The Prosperity & Wealth Bible. Kahlil Gibran

and magazines. You have read numberless articles and editorials against them. You have heard agitators declaim against them by the hour. But have you ever heard one of them say a single word against the richest man of them all — Henry Ford? I haven’t. And why? Because Henry Ford’s idea of money is that it is something to be used — something to provide more jobs, something to bring more comfort, more enjoyment, into an increasingly greater number of lives.

      That is why money flows to him so freely. That is why he gets so much out of life. And that is how you, too, can get in touch with Infinite Supply. Realize that it is not money you have to seek, but a way to use money for the world’s advantage. Find the need. Look at everything with the question — How could that be improved? To what new uses could this be put? Then set about supplying that need, in the absolute confidence that when you have found the way, money will flow freely to and through you. Do your part — and you can confidently look to Universal Mind to provide the means.

      Get firmly in mind the definite conviction that YOU CAN DO ANYTHING RIGHT THAT YOU MAY WISH TO DO. Then set your goal and let everything you do, all your work, all your study, and all your associations, be a step towards that goal. To quote Berton Braley again —

      If you want a thing bad enough

      To go out and fight for it,

      Work day and night for it,

      Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it,

      If only desire of it

      Makes you quite mad enough

      Never to tire of it,

      Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it,

      If life seems all empty and useless without it

      And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

      If gladly you’ll sweat for it,

      Fret for it, plan for it,

      Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

      If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want,

      With all your capacity, strength and sagacity,

      Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

      If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,

      Nor sickness nor pain of body or brain

      Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

      If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,

      You’ll get it!

      Chapter 9 — The Formula of Success

      What is the eternal question, which stands up and looks you and every sincere man squarely in the eye every morning?

      “How can I better my condition?” That is the real life question, which confronts you, and I will haunt you every day till you solve it.

      Read this chapter carefully and I think you will find the answer to this important life question which you and every man must solve if he expects ever to have more each Monday morning, after pay day, than he had the week before.

      To begin with, all wealth depends upon a clear understanding of the fact that mind — thought — is the only creator. The great business of life is thinking. Control your thoughts and you control circumstance.

      Just as the first law of gain is desire, so the formula of success is BELIEF. Believe that you have it — see it as an existent fact — and anything you can rightly wish for is yours. Belief is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

      You have seen men, inwardly no more capable than yourself accomplish the seemingly impossible. You have seen others, after years of hopeless struggle; suddenly win their most cherished dreams. And you’ve often wondered, “What is the power that gives new life to their dying ambitions, that supplies new impetus to their jaded desires, that gives them a new start on the road to success?”

      That power is belief — faith. Someone, something, gave them a new belief in themselves and a new faith in their power to win — and they leaped ahead and wrested success from seemingly certain defeat.

      Do you remember the picture Harold Lloyd was in two or three years ago, showing a country boy who was afraid of his shadow? Every boy in the countryside bedeviled him. Until one day his grandmother gave him a talisman that she assured him his grandfather had carried through the Civil War and which, so she said, had the property of making its owner invincible. Nothing could hurt him, she told him, while he wore this talisman. Nothing could stand up against him. He believed her. And the next time the bully of the town started to cuff him around, he wiped up the earth with him. And that was only the start. Before the year was out he had made a reputation as the most daring soul in the community.

      Then, when his grandmother felt that he was thoroughly cured, she told him the truth — that the “talisman” was merely a piece of old junk she’d picked up by the roadside — that she knew all he needed was faith in himself, belief that he could do these things.

      The Talisman of Napoleon

      Stories like that are common. It is such a well-established truth that you can do only what you think you can, that the theme is a favorite one with authors. I remember reading a story years ago of an artist — a mediocre sort of artist — who was visiting the field of Waterloo and happened upon a curious lump of metal half buried in the dirt, which so attracted him that he picked it up and put it in his pocket. Soon thereafter he noticed a sudden increase in confidence, an absolute faith in himself, not only as to his own chosen line of work, but in his ability to handle any situation that might present itself. He painted a great picture — just to show that he could do it. Not content with that, he envisioned an empire with Mexico as its basis, actually led a revolt that carried all before it — until one day he lost his talisman. And immediately his bubble burst.

      I instance this just to illustrate the point that it is your own belief in yourself that counts. It is the consciousness of dominant power within you that makes all things attainable. You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door to welfare. Keep it open — by expecting to gain everything that is right.

      You are entitled to every good thing. Therefore expect nothing but good. Defeat does not need to follow victory. You don’t have to “knock wood” every time you congratulate yourself that things have been going well with you. Victory should follow victory — and it will if you “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” it is the mind that means health and life and boundless opportunity and recompense. No limitation rests upon you. So don’t let any enter your life. Remember that Mind will do every good thing for you. It will remove mountains for you.

      “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

      Bring all your thoughts, your desires, your aims, your talents, into the Storehouse — the Consciousness of Good, the Law of Infinite supply — and prove these blessings. There is every reason to know that you are entitled to adequate provision. Everything that is involved in supply is a thing of thought. Now reach out, stretch your mind, and try to comprehend unlimited thought, unlimited supply.

      Do not think that supply must come through one or two channels. It is not for you to dictate to Universal Mind the means through which It shall send Its gifts to you. There are millions of channels through which It can reach you. Your part is to impress upon Mind your need, your earnest desire, your boundless belief in the resources and the willingness of Universal Mind to help you. Plant the seed of desire. Nourish it with a clear visualization of the ripened fruit. Water it with sincere faith. But leave the means to Universal Mind.

      Open up