The Law of Success: In Sixteen Lessons. Napoleon HillЧитать онлайн книгу.
seeking but never finding — thus might be described man’s struggle for Happiness and Contentment. He tries one religion after another, finally joining the “Big Church” which the world has named the “Damned.” His mind becomes an eternal question mark, searching hither and yon for an answer to the questions — “Whence and Whither?”
“The worldly hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes-or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert’s Dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two is gone.”
Life is an everlasting question-mark!
That which we want most is always in the embryonic distance of the future. Our power to acquire is always a decade or so behind our power to DESIRE!
And, if we catch up with the thing we want we no longer want it!
Fortunate is the young woman who learns this great truth and keeps her lover always guessing, always on the defensive lest he may lose her.
Our favorite author is a hero and a genius until we meet him in person and learn the sad truth that, after all, he is only a man. “How often must we learn this lesson? Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. The only sin is limitation. As soon as you once come up with a man’s limitations, it is all over with him.” — EMERSON.
How beautiful the mountain yonder in the distance; but, the moment we draw near it we find it to be nothing but a wretched collection of rocks and dirt and trees.
Out of this truth grew the oft-repeated adage “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
Beauty and Happiness and Contentment are states of mind. They can never be enjoyed except through vision of the afar. The most beautiful painting of Rembrandt becomes a mere smudge of daubed paint if we come too near it.
Destroy the Hope of unfinished dreams in man’s heart and he is finished.
The moment a man ceases to cherish the vision of future achievement he is through. Nature has built man so that his greatest and only lasting Happiness is that which he feels in the pursuit of some yet unattained object. Anticipation is sweeter than realization. That which is at hand does not satisfy. The only enduring satisfaction is that which comes to the Person who keeps alive in his heart the HOPE of future achievement. When that hope dies write FINIS across the human heart.
Life’s greatest inconsistency is the fact that most of that which we believe is not true. Russel Conwell wrote the most popular lecture ever delivered in the English language. He called it “Acres of Diamonds.” The central idea of the lecture was the statement that one need not seek opportunity in the distance; that opportunity may be found in the vicinity of one’s birth. Perhaps! but, how many believe it?
Opportunity may be found wherever one really looks for it, and nowhere else! To most men the picking looks better on the other side of the fence. How futile to urge one to try out one’s luck in the little home-town when it is man’s nature to look for opportunity in some other locality.
Do not worry because the grass looks sweeter on the other side of the fence. Nature intended it so. Thus does she allure us and groom us for the life-long task of GROWTH THROUGH STRUGGLE.
Lesson 4 — The Habit of Saving
“Man is a combination of flesh, bone, blood, hair and brain cells. These are the building materials out of which he shapes, through the Law of Habit, his own personality.”
To advise one to save money without describing how to save would be somewhat like drawing the picture of a horse and writing under it, “This is a horse.” It is obvious to all that the saving of money is one of the essentials for success, but the big question uppermost in the minds of the majority of those who do not save is:
“How can I do it?”
The saving of money is solely a matter of habit. For this reason this lesson begins with a brief analysis of the Law of Habit.
It is literally true that man, through the Law of Habit, shapes his own personality. Through repetition, any act indulged in a few times becomes a habit, and the mind appears to be nothing more than a mass of motivating forces growing out of our daily habits.
When once fixed in the mind a habit voluntarily impels one to action. For example, follow a given route to your daily work, or to some other place that you frequently visit, and very soon the habit has been formed and your mind will lead you over that route without thought on your part. Moreover, if you start out with the intention of traveling in another direction, without keeping the thought of the change in routes constantly in mind, you will find yourself following the old route.
Public speakers have found that the telling over and over again of a story, which may be based upon pure fiction, brings into play the Law of Habit, and very soon they forget whether -the story is true or not.
Walls of Limitation Built Through Habit
Millions of people go through life in poverty and want because they have made destructive use of the Law of Habit. Not understanding either the Law of Habit or the Law of Attraction through which “like attracts like,” those who remain in poverty seldom realize that they are where they are as the result of their own acts.
Fix in your mind the thought that your ability is limited to a given earning capacity and you will never earn more than that, because the law of habit will set up a definite limitation of the amount you can earn, your subconscious mind will accept this limitation, and very soon you will feel yourself “slipping” until finally you will become so hedged in by FEAR OF POVERTY (one of the six basic fears) that opportunity will no longer knock at your door; your doom will be sealed; your fate fixed.
Formation of the Habit of Saving does not mean that you shall limit your earning capacity; it means just the opposite — that you shall apply this law so that it not only conserves that which you earn, in a systematic manner, but it also places you in the way of greater opportunity and gives you the vision, the selfconfidence, the imagination, the enthusiasm, the initiative and leadership actually to increase your earning capacity.
Stating this great law in another way, when you thoroughly understand the Law of Habit you may insure yourself success in the great game of moneymaking by “playing both ends of that game against the middle.”
You proceed in this manner:
First, through the law of Definite Chief Aim you set up, in your mind, an accurate, definite description of that which you want, including the amount of money you intend to earn. Your subconscious mind takes over this picture which you have created and uses it as a blueprint, chart or map by which to mold your thoughts and actions into practical plans for attaining the object of your Chief Aim, or purpose. Through the Law of Habit you keep the object of your Definite Chief Aim fixed in your mind (in the manner described in Lesson Two until it becomes firmly and permanently implanted there. This practice will destroy the poverty consciousness and set up, in its place, a prosperity consciousness. You will actually begin to DEMAND prosperity, you will begin to expect it, you will begin to prepare yourself to receive it and to use it wisely, thus paving the way or setting the stage for the development of the Habit of Saving.
Second, having in this manner increased your earning power you will make further use of the Law of Habit by provision, in your written statement of your Definite Chief Aim, for saving a definite proportion of all the money you earn.
Therefore, as your earnings increase, your savings will, likewise, increase in proportion.
By ever urging yourself on and demanding of your self increased earning power, on the one hand, and by systematically laying aside a definite amount of all your earnings, on the other hand, you will soon reach the point at which you have removed all imaginary limitations from your own mind and you will then be well started