Kahlil Gibran - The Prosperity & Wealth Bible

Dare Dare Immortality is but a simple matter of Decision — a Decision to Dare. Initiate — Dare. All the world loves the man who isn’t afraid to Dare — a man willing to start something without first waiting a week to figure out the cost. It always takes Courage — sometimes courage mixed with “blood and iron.” But the man ready to Dare is the creator of great Events. Initiate — Dare. Better make mistakes — better blunder along making some healthy headway, than to fear Failure or grow timid and vacillating and flabby in the legs. Become a man of Daring and Doing and the Powers that are so latent in every human will rise to aid you and push you on. Initiate — Dare. You will never be Anything, unless you Dare Something. Initiate — Dare. Dare to attempt new things. Dare to try out new Jobs. Dare to go ahead, kicking aside Precedent if necessary, and you will have no time to shovel out of your pain wrecked Hopes and dead Dreams. Dare to be a better man at your present task than the man who went before you. Dare to be a bigger man than the man above you. Be. But, if you are, you will first have to — Initiate — Dare.

Backbone Backbone There are two kinds of Backbones — the one with the Back and no Bone and the one with both Back and Bone! Backbone! what great things have been put across in your name! Stiffen your Backbone. It is a great thing to have a big Brain, a fertile Imagination, grand Ideals, but the man with these, bereft of a good Backbone is sure to serve no useful end. Stiffen your Backbone. There is a little vine that starts at the base of great trees. Then it climbs and twines about until it squeezes and saps away unto death the tree around which it clings. It has not a Backbone — no vital individual strength of its own, so it seeks out to tear down and kill where there is strength, power and life. That is what Backbone-less people do. Stiffen your Backbone. Use it to stand alone with. Use it to bolster up your own individual resources. Use it to strengthen weaker Backbones than your own. Use it for the working out of your entire Character. Then Deeds Done, will gather about you in Battalions, and Opportunity will stand around anxious to introduce you to her friends. Stiffen your Backbone. Use your Backbone at your job to-day — you who clerk, you whose fingers pound the type keys, you whose brains formulate plans, distribute details and master problems. For the temple of Success is upheld by the strong arms of men and women who have Backbone and use it.

Pay Pay Emerson says that “the strongest man on earth is the man who stands most alone.” Owe money — be in Debt — and you stand by the props that the sweat of other men’s brows and the gray of other men’s brains have earned and bought. You don’t stand alone. You play false to your own strength. Abhor Debt. Pay. Debt means to owe — somebody else. It means that you give up what might be yours. It means that you offer a part of yourself for sale for a definite sum. When you owe money you make yourself a slave. The other fellow holds you fast in literal bondage. Abhor Debt. Pay. Better live happy away from glamor, smooth words, hand-clapping, and selfish gratification than Dog to some Master whose whistle you are bound to respect. Abhor Debt. Pay. The quickest way to kill a Friend (the most valuable possession on Earth) is to ask him to lend you money. If he is a real Friend he will refuse. If you are a real Man you will learn a lesson and thank him. The man who makes it a rule to live within his means soon creates means to live out of it. There is but one safe, sound, sensible rule in money affairs and that is to pay as you go — or don’t go! Abhor Debt. Pay. Start to-day to Pay up. Will yourself to do it. Catch fire and enthusiasm from the freedom and power that follow in the way of the man who owes not a dollar to any man. Abhor Debt. Pay.

Count Count If there IS any pure Luck in the world or if it ever really does figure in the summing up of things, here’s when it figures biggest — on the day that you find your Life Work — and glory in it. Lucky you are, then — for you — Count. The world must have you. Be Somebody in the Crowd — Count. No man ever Counts until he assumes Responsibility. Responsibility demands the work of the Brain and Heart. These two, working together, breed Ideas. Then Results begin to show. And Results make you Count. Be Somebody in the Crowd — Count. People who are Useful always Count. So if you want to Count — if you want to be singled out and justly praised, think of the most useful service possible for you to render. Then get busy in doing it. You at your job, doing it as best you can, are sure to Count. Be Somebody in the Crowd — Count. Nothing stirs and inspires more than to have it said that you are Somebody and that — you Count — that you are a Creator, a Builder, a Producer. Anyone is justified in congratulating himself if he does things — if he really Counts. Be Somebody in the Crowd — Count. But don’t be so foolish as to be completely satisfied with the results of any work. Growth comes in a large measure by Comparison. When you do your work better To-day than Yesterday you realize your genuine Capacity and know that there is no actual Perfection except the Perfection of doing better To-day than Yesterday. Strive for this and you need have no concern as to whether or not you will Count. You will.

Why Why Before you do a thing — ask Why? A great deal of the Lost Motion of the world results from Head-long Action — going into a task without Cause — without some definite Purpose — without first finding out — Why. Before you do a thing — ask Why? Let Why lead you on and save you Power. Simply answer with promptness its Silent questionings. Give unto Why a substantial reason for the fiber that is within you. Before you do a thing — ask Why? Ask yourself: “Why should I do this thing? Why should I refuse to do it?” Put your actions to the Why test. Think of the wealth of happiness that the habitual use of Why can bring you! Before you do a thing — ask Why? Make Why very personal. “Why do I squander so much Time? Why do I appreciate so little the chance to Live? Why do I use so small a fraction of my Brain Ability? Why do I not make more Friends? Why do I worry about things that Never Happen? Why do I scold when I should Cheer?” Why? Before you do a thing — ask Why? Keep Why busy about your House. And at the Night-fall of each day gather into convention the Whys of each Thought and Act. Before you do a thing — ask Why? Eliminate the regretful Why. Put yourself on the Stand hourly. Ask and Answer with fortitude and freedom — unafraid of Right conscientiously performed.

Frankness Frankness Frankness is the art of saying things you honestly think exactly as you think them. To be Frank is to be naturally straightforward. Look the other fellow in the Eye. Just as a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, so is Frankness the only right course between all people. Because nothing is wasted. The Frank man is the only man worthy of trust. Look the other fellow in the Eye. Frankness between Employer and Employee, Frankness between a Man or a Woman, Frankness between yourself and the one who disagrees with you, is the only sensible way. Look the other fellow in the Eye. The beginning of mutual respect is trust. No satisfactory result in anything was ever achieved without Frankness. Look the other fellow in the Eye. Never think that Frankness is Impudence, nor crude Opinion. It is the face to face openness of Mind and Heart that challenges immediate acceptance of what you have to say as the uncoated Truth. Look the other fellow in the Eye. To-day, don’t hedge. Stand squarely on your own legs. Be Frank. And you will marvel at the ease with which other people will understand and respect you. Frankness, a very precious possession, is possible to all — save one, the Coward. You — start to put Frankness into use. Make it earn its board and lodging. Say out what you have to say — with Frankness. Look the other fellow in the Eye.