your attitude to a tremendous extent. Therefore, you must
agree that everyone should have a deep understanding of
exactly what money is, and of the laws governing its
attraction. Yet, the sad fact is that not one person in ten does.
Ninety-five people out of a hundred settle for whatever they
get, wishing they had more all the way from the cradle to the
casket, never understanding that they could actually have had
all they wanted.
Let me digress for a moment-as you journey through this
book, you might have a tendency to let your mind wander off,
either thinking about someone you know who has earned a
great deal of money or possibly about someone who has gone
into bankruptcy. But I want to suggest that you attempt to
keep focusing only on yourself, because what someone else
has or does not have, is not going to affect you and it is your
financial situation that you want to improve.
Money Is Important
One of the most prevalent misconceptions concerning
money, relates to its importance. For example, how many
times have you heard people say in conversation, "Money isn't
everything." or "Money isn't important." or "I don't care about
money." Well, the people who say these things might not care
about money, but I'll bet their car dealer cares about it; their
grocer does; and so does the person who holds their mortgage.
In truth, there can be no denial of the fact that money is
important to any person living in a civilized society. Therefore,
to argue that it is not as important as this or that, is absurd.
For nothing can take the place of money in the arena in which
it is used!
Money Is A Servant
Now that I have affirmed the importance of money, let me
backtrack to add this one word of caution- always remember,
money is a servant; you are the master. Be very careful not to
reverse that equation, because many people of high
intelligence have already done so, to their great detriment.
Unfortunately, many of these poor souls loved money and
used people, which violated one of the most basic laws
governing true financial success. You should always love
people and use money, rather than the reverse!
Another myth many people like to accept about money is
that it only comes as a result of "luck" or "good fortune." For
instance, whenever people gather to talk about someone they
know who has been financially successful, there is always
someone among them who will say, "Harry was just lucky," or
"Harry was just in the right place at the right time." But I want
to assure you in no uncertain terms, that although "luck"
obviously plays some part in financial success, it is never
sufficient in and of itself. Money is an effect and it must
always be earned. Believe me, there are no free rides in this
life and the only people who are making money the easy way
either work in the mint or are on their way to jail, if they have
not already arrived there. Therefore, always bear in mind that
while "good fortune" is a factor in financial success, it must
always be coupled with effort and hard work!
Money Must Circulate
A third thing you should know about money is that it is
valuable only as long as it is being used. Once it has been
taken out of circulation, it becomes as worthless as the "old
newspapers" or "empty beer cans" that have been stashed
away in the attic. To understand the truth of this principle,
consider the following story. On a bookshelf, in my home, I
have a silver beer stein that was given to me as a gift for a
speech I made. Now, whenever I go into my house, I take all
the change from my pockets and put it into the cup. Then,
when the cup is almost filled, I give it to one of my children, or
one of two young cousins. Each of them takes turns receiving
the cup and of course they eagerly anticipate their turn. The
point I want you to notice, however, is that while the cup is
being filled, the money in it has absolutely no value
whatsoever; it just sits there, serving no useful function and
not even drawing any interest.
However, as soon as the cup is filled and the money is
turned over to one of the kids, it literally "flies into action." For
instance, just last week, T. Jay, one of my young cousins,
received the money. He immediately took it from my hand,
rushed off to a golf school and purchased several golf lessons
with his inheritance. Now, I can't honestly say what the golf
pro did with the money once he got it, but I do feel fairly safe
in saying that he didn't just return it to a cup on his book
shelf! No, there really isn't any dispute about it; money is not
meant to be taken out of circulation-rather, it is meant to be
used, enjoyed and circulated!
This brings me to an even more dramatic illustration of
the same principle: namely, the story of "old Mr. Chapman."
Mr. Chapman was an elderly gentleman who lived a few doors
down the street from our family when I was just a boy.
Although there was a tremendous age difference between us,
Mr. Chapman and I became fast friends and I often used to
watch him pushing his small junk cart up and down the
block. You see, Mr. Chapman worked as a junk dealer and he
made his living by picking up the things other people had
thrown away. As the years went by, however, Mr. Chapman
became more and more stooped from his arduous labors and
one day, shortly after World War II, he passed away. Since he
lived alone and apparently had no close relatives living nearby,
the police entered his house to take stock of his possessions.
Not surprisingly, they found the house littered with many old
furnishings and assorted memorabilia from Mr. Chapman's
past. However, much to their amazement, the police also
discovered over one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in
old bills packed in boxes throughout the house!
Quick to pick up on so unusual an occurrence, the
Toronto Daily Star carried a front-page story the next day
about Mr. Chapman, in which it asked the obvious question:
why would an individual worth well over $100,000, choose to
keep his money stashed away in old boxes strewn haphazardly
throughout his house?
Although I was still quite young at the time, I asked
myself a similar question: namely, why would a person like
Mr. Chapman choose to live like a veritable pauper, when he
had so much money at his disposal? He could have used his
money for his own enjoyment. He could have invested it to
earn a return for himself and to help create jobs for other
people; or he could have just deposited it in the bank and
earned interest on his money. But instead, he chose to put it
in a "jar on the shelf," and he thereby rendered it absolutely
useless. No, my friends, there isn't any doubt about it -money
is not meant to be hoarded. Rather, it is meant to be used,
enjoyed and circulated. So please, whatever you choose to do
with your money, don't make the same mistake that poor old
Mr. Chapman did!
Please note that when I suggest that money should be
kept in circulation, I do not mean it should be squandered.
There is a world of difference between those two concepts and
if you haven't found out what the difference is yet, I would
suggest you find out as soon as possible.
Prosperity Consciousness Exercise
Now that we have touched upon some of the
characteristics of money, let us turn briefly to a simple
"technique" which you can begin using immediately to start
attracting the amount of money you desire. The first thing that
I want you to do is to picture yourself, in your mind's eye,
sitting in a room with several of your friends. Then, I want you
to visualize yourself announcing to them your intention of
becoming wealthy; at least, wealthy enough to live the way you
choose to live. Now, imagine how that would make you feel. If
you are like most people, you would probably feel very
uncomfortable. Perhaps you would feel so uncomfortable, that
you might even retract what you had said by informing your
friends you were only joking. You should understand,
however, that people who are wealthy never feel uncomfortable
when the subject of money is brought up. "Why don't they,"
you ask? The most obvious answer would be, because they
already have "lots" of it. But that is not the correct answer.
You should realize that people don't feel comfortable about
money because they have it; they have it because they feel
comfortable about it. In other words, one of the reasons that
wealthy people have money is that they have developed that
state of consciousness we will hereinafter refer to as, a
"prosperity consciousness." Therefore, it follows, if we wish to
attract money to ourselves, we must begin to foster a
prosperity consciousness as well.
The question you should now be asking yourself is this:
"How do I go about developing this prosperity consciousness
for myself?" Let me explain. The best way to develop a
prosperity consciousness is to start seeing yourself, in your
mind's eye, already in possession of the amount of money that
you desire. The reason this is so is that since the
subconscious mind cannot distinguish between the actual
possession of money and mere visualization, you will soon
become very comfortable with the "idea" of money. As a result,
you will start attracting it to yourself.
This may sound like a game you are playing, but let me
assure you, it is one of the wisest things you can possibly do.
For when you succeed in convincing your subconscious mind
that you are wealthy and that it feels good to be wealthy, your
subconscious mind will automatically seek ways of making
your "imaginary" feelings of wealth manifest themselves in
material form.
If these last few lines seem like sheer fantasy to you, just
ignore them for the time being and continue reading. We will
be dealing with prosperity consciousness at different points in
the book and I guarantee you that before you finish this book,
those lines will start to make a lot more sense to you.
Fear Not
Now that I have touched upon a "technique" which will
help you acquire greater wealth, let me offer this further word
of warning. If you want to have money, one thing you should
never, never do, is worry about whether or not you will get the
money you desire, or whether you will keep it. Let me
elaborate.
In the Bible, Job, the great sufferer of biblical times,
makes the following remark: "Behold, the thing I fear has come
to visit upon me." Now, stop and ask yourself -if you will-what
those biblical words mean to those of us concerned about
money today. Well, one thing they certainly mean is that if we
insist upon constantly worrying about not having enough
money, or if we habitually worry about losing the money we do
have, then we are absolutely guaranteed not to worry in vain.
For just as surely as Job was afflicted by his many maladies,
so too shall we be afflicted by the lack or the loss of money.
To take a more contemporary example, let us again
consider the tragic case of "poor old Mr. Chapman." As you
will recall, he was the elderly gentleman who never spent any
of his hard-earned savings. But the question is, "Why didn't
he?" Most likely it was because he was afraid that if he spent
his money, he would become poor and hence would be forced
to live like a pauper. The irony was, however, that because of
his fear, he lived like a pauper anyway! Or, to be more biblical
about it, "The thing that he feared most came to visit upon
him."
In a later chapter you will be given a fuller explanation of
the paradox of why we attract into our lives the very things we
least desire. But for now, suffice it to say, worrying about
money is always extremely counterproductive. This principle
holds true, even if you rationalize your worry with the old
platitude that you are "just saving a little for a rainy day."
I must put forward one other caveat at this time: if you
really want to significantly increase the amount of money you
are presently earning, the first thing you must do is learn to
pay substantially less attention to what others around you are
saying and substantially more attention to what that "quiet
voice" that speaks within you, is saying. Put more prosaically:
you must strive to become much less susceptible to influences
outside of yourself and much more inclined to trust the
instincts and feelings that lie within you. Let me elaborate.
Most people who fail to accumulate enough money to live
in the style they choose are the same people who are most
easily influenced by other people's opinions. For instance, they
are often the people who let the writers of economic doom and
gloom-whether in the newspapers or on news broadcasts -do
their thinking for them. But, as Napoleon Hill pointed out in
his great book, Think and Grow Rich, opinions are the
cheapest commodities on earth. In fact, almost everyone has a
flock of them ready to be foisted upon anyone who is willing to
accept them. Therefore, if you know you have been unduly
influenced in the past by other people's opinions, make up
your mind right now-before you read any further-that from
here on in, you are going to heed your own counsel, while
keeping an attentive ear open for God's counsel. Remember, if
you do, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot become
financially successful within a very reasonable period of time.
Understanding vs. Memorization
As you read on through the pages in this book, you will
develop an ever-increasing awareness of the talents and
