All of the great successes in life will verify,…will testify,…that the beginning of their personal journey to success all started because of a major event, great opportunity, or special happening, or even an exciting emotional conversation that occurred between themselves and some other person of great significance or influence in their lives. The catalysts used to trigger the great performance of any individual who winds up influencing thousands of people’s lives is not just a single one-time set of circumstances, or a chance happening of pure luck, or a one-in-a-million occurrence caused by unknown thoughts, deeds, and actions of some here-to-fore unknown person, place, or thing.
Quite the contrary, the Truth of Life records that Success is not an accident and that Success does not attack. Success is a well planned event brought into being as a result of long hard uninterrupted hours of continuous labor…mental, physical…and spiritual efforts.
Success just doesn’t one day randomly happen to an individual. Success is the culmination of a long series of efforts and events and combined work ethics of several or even many other people.
There is no magical appearance, special set of circumstances, or “silver bullet” that when all brought together in some sort of community container, stirred three times in a counterclockwise direction, and left to cool for an hour will then instantly produce the finished product of personal success for anyone! Such potions do not exist. Stop looking for them!
No,…it just is not that easy. There is an old-time saying coined I’m sure from the successful “sages” of the past that says: Success will occur in a person’s life whenever Opportunity and Preparedness come together. It will be major focal point of a person’s life. I will tell you that if you are properly prepared to accomplish great and lasting success in your life,…if you are physically, mentally, and spiritually prepared to understand the potential of an opportunity being presented to you, then,…you are well ahead of all others who are on and scaling the ladder to success. In such a capacity you are in front of most of the other people who have been exposed to the very same opportunity, and who fail to take advantage of it….or who begin their efforts to succeed in the presented opportunity, but later on quit, give up, or make lots of different excuses rather than working as they have been instructed to do. The thing to remember is that the person who wins is always the one who starts the race, stays actively involved in running the race, and who perseveres through all of the challenges and obstacles that come up during the race,…until he or she actually and finally finishes the race.
If you are not sure as to the viability of a presented opportunity, or you’re not sure of your own personal qualifications or abilities to perform the required work regimen needed to accomplish the mission of the opportunity, or you lack the intense desire to work at the opportunity so as to cause it to produce the offered highly desirable results,…then, candidly, you must conclude that you are not adequately prepared to accept and work the presented opportunity. Without the adequate preparation,…or the developing of the adequate preparation,…you most probably won’t achieve very much of what it is that you are pursuing! The Truth of Life is simply that there are no free lunches. You see friends, whenever somebody gets something for nothing, then somebody else, somewhere else is forced to produce or create something or give something else up and receive nothing back for their efforts….that type of activity violates God’s Laws, and consequently, He will not allow it to happen. Remember that our God is a loving God, but He is also a Just God.
When the proper preparation is complete,…the mission, cause, purpose, or dream will be readily accomplished by turning it into reality. You are your own best catalyst. Get your personal preparation adequate and in place now! When the right opportunity eventually comes along you will immediately know it!…and you will immediately act upon it!
Please permit me to share with you a true and real story-behind-a-story that took place almost a century ago. It is a story of a conversation that took place between two very driven and accomplished men. The story tells in specific detail what I am attempting to communicate to you through this article.
The story is about the “what” and the “how” Mr. Andrew Carnegie selected Mr. Napoleon Hill to research and then write his Philosophy of Success. The story entails the two principal characteristics of all successful men or women for whom Mr. Carnegie was always on look out to discover among the people with whom he worked or encountered during the course of each day of his life.
People who greatly desire to become successful are always on the look out for great opportunities and personalities.
Now as you read or listen to this lesson of life today, internalize it and personalize it to your own life situation. Whenever questions are asked, re-ask them to yourself and give your own answers to those questions.
This story-behind-the-story shows the powerful degree of importance that Mr. Andrew Carnegie placed upon a person possessing a Definiteness of Purpose to and for their own life. Andrew Carnegie knew what he wanted, believed he could achieve it, and lived his entire life in concert with his personal beliefs,…without ever wavering. His personal example always spoke louder than his words.
Mr. Carnegie had developed his great steel industry and accumulated a huge fortune in money when he turned his interest to the use and the disposition of his fortune. Having recognized that the better portion of his riches consisted in the knowledge with which he had accumulated material riches and in his understanding of human relationships, his major aim in life became that of inspiring someone else to organize a philosophy that would convey this knowledge to all who might desire it.
Andrew Carnegie was well along in years when he recognized that the job called for the services of a young man who had the time and the inclination to spend twenty years or more in research of the causes of individual achievement.
After interviewing more than 250 young men whom he suspected might have such ability, he then met, by mere chance, a young man who had been sent by a magazine to interview him for the story of his achievements. (Pay attention to the people who come into your life.)
Mr. Carnegie’s keen insight into the character of men helped him to recognize that this young man might have the qualities for which he had long been searching, so he immediately set up an ingenious plan by which to make a test of his new found candidate.
Mr. Carnegie began by giving the young man the story of his achievements. Then he began to suggest to him that the world needed a practical philosophy of individual achievement which would permit the humblest worker to accumulate riches in whatever amount he might desire.
For three days and nights he elaborated upon his idea, describing how one might go about the organization of such a grand philosophy. When the story was finally finished Mr. Carnegie was ready to apply his test, to determine whether or not he had found the man who could be depended upon to carry his idea through to completion.
Mr. Carnegie drew a full breath and said. “You now have my idea of a new philosophy,…and I wish to ask you a question in connection with it which I wish you to answer by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ The question is this: “If I give you the opportunity to organize the world’s first philosophy of individual achievement, and introduce you to men who can and will collaborate with you in the work of organization, do you wish the opportunity, and will you follow through with it to completion if it is given to you?”
The young man cleared his throat, stammered for a few seconds, then boldly replied in a brief sentence that was destined to provide him with an opportunity to project his influence for good throughout the world.
“Yes,” he exclaimed, “I will not only undertake the job, but I will finish it!”
That response truly was definite! It was the one thing Mr. Carnegie was searching for–definiteness of purpose.
Many years later this young man learned that Mr. Andrew Carnegie had held a stopwatch in his hand when he asked that all important question, and he had allowed exactly sixty seconds for an answer. If the answer had required more time,…the opportunity would have been withheld. His answer had actually required twenty-nine seconds!
The supportive reasoning for the timing of the response was explained by Mr. Carnegie.
“It has been my experience,” said he, “that a man who cannot reach a decision promptly, once he has all of the necessary facts for a decision at hand, cannot be depended upon to carry through any decision he may make. I have also discovered that men who reach decisions promptly usually have the capacity to move with definiteness of purpose in other circumstances.”
The first hurdle of Mr. Carnegie’s test had been covered with flying colors, but there was still another that followed.
“Very well,” said Carnegie, “you have one of the two important qualities that will be needed by the man who organizes the philosophy I have described. Now I shall learn whether or not you have the second.
Mr. Carnegie stated, “If I give you the opportunity to organize the philosophy are you willing to devote twenty years of your time to research into the causes of success and failure, without pay, earning your own living as you go along?”
That question was a real shock to the man chosen by Mr. Carnegie for so important a job, for he had naturally suspected that he would be subsidized from Mr. Carnegie’s huge fortune. However, he recovered quickly from the shock by asking Mr. Carnegie why he was unwilling to provide the money for such an important assignment.
Listen very carefully to these words of response by Mr. Andrew Carnegie.
“It is not unwillingness to supply the money,” Mr. Carnegie replied, “but it is my desire to know if you have in you a natural capacity for willingness to GO THE EXTRA MILE by rendering service before trying to collect pay for it.”
Then Mr. Carnegie went on to explain that the more successful men in all walks of life were, and had always been, men who followed the habit of rendering more service than that for which they were paid.
Mr. Carnegie also called attention to the fact that subsidies of money, whether they be made to individuals or to groups of individuals, often do more injury than good.
And he reminded the young man that he had been given an opportunity which had been withheld from more than 250 other men, some of whom were much older and more experienced than he. Mr. Carnegie finished by saying:
“If you make the most of the opportunity I have offered you, it is conceivable that you may develop it into riches so fabulous in nature as to dwarf my material wealth by comparison,…for that opportunity provides the way for you to penetrate the keenest minds of this nation,…to profit by the experiences of our greatest American leaders of industry, and it might well enable you to project your influence for good throughout the civilized world, thereby enriching those who are not yet born.”
The preparation was in place, the opportunity was then presented, and WHAM BAM! The magic mix of ingredients were ready for stirring. It was time to start cooking the meal!
The opportunity was seized,…the opportunity was embraced!
The Carnegie “tests” had found the man for whom he had been so long searching for, and the man had received his first lesson on DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE and a willingness to GO THE EXTRA MILE.
Twenty years later, almost to the day, the philosophy, which Andrew Carnegie had designated as being the better portion of his riches, was completed and presented to the world in an eight-volume edition thoroughly covering the principles of personal success.
And what ever happened to the man, named Napoleon Hill, who spent twenty years of time without pay? Was it really worth it? What compensation did receive for his prolonged labor and effort in compiling the philosophy?
A complete answer to this question would be impossible, for the man himself does not know the total value of the benefits he has personally received. Moreover these benefits are so flexible in nature that they will continue to aid him for the remainder of his life,…and on after his death.
The best use of your life,… is to so live your life,…that the use of your life,…will outlive your life.
Keep in mind that these events all occurred in the first quarter of the twentieth century before all of the inflation, deficit spending, and world domination costs and expenses were being shoveled onto the American public taxpayer. But for the curious folks who measure success in terms of only material values alone, it can be stated that for only one of the many books that Mr. Napoleon Hill wrote in connection with the publication of his eight-volume set on the principles of success, he had received well over an estimated profit of $3 Million! The actual time spent in the physical writing of this book was only four hours.
Definiteness of Purpose and the habit of Going The Extra Mile constitute a great and mighty force which staggers the imagination of even the most imaginative people. These two success principles are but two of the seventeen principles of personal success and accomplishment put together by Napoleon Hill.
Whenever any of the different success principles of this personal philosophy of success are blended together they will work to greatly multiply the effects of personal achievement. This combination of principles leads to the development of stupendous power and accomplishment for any individual who chooses to follow them.
It is my most sincere hope and prayer for you,…that you grasp this all important discussion and forthrightly begin to figure out ways and means that you can immediately begin putting into use what you have learned.
Peace And Love to All of You…………………Poppa Bear