choice with me, and if it had been perhaps I, too, would have selected parents of the “first family” type. Not long ago I was invited to deliver an address in Boston, Mass. After my work was finished, a reception committee volunteered to show me the sights of the city, including a trip to Cambridge, where we visited Harvard University. While there, I observed many sons of “first families” - some of whom were equipped with Packards. Twenty years ago I would have felt proud to be a student at Harvard, with a Packard car, but the illuminating effect of my more mature years has led me to the conclusion that had I had the privilege of going to Harvard I might have done just as well without the aid of a Packard. I noticed some Harvard boys who had no Packards. They were working as waiters in a restaurant where I ate, and as far as I could see they were missing nothing of value because they owned no Packards; nor did they seem to be suffering by comparison with those who could boast of the ownership of parents of the “first family” type. All of which is no reflection upon Harvard University - one of the great universities of the world - nor upon the “first families” who send boys to Harvard. To the contrary, it is intended as a bit of encouragement to those unfortunates who, like myself, have but little and know but little, but express what little they know in terms of constructive, useful action. The psychology of inaction is one of the chief reasons why some towns and cities are dying with the dry-rot! Take the city of X, for example. You'll recognize the city by its description, if you are familiar with - 29 - this part of the country. Sunday blue-laws have closed up all the restaurants on Sunday. Railroad trains must slow down to twelve miles an hour while passing through the city. “Keep off the grass” signs are prominently displayed in the parks. Unfavorable city ordinances of one sort or another have driven the best industries to other cities. On every hand one may see evidence of restraint. The people of the streets show signs of restraint in their faces, and in their manner, and in their walk. The mass psychology of the city is negative. The moment one gets off the train at the depot, this negative atmosphere becomes depressingly obvious and makes one want to take the next train out again. The place reminds one of a grave-yard and the people resemble walking ghosts. They register no signs of action! The bank statements of the banking institutions reflect this negative, inactive state of mind. The stores reflect it in their show windows and in the faces of their salespeople. I went into one of the stores to buy a pair of hose. A young woman with bobbed hair who would have been a “flapper” if she hadn't been too lazy, threw out a box of hose on the counter. When I picked up the box, looked the hose over and registered a look of disapproval on my face, she languidly yawned: “They're the best you can get in this dump!” “Dump!” She must have been a mind reader, for “dump” was the word that was in my mind before she spoke. The store reminded me of a rubbish dump; the city reminded me of the same. I felt the stuff getting into my own blood. The negative psychology of the - 30 - people was actually reaching out and gathering me in. Maine is not the only state that is afflicted with a city such as the one I have described. I could name others, but I might wish to go into politics some day; therefore, I will leave it to you to do your own analyzing and comparing of cities that are alive with action and those that are slowly dying with the dry-rot of inaction. I know of some business concerns that are in this same state of inaction, but I will omit their names. You probably know some, too. Many years ago Frank A. Vanderlip, who is one of the best known and most capable bankers in America, went to work for the National City Bank, of New York City. His salary was above the average from the start, for the reason that he was capable and had a record of successful achievement that made him a valuable man. He was assigned to a private office that was equipped with a fine mahogany desk and an easy chair. On the top of the desk was an electric push button that led to a secretary's desk outside. The first day went by without any work coming to his desk. The second, and third, and fourth days went by without any work. No one came in or said anything to him. By the end of the week he began to feel uneasy. (Men of action always feel uneasy when there is no work in sight.) The following week Mr. Vanderlip went into the president's office and said, “Look here, you are paying - 31 - me a big salary and giving me nothing to do and it is grating on my nerves!” The president looked up with a lively twinkle in his keen eyes. “Now I have been thinking,” Mr. Vanderlip continued, “while sitting in there with nothing to do, of a plan for increasing the business of this bank.” The president assured him that both “thinking” and “plans” were valuable, and asked him to continue with his interview. “I have thought of a plan,” Mr. Vanderlip went on, “that will give the bank the benefit of my experience in the bond business. I propose to create a bond department for this bank and advertise it as a feature of our business.” “What! this bank advertise?” queried the president. “Why, we have never advertised since we began business. We have managed to get along without it.” “Well, this is where you are going to begin advertising,” said Mr. Vanderlip, “and the first thing you are going to advertise is this new bond department that I have planned.” Mr. Vanderlip won! Men of action usually win - that is one of their distinctive features. The National City Bank also won, because that interview was the beginning of one of the most progressive and profitable advertising campaigns ever carried on by any bank, with the result that the National City Bank became one of the most powerful financial institutions of America. There were other results, also, that are worth naming. Among them the result that Mr. Vanderlip grew with the bank, as men of action usually grow in - 32 - whatever they help to build, until finally he became the president of that great banking house. In the lesson on Imagination you learned how to recombine old ideas into new plans, but no matter how practical your plans may be they will be useless if they are not expressed in action. To dream dreams and see visions of the person you would like to be or the station in life you would like to obtain are admirable provided you transform your dreams and visions into reality through intensive action. There are men who dream, but do nothing more. There are others who take the visions of the dreamers and translate them into stone, and marble, and music, and good books, and railroads, and steamships. There are still others who both dream and transform these dreams into reality. They are the dreamer-doer types. There is a psychological as well as an economic reason why you should form the habit of intensive action. Your body is made up of billions of tiny cells that are highly sensitive and amenable to the influence of your mind. If your mind is of the lethargic, inactive type, the cells of your body become lazy and inactive also. Just as the stagnant water of an inactive pond becomes impure and unhealthful, so will the cells of an inactive body become diseased. Laziness is nothing but the influence of an inactive mind on the cells of the body. If you doubt this, the next time you feel lazy take a Turkish bath and have yourself well rubbed down, thereby stimulating the cells of your body by artificial means, and see how quickly your laziness disappears. Or, a better way than this, turn your mind toward some game of which you are fond and notice how quickly the cells of your body will respond to your enthusiasm and your lazy feeling will disappear. The cells of the body respond to the state of mind in exactly the same manner that the people of a city respond to the mass psychology that dominates the city. If a group of leaders engage in sufficient action to give a city the reputation of being a “live-wire” city this action influences all who live there. The same principle applies to the relationship between the mind and the body. An active, dynamic mind keeps the cells of which the physical portions of the body consist, in a constant state of activity. The artificial conditions under which most inhabitants of our cities live have led to a physical condition known as auto-intoxication, which means self-poisoning through the inactive state of the intestines. Most headaches may be cured in an hour’s time by simply cleansing the lower intestines with an enema. Eight glasses of water a day and a reasonable amount of physical action popularly known as “exercise” will take the place of the enema. Try it for a week and then you will not have to be urged to keep it up, for you will feel like a new person, unless the nature of your work is such that you get plenty of physical exercise and drink plenty of water in the regular course of your duties. On two pages of this book enough sound advice could be recorded to keep the average person healthy and ready for action during sixteen of the twenty-four hours of the day, but the advice would be so simple that most people would not follow it. The amount of work that I perform every day and still keep in good physical condition is a source of - 35 - wonderment and mystery to those who know me intimately, yet there is no mystery to it, and the system I follow does not cost anything. Here it is, for your use if you want it: First: I drink a cup of hot water when I first get up in the morning, before I have breakfast. Second: My breakfast consists of rolls made of whole wheat and bran, breakfast cereal, fruit, softboiled eggs once in a while, and coffee. For luncheon I eat vegetables (most any kind), whole wheat bread and a glass of buttermilk. Supper, a well cooked steak once or twice a week, vegetables, especially lettuce, and coffee. Third: I walk an average of ten miles a day: five miles into the country and five miles back, using this period for meditation and thought. Perhaps the thinking is as valuable, as a health builder, as the walk. Fourth: I lie across a straight bottom chair, flat on my back, with most of my weight resting on the small of my back, with my head and arms relaxed completely, until they almost touch the floor. This gives the nervous energy of my body an opportunity to balance properly and distribute itself, and ten minutes in this position will completely relieve all signs of fatigue, no matter how tired I may be. Fifth: I take an enema at least once every ten days, and more often if I feel the need of it, using water that is a little below blood temperature, with a tablespoonful of salt in it, chest and knee position. Sixth: I take a hot shower bath, followed immediately by a cold shower, every day, usually in the morning when I first get up. - 36 - These simple things I do for myself. Mother Nature attends to everything else necessary for my health. I cannot lay too much stress upon the importance of keeping the intestines clean, for it is a well known fact that the city dwellers of today are literally poisoning themselves to death by neglecting to cleanse their intestines with water. You should not wait until you are constipated to take an enema. When you get to the stage of constipation you are practically ill and immediate relief is absolutely essential, but if you will give yourself the proper attention regularly, just as you attend to keeping the outside of your body clean, you will never be bothered with the many troubles which constipation brings. For more than fifteen years no single week ever passed without my having a headache. Usually I administered a dose of aspirin and got temporary relief. I was suffering with auto-intoxication and did not know it, for the reason that I was not constipated. When I found out what my trouble was I did two things, both of which I recommend to you; namely, I quit using aspirin and I cut down my daily consumption of food nearly one half. Just a word about aspirin - a word which those who profit by its sale will not like - it affords no permanent cure of headache. All it does might be compared to a lineman that cuts the telegraph wire while the operator is using that wire in a call for aid from the fire department to save the burning building in which he is located. Aspirin cuts or “deadens” the line of nerve communication that runs from the stomach or the intestinal region, where autointoxication is pouring poison into the blood, to the - 37 - brain, where the effect of that poison is registering its call in the form of intense pain. Cutting the telegraph line over which a call for the fire department is being sent does not put out the fire; nor does it remove the cause to deaden, with the aid of a dose of aspirin, the nerve line over which a headache is registering a call for help. You cannot be a person of action if you permit yourself to go without proper physical attention until auto-intoxication takes your brain and kneads it into an inoperative mass that resembles a ball of putty. Neither can you be a person of action if you eat the usual devitalized concoction called "white bread" (which has had all the real food value removed from it) and twice as much meat as your system can digest and properly dispose of. You cannot be a person of action if you run to the pill bottle every time you have, or imagine you have, an ache or a pain, or swallow an aspirin tablet every time your intestines call on your brain for a douche bag of water and a spoonful of salt for cleansing purposes. You cannot be a person of action if you overeat and under-exercise. You cannot be a person of action if you read the patent medicine booklets and begin to imagine yourself ailing with the symptoms described by the clever advertisement writer who has reached your pocket book through the power of suggestion. I have not touched a drug for more than five years, and I have not been either sick or ailing during that time, in spite of the fact that I perform more work each day than most men of my profession. I have - 38 - enthusiasm, endurance and action because I eat the sort of simple food that contains the body-building elements that I require, and look after the eliminative processes as carefully as I bathe my body. If these simple and frank admissions appeal to you as being based upon common sense, take them and put them to the test, and if they serve you as well as they are serving me, both of us will have profited by the courage I had to summon to list them as a part of this lesson. Usually, when anyone except a physician offers suggestions on the care of the body, he is immediately catalogued as a “long-haired crank,” and I will admit that the analysis is often correct. In this instance, I make no stronger recommendations than this: That you try an enema the next time you have a headache, and if any of the other suggestions appeal to you give them a trial until you are satisfied that they are either sound or unsound. Before leaving the subject, perhaps I should explain that water which is barely luke-warm should be used for the enema for the reason that this causes the muscles of the intestines to contract, which, in turn, forces the poisonous matter out of the pores of the mucous linings. This exercises those muscles and eventually, it will so develop them that they will do their work in the natural way, without the aid of the enema. A warm water enema is very detrimental for the reason that it relaxes the muscles of the intestines, which, in time, causes them to cease functioning altogether, producing what is ordinarily referred to as the “enema habit.” With due apologies to my friends, the physicians and osteopaths and chiropractors and other health builders, I will now invite you back to that part of the subject of this lesson over which there can be no conflict of opinion as to the soundness of my counsel. · · · · · · · · There is another enemy which you must conquer before you can become a person of action, and that is the worry habit. Worry, and envy, and jealousy, and hatred, and doubt, and fear are all states of mind which are fatal to action. Any of these states of mind will interfere with, and in some instances destroy altogether, the digestive process through which the food is assimilated and prepared for distribution through the body. This interference is purely physical, but the damage does not stop here, because these negative states of mind destroy the most essential factor in the achievement of success; namely, desire to achieve. In the second lesson of this course you learned that your definite chief aim in life should be supported by a burning desire for its realization. You can have no burning desire for achievement when you are in a negative state of mind, no matter what the cause of that state of mind may be. To keep myself in a positive frame of mind I have discovered a very effective “gloom-chaser.” That may not be a very dignified way of expressing my meaning, but since the subject of this lesson is action and not dignity I will make it serve. The “gloom-chaser” to which I refer is a hearty laugh. When I feel “out of sorts” or inclined to argue with somebody over - 41 - something that is not worthy of discussion, I know that I need my “gloom-chaser,” and I proceed to get away where I will disturb no one and have a good hearty laugh. If I can find nothing really funny about which to laugh I simply have a forced laugh. The effect is the same in both cases. Five minutes of this sort of mental and physical exercise - for it is both - will stimulate action that is free from negative tendencies. Do not take my word for this - try it! Not long ago I heard a phonograph record entitled, as I recall it, The Laughing Fool, which should be available to all whose dignity forbids them to indulge in a hearty laugh for their health's sake. This record was all that its name implies. It was made by a man and a woman; the man was trying to play a cornet and the woman was laughing at him. She laughed so effectively that she finally made the man laugh, and the suggestion was so pronounced that all who heard it usually joined in and had a good laugh, whether they felt like it or not. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." You cannot think fear and act courageously. You cannot think hatred and act in a kindly manner toward those with whom you associate. The dominating thoughts of your mind - meaning by this, the strongest and deepest and most frequent of your thoughts - influence the physical action of your body. Every thought put into action by your brain reaches and influences every cell in your body. When you think fear your mind telegraphs this thought down to the cells that form the muscles of your legs and tells those muscles to get into action and carry you - 42 - away as rapidly as they can. A man who is afraid runs away because his legs carry him, and they carry him because the fear thought in his mind instructed them to do so, even though the instructions were given unconsciously. In the first lesson of this course you learned how thought travels from one mind to another, through the principle of telepathy. In this lesson you should go a step further and learn that your thoughts not only register themselves in the minds of other people, through the principle of telepathy, but, what is a million times more important to you to understand, they register themselves on the cells of your own body and affect those cells in a manner that harmonizes with the nature of the thoughts. To understand this principle is to understand the soundness of the statement: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Action, in the sense that the term is used in this lesson, is of two forms. One is physical and the other is mental. You can be very active with your mind while your body is entirely inactive, except as to the involuntary action of the vital organs. Or you can be very active with both body and mind. In speaking of men of action, either or both of two types may be referred to. One is the care-taker type and the other is the promoter or salesman type. Both of these types are essential in modem business, industry and finance. One is known as a "dynamo" while the other is often referred to as a "balance wheel." Once in a great while you will find a man who is both a dynamo and a balance wheel, but such well - 43 - balanced personalities are rare. Most successful business organizations that assume great size are made up of both of these types. The “balance wheel” who does nothing but compile facts and figures and statistics is just as much a man of action as the man who goes upon the platform and sells an idea to a thousand people by the sheer power of his active personality. To determine whether a man is a man of action or not it is necessary to analyze both his mental and his physical habits. In the first part of this lesson I said that “the world pays you for what you do and not for what you know.” That statement might easily be misconstrued. What the world really pays you for is what you do or what you can get others to do. A man who can induce others to co-operate and do effective team-work, or inspire others so that they become more active, is no less a man of action than the man who renders effective service in a more direct manner. In the field of industry and business there are men who have the ability so to inspire and direct the efforts of others that all under their direction accomplish more than they could without this directing influence. It is a well known fact that Carnegie so ably directed the efforts of those who constituted his personal staff that he made many wealthy men of those who would never have become wealthy without the directing genius of his brain. The same may be said of practically all great leaders in the field of industry and business - the gain is not all on the side of the leaders. Those under their direction often profit most by their leadership. - 44 - It is a common practice for a certain type of man to berate his employers because of their opposite stations in a financial sense. It is usually true that such men would be infinitely worse off without these employers than they are with them. In the first lesson of this course the value of allied effort was particularly emphasized for the reason that some men have the vision to plan while others have the ability to carry plans into action although they do not possess the imagination or the vision to create the plans they execute. It was his understanding of this principle of allied effort that enabled Andrew Carnegie to surround himself with a group of men that was made up of those who could plan and those who could execute. Carnegie bad in his group of assistants some of the most efficient salesmen in the world, but if his entire staff had been made up of men who could do nothing but sell he could never have accumulated the fortune that he did. If his entire staff had been made up of salesmen only he would have had action in abundance, but action, in the sense that it is used in this lesson, must be intelligently guided. One of the best known law firms in America is made up of two lawyers, one of whom never appears in court. He prepares the firm's cases for trial and the other member of the firm goes to court and tries them. Both are men of intense action, but they express it in different ways. There can be as much action in preparation, in most undertakings, as in execution. In finding your own place in the world, you should analyze yourself and find out a "dynamo" or a "balance wheel," and select a definite chief aim for yourself that harmonizes with your native ability. If you are in business with others, you should analyze them as well as yourself, and endeavor to see that each person takes the part for which his temperament and native ability best fit him. Stating it another way, people may be classified under two headings: one is the promoter and the other is the care-taker. The promoter type makes an able salesman and organizer. The care-taker type makes an excellent conserver of assets after they have been accumulated. Place the care-taker type in charge of a set of books and he is happy, but place him on the outside selling and he is unhappy and will be a failure at his job. Place the promoter in charge of a set of books and he will be miserable. His nature demands more intense action. Action of the passive type will not satisfy his ambitions, and if he is kept at work which does not give him the action his nature demands be will be a failure. It very frequently turns out that men who embezzle funds in their charge are of the promoter type and they would not have yielded to temptation had their efforts been confined to the work for which they are best fitted. Give a man the sort of work that harmonizes with his nature and the best there is in him will exert itself. One of the outstanding tragedies of the world is the fact that most people never engage in the work for which they are best fitted by nature. Too often the mistake is made, in the selection of a life-work, of engaging in the work which seems to be the most profitable from a monetary viewpoint, - 47 - without consideration of native ability. If money alone brought success this procedure would be all right, but success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best. The main purpose of this course is to help you analyze yourself and determine what your native ability best fits you to do. You should make this analysis by carefully studying the chart that accompanies the Introductory Lesson before you select your definite chief aim. We come, now, to the discussion of the principle through which action may be developed. To understand how to become active requires understanding of how not to procrastinate. These suggestions will give you the necessary instructions: First: Form the habit of doing each day the most distasteful tasks first. This procedure will be difficult at first, but after you have formed the habit you will take pride in pitching into the hardest and most undesirable part of your work first. Second: Place this sign in front of you where you can see it in your daily work, and put a copy in your bedroom, where it will greet you as you retire and when you arise: “Do not tell them what you can do; show them!” Third: Repeat the following words, aloud, twelve times each night just before you go to sleep: "Tomorrow I will do everything that should be done, when it should be done, and as it should be done. I will perform the most difficult tasks first because this - 48 - will destroy the habit of procrastination and develop the habit of action in its place." Fourth: Carry out these instructions with faith in their soundness and with belief that they will develop action, in body and in mind, sufficient to enable you to realize your definite chief aim. The outstanding feature of this course is the simplicity of the style in which it is written. All great fundamental truths are simple, in final analysis, and whether one is delivering an address or writing a course of instruction, the purpose should be to convey impressions and statements of fact in the clearest and most concise manner possible. Before closing this lesson, permit me to go back to what was said about the value of a hearty laugh as a healthful stimulant to action, and add the statement that singing produces the same effect, and in some instances is far preferable to laughing. Billy Sunday is one of the most dynamic and active preachers in the world, yet it has been said that his sermons would lose much of their effectiveness if it were not for the psychological effect of his song services. It is a well known fact that the German army was a winning army at the beginning, and long after the beginning of the world war; and it has been said that much of this was due to the fact that the German army was a singing army. Then came the khaki-clad doughboys from America, and they, too, were singers. Back of their singing was an enduring faith in the cause for which they were fighting. Soon the Germans began to quit singing, and as they did so the tide of war began to turn against them. - 49 - If church attendance had nothing else to recommend it, except the psychological effect of the song service, that would be sufficient, for no one can join in the singing of a beautiful hymn without feeling better for it. For many years I have observed that I could write more effectively after having participated in a song service. Prove my statement to your own satisfaction by going to church next Sunday morning and participating in the song service with all the enthusiasm at your command. During the war I helped devise ways and means of speeding production in industrial plants that were engaged in manufacturing war supplies. By actual test, in a plant employing 3,000 men and women, the production was increased forty-five per cent in less than thirty days after we had organized the workers into singing groups and installed orchestras and bands that played at ten-minute intervals such stirring songs as “Over There,” and “Dixie;” and “There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.” The workers caught the rhythm of the music and speeded up their work accordingly. Properly selected music would stimulate any class of workers to greater action, a fact which does not seem to be understood by all who direct the efforts of large numbers of people. In all my travels I have found but one business firm whose managers made use of music as a stimulant for their workers. This was the Filene Department Store, in Boston, Mass. During the summer months this store provides an orchestra that plays the latest dance music for half an hour before opening time, in - 50 - the morning. The salespeople use the aisles of the store for dancing and by the time the doors are thrown open they are in an active state of mind and body that carries them through the entire day. Incidentally, I have never seen more courteous or efficient salespeople than those employed by the Filene store. One of the department managers told me that every person in his department performed more service and with less real effort, as a result of the morning music program. A singing army is a winning army, whether on the field of battle, in warfare, or behind the counters in a department store. There is a book entitled Singing Through Life With God by George Wharton James, which I recommend to all who are interested in the psychology of song. If I were the manager of an industrial plant in which the work was heavy and monotonous, I would install some sort of musical program that would supply every worker with music. On lower Broadway, in New York City, an ingenious Greek has discovered bow to entertain his customers and at the same time speed up the work of his helpers by the use of a phonograph. Every boy in the place keeps time with the music as he draws the cloth across the shoes, and seems to get considerable fun out of his work in doing so. To speed up the work the proprietor has but to speed up the phonograph. · · · · · · · · Any form of group effort, where two or more peoplee form a co-operative alliance for the purpose of accomplishing a definite purpose, becomes more powerful than mere individual effort. whether A football team may win consistently and continuously, by well co-ordinated team-work, even though the members of the team may be unfriendly and out of harmony in many ways outside of their actual work on the ball ground. A group of men composing a board of directors may disagree with one another; they may be unfriendly, and in no way in sympathy with one another, and still carry on a business which appears to be very successful. A man and his wife may live together, accumulate a fair sized or even a great fortune, rear and educate a family, without the bond of harmony which is essential for the development of a Master Mind. But all of these alliances might be made more powerful and effective if based upon a foundation of perfect harmony, thus permitting the development of a supplemental power known as the Master Mind. Plain co-operative effort produces power; there can be no doubt about this; but co-operative effort that is based upon complete harmony of purpose develops super-power. Let every member of any cooperative group set his heart upon the achievement of the same definite end, in a spirit of perfect harmony, and the way has been paved for the development of a Master Mind, providing all members of the group willingly subordinate their own personal interests for the attainment of the objective for which the group is aiming. The United States of America has become one of the most powerful nations on earth, largely because of the highly organized co-operative effort between the states. It will be helpful to remember that these - 53 - United States were born as the result of one of the most powerful Master Minds ever created. The members of this Master Mind were the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The men who signed that document either consciously or unconsciously put into operation the power known as the “Master Mind,” and that power was sufficient to enable them to defeat all the soldiers who were sent into the field against them. The men who fought to make the Declaration of Independence endure did not fight for money, alone; they fought for a principle - the principle of freedom, which is the highest known motivating force. A great leader, whether in business, finance, industry or statesmanship, is one who understands how to create a motivating objective which will be accepted with enthusiasm by every member of his group of followers. In politics a “live issue” is everything! By “live issue” is meant some popular objective toward the attainment of which the majority of the voters can be rallied. These “issues” generally are broadcast in the form of snappy slogans, such as “Keep Cool with Coolidge,” which suggested to the minds of the voters that to keep Coolidge was the equivalent of keeping prosperity. It worked! During Lincoln's election campaign the cry was, “Stand back of Lincoln and preserve the Union.” It worked. Woodrow Wilson's campaign managers, during his second campaign, coined the slogan, “He kept us out of war,” and it worked. The degree of power created by the co-operative - 54 - effort of any group of people is measured, always, by the nature of the motive which the group is laboring to attain. This may be profitably home in mind by all who organize group effort for any purpose whatsoever. Find a motive around which men may be induced to rally in a highly emotionalized, enthusiastic spirit of perfect harmony and you have found the starting point for the creation of a Master Mind. It is a well known fact that men will work harder for the attainment of an ideal than they will for mere money. In searching for a “motive” as the basis for developing co-operative group effort it will be profitable to bear this fact in mind. At the time of the writing of this lesson there is much adverse agitation and general criticism directed against the railroads of the country. Who is back of this agitation this author does not know, but he does know that the very fact that such agitation exists could and should be made the motivating force around which the railroad officials might rally the hundreds of thousands of railroad employees who earn their living by railroading, thereby creating a power that would effectively eliminate this adverse criticism. The railroads are the very back-bone of the country. Tie up all railroad service and the people of the larger cities would starve before food could reach them. In this fact may be found a motive around which a large majority of the public could be caused to rally in support of any plan for self-protection which the railroad officials might wish to carry out. The power represented by all of the railroad employees and a majority of the public who patronize the railroads is sufficient to protect the railroads - 55 - against all manner of adverse legislation and other attempts to depreciate their properties, but the power is only potential until it is organized and placed definitely back of a specific motive. · · · · · · · · Man is a queer animal. Give him a sufficiently vitalized motive and the man of but average ability, under ordinary circumstances, will suddenly develop superpower. What man can and will accomplish to please the woman of his choice (providing the woman knows how to stimulate him to action) bas ever been a source of wonderment to students of the human mind. There are three major motivating forces to which man responds in practically all of his efforts. These are: 1. The motive of self-preservation 2. The motive of sexual contact 3. The motive of financial and social power. Stated more briefly, the main motives which impel men to action are money, sex and selfpreservation. Leaders who are seeking a motivating force out of which to secure action from a following may find it under one or more of these three classifications. As you have observed, this lesson is very closely related to the Introductory Lesson and Lesson Two which cover the Law of the Master Mind. It is possible for groups to function co-operatively, without thereby creating a Master Mind, as, for example, where people co-operate merely out of necessity, without the spirit of harmony as the basis of their efforts. This sort of co-operation may produce - 56 - considerable power, but nothing to compare with that which is possible when every person in an alliance subordinates his or her own individual interests and co-ordinates his or her efforts with those of all other members of the alliance, in perfect harmony. The extent to which people may be induced to cooperate, in harmony, depends upon the motivating force which impels them to action. Perfect harmony such as is essential for creating a Master Mind can be obtained only when the motivating force of a group is sufficient to cause each member of the group completely to forget his or her own personal interests and work for the good of the group, or for the sake of attaining some idealistic, charitable or philanthropic objective. The three major motivating forces of mankind have been here stated for the guidance of the Leader who wishes to create plans for securing cooperation from followers who will throw themselves into the carrying out of his plans in a spirit of unselfishness and perfect harmony. Men will not rally to the support of a leader in such a spirit of harmony unless the motive that impels them to do so is one that will induce them to lay aside all thoughts of themselves. We do well that which we love to do, and fortunate is the Leader who has the good judgment to bear this fact in mind and so lay his plans that all his followers are assigned parts that harmonize with this law. The leader who gets all there is to be had from his followers does so because he has set up in the mind of each a sufficiently strong motive to get each to subordinate his own interests and work in a perfect you are spirit of harmony with all other members of the group. Regardless of who you are, or what your definite chief aim may be, if you plan to attain the object of your chief aim through the co-operative efforts of others you must set up in the minds of those whose cooperation you seek a motive strong enough to insure their full, undivided, unselfish co-operation, for you will then be placing back of your plans the power of the Law of the Master Mind. · · · · · · · · You are now ready to take up Lesson Fourteen, which will teach you how to make working capital out of all mistakes, errors and failures which you have experienced, and also how to profit by the mistakes and failures of others. The president of one of the great railway systems of the United States said, after reading the next lesson, that “this lesson carries a suggestion which, if heeded and understood, will enable any person to become a master in his chosen life-work.” For reasons which will be plain after you have read the next lesson, it is the author's favorite lesson of this course. (These fifteen soldiers are labeled: Definite Chief Aim, Self-Confidence, Habit of Saving, Imagination, Initiative and Leadership, Enthusiasm, Self-Control, Doing More Than Paid For, Pleasing Personality, Accurate Thought, Concentration, Co-operation, Failure, Tolerance, Golden Rule) Power comes from organi zed effort. You see in the above picture the forces which enter into all organi zed effort. Master these fifteen forces and you may have whatever you want in life. Others will be helpless to defeat your plans. Make these fifteen forces your own and you will be an accurate thinker. IN the picture at the top of this page you see the most powerful army on earth! Observe the emphasis on the word POWERFUL. This army is standing at attention, ready to do the bidding of any person who will command it. It is YOUR army if you will take charge of it. This army will give you POWER sufficient to - 60 - mow down all opposition with which you meet. Study the picture carefully, then take inventory of yourself and find out how many of these soldiers you need. · · · · · · · · If you are a normal person you long for material success. Success and POWER are always found together. You cannot be sure of success unless you have power. You cannot have power unless you develop it through fifteen essential qualities. Each of these fifteen qualities may be likened to the commanding officer of a regiment of soldiers. Develop these qualities in your own mind and you will have POWER. The most important of the fifteen commanding officers in this army is DEFINITE PURPOSE. Without the aid of a definite purpose the remainder of the army would be useless to you. Find out, as early in life as possible, what your major purpose in life shall be. Until you do this you are nothing but a drifter, subject to control by every stray wind of circumstance that blows in your direction. Millions of people go through life without knowing what it is they want. All have a purpose, but only two out of every hundred have a DEFINITE purpose. Before you decide whether your purpose is DEFINITE or not, look up the meaning of the word in the dictionary. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO THE PERSON WHO KNOWS WHAT IT IS HE WANTS AND MAKES UP HIS MIND TO ACQUIRE IT! Columbus had a DEFINITE PURPOSE and it be- - 61 - came a reality. Lincoln's major DEFINITE PURPOSE was to free the black slaves of the South and he turned that purpose into reality. Roosevelt's major purpose, during his first term of office, was to build the Panama Canal. He lived to see that purpose realized. Henry Ford's DEFINITE PURPOSE was to build the best popular priced automobile on earth. That purpose, backed persistently, has made him the most powerful man on earth. Burbank's DEFINITE PURPOSE was to improve plant life. Already that purpose has made possible the raising of enough food on ten square miles of land to feed the entire world. · · · · · · · · Twenty years ago Edwin C. Barnes formed a DEFINITE PURPOSE in his mind. That purpose was to become the business partner of Thomas A. Edison. At the time his purpose was chosen Mr. Barnes had no qualification entitling him to a partnership with the world's greatest inventor. Despite this handicap he became the partner of the great Edison. Five years ago he retired from active business, with more money than he needs or can use, wealth that he accumulated in partnership with Edison. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO THE MAN WITH A DEFINITE PURPOSE! Opportunity, capital, co-operation from other men and all other essentials for success gravitate to the man who knows what he wants! Vitalize your mind with a DEFINITE PURPOSE and immediately your mind becomes a magnet which attracts everything that harmonizes with that purpose. - 62 - James J. Hill, the great railroad builder, was a poorly paid telegraph operator. Moreover, he had reached the age of forty and was still ticking away at the telegraph key without any outward appearances of success. Then something of importance happened! Of importance to Hill and to the people of the United States. He formed the DEFINITE PURPOSE of building a railroad across the great waste desert of the West. Without reputation, without capital, without encouragement from others James J. Hill got the capital and built the greatest of all the railroad systems of the United States. Woolworth was a poorly paid clerk in a general store. In his mind's eye he saw a chain of novelty stores specializing on five and ten cent sales. That chain of stores became his DEFINITE PURPOSE. He made that purpose come true, and with it more millions than he could use. Cyrus H. K. Curtis selected, as his DEFINITE PURPOSE, the publishing of the world's greatest magazine. Starting with nothing but the name “Saturday Evening Post,” and opposed by friends and advisers who said “It couldn't be done,” he transformed that purpose into reality. Martin W. Littleton is the most highly paid lawyer in the world. It is said that he will accept no retainer under $50,000.00. When he was twelve years old he had never been inside of a school boom. He went to hear a lawyer defend a murderer. That speech so impressed him that he grabbed hold of his father's hand and said, “Some day I am going to be the best - 63 - lawyer in the United States and make speeches like that man.” “Fine chance for an ignorant mountain youth to become a great lawyer,” someone might say, but remember that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO THE MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS AND MAKES UP HIS MIND TO GET IT. · · · · · · · · Study each of the fifteen soldiers shown in command of the army in the picture at the beginning of this essay. Remember, as you look at the picture, that no one of these soldiers alone is powerful enough to insure success. Remove a single one of them and the entire army would be weakened. The powerful man is the man who has developed, in his own mind, the entire fifteen qualities represented by the fifteen commanding officers shown in the picture. Before you can have power you must have a DEFINITE PURPOSE; you must have SELFCONFIDENCE with which to back up that purpose; you must have INITIATIVE and LEADERSHIP with which to exercise your self-confidence; you must have IMAGINATION in creating your definite purpose and in building the plans with which to transform that purpose into reality and put your plans into action. You must mix ENTHUSIASM with your action or it will be insipid and without “kick.” You must exercise SELF-CONTROL. You must form the habit of DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR. You must cultivate a PLEASING PERSONALITY. You must acquire the - 64 - HABIT OF SAVING. You must become an ACCURATE THINKER, remembering, as you develop this quality, that accurate thought is based upon FACTS and not upon hearsay evidence or mere information. You must form the habit of CONCENTRATION by giving your undivided attention to but one task at a time. You must acquire the habit of CO-OPERATION and practice it in all your plans. You must profit by FAILURE, your own and that of others. You must cultivate the habit of TOLERANCE. Last, but by no means the least important, you must make the GOLDEN RULE the foundation of all you do that affects other people. Keep this picture where you can see it each day and, one by one, call these fifteen soldiers out of the line and study them. Make sure that the counterpart of each is developed in your own mind. · · · · · · · · All efficient armies are well disciplined! The army which you are building in your own mind must, also, be disciplined. It must obey your command at every step, When you call out of the line the thirteenth soldier, “FAILURE,” remember that nothing will go as far toward developing discipline as will failure and temporary defeat. While you are comparing yourself with this soldier determine whether or not you have been profiting by your own failures and temporary defeat. FAILURE comes to all at one time or another. Make sure, when it comes your way, that you will learn something of value from its visit. Make sure, - 65 - also, that it would not visit you if there was not room for it in your make-up. To make progress in this world you must rely solely upon the forces within your own mind for your start. After this start has been made you may turn to others for aid, but the first step must be taken without outside aid. After you have made this “start,” it will surprise you to observe how many willing people you will encounter who will volunteer to assist you. · · · · · · · · Success is made up of many facts and factors, chiefly of the fifteen qualities represented by these fifteen soldiers. To enjoy a well balanced and rounded out success one must appropriate as much or as little of each of these fifteen qualities as may be missing in one's own inherited ability. When you came into this world you were endowed with certain inborn traits, the result of millions of years of evolutionary changes, through thousands of generations of ancestors. Added to these inborn traits you acquired many other qualities, according to the nature of your environment and the teaching you received during your early childhood. You are the sum total of that which was born in you and that which you have picked up from your experiences, what you have thought and what you have been taught, since birth. Through the law of chance one in a million people will receive, through inborn heredity and from knowledge acquired after birth, all of the fifteen qualities named in the picture above. - 66 - All who are not fortunate enough to have thus acquired the essentials for SUCCESS must develop them within themselves. The first step in this “development” process is to realize what qualities are missing in your naturally acquired equipment. The second step is the strongly planted DESIRE to develop yourself where you are now deficient. Prayer sometimes works, while at other times it does not work. It always works when backed with unqualified FAITH. This is a truth which no one will deny, yet, it is a truth which no one can explain. All we know is that prayer works when we BELIEVE it will work. Prayer without FAITH is nothing but an empty collection of words. A DEFINITE PURPOSE may be transformed into reality only when one BELIEVES it can be done. Perhaps the selfsame law that turns the prayer based upon FAITH into reality transforms, also, a DEFINITE PURPOSE that is founded upon belief into reality. It can do no harm if you make your DEFINITE PURPOSE in life the object of your daily prayer. And, as you pray remember that prayer based upon FAITH always works. Develop in your own mind all of the fifteen qualities, from a DEFINITE PURPOSE to the GOLDEN RULE, and you will find the application of FAITH is not difficult. Take inventory of yourself. Find out how many of the fifteen qualities you now possess. Add to this inventory the missing qualities until you have, in your - 67 - - 68 - mind, the entire fifteen. You will then be ready to measure your success in whatever terms you DESIRE. The qualities represented by the fifteen soldiers shown in this picture are the brick and the mortar and the building material with which you must build your Temple of Success. Master these fifteen qualities and you may play a perfect symphony of success in any undertaking, just as one who has mastered the fundamentals of music may play any piece at sight. Make these fifteen qualities your own and you will be an EDUCATED person, because you will have the power to get whatever you want in life without violating the rights of others. “All worlds are man's, to conquer and to rule This is the glory of his life. But this its iron law: first must he school Himself. Here 'gins and ends all strife.”