Chapter - Index
CHAPTER 10
- POWER OF THE MASTER MIND
THE DRIVING FORCE
The Ninth Step toward Riches
POWER is essential for success in the accumulation of money.
PLANS are inert and useless, without sufficient POWER to translate
them into ACTION. This chapter will describe the method by which
an individual may attain and apply POWER.
POWER may be defined as "organized and intelligently directed
KNOWLEDGE." Power, as the term is here used, refers to ORGANIZED
effort, sufficient to enable an individual to transmute DESIRE into
its monetary equivalent. ORGANIZED effort is produced through the
coordination of effort of two or more people, who work toward a
DEFINITE end, in a spirit of harmony.
POWER IS REQUIRED FOR THE ACCUMULATION OF MONEY! POWER IS NECESSARY
FOR THE RETENTION OF MONEY AFTER IT HAS BEEN ACCUMULATED!
Let us ascertain how power may be acquired. If power is "organized
knowledge," let us examine the sources of knowledge:
a.
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INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. This source of knowledge may be
contacted through the procedure described in another chapter,
with the aid of Creative Imagination.
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b.
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ACCUMULATED EXPERIENCE. The accumulated experience of
man, (or that portion of it which has been organized and
recorded), may be found in any well-equipped public library.
An important part of this accumulated experience is taught
in public schools and colleges, where it has been classified
and organized.
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c.
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EXPERIMENT AND RESEARCH. In the field of science, and
in practically every other walk of life, men are gathering,
classifying, and organizing new facts daily. This is the
source to which one must turn when knowledge is not available
through "accumulated experience." Here, too, the
Creative Imagination must often be used.
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Knowledge may be acquired from any of the foregoing sources.
It may be converted into POWER by organizing it into definite PLANS
and by expressing those plans in terms of ACTION.
Examination of the three major sources of knowledge will readily
disclose the difficulty an individual would have, if he depended
upon his efforts alone, in assembling knowledge and expressing it
through definite plans in terms of ACTION. If his plans are comprehensive,
and if they contemplate large proportions, he must, generally, induce
others to cooperate with him, before he can inject into them the
necessary element of POWER.
GAINING POWER THROUGH THE "MASTER MIND"
The "Master Mind" may be defined as: "Coordination
of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or
more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose."
No individual may have great power without availing himself of
the "Master Mind." In a preceding chapter, instructions
were given for the creation of PLANS for the purpose of translating
DESIRE into its monetary equivalent. If you carry out these instructions
with PERSISTENCE and intelligence, and use discrimination in the
selection of your "Master Mind" group, your objective
will have been half-way reached, even before you begin to recognize
it.
So you may better understand the "intangible" potentialities
of power available to you, through a properly chosen "Master
Mind" group, we will here explain the two characteristics of
the Master Mind principle, one of which is economic in nature, and
the other psychic. The economic feature is obvious. Economic advantages
may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice,
counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of men who are willing
to lend him wholehearted aid, in a spirit of PERFECT HARMONY. This
form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every
great fortune. Your understanding of this great truth may definitely
determine your financial status.
The psychic phase of the Master Mind principle is much more abstract,
much more difficult to comprehend, because it has reference to the
spiritual forces with which the human race, as a whole, is not well
acquainted. You may catch a significant suggestion from this statement: "No
two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third,
invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind."
Keep in mind the fact that there are only two known elements
in the whole universe, energy and matter. It is a well known fact
that matter may be broken down into units of molecules, atoms, and
electrons. There are units of matter which may be isolated, separated,
and analyzed.
Likewise, there are units of energy.
The human mind is a form of energy, a part of it being spiritual
in nature. When the minds of two people are coordinated in a SPIRIT
OF HARMONY, the spiritual units of energy of each mind form an affinity,
which constitutes the "psychic" phase of the Master Mind.
The Master Mind principle, or rather the economic feature of
it, was first called to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, over twenty-five
years ago. Discovery of this principle was responsible for the choice
of my life's work.
Mr. Carnegie's Master Mind group consisted of a staff of
approximately fifty men, with whom he surrounded himself, for the
DEFINITE PURPOSE of manufacturing and marketing steel. He attributed
his entire fortune to the POWER he accumulated through this "Master
Mind."
Analyze the record of any man who has accumulated a great fortune,
and many of those who have accumulated modest fortunes, and you
will find that they have either consciously, or unconsciously employed
the "Master Mind" principle.
GREAT POWER CAN BE ACCUMULATED THROUGH NO OTHER PRINCIPLE!
ENERGY is Nature's universal set of building blocks, out
of which she constructs every material thing in the universe, including
man, and every form of animal and vegetable life. Through a process
which only Nature completely understands, she translates energy
into matter.
Nature's building blocks are available to man, in the energy
involved in THINKING! Man's brain may be compared to an electric
battery. It absorbs energy from the ether, which permeates every
atom of matter, and fills the entire universe.
It is a well known fact that a group of electric batteries will
provide more energy than a single battery. It is also a well known
fact that an individual battery will provide energy in proportion
to the number and capacity of the cells it contains.
The brain functions in a similar fashion. This accounts for the
fact that some brains are more efficient than others, and leads
to this significant statement--a group of brains coordinated (or
connected) in a spirit of harmony, will provide more thought-energy
than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries will
provide more energy than a single battery.
Through this metaphor it becomes immediately obvious that the
Master Mind principle holds the secret of the POWER wielded by men
who surround themselves with other men of brains.
There follows, now, another statement which will lead still nearer
to an understanding of the psychic phase of the Master Mind principle:
When a group of individual brains are coordinated and function in
Harmony, the increased energy created through that alliance, becomes
available to every individual brain in the group.
It is a well known fact that Henry Ford began his business career
under the handicap of poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance. It is
an equally well known fact that, within the inconceivably short
period of ten years, Mr. Ford mastered these three handicaps, and
that within twenty-five years he made himself one of the richest
men in America. Connect with this fact, the additional knowledge
that Mr. Ford's most rapid strides became noticeable, from the
time he became a personal friend of Thomas A. Edison, and you will
begin to understand what the influence of one mind upon another
can accomplish. Go a step farther, and consider the fact that Mr.
Ford's most outstanding achievements began from the time that
he formed the acquaintances of Harvey Firestone, John Burroughs,
and Luther Burbank, (each a man of great brain capacity), and you
will have further evidence that POWER may be produced through friendly
alliance of minds.
There is little if any doubt that Henry Ford is one of the best
informed men in the business and industrial world. The question
of his wealth needs no discussion. Analyze Mr. Ford's intimate
personal friends, some of whom have already been mentioned, and
you will be prepared to understand the following statement:
"Men take on the nature and the habits and the POWER OF
THOUGHT of those with whom they associate in a spirit of sympathy
and harmony."
Henry Ford whipped poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance by allying
himself with great minds, whose vibrations of thought he absorbed
into his own mind. Through his association with Edison, Burbank,
Burroughs, and Firestone, Mr. Ford added to his own brain power,
the sum and substance of the intelligence, experience, knowledge,
and spiritual forces of these four men. Moreover, he appropriated,
and made use of the Master Mind principle through the methods of
procedure described in this book.
This principle is available to you!
We have already mentioned Mahatma Gandhi. Perhaps the majority
of those who have heard of Gandhi, look upon him as merely an eccentric
little man, who goes around without formal wearing apparel, and
makes trouble for the British Government.
In reality, Gandhi is not eccentric, but HE IS THE MOST POWERFUL
MAN NOW LIVING. (Estimated by the number of his followers and their
faith in their leader.) Moreover, he is probably the most powerful
man who has ever lived. His power is passive, but it is real.
Let us study the method by which he attained his stupendous POWER.
It may be explained in a few words. He came by POWER through inducing
over two hundred million people to coordinate, with mind and body,
in a spirit of HARMONY, for a DEFINITE PURPOSE.
In brief, Gandhi has accomplished a MIRACLE, for it is a miracle
when two hundred million people can be induced--not forced--to cooperate
in a spirit of HARMONY, for a limitless time. If you doubt that
this is a miracle, try to induce ANY TWO PEOPLE to cooperate in
a spirit of harmony for any length of time.
Every man who manages a business knows what a difficult matter
it is to get employees to work together in a spirit even remotely
resembling HARMONY.
The list of the chief sources from which POWER may be attained
is, as you have seen, headed by INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. When two
or more people coordinate in a spirit of HARMONY, and work toward
a definite objective, they place themselves in position, through
that alliance, to absorb power directly from the great universal
storehouse of Infinite Intelligence. This is the greatest of all
sources of POWER. It is the source to which the genius turns. It
is the source to which every great leader turns, (whether he may
be conscious of the fact or not).
The other two major sources from which the knowledge, necessary
for the accumulation of POWER, may be obtained are no more reliable
than the five senses of man. The senses are not always reliable.
Infinite Intelligence DOES NOT ERR.
In subsequent chapters, the methods by which Infinite Intelligence
may be most readily contacted will be adequately described.
This is not a course on religion. No fundamental principle described
in this book should be interpreted as being intended to interfere
either directly, or indirectly, with any man's religious habits.
This book has been confined, exclusively, to instructing the reader
how to transmute the DEFINITE PURPOSE OF DESIRE FOR MONEY, into
its monetary equivalent.
Read, THINK, and meditate as you read. Soon, the entire
subject will unfold, and you will see it in perspective. You are
now seeing the detail of the individual chapters.
Money is as shy and elusive as the "old time" maiden.
It must be wooed and won by methods not unlike those used by a determined
lover, in pursuit of the girl of his choice. And, coincidental as
it is, the POWER used in the "wooing" of money is not
greatly different from that used in wooing a maiden. That power,
when successfully used in the pursuit of money must be mixed with
FAITH. It must be mixed with DESIRE. It must be mixed with PERSISTENCE.
It must be applied through a plan, and that plan must be set into
ACTION.
When money comes in quantities known as "the big money,"
it flows to the one who accumulates it, as easily as water flows
down hill. There exists a great unseen stream of POWER, which may
be compared to a river; except that one side flows in one direction,
carrying all who get into that side of the stream, onward and upward
to WEALTH--and the other side flows in the opposite direction, carrying
all who are unfortunate enough to get into it (and not able to extricate
themselves from it), downward to misery and POVERTY.
Every man who has accumulated a great fortune, has recognized
the existence of this stream of life. It consists of one's THINKING
PROCESS. The positive emotions of thought form the side of the stream
which carries one to fortune. The negative emotions form the side
which carries one down to poverty.
This carries a thought of stupendous importance to the person
who is following this book with the object of accumulating a fortune.
If you are in the side of the stream of POWER which leads to
poverty, this may serve as an oar, by which you may propel yourself
over into the other side of the stream. It can serve you ONLY through
application and use. Merely reading, and passing judgment on it,
either one way or another, will in no way benefit you.
Some people undergo the experience of alternating between the
positive and negative sides of the stream, being at times on the
positive side, and at times on the negative side. The Wall Street
crash of ’29 swept millions of people from the positive to the negative
side of the stream. These millions are struggling, some of them
in desperation and fear, to get back to the positive side of the
stream. This book was written especially for those millions.
Poverty and riches often change places. The Crash taught the
world this truth, although the world will not long remember the
lesson. Poverty may, and generally does, voluntarily take the place
of riches. When riches take the place of poverty, the change is
usually brought about through well-conceived and carefully executed
PLANS. Poverty needs no plan. It needs no one to aid it, because
it is bold and ruthless. Riches are shy and timid. They have to
be "attracted."
ANYBODY can WISH for riches, and most people do, but
only a few know that a definite plan, plus a BURNING DESIRE
for wealth, are the only dependable means of accumulating
wealth.
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Attribution: THINK and GROW RICH ©
1938, published 1938, by THE RALSTON SOCIETY, Meriden, Conn.
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