The Prosperity & Wealth Bible. Kahlil Gibran

is a large phase of Success already worked out. Pot there can be little of Success without Poise. Poise is keeping your head when everybody else loses theirs.

      Poise is Power — square jawed and firm set.

      When Blame all seems to come your way; when the fingers of Fault-finders all seem centered in front of your face; when Failure after Failure files into your door; when former Friends form into foes; when Clouds creep onward, black and threatening — then’s the time for Poise!

      Then’s the time to face the Crowd and cut the air with your command of Confidence and — Poise.

      The Cool heads are the Battle winners.

      And you who are ruling and conserving through the art of Poise, you are preserving Peace by being prepared for War.

      The Strong Man always Listens — and Thinks. In such an attitude he can consider and weigh with Justice and rare Freedom the most puzzling problems. Poise to such a man is like a Bank full of funds.

      Poise put into your Character will balance and proportion it — make it fit and formidable.

      How many times you have seen the Man of Action at his desk, calm and collected — with plenty of time for anything important — while about him is confusion and an atmosphere of importance that is, after all, charged with very little importance.

      Study out and apply to yourself — Poise. Poise starts when you begin to eliminate Fear and Disorder.

      Capacity

      Your Capacity is the stored up Power that you have available for your Everyday Doing as well as for the various Emergencies of your Life. Also, Capacity is the Valuation chalked up as your Real Assets which you and you alone know as your own.

      Capacity is Possibility.

      The very knowledge that you possess Capacity is in itself an inspiration most extraordinary. It enables you to tread your way bravely and under cover of Smiles with Sunshine streaming into every comer of your Heart. For you to know that you have Capacity to go through a piece of work or to the accomplishment of a certain Purpose or Ideal is to you more than Wealth.

      Capacity is Possibility.

      Many a man has turned away from his employ many a worker whose Capacity he took no time to investigate, but which later had to be reckoned with in Competition. When the late Marshall Field discovered unusual Capacity in a worker, he recognized it and later joined it to his business in the shape of a Partner.

      Capacity is Possibility.

      Study yourself as you would a masterful piece of machinery, for you are the most wonderful Handiwork that has ever been put together. Each day should find you more familiar with your Abilities and Capacity than the day before. Your latent and undiscovered or unrealized Capacity may now be holding you into Mediocrity. Ask yourself if this is true. Find out what your Capacity suggests and you can be about what you determine to be.

      Things to Do

      The people who get the most done — and still seem to have the most time on their hands for other things — are the ones who go at their work from a carefully mapped out plan. For in the end, it’s the one who conserves and uses to its full, the 24 hours of Time at his command, that Leads and Rules.

      The Successful are they that See and Do — the Unsuccessful are they that See — and do not Do.

      Having Things To Do — and doing them according to Plan has produced sufficient Romance in the Business of the World, which if written out, would remain undying in its inspiration to succeeding generations.

      A single illustration here. Hugh Chalmers, but a few years ago Office Boy, then Salesman, then Sales Manager, then Vice-President and General Manager, of the National Cash Register Company — now President of a Concern he himself organized and doing business into the millions! Each night Mr. Chalmers’ Secretary writes out on a little slip the ten most important Things To Do for the next Day.

      Time used in Thinking out things the night before or at the beginning of each day and putting them into logical order for Action is Time invested in advance.

      Victor Hugo says: “He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out the plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of his time is like a ray of light which darts itself through all his operations.”

      Ancestors

      Are you one of those people who like to putter away valuable time figuring out just how you stand as to Ancestors? The fact is, your Ancestors were what YOU are. Some of the best and worst that have gone before you is now somewhere in you.

      The wisest thing you can do is to discover the most useful qualities of your Ancestry inside yourself, and begin to weave — from where it left off — greater and bigger things.

      Ancestry stock goes up every time you do your work better To-day than Yesterday.

      A story is told of Ney, one of Napoleon’s famous Marshals. At a banquet during the Russian campaign, a brilliant woman had been telling Ney of her wonderful Ancestry, when suddenly she questioned: “By the way, Marshal Ney, who were YOUR Ancestors?” “Madam,” answered Ney, “I, myself, am an Ancestor!”

      After all, the task of being an Ancestor is mighty serious business. It is enough to put us all on our mettle and make us work to force the Red Blood into our Arteries.

      In just the proportion that men and women render Service in this world do they forget their own selfish interests and begin to plan out and deal in “the Futures” of their Race. The man who will but get this truth imbedded into his system cannot fail to be a better Clerk, Lawyer, Business Man, Father — or Citizen. And no woman can take this idea to heart without putting Luster to the important duties of her life.

      Ancestors? Why, we are ALL Ancestors!

      To-Morrow

      To the fellow who never accomplished anything To-morrow is what happened yesterday, but which he seeks to make happen to-day.

      The thing put off until To-morrow is rarely done To-day.

      The great Task FINISHED is always the task done To-day, while yet there is Time, while yet there is inclination, while yet there is life and health — while yet there is Chance.

      The thing put off until To-morrow is rarely done To-day.

      Some of the biggest things ever accomplished were done in a day. Napoleon was banished to a living Hell — on a lonely rock with armed watchers hedged about him — for the simple reason that Blucher decided to do his part with Wellington without any courting with To-morrow. To-morrow for Grouchy meant Defeat for Napoleon for Blucher, “made good” To-day.

      The thing put off until To-morrow is rarely done To-day.

      It may be easier to do things To-morrow than To-day, but if you take the Chance, the one best bet is that they won’t get done. Money earned To-day represents Dividends for you To-morrow. Work entered into and done To-day renders back Ease and Satisfaction Tomorrow. Records made To-day, inspire and lead great armies of fighters To-morrow. But —

      The thing put off until To-morrow is rarely done To-day.

      The Liar

      Lying is the most despicable of all Crimes. The Liar is the King of Criminals. The last dean spot in a man’s raiment turns Crimson when he takes up the Business of Lying.

      Truth is the Highest Thing a man can keep.

      The Heart of an honest man melts away almost unto Death in the presence of the Liar. The very mercy of a kind