How To Turn Your Ability Into Cash
	The Most Interesting Thing In The World <  Previous Contents Next  >

Some years ago I was instrumental in sending out a questionnaire to several hundred leading people throughout the country, whose activities covered every phase of human endeavor. The questionnaire simply asked: "What do you consider the most interesting thing in the world?" The answers received were as different as they were interesting. Some said life; some said love; some said nature; some said religion; some said art; some said sculpture; some said education; some said science, and some said business. Some said one thing and some said another. All were right in a way.

The most interesting thing in the world is You. It is only proper and fitting to pause a moment and appraise You by giving a few estimations that may inspire you to greater achievement. Seldom do you appreciate what you are or what you are capable of doing. It must come from some outside source. You take yourself too much as a matter of fact. You have not taken time to take stock of yourself, to analyze your capacities, to realize fully your strength and power, and really to discover what a wonderful creature you are, nor to uncover the latent forces and abilities you possess. You forget that: "Ye are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the Light of the World." You forget that you are the most wonderful thing that God ever created. You fail to remember that Mind and its ideas have dominion over the earth and all things in it, making you the Master.

You must be reminded that it is You who can think, who can comprehend, who can co-ordinate, who can analyze and visualize, who can imagine and dramatize, and see a completed thing from the blue print. You merely take as a matter of course that it is You who invent, discover and build the marvelous things around you. It is You who harnesses the forces of nature and turns those forces into light, power and heat, to make the world comfortable. It is You who can mix ideas with natural resources and turn them into economic values, to be enjoyed by all. It is You who have the faith, the vision, the determination and the courage to turn your ability into cash, and to plant ideas that will not only enrich your life but also that will make America a better nation--a better place in which to live.

You lose sight of yourself through the mass of things you create. You get lost among your own things. You must come out in the open and make yourself known.

There is an old Hindu legend that at one time all men on earth were gods. Man sinned, abused his privilege and destroyed his right to enjoy his Divine

Heritage. The Brahma God, the God of all Gods, decided to remove the God-head from man. He was very much puzzled as to what to do with it. He wanted to hide it where man himself would be un-able to find it. Rather than assume this great responsibility, the Brahma God decided to call a meeting of all the other Gods to help him decide where to hide man's God-head.

The God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Abraham, God of Truth, God of Spirit, God of Soul, God of Love, God of Principle, God of Peace, God of Wisdom, and all the other Gods met in a great conclave to make this decision.

The Brahma God asked for suggestions. One God suggested that the God-head be removed from man and placed on the highest mountain peak. The Brahma God said: "No, do not hide it there. Man will climb the mountains and he will scan its highest peaks and find it."

Another God suggested that the God-head be buried down deep in the ground. The Brahma God said: "No, do not hide it in the ground. Man will dig in the ground searching for gold, silver and other precious metals, and there he will find it."

Another God suggested that they sink it in the deepest part of the ocean. The Brahma God said: "No, do not hide it in the bottom of the ocean. Man will dive and search out the bottom of the seas and there he will find it."

Finally, the God of Wisdom said: "Then, let us hide the Godhead down in Man himself." "Yes," the Brahma God said, "we will hide it there, because Man will never think to look for it within himself."

So the God-head has been hidden in Man ever since. It is still there. Most men are constantly digging, climbing, searching, looking for it everywhere but the right place. They are trying to find it from without.

Turn within, and there you will find your Godhead. The moment you find it you will come to a conscious realization of this great creative force with-in you. That great force, that untapped power, that dynamic something, that unconquerable soul within you is yearning for expression. It is asking for recognition. It is begging for an opportunity to lift you up and aid you to greater achievements. This great creative force within you is an imprisoned giant which when unleashed can carry you on to a success undreamed of.

"The smartest man in the world is the man inside you," said Dr. Frank Crane. "By that other man inside you--I mean that Other Man within each one of us that does most of the things we give ourselves credit for doing."

The Boer farmer sold his farm at Kimberley, South Africa, because he could not make a living on it. That farm today is the site of the Kimberley diamond mines, one of the richest spots on the face of the globe. Dr. Russell H. Conwell tells a similar story in "Acres of Diamonds." The story is about a Pennsylvania farmer who sold his farm to join his brother who had struck, oil in Canada. The new owner, in looking over the farm, found that where the cattle came to drink from a little creek, a heavy scum was washed down by the rains from the ground above. The scum was examined and found to contain oil. That farm turned into Oil City, Pennsylvania, one of the richest oil centers in the world.

You may be like one of these farmers. You may be looking for richer fields elsewhere when those riches are right within you.

The most undeveloped field in this country, the richest mine that you will ever know anything about, lies right under your hat--right above your collar. At this very moment this great mine is waiting for you to develop it. What it will yield, what it will produce, nobody knows, not even you. You will never know the unlimited resources at your command until you begin to dig into them. By searching you will discover hidden powers and latent abilities that you never thought existed. By digging you will uncover droughts and ideas that will not only enrich your pocketbook, but also that will fill your life with a fuller and deeper appreciation. By sifting, you will see an infinite variety of opportunities. A new world with untold wealth will be revealed to you. Things that you never dreamed of. You will have a fuller, richer and more beautiful life.

Huxley once wrote to Kingsley: "The most sacred day in a man's life is when he can believe in something." "Faith is reason grown courageous, all progress and all science are the result of Faith."

You can have faith in some superstition. You can believe in luck. You can have confidence in some outside leadership. But the greatest faith is to believe in the great God within you.

"Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Sprit of God dwelleth in you."

Before he passed away, someone asked the late Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, the electrical wizard, in his opinion, "What branch of science would make the most progress in the next twenty-five years?" He shrugged his shoulders, knitted his brow, put his hand on his head and thought for several minutes, then like a flash replied: "Spiritual Realization. When man comes to a conscious vital realization of those great spiritual forces within himself and begins to use those forces in science, in business, and in life, his progress in the future will be unparalleled."

It was drawing on this great creative force, this great invisible spirit within that turned John D. Rockefeller from a hollow-chested bookkeeper into the richest man in the world. It was this force that turned Andrew Carnegie from a ten-dollar-a-week bobbin boy to the steel king of America. It was this same force that turned a puny corporal into the world's greatest general--Napoleon Bonaparte.

This great creative and spiritual force within you is greater than faith, greater than determination, greater than vision, greater than ambition, greater than confidence. It is all these combined and more. It is the very essence and substance of what you are. It is that indestructible power within. It is that dynamic hidden something in your soul. By drawing on it, by using it, by applying it in turning your ability into cash, you will double your present in-come and have anything your heart desires.

Devote a certain number of hours each week to study. Take time to deliberate and meditate. Take time out to read and reflect. Reading good books increases your understanding and helps you to express what other people are thinking. In doing this you are able to influence them to do the things you want them to do.

The power and force of Boulder Dam lies in the background or the tons of water stored up in it. Every turbine wheel has the full force and power of all the water stored up in that dam.

Your power and force is the background of what you read, think, feel and really are. Once you draw on this inexhaustible reservoir, once you begin to use only a small part of its stored-up force, your progress will be unparalleled.

This great spiritual and creative force within can transcend every adversity, overcome every difficulty, surmount every problem, unravel every situation and solve every condition and make you a veritable dynamo of power and endurance. This force within will transfer impotence into power and action. It will turn weakness, indifference and suffering into health and strength. It will turn mediocrity into superiority. This force will teach you how to apply the great principle which Jesus came into the world to teach men:

"To have life and have it more abundantly." To have it right here now in this glorious present.

This great creative force is within you right now, right where you are, ready to work for you. Put it in action, and use your ability to help you turn it into cash.