LESSON XI. CONCENTRATE ON COURAGE

Books: The Power of Concentration

A successful business is not usually the result of chance.

Neither is a failure the result of luck. Most failures could be

determined in advance if the founders had been studied. It is not

always possible to start a money-making business at the start.

Usually a number of changes have to be made. Plans do not work

out as their creators thought they would. They may have to be

changed a little, broadened it may be, here a d there, and as you

broaden your business you broaden your power to achieve. You gain

an intense and sustained desire to make your business a success.



When you start a business you may have but a vague notion of the

way you will conduct it. You must fill in the details as you go

along. You must concentrate on these details. As you straighten

out one after another, others will require attention. In this way

you cover the field of "the first endeavor" and new opportunities

open up for you.



When you realize one desire, another comes. But if you do not

fulfill the first desire, you will not the second. The person

that does not carry his desires into action is only a dreamer.

Desire is a great creative force, if it is pure, intense and

sustained. It is our desires that keep stirring us up to action

and they will strengthen and broaden you if you make them

materialize.



Every man who achieves success deserves it. When he first started

out he did not understand how to solve the problems that

afterwards presented themselves, but he did each thing as it came

up in the very best way that he could, and this developed his

power of doing bigger things. We become masters of business by

learning to do well whatever we attempt. The man that has a

thorough knowledge of his business can of course direct it much

more easily and skillfully than the man who lacks that knowledge.

The skilled business director can sit in his private office and

still know accurately what is actually being done. He knows what

should be done in any given time and if it is not accomplished he

knows that his employees are not turning out the work that they

should. It is then easy to apply the remedy.



Business success depends on well-concentrated efforts. You must

use every mental force you can master. The more these are used

the more they increase. Therefore the more you accomplish today

the more force you will have at your disposal with which to solve

your problems tomorrow.



If you are working for someone else today and wish to start in a

business for yourself, think over carefully what you would like

to do. Then when you have resolved what you want to do, you will

be drawn towards it. There is a law that opens the way to the

fulfillment of your desires. Of course back of your desire you

must put forward the necessary effort to carry out your purpose;

you must use your power to put your desires into force. Once they

are created and you keep up your determination to have them

fulfilled you both consciously and unconsciously work toward

their materialization. Set your heart on your purpose,

concentrate your thought upon it, direct your efforts with all

your intelligence and in due time you will realize your ambition.



Feel yourself a success, believe you are a success and thus put

yourself in the attitude that demands recognition and the thought

current draws to you what you need to make you a success. Don't

be afraid of big undertakings. Go at them with grit, and pursue

methods that you think will accomplish your purpose. You may not

at first meet with entire success, but aim so high that if you

fall a little short you will still have accomplished much.



What others have done you can do. You may even do what others

have been unable to do. Always keep a strong desire to succeed in

your mind. Be in love with your aim and work, and make them, as

far as possible, square with the rule of the greatest good to the

greatest number and your life cannot be a failure.



The successful business attitude must be cultivated to make the

most out of your life, the attitude of expecting great things

from both yourself and others. It alone will often cause men to

make good; to measure up to the best that is in them.



It is not the spasmodic spurts that count on a long journey, but

the steady efforts. Spurts fatigue and make it hard for you to

continue.



Rely on your own opinion. It should be as good as anyone's else.

When once you reach a conclusion abide by it. Let there be no

doubt, or wavering in your judgment. If you are uncertain about

every decision you make, you will be subject to harassing doubts

and fears which will render your judgment of little value. The

man that decides according to what he thinks right and who learns

from every mistake acquires a well balanced mind that gets the

best results. He gains the confidence of others. He is known as

the man that knows what he wants, and not as one that is as

changeable as the weather. The man of today wants to do business

with the man that he can depend upon. Uncertainties in the

business world are meeting with more disfavor. Reliable firms

want to do business with men of known qualities, with men of

firmness, judgment and reliability.



So if you wish to start in business for yourself your greatest

asset, with the single exception of a sound physique, is that of

a good reputation.



A successful business is not hard to build if we can concentrate

all our mental forces upon it. It is the man that is unsettled

because he does not know what he wants that goes to the wall. We

hear persons say that business is trying on the nerves, but it is

the unsettling elements of fret and worry and suspense that are

nerve-exhausting and not the business. Executing one's plans may

cause fatigue, enjoyment comes with rest. If there has not been

any unnatural strain, the recuperative powers replace what energy

has been lost.



By attending to each day's work properly you develop the capacity

to do a greater work tomorrow. It is this gradual development

that makes possible the carrying out of big plans. The man that

figures out doing something each hour of the day gets somewhere.

At the end of each day you should be a step nearer your aim. Keep

the idea in mind, that you mean to go forward, that each day must

mark an advance and forward you will go. You do not even have to

know the exact direction so long as you are determined to find

the way. But you must not turn back once you have started.



Even brilliant men's conceptions of the possibilities of their

mental forces are so limited and below their real worth that they

are far more likely to belittle their possibilities than they are

to exaggerate them. You don't want to think that an aim is

impossible because it has never been realized in the past. Every

day someone is doing something that was never done before. We are

pushing ahead faster. Formerly it took decades to build up a big

business, but today it is only but a matter of years, sometimes

of months.



Plan each day's activities carefully and you can reach any height

you aim at. If each thing you do is done with concise and

concentrated thought you will be able to turn out an excellent

quality and a large quantity of work. Plan to do so much work

during the day and you will be astonished to see how much more

you will do, than on other days, when you had not decided on any

certain amount. I have demonstrated that the average business

working force could do the same amount of work in six hours that

they now do in eight, without using up any more energy. Never

start to accomplish anything in an indecisive, indefinite,

uncertain way. Tackle everything with a positiveness and an

earnestness that will concentrate your mind and attract the very

best associated thoughts. You will in a short time find that you

will have extra time for planning bigger things.



The natural leader always draws to himself, by the law of mental

attraction, ideas in his chosen subject that have ever been

conceived by others. This is of the greatest importance and help.

If you are properly trained you benefit much by others' thoughts,

and, providing you generate from within yourself something of

value, they will benefit from yours. "We are heirs of all the

ages," but we must know how to use our inheritance.



The confident, pushing, hopeful, determined man influences all

with whom he associates, and inspires the same qualities in them.

You feel that his is a safe example to follow and he rouses the

same force within you that is pushing him onward and upward.



One seldom makes a success of anything that he goes at in a

listless, spiritless way. To build up a business you must see it

expanding in your mind before it actually takes tangible shape.

Every great task that has ever been accomplished has first been

merely a vision in the mind of its creator. Detail after detail

has had to be worked out in his mind from his first faint idea of

the enterprise. Finally a clear idea was formed and then the

accomplishment, which was only the material result of the mental

concept, followed.



The up-to-date business man is not content to build only for the

present, but is planning ahead. If he does not he will fall

behind his competitor, who is. What we are actually doing today

was carefully thought out and planned by others in the past. All

progressive businesses are conducted this way. That is why the

young business man of today is likely to accomplish more in a few

years than his father did in all his life. There is no reason why

your work or business should fag you out. When it does there is

something wrong. You are attracting forces and influence that you

should not, because you are not in harmony with what you are

doing. There is nothing so tiring as to try to do the work for

which we are unfitted, both by temperament and training.



Each one should be engaged in a business that he loves; be should

be furthering movements with which he is in sympathy. He will

then only do his best work and take intense pleasure in his

business. In this way, while constantly growing and developing

his powers, he is at the same time rendering through his work,

genuine and devoted service to humanity.



Business success is not the result of chance, but of scientific

ideas and plans carried out by an aggressive and progressive

management. Use your mental forces so that they will grow and

develop. Remember that everything you do is the result of mental

action, therefore you can completely control your every action.

Nothing is impossible for you. Don't be afraid to tackle a

difficult proposition. Your success will depend upon the use you

make of your mind. This is capable of wonderful development. See

that you make full use of it, and not only develop yourself but

your associates. Try to broaden the visions of those with whom

you come in contact and you will broaden your own outlook of

life.





Are You Afraid of Responsibilities? In order for the individual

soul to develop, you must have responsibilities. You must

manifest the omnipotence of the law of supply. The whole world is

your legitimate sphere of activity. How much of a conqueror are

you? What have you done? Are you afraid of responsibility, or are

you ever dodging, flinching, or side stepping it. If you are, you

are not a Real Man. Your higher self never winces, so be a man

and allow the powers of the higher self to manifest and you will

find you have plenty of strength and you will feel better when

you are tackling difficult propositions.