فصل یازدهم

CHAPTER ELEVEN

In which the young man

and his mentor discuss

figures and formulas

THE MILLIONAIRE SAT DOWN AT THE DESK and invited the young man to join him. He took out some paper and a pen and wrote some figures.

“Your formula could look like this,” he said. What he had written was, By the end of this year I will possess assets worth $31,250. I will double those assets every year for five years, so that by (and here he left a space) I will be a millionaire.

“You mustn’t confuse assets and income,” he told the young man. “Your assets are whatever you have left over after your current bills and taxes are paid. Assets can comprise real estate investments, stocks or bonds, savings in banks or mutual funds, gold, art, jewelry, valuable collectibles, and so on. Now if you want to be a millionaire in six years — which is the realistic objective I’m proposing — your formula will have to be set up on this model. If you have assets worth $31,250 by the end of the first year, you will have to double them each year. And in six years you will be a millionaire!

“Why double your assets each year? Because it’s a simple operation that your subconscious can easily handle. And it’s easy for you to remember. It also guarantees you constant growth.

“If this starting point seems too ambitious for you, then give yourself another year. Becoming a millionaire in seven years is still pretty good! Your goal for the first year will then be to have assets of $15,625. Believe me when I tell you it’s far from being beyond reach. If you’re convinced that you can have a cozy nest egg worth $15,625 by the end of the first year, you will have it.

“Now if that still seems over-ambitious, give yourself yet another year, making a total of eight. Then the goal for your first year will be $7,812.50.

“Along with your formula and the affirmation I will be a millionaire on (put the month and year, in six, seven, or eight years’ time), you will also have to set yourself short-term objectives, landmarks to help motivate you during your journey on the road to riches. And an annual goal is essential.

“The most important thing, however,” he told his pupil, “is to write your goals down on paper. Take a pencil and fool around with figures and years. Don’t be afraid; it can’t do you any harm. The amounts will become more and more familiar to you as you play around with them. Millions of people want to get rich, and yet not one out of a hundred takes the initiative to outline the route he intends to take to reach his goal. Be different! Set up your plans and charts. Work out projections until you’ve found the plan that suits you. It’ll be your plan.

“Use the examples I’ve provided for inspiration, but then let your imagination run wild. You have to start by dreaming to get rich. Then you have to know how to quantify your dream and translate it into specific sums of money and dates. This, in fact, should be the first exercise you do. Juggle numbers. You will soon see that this little game will reveal who you really are.

“The simple act of putting your goals, deadlines, and sums on paper is the first step toward transforming your ideal into its material equivalent.

“Anyone who wants to stick to an ambition of becoming a millionaire in five or ten years must take note of this fact: If he is currently earning $35,000 a year and can expect nothing more than, say, an annual five or ten percent raise, and if he can save and invest only a small percentage of that, then he’ll never be-come a millionaire if he remains in his job without sideline activities.

“There’s nothing reprehensible in this; it’s purely an objective observation. The formula of doubling your fortune each year or increasing your assets with respect to the previous years’ is clearly not the only way to become a millionaire. However, the secret it contains, that is, a quantified goal (an amount and a deadline by which to reach it), is valid for anyone wishing to succeed in any way.

“For example, you might simply want to increase your income by $10,000 a year. If you now earn $35,000, you would probably like to earn $45,000 — a matter of affording a few more luxuries. Or perhaps you are earning $45,000 and would like $55,000 to enable you to trade up from your present house without worrying about the extra mortgage payments. Or you might want to be able to afford a new car, one that is a little more luxurious.

“To do this, simply repeat to yourself: This year I will increase my income by $10,000 and I will earn $45,000.

“You don’t need to know how you’ll manage it. You simply have to realize that if all you can hope for is a ten percent annual pay raise in your present job, and you don’t want to moonlight, you will have to land a promotion or switch jobs to reach your goal. This may appear self-evident, but thousands of people hope to improve their material situation and do absolutely nothing about it. Is this ignorance? Is it be-cause they are basically satisfied with their situations even though they complain day in and day out?

“Once you’ve discovered that you need some kind of change in your life to reach your goals, you might find yourself thinking that you have no other possibilities in sight. And you might wonder how the devil you’re going to earn that extra $10,000 that you need. Don’t worry; this isn’t a serious dilemma. Just fully permeate your unconscious with your goal, duly writ-ten down stating such and such an amount and dead-line. Your unconscious will do the rest. Then just stay on your toes. Since you’ve become aware that things won’t get better on their own, when an opportunity arises, seize it without the slightest hesitation. Don’t let yourself be paralyzed by fear, which prevents so many people from living out their dreams. You know that by doing nothing you won’t get your raise. So you mustn’t hesitate to take the steps necessary to achieve your goal.

“Correctly programmed, your unconscious will work wonders for you. If you’ve issued it the order to increase your income by $10,000, it will definitely execute it. Remind it daily, so your mission becomes its magnificent obsession. Like a remote-control missile, it will overcome all the obstacles in its way to hit its target.

“What is the target?” he continued. “When must the explosion take place? The target is $10,000 and the explosion date is a year from now. Such are the magical powers of the unconscious and a quantified objective.

“When creating your objectives, keep in mind that most people are much too cautious. They don’t Believe they’re worth anything.

“A few years ago,” he whispered confidentially to the young man, “I was thinking of hiring a managing director for one of my companies. I worked out that I’d be ready to offer him a salary of $100,000. When the time came to discuss his salary, he told me in a rather nervous, almost imperious voice: ‘I won’t accept anything below $70,000.’ “After a lengthy pause I said, as if I was making a major concession: ‘Given your background, $70,000 is fine by me.’

“If he had asked for $80,000 or $90,000, I’d have given it to him. In fact, the way the interview had gone pleased me so much I might even have bumped that amount up to $120,000.

“So the person I took on lost himself at least $30,000 in a matter of minutes. That’s a lot of money. And he lost it simply because he didn’t believe he was worth $100,000 a year. I must admit, after hearing him state his salary expectations, I hesitated for a second and considered not hiring him after all. He was in the best position to assess his own worth, and he was telling me that his managerial skills were worth only $70,000 while I was looking for someone worth $100,000. Was I making the wrong choice? The future proved I’d made the right choice by hiring him, and I saved a lot of money. His problem was that he lacked self-confidence and underestimated his worth. He gradually dealt with this problem over the years, and it cost me a bundle in salary increases. But they were worth it.

“What you should remember from this simple example is that I dealt with this manager just as life deals with each of us. Life gives us exactly what we expect from it. No more, no less. We tend to forget, however, that it is generally ready to give us much more than we realize.

“I’ve talked a lot,” said the millionaire. “What do you make of all this, young man?”

“It seems too good to be true,” he said.

“Yet this simple little method, and no other,” the millionaire responded, “is exactly what helped turn me into a millionaire and has done the same for all those I’ve shared it with.

“As I’ve said, words are extremely powerful agents. The stronger your character becomes, the more the words you utter will become genuine decrees. Everything you affirm, fueled by deep inner conviction and strengthened by the fires of repetition, will take shape more and more quickly.

“You have to do the exercise. Nobody can do it for you. You must repeat your formula aloud day and night at least fifty times. And more if you can. Even a hundred times a day. This is an exercise in itself. The first few times I laid down and counted by tapping my fingers on the floor, five times with both hands. It takes practice.

“At first you’ll find it won’t be easy. The mind is prone to wander. After repeating it ten times, you’ll start thinking of something else. Bring your mind back to business and start at zero again until you manage to reach fifty, because if you can’t stick to such an elementary form of discipline, you’d better give up your dream of becoming rich.

“That’s the challenge I’m offering you, my young friend. And I know you can do it. All you need to do is persist.”

“Why repeat the formula aloud?”

“It affects your mind even more strongly. The order you are issuing to your unconscious seems as though it is coming from the outside, and thus sounds more commanding. Say it in a monotone, like an incantation or a mantra, as the Buddhists call it. In time the formula will acquire its own life.

“At first, you might feel a little embarrassed by the sound of your voice and by the formula you’re repeating. But gradually you’ll get used to it. The goal you laid out for yourself, which seemed audacious at first, will soon appear attainable, even easy to achieve.” “I’m afraid I might feel absolutely ridiculous.”

“It’s during those moments especially that you must persist. You must conquer your doubt. Think of me, living proof. Even if I’m in a garden far from here, my forces will be with you. In your moments of doubt, remember that I’ve given you my word. You will succeed.” “You’re sure about that?” asked the young man, still not totally convinced.

“Why would I have any doubts about it? You’ll become an instant millionaire like I did. It’s only a matter of time before you become a millionaire in reality. You will soon be one in your mind, and that’s what is most important.” “Even without a penny to my name. . . .”

“Keep repeating the formula. Little by little you will see a change occurring within you. Your goal will seem more and more natural. It’ll become part of your life in just the same way that the narrow image you have had of yourself until now — a well-worn figment of your imagination — has been an integral part of your being. What your mind conjured up in the past can be reformulated, so you will be able to mold your future the way you want it. You will at last become master of your own destiny. Isn’t that our secret dream, even before we admit it’s possible?” The young man agreed, and was overwhelmed with emotion at the prospect of mastering his destiny. The old man’s words had much greater significance than he had at first believed. Of course his methods were a bit strange. But perhaps they worked.