William Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) was a prominent businessman, philanthropist and self-help book author. W. Clement Stone was born in and grew up on Chicago’s South Side. From an early age, he demonstrated the entrepreneurship, tenacity and optimism that were hallmarks of his life. To help support his family, Mr. Stone began selling newspapers on the street at the age of six. When older youth drove him away from the busiest corners, he moved his sales to restaurants where he eventually won over owners and customers.
At age 19, Stone started working with his mother selling accident policies. He evidently had enormous energy and drive. At age 19, he averaged selling 48 policies per day. Later in his life, he reached a nine-day average of 72 policies per day, and sold 122 policies in one day. He did this using a cold canvass system at office buildings, meaning he had no pre-arranged appointments. Most of us can't conceive of talking to that many people in one day. He might have made some sales of multiple policies for some families, but he must have seen an awful lot of customers in a day to make those sales. 
One of the decisions that Stone made to increase his production was to limit the time he would spend on his sales effort. If a customer wouldn't make the commitment in the designated time, he would move on to the next call. When Stone reached the 72 policy per day level, he started concentrating on building his own sales force. When the Great Depression hit, he devoted more of his attention to creating a sales training program to improve the effectiveness of his sales team, including spending some initial time with new salespersons in the field. He also developed custom insurance policies that would be easy to sell and renew. Through these experiences, Mr. Stone developed his lifelong philosophy of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), which he viewed as the cornerstone of his success. He believed in the power of optimism and that even in adversity lay seeds of success.
He was highly successful and eventually started the Combined Insurance Company of America with a modest initial investment of $100. Combined Insurance grew into a multimillion dollar enterprise that became A Corporation in the 1980s. W. Clement Stone married his high school sweetheart, Jessie Verna Tarson, in 1923 and they had three children. The Stones were committed, lifelong philanthropists who supported countless civic and community groups as well as political and humanitarian causes.
In its early years, the Stone Foundation promoted PMA and distributed grants focused on four key areas: mental health, education, children/youth and religion. It also created and coordinated operating programs such as self-improvement projects in prisons and consulting services in management and positive mental attitude training for nonprofit organizations. Since the late 1990s, the Foundation has concentrated its grant making in three areas: early childhood development, youth development and education (with an emphasis on teacher quality and principal leadership). Today, the Foundation has an asset base of over $80 million and distributes almost $2 million in grants each year primarily in Chicago, Boston, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.
W. Clement Stone died in September 2002 at the age of 100. Their son, Norman Stone, President of the Foundation, and many of their grandchildren and several other family members, who serve as Trustees, Corporate Officers and Committee Members, sustain the Stones’ family tradition of philanthropy and their steadfast conviction that every individual can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life for others. Throughout his life Mr. Stone donated an estimated $275 million to various charitable organizations. Mr. Stone's inspirational self-help books, which have reached a world-wide audience, reinforce the conviction that anyone can become successful “no matter how poor his start in life.”

Chapter 1 : A Young Boy Begins the Search

I was six years old and scared. Selling newspapers on Chicago’s tough South Side wasn’t easy, especially with the older kids taking over the busy corners, yelling louder, and threatening me with clenched fists. The memory of those dim days is still with me, for it’s the first time I can recall turning a disadvantage into an advantage. It’s a simple story, unimportant now... and yet it was a beginning.

Hoelle’s Restaurant was near the corner where I tried to work, and it gave me an idea. It was a busy and prosperous place that presented a frightening aspect to a child of six. I was nervous, but I walked in hurriedly and made a lucky sale at the first table. Then diners at the second and third tables bought papers. When I started for the fourth, however, Mr. Hoelle pushed me out the front door.

But I had sold three papers. So when Mr. Hoelle wasn’t looking, I walked back in and called at the fourth table. Apparently, the jovial customer liked my gumption; he paid for the paper and gave me an extra dime before Mr. Hoelle pushed me out once again. But I had already sold four papers and got a “bonus” dime besides. I walked into the restaurant and started selling again. There was a lot of laughter. The customers were enjoying the show. One whispered loudly, “Let him be,” as Mr. Hoelle came toward me. About five minutes later, I had sold all my papers.

The next evening I went back. Mr. Hoelle again ushered me out the front door. But when I walked right back in, he threw his hands in the air and exclaimed, “What’s the use!” Later, we became great friends, and I never had trouble selling papers there again.

Years later, I used to think of that little boy, almost as if he were not me but some strange friend from long ago. Once, after I had made my fortune and was head of a large insurance empire, I analyzed that boy’s actions in the light of what I had learned. This is what I concluded:

1. He needed the money. The newspapers would be worthless to him if they weren’t sold, he couldn’t even read them. The few pennies he had borrowed to buy them would also be lost. To a six-year-old, this catastrophe was enough to motivate him—to make him keep trying. Thus, he had the necessary inspiration to action.

2. After his first success in selling three papers in the restaurant, he went back in, even though he knew he might be embarrassed and thrown out again. After three trips in and out, he had the necessary technique for selling papers in restaurants. Thus, he gained the know-how.

3. He knew what to say, because he had heard the older kids yelling out the headlines. All he had to do, when he approached a prospective customer, was to repeat in a softer voice what he had heard. Thus, he possessed the requisite activity knowledge

I smiled as I realized that my “little friend” had become successful as a newsboy by using the same techniques that later flowered into a system for success that enabled him, and others, to amass fortunes. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, just remember those three phrases: inspiration to action, know-how, and activity knowledge. They are the keys to the system.

The Boy’s Search Goes On

Even though I was raised in a poor, run-down neighborhood, I was happy. Aren’t all children happy, regardless of poverty, if they have a place to sleep, something to eat, and room to play?

I lived with my mother in the home of relatives. As I grew older, the grandfather of a girl who lived on the top floor of our apartment building sparked my imagination with stories of cowboys and Indians while we ate puffed rice and milk. And each day, when he tired of his story-telling, I would go down stairs in the backyard and live the part of Buffalo Bill or a great Indian warrior chief. My pony, made out of a stick or old broom, was the fastest in the West.

Picture a working mother seeing her young son in bed at night and asking him to tell about his day’s experiences—those that were good and those that were bad. Picture him, after they had talked for a while, getting out of bed and kneeling beside his mother while she prayed for guidance. Then you have the feeling of the beginning of my search for the true riches of life.

Mother had a lot to pray for. Like all good mothers, she felt that her son was a good boy, but she was concerned because he was keeping “bad company.” And she was particularly disturbed that he had developed the habit of smoking cigarettes.

Tobacco was costly, so I used to roll coffee grounds in cigarette paper when tobacco was not available. Perhaps it made me feel important, for another boy and I smoked only when other boys and girls were around, taking particular pleasure if they seemed shocked. When we had company at home, I would demonstrate how grown up I was by smoking a homemade cigarette. A pattern was being established. But it wasn’t good.

Like other lads who get started in the wrong direction. I played hookey. I didn’t have any fun doing it; I felt guilty. Perhaps that was the way I tried to show that I was different from the others in my group. But there was one good thing I did do: At night, when my mother and I would talk. I would tell her the truth—and I would tell her everything.

My mother’s prayers for guidance were answered. She enrolled me in Spaulding Institute, a parochial boarding school at Nauvoo, Illinois. There, through exposure to a wholesome environment in which the three ingredients of the success system that never fails were employed, something happened something good.

Where can one develop inspiration to action to search for self-improvement better than in a religious school? And who has greater know-how and necessary knowledge to teach character than those who are devoting their entire lives to the church, striving to purify their own souls while trying to save the souls of others? As the weeks passed into months and months into years, I developed a secret ambition to be like my religious father—the pastor whom I admired and loved.

But I also loved my mother, and I missed her very much. Like so many boys living away from home at private schools, I was homesick, and like them, every time I saw my mother or wrote to her, I would beg her to bring me home permanently.

After two years at Nauvoo, she felt I was ready. Equally important, she was ready. Or perhaps it was motherly love, for she too, longed to have me with her. Although there was some question of my ability to adjust to a new environment, she knew that she could always send me back to Nauvoo if it became desirable. I was ready, and she was too.

The Upward Climb

Early in life, Mother had learned to sew, and because she had initiative, talent and sensitivity, she became proficient at it. Shortly after I left for Nauvoo, she realized that a change of home and business environment was desirable for her, too. She was now in a position to do something about it, for she didn’t have to be concerned with arranging for someone to care for me while she was at work.

She obtained a position in a very exclusive ladies’ import establishment known as Dillon’s. Within two years, she was in complete charge of all designing, fitting, and sewing, and she had developed a reputation among the exclusive clientele of being an outstanding designer and dressmaker. Her earnings were sufficiently great to enable her to get her own apartment in a nicer neighborhood.

Within a block of our apartment was a rooming house where the landlady did her own home cooking, and I had my meals there. The food was wonderful—beef stew, baked beans, homemade pies, mashed potatoes and gravy—notwithstanding the jovial complaints of the adult boarders, who were the most interesting people in the world to an eleven-year-old boy: show people. They liked me, too. I was the only child there.

Like thousands of men and women who grasp the opportunity to make the upward climb in this land of unlimited opportunity, mother saved enough money to establish her own business. Her reputation as a designer and dressmaker brought good clients, but she lacked the know-how to utilize bank credit. (Many small businesses would become big businesses if the owners would only learn that banks are in business to help small businesses become large through sound financing)

Because of lack of working capital or the proper utilization of bank credit, mother’s dressmaking establishment never expanded beyond her personal work and that of two full-time employees. Like most persons who endeavor to establish their own business, she, too, had her financial problems. But these problems brought to us many of the true riches of life, such as the joy of giving.

I made my spending money (which was partly savings money, for I had established a savings account) by building a Saturday Evening Post and newspaper route. Although each night mother asked me to tell her about my troubles, she never bothered to tell me about her own. But I could sense them. One morning, I noticed that she seemed to be quite worried. Later that day, before she returned home, I drew out what was to me a big chunk of my savings and purchased a dozen of the best roses I could buy.

My mother’s joy at this token of love inspired me to realize the true joy of the giver. Often over the years she would tell her friends with a mother’s pride about the dozen beautiful, long-stemmed roses and what they had done for her. This experience made me realize that money was a good thing to have—for the good it could do.

January 6 was always an important date in my mother’s life and in mine, for that was her birthday. One January 6, when for some reason—perhaps because of Christmas shopping—my bank account was down to less than a dollar, I was very much concerned, for I wanted desperately to buy her a birthday gift. That morning I prayed for guidance.

At the lunch hour, while walking home from school, my ears were tuned to the cracking of the ice beneath my feet. Suddenly I stopped and turned around. Something told me to go back and take a look. I walked back, picked up a crumpled green paper, and was amazed to find a ten-dollar bill! (That something you will hear more about.)

I was excited, but I decided not to buy a gift after all. I had a better plan.

Mother was home for lunch. As she was clearing the table, she picked up her plate and found a handwritten birthday note and the ten-dollar bill. Once again I found the joy of the giver, for it seemed that this was a day when everyone else had for gotten her birthday. She was delighted with this gift, which at the time seemed to her quite a sum.

Decisions Are Important – When Followed Through with Action

These personal experiences will indicate that each new decision that a child or an adult makes in a given set of circumstances begins patterns of thought that later create a tremendous impact in his life. When an adult makes a decision, it is likely to be foolish or sound, depending on his past experiences in coming to decisions. For the little things that are good ripen into big things that are good. And the little things that are load ripen into big things that are bad. And this applies to decisions.

But good decisions must be followed through with action. Without action, a good decision becomes meaningless, for the desire itself can die through lack of an attempt to achieve its fulfilment. That’s why you should act immediately on a good decision.

When You Go for Something, Don’t Come Back Until You Get It

I was twelve years of age when an older neighbor boy whom I respected invited me to attend a Boy Scout meeting. I went and had a lot of fun, so I joined his troop—Troop 23, under a scoutmaster named Stuart P. Walsh, who was attending the University of Chicago.

I’ll never forget him. He was a man of character. He wanted every boy in his troop to become a first-class scout within a short space of time, and he inspired each boy to want his troop to be the best in the city of Chicago. Perhaps that’s one reason why it was. Another was his firm conviction: to get what you expect-inspect) when you teach, inspire, train, and supervise others.

Every scout in Troop 23 made a weekly report of the good turns he had done each day in the week—the ways he had helped someone else without receiving compensation of any kind. This made each boy look for the opportunity to do a good deed—and because he looked, he found the opportunity.

Stuart P. Walsh imprinted in the memory of each member of Troop 23, in indelible pattern, the principles of the Scout Law: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”

But more important, he inspected to see if each scout in his troop knew how to relate, assimilate, and use each of these principles—not just to memorize them like a parrot, but to use them like a man. I can hear him say now: “When you go after something—don’t come back until you get it!”

In the next chapter, you will see how this principle taught by my old scoutmaster became so ingrained in me that it formed, at first without my realizing it, another step on the road to the success system that never fails. The six-year-old newsboy about whom you read in the beginning of this chapter had not yet awakened to where he was going—but he was on his way.

Little Hinges that Swing Big Doors

All success swings on the three phrases listed below. Once you truly understand what they mean, you’re on your way to a golden future. The remaining chapters in this book give you an understanding of the three phrases – but you must open your mind and look for meanings.

1. Inspiration to Action

2. Know-how

3. Activity Knowledge

Chapter 2 : Get Ready For Tomorrow

One of the most important lessons of my life forced itself on me at about the time I was graduating from grammar school. It was a lesson that turned into a major principle: You are subject to your environment. Therefore, select the environment that will best develop you toward your desired objective.

Although I was not then able to state the thought as succinctly as that, I was aware of the principle behind it. When it came time for me to enter high school, I concluded that Senn High was a better school than Lakeview High, which I would have to enter if we continued to live in the neighborhood in which we had our apartment at the time. Because an important change that my mother was making in business required that she move to Detroit, we made arrangements with a fine English family in the Senn district for me to live in their home.

I also decided that I would select my own friends on going to the new school. In choosing, I searched for individuals of character and intelligence. And because I searched, I found what I was looking for: fine, wonderful persons who had a tremendous influence for good upon me.

Get Your Money’s Worth

With me in a good home environment and attending a fine public school, mother made an investment in a small insurance agency representing the United States Casualty Company in Detroit, Michigan.

I’ll never forget it. She pawned her two diamonds to get sufficient cash to add to the money she did have to buy the agency. Remember: she hadn’t learned to use bank credit in establishing a business. After renting desk space in a downtown office building, she looked with anticipation to her first day’s sales. That day she was lucky. She worked hard, but she didn’t make a single sale—and that was good!

What do you do when everything goes wrong? What do you do when there is no place to turn? What do you do when you are faced with a serious problem?

Here’s what she did, the way she later told it to me: “I was desperate. I had invested all the cash I had, and I just had to get my money’s worth out of this investment. I had tried my best, but I hadn’t made a sale.

“That night I prayed for guidance. And the next morning I prayed for guidance. When I left home, I went to the largest bank in the city of Detroit. There I sold a policy to the cashier and got permission to sell in the bank during working hours. It seemed that within me there was a driving force that was so sincere that all obstacles were removed. That day I made 44 sales.”

Through trial and error the first day, my mother developed inspirational dissatisfaction. She was inspired to action. She knew Whom to ask for guidance and help in her efforts to make a livelihood, just as she knew Whom to ask for guidance and help when she was faced with a problem regarding her son.

And through trial and success the second day, she acquired know-how in selling her accident policies that developed for her a successful sales system. Now she had know-how in addition to inspiration to action and activity knowledge. So the upward climb was rapid.

Salesmen, like other persons, often fail in the upward climb because they do not reduce to a formula the principles applied on those days when they are successful. They know the facts, but they fail to extract the principles.

Now that she was earning a good living in personal sales, my mother began to build a sales organization that operated throughout the state of Michigan under the trade name of Liberty Registry Company.

Mother and I would see each other on holidays and during vacation periods. My second high school summer vacation was spent in Detroit. That’s when I, too, learned to sell accident insurance, and, that’s where I started to search for a sales system for myself—a system that would never fail.

Do Twice as Much in Half the Time

The Liberty Registry Company office was in the Free Press Building. I spent a day in the office, reading and studying the policy I was to try to sell the next day.

My sales instructions were as follows:

1. Completely canvass the Dime Bank Building:
2. Start at the top floor and call on each and every office.
3. Avoid calling in the office of the building.
4. Use the introduction, “May I take a moment of your time?”
5. Try to sell everyone you call on.

So I followed instructions. Remember, I had learned as a Boy Scout: When you set out to do something—don’t come back until you have done it.

Was I frightened? You bet I was.

But it never occurred to me not to follow instructions. I just didn’t know any better. I was, in this respect, a product of habit—a good habit.

The first day I sold two policies—two more than I had ever sold before. The second day, four—and that was a 100 per cent increase. The third day, six—a 50 per cent increase. And the fourth day I learned an important lesson.

I called at a large real estate office, and when I stood at the desk of the sales manager and used the introduction, “May I take a moment of your time?” I was startled. For he jumped to his feet, pounded his desk with his right fist and almost shouted: “Boy, as long as you live never ask a man for his time! Take it!”

So I took his time and sold him and 26 of his salesmen that day.

That started me thinking: There must be a scientific way to sell many policies every day. There must be a method that will make one hour produce the work of many. Why not find a system for selling twice as much in half the time? Why can’t I develop a formula that will bring maximum results for each hour of effort?

From that point on, I was consciously trying to discover the principles that have since built for me my sales system that never fails. I reasoned: “Success can be reduced to a formula. And failure can be reduced to a formula, too. Apply the one and avoid the other. Think for yourself.”

Think for Yourself

Regardless of who you are, it is desirable to learn the techniques of good salesmanship. For selling is merely persuading another person to accept your service, your product, or your idea. In this sense, everyone is a salesman. Whether or not you are a salesman by vocation, the minute details of my selling system are not really important to you; but the principles may be—if you are ready.

What is important to you is that you reduce to a formula, preferably in writing, the principles you learn from your successful experiences and your failures, in whatever activities you may be interested. But you may not know how to extract principles from what you read, hear, or experience. I’ll illustrate how I did it. But you must think for yourself.

How I Overcame Timidity and Fear

Before I describe how I overcame timidity and fear when opening up closed doors, entering plush offices, and trying to sell to businessmen and women as a teenager, let me first tell how I faced the same problem as a boy.

Many persons find it difficult to believe that as a youngster I was timid and afraid. But it is nature’s law that with every new experience and in every new environment an individual will feel some degree of fear. Nature protects the individual from danger by this awareness. Children and women experience this to a greater degree than men; again, this is nature’s way of protecting them from harm.

I remember that as a boy I was so timid that when we had company I would go into another room, and during a thunder storm I would hide under the bed But one day I reasoned: “If lightning is going to strike, it will be just as dangerous whether I am under the bed or in any other part of the room.” I decided to conquer this fear. My opportunity came, and I took advantage of it. During a thunderstorm, I forced myself to go to the window and look at the lightning. An amazing thing happened. I began to enjoy the beauty of lie flashes of lightning through the sky. Today, there is no one who enjoys a thunderstorm more than I do.

Although I called in each office in sequence in the Dime Bank Building, I had not licked the fear of opening a door, particularly when I couldn’t see what was on the other side (many of the glass doors were frosted or had curtains on the inside). It was necessary to develop a method of forcing myself to enter.

Then, because I searched, I found the answer. I reasoned: Success is achieved by those who try. Where there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if successful, by all means try!

The repetition of either of these self-motivators satisfied my reason. But I was still afraid, and it was still necessary to get into action. Fortunately, I struck upon the self-starter: Do it now! Because I had learned the value of trying to establish the right habits and the harm of acquiring wrong habits, it occurred to me that I could force myself to action as I left one office if I would rush quickly into the next one. Should it occur to me to hesitate, I would use the self-starter Do it now!—and immediately act on it. This I did.

How to Neutralize Timidity and Fear

When once inside a place of business, I was still not at ease, but I soon learned how to neutralize the fear of talking to a stranger. I did it through voice control.

I found that if I spoke loudly and rapidly, hesitated where there would be a period or comma if the spoken word were written, kept a smile in my voice, and used modulation, I no longer had butterflies in my stomach Later I learned that this technique was based on a very sound psychological principle: The emotions (like fear) are not immediately subject to reason but they are subject to action. When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion—action will.

The sales manager in the real estate office hadn’t liked the introduction: “May I take a moment of your tune?’’ Besides, many persons on whom I had used this introduction had answered “No.” So I abandoned it and, after experimenting, came up with a new one that I have used ever since: “I believe this will interest you also.”

No one has said “No” to this introduction. Most have asked, “What is it?” Then, of course, I have told them and given them my sales talk. The purpose of a sales introduction is solely to get a person to listen.

Know When to Quit

“Try to sell everyone you call on” was one of the instructions my mother had given me. So I stayed with every prospect. Sometimes I wore him out, but when I left his place of business, I was worn out too. It seemed to me that in selling a low-cost service, as I was doing, it was imperative that I average more sales per hour of effort. For it wasn’t every day that I sold 27 policies in one place of business.

So I decided not to sell everyone I called on, if the sale would take longer than a time limit I had set for myself. I would try to make the prospect happy and leave hurriedly, even though I knew that if I stayed with him I could make the sale.

Wonderful things happened. I increased my average number of sales per day tremendously. What’s more, the prospect in several instances thought I was going to argue, hut when I left him so pleasantly, he would come next door to where I was selling and say, “You can’t do that to me. Every other insurance man would hang on. You come back and write it.” Instead of being tired out after an attempted sale, I experienced enthusiasm and energy for my presentation to the next prospect.

The principles I learned are simple: Fatigue is not conducive to doing your best work. Don’t reduce your energy level so low that you drain your battery. The activity level of the nervous system is raised when the body recharges itself with rest. Time is one of the most important ingredients in any successful formula for any human activity. Save time. Invest it wisely.

How to Get a Person to Listen to You

“When you are talking to a person, look at his eyes,” I was taught as a youngster. But in selling, I would look at a person’s eyes and he would often shake his head “no.” And more often he would interrupt me. I didn’t like this. It slowed me down. Soon, I hit on a simple technique to avoid this: Get the prospect to concentrate through his senses of sight and hearing on what I had to show him and on what I had to say. I pointed to the policy or sales literature and looked at it as I gave my sales talk. Because I looked where I was pointing, he looked too. If, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a prospect shake his head “no,” I paid no attention. Often he would become interested, and I would later close the sale.

Play to Win

In a highly competitive game or sport, you play according to the rules, and you don’t violate the standards that you have set for yourself, but you play to win. So it is in the game of selling. For selling, like every other activity, becomes a lot of fun when you become an expert.

I found that to become an expert I had to work, and work hard. Try, try, try, and keep trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything. But in due course, by employing the right work habits, you do become an expert. Then you experience the joy of work, and the job is no longer work. It becomes fun.

Day after day I worked, and worked hard, trying to improve my sales techniques. I searched for trigger words—words and phrases that would set off the right reaction within the prospect. And the right reaction meant that he would buy within a reasonably short space of time, for time meant money to me.

I wanted to say the right thing in the right way to get the right reaction. This took practice, and practice is work.

Everything has a beginning and an ending. The introduction is the beginning of a sales presentation. How could I end the sale in the shortest space of time, in a manner that would make the prospect happy?

Because I searched, I made a discovery: If you want the prospect to buy, ask him to buy. Just ask him, and give him a chance to say “yes.” But make it easy for him to say “yes” and difficult to say “no.” Specifically, use force with such finesse that it is subtle, pleasing, and effective.

And here’s what I found: If you want a person to say “yes,” just make a positive statement and ask an affirmative question. Then the “yes” answer is almost a natural reflex action Examples:

1. Positive statement. It’s a nice day...

Affirmative question: Isn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is,

2. The mother who wants her child to practice the piano for an hour on a Saturday morning when she knows that the child wants to go out to play, could say:

Positive statement: You want to practice for an hour now so that you’ll have the entire day to play...

Affirmative question: Isn’t that true?

Answer: Yes.

3. A sales lady offering the customer a lace handkerchief could say:

Positive statement: This is beautiful, and it’s quite reasonable...

Affirmative question: Don’t you think so?

Answer. Yes.

Affirmative question: May I gift wrap it for you, then?

Answer: Yes.

4. The effective close I found is just as simple:

Positive statement. So, if you don’t mind, I would like to write it for you also, if I may...

Affirmative question: May I?

Answer: Yes.

Why It Was Written

The stories of my experiences in the Dime Bank Building indicate the techniques I used to begin to develop my sales system that never fails, and why I used them. I was searching for the necessary knowledge for each step that would comprise the entire sales presentation I was endeavoring to acquire the know-how—the experience of using this specific knowledge through repeated action.

In brief, I was preparing myself to develop the habit of using a formula that would consistently obtain outstanding results in sales for me in the shortest possible space of time.

Although I didn’t realize it then, I was in reality getting ready for tomorrow. For some years later, I discovered that my sales system employed principles that are the common de nominator of continuous successful achievement in every human activity. And thus I made a greater discovery: the success system that never fails.

What Does It Mean to You?

Health, happiness, success, and wealth can be yours when you understand and employ the success system that never fails. “For the system works... if you work the system.

Up to this point, you may not recognize and understand the success principles to be found in the stories and explanations you have read well enough to adopt them. But as you continue to read, they will become crystal clear.

As you search for the success system that never fails, you will make faster and more permanent progress by keeping in mind the three necessary ingredients, which are, in order of their importance:

1. Inspiration to action: that which motivates you, or anyone else, to act because you want to.

2. Know-how: the particular techniques and skills that consistently get results for you. Know-how is the proper application of knowledge. Know-how becomes habit through actual repetitive experience.

3. Activity knowledge: knowledge of the activity, service, product, methods, techniques, and skills with which you are particularly concerned.

For continuous success, it is necessary to get ready for tomorrow. To get ready for tomorrow, you must be a self-builder. And to learn to be a self-builder, read the next chapter.

Little Hinges That Swing Big Doors

1. In the end, your environment will control you; therefore, make sure that you control your environment. Avoid situations, acquaintances, associates, who tend to hold you back.

2. Success is achieved by those who try. Where there’s a lot to gain and little to lose, try.

3. Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.

4. Never forget: The system will work... if YOU work the system.