W. Clement Stone - Think!

Why don't you specifically follow essential rule number 7? “Call every workplace, every day.”
You don't need to answer, but in your mind think, "what would be your answer?" You can be
sure whether you recognize it or not, it's because of fear. Now there is nothing to be
ashamed of. Fear is good. Fear is one of the big ones drives. Were it not for fear, some little
boy or girl would have jumped into fire or water or in the early days of our civilization,
cavemen would have faced a wild animal and no doubt the human species would have
become extinct. There is no doubt in my mind that many of the animals that went extinct
were mostly due to lack of fear. Fear is a wonderful thing. But in our civilization, here in
America, there are certain unwarranted fears. Now, the wonderful thing about our system,
that it recognize or not, it's that we've made a lot of great discoveries. And when I say that
we have made these discoveries, could I also admit that all universal truths are simple and
that undoubtedly others have made similar discoveries but have not expressed them in the
same way to obtain the same results? As a seller, I know exactly how you feel when you sell.
And because it was my luck as a kid to be more scared and shy than the average kid and
because it was my luck when I sold in the Dime Bank building, as many of you read in the
book, “The Success System Doesn't never fails” that I was afraid. I had to watch fear. I had
to watch her. But I had studied without receiving any credit because I studied, for the sake of
knowledge, certain books on the functioning of the human mind. And I realized that for every
problem there is a solution. And I conquered fear. There was a day, indeed there were years,
when I wondered if there would ever come a time when I would walk into a big bank in New
York, Chicago or anywhere else where I wouldn't have the feeling of fear. But that day has
come. Every new experience, the first time you entered this room, every new experience
there is an awareness. An awareness is a shadow of fear. It is nature's way of protecting
man's spine. So that's fine, but there's something you can do about it. Now, I have found that
the simple voice control technique is one. You who have studied our manuals know what I
mean. If you are talking to a potential client or giving a speech and you are shaking inside, or
afraid, speak loudly, speak quickly, emphasize words that are important to you. Hesitate if
there is a point or a comma, if we are talking about something written. Keep a smile in your
voice so it's not harsh. And if you're talking for a long time, use modulation. But I found
something else. I made a great discovery. And like all universal truths, these truths are
simple and everyone recognizes that they exist mat so often, very few people do anything
about it. Very few people reduce success to one formula, recognize a failure formula, apply
themselves to one, and avoid the other. That is to say, how do you overcome laziness? How
do you do the thing you know you should do but don't feel like doing? Another word for this
is: How do you motivate yourself? How do you develop that inner impulse that drives you to
action? How does that drive to make a decision develop? Well, the great discovery I've
made is so simple that every boy and girl, every wife, every husband can use it successfully.
When you learn universal truths and when you apply them, you have power. Because
knowledge is not power. It is the use of knowledge. It is the action where the power lies. And
this simple truth was most astoundingly revealed to me when I read the great lecture of I
Love Kuwait, which is in the form of a little book that each of you is privileged to have if you
write it. Namely, the use of suggestion and autosuggestion. Amy K Way, as many of you
know, was the great French Doctor in Lance, France. He, in his practice, first used hypnosis.
And then he asked himself a question: is it the doctor's suggestion, the patient's
autosuggestion or the subject's autosuggestion that brings results? And he concluded that it
was autosuggestion. So he abandoned the use of hypnosis. I think many of you remember
his very famous self-motivator. I call self-motivating any cliché, any word any symbol word
that makes you react, particularly when you use it deliberately and particularly where you
have memorized it for a set purpose. Now, her self-motivator was "Day after day anyway, I'm
getting better and better." Or in the English translation from French: “Day by day, in every
respect, I am getting better and better and more successfully through a positive attitude. And
“The success system never fails”. I recommend, at least for me and for those who choose to
use the technique day by day, in every way, by the grace of God, I'm getting better and
better. And so I suggest you listen. Listen carefully. You hear the principle. And then, starting
at the end of this meeting, decide to use those principles and move forward with action.
Again, I will repeat what I have so often repeated to this group and others. Abraham Lincoln,
according to his biographer William Herndon, perhaps read less and thought more than any
other man in public life about his joke. But he had the unique talent that when he read he
read a book as if the author was writing to him and him alone, he looked for the principle he
could use. So in his speeches he quotes the principle of the only book that the Lincoln family
had, the Holy Bible. And he knew how to relate and assimilate those principles. What does
this mean to you? It does not mean anything. It does not mean anything. You are wasting
your time in a meeting like this. You are wasting your time if you don't learn to relate,
assimilate and apply the principle. How do you develop the “what” within you so that you get
enough action and do the right thing? Because it's right. Well, there is a book, "The Success
System Never Fails," that gives you the secrets. I have already indicated how, through the
use of suggestion and autosuggestion, you can influence others as well as yourself. You
don't motivate unless what you say is credible, desirable, and attainable. And so I have
taken it upon myself in my writings and speeches to clarify what may not be crystal clear.
And so I might point out that any stimulus from the outside that hits your conscious, our
subconscious is a form of suggestion. In other words, any environmental influence is a
suggestion. Whether you like it or not, you are receiving suggestions through your five
senses from what you see, what you hear, taste, feel and smell. But the greatest form of all
suggestion, the most powerful form of all suggestion lies in the power of thinking. Now, as
human beings, as men and women, you think more with word symbols than with any other
medium. Words are so all important. That's why in a sales meeting, when a good wife stands
up and we give her a chance to speak, which is very rare, or a husband, one of our
salespeople stands up and uses the expression I can't. We stop them immediately. Point out
that as long as you live, never use the expression can't unless you follow up with another
negative, like "I can't fail." All right. Two negatives make a positive. How come? Because it
brings out your subconscious, whether you want it to or not. That's how the mind works. It
might be hard, you'd say, okay, I don't know how, but I'll try. All right. Because one of the
great discoveries in using self-motivators is that when you give an self-command you start
with an action verb. Many wonderful things happen. Let me illustrate. Those of you who have
read the subsequent “Success Never Fails System” fundamental attitudes, especially our
sales reps, know that we have an analysis known as the AV activity vector analysis. My use
of this is when I find that internally a man has certain negative aspects and to his advantage
to correct them if he chooses to teach him self-motivators. And also to use specific prompts,
let's say the individual is shy or afraid to call banks or go to one store after another. He can
learn the soft motivator if he wishes. Be brave. Be brave. Or “Success comes from those
who try, or where there is nothing to lose by trying again very successful, trying by all
means”. “Do it now and take action”. Now, the great discovery made in this regard is that
each of you in your homes will remember a certain phrase, it could come from the Bible, it
could come from Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or from a great
French scholar or from an Eastern philosopher that has had an impact in your life. It made
you act. But my discovery was that if this is true, why not deliberately select self-motivators?
And do what Abel Coy and others who know how the subconscious mind works date it more
than 5 - 100 times in the morning, 50 or 100 times at night, sometimes during the day for
four or five days, and then prepare for the action as soon as it flashes from the subconscious
to the conscious. And the illustration that you've seen used is the one do it now where a
piece of paper is on the floor, let's just leave it there. But if the self motivator comes to my
mind now, I pick it up to make a habit. And how do you form a habit? A habit, just bad or not,
is formed with repetition. And I will give some illustrations that are new to you and new to
others. Either way, I'm dedicated to sharing the secret of motivation with others. I can speak
with authority. I can prove it. I can prove it with you. Let me emphasize that any man or
woman representing this organization who will follow up on essential call number seven at
the bank or large place of business and then whatever happens, call into every place of
business, will automatically develop physical and mental health will automatically increase
his income far beyond anything he could have dreamed of will automatically find happiness
in his work he will automatically develop the internal power that comes with success. But
there is a price to pay. And the interesting thing about payment is that the amount of energy
used is relatively small. The man who is willing to think, just think, just think for half an hour a
day in the so-called study time. If you prefer inspirational time, read above inspiration or soft
inspiration to action, read a manual or other technical book, and then think about how you
can apply it. If he pays that price day after day, he'll get better and better. We now have the
wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to the world whether or not a group of people, a large
group, can be motivated to help themselves. We can prove to the world, and we are willing
to prove to the world, that you, as a representative of this company, are truly self-interested,
that you truly love your children and your wife. In fact, you love them enough to stop being a
hypocrite and do something about it. And what do I mean? What are you a hypocrite? Aren't
we all hypocrites if we tell that little girl of ours to do her homework every day, play that piano
an hour a day, go to Sunday school or church every Sunday if we ourselves won't do it?
Take the time to try day by day to improve ourselves by studying, especially our sales reps,
who could earn incredibly large incomes and acquire great wealth. You have potential power.
You have a subconscious mind. You have a conscious mind. You have inherited from the
vast reservoir of the past all that is necessary to achieve any success in life you may desire
that is wrong, as long as it does not violate God's laws or the rights of your fellow man. But
you have to think. And then they have to take action. And when you think, you have to think
scientifically. The fallacy of logic, as used by many people, is that the individual reasons
based on what he knows, the scientific approach consists in reasoning based on what is
known but dealing with the unknown. And therefore, for a scientist, nothing is impossible,
although it might be improbable. Whether it's shooting a satellite at the moon, or increasing
your earnings by two or 300%, or showing a 100% increase in an organization like the
Combined Insurance Company of America, no man, dead or alive, can tell that i haven't tried
sharing with him everything i know about motivation or regarding this activity. I am referring,
of course, only to our organization. I'm trying to urge you to be successful. I am trying to
exhort you to acquire well, I am trying to exhort you to regain physical and mental health. I
am trying to urge you to make this world a better world to live in for this and future
generations. And this can be done if you choose to motivate yourself. All right, motivation.
How to relate and assimilate the question of mental health, the question of character. You
get parents, success, school, business and so on. Now, I attended a meeting a few years
ago at the Sales Executive Club when there was a seminar and Borden and Busy put on a
movie and Borden gave a talk. At first I questioned Borden's statement that you don't get
what you expect out of life if you don't control it. He says with the seller, you just don't get
what you think you get if you don't check it. At first I refuse to believe it. And then I realized
that there is a universal truth there. There is a universal truth. You don't get what you expect
out of life unless you inspect. And this is strikingly evidenced in success through a
fundamental attitude. And the success system never fails in which I refer to Benjamin
Franklin's great book, the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and his 13 principles and
method. His method, as you know, was to take a virtue. He wanted to acquire, shall we say,
humility. In his case, he incidentally had a self-motivator. And every day he concentrated on
that one virtue for a whole week. And then the second week would start with a new goal and
they do that for 13 weeks. But every day he checked. He had some money. As you recall, if
you read "The Success System Never Fails," Latitude's successor, he was checking himself
and then veteran inside 13 cars and then George Severance with his system. There is no
doubt that making a decision to show a 100% increase becomes meaningless unless you
check and check daily. Certainly those of you who expect to really move forward and move
forward quickly should learn the art of inspection. Now, what does all of this mean to you? I
repeat, it means nothing. It does not mean anything. It means nothing unless you know how
to recognize, relate, assimilate, and apply the principles. Read the book and extract from it
the principles you can use. You'll say, well, how do I apply this? I'm just a salesman. You are
more than a salesman. You are a potential sales manager. But you are more than a potential
sales manager. You are a mind with a body. Lose a leg, lose this arm. You are still the same
mind. You have the power to influence that mind of yours through conscious thought effort,
and you can engage in self-inspection. Can you take time each day to ask yourself what it
means to me? What principles am I applying? And you can have your time recorded. You
can use the Butcher system if you prefer, the Franklin system if you prefer. Or design your
own system. Now, what does all of this mean to you? What does it all mean to you? Luckily
something wonderful will happen as we will once again do what has proved so wonderful in
the past and commit ourselves to three minutes of time to think. Just think about yourself.
Think in terms of how you as a person can become a better person. Thank you. You can
re-study an inspirational book like “The Success System That Never Fails” and extract the
principles from it and then use them? You can rearrange manuals paragraph by paragraph
extract the principles and use them? Just think about yourself. Think in terms of how you can
become a better person. Think. Think in terms of yourself. Think, think. Think. What can you
do about it? What action can you take? How can you relate and assimilate the principle of
this hour of inspiration?

Thank you.