Kahlil Gibran - The Prosperity & Wealth Bible

Listen Listen To listen is to Learn. Doers of large affairs take very little time to talk — but they are always good Listeners. Anyone may secure a liberal education if he will but take the time to Listen. But it is imperative that you — Absorb what you Learn. General U. S. Grant was not a brilliant man. He was a failure in Business. But he set out to become Useful. He was gifted with wonderful determination and doggedness. He had Character. And to-day, high above the waters of the Hudson, alongside the beautiful Riverside Drive in New York, stands Grant’s Tomb — mute testimony to the life and work of Grant, as Soldier and President. So wonderful a Listener was he that while President he became known as “The Silent President.” Absorb what you Learn. To Listen well is a great accomplishment. No one shows his ignorance quicker than the man who persists in talking without saying anything. If you have something to say — say it. If you have nothing to say — Listen. Absorb what you Learn. Select the people to whom you listen. Listen with respect and an open Mind. Give new Ideas, new Theories and new Programs a hospitable reception. Listen well. To you remains the right to reject what you do not want. But always be big enough to Listen. Then — Absorb what you Learn.

Let Go Let Go It takes Courage to start a thing. It takes Courage to stick to a thing. But it takes greater Courage to Let Go of a thing that you are convinced is a Failure, after you have worked and sacrificed and sweat blood to make it Win. But — Have Courage to Let Go. The basis of Self-Reliance is Self-Belief. If you consider yourself bigger than your Job — if you fed that you are holding down a $2,500.00 Job with $10,000.00 abilities — Let Go of the $2,500.00 Job and immediately proceed to the $10,000.00 Job. Have Courage to Let Go. The principle is the same in Friendship. Nothing stimulates, inspires and leads a man on to Performance like a Real Friend. But if that Friend lacks the desires that accompany Real Friendship and you are keen enough to discern it — even in Friendship — Have Courage to Let Go. Have Courage to Let Go of the little Worries, the little Annoyances — the Trifles, that almost hourly race up to you and plead you to take them in. Think not lightly of these because they are small. It takes a Strong man to kick them out of the way, to pass over them — to abandon them. Have Courage to Let Go. The Active Mind draws to itself, like a Magnet, Ideas, Theories and Problems. Some are Useful, some are Useless. When they come to you, Sift them, Weigh them, Analyze them — take them all apart. Know them for what they are. Then hold to the Useful and drop the Useless. Have Courage to Let Go.

Clothes Clothes Note the man taking care as to his Clothes! He shall shake hands heartily with Success and Success shall take him into Partnership. Clothes may not make the man but a man easily makes his Clothes help make him. They will help you to — Reveal yourself through your Clothes. First, Clothes give a feeling of Self-respect. Then it is, however, that the sensible man forgets them. But if he doesn’t, then they help to unmake him. Clothes-worship discolors Character and takes from it its luster. For Clothes, after all, are mostly for the Mind. Else we could still dress in skins. Clothes are very accurate indicators to the real Character of a man. Reveal yourself through your Clothes. You can do so if you let your Clothes be the means and by no means the end. Clothes and mere Style are of two different Tribes. Neatness and Common Sense in Clothes count most. Shakespeare’s advice — “As much as thy purse will allow, neat but not gaudy” is difficult to improve upon. Reveal yourself through your Clothes. On the other hand, careful Selection in Clothes, so as to mirror your individuality and personality, becomes one of the most forceful means in your power for your growth. Clothes give prestige. They furnish an “entre.” The mental effect of the careful, well-dressed man or woman at once is to stimulate, invite and knit with satisfaction. The great point, however, is to so dress that people become at once interested in YOU and not your Clothes. Reveal yourself through your Clothes.

Alone Alone Learn to Be Alone. To be Healthily Alone is to be Morally afire. In such Solitude are the Ideas of Centuries hatched. Big minds Think, Decide, Stand — Conquer, while Alone. They self-examine and self-construct. Learn to Think Alone. Lincoln was Alone with his pine knots and borrowed books; Hugo was Alone with his mean garrett and pen; Cromwell was Alone at St. Ives behind his plow handle. Wherever great problems or vital decisions have had to be met, men have calmly withdrawn that they might the better weigh everything — Alone. Learn to Decide Alone. Emerson says — “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” Can a man trust himself away from himself? Is not the vital test and final greatness of a man all focused on his ability to stand absolutely Alone in emergencies? Props irritate and unnerve. So do irresponsive natures. The Crowd eats away at independence. Real Worth tops like a mountain cap. Nobody can mistake it. Like the mountain itself it stands Alone. No one will ever do for you what you are able to do for yourself — Alone. Learn to Stand Alone. If you have personal problems to solve — get Alone. If you are dissatisfied with what you are — get Alone. You will look strangely true to yourself when examined Alone. Nothing stimulates like getting Alone — so long as you get Alone to improve yourself. Learn to Conquer Alone.

Arbitrate Arbitrate Take the Chip off your Shoulder. One of the surest evidences that this is a time of great Progress is that we are beginning to dig out with great zest from the trunks in our garrets the old-fashioned, dust-covered principles that used to keep us mighty happy before we began to get prosperous. The package labeled “Arbitrate,” for instance. The meanest human being likes to pride himself on his sense of fairness. It is a fundamental and primitive principle. It was not until somebody got unjust and unfair that Wars and Fighters and Disagreements started. It has always been true that those who “talked it over” in the open soon had things settled and all went back to work. Arbitrate means to Weigh and Divide. That is, to Weigh the Dispute and Divide the Blame — and then to forget the Dispute. Fools always fight. Wise people always Arbitrate. Because to fight is to Waste and to Arbitrate is to Save. Sometimes it is money saved, sometimes human beings — but always Character, whether the dispute is between you or somebody else or between a dozen nations. Arbitrate. Always Arbitrate. It always pays to Arbitrate. Here’s something important. Disputes can never be without Individual Consent. If every person concerned — if YOU — refuse to fight, and the other or others take your “cue,” it has to be — Arbitrate. If people would only just think before they get ready to dispute, they would not dispute. Try out this suggestion YOURSELF. Take the Chip off your Shoulder.

Explore Explore God never put Brains into human heads for mere Fixtures. Brains are just like Continents. They were created to be Explored and Used — to be populated with Ideas. But before you start out on your expedition of Exploration, be sure that you — Get a Viewpoint. For next to actual Brains to Work with, there is nothing so important as to have an individual Viewpoint. It is everything to a man. From out of it rises the very Image of a man’s life Plan and Ideal. Explore. Get a Viewpoint. One man gathers together and puts ready for instant use, the thousands upon thousands of words that make up a Language. We can’t forget Webster. He shaped and sharpened the tools — and put them in order. Then Emerson came along. Poe arrived. Dickens, Mao-Caulay, Scott — and scores of others stepped up and delved into the tool chest of Webster. Each with his own Viewpoint shaped a literary Career. Explore. Find out. Get a Viewpoint. The whole World is beginning to bare its head to the genius of O. Henry. But marvelous as his words read, they are as nothing to his almost superhuman worked-out Viewpoint. His Pictured People in the cycle of the Humdrum and the Forgotten, will never die until print perishes. He was always Exploring — Exploring. Get a Viewpoint. Search, Think, Sacrifice, Study, Travel, Read — get the spirit of Exploration worked into your system. But remember that it is what you GET from Exploring that makes your Expeditions worthwhile. First — Get a Viewpoint.