my former boss, Joe Tally, a number of years ago. One day, just after he had been defeated in a Congressional race, instead of feeling sorry for himself, he immediately got busy formulating a new plan. He stated his desire for larger law offices; his desire for the expansion from a two-man firm to a five- or six-man firm; and the desire to increase the annual income he wished the firm to attain year by year for the next five years.
At that time, I did not know that this was one of the most powerful methods for attaining success. It seemed so simple! Nevertheless, I watched his scribbled plan come to life and fruition. The law firm gradually expanded into a five-man arrangement in which each attorney specialized in certain phases of legal practice. The firm moved from two small offices into spacious new quarters that occupied the entire floor of a modern, new bank building.
“Nothing succeeds like success” was surely manifested for Joe Tally after he formulated a plan, dared to put it in writing, and started moving toward it.
Prosperity Is a Planned Result
A stockbroker’s story further proves the power of formulating plans for prosperity and success. A few years ago, the president of a large corporation died. At the time of his death, this corporation was in financial difficulties. The vice-president, who had been considered outstanding in a financial way, then took the helm. Immediately this corporation began to prosper, and today its stock is one of the best on the market. Its sales records during recent years have superceded those of all of its well-known competitors. The prosperity secret? Well, it seems that this vice-president had for years worked on a plan he felt wise for the growth and prosperity of this corporation. The day he became president, he took that plan out of his desk drawer and began executing it. Today his corporation is no longer a mediocre one with indebtness pulling it down. Instead, it is one of the most prosperous in the country! He proved that prosperity is a planned result.
Prosperity is the result of deliberate thought and action. There is nothing hit and miss about prosperous living. It is a planned result, just as a bridge or building is a planned result. Without deliberate, prosperous plans, there will be no prosperous results on a consistent, permanent basis.
This law of creative prosperity was one that has surely “clicked” with the students in my prosperity classes. Many of the business people who attended told me that this one idea turned their previous faltering efforts toward prosperity into amazingly successful results. They had worked long and hard, but not in definite or specific ways. Then they discovered there was no reason to be afraid to ask for what they really desired. The Bible promises, Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and the door shall be opened.
Perhaps you are thinking that you do not really know what you want; that your desires are not that definite as yet. In that case, simply begin thinking about and even making lists of what you don’t want in your life that is there. List the things you wish cleared up and eradicated from your life. To that list declare, This too shall pass, or, Be thou dissolved.
I know of a man in the electrical business who did this. His business partner had died months earlier, leaving his share of the business in the hands of uncooperative heirs who would neither buy nor sell. It was almost in desperation that the surviving partner began applying prosperous thinking. His main desire was either to buy the other half of the business or sell his half. He simply wanted to dissolve the deadlock which was costing the business money; and he wanted to eradicate the unpleasantness, confusion and uncertainty of his business situation. Within a month after he wrote out notes about the unpleasantness and uncertainty being dissolved, he received word from a lawyer that his partner’s heirs would sell! They did immediately with no further ado.
A Prosperity Formula
One group of business people that experimented with me on prosperous thinking during a recent recession did this: They first wrote out their desires for six months hence, and then wrote out their desired achievements for each month of the six. Each week they added to their list or changed their list of desired results, as they felt led. In some instances, they changed the list completely, expanding their desires or crossing off desires that no longer appealed to them.
Then each week the class members brought these listed desires to class. No one ever saw these individual lists except each student. We began each class period by privately taking our lists in hand and verbally declaring together concerning them: I am the rich child of a loving Father. All that the Father has is mine to share and to experience. Divine Intelligence is now showing me how to claim my own God-given wealth, health and happiness. Divine Intelligence is even now opening the way for my immediate blessings. I have faith that all that is mine by divine right now comes to me in rich abundance. My rich blessings do not interfere with anyone else’s good, since God’s rich substance is unlimited and everywhere for all to use. There is no delay! That which is not for my highest good now fades from me and I no longer desire it. My God-given desires are richly fulfilled now in God’s own wonderful way.
The students were also instructed to spend at least 15 minutes a day pouring their verbal prayers and blessings (which we will talk about in the sixth chapter) upon their listed desires, and daily to work on their lists, revising, changing, expanding them. They were asked to do very definite things, such as listing the amount of money they wished to make for the day, week or month. They were also asked to place a time limit and definite dates by which they wished the fulfillment of their desires. They were further instructed not to wonder, doubt or question how their rich good was to be fulfilled, but they were to stay busy putting the creative laws of prosperity into action in these simple ways. The results they attained were fabulous and I have received letters from people all over the world who read of this creative method of prosperity, and who tried it, with similar prosperous results! As the group worked with their lists, revising and changing them, we often affirmed the words of Goethe, “What you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” We often declared, What we can conceive, we can achieve with the help of God. And we often reminded ourselves of this truth: Every obstacle rushes to get out of the way of the man who knows where he is going; and all the world seems on the side of the man who tries to rise. There seems to be almost magical power in thinking of one’s desires, expressing them constructively by writing them down, stating the time by which one wishes their fulfillment, and then praying that God’s good will be done in the matter. Does it sound too simple to work? Great truths and powerful secrets often appear simple. So simple, in fact, that the average person overlooks them in trying to find a more difficult way.
Write a Letter to God
One businesswoman invoked the creative method of prosperity in a slightly different way. At the first of the year, instead of making a lot of New Year’s resolutions, she wrote a letter to God in which she honestly listed all of her desires for the New Year. She then placed the sealed letter in her Bible. Toward the end of the year, she showed me that letter, which had specifically listed many things. All of the big desires she had expressed had been fulfilled: She was widowed and had expressed a desire to marry happily again. Toward the end of the year, I performed a private wedding ceremony for her and the bridegroom, whom she had met through friends after writing out that desire. She also had stated in the letter her desire for a better home.
The bridegroom gave it to her! Her other big desire had been for a better job. In the middle of the year, that too had come forth as a pleasant, satisfying, higher-paying position. But I must caution you: Be honest with yourself when you write out your desires. Express, as did this woman, your really deep feelings. Don’t write out what somebody else wants for you, or what you think you should desire. Be honest with yourself and your Maker, if you really want happy results.
I know of another businesswoman who wrote a similar letter to God at the first of the year, but instead of writing out her deep and big desires, she listed
