Definition of success article written by Herbert W. Armstrong

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The Seven Laws of

by the late HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG of worldwide fame

WHY are only the very few-women as well as men - successful in life?

Just what is success? Here is the surprising answer to life's most difficult problem, proving that NO HUMAN NEED EVER BECOME A FAILURE!

All who have succeeded have followed these seven laws!

The only WAY to success is not a copyrighted formula being sold for a price. You can't buy it! The price is your application to the seven existing laws. DID IT EVER occur to you that there might be a reason why so many people make a failure of life? Not only men and career women, but wives and mothers too! Are you one who is wrestling with the problem need not mean failure----yet it often leads to it. It is a fact----the vast majority do wind up failures. Yet none need fail!

Take a look at the facts in the world.

Is THIS Success?

Every two minutes someone in the Unites States attempts suicide. Each day nearly 70 persons succeed----but is that success? The World Health Organization estimates that some one thousand people commit suicide in the world----every day! Suicides now outnumber murders. Now various organizations for the prevention of suicide are a reality! But the cause is individual FAILURE!

Much of the world is in current "prosperity." Yet----in booming U.S.----more businesses failed in a very recent year than in any other in the last twenty-six (this edition was printed 1974). Across the world streaks the shocking trend of increasing failures. Scores of millions daily allow the creeping cancer of FAILURE to chain them to a life of unhappy circumstances, from which only death promises release.

But WHY?

WHY are only the very few really successful? Is it mere chance----is it just happen-so-----can it be luck? Or are there definite reasons? WHY do all but the very few find themselves, by age 60, or 65, dependents? Why must there be old-age pensions, public welfare aid, charities to support the non-crippled, non-handicapped helpless? Why must children so often provide for aged parents----when it ought to be the other way around?

I am going to tell you why!
There are definite causes! Seven basic laws govern success! It is high time people come to know them, and end this unhappy and needless tragedy!

Finding the Answer
When I was a young man of twenty-three, I was a member of the editorial staff of a national magazine. I was sent on tours over the United States, covering ten or fifteen states each tour. My assignment was investigating business conditions, reporting workable ideas and facts. I interviewd businessmen and chamber of commerce official. I discussed with merchants and manufactures their problems. I searched out ideas and methods that had been successfully applied in sales promotion, public relations, cutting costs, speeding up turnover, increasing profits.

One of the things my editors assigned me to investigate was the reason behind the success of the few, and the failure of the many. Some 95% of smaller independent merchants were reported by Dun and Bradstreet to be heading toward bankruptcy.

Of course, we were concerned then only with success or failure of men. But the same apply in the lives of women. I asked the opinions of hundreds of businessmen. Most thought success resulted merely from superior ability, and failure from the lack of it. But this opinion consigned the big majority to failure from birth without a chance. If a man lacked the ability, he was foredoomed to failure. There seemed nothing he could do about it. I was not satisfied with this idea----and later I proved it false.

The manager of the large J.L. Hudson department store in Detroit thought failure generally resulted from lack of adequate capital. A minority resulted from lack of adequate capital. A minority interviewed agreed with him. But this, also, made dollars, and not the man, responsible for success or failure. Actually, investigation showed these to be contributing factors, but only that. A more prevalent factor, I found, was fitting the proverbial "square peg in the round hole." Most failures were misfits. Most, had they known these seven laws, could have made a success in the field where they best fit.

This quest for the reasons for success or failure intrigued me. My research on this question did not stop with these editorial tours. Observation and analysis of this problem have continued through the years. And I know, now, that no human being need ever become a failure! Failures are not foredoomed. Success does not just happen! It is governed by seven definite laws. If you know them, and apply them, the happy result, in the end, is assured. Every individual was put on this earth for a PURPOSE! Every person was put here to become a success. Every human ought to enjoy the sweet taste of success----to find peace and happiness----to live and interesting, secure, and abundant life! And in order that all might----if willing----reap such full and abundant rewards, the Creator set in motion actual, definite LAWS to produce that desired result.

The tragedy is that through the centuries and millenniums man has turned his back on those laws----those causes of the very success he craves! The world long ago ignored and forgot them. Today, most people do not know what they are. Most people have not followed a single one of the seven basic laws

I ask in candor----isn't that a shocking state of human affairs? It is, in fact, the colossal tragedy of all history!

You Can't Buy It!
If some recognized authority had a copyrighted plan to sell that was guaranteed to make all who follow it prosperous and successful, I suppose people by the thousands would flock to buy the plan.

One man had such a plan. It was a sort of pseudo "psychological" religion. He promised the plan would make its followers prosperous or rich----the easy way, of course. Its propagator advertised that it had made him rich. He boasted of his fine home, his great high-ceiling pipe-organ room. The inference was that it would make its purchasers equally prosperous----but he neglected to mention that it was the naive dupes who bought his bogus plan who made him rich.

This man stumbled onto an advertising catch-phrase for a headline in magazine and newspaper advertisements, which multiplied responses. He used it for years. But ultimately it wore itself out. This charlatan's "success" was neither real nor lasting. He was, himself, a colossal failure.

The only WAY to true success is not a formula being sold like merchandise. You can't buy it with money. It comes to you FREE----without money, and without price. There is a price, of course----your own application of these definite laws. It is not guaranteed to be the only way to real success!

Clark Gable-Success?

It so happens that on the very morning this was originally written, I read in a London newspaper the obituary of Clark Gable, motion picture celebrity. I suppose the world would rate him a great success. But was he?

Just what issuccess, anyway?

How can people win success when so few know what is is? I was struck with a number of things in this cinema-star's obituary. My mind, of course, was on this theme, since I was at the moment writing on it. Clark Gable was heralded on page one of this newspaper as KING of the films. He was described as "the romantic hero of 90 films." He was one of the first ten money-making stars in the years 1932-43, 1947-49, and 1955. That is 16 years. And the top film stars make fabulous incomes. "He was," said the obituary, "one of the few screen idols to stay the course for so long." But does all that spell SUCCESS?

One of the "fascinating" things mentioned about his life was that he had been married Five times! Would we consider at least three failures in marriage (one wife was killed and air crash) SUCCESS? The obituary said he cultivated "the furrowed brow, the knowing frown, the half-closed eyes, those ears and the wise-guy leer." They were not natural. He deliberately cultivated them for the women. "Clark Gable," said the obituary, "had cultivated these for the girls for nearly the whole of his romantic reign." "You might have called it his trademark. He would." "It's just a business to me, always has been," he explained. It was just his way of "earning a living."

Rich Men I Have Known

In my lifetime I have had close and intimate contact almost constantly with recognized successful men. From age 18, in early life----within the United States. From middle-age----worldwide. I have read many books and articles written by such men, numerous biographies and autobiographies of the great and the near great----their experiences, their philosophies. I know how these leaders among men think, how they act, what principles and rules they follow.

One factor characterized nearly everyone of these men. They made money. They acquired material possessions. Many headed big corporations. They achieved recognition as being important.

Significantly, most of these men practiced the first SIX of the seven laws of success. That is tremendously important! There was the president of a great motor car corporation at the time when I was the young assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in his city. He made money. He was recognized in the world as important. He rose to the top in his profession and industry. But in the flash depression of 1920 his corporation passed into receivers' hands, he lost his personal material gains----and he ended his life in suicide!
Was he, after all, a success? He neglected not only the seventh, but also the sixth.

Then there were two great bankers whom I knew, one of them quite intimately, This was Mr. Arthur Reynolds, president of the then second largest national bank in America. I first knew Mr. Reynolds when he was president of a bank in the city where I was born. Later, as an ambitious and rising young advertising men in Chicago. I went to him often for personal counsel and advice. He was always interested, helpful. And I always considered his advice sound, and followed it. Mr. Reynolds won a measure of national and worldwide fame.

Some thirty-five years later I walked into his great bank and inquired of one of its many voce-presidents whether he knew where Mr. Reynolds had moved, and where he had died. I heard that he had retires and moved to our headquarters city, Pasadena, and died there. This vice president had never heard of Arthur Reynolds.
"Who was he?" he asked.

He inquired around. No one asked remembered Arthur Reynolds. Finally the public relations secretary sent to the bank's library, and presently a clerk brought a newspaper clipping. It was the sole record the bank seemed to possess of its former president, who, with his brother, was largely responsible for building up this bank to its great size and importance. The clipping was from a San Mateo, California, newspaper. It told of his death in that San Francisco suburb.

After reading it, I handed the clipped obituary back. "You'll certainly want to keep this," I remarked. "It must be valuable to the bank."
"Oh, no," he replied. "If you knew him, take it along." And thus I carried from that great bank what probably was the only record of this man in the bank of which he was so long president. His "success" was not lasting. It was not long remembered.

During his busy lifetime, this man applied the first SIX of the seven rules of success. Yet whatever success he achieved was fleeting, and although he had accumulated money, acquired a nice block of stock in the bank, lived in a fine home, became recognized as important in his lifetime, all of his"success" died with him!

The other great banker was Mr. John MacHugh. I first knew him as president of a bank in a Midwest city. Then I had an hour's interesting chat with him in the Willard Hotel in Washington during the American Bankers' Association national convention in the 1920. He was then president of well-known New York City bank. Later, consolidations of several New York banks elevated him tow offices higher than the president of the then largest bank in the world. Yet some 36 years later when I inquired about him at this great bank, the answer was the same----"Who's he? Never heard of him!" His "success" did not live after him.

But there is a real success that endures!

But IS This Success?

Yes, I have been privileged to know many of the great and the near great----especially in the American business world. I have know multimillionaire capitalists, chief executives of great corporations and banks, cabinet members in the national administration at Washington, authors, artists, lectures college and university heads.
For most of them, success meant the acquisition of money and material possessions, and being of recognized status.
One important man I knew was Elbert Hubbard, philosopher, prolific write, publisher, lecture, known as "the Sage of East Aurora." "The Fra," as he sometimes styled himself, became quite famous. He wore semi-long hair under an extra-size hat, and a string bow tie. He was said to be worth a half million dollars at a time when that equaled three million or more on today's market.

He published two magazines, composed mostly of his own writings, The Philistine, and The Fra. He boasted the largest vocabulary of any man since Shakespeare. He published An American Bible, shocking many of the religious, yet explaining that the word "bible" merely means "book," not necessarily implying sacred writings, unless the word. "HOLY" is prefaced . His "bible" consisted of his selection of choice writings from American authors. He included Franklin, Emerson, Paine, Jefferson, Linkcoln, and, of course, Hubbard! He allotted nearly half of the entire volume to Hubbard----and all other famous Americans combined shared the remainder.

Hubbard was not the victim of an inferiority complex, and he preached a positive philosophy. He did have rare insight and wisdom in purely material matters, and a keen understanding of human nature.

He knew that"important" men craved flattery as an actor enjoys applause. A large share of his fortune was made by writing an almost endless series of booklets, captioned Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great and the Near-Great. These were printed, of course, in rare style in his own Roycroft Press. Dozens and scores of America's rich and famous men paid Hubbard premium prices to write them up in his inimitable literary style.

An interesting sidelight on Mr. Hubbard's concept of success came spontaneously from his lips one Sunday afternoon. He and I were chatting at his Roycroft Inn in East Aurora, New York. "I asked a Unitarian minister," I said, "whether he had ever been able to discern just what your religious belief really is---- if any."

"Fra Elbertus" was interested at once. "And what did he say?" he asked, curiously. "He said he wasn't quite sure, but he suspected that whatever your religion may be, it probably originated in your pocketbook and bank account." There was no denial.

"Ho, ho," laughed Elbert Hubbard, "well, I get away with it, don't I?"
But was Elbert Hubbard a real success, after all? By human standards, I suppose he was. He knew and applied the first six of the seven laws of success. He worked hard and industriously, and he reaped a bounteous harvest----of money, popularity, acclaim. He and his wife Alice Hubbard went down together into the depths of the Atlantic when a German submarine sank the Lusitania. This was one of the overt acts of the Kaiser's forces that plunged America into World War I.

But his fame did not appear to last. One seldom hears of him any more. Hubbard knew material values. But his agnosticism closed the door----and threw away the key----that led to an understanding of spiritual values. He never quite understood the real PURPOSE of life itself. He wasn't sure whether there was a Creator. He was convinced that fundamentalist or traditional "Christianity" was an impractical superstition. He didn't know the seventh law of success. And, not knowing or following that seventh rule, he drove himself, by the diligent practice of the six, in the wrong direction ---- diametrically away from true success!

It Never Satisfied

What was the real meaning of life to these "successful" men?
Their goal in life----their definition of success----was material acquisition, recognition of status by society, and the passing enjoyment of the five senses. But the more they acquired, the more they wanted, and the less satisfied they became with what they had. When they got it, it was never enough.

Some "successful" men of the world maneuver to get their pictures on page one of metropolitan newspapers, or on the front covers of national magazines. This inflates and briefly titillates ego, but it never satisfies for long. There's nothing the public forgets so quickly as yesterday's news!

Such men seek the flattery of others, and engage in back-slapping to invite it. But, like and actor's applause (the word always makes me think of "applesauce") it doesn't last and leaves them flat, with a gnawing inner hunger for something that will satisfy! So they become restless, discontented.

Their bank account may be full, but their lives are empty. And what they do acquire, which is never enough and never satisfies, they leave behind when they die! What is wrong?

Such men started out with the wrong goals. Thye had not discerned the tue values, but pursued the false. Isn't it about time we learn the true definition of SUCCESS? Perhaps the prize example of all history is that of an ancient king, who strove hard, accomplished much, gained fabulus weatlh. He experimented with every pleasure, to see whhthwer it brought happiness.

This man said to himself," Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." Continuing to describe his experiment, this man wrote: "I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine----my mind still guiding me with wisdom----and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good."

This ancient king was young enough to try to really enjoy life. He could afford it, too. He was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived----with the resources of a nation at his command. If there was not enough money for a project he dreamed up, he simply raised the taxes.

So, he continued writing of his experiment in searching for happiness and success, "I went if for great works." Stupendous national works and projects. 'I built mansions, planted vineyards, laid out gardens and parks for myself, in which I planted all manner of fruit trees, making pools to water the trees in my plantations. I bought slaves, both men and women, and had slaves born within my household. I had large herds and flocks, larger than any before me. I amassed silver and gold, right royal treasures; I procured singers, both men and women, and many a mistress, man's delight. Richer and richer I grew, more than any before in my country....

Nothing I coveted did I refuse myself: I denied my heart no enjoyment----for my heart did feel pleasure in all this----so much I did get from all my efforts. "But," he concluded, "when I turned to look at all I had achieved and at my efforts and trouble, then it was all vain and futile....all was VANITY, and a striving after wind. Nothing in this world is worthwhile.

"Utterly vain, utterly vain, everything is VANITY," wrote this king, after his life of experimenting. All it led to was striving---yes, always striving----and for what? "After WIND," he concluded. All that a lifetime of hard work, vigorous application, material accomplishment brought him, he concluded, amounted no more than a HANDFUL OF WIND! This man was called the wisest man who had ever lived. He was King Solomon of ancient Israel. But in all his costly experimenting he never found the true values----the meaning of true and lasting SUCCESS!

And WHY?

Simply because, with all his wisdom, this man sought pleasure----happiness----success----his own way, in materialism. In the beginning the Eternal Creator designated and set in motion living laws for the very purpose of producing happiness, abundant living, pure and continuous joy, in all humans who would follow them. These are the seven great laws of SUCCESS. King Solomon, like nearly all the world's "successful" men, applied diligently the first six----but without the seventh, he started out in the wrong direction. The more he strove, the farther he went----in the direction away from true lasting success.

He knew this seventh law. But, "Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Eternal....he did not keep what the Eternal commanded. Therefore the Eternal said to Solomon, 'Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my rules which I commanded, I will surely tear the kingdom from you'" (I Kings 11:6-11).

Now let me tell you the experience of a modern king. He was a close personal friend of ex-King Saud of Arabia, to whom I have been personally presented. Wealth came suddenly to Sheik Ali of Qatar (pronounced "gutter"). Qatar is a little Arabian country jutting into the Persian gulf. The big oil boom recently came to Sheik Ali's little kingdom. It paid the country of 35,000 population 50 million dollars a year, of which 12 and a half million went personally to old Sheik Ali, age 69.

Now what would you do with it, if you suddenly came into 12 and a half million dollars a year?
The answer, in all probability, is that you would not do what you now think you would! That much money, coming suddenly into one's hands, usually changes one's ideas completely. That's what it did to old Sheik Ali. Immediately he began to build big gaudy pink, green, and gold palaces in the midst of malodorous mud hovels.

They were air-conditioned, ultramodern, even equipped with push button window curtains! And now the newly wealthy sheik could avoid the 120-degree bake-oven summers of the desert. He chartered whole airliners and took with him a retinue so large that his newly purchased palatial villa on Lake Geneva could not hold them all, and they overflowed into various resort hotels.

Then Sheik Ali indulged in the $1,000,000 purchase of a magnificent mansion overlooking Beirut----and the beautiful Mediterranean. When King Saud paid him a royal visit, he presented the king with 16 automobiles. One was embellished with gold. Old Sheik Ali became so generous in his self-indulgences, that his debts, over and beyond his fabulous income, soon mounted to 14 million dollars!

The news stories filtered around the world of how the Sheik just simply could not make ends meet on a mere 12 and a half million dollars a year! About the 1st of November, 1960, he abdicated in favor of his son Ahmed, age 40. A new advisory council arranged tom pay old Ali's debts, and give him a pension large enough only to provide for a mere handful of servants and a few wives.

Poor old Ali! He found it harder to make ends meet on 12 and a half million annual dollars than he did in comparative poverty.
The FIRST law
Certainly NOTHING in life is more important than to know: what real success---and how to achieve it.
What, then, is the first law of success?
Before stating even the first law, let it be said that I am not considering here such general principles of character as honesty, patience, loyalty, courtesy, dependability, punctuality, etc., etc., etc., except as these are automatically included in the seven rules. We may assume that one cannot become a real success without these principles of right character.

But on the other hand, many are honest who have never practiced a single one of the seven laws, specifically. Many may be loyal, have patience, extend courtesy, be punctual, who are unsuccessful because they have not applied a single one of these seven definite rules. Even so, each of these laws covers a vast territory.

Not just any goal. Most successful men have had goals. They drove themselves relentlessly to accomplishment. But making money, gaining status in the eyes of people, enjoying the passing pleasures of the five senses, has literally strewn the pathway of history with fears, worries, heartaches, troubled consciences, sorrows, frustrations, empty lives and death.
These things may be had and enjoyed along with true success. But they alone do not bring success. The right goal includes something more. In other words, the very first law of success is to be able to define success! Once you have learned what success is make that your goal in life.
Do you know that most people go on through life with any goal at all? In fact, most people, do not know, and do not apply, a single one of the six laws of success! Most people never think of having any purpose in life. They are not going anywhere, in particular.
If you have saved up money for a trip to Paris, or Rome, or London for your vacation or holiday, you spend a lot of time in excited anticipation planning your trip --- but you do have a definite destination ---- and all plans laid to take you to that particular destination ---- that goal. You know where you are planning to go. Otherwise, how would you ever expect to arrive there?
As I said once before, most people have no aim ---- they are merely the victims of circumstance. They never planned, purposefully, to be in the job or occupation in which they do by choice that is, because they planned it that way. They have allowed themselves to drift. They have made no effort to master and control circumstances.
The first law of success, I repeat, is to fix the right goal. Not any goal. One could set a goal in which he had little or no interest, and drift into inaction. The right goal will arouse ambition. Ambition is more than mere desire. It is desire plus incentive ---- determination ---- will to achieve the desire. The right goal will be so intensely desired it will excite vigorous and determined effort. It will fire one with incentive.

The vital second law
And so, if you are to arrive at success in life, you must first set the right goal, and then comes preparation to achieve that goal. So, the second law of success, in time sequence, is education, or preparation.
How can one expect to accomplish his purpose unless he acquires the know-how? One thing we need to know about life ---- and many do not ---- is that humans do not come equipped with instinct. To this extent, the dump animals have a certain advantage over us. They do not have to learn. They never need weary their brains with book learning. They do not acquire knowledge, perceive truth from error, make decisions, and employ will to exercise self-discipline according to their own reasoned wisdom and decisions. They cannot develop moral and spiritual character.
But humans have it not quite so easy. Humans have to learn, or taught. Humans have to learn to walk, to talk, to eat or drink. We don't come to these basic accomplishments instinctively and immediately like dumb animals. But we have to learn ---- to study to be educated to be prepared for what we propose to do.
One of the first things we need to learn is that we need to learn! Once you have learned enough to choose a goal, the second step toward successfully accomplishing that goal is to learn the way - to acquire the additional education, training, experience, to give you the know-how to achieve your goal. Most people fail to set any definite goals. Having no specific aims, they neglect the specialized education to make possible the attainment of their purpose.
The basic third law
The all-important law next in time order is good health.We are physical beings. The mind and the body form the most wonderful physical mechanism we know. But man is made of matter. He is basically 16 elements of organic, chemically functioning existence.
He lives by the breath of air ---- which is the breath of life itself. If the bellows we call lungs do not keep inhaling and exhaling the oxygen-containing air, man won't live to achieve any goal. You are only a heart beat away from death! As the lungs pump air in and out, so the heart pumps blood through an intricate system of veins and arteries. These must be supported by food and water.
And so man is what he eats. Some of the most famous physicians and surgeons have said that 90% to 95% of all sickness and disease comes from a faulty diet!
Most degenerative diseases are modern diseases ---- penalties for eating foods that have been demineralized in food factories ---- usually an excess of starch, sugar (the carbohydrates) and fats. Others are caused by a type of malnutrition ---- lack of needed minerals and vitamins in foods. Then people try to put "vitamins" back in to their systems by buying pills at the drugstore!
Of course there are other laws of health ---- sufficient sleep, exercise, plenty of fresh air, cleanliness and proper elimination, right thinking, clean living.
One factor I think has worked universally in favor of the successful. Mental attitude does have considerable influence on physical condition. Most successful men do think constructively, positively, in a mental attitude of confidence. They do not allow themselves to think negatively or assume an attitude of fear, worry or discouragement. They do not allow themselves to get into uncontrolled moods of griping complaining. They enforce on themselves emotional balance. And, mindful of the responsibilities on their shoulders, they probably put more restraint on dissipation than most people.
Without health one is directly handicapped, if not tottaly cut off from achievement. The fourth law of success is largely dependent on good health.

The all-important fourth law
A person may have chosen his goal. Having it may have aroused tremendous ambition to achieve it. He may have started out educating and training himself for its accomplishment, and he may even have good health and still make little or no progress towards its realization. After all, success is accomplishment. It is doing. They say any old dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim up. An inactive person will not accomplish. Accomplishment is doing
Now comes the all-important law.
The fourth success-law, then is drive!
Half-hearted effort might carry one a little way toward his goal. but it will never get him far enough to reach it. You will always find that the executive head of any growing, successful organization employs drive! He puts a constant prod on himself. He not only drives himself, he drives those under him, else they might lag, let down and stagnate.
He may feel drowsy, and hate to awaken and get up in the morning. But he refuses to give in to this impulse. Often workmen never rise above whatever job they may have because they have no drive. They slow down, work slowly, poke around, sit down and rest as much as they can. In other words, they must have a boss over them to drive them, or they would probably starve. They would never become successful farmers----for a farmer, to succeed, must get up early and work late, and drive himself. That is one reason so many work for others. They cannot rely on themselves----they must be driven by one more energy and purpose.
Without energy, drive, constant propulsion, a person need never expect to become truly successful.
Law number 5 ---- for emergencies
One might suppose that if he had a goal ---- and with it the ambition to achieve his purpose if he then became trained, educated, and experienced in pursuing it, kept in good health, and constantly drove himself relentlessly toward his objective, that he would be bound to accomplish it.
Important as these four laws are, they are not enough. Life constantly encounters hazards, obstacles, unexpected problems or setbacks. You may be proceeding along right on schedule, when bang out of nowhere comes an unexpected complication. Some sudden circumstance arises which seems to stop you completely, or at least set you back.
So, to meet these constantly arising problems, you must have:
Resourcefulness!
When complications, obstacles, unexpected circumstances appear to block your path, you must be equipped with resourcefulness to solve the problem, overcome the obstacle, and continue on your course.
The IBM people used to put out a famous card found in many offices, which says "THINK!" and sometimes they deliberately spell it "THIMK!"When sudden emergencies arise, then of all times you need a clear mind, calm nerves, rapid thinking, sound reasoning.
You need resourcefulness!
You need a cool head, to quickly get all the facts and make a wise decision.
Do you keep calm in emergencies, or lose your head and go to pieces? Do you think rapidly, yet clearly and logically, or do you freeze up and go dead? To succeed, you need to cultivate the ability, and the habit, of remaining unexcited, yet leaping to action on high tension, reaching the right decision, then acting on it!
And now one would most certainly think these five laws should be all that is required to guarantee ultimate success. And yet nine out of every ten who have all these five still fail without the important sixth law.

Importance of law number 6
Among the cases of history was that of the president of a major automobile manufacturing corporation. He had utilized the first five of these laws that is, except he had the usual goal that leads in the wrong direction. Yet in the flash depression of the 1920, when he lost his personal fortune, he committed suicide.
This man had reached the point where he was, to all appearances, through! During life he had resourcefully solved emergencies and problems that arose. But now, suddenly, it seemed that everything had been swept from under his feet. Everything he had worked for. Everything he had accumulated. Everything he had set his heart on! There was nothing left! He was washed up finished! So it seemed to him. There might have been a marital smash up at the time I never knew his private life.
He gave up! he committed suicide.
So near success, yet so far!
Yes, nine in ten, at least once or twice in a lifetime, come to the place where they appear to be totally defeated! All is lost apparently, that is. They give up and quit, when just a little more determined hanging on, just a little more faith and perseverance just a little more stick-to-it-iveness would have turned apparent certain failure into glorious success.
Law number six, then, is perseverance----stick-to-it-iveness!
I know! I have reached that point more than once! I, too, had everything swept out from under me in that flash depression of 1920. I had been making an income, still in my twenties, equivalent to an executive's salary in today's dollar value. But some 90 percent of it came from five or six big Midwestern corporations. Most of these great corporations "went under"----that is, they went into "receivers' " hands. Later, in 1926, an advertising business I had started on the west coast was wiped out under me by an association decision made in the east. A million-dollar project was dashed to oblivion by the stock-market crash and depression of 1929. But I did not quit or give up living. THAT was my life GOAL was changed!

Even the first two years of the operation of Ambassador College stared constant defeat in the face. Nearly everybody thought we were through----we had failed! WHY, they wondered, didn't I realize it and QUIT? In those days I had to listen to associates around me talking constantly about "when this college folds up."

But it didn't fold up! By the year 1949 we got over our first financial hump. Later, the second. Today, I think we may be justified in saying that the college is, indeed, a glorious SUCCESS!

Still We Need Law Number 7!

Well now, it would certainly seem that if one follows these SIX laws of success, nothing more should be required!
But still, these "successful" men I have described followed these sic principles. They gained their goals. They made money. They attained recognized status. They enjoyed the passing pleasures. their lives were empty----they were never satisfied----they were discontented, they never found lasting, permanent , enduring ---they did not take their acquisitions with them when they died, and their fame died with them!

What they lacked---what ALL lack who fail of REAL success, was application of Success Law number 7----the most important law of all! That id the ingredient that would have changed everything!

The Overlooked SEVENTH Law

I have reserved this all-important seventh Law till last to explain. But far from being least, it is first in vital importance! I have held it till now because 1) it is the very last one that people will acknowledge and apply; and 2) being first in making possible real success, I want to state it last so it will remain stamped in the mind of the reader.

When serious illness strikes, people call the doctor. It is automatic for most to rely on human professional knowledge and skill----on material drugs, medicines and knives. But finally, when the attending physician----perhaps with specialists called in collaboration----gravely shakes his head and says there is no more that medical science can do----it is now in the hands of a higher Power----then, at last people cry out desperately to the Creator God!

Is it possible that the living God might be a factor in determining the success or failure of ones life? Few have thought so. People will ignore all their lives any idea of divine guidance and help---yet if one should find himself on a foodless and waterless raft after a shipwreck in mid-ocean, it is remarkable how quickly he would begin to believe there really is a living God! In last-resort desperation most people will cry out to Him whom they have ignored, disobeyed, and set at naught all their lives.

Wouldn't it seem axiomatic that, if there is a compassionate beneficently Creator standing ready and willing to give us emergency help as a last resort, it would have been more sensible to have sought His guidance and help all along? Yet some have acquired wealth, lived luxuriously, and then, suddenly losing all, turned finally to God in their economic distress. Others have committed suicide. Few, it seems, will ever rely on their Maker and life-Sustainer until they feel helpless and in desperate need. Even then the motive too often is selfish.

Yet, if we are to enjoy the good things of life----freedom from fears and worries, peace of mind, security, protection, happiness, abundant well-being----the very SOURCE of their supply is the Great God! Since all comes from Him anyway, why not tap the SOURCE from the very beginning? But in our day of modern science, sophistication and vanity, it has not been fashionable to believe in a Maker. In this deceived world, knowledge of God has found little or no place in modern education.

The ALL-IMPORTANT seventh Law of Success, nevertheless, is having contact with, and the guidance and continuous help of GOD!

And the person who does put this all-important seventh law last is very probably dooming his life to failure at the end.

Why of First Importance

Look again at the very first Law, as it has been listed here. It is not merely choosing a goal---any goal. It is setting as one's life-aim the right goal.

The "successful" of this world all had goals. But their goals led to material ends. They sought happiness in vanity, pride of status, material acquisitions, physical activities and pursuits. They sought the approbation of people. But people are human, and their lives are temporary. Material objects, too, are not enduring, but wax old until consigned to disuse. The main goals of those supposed to be successful in the world usually are two: Vanity----desire for status; and money with the material, and money is not its source. Vanity, as Solomon observed, is like striving after wind!

These men I have mentioned made money. Their bank accounts may have been full, but their lives were empty. When they acquired money, it never satisfied, and always they wanted more. These monetary victories, these material acquisitions, gave, of course, a thrill of satisfaction----but it never lasted! This life-long struggle----this constant striving "after wind"----striving after false values----left in its wake a trail of fears and worries, apprehensions, disappointments, heartaches, troubles consciences, discontent, empty lives, frustrations----and finally, DEATH!

Oh yes, of course there were pleasures, moments of excitement, periods of enjoyment. There were occasional thrills, temporary sensations of delight. But always they were followed by periods of depression. Always a gnawing inner soul-hunger returned. This in turn drove them to seek satisfaction in the thousand-and-one-events in the world's whirl of material pleasures and pastimes.

Yet these never filled the void. They never satisfied the real inner hunger. These people probably didn't realize it, but the hunger was spiritual. And spiritual hunger is never satisfied by material food!

The "successful" of this world applied six of the success laws. But they left God out of the picture, and the happiness of real success out of their lives. It seems almost no one, today, realizes HOW----and WHY----we were made. WHAT we humans are, and WHY we are. Why should we live in ignorance of these basics of knowledge?

Two basic and vital facts are overlooked:
1) While man was made a material being, of the dust of the ground, sustained by eating food and drinking material water, he was made also to need spiritual food, and to drink of the "living water" of God's Spirit. Without these spiritual needs man cannot be truly and continually happy. ,Nothing else really satisfies.

2) The Eternal Creator, who made us in His own likeness, is creator of ALL that is. Everything man needs to make life continuously and abundantly satisfying, must come from Him. He is the SOURCE OF SUPPLY. He is the Giver of everything good. Why must men ignore the true SOURCE, and try to obtain where there is nothing to be obtained? If I wish to draw clear, sparkling drinking water from a well, I will go to a well filled with such water, not to one that is empty. God says of our people: "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the FOUNTAIN of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).

And again He says: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" (Isaiah 55:1-2.)

Once again, look at the first of the Success Laws. Stated another way, it is to DEFINE SUCCESS! And what constitutes real Success? Once you have learned the true meaning of Success, then you have found the only right goal. The right goal sets the direction of your life's journey. Success is the destination of that journey. Success is where you finally arrive----and true Success includes a happy and enjoyable journey along the way.

PURPOSE to Life?

Is there, after all, a PURPOSE to life? If we were put here by a Creator, would He have put us here without a REASON? And a Creator with Mind and Power that could have designed and produced the human mind and body could have failed to make available for humans every tool, ingredient and facility needed to fulfill His Purpose!

Of course men cut off from God have no knowledge of that purpose. For that knowledge is not material, but spiritual knowledge. And spiritual knowledge can be transmitted only by revelation. And this world has rejected revelation. Men cut off from their Creator of necessity are spiritually blind and ignorant, groping in the dark. So they fail to seize the proper tools, ingredients and facilities.

But the Maker has sent an instruction book along with the human mechanism He made. It contains all the real answers. It reveals life's real PURPOSE----the potential destiny of man! That instruction book, as Bruce Barton aptly said, is the "book nobody knows."

Almost no one knows that 95% of the contents of that Book is virtually ignored by the professing Christian clergy. Most scientists and educators today suppose, erroneously and in ignorance of the facts, that the Bible is merely the book of an ancient race of Jewish people, striving to devise a concept of a god----in by-gone days of ignorance and superstition. They don't examine the Book, as they examine other data, to see what it says. They ignore it as something beneath their pride of intellect to consider.

The religious Bible-believing fundamentalists generally quote and use not more than some 5% of the scriptures. Approximately one-third of the entire contents of the Bible is devoted to ADVANCE NEWS REPORTS, called, in religious terminology, prophecy. Few pay any attention to this third of the writings----and most seem devoid of understanding.

What almost NO ONE realizes is that the ignored 95% of that great volume is the INSTRUCTION BOOK which the Maker sent along with His product----just as any manufacturer of a material commodity does. Yet some scholars today have been surprised and shocked to learn that this ignored maligned, misrepresented Book contains THE ANSWERS to life itself----reveals the PURPOSE OF life----the LAWS that govern it----the ANSWER to what IS Success, and how to achieve it!

It has been like discovering a gold mine of knowledge they did not existed. They have found that it MAKES SENSE---that, indeed, IT IS THE VERY FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE in just about all areas----that it provides the only right approach to the acquisition of further discoverable knowledge.

This ultimate potential destiny is the only TRUE goal. It is your reason for being alive! It is the reason you were born! Those who have worked, striven, fought their way to any other goal have been wasting their lives----living for naught! They have, in true fact, been going nowhere! And how many, since humans were first put here on earth, have really known that PURPOSE----that one right goal of life? Very few, indeed!

The time when we need divine guidance, enlightenment, and help, is at the very BEGINNING----at the time when a young man or woman chooses that RIGHT GOAL.

Without divine guidance the wrong goal is always set. THAT is why poor people possessing the least knowledge and material goods sometimes appear to be the happiest. Actually they were not happy. They merely are less discontented! They have not progressed as far in the WRONG DIRECTION as those who smugly and vainly supposed themselves to be their more intelligent betters! Life has a PURPOSE. God has set in actual, inexorable motion definite LAWS to PRODUCE for man every happiness, security, and GOOD thing desires----THE WAY OF LIFE that will fulfill God's PURPOSE for our being!

LOOK! THINK! An automobile was designed and built by its human makers to transport passengers, and do it more speedily and in more comfort than the old horse and buggy.Would it not be ridiculous if the automobile had a mind and free volition of action, and it would say: "That's silly! I don't think I was made to transport people. I think I was made for some other purpose. I refuse to transport people. I want to be an instrument for viewing the stars in the heavens."

Apparently it is only stupid, foolish man----with POTENTIAL mind power and CAPACITY for intelligence beyond any creature God has created----who says"WHY have you made me thus?" WHAT, then IS the PURPOSE for which we were put here?

Of this, mankind has totally lost all conception. To people spiritually drunk on the false material concepts of our day, the statement of that purpose would appear strange, absurd, impossible. It SO FAR transcends anything conceived by humanity in this blinded world that the statement of it would prove too great to be grasped and accepted. Suffice to say----man was put here for the PURPOSE of being conformed to, and finally stamped with the exact perfect CHARACTER of Jesus Christ!

Christ is now stamped with the identical CHARACTER IMAGE of God, as well as the shining, brilliant, glorified appearance of God! For a mortal human to be transformed into that perfect spiritual image means that we must be CHANGED!

The Bible pictures God as the Master Potter----us as the clay. Indeed we are, literally clay images of God ----composed of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). As we now bear only the physical image of the "earthy," we shall, when changed, bear the spiritual image of the "earth," we shall, when changed, bear the spiritual image of the heavenly ----of God (I Cor. 15:47-49). So we are clay images with human minds that are free moral agents. They submit, or they rebel. They have the power of will, and decision.

Free to Choose
Understand this! You are a free moral agent. God will never "cram His religion down your throat." He will never force you to decide His way. He not only allows you to choose the wrong way----He compels you to make your own decision. Otherwise His PURPOSE would be thwarted!

The living God has set two ways before us. One, His Way, the cause of all the good things you want here and now, plus eternal life in REAL SUCCESS continuously forever. The other the way of self-centeredness, vanity, greed, envy---the way mankind has gone, in rebellion against God and His Law----the way that causes all unhappiness, suffering, evils, and ends in death. And God compels you to choose! Yet He commands you to choose the Way that leads to REAL SUCCESS (see Deut. 30:19).

You Need HELP

That ultimate TRUE Success is something you cannot attain to by yourself. The ingredient ou lack is the GUIDANCE, the POWER and SPIRIT OF GOD.

You must make the decision. You must set this right GOAL. You must set your will. You must expend you full effort. You must WORK AT overcoming, growing and developing spiritually, and sticking with it. Yet God supplies the all-important ingredient----His power, His love, His faith----His guidance----HIS LIFE!

7th Law Changes Everything

Now look how DIFFERENT a whole life becomes when this SEVENTH SUCCESS LAW is utilized. First, it will completely alter your overall major GOAL as I have just explained. Of course, you will have other minor goals----such as the profession or occupation to provide material needs, and HELP achieve the major goal. And these minor goals always must be compatible with and contributing to the major goal.

Your main goal, now, will be spiritual and not material. It will follow the WAY OF LIFE of the Ten Commandments. You will actually LIVE BY every Word of God ----that is, the Bible!
Now re-examine the Second Law of Success.
Your EDUCATION and entire preparation will be DIFFERENT. You will seek to learn the TRUE VALUES of life----yes, of this life as well as the hereafter! This means your number one textbook will be the BIBLE. It will reveal to you. the MIND OF CHRIST. This will provide your mental APPROACH in all education and practice.
Third, you will receive the KNOWLEDGE which God reveals about laws of HEALTH. Take the FOURTH LAW. God commands that you do what you do with your might. Apply yourself! Whatever is worth doing is worth doing the very best you can! Nine Biblical passages command that you apply yourself with DILIGENCE! Ten other places in the Bible command us to BE DILIGENT. And 36 Scriptures command, or show the example of acting diligently! Many of these instruct us diligently to seek God's guidance and help, several diligently to keep His commandments.

How about the businessman? "Seest thou diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before [obscure] men" (Prov. 22:29). The Bible does not condone laziness or shiftlessness. It counsels us to consider the ant and be wise. The Bible commands industriousness!

Solving Problems

Now, Law Number FIVE. No matter how intelligent, alert, or resourceful you may be, YOU NEED GOD'S WISDOM AND HELP in solving the constant problems and meeting the recurring obstacles that beset life's path. Whether it is in business, a profession, private life or what. The man who has CONTACT WITH GOD, who can take these matters----these emergencies----these problems----in the quietness of his private prayer room to the Throne of Grace and seek God's counsel and advice IS GOING TO HAVE DIVINE GUIDANCE! That is, of course, provided he is submissive, obedient, diligent, faithful.

WISDOM comes from GOD. May I give you a personal example? God has blessed His Work, and caused it to grow into a tremendous worldwide activity, with offices around the world. God has set me in the position of human director and leader over this expanding enterprise, employing hundreds of people. We encounter problems of all kinds, constantly I have problems to solve, obstacles to hurdle, policies to set, decisions to make which affect many lives----frequently involve many thousands of dollars, even millions. It is a weighty responsibility.

Always----and I can remember it from at least age 5----I have desired to have UNDERSTANDING. But more than fifty years ago, I discovered that I sadly lacked, yet sorely needed WISDOM. Having dedicated my life to live, literally, according to every word of God's Instruction Book----the Bible----I obeyed this command of God:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God... and it shall be given" (James 1:5). He has given me wisdom. Of course He has allowed me to make mistakes----but never a major mistake that could threaten His great Work. Wisdom must be applied to every specific circumstance individually. I learned many years ago the need of getting all of the facts bearing on a case before making a decision. But it requires more God's Word says that in multitude of counsellors there is safety. In any important decision I call in the most competent possible counsellors, specialists in the field involved.

You simply cannot know, if you have never had this divine help, how very, very much it means! We have been saved hundreds of times from costly blunders. We are saved from worries and the "headaches" most businessmen have to suffer over such problems. We can proceed in CONFIDENCE---- that assurance that is FAITH! What a blessing! What a comfort, and a joy!

It PAYS Off!
People trying to live without the living CHRIST in their lives are missing the most practical and valuable asset they could have. In the language of our day, "IT PAYS OFF!" Of course, we have to expend our own effort. We have to really THINK. We use all our own resources and natural resourcefulness. But we have that added SECURITY of divine GUIDANCE. Often God simply works out circumstances. He literally gives us "the breaks"! It PAYS!

Finally, now, look at Success Law Number SIX. Perseverance----Stick-to-it-iveness-Enduring-Never quitting or giving up.

The maker's Instruction Book seems full of this. Jesus' parable of the sower and the seed showed the four classes. All heard God's Message. All were given the opportunity. Three classes GAVE UP. One never really got started .Two started out with joy abd a great flourish, but let former friends, the cares of this material life, pleasures, choke them off, and discourage them. The other class of quitters simply did not have the depth of strength of character within themselves to stay with anything.

They were just naturally quitters . Even of those who went on, and endured, some were more diligent, more resourceful, better prepared, more careful of health, and consequently developed farther in accomplishment than others. Theirs will be the greater reward!

Jesus Christ said, plainly, "He that endureth unto the END, the same shall be SAVED" (Matt. 24:13). Yes, these Seven Laws are the way, not only to business and economic success----they are THE LAWS that lead to rich, rewarding, interest-filled, abundant living and, in the end, to ETERNAL LIFE AND GLORY in the Kingdom of God.

It teaches you to choose the RIGHT GOAL. It teaches you to STUDY, to show yourself approved to your Maker. It teaches you to acquire KNOWLEDGE, right and true education----preparation for success. It teaches you to watch your health. It teaches diligence----drive----dedication, persistent application. It teaches resourcefulness, and offers you divine help in applying it----and it teaches STAYING WITH IT TO THE END!

WHAT A HAPPY LIFE God has made available! What blessedness,----what JOY! What SECURITY, this life of implicit living FAITH----reliance on the Creator----GOD!

I know! I've been enjoying this life for more than fifty years! It's a Busy life----but it's interesting, thrilling, happy, abundantly REWARDING! And to constantly look forward to the OVERALL GOAL----an eternity in THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

I want to SHARE that life with you! You may enjoy it too!

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