One of our writers has emphasized the policy of using what you have to get what you want. It is a policy of failure if you do not idealize that which you have. If, however, you idealize the thing you have to use and the process of using it, it becomes a sure road to success and great success. Values are increased only by idealizing.
But how can the mind of itself and within itself -by a mere process of thinking -increase the value of anything? Especially, let us say, the value of such a thing as a piece of land, of real estate? Certainly, it seems that its value depends not at all on what we think about it. You know what land is; but, do you know what value is? Certainly, value is nothing material. If mind did not distinguish between a diamond and a piece of coal and give special value to the former because of our desire for beauty, the material of the diamond would be no more valuable than the material of a piece of coal of the same size. If there were no mental conception regarding the purity of the diamond and no desire to possess it and use it as decoration, diamonds would possess no more value than pebbles.
Now let us consider the idealizing of the value of a piece of land so that the process increased its value in four days from less than $200 an acre to $1,000 an acre. The land, of which I write, is situated in eastern Pennsylvania near a very beautiful lake some distance from railroads. It was purchased twenty-four years ago as farmland at less than $15 an acre. It was left as part of an estate to two nephews. The younger one became of age in 1919 and the land was offered for sale. They desired to obtain $200 an acre for it and felt that, if they could sell it at that price, they would be very lucky. Many things have happened in the last twenty-four years. The land is still far from the railroad but every foot of land around the little lake has been purchased by millionaires from Philadelphia and New York. In fact, since 1919 they have spent $3,000,000 in general improvement of this millionaires' colony in addition to the money spent on individual estates.
The land of the two nephews, however, was not of great value. The acreage was not large enough for a great estate and the land was not good as farmland. In no sense did it lead surrounding land in value. Those who knew the land thought it ought to be worth $200 an acre, but, as the months went by, it was not sold. The nephews were anxious to realize on their land; they wished to go into business, and knowing me, they called one day to ask for help. I idealized it as farmland and saw its uselessness. In fact, it had been neglected so long that it would take two or three years to bring it back to normal condition. Then I idealized it as a site for a country estate of a wealthy man. But I saw it would not do for that. It was not large enough. Next, I idealized the entire colony of millionaires about it; I idealized its nearness to New York and Philadelphia; I idealized the people in the city who desired homes; I idealized human nature, realizing that there were many cultured people of limited means who desired to live near very wealthy people who would enjoy life in a community of such people.
Consequently out of the cosmos there came to my mind the ideal of making this land a little park divided into forty little home plots of one acre each. The nephews and myself drew up this plan. We had given added value to the actual land by creating an idealized use of it, a vision of a little park among the millionaires -for forty families each with its own little country home. The first result was accomplished within forty-eight hours. The plan was presented to a real estate man in New York City. At once he wished to buy the entire plot at $300 an acre. But the nephews had seen a vision -the idealization had given value to their land -and they refused. The real estate man offered $400, and then $500 an acre for it.
The second result was that within four days the nephews were offered $1,000 an acre for the first plot that was to be sold. And why? The land was exactly the same land it had been a week before, but value had been added by idealizing a little community of forty cultured families living near a colony of millionaires, and value had also been given to it by creating a desire for such homes. These two factors, the mental plan and the desire created, gave a greatly increased value (from $200 to $1,000 an acre) in four days. Because of the plan and the desire created in the minds of those to whom the plan was given, this run-down, neglected farmland led in value all the other farmland, even though the other farmlands were improved and cultivated. This was possible because this land was hilly and rolling and partly wooded Therefore other farmland could not compete with this as plots for homes.
Moreover, in value this land within four days after the plan was made and presented was worth just five hundred percent more than the lands of the great estates surrounding them. It was worth more because it could be purchased in small plots, while the owners of the estates would not consider selling an acre or even ten acres of the land they owned. Hence this land, which -four days before the plan was conceived by idealization -as at the tail of land values, became the leader of land values in comparison with farm land value and that of the great estates.
Whenever you wish to increase the value of anything you have to sell, add mental effort by sane idealization that fits the best use that can be made of the thing. Whenever you wish to give a predominant value to anything, idealize a plan and create a desire for it in such a way that the thing you have to sell leads all other things near it or approximately like it.
Thus, by actual practice, you prove that all value is of mind and thus that all value is of God. The value of that which you possess, depends upon the sanely idealized concept with which you endow it and the desire you create in other minds for the honest value you have given it.
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