EXCERPT


Thousands of leaders have failed in life because they were not ready when their best chances for success came. Some of these excellent opportunities slipped away unrecognized. Others, though perceived, were out of reach. The leaders had not prepared themselves to hold and use such chances, whenever they might arrive.

Recognize that the initiative in gaining your chance should be in your own hands. Do not wait for any opportunity to come to you. “Go to it.” Go prepared to control the situation you have planned to create.

If you desire to make your success a certainty, prepare yourself in advance for it. Then you will not be caught “off guard” when your big chance arrives. When you are thoroughly prepared, you will sight success quickly, realize its full value and grab hold of it with complete confidence in your ability to make the most of it.

Before you seek success, be sure of your entire readiness for the opportunity you especially want. You can much better afford to wait a little for certain success, than to rush, unready, risking the likelihood of failure by unintelligent preparation to succeed.

Your preparation for success must be two-fold. First, you need to prepare yourself in your ability to perceive; and second, to appreciate the full value of what you see. Excellent opportunities are all around you. If you do not recognize them, or if you perceive only a slight value in the signs of chances to succeed, you will fail because you are not ready.

We can broaden perception almost immeasurably. The physical eye, if normal and thoroughly trained, is fit to be “all seeing.” So, can you make your mind capable of widest vision over all the fields of possible opportunity? Some are within your present mental view, others you can see only after going farther or climbing higher in knowledge. You cannot comprehend the biggest possibilities of success in their entirety by narrowed mental sight.

The first essential of preparation to succeed is that you open your eyes fully, and look all around you for the opportunities within range of your vision. There are so many within reach that your search should begin right where you are. Even if eventually you look outside where you are for the best chance to succeed, do so with thorough knowledge of what is nearby. Before you leave your present environment, have an intelligent conviction that you are capable of bigger or different successes than you may find within your immediate reach.

You must further see and comprehend the special difficulties that you will find near you. It does not always pay to remain in the same place. Often a leader needs to go to a community of strangers to gain appreciation of his ability. It is likely to be hard for him to gain success among people who knew him as “the worker” and fail to realize or acknowledge the attracting radiance within him. He may find it much easier to succeed in a different organization.

It is possible to make the greatest success turn from beaten paths, and go to a place where success has never been. The Mayo brothers (world-renowned surgeons), compelled their success to come to them at the little city of Rochester, Minnesota. Your preparation for all the possibilities of success should be similarly varied and adaptable. I say again, the initiative in gaining your chance should be in your own hands.

To gain your chance, you must be ready at all times. Company manners that you put on temporarily may be off when you need them most. If you only knew when that golden chance was, you would be prepared to control the situation you had planned to create. Therefore, ensure you are characteristically pleasing to everybody, everywhere and all the time. Then, no matter where, when or in what way opportunity appears, you will please others with your genuineness.

Innumerable successes have begun with the making of a pleasing impression on someone whose presence and notice were unknown. Do you realize that your success is practically impossible if you are displeasing? Preparation to please is of great importance in getting ready to succeed. You can assure your success in whatever you have focused your ambition if you make a pleasing first impression and then continue thereafter.

Cultivate grace into your movements—for grace is pleasing to everyone. Carry your body naturally, especially your head, with such a bearing that total strangers will feel pleasure when they look at you. Be a person who pleases at sight. It is not difficult. No matter what sort of face you have, if it habitually expresses your pleasure in living, it will look pleasant. A look of pleasure is pleasing to others. This goes hand-in-hand with your appearance, as I mentioned in the Introduction. There is something wonderful about seeing others thoroughly enjoying themselves. Most of us feel this way, and our own faces brighten when we come across pleasantness anywhere.

Please others with your smile. It should not be just an affected smirk but a smile of genuine friendliness for the entire world. Be courteous invariably. Learn and observe the rules of politeness. Please by utilizing manners, etiquette and protocol. Practice courtesy and politeness while at home to perfect you in these pleasing characteristics. Then you will show them in public or on the job. Believe me it works! Remember that differing morals, ethics and values make up the world. Courtesy and politeness are not natural attributes. In preparation for success, you will need to develop those attributes to an unusually high degree. You may intend on being courteous and polite, but only the development of the fixed habit will fully support your intention.

You cannot be polite, however courteous you mean to be, unless you make an effort to prepare yourself with knowledge of what polite people use. In order to be polite, it is necessary that you do the courteous and correct things.