If you’re the kind of driver who sometimes has trouble finding the brakes in your car, you should be driving an Audi. Last month, in 35mph crash tests of an airbag-equipped Audi 100, the mannequin in the driver’s seat suffered the lowest crash force ever recorded by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, in this kind of test. And yet, according to the Center for Auto Safety–a self styled public interest organization that sells its research to plaintiffs’ lawyers–the Audi 100′s predecessor, the Audi 5000, was as deadly as the Audi 100 is safe. It exhibited “sudden acceleration,” a fatal propensity to take off at full speed even as the terrified driver rammed the brake pedal to the floor. CBS’s 60 Minutes ran a devastating exposé of the Audi 5000. Audi customers fled. Lawyers cashed in. The American public was saved, yet again, from the perils of technology gone awry. Only one little noticed footnote remains at the end: There was nothing wrong with the car. The Audi story is by now, dismally familiar. “Sudden acceleration” accidents occurred when the transmission was shifted out of “park.” The driver always insisted he was standing on the brake, but after the crash the brakes always worked perfectly. A disproportionate number of accidents involved drivers new to the vehicle. When an idiot-proof shift was installed so that a driver could not shift out of park if his foot was on the accelerator, reports of sudden acceleration plummeted. But a story to the effect that cars accelerate when drivers step on the accelerator doesn’t boost television ratings or jury verdicts. And driver error is understandably hard to accept for a mother whose errant foot killed her six year old son. So with the help of such mothers, CAS and CBS knitted together a tissue of conjecture, insinuation, and calumny. The car’s cruise control was at fault. Or maybe the electronic idle. Or perhaps the transmission. 60 Minutes, in one of journalism’s most shameful hours, gave air time in November 1986 to a self styled expert who drilled a hole in an Audi transmission and pumped in air at high pressure. Viewers didn’t see the drill or the pump—just the doctored car blasting off like a rocket. Junk science of this kind moves fast. Real science takes time to catch up with this kind of intellectual cockroach and squash it. Government agencies in Japan and Canada, as well as in the US, conducted painstaking studies. The Canadians who are franker about such things, called it “driver error.” In America, where we can’t attach blame to anyone whose name doesn’t end with Inc., it was called “pedal misapplication.” And unsurprisingly, it’s not just Audi drivers who commit it. So, in the long run, the truth does come out. In the short run, the lawyers swoop in. Most soon recognized that they couldn’t prove any defect in the Audi’s engine or transmission. But our liability system today is a master of the bait and switch—the switch was to “pedal misdesign.” No doubt about it, the original Audi like other European cars, placed brake and accelerator pedals slightly closer together than is usual in many American designs. This allows the good driver to move faster between the pedals in highspeed emergency. Perhaps it also makes it easier for the bad driver to mix up the pedals. Nobody, including NHTSA, is quite sure whether, overall, the old Audi pedal placement was marginally better or marginally worse. End of case? Hardly. With Audi shellshocked and vulnerable from the earlier junk engineering claims, the pedal placement lawyers moved in. The 60 Minutes story starred a mother who had run over her six year old son. On the air, she insisted that she had had her foot on the brake the whole time. When her $48 million claim came to court in Akron, Ohio, in June 1988 the investigating police officer and witnesses at the scene testified that after the accident the distraught mother had admitted that her foot had slipped off the brake. The jury found no defect in the car. Trial judges in New Jersey and New York have overturned bad pedal design verdicts against Audi. Last July a federal court in Pennsylvania issued a summary judgment for Audi. And that should have been the end of Audi’s legal troubles. Except that it wasn’t. An appellate court reinstated the New Jersey verdict: an appeal is pending. The New York case was settled before retrial. A California jury returned a $3.5 million verdict against Audi on a pedal placement theory, after the plaintiff’s lawyers abandoned a sudden acceleration claim. Another appeal is pending. Today, Audi is reportedly defending itself in more than 140 different suits, and damage claims are in excess of $5 billion. Not that the aggregate claims have the slightest connection with reality, of course. At one point, a single demented plaintiff in New York filed identical $5 billion claims in both federal and state courts; both have since been thrown out. How about the US government safety report? In July, 1989, shortly after the report was released, Audi ran a hopeful advertisement titled “Case Closed.” “The case is not closed,” responded Robert Lisco, a Chicago plaintiffs’ attorney. “Those guys must be smoking something.” 60 Minutes never even acknowledged the final US findings, although it did grudgingly note identical conclusions of an earlier, blue-ribbon study, and then proceeded to rebroadcast inflammatory videos from the earlier segment. CAS denounced the government study and cheerfully cranked up yet another sudden acceleration smear, this one against Cadillacs. Lawyers for the “Audi Victims Network” brazenly declared that the report strengthened their clients’ cases. They may be right. The largest suit now pending against Audi is an Illinois class action, ostensibly representing 300,000 or so Audi 5000 owners. The charge? That because of the sudden acceleration controversy, Audi’s have lost resale value. Yes, sudden acceleration is real. A powerful engine kicks into gear without warning or reason. It crashes through a respected business, ruins the livelihood of hundreds of innocent dealers, and devalues the property of hundreds of thousands of bewildered car owners. The windfall goes to those who destroy and then successfully blame others for the wreckage. For heaven’s sake, where are the brakes?

As a consequence of the 60 Minutes story, sales of Audi’s in the United States collapsed. According to one account:

The show had an enormous impact in the marketplace. Sales of all Audi models in the US, which had peaked at 74,061 in 1985, plunged sharply after the 60 Minutes broadcasts. “It was a nightmare for the company,” says Thomas McDonald, former head of public relations at Audi’s parent, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “We lost billions of dollars in sales and revenues. Audi’s average annual sales of 14,000 cars from 1991 to 1995 were just 19 percent of its pre 60 Minutes peak.”

No one was ever able to duplicate the alleged occurrence of unintended acceleration with the car. Not a single person who filed a case against Audi ever won. Nevertheless, even to this day a perception still seems to linger in the marketplace that Audi’s are somehow dangerous and unsafe. What the Audi example teaches and has always taught me is that perceptions are one of the most important things to take note of. 60 Minutes, with all of its marketing might, was able to shape perceptions and the way people viewed Audi cars. Despite the fact that nothing was wrong with the car, 60 Minutes changed the way an entire generation of people perceived the automobiles manufactured by a particular company, and this almost destroyed the company in the process. One of the most powerful and important aspects of our careers and our lives is how we are perceived by others and how we control our own perceptions of those around us. People can use perceptions to their advantage or to their disadvantage. The most successful people are able to use perceptions to their advantage. After all, everything we may surmise about a person, a job, or any situation is based upon our perceptions. Often how something is perceived matters more than the facts surrounding it. For years I have opened the paper each week and seen various advertisements by American car companies wherein they try and compare their cars with German or Japanese rivals. For example, the company may have a chart that shows that the American car stops in a five foot shorter distance, that the car accelerates a little faster that its Japanese counterpart and that its JD Power Initial Quality Survey score is higher. I have seen these advertisements and their corresponding charts for 25+ years–and every single year American manufacturers have sold fewer and fewer cars in the United States. At the same time, the Japanese have continued to sell more cars each year. What is going on here, I think, is that people simply have different perceptions. The Japanese cars are perceived as better. The advertisers can throw around all of the facts and figures they want. People simply tend to have a better perception of Japanese cars. Perceptions matter more than facts. A couple of years ago my assistant was out purchasing me a little television for my bedroom. She called me from the store and gave me two options. One was a brand of television I had never heard of, LG, and the other was a Sony. She told me the LG one was bigger, had a nicer picture, and was a lot cheaper. I did not care. I told her to buy the Sony television. This was all because of my perception of the Sony brand. I had a much better perception of Sony than I had of LG, and consequently there were no facts that could change my mind–not even the fact that the LG model may have indeed had a bigger and better picture; and it definitely did cost less than the Sony model. Many people feel that their job search and the quality of the job they get is a battle of their résumé, and that their entire future depends on what is visible on their résumé. For example, people who go to the best colleges often assume they will get a much better job than those who go to lesser colleges. People who have the best work experience believe they will generally get the best job. There is a tremendous amount of truth to this reasoning; however, more important than any of this is how we are perceived. Perceptions matter far more than facts. When I was recruiting full time, I remember that I did not care as much about what was on someone’s résumé as who they were and how they were perceived. My greatest love in recruiting was managing how an employer perceived someone, which was always my greatest skill. Managing a perception instead of just the black and white characteristics surrounding a person was probably the most important thing I could do. I remember I met a girl once who was losing her job at a highly prestigious law firm in Los Angeles. I sat down with her and learned that she had grown up on a hippie colony with her parents, and that her father had some extreme beliefs about growing his own food and so forth. She had been rebelling against this lifestyle over the course of her entire life, and consequently she had become incredibly disciplined and motivated to succeed as a lawyer. This material made for incredibly interesting reading for the law firms that interviewed her, and I remember that her being perceived as someone who was “rebelling against the antiestablishment” went over very well. I remember writing a 15-page letter to the law firms about this aspect of this woman’s personality. What most recruiters would have done with this girl is send her around to law firms and so forth without managing her presentation–and therefore the perceptions of those that might hire her. She would have simply been presented as someone seeking a position at a new firm, a girl who had had a job at a good law firm and who had attended a decent law school. This would not have done her too much good, however. What the best recruiters do and what really changes everything around for the job seeker is when the perceptions of the employers about the prospective employee are conscientiously and properly shaped. There is a very good documentary on HBO about the disgraced Evangelical minister Ted Haggard. Haggard was a well known Evangelical leader who was the former president of the National Evangelical Association, representing 30 million Christians. He was also the Founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church. In 2006, Haggard resigned after a male prostitute claimed that Haggard had hired him numerous times for gay sex and used crystal meth with him. The fascinating documentary follows Haggard after being expelled from the Church as he moves from town to town looking for work. Unable to get a job, Haggard eventually gets a job as a traveling insurance salesman. Seeing Haggard go from a powerful man who is on top of the world and lecturing tens of thousands of people, meeting with American presidents, and being interviewed on major news programs–to someone whose entire range of possessions now fits in the back of a U-Haul truck was incredible. What makes the Haggard story so interesting is that it shows, like the Audi example, that everything is about perceptions. The public perception of Haggard was changed overnight when it came out that he did not represent what he stood for, having engaged in behavior that was considered immoral. The public perception of Audi was changed overnight when people started to believe the car was incredibly dangerous, because of a news program. Ultimately, the truth was that the Audi 5000 was among the top cars in terms of safety on the road. You need to realize the power of perceptions in your life, and to use them to your advantage. Aim to control, shape, and influence the perceptions that others have about you. Consciously work to create the image you will project to those around you. One of the most fascinating things to me about recruiting has always been what happens when a given law firm gets a bad reputation. The law firm may have earned a bad reputation due to a partner going to prison, or due to consistent layoffs, or something else along these lines. In most cases, the reputation is confined to only one aspect of the law firm. For example, out of 10 practice groups in the law firm, there may be a problem with only one practice group–not every practice group. What ends up happening, however, is that people often do not go beneath this skin to recognize that the true problems within the law firm are really confined to only 10% of the entire organization. What this means is that there are less applicants and therefore more opportunities available for people to get jobs at this firm, who might not otherwise get jobs there. This is all due to a poor perception about the firm that is not well founded. Perceptions are often far more important than facts. You will get a better job due to how you are perceived over and above how good your résumé is. You manage how you are perceived by the people you know, how you present yourself to the world and how your reputation will grow. The most important thing you can do in your life and career is make perceptions work for you. THE LESSON Perceptions matter more than facts; others’ perceptions of you, your perceptions of others, and how you control both are the most important aspects of your career. Realize the power of perceptions in your life and use them to your advantage. Aim to control and shape the perceptions that others hold about you by shaping the image that you project to the world.

–Harrison

INFLUENCE: HOW TO EXERT IT

Yoritomo-Tashi

ANNOUNCEMENT

Yoritomo-Tashi, whose precepts are presented in this book, ranks as one of the three greatest statesmen that Japan has ever produced. He was her most illustrious and wise Shogun, and, as founder of the first Japanese dynasty of Shoguns, the reviser of the Empire’s code of laws, and the organizer of military feudalism, he rescued his native land from the slough of demoralization into which it had sunk. In 1186 he established the seat of his government at Kamakura, where he organized an administrative body similar in its methods and operation to the metropolitan government. From what is known of his public career, it is evident that the great Shogun exercised a dominant influence over the minds of his people. To him the art of influencing others was the key to Success. The great philosopher believed that the spirit of the individual continuously exerts influence, even as the flower also exerts influence by spreading its fragrance in the air. But just as the blossom cannot tell whither its fragrance spreads, so none of us can say how far our influence may reach. To an anonymous writer we owe the thought that “Influence never dies.”Every act, emotion, looks, and word make it felt for good or evil, happiness or misery. In the twelve lessons that Mr. B. Dangennes has drawn from the writings of Yoritomo-Tashi, and presents in this book, the manner in which Influence may be exerted and the means by which it may be exerted and the means by which it may be exercised are considered. One lesson is devoted to the increase and expansion of psychic forces to awaken the dormant energies within us; another explains how influence may be exerted by persuasion and suggestion; a third shows the value of the fix idea when supported by logical arguments; a fourth treats the magnetic influence of the human eye and provides exercises for its development; a fifth deals with the power of good example; a sixth points to value of perseverance–the achievement of great things by utilization of spare moments; a seventh emphasizes the power of concentration, and provides exercises for its acquisition; and an eighth shows that by exchanging confidence one may exert a mighty influence that can benefit even those suffering from mental and physical ailments. “Confidence,” says Yoritomo, “is the foundation of courage and the mainspring of action.” How much our own EMERSON believed in this aphorism he has told us– “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” To confide in another, even though one is betrayed, is better than to conceal. The man who suspects evil is seeking in his neighbor for the very thing that he sees in himself, while he who exerts a useful influence is the man of strength and initiative who consecrates his energies to the achievement of that which is good. Throughout the following pages the Editor has provided suggestions, examples, and exercises as aids to the Reader in the acquisition of this, the desirable art of knowing how to influence others in the world at large. THE PUBLISHERS

FOREWORD

The success that has attended the publication of “Timidity Overcome” has encouraged me to print the precepts of Yoritomo-Tashi. The attention of the public is now turned toward the old Shogun, whose doctrine, ringing with truth, is as applicable to the needs of our own day as in the time when it was first revealed. Moreover, it is embellished with legends, gentle smooth, grassy slope on which appear, here and there, scattered among rough oak trees, the rarest and most exquisite flowers. Thus it is with a deep and serious joy that I have again opened the manuscripts of my friend, the deceased Commandant B –, to transcribe in out own beautiful language the precepts and reflections of him who was at once a leader of men and a spiritual guide. We find them veiled, as it were, under a robe of gray velvet, a dull vestment that the years wove of writings of men, but, without fearing the light cloud that soon will powder my own locks, I reread his vibrating phrases of persuasive clearness and convincing sincerity. Again, little by little, I feel myself swayed by the charm already experienced; and the influence of these words, which seem to spring from the very beginning of time, and to have been diffused throughout the world, attract me and enthrall me with the doctrines of his philosophy in ever-increasing admiration. Influence! That almost magical word, what things it suggests! To influence others! What a marvelous gift, and what assured success to him that possesses it! He will know only by name the torments born of antipathy and of the loneliness of self-isolation from the rest of mankind. The weaknesses of the will, the terrors that cause the rise of the phantom of agonizing doubt, will be strangers to him. Both the spirit and the body will be under command. The griefs of life never will completely overwhelm him, for, having foreseen them; he will know how to mitigate them. He will have the joy of seeing that men’s hearts, under the influence of his word and his example, will open to pure and noble sentiments. The art of succeeding will become familiar to him, for he will know how to attract to himself voluntary collaborators. In short, his power will set him apart as a being different from others, and, to use an ancient Japanese saying, filled with dominating power: “He will build his palace on the bones of the timorous.” Little by little, the radiating action of this expanding will acts on me; why not try, through Yoritomo, to speak of this art, more magnificent than all others, since it renders contagious the cult of proselytism and shows us how to prevent it from becoming sterile. To influence others is not to play the part of creator, since it brings to life in the minds of men an idea which without its aid never would have germinated. Is it not to become a sort of providence, since good influence buries vice, the source of unhappiness and restlessness, to install instead perfect calm, the joy of living, and the security which always precedes happiness, or at least allows us to maintain ourselves in that state which most nearly approaches it. With fervor, then, I have once more unfolded the writings of the philosopher, to transcribe the maxims and the luminous legends that make the study of his work so special and so attractive. Although all truth is eternal, I trust that in this book, as in others that have preceded it, the reader will feel the undeniable and peculiarly genial attraction of the doctrine that the ancient Shogun exercises over the minds of those that know how to grasp and comprehend it. B. DANGENNES

BY INCREASE AND SPREAD OF PSYCHIC FORCES

LESSON I “There is a country situated no far from the River Yet-Sin,” said Yoritomo, “wherein certain villages are renowned for the curative property of the air.” “With the lightest breezes are diffused balsamic odors, which pour into weak lungs the restoring breath they pant for. At the coming of spring invalids gather there to install themselves temporarily in tiny houses which, seen from a distance, look like huge birds resting for an instant before retaking flight.” “My venerated master, Lang-Ho, took me one day to visit this privileged country, and while admiring the beauty of the landscape, I could not refrain from actions that showed clearly my surprise.” “In the gardens that surround the small houses, I see the blooming amaryllis opening its gorgeous chalices from which spring pollen laden pistils, looking like a woman’s long eyelashes that have been made heavy with paint; in the flowerbed bloom roses, delicate or pronounced indoors; while large convolvuli climb the roofs and fall in jagged clusters.” “The fields extend monotonously in the distance; strips of land were planted with solid banks of chrysanthemums, whose bitter odor we could plainly detect. But above all other odors arose the balsamic fragrance of the resinous trees, vivifying and persistent. Yet, although I looked around carefully, I could perceive no sign of those trees, whose odor filled our lungs.” “Then my master looked at me and smiled: ‘I thought that you would be surprised,’ said he; ‘that is the common experience of those that visit this country for the first time; but how few among them are wise enough to draw a lesson from what they observed. ’” “Pointing at a low hill, whose silvery verdure appeared to stand out like a luminous mass against a sky of tenderness blue, he continued: ‘Look! Behind that light screen of bushes is a grove composed of resinous trees. We cannot see them, but their beneficent influence diffuses itself throughout the surrounding country. Do not neglect the lesson this teaches, my son! That little grove of regenerative power happily illustrates a man whose influence radiates upon and extends itself over those that approach him, in pouring out upon them the balm it distils. ’” “Just as the light and frivolous birches hide rough branches and roots whence proceed health and life, the art of influencing must learn how to surround itself with an aspect of amiability, and in order to reach men’s souls, it must abandon the idea that it must be composed merely of the rougher and more rugged virtues, so much extolled by many philosophers.” “ Influence must know how to enter the most thoughtless spirit, after the manner in which the balsamic odor penetrates these gewgaw little houses, with their gardens filled with useless flowers.” “ Most invalids recoil at the mere notion of the boredom of living in the woods; but they come with pleasure to establish themselves among flowers, and yield unconsciously to the restoring influence that radiates around them in the vivifying balsamic atoms.” “ With the coming winter they will depart. They will take up their old way of life, detaching themselves completely from that which has given them a new birth, so to speak; but they will bear within themselves this principle of new life, which has implanted itself without their will, and which will by slow degrees develop itself in the form of a desire to return.” “ Be not blind, my son, but receive seriously the lesson given to you by the immensity and simplicity of Nature. As she influences the body, know that she influences souls also; and your earthly sojourn should contribute to the instruction of a strong and supple race, whose power will assert itself throughout the centuries.” “ That man never really dies who knows how to assume sufficient empire over others to be able to trace lasting marks of his energy and power over the minds of those who, under his influence, bend their steps toward the highest.” “While he discoursed,” Yoritomo continued, “I glanced around mechanically and saw some of the inhabitants of these little pleasure houses. Some among them occupied themselves with light tasks of horticulture; others strolled about, chatting; the women, whom one could discern among the shadows of the terraces, were preparing tea with a cheerful rattle of cups; no one appeared to give a thought to the neighboring grove, yet everyone felt its beneficent influence.” “An imperious and passionate desire arose within me to allow the expansion of the forces with energy, always working and always increasing, had put in my brain that their powerful rays might penetrate weak souls and temper them for the bitter struggle of existence by reawakening in them a resolution toward good and hatred of evil, simultaneously with the dauntless courage which is the keynote of all success based on noble ambitions.” A single word struck me in this last phrase of the Japanese philosopher. He did not say “to create” but to “reawaken” in men’s souls a resolution toward good and hatred of evil. It is only in the simplest romances and the most naïve plays that men are good or bad all in the same way, without any variation. On the contrary, it is easy to show that each individual is a prey, at a given moment or in special circumstances, to contrary impulses that show in him the presence of a double sensibility. We will not speak of inclinations that correct themselves or grow weaker after reflection; for example, the sudden and unlooked-for prodigality of a miser who fancies he may gain something by a show of liberality; the voluntary self-indulgence of a man who knows how prejudicial to him may be an appearance of excessive strictness or severity; or the temporary abstemiousness of a gourmand who reserves his appetites for a feast. Instinct more often takes the place of reason, in imposing on each person acts of contradictory sentiment, according to the time, the place, or circumstances. Our mind is only too often the field of evolution wherein are elaborated resolutions that are not dictated by an attentive and conscientious will. Our modern way of speech calls such persons impulsive; following the bend of the idea that haunts them, they may be heroic or cowardly, proud or servile, kind or cruel; it is often impossible for the observer, as well as for themselves, to determine the exact quality, whether good or bad, that plays the chief part in the character of the normal man. “There are those,” Yoritomo continues, “who, dazzled by the fantastic dreams of a theoretic existence, recoil before the effort necessary to reestablish themselves in actual life and in stripping the rags of illusion from their chimera.” “All those, again, whom inertia holds ensnared in their vices will feel their hearts moved by an emotion leading toward light and toward the practice of virtues, indispensable to him, who desires to face triumphantly the conflict of existence.” Note that the Shogun does not speak of “creating” the feeling that gives the impulse toward god; he wishes simply to awaken it, for he knows that it dwells within every heart. If it does not manifest itself, it is because the psychic qualities necessary to its production cannot create successfully the initial impulse, which fortified by the will and rendered more precise by concentration, will become efficacious in forming a habit. But, in order to possess this gift in a way complete enough to exercise its beneficent influence over others, that it may be possible to suggest favorable thoughts and draw men back from the incline of baleful resolutions, it is indispensable that we should provide ourselves with that beneficent power which must radiate from ourselves as heat rises from a glowing hearth. What must one do to gain this power? Listen again to the Shogun: “We possess,” said he, “innumerable forces that lie hidden within ourselves, though it would be easy to lead them, as the waters of a canal are conducted, to make them serve for the conquest of good, spiritual as well as corporeal.” “The existence of these forces cannot be doubted; they abide in a latent state in some persons and appear intermittently in others. It is the lack of domestication of these forces that causes the frequent and disconcerting plurality of the Ego.” “What can one think of a man who today commits a villainous crime and who tomorrow, in the same circumstances, will perform an act of devotion?” “Thinkers have often deduced from this phenomenon the theory that in such a man slumbers different states of the soul, of which one under the influence of a momentary emotion, surges up to the exclusion of all others.” “These manifestations of the energies that are buried in the most profound depths of being are, unless they are concerned in our moral betterment, almost always regrettable because they are thoughtless, springing up incomplete and nearly always contrary to those designs which deliberate reason would help us to accomplish.” “It is wise to direct these efforts to a practical end, and not toward such realizations of which the accomplishment would give no virile satisfaction.”Apropos of this, Yoritomo related the following little legend: “Once upon a time lived a man who was in love with the queen of the clouds. His days were passed in contemplation of the skies; when the sun shone he was sad, but when clouds floated across the heavens like gray tatters he delighted himself with fancying that he could behold his chimera.” “She was very capricious, and rarely assumed the same aspect twice. But from time to time he recognized her in some flocculent mass, whereupon his heart would swell with joy.” “At last, he resolved to join her and in order to do so he fancied he must build a monumental stairway that would reach to the sky. So he set himself to work, interrupting himself only to lose himself in the contemplation of his ideal.” “Years passed; his hair grew gray, his hands and knees trembled, but, faithful at his task, he continued painfully to add one step to another.” “At last a day came when the tottering builder, struggling in anguish against approaching death attained his object; the stairway reached the clouds, from the midst of which his beloved leaned toward him.” “He climbed the last step and extended his lips to the longed-for apparition. But he received only the kiss of the rain, which dropping slowly, bore with it the form on which he had doted so many years.” “Returning to earth, the man wept. He wept for his lost youth, the beautiful years that had gone, and above all for his strength wasted in sterile efforts, when he might have put it to magnificent use.” May not this little legend be the origin of the story from which our modern writers have drawn the figure of Pierrot enamored of the moon. Are there not many persons who pass their lives in building by slow stages a stairway that leads nowhere, and who do not perceive the fact until the work is finished. The struggle for life becomes more and more arduous, and the power of our hidden faculties should expand in accordance with ever-growing necessities. It is time, then, to awaken the forces that lie dormant within us. “But,” someone may object at this appeal, “evil forces as well as good will be aroused, and the combat between them will be so much the stronger because we ourselves must direct it.” The old Japanese philosopher had foreseen this objection, and he said quietly: “Why fear to reanimate ALL the possibilities that lie dormant in our natures?” “Is it not desirable to cultivate all plants indiscriminately?” “There are those that are poisonous, true, yet even these are indispensable in the practice of medicine.” “Large doses of certain drugs cause death; but, administered wisely with the hand of a skilful physician, they bring relief and very often a complete cure.” “The same may be said of many forces that are evil only because they are not disciplined.” “There is still a danger to avoid; that of failing to discern those who can make us mistake for virtues the evil qualities that are only deceptive copies of virtues.” “Just as certain poisonous vegetables resemble those that are edible and wholesome, just as certain flowers have the form and color of those that are inoffensive, up to the point where only the initiated can detect the difference, there are failings, which, by their origin, resemble virtues of which they are really the direct opposite.” “But naturalists are not deceived; the poisonous plant is recognized by them in the midst of a hundred others, and if they gather it, it is only to extract its medicinal properties.” The philosopher, adept in researches touching suggestion, distinguishes still more rapidly the “enemy” forces that disguise themselves under an appearance of false virtue. “He will separate pride form vanity, perseverance from obstinacy, gentleness from weakness; and, strong in this knowledge he will know how to gather and to infuse into weak souls the infinitesimal dose necessary to produce the auxiliaries to success.” I observed that this word “success” occurred frequently in the remarks of the Japanese philosopher. It was because it is the “Open Sesame” of the magic gates that lead to the domain so much desired. Success! It is the fulfillment of one or of several desires, all-converging toward one end. It is the reason for living for those who wish to struggle for the conquest of Good – that Good which has a way of transforming itself and seems farther away as soon as one has grasped it. For wise men know the inanity of the word “perfection”; perfection cannot exist, since it cannot be absolute and is always debatable, following the bent of differing tastes or the application of doctrines. Others, whose convictions modify the ideal, criticize a thing that seems to some persons the highest degree of Good will. At this point Yoritomo, as he delighted to do, illustrated his words with a fable: “A man once lived,” said he, “who resolved to climb to the highest summit of a chain of mountains, so that no obstacle should hide from him the view of the universe. “After countless fatigues, he climbed the peak which from below seemed to him higher than all the others; the ascent was rough, the road arduous and dangerous; but the man, possessed by his idea, felt neither the scorching sun which burned his face, nor the biting north wind on wintry nights.” “In order to avoid precipices and possible traps along the road, he walked with a bent head and did not raise it until the moment when his feet reached the lofty plateau, the object of his strenuous efforts.” “Alas! What disillusion was his! A granite wall, which clouds had heretofore hidden from his gaze on looking up from below, rose before him, straight, rigid, impracticable, as it seemed to him.” “Impracticable! Not entirely so, but perilous and above all mysterious, for the clouds that enveloped it hardly permitted him to discern the road that he must follow amid a thousand dangers.” “The man postponed the accomplishment of his desire. He descended into the valley again to wait for the dispersion of the clouds, so that he could choose his road by a clearer light.” “But that was not the real cause of his chagrin. The topmost peak was invisible from below, and he asked himself bitterly whether his great fatigue had not been caused by a mirage, after all.” “Should he begin another ascent? It was such hard work – it was better to wait! Now that he knew from which side he should climb to reach the summit, there was no need to worry about it. Besides, did a summit really exist? And even if it did, might he not encounter, after a weary climb, still another eminence, which he had not yet been able to discern! ” “Days passed; the propitious moment did not present itself and at last the man died in the valley, having lived a life interwoven with regrets and aspirations the more cruel because he well knew that he had not the energy sufficient to satisfy them.” “This often happens to those that assign to themselves nothing short of perfection as the end of their efforts. As soon as they imagine they have attained it, they try sadly to ascertain whether there is not something more left to conquer.” “Those among them who have become wise compel themselves simply to attain the highest, and soon aacquire a passionate enthusiasm for their task, for their aim is not circumscribed but grand and infinite.” “One should pity those who believe themselves to have ‘arrived’ quite as much as those who despair of arriving. The former, thinking they have nothing more to combat, soon come to believe that there is nothing more worth conquering.” “Combat increases our energies, and the desire to live become more determined when one fears that he must die before he has accomplished his task.” “But,” asked someone, “when should one enjoy the benefits of his continued efforts?” The answer was ready: “From the perpetual pursuit of the highest springs a series of realizations, each of which gives us the joy and pride of conquest. Does a trader cease to do business because he has just made a good bargain? While he appreciates the advantages gained in the long-pursued transaction, he will enter upon another into which he will throw himself eagerly, and will even use the gains of the preceding bargain to make sure of negotiating the second.” “Thus we should use acquired forces, the advantages gained over ourselves in the realization of another ideal, which, once attained will allow us to pursue another of a form more nearly perfect.” “That man in whom moral strength grows and increases is very near decadence, and that means that he will enter on the road leading to shadows and death.” “Let us then turn resolutely toward the light; above all, let us increase our psychic forces, for they alone can give us that power that emanates from certain beings whose domination exercises itself beneficially over those that surround them.” “Just as when, in the heat of the sun, all grains and seeds sleeping in the earths bosom sprout and rise in the form of plants to play their part in the universal fete of Nature, so under the power of influence always augmented and disciplined by noble deeds the hearts of those near us will open to a desire for the best, conducive to the general aim of mankind – Happiness.”

BY PERSUASION

LESSON II “Persuasion,” Yoritomo taught us, “clothes itself in two very different forms; the one invades the soul like the invisible molecules of a soothing balm poured from a kindly hand and gently infiltrates itself throughout our systems, communicating to us its virtues. The other may be compared to the terrible wind of the African deserts.” “If, from the first hour one feels its burning touch, he has not known how to avoid it by shutting himself closely within his dwelling, every crevice and opening of which has been sealed, nothing can escape its attacks.” “The imperceptible sand drifts little by little into all corners of the house, and even reaches all parts of the human body.” “However well protected we may be, it even penetrates closed lips and eyes, and soon this almost invisible tinge seizes on every man and becomes his constant preoccupation. Evil persuasion is all the more dangerous because it knows how to clothe itself with the most attractive external attributes.” “That is what we meet in the guise of counselors whose words are always tempting, since they adopt the false appearance of solicitude. With earnest words and sympathetic smiles, these persons who almost always have nothing to do in life, try to spoil the lives of others, without having a suspicion of their unconscious crime.” “Usually these are the kind of persons that talk in apparent good faith about the freedom to live one’s own life. They are those who seek the agreeable sensation of the moment, without giving a thought to the possible bitterness of tomorrow.” “They have to learn harsh lessons, for all that; often they are compelled to suffer for days and weeks in order to pay for one day of careless pleasure; but these days are either soon forgotten or their lightness of character is such that they prefer to take the risk of drawing down on themselves serious troubles in the future than to make any effort in the present to avoid them.” Here Yoritomo, always ready with examples, related the following story: “I once knew a young man, the son of one of my friends, who was afflicted with a certain lightness of judgment.” “He was not bad at heart, but his effeminacy and lack of strength of will made him an undesirable companion for such of his young friends whose souls were not sufficiently tempered by the practice of a continual appeal to dominating forces.” “One day he was calling on one of his friends whose father occupied an important place in the senate, and who sent his son to the house of one of his colleagues to learn the result of a discussion in which he had not been able to take part.” “Apropos of a very important question on which a favored future or disgrace depended; he wished to know what a night session of the senate had determined.” “On the way, the son of the senator confided his apprehensions to his frivolous friend. To this young man these weighty matters seemed unimportant and childish, and he dwelt much on the bore it would be to allow this matter to spoil an evening in which both friends had promised themselves much pleasure.” “His reply filled the senator’s son with consternation; the night session had taken place and the most important affairs had been discussed. His adversaries had attacked the absent senator with great bitterness.” “But the friend said, ‘since the contretemps is sure to bring trouble and spoil the pleasure we were looking forward to, why risk this trouble. We can tell your father that the session did not take place, and that all is going well! ’” “The senator’s son resisted; ‘He would not dare lie to his father,’ he said. But his friend became more insinuating: ‘It would not be a serious lie, and besides, one would have time to say that some one had misunderstood – in fact, are we quite sure that there had not been some misunderstanding?’” “In order to vanquish his friends last hesitations, the young gentleman pretended to recall the whole interview, analyzing its details and inventing others. Meantime, he said they would say that several persons had stopped them and questioned them; was it not to one of these that they had replied?” “He said so much in so persuasive a way that at last the senator’s son deliberately told his father that the expected session had been postponed until the following day. Under the influence of this evil persuasion he felt not the slightest remorse in telling this falsehood, and passed a delightful evening.” “But alas! The next day must have been terrible. His father and his partisans could not be found at all in time to foil the scheme of his enemies; his disgrace was decided on, and the order to commit hara-kiri was sent to him.” “After he was dead, his effects were confiscated and his son dragged out the miserable existence of the poor being whom will and dignity do not console.” The old philosopher did not tell us whether the friend, the cause of all these disasters, sought to palliate them by coming to the aid of him whom he had ruined by his detestable counsel. But it is probable that, feeling in this affair as those feel who are conscious of their contemptible conduct, he looked on indifferently at the misfortunes chargeable solely to his own lightness of character. It is, in fact, a common trait with those who are conscious of their own inability to make the least effort to experience a wicked sort of pleasure in observing the failure of others. Another variety of the agents of bad persuasion is the persons we call pessimists, whom Yoritomo describes thus: “One should flee those who are created with life which makes one think only of the stupor of death. Their souls are always in the state where one finds the body in the tomb; every effort seems useless to them, or rather, they prefer to make a show of that indifference which makes the gestures necessary to obtain the accomplishments they pretend to despise.” “Despise them indeed! Do they not feel rather a malicious joy in demoralizing others? They like to consider man as fundamentally bad, and to declare that the slumber of the dead is the superior of all other pleasures.” “That is true only regarding those who, as we have said, pass through life as if they were already dead. They would be right, perhaps, if one heard only through pleasures of the gross, earthly joys of existence. “ “But, for those that know how to see, the joy of living is in all things, and we can taste it, even in the midst of the greatest afflictions.” “Can the grief of mourning, cruel though it may be, prevent us from admiring the sunshine at the moment when it hangs the purple of the sunset in the sky before it sinks to sleep behind the quivering birch trees! ” “Can any grief, whatever it may be, prevent us from feeling a delicate emotion on hearing the sweet, strong voice of a boatman, whose song is lost in the distance when his light craft disappears in the golden mist of the great lakes?” “The joy of life throbs everywhere about us; it is in everything that surrounds us, and we should gather all our strength to cry out against those that preach pessimistic doctrine, for every life, sad thou it may be, is worth living.” Do we not hear those that talk about the scourge of our day, neurasthenia – which often is only one of the commonest forms of egoism for those that are attacked by it – refuse not only to believe in the beautiful and the good, but they devote the last sparks of their fast disappearing will to persuading others of the uselessness of everything? Are they always sincere? Do they not do this in a sort of spite against those who are more expert in the art of living and who excite their envy by enjoying the blessings of life that their own moral weakness does not allow them to appreciate? How much happier are those of who Yoritomo says: “They accept joyfully the evil of living and show it in their fervent adoration of everything that is beautiful and good.” ‘These,’ he added, ‘are the true priests of favorable persuasion. They know by the authority of their own conviction, how to give courage again to the weak and faith to the incredulous. ’” “By the virtue of persuasion, they banish from the invalid the pains, which almost always hasten the apparition of imaginary sufferings. They know the right words to say to strengthen weak will and to give to those who suffer pain in reality the courage to support the ills which sympathy and solicitude made lighter. They are, in short, true healers.” “The persuasion toward health is the best of panaceas, for no one denies the influence of moral qualities on physical health. I once knew a man, who under the influence of one fixed idea, was about to die. He imagined that while drinking the water of a stagnant pool he had swallowed a serpent, minute at first, but which growing larger inside of his body caused internal ravages of which he felt himself likely soon to die.” “His friends had told me of his singular case, telling me how anxious they were at seeing this so-called invalid wasting away day by day. I was curious to visit him; I found a real invalid, looking very ill with features sunken and hardly able to drag himself about. Pressing his chest, he told us that the serpent was devouring him. His friends laughed at him and seemed to think that I would join them in their mirth, but I judged the moral evil too serious to try to soother him by trying to reason with him.” “Persuasion alone, based on a real or an imaginary proof, with the aid of suggestion could save the man. Instead of laughing with the others, I pretended to believe that he was really ill and asked him to tell me his story, to which I listened with the deepest attention. To his great astonishment, I sympathized with him in his trouble and spoke of one of my friends, a famous healer, who would be happy to interest himself in the invalid and to try to save him.” “Two days later I returned, actually bringing with me a physician whom I had told of this strange mania, and who had promised me his assistance. For it was indispensable to have near me someone who could speak authoritatively in order to impress the mind of the invalid. He examined the patient carefully, prescribed certain medicines, and withdrew without giving any words of positive hope.” “Then began my part, that of a psychologist. I pretended that I would tell him the absolute truth, however brutal it might seem. The doctor had discovered beyond all doubt the presence of the serpent; he had tried certain medication. Would it succeed? He dared not affirm it.” “Several days passed with alternating fear and hope, which indications I noted carefully. Finally, one day the physician declared that he was about to make a decisive test of which he had great hope of a favorable result.” “I had known so well how to be persuasive and had understood so thoroughly how to surround the patient with the right occult influences that he no longer rejected the idea of a possible cure; and when, after taking certain medicines that induced him to vomit freely, we showed him the serpent which he believed he had thrown up; our invalid found himself suddenly cured.” “After this, if he happened to feel again pain or discomfort of any kind, he attributed it to the ravages caused by the serpent, and, as the cause existed no more the evil soon disappeared.” “This case shows that one of the conditions of succeeding in the art of persuading is not to batter rudely at convictions that one wishes to uproot. This hardly requires an explanation; in order to persuade some one it is necessary to merit his sympathy; now, one never gains the sympathy of those whose opinions he does not share.” “Hence, in order to persuade successfully, one must banish suspicion and know how to listen. One must not forget the profound egotism that characterizes all imaginary invalids; they are so full of themselves that their ills seem to them to acquire high importance.” “They cannot admit that the whole world is not interested in their aches and pains, and the importance they themselves attach to themselves is a subject of development for their malady. For it is incontestable that all moral emotion has an immediate repercussion on the physical state. To be able to persuade a patient that he is cured is, in most cases, to free him from his malady; it is always infinitely attenuated, since it is to spare him moral uneasiness, too fruitful mother of bodily ills.” But Yoritomo did not stop here with instructing us in the benefits of persuasion; he extended his remarks to the unfortunates who are assailed by the doubt even of happiness, and he encouraged them with this parable: “A young lord was passing one day along the highroad when his palanquin struck so roughly that it was broken to pieces, he looked at the ruins a moment, then he ordered his bearers to go in search of a new one and sat down by the roadside to wait for them to bring it.” A poor man passing by stopped and talked with him about the accident. ‘And what shall you do with these pieces?’ he inquired.” “Why, nothing,” the rich man replied.”I shall leave them where they are.” “Then will you allow me to take them?” “Yes, since I don’t want them.” “The beggar then set himself to work; he readjusted the boards, washed the soiled spots on the hangings in the nearest brook, and did so much and so well that toward evening the palanquin, although a little deteriorated, it is true, was solid and fit to use again.” “Just then the bearers returned. They had not been able to find anything a palanquin so light and frail that, as soon as they tried it, they saw that it would not do.” “There the beggar intervened and offered ‘his’ palanquin. The young lord was glad to pay a large indemnity to have the use for several hours of a thing, which in reality belonged to him.” “And that,” adds the old philosopher, “is the experience of many persons who will not understand that a destroyed happiness may prove a kind of blessing, if one knows how to gather up the pieces.” “Instead of grieving over them and abandoning them by the wayside in order to wait for what may turn up, is it not better to do as the beggar did and to seek in the mishap a security which we should find it difficult to be sure of in the coordination of new events?” “It is on such occasions as this that the power of influence comes into play. In order to persuade men that it is easier for them to work at the construction (or reconstruction) of the happiness that is near them, psychic power is more necessary than it is in drawing them into hypothetic adventures.” “Few men are not attracted by the magic of ‘beginning over again,’ and how many others count on luck, which they almost deify! ” “When can they convince themselves that, for those who know the power of influence, which develops a steady will and a strong thought, luck is born chiefly of circumstances created by ourselves?Almost always are the architects of our own fortunes; it is in working at them without respite that we may model them if not wholly according to our wish, at least in a way somewhat approaching it.” “It is by believing steadfastly that we shall attain the highest power, that we shall acquire the qualities that make a man almost more than man, since they allow him to govern and subdue those by whom he is surrounded.” Might we not say that here Yoritomo presented the “superman” of Nietzsche, and do we not find in all those theories a commentary on the modern phrase of power of mind over matter? In what manner does this evolution produce itself and above all by what means can one obtain these quasi-miracles? How does one make this effort to attain the desired end, and what qualities, occult or material are necessary to develop to attain this magnificent ambition to conquer the minds of men? Listen to what the Shogun tells us in the following chapters.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE EYES

LESSON III Few people escape the influence of the human eye. If its look is imperious, it subjugates; if it is tender, it moves; if it is sad it penetrates the heart with melancholy. But this influence cannot be real and strong unless it is incited by the thought behind it, which maintains and fixes that look, in communicating to it the expression, terrible or favorable, persuasive or defiant, which alone can maintain the firmness and the perseverance of the active forces of our brain. “Some persons,” said Yoritomo, “possess naturally a fascinating eye; usually they are those who can maintain a steady gaze for a long time without blinking. “But it is not sufficient to be able to throw a glance the persistence of which sometimes causes a passing discomfort, which almost always tends toward the subjection of spirits of the weaker sort. “This look should be the projection of a thought in which the fixed form is definite enough so that its penetrative influence shall become efficacious.” “But,” someone will say, “it is not always necessary to think, since several animals possess this power of fascination, like the snake, which holds a bird motionless under the power of its gaze, so that it never dreams of trying to use its wings to escape from its enemy.” “But if conscientious thought does not exist in the animal, it is nevertheless active in responding to instinct.” “There is a blind force in the brain of the serpent, and which turns it from taking possession of its prey, and this force, mastered by a powerful instinct determines a compulsion, which in the weaker creature is sufficient to paralyze all inclination to resist.” But the serpent does not monopolize this privilege of fascination, if one may believe certain old French chronicles. In the old book published by Rousseau in the seventeenth century, it is related that a toad, shut up in a vase, could not get out and found it difficult to endure the fascination of the human eye; at first, in evident uneasiness, it tried to escape; then, when convinced that that was impossible, it would return to its former position and stare at the person in its turn, and ended by dying of the effect of this peculiar force. Is it necessary to lend strength to this story by adding that one day a toad, stronger or more irritable than the others, riveted its eyes so long upon a mans eyes that he actually felt the influence of the creature and swooned under the implacable fixity of its gaze? I do not believe that such experiences have been officially established, but it is nonetheless interesting to conclude that if under the sway of an instinctive thought, the eye of an animal can acquire a rare power. The eye of man, when he is animated by an active reasonable thought, may be an important agent of influence of suggestion. “In order to convince an adversary,” said the Japanese philosopher, “one must look him straight in the eyes. But it would be very stupid and unskillful to employ this method without discretion. Some would see in it only insolence, and their irritation would prevent them from feeling the full influence of the gaze; others would feel a certain uneasiness which would cause them to turn the eyes away before having submitted entirely to the gazer’s influence, and might prevent them from renewing an interview with a person that had impressed them so unpleasantly. The best way to begin the use of the eye in influencing is to talk of subjects that will not arouse suspicion in the interlocutor. One should present himself in an easy and quiet manner listen without showing any signs of impatience of whatever objections the person may make; some of these may not be lacking in accuracy, and it would be unwise to combat them. It is unnecessary to add that the least hastiness, which would displace the point of concentration of the thought, would be injurious and might work serious harm to the success that we seek. Too great excess of modesty should be avoided, for the transmission of thought – and consequently of influence – is worked at our cost. Timidity is always an obstacle to the influence of the eye, which should, at the very first interchange of glances look straight and frankly into the eyes of the interlocutor, at the top of the bridge of the nose. The first conflict once over, one should turn away his eyes carelessly; especially he should avoid the eyes of his opponent (as we will call him) in the first minutes of conversation, before your own have gained any hold on him; one should in some way fix his gaze without allowing his eyes to gain a hold over your own. In short, he who wishes to influence another by his look, must take the greatest care not to let him suspect his design, which would immediately put him on the defensive and render all your efforts vain. “I once knew a young man named Yon-Li,” added Yoritomo, “who went to call on a Daimio to conclude a transaction that was injurious to his own interests.” Besides, the friend had promised a round sum to Yon-Li if he should succeed in influencing this important person to the point of accepting this solution. For a long time the young man had practiced exercises in the development of psychic influence and believed that he had arrived at the point when one is sure of himself. He entered and immediately threw on the Daimio a glance, which the other thought rather singular; he tried to surmise the cause of a look, which became almost aggressive in its expression of determination to dominate him. He was a man of strong will, who had for a long time exercised his powers of penetration. He had no great difficulty in discovering the motive that actuated the young Yon-Li, and he conceived the idea of fighting him with his own weapons. Taking care to avoid looking into the pupils of his visitor’s eyes, he fixed him in the way which we have described, concentrating his gaze at the top of the bridge of the nose and strongly centering his thought on the idea of domination. The young amateur was not prepared to meet an attack more powerful than his own; his bold assurance faltered a little; under the influence of that penetrating look he blinked, lowered his eyelids, and gently turned away. He was vanquished and it was with hesitation that he made his request. It was not entertained or even listened to, and he had besides the embarrassment of confessing, despite himself, the indelicate step which he had been ready to undertake.” Yoritomo added: “The influence of the eye is undeniable; it is occult power set in vibration by the force of the thought; it is the result of the action of the forces that surround us, combined with our own vital force.” “One should not use these forces by chance. It is well to use them, especially, as arms, offensive or defensive, in the great battle won by wisdom and knowledge of human nature.” But just as when he instructed us in the acquiring of energy, as well as when he taught us how to overcome timidity, Yoritomo did not content himself with uttering precepts; he told us the methods whereby we might acquire the precious gifts that he extolled. “In order to attain that authority of the eye which is one of the first conditions in the study of acquiring mental dominance,” said Yoritomo, “certain exercises are necessary”: “For example, it is well to lay a stick of bamboo across a sheet of vellum, and then sear oneself at a few steps’ distance and stare fixedly at the bamboo without allowing the eye to wander to the sheet of vellum. One must use all his strength of will to avoid blinking.” “This exercise should begin with counting up to twenty, then to thirty, increasing the enumeration up to two hundred, which is enough. When one can perform this first exercise easily, it will be time to pass to another, a little more complicated.” “Having made a hole in the sheet of vellum – taking great care to pierce it in such a way as to have the edges of the opening neat and clean-cut, experimenter now rivets his fixed gaze on this aperture one, two, three minutes, longer if possible.” “It is well also to place oneself in front of a bright, smooth surface, preferably polished tin – lacking one silver or gold – and to seek in it the reflection of his own eyes.” “Plunge your gaze into the inmost depths of your eyes; from the beginning this will be a good exercise in compelling the gaze of others the yield to your own.” “In this situation, turn the head from the right to left, then from left to right, without losing sight one’s glance firmness and the desired power. One should avoid winking the eyes and lowering the eyelids, and should practice meeting firmly the gaze of others.” But all these exercises would be in vain, if during the time of this contemplation, you do not know how to concentrate your mind on a single subject. How much influence could you exercise over others if you do not know first how to master yourself? Singleness of thought is indispensable during the development of the use of the eye; if it seems too difficult to keep it fixed on a single point, it would be well to avail oneself of certain means of suggestion, like the following: “First, count up to ten with the simple idea of doing it slowly, and to allow the same space of time to elapse between the uttering of each number.” “Secondly, run through the fingers a chaplet of about sixty beads, counting them in a low tone of voice, without losing sight of the point one has fixed on.” “One may count at first up to five or ten; then increase the count, taking care to begin all over again if one finds one’s attention has wandered or that while pronouncing the numbers it has been diverted, of only for an instant, from the single thought that is the object of his purpose.” But this is not all; as soon as one has acquired the desired qualities in the cultivation of the power of the eye, he should begin to experiment with them, and regarding this here is what our philosopher counsels us: “When you have mastered the use of the eye, and have learned how to concentrate the mind, try the ascendancy of your visual power on some person in the midst of a crowd.” “First, choose some one whose face indicates a character weaker than your own, and fix your gaze in the back of his neck, with a single thought, which shall invade his mind, haunting him with a desire to turn around.” “If your influence is already sufficiently formed, at the end of a certain time you will see him begin to fidget, then to move his head slightly, as if to shake off an importunate thought; finally, he will move his hand to the spot on which your gaze has been fixed, then, in spite of himself he will turn around.” “This experiment may be made on all sorts of subjects, and it will always succeed on condition that you know how to envelope your subject in and intense mental current the action of which will combine itself with the power of your gaze.” “You can imagine, then, to what extent this faculty may be useful in the ordinary circumstances of life; it is the secret of those we call fascinating persons, whom no one can resist and who know how to obtain anything they desire by merely saying what pleasure it would give them to possess the desired object; for they know well that in concentrating that mind strongly on that for which they ask, the mind of their interlocutor, yielding to mental sway, abandons itself easily, especially if the domination of the eye increases this conviction by creating in him a psychic state which compels him to submit to its power.” These precepts were those of that other tamer of spirits, Mahomet, who said: “The effect of the human eye is indubitable. If there is anything in the world that can move more rapidly than fate, it is the glance of the eyes.” From this saying strong superstitions have arisen, against which the Shogun puts on our guard: “One of the reasons,” says he, “ that militate in favor of the cultivation of the influential use of the eye is the necessity of getting the better of a certain kind of persons who pretend to have inherited occult power from magicians. A man gifted with a strong will has nothing to fear from these shameless liars; but a sensitive and impulsive person, who does not know how to assert himself and dominate others, becomes and easy prey; and the suggestions of these wretches will soon lead him to dissipate his fortune in answering their stupid requests.” “Besides,” Yoritomo added, “those that would wish to use their occult influence to compel others to commit a wrong action would be soon punished by the loss of this influence, which develops itself gently only when actuated by beneficent thought; while they retract and end by becoming annihilated when the uppermost thought is of the kind of which may be said: ” “Evil thoughts about others are rods with which we ourselves shall one day be beaten.”

THROUGH CLEARNESS OF SPEECH

LESSON IV The word is the most direct manifestation of the thought; hence it is one of the most important agents of Influence when it clothes itself with precision and clearness, indispensable in cooperating in creating conviction in the minds of ones hearers. Were not the burning words of Peter the Hermit the sole cause of the rising of arms for the conquest of the tomb of Jesus? And was it not especially because that monk believed himself firmly to be moved by a divine will that he knew how to make his belief shared by thousands of men of all classes, poor or rich, who under the influence of his words all possessed only a single soul, impregnated with sentiments of heroic piety which urged them to dye the sands of Palestine with their blood? What arguments had this monk found? Only three words, but powerful words, when one considers the mentality and the peculiar religiosity of that epoch: “God wishes it! ” “God wish it!” These words were the first to declare to the ignorant masses Peter’s all-powerful influence. In the eyes of the vulgar, this man who transmitted to them thus the will of the Most High assumed in their eyes the proportions of a divine messenger, a sort of prophet in communication with the Master of Masters, who designed to dictate to him His orders. For others, it was to resume debates by an argument without reply; it was to excuse fatigues and privations and an unknown death under a foreign sky. God wished it! How vain were all other speeches after these three words, which bowed all heads under the powerful breath of divine domination, as wheat bends under the tempestuous winds! Yoritomo speaks as a true sage, then, when he says: “Leaders of souls should not forget this one thing: Too great wealth of words is hostile to conviction.” And, alluding to a Japanese proverb, which is very similar to one of our own well-known proverbs, he added: “If speech is like jade, silence is like a diamond.” “Speech is like a diamond when it is the vibrating form of the concrete thought and when it presents itself in a quiet way, rendering its suggestions familiar and clear by the way in which the orator knows how to present them.” “Prolific speech is the medium of powerful thought – of that thought of which we should be master and not slaves.” “Speech is the seed, good or ill omened, which, sown in irresolute natures, may produce either nettles or wheat.” This may be also the ‘fixed idea’ that is supposed to be implanted in every weak brain. Suppose someone should chance to being endowed with the power of initiative, but with a wavering will: “You will be good, because goodness is the supreme end of life,” if the order is accompanied by the dominating look of which we have spoken and pronounced in a tone that will impress, there is no doubt that these influences will produce such a radiation as, in spite of himself, would make him feel himself under the influence of good emanating from himself to converge toward his fellows.” “This may seem very obscure at first, but the brevity and precision of order will implant themselves little by little in his brain, of which the passive forces, always submissive to confused influence, will at a certain moment determine the active forces to emerge from the background where up to then they had lain hidden.” “But if one expresses this prophecy some day before being afflicted with moral weakness: ‘You will be a criminal,’ the idea, originally repelled with horror, ends by sowing in his brain an idea first of the impossibility of the suggestion, then, more frequently evoked it become less monstrous and he finishes with a smile of doubt at the beginning, then with fear, by facing the eventuality of this prophesied crime, the specter of which had pursued him so persistently, that one day, when carried away by anger or violent passion, he accomplished this criminal act against the temptation of which he would certainly have reacted, had he not been possessed with the fixed idea which designed him before his own eyes as the instrument predestined by Fate.” ‘That is the reason why,” added the Shogun, with infinite wisdom, “one cannot blame too much such parents as the prophesy for their children terrible punishments for reprehensible acts which they can hardly help committing.” And he added: “Those who, thinking to cure their children of faults more or less characteristic, repeat to them: ‘You will die under the executioner’s whip,’ are sometimes the involuntary cause of this execution.” “To strengthen this idea of so lugubrious a fate for the little ones, they familiarize them with it, and dwell on its horrors.” “Then they compromise constantly their authority before their children, for they, seeing them the next day filled with kind feelings and expressing tenderness toward them, will not fail to regard lightly the terrible menace with which they were threatened.” “It might happen that they were struck by it, and that would be likely to be unlucky for their future, for, once implanting this idea in their brains, they will not fail to wonder at the serenity of their parents, who can admit the possibility of so terrible a fate and yet go on living peacefully with the menace of such a future for their child.” “In every way, the authority of the heads of the family will find itself lessened, and the seed sown in the heart of the child by the imprudent prophecy cannot fail to produce bad fruit.” “It will be so much the more dangerous if it should be resumed in a few words, those incisive words that draw mental pictures, which take root in the brain.” “Long lectures have only a repressing effect on the spirit.” “Ones listeners, endowed with will and discernment, very soon give up trying under the avalanche of words that fall on their ears with the monotony of flakes of snow, to distinguish truths that are uttered in the confused mass of verbiage.” “On the contrary, they force themselves to turn these thoughts from this wordy chaos, in which the confusion equals the monotony.” “As for others, the laxity of their attention does not permit them to follow the same idea very long, and, all effort being painful to them, they will not long follow the orator in the mazes of thought through which he would conduct them.” “But those that know how to present their thoughts in a few phrases, in a way that impresses itself on their listeners, may easily become leaders of the masses.” “The first quality of the speaker who would be convincing should be to think deeply of what he wishes to say.” “As soon as he knows how to transform his thoughts into clear-cut images, the contours of which will not admit of any ones divining one line to be different from the line intended, he will be careful to project them into the minds of others under the form of lights and shades.” “We have already seen how the power of thought has the gift of influencing others, particularly when this force is aided by the power of the eye; when these two ruling faculties are augmented by the power of spoken discourse, the listeners are conquered by the ideas that are presented to them.” “Those who will acquire these gifts will find that he can interest men and attach them to himself; in a word, can lead them by the means of the influence that will assure him of mental empire over most of his contemporaries.” “It is necessary, also,” the Shogun continued, “to base oneself on the theory of like attracts like, in the expansion of the sympathetic radiation which must converge toward great numbers to illumine men’s souls.” “It has been remarked with what facility people follow noble impulses, heroic appeals, and generous outbursts.” “A speaker would be culpable, then, should he count on the inferior mental quality of his auditors in order to descend to their level.” “This is the fault of too many speakers who like to court less noble sides of the popular spirit.” “They give as a reason – I would almost say an excuse – that to address them in this way one is better listened to and more readily understood.” “This is a gross error. How many times have I uttered a noble thought in the midst of an assemblage of persons of mental mediocrity! ” “As this thought was always expressed in language clear and exact, formed of words that all could comprehend, every time I have had the pleasure of seeing the multitude vibrate like a harp struck by an expert hand, and to feel for a moment that the souls of the roughest of palanquin-bearers were elevated under the influence of my words which were adapted to the purest ideal.” “Is not this a kind of conquest for which those have devoted themselves to the art of influencing should strive?” “It is by speech that one develops emotion, generator of noble gestures and of generous realization.” “Speech is the distributor of the thoughts that surround us, of which the reiterated suggestions, after impregnating certain groups of cells in our brain, travel, by affinity, to haunt the same group of brain-cells in other auditors.” “This is one reason why it is not well to dwell too long on the same subject, so that one can allow some rest to the weaker brains in an audience.” “Still, it is an undoubted fact that to jump from one subject to another, and to leave them only to attack them again, as is the custom of some speakers, is more fatiguing and less satisfactory, for minds wearied by this continual exercise end by ceasing to follow the flight of these fugitive thoughts; and, after waiting in vain for some repose in a discourse, they give up trying to follow the constant flight of too soaring imagination.” “Another type to be dreaded, are those devoted to idle chatter and gossip.” “One might, if he were greatly in earnest, correct them in this way: listen to their conversation, summarize it, and in ten minutes repeat to them all that had taken them an hour to say; by ‘all’ one must understand merely the ideas and not the repetitions.” “But will they stand correct? Will they not do as did a certain lord who, having seen his neighbor very ill, and having talked incessantly while visiting him without letting the sick man get a word in edgewise, said, when leaving him: .” “I will return tomorrow to learn how you are, for I fear I have tired you very much because I have done so much talking today.” “Conciseness and clearness in speaking is thus a great force in the work of influencing, which is a noble task for one who undertakes it seriously.” “Moderation must be among the qualities whose aim is to action by the word in order to direct the focus of attention toward the principal thought which, excluding all accessory thoughts, should be imposed on the minds of his auditors by the speaker that wishes to extend his influence over them.” “Discretion is equally indispensable in forming influence by speech.” “From indiscretion to lying the step is short, and one should not forget this axiom that might be written in characters of jade on leaves of purest gold.” “Lying is a homage which inferiority renders unconsciously to merit.” “Bands of precious metals should be hung on the walls of salons, replacing, in a way more comprehensible to all minds, the covered rose-filled vases that ornament festal tables.” And Yoritomo reminded us of that ancient custom, which we believed peculiar to the Grecian sages, and which, it appears, was begun centuries ago among the philosophers of the Far East: “Harpocrates, the god whom the ancient Greeks worshiped under the image of silence, had presented to the God of Love a flower which, coming from his hands, represented the virtue which he was supposed to symbolize.” “This gift was made in order to encourage the wanton boy to guard the secrets of his mother, Venus, for we know that Love was always ready to reveal the secrets of those that were attacked by his flames.” “This act of the god was imitated first by the Grecian sages, then by the Japanese philosophers; and at all banquets appears a closed vase, the cover of which must not be lifted.” “This vase encloses the roses, whose perfume filters through the interstices of the vessel, letting one guess what flowers are within.” “It was a custom to ask the guests to let nothing transpire regarding the discussions that took place in these gatherings.” “Later the custom became general and was followed among ordinary people, and then followed among ordinary people, when the closed and flower-filled vase was a constant warning to the guests to use discretion, and not to allow escaping outside anything that might have been said under the influence of wine.” “Our modern humor has immortalized this custom in the form of a figure of speech that is on everybody’s tongue, but of which few persons know the origin, people often say of one who tells secrets: ‘He has uncovered the rose jar! ’” The etymology of this figure is known to few, but however that may be, we are grateful to Yoritomo for recalling it to us by connecting it with one of the lessons he has taught us, which, disguised in the form of a parable, fix them in our minds in so attractive a fashion that we do not forget them as soon as we have heard them.

BY SETTING GOOD EXAMPLE

LESSON V “We read in a Japanese story that once a man set out in pursuit of a rose, he sought it a long time, but nothing seemed to him to be that flower, which he knew only by hearsay, that praised its incomparable perfume and the beauty of its multiplex corolla.” “He saw the admirable amaryllis, balancing on flexible stems their odoriferous chalices, whose tender tints were touched with brown spots, that seemed like the tears of night.” “He had inhaled – quite surprised to find them without perfume – the breath of the proud peonies, which bloomed near by, looking like a sort of burning bush.” “The fragrant stalactites of the acacias had breathed upon him their balmy odor.” “He had paused before carnations, which, crimson in their green chalices, looked like the throats of warriors, bursting out of their armor.” “The sumptuous mourning of the black lily also had attracted him; but none of these flowers were, nor could be, the rose, and he was almost in despair when he saw, quite near him, alight on a bush a butterfly of the dazzling colors, and a delightful aroma seemed to be diffused from it, while its wings quivered like the petals of a flower shaken in the wind.” “Greatly moved,” the man approached it, saying: ‘No,’ said the butterfly, “I am not the rose, but I live near the rose; I love the refuge of her flowery arches and branches. I come to sleep in the hollows of her corollas, and sip the sweet perfume of her flowers.” “That is the reason why I have become so thoroughly impregnated with her odor as to deceive you.” This little fable may serve as a preface to anything one might say or write on the force of example. Our most frequent associations are never indifferent to our mentality, and we always submit, voluntarily or unconsciously, to the ascendancy of those that surround us, unless we have sufficient influence over their minds to compel them to submit themselves to us. Then the thought, projected into an enveloping center by a superior influence, is received by brains of weaker caliber, which register it mechanically in order to reproduce it on similar occasions. Our popular modern philosophy has put this maxim into a proverb: “Tell me who are your associates and I will tell you what your are.” It is explained also by Du Potet in his “Magnetic Therapeutics…” “There are certain persons,” says he, “who when near you, seem to draw something from you, to pump you, to absorb your force and your life; an species of vampire, without knowing it, they live at your expense.” “When near them, in the sphere of their activity, one feels an uneasiness, a constraint which is caused by their pernicious actions and determines in us an indefinable feeling.” “You are moved by a desire to escape and to go far away from them; but these people have quite the opposite tendency; they come nearer and nearer to you, press close to you, seem fairly to wish to join themselves to you, to draw from you that which is necessary to their lives.” “Other persons, on the contrary, bear with them life and health.” “Wherever they go, they seem to radiate joy and sunshine.” “You observe that their conversation pleases and that people seek them out. One likes to touch their hands, to lean on their arm; something soothing which charms and magnetizes you, quite unconsciously, seems to emanate from them.” “One easily adopts their point of view on things in general, and their opinions, without knowing why; and one sees them go away with sincere regret.” In short, above all things regarding psychic influence, we must not forget that “the strongest reason is always the best.” Unfortunately, the strongest is not always that which is worth the most; a regrettable contagion follows from the person who suffers the ascendancy of the other. “Or again,” the old Shogun explained, “the reciprocal influence which individuals exercise on one another is the cause of many evils difficult to conjure.” “That, if we may believe tradition, is the reason why the sages of old created so-called mutual admiration societies, to which only those of undisputed merit were admitted.” “In the numerous reunions, whatever might be the apparent reason for them, a low mentality evinced itself, and the general quality of thought became inferior, to such a degree that the most elevated mind felt the difficulty of escaping the contagion of the surrounding mediocrity.” “The only influence of an orator might be to transmute souls momentarily by substituting for mean and niggardly thoughts a current of broad, generous ideas, from which would spring an enthusiasm real but almost always ephemeral, for at the moment of realization particular interests, narrow views, and the fear of responsibility will give back to each one of his auditors the mind that belongs to him, which a profound study of the attainment of the highest and best alone could transform slowly and definitely.” “However, certain such circles do exist which are composed of persons of absolutely pure aspirations, all communicant toward a noble end, in a collective thought, the waves of which are voluntarily directed toward a single accomplishment.” From these reunions of the best minds emanates a current of influence the value of which is considerable, since emulation, the offspring of example, is found in these circles where, each one developing, in a sense, from the same principle, concentrates his faculties on the search for the best in all that is good. “But it is very difficult to maintain these gatherings under the unique direction of the original generous spirit. To find men that will ignore questions of temporary supremacy and of particular interests, and that know how to repress petty antipathies and hatreds, possibly more or less justifiable, in order to open the heart to the creation of an ideal – this is almost to expect the impossible.” “Is it, indeed, necessary to ask it?Is it well to suppress ambition in men’s hearts? Does not such a leveling tend to destroy the seed of individual responsibility, a cognizance of which leads to the most noble conquests?” While admiring the scruples of the Shogun, we could only regret that happy time when the ancient sages gathered with no other object than to talk of beauty in the heart of nature, in wonderful gardens in the midst of vegetation luxuriant and restful, with the blue heavens as their sole canopy. But our modern civilization has other necessities, which find expression in a care, sometimes exaggerated, regarding subjection to the order of the hour: “Time is money”; it is necessary, then, that the time of the reunions should be limited, and that the place be carefully chosen, large enough to contain the public, which rarely would wish to assemble out of doors, lest the fine weather might change into a driving rainstorm. The terrible question of money almost always comes up; and since persons of lofty minds, protagonists of generous ideas, rarely devote themselves to the accumulation of gold, it is necessary to introduce into these reunions a sort of Mecaenas who, under the guise of one or of several capitalists, whose ideas and sentiments may be said to border on the commonplace, comes among a group composed of the purest elements to play the part of fruit of doubtful quality in a basket of sound fruit. But it is of no use regretting things that cannot be changed; and it is wiser to listen to Yoritomo: “I once knew a man who spent large sums in entertaining several Buddhist priests, who celebrated the cult by lighting an enormous quantity of lanterns, and by giving themselves up to various ruinous practices.” “I said to this man: ‘It would be better to burn a single lamp before the statue of Buddha at his own home, and to invite all the priests who lead a useless existence in the temple to bear the people the good word and to set them a good example. ’” “Put together all the money which every year you would give to this sterile cult of Buddhism, divide it into as many sums as you would distribute to each of your priests n ordering them to distribute among the poor in teaching them the blessing of the name of Buddha.” “Thus, glorified by example, the cult that you desire to honor would spread itself the more, since kind and charitable words would inevitably be connected with it in the minds of the unfortunates whom it had helped.” We may, even now, take account of the strength of Yoritomo’s principles in the observation that they are given as an example by another Japanese philosopher, Kabira Ekken, who lived in the seventeenth century, and of whom Kirschbach tells us in a study that is much quoted: “’The ability of certain actors,” Yoritomo continued, “may be an influence, excellent or detestable, following the quality of the examples which they offer to the people.” “On the stage, an actor who has the gift of filling his very soul with the personage he represents can, at his will, sow the seeds of joy or terror, of admiration or desire for the beautiful in the minds of the spectators.” “That is the reason why we cannot too strongly reprehend such plays as show a narrow or vulgar mentality behind them.” “It is very wrong to impress the multitude with reproductions of criminal or reprehensible actions.” “While it is true that there are certain lower functions of our human nature that are common to every one, but which we mutually conceal, both from sight and by name, there are certain moral defects, certain ugly actions, a manifestation of which it would be very wrong to present to the eyes of the public.” “The acts of generosity, of magnanimous impulses, and of heroic sacrifices – do not these offer a field wide enough so that it is not necessary to reproduce plays of sentiments and actions that are likely to be harmful?” “The influence of example is considerable, and it is a culpable thing not to circumscribe it to the representation of noble actins worthy of being imitated.” “It may be objected that in all plays in which a criminal is represented, the malefactor is always punished for his misdeeds, sometimes in a way so terrible that the example cannot fail to be of benefit as a warning to those that might be tempted to imitate him.” “Among an audience capable of being influenced by these detestable examples, there are sure to be a few who will fancy themselves much cleverer than the criminal whose story is being acted before them, and these will say to themselves: ‘This crime was well-planned; and, if he was taken, it is because he was clumsy.” “For many, these reflections are theoretical, and they have no desire to imitate him. But what matters then? The evil seed has been sown in them and, under the influence of an unworthy sentiment, hatred, calculation, or cupidity, it may develop into a fixed desire for dishonest conquest, of which the pictured crime was the origin.” “For those who are already tainted, the influence of such representations as we are considering would be even more vicious; for them the stage would be a practical school of vice, combined with astuteness and safeguarded from punishment by a thousand means which the actions of the players may suggest.” “One may say the same thing of books, though they are more dangerous for the erudite than for persons whose knowledge is more limited.” Alas! The Shogun knew nothing about compulsory education, for of the thousands of cheap books, which propagate the taste for trying one’s luck in the convincing tone of showing one how to make a fortune. But it would be wrong to include the spirit of a book, which deplores all progress, which we praise highly. We should, however, emphasize very clearly the fact that too wide an education is often a two-edged weapon. The best way to utilize one’s education is to read attentively, “The Influence of Example.” Readings made in common should be on a subject at once lofty and interesting; but the result on the auditors when they are alone may be indifferent or beneficial, according to the mental qualities of the reader. He should, above all things, be inspired with the principal contents of the preceding chapters, particularly those on the influence of the eye and thought-transference. If the play of glances is necessarily limited to the reader, who is compelled to lower his eyes upon his book, eh must not forget, in moments when he may be relaxing his gaze form the page, still to dominate his audience with his regard. At the same time, the ideas he expresses should be backed by so powerful a thought from him that the “thoughtwaves” shall determine the mental current, which says Turnbull, “act with the force of a loadstone and of electricity.” Let us not forget also that personal influence radiates more certainly when it manifests itself under the form of altruism, charity, and kindness. “Is it not a frequent thing,” said the old Japanese, “to see a crowd hesitate, divided between a feeling of recrimination and one of approbation, and then suddenly turn toward conciliation, because one among them, on whom the situation and the influence of others had its effect, has openly declared himself on that side?” “One of the greatest obstacles to the doing of good actions,” he added, “is the timidity based on the fear of responsibility, which haunts mediocre minds.” “It is toward these that he who would wield the power of domination should turn his attention. It is sufficient to impose on these timorous souls the resolution to perform the task that they themselves desire to see accomplished, and to set them the example of his achievement.” “Their vacillating will strengthen itself by the moral support which they will be certain to feel, and their anxiety about the opinion of others will be soothed by the example of those whom they recognize as their superiors, and whose superiority they are glad to acknowledge.” “Example is the excuse behind which hasten to hide those whose ill-regulated thoughts can cooperate in defensive discernment.” “It is these, then, whose minds are strengthened by renewed practices of wise reflection, used in the service of psychic qualities, creators of domination, who should watch carefully over their own acts, so that their example may be, for the persons over whom they have an influence, a source of improvement and constant elevation.”

BY PSYCHIC INFLUENCE

LESSON VI Psychic influence consists in awakening the forces, too often wasted by a habitual state of moral weakness, or perhaps lessened from a physiological cause. It is the power that determines the processes, which we wish to produce in other minds. It is the art of substituting for the want of resolution in others our own will, which they obey blindly, sometimes unconsciously, ever glad to feel themselves guided and directed by a moral power which they cannot elicit in themselves. “It is not necessary,” says Yoritomo, “to have as many pretend, recourse to magic, in order to become past masters in the art of influencing our fellows; what is needed above all is to keep ourselves constantly in a condition of will-power sufficient to impose our commands on minds capable only of obedience.” “Intensity of determination, when it reaches a certain point, possesses a dazzling influence which few ordinary mortals can resist, for it envelops them before they are aware of it and thus before they have dreamt of endeavoring to withdraw themselves from it.” “Moreover, the man who retains the power of influencing rarely needs to exert himself, in order to exercise it effectually, for the need of protection from it is non-existent in most persons.” “They are rare who are morally sufficient for themselves and who pass through life without feeling the need of resting their weakness on a supporting and directing force.” “Still less numerous are those who accept with courage the consequences of their acts and do not seek to place the responsibility for these acts on an outside influence, which, however, they re ready to repudiate if they’re successful.” “But, should failure come, they will hasten to ascribe the causes to their advisers, proclaiming loudly that, if they had not been impelled to give ear to them, the disaster would not have come about.” “Timidity, while not influenced by the same motives, often leads those who suffer from it to such a dread of responsibilities that they arrive at the point of being unable to at, except under the shelter of an impelling power, the manifestation of which seems to them indispensable for excusing their activities.” “We might well pass over in silence persons of had faith, although they constitute an important group among those who seek the cooperation of others.” “But this sickly dependence on others is with them only adopted by design.” “Feeling themselves incapable of achieving anything by their own efforts.” “They’re content to enjoy the fruit of the exertions of others, for they can always take credit to themselves for the best part, by throwing into the shade those who have a far better right to commendation than themselves.” “I once knew two brothers who were devoted to the study and explanation of the ancient inscriptions graven in temples by the hand of primitive faith.” “The younger of these brothers was verbose, very superficial, but a very brilliant and learned talker.” “The other, continually engrossed, kept himself almost entirely out of sight, uttered only words absolutely necessary, and, when questioned on his science, replied so simply that people pitied his brother for being burdened with such an obvious nonentity.” “The latter, however, won the good graces of every one by never speaking of his elder brother except with respect and by displaying certain uneasiness when his learning was discussed.” “In spite of everything, he was obliged to admit he alone was learned, and his brother too shallow to take any other role that that of copyist; but it was perceived that this declaration hurt his brotherly feelings, and the esteem conceived for him increased the more.” “Now the day came when the elder brother vanished into the spirit world, his death passed almost as unnoticed as his life, and no one dreamt of regretting him, when a serious mistake was discovered in a much disputed text. Of course, the error fell on the memory of the copyist, that useless person whom the kindness of his brother had wished to class among the learned.” “The survivor appeared so affected by this that he gave up his work for some time, and his utterances grew dull and commonplace.” “Nevertheless, at the instance of his friends, he undertook the translation of some ancient Buddhist Prayers of immense religious and archaeological interest.” “Great was the general astonishment. The grossest errors were combined in this work with the most palpable ignorance; in short, it was impossible to doubt of this. Not only had the dead brother alone merit, but he had also the gifts of influencing the young, for, under the dazzling action of the elder ones thought, the other had been able to reflect himself to the extent of imposing on every one.” And Yoritomo adds: “It is unquestionable that, by throwing off the effluvia of a sound mental perception, we are able to obtain results which material efforts would achieve with more difficulty.” “Nevertheless, it is something indispensable to avail ourselves of other powerful means in order to put in vibration the forces, which surround us and must cooperate in the creation of the result, which we wish to attain.” “Every one knows that certain orders uttered during a sleep which we have brought on continue after waking in the from of an obsession, at first confused, afterward dim, but gaining in definiteness and at length tenacious, and, I should say, almost instinctive.” “The quickest and most scientific method of obtaining this sleep is the condition of torpor produced by a look, in which we have learned to embody the fascination of our influence.” “I have already mentioned the power of this look, but we shall increase it in a remarkable degree, if we can succeed in approaching the person whom we wish to influence by lightly touching his shoulders with our hands, turning the thumbs toward his neck and the fingertips on the vertebral column.” “If we are afraid to display too much the desire of influencing, and wish to avoid provoking a shrinking back, whether voluntary or not, it will be well to proceed by standing behind the person whom we wish to put to sleep and, chatting the while, place both hands on his shoulders.” “But this procedure is more difficult to put in practice, for the application of the hands must last more than a minute in order to be efficacious.” “In any case, the experiment can only succeed if it is accompanied by the putting forth of a strong and fixed power of will.” “If you give to your thought the strength and fixity required, even though the person whom you wish to put to sleep should not succumb to slumber, he would none the less become utterly subject to the mental processes which you have willed to arouse in him.” “But a single second of distraction would render all your exertions vain.” “In order to obviate this failure, it is then well to give to his thought a tangible shape and not to abandon it to a meditative condition; it must take on the features of the object of the desire, which you wish to inspire.” “For example, you desire to inculcate in some one of the love of science, make a picture representing him bending over manuscripts, or in the dim light of crypts, see him engaged attentively in deciphering inscriptions, and seeking their meaning, that veritable key of the door from which the truths of history emerge.” “If you wish to imbue him with the warlike spirit, see him confronting enemies whom he is crushing to earth.” “Similarly with every accomplishment the idea of which you wish to see born in his mind.” “At the same time, it is absolutely necessary to accentuate and to sustain the thought by words that arouse and stimulate it, by a definite enunciation of it.” “For example, you will say to the man whom you wish to render brave and resolute: ‘Lift your head and accustom yourself to look danger in the face, flee not, it would pursue you and surely overtake you; but know how to measure yourself with it and confront it with a countenance unbleached with fear…’” “It is with such words uttered in a firm voice, the while using the influence of the eye, that of the thought and that of the will, combined with the power of the fluids, that you will succeed in subjugating the most rebellious natures and in making the most inattentive ear.” “Leaders of men should never lose sight of this truth: the effort of the will produces vibratory waves the circulation of which must touch the brain of those whom they wish to subjugate.” “To allow this force the means of unbending a little, it is well, when you engage in conversation, to remain quiet while the others talk.” “While listening to each of them with attention you will avoid looking at the speaker and, without affectation, turn your eyes from his in order not to allow to be scattered the fluid which later you will send forth more efficaciously, if, instead of submitting involuntarily to the sway of the speech coming from your interlocutor, you reserve the accumulation of your psychic forces to support your discourse with all the power of occult insight.” “This must be strictly observed when it involves imposing a definite resolution, such as to deter one form a blamable action, or one contrary to that which you desire to see follow.” “Then persuasion by influence takes the form of suggestion, and, after having had recourse to the practices which we have just described, you should say to him, fixing your eyes, not on but between his, at the bridge of the nose, ‘You will not do such or such a thing, because that is bad and would draw you into grievous ills’; or ‘You must do such a thing, there is the solution of the problem which you seek. ’” “If the desired result should not be obtained after a first trial, you should renew it.” “It is, however, preferable to press home the conviction gradually; it thereby gains solidity, and the vacillation, so common in feeble minds, is less to be feared in proportion as the suggestion has been slow in affirmation.” The Shogun deals also with the health of the body, which, he assures us, is always related to that of the mind, and recommends means for assisting the cure of certain sick persons. Nevertheless, he advises the greatest care in the use of these agencies, however beneficent they may be. “It is bad,” he says, “roughly to compel an imaginary invalid to recognize moral error, the prime cause of physical ailments.” “We should, on the contrary, refrain from denying the existence of his sufferings and, little by little, introduce into his mind the suggestion of something better, until the moment when the idea of recovery gains possession of him.” “But in order to acquire a definite value, this idea must be the culmination of a series of other thoughts the upward gradation of which has led the patient to conceive, at first as a possibility, then as a well-grounded hope, afterward as a certainty, at last as a realization, the complete return of health definitely regained.” We will not conclude this lesson on psychic influences without quoting some lines of the valuable Nippon manuscripts. “Influence,” says the author, “is synonymous with ‘substitution of will’; in certain cases, the word ‘creation’ would be still more appropriate, for those whom we have succeeded in dominating to the extent of directing their thoughts are nearly always persons of weak character in whom the faculty of volition has remained in a rudimentary state.” “As for the others, those in whose minds we substitute our own will for that which they tend to manifest, they are generally dull or frankly vicious souls, who combine with their natural defects a kind of moral weakness, which renders them accessible to outside influence.” “When two forces come together, it is often the evil one that gives way, for, to possess the genuine endowment of influence, certain qualities must come into play which rarely fall to the lot of mediocre minds.” “The latter, totally enslaved to the satisfaction of their instincts, and their strength sapped with fleeting pleasures, lack that impassioned desire of the better, the creator of the cohesion of forces.” “The masters of conscious will alone hope to arrive at this splendid goal of influencing others, for, their spirit being imbued with nothing but the love of truth, they will ignore those passing whims that ever imprint falsehood or deceit no the thought of those who love to stray along the devious by-paths of unworthy considerations.” “The latter must never hope to possess completely the power of dominance, for they ignore the unity of thought, inasmuch as their mouth utters one word while their mind conceives another; thus the image cannot take shape in them except in an imperfect fashion, and we know how important a part that plays which we might call, in a way, the materialization of the idea in the are of influencing others.” Some pages farther on, we find the confirmation of these principles in the following lines, which adept in our modern psychology would not contradict: “It is not given to all to possess in themselves the aggressive spirit necessary to command the influences which must emanate from our brain in order to result in forming the convictions of others; that is why it is sometimes well, instead of commanding the idea, to let it simply penetrate by itself, in order that we may arrive at its complete possession, which should not be confounded with the fact of being possessed by it.” “The difference is immense. He who possesses completely the idea, which he wishes afterward to send out from himself by the means which we have described in this chapter, in order to transmit the idea to others, is a master who commands; he who allows himself to be overcome by the obsession of an idea which takes possession of his brain and prevents his reasoning is the slave of that idea and of the acts which it will impel him to commit.” “But this cannot be, if quietly and by degrees, he allows himself to be imbued with it, for the gradual conquest implies discussion, reasoning, and even resistance, things all indispensable to the formation of rational conviction.” “Now, without conviction, influence has little weight.” “It is personal conviction, which allows us to find the words necessary to introduce it into the minds of our hearers; only personal conviction can produce adepts.” “All apostles have been persuaded of the truth of their belief, and, if some among them have been the leaders of the multitude, it is because they taught a doctrine in which they themselves sincerely believed and because their discourse spread around them the radiance of fervor, which, far better than enthusiasm, can fill men’s souls and influence them.” “The gradual penetration of the idea is, therefore, to be sought in the case of those whom their natural qualities incline rather to meditation and steady adherence than to aggressive zeal.” “We might compare these different characters to those two men who, having each obtained an equal supply of wood in the forest, returned home and lit the fire to warm themselves.” “One of them let the flames mount in the beautiful spiral curves of prismatic color, and when they died down he threw in a fresh armful, delighted with the pleasure of the sight and with the bodily comfort of the warmth.” “But soon nothing remained with which to renew the fire; the flames died away, the ruddy fire took on a vesture of gray, then a fine ash, rapidly cooling, alone remained at the bottom of the fireplace.” “The man went out again to find a fresh supply; but in passing before the hut of his friend he was astonished to see smoke arising from it, while, near the threshold, the pile of wood still lay, but little diminished.” “He went in; agreeable warmth took possession of him and he saw a modest fire gently smoldering under the ashes; all around people were standing stretching their hands for the genial sensation that pleasantly imbued them.” “So it is with gradual and continuous penetration; if it does not produce brilliant flashes, it bathes us with its beneficent suggestion, and persuaded at last that we bear within us the truth, it will be so much the easier for us to surround ourselves with all the means that the knowledge of influence places at our disposal for allowing this truth to filter gently into the minds of those who would seem to us worthy of understanding it and of spreading it in their turn.”

BY DECISION

LESSON VII We should not confuse the virtue of decision with that tendency which certain persons display to decide any question whatsoever without having studied it and too often without having understood it. Like all qualities, decision is only acquired after repeated acts of reflection, determining the coordination of ideas and rendering those who devote themselves to it habitually ready to understand in a moment the advantages, at the same time as they perceive the disadvantages, of the acts which they purpose to perform. To attain this, we must take into account all the reasons indispensable for evolving decision. “These reasons,” said Yoritomo, “are always dependent on circumstances which constantly assume a new character; for it is rarely indeed that in a man’s lie the necessity for the self-same resolution makes itself felt on several occasions; even in the case in which the present emergency seems to reproduce exactly a former event, we shall find in the manner of viewing it, in the forecasting of the consequences, even in the gradual change of our feelings, a number of fine distinctions, which do not allow us to form the same opinion about it that we have in the past.” “In order to be able to discern and understand quickly to which side our decision ought to incline, in order above all to be able to sustain it, several qualities are necessary, at the head of which we should name: Reflections or concentration Presence of mind Will Energy Impartiality Desire of justice Forethought “Reflection, or rather concentration, is the faculty of self-recollection, of shutting ourselves far away from every thought that is not the one that should engage our attention.” “It is force that we bear within ourselves, but which we develop to its highest degree by cultivation and application.” “It is by the habit of reflection that we succeed in reviewing very rapidly every side of a question and in weighing the pros and cons of the resolutions to be taken.” “This habit, when it is constant, becomes a kind of mental gymnastics and allows us to range together in the twinkling of an eye the reasons which militate in favor of the conclusion, or those which should decide the abandonment of the project which is proposed to us.” “When the balance carries it strongly to one side or the other, the decision is plainly indicated, but many cases arise in which the reasons in favor are quite as important and as numerous as those against, so that the undecided man stops to weigh them interminably.” “The man, whom the regular practice of reflection has perfected, after having rapidly established this equilibrium, will withdraw his mind from these motives in order to summon others of a different order.” “He will bring in question of family, of convenience, of surroundings; he will weight the consequences of acceptance against the inconvenience of refusal, and he will make up his mind in a clear fashion and one devoid of any regret.” “Now comes in the second factor – Will.” “It is sometimes very hard to reply by a refusal to something, which in the midst of dangerous advantages presents seductive aspects; it is painful also to undertake certain responsibilities and to bind oneself to onerous conditions.” “But the man who is gifted with Will accepts this task with a light heart, for he knows that he is worthy of discharging it.” “However, this faculty, that admirable origin of the forces that govern life, does not always suffice to fortify decisions. It needs in order to sustain them, to call its aid Energy, which by continuousness of effort, comes to prevent the faintness, which might affect these decisions as time goes on. “Is there a need to insist on Impartiality, the exercise of which is indispensable when considering one’s innermost self?” “The majority of the irresolute loves to deceive themselves by the delusions, which their imagination creates, and thus become only too often the architects of their own misfortune.” “Or again the decision, sometimes too sudden, is dictated to them by one reason alone, which with their tacit participation, takes on such gigantic proportions that it hides all the disadvantages, which they embellish, if they are forced to perceive them, with colors, which they know to be fictitious.” “Sincerity is also necessary with us as with others, and those who do not practice it regret sooner or later having disregarded it.” “It is from the same principle that the Desire of justice proceeds, which should predominate in all our decisions, if we wish that they brought us no remorse.” “Blundering selfishness can only dictate resolutions, which have no foundation in rectitude, for, sooner or later, regrets will arise for the acts that inevitably follow, and the concatenation of events will become the punishment of those who have neglected the laws of their neighbor.” “The principal condition of decisions that leave no bitterness behind is the foreseeing of the events, which these decisions may elicit.” “To foresee is to prevent, says an ancient maxim, and for want of foresight we often entrust ourselves to a quicksand where, in spite of every effort, we are miserably engulfed.” “We should not confound forethought with the art of divination, although, in the eyes of the vulgar, it sometimes takes on the appearance of it.” “Such persons, adepts in rational reflection, are so advanced in this science that deduction takes the place of second sight, and they succeed in formulating predictions which might pass for prophecies, if they did not themselves take care to explain in what manner they have come to form their judgment.” “It is related that an ancient Mikado, pursued by ill fortune, assembled his soothsayers in order to obtain from them the means of averting the anger of the malignant spirits.” “After much discussion, they agreed that the only means of attaining this was to build a temple consecrated to the gods of Evil, in order to appease them by paying them honor; this temple was to be built on a spot indicated by the magicians.” “However, the merciless gods demanded a preliminary sacrifice; a child was to be slain and the temple to be erected on the place crimsoned by its blood.” “After lengthy cabalistic incantations, it was decided that this child should be the first whom chance led them to meet at daybreak in the neighboring forest.” “So the Mikado set out with the sorcerers and numerous retinues.” “The sun had just risen over the horizon, when they saw through the branches a child walking and making a way for himself through the denseness of the thicket.” “To seize him and lead him to the Mikado was the work of a moment; the poor child was immediately subjected to an examination by the magicians who all agreed I declaring that his blood would be agreeable to the evil gods, and he was committee to the men-at-arms, who dragged him after them, cruelly divulging to him what would be the tragic end of his captivity.” “Neither prayers nor supplications availed to move any of these fanatics, and the party pursued its course as far as the foot of a hill that overlooked the sea.” “Arrived at this point, the Mikado and his retinue stopped, for it had been decided to choose the flat land covering this hill for the building of the temple.” “The soldiers began to convey thither an enormous stone, which, after serving as an altar of human sacrifice was to be the foundation of the edifice.” “The child, seized with an anguish quite comprehensible, followed with attention all the preparations; but in proportion as he formed an explanation of the work of the men, his countenance cleared, an expression of hope lit up his face, and in a little while he asked permission to speak. Permission being granted him, he bowed three times before the Mikado and cried: ‘O great prince, do not allow the work undertaken to proceed, for the gods of the forest are opposed to it. ’” The Mikado, who was superstitious but not wicked, looked at him sadly: “Child,” said he, “our soothsayers have decided it thus; it is the only means of appeasing the anger of the malignant spirits whose evil influences threaten the safety of the throne, it is painful to me to sacrifice so young a life, but the welfare of my empire depends on it; resign thyself and die bravely, in order to enter the realm reserved for valorous men.” “During this address, the child followed attentively the movements of the soldiers and all at once uttered a cry: ‘Command them to stop, great prince, for a few steps farther and the gods of the forest will destroy them. ’” “And turning toward the densely wooded forest: ‘Gods of my childhood,’ he entreated, ‘ye who have ever protected me, give me a fresh proof of your beneficent protection by engulfing up my tormentors together with the altar on which they would sacrifice me. ’” “Hardly had he uttered these words when, as if by magic, the soldiers who were pushing forward the heavy stone disappeared – stone and all had been drawn into the bowels of the earth by an invisible power.” “The assemblage cried out at the miracle and hastened to cut the bonds of the captive, who was lost forthwith in the depths of the forest.” “It had sufficed him, for saving his life, to remember that, when pasturing his goats, he had been stopped by quicksand, which, had it not been for his nimbleness and lightness, would have made him their prey.” “To foresee that men rolling a heavy block of stone could not avoid being swallowed up, was thus easy for him, and this child accustomed to the devices of the simple, which at every moment must protect their lives, had contracted, in the solitudes of the forests, the habit of rapid decision in all that concerns this instinct of self- preservation, so highly developed in all primitive minds.” “Threatened with immolation by men who wished to appease barbarous gods, his astuteness had forced on him the quick decision to strike awe into their minds by prophesying an event which foresight caused him to view as inevitable.” “This is the case of many soothsayers, but it is above all that of wise men, who only undertake an enterprise after they have foreseen its difficulties.” “Cells formed spontaneously as the result of change are too often produced by circumstances.” “If it is difficult to foresee their nature, it is absolutely necessary to recognize them under the vague name of bad luck and to take into account their happening, in order not to be taken by surprise when they burst upon us.” “Threatened with immolation by men who wished to appease barbarous gods, his astuteness had forced on him the quick decision to strike awe into their minds by prophesying an event which foresight caused him to view as inevitable.” “This is the case of many soothsayers, but it is above all that of wise men, who only undertake an enterprise after they have foreseen its difficulties.” “Cells formed spontaneously as the result of chance are too often produced by circumstances.” “If it is difficult to foresee their nature, it is absolutely necessary to recognize them under the vague name of bad luck and to take into account their happening, in order not to be taken by surprise when they burst upon us.” In turning over a few more pages, we come upon a definition of decision, crouched in brief and concise phraseology, such as the Nippon philosophy knows how to employ when it would sum up a thought in such a manner as to impress the mind. “Decision,” he said, “is not a spontaneous movement of the mind or of the intelligence, it is the coherent and rational choice of performing an act to the exclusion of all others which might bear a relation to the idea expressed.” “Between the moment when the reason for the decision appears and that in which it is a question of making the resolve, all the psychic states, which separate these two periods, find place.” “We have just enumerated them rapidly, but in order to grasp them in their integrity and to make them serve for the accomplishment of our projects maturely conceived and rapidly inaugurated, a kind of mental gymnastics is not unprofitable.” “For example, it is well to place us in the face of imaginary resolutions and to make up our minds while striving to do so as speedily and wisely as possible.” “It will be easy for us to measure the wisdom of our resolution, if we take as our end the events, which surround us, and if we study the delicate cases which are within reach of our knowledge.” “It is well, on seeing arise among our friends’ circumstances of which we have no experience, to make use of them as a subject for our exercises and to say to ourselves: ‘What decision should I make if I were in his place?’” ‘I do not say, mind you, that you would know all the details of the facts in such a way that it would be possible to reason from them with certainty.” “This method has the advantage of a check, for it allows you to verify the success of the decisions, which you have made in imaginary cases.” “You can thus instruct yourself in this art, so difficult and nevertheless so important, for the influence which he who is accustomed to wise and prompt decisions exerts over others is always considerable.” “Further, when some time you devote yourself to this study, you will come to make it naturally and without any effort.” “Clearness of mental vision will develop within you to such a point that, without giving it a thought, you will come to pass a sound judgment on everything and to discern quickly what is the solution proper to each.” “Soon the fame of your wisdom will spread abroad and the weak-willed ones will come to gather around you to ask to each.” “For they are numerous who dare not venture alone in the paths of will – the creator of responsibilities.” Their craven souls fear the regrets arising from a resolution of which they would have to bear the consequences, and they are like that man of whom the wise Hao-Va relates the allegorical adventure: “A man,” he said, “had to pass through a forest in order to reach a village where he hoped to meet Fortune. He set out very early in the morning and hastened to reach as quickly as possible the outskirts of the forest.” But when he had walked for some hours, he stopped and looked around him in indecision; the road laid out was long and monotonous; by taking a by-path across the wood he had perhaps a chance to shorten it … and he lost his way under the great trees. “He walked on for an hour and found himself in a glade. He tried to get his bearings, but, not knowing what to do, he took a road by chance. He went more slowly, for he began to feel fatigue and became quite dejected, when he perceived that the road had brought him back quite near to the point whence he had set out.” “He then took the opposite road, but he could not keep count of the windings that it made, so that after a long course he saw the glade again.” “That was for him the moment of a great resolution, he gave up definitely the side roads and set out on the first road, which he had followed and which led directly to the village.” “But the sun set behind the trees; night covered the forest with its veil, and the distracted man was obliged to interrupt his journey, now useless, for Fortune had failed to wait for him.” “Do not laugh at this man,” cried the Shogun, “you are for the most part like him; you wander in the labyrinths of indecision instead of following the way pointed out by the will; you lose your presence of mind at the first objection; you avoid being sincere with yourselves by avowing that you heedlessly lose your way in unknown roads, and when at length you pause before a definite course, opportunity has wearied of waiting for you.” “Despise these irresolute ones, you who aspire to become those whose influence radiates over the souls of others.” “Be counselors with well-weighed and prompt decisions; do not stray in the by-paths of which you do not know the windings, and learn to become safe and enlightened guides for yourselves before pointing out the way to those of whom your influence has made attentive and devoted disciples.” It seems that to add any comment to these teachings would be to risk weakening them, for these appeals burning with energy, as well as the luminous illustrations that accompany them, can serve as a rule of conduct for the people of this day as well as for the far distant disciples of Yoritomo.

BY RATIONAL AMBITION

LESSON VIII “Ambition is accessible only to the brave; they alone can discover the treasure hidden within it, by breaking up the sham gems of illusion and intrigue.” These words of Yoritomo should be known to all those who set out for the conquest of life. They should be inscribed in letters of gold on the frontals of schools where the young make their initial start, which, in most cases, decides their future. “Ambition,” again says the old philosopher, “should, equally with goodness or any other virtue, form the object of rational teaching.” “But for that it would be necessary to disengage ourselves from prejudices, which brand it as a fault, which we ought to dissemble.” “He is an ambitious one,” say the vulgar, “when they wish to discredit the achievements of a man whose aspirations raise him above the commonplace things of life.” “They do not dream that, in order to form a genuine and productive ambitious man, it is necessary to possess a great number of qualities which people who pride themselves on their modesty will always ignore.” “What is understood generally by modesty?” “Is it the shrewd reserve of any ambitious man who fears to display his appetites in order not to be liable to restrain them before having found the means of satisfying them?” “Is it not too often the sham virtue, which under the borrowed lineaments of humility hides the terrible defect of weakness?” “Would it not rather be the tinsel in which idleness likes to dress itself up in order to abandon itself with ease to its favorite vice?” “Modesty can serve as a standard for all the vices, which we have just mentioned; it is the enemy of courageous undertakings, of acts that require a display of energy that ambition or boldness alone can decide on.” “It is besides nearly always the sign of a want of confidence in oneself. It is again the safeguard of the self-respect of the incapable.” “Many weak mortals, irresolute, idle, or incompetent, instead of seeking to acquire the qualities which they lack, prefer to declare loudly: ‘Oh, as for me, I shall never succeed in attaining this end, for the good reason that I shall not undertake it. I am a modest person, I am. I have a hatred of fame and renown surrounding my name; I desire only obscurity, and I pity keenly all those who are tormented by a desire to shine! ’” “They say all this without thinking that the first condition of the being of modesty consists in ignorance of its existence.” “He who prides himself on modesty will never be a modest man, for the moment he sets out to establish his virtue he acts like a braggart.” “If he is really convinced of his unimportance, if the diffidence of himself which he has is sincere, we should pity him very keenly, for he will suffer in feeling himself so insignificant, and this feeling will lead him, little by little, to hypochondria unless he inclines to the side of jealousy.” “Such is almost without exception the punishment of the weak; they have not themselves courage to undertake great things and they do not forgive those who achieve them.” “There is, however, a kind of modesty before which we ought to bow; it is that of the learned man who, finding his happiness in the quest of knowledge and truth, makes no attempt to gain glory, and waits in the midst of his apparatus and his parchments for it to come to him, while preparing himself to welcome it with no more emotion than an ordinary visitant.” “This sentiment would be worthy of admiration if it were not so often mingled with an inveterate selfishness, behind which is hidden an indifference toward others, carried to the point of excluding anxiety to cause others to share in the benefit of ones discoveries.” “This kind of modest man who ignores thus his duty toward others is less useful to humanity than an ambitious man, who, eager to increase his fame, will make known the result of his work to the sound of the trumpet.” “For, in order to be fruitful, everything in our life must bear relation to others.” “It is by developing ambition in their breasts that the leaders of the multitude have succeeded first in gaining a hearing and then in carrying conviction.” “What generous impulse can we expect from a man who has only one desire; to shut himself up in the selfish quiet of a life the works of which he jealously keeps to himself?” These facts, already true enough in the days of Shogun, assume a fresh significance in our time, when they might become the textbook of those whom we designate by the name of those who have arrived and who are in the majority of cases nothing if not ambitious ones – I was almost going to say the rightfully ambitious. And why? Ambition, when it excludes unworthy means and spurns intrigue, is it not one of the noblest passions that could be conceived? National ambition furnishes our projects with wings, which allow them to mount above commonplace ideas; it is thanks to ambition that we experience emulation, which carries us along the Better way. Without ambition should we have knowledge of those marvelous discoveries, which make our age that of progress par excellence? And it might be said that Yoritomo set forth the splendid incentives given to the ambitious of our time by benefactors keen beyond measure on improvement, when he says: “It is a crime to destroy in the breasts of children, under the pretense of modesty, that self-confidence which should shine like a star in the hearts of all.” “It would be more useful, on the contrary, to found rewards for distribution to those who, with a noble end in view, devote themselves to undertakings sometimes called rash.” “Such are the veritable handmaids of destiny, since, by their desire for the better, they sometimes succeed n discovering an improvement, which ameliorates the lot of other men.” “Besides, it is well that every effort should be rewarded by an increase in the possessions of the man who has made the attempt and who, by his special qualifications, has promoted a success the good results of which are never limited to him.” “Justice demands that inventors should derive profit from their inventions, this will allow them to devote more of their time to the pursuit of another discovery.” It will perhaps be objected that there are some ambitious men who produce nothing. That whose success profits only themselves and who cannot spread around them joy that arises from generous benefactions. The world is certainly populated with a large number of selfish persons and it will assuredly be difficult to prevent this state of things, but it would be a serious mistake to believe that these people are altogether useless. Ambition is never without the great desire of attaining everything which gratifies it, and what better means is there of proclaiming its success than to command a large retinue, to give banquets, and to build palaces, or plant spacious gardens. Even granting that the ambitious man who has attained satisfaction is hard-hearted and neglects works of charity, do not the workmen who labor in providing the trappings of his vanity profit largely by an ambition, which procures for them the means of subsistence. By the law of human evolution, the money obtained by the ambitious will come of necessity to ameliorate the condition of the humble, in the same way as their works and their discoveries will always succeed in increasing the fund of public knowledge, for only the modest man is able to keep to himself the result of his labors. He who would master fame or fortune, on the other hand, hastens to make public the most trifling success; true, he sometimes exaggerates it, but the fault is not his alone; it may be imputed to the habit of disparaging those on whom Fortune seems to smile. “I heard one day,” said the Shogun, “a man whom I knew to be of a serious turn of mind relate that he had spent three years in completing a work.” “Now I had followed his studies with interest, and I knew that this task had required of him in all a hundred and fifty days.” “I was, therefore, astonished, and questioned him on the reasons of a falsehood, which puzzled me the more that I knew his habitual truthfulness.” “Child,” replied he, “do you not understand that if I were to admit spending so little time in perfecting my work people would not fail to find it incomplete or too lightly thought out? It is not sufficient to be capable; we must not shock any one in proving overmuch this capability. For this assertion of a quality, which they do not possess, causes suffering in the envious who do not fail to revenge themselves for it by belittling it to others. It is their method of succeeding in placing themselves in the same class; unable to rise it to the level of people of merit, they try to bring the latter down to their level.” The ambitious man escapes these cheap devices; he is from the first too full of his projects to give time to insignificant jealousies. In short, he rarely resents the sentiment of envy, for he is always convinced that he will succeed in surpassing the success of those who are competing for the same goal as him. Moreover, ambition is a sure and swift means of influence. This is, in the first place, because men have always a tendency to follow the man who draws them in the direction of light and progress. Again, because it is almost always from the following of the ambitious, that those are chosen to attain honors and fortune. It forms no part of the program of the successful ones to drag after them the incapable or weak; this is why their influence over their pupils extends the more in proportion as the latter imitate and follow them. For the ambitious man is not displeased to raise himself near to him one who will step into his vacant place when he shall have advanced some degrees further. And here is one of the primary reasons for the influence which rational ambition can exert on the men’s minds. The lure of gain or distinction binds men to train of him who is in a position to give such a way to them. It is in his power to be able to employ this influence profitably for disseminating good and the love of the Better around him; it is in his power to instill into the hearts of his devotees aspirations toward a noble end; it is in his power always to put them on their guard against intrigues which would have the effect of diminishing the beauty of their ambition. There is between the ambitious man and the intriguer all the difference that separates beauty from ugliness. The first proceeds, with head erect, toward a definite goal that he has long and maturely decided to choose; he disdains paltry methods; he seeks only to attain the end that he has set before himself. He goes, without concerning himself with the stones on the road, his heart full of confidence, sustained by faith in his star, which he never loses from view, notwithstanding the clouds that hide it from time to time. He lifts his eyes too high to recognize the vulgar herd of the envious who swarm around his feet, he is content to spurn them with the tip of his shoe; unless, overmuch beset or tormented by their incessant attacks, he crushes them under foot, as we do with an importunate insect, which we try at first to drive away and which we destroy, without ill feeling, simply to rid ourselves of its repeated and irritating stings. The intriguer, on the other hand, rarely raises himself above the horde or mean desires and paltry jealousies. Unlike the ambitious man, he acts with no other end in view than the procuring for himself of money or pleasure. No lofty thought ever enters his head longer than the time necessary to turn it to account, while he considers it only under its mercenary aspect, and this accomplished, he passes to a class of ideas the burdens of which is never the same. The desire of distinction never haunts the dreams of the intriguer; he reduces everything to the narrowness of his aspirations and entertains no project that does not lend itself to his base sentiments. Is that to say that we should despise money and seek after poverty? “ Not so,” said Yoritomo, “for the poor man exercises little influence over the multitude. Again, most achievements demand considerable application and loss of time, and we could not lavish it in this way if we were obliged to take thought for the earning of our daily bread.” “It is, therefore, well to find resources which will allow the pursuit of an end without being compelled to give it up in order to provide for the necessities of daily life, and which will also save us from compromises of conscience which the greatest leaders of men must sometimes endure, when they do not possess that advantage, indispensable to him who does not wish to diverge from his course: assurance as to the primary needs of life.” “This should be the first aim of the man who wishes to win honor, fortune, or distinction. Before rushing forth on toilsome paths on the chance of meeting such, we should be sure of the possibility of pursuing them and not risk missing them because the necessity of providing for our daily wants compels us to pause just when we had hoped to attain them.” We cannot but admire once again the wisdom of Yoritomo, who once more is found in agreement with the greatest thinkers. Theognis said: “The man who is broken down by poverty can neither speak nor act; his tongue is tied and his feet are chained.” It is only too true; downright poverty is a disadvantage, for it often compels those who suffer to pay court to the fortunate ones of this world. In any case, it is a hindrance to all undertakings, which require sustained effort and peace of mind, which can only be obtained by those certain of the morrow. But, you will say, everybody cannot be rich, and many, becoming so, have known poverty; is it not then an insuperable obstacle? “Poverty,” he said, “is a hindrance only if it consists in absolute want, and in this case it is usually the result of idleness or of mismanagement of our affairs.” “We should not reckon as poor the man who earns a scanty livelihood but whose peace of mind cannot be changed by the suffering resulting from the lack of necessaries.” “Such a one can, when he has fulfilled the duties of his station in life, devote himself to the aspirations of a lawful ambition.” “Rarely does he enjoy independence, for in order to live he has to accept many humiliations or spend a considerable portion of his time in quests which have as their object the insurance of his livelihood.” “If he is sincere in these efforts, he will not long remain poor, for he will soon find employment, no matter what, and if he is endowed with ambition he will quickly succeed in distinguishing himself in it.” “From that time, poverty will be for him nothing but a specter of the past, for he will work to better his position and he will soon become one to be envied. Poverty is only allowable if it is voluntary, which is to say, if it is the result of a decision, which prefers that condition to another more brilliant but less independent. Nevertheless, riches are the key of many marvels and they are above all the key of many influences.” “Not only is the man of great possessions in a better position to make those whom he patronizes listen to his words, but the prestige of his success surrounds him with a halo of influence, which if he is wise, he will use to better the lot of his neighbor.” “We do not receive kindness from an empty hand; we have nothing to expect from a man tormented by care for the morrow. What words can fall from a mouth sealed by hunger?” It is true that fortune, considered simply from the point of view of riches, is not an exalted ideal, but we must nevertheless welcome it as the consecration of success and as a power of which the wise man knows how to dispose for the good of his fellows. It is a means of exciting interest and of influencing the multitude, for the people will always be disposed to listen to the advice of a man who has had the ability to acquire great possessions. It is then in the power of the man who has been able to acquire this power of money to make use of it for establishing his beneficent influence over the minds of those who are disposed to trust in him. After his other successes, this last will not be a matter of indifference to the man who, while monopolizing the empire of the purse, will be proud to endeavor after the authority of the empire of the mind. Thanks to the prestige which his riches confer on him he will be able to spread the rays of influence as far as the boundaries of the attraction of thought, and as it displays itself above all in action he will gather around him a band of brave and intelligent men, ready to imitate him in spreading abroad the ideas which he ahs inculcated in them and to speak as he has taught them. “Do not wait for the desired object to come to you, but rise up and set out to look for it; when you have found it you will undertake its conquest, and when it becomes your possession you will gather together your friends to make them share in your good fortune and to tell them by what means it has befallen you.” In acting thus, he will follow the teaching of Yoritomo who said: “Ambition is a gate opening on magnificent gardens, but the fortunate ones who have entered it should not pause there; they will pass beyond the entrance in order to survey the road and to make a sign to passers-by, pointing out to them the way.” And this profound psychologist adds: “A discovery brings no real joy to its finder until he can announce it, and we should rejoice at this almost universal law, for it is the cause of an improvement evolved by ambition, the happy influence of which awakens the instinct of conquest dormant in the breast of every man worthy of the name.”

BY PERSEVERANCE

LESSON IX Persuasion, like good example, perseverance is among, if not the most brilliant, at least the most active agents of influence. It is a faculty borne within them by men conscious of their power, those who, by virtue of faith in their own merit, advance to achievement with that confidence which gives birth to all notable successes and all productive achievements. Perseverance is the triumph of willpower over the weakness of the will; it is the result of a profound study of the determining causes, the combination of which is bound to end in success; it is, in short, the slow but sure ascent toward a goal that assumes a more definite shape the nearer we approach it. Few persons are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but everybody can aim at conquering fortune by a series of continual and rational efforts. The man who would spring up thirty cubits at a single leap would spend his life in ridiculous attempts, but if he wishes steadily to mount the steps that lead him to that height, he will attain it, sooner or later according to the dexterity, the agility, and the perseverance that he displays. The steps, it is true, are often made of shaky stones. They have gaps between them that make one dizzy, where they are so uncertain that it is difficult to keep a foothold on them. This is the point where those who possess the virtue of perseverance make themselves known; by their unshakable will they can ward off every danger; they balance themselves on the shaky stones almost on tiptoe and advance onto the next step; they feel fascinated by the giddy depths beneath them quickly they raise their heads, they proceed gazing on their star and they guard themselves against possible slips by making sure of one foot before lifting the other from the ground. “For perseverance is the mother of many gifts; from her is born circumspection which clasps hands with application and patience. It is incredible to what degree the man who is gifted with patience is proof against the pitfalls of Fate; hope and cheerfulness are two unanswerable arguments under most circumstances; application comes to hold up their hands, and few undertakings can resist their combined influence.” “It is related that the great scholar Yuan-Shi, plagued by the sour temper of his wife who was jealous of his knowledge, could find no way of working at home, for this termagant went so far as to throw his manuscripts about and burn the sheets of vellum on which he set down his thoughts.” “He therefore resolved, when he was at home to divide his time between gardening and contemplation. But from the time that he got into the palanquin which conveyed him daily from his country house to the town where he was employed, he recouped himself for his enforced inactivity; in this way he produced, after some months, a work of great value, which was universally commended and admired.” “News of this reached his wife, who asked him astonishingly how he found the time to write, considering that outside his professorship he was not engaged in any intellectual occupation.” “Yuan-Shi was a simple soul; he related to her how he had managed to reconcile his work with her unreasonableness. She was so affected by this proof of his desire not to annoy her and so impressed by the calm and indomitable will of her husband that from that day she ceased to forbid him to engage in work which brought him distinction and shed its rays upon her in the form of caresses that saved her wifely self-respect.” Our modern civilization boasts many examples of this assiduous application: Doctor Good translated Lucréce while visiting his patients; he had in his carriage all the material necessary for the translation of the book and in this way he made use of the minutes between each visit. Doctor Darwin did the same; he wrote his notes while going his rounds, and upon returning home, he had only to classify them. One may also mention a man named White, who was employed in a law office, who learned Greek while journeying from the office to his home. We know the instance of Aguesseau who employed the time that elapsed between the announcement of meals and the moment when the company took their places at the table to write an excellent book, which he smilingly presented to his wife as a practical lesson in method and perseverance. History is rich in similar anecdotes and this proves incontestably that saying of Bossuet: “A little suffices for each day, if each day acquires a little.” Do we reckon what might be the production of one hour a day won from frivolous pursuits to which we give so many drops of our life fallen into the gulf of eternity? “He,” said the Shogun, “who should cut down a branch every day would end by clearing a way through the densest forest.” He adds judiciously: “But he should not think of going back, for the branches grow again and he would find the way closed.” That is to say that perseverance must never slacken; return is not allowed to those who should widen the road for their disciples to follow and we cannot repeat too often: It is by the power of personal effort and of application that the most brilliant and solid reputations are slowly formed. “Experience,” says G. A. Mann, “tells us that we must have, in order to succeed, method in everything that we do and also perseverance; if we do not possess these two qualities we should develop them, and that by thinking constantly of them and by contemplating the idea which represents them.” “Persevere then! To what end do you say? Simply because by persevering you form your will, besides have the chance of attaining your end.” “Persevere like a brute! Not at all. It is necessary, that in continuing what you have begun, your will, your intelligence, your sensibilities be ever on the alert.” “It is this unceasing activity in yourself that is the reward of your effort. The road on which you walk may, perhaps, not lead you where you wished to go. But probably it will lead you to a better place. And for your walk you will become a good walker, which will be certainly due to the impulse, which you needed to be able to attain the goal, that is to say, success. Will without perseverance and without method could not exit.” Perseverance admits of a combination of active qualities and of virtues that might be called passive, for they demand no apparent effort. Nevertheless, they are more rare than one might think, for they are not often the endowment of weak minds. The latter can only with difficulty concentrate themselves on a task that requires a little application; they are the slaves of the instability of their impressions; beginnings, however arduous, always find them full of enthusiasm, but his fervor soon grows cold, and if success does not present itself immediately, they will hasten to give up their project and devote themselves to another which will soon have a like ending. Unremitting action can also be reckoned in a number of these virtues, passive indeed but indispensable, of which we have just spoken. The practice of bending the will to listen to some purpose is sometimes a talent of a high order, for it is one of the best means of winning the sympathies of those who are speaking with us. “I hate,” said Yoritomo, “the sort of people who let their thoughts wander blindly instead of seeking to glean profit from what they hear. Nothing is more disconcerting than to feel the attention of one to whom one is speaking to drifting away and wandering after his thoughts, while you would like to convince him by your words.” “This lack of attention is always the mark of a vacillating will which cannot bring itself to follow an idea by concentrating its mental powers or an examination of the various aspects which it presents.” “When dealing with inferiors, this frivolous inattention may pass as a sign of contempt; besides, it is always in opposition to the influence which we might exercise over them.” “What should we think of a chief whom a poor man comes to consult and who instead of listening to him kindly, should busy himself as I have known them, in giving orders to his servants and arranging the hanging of his house and should let his musicians go on playing?” “The unfortunate man would go out of the Lord’s house with the bad impression, and if ever he had to seek help or advice he would take care or not betake himself a second time to the man who treated his request with steady disdain.” “Influence over others is acquired especially by perseverance of the will and concentration of thought, the undulations of which, projected around us come to reach the minds which we wish to impress.” And, entering once more into the domain of psychology, the Shogun speaks to us of this fascinating mystery of the contagion of thought, which according to have as a primary cause of influence and cannot fail by perseverance determination to produce it: “There is no doubt,” he said, “that thought is a contagious factor of influence, good or bad.” “Who has not had occasion to remark this in the case of fear?” “In an assemblance composed of the bravest people that it is possible to meet, taken individually, one man stricken with fear or, if he can express his feelings in a forcible manner, will succeed in imparting to each of the rest, in different degrees it may be, the disquietude and uneasiness which he experiences.” “There are a few doughty warriors who at the recital of something concerning the mysteries of the world beyond have not felt a slight shiver, which the site of wholesale carnage, together with the consciousness of the gravest perils, could not have caused them to experience.” “This phenomenon, caused by the irradiation of thought, is an undeniable proof of the influence which it can exercise, for not only is it possible to penetrate the minds touched by the undulations of our own thought, but the thought of others, elicited by ourselves, comes back to us on the same undulations that are spread out from our brain.” “This is why we often see one who wished to shed fear or around him feel that same fear by receiving the waves of thought that he has produced in his audience.” “It is the same with laughter. Very few are they who can resist the infection of a burst of laughter; even with those least inclined to merriment laughter is infectious in a high degree; for at first involuntary, in a way mechanical, it ends by becoming natural, so that, at the moment it breaks out, the simplest expression, the most sedate words assumes in the imagination so comical an aspect that merriment increases to the point of not being able to utter them without provoking a fresh outburst.” “But what happens if the next day we wish to relate to this incident?” “No longer submitted to the attractive influence of the thought of others, no longer receiving from them the undulations, the vibrations of which had reached us on the previous day, our state of mind is completely different, we perceive the inanity (sometimes we should say the foolishness) of what had amused us so highly on the preceding day, and no longer laughing over it ourselves it is impossible for us to entertain others with it.” “On the other hand, if the storyteller – either of set purpose or spontaneously -begins by laughing himself at the remembrance of what he is about to relate, it is seldom that this merriment, if it appears genuine, does not spread to others, who will laugh at first by infection, afterward of necessity, because merriment is the pervading thought.” “What we have just said on the subject of fear or of laughter applies to everything else.” “With perseverance, you succeed in causing effectively to penetrate the minds of your hearers the thoughts the emission of which will attract similar thoughts, and their undulations returning to affect you will increase your conviction, giving you the us the more power to spread its around you.” It is from this standpoint that the Shogun sets out to oppose the emission of evil thoughts: ” It is,” said he, “a weapon which always recoils on the man who would make use of it.” “The evil thought traverses the same cycle as the other and returns to us strengthened with hatred for others.” “What can we expect from those whose minds we cause to germinate wickedness and the desire of evil?As soon as they believe themselves capable, it is against us first of all of that they will seek to exert themselves, and they will do it involuntarily by bringing back to us our thought, magnified and disfigured, so that we shall endure it without recognizing it.” “You see why perseverance should only be applied to the gaining of good, and as soon as we think we have come into association with it, it will be our duty to inculcate its principles into those who, living around us, are subjected to our influence.” “But we must not limit our efforts to this; we must aim farther and higher; it will not suffice to initiate them into good things, we must also give them the taste to cultivate them, and to that end arouse in them the desire of perseverance, which makes possible the most difficult undertakings and gives us a power that we cannot limit.” “Like some steel implement, the drop of water perforates the rock, wears a way the hardest stone, and without slacking, pursues this work which the implement would have begun more successfully perhaps, but the breaking or wearing out of the tool would have interrupted, perforce, the work which the eternal drop of water accomplishes by the tenacity and perseverance of its action.” “Do not then seek to force slow-moving minds, but surround them, penetrate them by your perseverance and its influence, sometimes obscure but always certain, will spread itself abroad in beneficent undulations, the continuance of which will create a power.”

BY THE PRESTIGE GAINED FROM CONCENTRATION

LESSON X Concentration is one of the most marvelous forces that can be conceived. Without concentration, no success is possible; if it is present, we must consider it as the work of chance, not reckon too much on its duration, and remember that the popular proverb which says: “He who comes to the sound of the flute goes back to the sound of the drum.” In other words, what a chance circumstance has brought may depart on the wings of an unforeseen happening. Far different is the success which we acquire by reason, that having sought it and willed it with all our powers, we have strained every effort to evoke it and no longer hug it to ourselves for fear or that it should leave us. Fidelity to an idea is always the initial step to all successes. For if an idea has no time to become at home with us, if what is rightly called the crystallization of thought does not form the foundation of every decision, we shall find it impossible to give it definite shape, and it will fade away like impalpable smoke. If, on the other hand, we know how to exercise concentration, this idea will soon become a focus of organization around which the association of ideas will come to marshal the reasons that determined the action, which we have in mind. “Thoughts are things,” said Prentice Mulford. Without wishing to follow him in his abstruse explanation of the statement, it is easy to imagine how true the saying is, seeing that in thinking deeply on a subject we succeed in picturing it to ourselves in an almost tangible fashion.” “There is no doubt,” said Yoritomo, “that concentration develops all our senses and brings them to a degree of remarkable acuteness.” “It stands to us in the stead of knowledge, for by its means we acquire the facility, that is to say the gift, of realizing readily and easily the things of which we have formed a conception. There is no work, even manual, that concentration does not lighten for us.” “If a man has to lift a heavy mass, do you think that he will do it as well if he is occupied with some other thought as if he said simply and solely: ‘ I wish to lift this mass. ‘ “Then his nerves are at tension, all his faculties bend themselves to the act with a force necessary to perform it; his brain strives after the means to assist the physical effort, for the muscles are the slaves of the will; he, therefore, who succeeds in concentrating himself on a manual labor is certain to perform it with a minimum of fatigue, for he will be able to husband his strength, he will save himself from dissipating them in useless exertions, and he will concentrate all his faculties of attention, of calculation, of ingenuity, and of muscular power in order to succeed.” “This is how so many jugglers achieve perfection in their art; by concentration they have reached such a point of self absorption therefore them nothing exists outside their own particular performance.” “But if one day they, in a fit of passion, allow their thoughts to wander toward the object of their anger or of their love, they find that they are no longer themselves; their actions become less sure, the make bungles and end by being unable to regain their nerve, except with a violent effort that drives away the fancy and allows them to recall their thoughts to the one point where they should keep them.” “To think of the act which we are performing, to think of it alone, to concentrate everything and forget everything outside of it, there is the secret of so many successes, the explanation of so many good fortunes, that also of the immense influence which certain men exert over their fellows.” “We must,” said the Shogun, “be able to concentrate ourselves on one act at a time and to force our attention to the fullest degree to the manner in which we can attract others to imitate us. We are the shapers of our destiny, and we should aspire to become those of the destiny of others.” “To gain this end, nothing should appear insignificant to us, and if we think sensibly we shall see that everyone of our acts, however commonplace it may seem to us, is, if it is performed with the desire of good, a step toward a realization, sometimes imposing the fate of which, however, depends on a series of similar acts, equally paltry taken separately, but the essential for the adequacy of one of them might mar the perfection of the whole, if not jeopardize success altogether.” And in his flowery language the shogun adds: “What is one link more or less in the chain several meters long?So trifling a thing that its absence would not be noticed. Nevertheless, if this link is badly riveted, this insignificant detail will suffice to break the chain.” “Every work is made up of a chain of acts more or less infinitesimal; the perfection of each of them contributes to that of the whole and sometimes suffices or a slight slackness in the performance of one of these acts to jeopardize the success of the undertaking.” In fact, which of us has not had to regret negligence, which has come to hinder the success of a project? In our age of electricity and of strenuous life, these remarks are still more true been they would be at any other time. Does it not happen every day they missed train causes us the loss of the benefit of some business, which because of the delay escapes us? Now, if we wish to be perfectly sincere with ourselves, we shall admit that on most occasions this delay is to only to our own carelessness; we were too late for meals, or we wasted time on talk, which would have been quite easy for us to curtail. All the trouble arose from want of concentration, which allowed us to lose sight of the one thing that should have been for us of the utmost importance. If we will reflect well on it, we shall see them most of our troubles can be set down to carelessness. Take, if you wish, the case, which we have just mentioned: A missed train prevents the settlement of the important business. Thoughtless people will get out of this by saying: “I have not had a chance”; others those who thoughts are directed by a mastermind, which is an adept at concentration, will recollect themselves, will mentally review all the passing events of the day, and will thereby conclude that they are responsible for that happening so deplorable for their interests. What can or should they do? Simply devote themselves to one of the exercises most recommended by thinkers; concentrate their faculties on the principal act of the day which was the settlement of the business which called them out, and, once well persuaded of its importance, suit all their acts to it. They would thus have avoided losing a few minutes or the hour which caused them to fail, for, filled with their determination, they would have cut short any business that it was not indispensable to conclude, or cut off some moments from talk the continuance of which was less important for them than the journey which they had to make. “Each day,” said Yoritomo, “brings with it a round of duties of unequal importance; we must know how to distinguish that which should take precedence, and subordinate to it our mode of life for that day.” “Everything that we do should bear a relation to it; even if certain things should seem mutually exclusive, we must avoid them, inasmuch as they form part of the whole of those things which go to make up realization. By being willing to sacrifice nothing we succeed too often in accomplishing nothing.” “We know the story of the man who one day found two robbers in his garden and set out to pursue them. He ran after them at first for a time, then at a fork in the road one of the two turned off to the right, while the other pursued his way. The man, undecided for a moment, rushed down the byroad, saying to himself that he would catch more easily the one that took the hard road, but after a time, out of breath he perceived that he was not as quick as the robber, and bethought himself that the other was bigger and stouter and on that account easier to overtake.” “He, therefore, retraced his steps and rushed along the main road; but the man whom he was pursuing had had the time, in spite of his want of agility, to gain ground, and the pursuer puffed and blew in vain. He soon had the mortifications of seeing him disappear, and his neighbors made fun of him.” How many times do we act likewise, without perceiving it, when we pursue two different ends and give them up, first one, of then the other, according to the inclination of our idleness or of our whims? This fault to will never be committed by those who practice concentration. They will never risk making themselves a laughingstock like the men of whom Yoritomo speaks, for they will set out in pursuit of an undertaking only after reflecting deeply on the possibilities of success, and they will take every precaution against giving it up before they have brought it to a successful issue. They who would be adequately prepared for this kind of reflection ought to bring themselves to it by the habitual contemplation of a thought. It is well to maintain the attention on the alert, and to keep oneself from every distraction by the repetition of one or several sayings the bearing a relation to this thought, giving it concrete and definite form and persuading us of the necessity of concentration. Other methods also are employed with success; they’ve make up those exercises, which should be practiced by all those who wish to acquire any science, whatever it may be. Of these methods, several were already known in the time of Yoritomo, and it is she who recommends us that called “of the collar”: “Have,” said he, “a collar containing about 200 beads of jade or of any other stone, if your means do not allow you to make use of jewels; take care to string them not too close together in order to be able to take them off easily and make them slide slowly one over the other, counting ten between each bead.” “Your mind during this time should be occupied with only one thing: to allow between the beads the same space of time, that is to say, not to say the numbers too fast or too slowly, and to it in such a way, all the time that this exercise lasts, as to think thus regularly of nothing but GOOD.” “When you find it impossible to keep up your thought, revive it as soon as you can and begin again. At first, it will be well not to extend the experiment farther than five or six beads. Afterward you can increase it, and some thinkers are mentioned who had such a mastery over their imagination that they went right to the end of the beads without slackening.” With the same collar the Shogun shows us yet another exercise. “You will take off,” said he, “a handful of the beads (without counting them), in such a way that you are ignorant of the exact number, and, having fastened the collar together again, letting the place of joining be in sight, which will serve as a starting point, you will count aloud each bead that you take off with your fingertip.” “That done, you will begin again three times; if you find the same number each time it means that your power of concentration has been sufficient to keep your attention without letting it wander.” “Where you find a different number, you should begin again until you obtain the same result three times a succession.” We might smile at the simplicity of these methods, nevertheless those who are devoted adepts in concentration know how difficult these results are to realize, if they wish to be sincere with themselves; before obtaining the same count of beads three times, they must often begin the experiment over again twenty times, for thought escapes easily when one can no longer keep it in subjection. The Shogun recommends us yet other exercises: “Sit down,” said he, “comfortably on a seat soft enough to prevent your feeling any discomfort; this is very essential, for the least physical discomfort distracts the attention by directing it is to the feeling of uneasiness which you experience.” “That done you will rest your hands on your breast, the palms well open, the fingers spread out.” “The left hand will be placed near the girdle and the other near the throat; you will slowly pass the left hand down to the waist while you will slowly pass the left-handed down to the waist while you lift the other as far as the neck, taking great care, when the two hands meet, to touch lightly the tip of the middle finger of the left hand with the tip of the middle finger of the right hand.” “During the few minutes that this exercise lasts, you will do it in such a way as to think of nothing except the care of letting the fingers touch one another toward the middle of the breast, and in consequence of accelerating for retarding the movement in order to arrive at this result.” “During all this time force yourself to think of nothing else.” This is what our modern philosophers recommend us to the name of “de-vitalization.”De-vitalization is the act of shutting oneself out from external impressions and moral sensations; if it is a kind of arrest of thought, or rather of rupture of thought, which one concentrates on something so plainly commonplace that it gives birth to a sensible rest for us. This is the first step that leads to one of the most satisfactory forms of concentration: isolation. Without isolation, no meditation is possible, and consequently there is great difficulty in concentration. Now we have just seen what part this faculty plays in training the mind. It is that which allows us to rally our scattered physical powers and to unite them on the same point, localizing them alone on the phases of the subject that engages our attention. Atkinson recommends us to devote ourselves to the study of any object whatsoever and to force ourselves to limit the effort of our thoughts to that object alone. But this meditation may form the excuse for many mental vagaries. He advises us to take a piece of paper and to concentrate our attention solely on the thought of this scrap; but is not this on the other hand a dangerous excuse for fancy to come into play? Contemplate it: this piece of paper once formed part of some material. What material?Was it the white muslin of bridal veils? Was it, on the other hand, the flimsy fabric in which a courtesan arrays herself? Whose hands tore it? In what religious processions or in what wretched dens was it used? Later, by what changes did it come to this condition of a scrap of paper?The imagination takes fire afresh. We conjure up the atmosphere of a factory, we think of the processes of manufacture, etc. You see that we are already far removed from concentration. Doubtless, Yoritomo also believes this when he says: “If you wish to devote yourself sincerely to the practice of concentration, guard yourself against allowing your thoughts to wander from the corolla to the stalk of the flower.” This means the one object alone, and that strictly limited, should engage our attention if we wish to succeed in controlling our attention to the point at which it responds to our first call like an obedient servant. Many featherbrained people think it a good excuse when they say: “It is not my fault, I forgot.” Not suspecting that forgetfulness is itself the fault with which they do not wish to be charged. It is an excuse glibly assigned by those whose moral infirmity is so evident that they are unable on their own accounts to make any effort worth the while. It is the excuse of the weak and of people lacking courage. It is a certificate of physical incapacity awarded to those who have not in them the energy to practice self-recollection. Meditation, which is closely allied to concentration, is the state of inward contemplation, which allows us to shut ourselves in from external things so as to engage our thoughts solely on the subject, which we have set before ourselves. The difference between meditation and concentration lies in the greater freedom allowed to thought in the former state. “Meditation,” said Yoritomo, “is like a target of which concentration is the bull’s-eye. Every arrow which hits the target has certainly attained its end, but those which quiver at its center are the only ones which, in case of defense, would have sufficed to make our enemy bite the dust.” And he adds: “Meditation is valuable above all because it is a rest; it is a kind of mental anesthesia which allow for us to have faith in our liberty of thought, even when, nevertheless, we still confine it but less closely than in concentration. “We could not devote ourselves to a fruitful meditation without being prepared for it by self-absorption. We must then allow ourselves to be slowly permeated by the idea which we wish to fathom and all the influences of which we wish to receive its.” “But we ought to fear one redoubtable enemy -distraction. Nothing is more difficult for those who do not habitually practice this lesson than to meditate successfully, without letting the thoughts wander after ideas which are connected with one another but which end, by reason of their number and diversity, by being completely removed from the initial point.” In fact, we have all experienced the impression of which the Shogun speaks; it has happened to all of us, after long periods of reflection, to find ourselves a hundred leagues from the subject which we desired to conjure up, and when we wish to take account of the road traversed we find ourselves altogether amazed at the imperceptible concatenation of thoughts, which, without seeming to be foreign to the subject of our meditation, have drawn us in the direction of ideas completely dissimilar. This is one of the familiar phases of distraction, the foe of concentration. This is why Yoritomo puts us on our guard against meditation, of which the dreaming is, he says, the mischievous sister. “Let us beware,” says he, “of allowing ourselves to give way to daydreaming, for thus we should contract the undesirable habit of allowing our attention to drowse; daydreaming is a woof on which fancy embroiders shapeless flowers, it scatters them without method or system at its own sweet will; these flowers are unreal and their colors soon fade. “Daydreaming is a dissipation of energy, it carries us away and we cannot direct it. For this reason it is particularly dangerous, for it destroys our psychic forces and injures the development of strong mental powers.” It was with this in view, it is said, that about the twelfth century St. Dominic invented the rosary. He thought, like our Japanese philosopher, that meditation is so close akin to daydreaming that one should seek to control it by removing the temptations arising from the volatility of the imagination by means of a physical rallying of the idea. The telling of the beads has no other object; all the decades and it a different prayer from the ten preceding it and, granting that the attention has wandered during the repetition of the ten “Hail Marys,” the eleventh bead, separate from the others and appreciatively larger, comes to remind us of the change of the formula and brings back the most wandering minds to the subject of the meditation. In short, such a director of souls as the Castilian friar knew well that daydreaming always possesses a pernicious charm, which it is well to nip in the bud. A great thinker, nearer to our times, Condillac, says further: “Attention is like a light which is reflected from one body onto another, in order to illuminate both of them, and I call it reflection. . . Sensible ideas represent to us the objects which actually impress themselves on our senses; intellectual ideas represent to us those which disappear after making their impression. . .” He also says: “Intellectual ideas, if they are familiar to us, recur to us at will.” This was also the teaching of Yoritomo who writes: “It suffices for those who practice concentration to will for the objects on which they wish to meditate to be recalled clearly before their eyes.” “Adepts in this art can, with very little effort and after placing themselves in a condition of self-absorption, transport themselves in imagination to the sphere where the phases of the occurrence which forms the subject of their thoughts unfold themselves before them.” “They will succeed in picturing to themselves places and persons in living movement, in so realistic a manner that they will even be sensible to the odors or the climate of the place that witnesses these happenings.” “What marvel that, finding themselves in this mental condition, it is easy for them to decide on sound resolutions and to thrust aside attempts to counsel for them the less studied decision?” And he concludes: “He who would influence others should applaud all things know how to influence himself in order to acquire the faculty of self-concentration which will allow of his reaching the highest degree of discernment.” “Many soothsayers have owed their influence over the multitude only to that spirit of concentration that passed for prophecies.” “It is wrong and delusive to give credence to magic which is trickery, but we bear within us a power equal to that of the sorcerers whose deeds are related; this is the magic of the influence which the prudent and self-possessed man always exercises over his fellows, when his intentions are pure and when his ideal is nothing else than the amelioration of the condition of others, by the wholesome influence of his example and his discourse.”

BY CONFIDENCE

LESSON XI Confidence is the mental impulse that all those who wish to influence others should seek to elicit. For most of them, it is the means of replacing the vacillating and ever faltering will with their own will, which they impose according to circumstances and according to the character of their followers. With some gentle persuasion is a means, even if slow, yet almost sure of success. But we must guard the future adept from a diversity of influences, otherwise his mind will always retain the most recent impression, and before following the course of initiation we must give our attention to doing away with contradictory ideas, which he cannot completely eradicate except with great difficulty. This is one of the characteristics of feeble folk; their stubbornness has always to be combated and we cannot succeed in teaching them confidence except after prolonged effort. The best way left to us is not to hit them too hard, for their obstinacy -which they sometimes take for willpower -would form a troublesome obstacle to their conversion. It is therefore better to seem to pay attention to their opinions, however baseless they may be, and to put before them objections that appear rather involuntary than otherwise and which to all appearances we regret the necessity of formulating. This is what Yoritomo teaches us in the following anecdote: “My master Lang-Ho,” said he, “had among his disciples a chief who had great influence in the senate, not on account of his personal qualifications but rather of his wealth which was considerable. He had estates the extent of which gave him the privileges of a little king, and my master thought rightly that such a man should be gained over to the beauty of the Good, in order that his discourse should not be like the tares of the field but on the contrary should resemble good seed the sprouting of which brings forth a whole course of bountiful harvest.” “But this nobleman suffered from the weakness of will that hindered him from profiting by any lesson. He would say ‘ yes’ one day and the next day, after listening to the talk of those who have no other idea except to get money out of him, he would profess an opposite opinion and set himself obstinately to follow the most pernicious counsels.” “Lang-Ho, as I have already told you, was a profound psychologist, no recess of the human heart hidden from him; so after subjecting the chief to a lengthy scrutiny, he adopted the method which seemed likely to succeed.” “He did not dissuade him from acts which under evil influences this man had made up his mind to perform, but at first he, so to speak, canalized his infatuation toward things of less importance, the plan of which he seemed at first to entertain kindly.” “He was careful thus not to awaken the spirit of obstinacy which he knew was dormant in the chief’s heart. But after putting him to the test at a time when the latter was no longer in a suspicious mood, Lang-Ho enumerated to him the errors of his ways and did not fail to declare what mischief would accrue from them.” “This done, he let him follow his own devices or rather those of his evil counselors. This policy had the result of allowing the troubles which he had foretold to arise, so that by degrees the chief began to regard Lang-Ho with a kind of superstitious fear blended with a deep veneration.” “The philosopher waited no longer; he then took in hand the freeing of his disciples from his self-interested friends, and after some months of initiation the latter, imbued with the knowledge and wisdom of the master, ceased all resistance and gloried in showing to those who depended on him that he shared the opinions of the sage.” “From that to conversion was only one step, and that step was taken so successfully that, under the influence of Lang-Ho, the chief became a genuine benefactor to all who lived on his estates and who looked up to him as a master whose word has the force of an oracle.” But certain natures are restive under persuasion or to malleable for any impression to leave its marks on them. In such, therefore, it is well to inspire confidence, somewhat in spite of themselves, by having recourse to suggestion. All modern thinkers are of this opinion; all those also who are engaged with mental infirmities: “A suggestion of any kind being implanted in the mind,” says P. E. Levy, “the organism is the better adapted to bring about realization.” We too readily give an idea of magic to the word suggestion. Suggestion, as the writer understands it, might be defined as follows: The development of competence. It is, in a way, the imposing of one’s belief on the mind of others; it is not a quack method of enthralling a person and of compelling him to carry out tasks which we feel ourselves without the courage to perform; it is a noble faculty which choice spirits alone possess, that of implanting their belief in those whom they consider worthy of being persuaded. Be it remembered that there is suggestion in everything; in the book which fascinates us and the theories of which gain possession of us in spite of ourselves; in the conversation to which we listen of our own accord, in the discussions of which only one side seems to us to express the truth. But it happens too frequently that if afterward we recollect ourselves in order to judge our thoughts with the same impartiality as we should those of others, we are altogether amazed to see the fine enthusiasm that had animated us fail; the principles of the book, stripped of the magic of style, seem to us highly debatable; the conversation which we enjoyed, when the illusion of eloquence no longer illuminates it, seems to us insipid, and the object of discussion which had interested us deeply becomes a matter of indifference to us when we examine it calmly. To what then is this sudden change to be ascribed? Does it arise from us? From our over-susceptibility to enthusiasm? From our excessive propensity to fleeting impression? In most cases regarding these suggestions we should accuse only their authors, who, not being convinced themselves, have been unable imbue us with a lasting confidence. To inspire confidence, without which no influence is possible, several qualities are indispensable: Sincerity with ourselves; Hatred of injustice; Certainty in our decisions; Absolute truth in our predictions; Confidence in our old merits. Sincerity with ourselves consists especially in the conviction of the necessity which exists of making others share in a belief the effect of which we experience so deeply, that the feel cure to defuse it abroad should seem to us dereliction of all our duties. You see why the appeal of missionaries is generally so powerful; the success of the apostolate is always subordinated to the sincerity of the convictions of him who expounds them and to his certainty that he is performing a duty in inculcating them on those for whom they may prove a support and a consolation. If the speaker doubts his own statements, his voice will be less firm, the effulgence of his thought will less easily spread over his audience, and enthusiasm, the parent of absolute faith, will not lift them to carry he them on their way. But how different a reception will be accorded to the apostle who is himself convinced. Let us listen to Yoritomo in this matter: “Like a refreshing stream,” said he, “the words of he who ‘believes’ spread into the minds of his hearers and quench their thirst of moral support and lofty convictions.” “Like moths attracted by the light of tapers, they will all flock around him who is for them the light and knows how to envelop them with its life-giving rays.” “As long as he speaks, vistas of brightness are spread before them; if he vanishes, they seem again to pass into darkness only brightened by the remembrance of the words of confidence and faith.” He who knows not hatred of injustice will never be able to exercise a salutary influence on others? How could he attract to himself confidence, the mother of conversion, if, by the unfairness of his judgments, he is subjected to that of others? “No partiality,” said Yoritomo, “should animate him who would win souls. It is by allowing himself to fall into such lapses that he will lose all authority, which he would fain acquire. Strict justice alone should direct his words and preside over his acts.” “Where he is himself quite in the dark and does not see on which side justice is ranged, he should refrain himself until the time when a close concentration permits him to see clearly before him.” “If doubt continues, let him be very careful not to a ray decision the injustice of which events might demonstrate, dust weakening the trust which his disciples are pleased to place in him. It is more honorable to confess one’s ignorance that to risk committing and injustice.” To secure certainty in our judgments, it is prudent sometimes to use artifice, like the sage of whose shrewdness Yoritomo tells us: “It should never happen,” said he, “that man who wish to inspire confidence should risk seeing it destroyed by an assertion that is not borne out by facts.” “In this matter it is wise to imitate the old philosopher Hong-Yi who would never say, ‘That will happen,’ but, ‘You have acted in such a way as to bring on yourself such or such a misfortune,’ or, ‘You are acting with so much prudence as to deserve to be rewarded. ’” “So that when events happened to confirm his learned forecasts, he did not fail to recall his sayings and his authority thereby increased more and more.” “It should be added that the events foreseen always came to pass, for the deducted powers Hong-Yi were great and it was easy for him to presume the acts which his disciples might be expected to perform.” But foreseeing and even prophesying are not sufficient to gain confidence and especially to communicate it. In order to implant it in the hearts of others, it is necessary to possess it -this splendid confidence in oneself that works wonders. Then it is that all those to whom thinking for themselves is a labor, those whose powers of resistance are fitful and ill-balanced, those whose moral idleness rises up against all individual initiative, will lift their heads and feel a new strength, relying on the feeling of confidence which they will experience first in the master and afterward in themselves. The healing balm of faith will by it is good qualities impregnate them in this gentlest fashion and, despising the faint-heartedness which hitherto had marked their most trivial resolutions, they will advance fearlessly toward the goal which has become plainly visible to their sight. It is a well-known fact that an imagined support often serves as well as the support itself. We know the instance of the child who cannot bring himself to walk without stumbling but who, as soon as we stretched out a finger to him, pretending thus to support him, steadies his steps in such a way that he can accomplish a walk of several yards without tottering. If, however, we draw back the finger, which as it seems to them, is the support you must guard them from falling, they advance a few steps with difficulty and cannot avoid tumbling down. It is the same with timid souls; the person who thinks he will die of fear in the solitude of an empty house will feel quite reassured if he imagines that the adjacent rooms are occupied. The presence of others, creating a feeling of confidence in possible protection, suffices to save them from the fear, which they would not fail to experience if they thought that in case of need there was no one to help them. This protection, even when they know it to be illusory, suffices to allay their apprehensions. Thus, although they are quite sure that they can expect nothing from this intervention of a child; timid persons almost always seek such company rather than remain alone, and they experience from it a real relief. “Every impression,” says Yoritomo, “which is not our own which comes from outside is an influence which we perforce put up with. It is especially in cases of sickness that this influence can make its presence felt in the highest degree, for at such a time the subject being very week is best disposed to submit himself to any suggestion whatsoever.” “There is a vague solidarity between mind and body, which allows of the latter becoming as easy prey to others brought about by suffering. It would be idle to deny the connection between our physical ills at our mental sufferings. Some under the domination of weighty anxieties become the victims of severe headache. Others again, after repeated emotional disturbances, contract heart troubles.” “It is therefore sometimes wiser to cure the mind before considering how to care for the body, or rather it is well to effect both cures at the same time. Now it is that influence makes itself felt, triumphant, radiant; its stamps on the nerve centers an impression which reverberates through ones whole being.” “Considering that our troubles are due to pain, to anxiety, to hypochondria, we should cultivate confidence and cheerfulness which take from our conceptions their somber coloring.” “If we have been able to inspire the invalid with competence, we shall be glad to tell him that he is getting better, for he will not doubt the truth of the assertion and that assurance will cause him to experience a real improvement.” “Then it will be in order gradually two tries that gesture on him, making clear to him the development of his cure up to the moment when he is told, ‘You are cured. ’” “Miracles have no other basis them this.” And the Shogun proceeds: “But the grandest means of effecting these cures is to implant in the mind of self-imagined invalids the idea of devotion to a noble cause; to plunge them into a tide of ambition that will make them gradually forget their everlasting ‘Ego. ’For this over coddled ‘Ego’ is the real cause of most of these disorders from which all persons suffer whom a surfeit of ‘Ego’ so dominates that their most trivial ailments command their whole attention and seem to them to be entitled to command that of everybody else to the exclusion of all other things.” “On such influence should be exercised in quite different a manner. It will suffice to create about them an atmosphere of activity in which their personality will play a dominating part; they will us forget to spend their time in looking out for the attacks of an illness which exists only in their own brain, and he who assists them to a cure may congratulate himself doubly, for he will have made his beneficial influence felt in the case of both mind and body.” “Assuredly the best of suggestions is that which lies in, as it were, devitalizing the self-centered man, by substituting for the worshiper of his ‘Ego’ an altruist who, thoroughly imbued with faith in himself and strong mission with which he believes himself entrusted, will seek to impart to others the benefits of that confidence from which he has derived so much consolation.” Thus will the advice of Yoritomo be proved right when he says: “Let him who feels himself to be in the right and has confidence in himself rise up and proclaim this faith, so that the weak, the vacillating, and all those whose suffer from doubt may flock around him to warm themselves at the genial blaze that issues from the fire of contentment of which his mind is full.”

ACQUISITION OF DOMINATING POWER

LESSON XII “The warriors of old,” says Yoritomo, “were very fond of insignia, which they believed to be likely to impress their enemies. They liked to wear fearsome masks, the manes of beasts, or helmets the top of which represented the heads of an animal.” “One great general arrayed himself in a helmet the tip of which bore the feature of a mattock, and on the visor were engraved characters the combination of which represented the words ‘mattock’, ‘way’, and ‘rock’, which the learned have interpreted as follows: “If the ‘way’ is not opened by my ‘mattock,’ I will lay it out even in the ’rock. ’” “Now what idea dominated all those warriors if not the desire to impress their enemies, some by fear, others by intimidation?” “But there is a kind of influence a thousand-fold more valuable than all these rude methods and barbarous attempts to bring an emotion by means of bloodthirsty symbols. The domain of thought is open to all those who feel themselves unworthy of entering it; it is for those who know the turnings of a beautiful garden with multifarious paths.” “On each fresh excursion they discover psalm hitherto unknown paths which they explore always with increasing interest.” “The flowers which border them are gorgeous or poor, according as they shed on them the rays of intelligence placed at the disposal of the powers of the will which are latent in them.” “But those whose languid action cannot lift the torch, whose indolence neglects to enkindle it, do not enjoy the sight of these diversified flowers. In the gloom from which they look on them, they perceive them but indistinctly, and the path seems to them so uninteresting that they lose the desire to seek in it for new objects.” “Those, on the other hand, who know how to throw the floral beauties into the light derive from their contemplation so exquisite an enjoyment that there always arises in them the desire for fresh explorations, and also the wish to share their admiration, by introducing some persons to the marvels which they have encountered, and by teaching others how to see them in all their splendor.” “This is the secret of the dominating influence which certain man exercise over others. Those alone who know how to throw the flowers of thought into the light, after having sought and found them, can acquire sufficient power to influence the destinies of others.” This is what, in language less florid but nonetheless ornate, modern thinkers tell us: “There is,” says Durville, “an intercommunication between ourselves and others of such a nature that perpetually, night and day, we are receiving and giving fourth again influences which model us, change us, and gradually alter our mode of life.” “It is, therefore, through instigation from without that we and by making ourselves what we are: good or bad, happy or miserable.” Again Atkinson says: “Thought plays a decisive part in human life.” “It encompasses the individual. It is the cord which binds him to his fellows and by means of which are gathered together, to join and mingle in a single current, all surrounding energies.” This is likewise the opinion of Turnbull, who recommends this method of acquiring the power necessary to first subdue those whom we wish afterward to influence: “Lay well to heart,” says he, “that this person is an instrument through which pass mental currents and that you yourself are an instrument which not only produces but also receives and retains strongly such currents to receive and retain.” “You can then begin without hesitation to make him speak, while making a judicious use of a fixed, unwavering look. Employ all your tact and finesse in doing so discreetly; at the same time you retain unmoved your own power, as if you were concentrating yourself on yourself.” “By causing mental currents to pass before your interlocutor under the form of timely questions and suggestions, you awaken in him responsive currents; you find out his likes and dislikes, and, by encouraging his confidence, through the current derived from an approval delicately expressed, you will soon succeed in making him vibrate in unison with yourself.” He who would acquire the power of domination that allows him to subdue to the action of his beneficent force the minds, which he wishes to direct, must, above all, compel himself to create between him and his disciple a client of intellectual level that will be of infinite service to him in his apostolate. It is by creating sympathy that these vibrations in unison, so indispensable in the formation of influence, will be obtained. Sympathy begets confidence and paves the way for beneficent suggestions. “He who knows how to attract sympathy,” said Yoritomo, “is like a kindly light toward which turn all those whose minds are covered with moral darkness. Their development is rarely very speedy, and that is preferable, otherwise they would be dazzled before being enlightened; it is better to attract them slowly but irresistibly.” “Then, already imbued with the distant radiance, they will already have some out of darkness when they approach quite nearer to him who is to give them clear light and, grown familiar with the brilliant rays, they will endure its utmost intensity without flinching.” It is, in fact, one of the powers of sympathy to attract slowly but to retain surely those who feel themselves drawn to a sympathetic person by an attraction at first vague and ill defined, later justified by a thousand reasons, the principal of which, and soon the only one, will be the attraction which he possesses dominating power exerts over others. It is better, as Yoritomo says, for this power to assert itself less roughly to have more chances of permanency. It is preferable to illumine slowly people’s minds with a well-defined gleam than to dazzle them to the extent of causing them a discomfort, which will make them seek the darkness as a relief. One of the secrets of dominating power lies in exciting similarity of feelings by adopting for the time being those that are within the compass of the person whom we wish to influence. The feeling of condescension should be given up by strong minds; he who believes that he is lowering himself with regard to his disciple, by instilling in him principles, which he regards as too elementary, will never succeed as a director of men. The master who would use the power of suggestion in earnest should for a moment give up his own mind to adopt the that of the man whom he is teaching; this is the only way of creating a bond of mutual confidence. “He who would teach the first characters in writing should be able to create a child’s mind in himself,” said the Shogun. We must admit that, to fulfill this condition, it is necessary to be already in possession of a rare self-mastery. Now he who can master himself is already qualified to master others. If ambition and confidence in one’s own worth are the attributes of dominating power, self-sufficiency is always the stumbling block over which he trips whom pride prevents from looking down at his feet. Self-sufficiency almost always begets arrogance, which is of no use in producing sympathy and competence. This exaggerated idea of “Ego” is never dictated by the consciousness of real merit, but rather by the imaginary swelling of virtues that we ascribe too freely to ourselves, as though to divert our minds with the noise of our own words. If we wish to be sincere, we shall recognize very quickly that these virtues are imaginary, and that the parade which we make of them arises only from a great desire to possess them; that, the power having failed for assuring the gaining of them, we prefer, by proclaiming loudly that we possess them, to shirk the effort of acquiring them. This is why self-sufficient persons, in the category of whom we must place those out of whom an empty pride beats out nobility of character, will never have the aptitude for exerting an influence over the minds of others. Unable to derive from themselves the energy necessary to become what they would like to be, they cannot emit around themselves that power which fails them, and there domination over others will never be established. Melancholy persons, those who are the victims of hypochondria, are by no means destined to become shepherds of the multitude. Melancholy almost always begets a mental condition bordering on indifference; it suppresses the desire for life, the key of all good resolutions and continual perseverance. Every effort of the melancholy is quickly halted by that terrible, “What is the good?”which proclaims the end of everything and the vanity of life. What influence can a man exercise whose powers of energy are destroyed by indifference and apathy?He has hardly the strength to live himself; where will he find the strength to teach others? Cheerfulness is one of the requisite conditions for controlling others; not that boisterous mirth which is made up of bursts of laughter, the reasons for which are not always of the most refined nature, but that inward peace which we define as cheerfulness and which is the mark of highly developed minds. A man of fine character will never be melancholy; hypochondria is the trademark of the incapable; it is the commencement of manias and of all crazes that desolate humanity and abase its moral level. The philosophers of ill omen whose teaching has clouded so many young brains have defined enjoyment as follows: Ah, well! But is not that worth an effort, to suffer no longer, and can we regard as a madman the man who laborers to end this suffering, by substituting for it the joy of living, which opens men’s minds to the cult of beauty? The art of happiness lies especially in the great wish to live. If Yoritomo was not willing to raise the burning question of free will, he nonetheless admits the unquestionable influence of each one of us on our own destiny. “Men,” said he, “are for the most part like the fool who shivered, cowering in a snowdrift, while around him the sun bathed the mountain with its burning rays. He cursed the snow, the cold, the hateful country where he dwelled, and the misery of his existence which had to be spent in suffering and barrenness.” “In vain people signaled to him of nearby paths, in vain for they showed him from afar flowers gathered on the way; he was obstinately bent on doing nothing to free himself from his sufferings and continued to curse the place which it would have been so easy to leave and deplored the unhappiness of the fate which had caused him to be born in that inclement country.” Have we not here in very truth the picture of the pessimist who denies the existence of happiness and beauty while pretending to turn away when they pass his door? Such persons may perchance exercise a pernicious influence over weak minds, but it will always be limited, for we cannot repeat it too often -real influence over others is only acquired at the price of complete mastery of oneself. This mastery should be the aim of the efforts of the man who wishes to possess this faculty and to make use of it for his own happiness and that of those with whom he comes in contact. “Again,” said the Nippon philosopher, “we should keep ourselves from too commonplace associations, for, granting this truth that the thought which we emit about us is taken in by those around, we ought to beware of the imbibing of commonplace thought which, when repeat too often, will end by occupying, unknown to ourselves, a place in our brain and will weaken the quality of the power.” “The higher type of man should never harbor a medley of ideas. He who frames thoughts the waves of which spread themselves around him succeeds, by a succession of adulatory movements which may be compared with those of sound, in striking the intelligence of others by setting their brains in vibration, in other words, in a state to receive the floating thought.” “But the really forceful man, one whose secret energies are concentrated on the gaining of influence, one whose aim is to acquire dominating power, will harbor no ignoble thoughts, for he will not barter away the first to arrive of these flowers of the mind; if he finds himself among people of small intellectual caliber he will surpass them with all the mighty power that his knowledge and his strength of will confer on him.” “He will know how to listen to them, then to talk to them, perhaps to convince them, but not for a moment will he submit himself to imbibing their commonplace thoughts, for having come among them in the spirit of an apostle he is too conscious of his own excellence, he knows too well his own superiority, he is, in a word, on too lofty a pedestal to allow himself to be affected by things beneath him.” “Does the granite stoop to the ivy that twines itself about it while mounting toward the towers in its need of protection and support?” The Shogun remarks also that this plant, which without the support of the granite, would trail miserably off the ground, ends, when it has covered the surface at every point by forming an essential part of the building, to such a degree that its frail tendrils effect more for the durability of the works of man then the hardest marbles chiseled by the most skillful workmen. And he asked: “How many ancient towers, that seemed of unquestionable solidity, crumble to pieces when deprived of the parasites that seemed to overrun them?” “So it is with all those who possess power; they maintain themselves only because they create disciples whose devotion serves to consolidate their work. But if they cannot retain the influence which a first they have sent forth around them, their followers fall away one by one, and the man left alone soon sees the edifice of his superiority crumbled to pieces.” “Dominating power,” Yoritomo proceeds, ”is developed especially by an apostolate the exercise of which, by creating a mental current between the master and those whom he is teaching, wards off opposing currents.” In the cant of modern science it is said in fact that material builders, drawn by the attractive force of thought, are always displeased in feeble minds by a stronger influence, but that the converse does not hold good. Such is the comment of the Japanese philosopher when he tells us: “Do not rub shoulders with a commonplace mind except with intention of raising him to your own level, but do not think of entering into mental communion with such before making it worthy of it.” This luminous sentence may serve as a commentary on Yoritomo’s entire teaching, for every line of his writings is an appeal to energy, an invitation to the practice of the cult of moral beauty, and an encouragement to that advance toward the Better, which should guide our steps toward the enchanted temple on the facade of which are emblazoned these eternal words: Truth, Coverage, and Cheerfulness.

• It is this way for every plant.
• It is this way for every house and every building.
• It is this way for every piece of machinery.
• It is this way for every boat, car, and airplane.
• It is this way for every single thing on earth.

The order that exists will always become disorganized and put into varying states of disorder. When something is put into a state of disorder, it will be transformed into a new state again, whereby it will once again be reorganized into something that represents order. This is a never-ending cycle. Ideally, each time something is subjected to further disorder, it has the opportunity to reorganize itself into something different. An example of order coming into being from disorder is the creation of diamonds:

Diamonds form between 120-200 kms or 75-120 miles below the earth’s surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million years ago. That is a long time, my friend! According to science, the carbon that makes diamonds, comes from the melting of pre-existing rocks in the Earth’s upper mantle. There is an abundance of carbon atoms in the mantle. Temperature changes in the upper mantle forces the carbon atoms to go deeper where it melts and finally becomes new rock, when the temperature reduces. If other conditions like pressure and chemistry is right then the carbon atoms in the melting crustal rock bond to build diamond crystals. There is no guarantee that these carbon atoms will turn into diamonds. If the temperature rises or the pressure drops then the diamond crystals may melt partially or totally dissolve. Even if they do form, it takes thousands of years for those diamonds to come anywhere near the surface. http://www.gemsutra.com/diamonds.html

The creation of diamonds represents disorder being changed and coming together as something quite beautiful. The pressure on the rocks creates a diamond. However, not every type of disorder becomes something great. When many people are exposed to disorder, what emerges is something bad. In addition, many people stay isolated from others and the world, in an effort to avoid disorder. When you are in a company and lose your job, you are exposed to disorder. Almost any job you are working at, you will eventually lose or leave–disorder is a natural law. Almost every company that you are working for will eventually go out of business (some time in the future). Many people’s lives and careers are punctuated by an extreme amount of disorder. They move from relationship to relationship and job to job and profession to profession. Each exposure to this lack of security and order in their lives is a chance to expose themselves to disorder, and to potentially change their lives for the better. When you lose a job, this is an example of being exposed to disorder. How you react to this disorder will, in large part, determine how successful you become in your career and life. Many people panic and get extremely upset and desperate when exposed to this sort of disorder:

• They take the first job they are offered, even if it is beneath their skill level.
• They may not look in other geographic areas where there are more opportunities.
• They may get depressed and turn to drugs and alcohol.
• They may confine their job search to looking on one job board, rather than exploring all the additional options available.

There are numerous potential responses to disorder when we face it in our lives. Disorder needs to be seen as a good thing and should be viewed as a chance to create a diamond, instead of something worse than what existed before. It is very powerful knowing that the disorder we face will lead to order. If you are not near retirement age and you are fired from a job, or lose a job, you need to understand that the “order” of a new job will come back to your life and you will find another job. Disorder always leads to order. The methods that you follow and how you go about creating the new order, represented here by the new job, are very significant and powerful. When disorder is imposed upon you, or you face impending disorder, it is an incredible opportunity for you to reorganize yourself and your life into something better. There are all sorts of responses we can have to disorder. I read an interesting article today, about an alarming increase in bank robberies in Spain due to current unemployment rates hovering at 20%. The article dealt with a contractor who had robbed four banks to pay his employees (before he was finally caught). This is a negative response the man had to the disorder he was facing, due to a bad economy. A positive response to a bad economy might be to find new sorts of work that need to be done, instead of robbing a bank. Another response might simply be having fewer employees on the payroll. Disorder always leads to order. It is the same with relationships. There is order and there is disorder. Both order and disorder are related and are present in every relationship. Sometimes things are going well and other times they are not. Many people crave order in relationships and others crave disorder. In every relationship there will always be order and disorder. It is important to make disorder work for you in relationships and not against you. Because order always leads to disorder, it is important that we look upon disorder as something positive and not something negative. In addition, there are times when we are in an ordered condition, when being in this condition may not really be in our best interest. There is a real danger in isolating yourself and not allowing yourself to be exposed to disorder. The more you are exposed to disorder, the better the chance that you can reorganize and become ordered at a higher level. There are many people out there who are in stable relationships but who are not growing in these relationships. They may have paired themselves with people who did not challenge them, or who are far beneath them in terms of intellect or something similar. This is very common. Many people seek out people and situations that do not challenge them so they are not exposed to disorder. They are frightened of disorder. In their careers, many people put themselves in situations wherein they are not challenged, just so they can avoid the risk of being exposed to disorder (i.e., being forced to learn new skills and to push and grow outside of their comfort zone). They choose to live lives of mediocrity and deny the achievement of their own potential, because they are unable to challenge themselves. This is extremely common. It is more than likely occurring with you at some level within your own life. The two laws that (1) order leads to disorder and (2) disorder leads to order, are something you should understand in your own life. You need to make order and disorder work for you. You need to utilize disorder so that you can grow. The best thing that can often happen to you is to be exposed to disorder by losing a job, or experiencing some other sort of setback. The times we are exposed to disorder are some of the most important times in our lives. Our reaction to disorder shapes our lives to come. THE LESSON Two fundamental laws of the universe are that order leads to disorder, and disorder leads to order. Since disorder always leads to order, you must always view disorder as a positive rather than a negative; disorder in your life is an opportunity to reorganize your life and career into something better. Making both order and disorder work for you will enhance your chances of success in career and life.

DIEPSLOOT, South Africa — The two robbery suspects had already been viciously beaten, their swollen faces stained with rivulets of red. One of them could no longer sit up, and only the need to moan seemed to revive him into consciousness. The other, Moses Tjiwa, occasionally stared into the taunting crowd and muttered, “I didn’t do anything.” The suspects were awaiting the final cathartic wrath of the mob, the torment of being burned alive, wrapped in the fatal shawl of a gasoline-soaked blanket. Then suddenly they were saved from that hideous death by the brave intervention of a local politician. “Let the police handle this,” he implored. As usual, the police arrived late on that recent evening, and many in the mob angrily objected to their being there at all. Finally, one police inspector shouted: “Get back or I’m leaving this place and never helping you people again. I hate Diepsloot!”

When procedures are followed in society, we are said to be in a “civilized society”. Revolutions and other social movements are typically caused by or accompanied by a lack of procedure in the society. When a society does not trust the procedures of the people who investigate the crimes, or the people who run the society, there is a breakdown of order. For example, in many countries like India and Mexico the police are not trusted by the people. Stories of police taking bribes in Mexico to assist drug lords can be seen in the papers on an almost daily basis. In India, many police will not investigate a crime unless they are paid off first. Procedures are not just confined to how police operate, however:

• There are procedures for how officials are elected, procedures for how the Congress, Senate, President, and the Supreme Court share power on a national level.
• There are procedures for the division of power between the state and federal government.
• There are procedures for how state and local governments run themselves.
• There are procedures for how companies run themselves.
• There are procedures for how departments within companies run themselves.

The election between George Bush, Jr. and Al Gore and the “voting chad” controversy was an issue of procedure. Every single time we sense there is something wrong with procedure, we become fascinated with this, and we are simultaneously appalled if the procedure has been abused or circumvented in any way. The United States was founded primarily on the belief that it had a better procedure for government than the British Commonwealth. I remember when I was the President of my fraternity in college. I kept a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order on my desk during meetings at all times to ensure that we were following proper procedure. Even a group of rowdy college kids follow procedure. Most groups spend a great deal of time making sure they are following clearly defined procedures in everything they do. If procedure is so important to groups, what role does it have in our own lives as individuals? For the most part, once we become adults, we are expected to come up with procedures and rules that allow us to succeed on our own. This is a huge challenge for many people. Our ability to come up with various procedures and to modify these procedures to suit our individual goals and lifestyle ends up having a massive impact on our success or failure in life. For several years, I lived next door to a couple of kids from mainland China, whose mother had brought them over to the United States to attend school. The father had remained back in China. Several times a month I would hear the mother yelling at the kids. My neighbor on the other side, who was also Chinese, told me that the woman was saying things like: “If you do not study, you will be a failure! Do your homework!” and so forth. My neighbor had extremely regimented procedures that she had implemented with her kids. She would pull out of her driveway to take her kids to school at the same time ever day. In addition, she carted them to tutors and to piano lessons. I was living in San Marino, California at that time. San Marino has extremely good schools. Back then, the area’s population was also nearly 50% Chinese. This is not just a neighborhood with a large Asian population. It is an area where most of the parents have spent most of their lives in China, and where even a substantial percentage of the children were born in China. After a year or so, I started interviewing students planning on attending the University of Chicago, and San Marino was one of the areas where I interviewed kids. I was amazed at the test scores and grades, as well as the massive variety of extracurricular activities the kids from San Marino undertook. Each of the kids looked like he or she was headed for greatness. In fact, if the kids were from Michigan where I was from, I am sure they all would have gone to Ivy League schools for the most part. The kids in San Marino, all for the most part, stuck to very regimented schedules. Many of their parents got them up for school each day, took them to school, mandated that they study at certain times, got them tutors during the week, and sent them to academic camps during the summer. Most of the women had been taking piano lessons since the age of 5 or 6. The parents had just so many procedures in place for these kids I could not believe it. But there was another thing I noticed that was extremely interesting. A lot of the kids had older siblings, and I was always eager to ask the students what their brothers and sisters were doing. Most of the brothers and sisters had gone to good schools like UCLA, Brown, and so forth. However, I started noticing a disturbing pattern after some time. Lots of the kids would tell me that their brothers or sisters had dropped out of school, having gone completely wild when they got to college. It happened so many times I could almost predict it. Many times the student’s older brother or sister had moved back home from a prestigious school, and were now finishing up school at a community college. This surprising occurrence did not make sense to me at first–not at all. When I started to think more about it, though, I started to realize what must have been going on. Many of the kids I was meeting and interviewing from San Marino had never learned to develop their own procedures for how they studied and ran their lives. When they got to college they found themselves on their own for the first time; their parents were no longer there telling them when to do this or that. When I got to college, I saw this in so many other students–from all backgrounds. The fewer procedures these kids had in place for themselves, the less successful they generally were. And this brings me to you and your career. If you examine your career closely, you will generally find that your success, or lack thereof, is related to the procedures that you have in place for how you run your life. Most people who experience a lack of success in their lives believe that success is some sort of secret, or something sent by God. Success is, for the most part, based upon the power of the procedures that we follow. All you need to do to become more successful and prosper at whatever you do, is to investigate the procedures you are following in your life and strengthen them where appropriate. For example, if your job were to sell computer systems to businesses, one method of doing this might involve driving around the country, stopping at every business you found, and trying to sell them a computer system. Here are some ways you might incrementally step up your procedure in order to become more productive and successful:

• You could concentrate on just doing this in large cities.
• You could pre-qualify people by calling businesses on the phone to see if they needed a computer system–before driving out to see them.
• You could make sure you had the most desirable computer system to sell before calling to pre-qualify. This would be even more effective.
• You could test the script you would use when calling, in order to determine which script would work the best.
• You could send a packet of information to the business before visiting them.
• You could send someone ahead of you to do a study and assessment of the current computer systems at the businesses before visiting.

The list of procedures that you could follow and refine is almost limitless. But the point I wish to make is that your success or failure as a salesman of computers is going to be almost entirely dependent upon the strength of your procedures, and how consistently you integrate them. The success or failure you may experience in your job search is always directly related to the procedures that you follow. The better your procedures are when searching for a job, the more success you are likely to find. If you are not finding success in your job search, then look at your procedures and either (1) strengthen certain procedures, (2) drop certain procedures, or (3) create new procedures. Your success in your job search and career is a product of the procedures you follow.

• Opinions are fickle and change over time.
• Opinions can be created by a few individuals for reasons that are often self serving.
• Opinions are often not based on fact; they are biased.
• Opinions are often formed as a reaction against organizations that try to hold people accountable.

I took my last and final job as an attorney at a law firm that seemed excellent in all respects. The law firm paid the highest salaries in the city at the time and when I interviewed with the firm, the people who interviewed me told me I would get lots of good “litigation experience”, and that I would get the opportunity to go to court a lot. Going to court and arguing various motions in court, doing trials, and so forth, is something that young litigators are really after. In addition to paying the highest salaries in the city, the firm I was going to work for had an excellent reputation and was also one of the oldest law firms in the United States. Since I had gone to school on the East Coast, I knew that others on the East Coast thought highly of this law firm as well. Needless to say, when I told my parents that the law firm I was applying for paid nearly double the salary as compared to my then current firm, my parents were very enthusiastic and encouraging. When I quit my job at the old firm in order to go to work for the new law firm, the Founder of my old firm, John Quinn, came into my office and told me something I will never forget: “I see the court filings each morning that come into the courthouse, and the firm you are going to work for hardly ever goes into court. You are making a mistake.” This was a very smart man who used facts and figures in his argument. According to him, the facts and figures showed that there was not actually a lot of courtroom work at the other law firm. And it turned out he was absolutely right. One of the main reasons I had chosen to go to work in the second law firm was because so many people supported the opinion that this new firm was much better than the firm I was coming from. Since the firm had such a longstanding reputation, there were just a lot of opinions in the marketplace about the greatness of the firm. The law firm I was leaving had kept me really busy. There was a tremendous amount of work–more work, in fact, than I could believe. At the time, I even sort of resented having to tackle what seemed to be an insurmountable workload. I enjoyed the work itself; however, the sheer volume made my job very exhausting. Nonetheless, there was a lot of opportunity at this law firm. People were getting promoted to partnership all the time. The firm was always in the public eye for one of its cases or another. Many people in the community liked and respected the law firm a great deal. When I got to the new law firm, I was surprised to see that there was hardly any work at all. In fact, my first few weeks there I sat around with hardly anything to do. Then many other people started losing their jobs at the firm. Soon afterwards I started seeing people like the head of the accounting and human resources departments leave.

• Things such as lack of work are a statistical sign that demonstrates something is going wrong with a business.
• When people who have access to facts and figures start quitting, such as people who work in the accounting and human resources departments, it is a sign that something is wrong with a business.
• My being told before leaving my previous firm that the law firm in fact did not have a lot of trial work was a sign that something was wrong with the firm.
• The fact that the new law firm had hardly made any partners vs. the previous law firm I came from, demonstrates that something was right about the law firm I had previously worked for, and something was probably wrong at the law firm I had newly joined.

In all my years of working, I can flatly state that one of the best things you can do in your career is to make decisions based on statistical-type information–not the opinions of others. In my case, making decisions based on the opinions of the market, about which was the better law firm was a huge mistake. The truth of this (and almost any) matter almost always resides in the facts and statistics. I keep going over in my head, a 60 Minutes episode I saw recently about Bernard Madoff and a guy, Harry Markopolos, who for years was trying to get the attention of the securities and exchange commission, to explain to the commission that Madoff could not possibly be getting the returns he was showing; Harry had deduced this after doing a statistical analysis. He realized Madoff’s claims were absolutely impossible and that statistically it must have been a huge fraud. People invested with Madoff from all over the world due to the majority opinions about how good an investor Madoff was. The investors relied heavily upon the fact that numerous important and famous people had also invested with the con man. Unfortunately, no one ever closely examined the real statistics associated with Madoff’s investments. According to Markopolos, he had been working for a Boston investment firm and his boss wanted him to reverse-engineer Madoff’s trading strategy so the firm could duplicate the same results. Madoff was a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, and he was running an unregistered hedge fund at the time, which was producing great returns. The following exchange occurred in Markopolos’s interview with Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes:

“He had the patina of being a respected citizen. One of the most successful businessmen in New York, and certainly, one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. You would never suspect him of fraud. Unless you knew the math,” Markopolos told Kroft. “I mean, you’re like a math guy, right?” Kroft asked. “I’ve taken all the calculus courses, from integral calculus through differential calculus, as well as linear algebra. And statistics, both normal and non-normal,” Markopolos said. Asked how long it took him to figure out something was wrong, Markopolos said, “It took me five minutes to know that it was a fraud. It took me another almost four hours of mathematical modeling to prove that it was a fraud. “

Opinions are varied and always changing. When one says ‘opinion’, he or she is naturally processing and filtering through tons of false reports and various prejudices that make up the entire social order. The danger of running your career, life, and finances based on opinions rather than facts, is very pronounced. After all, in many cases, people’s entire life savings were wiped out by Madoff. Various educational institutions lost major portions of their endowments. The losses suffered were immense and widespread. Historically, people have too often heavily relied upon false opinions, for instance, opinions that were based on prejudices against certain ethnic groups, or people from certain families. There are also opinions related to what is possible, which people have held dearly throughout history. Here are some of my favorite opinions that people have had in the past, which turned out to be completely false:

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. -Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this. -Spencer Silver, on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3M “Post-It” Notepads. So we went to Atari and said, “Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.” And they said, “No.” So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, “Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’” -Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer. “Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.” -1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s revolutionary rocket work. You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training. -Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus. Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. -Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular? -David Sarnoff’s associates, in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s. Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. -Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons. -Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances. -Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.

Louis Pastueur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction. -Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872. The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. -Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873.

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible. -A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp. There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. -Ken Olson, president, chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. -Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943. I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year. -The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957. But what … is it good for? -Engineer at the IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. -Western Union internal memo, 1876. The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives. -Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” -H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927. I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper. -Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”

A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make. -Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies. We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. -Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962. Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy. -Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He’s doomed. -Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast.

Many wars have stemmed from considering opinions above facts. People are promoted in many jobs based on opinions and not facts. We often use someone’s title in an organization as a method to form an opinion of them, and we fail to analyze the actual work they are doing. We resent people who have obtained an undeserved status, which has come solely from the opinion of others–not from the undeniable quality of their work. For example, the person who is promoted due to his marrying the boss’s daughter is often resented by coworkers, because his work alone did not merit the promotion. A major debate in society and in the workplace is regarding whether or not statistics should be used in the promotion of individuals. A decision by the Supreme Court was made this week, which dealt with the use of statistics in promotions. The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, were unfairly denied promotions due to their race. The court ruled that the City was wrong to not count a promotion exam because no African Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results. The City claimed that it had scrapped the results due to its fear that it would be sued by minorities if it had counted the exam. The use of statistics is generally affirmed over the use of opinion. Schools, employers, and others all come under attack when they use “opinion” rather than statistics in making decisions about who should and who should not advance. The failure to use statistics can be detrimental to you in both your career and life. I have always followed the financial pages closely and I remember during the dotcom boom and the housing boom hearing Warren Buffett talk about each. Each time he gave his opinion about these respective subjects, he said they did not make any sense due to statistics, and the fact that the rapid expansion of both of these markets, were based on something other than statistics. The housing boom and the dotcom explosion were the result of decisions that people made, which were based on opinions rather than statistics. If you have worked for an employer for 10 years and have gotten a paycheck every two weeks for 10 years, plus a series of promotions and raises, you might favor and trust these statistics, rather than taking a job with a start up that is trying something unproven. Lots of people screw up their careers like this. If you are in an industry that is slowly going out of business, you might consider this fact in your job search. In your career, you need to make your decisions based on statistics and facts–not opinions. THE LESSON Rely on facts and statistics rather than opinions; when you depend on mere opinions, you inevitably face disastrous consequences. You must understand the difference between facts and opinions, analyze both, and adopt the former while disregarding the latter to make productive decisions.

• I get up early each morning and work.
• I exercise two hours a day.
• I meditate each day.
• I rarely worry.
• I love my job.
• I do not use tobacco.
• I do not drink alcohol.
• I watch my diet and am at my ideal weight.
• I love my wife.

Ten years ago?

• It was hard enough just to get out of bed each morning.
• I never exercised.
• I never meditated.
• I worried all the time.
• I hated my job with a passion.
• I chewed tobacco from the moment I got to work until the moment I left each day.
• I would smoke when I went out with friends.
• I loved going out to bars with my friends and did it at least twice a week.
• I was at least 25 pounds heavier.
• I was going through a divorce.

These are two very different people I have just described. If I look at the guy from ten years ago I would say he is pretty close to the edge, and in a bad way. Where would you think each person is headed? I can tell you that the people who are now still as I was ten years ago, are not doing all that well. I have been lucky enough to change; however, if I had looked at that person from ten years ago, at the time, I am not sure I would have foreseen what an incredible change he could make. I would not have believed in the possibility. How did I change direction like this? Well, I was fortunate enough to have a friend at the time who sat down with me one day for about 90 minutes and told me exactly where I was heading if I kept on the path that I was on. That was what it took. Ninety minutes, and a hard dose of reality. I knew this person was right, and slowly I started to alter my own course. I am sure you may have had a similar experience as well. Or haven’t you? When we look back at ourselves several years ago, most of us realize how little we knew at the time, and how many mistakes we made, which we could certainly avoid today. It can be frightening looking back at our past, and the people we were. The pain we might have caused ourselves or others. The opportunities we might have missed. I know this is frightening to me. Several times throughout my life I have had people tell me what I would be doing and who I would become in ten or twenty years (or more). This was always something that amused me to ponder at the time; but then, I would often realize later in life that the people who told me these things ended up being right. Looking back on this is really odd for me. Many of the people were much older than me, and probably could see from their own experience what others become. And surprisingly some of these people were the same age as me, and could also seemingly predict my future. Do you see where other people in your life are headed at the moment? And perhaps more important: Do others see where you are headed at the moment? The chances are pretty good they do. If you were to ask them they would probably tell you, although you might have to push the issue a little bit. Do you think it would help to know where you are headed? I do. I know it would help you. When I was in fourth grade, I had a girlfriend named Tina who was a really nice girl. My best friend, Jimmy DeYonker, was dating Tina’s twin sister. None of this amounted to much. We basically would go over to their house and stand around on the front lawn talking about nothing. Sometimes we would sit in the basement on pillows watching television. We did this just about every single day. It was a fun time of my life in many ways because it was so innocent and everything was so new and exciting. The twins lived in a very nice house and it was in a different neighborhood from where I lived. Jimmy was fascinated with girls and seemed to worship them. He talked about girls all the time and his entire life seemed to revolve around his girlfriend and talking about how beautiful she was. In fact, Jimmy was completely obsessed with female beauty. He always talked about how he wanted to be surrounded by beautiful girls when he grew up. I would say to him: “I bet you’re going to make movies about girls when you get older!” One day I realized that my girlfriend was a bit too much of a follower, and I decided that she would probably become one of the girls who stood around in the back of the school in tight jeans, with big hair, smoking cigarettes, skipping class, not involved in much and all run down by the time she got into junior high school. God only knew what would happen to her in high school. I do not know why I formed such strong opinions, but I made the mistake of telling Tina this and it really pissed her off. She never spoke to me again. The thing about her was that in fourth grade Tina was just as clean cut, cute and nice as could be. I just saw something in her, a melancholy and darkness that led me to believe she would follow the wrong crowd when the time came. She did not believe the image I saw of who she would become back them but I was certain she would become that person. A couple of years later I changed schools and I have literally not seen Jimmy DeYonker in probably over two decades. I have never heard anything about him whatsoever. But several years later, when I was in high school I heard about my fourth grade girlfriend, Tina, and what I had predicted about her had come true. Nothing horrible had happened, but my original prediction had proven true. Then about 15 years ago I was in a restaurant in Michigan and I happened to be seated at a table right across from Tina. She was sitting there smoking and looking all disheveled, talking with a group of friends. I realized she too had seen me sitting across the way when I heard her say: “Do you believe I dumped him in fourth grade because he told me I would smoke?” She and her friends started laughing. I find it fascinating that Tina could not have imagined the person she would have become if she had looked into the future back in fourth grade. Imagine what it would be like to step into a time capsule and look at the person you were back then and who you would become. This could be positive or it could be negative. Incredibly, I was watching an episode of America’s Next Top Model a few months ago with my wife, and all the girls on the show went to meet a famous fashion photographer. Guess who it was. Jimmy DeYonker. I saw him photographing all the girls on the show. His obsession with girls had literally carried over into his career some 30 years after I had first noticed it. As interesting as these anecdotes may be, I do not claim to have some unique ability to make accurate predictions. After all, other people have correctly predicted my future as well. We can all see some aspects in others that are indicative of who they are likely to become in the future. We can sense it and see it with everyone around us. We know the path they are on. There are few surprises that we are likely to witness in the lives of others, because we can often clearly see where people are going, even before they can. And this brings me to you. If you ask the people around you where they see you going, they will tell you if you prod them. Most of them already see it. You do not see where you are going all the time because you are living in it. You are also denying it. But others simply see it. And they take it for what it is. It may sound daunting, but it is important to ask the people around you about how they envision your life unfolding. Where are you headed? Are you headed for something positive or negative? Your allies will tell you if you let them. And If you are at all in trouble as I once was, there is no stronger catalyst than change in your life. THE LESSON Looking back at the past, one can always identify the mistakes that he or she did not know any better than to make at the time. You cannot get the “whole picture” of you life at any given time because you are currently living it; conversely, you can look at others and see things that will determine their future. You must use this outside perspective to your benefit, and frequently ask those around you about how they envision your life unfolding. Your allies will tell you the truth about yourself, good or bad, if you let them.

76 INT. TV STATION – CORRIDOR – NIGHT Chance is intrigued by the the surroundings as MORTON HULL guides him through the corridor. HULL Of course, Mr. Gardiner, your position in the financial community carries a lot of weight, but what caught Gary’s attention was your down-to-earth philosophy. CHANCE I see. They walk a while through the corridor. HULL (making conversation) Do you realize that more people will be watching you tonight than all those who have seen theater plays in the last forty years? CHANCE Yes. It’s a very good show. Hull takes Chance into the makeup room. 77 EXT. AIRPORT – NIGHT AIR FORCE 1 taxies to the ground. 78 INT. AIR FORCE 1 – NIGHT The President sits on a couch in one of the compartments on the jet. With him are six of his STAFF, Kaufman included. PRESIDENT What do you mean, no background? That’s impossible, he’s a very well known man! KAUFMAN Yes, sir – we are aware of all that, but still, we haven’t been able to… PRESIDENT (interrupts) He’s an advisor and close personal friend of Rand’s! For Christ sakes, they have volumes of data on Benjamin! KAUFMAN Yes, Mr. President, I plan on contacting Mr. Rand as soon as… PRESIDENT (again interrupts) I do not want Benjamin Rand disturbed! You have other ways of gathering information than to trouble a dying man. Use whatever agencies are necessary to put together a detailed history of Chauncey Gardiner, if you run into problems, alert Honeycutt. (he stands) Have it in my office at seven in the morning. (he starts for door) I’ve got to take a leak. KAUFMAN Right, chief. As the President goes to the Men’s Room, two of the aides reach for telephones.

79 INT. TV STATION – CORRIDOR/MAKEUP ROOM – NIGHT A PAGE comes through the corridor carrying a glass of water. He turns into the makeup room to reveal Hull sitting next to Chance in front of the mirror. The makeup man, COLSON, works on Chance as he watches the guest preceding him on a TV monitor that is reflected in the mirror. PAGE (gives Chance water) I thought you might need this about now, Mr. Gardiner. It gets real hot under these lights. CHANCE Thank you. I am very thirsty. The Page leans against the door jamb, smiles if anyone looks at him. HULL (briefing Chance) Now, if Gary wants to interrupt you, or ask you a question, he’ll raise his left forefinger to his left eyebrow. CHANCE (to Colson) Nurse Teresa did Ben’s makeup. COLSON (laughs) Oh? Did she do a good job? CHANCE Yes, very good. On the TV, GARY BURNS finishes with his guest and the band goes into a hot instrumental number. COLSON (a last minute dab) Okay, Mr. Gardiner, looks like you’re up. Hull leads Chance out of the makeup room. Colson sits and watches the TV monitor. The Page, his back to Colson, carefully picks up Chance’s water glass so as not to smear the fingerprints, then leaves the room. On the TV monitor, the band plays, the audience applauds as Burns introduces Chance. 80 INT. RAND LIMOUSINE – NIGHT BURNS (on TV) I always find it surprising, Mr. Gardiner, to find men like yourself, who work so intimately with the President, yet manage to remain relatively unknown. CHANCE (on TV) Yes. That is surprising. BURNS (on TV) …Well, your anonymity will be a thing of the past from now on. CHANCE (on TV) (doesn’t understand) I hope so. BURNS (on TV) (a beat) Yes…of course. Well, I assume, since the President quoted you, that you agree with his view of the economy. CHANCE (on TV) Which view? Applause and laughter from the TV audience. 81 INT. ALLENBY’S ROOM – NIGHT Allenby watches, concerned as to which way it will go. BURNS (on TV) (a beat) Well, the President compared the economy of this country to a garden, and stated that after a period of decline a time of growth would naturally follow. CHANCE (on TV) Yes, I know the garden very well. I have worked in it all my life. It is a good garden and a healthy one; 82 INT. RAND’S ROOM – NIGHT Rand is in bed. Eve sits in a chair next to the bed, squeezes Rand’s hand in the excitement as they both watch Chance on television. Teresa and Constance watch in the Background. CHANCE (on TV – cont’d) its tress are healthy and so are its shrubs and flowers, as long as they are trimmed and watered in the right seasons. The garden needs a lot of care. I do agree with the President; everything will grow strong, and there is plenty of room in it for new trees and new flowers of all kinds. The TV audience applauds Chance and Constance quietly leaves the room. 83 INT. WHITE HOUSE – PRESIDENT’S BEDROOM – NIGHT The President and First Lady are in bed together watching the show. BURNS (on TV) So you’re saying, Mr. Gardiner, if the Stock Market collapses, and unemployment keeps increasing, that this is just another season, so to speak, in the garden? The First Lady cuddles up to the President. 84 INT. RAND LIMOUSINE – NIGHT Chance continues to watch himself. CHANCE (on TV) Yes. In a garden, things grow – but first some things must wither; some trees lose their leaves before they grow new leaves… 85 INT. THOMAS FRANKLIN’S BEDROOM – NIGHT Franklin, the attorney that evicted Chance, comes out of the bathroom brushing his teeth. His wife, JOHANNA, is in the bed absorbed in the show. Franklin sits on the end of the bed. CHANCE (on TV – cont’d) …And if you give your garden a lot of love, and if you work very hard and have a lot of patience, in the proper season you will see it grow to be very beautiful… More applause from the TV. Franklin leans closer to the set. FRANKLIN (puzzled) It’s that gardener! JOHANNA Yes, Chauncey Gardiner. FRANKLIN No! He’s a real gardener! JOHANNA (laughs) He does talk like one, but I think he’s brilliant. BURNS (on TV) Well, that’s very interesting, Mr. Gardiner, but, what about the bad seasons? 86 INT. CHANCE’S ROOM – NIGHT Constance is in Chance’s closet searching through his clothing. Finding nothing, she checks the labels on his suits, copies them in a notepad. BURNS (Cont’d) (on TV) Such as prolonged droughts that have wiped out crops, disastrous winters, hurricanes? Doesn’t a country need to have someone in charge that can see it through such crises? Don’t we need a leader capable of guiding us through the bad seasons as well as the good? CHANCE (on TV) Yes. We need a very good gardner. Constance continues her work in the closet. 87 INT. PRESIDENT’S BEDROROM – NIGHT The President and First Lady are very attentive. BURNS (on TV) I realize this might be a difficult question for you, Mr. Gardiner but there are a lot of us around the country that would like to hear your thoughts on the matter. CHANCE (on TV) I understand. BURNS (on TV) Do you feel that we have a ‘very good gardener’ in office at this time, Mr. Gardiner? PRESIDENT …That bastard… CHANCE (on TV) Oh, yes. It is possible for one side of the garden to be flooded, and the other side to be dry… Some plants do well in the sun, and others grow better in the cool of the shade. The First Lady moves closer to the President. 88 INT. HOTEL LOBBY – NIGHT A group of ELDERLY BLACK PEOPLE sit in the lobby, watching the show on an old black-and-white TV CHANCE (on TV – cont’d) ..It is the gardner’s responsibility to take water from the flooded area and run it to the area that is dry. It is also the gardner’s responsibility not to plant a sun-loving flower in the shade of a high wall… During the preceding speech, Louise, the maid from the Old Man’s house, chatters. LOUISE Gobbledegook! All the time he talked gobbledegook! An’ it’s for sure a White man’s world in America, hell, I raised that boy since he was the size of a pissant an’ I’ll say right now he never learned to read an’ write – no sir! Had no brains at all, was stuffed with rice puddin’ between the ears! Short-changed by the Lord and dumb as a jackass an’ look at him now! Yes, sir – all you gotta be is white in America an’ you get whatever you want! Just listen to that boy -gobbledegook! There is a chorus of “Amens” as she finishes. 89 INT. RAND LIMOUSINE – NIGHT Chance watches himself. CHANCE (on TV – cont’d) …It is the responsibility of the gardner to adjust to the bad seasons as well as enjoy the good ones. Chance changes channels to a Game Show. 90 INT. PRESIDENT’S BEDROOM – NIGHT The President and First Lady still watch Chance. CHANCE (on TV – cont’d) If the gardner does his job, everything will be fine. PRESIDENT Oh, Jesus… Audience applause is heard on TV. BURNS (on TV) Before we take a break…What sort of gardner would you be? CHANCE (on TV) (with confidence) I am a very serious gardner. BURNS (on TV) I’m sure you are, Mr. Gardiner. (looks at camera) We’ll be right back. As a commercial comes on, the President rolls over in bed. The First Lady reaches out, puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. 91 INT. RAND’S ROOM – NIGHT The commercial is on TV. RAND He’s a remarkable man, remarkable… (to Eve) You’re fond of him too, aren’t you, Eve? EVE (a beat) …Yes, I am, Ben. RAND That’s good… that’s good. Rand looks up as Constance comes back into the room. RAND Constance! Where have you been? You missed the whole show – Chauncey was wonderful.

This remarkable exchange on the talk show is captivating because most of us all have a profound understanding of “ideal conditions” and know that these ideal conditions will make all the difference. All Chance says throughout the movie, in effect, is that it is important that conditions always be good, and that care is taken to create good conditions for economic and other sorts of growth. Without corrupting influences and with little knowledge of the outside world, Chance speaks of nothing else but gardening. The brilliance of the movie is that it says something we already know, but easily forget.

In your life there is nothing more important than putting yourself in the ideal conditions for your growth. My mother once spoke of a friend, and she said something I will never forget: “He will never be as successful as he could be, because of his wife. She does not want him to do well, because if he does, she is afraid that he will leave her.” I did not know the people she was talking about that well, but I had observed the wife continually criticizing and putting down the man. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how correct my mother was. There was no way this man could ever be successful anywhere near his capacity when he was being put down and criticized at home. He was always being told he was wrong and that there was something wrong with him. Moreover, I remember also observing that every time this man would leave home for an extended period of time, he would immediately get happy and within a few more days, his wife would get sick or create some sort of commotion, and he would need to come running back home. This process repeated itself over and over again. The conditions were wrong for him.

My concern is your success. In order for you to be successful the most important thing you can do is to put yourself in the right conditions. You need to be in the right conditions at all times in order to be successful. Once you are in the right conditions, you will thrive. Everything is about being in the right conditions and your career and life will not thrive unless you are aware of this.

My daughter is two years old and already in our area of Los Angeles, the competition is intense for kids to get into certain schools. This is about getting kids into the right conditions, which parents take very seriously. I sold the house with the fish to a famous producer, Gail Hurd. She wanted a house in Pasadena because her daughter was going to a good private school in the area. She was seeking to put her daughter in the ideal conditions. When I was a freshman in high school I attended a public school that was not very good. I did poorly in the school. For my sophomore year of high school, I moved with my family to Bangkok, Thailand. I went to a very good school there, International School Bangkok, and got excellent grades and thrived. Everything is about the conditions we are in.

I loved the people in the first law firm where I worked, and I disliked the people at the second firm. Had I remained in the first law firm (which was very creative and fun), I would have had a good career and done well. Had I remained in the second law firm, I would have had a poor career and been unhappy. It is all about the conditions we are in.

One thing I have learned about raising saltwater fish and roses is that one small change can affect everything in a negative way. For example, if you change the type of food you are feeding the fish, if you move a plant that was shading a part of the aquarium–virtually anything can create a massive change in the health of the fish. If you water the roses more or less each day, this can affect the flowers.

Everything is about environment. Change one thing and you can affect everything. You need to study the environments where you were successful in the past to see what elements existed in these environments that were correct. If things went bad, what changed? One small thing can ruin your environment. You need to be in an ideal environment and if one small thing is wrong with your environment, you should address this.

In your career, and in your life, you will not succeed unless you are in the ideal environment. It just won’t happen. You will match like oil and water with certain people and you will match like oil and water with certain organizations. If you are not getting the results you want in your life, you need to find a better scene and/or put yourself in a more ideal scene. There is nothing more important than the quality of the environment you are in. It may require changing aspects of your current environment, not working with certain people, working with certain people, working in a certain manner–whatever it is in your environment that makes you succeed–you need to find it and use it.

Most people spend their lives as critics. They criticize their employer, their bosses, and find fault with their conditions. It may be the government’s fault. It may be the fault of the economy. It may be the fault of someone else. Regardless of their environment, the chances are good they will find fault with what is wrong. If the problems in your environment are preventing you from succeeding, the best thing you can do is take action to fix what is wrong with your environment, or put yourself in an environment where things are better.

All around me every single day I am encountering people who have immigrated to America recently. My wife’s father is from another country. In my yard, the people mowing my lawn are always from Mexico. The people who work on my aquariums are from Lebanon. People who work in my office are from India. All around me are people who have come to the United States in search of a better environment. They are here because they felt that there was something in their native countries that was holding them back. They are mostly right. Poverty, lack of infrastructure, not enough economic opportunity, lack of work–you name it–all of these things are the sorts of things that have held people back in other countries. People come to the United States because they want to find an ideal environment that will allow them to succeed. People send money home to Mexico or to India when they come to work in the United States because the working conditions here are so much better for them.

You need to do everything within your power in your own country, state, city, and neighborhood to create the ideal environment. There is nothing more important for your long-term success than this. The people who move to the United States in search of more opportunity are those who have taken action. Revolutions happen in countries around the world when groups of people try with all of their might to create the right environment. Our dislike of countries like Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, and China is tied to the fact that we do not approve of their environment. Oppression of people, street battles, and chaos are abhorrent, and not our idea of an ideal environment.

For some people, being in an environment with a lot of order may be important. For others, being in an environment that allows a lot of creativity may be important. For others, an environment with people they like and know may be important. For still others, working in an environment that is very professional and formal may be important. Everyone has a list of things they believe will make them do well and be productive. It is up to you to do everything within your power to put yourself in a job and environment that will contribute to your long-term success and happiness at work.

You want to be in an environment that allows you to be at your best. Like a plant, or a fish, there are likely to be toxic elements in your environment. You need to do everything you can to avoid whatever is toxic, because it will hold you back from achieving all you can. Your life and success in your career is going to prosper or fail based on the environment you are in.