. It is based on mastering the other 12 steps and is tied to the creative imagination. It's an innate quality of knowing without knowing, much like a guardian angel is with you.
Hill concludes from his research that this is the defining link between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence. It is the source that prayer can be transmitted into tangible answers to prayer. As we do and master these things we are connected to Infinite Intelligence or the Spirit of God, the creator of all things.
Success through a Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone is the civilization rebuilding sequel to Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In 1951, Stone met Hill and they collaborated on Success through a Positive Mental Attitude. A life and business revitalizing work unprecedented in its long term contribution to the growth of wealth in America.
S. B. Fuller was one greatly influenced by Think and Grow Rich. Believing that poverty was only a mind set.
He said three books highly influenced his life as he established the Fuller Brush company.The three books were the 1) Bible, 2) Think and Grow Rich, 3) and The Secret of the Ages. Fuller said, "you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying. Success is achieved and maintained by those with a Positive Mental Attitude."
With a positive mental attitude, you live life believing that every adversity has a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit. Greatness comes to those who have a burning desire to achieve high goals. Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep on trying with PMA.
Man's greatest power lies in the power of prayer.
Create a positive picture of your future along with a definite purpose. What is your goal? What do you really want? When you fix this in your mind, it pushes into your subconscious mind. Then Universal Law goes to work for you. So with PMA all along your way, you begin attracting wealth.
When faced with a problem that involves another person, "I must first clear that up. This then opens the way for other benefits to make their way to me." Honesty is inherent in PMA. It takes positive, conscious autosuggestion to train your subconscious to be ready to receive the wealth that will come its way. You can then do anything, if you believe you can.
So what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve through PMA.
With a Positive Mental Attitude we move from complaining or blaming to problem solving and idea innovation.
When faced with a problem use PMA...
1. Ask for Divine guidance. Ask for help in finding the right solution.
2. Engage in thinking time for the purpose of solving the problem. Remember that every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater opportunity, when you maintain a positive mental attitude.
3. State the problem, analyze and define it.
4. State to yourself enthusiastically... "that's good!"
5. Ask yourself some specific questions: What's good about it? How can I turn this adversity into a seed of equivalent or greater benefit; or how can I turn this liability into a greater asset?
6. Keep searching for answers until you find at least one answer that can work.
The key to motivating yourself is hope.
You attract wealth by giving of what you have. The more you give, the more it reciprocates in a greater number back to you.
Riches beyond your wildest dreams will come when you have a Magnificent Obsession. Your magnificent obsession is developing an obsession to serve others. Share yourself without expecting a reward, payment, or commendation. Keep your good turn a secret. Be part of a great cause.
With a positive mental attitude you awaken the giant within you. The highest ideal of man is the will of God. Hill and Stone conclude Success through a Positive Mental Attitude with a biography of must-read books to stay in the positive frame of mind. The first recommendation is the Bible followed by 64 other titles.
Og Mandino was then extremely inspired by Hill and Stone.
The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino is one of several of Mandino's inspirational business achievement books written a decade later. We are all miracles and Mandino shares insight from the conversation he had ongoing with a "ragpicker.".... an unusual person we would not quickly recognize as a mentor.
The hand of God is on you and He can bring you out of living death.The ragpicker, Simon, found in stacks of old books the works of the "hand of God" that can help immensely to bring great miracles to your life. Control what you allow to enter your mind. What we put in our minds will then bear fruit. By hearing and reading a thought or an affirmation over and over again will eventually imprint our thoughts and they will become a permanent part of our personality, and we will act on it in the future.
Our lack of self esteem has produced failure and is a universal sickness which always originates from anxiety, guilt or inferiority. Then people thrown themselves on the junk piles of life thinking no one cares about them. Although there are still two who care: "God and me; one in Heaven and one on earth," said Simon. Be the one on earth who cares with God in Heaven.
Simon created a "memorandum from God." This is a condensation of all the books he had stacked along the walls of his small apartment. He said to take 20 minutes every night and read it right before you go to sleep. Each day when you wake up these will be more and more the imprint of your mind. Each day you will change more and more and get more and more ideas, taking actions that will transform your life. Your miracle will show up. Read the God Memorandum, what God thinks of you. And you will be a miracle.
Gradually over days, then weeks you will see changes emerge in your life.
The God Memorandum has four laws that will, over time, influence these changes:
Count your blessings.
Proclaim your rarity.
Go another mile.
Use wisely your power of choice.
This version of the God Memorandum includes the Biblical Scriptures each thought is based on:http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Spirituality/Inspiration/GodMemorandum.htm
Dale Carnegie found the biggest issue people were concerned about was how to get along with each other. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie was first published in 1937. Carnegie conducted years of research in fine tuning the principles in how to deal with people. Of all the books on effective business skills this one is being read even today as the best... tested, tried and proven. Here are the fundamentals to winning loyal friendships and influence with people in work and life.
Principle #1: Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
Principle #2: Give honest and sincere appreciation.
Principle #3: Arouse in the other person an eager want.
Six ways to make people like you.
Principle #1: Become genuinely interested in other people.
Principle #2: Smile.
Principle #3: Remember names.
Principle #4: Be a good listener and encourage others to talk about themselves.
Principle #5: Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
Principle #6: Make the other person feel important... and do it sincerely.
How to win people to your way of thinking.
Principle #1: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Principle #2: Show respect for the other person's opinion.
Principle #3: If you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically.
Principle #4: Begin in a friendly way.
Principle #5: Get the other person saying "Yes, Yes" immediately.
Principle #6: Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Principle #7: Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
Principle #8: Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
Principle #9: Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
Principle #10: Appeal to nobler motives.
Principle #11: Dramatize your ideas.
Principle #12: Throw down a challenge.
Part four and final section of the book deals with how to be a leader and change people without giving offense and arousing resentment. The leader's job includes changing your people's attitude and behavior.The nine principles in a nutshell are:
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions before giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "heartfelt in stating approval and lavish in praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest. To change attitudes or behavior. Be sincere. Know exactly what you want the other person to do. Be empathetic. Match the benefits to the other person's wants and that he understands how he benefits.
The little known Secret of the Ages was written before all the above, but with a strong influence on each of the above business classics. The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier is a book that those who were reading Think and Grow Rich, had right along side it. It was somewhat lost in the shuffle since first published in 1925, but has been re-published. As you look at the success series of Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, and Robert Collier they all make frequent mention of Spiritual and Biblical principles. They saw Spiritual power as the deciding edge to exceptional accomplishments.
Life Principle is Collier's theme throughout. We are dynamic beings who create and can do it at much higher levels than we realize.
Our minds are made in three functions...
the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the superconscious mind. The most powerful are the subconscious mind and superconscious mind. They work effortlessly, but we need to know how they work to reap the benefits of their power. Referring to the superconscious mind as the Universal mind, Collier points out the Universal mind is omnipotent. In the beginning was the "Word." God with the word, an invisible image of the God mind, created everything in the universe.
Today this is prayer.
An image implanted of a desire, with faith that you ARE RECEIVING it, the thing you asked for, is fulfilled by Vital Force (or what the Bible calls Spirit) and brings it into being.
To create anything of good requires four things:
1. The mental image of what you want.
2. Knowledge of the power you can consciously draw and pour that power into your mental mold.
3. Faith in your creative power, the ability to create, until what you see in your mental mold, the invisible, becomes reality.
4. Do something to make the subconscious believe that you have received what you believed. Taking a step, in this faith, about what you prayed for as if it already exists.
Successful prayer has within its formula.
1. Center your thoughts on the thing you want. Warm it with faith and nurture it with belief.
2. Read Psalm 91 and the 23rd Psalm that remind you of God's power and create a readiness in you to receive your answer.
3. Be grateful for God granting the favor you are asking for.
4. Believe and see it accomplished as fact. Remind yourself that "God is attending to that" and know that He is.
During the day see things as you desire them, not as they are. Daydream through out the day of what you want them to be. Practice daydreaming with a purpose. Get the picture fixed in your mind, see it. There is no limitation, only supply. But constantly throughout the day see it being carried out as you wish.
We are Temples for the living God. Ask and receive and your joy will be complete, believe it.
Keep yourself in a state of receptivity and constantly be expecting good. Know that you can do it, and you will. You must see yourself doing it. Understand and believe. The chances of success are always measured by your belief in yourself.
As you go to sleep, concentrate on your thought of the thing as you desire it. Believe that you have it, see yourself possessing it, feel yourself using it. Do this every night until you actually believe that you have the thing you want. When you reach this point, you have it.
There are three requisites in business.
1. The confidence in yourself and the knowledge of your power.
2. Initiative or courage to start the thing.
3. The faith to go ahead and do the thing in face of obstacles.
We have the right of dominion over everything. Whatever you work for wholeheartedly, confidently, with singleness of purpose... you can get it.
Say aloud,
"the Holy Spirit within me goes before me and opens the way. Infinite wisdom tells me just what to do." Say it and believe it. Keep your tracks clear in your thinking. A River of Life wants to flow continuously and abundantly through you... supplying fresh water constantly.
The greatest book ever written is the Bible.http://www.biblegateway.com/
In everyone of these great business classics, The Bible stood out as their #1 reference book.
Our greatest leaders leaned on the Bible for guidance and wisdom. It is an unmatched book of power as these renowned authors have cited.
It has been reported that the Bible is the most quoted book by CEO's when giving speeches.
In a survey, managers were asked which current business book was one they most often gave to their staff. The survey had the Bible as #4 on the list... especially the New Living Translation.
The Bible is full of Spiritual and predictive intelligence, wisdom, human relationship principles, faith to overcome challenges and encouragement for all people in every situation. It is one of the Best resources to go to when needing encouragement to over come insurmountable challenges in life.
Needless to say, to be able to live with God's Supernatural Creative power with you is an awesome way to live.The Bible has God's Very Precepts shared through the ages at different times, in different events. It gives us invaluable resources for Greatness in life, business and relationships.
Isaiah, a prophet from the Old Testament in the Bible, said..."Search the book of the LORD, and see what he will do. He will not miss a single detail... His Spirit will make it all come true." (Isaiah 34:16)
The Spirit (that Isaiah mentioned) that makes forecasts come true is the same Spirit we have access to... we get Divine impressions from reading, pondering a Scripture in the Bible, giving us supernatural abilities and intelligence. They are custom designed, specific premonitions just for us.
These impressions we get many times come about, when inspired to us while reflecting as we read the Bible. Spirit creating matter becomes our reality.
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