Kahlil Gibran - The Prosperity & Wealth Bible

Man-Afraid-Of-His-Job Man-Afraid-Of-His-Job We are all a bunch of Job holders, no matter the name by which we are known in our work. To work is to be dignified, whether we use a shovel or a pen. There is but one worker in all the drama of work who dishonors the whole profession. He’s The-Man-Afraid-Of-His-Job. Get this into your Head — YOU are “The Man Higher Up!” If you will but be this, from this minute you will grow and gather Power. For The-Man-Afraid-Of-His-Job is the man who fears somebody else above him, behind him, alongside of him. He has no Independence for he is all Dependence. YOU are “The Man Higher Up!” Results take care of themselves. First be YOURSELF. You may lose your Job. But what of it? You will have then gained a bigger one — Master of Yourself. Cromwell once said that “A man never rises so high as when he does his best not knowing whither he goes.” And Emerson says: “Why should we import rags and relics into the new hours?’’ Keep busy. YOU are “The Man Higher Up!” Believe it and proceed. Honor your Job — be it ever so humble — and it will Honor you. Be Positive. Dissolve partnership with The-Man-Afraid-Of-His-J ob. Go at your work with the belief that you alone know best your own work and you’ll find that it won’t take long for others about you to realize for a fact that — You ARE “The Man Higher Up!”

Encouragement Encouragement If you would step into some great seat of Power and Plenty, some day, just get into the Habit of Patting people on the back — with a real Pat of Encouragement. Give away your own Success. There is nothing in all the world so stimulating as to feel the thrill of Hope coloring the cheek of some fellow to whom you have just given the Grip of Grit. Give away your own Success. Even a Race Horse goes better after a pat on the Nose. The Boot Black gives you a better Polish if you remember to Smile while he Shines. Half the wrecks of life are strewn along the Gutter of Failure for no other reason than this — starved for want of Encouragement. Give away your own Success. There are no “Favored of Destiny” Successes. The only Winners are the Favored of Encouragement. The Smile, the hearty Hand Clasp, the sterling Cheer — the cup of Crystal Water — these are the things that make Men, mold Commerce and start to humming Cities and Nations. If you like to Whistle, teach the art to somebody else who doesn’t know how. Give away your own Success. And, by the way, it is the greatest Fun in all the world! The next fellow to you right now, whoever you are and wherever you are, is just as Human as you are. Turn your pockets of Encouragement inside out. Keep them empty by giving their contents away — for they will always be full. And, if these little talks help YOU from day to day, get the knowledge to the fellow who wrote them. It will Encourage him.

Will Will John Stuart Mill once said that “a Character is a completely fashioned Will.” Which suggests as the greatest task in life — the training and building of the WILL. Think, not merely, but ACT the Think. For that is the only sure way to the educated Will. To act with decision, firmness, and promptness when an Emergency arrives is to feed nourishing food hourly to the Will. The weak Will is the starved Will. Think, not merely, but ACT the Think. Note the Strong Man. He sees a thing to do and immediately DOES it. The thing may look trivial. It may even seem the work of some other fellow. But without hesitancy, as though dispute was greater than the task, the Strong Man gets the thing Done — so that he may have Time for other and Bigger things. Think, not merely, but ACT the Think. The Tragedy of the ten-dollar-a-week Shop Girl, the fifteen-dollar-a-week Clerk, the out-of-a-job Grown Man, is the Tragedy of an untrained Will. The late E. H. Harriman once said: “I am not a ten per cent man!” Which was his way of saying that he was Master of his own Will and a King among Doers. Think, not merely, but ACT the Think. Of all things To-day that you should not abandon, are the things you least desire to do. For Will building is to do the menial, if necessary, the hum-drum, maybe. But doing everything to a finish as best you can. Knowing full well that a daily mastery of the Little Things worthwhile makes easy and natural the doing of the Big Things when they come around. Think, not merely, but ACT the Think.

Harmony Harmony Get in Tune! We learn our greatest Lessons from Nature. At any hour glance at her Wonders — her Grass, Flowers, Trees, Birds, Rocks. What is the most impressive thing about all these things? This — silent Harmony. Nature wastes nothing. She quarrels with no one. She dissipates not. Her Team Work is perfect. All her Laws mesh in perfect Harmony. There are no discords. Get in Tune. Where there is no Harmony, there is no Progress. Elbert Hubbard gave some great advice when he said: “Get in Line or else get Out!” This ought to be the Motto of this Old World to every one of its Men and Women. Get in Tune. There is not a man or business that cannot increase its efficiency over and over again by the application of this simple rule of Harmony — cutting out the Discords — getting back into Accord with the Purpose at hand. Get in Tune. Think of the lost Energy and lost Life through your failure to keep in Harmony with your best Thinking or with the Concern that honors you by employing you. Do you realize that what you are carelessly discarding can never be secured again? Stop — this very minute — the leaking of Smiles, high Purposes, big Resolves. Rebellious Thinking cuts into the Heart of your life Force and drizzles it away. Wake up! There are no dreary days to the Alert the Masterful. To you who determine to Win, the story of the Stars and the Planets that do their work in perfect Harmony, is the Inspiration that makes every working minute of Your day Wonderful and Livable! Get in tune.

Essentials Essentials Do you want to DOUBLE your Efficiency, your Influence, your Results — your very Life? Here’s a Secret — cut out the NON-essentials. Give your Time to Things that Count. Half the “Faithful” Employees, the “Always-to-be-depended-upon” people that fill the Offices and Shops of the land, are nothing more nor less than just “Putterers,” and their Employers are too blind to see it. They do their work from day to day — but they take twice the Time necessary and thus WASTE for their Employers one-half. Give your Time to Things that Count. Did you ever watch the Doer, the Executive, the Leader — at his job? He instantly sees the BIG things in his Correspondence; immediately he sees the LARGE side of an Employee or of a Problem. Then he dismisses the NON-essentials, and sees that the Essentials are DONE — carried out according to his orders. Such a man is usually the one, too, that does the most and yet always has TIME — for things Worth While. Give your Time to Things that Count. Try to pick out the things in your Work To-day that really look Essential. Then push aside and away, the useless details. Concentrate on Essentials. For you will never Count in this world unless you — Give your Time to Things that Count.

Humanism Humanism Isms are a part of the progress of the race. Here’s the best of all — Humanism. Humanism, we will say, is the art of just being Human. Get back to being Human. To be Human is to be Yourself, through and through. And anybody that tries to be Human usually tries a lot of things that turn out to be, in the eyes of others who never think of being Human, very silly and very blundering. But that is the delight of it all! The big, strong people are those who are unusually Human. Get back to being Human. The Man of Affairs that can see the feeling side of the fellow who puts his coat on; the Woman of Wealth and Society who is able to be Human in the presence of her kitchen girl — they are following out the teaching of Humanism. Get back to being Human. Evil Prosperity makes the Snob. Adversity and Catastrophe make the Human. Get back to being Human. There are fewer Human beings in Business than there should be. Because men forget that their helpers are not machines, but Blood and Bone and Brain and Heart — and Feeling. If every person who reads this little talk would enter upon his or her work to-day determined to act like a Human being, think what Happiness would be added to this day! For to be Human is to be Kind, Considerate, Generous, Forgiving, Helpful, Inspiring, as well as to make Mistakes and Err.