#111.2 The Science of Getting Rich - Wattles

THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH 
BY WALLACE D. WATTLES 
Part II

In the first part, Wattles told you that sooner or later you MUST interact with other people. Nobody is alone and being alone or completely self sufficient is not the answer. You can't even expect a monetary system or anything else that goes with a civilization without ORGANIZING with others, whether it is at the level of making a sale, or taking an order for something long term via a contract, all of it involves interactions with other people.

One impression from this part is that Wattles wished to express the idea that to think what you like, to have reached the conclusions you have done and will do based on your own research, that you have thoroughly done your own homework into the process leading to your chosen conclusions, all of that, is the core part of the Certain Way.

So now you begin to know that he means literally what the words mean; you do things in a Certain Way and you can become successful if not rich. This means of course that you should be aware when you are no longer thinking what you like, but what someone else likes; what THEY like for instance. THEM collectively to us are globalists, bankers, elites, pedophiles, satanists, technocrats, scribes, Pharisees, etc. Most live as economic parasites on the rest of us. These are the enemies of mankind. Ultimately, we want nothing to do with THEM. The Uncertain Way would be to believe (accept) anything from anyone else without making up your own mind about it and in the end thinking what you like. Think about it: we usually respond far better to those that think what they like than any who are obviously under someone else's influence or will.

We will now find out more about the Certain Way.

CHAPTER 4 - The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich

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.

Original Substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in nature is the visible expression of a thought in Original Substance. As the Formless Stuff thinks of a form, it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is the way all things were created.

We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought universe. The thought of a moving universe extended throughout Formless Substance, and the Thinking Stuff moving according to that thought, took the form of systems of planets, and maintains that form. Thinking Substance takes the form of its thought, and moves according to the thought. Holding the idea of a circling system of suns and worlds, it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks. Thinking the form of a slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree, though centuries may be required to do the work.

In creating, the Formless seems to move according to the lines of motion it has established; the thought of an oak tree does not cause the instant formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces which will produce the tree, along established lines of growth.

Every thought of form, held in thinking Substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.

The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon Formless Substance, might not cause the instant formation, of the house; but it would cause the turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the speedy building of the house. And if there were no existing channels through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance, without waiting for the slow processes of the organic and inorganic world.

No thought of form can be impressed upon Original Substance without causing the creation of the form. Man is a thinking center, and can originate thought. All the forms that man fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought; he cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing.

All of the foregoing up to the emphasized boils down to this as a literal observable assumption; someone thought of something before it took form. All one's aspirations are the same: they begin with a thought, an aspiration; I want to be able to play the piano; to bake a cake, etc. In more complicated cases, one determines what skills or tools one must have in order to do particular work, one literally begins to assemble tasks according to how much greater one's efficiency and time might be best used. AGAIN, the Certain Way involves THOUGHT before ACTION. Those who think before they act will usually do far less harm to themselves and others and that's just for starters.

And so far man has confined his efforts wholly to the work of his hands; he has applied manual labor to the world of forms, seeking to change or modify those already existing. He has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new forms by impressing his thoughts upon Formless Substance.

When man has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature, and makes an image of the form which is in his mind. He has, so far, made little or no effort to co-operate with Formless Intelligence; to work "with the Father." He has not dreamed that he can "do what he seeth the Father doing." Man reshapes and modifies existing forms by manual labor; he has given no attention to the question whether he may not produce things from Formless Substance by communicating his thoughts to it. We propose to prove that he may do so; to prove that any man or woman may do so, and to show how.

As our first step, we must lay down three fundamental propositions.

First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff, or substance, from which all things are made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one element; all the many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different shapes, made from the same stuff. And this stuff is thinking stuff; a thought held in it produces the form of the thought.

Thought, in thinking substance, produces shapes. Man is a thinking center, capable of original thought; if man can communicate his thought to original thinking substance, he can cause the creation, or formation, of the thing he thinks about. To summarize this:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this substance, Produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. It may be asked if I can prove these statements; and without going into details, I answer that I can do so, both by logic and experience.

Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original thinking substance; and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to man's power to cause the formation of the thing he thinks about.

And by experiment, I find the reasoning true; and this is my strongest proof.

If one man who reads this book gets rich by doing what it tells him to do, that is evidence in support of my claim; but if every man who does what it tells him to do gets rich, that is positive proof until some one goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until the process fails; and this process will not fail, for every man who does exactly what this book tells him to do will get rich.

I have said that men get rich by doing things in a Certain Way; and in order to do so, men must become able to think in a certain way.

A man's way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things.

To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think; this is the first step toward getting rich.

To think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances.

Every man has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearance is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious, and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work man is called upon to perform.

Literally then, one thinks about everything one does before one does it. One adopts a generally more thoughtful attitude about everything starting with themselves and one acquires the ability to think what one wants to think, not what anyone else wants you to think. You might happen to agree with some consensus of opinion, but you got there by your own thinking; you thought what you wanted to think. So this is the beginning of acting in a Certain Way.

There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it; and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the TRUTH.

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.

This is essentially Christian Science, a related offshoot of the same New Thought philosophy (if one can even call it that). But we are posting this here to postulate the attitude that it conveys to the reader. Wattles advises us to avoid dwelling on the downsides of life. This is particularly popular these days; all the memes and talk one hears constantly against “negativity.” This is a very difficult position to advocate, but if taken truly, this dwelling on the downsides of life can be seen as a hindrance to ACTION or to cause one to assume much thoughtless action and therefore be wasting one's time and energies and not getting rich or even prosperous. Wattles continues from the New Thought perspective ...

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 what he wants.

This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all appearances; and that fact is that there is one Thinking Substance, from which and by which all things are made.

Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that man can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and become visible things.

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 statements given previously in this chapter; and in order to emphasize them. I repeat them here:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this substance, Produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe than this monistic one; and you must dwell upon this until it is fixed in your mind, and has become your habitual thought.

So this is it, the Certain Way. It is single minded, it thinks before it acts, it is creative rather than competitive, it accepts abundance and certain success as veritable givens.

Read these creed statements over and over again; fix every word upon your memory, and meditate upon them until you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast it aside as a sin. Do not listen to arguments against this idea; do not go to churches or lectures where a contrary concept of things is taught or preached. Do not read magazines or books which teach a different idea; if you get mixed up in your faith, all your efforts will be in vain.

So go back to it. This is the Certain Way to act to become rich or even prosperous. Think before you act and create beforehand what you want in your mind and work toward its completion and it will be manifested to you, should that is be your fate to live to receive it. This is what he is saying. He's saying to hold to it as though it was at least a regular discipline too, or even a religion. But is it more likely that the Certain Way is similar to a pianist deciding to finally stop putting of conquering Chopin by deliberately not playing any music but that by Chopin? Eventually he either plays Chopin and well or he leaves off playing the piano entirely. It is a similar single minded quality that is required. But what lies under this? It applies to all work as we define it on this blog. One must be convinced of one's own value, of what one can and cannot do, of what one would like to do, etc.

Do not ask why these things are true, nor speculate as to how they can be true; simply take them on trust. The science of getting rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this faith.

You see in this final paragraph the attempt at allying religion with science and therefore sacrificing what each represented before the unfriendly merger. How much these days is there something passing for science that is piped about with about the same cliché; don't ask, don't speculate, simply take them on trust. Regardless of these considerations, it is the attitude of thoughtful action that provided sufficient motivation to post this here.

CHAPTER 5 - Increasing Life

YOU must get rid of the last vestige of the old idea that there is a Deity whose will it is that you should be poor, or whose purposes may be served by keeping you in poverty.

We'll underline this by suggesting that it was the LOVE of money that was the root of all evil, not the money itself, which is nothing but a human tool to acquire greater wealth in order to live a better life, etc.

The Intelligent Substance which is All, and in All, and which lives in All and lives in you, is a consciously Living Substance. Being a consciously living substance, It must have the nature and inherent desire of every living intelligence for increase of life. Every living thing must continually seek for the enlargement of its life, because life, in the mere act of living, must increase itself. A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity, and in the act of living produces a hundred more seeds; life, by living, multiplies itself. It is forever Becoming More; it must do so, if it continues to be at all.

Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. 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. The desire for riches is simply the capacity for larger life seeking fulfillment; every desire is the effort of an unexpressed possibility to come into action. It is power seeking to manifest which causes desire. That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the plant grow; it is Life, seeking fuller expression.

Run back though this blog and see what we said about each of us having value. Regardless of the “dressing” these ideas come in, the core of it is that all life seeks increase and that seeking increase is natural and that seeking decrease, disease, scarcity, impoverishment, barbarism, etc. leads to nothing but the demise of ourselves, society and civilization with it. And there ARE those out there who claim this is the way to think, but few of us like to think that way and that is the essential point.

The One Living Substance must be subject to this inherent law of all life; it is permeated with the desire to live more; that is why it is under the necessity of creating things.

The One Substance desires to live more in you; hence it wants you to have all the things you can use. It is the desire of God that you should get rich. [It would not run counter to the will of God for you to become rich] He wants you to get rich because he can express himself better through you if you have plenty of things to use in giving him expression. He can live more in you if you have unlimited command of the means of life. The universe desires you to have everything you want to have.

Nature is friendly to your plans. Everything is naturally for you. Make up your mind that this is true. It is essential, however that your purpose should harmonize with the purpose that is in All. You must want real life, not mere pleasure of sensual gratification. Life is the performance of function; and the individual really lives only when he performs every function, physical, mental, and spiritual, of which he is capable, without excess in any.

Real life vs. mere pleasure of sensual gratification. One is connected with doing things in a Certain Way and the other is not.

You do not want to get rich in order to live swinishly [as or like a pig], for the gratification of animal desires; that is not life. But the performance of every physical function is a part of life, and no one lives completely who denies the impulses of the body a normal and healthful expression.

You do not want to get rich solely to enjoy mental pleasures, to get knowledge, to gratify ambition, to outshine others, to be famous. All these are a legitimate part of life, but the man who lives for the pleasures of the intellect alone will only have a partial life, and he will never be satisfied with his lot.

The great lot of you who live in your heads should just have felt a great earthquake: you will not succeed without getting down to earth, getting dirty, doing menial tasks, doing anything required to fulfill what you have inside your own mind. I know plenty of people who are very well read that haven't accomplished a god damned thing!

You do not want to get rich solely for the good of others, to lose yourself for the salvation of mankind, to experience the joys of philanthropy and sacrifice. The joys of the soul are only a part of life; and they are no better or nobler than any other part.

There are plenty of people who became rich and then tried starting communities, ashrams, sects, Bohemian social experiments, etc. Most have had no long lasting effects. Idealism doesn't work anyway. One can't become wealthier chiefly to benefit those who are not wealthy. If you have followed this blog at all, you'd know that the whole concept of people NOT being wealthy at all is not strictly true (each of us has innate wealth capable of providing us an income), or at best might be the result of THEIR present dysfunctional monetary machines (directly, since we do not issue the money and thus it is not really ours).

You want to get rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do these things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant lands, feed your mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love men and do kind things, and be able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth.

Now, don't rush to the conclusion that this is a selfish outlook (as even Wattles understands). Running counter to everything else you may have heard, read, seen, etc. to want more for yourself doesn't take anything from anyone else. Scarcity is the illusion, abundance is natural.

One more detail: this blog has a precise definition of many things because more confusion arises from imprecise understanding of the words we use. Selfishness to this blog is any action taken against someone else to benefit oneself: in order for anything to be really selfish, one must take from someone else in order to benefit oneself.

There is much that amounts to just making ourselves larger, increasing our influence, acquiring more wealth able to provide income, etc. that has NOTHING to do with taking anything from anyone else; living well is not automatically selfish or the result of selfishness. In fact, we have every reason to question the motives of anyone suggesting that it is selfish or does represent selfishness! Again, the Certain Way involves thinking what we like, not what someone else likes.

But remember that extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are mistakes. Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind.

Since this MUST be true or whoever or whatever is not God, then again, one is in good company to question where all these ideas about pleasing God by doing with less come from.  Yes, we are suggesting a political / statist motivation running many centuries back in time at least.  It has been very successful, but that doesn't make it right or the truth.  There were and are those responsible whose activities will eventually be revealed for all to see.  But that's not the concern of this blog.   

What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.

You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich; so it is right and praiseworthy that you should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth.

Wattles tells us that he too subscribes to wealth = substance, regardless of the prospects of that substance to provide anything constituting a regular usually monthly income might come from. To us, nothing is wealth unless it produces an income and one cannot have an income without the will to work and the will to think what one likes. We have already defined work. If you work without being paid, that may be an indication of NOT thinking what you like, NOT acting in a Certain Way.

Parenthetically, we advocate all that would NOT be undervalued to consider this blog's proposal and since becoming rich and successful doesn't need to mean reliance anyone else's STOLEN fiat money or THEIR clunky chunks of metal, that you consider working to make this proposal a reality. As Wattles says, one thinks in a Certain Way and things begin to organize around the projected idea. It is similar to “build it and they will come.”

Remember, however, that the desire of Substance is for all, and its movements must be for more life to all; it cannot be made to work for less life to any, because it is equally in all, seeking riches and life.

Intelligent Substance will make things for you, but it will not take things away from some one else and give them to you.

We're glad he says this. It means he's on OUR side, not the side of the usurers or those making more money on their money without work. Now the next one runs completely counter to EVERY school of THEIR economics which rests on the supposed reality of momentary scarcities and runs through all standard economic thinking:

You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created. You do not have to take anything away from any one. You do not have to drive sharp bargains. You do not have to cheat, or to take advantage. You do not need to let any man work for you for less than he earns.

You do not have to covet the property of others, or to look at it with wishful eyes; no man has anything of which you cannot have the like, and that without taking what he has away from him.

You are to become a creator, not a competitor; you are going to get what you want, but in such a way that when you get it every other man will have more than he has now.

I am aware that there are men who get a vast amount of money by proceeding in direct opposition to the statements in the paragraphs above, and may add a word of explanation here:

Men of the plutocratic type, who become very rich, do so sometimes purely by their extraordinary ability on the plane of competition; and sometimes they unconsciously relate themselves to Substance in its great purposes and movements for the general racial [sic] upbuilding through industrial evolution. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, et al., have been the unconscious agents of the Supreme in the necessary work of systematizing and organizing productive industry; and in the end, their work will contribute immensely toward increased life for all. Their day is nearly over; they have organized production, and will soon be succeeded by the agents of the multitude, who will organize the machinery of distribution.

We hear the yearning of the first socialist workers' movements of a century or so ago. But Wattles was misinformed. Rockefeller in particular but the others too to a great degree were very interested in distribution and in fact sought to monopolize not only the vertical integration but the horizontal integration of markets for their products. This has hardly all gone away because Wattles' historical analysis was faulty. But that's not why we're presenting this here. It is for all of us that are interested to acquire the attitude required to get what we want out of life. In order to do so, we will perforce need to work together or we will be poorer for not making the effort.

The multi-millionaires are like the monster reptiles of the prehistoric eras; they play a necessary part in the evolutionary process, but the same Power which produced them will dispose of them. And it is well to bear in mind that they have never been really rich; a record of the private lives of most of this class will show that they have really been the most abject and wretched of the poor.

Maybe, but now from this vantage point and entirely because we live under Mystery Babylon which shall follow all the “beast” systems that preceded it to perdition, oblivion, etc. we consider that thinking what we like to improve our lives and acting in common purpose in the Certain Way, would benefit all of us tremendously. What good is proposing a newer better monetary system if it wasn't to enable more people to get rich? One can't be rich without obvious physical manifestations of improved life or one is not rich.

Riches secured on the competitive plane are never satisfactory and permanent; they are yours to-day, and another's tomorrow. Remember, if you are to become rich in a scientific and certain way, you must rise entirely out of the competitive thought. You must never think for a moment that the supply is limited. Just as soon as you begin to think that all the money is being "cornered" and controlled by bankers and others, and that you must exert yourself to get laws passed to stop this process, and so on; in that moment you drop into the competitive mind, and your power to cause creation is gone for the time being; and what is worse, you will probably arrest the creative movements you have already instituted.

How many times have all of us seen that someone come up with an idea and the first thing that concerns them is whether someone will steal their idea? So they go about getting their idea patented or fall under some international copyright and all this does is signal to any of the sharks out there that someone has a good idea for sale in THEIR money. What else do you suppose a patent is good for? It is establishing a specific idea for sale to someone that didn't come up with it. What's the result? The idea might be purchased and never see the light of day. No furtherance is made, no money of any kind made, nobody's life made better, etc. We have little but contempt for most “intellectual property” law and its implication that one can sell something while retaining ownership of it, something that we regard as dishonest.  But even so, the reason I make mention of it here is that people have been kept from acting in a Certain Way by thinking they have to acquire patents and copyrights which are often difficult, tedious and expensive to acquire and meanwhile you have done nothing concerning getting rich.  So the acquisition of patents, copyrights, etc. comes AFTER one is already rich, if at all. 

KNOW that there are countless millions of dollars' worth of gold in the mountains of the earth, not yet brought to light; and know that if there were not, more would be created from Thinking Substance to supply your needs.

KNOW that the money you need will come, even if it is necessary for a thousand men to be led to the discovery of new gold mines to-morrow.

Never look at the visible supply; look always at the limitless riches in Formless Substance, and KNOW that they are coming to you as fast as you can receive and use them. Nobody, by cornering the visible supply, can prevent you from getting what is yours.

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. Stick to the formulated statement:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

So, the only real question concerns the form of your particular aspiration: it is what you like to think about most. It is particularly yours. It may take many forms but usually centers on one desired form. Consider the process as well as the final result. You really have to want it to make it happen.

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#111.1 The Science of Getting Rich - Wattles

THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH

BY WALLACE D. WATTLES

Part I

The Science of Getting Rich is a classic, written by Wallace D Wattles, and published in 1910. Wattles died in 1911 shortly after publishing this book. Forgotten for decades, it was recently rediscovered. The timeless principles in this classic will transform your financial future.

A primary principal in The Science of Getting Rich is to always give more in "use value" than you receive in "cash value" for your products or services. As Wattles states in his book, if you practice and apply this science, you will get rich!

Or so it says. Yes, you see, we want you to know the ground from which things presented here spring forth. In this case it was simply an ideal, carried per usual into a social movement, an idealism. Such was New Thought; an American intellectual movement of a little over a hundred years ago that stretches back to R.W. Emerson and his set in the early 19^th century.

New Thought holds that Infinite Intelligence, or their definition for God, is everywhere, spirit is the totality of real things, true human self hood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect. Sounds a lot like Christian Science, which is a related belief system. New Thought was and is a cobbled together idealism composed of elements from Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnosticism, etc. whatever. There is a healthy skepticism that wants to know the distinction between fantasy and reality. There is no reason to trust this diaphanous philosophy as it has no basis but material suppositions, unless just believing (accepting) that something is so, causes it to become so, which can not be verified to be the case; the claim of “science” is hence spurious! There's more to it as we shall see.

We are not presenting it here pressing for any belief as in a “belief system” or a “religion” or anything like that. The reason we're posting it here, with notes regarding this blog's proposal, is that it conveys a perspective, a point of view, an attitude. Whether one's goal would be to get rich or to prosper, instruction in the attitude this material expresses addresses all true John and Jane Galts out there in the world, those who would not be undersold or undervalued; those who at least trade value for value. I encountered two such places right here in my little village yesterday. I shall continue to patronize them. They do exist and we'll find out more about them as we examine what Wattles has to say.

Wattles' brief book of around 50 pages was organized as follows:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1 - The Right To Be Rich

CHAPTER 2 - There is A Science of Getting Rich

CHAPTER 3 - Is Opportunity Monopolized?

CHAPTER 4 - The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich

CHAPTER 5 - Increasing Life

CHAPTER 6 - How Riches Come to You

CHAPTER 7 - Gratitude

CHAPTER 8 - Thinking in the Certain Way

CHAPTER 9 - How to Use the Will

CHAPTER 10 - Further Use of the Will

CHAPTER 11 - Acting in the Certain Way

CHAPTER 12 - Efficient Action

CHAPTER 13 - Getting into the Right Business

CHAPTER 14 - The Impression of Increase

CHAPTER 15 - The Advancing Man

CHAPTER 16 - Some Cautions, and Concluding Observations

CHAPTER 17 - Summary of the Science of Getting Rich

PREFACE

The original preface:

This book is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual, not a treatise upon theories. It is intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money; who wish to get rich first, and philosophize afterward. It is for those who have, so far, found neither the time, the means, nor the opportunity to go deeply into the study of metaphysics, but who want results and who are willing to take the conclusions of science as a basis for action, without going into all the processes by which those conclusions were reached.

He addresses people of ACTION not inaction. How few are there of these?

It is expected that the reader will take the fundamental statements upon faith, just as he would take statements concerning a law of electrical action if they were promulgated by a Marconi or an Edison; and, taking the statements upon faith, that he will prove their truth by acting upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will certainly get rich; for the science herein applied is an exact science, and failure is impossible. For the benefit, however, of those who wish to investigate philosophical theories and so secure a logical basis for faith, I will here cite certain authorities.

The monistic theory of the universe the theory that One is All, and that All is One; That one Substance manifests itself as the seeming many elements of the material world -is of Hindu origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western world for two hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies [Buddhism and Confucius], and of those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Emerson. [Kant as well] The reader who would dig to the philosophical foundations of this is advised to read Hegel and Emerson for himself.

Dialectics of the sort which have two opposite poles which supposedly must battle for final equilibrium in the form of a solution all stem from Hegel. Emerson's contribution is mystification: if it isn't clear enough, make it cloudier.

In writing this book I have sacrificed all other considerations to plainness and simplicity of style, so that all might understand. The plan of action laid down herein was deduced from the conclusions of philosophy; it has been thoroughly tested, and bears the supreme test of practical experiment; it works. If you wish to know how the conclusions were arrived at, read the writings of the authors mentioned above; and if you wish to reap the fruits of their philosophies in actual practice, read this book and do exactly as it tells you to do.

The Author

CHAPTER 1 - The Right To Be Rich

One might ask, why rich? Why not, the right not to be poor? Why do people climb mountains instead of seeking swamps? What we're definitely standing behind throughout this blog is the right to have your WILL over your life, your liberty (freedom), and your property. You have a natural right (not a civil right) by which to utilize your own innate wealth capable of producing an income measured in terms of money.  This we regard as FREE/private enterprise as opposed to capitalism, the itch with capital, whereby money makes money on money without work, which since it is based on usury, the demand back of what was not issued/created, we regard as stealing.

I have changed and will change some of the original formatting for emphasis.

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.

Those that have succeeded have understood the emphasized, whether consciously or not.

A man develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things; therefore, the basis of all advancement for man must be the science of getting rich.

The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining. Man's right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other words, his right to be rich.

As we pointed out in the Ayn Rand series whether you or I believe any of this, many or even most of the elites do so. What do THEY have that you do not? Money. THEIR money of course. But whether living with a legitimate monetary system such as the one proposed by this blog, or the present doggerel, dilapidated, illegitimate and counterfeit monetary systems including all the srypto-currencies, the actions in which business and life are carried out matter and how they are carried out and with what attitude they are carried out matters a great deal.

In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No man ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life; and every man should have all that can contribute to the power; elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.

The man who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich; and no man who has not plenty of money can have all he wants. Life has advanced so far, and become so complex, that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great amount of wealth [is it mere cash, things or something producing income?] in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness. Every person naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming; this desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be; you can become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is therefore the most essential of all knowledge.

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy.

The man who does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the man who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal.

There are three motives for which we live;

we live for the body,

we live for the mind,

we live for the soul.

No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three—body, mind, or soul — can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression.

It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body; and it is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or soul.

Consider all these as you will according to your own circumstances.

We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both mind and soul; and we see that real life means the complete expression of all that man can give forth through body, mind, and soul. Whatever he can say, no man can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in every function, and unless the same is true of his mind and his soul. Wherever there is unexpressed possibility, or function not performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression, or function seeking performance.

Man cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter; and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life.

We have made a helpful concept here; work is the time out of the rest of your life in which you are paid in money to split the barter for your time for things you really need such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. We like to draw a distinction between the world or work and the rest of our lives and have a healthy resentment bordering on forcible intolerance against those who would place a crass commercial econo-meme on our lives.

He cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship. To live fully in mind he must have intellectual recreations, and must surround himself with all the objects of art and beauty he is capable of using and appreciating.

To live fully in soul, man must have love; and love is denied expression by poverty. 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.

Everything set forth so far goes equally for the Jane Galts as for the John Galts out there.

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.

Before continuing, will it make a difference that you and many tens of thousands of others, become rich in Valuns, when there no longer are any other of THEIR money? If all the mines, mints and markets deciding what an ounce of precious metals would buy were no longer THEIRS, would it matter? A monetary token that is itself near worthless nevertheless conveys the message that value was traded for value, which was the only part of the transaction that mattered; settling the terms of barter.

CHAPTER 2 - There is A Science of Getting Rich

THERE is a Science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws that govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.

The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way; those who do things in this Certain Way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich; while those who do not do things in this Certain Way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor.

It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects; and, therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich. That the above statement is true is shown by the following facts:

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. When two men are in the same locality, and in the same business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it shows that getting rich is not, primarily, a matter of environment. Some environments may be more favorable than others, but when two men in the same business are in the same neighborhood, and one gets rich while the other fails, it indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way. And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely to the possession of talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while other who have very little talent get rich.

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.

Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do; for two men in the same business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains poor or becomes bankrupt. From all these things, we must come to the conclusion that getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way.

If getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way, and if like causes always produce like effects, then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become rich, and the whole matter is brought within the domain of exact science.

The question arises here, whether this Certain Way may not be so difficult that only a few may follow it. This cannot be true, as we have seen, so far as natural ability is concerned. Talented people get rich, and blockheads get rich; intellectually brilliant people get rich, and very stupid people get rich; physically strong people get rich, and weak and sickly people get rich.

Some degree of ability to think and understand is, of course, essential; but in so far natural ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense enough to read and understand these words can certainly get rich. Also, we have seen that it is not a matter of environment. Location counts for something; one would not go to the heart of the Sahara and expect to do successful business.

Getting rich involves the necessity of dealing with men, and of being where there are people to deal with; and if these people are inclined to deal in the way you want to deal, so much the better. But that is about as far as environment goes.

He may or may not have a point here. The necessity of dealing with people IS required, however there might be other ways of being productive that have nothing to do with dealing with very many people directly and still become prosperous if not rich.

If anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you; and if anybody else in your state can get rich, so can you. 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 that you like, and which is congenial to you; and if you have certain talents that are well developed, you will do best in a business that calls for the exercise of those talents. Also, you will do best in a business, which is suited to your locality; an ice-cream parlor would do better in a warm climate than in Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed better in the Northwest than in Florida, where there are no salmon.

But, aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not dependent upon your engaging in some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a Certain Way. If you are now in business, and anybody else in your locality is getting rich in the same business, while you are not getting rich, it is because you are not doing things in the same Way that the other person is doing them.

No one is prevented from getting rich by lack of capital. True, as you get capital the increase becomes more easy and rapid; but one who has capital is already rich, and does not need to consider how to become so. No matter how poor you may be, if you begin to do things in the Certain Way you will begin to get rich; and you will begin to have capital. The getting of capital is a part of the process of getting rich; and it is a part of the result that invariably follows the doing of things in the Certain Way. You may be the poorest man on the continent, and be deeply in debt; you may have neither friends, influence, nor resources; but if you begin to do things in this way, you must infallibly begin to get rich, for like causes must produce like effects. If you have no capital, you can get capital; if you are in the wrong business, you can get into the right business; if you are in the wrong location, you can go to the right location; and you can do so by beginning in your present business and in your present location to do things in the Certain Way which causes success.

 
By now, I'm sure we're all curious just what this Certain Way is. We'll see.

CHAPTER 3 - Is Opportunity Monopolized?

This was written from the perspective of 1910. Notice some of the technologies that came and went and might or might not come again.

NO man is kept poor because opportunity has been taken away from him; because other people have monopolized the wealth, and have put a fence around it. You may be shut off from engaging in business in certain lines, but there are other channels open to you. Probably it would be hard for you to get control of any of the great railroad systems; that field is pretty well monopolized. But the electric railway business is still in its infancy, and offers plenty of scope for enterprise; and it will be but a very few years until traffic and transportation through the air will become a great industry, and in all its branches will give employment to hundreds of thousands, and perhaps to millions, of people. Why not turn your attention to the development of aerial transportation, instead of competing with J. J. Hill and others for a chance in the steam railway world?

It is quite true that if you are a workman in the employ of the steel trust you have very little chance of becoming the owner of the plant in which you work; but it is also true that if you will commence to act in a Certain Way, you can soon leave the employ of the steel trust; you can buy a farm of from ten to forty acres, and engage in business as a producer of foodstuffs. There is great opportunity at this time for men who will live upon small tracts of land and cultivate the same intensively; such men will certainly get rich. You may say that it is impossible for you to get the land, but I am going to prove to you that it is not impossible, and that you can certainly get a farm if you will go to work in a Certain Way.

At different periods the tide of opportunity sets in different directions, according to the needs of the whole, and the particular stage of social evolution [?] which has been reached [sic]. At present, in America, it is setting toward agriculture and the allied industries and professions. Today, opportunity is open before the factory worker in his line. It is open before the business man who supplies the farmer more than before the one who supplies the factory worker; and before the professional man who waits upon the farmer more than before the one who serves the working class.

We are pointing out that ANY proposition that contends that actual progress has been achieved through some kind of “survival of the fittest” evolution by natural selection, or by whatever other means, stands as nakedly unproved and likely false. As Wattles admits, like causes always produce like effects. Therefore like follows like despite any technical changes or alternative means becoming available to you, including the proposed Valun based system. Forms and usage may change without eliminating like following like. And yes, since having all that Wattles describes must be necessary to becoming rich; it is the property and goods one acquires, including the machines and technology one acquires, that adds to one's riches, not just “securities” or having a lot of the particular variety of THEIR money.

There is abundance of opportunity for the man who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim against it. So the factory workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not deprived of opportunity. The workers are not being "kept down" by their masters; they are not being "ground" by the trusts and combinations of capital. As a class, they are where they are because they do not do things in a Certain Way. If the workers of America chose to do so, they could follow the example of their brothers in Belgium and other countries, and establish great department stores and co-operative industries; they could elect men of their own class to office, and pass laws favoring the development of such co-operative industries; and in a few years they could take peaceable possession of the industrial field.

This sounds like a challenge from the socialist left, and considering when this was written, it probably is.

The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a Certain Way; the law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others. This they must learn; and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do. The individual worker, however, is not held down by the ignorance or the mental slothfulness of his class; he can follow the tide of opportunity to riches, and this book will tell him how.

No one is kept in poverty by a shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all. A palace as large as the capitol at Washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in the United States alone; and under intensive cultivation, this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to cloth each person in the world finer than Solomon was arrayed in all his glory; together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously.

This was actually true back in 1910 and to a great extent, it is still true. It is amazing how much wilderness lies quite near areas that are supposedly heavily populated. Likewise areas are being depopulated and over time, nature actually recaptures the land and obliterates any abandoned structures.

The visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really IS inexhaustible. Everything you see on earth is made from one original substance, out of which all things proceed.

The emphasized is of a course the nod to his New Thought.

New Forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all are shapes assumed by One Thing. There is no limit to the supply of Formless Stuff, or Original Substance. The universe is made out of it; but it was not all used in making the universe. The spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the Original Substance; with the formless Stuff; with the raw material of all things. Ten thousand times as much as has been made might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material. No man, therefore, is poor because nature is poor, or because there is not enough to go around.

However one accepts the foregoing, the emphasized is something we agree with.

Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. Original Substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. When the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced; when the soil is exhausted so that food stuffs and materials for clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more soil will be made. When all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if man is still in such a stage of social development that he needs gold and silver, more will be produced from the Formless. The Formless Stuff responds to the needs of man; it will not let him be without any good thing. This is true of man collectively; the race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor, it is because they do not follow the Certain Way of doing things which makes the individual man rich.

The Formless Stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. It is alive, and is always impelled toward more life. It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression. The universe of forms has been made by Formless Living Substance, throwing itself into form in order to express itself more fully.

The universe is a great Living Presence, always moving inherently toward more life and fuller functioning. Nature is formed for the advancement of life; its impelling motive is the increase of life. For this cause, everything which can possibly minister to life is bountifully provided; there can be no lack unless God is to contradict himself and nullify his own works. You are not kept poor by lack in the supply of riches; it is a fact which I shall demonstrate a little farther on that even the resources of the Formless Supply are at the command of the man or woman will act and think in a Certain Way.

So you see, whether you accept all the implied metaphysical arguments supporting this or not doesn't matter. He's telling you that it all boils down to ACTION and doing things in a Certain Way, which he is about to start explaining.

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