Self Control
"It was the easiest task I ever performed, because most
of the work had been done before I took hold of it. In fact I didn't do it
B_ did it himself."
This man looked at me in bewilderment. He did not see that which I am here trying to make clear; namely, that practically all difficult tasks are easily performed if one approaches them from the right angle. There were two important factors entering B_'s release.
The first was the fact that he had supplied the material for a good case before I took it in charge; and the second was the fact that before I called on the governor of Ohio I so completely convinced myself that I had a right to ask for B_'s release that I had no difficulty in presenting my case effectively.
Go back to what was stated in the beginning of this lesson, on the subject of telepathy, and apply it to this case. The governor could tell, long before I had stated my mission, that I knew I had a good case. If my brain did not telegraph this thought to his brain, then the look of self-confidence in my eyes and the positive tone of my voice made obvious my belief in the merits of my case.
Again I apologize for these personal references with the explanation that I have used them only because the whole of America was familiar with the B_ case that I have described. I disclaim all credit for the small part I played in the case, for I did nothing except use my imagination as an assembly room in which to piece together the factors out of which the sale was made.
I did nothing except that which any salesman of
imagination could have done. It requires considerable courage to prompt one
to use the personal pronoun as freely as it has been used in relating the
facts connected with this case, but justification lies in the value of
application of the principle of imagination to a case with which nearly
everybody is familiar.
I cannot recall an incident in my entire life in connection with which the soundness of the fifteen factors that enter into this Reading Course was more clearly manifested than it was in securing the release of B_. It is but another link in a long chain of evidence that proves to my entire satisfaction the power of imagination as a factor in salesmanship. There are endless millions of approaches to every problem, but there is only one best approach.