THIS is at one and the same time the most important, the most interesting and the most difficult to present lesson of this entire course on the Laws of Success.

 

It is important because it deals with a principle which runs through the entire course. It is interesting for the same reason.

 

It is difficult to present for the reason that it will carry the average student far beyond the boundary line of his common experiences and into a realm of thought in which he is not accustomed to dwell.

 

Unless you study this lesson with an open mind, you will miss the very key-stone to the arch of this course, and without this stone you can never complete your Temple of Success.

 

This lesson will bring you a conception of thought which may carry you far above the level to which you have risen by the evolutionary processes to which you have been subjected in the past and for this reason you should not be disappointed if, at first reading, you do not fully understand it.

 

Most of us disbelieve that which we cannot understand, and it is with knowledge of this human tendency in mind that I caution you against closing your mind if you do not grasp all that is in this lesson at the first reading.

 

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For thousands of years men made ships of wood, and of nothing else. They used wood because they believed that it was the only substance that would float. But that was because they had not yet advanced far enough in their thinking process to understand the truth that steel will float and that it is far superior to wood for the building of ships.

 

They did not know that anything could float which was lighter than the amount of water is displaced and until they learned of this great truth they went on making ships of wood.

 

Until some hundred twenty-five years ago, most men thought that only the birds could fly, but now we know that man can not only equal the flying of the birds, but he can excel it.

 

Men did not know, until quite recently, that the great open void known as the air is more alive and more sensitive than anything that is on the earth. They did not know that the spoken word would travel through the ether with the speed of a flash of lightning, without the aid of wires.

 

How could they know this when their minds had not been unfolded sufficiently to enable them to grasp it?

 

The purpose of this lesson is to aid you in so unfolding and expanding your mind that you will be able to think with accuracy. For this unfoldment will open to you a door that leads to all the power you will need in completing your Temple of Success.

 

All through the preceding lessons of this course you observed that we have dealt with principles which any one could easily grasp and apply. You will also observe that these principles have been so presented that they lead to success as measured by material wealth.

 

This seemed necessary for the reason that to most people the word success and the word money are synonymous terms.

 

Obviously, the previous lessons of this course were intended for those who look upon worldly things and material wealth as being all that there is to success. Presenting the matter in another way, I was conscious of the fact that the majority of the students of this course would feel disappointed if I pointed out to them a roadway to success that leads through other than the doorways of business, and finance, and industry, for it is a matter of common knowledge that most men want success that is spelled $UCCE$$!

 

Very well - let those who are satisfied with this standard of success have it, but some there are who will want to go higher up the ladder, in search of success which is measured in other than material standards, and it is for their benefit in particular that this and the subsequent lessons of this course are intended.

 

Accurate thought involves two fundamentals which all who indulge in it must observe.

1. First, to think accurately you must separate facts from mere information. There is much "information" available to you that is not based upon facts.

2. Then you must separate facts into two classes; namely, the important and the unimportant, or, the relevant and the irrelevant.

 

Only by so doing can you think clearly.

 

All facts which you can use in the attainment of your definite chief aim are important and relevant; all that you cannot use are unimportant and irrelevant. It is mainly the neglect of some to make this distinction which accounts for the chasm which separates so widely people who appear to have equal ability, and who have had equal opportunity.

 

Without going outside of your own circle of acquaintances you can point to one or more persons who have had no greater opportunity than you have had, and who appear to have no more, and perhaps less, ability than you, who are achieving far greater success. And you wonder why!

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Search diligently and you will discover that all such people have acquired the habit of combining and using the important facts which affect their line of work. Far from working harder than you, they are perhaps working less and with greater ease.

 

By virtue of their having learned the secret of separating the important facts from the unimportant, they have provided themselves with a sort of fulcrum and lever with which they can move with their little fingers loads that you cannot budge with the entire weight of your body.

 

The person who forms the habit of directing his attention to the important facts out of which he is constructing his Temple of Success, thereby provides himself with a power which may be likened to a triphammer which strikes a ten-ton blow as compared to a tack-hammer which strikes a one-pound blow!

 

If these similes appear to be elementary you must keep in mind the fact that some of the students of this course have not yet developed the capacity to think in more complicated terms, and to try to force them to do so would be the equivalent of leaving them hopelessly behind.

 

That you may understand the importance of distinguishing between facts and mere information, study that type of man who is guided entirely by that which he hears; the type who is influenced by all the "whisperings of the winds of gossip"; that accepts, without analysis, all that he reads in the newspapers and judges others by what their enemies and competitors and contemporaries say about them. Search your circle of acquaintances and pick out one of this type as an example to keep before your mind while we are on this subject. Observe that this man usually begins his conversation with some such term as this - "I see by the papers," or "they say."

 

The accurate thinker knows that the newspapers are not always accurate in their reports,

and he also knows that what "they say" usually carries more falsehood than truth.

 

If you have not risen above the "I see by the papers," and the "they say" class, you have still far to go before you become an accurate thinker. Of course, much truth and many facts travel in the guise of idle gossip and newspaper reports but the accurate thinker will not accept as such all that he sees and hears.

 

This is a point which I feel impelled to emphasize, for the reason that it constitutes the rocks and reefs on which so many people flounder and go down to defeat in a bottomless ocean of false conclusions.

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In the realm of legal procedure, there is a principle which is called the law of evidence; and the object of this law is to get at the facts. Any judge can proceed with justice to all concerned, if he has the facts upon which to base his judgment, but he may play havoc with innocent people if he circumvents the law of evidence and reaches a conclusion or judgment that is based upon hearsay information.

 

The Law of Evidence varies according to the subject and circumstances with which it is used but you will not be far wrong if, in the absence of that which you know to be facts, you form your judgments on the hypothesis that only that part of the evidence before you which furthers your own interests without working any hardship on others is based upon facts.  

 

This is a crucial and important point in this lesson; therefore, I wish to be sure that you do not pass it by lightly.

 

Many a man mistakes, knowingly or otherwise, expediency for fact; doing a thing, or refraining from doing it, for the sole reason that his action furthers his own interest without consideration as to whether it interferes with the rights of others.

 

No matter how regrettable, it is true that most thinking of today, far from being accurate, is based upon the sole foundation of expediency.

 

It is amazing to the more advanced student of accurate thought, how many people there are who are "honest" when it is profitable to them, but find myriads of facts (?) to justify themselves in following a dishonest course when that course seems to be more profitable or advantageous. No doubt you know people who are like that.

 

The accurate thinker adopts a standard by which he guides himself, and he follows that standard at all times, whether it works always to his immediate advantage, or carries him, now and then, through the fields of disadvantage (as it undoubtedly will).

 

The accurate thinker deals with facts, regardless of how they affect his own interests, for he knows that ultimately this policy will bring him out on top, in full possession of the object of his definite chief aim in life.

 

He understands the soundness of the philosophy that the old philosopher, Croesus, had in mind when he said: "There is a wheel on which the affairs of men revolve, and its mechanism is such that it prevents any man from being always fortunate."

 

The accurate thinker has but one standard by which he conducts himself, in his intercourse with his fellow men, and that standard is observed by him as faithfully when it brings him temporary disadvantage as it is when it brings him outstanding advantage; for, being an accurate thinker, he knows that, by the law of averages, he will more than regain at some future time that which he loses by applying his standard to his own temporary detriment.

 

You might as well begin to prepare yourself to understand that it requires the staunchest and most unshakable character to become an accurate thinker, for you can see that this is where the reasoning of this lesson is leading.

 

There is a certain amount of temporary penalty attached to accurate thinking; there is no denying this fact, but, while this is true, it is also true that the compensating reward, in the aggregate, is so overwhelmingly greater that you will gladly pay this penalty.

 

In searching for facts - it is often necessary to gather them through the sole source of knowledge and experience of others. It then becomes necessary to examine carefully both the evidence submitted and the person from whom the evidence comes and when the evidence is of such a nature that it affects the interest of the witness who is giving it, there will be reason to scrutinize it all the more carefully, as witnesses who have an interest in the evidence that they are submitting often yield to the temptation to color and pervert it to protect that interest.

 

If one man slanders another, his remarks should be accepted, if of any weight at all, with at least a grain of the proverbial salt of caution, for it is a common human tendency for men to find nothing but evil in those whom they do not like.

 

The man who has attained to the degree of accurate thinking that enables him to speak of his enemy without exaggerating his faults and minimizing his virtues, is the exception and not the rule.

Some very able men have not yet risen above this vulgar and self-destructive habit of belittling their enemies, competitors and contemporaries.

 

I wish to bring this common tendency to your attention with all possible emphasis, because it is a tendency that is fatal to accurate thinking. Before you can become an accurate thinker, you must understand and make allowance for the fact that the moment a man or a woman begins to assume leadership in any walk of life, the slanderers begin to circulate "rumors" and "subtle whisperings" reflecting upon his or her character.

 

No matter how fine one's character is or what service he may be engaged in rendering to the world, he cannot escape the notice of those misguided people who delight in destroying instead of building.

 

Lincoln's political enemies circulated the report that he lived with a colored woman. Washington's political enemies circulated a similar report concerning him. Since both Lincoln and Washington were southern men, this report was undoubtedly regarded by those who circulated it as being at one and the same time the most fitting and degrading one they could imagine.

 

But we do not have to go back to our first President to find evidence of this slanderous nature with which men are gifted, for they went a step further, in paying their tributes to the late President Harding and circulated the report that he had negro blood in his veins.

 

When Woodrow Wilson came back from Paris with what he believed to be a sound plan for abolishing war and settling international disputes, all except the accurate thinker might have been led to believe, by the reports of the "they say" chorus, that he was a combination of Nero and Judas Iscariot.

 

The little politicians, the cheap politicians, the "interest-paid" politicians, and the plain ignorants who did no thinking of their own, all joined in one mighty chorus for the purpose of destroying the one and only man in the history of the world who offered a plan for abolishing war.

 

The slanderers killed both Harding and Wilson - murdered them with vicious lies. They did the same to Lincoln, only in a somewhat more spectacular manner, by inciting a fanatic to hasten his death with a bullet.

 

Statesmanship and politics are not the only fields in which the accurate thinker must be on guard against the "they say" chorus.

 

The moment a man begins to make himself felt in the field of industry or business this chorus becomes active.

 

If a man makes a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, the world will make a beaten path to his door, no doubt about that in that gang that will trail along will be those who come, not to commend, but to condemn and to destroy his reputation.

 

The late John H. Patterson, president of the National Cash Register Company, is a notable example of what may happen to a man who builds a better cash register than that of his neighbor, yet, in the mind of the accurate thinker, there is not one scintilla of evidence to support the vicious reports that Mr. Patterson's competitors circulated about him.

 

As for Wilson and Harding, we may only judge how posterity will view them by observing how it has immortalized the names of Lincoln and Washington.

 

Truth, alone, endures. All else must pass on with Time.

 

The object of these references is not to eulogize those who stand in no particular need of eulogy, but, it is to direct your attention to the fact that "they say" evidence is always subject to the closest scrutiny and all the more so when it is of a negative or destructive nature.

 

No harm can come from accepting, as fact, hearsay evidence that is constructive, but its opposite, if accepted at all, should be subjected to the closest inspection possible under the available means of applying the law of evidence.

 

As an accurate thinker, it is both your privilege and your duty to avail yourself of facts, even though you must go out of your way to get them.

 

If you permit yourself to be swayed to and fro by all manner of information that comes to your attention, you will never become an accurate thinker and if you do not think accurately, you cannot be sure of attaining the object of your definite chief aim in life.

 

Many a man has gone down to defeat because, due to his prejudice and hatred, he underestimated the virtues of his enemies or competitors.

 

The eyes of the accurate thinker see facts - not the delusions of prejudice, hate and envy.

 

An accurate thinker must be something of a good sportsman - in that he is fair enough (with himself at least) to look for virtues as well as faults in other people, for it is not without reason to suppose that all men have some of each of these qualities.

 

"I do not believe that I can afford to deceive others - I know I cannot afford to deceive myself!"

This must be the motto of the accurate thinker.

 

With the supposition that these "hints" are sufficient to impress upon your mind the importance of searching for facts until you are reasonably sure that you have found them we will take up the question of organizing, classifying and using these facts.

 

Look, once more, in the circle of your own acquaintances and find a person who appears to accomplish more with less effort than do any of his associates. Study this man and you observe that he is a strategist in that he has learned how to arrange facts so that he brings to his aid the Law of Increasing Returns which we described in a previous lesson.

 

The man who knows that he is working with facts goes at his task with a feeling of self-confidence which enables him to refrain from temporizing, hesitating or waiting to make sure of his ground. He knows in advance what the outcome of his efforts will be; therefore, he moves more rapidly and accomplishes more than does the man who must "feel his way" because he is not sure that he is working with facts.

 

The man who has learned of the advantages of searching for facts as the foundation of his thinking has gone a very long way toward the development of accurate thinking, but the man who has learned how to separate facts into the important and the unimportant has gone still further.

 

The latter may be compared to the man who uses a trip-hammer and thereby accomplishes at one blow more than the former who uses a tack-hammer can accomplish with ten thousand blows.

 

Let us analyze, briefly, a few men who have made it their business to deal with the important or relevant facts pertaining to their life-work.

 

If it were not for the fact that this course is being adapted to the practical needs of men and women of the present workaday world, we would go back to the great men of the past

• Plato,

• Aristotle,

• Epictetus,

• Socrates,

• Solomon,

• Moses

• Jesus Christ

Direct attention to their habit of dealing with facts. However, we can find examples nearer our own generation that will serve our purpose to better advantage at this particular point.

 

Inasmuch as this is an age in which money is looked upon as being the most concrete proof of success, let us study a man who has accumulated almost as much of it as has any other man in the history of the world - John D. Rockefeller.

 

Mr. Rockefeller has one quality that stands out, like a shining star, above all of his other qualities, it is his habit of dealing only with the relevant facts pertaining to his life-work.

 

As a very young man (and a very poor young man, at that) Mr. Rockefeller adopted, as his definite chief aim, the accumulation of great wealth. It is not my purpose, nor is it of any particular advantage, to enter into Mr. Rockefeller's method of accumulating his fortune other than to observe that his most pronounced quality was that of insisting on facts as the basis of his business philosophy.

 

Some there are who say that Mr. Rockefeller was not always fair with his competitors. That may or may not be true (as accurate thinkers we will leave the point undisturbed) but no one (not even his competitors) ever accused Mr. Rockefeller of forming "snap-judgments" or of underestimating the strength of his competitors.

 

He not only recognized facts that affected his business, wherever and whenever he found them, but he made it his business to search for them until he was sure he had found them.

 

Thomas A. Edison is another example of a man who has attained to greatness through the organization, classification and use of relevant facts.

 

Mr. Edison works with natural laws as his chief aids, therefore, he must be sure of his facts before he can harness those laws.

 

• Every time you press a button and switch on an electric light, remember that it was Mr. Edison's capacity for organizing relevant facts which made this possible.

• Every time you hear a phonograph, remember that Mr. Edison is the man who made it a reality, through his persistent habit of dealing with relevant facts.

• Every time you see a moving picture, remember that it was born of Mr. Edison's habit of dealing with important and relevant facts.

 

In the field of science relevant facts are the tools with which men and women work. Mere information, or hearsay evidence, is of no value to Mr. Edison yet he might have wasted his life working with it as millions of other people are doing. Hearsay evidence could never have produced the incandescent electric light, the phonograph or the moving picture and if it had, the phenomenon would have been an "accident."

 

In this lesson we are trying to prepare the student to avoid "accidents." The question now arises as to what constitutes an important and relevant fact. The answer depends entirely upon what constitutes your definite chief aim in life, for an important and relevant fact is any fact which you can use, without interfering with the rights of others, in the attainment of that purpose. All other facts, as far as you are concerned, are superfluous and of minor importance at most.

 

However, you can work just as hard in organizing, classifying and using unimportant and irrelevant facts as you can in dealing with their opposites, but you will not accomplish as much.