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In his book “The Science of Getting Rich”, Wallace D. Wattles, presents the law of success and the science of wealth attraction as he found them in the work of the world’s great
philosophers. Below are some lessons learned from the book.
#1. You have the
right to be rich.
“WHATEVER may be
said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a
really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his
greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of
money; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to
use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.”
“A man's highest
happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds
its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The man who has nothing
to give cannot fill his place as a husband or father, as a citizen, or as a
man. It is in the use of material things that a man finds full life for his
body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme
importance to him that he should be rich.
It is perfectly
right that you should desire to be rich; if you are a normal man or woman you
cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best
attention to the Science of Getting Rich, for it is the noblest and most
necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your
duty to yourself, to God and humanity; for you can render to God and humanity
no greater service than to make the most of yourself.”
“Getting rich is
not a matter of environment, for, if it were, all the people in certain
neighborhoods would become wealthy; the people of one city would all be rich,
while those of other towns would all be poor; or the inhabitants of one state
would roll in wealth, while those of an adjoining state would be in poverty.
But everywhere
we see rich and poor living side by side, in the same environment, and often
engaged in the same vocations.”
“Studying the
people who have got rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects,
having no greater talents and abilities than other men. It is evident that they
do not get rich because they possess talents and abilities that other men have
not, but because they happen to do things in a Certain Way.
Getting rich is
not the result of saving, or "thrift"; many very penurious people are
poor, while free spenders often get rich.”
“Again, it is
not a matter of choosing some particular business or profession. People get
rich in every business, and in every profession; while their next-door
neighbors in the same vocation remain in poverty.
It is true that
you will do best in a business which you like, and which is congenial to you;
and if you have certain talents which are well developed, you will do best in a
business which calls for the exercise of those talents.”
“THOUGHT is the
only power which can produce tangible riches from the Formless Substance. The
stuff from which all things are made is a substance which thinks, and a thought
of form in this substance produces the form.”
“To look upon
the appearance of disease will produce the form of disease in your own mind,
and ultimately in your body, unless you hold the thought of the truth, which is
that there is no disease; it is only an appearance, and the reality is health.
To look upon the
appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind,
unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.
To think health
when surrounded by the appearances of disease, or to think riches when in the
midst of appearances of poverty, requires power; but he who acquires this power
becomes a MASTER MIND. He can conquer fate; he can have whatever he wants.”
When we realize
this, we lose all doubt and fear, for we know that we can create what we want
to create; we can get what we want to have, and can become what we want to be.
As a first step toward getting rich, you must believe the three fundamental”
Related: How Rich People Think?
#4. Increasing Life.
“Every thought
we think makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is
continually expanding. Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another
fact; knowledge is continually increasing. Every talent we cultivate brings to
the mind the desire to cultivate another talent; we are subject to the urge of
life, seeking expression, which ever drives us on to know more, to do more, and
to be more.
In order to know
more, do more, and be more we must have more; we must have things to use, for
we learn, and do, and become, only by using things. We must get rich, so that
we can live more.”
#5. There’s
enough for everyone.
“So never allow
yourself to think for an instant that all the best building spots will be taken
before you get ready to build your house, unless you hurry. Never worry about
the trusts and combines, and get anxious for fear they will soon come to own
the whole earth. Never get afraid that you will lose what you want because some
other person "beats you to it". That cannot possibly happen; you are
not seeking any thing that is possessed by anybody else; you are causing what
you want to be created from Formless Substance, and the supply is without
limits.”
“The whole
process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word,
gratitude.
First, you
believe that there is one Intelligent Substance, from which all things proceed;
second, you believe that this Substance gives you everything you desire; and
third, you relate yourself to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude.
Many people who
order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack
of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which
connect them with Him by failing to make acknowledgment.
It is easy to
understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth we
shall receive; and it is easy also to understand that the soul that is always
grateful lives in closer touch with God than the one which never looks to Him
in thankful acknowledgment.
The more
gratefully we fix our minds on the Supreme when good things come to us, the
more good things we will receive, and the more rapidly they will come; and the
reason simply is that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into
closer touch with the source from which the blessings come.”
“Gratitude will
lead your mind out along the ways by which things come; and it will keep you in
close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into
competitive thought.”
“You cannot
exercise much power without gratitude; for it is gratitude that keeps you
connected with Power.
But the value of
gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future.
Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding
things as they are.
The moment you
permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you
begin to lose ground.”
“To permit your
mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and to surround yourself
with inferior things.
On the other
hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best,
and to become the best.
The Creative
Power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention.”
“The grateful
mind is constantly fixed upon the best; therefore it tends to become the best;
it takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best.”
#7. Thinking in the Certain Way.
“You must form a
clear and definite mental picture of what you want; you cannot transmit an idea
unless you have it yourself.”
“It is not
enough that you should have a general desire for wealth "to do good
with"; everybody has that desire.
It is not enough
that you should have a wish to travel, see things, live more, etc. Everybody
has those desires also. If you were going to send a wireless message to a
friend, you would not send the letters of the alphabet in their order, and let
him construct the message for himself; nor would you take words at random from
the dictionary. You would send a coherent sentence; one which meant something.
When you try to impress your wants upon Substance, remember that it must be
done by a coherent statement; you must know what you want, and be definite. You
can never get rich, or start the creative power into action, by sending out
unformed longings and vague desires.”
“All you need is
to know what you want, and to want it badly enough so that it will stay in your
thoughts.”
“Behind your
clear vision must be the purpose to realize it; to bring it out intangible
expression.
And behind this
purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that the thing is already
yours; that it is "at hand" and you have only to take possession of
it.”
“The man who can
sincerely thank God for the things which as yet he owns only in imagination,
has real faith. He will get rich; he will cause the creation of whatsoever he
wants.”
“You do not make
this impression by repeating strings of words; you make it by holding the
vision with unshakable PURPOSE to attain it, and with steadfast FAITH that you
do attain it.”
#8. Use your
will to create riches.
“The more steady
and continuous your faith and purpose, the more rapidly you will get rich,
because you will make only POSITIVE impressions upon Substance; and you will
not neutralize or offset them by negative impressions.”
“If you want to
become rich, you must not make a study of poverty.
Things are not
brought into being by thinking about their opposites. Health is never to be
attained by studying disease and thinking about disease; righteousness is not
to be promoted by studying sin and thinking about sin; and no one ever got rich
by studying poverty and thinking about poverty.
Medicine as a
science of disease has increased disease; religion as a science of sin has
promoted sin, and economics as a study of poverty will fill the world with
wretchedness and want.
Do not talk
about poverty; do not investigate it, or concern yourself with it. Never mind
what its causes are; you have nothing to do with them.
“What tends to
do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty into your mind,
but getting pictures of wealth into the minds of the poor.”
“The poor do not
need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to
keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make
them forget for an hour or two; but inspiration will cause them to rise out of
their misery. If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can
become rich; prove it by getting rich yourself.”
“Whenever you
think or speak of those who are poor, think and speak of them as those who are
becoming rich; as those who are to be congratulated rather than pitied. Then
they and others will catch the inspiration, and begin to search for the way
out.”
“You can aim at
nothing so great or noble, I repeat, as to become rich; and you must fix your
attention upon your mental picture of riches, to the exclusion of all that may
tend to dim or obscure the vision.”
“THOUGHT is the
creative power, or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act;
thinking in a Certain Way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon
thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon
which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck -- the
failure to connect thought with personal action.
We have not yet
reached the stage of development, even supposing such a stage to be possible,
in which man can create directly from Formless Substance without nature's
processes or the work of human hands; man must not only think, but his personal
action must supplement his thought.”
“But you must
act in a Certain Way, so that you can appropriate what is yours when it comes
to you; so that you can meet the things you have in your picture, and put them
in their proper places as they arrive.
You can really see
the truth of this. When things reach you, they will be in the hands of other
men, who will ask an equivalent for them.
And you can only
get what is yours by giving the other man what is his.
Your pocketbook
is not going to be transformed into a Fortunata's purse, which shall be always
full of money without effort on your part.
This is the
crucial point in the science of getting rich; right here, where thought and
personal action must be combined. There are very many people who, consciously
or unconsciously, set the creative forces in action by the strength and
persistence of their desires, but who remain poor because they do not provide
for the reception of the thing they want when it comes.
By thought, the
thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.
Whatever your
action is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past,
and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the
past from your mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here
yet. And you cannot tell how you will want to act in any future contingency
until that contingency has arrived.”
#10. Efficient Action.
“Every day is
either a successful day or a day of failure; and it is the successful days
which get you what you want. If everyday is a failure, you can never get rich;
while if every day is a success, you cannot fail to get rich.”
“You are not to
overwork, nor to rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the
greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time.
You are not to
try to do tomorrow's work today, nor to do a week's work in a day.
It is really not
the number of things you do, but the
EFFICIENCY of each separate action that counts.
Every act is, in
itself, either a success or a failure. Every act is, in itself, either
effective or inefficient.
Every
inefficient act is a failure, and if you spend your life in doing inefficient
acts, your whole life will be a failure.”
#11. Getting into the Right Business.
“SUCCESS, in any
particular business, depends for one thing upon your possessing in a
well-developed state the faculties required in that business.”
“The various
faculties of your mind are the tools with which you must do the work which is
to make you rich; it will be easier for you to succeed if you get into a
business for which you are well equipped with mental tools.”
“Where there is
no power, either developed or undeveloped, to do a thing, there is never any
desire to do that thing; and where there is a strong desire to do a thing, it is
certain proof that the power to do it is strong, and only requires to be
developed and applied in the right way.
All things else
being equal, it is best to select the business for which you have the best
developed talent; but if you have a strong desire to engage in any particular
line of work, you should select that work as the ultimate end at which you aim.”
“No one else is
going to beat you to the thing you want to do; there is enough for all. If one
space is taken, another and a better one will be opened for you a little
farther on; there is plenty of time. When you are in doubt, wait. Fall back on
the contemplation of your vision, and increase your faith and purpose; and by
all means, in times of doubt and indecision, cultivate gratitude.”
#12. The Impression of Increase.
“Be sure of
this, and convey assurance of the fact to every man, woman, and child with whom
you come in contact. No matter how small the transaction, even if it be only
the selling of a stick of candy to a little child, put into it the thought of
increase, and make sure that the customer is impressed with the thought.
Convey the
impression of advancement with everything you do, so that all people shall
receive the impression that you are an Advancing Person, and that you advance
all who deal with you. Even to the people whom you meet in a social way,
without any thought of business, and to whom you do not try to sell anything,
give the thought of increase.”
“You must so
impress others that they will feel that in associating with you they will get
increase for themselves. See that you give them a use value greater than the
cash value you are taking from them.”
The book “The Science of Getting Rich”, Wallace D. Wattles
The book “The Science of Getting Rich”, Wallace D. Wattles
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