Kahlil Gibran - The Prosperity & Wealth Bible

“Now, why am I so sure of this law? How can you be sure? I have watched it work; it works everywhere. You have only to try it, and keep on trying it and it will prove true for you. It is not true because I say so, nor because anybody else says so; it is just true. Theosophists call it the law of Karma; humanitarians call it the law of Service; businessmen call it the law of common sense; Jesus Christ called it the law of Love. It rules whether I know it or not, whether I believe it or not, whether I defy it or not. I can’t break it! Jesus of Nazareth, without reference to any religious idea you may have about Him, without consideration as to whether He was or was not divine, was the greatest business Man that ever lived, and he said: ‘Give and ye shall receive — good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over!’ And this happens to be so — not because He said it — but because it is the Truth, which we all, whether we admit it or not, worship as God. No man can honestly say that he does not put the truth supreme.

“It is the truth — the principle of giving and receiving — only there are few men who go the limit on it. But going the limit is the way to unlimited returns!

“What shall I give? What I have, of course. Suppose you believe in this idea — and suppose you should start giving it out, the idea itself, tactfully, wisely, and living it yourself in your organization.

How long do you think it will be before you are a power in that organization, recognized as such and getting pay as such? It is more valuable than all the cleverness and special information you can possibly possess without it. What you have, give — to everybody. If you have an idea, do not save it for your own use only; give it. It is the best thing you have to give and therefore the thing best to give — and therefore the thing that will bring the best back to you. I believe that if a man would follow this principle, even to his trade secrets, he would profit steadily more and more; and more certainly than he will by holding on to anything for himself. He would never have to worry about his own affairs because he would be working on fundamental law. Law never fails — and it will be easy for you to discover what is or is not law. And if law is worth using part of the time, it is worth using all the time.

“Look around you first, with an eye to seeing the truth, and then put the thing to the test. Through both methods of investigation you will find a blank check waiting for you to fill in with ‘whatsoever you desire,’ and a new way to pray and to get what you pray for.”

Chapter 12 — The Three Requisites

Sometime today or tomorrow or next month, in practically every commercial office and manufacturing plant in the United States, an important executive will sit back in his chair and study a list of names on a sheet of white paper before him.

Your name may be on it.

A position of responsibility is open and he is face to face with the old, old problem — “Where can I find the man?”

The faces, the words, the work, the impressions of various men will pass through his mind in quick review. What is the first question he will ask concerning each?

“Which man is strongest on initiative, which one can best assume responsibility?”

Other things being equal, THAT is the man who will get the job. For the first requisite in business as in social life is confidence in yourself — knowledge of your power. Given that, the second is easy — initiative or the courage to start things. Lots of men have ideas, but few have the confidence in themselves or the courage to start anything.

With belief and initiative, the third requisite follows almost as a matter of course — the faith to go ahead and do things in the face of all obstacles.

“Oh, God,” said Leonardo da Vinci, “you sell us everything for the price of an effort.”

Certainly no one had a better chance to know than he. An illegitimate son, brought up in the family of his father, the misfortune of his birth made him the source of constant derision. He had to do something to lift himself far above the crowd. And he did. “For the price of an effort” he became the greatest artist in Italy — probably the greatest in the world — in a day when Italy was famous for her artists. Kings and princes felt honored at being associated with this illegitimate boy. He made the name he had no right to famous for his work alone.

“Work out your own salvation!” said Paul. And the first requisite in working it out is knowledge of your power. “Every man of us has all the centuries in him.” — Morley. All the ages behind you have bequeathed you stores of abilities, which you are allowing to lie latent. Those abilities are stored up in your subconscious mind. Call upon them. Use them. As Whittier put it —

All the good the past has had

Remains to make our own time glad.

Are you an artist? The cunning of a da Vinci, the skill of a Rembrandt, the vision of a Reynolds, is behind those fingers of yours. Use the Genie-of-your-mind to call upon them.

Are you a surgeon, a lawyer, a minister, and an engineer, a businessman? Keep before your mind’s eye the biggest men who have ever done the things you now are doing. Use them as your model and not as your model simply, but as your inspiration. Start in where they left off. Call upon the innermost recesses of your subconscious mind, for their skill, their judgment, their initiative. Realize that you have it in you to be as great as they. Realize that all that they did, all that they learned, all the skill they acquired is stored safely away in Universal Mind and that through your subconscious mind you have ready access to it.

The mind in you is the same mind that animated all the great conquerors of the past, all the great inventors, all the great artists, statesmen, leaders, business men. What they have done is but a tithe of what still remains to do — of what men in your day and your children’s day will do. You can have a part in it. Stored away within you is every power that any man or woman ever possessed. It awaits only your call.

In “Thoughts on Business,” we read: “It is a great day in a man’s life when he truly begins to discover himself. The latent capacities of every man are greater than he realizes, and he may find them if he diligently seeks for them. A man may own a tract of land for many years without knowing its value. He may think of it as merely a pasture. But one day he discovers evidences of coal and finds a rich vein beneath his land. While mining and prospecting for coal he discovers deposits of granite. In boring for water he strikes oil. Later he discovers a vein of copper ore, and after that silver and gold. These things were there all the time — even when he thought of his land merely as a pasture. But they have a value only when they are discovered and utilized.

“Not every pasture contains deposits of silver and gold, neither oil nor granite, nor even coal. But beneath the surface of every man there must be, in the nature of things, a latent capacity greater than has yet been discovered. And one discovery must lead to another until the man finds the deep wealth of his own possibilities. History is full of the acts of men who discovered somewhat of their own capacity; but history has yet to record the man who fully discovered all that be might have been.”

Everything that has been done, thought, gained, or been is in Universal Mind. And you are a part of Universal Mind. You have access to it. You can call upon it for all you need in the same way you can go to your files or to a library for information. If you can realize this fact, you will find in it the key to the control of every circumstance, the solution of every problem, the satisfaction of every right desire.