Law Of Attraction
The absurdity of it all came over me like a flash.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUCCESS, CREATED AND BROADCASTED BY A MAN WHO WAS OBVIOUSLY A FAILURE!
This thought struck me so forcibly that I expressed it in words.
"What?" Mellett exclaimed, "a failure?
"Surely you know the difference between failure and temporary defeat," he continued.
"No man is a failure who creates a single idea, much less an entire philosophy, that serves to soften the disappointments and minimize the hardships of generations yet unborn."
I wondered what was the object of this interview. My first conjecture was that Mellett wanted some facts on which to base an attack, in his newspaper, on the Law of Success philosophy. Perhaps this thought grew out of some of my previous experiences with newspaper men, a few of whom had been antagonistic toward me.
At any rate, I decided at the outset of the interview to give him the facts, without embellishment come from it what would. Before I left Mellett's office we had become business partners, with the understanding that he would resign as publisher of the Canton Daily News and take over the management of all my affairs, as soon as this could be arranged.
Meanwhile, I began writing a series of Sunday feature-page editorials, which were published in the Canton Daily News, based upon the Law of Success philosophy. One of these editorials (the one entitled "Failure," which appears in the back of one of the lessons of this course) came to the attention of judge Elbert H. Gary, who was at that time the Chairman of the Board of the United States Steel Corporation.
This resulted in the opening of communication between Mellett and Judge Gary, which, in turn, led to judge Gary's offer to purchase the Law of Success course for the use of the employees of the Steel Corporation, in the manner described in the Introductory Lesson. The tides of fortune had begun to turn in my favor!
The seeds of service which I had been sowing over a long period of toilsome years, by DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR, were beginning to germinate at last!
Despite the fact that my partner was assassinated before our plans had much more than started, and Judge Gary died before the Law of Success philosophy could be re-written so it conformed to his requirements, the "love's labor lost" on that fateful night, when I spoke to an audience of thirteen in Canton, Ohio, started a chain of events which now move rapidly without thought or effort on my part.