Brainpower

I once read that all the money in the world comes from three major sources: land, labor, and capital.

But I believe there is a fourth source: Brainpower.

Brainpower is the wealthiest of all producers. 

A man and his brain hold the power to visualize, create, and organize. He may be able to sit on the beach in a chair and drink lemonade, and, if his Thinker works properly, add a profusion of wealth to the world; more so than a thousand workmen.

Getting Angry

"There's no point telling grandpa," says grandy, "not to get angry. There's no point telling anyone not to get angry; when they're already angry."

Not much good has come from anger.

Anger is like a lit fuse. It sizzles and swizzles in the mind until a point; and then: KABOOM!

The only thing I can tell you is...

Keep Up

If you can't keep up you may get lost.

Run on ahead, and you may end up hurt.

Keep up!

Keep up with what?

The Grass Is Always Greener

There's a disease of the deciding power that's becoming widespread: No matter what 'it' was, majority of us 'wish we hadn't.'

Are you happy with the decisions you've made?

Some of us, no-matter what we do, always wish we had done it differently.

The Sunny Side of Things

Mitt Romney recently gave his first post-election interview. His loss of the 2012 presidential race entailed the loss of millions of dollars. He is sixty-five years old.

During the interview, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked him about the failure of his campaign.

"Look, you've got to move on. I don't spend my life looking back," he replied. "I'm thinking about what I'm going to do next."

The Man Who Needs Nothing

Have you ever thought of the enormous power a man can gain when he wants nothing? Needs nothing?

A Trump or a Gates, with all his money and power, is in my mind about the biggest in this here United States. What can't such men do? They might become presidents, control money markets, manipulate the arts, build schools and libraries, hospitals, go to the moon; whatever they want to do they can do.

Love

Love is the greatest force in the world. 

The one true misfortune is to be without love. To be loveless is to die daily. 

The foundation and preservation of family is founded on love. Love is reproducing. Without love, the human race would be non-existent.

You can't understand a thing until you love it, and you can't love someone until you truly understand them. Intelligence allows us to categorize, classify and analyze; but only love helps us to understand.

Are You Prepared?

A man's success depends upon his readiness, his habits of thinking, his ability to control impulses, his morals, his emotions, his courage, how he adapts and so on. 

Are you prepared?

Prepared for what?

Prepared to fail? You have a plan. You have the money. What if you fail? The successful man makes the best of failure. All the greats failed at first. It is not what happens to you it is how well you deal with it.

The Key To Greatness

Some would like only to be good, but all would like to be great. 

Here set before you are the Secrets of Greatness:

The great man seeks certainty from within; the small man seeks certainty from others and outside things.

The great man seeks truth; the small man seeks expediency.

What's Wrong With Me?

What you need is some motivation.

You get along when someone pushes you, but that's not good enough. Someone shouldn't have to push you to get you going.

You have good characteristics but lack motivation.

You have charisma, courage, trust, faith, so on and so forth, but you can't seem to be able to get anything going. Including yourself.

Magnanimous

Most of the supposed Great People you come to meet in life are really Nearly-Great.

Go and speak to the scholar or proclaimed genius. Mingle with the celebrity. Seek out the one who has been brightened by material success.

I've met them; spoke to them. I've exchanged thoughts with the elect, and also the brute ones; those domineering souls who do not talk of things but do things.

And nine-tenths of them miss the one thing that makes a man Great, which is Modesty.

Stuff

Mr. Livingston, of 22 Old Alabama Rd., died yesterday. He was seventy-seven years old.

His will was ten feet long. 

In it he left to one "my nicest robe and slippers"; to another a leather chair, "the one upstairs"; to another his computer and keyboard; while nuts and bolts, hammer, screwdriver, a pail of nails, and "dad's old saw" go to another, and to his enemy a pair of dirty socks.

Then there are those, who in their house refuse to keep anything but a broom and dust pan. If you were to give them a lucky gem, they would admire it for awhile, but soon after, throw it away because it must be dusted.

The Writer

I can't do a number of things. 

I can write acceptably enough to be enjoyed by a few and perhaps give a decent speech, but that's about it. 

I can't sing or dance or play a musical instrument.

I can't run fast or play sports well.

I am often clumsy.

Earn Your Ink

"As a man," said my brother, "your first duty is to support yourself." 

Whatever you do for a living, it is good to work and take care of yourself. It is good to do something that allows you to live and gives you self-respect. 

The sort of work to do is the sort of work the world needs. That's the sort of work you get paid for.

The Return To Popularity

If you give to someone a feeling that you are of lower value you will not fail to be of lower value.  

If you are confident you awake self-confidence. If you cower you make others want to crush you. If you promote cheer, cheerfulness is handed you by others. If you are respectful, others will respect you.

People go at you about the way you go at them.

The Luckiest Man

"I am the luckiest man," said my father, "because I found what I love to do."

"I get to do what everyone dreams of doing. That is, I am doing what my entire life I have wanted to do. 

"Every other sort of happiness eventually dulls except this: The happiness of finding your work.

The Daily Labor

Ask to any one person this question:

"What would you do if you had a million dollars?"

Many of us strive to become rich. Most will tell you that he or she is struggling along in the life game; that if they had their way things would be different.

To start, most will say they would get rid of the daily work that occupies them. Instead of working to live they would live to work. That is to say, they would do what they love to do and be paid for it.

Somewhere Down The Road

Do you think Julius Caesar passed up opportunity when it came his way? 

Men will tell you this editorial is the oldest in the world. The cave man told his son this when he told him how to hunt his food. Every parent preaches this and every business preaches this. Over and over it's told and yet the same thing needs to be said: 

Seize opportunity before it passes you by.

Do not let opportunity pass you by. It comes slow like the snail and will pass you quick like the rabbit.

When opportunity comes - take the chance to do more, to achieve more, to become more.

The Imperial Will of Failure

It is easy to lose heart when things go against you. Don't drift through life helpless and become what many discouraged men become; defeated. 

For those who find themselves discouraged by the temporary eclipse of failure, I give to you some valuable advice:

Remember - YOU! Wealthy one! Slum child! You will fail in life - at least once - before you succeed. Don't let failure discourage you. Many of all the MOST brilliantly successful people of history FAILED before becoming the prominent people we know them as today.

The Road To Nowhere

The worst thing a man can do is have a good impulse and not act on it. 

Nothing is more detrimental than amusing yourself with high ideals and not using them. It gets to be so, that after awhile, you cannot put them to use.  

Some people go to church and moan and groan and jump for joy but do not carry forth their feelings past Sunday. They are experts in human emotions and are the finest critics of how people ought to live - but come Monday they are back to their small-minded, self-centered ways.

Practice And Theory

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work," said Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb. 

Action is the result of thought. A person doesn't learn about something and then go at it; first they do it, perhaps poorly, and continue on doing; and after doing a thing they come to understanding it.

The truth is not discovered by thinking about it, nor by waiting on it to show itself; it is found by way of doing.

Your Competition

A good, solid, healthy, enthusiastic competitor will increase your business.

The common thought that the rival of any business takes half its trade is untrue. The rule to live by is this: The more tradesmen the more trade.

Two first-rate drugstores across from one another are better for each than one monopolizing drugstore could be for either.
  

It Can't Be Done

And what about Ludwig Van Beethoven? What to say to him?

If you told Beethoven It Can't Be Done he'd furiously compose a symphony that would surely strike you down. When deafness overcame him he tried ear trumpets - even sawed the legs of his piano off so he could lay on the ground and be closer to the keys - in hope of sensing the vibrations.

History alone proves such a saying is foolish. Harness Niagara? It couldn't be done. Walk on the moon? It couldn't be done. Put a rover on Mars? It couldn't be done. Yet, all of these things have been done.

Girl Wanted

WANTED: A girl that stands proper, sits proper, acts proper, and talks proper;

A girl whose nails are of good taste and well maintained, whose ears are clean and hair is neat, whose heels are not too tall, whose clothes are suitable and whose teeth are cared for; 

A girl who listens attentively, who inquires when she doesn't understand, and doesn't question things that are none of her business;

A Rich Poor Man

The other day I came to meet a Rich Poor Man. He didn't own much; no land, no car, no money in the bank.

Yet he was rich. He had the essence of wealth in his mind. Because he wasn't afraid he'd come to wanting things, because he wasn't suspicious, because he didn't worry over his possessions, and because he didn't want more and more of everything.

For being rich is not the accumulation of things; it is a state of mind.

Life And Living

A man has but one thing of true value that he can give this world, and that is his life. After all, this is all that is his to give. His possessions are but borrowed, they shall pass onto others when he dies, but his life is his own. 

When the great painter is asked how he mixes his colors he will respond, "with my blood." This is true because he knows that the greatness of his work strictly depends upon the amount of life he put forth to make it.

Power And Greatness

Great men are those men who can interpret their time. It is a rare trait of genius; they can instinctively feel their fellow-men.

To feel like that is to feel power.

To be great one must execute the will of the people. He must be a "Servant of All."

For instance, If I were a poet, I would utter the words men dumbly feel. If I were a painter, I would paint what men imagine. If I were a politician, I would materialize the peoples political beliefs. If I were a public speaker or writer, I would say what all would say. Always behind me would be the support of the mass.

The $30,000 A Year Man

A graduate asked me the other day how I got my start. 

I figured if he was willing to listen, I was willing to talk.

"First things first," I said to him, "I got rid of those negative notions and feelings that get in the way of success. I got those thoughts out of my mind and begin to prepare myself for business.

"I did away with self-pity. Not once did I sit back feeling sorry for myself, no matter what happened. I've seen what self-pity does to a person; it makes them miserably weak. They go from a could be great to a cow stuck in the mud."

The American

I asked a man the other night at a cocktail party how he got to be so rich. "What's your secret? What do you do?"

"Well," he said, "nothing. That's just it. I don't do. I get things done." 

"Huh?!"

"Yup," he went on, "there are those of us who do things and then there are those who get things done. I get things done. I don't tire, nor diddle daddle about. I can't read Latin or write like Shakespeare nor am I very good at math. I'm not a philosopher. I'm not a scientist. When most people meet me they say I'm about as common as men come.

Good Manners Are Habit

I think manners have a great deal to do with success.  

Like most of us, I am often sensitive, often stupid, and often very silly on the matter of improving my ways. I resent it when I'm told to speak differently, to look, walk, or stand in a better way. I'm apt to say: "God made me this way. I am what I am." 

Truth is I'm not. I am as circumstances, environment, and my own ignorance have spoiled me.

Advice On Living

Here is some honest, healthy, sound advice:

Keep yourself clean. Not only your body clean, but also your mind clean, and your spirit clean of fear. 

Develop a strong passion for discipline.

Aim to do good even when your at your lowest point. Never cut corners, never cheat, never lie and never steal. You must overcome the struggle naturally.

Learn to form your own opinions and beliefs and not let authority nor desire persuade you. Above all, learn to not only think ethically but act ethically.

Coming of Age

I think I have as much sense as the next person. I mean, I'm not perfect but I have two good hands, two good eyes, two good ears, my brain, liver and insides are in good working condition. Come to think of it, I'm just as good as anyone else.

I have as much faith as Jesus Christ did, when I use it. I have as much hope and cheer as the youth, when I use it. I have as much energy as Napoleon did, when I use it. I have as much an education as Abraham Lincoln had. What's stopping me from becoming President of the United States? Excuses?

Quality of Life

Happiness is a mind-set. It is the cause-effect of being thankful. Think about it; when you're happy you're thankful. And likewise; when you're thankful you're happy.

To be happy is to be thankful for the world around you. It's to have the attitude that says you're better off than you ought to be, and you know it.

The greatest thing to know about being happy is that it is not a 'thing' at all, it is an understanding of what we think should be and what actually is, what we think ought to be and what actually be.

Keep At Success

"Keep at it!" said Edison to Ford when Ford sketched up his idea for an engine on back of a napkin. 

If life were easy what would be the point? It is the daily struggle, the idea of challenging ourselves to do, to overcome and to achieve that keeps us. The very best ingredients of our character come from our willingness to do. We learn to be patient, to keep steady, that practice can make perfect but often doesn't, and that through our will to do we can find a way.

Don't Waste Your Power

By the age of thirty Alexander The Great was ruler of one of the largest empires known to man. Surely a man like that did not waste his power.

Opportunity means power, and power means more opportunities. Don't waste your power. God himself does not waste his power. To him everything is opportunity.

Too often we see society's failure wasting away his power complaining to himself about others, his employer, his parents, his friends, the money game and everything else. If only he would take one-half the energy in complaining and channel it towards the idea of opportunity. He could, then, be much more valuable to himself, others and all the world.