by Napoleon Hill
Available in 122 free installments
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So you can motivate others by having faith in them. Faith, rightly understood, is active, not passive. Passive faith is no more a force than sight is in an eye that does not observe. Active faith steps out on its belief and risks failure because it assumes it will succeed.
When you motivate others by having faith in them, then you must have an active faith. You must commit your belief. You must say, "I know that you are going to succeed in this job, so I have committed myself and others to your success. We are here, waiting for you... "
When you have that kind of faith in another man, he will succeed.
Now faith can be expressed in a letter. In fact, a letter is an excellent tool for expressing one's thoughts and motivating another person.
A letter can change a life for the better. Anyone who writes a letter affects the subconscious mind of the receiver through suggestion. And the power of this suggestion is, of course, dependent upon several factors.
If you are a parent, for example, and your son or daughter is away at school, you can accomplish that which you might not otherwise achieve. You can grasp the opportunity: (a) to mold the character of your child; (b) to discuss matters that you might
hesitate or never take the time to discuss in conversation; and (c) to express your inner thoughts.
Now a boy or girl may not readily accept advice when it is given verbally. For environment and emotions involved at the time of the conversation might prevent this. And yet the same boy or girl would treasure the same advice received in a carefully written, sincere letter.
To a son or daughter away from home a letter with all of its contents, including advice, is most welcome. And if it is properly written, it may be read frequently, studied, and digested.
And the executive or sales manager who writes the right type of letter to his salesmen can motivate them to break all previous records. Likewise the salesman who writes his sales manager will benefit from this tool of motivation.
Now to write a letter, one must think. Therefore, the writer should crystallize his ideas on paper. And he can ask questions to direct the recipient's mind in the desired channels. In fact he can ask a question to obtain a letter in return. Or when the person he would like to hear from does not write, he, like an advertising expert, can use a bait. That's what J. Pierpont Morgan did.
One way to motivate a college student to write. J. Pierpont Morgan proved there is at least one way to get college students to answer a letter. His sister had complained that her two college sons just wouldn't write home. Mr. Morgan said that he could get the boys to respond immediately if he sent a letter. And then his sister challenged him to prove it. So he wrote each nephew and received an immediate reply from both.
Surprised, his sister asked, "How did you do it?"
Morgan handed the letters to her and she saw that both contained interesting information about college life and thoughts of home. But the postscript on each was similar. One read: "The ten dollars you said was enclosed in your letter wasn't received!"
Motivate by example. A successful sales manager knows that one of the most effective means to motivate a salesman is to set an example when working with him in the field. W. Clement Stone has inspired many people with the story he tells about how he trained a salesman who Jived at Sioux City, Iowa. Here's the way he tells it:
I listened to one of our salesmen at Sioux City, Iowa, gripe for over two hours one evening. Now he kept on telling how he had worked for two days at Sioux Center without making a sale. He said: "It's impossible to sell at Sioux Center because the people there are Holland Dutch, they're clannish and they won't buy from a stranger. Besides, the territory has had a crop failure for five years."
I suggested that we sell the next day at Sioux Center, the town where he had worked for two days without making a sale. So the next morning we drove to Sioux Center. For there I intended to prove that the salesman with PMA who believed in and used our company's system could sell regardless of the obstacles.
And while the salesman was driving, I closed my eyes, relaxed, meditated, and conditioned my mind. I kept my mind on the reasons why I should and would sell these people rather than why I wouldn't or couldn't.
Here's what I thought: He says that they are Holland Dutch and clannish; therefore they won't buy. That's
