You can see the "think poor" and "think rich" ideas at work in children. Some boys of the same age want roller skates and others want bicycles. They may want them as aids to playing with friends, aids to making money, or merely because other children have them and they want to "belong." Both may have to work for their equipment.

The boy who wants roller skates so it will be easier for him to deliver packages is thinking in a very different way from the boy who wants a bike so he can deliver packages to more people in the same time. One boy is thinking in a limited way, only about himself; the other is "thinking rich," about an expanding world and opportunities to be of service to more people.

The System That works

Here is a great reason for "thinking rich": Though the advances of the last quarter of a century have been called "vast," "explosive," and "overwhelming," every survey by academic, commercial, and governmental agencies indicates that greater advances will be made during the next decade than during the previous quarter-of-a-century. Not only will this open new opportunities that didn't exist a few years ago, but it will create a great need for success-oriented people to match the accelerated rate of expansion. Those who get the leading jobs will be the ones who think rich enough to get them.

The Idea Comes First

Money is only frozen energy. It becomes useful only after you defrost it and exchange it for what you want. The way you think, therefore, influences the way you use money. What you think you want, you buy - assuming you have the money. If you want something enough, you will devote the time and energy needed to acquire the money with which to buy it. By the same token, if you don't want much - if you "think poor" - you will only work enough to get the "poor" things you want.

The Penalties Of "Thinking Poor"

I have heard, and frequently, that one of the rewards of being satisfied with one's lot is that at least one has peace of mind. The idea seems to be that if one doesn't strive to better himself, he won't be hurt and frustrated if he doesn't make it.

Quite the opposite is true. Man is a proud creature, but pride, unless it is false, can be based only on achievement. When a man's work becomes so routine that all sense of achievement is lost, pride suffers, and all the platitudes about contentment with one's lot cannot soothe an injured pride.

To put it more strongly, achievement on which to feed one's pride is as necessary to the complete man as income on which to feed his family. The corollary of that is that a poorly fed pride means a poorly fed family, with a further loss of pride and a greater increase of worry and frustration.

Unconscious attitudes

You can change your subconscious mind as easily as you can change your conscious mind, and once changed and put on the right course, it will work tirelessly to follow through. So subservient is it, in fact, that it will even learn a foreign language for you while you sleep.

It is this mysterious obedience of the subconscious to the commands of the conscious mind that only recently has come to be appreciated. Now we know that if the conscious mind "thinks poor," the subconscious responds in the same low key.

Tune your subconscious into thinking success and you will soon have success in your life. What this boils down to is that either you put your subconscious to work with "think rich" ambitions, or it will enslave you with "think poor" goals. It has no ambition of its own. It is lazy, and will seek the path of least resistance. Only your conscious mind can determine what you want out of life, and guide your subconscious accordingly. And once it has been mastered, it becomes the obedient servant that will guide you to success.