Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude

Again I was prepared to answer and said: "This should be easy. The Pennsylvania Casualty Company has assets consisting only of cash, government bonds, and high grade securities. I can borrow the half million dollars from the banks with which I have been doing business by pledging my interest in Pennsylvania Casualty Company and my other assets as additional security to back the loan."

When Mr. Arrington and I left the office of Commercial Credit Company at 5:00 p.m., the deal was closed.

Now this experience is related in detail here to illustrate the steps one takes to achieve his aims through the use of OPM. If you will refer to Chapter Eleven entitled "Is There a Short Cut to Riches?" you will see how the principles mentioned there were applied here.

While this story indicates how the use of OPM can help a person, credit can sometimes be harmful.

Warning ? credit can hurt you. So far we have been talking about the benefits of the use of credit. We have been talking about the practice of borrowing money for the purpose of making money. This is capitalism. This is good.

But that which is good can be harmful to a person with a negative mental attitude. Credit is no exception. And credit may make a person who has been honest become dishonest. The abuse of credit is one of the main sources of worry, frustration, unhappiness, and dishonesty.

Now we are talking about credit given voluntarily by a creditor. He gives credit to a person who he thinks has the quality of being worthy, on whose truthfulness he can rely. The one who betrays such a trust is dishonest. Such a person is the one who will borrow money or purchase merchandise without the intent to make the payments agreed upon or to pay the loan in full.

Likewise, the honest person can become dishonest when he neglects to repay the loans he makes, or pay for the merchandise he buys, even though circumstances may prevent him from making a payment on the due date.

For the man under the influence of the PMA side of his talisman will have the courage to face the truth. He will have the courage to notify his creditors as far in advance as possible when circumstances prevent him from making a payment. And then he will work out some satisfactory arrangement by mutual consent with his creditor. Above everything else, he will sacrifice until his obligation is finally fully paid.

The honest man with common sense does not abuse credit privileges.

The honest man who lacks common sense will borrow or purchase on credit indiscriminately. And then because he sees no way to pay his creditors, the NMA influence of his talisman exerts such a terrific force on him that he may become dishonest. He may feel his situation is hopeless and he can do nothing about it. He realizes that he won't be thrown into jail for owing borrowed money. Although he thinks he is not going to be punished, in reality his worries, fears, and frustrations are a very real punishment.

And he remains dishonest until he comes under the strong influences of the PMA side of his talisman ? influences strong enough to cause him to clear his obligations in full.

The abuse of credit privileges has literally brought on physical, mental, and moral illness. Remember Necessity, NMA, and Crime in Chapter Three entitled "Clear the Cobwebs From Your Thinking."

Warning ? OPM and cycles. As a very young salesman in the early part of 1928, W. Clement Stone called on an officer at the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company in Chicago. The banker was talking to a customer or friend. While the young salesman was waiting, he overheard him say, "The market just can't keep going up forever. I'm selling my shares."

Some of the keenest investors in the country lost fortunes when the stock market crashed the following year ? all because they lacked the knowledge of cycles, or, if they had the knowledge, they, unlike the banker, failed to act.

Tens of thousands of individuals engaging in all forms of business enterprises, including farming, lost their wealth ? even though they were honest, prudent persons. Their wealth was acquired through OPM. As their securities increased in value, they borrowed more money to purchase more securities, farmland or other assets.

When the market value of their securities fell, they were unable to pay when the banks were forced to call in their loans.