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Was Wallace Wattles Rich?

Things are rarely ever the way they seem.  Our lives tend to be complex even when they appear to be shallow and unimportant.  I did a little research on a book “The Science of Getting Rich” written by Wallace Wattles and I must admit that it left me somewhat perplexed.  Here was a person giving advice about how to get rich and he never seemed to make it in his own life.  One of the keys to market a success book is to draw attention to your own experience or resume of success.  So why is this book so popular after all these years when the author lacked a history of any great success at becoming rich?  I would like to address this question in this article, “Was Wallace Wattles Rich”.

Here are excerpts from a letter written to Mrs. Elizabeth Towne, the publisher of Nautilus magazine, by the daughter of Wallace Wattles, Florence Wattles, shortly after his death. This should give some insight:

“My dear Mrs. Towne,

Your letter of the 14th received . . . perhaps a little later I can write the romantic story of my Father’s life and make it really worthwhile. You knew, didn’t you, that he lost a good position in the Methodist Church because of his “heresy”?

He met George D. Herron at a convention of reformers in Chicago in 1896 and caught Herron’s social vision. I shall never forget the morning he came home. It was Christmas. Mother had put her last dollar into a cuff box and we had placed it beneath an evergreen branch which served for our Christmas tree and which we had illuminated with tallow candles and strung with popcorn. Finally Father came. With that beautiful smile he praised the tree, said the cuff box was just what he had been wanting – and took us all in his arms to tell us of the wonderful social message of Jesus, the message which he later embodied in “A New Christ.”

From that day until his death he worked unceasingly to realize the glorious vision of human brotherhood. For years his life was cursed by poverty and the fear of poverty. He was always scheming and planning to get for his family those things which make the abundant life possible.

In the first chapter of “How to be a Genius” he says: “Man’s greatest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves.” The supreme faith of the man never left him; never for a moment did he lose confidence in the power of the master Intelligence to right every wrong and to give to every man and woman his or her share of the good things of life.

When we came to Elwood (Indiana) three years ago, Father began a Sunday night lectureship in Indianapolis. This was our only source of income. Later he began to write for Nautilus and to word out his own philosophy. He wrote almost constantly. Then it was that he formed his mental picture. He saw himself as a successful writer, a personality of power, an advancing man, and he began to work toward the realization of this vision . . . . He lived every page of “How to be a Genius.” In the last three years he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty.

I have written this hurriedly, but I think it will give you an idea of the life struggle of a great man – his failure and success. His life was truly THE POWERFUL LIFE, and surely we can say, at least in Elwood, “The name of him who loved his fellow men led all the rest.”

With all good wishes, I am,

Very sincerely,

FLORENCE A. WATTLES”

Reference: http://wallacewattles.wwwhubs.com/

Let me draw attention to the two parts of Florence Wattles letter that I highlighted.  First, the heresy charge and getting kicked out of the Methodist church.  Use of the terms “Formless Substance” and “Formless Intelligence” in “The Science of Getting Rich” when obviously referencing God probably was enough to get him booted out of the Methodist church but I can’t say for sure, it may have been something else.  I will leave that discussion for another time and place, and probably someone else but I wanted to draw attention to this, you will see why later.  The second highlighted quote addresses our topic.  “In the last three years he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty.”  It should be noted that Wallace Wattles also wrote a book entitled, “The Science of Getting Well” yet he constantly struggled with his health.

Why did Florence mention that Wallace made a lot of money during his last years, and why did she emphasize that his health was better? It could have been that Florence, Wattles daughter, was just happy to be able to share that her father did achieve some measure of success in the areas of money and health since he wrote about success in his two books cited in this article.  Not unlike many other well known personalities where success is mostly posthumous, this seems to be the case here.  It would not be the first time a daughter embellished her father’s accomplishments; mine does it all the time.  If Wattle’s success included great riches it certainly would have been known to the publisher of many of his articles.

Here is the problem in my opinion, I think Wallace Wattles made a major mistake when he used the term “Science” in his works.  The term science is frequently used to denote “the fact”. Things are never that cut and dry and rigid in life and those who are proponents of the scientific method would be the first to admit that there are always exceptions if they value honesty.  Rhonda Byrne the force behind the bestseller, “The Secret”, who credited Wallace Wattles and “The Science of Getting Rich” as the inspiration for her book, caught a lot of flak from those who brought out this point of allowing for exceptions.  The truth of the matter is we just don’t know why certain principles work  sometimes  but not all of the time.  The criticism of the law or principle of attraction which was the content of The Secret reveals just this point.  Just talk to James Ray, one of the experts cited in The Secret, who was charged with the sweat lodge murders, if the law of attraction always works.

Many of the authors and proponents of “Self-help” ideas are guilty of the same thing that they accuse legalistic Christians of at times.  Legalistic Christians try to codify the whole experience of God and they do not give the proper emphasis to relationship with God and the possibility of not knowing everything concerning God and the Bible.  Self-help proponents codify self help principles and many times diminish that God is personal and desirous of relationship.  They also tend to not allow for the unknowing factor of life and experience. Can you see that they are essentially both doing the same type of thing?

A.A. Allen, a Pentecostal preacher, held healing crusades but he was never able to conquer alcoholism and died of cirrhosis of the liver.  Wallace Wattles died without ever becoming rich.  Both of them taught things that they never really experienced themselves.  I believe we need to allow for a God who is beyond finding out totally in this life.  We would do well to allow for a little grace when dealing with one another.

So how do we account for the popularity of Wallace Wattles, even after all of these years?  I think the key is in the title of his book, “The Science of Getting Rich”.  Most people are interested in “getting rich” or at least richer.  The internet is peppered profusely with articles, courses, and eBooks’ promising riches for a price.  Would Wattle’s book be as popular if it was only “the possibility of getting rich” and not “the science”?  I don’t think so – I mean it is the “science”.  Couple these two things, “getting rich”, and “science” and you have an almost fool-proof way of garnering attention.  This, I think, is the secret to the success of Wallace Wattles.

Some of the ideas in the book are quite good ones in my opinion therefore you will find a link to a free download of a pdf copy at the end of this article.  The idea of fulfilling our potential instead of competing against others is one example brought out by Wattles.  Another is the recognition of the spiritual root of things and how spirit precedes matter.  The Bible reveals this at the very beginning and addresses this key at numerous other places.  Life is about more than what you can see physically and even science is confirming this fact as technology grows.    In conclusion, was Wallace Wattles rich?  The answer appears to be no but this does not mean that he can’t teach us something of value in our attempts to live a truly successful life.

 Free Science of Getting Rich Ebook

Living is Giving (excerpted from Denis Waitley’s The Seeds of Greatness Treasury book)

Living is giving your best self away,

Living is helping someone every day;

Living is giving more than you get,

It’s treating an animal like a person, instead of a pet.

It’s helping the handicapped across the street,

It’s smiling at the new person at work that you meet;

It’s respect for all nations, color and creeds,

It’s sharing and caring for your neighbor’s needs

One of God’s greatest laws you can live and believe,

Is the more that you give, the more you’ll receive!

Seeds of Greatness is one of those all-time classics that ranks right up there with Think & Grow Rich, How To Win Friends and Influence People and so on.

Best of all, it is Waitleys signiture material, not somebodyelses material presented in a different way. In Seeds of Greatness, you will learn the 10 best kept secrets to total success.

This one is a gem. Get it and use it. Great stuff. – Customer

I have a distrust for self-help books in general. I heard this one was good, and bought it second-hand for less than a dollar. Waitley pointed out ten important traits of high-achieving people. To me, the more interesting ones among them are: persevarence and having definite goals in life. The book contains ten chapters corresponding to the ten traits. In each chapter he explains what he means by a particular trait, and gives examples to illustrate what he means, and how this trait is important. I quite often found his examples not very convincing or even irrelevant. For instance, in the chapter “The Seed of Purpose”, he gave this example of how his children got him into buying a dog he didn’t want to buy. I wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to show by that example, if he had to include it in his book, it should probably be better included in the chapter “perseverance”.

Still, many of the things from the book are true. Such as having a well-defined goal. But most people probably know them to start with. The hard part is to get the readers into action. And I don’t think this book is particularly better at it than similar ones. – FH

To order Seeds of Greatness

In Maximum Achievement, Brian Tracy gives you a powerful, proven system — based on twenty-five years of research and practice — that you can apply immediately to get better results in every area of your life. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on success and personal achievement, addressing more than 100,000 men and women each year in public and private seminars.

Many of the more than one million graduates of the seminar program upon which this book is based have dramatically increased their income and improved their lives in every respect.

You learn ideas, concepts, and methods used by high-achieving people in every field everywhere. You learn how to unlock your individual potential for personal greatness. You will immediately become more positive, persuasive, and powerfully focused in everything you do.

The step-by-step blueprint for success and achievement presented in these pages includes proven principles drawn from psychology, religion, philosophy, business, economics, politics, history, and metaphysics. These ideas are combined in a fast-moving, informative series of steps that will lead you to greater success than you ever imagined possible — they can raise your self-esteem, improve personal performance, and give you complete control over every aspect of your personal and professional life.

I have a library of over 100 self helpbooks plus tapes and have attended allthe seminars. Clearly, Brian Tracy is the best. If you only have the time to read one book, this should be that one book. The techniques work and work fast. You will learn how to enhance all areas of your life. Most other books repeat the same things, not Brian. I also highly recommend the audio tape program, Pyschology of Achievement and the Pyschology of Selling by Brian and SuperSelf by Charles Givens, probably one of the most under rated books out there on personal development. – Mark F.

I own the hardback and a paperback which which I take with me everywhere I go. I also own the tape album set called “The Psychology of Achievement-THE PHOENIX SEMINAR”. No fluff here–just more and more power ful techniques to reach maxmum success. You’ll learn how to tap into your personal power,get along better with people, be a better parent, spouse, advance your career and more. This program coupled with Advanced Selling Techniques and “The Pyschology of Selling” jump started my sales career movig me from the bottom 90% to the top 5%! I highly recomend any program or product by Brian Tracy! – Customer

To order Maximum Achievement

Mind Mapping is a great tool for clarifying your thinking and planning. They can be used for problem solving and brainstorming where you want to generate lots of ideas with out critical judgement too quickly.

This concept is ideal for visual learners and can be used in all types of situations The result of mind mapping should be a drawing that is web like and somehow connected in the authors mind.

For more information about mind mapping:  Click here

For a download of free mind mapping software:  Click here

An Examination of Rhonda Byrne’s Bestselling Book “The Secret” by Ed Gungor

Rhonda Byrne recently released a new book entitled, The Power, but a few years back she released The Secret which had enormous popularity.  In a previous post Jinky did a review and in this post I want to draw attention to a little book that addresses many of the concerns a lot of people had with The Secret.

Basically Rhonda Byrne said in The Secret that the Law of Attraction is the secret to a happy and prosperous life. Ed Gungor in There Is More to the Secret, examines The Secret and the Law of Attraction from a Christian perspective.  He does not dismiss the  Law of Attraction but instead states that Rhonda Byrne and the other contributors to The Secret did not go far enough.  In other words, there are some negative aspects to this Law.

“Among his strongest arguments is that even assuming that the Law of Attraction works, if different people are all using it on their own behalf at the same time, some of the things people wish for may be cancelled out (suppose, for example, that two different people imagine getting the same rare item at an auction, or are competing for the same job). “ – reviewer

Another reviewer said,” this is now one of my favorite “Law of Attraction” books. Clearly there can be two very opposing sides on the subject of the Law of Attraction and Christianity but Ed Gungor takes a very balanced, albeit ultimately Christian, view. It was gratifying to know that he isn’t out to discredit “the law of attraction,” but to explain how there is a Biblical connection. It is unfortunate that the Law of Attraction, once the domain, as it were, for people already into alternative ways of thought anyway, such as massage therapists, Reiki practitioners, chiropractors, yoga practitioners, etc., has now almost become anathema to those who could richly benefit from it and sends up a red flag to many. “

This vocal reviewer had this to say,”From the beginnings of Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale on down to the present, I have read countless versions of “positive thinking” and “believing it makes it so” versions of the self-help movement. I have had no better and certainly often no worse luck than anyone else on the human journey, but I long ago came to believe that the real “secret” to all of these books (and now CDs and DVDs) is the profit it brings to the authors. The Bible is really not that clear on “ask, believe, receive” as to what you receive – and as every realistic, believing person knows, sometimes the answer is “no.” Taking these things literally can be devastating. Everyone is looking for the easy way out and some mind-game to create the life of our dreams. I still think there aren’t any substitutes for hard work, good judgment, and a little bit of luck along the way. When “The Secret” was really all the rage, I decided to give it whirl since it was a while since I had delved into this genre, having found it wanting in the past as to really changing my life. The dang disc broke my DVD player, which was almost new, so what do you make of that? I am foolish enough to admit that I have put up the dollar bill with $1,000,000 written on it; I have written “checks” for items I visualized coming into my life and stuck them on my refrigerator. I feng shui’d the “love” corner of my home only to have the object of my heart tell me he met someone else. I am not cynical and I believe a positive attitude and a sense of gratitude throughout life tends to make the world go ’round a little better. While I often have not received things I “want” I have had many unexpected blessings I didn’t even ask for. I am amazed that people do not realize that most of these things – while perhaps containing a modicum of common sense positive attitude – are designed to make money for the promoters. I know some people swear by the miracles they have experienced but I don’t know anyone personally who has ever drastically altered their lives by following these self-proclaimed gurus. I know it all falls into the realm of free speech, but that doesn’t mean the rest of have to be gullible and line the pockets of what used to be referred to as “snake oil salesmen.”

Check out this book by Ed Gungor.  You don’t have to read The Secret first – if you are interested just google the term and you will get the jest of it.  Order here

Shortly after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2006 with a degree in the program of liberal studies, I took a job doing adult education—teaching reading, writing, math and computers skills—at a homeless shelter, where the power of positive thinking was the staff drug of choice.

I knew social workers who stared at $100 bills before going to bed, hoping to attract “abundance” into their lives, rather than going into a more lucrative profession. And I once listened as our staff wellness expert handily dismissed the problem of evil in front of a class of homeless students using the same logic—that is, positive psychology’s “law of attraction.”

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Russell Conwell

When going down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers many years ago with a party of English travelers I found myself under the direction of an old Arab guide whom we hired up at Baghdad, and I have often thought how that guide resembled our barbers in certain mental characteristics. He thought that it was not only his duty to guide us down those rivers, and do what he was paid for doing, but to entertain us with stories curious and weird, ancient and modern strange, and familiar. Many of them I have forgotten, and I am glad I have, but there is one I shall never forget.

The old guide was leading my camel by its halter along the banks of those ancient rivers, and he told me story after story until I grew weary of his story-telling and ceased to listen. I have never been irritated with that guide when he lost his temper as I ceased listening. But I remember that he took off his Turkish cap and swung it in a circle to get my attention. I could see it through the corner of my eye, but I determined not to look straight at him for fear he would tell another story. But although I am not a woman, I did finally look, and as soon as I did he went right into another story. Said he, “I will tell you a story now which I reserve for my particular friends.” When he emphasized the words “particular friends,” I listened and I have ever been glad I did. I really feel devoutly thankful, that there are 1,674 young men who have been carried through college by this lecture who are also glad that I did listen.

For an audio of “Acres of Diamonds” and a Pdf copy click here

From time to time we may find ourselves engaging in negative self talk and our mood is affected.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an effective treatment for this condition.  Beginning this week and continuing for the rest of the year we will feature some articles about this subject.  Our focus is not changing on this blog but we are realist.  Everybody needs help at some time or another.

Before transitioning into Life Coaching I was a mental health counselor.  The sickness model is not very effective for most people.  The vast majority of the population respond very well to life coaching and many of the NLP techniques popularized by Tony Robbins and others.   There are some who find CBT an effective alternative therefore we include it here on this site.

The word therapy has an interesting origin:

1846, “medical treatment of disease,” from Mod.L. therapia, from Gk. therapeia “curing, healing,” from therapeuein “to cure, treat medically,” lit. “attend, do service, take care of;” related to therapon “servant, attendant.”

Let me know what you think.

Thought and Character – James Allen

The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those, which are deliberately executed.

Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.

“Thought in the mind hath made us, What we are

By thought was wrought and built. If a man’s mind

Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes

The wheel the ox behind….

…If one endure

In purity of thought, joy follows him

As his own shadow-sure.”

For the free e-book of “As a Man Thinketh” click here

Why some people choke and others panic

There was a moment, in the third and deciding set of the 1993 Wimbledon final, when Jana Novotna seemed invincible. She was leading 4-1 and serving at 40-30, meaning that she was one point from winning the game, and just five points from the most coveted championship in tennis…

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