Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude

"An amazing thing! You gave your talk on motivation Tuesday. In your talk you recommended ten inspirational books. I bought Think and Grow Rich and started to read it that evening. I read for hours. The next morning I started reading it again and then I wrote on a piece of paper:

"My major definite aim is to double last year's sales this year. The amazing thing is: I did it in forty-eight hours."

"How did you do it?" Mr. Stone asked East. "How did you double your income?"

East responded: "In your speech on motivation, you told how Al Allen, one of your Wisconsin salesmen, tried to sell cold-canvass in a certain block. You said that Al was lucky because he worked all day and didn't make a sale.

"That evening, you said, Al Allen developed inspirational dissatisfaction. He determined that the following day he would again call on exactly the same prospects and sell more insurance policies that day than any of the other representatives in his group would sell all week.

"You told how Al Allen completely canvassed the same city block. He called on the same people and sold 66 new accident contracts. I remembered your statement: 'It can't be done some may think, but ? Al did it.' I believed you. I was ready.

"I remembered the self-starter you gave us: DO IT NOW!

"I went to my card records and analyzed ten 'dead' accounts. I prepared what might previously have seemed to be an enormous program to present to each. I repeated the self-starter DO IT NOW! several times. And then I called on the ten accounts with a positive mental attitude and made eight large sales. It is amazing

? truly amazing ? what PMA will do for the salesmen who use its power!"

Now Edwin H. East was ready when he heard the talk on motivation. He listened to the message that was applicable to him. He was searching for something. And he found what he was looking for. Our purpose in relating this particular story is that you, too, have read about Al Allen. But you may not have seen how you could apply the principle to your own experience. Edwin H. East did. And you can, too. You can apply the principles in each of the stories you read in Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.

Now, however, we want you to learn the self-starter, DO IT NOW!

Sometimes a decision to act immediately can make your wildest dreams come true. It worked that way for Manley Sweazey.

You can mix business and pleasure. Manley loved hunting and fishing. His idea of the good life was to hike fifty miles into the woods with his pole and his rifle, and hike back a couple of days later exhausted, muddy, and very happy.

The only trouble with this hobby was that it took too much time out from his work as an insurance salesman. Then one day as he reluctantly left a favorite bass lake and headed back to his desk, Manley had a wild idea. Suppose, somewhere, there were people living in a wilderness ? people who needed insurance. Then he could work and be out-of-doors at the same time! And indeed, Manley discovered, there was such a group of people: The men who worked for the Alaska Railroad. They lived in scattered section-houses strung out along the 500-mile length of the track. What if he were to sell insurance to these railroad men, and to the trappers and gold miners along the route?

The same day that the idea came to him, Sweazey began making positive plans. He consulted a travel agent and began packing. He didn't pause to let doubts creep in and frighten him into believing that his idea might be scatterbrained... that it might fail. Instead of picking the idea apart for its flaws, he took a boat to Seward, Alaska.

He walked the length of the railroad many, many "Walking Sweazey," as he was called, became a welcome sight to these isolated families, not only because sold insurance when no one else had thought them worth bothering with, but because he represented the outside world. He went the extra mile. For he taught himself how to cut hair, and did it free of charge. He taught himself how to cook, too. Since the single men ate mostly canned foods and bacon, Manley, with his culinary skills, was a welcome guest. And all the while he was doing what came naturally. He was doing what he wanted to do: tramping the hills, hunting, fishing and ? as he puts it, "living the life of Sweazey!"