The person who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich. Nobody can have all he wants without plenty of money. Life has advanced so far and become so complex that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness. Every person naturally wants to become all that he is capable of becoming; this desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature. Success in life is becoming what you want to be. You can become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. Therefore, an understanding of the science of getting rich is the most essential of all knowledge.
The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best. Therefore, it tends to become the best; it takes the form
or character of the best and will receive the best. Also, faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things, and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one's own mind produces faith. Every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. The person who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith. And, as we will see in the following chapters, without a living faith you cannot get rich by the creative method.
The purpose of nature is the advancement and development of life. Every individual should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life.
Do, every day, all that can be done that day.
There is, however, a limitation or qualification that you must take into account. You are not to overwork
or to rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time.
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. It is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your mind. You cannot act in the future because 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.
When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t!
In the final analysis, the tough people who survive do so because they have learnt to reach positively to their predicament. They don’t give up. They manage their problems creatively and constructively—and succeed. Tough people think positively.
Why take a chance?” I once asked my father. “Why don’t you play it safe and sell it?”
“People who never take a chance,” he taught me wisely, “never get ahead.”
