Initiative And Leadership

The benefit accruing to the college was the students secured cured for its regular commercial and business course as a result of the money spent in advertising my department, all advertising having been done under the name of the College. Today that Business College is one of the most successful schools of its kind, and it stands as a monument of sound evidence with which to demonstrate the value of allied effort.

This incident has been related, not alone because it shows the value of initiative and leadership, but for the reason that it leads up to the subject covered by the next lesson of this Reading Course on the Law of Success, which is imagination. There are generally many plans through the operation of which a desired object may be achieved, and it often happens to be true that the obvious and usual methods employed are not the best.

The usual method of procedure, in the case related, would have been that of borrowing from a bank. You can see that this method was impractical, in this case, for the reason that no collateral was available. A great philosopher once said: "Initiative is the pass-key that opens the door to opportunity." I do not recall who this philosopher was, but I know that he was great because of the soundness of his statement.

We will now proceed to outline the exact procedure that you must follow if you are to become a person of initiative and leadership. First: You must master the habit of procrastination and eliminate it from your make-up. This habit of putting off until tomorrow that which you should have done last week or last year or a score of years ago is gnawing at the very vitals of your being, and you can accomplish nothing until you throw it off.

The method through which you eliminate procrastination is based upon a well known and scientifically tested principle of psychology, which has been referred to in the two preceding lessons of this course as Autosuggestion. Copy the following formula and place it conspicuously in your room where you will see it as you retire at night and as you arise in the morning:

INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP

Having chosen a definite chief aim as my life-work I now understand it to be my duty to transform this purpose into reality. Therefore, I will form the habit of taking some definite action each day that will carry me one step nearer the attainment of my definite chief aim.