What I have said in the last chapter applies as well to the
professional man and the wage-earner as to the man who is engaged in
mercantile business.
No matter whether you are a physician, a teacher, or a clergyman, if
you can give increase of life to others and make them sensible of
the fact, they will be attracted to you, and you will get rich. The
physician who holds the vision of himself as a great and successful
healer, and who works toward the complete realization of that vision
with faith and purpose, as described in former chapters, will come into
such close touch with the Source of Life that he will be phenomenally
successful; patients will come to him in throngs.
No one has a greater opportunity to carry into effect the teachings
of this book than the practitioner of medicine; it does not matter
to which of the various schools he may belong, for the principle of
healing is common to all of them, and may be reached by all alike. The
Advancing Man in medicine, who holds to a clear mental image of himself
as successful, and who obeys the laws of faith, purpose, and gratitude,
will cure every curable case he undertakes, no matter what remedies he
may use.
In the field of religion, the world cries out for the clergyman who
can teach his hearers the true science of abundant life. He who
masters the details of the science of getting rich, together with the
allied sciences of being well, of being great, and of winning love,
and who teaches these details from the pulpit, will never lack for a
congregation. This is the gospel that the world needs; it will give
increase of life, and men will hear it gladly, and will give liberal
support to the man who brings it to them.
What is now needed is a demonstration of the science of life from
the pulpit. We want preachers who can not only tell us how, but who
in their own persons will show us how. We need the preacher who will
himself be rich, healthy, great, and beloved, to teach us how to attain
to these things; and when he comes he will find a numerous and loyal
following.
The same is true of the teacher who can inspire the children with the
faith and purpose of the advancing life. He will never be “out of a
job.” And any teacher who has this faith and purpose can give it to his
pupils; he cannot help giving it to them if it is part of his own life
and practice.
What is true of the teacher, preacher, and physician is true of the
lawyer, dentist, real estate man, insurance agent--of everybody.
The combined mental and personal action I have described is infallible;
it cannot fail. Every man and woman who follows these instructions
steadily, perseveringly, and to the letter, will get rich. The law of
the Increase of Life is as mathematically certain in its operation as
the law of gravitation; getting rich is an exact science.
The wage-earner will find this as true of his case as of any of the
others mentioned. Do not feel that you have no chance to get rich
because you are working where there is no visible opportunity for
advancement, where wages are small and the cost of living high. Form
your clear mental vision of what you want, and begin to act with faith
and purpose.
Do all the work you can do, every day, and do each piece of work in a
perfectly successful manner; put the power of success, and the purpose
to get rich, into everything that you do.
But do not do this merely with the idea of currying favor with your
employer, in the hope that he, or those above you, will see your good
work and advance you; it is not likely that they will do so.
The man who is merely a “good” workman, filling his place to the very
best of his ability, and satisfied with that, is valuable to his
employer; and it is not to the employer’s interest to promote him; he
is worth more where he is.
To secure advancement, something more is necessary than to be too large
for your place.
The man who is certain to advance is the one who is too big for his
place, and who has a clear concept of what he wants to be; who knows
that he can become what he wants to be, and who is determined to BE
what he wants to be.
Do not try to more than fill your present place with a view to pleasing
your employer; do it with the idea of advancing yourself. Hold the
faith and purpose of increase during work hours, after work hours,
and before work hours. Hold it in such a way that every person who
comes in contact with you, whether foreman, fellow workman, or social
acquaintance, will feel the power of purpose radiating from you; so
that every one will get the sense of advancement and increase from
you. Men will be attracted to you, and if there is no possibility for
advancement in your present job, you will very soon see an opportunity
to take another job.
There is a Power which never fails to present opportunity to the
Advancing Man who is moving in obedience to law.
God cannot help helping you, if you act in a Certain Way; He must do so
in order to help Himself.
There is nothing in your circumstances or in the industrial situation
that can keep you down. If you cannot get rich working for the steel
trust, you can get rich on a ten-acre farm; and if you begin to move
in the Certain Way, you will certainly escape from the “clutches” of
the steel trust and get on to the farm or wherever else you wish to be.
If a few thousands of its employees would enter upon the Certain Way,
the steel trust would soon be in a bad plight; it would have to give
its workingmen more opportunity, or go out of business. Nobody has
to work for a trust; the trusts can keep men in so-called hopeless
conditions only so long as there are men who are too ignorant to know
of the science of getting rich, or too intellectually slothful to
practice it.
Begin this way of thinking and acting, and your faith and purpose will
make you quick to see any opportunity to better your condition.
Such opportunities will speedily come, for the Supreme, working in All,
and working for you, will bring them before you.
Do not wait for an opportunity to be all that you want to be; when
an opportunity to be more than you are now is presented and you feel
impelled toward it, take it. It will be the first step toward a greater
opportunity.
There is no such thing possible in this universe as a lack of
opportunities for the man who is living the advancing life.
It is inherent in the constitution of the cosmos that all things shall
be for him and work together for his good; and he must certainly get
rich if he acts and thinks in the Certain Way. So let wage-earning men
and women study this book with great care, and enter with confidence
upon the course of action it prescribes; it will not fail.