NAPOLEON HILL - HQ Full Books
OWN YOUR OWN MIND - 1.1 ANALYSIS OF CREATIVE VISION - Napoleon Hill - HQ Full Book
HOW TO OWN YOUR OWN MIND - 1.1 ANALYSIS OF CREATIVE VISION - by Napoleon Hill (1941) - HQ Full Book.
Contents :
1. CREATIVE VISION
1.1 Analysis of Chapter One by Napoeleon Hill
2. ORGANIZED THOUGHT
2.1 Andrew Carnegie’s Views on Organized Thinking
3. CONTROLLED ATTENTION
3.1 Andrew Carnegie’s Analysis of Controlled Attention
"How to Own Your Own Mind" by Napoleon Hill is a timeless guide that delves into the secrets of mastering one's thought processes, enhancing mental faculties, and achieving success through effective thinking. Drawing upon his extensive research and interviews with some of the most successful individuals of his time, including industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Hill offers readers a step-by-step framework to harness their minds for achieving personal and professional goals.
The book is divided into three main chapters, each focusing on a specific aspect of the mind: creative vision, organized thought, and controlled attention. These concepts, while simple in theory, require deliberate practice to implement effectively. Through detailed explanations and examples, Hill emphasizes that by owning one's mind, an individual can create the life they desire.
CHAPTER ONE: Creative VisionThe first chapter, Creative Vision, explores the power of imagination and the ability to create ideas that can be transformed into tangible results. Hill suggests that creative vision is the driving force behind all great innovations and accomplishments. It is the mental faculty that allows individuals to envision what does not yet exist and to think beyond current circumstances.
Hill highlights that creativity is not just reserved for artists or inventors but is a skill that anyone can develop. By honing one's creative vision, individuals can see opportunities where others see obstacles and innovate in their personal and professional lives. To cultivate creative vision, Hill advises readers to immerse themselves in environments that stimulate the mind and to associate with individuals who encourage free thinking.
Analysis of Chapter OneIn his analysis of creative vision, Hill argues that the ability to visualize is a prerequisite for success. He asserts that visionaries are able to anticipate future trends, foresee the outcomes of their actions, and create a mental roadmap for achieving their goals. Hill emphasizes that one’s creative vision must be followed by persistence and faith in order to materialize.
Hill's advice in this chapter is not just philosophical but practical. He encourages readers to engage in practices like meditation and self-reflection to enhance their creative abilities. Furthermore, Hill underscores the importance of turning visions into plans, warning against the pitfalls of inaction. Without taking deliberate steps toward actualizing one’s creative ideas, vision becomes mere fantasy.
CHAPTER TWO: Organized ThoughtThe second chapter, Organized Thought, focuses on the importance of structuring one's ideas and mental processes. Hill explains that while creative vision is essential, it is ineffective without the ability to organize thoughts in a clear and coherent manner. Organized thought enables individuals to translate their creative ideas into actionable plans and to execute these plans with precision.
Hill introduces the concept of "mental discipline"—the practice of focusing one’s thoughts and eliminating distractions. This discipline is what separates successful individuals from those who merely dream. He stresses that organized thinking involves setting clear objectives, prioritizing tasks, and developing a systematic approach to problem-solving.
Andrew Carnegie’s Views on Organized ThinkingA significant part of the chapter is dedicated to the insights of Andrew Carnegie, who played a pivotal role in shaping Hill’s...
- Broadcast on:
- 24 Sep 2024
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How to Own Your Own Mind by Napoleon Hill. Analysis of Chapter 1, Create a Vision by Napoleon Hill. Mr. Carnegie has covered the subject of creative vision so completely that further analysis of the subject seems unnecessary. However, I shall briefly summarize the highlights of his analysis. 1, he clearly emphasized the difference between imagination and creative vision by showing that one deals largely with localized circumstances while the other contemplates every factor which concerns an individual in his relationship with others. 2, he graphically presented examples describing both imagination and creative vision in connection with their practical application in the affairs of everyday life, thus revealing the technique through which successful men have applied these principles. 3, he emphasized the importance of the basic motives as the source of all personal initiative and also the source of stimulation of imagination and creative vision. 4, he specifically named the 10 major characteristics of men who understand and apply the principle of creative vision. 5, he appropriately called attention to the fact that creative vision has been responsible for all human progress in all ages and all countries. 6, he called attention, again and again, to the futility of the common practice of trying to get something for nothing. 7, he made an analysis of the future of America, based on the common tendency to demand something for nothing, which should be impressed upon the mind of every citizen of this country and must be heated by all who expect to acquire riches in the future. 8, he called attention to the importance of acquiring the ability to recognize and to embrace opportunities favorable for self-promotion and significantly mentioned that only those who become thus alert may hope to attain noteworthy success in any calling. 9, he gave a fine description of the procedure one must follow in connection with the transition from poverty to riches. 10, he emphasized the necessities of going the extra mile and appropriately mentioned the fact that he had never known of anyone attaining any station above mediocrity without following this habit. 11, he described human relationships as the most important thing to be considered by those who aspire to noteworthy success in any calling. 12, last, but not least in importance, he recommended that the people of the United States stop throwing brickbats at men with creative vision and start emulating them instead. I come, now, to my own analysis of creative vision. It is based on the requirements of this changing world in which we live. Mr. Carnegie's analysis of this subject was made over 30 years ago. Since then the whole of civilization has undergone and continues to undergo shocking changes which have made creative vision not only desirable but absolutely necessary. As I interpret the nature of the changes which are taking place in the United States today, there is one danger threatening every American citizen which outshadows all others. It is the growing tendency to stand still, without protest, while one after another of the rights of free enterprise are, by one pretense or another, being removed. As Mr. Carnegie has so appropriately mentioned, the greatest of all the privileges enjoyed by the American people is that of the right to exercise personal initiative without molestation. He called attention, time after time, to the fact that personal initiative is the basis of all achievements. Out of the richness of his own personal career, he drew picture after picture of circumstances through which men had succeeded by acting on their own initiative. Creative vision will be of little use to the man who is forced either by law or by arbitrary regulatory rules to limit the amount of service he renders. It has been known, since the dawn of civilization, that the service a man renders is cause and the pay he receives is effect and that the latter is measured with precise relationship to the quality and the quantity of the former. Just as a little fire produces a small amount of heat and a large amount of fire produces a greater amount of heat, so does a poor quality and quantity of service produce poor pay and fine quality and quantity of service produce a satisfactory amount of pay. From this conclusion, there is no escape. A long while ago, a great philosopher said, the greatest evil of all people is that of refusing to face facts. The time has come when we all need to face facts and to recognize them for what they are. The United States still is the land of opulence and opportunity. We still have the foundation stones of Americanism intact, though they are being attacked and undermined from many angles. We still have the right in this country to choose our own occupation, although some of us have been deprived of the privilege of making the most of this right. We still have the right to vote and to elect to public office the men of our choice, although we have so abused this privilege by our failure to vote that it too has lost many of its benefits. We may still belong to any church we please and worship according to the dictates of our own belief, but through our indifference to the benefits of the church we have forced it into a steady decline in its influence for good. We still have men with creative vision as the leaders of American industry, the backbone of our entire economic system, but we are showing our ingratitude by rewarding them with epithets and abuses. We still have all the operating capital that is needed to carry on the vast industries of America, but we have shown such hostility to those who have risked their capital that they have become shy and suspicious to the point of refusing to invest their money. Surely this sort of indifference does not encourage the development of the creative vision that this country must have in order to remain the world's richest and freest nation. These are only a few of the evils which assail us. Let us face the facts and turn in about face before we lose the privileges of which we have so long boasted. As Mr. Carnegie has so appropriately mentioned, all individual initiative is based on motive. Let me see, therefore, what motive we can find that will justify the readers of this chapter in developing and using creative vision. Suggested fields of opportunity for the application of creative vision. Ideas are the beginning of all achievements. They are the seedlings of all progress. As a starter, let me mention a few ideas which I consider worthy of analysis and thought. One, there is a great need for a series of newspaper comic strips that will educate as well as entertain. Up to the present time this need has been supplied, for the most part, by subject matter, which is lacking in educational value. The comics are the great national pastime for children. Therefore, they provide an unparalleled opportunity for men and women with ability to combine entertainment with education, plus the ability to do freehand drawing. Those who cannot draw pictures but have sound ideas might take advantage of this opportunity by forming a mastermind alliance with those who can. Two, in the field of radio, there is a similar opportunity for the introduction of radio programs which educate as well as entertain. Here, as in connection with the comic strips, much of the program material is in need of elevation. Surely there is enough creative vision in the United States to save radio, perhaps the greatest of recent discoveries, from disintegration through the inferiority of its programs. Three, there is a crying need for storybooks for children which will educate as well as entertain. The creative vision which rescues the comics and the radio might well be turned to the production of books for children through which they may acquire useful knowledge as well as find entertainment. A recent examination of the available storybooks for children disclosed the astounding fact that this field is particularly lacking in books of the nature here described and one prominent publisher of children's books enthusiastically expressed his hope that someone would provide him with the material for such books. Here, then, is an open opportunity for some clever man or woman who understands how to cater to children through pictures and stories. For some person who has yet found no outlet for his creative vision may make himself wealthy by inventing a method of adding to the services and to the sources of revenue of gasoline filling stations which are to be found on the most prominent corners throughout America. These filling stations have extra parking space for automobiles, therefore they are excellently located for the distribution of almost any sort of merchandise that people use. The man who finds a way to make use of this available opportunity will not only confer a lasting favor on those filling station operators who are barely making a living, and some of them are not doing that well, but he will find himself in possession of a veritable gold mine. Five, there is a crying demand for creative vision in connection with the perfecting of safety devices to lower the hazards of automobile traffic. The high death rate from automobile accidents, over 36,000 annually, has created a need for a system of highways so designed as to lessen the chances of accidents. Perhaps this is an opportunity more suited to engineers than to laymen, but the person who creates any type of safety device, either for automobiles or in connection with the construction of highways, which will lower the percentage of automobile accidents will find a ready outlet for his talents. A signal system such as is used by the railroads may offer one approach to the partial solution of this problem. But the chances are that a road which is so constructed as to keep automobiles at a safe distance from one another when passing, and that road intersections may come nearer serving the purpose. There is also a great opportunity for the man who perfects a better type of material for road building, something that will not contract and expand with the change of weather conditions with a surface that will prevent skidding in wet weather. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream. Collect a rent and relax. That is, until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. First, you need to conduct market research to understand local rental trends and determine a competitive rent price. Then there's cleaning, staging, repairs, and hiring a professional photographer. Next, develop a marketing strategy, list the property on rental sites. And schedule countless showings. Oh, no free to transfer information. (mumbles) Whew, sound complicated? Runners warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Our job is complicated because it should be. We handle everything from marketing and showing your property to screening tenants and preparing the lease. Our best in class property management professionals take care of your property as if it were our own, from rent collection to maintenance coordination, all for one flat monthly fee. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444 to speak with a rent estate advisor today. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runners warehouse. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry focus insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance. Uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Perhaps this is a field for the man with the knowledge of chemistry. It may be that a new type of brick, much larger and heavier than the ordinary building brick, and so constructed that the bricks are interlocking when laid, will serve the purpose. Some such brick might be manufactured from the waste from woodworking plants and sawmills, perhaps by mixing the waste wood with a composition that will resist water. When such a brick is perfected, it may also become popular for house construction as well. Six, the millions of cubic feet of an used seating space in the automobiles that travel the public highways daily might be put to some practical use that would go a long way toward paying for the cost of operation of the automobiles. Someone who has creative vision may organize this wasted space into a new type of small package or express service that will become popular as well as profitable to all concerned. Seven, the educational system of America could stand modification in the direction of some sort of improvement that would inject more dynamic human interest and more substantial entertainment into education, thereby discouraging the popular game known as Hooky. Here is a great field for men and women with an understanding of pedagogy, plus a knowledge of the characteristics of the human mind, which can be reached only by entertainment. The person who wishes to use creative vision in this field may also find a way of projecting his ideas into the field of radio through some sort of school of the air that will combine education and entertainment. The idea may be extended also to the talking picture field where education has already found an outlet but lacks the right sort of a system to make it universally effective. Eight, in the field of toys there is and there always will be a demand for new and novel ideas that will appeal to children. Here, two, education might be combined with entertainment. Nine, there is also a growing need for constructive modification of the Orthodox methods of church management, which challenges men and women with creative vision. The churches need supplementary services in two directions. First, a system through which religion can be made more interesting, thus ensuring against empty pews, and second, some form of service through which the churches may help to solve the daily problems of life more effectively as well as attend to the spiritual requirements of their parishioners. The clergyman who contributes to the solution of these problems will make religion more usable and understandable to say nothing of having the privilege of preaching to larger audiences. The need is so great and the opportunity so obvious that it should challenge the ablest in the clergy. Only a great religious renaissance can save the world from its own follies. But, let it be remembered by all who may wish to try their hand in this field that any improvements that prove effective will have to be along the line of practical service aimed at helping people to live, not a service that over-emphasizes the fear of death. Words alone will not suffice. What is needed is deeds. This old world is economically ill and the illness affects every living person. Here, then, is an opportunity for the churches to intensify their influence by rendering more effective human service. The program should have available to all who use at the services of a mastermind group made up of skillful and experienced businessmen, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and others of community influence who are capable of assisting people in the solution of their daily problems. Such a group may be organized by any church, merely for the asking, provided the system is designed to render genuinely useful service and not merely to talk. As regrettable as it may seem, preaching needs reinforcement. Every intelligent clergyman knows this, but not every clergyman knows what to do about it. 10. Small businessmen and retail merchants are in need of counsel in order to meet the competition of the new and improved methods of merchandising. Here is a field for men and women capable of rehabilitating the present worn-out methods. Some are engaged in this profession already, but the number is small in comparison with the need. One such specialist works in cooperation with the electric power companies, confining himself entirely to the rearrangement of lighting systems so as to display merchandise to better advantage. Within one week he made such improvements in one retail store at the store's business was increased more than 25% over its best previous month. This service should include rearrangement of stock, newly designed display counters, new window display equipment, and new and better advertising methods. The possibilities in this field are unlimited. 11. Every printing plant that has modern equipment has an opportunity for someone who is skilled in the preparation of new ideas and practical plans for printing and advertising. Someone who has created vision may enter this field and make himself so useful that very soon he will own and operate a printer's service syndicate through which he will supply printing ideas for a chain of printing establishments. One man wrote a brief essay entitled "What to Do with Boys and Girls", designed for use by business colleges to be given away by them to the graduating classes of the high schools and turned it over to a printer in Chicago. The last time he received a report of the sales, they had gone well beyond 10 million copies on every thousand of which the printer made $3. Figure out his profits for yourself. Anyone skilled in writing or in creating ideas requiring printing for their practical use will find this a profitable mill that will keep on grinding out profits. 12. The soft drink field is a bottled bonanza. The person who puts his creative vision to work and produces a drink that will be as popular as coca, cola will be well on the road to wealth. The coca cola business has made more people wealthy than any other soft drink in existence, but that does not mean that it cannot be equaled or may be excelled. The more soft drinks the public consumes, the less intoxicating beverages it will desire. So here is a field that should challenge the person who believes that strong drink is injuring the youths of the land. 13. The person who perfects a throwaway bottle that is strong enough to stand the pressure of carbonated drinks will be on the highway to riches. The bottle should be made of some such material as cellophane, so the contents will be visible. This may be an idea that requires the mastermind alliance with a chemist for its perfection, but it has possibilities that are unlimited for the accumulation of riches. The bottle must be made cheaply enough to permit its being thrown away after the contents are consumed. 14. Some clever woman, with creative vision, will make herself famous and richer than she needs to be by inventing some system of sowing for children that will teach the art of sowing as well as serve as entertainment. The patterns may be marketed through the five and 10 cent stores together with a course of instruction on sowing. The system should be arranged so as to interest girls in making clothes for their own use. The desire for pretty clothes inherent in all girls will serve to help put the idea across. 15. The business of interesting prospective buyers of life insurance, automobiles, real estate, and other commodities by telephone will provide profitable employment for women with pleasing telephone voices plus creative vision. Contracts can be made with a great variety of merchants for the purchase of names of prospective buyers and the work can be carried on from one's home. And so the story goes on and on without end. Some who have found themselves through creative vision. The record of those who have found themselves through the inspirational influence of this philosophy is both extensive and phenomenal. They are to be found in almost every walk of life. If all their names were known and published, there would be no space left in this chapter for anything else. But I shall mention a few whose cases are typical of others. The seat of creative vision lies sleeping in brains where it is least expected, needing only an appropriate motive for its awakening. It exists in millions of brains whose owners live and struggle in penury and want and will go back finally to the dust from whence they came without having discovered the riches they possessed. Shortly after a one-volume interpretation of a portion of this philosophy was published in 1937 under the title Think and Grow Rich, a copy of it fell into the hands of a salesman for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. While he was reading the book something in it, or maybe it was something back of the lines, touched off the spark of creative vision within his mind and started him on a new pathway to achievement. Mind you, the book did not teach him anything he did not already know. It merely awakened something he already possessed but did not know he had. But that was enough. Without asking for an appointment, he telegraphed the author of the book that he was coming for an interview. We met in New York City and talked for two hours. When the salesman took the train back to Indiana where he lived, he took with him a different attitude from the one he brought with him to New York. When he got back home, the town looked different from the way it looked when he left it. His friends looked different. His wife looked different. And they were different because he himself had changed. He had come into possession of a giant amount of power that was destined soon to change his economic status. The first thing he did was to follow the instructions laid down in this philosophy through which he chose a new definite major purpose. Then he followed through by creating a plan for the attainment of that purpose. He followed the instructions of the philosophy to the letter. His purpose was that of self-promotion into a bigger and better paying job. And air was on the way and he needed more money. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream. Collect a rent and relax. That is until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. First, you need to conduct market research to understand local rental trends and determine a competitive rent price. Then there's cleaning, staging, repairs, and hiring a professional photographer. Next, develop a marketing strategy. List the property on rental sites. It's got to kill the showings. Oh, no free time for that information. (speaking in foreign language) Whew, sound complicated? Renner's Warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Our job is complicated because it should be. We handle everything from marketing and showing your property to screening tenants and preparing the lease. Our best-in-class property management professionals take care of your property as if it were our own, from rent collection to maintenance coordination, all for one flat monthly fee. Go to rennerswearhouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444 to speak with a rent estate advisor today. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call Renner's Warehouse. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading, accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at mossadams.com. Thus, he had a definite motive for his choice of a new major purpose. After his plan was completed, he took the train for Akron, Ohio, to present it to his employer. He carried with him no feeling of fear or doubt. He knew before he started that his plan was sound and that it would work. That is a characteristic of those who awaken the creative vision that lies dormant within them. When he returned from Akron, his wife met him at the train. She saw his face at the window before the train came to a full stop and she knew that he brought good news. In his inside pocket was a new contract with his employer. It called for a position as manager of a branch office. You see, when a man takes possession of the creative vision within himself, he becomes a center of attraction, a magnetized human being who attracts to himself what he wants. And if you should ask this man, he would tell you that it was as easy to sell himself into a manager ship as it was to sell automobile tires to dealers. It was all a matter of what he himself desired. As this chapter was being written, I received a letter from an insurance salesman explaining how he had discovered and used creative vision himself. The letter was brief. On the surface of it, there was no indication that any miracle had happened, but to me the letter told a story similar to those which are coming from all parts of the United States and from foreign countries. I knew that a miracle had happened. That is, that which had taken place inside the secret chambers of the salesman's mind constituted the nearest thing to a miracle of which I have any knowledge for something had happened there which revealed to him the only sort of genius that any man possesses that is the power of creative vision. Briefly reviewing the outward appearance of his case, I see that this is what happened. He came into possession of a copy of the book already alluded to. Somewhere as he read the book, he uncovered the Aladdin's lamp that called to him the genies which had been sleeping in his brain. Responding to its magic influence, he laid the book down, looked off into space and began to ask himself questions. Why, he began, have I been spending my time selling small life insurance policies when I could just as well have so shaped my plans that I could sell large policies? Why, he continued, have I overlooked this something that I now feel urging me on to bigger and better things? Why have I not lifted my sights and aimed at the stars instead of shooting at the dust beneath my feet? Then the answer came. It came in definite terms and he knew that he was not the same man who had begun reading that book. No, he was a new man. He had a different attitude toward the world. He had a different attitude toward himself and the work he had chosen as a career. He didn't stop by merely meditating. He recognized that a passive faith is no faith at all, so he began then and there to take possession of that strange power which had so recently revealed itself to him and to express it in terms of action associated with his occupation. Picking up the city directory, he began to run his finger down the column of names. Finally, he came to one that brought him to a stop. There was the name for which he was looking, it was the name of a man who was financially able to buy a large life insurance policy. Now, he mused to himself, why haven't I been to see this man before? Why have I been spending my time calling on men who could buy only small life insurance policies when I could have spent the same time calling on those who can buy large policies? Closing the directory, he arose from his seat, put on his hat and coat, and, without taking the time for further preparation, he went straight to the office of his newly chosen prospect. He was admitted with courtesy. He stated his business and discussed the details which life insurance salesmen usually have to talk about before they make a sale. In a little while he arose from his seat, shook hands with his new prospect and thanked him for his courtesy. As he walked back to his office, he carried with him an application for the largest life insurance policy ever sold in Des Moines or in that part of the country. The application called for a $2 million policy. That is more insurance than most life insurance men sell in 10 continuous years of hard effort. Yet, he had not worked hard. In fact, it had not seemed that he had worked at all, the sale was made so easily. And that is another of the queer traits of creative vision. Those who use it get their work done with a minimum amount of hard work. When he got back to his office, he sat down and had a long visit with himself. He went back, in his memory, to the day he began selling life insurance and came up, step by step, over every inch of the journey. One by one he called back to his mind the people to whom he had talked to, who had refused to buy from him and wondered where he had fallen short. After he had reviewed in his mind all of his former interviews, he made another discovery so important in nature that it should become known to every man who is engaged in the business of selling life insurance. He discovered that life insurance is sold to the life insurance salesman himself, sold before he ever calls upon his prospective buyer, sold by his own mental attitude, his own faith, his own conviction that every man should provide himself with this sort of economic security, sold through the power of his own creative vision. And the beautiful part of this discovery is the fact that it placed this man in possession of an asset that will remain with him until he no longer needs it. No business depression can ever take it from him. The map of the world may be changed, and the people of the United States may perish through their own failure to look within their own minds for a power that can save them, but this man will never again become a slave to anything or anyone because he has discovered the man within him, that other self, which cannot be enslaved. This other self is known as creative vision. The newspaper reporters heard of this miracle and they besieged the salesman's office for a story. When they wrote the story, they neglected to mention the title of the book that had brought him to the most important turning point of his life, referring to it merely as a miracle book. When the story appeared, telephone calls began to come into the salesman's office. The wives of other men in Des Moines had read the story and they wanted to know where they could get the book for their husbands. The bookstores were overrun with orders. Telegraph orders began to pour into the office of the publisher of the book, and that is how we learned what had happened. The same thing is happening throughout the United States. This miracle book, Think and Grow Rich, is helping to unlock the self-made prisons in which men have been confined because of their lack of recognition of the seed of creative vision within themselves. About two years after the publication of the book that started these two men on a new highway to achievement, I presented an autographed copy to one of my friends in Atlanta, Georgia. Six months went by and nothing was heard of the gift. Then one day I received a letter with which was enclosed a newspaper clipping telling the story of another miracle the book had inspired. And here are the details. Somewhere in the pages of the book, my friend made a discovery that he, too, was blessed by the power of Aladdin's lamp in the form of creative vision. Like the other two persons mentioned above, he not only recognized the power of this book, but he proceeded at once to make use of it. When the discovery was first made, he was working in a cafeteria at a salary of $45 a week. One evening after his work had been finished, he put on his hat and coat and strolled down the street and began to put his creative vision to work in earnest. He counted the people who were passing that corner and made up his mind that it was a suitable location for a cafeteria. More important than this, he decided, mind you, the decision was his own, it was reached through his own initiative that he would swap roles for himself and become the owner instead of the employee of a cafeteria to be located there. But he did not stop merely by thinking, the next day he began to put his thoughts into action. By the end of the week he had rented a suitable space for his new business. Within three months he had finished decorating and furnishing the place with the latest restaurant equipment and moved in and began business. He did all this without one penny of money of his own. He did his financing by selling enough of that creative vision that had been asleep within him to a man with money who supplied the necessary operating capital in return for a half interest in the business. He paid for his own half interest with the experience he had gained in his former position, plus, and this is important, the use of his newly discovered creative vision that was so necessary in operating the business. Within a year the new cafeteria was out of the red and into the black to the tune of $1,000 a month. Thus creative vision had begun to pay dividends in the first year of its use. What it pays in the future is yet to be determined. Already the alert manager has had many offers from men who wish him to open up branches of his business in other places. Opportunity has found him out and it is dogging his footsteps, begging to serve him. And that is another characteristic of the man who uses his creative vision, he finds himself a human magnet and attracts favorable opportunities as an electric magnet attracts steel filings. Today there still are worlds to conquer. Not all doors are closed to creative vision. The world eagerly awaits the man who originates, creates, and executes the products of vision. In the field of industrial chemistry, the scope is unlimited for creative vision. Agriculture pleads for men of creative vision who will help the farmer to check the ravages of synthetic scientific products which are making such inroads upon farm products. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream, collect a rent, and relax. That is, until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. First, you need to conduct market research to understand local rental trends and determine a competitive rent price. Then there's cleaning, staging, repairs, and hiring a professional photographer. Next, develop a marketing strategy, list the property on rental sites, and schedule kettle showings. Oh, don't forget to screen-tensify information. (mumbles) Sound complicated? Runners warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Our job is complicated because it should be. We handle everything from marketing and showing your property to screening tenants and preparing the lease. Our best-in-class property management professionals take care of your property is if it were our own, from rent collection to maintenance coordination, all for one flat monthly fee. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444 to speak with a rent estate advisor today. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runnerswarehouse. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading, accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at MossAtoms.com. In textiles, aviation, education, food manufacturing, plastics, and plywoods, cement and building materials, automobiles, coal tar products, rayons, radio, telephones, and in many other fields, the door is wide open for creative vision. Some days, some man or woman with creative vision will produce an airplane which can land without danger or an automobile which uses little or no gasoline or a home which will not burn or a cure for the common cold. Such an individual will be quickly rewarded and may turn the world upside down. The promise of America includes ample rewards for those who exemplify the spirit of hard work of initiative and of creative vision. And you who are reading this chapter. What about you and your creative vision? What are you doing to arouse it and put it to work for you? When and where and how are you going to search within your own mind for that power to convert ideas and aims and plans into the riches of life? It is the goal of this chapter to help you answer these questions. It is the purpose of the author to aid you in converting your share of the great American way of life into whatever form of riches you desire, but the first move must be yours. If you make that move and it indicates that you are in earnest, I will offer suggestions that may help you with the second step. Late in 1909, I sat in my automobile at Fort Meyer, Virginia and watched the Wright brothers as they tried in vain to get their airplane off the ground. An old man sat on the running board of the automobile watching the attempt to get the machine into the air. Turning to me with a look of doubt on his face, this old man said, ah, shucks, they ain't going to make that their thing fly. If God had wanted man to fly, he would have given him wings to do it with. Now we know that the old gentleman was mistaken. God had not given Wilburn Orville Wright wings as a part of their physical equipment, but he did give them creative vision with which they created wings and did fly just as he has given vision to millions of others who are born, live a natural lifetime and pass on without having come to an active realization of their precious gift. In the early part of the 20th century, a young mechanic and his wife were busily engaged with a contraption with which they were concerned. It consisted of a crude piece of pipe into which had been fitted a piston that moved in and out on a crankshaft. Working over the kitchen sink, the wife poured gasoline into that piece of pipe drop by drop, while her husband worked the piston up and down with one hand and pressed a button that sent an electric spark into the compressed air of the pipe with the other. Hour after hour, they worked without results. Then, finally, the gas exploded and the thing gave one kick which sent the piston outward. Mind you, it gave just one lone kick, but in that single stroke of a crudely built machine was the destiny of an industry which now gives employment, directly and indirectly, to no less than six million people. At the present moment, that huge industry is feverishly engaged in making some of the materials that will be needed to defend this nation against an insidious power that threatens to destroy the creative vision that founded the industry. What about this genius who founded the automobile industry in America? What ability does he possess which others do not have? You can boil it all down to one thing known as creative vision. But, Henry Ford has no more of this power than exists in millions of other minds. The difference is that he has discovered his power and has put it to work, while others have not. Henry Ford did not stop by merely discovering that he could turn the wheels of a buggy with a crudely built gasoline engine. He kept on using his creative vision, adding one refinement after another to his original automobile, until today the modern product of his mind is about as perfect as a piece of machinery can be. In every village, town and city of the United States, there is a potential Henry Ford walking around, perhaps without employment. Maybe he is complaining because of the lack of opportunity to get ahead. There are millions of such people who do not recognize that they are carrying around with them the seed of achievement, which, if it were germinated and fed through action, would produce riches as great as those which Henry Ford earned. How will these sleeping spirits be awakened? What stimulating force can be applied to their minds that will cause them to look within for the seed of creative vision, which is the beginning and the end of all individual achievements? This country needs creative vision now, as it never needed it before. The opportunity for the expression of personal initiative was never greater than it is now. The country has plenty of muscle power and brawn, but it is suffering with a shortage of brain power. And the tragedy of this shortage is in the fact that it is brain power that makes jobs for men who have only muscle power to sell. There is no valid reason for any young man of high school age or over to be idle in the United States today, yet millions of youths of this age are making no move to make a future for themselves, although they know or should know full well that today's leadership will be theirs tomorrow. A little while ago I sent out a call for a male secretary. Back came the report from the business colleges and the high schools that there was a shortage of male graduates for this sort of work. Upon inquiry, I discovered that the shortage is nationwide. Male stenographers are coming to be a thing of the past, although, as every well-informed businessman knows, there is no position in all industry, which provides a young man with an opportunity for self-promotion equaling that of a secretary. Since the secretary becomes an understudy to the men who are managing industry, he has a chance to go to school under the trained faculties of the greatest of all schools, the university of practical experience, and to receive good pay for the privilege. When you hear anyone asking, what about this generation of youths? What is going to happen to them when they go out to look for jobs? I feel like shouting from the house stops that the answer to these questions lies within the minds of the youths themselves. Those who discover their dormant creative vision and put it to work will make jobs for themselves, just as others before them have done. The others will go on down the dusty road to failure in the midst of an abundance of opportunities, just as this class always has done. Two things are essential for the unfolding and use of creative vision. One is a willingness to work and the other is a definite motive sufficient to inspire one to go the extra mile with the right mental attitude. Search as you may, but you cannot find anything to take the place of these. Work and motive, by themselves, are not sufficient guarantees of enduring success. What an interesting story we find and we dig into the achievements of a man like Henry Ford. He works, he has a definite motive behind his work, he goes the extra mile, perhaps adding a few additional miles for good measure, but, fortunately for him and the entire world, he is going forward, not backward. Instead of using his vision to rape the world as some selfish military conquerors have done, Mr. Ford is using it to put wheels under the era of progress in which he lives. Anyone who masters this philosophy and learns to apply it will have much more power than any human being is capable of handling safely, unless, in his use of this power, he trims his sales in the direction of constructive service as Henry Ford has done. As I approach the end of this chapter, I offer a suggestion that is rich in possibilities for all who recognize its value and act upon it. The suggestion involves no great amount of time or effort to carry it out. I suggest that you lay the chapter aside after you finish it and take personal inventory of yourself. Get away into some quiet spot where you will not be interrupted for an hour and have a visit with yourself, perhaps such as you have never had before. First of all, find out what you would like most to do. Then lay out plans to begin doing it and begin, write where you are, to carry out your plans. Second, recognize now and forever that whatever you get from life will depend upon what you give to life through some form of useful service. Perhaps you may have some useful plan or idea with which you have done nothing. Bring it out into the open and place a description of it on paper. In Wallace's story of Benher is the description of a scene that serves as an appropriate closing for this chapter. It had its settings in the ancient city of Antioch when the Roman Empire was at the height of its splendor. The rich and the idol had gathered to attend the chariot races. A wealthy man wanted to crown himself with glory by having his horses win, so he called his slaves together and chose one from the group to become the driver, promising him that if he won the race, he would win with it his own freedom. The races started. Around and around the arena of the drivers lashed the horses for their last bit of strength, but one of the drivers gained the lead from the very start and never lost it. In one hand he held the reins, and in the other he held the lash with which he drove the charging steeds for everything they had. His mighty arms stood out like ropes of iron. Someone yelled from the grandstand, those arms. Those arms. Where did you get them? And he yelled back at the galleys or for he was the slave who had been promised his freedom for winning. He had a motive and the greatest of all motives at that for the madness with which he drove his master's horses to victory. That motive was his desire for freedom. The Roman Empire crumbled and fell. The splendid city of Antioch has all but been forgotten, but still men fight on for personal freedom. Men do not rely on strong muscles now as in the days of the ancients. Civilization has lifted us to an understanding of a greater power. It is the power of creative vision and its source is the brain, not the brawn. With this thought I leave this chapter with you. I sincerely hope that before you lay it aside you will have taken inventory of your own mind and that you will have found there both the seat of creative vision and an appropriate motive to influence its development through use. This country now needs leaders of creative vision as it has never needed them before. The most substantial progress is based on the long range view. The creative vision of one generation develops into the laws and institutions of later generations of men. Where there is no vision the people perish. The loss of money is unpleasant. The loss of confidence in self is fatal to achievement. The combined wisdom and genius of mankind cannot conceive of an argument against the liberty of thought. Think before acting, not afterward. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. Determine a competitive rent price, market the property, schedule the showing screen, tenant's drive at the lease at a rent collection, handle maintenance request, maintain communication. Whew, sound complicated? Renters' warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Qualify tenants, check. Rent collection, check. Maintenance coordination, you got it. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444 because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runnerswarehouse. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at Moss Adams.com.