Samuel Milton Jones, often referred to as “Golden Rule” Jones, was born August 3, 1846 in North Wales. He and his family emigrated to Lewis County, New York, when he was three years old. He grew up in New York State until he moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania. When he was eighteen years old he worked in the oil fields of Pennsylvania. Here he studied different methods of oil production and became a producer himself in 1870.

Depressed by the death of his first wife, he moved to Ohio seeking a change. In 1886, with his headquarters in Lima, Ohio, he operated oil fields. He made a big strike near Lima in 1886. That same year he met Helen W. Beach, a lady from a prominent Toledo family. In 1892 they married and settled in Toledo.

In 1893 Jones invented the “sucker rod.” This permitted deep-well drilling. He patented his invention and began to manufacture it. In 1894 he began Acme Sucker Rod Company. His factory was open during a time of depression and Toledoans sought work there. In his company he enforced the Golden Rule. He treated his employees well and paid them a fair wage. He also had workers keep their own time, gave employees paid vacations, had company insurance plans, and allowed employees to be active in profit sharing.

Jones was elected mayor of Toledo on February 25, 1897, after having lived in Toledo for only five years. He was a progressive mayor who preached Christ’s teachings, supported the idea of equality of men, and focused on establishing a uniform three-cent fare on streetcars, as well as solving problems of unemployment and poverty. A campaign promise was to establish public parks and playgrounds. He believed this was important and, as an example, he purchased vacant ground that adjoined his factory and equipped it with everything necessary for a playground. This area, named Golden Rule Park, was created three years after he was elected mayor.

Jones was elected again in 1899, 1901, and 1903. He died before his fourth term expired on July 12, 1904, at the age of fifty-seven. Fifty-five thousand people viewed his body and five thousand people from all walks of life attended his funeral. He was survived by his three sons, Percy, Paul and Mason, and his wife Helen.

I hope you folks who have been following this blog have enjoyed the Wattle’s book series presented here in 18 parts over these last months. This book was the basis of the wildly successful “The Secret” movie. Perhaps you didn’t know it was the entire book? If not, back track to the beginning and you will have access to the classic book in it’s entirety, starting with part 1.

If you have found it interesting, or hopefully, it has given you a new perspective on life, as it has me, then you may want to dig a little deeper into putting this amazing perspective on living a more fulfilled life into daily action. Click on the banner at the top or bottom of any page and sign up for the seven free lessons from SGR. You won’t regret it, I assure you.

Chapter 17

A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made,
and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and
fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged
by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and by impressing
his thought upon formless substance can cause the thing he thinks
about to be created.

In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to
the creative mind. Otherwise he cannot be in harmony with form-
less intelligence, which is always creative and never competi-
tive in spirit.

A person may come into full harmony with the formless sub-
stance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the bless-
ings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies the minds of indi-
viduals with the intelligence of substance, so that a person’s
thoughts are received by the formless.

A person can remain upon the creative plane only by uniting
himself with the formless intelligence through a deep and con-
tinuous feeling of gratitude.

A person must form a clear and definite mental image of the
things he wishes to have, to do, or to become, and he must hold
this mental image in his thoughts, while being deeply grateful
to the supreme that all his desires are granted to him. The per-
son who wishes to get rich must spend his leisure hours in con-
templating his vision, and in earnest thanksgiving that the real-
ity is being given to him.

Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of frequent
contemplation of the mental image, coupled with unwavering faith
and devout gratitude. This is the process by which the impression
is given to the formless and the creative forces set in motion.

The creative energy works through the established channels
of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order. All that
is included in his mental image will surely be brought to the
person who follows the instructions given above, and whose faith
does not waver. What he wants will come to him through the
ways of established trade and commerce.

In order to receive his own when it is ready to come to him, a
person must be in action in a way that causes him to more than
fill his present place. He must keep in mind the purpose to get
rich through realization of his mental image. And he must do,
every day, all that can be done that day, taking care to do each
act in a successful manner. He must give to every person a use
value in excess of the cash value he receives, so that each trans-
action makes for more life, and he must hold the advancing
thought so that the impression of increase will be communicated
to all with whom he comes into contact.

The men and women who practice the foregoing instructions will
certainly get rich, and the riches they receive will be in exact pro-
portion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their pur-
pose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.

Chapter 16

Some Cautions and
Concluding Observations

Many people will scoff at the idea that there is an exact sci-
ence of getting rich. Holding the impression that the sup-
ply of wealth is limited, they will insist that social and
governmental institutions must be changed before even any con-
siderable number of people can acquire a competence.
But this is not true.

It is true that existing governments keep the masses in pov-
erty, but this is because the masses do not think and act in the
certain way.

If the masses begin to move forward as suggested in this book,
neither governments nor industrial systems can check them; all sys-
tems must be modified to accommodate the forward movement.

If the people have the advancing mind, have the faith that they
can become rich, and move forward with the fixed purpose to
become rich, nothing can possibly keep them in poverty.

Individuals may enter upon the certain way at any time and
under any government and make themselves rich. And when
any considerable number of individuals do so under any gov-
ernment, they will cause the system to be so modified as to open
the way for others.

The more people who get rich on the competitive plane, the
worse for others. The more who get rich on the creative plane,
the better for others.

The economic salvation of the masses can only be accomplished
by getting a large number of people to practice the scientific
method set down in this book and become rich. These will show
others the way and inspire them with a desire for real life, with
the faith that it can be attained, and with the purpose to attain it.

For the present, however, it is enough to know that neither the
government under which you live nor the capitalistic or com-
petitive system of industry can keep you from getting rich. When
you enter upon the creative plane of thought you will rise above
all these things and become a citizen of another kingdom.

But remember that your thought must be held upon the creative
plane. You are never for an instant to be betrayed into regarding
the supply as limited or into acting on the moral level of competition.

Whenever you do fall into old ways of thought, correct your-
self instantly. For when you are in the competitive mind, you
have lost the cooperation of the supreme mind.

Do not spend any time in planning as to how you will meet
possible emergencies in the future, except as the necessary poli-
cies may affect your actions today. You are concerned with do-
ing today’s work in a perfectly successful manner and not with
emergencies which may arise tomorrow. You can attend to them
as they come.

Do not concern yourself with questions as to how you shall
surmount obstacles which may loom upon your business hori-
zon unless you can see plainly that your course must be altered
today in order to avoid them. No matter how tremendous an
obstruction may appear at a distance, you will find that if you
go on in the certain way it will disappear as you approach it, or
that a way over, under, through, or around it will appear.

No possible combination of circumstances can defeat a man
or woman who is proceeding to get rich along strictly scientific
lines. No man or woman who obeys the law can fail to get rich,
any more than one can multiply two by two and fail to get four.

Give no anxious thought to possible disasters, obstacles, pan-
ics, or unfavorable combinations of circumstances. There is time
enough to meet such things when they present themselves be-
fore you in the immediate present, and you will find that every
difficulty carries with it the wherewithal for its overcoming.

Guard your speech. Never speak of yourself, your affairs, or
of anything else in a discouraged or discouraging way. Never
admit the possibility of failure or speak in a way that infers failure
as a possibility.

Never speak of the times as being hard or of business conditions
as being doubtful. Times may be hard and business doubtful for
those who are on the competitive plane, but they can never be so for
you. You can create what you want, and you are above fear.
When others are having hard times and poor business, you
will find your greatest opportunities.

Train yourself to think of and to look upon the world as some-
thing which is becoming, which is growing, and to regard seem-
ing evil as being only that which is undeveloped. Always speak
in terms of advancement. To do otherwise is to deny your faith,
and to deny your faith is to lose it.

Never allow yourself to feel disappointed. You may expect to
have a certain thing at a certain time and not get it at that time,
and this will appear to you like failure. But if you hold to your
faith you will find that the failure is only apparent.

Go on in the certain way, and if you do not receive that thing,
you will receive something so much better that you will see that
the seeming failure was really a great success.

A student of this science had set his mind on making a certain
business combination which seemed to him at the time to be very
desirable, and he worked for some weeks to bring it about. When
the crucial time came, the thing failed in a perfectly inexplicable
way. It was as if some unseen influence had been working se-
cretly against him.

But he was not disappointed. On the contrary, he thanked God
that his desire had been overruled, and went steadily on with a
grateful mind. In a few weeks an opportunity so much better
came his way that he would not have made the first deal on any
account, and he saw that a mind which knew more than he knew
had prevented him from losing the greater good by entangling
himself with the lesser.

That is the way every seeming failure will work out for you, if
you keep your faith, hold to your purpose, have gratitude, and
do “every day” all that can be done that day, doing each
separate act in a successful manner.

When you make a failure, it is because you have not asked for
enough. Keep on, and a larger thing then you were seeking will
certainly come to you. Remember this.

You will not fail because you lack the necessary talent to do
what you wish to do. If you go on as I have directed, you will
develop all the talent that is necessary to the doing of your work.
It is not within the scope of this book to deal with the science of
cultivating talent, but it is as certain and simple as the process of
getting rich. However, do not hesitate or waver for fear that when
you come to any certain place you will fail for lack of ability. Keep
right on, and when you come to that place, the ability will be fur-
nished to you. The same source of ability which enabled the un-
taught Lincoln to do the greatest work in government ever accom-
plished by a single person is open to you. You may draw upon all
the mind there is for wisdom to use in meeting the responsibilities
which are laid upon you. Go on in full faith.

Study this book. Make it your constant companion until you
have mastered all the ideas contained in it. While you are getting
firmly established in this faith, you will do well to give up most
recreations and to stay away from places where ideas conflict-
ing with these are advanced in lectures or sermons. Do not read
pessimistic or conflicting literature or get into arguments upon
the matter.

Spend most of your leisure time in contemplating your vision,
in cultivating gratitude, and in reading this book. It contains all
you need to know of the science of getting rich, and you will
find all the essentials summed up in the following chapter.

The more people who
get rich on the
competitive plane, the
worse for others. The
more who get rich on
the creative plane, the
better for others.

Guard your speech.

Never speak of yourself,
your affairs, or of
anything else in a
discouraged or
discouraging way.

When you make a
failure, it is because you
have not asked for
enough. Keep on, and a
larger thing than you
were seeking will
certainly come to you.
Remember this.

Spend most of your
leisure time in
contemplating your
vision, in cultivating
gratitude, and in reading
this book.

Chapter 15

The Advancing Person

What I have said in the last chapter applies as well to the
professional person and the wage-earner as to the person
who is engaged in selling or any other form of business.
No matter whether you are a physician, a teacher, or a clergy-
man, if you can give increase of life to others and make them
sensible of that fact, they will be attracted to you, and you will
get rich.

The physician who holds the vision of himself as a great and
successful healer, and who works toward the complete realiza-
tion of that vision with faith and purpose, as described in former
chapters, will come into such close touch with the source of life
that he will be phenomenally successful; patients will come to
him in throngs.

No one has a greater opportunity to carry into effect the teach-
ing of this book than the practitioner of medicine. It does not
matter to which of the various schools he may belong, for the
principle of healing is common to all of them and may be reached
by all alike. The “advancing person” in medicine, who holds to
a clear mental image of himself as successful, and who obeys the
laws of faith, purpose, and gratitude, will cure every curable
case he undertakes.

In the field of religion, the world cries out for the clergyman
who can teach his hearers the true science of abundant life. He
who masters the details of the science of getting rich, together
with the allied sciences of being well, of being great, and of win-
ning love, and who teaches these details from the pulpit, will
never lack for a congregation.

This is a gospel that the world needs; it will give increase of life,
and people will hear it gladly and give liberal support to the person
who brings it to them.

What is now needed is a demonstration of the science of life
from the pulpit. We want preachers who can not only tell us
how, but who in their own persons will show us how. We need
the preacher who will himself be rich, healthy, great, and be-
loved, to teach us how to attain to these things, and when he
comes he will find a numerous and loyal following.

The same is true of the teacher who can inspire the children
with the faith and purpose of the advancing life. He will never
be “out of a job.” And any teacher who has this faith and pur-
pose can give it to his pupils. He cannot help giving it to them if
it is part of his own life and practice.

What is true of the teacher, preacher, and physician is true of
the lawyer, dentist, real estate agent, insurance agent – of ev-
erybody.

The combined mental and personal action I have described is
infallible; it cannot fail. Every man and woman who follows these
instructions steadily, perseveringly, and to the letter, will get
rich. The law of the increase of life is as mathematically certain
in its operation as the law of gravity. Getting rich is an exact
science.

The wage-earner will find this as true of his case as of any of
the others mentioned. Do not feel that you have no chance to get
rich because you are working where there is no visible opportu-
nity for advancement, where wages are small and the cost of
living high. Form your clear mental vision of what you want,
and begin to act with faith and purpose.

Do all the work you can do, every day, and do each piece of
work in a perfectly successful manner. Put the power of success
and the purpose to get rich into everything that you do.
But do not do this merely with the idea of currying favor with
your employer, in the hope that he, or those above you, will see
your good work and advance you. It is not likely that they will
do so. The person who is merely a “good” worker, filling his
place to the very best of his ability and satisfied with that, is
valuable to his employer, and it is not to the employer’s interest
to promote him. He is worth more where he is.

To secure advancement, something more is necessary than to
be too large for your place.

The person who is certain to advance is the one who is too big
for his place, who has a clear concept of what he wants to be,
who knows that he can become what he wants to be, and who is
determined to be what he wants to be.

Do not try to more than fill your present place with a view to
pleasing your employer. Do it with the idea of advancing your-
self. Hold the faith and purpose of increase during work hours,
after work hours, and before work hours. Hold it in such a way
that every person who comes in contact with you, whether fore-
man, fellow worker, or social acquaintance, will feel the power
of purpose radiating from you – so that everyone will get the
sense of advancement and increase from you. People will be at-
tracted to you, and if there is no possibility for advancement in
your present job, you will very soon see an opportunity to take
another job.

There is a power which never fails to present opportunity to
the advancing personality who is moving in obedience to law.
God cannot help helping you if you act in a certain way. He
must do so in order to help himself.

There is nothing in your circumstances or in the industrial situ-
ation that can keep you down. If you cannot get rich working for
the steel trust, you can get rich on a ten-acre farm. And if you
begin to move in the certain way, you will certainly escape from
the “clutches” of the steel trust and get on to the farm or wher-
ever else you wish to be.

If a few thousands of its employees would enter upon the cer-
tain way, the steel trust would soon be in a bad plight. It would
have to give its workers more opportunity or go out of business.
Nobody has to work for a trust. The trusts can keep people in so
called hopeless conditions only so long as there are people who
are ignorant of the science of getting rich or too intellectually
slothful to practice it.

Begin this way of thinking and acting, and your faith and pur-
pose will make you quick to see any opportunity to better your
condition. Such opportunities will speedily come, for the supreme
power, working in all and working for you, will bring them be-
fore you.

Do not wait for an opportunity to be all that you want to be.
When an opportunity to be more than you are now is presented
and you feel impelled toward it, take it. It will be the first step
toward a greater opportunity.

There is no such thing possible in this universe as a lack of
opportunities for the person who is living the advancing life.
It is inherent in the constitution of the cosmos that all things
shall be for him and work together for his good, and he must
certainly get rich if he acts and thinks in the certain way. So let
wage-earning men and women study this book with great care
and enter with confidence upon the course of action it prescribes.

It will not fail.

if you can give
increase of life to others
and make them sensible
of that fact, they will be
attracted to you, and
you will get rich.

The person who is
certain to advance is the
one who is too big for
his place, who has a
clear concept of what
he wants to be, who
knows that he can
become what he wants
to be, and who is
determined to be what
he wants to be.

There is no such thing
possible in this universe
as a lack of
opportunities for the
person who is living the
advancing life.

Chapter 14

The Impression of Increase

Whether you change your vocation or not, your actions
for the present must be those pertaining to the business
in which you are now engaged.

You can get into the business you want by making construc-
tive use of the business you are already established in – by do-
ing your daily work in the certain way.

And insofar as your business consists in dealing with other people,
whether personally or by letter, the key thought of all your efforts
must be to convey to their minds the impression of increase.

Increase is what all men and all women are seeking; it is the
urge of the formless intelligence within them seeking fuller
expression.

The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the funda-
mental impulse of the universe. All human activities are based
on the desire for increase. People are seeking more food, more
clothes, better shelter, more luxury, more beauty, more knowl-
edge, more pleasure – increase in something, more life.

Every living thing is under this necessity for continuous ad-
vancement; where increase of life ceases, dissolution and death
set in at once.

Man instinctively knows this, and therefore he is forever seeking
more. This law of perpetual increase is set forth by Jesus in the
parable of the talents: Only those who gain more retain any; from
him who has not shall be taken away even that which he has.

The normal desire for increased wealth is not an evil or a rep-
rehensible thing. It is simply the desire for more abundant life. It
is aspiration.

And because it is the deepest instinct of their natures, all men
and women are attracted to those who can give them more of
the means of life.

In following the certain way as described in the foregoing
pages, you are getting continuous increase for yourself, and you
are giving it to all with whom you deal.

You are a creative center from which increase is given off to all.
Be sure of this, and convey assurance of the fact to every man,
woman, and child with whom you come in contact. No matter how small the transaction, even if it be only the selling of a stick
of candy to a little child, put into it the thought of increase, and
make sure that the customer is impressed with the thought.

Convey the impression of advancement with everything you
do, so that all people shall receive the impression that you are an
“advancing personality,” and that you advance all who deal with
you. Even to the people whom you meet in a social way – with-
out any thought of business and to whom you do not try to sell
anything – give the thought of increase.

You can convey this impression by holding the unshakable
faith that you, yourself, are in the way of increase and by letting
this faith inspire, fill, and permeate every action.

Do everything that you do in the firm conviction that you are
an advancing personality and that you are giving advancement
to everybody.

Feel that you are getting rich, and that in so doing you are
making others rich and conferring benefits on all.

Do not boast or brag of your success or talk about it unneces-
sarily; true faith is never boastful.

Wherever you find a boastful person, you find one who is se-
cretly doubtful and afraid. Simply feel the faith, and let it work
out in every transaction. Let every act and tone and look express
the quiet assurance that you are getting rich – that you are al-
ready rich. Words will not be necessary to communicate this feel-
ing to others. They will feel the sense of increase when in your
presence, and will be attracted to you again.

You must so impress others that they will feel that in associ-
ating with you they will get increase for themselves. See that
you give them a use value greater than the cash value you are
taking from them.

Take an honest pride in doing this and let everybody know it,
and you will have no lack of customers. People will go where
they are given increase, and the supreme, which desires increase
in all and which knows all, will move toward you men and
women who have never heard of you. Your business will in-
crease rapidly, and you will be surprised at the unexpected ben-
efits which will come to you. You will be able from day to day to
make larger combinations, secure greater advantages, and to go
on into a more congenial vocation if you desire to do so.

But doing thing all this, you must never lose sight of your
vision of what you want or your faith and purpose to get what
you want.

Let me here give you another word of caution in regard to
motives: Beware of the insidious temptation to seek for power
over other people.

Nothing is so pleasant to the unformed or partially developed
mind as the exercise of power or dominion over others. The de-
sire to rule for selfish gratification has been the curse of the world.
For countless ages kings and lords have drenched the earth with
blood in their battles to extend their dominions – not to seek
more life for all, but to get more power for themselves.

Today, the main motive in the business and industrial world
is the same: Men marshal their armies of dollars and lay waste
the lives and hearts of millions in the same mad scramble for
power over others. Commercial kings, like political kings, are
inspired by the lust for power.

Look out for the temptation to seek for authority, to become a
“master,” to be considered as one who is above the common
herd, to impress others by lavish display, and so on.

The mind that seeks for mastery over others is the competitive
mind, and the competitive mind is not the creative one. In order
to master your environment and your destiny, it is not at all nec-
essary that you should rule over your fellow men, and, indeed,
when you fall into the world’s struggle for the high places, you
begin to be conquered by fate and environment and your get-
ting rich becomes a matter of chance and speculation.

Beware of the competitive mind! No better statement of the
principle of creative action can be formulated than the favorite
declaration of the late “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo: “What I
want for myself, I want for everybody.”

And because it is the
deepest instinct of their
natures, all men and
women are attracted to
those who can give them
more of the means of
life

Who was “Golden
Rule” Jones?
Samuel Milton Jones was born in 1846 in Ty
Mawr Bedd, Gelert, in North Wales. As a small
boy, he immigrated to the eastern United
States with his parents.

After starting out in the then-new oil industry in
Pennsylvania and following its westward
expansion, he began manufacturing oilfield
drilling equipment in Toledo, Ohio, in 1894.

He soon earned a reputation for honest
business and for fair dealings with the
workers in his employ.

The story goes that he said his factory needed
only one policy — the well-known Golden Rule
(“Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you”) — and he dramatically nailed a
plaque with that phrase to the factory wall.

As an employer, he was ahead of his time, a true
maverick who “walked his talk.” Workers at his
factory enjoyed an eight- hour working day
(instead of the usual ten), a one-week
vacation, paid holidays, insurance, plus a park
and playground. He alsodid away with bosses
and timekeepers, and held employee picnics.
Toward the end of the 1800s he became mayor
of Toledo, and served four terms, becoming
the city’s most respected and popular political
leader and achieving fame across the nation
and around the world.

As mayor, he championed the public
park system and public ownership of utilities. He
also replaced policemen’s nightsticks
with walking sticks and refused to prosecute so-
called “morality laws,” which he felt were unfair
to the poor.

Applying his principles to his business
and political endeavors earned him immense
respect and affection as well as his nickname. In
1904, at the age of 57, Mr. Jones died suddenly
while still in office. Not surprisingly, his funeral
was said to be the largest and best- attended in
the city’s history.

Chapter 13

Getting into The Right Business

Success, in any particular business, depends for one thing
upon your possessing, in a well-developed state, the facul-
ties required in that business.

Without good musical faculty no one can succeed as a teacher
of music. Without well-developed mechanical faculties no one
can achieve great success in any of the mechanical trades. With-
out tact and the commercial faculties no one can succeed in mer-
cantile pursuits. But to possess in a well-developed state the fac-
ulties required in your particular vocation does not insure getting
rich. There are musicians who have remarkable talent, and who
yet remain poor. There are blacksmiths, carpenters, and so on
who have excellent mechanical ability, but who do not get rich.
And there are merchants with good faculties for dealing with
people who nevertheless fail.

The different faculties are tools. It is essential to have good
tools, but it is also essential that the tools should be used in the
right way. One man can take a sharp saw, a square, a good plane,
and so on, and build a handsome article of furniture. Another
man can take the same tools and set to work to duplicate the
article, but his production will be a botch. He does not know
how to use good tools in a successful way.

The various faculties of your mind are the tools with which
you must do the work which is to make you rich. So it will be
easier for you to succeed if you get into a business for which you
are well equipped with mental tools.

Generally speaking, you will do best in that business which
will use your strongest faculties – the one for which you are
naturally ìbest fitted. – But there are limitations to this statement
also. No one should regard his vocation as being irrevocably
fixed by the tendencies with which he was born.

You can get rich in ANY business, for if you have not the right
talent, you can develop that talent. It merely means that you will
have to make your tools as you go along, instead of confining
yourself to the use of those with which you were born.

It will be easier for you to succeed in a vocation for which you
already have the talents in a well-developed state, but you can
succeed in any vocation, for you can develop any rudimentary talent, and
there is no talent of which you have not at least the rudiment.
You will get rich most easily in terms of effort, if you do that
for which you are best fitted, but you will get rich most satisfac-
torily if you do that which you want to do.

Doing what you want to do is life, and there is no real satisfac-
tion in living if we are compelled to be forever doing something
which we do not like to do and can never do what we want to
do. And it is certain that you can do what you want to do. The
desire to do it is proof that you have within you the power which
can do it.

Desire is a manifestation of power.

The desire to play music is the power which can play music
seeking expression and development. The desire to invent me-
chanical devices is the mechanical talent seeking expression and
development.

Where there is no power, either developed or undeveloped,
to do a thing, there is never any desire to do that thing, and
where there is strong desire to do a thing, it is certain proof that
the power to do it is strong and only requires to be developed
and applied in the right way.

All other things being equal, it is best to select the business for
which you have the best developed talent, but if you have a strong
desire to engage in any particular line of work, you should se-
lect that work as the ultimate end at which you aim.

You can do what you want to do, and it is your right and privi-
lege to follow the business or avocation which will be most con-
genial and pleasant. You are not obliged to do what you do not
like to do, and should not do it except as a means to bring you to
the doing of the thing you want to do.

If there are past mistakes whose consequences have placed
you in an undesirable business or environment, you may be
obliged for some time to do what you do not like to do, but you
can make the doing of it pleasant by knowing that it is making it
possible for you to come to the doing of what you want to do.

If you feel that you are not in the right vocation, do not act too
hastily in trying to get into another one. The best way, generally,
to change business or environment is by growth.

Do not be afraid to make a sudden and radical change if the
opportunity is presented and you feel after careful consideration
that it is the right opportunity, but never take sudden or radical
action when you are in doubt as to the wisdom of doing so.

There is never any hurry on the creative plane, and there is no
lack of opportunity.

When you get out of the competitive mind you will under-
stand that you never need to act hastily. No one else is going to
beat you to the thing you want to do; there is enough for all. If
one space is taken, another and a better one will be opened for
you a little farther on; there is plenty of time. When you are in
doubt, wait. Fall back on the contemplation of your vision, and
increase your faith and purpose. And by all means, in times of
doubt and indecision, cultivate gratitude.

A day or two spent in contemplating the vision of what you
want and in earnest thanksgiving that you are getting it will bring
your mind into such close relationship with the supreme that
you will make no mistake when you do act.

There is a mind which knows all there is to know, and you can
come into close unity with this mind by faith and the purpose to
advance in life, if you have deep gratitude.

Mistakes come from acting hastily or from acting in fear or
doubt or in forgetfulness of the right motive, which is more life
to all, and less to none.

As you go on in the certain way, opportunities will come to
you in increasing number, and you will need to be very steady
in your faith and purpose, and to keep in close touch with the
supreme mind by reverent gratitude.

Do all that you can do in a perfect manner every day, but do it
without haste, worry, or fear. Go as fast as you can, but never
hurry.

Remember that in the moment you begin to hurry you cease
to be a creator and become a competitor. You drop back upon
the old plane again.

Whenever you find yourself hurrying, call a halt. Fix your at-
tention on the mental image of the thing you want and begin to
give thanks that you are getting it. The exercise of GRATITUDE
will never fail to strengthen your faith and renew your purpose.

You can get rich in ANY business

Where there is
strong desire to do a
thing, it is certain proof
that the power to do it is
strong and only requires
to be developed and
applied in the right
way.

Mistakes come from
acting hastily or from
acting in fear or doubt
or in forgetfulness of the
right motive, which is
more life to all, and less
to none.

Chapter 12

Efficient Action

You must use your thought as directed in previous chapters
and begin to do what you can do where you are, and you
must do ALL that you can do where you are.

You can advance only by being larger than your present place,
and no one is larger than his present place who leaves undone
any of the work pertaining to that place. The world is advanced
only by those who more than fill their present places.

If no one quite filled his present place, you can see that there
must be a going backward in everything. Those who do not quite
fill their present places are dead weight upon society, government,
commerce, and industry. They must be carried along by others at a
great expense. The progress of the world is slowed only by those
who do not fill the places they are holding. They belong to a former
age and their tendency is toward degeneration. No society could
advance if everyone was smaller than his place; social evolution is
guided by the law of physical and mental evolution.

In the animal world, evolution is caused by excess of life. When
an organism has more life than can be expressed in the functions
of its own plane, it develops the organs of a higher plane, and a
new species is originated.

There never would have been new species had there not been
organisms which more than filled their places. The law is ex-
actly the same for you: Your getting rich depends upon your
applying this principle to your own affairs.

Every day is either a successful day or a day of failure, and it
is the successful days which get you what you want. If every
day is a failure you can never get rich, while if every day is a
success, you cannot fail to get rich.

If there is something that may be done today and you do not
do it, you have failed insofar as that thing is concerned – and
the consequences may be more disastrous than you imagine.

You cannot foresee the results of even the most trivial act. You
do not know the workings of all the forces that have been set
moving in your behalf. Much may be depending on your doing
some simple act, and it may be the very thing which is to open the door of opportunity to very great possibilities.

You can never know all the combinations which supreme intelligence is mak-
ing for you in the world of things and of human affairs. Your
neglect or failure to do some small thing may cause a long delay
in getting what you want.

Do, every day, ALL that can be done that day.
There is, however, a limitation or qualification of the above
that you must take into account. You are not to overwork, nor to
rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the greatest
possible number of things in the shortest possible time.

You are not to try to do tomorrow’s work today, nor to do a week’s work
in a day. It is really not the number of things you do, but the
EFFICIENCY of each separate action that counts.

Every act is, in itself, either a success or a failure. Every act is,
in itself, either efficient or inefficient. Every inefficient act is a
failure, and if you spend your life in doing inefficient acts, your
whole life will be a failure. The more things you do, the worse
for you – if all your acts are inefficient ones.

On the other hand, every efficient act is a success in itself, and
if every act of your life is an efficient one, your whole life must
be a success.

The cause of failure is doing too many things in an inefficient
manner and not doing enough things in an efficient manner.
You will see that it is a self-evident proposition that if you do
not do any inefficient acts and if you do a sufficient number of
efficient acts, you will become rich.

If, now, it is possible for you to make each act an efficient one,
you see again that the getting of riches is reduced to an exact science, like mathematics.

The matter turns, then, on the question of whether you can
make each separate act a success in itself. And this you can cer-
tainly do. You can make each act a success, because ALL power
is working with you, and ALL power cannot fail.

Power is at your service, and to make each act efficient you
have only to put power into it.

Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is
strong, you are acting in the certain way which will make you rich.

Every act can be made strong and efficient by holding your
vision while you are doing it and putting the whole power of
your FAITH and PURPOSE into it.

It is at this point that the people who separate mental power
from personal action fail. They use the power of mind in one
place and at one time, and they act in another way in another
place and at another time. So their acts are not successful in themselves;
too many of them are inefficient. But if ALL power goes
into every act, no matter how commonplace, every act will be a
success in itself. And since it is the nature of things that every
success opens the way to other successes, your progress toward
what you want and the progress of what you want toward you,
will become increasingly rapid.

Remember that successful action is cumulative in its results.
Since the desire for more life is inherent in all things, when a
person begins to move toward larger life, more things attach
themselves to him, and the influence of his desire is multiplied.

Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in
an efficient manner.

In saying that you must hold your vision while you are doing
each act, however trivial or commonplace, I do not mean to say
that it is necessary at all times to see the vision distinctly to its
smallest details. It should be the work of your leisure hours to use
your imagination on the details of your vision and to contemplate
them until they are firmly fixed upon memory.

If you wish speedy results, spend practically all your spare
time in this practice.

By continuous contemplation you will get the picture of what
you want – even to the smallest details – so firmly fixed upon
your mind and so completely transferred to the mind of form-
less substance, that in your working hours you need only to
mentally refer to the picture to stimulate your faith and pur-
pose and cause your best effort to be put forth.

Contemplate your picture in your leisure hours until your con-
sciousness is so full of it that you can grasp it instantly. You will
become so enthused with its bright promises that the mere thought
of it will call forth the strongest energies of your whole being.

Let us again repeat our syllabus, and by slightly changing the
closing statements bring it to the point we have now reached.

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which,
in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of
the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the
thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his
thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about
to be created.

In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the
creative mind. He must form a clear mental picture of the things he
wants, and must do – with faith and purpose – all that can be done
each day, doing each separate thing in an efficient manner.

No society could
advance if everyone was
smaller than his place.

You cannot foresee the
results of even the most
trivial act.

You are not to
overwork …

Every act can be made
strong and efficient by
holding your vision while
you are doing it and
putting the whole power
of your FAITH and
PURPOSE into it.

Remember that
successful action is
cumulative in its
results.

Chapter 11

Acting in The Certain Way

Thought is the creative power or the impelling force which
causes the creative power to act. Thinking in a certain way
will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific thinkers meet shipwreck.

The failure to connect thought with personal action.
We have not yet reached the stage of development, even sup-
posing such a stage to be possible, in which a person can create directly from formless substance without nature’s processes or the work of human hands. A person must not only think, but his personal action must supplement his thought.

By thought you can cause the gold in the hearts of the mountains to be impelled toward you, but it will not mine itself, refine itself, coin itself into double eagles, and come rolling along the roads, seeking its way into your pocket.

Under the impelling power of the supreme spirit, people’s
affairs will be so ordered that someone will be led to mine the gold for you. Other people’s business transactions will be so directed that the gold will be brought toward you. And you must so arrange your own business affairs that you may be able to receive it when it comes to you. Your thought makes all things, animate and inanimate, work to bring you what you want, but your personal activity must be such that you can rightly receive what you want when it reaches you. You are not to take it as charity, nor to steal it.

You must give every person more in use value than he gives you in cash value.

The scientific use of thought consists in forming a clear and distinct mental image of what you want, in holding fast to your purpose to get what you want, and in realizing with grateful faith that you do get what you want.

Do not try to “project” your thought in any mysterious or occult way, with the idea of having it go out and do things for you. That is wasted effort and will weaken your power to think with sanity.

The action of thought in getting rich is fully explained in the preceding chapters: Your faith and purpose positively impress your vision upon formless substance, which has the same desire for more life that you have, and this vision, received from you, sets all the creative forces at work in and through their regular channels of action, but directed toward you.

It is not your part to guide or supervise the creative process. All you have to do with that is to retain your vision, stick to your purpose, and maintain your faith and gratitude.
But you must act in a certain way, so that you can appropriate what is yours when it comes to you and so that you can meet the things you have in your picture and put them in their proper places as they arrive.

You can really see the truth of this. When things reach you, they will be in the hands of others, who will ask an equivalent for them. And you can only get what is yours by giving the other person what is rightfully his.

Your pocketbook is not going to be transformed into a
Fortunatus’s purse, which shall be always full of money without effort on your part.

This is the crucial point in the science of getting rich “right” here, where thought and personal action must be combined.

There are very many people who, consciously or unconsciously, set the creative forces in action by the strength and persistence of their desires, but who remain poor because they do not provide for the reception of the thing they want when it comes.

By thought, the thing you want is brought to you. By action, you receive it.

Whatever your action is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past, and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here yet. And you cannot tell how you will want to act in any future contingency until that contingency has arrived.

Because you are not in the right business or the right environment now, do not think that you must postpone action until you get into the right business or environment. And do not spend time in the present taking thought as to the best course in possible future emergencies; have faith in your ability to meet any emergency when it arrives.

If you act in the present with your mind on the future, your present action will be with a divided mind, and will not be effective. Put your whole mind into present action.

Do not give your creative impulse to original substance, and then sit down and wait for results. If you do, you will never get them. Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready for the reception of what you want, you must begin NOW. And your action, whatever it is, must most likely be in your present business or employment, and must be upon the persons and things in your present environment.

You cannot act where you are not, you cannot act where you
have been, and you cannot act where you are going to be. You can act only where you are.

Do not bother as to whether yesterday’s work was well done
or ill done; do today’s work well.

Do not try to do tomorrow’s work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it.
Do not try, by occult or mystical means, to act on people or things that are out of your reach.

Do not wait for a change of environment before you act; get a change of environment by action.

You can so act upon the environment in which you are now,
as to cause yourself to be transferred to a better environment.

Hold with faith and purpose the vision of yourself in the better environment, but act upon your present environment with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

Do not spend any time in day dreaming or castle building;
hold to the one vision of what you want, and act NOW.
Do not cast about, seeking some new thing to do or some
strange, unusual, or remarkable action to perform as a first step toward getting rich. It is probable that your actions, at least for some time to come, will be the same ones you have been performing for some time past, but you are to begin now to perform these actions in the certain way, which will surely make you rich.

If you are engaged in some business, and feel that it is not the right one for you, do not wait until you get into the right business before you begin to act. Do not feel discouraged or sit down and lament because you are misplaced. No one is so misplaced that he cannot find the right place, and no one is so involved in the wrong business that he cannot get into the right business.

Hold the vision of yourself in the right business, with the purpose to get into it and the faith that you will get into it and are getting into it, but ACT in your present business. Use your present business as the means of getting a better one, and use your present environment as the means of getting into a better one. Your vision of the right business, if held with faith and purpose, will cause the supreme power to move the right business toward you.
And your action, if performed in the certain way, will cause you to move toward the business.

If you are an employee or wage earner and feel that you must change places in order to get what you want, do not “project” your thought into space and rely upon it to get you another job. It will probably fail to do so.
Hold the vision of yourself in the job you want while you ACT with faith and purpose on the job you have, and you will certainly get the job you want.

Your vision and faith will set the creative force in motion to bring it toward you, and your action will cause the forces in your own environment to move you toward the place you want.

In closing this chapter, we will add another statement to our syllabus:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed PURPOSE
to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get what he wants, closing his mind to all that may tend to shake his purpose, dim his vision, or quench his faith.

So that he may receive what he wants when it comes, a person must act NOW upon the people and things in his present environment.

… By thought, the
thing you want is
brought to you. By
action, you receive it.

Do not wait for a
change of environment
before you act; get a
change of environment
by action.

Your vision and faith
will set the creative force
in motion to bring it
toward you, and your
action will cause the
forces in your own
environment to move
you toward the place
you want.

Chapter 10

Further Use of The Will

You cannot retain a true and clear vision of wealth if you
are constantly turning your attention to opposing pictures,
whether they be external or imaginary.

Do not tell of your past troubles of a financial nature, if you
have had them. Do not think of them at all. Do not tell of the
poverty of your parents or the hardships of your early life. To
do any of these things is to mentally class yourself with the poor
for the time being, and it will certainly check the movement of
things in your direction. Put poverty and all things that pertain
to poverty completely behind you.

You have accepted a certain theory of the universe as being
correct, and are resting all your hopes of happiness on its being
correct. What can you gain by giving heed to conflicting theories?

Do not read books which tell you that the world is soon com-
ing to an end, and do not read the writing of muckrakers and
pessimistic philosophers who tell you that it is going to the devil.
The world is not going to the devil; it is going to God. It is a
wonderful becoming.

True, there may be a good many things in existing conditions
which are disagreeable, but what is the use of studying them
when they are certainly passing away and when the study of
them only tends to slow their passing and keep them with us?

Why give time and attention to things which are being removed
by evolutionary growth, when you can hasten their removal only
by promoting the evolutionary growth as far as your part of it goes?

No matter how horrible in seeming may be the conditions in
certain countries, sections, or places, you waste your time and
destroy your own chances by dwelling on them.

You should interest yourself in the world’s becoming rich.
Think of the riches the world is coming into instead of the pov-
erty it is growing out of, and bear in mind that the only way in
which you can assist the world in growing rich is by growing rich
yourself through the creative method, not the competitive one.
Give your attention wholly to riches. Do not focus on poverty.
Whenever you think or speak of those who are poor, think and speak of them as those who are becoming rich, as those who are
to be congratulated rather than pitied. Then they and others will
catch the inspiration, and begin to search for the way out.

Because I say that you are to give your whole time and mind
and thought to riches, it does not follow that you are to be sor-
did or mean.

To become really rich is the noblest aim you can have in life,
for it includes everything else.

On the competitive plane, the struggle to get rich is a Godless
scramble for power over others, but when we come into the
creative mind, all this is changed. All that is possible in the way
of greatness, of service and lofty endeavor, comes by way of get-
ting rich, because all is made possible by the use of things. You
can aim at nothing so great or noble, I repeat, as to become rich,
and you must fix your attention upon your mental picture of
wealth to the exclusion of all that may tend to dim or obscure the
vision.

Some people remain in poverty because they are ignorant of
the fact that there is wealth for them, and these can best be taught
by showing them the way to affluence in your own person and
practice. Others are poor because, while they feel that there is a
way out, they are too intellectually indolent to put forth the men-
tal effort necessary to find that way and travel it. For these, the
very best thing you can do is to arouse their desire by showing
them the happiness that comes from being rightly rich.

Others still are poor because, while they have some notion of
science, they have become so swamped and lost in the maze of
theories that they do not know which road to take. They try a mix-
ture of many systems and fail in all. For these, again, the very
best thing to do is to show the right way in your own person and
practice. An ounce of doing is worth a pound of theorizing.

The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make
the most of yourself.

You can serve God and humanity in no more effective way
than by getting rich; that is, if you get rich by the creative method
and not by the competitive one.

Another thing. We assert that this book gives in detail the prin-
ciples of the science of getting rich, and if that is true, you do not
need to read any other book upon the subject. This may sound
narrow and egotistical, but consider: There is no more scientific
method of computation in mathematics than by addition, sub-
traction, multiplication, and division; no other method is pos-
sible. There can be but one shortest distance between two points.

There is only one way to think scientifically, and that is to think
in the way that leads by the most direct and simple route to the
goal. No one has yet formulated a briefer or less complex sys-
tem than the one set forth here. It has been stripped of all non-
essentials. When you commence on this, lay all others aside. Put
them out of your mind altogether.

Read this book every day. Keep it with you. Commit it to
memory, and do not think about other systems and theories.
If you do, you will begin to have doubts and to be uncertain and
wavering in your thought, and then you will begin to make fail-
ures. After you have made good and become rich, you may study
other systems as much as you please.

And read only the most optimistic comments on the world
news – those in harmony with your picture. Also, do not dabble
in theosophy, spiritualism, or kindred studies. Perhaps the dead
still live and are near, but if they are, let them alone; mind your
own business.

Wherever the spirits of the dead may be, they have their own
work to do, and we have no right to interfere with them. We
cannot help them, and it is very doubtful whether they can help
us, or whether we have any right to trespass upon their time if
they can. Let the dead and the hereafter alone, and solve your
own problem: Get rich. If you begin to mix with the occult, you
will start mental cross-currents which will surely bring your
hopes to shipwreck.

Now, this and the preceding chapters have brought us to the
following statement of basic facts:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which,
in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of
the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the
thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his
thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about
to be created.

In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the
creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the things he
wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed PURPOSE
to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get
what he wants, closing his mind against all that may tend to shake his
purpose, dim his vision, or quench his faith.

And in addition to all this, we shall now see that he must live
and act in a certain way.

The very best thing you
can do for the whole
world is to make the
most of yourself…. solve your own
problem: Get rich.

A person must not only
think, but his personal
action must supplement
his thought.

You must give every
person more in use
value than he gives you
in cash value.