Speaker 1: Success habits by Napoleon Hill two, Mastering Your Definite Purpose.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight I will discuss how
Speaker 1: important this principle of definiteness of purpose is and how
Speaker 1: you can apply it to achieve success. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: you may be interested in knowing why I am so
Speaker 1: positive in connection with my statements about this principle and
Speaker 1: about all the principles I will discuss in upcoming broadcasts.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that each and every one
Speaker 1: of these principles that you will be studying here has
Speaker 1: been checked and double checked by the laws of nature.
Speaker 1: When you can get confirmation of the soundness of a
Speaker 1: principle by going to nature herself, you're not going to
Speaker 1: go wrong. I want to give you an idea of
Speaker 1: the extent and the scope to which Nature goes in
Speaker 1: making use of this lesson that we're dealing with tonight,
Speaker 1: definiteness of purpose. Our greatest demonstration of the universal application
Speaker 1: of the principle of definiteness of purpose may be seen
Speaker 1: by observing how Nature applies it. Of all, it is
Speaker 1: seen in the orderliness of the universe and the interrelation
Speaker 1: of all of the natural laws isn't it a marvelous
Speaker 1: thing to know that this small ball of mud on
Speaker 1: which we live revolving around the Sun entirely every three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five days, keeping its proper distance from
Speaker 1: all of the other planets and from the Sun. Isn't
Speaker 1: it a marvelous thing to know that all of it
Speaker 1: is organized? When the sun goes down in the evening,
Speaker 1: we go to sleep knowing that it's going to arise
Speaker 1: again in the east next morning. So far as I've
Speaker 1: been able to understand and hear, the sun never has
Speaker 1: failed to come up after it went down in the evening.
Speaker 1: I have known of many cloudy times when you couldn't
Speaker 1: see it here in Missouri, but it was there just
Speaker 1: the same. The orderliness of things goes to prove, beyond
Speaker 1: any question of a doubt, that there is a first
Speaker 1: principle or cause back of it all, and that nature
Speaker 1: is very definite in carrying out that plan. How many
Speaker 1: billions or trillions or quadrillions of years this old planet
Speaker 1: has been floating around according to a definite plan, nobody knows,
Speaker 1: but we do know there's something definite about it, and
Speaker 1: nature doesn't allow that definiteness to be interfered with by
Speaker 1: any force whatsoever. Yes, And we see the definiteness of
Speaker 1: nature in the fixation of all of the stars and
Speaker 1: planets and their immovable relationship to one another. That relationship
Speaker 1: is so definite, ladies and gentlemen, that the astronomers can
Speaker 1: figure and foretell hundreds of years in advance the approximate
Speaker 1: relationship of any two given stars or planets at a
Speaker 1: given time. You couldn't do that if there wasn't a
Speaker 1: definite plan of operation being carried on by nature. And
Speaker 1: then you see it in the operation of the law
Speaker 1: of gravitation without cessation anywhere for any purpose whatsoever. Have
Speaker 1: you ever heard of the law of gravitation being stopped
Speaker 1: or anyone violating it without ill effects? It's there, It's definite,
Speaker 1: It never varies in any form whatsoever. You can adjust
Speaker 1: yourself to it, and it becomes very helpful, but if
Speaker 1: you don't adjust yourself to it, it can become very destructive.
Speaker 1: You see it in the overall balancing of life on
Speaker 1: this earth, so that no single species may dominate. Do
Speaker 1: you know that the human race wouldn't last twelve months
Speaker 1: if nature didn't have a definite plan for balancing the insects,
Speaker 1: and the birds, and a great variety of things smaller
Speaker 1: in importance than human beings. Sometimes she sends an epidemic
Speaker 1: of grashoppers that do a great deal of damage. But
Speaker 1: in a little while a flock of birds, gulls or
Speaker 1: something else come over and gorge themselves on those grashoppers
Speaker 1: to keep that balance going properly. Some time ago, some
Speaker 1: people brought some starlings over here, I believe, from England,
Speaker 1: with the intention of destroying some insect that the starlings
Speaker 1: like to feed on. But Nature didn't like that unbalancing
Speaker 1: of her affairs, and so she multiplied those starlings very rapidly,
Speaker 1: and they now have become a nuisance. I could put
Speaker 1: an adjective in front of that word nuisance if I
Speaker 1: wanted to. When you start interfering with Nature's over balancing
Speaker 1: of things, you get into trouble, because she has a
Speaker 1: definite plan of keeping everything in balance according to her
Speaker 1: overall intentions. This ought to be a cue to human beings.
Speaker 1: Then you see it in the process of evolution, through
Speaker 1: which the operation of everything in existence, whether animate or inanimate,
Speaker 1: is the outgrowth of something of the same nature which preceded.
Speaker 1: It isn't that an interesting thing? Did you ever hear
Speaker 1: of a farmer planting wheat and going out and being
Speaker 1: surprised to know that corn had come up instead of wheat? No,
Speaker 1: you never did. Nature has a definite way of causing
Speaker 1: everything that reproduces itself to reproduce something very closely akin
Speaker 1: to its ancestors. That applies to human beings the same
Speaker 1: as everything else. Nature doesn't vary in her definiteness in
Speaker 1: carrying out these laws, And it is seen in the
Speaker 1: impossibility of creating or destroying either matter or energy, or
Speaker 1: the modification of the amount of either. Isn't it an
Speaker 1: a astounding thing to recognize that you can't destroy energy
Speaker 1: or matter. You can't decrease or increase the amount of either.
Speaker 1: You can transform them from one state to another, but
Speaker 1: you cannot interfere with the amount. When you use up
Speaker 1: a certain amount of energy, Nature has a way of
Speaker 1: replenishing it and balancing her storehouse of it. She doesn't
Speaker 1: allow you to run out of the use of electricity.
Speaker 1: For instance, some one said to me some time ago, well,
Speaker 1: some of these days all of this electricity'll be used up,
Speaker 1: and then what's going to happen. That would be a catastrophe,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it. Ladies and gentlemen, don't worry. That's not going
Speaker 1: to happen. Nature has everything throughout the universe balanced, and
Speaker 1: her plans are set, her laws are fixed. She doesn't
Speaker 1: change her mind and decide one day that she'll have
Speaker 1: the sun come up and the next day that she'll
Speaker 1: not have it come up. She doesn't get careless and
Speaker 1: allow our Earth to come into contact with some other
Speaker 1: planet and cause a smash up. Almost every year we
Speaker 1: see some excitement in the newspapers about a group of
Speaker 1: misguided and unfortunate people who predict the ending of the world. Generally,
Speaker 1: they dispense with all of their worldly goods, let other
Speaker 1: people cheat them out of them, get up on top
Speaker 1: of houses and in trees, and get ready for the
Speaker 1: ascension to well wherever it is their going, because the
Speaker 1: world's coming to an end. I've seen that happen, I
Speaker 1: think six times during my lifetime. And this old world
Speaker 1: is rolling right along, just like it was the first
Speaker 1: time I ever observed it. I suspect it'll be rolling
Speaker 1: along in the same way for a long time to come.
Speaker 1: If you want to get a good idea of the
Speaker 1: importance of definiteness. He should watch nature in everything she does,
Speaker 1: and you'll get some very fine ideas. You should also
Speaker 1: observe the profoundly ingenious system of the human mind, which
Speaker 1: has been so definitely fixed through its design, that every
Speaker 1: individual may project himself into circumstances of the life of
Speaker 1: his own choice. He may fix the space he shall
Speaker 1: occupy as an individual, and determine in many respects, his
Speaker 1: own earthly destiny, this being the only thing over which
Speaker 1: any individual has complete control. Isn't it a marvelous thing
Speaker 1: to know that Nature has definitely given to every human
Speaker 1: being the right to determine his own earthly destiny, to
Speaker 1: use his mind to engage in the sort of activities
Speaker 1: he wants to engage in. Right away, you're going to say, well,
Speaker 1: that doesn't apply to Russia today, and it didn't apply
Speaker 1: to Germany for a time, And as matters are going
Speaker 1: right now, if we keep on, it's not going to
Speaker 1: apply to us here in the United States. We're not
Speaker 1: going to be so free to do whatever we want
Speaker 1: to work when we please, engage in the occupation we please.
Speaker 1: But ladies and gentlemen, let me turn you backwards some
Speaker 1: five or six thousand years, and call your attention to
Speaker 1: the fact that every single solitary person who has ever
Speaker 1: undertaken to divert the plans of nature has come to grief.
Speaker 1: Those men over in the Kremlin and in other parts
Speaker 1: of the world who are now trying to take away
Speaker 1: from mankind this great prerogative of control of the individual mind,
Speaker 1: are going to come to grief. There's the element of
Speaker 1: timing there. Sometimes we think the timing is strung out
Speaker 1: too much. Right now, it seems that it is. But
Speaker 1: if I'm not misinformed, Nature has a great deal of
Speaker 1: time on her hands. She can wait quite a long
Speaker 1: while to punish Joseph Stalin and the others. But punish
Speaker 1: him she will, That's definite. She will never allow him
Speaker 1: to take away the liberty of the people, because that's
Speaker 1: the one thing that the Creator saw to it, that
Speaker 1: every human being should have definiteness and the impossibility of
Speaker 1: circumventing or suspending even for one second, any of Nature's laws. Now,
Speaker 1: surely there is fixation, definiteness of purpose. You've never heard
Speaker 1: of anybody circumventing any of Nature's laws or undertaking to
Speaker 1: do it without coming to grief sometimes immediately. You can
Speaker 1: try to defy the law of gravitation. Sure you can
Speaker 1: get on top of a tall building and jump off
Speaker 1: if you're foolish enough to do it, unless you have
Speaker 1: somebody intervening down there with a net or something to
Speaker 1: catch you in. You'll come to a lot of grief,
Speaker 1: but you won't know anything about it. Sure you can
Speaker 1: try to define Nature's laws, you can defy all of them,
Speaker 1: but if you do, you're going to have to pay
Speaker 1: a price. Nature has definite penalties for the violation of
Speaker 1: all of her laws and definite rewards for the observation
Speaker 1: of them. There's no escape from that. It wouldn't make
Speaker 1: any difference what your religion is, not the slightest difference.
Speaker 1: You would have to come to the conclusion that Nature
Speaker 1: has definite plans for dealing with human beings here on
Speaker 1: Earth now, and that she has great rewards to give
Speaker 1: out to individuals who find out what her plans are
Speaker 1: and adapt themselves to those plans, and great penalties for
Speaker 1: those who fail to do so. It's one of the
Speaker 1: burdens and one of the privileges of this success philosophy
Speaker 1: I have discovered to guide people in a practical, understandable
Speaker 1: way to the ways of nature, to the laws of nature,
Speaker 1: and to the ways and means of adapting the individual's
Speaker 1: actions in life to those laws. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: I want to give you some of the important factors
Speaker 1: that go into the business of applying definiteness of purpose.
Speaker 1: The first one is that the starting point of all
Speaker 1: individual achievements is the adoption of a definite purpose, accompanied
Speaker 1: by a definite plan for its attainment, followed by appropriate action.
Speaker 1: There's three key words in there to remember if you
Speaker 1: can't remember all I've said. There must be a purpose,
Speaker 1: there must be a plan, and there must be an action. Purpose, plan, action.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to say, well, some of these days
Speaker 1: I'm going into the lumber business. Some of these days,
Speaker 1: some of these days never come. But if you said,
Speaker 1: starting next week, I am going to order a stock
Speaker 1: of material and go into the lumber business in Paris, Missouri.
Speaker 1: And if you have the capital available for doing it
Speaker 1: and start out doing it, that's definite. The second factor
Speaker 1: is that all individual achievements are the results of a
Speaker 1: motive or a combination of motives. Everything you do from
Speaker 1: the time you reach the age of consciousness of yourself
Speaker 1: until you die is the result of a motive. Nobody
Speaker 1: ever does anything without a motive, and there are only
Speaker 1: nine basic motives. The importance of what I want to
Speaker 1: do now is to impress you that these nine basic
Speaker 1: motives are the abcs of success. You should never, under
Speaker 1: any circumstances, ask or expect anybody to do anything without
Speaker 1: planting in that person's mind a motive or a combination
Speaker 1: of motives justifying what you ask them to do. Under
Speaker 1: no circumstances would I ever ask anybody to do anything
Speaker 1: until I first felt in my own heart that I
Speaker 1: had planted in that person's mind a motive and also
Speaker 1: had justified the request. If you'll do that, you'll never
Speaker 1: go wrong. Here are the nine basic motives, some combination
Speaker 1: of which is used by all people who are accomplish anything.
Speaker 1: The first one is the emotion of love. You'd be
Speaker 1: surprised to know how many human relationships are established, how
Speaker 1: many fortunes are made, and how many fortunes are lost,
Speaker 1: and how many things happen in this world as a
Speaker 1: result of this motive of love. It is the greatest
Speaker 1: of all of the motives, and the greatest of all
Speaker 1: of the emotions and yet the most dangerous, especially for
Speaker 1: those who let loose of both ends of the string
Speaker 1: and say I'm going off the deep end. I have
Speaker 1: known of people doing just that. The second of these
Speaker 1: nine basic motives is the emotion of sex, that great
Speaker 1: creative force that is employed by nature to perpetuate the
Speaker 1: species of all living things. Third is the desire for
Speaker 1: material wealth. That's sort of an inborn trait. It's one
Speaker 1: of the outstanding motives that inspire men to engage in
Speaker 1: great undertakings. I've never heard of anybody who turned down
Speaker 1: an opportunity to make money legitimately, and sometimes, unfortunately, they're
Speaker 1: willing to make it otherwise. The fourth of these nine
Speaker 1: basic motives is the desire for self preservation. That's an
Speaker 1: inborn motive. You do things that at time seem almost
Speaker 1: superhuman as a result of carrying out this motive for
Speaker 1: self preservation. Many have been the times since I've been
Speaker 1: driving an automobile during the last forty odd years, that
Speaker 1: I've performed feats of driving that I couldn't begin to
Speaker 1: perform deliberately if I had plenty of time. That is
Speaker 1: to say, these are cases of near emergencies when something
Speaker 1: inside of me would take over the wheel and throw
Speaker 1: the car off of the road and then back on
Speaker 1: it again. I had something happened like that. The second
Speaker 1: time that I came up here to Paris. My car
Speaker 1: turned around entirely in the road, turned around, and started
Speaker 1: back up toward Paris. I think the car wanted me
Speaker 1: to come back up here and finish the job there.
Speaker 1: I was headed this way again. The desire for self
Speaker 1: preservation is an outstanding motive. The fifth basic motive is
Speaker 1: the desire for freedom of body and mind. The Creator
Speaker 1: not only gave you the right to freedom, the inborn
Speaker 1: right to control your own mind, and by that control,
Speaker 1: to gain freedom for yourself, but he planted in your
Speaker 1: mind a desire for that freedom. If there is one
Speaker 1: thing that we hear in America prize above all other
Speaker 1: things to day, it's our privilege of being ourselves, saying
Speaker 1: the things we want to say, doing the things we
Speaker 1: want to do. Of course, we can't always say the
Speaker 1: things we'd like to say, but we can come pretty
Speaker 1: close to it. Freedom. We have a great amount of
Speaker 1: freedom in the United States, more than they have in
Speaker 1: any other nation on earth. That's one of our motives
Speaker 1: for doing some of the things we do now in
Speaker 1: order to protect that freedom. The sixth motive is the
Speaker 1: desire for personal expression and recognition. Personal expression and recognition.
Speaker 1: I've never known of anybody yet that didn't want to
Speaker 1: do one or the other of two things. First be
Speaker 1: able to make a speech, what about, oh anything? And
Speaker 1: second to write a book? What about oh anything? The
Speaker 1: desire for personal expression is an inherent desire and one
Speaker 1: of the great motives that prompt men and women to
Speaker 1: engage in far reaching undertakings. Perhaps it was the motive
Speaker 1: of desire for personal expression that prompted me to go
Speaker 1: through twenty years of near starvation while I was organizing
Speaker 1: this philosophy and getting it ready for the public. I
Speaker 1: don't think any other motive could have caused me to
Speaker 1: have kept at that job when it wasn't profitable. The
Speaker 1: seventh major motive is the desire for perpetuation of life
Speaker 1: after death. That's also an inherent motive. Now I come
Speaker 1: to the last two motives, and they're both negative. Number
Speaker 1: eight is the desire for revenge. You would be surprised
Speaker 1: at the amount of energy spent by people every day
Speaker 1: as the result of their attempt to take revenge on
Speaker 1: somebody for some real or imaginary grievance. The desire for
Speaker 1: revenge is a very destructive thing. It may work hard
Speaker 1: or injustice upon others, but it's sure to work hardship
Speaker 1: on the one who engages in it. There are lots
Speaker 1: of people in this world of whom I don't approve,
Speaker 1: some that I don't particularly like. But if I had
Speaker 1: every privilege in the world of engaging in any form
Speaker 1: of revenge, I wouldn't do it, not because there aren't
Speaker 1: some people that deserve it, perhaps, but because I couldn't
Speaker 1: afford to hurt myself. If you're living the proper way,
Speaker 1: have a well balanced life, you get to the point
Speaker 1: at which you don't want to take revenge on anybody
Speaker 1: for anything. The ninth and last motive is the grandfather
Speaker 1: of them all, ladies and gentlemen, the emotion of fear.
Speaker 1: You'll not be a free agent as long as you're
Speaker 1: afraid of anything or anybody. You've got to become free
Speaker 1: in your own mind. If there's something that you fear,
Speaker 1: find out why you fear it and get rid of
Speaker 1: that fear. If it's something that you can do something about,
Speaker 1: do it. And if it's something you can't do anything about,
Speaker 1: forget about it, or at least fill your mind so
Speaker 1: full of something else that you won't be thinking about
Speaker 1: it and nursing it. The next factor that enters into
Speaker 1: this business of definiteness of purpose is this great outstanding truth, namely,
Speaker 1: that any dominating idea, plan, or purpose which you hold
Speaker 1: in your mind through repetition of thought, is taken over
Speaker 1: by the subconscious section of the mind and acted upon
Speaker 1: through whatever natural and logical means that may be available.
Speaker 1: You will observe that through my tone of voice, I
Speaker 1: emphasized certain words in that statement, through whatever natural and
Speaker 1: logical means that may be available. I didn't say anything
Speaker 1: about supernatural means. I don't know anything about working through
Speaker 1: supernatural means. I only know about working through natural laws.
Speaker 1: I want each and every one of you to feel
Speaker 1: that there is a part for you to play. There
Speaker 1: is some person or persons or group of people with
Speaker 1: whom you have contact, to whom you may start teaching
Speaker 1: this philosophy. You may not be the best teacher in
Speaker 1: the world, but make that your definite purpose that you're
Speaker 1: going to commence expounding the philosophy and passing it on
Speaker 1: to other people who may need it. You'll find that
Speaker 1: as you undertake to teach others, as you begin to
Speaker 1: tell them about it, you will begin to get a
Speaker 1: better grip on the philosophy yourself. That's a law of
Speaker 1: nature too. Whatever you do to or for another person,
Speaker 1: you do too or for yourself. You'll never ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: get the full benefit of this philosophy until you look
Speaker 1: around you and find somebody who needs it and start
Speaker 1: teaching that person. Let him become acquainted with us, Let
Speaker 1: him tune in on this atmosphere, and make up his
Speaker 1: own mind whether this fellow Hill came up here to
Speaker 1: take in a lot of people and get them all
Speaker 1: stirred up. As one man said that he thought I
Speaker 1: did well, I'll admit, just in case there's any doubt
Speaker 1: about it, I did come up here with the intention
Speaker 1: of getting a lot of people stirred up, awakened, if
Speaker 1: you please, and interested in doing something not only to
Speaker 1: help themselves, but to help this community in which they live.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me tonight. Friends, Please tune in
Speaker 1: next time when I will explain the importance of accurate
Speaker 1: thinking in reaching your success goals.