Many people will scoff at the idea that there is an exact science of getting rich; holding the impression that the supply of wealth is limited, they will insist that social and governmental institutions must be changed before even any considerable number of people can acquire a competence. But this is not true.
It is true that existing governments keep the masses in poverty, but this is because the masses do not think and act in the Certain Way.
If the masses begin to move forward as suggested in this book, neither governments nor industrial systems can check them; all systems must be modified[144] to accommodate the forward movement.
If the people have the Advancing Mind, have the Faith that they can become rich, and move forward with the fixed purpose to become rich, nothing can possibly keep them in poverty.
Individuals may enter upon the Certain Way at any time, and under any government, and make themselves rich; and when any considerable number of individuals do so under any government, they will cause the system to be so modified as to open the way for others.
The more men who get rich on the competitive plane, the worse for others; the more who get rich on the creative plane, the better for others.
The economic salvation of the masses can only be accomplished by getting a large number of people to practice the scientific method set down in this book, and become rich. These will show others the way, and inspire them with[145] a desire for real life, with the faith that it can be attained, and with the purpose to attain it.
For the present, however, it is enough to know that neither the government under which you live nor the capitalistic or competitive system of industry can keep you from getting rich. When you enter upon the creative plane of thought you will rise above all these things and become a citizen of another kingdom.
But remember that your thought must be held upon the creative plane; you are never for an instant to be betrayed into regarding the supply as limited, or into acting on the moral level of competition.
Whenever you do fall into old ways of thought, correct yourself instantly; for when you are in the competitive mind, you have lost the co-operation of the Mind of the Whole.
Do not spend any time in planning as to how you will meet possible emergencies in the future, except as the[146] necessary policies may affect your actions to-day. You are concerned with doing to-day’s work in a perfectly successful manner, and not with emergencies which may arise to-morrow; you can attend to them as they come.
Do not concern yourself with questions as to how you shall surmount obstacles which may loom upon your business horizon, unless you can see plainly that your course must be altered to-day in order to avoid them.
No matter how tremendous an obstruction may appear at a distance, you will find that if you go on in the Certain Way it will disappear as you approach it, or that a way over, through, or around it will appear.
No possible combination of circumstances can defeat a man or woman who is proceeding to get rich along strictly scientific lines. No man or woman who obeys the law can fail to get rich, any more than one can multiply two by two and fail to get four.
[147]
Give no anxious thought to possible disasters, obstacles, panics, or unfavorable combinations of circumstances; it is time enough to meet such things when they present themselves before you in the immediate present, and you will find that every difficulty carries with it the wherewithal for its overcoming.
Guard your speech. Never speak of yourself, your affairs, or of anything else in a discouraged or discouraging way.
Never admit the possibility of failure, or speak in a way that infers failure as a possibilit............