Читать книгу The Success System That Never Fails (with linked TOC) - William Clement Stone - Страница 9

Don’t Leave Your Future Behind You

Floyd Patterson crashed to the canvass. Seconds later, he was no longer the world’s heavyweight champion. lngemar Johannssen had taken the title away from him.

The experts said Floyd was through; his future as a fighter was behind him. And everyone knew that Floyd was faced with one of the oldest jinxes in sports: No heavyweight champion had ever won back the crown. But Floyd had to try–and more than that, he said he would do it!

For Floyd Patterson had developed inspirational dissatisfaction. He hew he could succeed, and he was not content to remain a failure; he had taken a fierce pride in being champion.

On reflection, he realized that he must change his mental attitude and work hard to make up for lost time. And he did work hard. He studied. He listened to his trainers.

He listened to the former champion Joe Louis, who said, “The way to get Johannssen is to make him miss. Then step inside:’ And Patterson did make Ingo miss. He did step inside. In fact from the first second of the fight until he shot his final left hook

flush on Johannsen’s chin in the fifth round, Patterson proved that the motivating power of his inspirational dissatisfaction was sufficient to develop in him the (1) inspiration to action, (2) know-how, (3) activity knowledge necessary for him to regain the world’s heavyweight championship crown.

It is significant that when newspaper photographers were taking pictures of Patterson just before the return bout, he said: The most important thing you can’t get any picture of; because the most important thing for me is my mental attitude.” You see, Floyd had changed his negative attitude to the right mental attitude. And thus his future was ahead of him.

Is Your Future Behind You?

Is your future ahead of you or behind you? Your correct answer may depend on whether you try to eliminate any existing unseen walls–negative habits and undesirable thoughts and actions–and strengthen and build positive habits–good thoughts and deeds. For character is the keystone to true success.

The essence of perfection is never reached, but you gain character by trying to reach it. Good luck or bad luck as the days pass into weeks–success or failure as the weeks pass into months and years–which will it be for you? The choice is yours. You hold the tiller. You can steer the course you choose in the direction of where you want to be–today, tomorrow, or in a distant time yet to come.

But where are you? Now is the time to find out. And now is the time to check your habits of thought and action, for these have brought you to where you are now. The thoughts you think and the things you do now will determine your future destination. Are you on the right course to get from where you are now to where you really want to be?

Regardless of what you are or what you have been, you can still become what you may want to be. For as you continue your voyage through life, you, like the captain of a ship, can select your first port of call and then continue until you arrive at the next. You’ll experience calm and stormy seas as you go from one port to another, but it is you who must steer that course. Many a ship that lost its rudder and many a person who lost character have become derelicts, lost to the world. This can happen at almost any point in a voyage at sea or in life. For character is the one common denominator of all personal qualities that will insure a truly successful future.

He Left His Future Behind Him

My mother loved the theater, music, and the opera, and when I was a boy, she often took me to see one of the great actors of that day. He was a hero to me then. When I was a man, I saw him again years later–no longer a worshiped hero. He still drew large audiences and they still applauded–but no longer for his art and talent. They applauded when he appeared on the stage at the beginning of the play, even when he was late, just because he showed up. They applauded each slip of the tongue, forgotten line, or clever ad-lib. He was no clown–but they laughed. He was no comedian–just a great man who had left his future behind him. For he had become an alcoholic derelict. I didn’t know it then, but this brilliant actor’s future was behind him when I saw him as a boy. Even then, he knew the direction in which he was headed. But he refused to grab the tiller, turn around and get back on the right course–to eliminate undesirable habits and adopt good ones.

How to Win Over Yourself

What a tragedy it is to have all the necessary ingredients to success but one–the most important: character. The development of good character is a battle that you, I, and everyone must fight for himself. But victory can be ours.

Although the battle is from within, we can get help from without from good persons and self-help books that motivate the reader to try to become a better person and seek the true riches of life. But remember: The true value of a self-help book is not what the writer puts into the book, but what you, the reader, take out of the book and put into your life.

And most important you can pray for help and guidance. Let me remind you:

You are the product of your heredity, environment, physical body, conscious and subconscious mind, experience, and particular position and direction in time and space...and something more, including powers known and unknown. You have the power to affect, use, control, or harmonize with all of them. And you can direct your thoughts, control your emotions, and ordain your destiny.

That’s what it says in Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. And that’s what I believe. You’ll prove it for yourself when you understand and employ the success system that never fails. You’ll be inspired, and you’ll have the necessary knowledge and know-how. You will think good thoughts...and you will do good deeds.

You will keep your thoughts off the things you should not want by keeping your thoughts on the things you should want. And thus you will begin to win over yourself by affecting you subconscious mind through self-suggestion.

A thought is the most potent form of suggestion–often more powerful than any received through the sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Your subconscious mind has known and unknown powers, and you must control them to win over yourself. As you continue to read on through The Success System That Never Fails, you will gain the necessary knowledge and obtain the know-how to use the power of suggestion effectively.

Try to Do the Right Thing Because It Is Right

Each time I say to you, “Try to do the right thing because it is right,” that’s a suggestion from me to you. Each time you think or say to yourself Try to do the right thing because it is right, that’s self-suggestion. Each time your subconscious flashes to your conscious mind, Try to do the right thing because it is right, that’s autosuggestion.

It is important to know:

1. Suggestion comes from the outside (your environment).

2. Self-suggestion is automatic or purposefully controlled from within.

3. Autosuggestion acts by itself, unconsciously, like a machine that reacts in the same way from the same stimulus.

4. Thoughts and impressions from any of the five senses are forms of suggestion.

5. Only you can think for you.

Throughout this book I endeavor to motivate you as I explain or illustrate the art of motivation. And repetition increases the effectiveness of any form of suggestion. But it is you who must deliberately get into action if you want to have know-how in the use of self-motivators. Therefore, I urge you to prove to yourself their effectiveness.

During the coming week, every morning and every evening–and frequently throughout the day–repeat: Try to do the right thing because it is right. Then, when you are faced with temptation, this self-motivator will flash from your subconscious to your conscious mind. When it does–immediately act. Do the right thing.

In this way, through repetition, you will form a habit–a good habit–that will help make your future. For your future depends upon character–and character depends on success in overcoming temptations. The world has become a better place in which to live because of persons who have made it a habit to try to do the right thing only because it was right. Thus they overcame temptations. Among them are sinners who became saints. They were motivated to become saints because they had sinned. They were inspired to desirable action because they were motivated by remorse–the desire to atone, to make amends...to be free of a guilt feeling–and the desire to be esteemed by their fellowmen... to thank God for His blessings...to make up for lost time.

Perhaps this was the case with William Sidney Porter, whose pen name was O. Henry. During his imprisonment in an Ohio penitentiary for embezzlement, he engaged in study, thinking, and planning. Because he engaged in soul-searching, he was inspired to win over himself. Then his future was ahead of him.

He used his talents to write, and shortly after he left prison, he had several sources of income. One was from the New York World–a hundred dollars a week for a weekly short story. Rapid fame became his. The sale of his books was enormous. “The tragedy of his own life taught him a chivalrous tenderness for the unlucky”, says the Encylopaedia Britannica.

Regardless of who you are or what you have been, you can be what you want to be.

From Rags to Riches

Now let’s meet another old friend: Horatio Alger, Jr. I first met him at Green’s Michigan farm and summer resort. I was twelve at the time and my mother was still in the dressmaking business in Chicago. She believed it was good for a city boy like me to get out in the country during the summer–and she was right. At Green’s farm I learned wholesome living experienced by those fortunate enough to live in such surroundings.

I learned to swim, row and fish in the creek. Watching the old mill with its water wheel-hunting turtles in the mud when the creek was low–a corn bake in the woods at night - the fun at a picnic or carnival–being scared after an evening around the fireplace where ghost stories were told–hearing the answer of the Ouija board and rocking table when Mrs. Green, her teenage son Walter, her husband, and I asked questions on stormy nights–sleeping in the hayloft...these are treasured memories.

But I’ll never forget the first day I went upstairs to the attic, for there I met Horatio Alger. At least 50 of his books, dusty and weather-worn, were piled in the corner. I took one down to the hammock in the front yard and started to read. I read through all the books that summer. The theme in each: from rags to riches. The principles in each: the hero becomes a success because he was a man of character–the villain was a failure because he deceived and embezzled. How many Alger books were sold? No one knows. Estimates range from 100 to 300 million. We do know that his books inspired thousands of American boys from poor families to strive to do the right thing because it was right and to acquire wealth.

RMA and Inspirational Dissatisfaction

Now you may believe, as I do, that most persons are fundamentally honest and good. But a person may have good character, excellent health, and a good mind, yet leave his future behind him.

For his attitude may be negative instead of positive–the wrong mental attitude instead of the right. But what is the right mental attitude?

The book, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, says: The right mental attitude is most often comprised of the “plus” characteristics symbolized by such words as integrity, faith, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generosity, tolerance, tact; kindliness, and good common sense. The wrong mental attitude has opposite characteristics. On this, you and I can agree.

Yet the most wonderful person in the world will not make progress until he is dissatisfied–wholesomely dissatisfied. For it is inspirational dissatisfaction that converts the magic of desire into reality.

Every growing organism grows into maturity–levels off and dies unless there is new life–new blood–new activity–new ideas, says Edward R. Dewey.

All the world’s progress in every field of activity has been the result of action by men, and women who experienced inspirational dissatisfaction–never by those who were satisfied. For dissatisfaction is man’s driving force. Inspirational dissatisfaction is the result of RMA–the right mental attitude. With the wrong mental attitude, the driving force of dissatisfaction can be injurious.

To be dissatisfied, you must want something. And if you want something badly enough, you’ll do something. You’ll try to get it.

Where Dr. Joe Goes, God Goes

Bob Curran and I were talking about the force of inspirational dissatisfaction and the right mental attitude, when Bob asked: “Did I ever tell you about my brother-in-law, Dr. Joe?”

“No,” I answered, and he continued: “Dr. Joe Hopkins of Texas is married to my sister. He has been practicing medicine for over 50 years. It was 33 years ago that he developed cancer of the larynx. Of course, it had to be removed. The delicate operation saved Dr. Joe’s life, but it took away his voice.

“Somewhere he heard of an old Cajun country doctor who had had a similar operation. The old Cajun had an overwhelming desire to talk again without artificial gadgets, and he had succeeded in perfecting an amazing technique. First he’d swallow air. Then he’d bring it up again to his throat and mouth. Somehow, with his tongue against the inside of his teeth, he formed sounds from the air pressure. Eventually, he could talk very well.

‘When Dr. Joe heard about this, he was inspired. He believed he could talk without a larynx, too. After his throat healed, he tried to make specific sounds. It was discouraging at first, but he kept on trying and praying. It seemed impossible to get the sounds he wanted, but one day he was able to form specific vowels clearly. With new hope, he tried harder and prayed harder. Day by day, he made progress. First he mastered the vowels, then the complete alphabet, then one-syllable words. With more practice, he was able to pronounce two- and three-syllable words–and then, he achieved complete success. Soon he was talking all the time.

“Now it’s true that his voice sounds sort of gravelly, but he is easily understood– even over the telephone. At first, when he had difficulty pronouncing a word, he would pause and think, then he’d use a synonym. Now he doesn’t have this problem, and he seems to speak with relative ease.”

“Has he been able to help others who have had a similar condition?” I asked.

“Yes, indeed,” Bob responded. “And Dr. Joe has a most interesting technique to instill confidence. For example, when another doctor refers a patient to him whose larynx has been removed, the patient may find Dr. Joe’s waiting room full of people. The new arrival sees Dr. Joe come in and talk to others with that gravelly voice of his. He smiles and laughs. He appears to be happy. And he is.

“Then, when the speechless patient comes into Dr. Joe’s private office, Dr. Joe tells the thrilling story of how he himself was inspired by the old Cajun country doctor, and how he taught himself to talk.

“The patient generally becomes excited as he pictures himself talking just like Dr. Joe. He is told he must work hard and practice, practice, practice.

“Today, Dr. Joe is one of the busiest men I know. He is on the staff of three hospitals, and, at the age of seventy-five, works every day. Once he was named Texas Physician of the Year; another time he was given the national Laetare medal; and because of his sympathetic work with the poor, he was knighted by Pope Pius XII. On more than one occasion, I have heard it said, ‘Where Dr. Joe goes, God goes.’”

The Blessing of Work

As you read this chapter, you saw it clearly: To develop good character, work. To have good health, work. To win over yourself, work. To do the right thing because it is right, work. To rise from rags to riches, work. To fight your way back, work. To acquire knowledge, work. To acquire know-how, work.

When you read the next chapter, you’ll see how to make work fun. You’ll learn the joy of work when you apply the principles. And you’ll find that it takes less work to succeed than to fail.

Little Hinges That Swing Big Doors

The road to success starts when you are inspired to make the effort. Inspiration starts when you are motivated to dissatisfaction with things the way they are. Therefore, inspirational dissatisfaction is the strongest single force in your success system that never fails.

Read this book carefully, for almost every page pulses with the evidence of inspirational dissatisfaction. This is a dynamic power at work. Make it work for you.