Sean Rasmussen

Too often, we are unable to change our lives because we cannot see beyond our own circumstances. This is precisely the closed-minded ignorance that keeps the majority from creating wealth, and instead, keeps the masses in the middle-ground limbo of being the working poor.

“Another weakness found in altogether too many people is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own impressions and beliefs. Some people who read this book will believe that no one can think and grow rich. They cannot think in terms of wealth and riches, because their thought habits have been steeped in poverty, want, misery, failure, and defeat.

You don’t have to look far for illustration of this point. Consider how you look upon people of other nationalities and cultures, physically. You think of your own appearance as the base for ‘normal’ and find their looks to be exotic and different. Few of us stop very often to consider that on the flip side, from the ‘outsider’s’ point of view, you are the person who looks unique.

Another simple case in point—accents. Wherever you are from, whatever the accent you speak with, that is what sounds ‘right’ or ‘normal’ to you. When a visitor from another part of the country or world arrives or moves in, you find their speech to be interesting, maybe even strange. No doubt, however, that same person is thinking the same of the way you, and nearly everyone else in your region, talks.

We recognize this phenomenon in modern society as a level of ignorance, yet, we have difficulty truly overcoming it, and sometimes even make conclusions about a person because they do not speak or look like us.”

A Change In Attitude

Changing even very small personal perceptions such as your attitude towards another person’s accent or physical appearance will elicit the kind of change in attitude needed to start seeing that there is more to life than your present circumstance, and that that better life is readily available to you if you have purpose of thought and determination.

I will see you back here every Monday and Thursday for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

Persistence is one way to describe that staying power that wealthy, successful men and women have, that power that takes them that critical step past temporary defeat. To illustrate the power of persistence, Napoleon Hill tells us this story of one brave and persistent little girl.

[Note: As you read, keep in mind that this incident took place in the early 1900's before the Civil Rights Movement in the United States; all things, at that time, were certainly not equal.]

“Shortly after R.U. Darby earned his degree from the “University of Hard Knocks,” and had determined to profit from his experience in the gold mining business, he was fortunate enough to be present to witness an incident that proved to him that “No” does not necessarily mean no.

One afternoon Darby was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm where a number of colored sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small colored child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.

The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, “what do you want?”

Meekly, the child replied, “My mammy say send her fifty cents.”

“I’ll not do it,” the uncle retorted, “Now you run on home.”

“Yas sah,” the child replied. But she did not move.

The uncle went on working, too busy to notice that the child did not leave. When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, “I told you to go on home! Now go, or I’ll take a switch to you.”

The little girl said “yas sah,” but she did not budge an inch.

The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a band of wood, and started toward the child with an expression meant to drive fear into her.”

Being Persistent

This is the point where most of us would relent and let the old Uncle keep the fifty cents. Be sure to join us in our next post to find out how this little girl with persistence and a simple word triumphed over “the Man”.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

While researching this book, Napoleon Hill interviewed over 500 highly successful men; men that have now gone on to become icons of capitalistic history and success. As part of his research, he talked with them about facing temporary defeat head-on, and about what delineates success and failure.

“More than five hundred of the most successful men in United States history, icons of American Capitalism and success, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point when defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a swindler with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great pleasure in tripping a person when success is just within reach.”

Failure is a master manipulator—but only if your let it win by giving in to temporary defeat.

More Then One Road

The men Hill interviewed may have found success in that step beyond defeat, but their success was not only rooted in the better business turn around the corner. These men also found success because working through adversity and possible defeat teaches you something; it teaches you that there are more roads to success, and that if you have that definiteness of purpose, if your persist in your goals, you will find a road that leads you on to success…to wealth! And you will also learn that you can do whatever you put your mind to when you back your thought with determination. From that point on, every roadblock is easier to overcome because you’ve learned two essential lessons:

1. Temporary defeat is not failure—it’s TEMPORARY! You can succeed, you just have to find another way, and

2. You personally possess the skills and brain power to seek alternate routes to success and wealth creation

Now that’s some powerful knowledge indeed.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

Napoleon Hill doesn’t tell us much about the fate of the Uncle, but he does continue the story of R.U. Darby and his ultimate success. How did this failure turn his life around and build wealth? By learning from his mistake, and learning the principles of the secret.

“Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that desire can be transmuted into gold. That discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

“Remembering that he lost a huge fortune all because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby turned that experience to his advantage in his newly chosen profession; his method was simple—Darby repeatedly told himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say ‘no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

“Darby was one of a small group in the first part of the 1900’s, a group of less than fifty men, to sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owed his determination and success to the lesson he learned from his hastiness to quit in the gold mining business.”

Definite Thought

Finally, Darby learned the power of definite thought—the same power Edwin C Barnes knew and used to build his future, and his fortune, with Thomas Edison. Had Darby known that power of definite thought and definite purpose when he went mining, his wealth may have come years sooner. You have at least this elemental knowledge now and that small bit of information is power; power that you, too, can solidify and translate into tangible wealth.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

The next of Napoleon Hill’s anecdotes is presented as a direct contrast to the definite thought, purpose, and determination of Edwin C Barnes. He calls this story “Three Feet From Gold”; most of us can see quite a lot of our past limited successes within the telling of this story.

“One of the most common reasons people fail is that they quit when faced with temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. What follows is a case in point.

“An uncle of R.U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the days of the great gold-rush, and went west to dig and grow rich. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with a pick and a shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

“After weeks of labor, he was rewarded with the discovery of the elusive shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, went back to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, and told his relatives and a few neighbors about the “strike.” Together, they raised the money for the needed machinery and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.”

So far in this tale we’ve seen that Darby and Uncle had the foresight to place themselves in a presumably profitable spot, but Napoleon Hill indicates that the uncle lacked a definite thought; he has thus far failed to put the required definite thinking into the project. Will the men be able to succeed without having taken this essential first step? We’ll see if he is able to pull himself out of it.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008