INTRODUCTION
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
—Lao Tzu
Welcome to Simple Success. The quote above from Lao Tzu is both uncomplicated and profound—your journey not only begins with a single step but is made up of a series of steps. Some steps will be small, some will be big, but each one will take you farther.
Think of Simple Success as a series of steps for your journey. This book is not made up of one book but rather several small books that, together, create a powerful path to life’s success. Similarly, you’ll find that success in your life is not made up of one action, or one idea, or any one thing—but rather a series of actions, ideas, and help.
Each of these books was originally published years ago, some over a century ago. And yet the truths they each teach are timeless and can help us in today’s world. How is that possible? I think each author tapped into an evergreen principle or truth, applied those principles to their own life, and then turned around and taught them to others. That’s how every generation has always gone further than those before them, by taking the best of the past and then applying that best to their own future.
We originally published these six books individually, in our collection of Simple Success Guides at St. Martin’s Essentials, each with an introduction by me that is specific to that book (and which are left intact in this volume). However, at a certain point, it became clear that the books together create a unique and powerful roadmap that can speak to today’s readers.
And now you are holding this book in your hands. Might I make a suggestion to make your reading of this book more personal and fruitful? If so, I would say to read the books on three levels. First, read the book literally. These books contain ideas, stories, and principles that can create a more positive experience in life. Second, read the book with the understanding that while the principles may be timeless, the stories might be of their time. The language and stories and examples might be dated. Take the dated material and translate it in your mind to modern equivalents. If one of the authors gives an example that involves something that is not of our time, then pause and try to come up with our modern counterpart. Don’t discard powerful ideas merely because they are cloaked in examples of a distant past.
And third, read the book, noticing which ideas stand out to you. I believe that since you are holding this book, there are ideas contained within that can benefit you greatly. Pay attention as you read to both the things that speak to you deeply and those things you think don’t apply to you—both are valuable and can teach you where you are most comfortable and which ideas might challenge you to grow bigger than you ever dreamed.
It’s up to you now. Enjoy, and allow these ideas—which have already collectively helped millions—now help you. I often say in my introductions that we are each responsible for our own lives. Books like this can help inspire the best versions of ourselves and keep us moving in positive directions. Success may be simple, but it’s not always easy. Dig deep and move forward, one step at a time. Before you know it, you’ll have gone ten thousand miles …
—Joel Fotinos
The Game
Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle, it is a game.
It is a game, however, which cannot be played successfully without the knowledge of spiritual law, and the Old and the New Testaments give the rules of the game with wonderful clearness. Jesus Christ taught that it was a great game of Giving and Receiving.
“Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” This means that whatever man sends out in word or deed, will return to him; what he gives, he will receive.
If he gives hate, he will receive hate; if he gives love, he will receive love; if he gives criticism, he will receive criticism; if he lies he will be lied to; if he cheats he will be cheated. We are taught also, that the imaging faculty plays a leading part in the game of life.
“Keep thy heart (or imagination) with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” (Prov. 4:23.)
This means that what man images, sooner or later externalizes in his affairs. I know of a man who feared a certain disease. It was a very rare disease and difficult to get, but he pictured it continually and read about it until it manifested in his body, and he died, the victim of distorted imagination.
So we see, to play successfully the game of life, we must train the imaging faculty. A person with an imaging faculty trained to image only good, brings into his life “every righteous desire of his heart”—health, wealth, love, friends, perfect self-expression, his highest ideals.
The imagination has been called, “The Scissors of The Mind,” and it is ever cutting, cutting, day by day, the pictures man sees there, and sooner or later he meets his own creations in his outer world. To train the imagination successfully, man must understand the workings of his mind. The Greeks said: “Know Thyself.”
There are three departments of the mind, the subconscious, conscious and superconscious. The subconscious, is simply power, without direction. It is like steam or electricity, and it does what it is directed to do; it has no power of induction.
Whatever man feels deeply or images clearly, is impressed upon the subconscious mind, and carried out in minutest detail.
For example: a woman I know, when a child, always “made believe” she was a widow. She “dressed up” in black clothes and wore a long black veil, and people thought she was very clever and amusing. She grew up and married a man with whom she was deeply in love. In a short time he died and she wore black and a sweeping veil for many years. The picture of herself as a widow was impressed upon the subconscious mind, and in due time worked itself out, regardless of the havoc created.
The conscious mind has been called mortal or carnal mind.
It is the human mind and sees life as it appears to be. It sees death, disaster, sickness, poverty and limitation of every kind, and it impresses the subconscious.
The superconscious mind is the God Mind within each man, and is the realm of perfect ideas.
In it, is the “perfect pattern” spoken of by Plato, The Divine Design; for there is a Divine Design for each person.
“There is a place that you are to fill and no one else can fill, something you are to do, which no one else can do.”
There is a perfect picture of this in the superconscious mind. It usually flashes across the conscious as an unattainable ideal—“something too good to be true.”
In reality it is man’s true destiny (or destination) flashed to him from the Infinite Intelligence which is within himself.
Many people, however, are in ignorance of their true destinies and are striving for things and situations which do not belong to them, and would only bring failure and dissatisfaction if attained.
The Go-Getter was first published in 1921. Foreword copyright © 2020 by Joel Fotinos.
