فصل ششم

CHAPTER SIX

In which the young man learns

to focus on a goal

FEEL FREE TO ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS that cross your mind,” said the millionaire. “It’ll be a plea-sure for me to answer them. Soon you won’t be able to do so. Our time together is limited, so let’s not waste it in futile discussions. Here’s a pen. Do you have the piece of paper?” “Here it is.”

“Do you really want to become rich?”

“I most certainly do.”

“All right, then. Write down the amount of money you want and how much time you’ll allow yourself to acquire it.” “Do you think money’s going to drop like pennies from heaven just because I write a couple of numbers down on paper?” “Yes, I do,” said the millionaire. “I warned you that the secret would be simple. All the millionaires I’ve met told me they became rich the moment they set themselves an amount and a dead-line by which to acquire it. If you don’t know where you’re heading, the chances are you’ll never get anywhere.” “It sounds like magic to me.”

“But that’s exactly what it is — the magic of a quantified objective.

“Let’s look at the problem from a different angle. Suppose you’re trying to get a job. You go through all the necessary steps and finally get an interview. A short while later, you’re told that you’re being seriously considered. Then you find out you’ve got the job and that you’ll be making a lot of money. How would you react? For a start, you’d be really pleased with yourself. Being chosen from dozens, perhaps hundreds, of candidates — what a feat! And since you were unemployed for, say, three months, you’d think this was a very lucky break indeed. But once your initial euphoria had passed, what would be your next reaction?” “Well, I’d wonder when the job would start. Then, I’d like to know the exact meaning of ‘a lot of money.’ All things being relative, I’d try to find out exactly how much the salary was going to be and what kind of benefits would be offered.” “Good! If, for example, you asked your new boss what he meant by ‘a lot of money’ and all he was willing to do was guarantee that you would definitely earn a lot, you wouldn’t be satisfied, would you? Worse yet, you’d probably start having second thoughts about his honesty. The fact that he refused to name a specific figure could quite possibly mean that there was something shady going on, and that your salary wasn’t going to be as generous as he’d been implying. And if he refused to tell you the exact date you were supposed to start the job, you would really be suspicious, wouldn’t you? You’d try to pin him down.” “I suppose I would,” agreed the young man.

“And if you insisted on it and still couldn’t get the details you wanted, you might just turn it down and start looking elsewhere. In fact, you’d be fully justified in doing so.” “You’re right. The offer leaves a lot to be desired.”

The millionaire looked content. He paused a moment before proceeding, his lips still set in a teasing but good-natured smile.

“The questions you asked your potential employer were aimed at getting hard facts. Right? Just knowing that you were going to earn a lot of money wasn’t enough. You also wanted to know how much. Finding out that you’d been given the job didn’t satisfy you, either. You also wanted to know the exact starting date. And you’d probably want all of this in writing, because a contract adds backbone to a verbal agreement. Spoken words are ephemeral but the written word is permanent.

“What most people, or at least the unsuccessful ones, are unaware of is that life gives us exactly what we ask from it. The first thing to do, therefore, is to ask for exactly what you want. If your request is vague, whatever you get will be just as muddled. If you ask for the minimum, you’ll get the minimum.

“Any request you make must be absolutely precise. As far as monetary wealth is concerned, you must establish an amount and a deadline by which to make it. What do people generally do? Even those who want money and lots of it all make the same mistake: they don’t establish an exact amount and a deadline by which to make it. If you need convincing, just ask someone exactly how much money he wants to earn next year. Ask him to reply right away. If this person is really on the road to success, if he really knowswhere he’s going, and if he doesn’t mind confiding in you, he’ll be able to answer immediately. Nine out of ten people, however, will be incapable of answering this simple question off the top of their heads. It is the most common mistake. Life wants to know exactly what you expect from it. If you don’t ask for anything, you won’t get anything.

“Now let’s test you,” the old man said. “You told me you’d like to get rich.”

“Definitely.”

“Tell me how much you’d like to earn next year.”

The young man found himself at a loss for words. He had had no trouble following the old man’s line of reasoning. In fact, he had agreed with it whole-heartedly. And yet he had to admit that he belonged to the vast majority of people who want to get rich but don’t know how much they want to make. He was embarrassed.

“I don’t know,” he was forced to admit. “But I think I’ve just understood one of my mistakes — per-haps the most fundamental one.” “It is a serious mistake. Let’s try to correct it. Come on, write down the amount you have in mind.” “I really don’t have the vaguest idea,” muttered the young man.

“And yet it’s so easy. Write down the amount you’d like to earn in the next year. I know what we’ll do. Take a few minutes to think it over. When the time’s up, you’ve got to write down an amount. We’ve already established the deadline: one year from today. So all you have to think about is the amount. Get going! Time’s slipping away!” As he said this, he picked up the golden hourglass on the table and turned it over.

The young man quickly got into the spirit of the game, and realized it was the first time he’d had to concentrate so hard in his life. All sorts of numbers flitted about uncontrollably in his head. Time was running out. When the last grain of sand had fallen, he still hadn’t settled on a specific figure.

“Good,” said the millionaire, who hadn’t taken his eyes away from the hourglass. “What figure do you have in mind?” The young man finally picked the most expansive figure he thought he was capable of making, and slowly wrote down the numbers.

“Only $75,000!” exclaimed the millionaire. “That’s pretty low — but it’s a start. I would have preferred $500,000. You’ve got quite a lot of work to do before becoming an instant millionaire. But you’ll see; it won’t be as tiring as most people imagine it to be. And it’ll be the most important work you’ll ever do in your life, no matter what occupation you end up choosing. It’s called working on yourself.”