The Law of Success: In Sixteen Lessons. A to Z Classics

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      The object of your definite chief aim should become your “hobby.” You should ride this “hobby” continuously; you should sleep with it, eat with it, play with it, work with it, live with it and THINK with it.

      Whatever you want you may get if you want it with sufficient intensity, and keep on wanting it, providing the object wanted is one within reason, and you ACTUALLY BELIEVE YOU WILL GET IT 1 There is a difference, however, between merely “wishing” for something and ACTUALLY BELIEVING you will get it. Lack of understanding of this difference has meant failure to millions of people. The “doers” are the “believers” in all walks of life. Those who BELIEVE they can achieve the object of their definite chief aim do not recognize the word impossible. Neither do they acknowledge temporary defeat. They KNOW they are going to succeed, and if one plan fails they quickly replace it with another plan.

      Every noteworthy achievement met with some sort of temporary setback before success came. Edison made more than ten thousand experiments before he succeeded in making the first talking machine record the words, “Mary had a little lamb.”

      If there is one word which should stand out in your mind in connection with this lesson, it is the word PERSISTENCE!

      You now have within your possession the passkey to achievement. You have but to unlock the door to the Temple of Knowledge and walk in. But you must go to the Temple; it will not come to you. If these laws are new to you the “going” will not be easy at first. You will stumble many times, but keep moving 1 Very soon you will come to the brow of the mountain you have been climbing, and you will behold, in the valleys below, the rich estate of KNOWLEDGE which shall be your reward for your faith and efforts.

      Everything has a price. There is no such possibility as “something for nothing.” In your experiments with the Law of the Master Mind you are jockeying with Nature, in her highest and noblest form. Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price, which is CONTINUOUS, UNYIELDING, PERSISTENT EFFORT!

      What more could be said on this subject?

      You have been shown what to do, when to do it, how to do it and why you should do it. If you will master the next lesson, on Self-confidence, you will then have the faith in yourself to enable you to carry out the instructions laid down for your guidance in this lesson.

      Master of human destinies am I!

      Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.

      Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate

      Deserts and seas remote, and passing by

      Hovel and mart and palace — soon or late

      I knock, unbidden, once at every gate!

      If sleeping, wake — if feasting, rise before

      I turn away. It is the hour of fate,

      And they who follow me reach every state

      Mortals desire, and conquer every foe

      Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,

      Condemned to failure, penury, and woe,

      Seek me in vain and uselessly implore.

      I answer not, and I return no more!

      —Ingalls.

      Lesson 3 — Self-Confidence

      “You Can Do It if You Believe You Can!”

      Before approaching the fundamental principles upon which this lesson is founded it will be of benefit to you to keep in mind the fact that it is practical -that it brings you the discoveries of more than twenty-five years of research-that it has the approval of the leading scientific men and women of the world who have tested every principle involved.

      Skepticism is the deadly enemy of progress and self-development. You might as well lay this book aside and stop right here as to approach this lesson with the feeling that it was written by some longhaired theorist who had never tested the principles upon which the lesson is based.

      Surely this is no age for the skeptic, because it is an age in which we have seen more of Nature’s laws uncovered and harnessed than had been discovered in all past history of the human race. Within three decades we have witnessed the mastery of the air; we have explored the ocean; we have all but annihilated distances on the earth; we have harnessed the lightning and made it turn the wheels of industry; we have made seven blades of grass grow where but one grew before; we have instantaneous communication between the nations of the world. Truly, this is an age of illumination and unfoldment, but we have as yet barely scratched the surface of knowledge. However, when we shall have unlocked the gate that leads to the secret power which is stored up within us it will bring us knowledge that will make all past discoveries pale into oblivion by comparison.

      Thought is the most highly organized form of energy known to man, and this is an age of experimentation and research that is sure to bring us into greater understanding of that mysterious force called thought, which reposes within us. We have already found out enough about the human mind to know that a man may throw off the accumulated effects of a thousand generations of fear, through the aid of the principle of Auto-suggestion. We have already discovered the fact that fear is the chief reason for poverty and failure and misery that takes on a thousand different forms. We have already discovered the fact that the man who masters fear may march on to successful achievement in practically any undertaking, despite all efforts to defeat him.

      The development of self-confidence starts with the elimination of this demon called fear, which sits upon a man’s shoulder and whispers into his ear, “You can’t do it — you are afraid to try — you are afraid of public opinion — you are afraid that you will fail — you are afraid you have not the ability. “

      This fear demon is getting into close quarters.

      Science has found a deadly weapon with which to put it to flight, and this lesson on self-confidence has brought you this weapon for use in your battle with the world-old enemy of progress, fear.

      THE SIX BASIC FEARS OF MANKIND: Every person falls heir to the influence of six basic fears. Under these six fears may be listed the lesser fears. The six basic or major fears are here enumerated and the sources from which they are believed to have grown are described.

      The six basic fears are:

      a) The fear of Poverty

      b) The fear of Old Age

      c) The fear of Criticism

      d) The fear of Loss of Love of Someone

      e) The fear of Ill Health

      f) The fear of Death.

      Study the list, then take inventory of your own fears and ascertain under which of the six headings you can classify them.

      Every human being who has reached the age of understanding is bound down, to some extent, by one or more of these six basic fears. As the first step in the elimination of these six evils let us examine the sources from whence we inherited them.

      PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HEREDITY: All that man is, both physically and mentally, he came by through two forms of heredity. One is known as physical heredity and the other is called social heredity.

      Through the law of physical heredity man has slowly evolved from the amoeba (a single-cell animal form), through stages of development corresponding to all the known animal forms now on this earth, including those which are known to have existed but which are now extinct.

      Every generation through which man has passed has added to his nature something of the traits, habits and physical appearance of that generation. Man’s physical inheritance, therefore, is a heterogeneous collection of many habits and physical forms.

      There seems little, if any, doubt that