Lesson Nine HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR

THERE are ten weaknesses against which most of us must guard ourselves. One of these is the habit of trying to reap before we have sown, and the other nine are all wrapped up in the one practice of creating alibis to cover every mistake made.

THE LAW OF SUCCESS

Lesson Nine

HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN

PAID FOR

"You Can Do It if You Believe You Can!”

IT may seem to be a departure from the subject of this lesson to start the lesson with a discussion of love, but, if you will re serve your opinion until you have completed the lesson, you may be ready to agree that the subject of love could not have been omitted without impairing the value of the lesson.

The word "love" is here used in an all-embracing sense!

There are many objects, motives and people which arouse one's love-nature. There is some work which we do not like, some that we do like moderately, and, under certain conditions, there may be work that we actually LOVE!

Great artists, for example, generally love their work. The day laborer, on the other hand, usually not only dislikes his work, but may actually hate it.

Work which one does merely for the sake of earning a living is seldom liked. More often it is disliked, or even hated.

When engaged in work which he loves, a man may labor for an unbelievably long period of hours without becoming fatigued. Work that a man dislikes or hates brings on fatigue very quickly.

A man's endurance, therefore, depends very largely on the extent to which he likes, dislikes or loves that which he is doing.

We are here laying the foundation, as you will of course observe, for the statement of one of the most important laws of this philosophy, viz.:

A man is most efficient and will more quickly and easily succeed when engaged in work that he loves, or work that he performs in behalf o f some person whom he loves.

Whenever the element of love enters into any task that one performs, the quality of the work becomes immediately improved and the quantity increased, without a corresponding increase in the fatigue caused by the work.

Some years ago a group of socialists, or perhaps they called themselves "co-operators," organized a colony in Louisiana, purchased several hundred acres of farm land, and started to work out an ideal which they believed would give them greater happiness in life and fewer of the worries through a system that provided each person with work at the sort of labor he liked best.

Their idea was to pay no wages to anyone. Each person did the work he liked best, or that for which he might be best equipped, and the products of their combined labors became the property of all. They had their own dairy, their own brick-making plant, their own cattle, poultry, etc. They had their own schools and a printing plant through which they published a paper

A Swedish gentleman from Minnesota joined the colony, and at his own request he was placed at work in the printing plant. Very soon he complained that he did not like the work, so he was changed and put to work on the farm, operating a tractor. Two days of this was all he could stand, so he again applied for a transfer, and was assigned to the dairy. He could not get along with the cows, so he was once more changed, to the laundry, where he lasted but one day. One by one he tried every job on the works, but liked none of them. It had begun to look as if he did not fit in with the co-operative idea of living, and he was about to withdraw when someone happened to think of one job he had not yet tried - in the brick plant, so he was given a wheelbarrow and put to work wheeling bricks from the kilns and stacking them in piles, in the brick yard. A week's time went by and no complaint was registered by him. When asked if he liked his job he replied, "This ban chust the job I like."

Imagine anyone preferring a job wheeling bricks! However, that job suited the Swede's nature, he worked alone, at a task which called for no thought, and placed upon him no responsibility, which was just what he wanted.

He remained at the job until all the bricks had been wheeled out and stacked, then withdrew from the colony because there was no more brick work to be done. "The nice quiet job ban finished, so I yank I ban go back to Minney-so-tie," and back to "Minney-so-tie" he went!

When a man is engaged in work that he loves it is no hardship for him to do more work and better work than that for which he is paid, and for this very reason every man owes it to himself to do his best to find the sort of work he likes best.

I have a perfect right to offer this advice to the students of this philosophy for the reason that I have followed it, myself, without reason to regret having done so.

This seems to be an appropriate place to inject a little personal history concerning both the author and the Law of Success philosophy, the purpose of which is to show that labor performed in a spirit of love for the sake of the labor, itself, never has been and never will be lost.

This entire lesson is devoted to the offering of evidence that it really pays to render more service and better service than one is paid to render. What an empty and useless effort this would be if the author had not, himself, practiced this rule long enough to be able to say just how it works out.

For over a quarter of a century I have been engaged in the labor of love out of which this philosophy has been developed, and I am perfectly sincere when I repeat that which I have stated elsewhere in this course, that I have been amply paid for my labors, by the pleasure I have had as I went along, even if I received nothing more.

My labors on this philosophy made it necessary, many years ago, for me to choose between immediate monetary returns, which I might have enjoyed by directing my efforts along purely commercial lines, and remuneration that comes in later years, and which is represented by both the usual financial standards and other forms of pay which can be measured only in terms of accumulated knowledge that enables one to enjoy the world about him more keenly.

The man who engages in work that he loves best does not always have the support, in his choice, of his closest friends and relatives.

Combating negative suggestions from friends and relatives has required an alarming proportion of my energies, during the years that I have been engaged in research work for the purpose of gathering, organizing, classifying and testing the material which has gone into this course.

These personal references are made solely for the purpose of showing the students of this philosophy that seldom, if ever, can one hope to engage in the work one loves best without meeting with obstacles of some nature. Generally, the chief obstacles in the way of one engaging in the sort of work one loves best is that it may not be the work which brings the greatest remuneration at the start.

To offset this disadvantage, however, the one who engages in the sort of work he loves is generally rewarded with two very decided benefits, namely; first, he usually finds in such work the greatest of all rewards, HAPPINESS, which is priceless, and secondly, his actual reward in money, when averaged over a life-time of effort, is generally much greater, for the reason that labor which is performed in a spirit of love is usually greater in quantity and finer in quality than that which is performed solely for money.

The most embarrassing and, I might without any intention of disrespect say, the most disastrous opposition to my choice of a life-work came from my wife. This, perhaps, will explain why I have made frequent references, in many of the lessons of this course, to the fact that a man's wife may either "make" or "break" him, according to the extent to which she gives or withholds co-operation and encouragement in connection with his chosen work

THERE is no more
dangerous person dangerous to himself
and to others - than
the person who passes judgment without pretending to know the
facts.

My wife's idea was that I should accept a salaried position that would insure a regular monthly income, because I had shown, by the few salaried positions I had held, that I had marketable ability which should command an income of from $6,000.00 to $10,000.00 a year without any very great effort on my part.

In a way I saw my wife's viewpoint and was in sympathy with it, because we had young growing children coming on who needed clothes and education, and a regular salary, even though it were not large, seemed to be a necessity.

Despite this logical argument, however, I chose to override my wife's counsel. Came, then, to her rescue, the combined forces of her family and mine, and collectively they charged me, head-on, with what amounted to a command to right-about-face and settle down on a salary basis.

Studying other people might be all right for a man who had the time to spend in this "unprofitable" manner, they reasoned, but for a young married man with a growing family this seemed hardly the thing to do.

But I remained adamant! I had made my choice and I was determined to stand by it.

The opposition did not yield to my viewpoint, but gradually, of course, it melted away. Meanwhile, the knowledge that my choice had worked at least a temporary hardship on my family, combined with the thought that my dearest friends and relatives were not in harmony with me, greatly increased my labors.

Fortunately, not all of my friends believed my choice unwise!

There were a few friends who not only believed I was following a course that would ultimately bring me out somewhere near the top of the mountain of useful achievement, but, in addition to believing in my plans, they actually went out of their way to encourage me not to be whipped by either adversity or the opposition of relatives.

Of this small group of faithful ones who gave me encouragement at a time when it was badly needed, perhaps one man should have the fullest credit, and this man is Edwin C. Barnes, a business associate of Thomas A. Edison.

Mr. Barnes became interested in my chosen work nearly twenty years ago, and I owe it to him to state here that had it not been for his unwavering faith in the soundness of the Law of Success philosophy I would have yielded to the persuasion of my friends and sought the way of least resistance via the salary route.

This would have saved me much grief and an almost endless amount of criticism, but it would have wrecked the hopes of a life-time, and in the end I would in all probability have lost, also, the finest and most desirable of all things, HAPPINESS! for I have been extremely happy in my work, even during the periods when the remuneration it brought me could be measured by nothing but a mountain of debts which I could not for the moment pay.

Perhaps this may explain, to some extent, why the subject of slavery through debt was so extensively emphasized in Lesson Four, on the Habit of Saving.

We want that lesson to "sink in."

Edwin Barnes not only believed in the soundness of the Law of Success philosophy, but his own financial success had demonstrated, as had also his close business relationship with the greatest inventor on earth, that he had the right to speak with authority on the subject of the laws through which success may be achieved.

I began my work of research with the belief that success could be attained, by anyone with reasonable intelligence and a real desire to succeed, by following certain (then by me unknown) rules of procedure. I wanted to know what these rules were and how they could be applied.

Mr. Barnes believed as I did. Moreover, he was in a position to know that the astounding achievements of his business associate, Mr. Edison, came about entirely through the application of some of the principles which later were tested and included as a part of this philosophy. From his way of thinking it seemed that the accumulation of money, enjoying peace of mind and finding happiness could be brought about by the application of never-varying laws which anyone might master and apply.

That was my belief, also. That belief has now been transformed into not merely a provable, but a PROVED reality, as I hope every student of this course will have reason to understand when the course shall have been mastered.

Please keep in mind that during all these years of research I was not only applying the law covered by this lesson, by DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR, but, I was going much further than this by doing work for which I did not, at the time I was doing it, hope ever to receive pay.

Thus, out of years of chaos, adversity and opposition this philosophy was finally completed and reduced to manuscripts, ready for publication.

For a time nothing happened!

I was resting on my oars, so to speak, before taking the next step toward placing the philosophy in the hands of people who I had reason to believe would welcome it.

"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform!"

During the earlier years of my experience I thought these words to be empty and meaningless, but I have since modified my belief considerably.

I was invited to deliver an address in Canton, Ohio. My coming had been well advertised and there was reason to expect that I would have a large audience. To the contrary, conflicting meetings being held by two large groups of business men reduced my audience to the lucky number of "thirteen."

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served. I went at my subject as though the hall were filled. Somehow there arose in me a sort of feeling of resentment on account of the way the "wheel of fate" had turned against me, and if I ever made a convincing speech I made it that night.

Down deep in my heart, however, I thought I had failed!

I did not know until the next day that I was making history the night before that was destined to give the Law of Success philosophy its first real impetus.

One of the men who sat in my audience, as one of the "thirteen," was the late Don R. Mellett, who was then the publisher of the Canton Daily News, brief reference to whom I made in the Introductory Lesson of this course.

After I had finished speaking I slipped out at the back door and returned to my hotel, not wanting to face any of my "thirteen" victims on the way out.

The next day I was invited to Mr. Mellett's office.

Inasmuch as it was he who had taken the initiative by inviting me in to see him I left it to him to do most of the talking. He began in something like this fashion:

"Would you mind telling me your entire life-story, from the days of your early childhood on up to the present?"

I told him I would do so if he could stand the burden of listening to so long a narrative. He said he could, but before I began he cautioned me not to omit the unfavorable side.

"What I wish you to do," said he, "is to mix the fat with the lean and let me take a look at your very soul, not from its most favorable side, but from all sides."

For three hours I talked while Mellett listened!

I omitted nothing. I told him of my struggles, of my mistakes, of my impulses to be dishonest when the tides of fortune swept against me too swiftly, and of....................................

AMONG
the
other
things you intend to
"cut out"
in your
New
Year's
resolution,
include
the
word
"Impossible!"

...............my better judgment which prevailed in the end, but only after my conscience and I had engaged in prolonged combat. I told him how I conceived the idea of organizing the Law of Success philosophy, how I had gone about gathering the data that had gone into the philosophy, of the tests I had made which resulted in the elimination of some of the data and the retention of other parts of it.

After I had finished Mellett said: "I wish to ask you a very personal question, and I hope you will answer it as frankly as you have told the remainder of your story. Have you accumulated any money from your efforts, and, if not, do you know why you have not?"

"No!" I replied. "I have accumulated nothing but experience and knowledge and a few debts, and the reason, while it may not be sound, is easily explained. The truth is that I have been so busy all these years in trying to eliminate some of my own ignorance so I could intelligently gather and organize the data that have gone into the Law of Success philosophy, that I have had neither the opportunity nor the inclination to turn my efforts to making money."

The serious look on Don Mellett's face, much to my surprise, softened into a smile as he laid his hand on my shoulder and said:

"I knew the answer before you stated it, but I wondered if you knew it. You probably know that you are not the only man who has had to sacrifice immediate monetary remuneration for the sake of gathering knowledge, for in truth your experience has been that of every philosopher from the time of Socrates down to the present."

Those words fell as the sound of music upon my ears!

I had made one of the most embarrassing admissions of my life; I had laid my soul bare, admitting temporary defeat at almost every cross-road which I had passed in my struggles, and I had capped all this off by admitting that an exponent of the Law of Success was, himself, a temporary failure!

How incongruous it seemed! I felt stupid, humiliated and embarrassed as I sat in front of the most searching pair of eyes and the most inquisitive man I had ever met.

The absurdity of it all came over me like a flash -THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUCCESS, CREATED AND BROADCASTED BY A MAN WHO WAS OBVIOUSLY A FAILURE!

This thought struck me so forcibly that I expressed it in words.

"What?" Mellett exclaimed, "a failure?

"Surely you know the difference between failure and temporary defeat," he continued. "No man is a failure who creates a single idea, much less an entire philosophy, that serves to soften the disappointments and minimize the hardships of generations yet unborn."

I wondered what was the object of this interview. My first conjecture was that Mellett wanted some facts on which to base an attack, in his newspaper, on the Law of Success philosophy. Perhaps this thought grew out of some of my previous experiences with newspaper men, a few of whom had been antagonistic toward me. At any rate, I decided at the outset of the interview to give him the facts, without embellishment come from it what would.

Before I left Mellett's office we had become business partners, with the understanding that he would resign as publisher of the Canton Daily News and take over the management of all my affairs, as soon as this could be arranged.

Meanwhile, I began writing a series of Sunday feature-page editorials which were published in the Canton Daily News, based upon the Law of Success philosophy.

One of these editorials (the one entitled "Failure," which appears in the back of one of the lessons of this course) came to the attention of judge Elbert H. Gary, who was at that time the Chairman of the Board of the United States Steel Corporation. This resulted in the opening of communication between Mellett and Judge Gary, which, in turn, led to judge Gary's offer to purchase the Law of Success course for the use of the employees of the Steel Corporation, in the manner described in the Introductory Lesson.

The tides of fortune had begun to turn in my favor!

The seeds of service which I had been sowing over a long period of toilsome years, by DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR, were beginning to germinate at last!

Despite the fact that my partner was assassinated before our plans had much more than started, and Judge Gary died before the Law of Success philosophy could be re-written so it conformed to his requirements, the "love's labor lost" on that fateful night, when I spoke to an audience of thirteen in Canton, Ohio, started a chain of events which now move rapidly without thought or effort on my part.

It is no abuse of confidences to enumerate here a few of the events which show that no labor of love is ever performed at a total loss, and that those who render more service and better service than that for which they are paid sooner or later receive pay for much more than they actually do.

As this lesson is ready to go to the publisher some of the following well known concerns are considering favorably the purchase of the Law of Success course for all their employees, while others have actually arranged for the purchase of the course:

Mr. Daniel Willard, President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.
Indian Refining Company
Standard Oil Company
New York Life Insurance Company
The Postal Telegraph Commercial-Cable Company
The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company
The Cadillac Motor Car Company
And some fifty other concerns of a similar size.

In addition to this, a newly organized club for boys, similar in nature to the Y. M. C. A., has contracted for the use of the Law of Success course as the basis of its educational program, and estimates that it will distribute more than 100,000 courses of the philosophy within the next two years.

Quite aside from these sources of distribution, the Ralston University Press, of Meriden, Conn., has contracted to publish and distribute the course to individuals throughout the United States, and perhaps in some foreign countries. How many courses they will distribute cannot be accurately estimated, but when one stops to consider the fact that they have a mailing list of approximately 800,000 people who have faith in anything they offer for sale, it seems very reasonable to suppose that their distribution will place tens of thousands of courses in the hands of men and women who are earnestly searching for the knowledge conveyed by the Law of Success philosophy.

Perhaps it is unnecessary, but I wish to explain that my only object in here relating the story of how the Law of Success philosophy has gained the recognition described is to show how the law upon which this lesson is based actually works out in the practical affairs of life.

If I could have made this analysis without the use of the personal pronoun I would have done so. · · · · · · · ·

With this background of history concerning the Law of Success philosophy as a whole, and this lesson in particular, you are better prepared to accept as sound the law on which this lesson is based.

There are more than a score of sound reasons why you should develop the habit of performing more service and better service than that for which you are paid, despite the fact that a large majority of the people are not rendering such service.

There are two reasons, however, for rendering such service, which transcend, in importance, all the others; namely,

First: By establishing a reputation as being a person who always renders more service and better service than that for which you are paid, you will benefit by comparison with those around you who do not render such service, and the contrast will be so..............................

IF ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

........................noticeable that there will be keen competition for your services, no matter what your life-work may be.

It would be an insult to your intelligence to offer proof of the soundness of this statement, because it is obviously sound. Whether you are preaching sermons, practicing law, writing books, teaching school, or digging ditches, you will become more valuable and you will be able to command greater pay the minute you gain recognition as a person who does more than that for which he is paid.

Second: By far the most important reason why you should render more service than that for which you are paid; a reason that is basic and fundamental in nature; may be described in this way: Suppose that you wished to develop a strong right arm, and suppose that you tried to do so by tying the arm to your side with a rope, thus taking it out of use and giving it a long rest. Would disuse bring strength, or would it bring atrophy and weakness, resulting, finally, in your being compelled to have the arm removed?

You know that if you wished a strong right arm you could develop such an arm only by giving it the hardest sort of use. Take a look at the arm of a blacksmith if you wish to know how an arm may be made strong. Out of resistance comes strength. The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun, but it is the one that stands in the open, where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

It is through the operation of one of Nature's unvarying laws that struggle and resistance develop strength, and the purpose of this lesson is to show you how to harness this law and so use it that it will aid you in your struggle for success. By performing more service and better service than that for which you are paid, you not only exercise your service-rendering qualities, and thereby develop skill and ability of an extraordinary sort, but you build reputation that is valuable. If you form the habit of rendering such service you will become so adept in your work that you can command greater remuneration than those who do not perform such service. You will eventually develop sufficient strength to enable you to remove yourself from any undesirable station in life, and no one can or will desire to stop you.

If you are an employee you can make yourself so valuable, through this habit of performing more service than that for which you are paid, that you can practically set your own wages and no sensible employer will try to stop you. If your employer should be so unfortunate as to try to withhold from you the compensation to which you are entitled, this will not long remain as a handicap because other employers will discover this unusual quality and offer you employment.

The very fact that most people are rendering as little service as they can possibly get by with serves as an advantage to all who are rendering more service than that for which they are paid, because it enables all who do this to profit by comparison. You can "get by" if you render as little service as possible, but that is all you will get; and when work is slack and retrenchment sets in, you will be one of the first to be dismissed.

For more than twenty-five years I have carefully studied men with the object of ascertaining why some achieve noteworthy success while others with just as much ability do not get ahead; and it seems significant that every person whom I have observed applying this principle of rendering more service than that for which he was paid, was holding a better position and receiving more pay than those who merely performed sufficient service to "get by" with.

Personally I never received a promotion in my life that I could not trace directly to recognition that I had gained by rendering more service and better service than that for which I was paid.

I am stressing the importance of making this principle a habit as a means of enabling an employee to promote himself to a higher position, with greater pay, for the reason that this course will be studied by thousands of young men and young women who work for others. However, the principle applies to the employer or to the professional man or woman just the same as to the employee.

Observance of this principle brings a two-fold reward. First, it brings the reward of greater material gain than that enjoyed by those who do not observe it; and, second, it brings that reward of happiness and satisfaction which come only to those who render such service. If you receive no pay except that which comes in your pay envelope, you are underpaid, no matter how much money that envelope contains.

· · · · · · · ·

My wife has just returned from the Public Library with a book for me to read. The book is entitled "Observation; Every Man His Own University," by Russell H. Conwell.

By chance I opened this book at the beginning of the chapter entitled Every Man's University, and, as I read it through, my first impulse was to recommend that you go to the Public Library and read the entire book; but, upon second thought, I will not do this; instead, I will recommend that you purchase the book and read it, not once but a hundred times, because it covers the subject of this lesson as though it had been written for that purpose; covers it in a far more impressive manner than I could do it.

The following quotation from the chapter entitled Every Man's University will give you an idea of the golden nugget of truth to be found throughout the book:

"The intellect can be made to look far beyond the range of what men and women ordinarily see, but not all the colleges in the world can alone confer this power - this is the reward of self-culture; each must acquire it for himself; and perhaps this is why the power of observing deeply and widely is so much oftener found in those men and those women who have never crossed the threshold of any college but the University of Hard Knocks."

Read that book as a part of this lesson, because it will prepare you to profit by the philosophy and psychology upon which the lesson is built. · · · · · · · ·

We will now analyze the law upon which this entire lesson is founded, namely -

THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS!

Let us begin our analysis by showing how Nature employs this law in behalf of the tillers of the soil. The farmer carefully prepares the ground, then sows his wheat and waits while the Law of Increasing Returns brings back the seed he has sown, plus a many-fold increase.

But for this Law of Increasing Returns, man would perish, because he could not make the soil produce sufficient food for his existence. There would be no advantage to be gained by sowing a field of wheat if the harvest yield did not return more than was sown.

With this vital "tip" from Nature, which we may gather from the wheat fields, let us proceed to appropriate this Law of Increasing Returns and learn how to apply it to the service we render, to the end that it may yield returns in excess of and out of proportion to the effort put forth.

First of all, let us emphasize the fact that there is no trickery or chicanery connected with this Law, although quite a few seem not to have learned this great truth, judging by the number who spend all of their efforts either trying to get something for nothing, or something for less than its true value.

It is to no such end that we recommend the use of the Law of Increasing Returns, for no such end is possible, within the broad meaning of the word success.

Another remarkable and noteworthy feature of the Law of Increasing Returns is the fact that it may be used by those who purchase service with as great returns as it can be by those who render service, for Proof of which we have but to study the effects of............................

ULTIMATELY nothing matters very much. The defeat that seems to break your heart today will be but a ripple among the waves of other experiences in the ocean of your life further ahead.

.........................Henry Ford's famous Five-Dollar-a-day minimum wage scale which he inaugurated some years ago.

Those who are familiar with the facts say that Mr. Ford was not playing the part of a philanthropist when he inaugurated this minimum wage scale; but, to the contrary, he was merely taking advantage of a sound business principle which has probably yielded him greater returns, in both dollars and good-will, than any other single policy ever inaugurated at the Ford plant.

By paying more wages than the average, he received more service and better service than the average!

At a single stroke, through the inauguration of that minimum wage policy, Ford attracted the best labor on the market and placed a premium upon the privilege of working in his plant.

I have no authentic figures at hand bearing on the subject, but I have sound reason to conjecture that for every five dollars Ford spent, under this policy, he received at least seven dollars and fifty cents' worth of service. I have, also, sound reason to believe that this policy enabled Ford to reduce the cost of supervision, because employment in his plant became so desirable that no worker would care to run the risk of losing his position by "soldiering" on the job or rendering poor service.

Where other employers were forced to depend upon costly supervision in order to get the service to which they were entitled, and for which they were paying, Ford got the same or better service by the less expensive method of placing a premium upon employment in his plant.

Marshall Field was probably the leading merchant of his time, and the great Field store, in Chicago, stands today as a monument to his ability to apply the Law of Increasing Returns.

A customer purchased an expensive lace waist at the Field store, but did not wear it. Two years later she gave it to her niece as a wedding present. The niece quietly returned the waist to the Field store and exchanged it for other merchandise, despite the fact that it had been out for more than two years and was then out of style.

Not only did the Field store take back the waist, but, what is of more importance it did so without argument!

Of course there was no obligation, moral or legal, on the part of the store to accept the return of the waist at that late date, which makes the transaction all the more significant.

The waist was originally priced at fifty dollars, and of course it had to be thrown on the bargain counter and sold for whatever it would bring, but the keen student of human nature will understand that the Field store not only did not lose anything on the waist, but it actually profited by the transaction to an extent that cannot be measured in mere dollars.

The woman who returned the waist knew that she was not entitled to a rebate; therefore, when the store gave her that to which she was not entitled the transaction won her as a permanent customer. But the effect of the transaction did not end here; it only began; for this woman spread the news of the "fair treatment" she had received at the Field store, far and near. It was the talk of the women of her set for many days, and the Field store received more advertising
from the transaction than it could have purchased in any other way with ten times the value of the waist.

The success of the Field store was built largely upon Marshall Field's understanding of the Law of Increasing Returns, which prompted him to adopt, as a part of his business policy, the slogan, "The customer is always right."

When you do only that for which you are paid, there is nothing out of the ordinary to attract favorable comment about the transaction; but, when you willingly do more than that for which you are paid, your action attracts the favorable attention of all who are affected by the transaction, and goes another step toward establishing a reputation that will eventually set the Law of Increasing Returns to work in your behalf, for this reputation will create a demand for your services, far and wide.

Carol Downes went to work for W. C. Durant, the automobile manufacturer, in a minor position. He is now Mr. Durant's right-hand man, and the president of one of his automobile distributing companies. He promoted himself into this profitable position solely through the aid of the Law of Increasing Returns, which he put into operation by rendering more service and better service than that for which he was paid.

In a recent visit with Mr. Downes I asked him to tell me how he managed to gain promotion so rapidly. In a few brief sentences he told the whole story.

"When I first went to work with Mr. Durant," said he, "I noticed that he always remained at the office long after all the others had gone home for the day, and I made it my business to stay there, also. No one
asked me to stay, but I thought someone should be there to give Mr. Durant any assistance he might need. Often he would look around for someone to bring him a letter file, or render some other trivial service, and always he found me there ready to serve him. He got into the habit of calling on me; that is about all there is to the story."
"He got into the habit of calling on me!"
Read that sentence again, for it is full of meaning of the richest sort.

TO love praise, but not worship it, and fear condemnation, but not go down under it, is evidence of a well balanced personality.

Why did Mr. Durant get into the habit of calling on Mr. Downes? Because Mr. Downes made it his business to be on hand where he would be seen. He deliberately placed himself in Mr. Durant's way in order that he might render service that would place the Law of Increasing Returns back of him.

Was he told to do this? No!

Was he paid to do it? Yes! He was paid by the opportunity it offered for him to bring himself to the attention of the man who had it within his power to promote him.

We are now approaching the most important part of this lesson, because this is an appropriate place at which to suggest that you have the same opportunity to make use of the Law of Increasing Returns that Mr. Downes had, and you can go about the application of the Law in exactly the same way that he did, by being on hand and ready to volunteer your services in the performance of work which others may shirk because they are not paid to do it.

Stop! Don't say it-don't even think it if you have the slightest intention of springing that old timeworn phrase entitled, "But my employer is different."

Of course he is different. All men are different in most respects, but they are very much alike in this -they are somewhat selfish; in fact they are selfish enough not to want a man such as Carol Downes to cast his lot with their competitor, and this very selfishness may be made to serve you as an asset and not as a liability if -

You have the good judgment to make yourself so useful that the person to whom you sell your services cannot get along without you.

One of the most advantageous promotions I ever received came about through an incident which seemed so insignificant that it appeared to be unimportant. One Saturday afternoon, a lawyer, whose office was on the same floor as that of my employer, came in and asked if I knew where he could get a stenographer to do some work which he was compelled to finish that day.

I told him that all of our stenographers had gone to the ball game, and that I would have been gone had he called five minutes later, but that I would be very glad to stay and do his work as I could go to a ball game any day and his work had to be done then.

I did the work for him, and when he asked how much he owed me I replied, "Oh, about a thousand dollars, as long as it is you; if it were for anyone else, I wouldn't charge anything." He smiled, and thanked me.

Little did I think, when I made that remark, that he would ever pay me a thousand dollars for that afternoon's work, but he did) Six months later, after I had entirely forgotten the incident, he called on me again, and asked how much salary I was receiving.

When I told him he informed me that he was ready to pay me that thousand dollars which I had laughingly said I would charge him for the work I had performed for him and he did pay it by giving me a position at a thousand dollars a year increase in salary.

Unconsciously, I had put the Law of Increasing Returns to work in my behalf that afternoon, by giving up the ball game and rendering a service which was obviously rendered out of a desire to be helpful and not for the sake of a monetary consideration.

It was not my duty to give up my Saturday afternoon, but -

It was my privilege!

Furthermore, it was a profitable privilege, because it yielded me a thousand dollars in cash and a much more responsible position than the one I had formerly occupied.

It was Carol Downes' duty to be on hand until the usual quitting time, but it was his privilege to remain at his post after the other workers had gone, and that privilege properly exercised brought him greater responsibilities and a salary that yields him more in a year than he would have made in a life-time in the position he occupied before he exercised the privilege.

I have been thinking for more than twenty-five years of this privilege of performing more service and better service than that for which we are paid, and my thoughts have led me to the conclusion that a single hour devoted each day to rendering service for which we are not paid, can be made to yield bigger returns than we received from the entire remainder of the day....................................

THE educated man is the man who has learned how to get everything he needs without violating the rights of his fellow men. Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

.........................the day during which we are merely performing our duty.

(We are still in the neighborhood of the most important part of this lesson, therefore, think and assimilate as you pass over these pages.)

The Law of Increasing Returns is no invention of mine, nor do I lay claim to the discovery of the principle of rendering more service and better service than paid for, as a means of utilizing this Law. I merely appropriated them, after many years of careful observation of those forces which enter into the attainment of success, just as you will appropriate them after you understand their significance.

You might begin this appropriation process now by trying an experiment which may easily open your eyes and place back of your efforts powers that you did not know you possessed.

Let me caution you, however, not to attempt this experiment in the same spirit in which a certain woman experimented with that Biblical passage which says something to the effect that if you have faith the size of a grain of mustard, and say to yonder mountain be removed to some other place, it will be removed. This woman lived near a high mountain that she could see from her front door; therefore, as she retired that night she commanded the mountain to remove itself to some other place.

Next morning she jumped out of bed, rushed to the door and looked out, but lo! the mountain was still there. Then she said:

"Just as I had expected! I knew it would be there."

I am going to ask you to approach this experiment with full faith that it will mark one of the most important turning-points of your entire life. I am going to ask you to make the object of this experiment the removal of a mountain that is standing where your temple of success should stand, but where it never can stand until you have removed the mountain.

You may never have noticed the mountain to which I refer, but it is standing there in your way just the same, unless you have already discovered and removed it.

"And what is this mountain?" you ask!

It is the feeling that you have been cheated unless you receive material pay for all the service you render.

That feeling may be unconsciously expressing itself and destroying the very foundation of your temple of success in scores of ways that you have not observed.

In the very lowly bred type of humanity, this feeling usually seeks outward expression in terms something like this:

"I am not paid to do this and I'll be blankety-blankety-blank if I'll do it!"

You know the type to which reference is made; you have met with it many times, but you have never found a single person of this type who was successful, and you never will.

Success must be attracted through understanding and application of laws which are as immutable as is the law of gravitation. It cannot be driven into the corner and captured as one would capture a wild steer. For this reason you are requested to enter into the following experiment with the object of familiarizing yourself with one of the most important of these laws; namely, the Law of Increasing Returns.

The experiment:
During the next six months make it your business to render useful service to at least one person every day, for which you neither expect nor accept monetary pay.

Go at this experiment with faith that it will uncover for your use one of the most powerful laws that enter into the achievement of enduring success, and you will not be disappointed.

The rendering of this service may take on any one of more than a score of forms. For example, it may be rendered personally to one or more specific persons; or it may be rendered to your employer, in the nature of work that you perform after hours.

Again, it may be rendered to entire strangers whom you never expect to see again. It matters not to whom you render this service so long as you render it with willingness, and solely for the purpose of benefiting others.

If you carry out this experiment in the proper attitude of mind, you will discover that which all others who have become familiar with the law upon which it is based have discovered; namely, that -

You can no more render service without receiving compensation than you can withhold the rendering of it without suffering the loss of reward.

"Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed," says Emerson; "for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed."

· · · · · · · ·

"If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be.................................

THE person who sows a
single
beautiful
thought
in the
mind of
another,
renders
the
world a
greater
service
than that
rendered by
all the
faultfinders combined.

.................repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer."

· · · · · · · ·

"The law of Nature is, Do the thing and you shall

have the power; but they who do not the thing have not the power."

· · · · · · · ·

"Men suffer all their life long, under the foolish

superstition that they can be cheated. But it is as impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself, as for a thing to be, and not to be, at the same time. There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of fulfillment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss."

Before you begin the experiment that you have been requested to undertake, read Emerson's essay on Compensation, for it will go a very long way toward helping you to understand why you are making the experiment.

Perhaps you have read Compensation before. Read it again! One of the strange phenomena that you will observe about this essay may be found in the fact that every time you read it you will discover new truths that you did not notice during previous readings.

A few years ago I was invited to deliver the graduation address before the students of an eastern college. During my address I dwelt at length, and with all the emphasis at my command, on the importance of rendering more service and better service than that for which one is paid.

After the address was delivered, the president and the secretary of the college invited me to luncheon. While we were eating, the secretary turned to the president and said:

"I have just found out what this man is doing. He is putting himself ahead in the world by first helping others to get ahead."

In that brief statement he had epitomized the most important part of my philosophy on the subject of success.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

Some ten years ago, when I was engaged in the advertising business, I built my entire clientele by the application of the fundamentals upon which this lesson is founded. By having my name placed on the follow-up lists of various mail order houses I received their sales literature. When I received a sales letter or a booklet or a folder which I believed I could improve I went right to work on it and made the improvement, then sent it back to the firm that had sent it to me, with a letter stating that this was but a trifling sample of what I could do - that there were plenty of other good ideas where that one came from - and, that I would be glad to render regular service for a monthly fee.

Invariably this brought an order for my services.

On one occasion I remember that the firm was dishonest enough to appropriate my idea and use it without paying me for it, but this turned out to be an advantage to me, in this way: A member of the firm who was familiar with the transaction started another business and as a result of the work I had done for his former associates, for which I was not paid, he engaged me to serve him, on a basis that paid me more than double the amount I would have realized from his original firm.

Thus the Law of Compensation gave back to me, and with compound interest added, that which I had lost by rendering service to those who were dishonest.

If I were looking for a profitable field of employment today, I could find it by again putting into action this plan of re-writing sales literature as a means of creating a market for my services. Perhaps I would find others who would appropriate my ideas without paying for them, but by and large people would not do this for the simple reason that it would be more profitable to them to deal fairly with me and thereby avail themselves of my continued services.

Several years ago I was invited to deliver a lecture before the students of the Palmer School, at Davenport, Iowa. My manager completed arrangements for me to accept the invitation under the regular terms in effect at that time, which were $100.00 for the lecture and my traveling expenses.

When I arrived at Davenport, I found a reception committee awaiting me at the depot and that evening I was given one of the warmest welcomes I had ever received during my public career, up to that time. I met many delightful people from whom I gathered many valuable facts that were of benefit to me; therefore, when I was asked to make out my expense account so the school could give me a check, I told them that I had received my pay, many times over, by that which I had learned while I was there. I refused my fee and returned to my office, in Chicago, feeling well repaid for the trip.

The following morning Dr. Palmer went before the two thousand students of his school and announced what I had said about feeling repaid by what I had learned, and added:

"In the twenty years that I have been conducting this school I have had scores of speakers address the student body, but this is the first time I ever knew a man to refuse his fee because he felt that he had been repaid for his services in other ways. This man is the editor of a national magazine and I advise every one of you to subscribe for that magazine, because such a man as this must have much that each of you will need when you go into the field and offer your services."

By the middle of that week I had received more than $6,000.00 for subscriptions to the magazine of which I was editor, and during the following two years these same two thousand students and their friends sent in more than $50,000.00 for subscriptions.

Tell me, if you can, how or where I could have invested $100.00 as profitably as this, by refusing to accept my $100.00 fee and thereby setting the Law of Increasing Returns to work in my behalf?

We go through two important periods in this life; one is that period during which we are gathering, classifying and organizing knowledge, and the other is that period during which we are struggling for recognition. We must first learn something, which requires more effort than most of us are willing to put into the job; but, after we have learned much that can be of useful service to others, we are still confronted with the problem of convincing them that we can serve them.

One of the most important reasons why we should always be not only ready but willing to render service, is the fact that every time we do so, we gain thereby another opportunity to prove to someone that we have ability; we go just one more step toward gaining the necessary recognition that we must all have.

Instead of saying to the world, "Show me the color of your money and I will show you what I can do," reverse the rule and say, "Let me show you the color of my service so that I may take a look at the color of your money if you like my service."

In 1917 a certain woman who was then nearing the fifty-year milepost of life, was working as a stenographer, at fifteen dollars a week. Judging by the salary she must have been none too competent in that work.

Now note this change:

Last year, this same woman cleared a little over $100,000.00 on the lecture platform.

What bridged that mighty chasm between these two earning capacities? you ask, and I answer:

The habit of performing more service and better service than that for which she was paid, thereby taking advantage of the Law of Increasing Returns.

This woman is well known throughout the country, as she is now a prominent lecturer on the subject of Applied Psychology.

Let me show you how she harnessed the Law of Increasing Returns. First, she goes into a city and delivers a series of fifteen free lectures. All may attend who will, without money and without price.

NO man can rise to fame and fortune without carrying others along with him. It simply cannot be done.

During the delivery of these fifteen lectures she has the opportunity of "selling herself" to her audience, and at the end of the series she announces the formation of a class for which she charges twenty-five dollars per student.

That's all there is to her plan!

Where she is commanding a small fortune for a year's work there are scores of much more proficient lecturers who are barely getting enough from their work to pay their expenses, simply because they have not yet familiarized themselves with the fundamentals upon which this lesson is based, as she has done.

Now, I would like to have you stop right here and answer this question:

If a fifty-year-old woman, who has no extraordinary qualifications, can harness the Law of Increasing Returns and make it raise her from the position as stenographer at fifteen dollars a week to that of lecturer at over $100,000.00 a year - why cannot you apply this same law so that it will give you advantages that you do not now possess?

Never mind what is to come in the remainder of this lesson until you have answered this question and -answered it AS IT SHOULD BE ANSWERED!

You are struggling, either meekly or earnestly, to make a place for yourself in the world. Perhaps you are exerting enough effort to bring you success of the highest order, if that effort were coupled with and supported by the Law of Increasing Returns.

For this reason, you owe it to yourself to find out just how you can apply this law to best advantage.

Now go back to that question, again; for I am determined that you shall not pass it by lightly, without giving yourself the benefit of at least trying to answer it.

In other words, there is no mistaking the fact that you are being brought face to face with a question that vitally affects your future, and, if you evade it, the fault will be with you.

You may lay this lesson aside after you have read it, and it is your privilege to do so, without making any attempt to profit by it; but, if you do so, you will never again be able to look at yourself in a mirror without being haunted by the feeling that -

YOU HAVE DELIBERATELY CHEATED YOURSELF!

Perhaps this is telling the truth in an undiplomatic way; but, when you purchased this course on the Law of Success, you did so because you wanted facts, and you are getting them, without the embellishment of apology.

After you have finished this lesson, if you will go back and review the lessons on Initiative and Leadership and Enthusiasm, you will better understand those lessons.

Those lessons and this one clearly establish the necessity of taking the initiative, following it with aggressive action and doing more than you are paid to do. If you will burn the fundamentals of these three lessons into your consciousness you will be a changed person, and I make this statement regardless of who you are or what your calling may be.

If this plain language has made you angry, I am glad; for it indicates that you can be moved! Now, if you would profit by the counsel of one who has made many more mistakes than you ever made, and for that
reason learned a few of the fundamental truths of life, harness this anger and focus it on yourself until it drives you forth to render the service of which you are capable.

If you will do this you can collect a king's ransom as your reward.

· · · · · · · ·

Now let us turn our attention to still another important feature of this habit of performing more service and better service than that for which we are paid; namely, the fact that we can develop this habit without asking for permission to do so.

Such service may be rendered through your own initiative, without the consent of any person. You do not have to consult those to whom you render the service, for it is a privilege over which you have entire control.

There are many things you could do that would tend to promote your interests, but most of them require the co-operation or the consent of others. If you render less service than that for which you are paid you must do so by leave of the purchaser of the service, or the market for your service will soon cease.

I want you to get the full significance of this right of prerogative, which you have, to render more service and better service than that for which you are paid, for this places squarely upon your shoulders the responsibility of rendering such service, and if you fail to do so, you haven't a plausible excuse to offer or an "alibi upon which to fall back, if you fail in the achievement of your definite chief aim in life.

One of the most essential yet the hardest truths that I have had to learn, is that every person should be his own hardest task-master.

We are all fine builders of "alibis" and creators of "excuses" in support of our short-comings.

We are not seeking facts and truths as they are, but, as we wish them to be. We prefer honeyed words of flattery to those of cold, unbiased truth, wherein lies the weakest spot of the man-animal.

Furthermore, we are up in arms against those who dare to uncover the truth for our benefit.

One of the most severe shocks I received in the early part of my public career was the knowledge that men are still being crucified for the high crime of telling the truth. I recall an experience I had some ten years ago, with a man who had written a book advertising his business school. He submitted this book to me and paid me to review it and give him my candid opinion of it. I reviewed the book with painstaking care, then did my duty by showing him wherein I believed the book was weak.

Here I learned a great lesson, for that man became so angry that he has never forgiven me for allowing him to look at his book through my eyes. When he asked me to tell him frankly what "criticism" I had to offer of the book, what he really meant was that I should tell him what I saw in the book that I could "compliment."

That's human nature for you!

We court flattery more than we do the truth. I know, because I am human.

All of which is in preparation for the "unkindest cut of all" that I am duty-bound to inflict upon you; namely, to suggest that you have not done as well as you might have done for the reason that you have not applied a sufficient amount of truth set out in Lesson Eight, on Self-control, to charge yourself with your own mistakes and short-comings.

To do this takes self-control and plenty of it.

If you paid some person who had the ability and the courage to do it, a hundred dollars to strip you of your vanity and conceit and love for flattery, so that you might see the weakest part of your make-up, the price would be reasonable enough.

We go through life stumbling and falling and struggling to our knees, and struggling and falling some more, making asses of ourselves, and going down, finally, in defeat, largely because we either neglect or flatly refuse to learn the truth about ourselves.

Since I have come to discover some of my own weaknesses through my work of helping others discover theirs, I blush with shame when I take a retrospective view of life and think how ridiculous I must have seemed in the eyes of those who could see me as I wouldn't see myself.

We parade before the enlarged shadows of our own vanity and imagine that those shadows are our real selves, while the few knowing souls with whom we meet stand in the background and look at us with pity or with scorn.

Hold on a minute 1 I am not through with you yet.

You have paid me to delve into the depths of your real self and give you an introspective inventory of what is there, and I am going to do the job right, as nearly as I can.

Not only have you been fooling yourself as to the real cause of your failures of the past, but you have.........................

ALL salesmen will profit by remembering that none of us want anything that someone else wishes to "get rid of."

.................tried to hang these causes on the door of someone else.

When things did not go to suit you, instead of accepting full responsibility for the cause, you have said, "Oh, hang this job! - I don't like the way 'they' are treating me, so I'm going to quit!"

Don't deny it!

Now let me whisper a little secret in your ear - a secret which I have had to gather from grief and heartaches and unnecessary punishment of the hardest sort -

Instead of "quitting" the job because there were obstacles to master and difficulties to be overcome, you should have faced the facts and then you would have known that life, itself, is just one long series of mastery of difficulties and obstacles.

The measure of a man may be taken very accurately by the extent to which he adapts himself to his environment and makes it his business to accept responsibility for every adversity with which he meets, whether the adversity grows out of a cause within his control or not.

Now, if you feel that I have "panned" you rather severely, have pity on me, O Fellow-Wayfarer, for you surely must know that I have had to punish myself more sorely than I have punished you before I learned the truth that I am here passing on to you for your use and guidance.

I have a few enemies - thank God for them! - for they have been vulgar and merciless enough to say some things about me that forced me to rid myself of some of my most serious short-comings; mainly those which I did not know I possessed. I have profited by the criticism of these enemies without having to pay them for their services in dollars, although I have paid in other ways.

However, it was not until some years ago that I caught sight of some of my most glaring faults which were brought to my attention as I studied Emerson's essay on Compensation, particularly the following part of it:

"Our strength grows out of our weakness.

"Not until we are pricked, and stung, and sorely shot at, awakens the indignation which arms itself with secret forces. A great man is always willing to be little. While he sits on the cushion of advantage he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits, on his manhood; he has gained facts; learned his ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill. The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point. Blame is safer than praise. I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken of me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies."

Study this, the philosophy of the immortal Emerson, for it may serve as a modifying force that will temper your metal and prepare you for the battles of life, as carbon tempers the steel.

If you are a very young person, you need to study it all the more, for it often requires the stern realities of many years of experience to prepare one to assimilate and apply this philosophy.

Better that you should understand these great truths as a result of my undiplomatic presentation of them than to be forced to gather them from the less sympathetic sources of cold experience. Experience is a teacher that knows no favorites. When I permit you to profit by the truths I have gathered from the teachings of this cold and unsympathetic teacher called "experience," I am doing my best to show you favoritism, which reminds me, somewhat, of the times when my father used to "do his duty" by me, in the woodshed, always starting with this bit of encouraging philosophy:

"Son, this hurts me worse than it does you." · · · · · · · ·

Thus we approach the close of this lesson without having exhausted the possibilities of the subject; nay, without having more than scratched the surface of it.

There comes to my mind the story of a romance of long ago through which I can leave in your mind the main import of this lesson. This story had its setting in the city of Antioch, in ancient Rome, two thousand Years ago, when the great city of Jerusalem and all the land of Judea were under the oppressive heel of Rome.

The star figure of the story was a young Jew by the name of Ben Hur, who was falsely accused of crime and sentenced to hard labor, at the galley's oar. Chained to a bench in the galley, and being forced to tug wearily at the oars, Ben Hur developed a powerful body. Little did his tormentors know that out of his punishment would grow the strength with which he would one day gain his freedom. Perhaps Ben Hur, himself, had no such hopes.

Then came the day of the chariot races: the day that was destined to break the chains that bound Ben Hur to the oars of the galley and give him his freedom.

One span of horses was without a driver. In desperation the owner sought the aid of the young slave because of his mighty arms, and begged him to take the place of the missing driver.

As Ben Hur picked up the reins, a mighty cry went up from the onlookers.

"Look! Look! Those arms! - where did you get them?" they howled, and Ben Hur answered:

"At the galley's oar!"

The race was on. With those mighty arms Ben Hur calmly drove that charging span of horses on to victory; victory that won for him his freedom.

Life, itself, is a great chariot race, and the victory goes only to those who have developed the strength of character and determination and willpower to win.

What matters it that we develop this strength through cruel confinement at the galley's oar, as long as we use it so that it brings us, finally, to victory and freedom.

It is an unvarying law that strength grows out of resistance. If we pity the poor blacksmith who swings a five pound hammer all day long, we must also admire the wonderful arm that he develops in doing it.

"Because of the dual constitution of all things, in labor as in life, there can be no cheating," says Emerson. "The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. For the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs. The signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent; namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen."

Henry Ford receives fifteen thousand letters a week from people who are begging for a part of his wealth; yet how few of these poor ignorant souls understand that Ford's real wealth is not measured by the dollars he has in the bank, nor the factories he owns, but by the reputation he has gained through the rendering of useful service at a reasonable price.

And how did he gain that reputation?

Certainly not by rendering as little service as possible and collecting for it all he could filch from the purchasers.

The very warp and woof of Ford's business philosophy is this:

"Give the people the best product at the lowest price possible."

When other automobile manufacturers raise their prices, Ford lowers his. When other employers lower wages, Ford increases them. What has happened? This policy has placed the Law of Increasing Returns back of Ford so effectively that he has become the richest and most powerful man in the world.

Oh, you foolish and short-sighted seekers after wealth, who are returning from the daily chase empty-handed, - why do you not take a lesson from men like Ford? Why do you not reverse your philosophy and give in order that you may get?

I am finishing this lesson on Christmas Eve!

In the room next to my study our children are decorating their Christmas tree, and the rhythm of..........

THERE are no lazy men. What may appear to be a lazy man is only an unfortunate person who has not found the work for which he is best suited.

.................their voices falls as music upon my ears. They are happy, not alone because they expect to receive, but for the deeper reason that they have presents hidden away which they expect to give.

From the window of my study, I can see the neighbor's children as they, too, are gleefully engaged in preparing for this wonderful event.

Throughout the civilized world, millions of people are preparing to celebrate the birth of this Prince of Peace who, more than any other man, set forth the reasons why it is more blessed to give than to receive, and why enduring happiness comes not from possessing material wealth, but from rendering service to humanity.

It seems a queer co-incidence that the completion of this particular lesson should have happened on Christmas Eve, yet I am glad that it has, for this has provided me with sufficient justification for reminding you that nowhere in the entire history of civilization could I have found stronger support of the fundamentals of this lesson than may be found in the Sermon on the Mount, in the book of Matthew.

Christianity is one of the greatest and most farreaching influences in the world today, and I hardly need apologize for reminding you that the tenets of Christ's philosophy are in absolute harmony with the fundamentals upon which this lesson, in the main, is founded.

As I see the happy faces of the children and watch the hurrying crowds of belated Christmas shoppers, all radiant with the splendor of the spirit of giving, I cannot help wishing that every eve was Christmas Eve, for then this would be a better world in which the struggle for existence would be reduced to a minimum, and hatred and strife outlawed.

Life is but a short span of years at best. Like a candle we are lighted, flicker for a moment, and then go out! If we were placed here for the purpose of laying up treasures for use in a life that lies beyond the dark shadow of Death, may it not be possible that we can best collect these treasures by rendering all the service we can, to all the people we can, in a loving spirit of kindness and sympathy?

I hope you agree with this philosophy.

Here this lesson must end, but it is by no means completed. Where I lay down the chain of thought it is now your duty to take it up and develop it, in your own way, and to your own benefit.

By the very nature of the subject of this lesson it can never be finished, for it leads into the heart of all human activities. Its purpose is to cause you to take the fundamentals upon which it is based and use them as a stimulus that will cause your mind to unfold, thereby releasing the latent forces that are yours.

This lesson was not written for the purpose of teaching you, but it was intended as a means of causing you to teach yourself one of the great truths of life. It was intended as a source of education, in the true sense of educing, drawing out, developing from within, those forces of mind which are available for your use.

When you deliver the best service of which you are capable, striving each time to excel all your previous efforts, you are making use of the highest form of education. Therefore, when you render more service and better service than that for which you are paid, you, more than anyone else, are profiting by the effort.

It is only through the delivery of such service that mastery in your chosen field of endeavor can be attained. For this reason you should make it a part of your definite chief aim to endeavor to surpass all previous records in all that you do. Let this become a part of your daily habits, and follow it with the same regularity with which you eat your meals.

Make it your business to render more service and better service than that for which you are paid, and lo! before you realize what has happened, you will

find that THE WORLD IS WILLINGLY PAYING YOU FOR MORE THAN YOU DO!

Compound interest upon compound interest is the rate that you will be paid for such service. Just how this pyramiding of gains takes place is left entirely to you to determine.

Now, what are you going to do with that which you have learned from this lesson? and when? and how? and why? This lesson can be of no value to you unless it moves you to adopt and use the knowledge it has brought you.

Knowledge becomes POWER only through organization and USE! Do not forget this.

You can never become a Leader without doing more than you are paid for, and you cannot become successful without developing leadership in your chosen occupation.

THERE is always room for the man who can be relied upon to deliver the goods when he said he would.