Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude

Lee Braxton, of Whiteville, North Carolina, was the son of a struggling blacksmith. He was the tenth child in a family of twelve. "... so you might say," says Mr. Braxton, "that I became acquainted with poverty early in life. By hard work I managed to get through the sixth grade in school. I shined shoes, delivered groceries, sold news-papers, worked in a hosiery mill, washed automobiles, and served as a mechanic's helper."

When he became a mechanic, it appeared to Lee that he r had risen as far as he could go. Perhaps he had not yet developed inspirational dissatisfaction. In due course he married. And together he and his wife scrimped along. He was used to poverty. And it now seemed to him that it was impossible for him to break the ties which held him down, although he was poorly paid and just barely supporting his family. The Braxtons were already having a terrible time making ends meet when, to complete the picture of defeat, he lost his job. His home was about to be taken from him because he was unable to meet the mortgage payments. It seemed a hopeless situation.

But Lee was a man of character. He was also a religions man. And he believed that God is always a good God. So he prayed for guidance. As if in answer to his prayer, he received the book Think and Grow Rich from a friend. This friend had lost his job and his home in the Depression. And he had been motivated to recoup his fortune after reading Think and Grow Rich.

Now Lee was ready.

He read the book again and again. He was searching for financial success. He said to himself: "It seems to me there is something I have to do. I have to add something, No book will do it for me. The first thing I must do is develop a Positive Mental Attitude regarding my abilities and my opportunities. I must certainly choose a definite goal. When I do, I must aim higher than I have in the past. But I must get started. I'll begin with the first job I can find."

And he looked for a job and found one. It didn't pay much to start.

But it wasn't many years after he had read Think and Grow Rich that Lee Braxton organized and became president of the First National Bank of Whiteville, was elected mayor of his city, and engaged in many successful business enterprises. You see: Lee had aimed high ? in fact, very high. He had taken as his major purpose the goal of being rich enough to retire at the age of 50. He achieved this goal six years ahead of time ? retiring from active business with substantial wealth and a fine independent income at the age of 44. Today Lee Braxton is leading a useful life. He is devoting his entire efforts to helping Oral Roberts, the evangelist, in his ministry.

Now, the jobs that he took and the investments he made in climbing from failure to success are not important here. What is

important is that necessity motivates a man with PMA to action without transgressing recognized inviolable standards. An honest man won't deceive, cheat, or steal because of necessity. Honesty is inherent in PMA.

Necessity, NMA and crime. Now, contrast such a man with the many thousands of persons with NMA who are imprisoned because of stealing, embezzling, or other crimes. When you ask them why they stole in the first place, their answer invariably is: "I had to." And that's how they landed in prison! They allowed themselves to become dishonest because cobwebs in their thinking caused them to believe that necessity forces one to become dishonest.

Some years ago, Napoleon Hill, while doing personal counseling in the prison library in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, had several confidential talks with Al Capone. In one of these talks, the author inquired: "How did you get started in a life of crime?"

Capone answered with one word: "Necessity."

Then tears came into his eyes and he choked up. He began to tell of some of the good things he had done which the newspapers had never mentioned. Of course, these seem insignificant compared to the evil that is attributed to his name.

That unfortunate man wasted his life, destroyed his peace of mind, undermined his physical body with deadly disease, and spread fear and disaster in the path he followed ? all because he never learned to clear the cobwebs of his thinking regarding necessity.

And when Capone told of his good deeds, which he implied offset to some great degree the wrongs he had done, he clearly indicated another cobweb which was preventing him from

thinking accurately. While a man can neutralize the evil he has done by true repentance followed by a life of good deeds, Capone was not such a man.