Strategies

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

Malcolm Gladwell describes thin-slicing as the main topic of his bestselling book “Blink”.  Thin-slicing is an interesting concept and the term is most frequently used in philosophical and psychological areas.  What is thin-slicing?  Well basically it is the capacity of people to unconsciously identify patterns in experience based on very brief times when it occurred.  In other words, brief slices of experience unconsciously reveal a pattern of behavior to the observer.

Why is this important when we discuss life growth strategies?  One of the concepts covered here is the idea of intuitive knowing and thin-slicing would seem to indicate that some of what we call intuition is based upon experience – even if we do not realize it.

Although it is a valuable concept thin-slicing does not fully explain intuition.  Many Christians dismiss the concept of intuition as something relegated to psychics and unredeemed man.  I personally think this is a simplistic response born more of fear than the leading of the Lord.  Proverbs 14:12 in the Bible states: There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.  Closer examination will reveal that this is talking about reasoning and the rational aspects of the mind and not intuition.

Intuition is a capacity that God has given to mankind for a purpose related to His plan for us.  This verse from Job 38:36, “Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart”? is translated, “Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind”? in the New Living Translation.  This latter translation seems to more fully reveal the gist of what is being said.

Someone once asked, “how do you know God is real?” and my response was something like, “I don’t know I just know”.  In my opinion faith is intuitive.  If you will open yourself to the possibility you will find that God is real.

There are two aspects very prominent in so-called self help materials. One is the idea of victimization which has given us the term dysfunctional; and the other idea is empowerment which is focused primarily upon human potential.

In 2005 Steve Salerno wrote a book entitled “Sham” which stood for the “Self Help and Actualization Movement (SHAM). Many of my thoughts about the limits of self help come from this and other sources.

When I say that self help is better than no help I am making a distinction between the twin ideas in the movement and referring to the idea that empowerment is better in my mind than the idea of being a victim.

Victimization is when a person is exploited or treated unfairly. When this idea is emphasized and used as the basis for counseling, therapy, or some other form of treatment, then we see its use in SHAM.

Empowerment on the other hand is to sanction, it is to give authority or power to, to enable. Inherent in this whole idea is the power of choice and making decisions. The rationale is; you can be a victim or you can be empowered to act.

With empowerment the view is usually towards the present and the future whereas with victimization the emphasis seems to be towards the past.

Self help or empowerment is better than victimization or no help – this is the thrust of my statement. I hope this gives clarification so that I can address the other idea of self help not being enough.

Here is a quote from Marilyn vos Savant which is used in “SHAM”:

“Compared to the possibilities in life, the impossibilities are vastly more numerous. What I don’t like to hear …is that you can be president or anything else you want to be. That’s not even remotely true…You can try to be just about anything, but your chances of success are another thing entirely.”

The only place where you can “be what you want to be” is on cloud 9 – a song popularized by the singing group, The Temptations, back in the 70’s. In the world in which we live this is not even remotely true; having said that, the truth of the matter is that most of us can achieve and accomplish a lot more than we have.

Part 1 is here

Frequently on this site we post articles and information that could be categorized as self help.  Our reasoning is that self help is certainly better than no help.  There are obvious limitations to what can be accomplished through self help ideas and material but having said that, there can be incredible benefit.

If you will keep reading and exploring the ideas on Life Growth Strategies you will find a thread that permeates and influences what we are all about.  We are not against self help but there is obviously more to be discovered. Check out the humorous article by satirist Dave Barry about the time he paid to attend a 12 hour success rally hosted by Peter Lowe.

Part 2 is here

Learning how to relax can be a very important component in any strategy for success.  Here is a link that list 6 resources that feature relaxation techniques.  Click here

Webmaster: Why do we do the things we do?  This video by Tony Robbins gives some valuable insight into this question.  Biography does not equal destiny and this video explains why.

NATURAL LAWS

Natural laws are fundamental patterns of nature and life that human experience and testing have shown to be valid.  They describe things as they really are, as opposed to how we think they are or how we wish they were.  Whether we agree with them or not, these laws ultimately govern our lives and operate independent of our awareness or wishes.  By becoming aware of them and working with them, we can live safely and successfully.  If we ignore them or fight them, we will fail and make ourselves and others miserable.

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God is a God of purpose.  When we learn to pray to Him in a non religious way with intentionality it is life transforming.  Here is part of an introduction to a book on prayer that I wrote many years ago.  There will be a link for a free copy of the book at the end.

The young doctor came out of the treatment room and just shook her head and I knew what it meant.  It was November of 1991 and Althea, my wife of 16 years, had suddenly died after a long illness. The emotional pain that I felt at that moment cannot be put into words.  Waiting at home were our four children who no longer had a mom to talk to or hug.   We were facing what seemed like an impossible situation.  How would I be able to raise our children alone? What would I do without my wife? What would our children do without their mother?

The next few days were like a bad dream.  I would have gladly traded places with Althea.  I knew she was with the Lord in heaven and I envied the fact that she was free from all problems and worries.  I asked God why she died and not me. He had to know that our kids really needed their Mom.  I had some other questions too.  Was there anything else I could have done to change things?  Did I pray enough or exercise faith enough for my wife’s healing?  What did I do wrong?

I began to cry out to God like a drowning man gasping for air. If we were to survive as a family we needed His help. The circumstances we faced did not allow me the luxury of going through the motions of prayer – I needed to know how to really pray and make contact with the Lord. All the questions of why things happened gradually gave way to more pressing needs. Everyday seemed to bring new challenges. Lives were hanging in the balance and I needed God’s help.

I know you have heard this before but — God is faithful.  He helped us.  He has proven His faithfulness time and time again since those tragic days. …

I used to read books anxious to get the help I needed based upon what they promised.  Now I am learning how to rest in the Lord.  Why don’t you allow God to take the pressure off and you will see a truth about Him that could change your life. You can find yourself really walking by faith and not by sight. He really is an awesome God!

My desire is that God will touch you … Just relax – there is no pressure for us to perform.  God will stir us into action but first let us come to Him and learn.

“Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”   (Matthew 11:28-30 – The Message)

Free Prayer Book

Personal life growth is a process of the life growth of others and individual life growth. As an individual, the focus is on personal goals, plans and actions aimed at these objectives:

• Establishing clear identity and discovering potential

• Discovering strengths and talents and developing them

• Establishing goals related to life growth plans and executing them

• Establishing vocation and market desirability

• Improving quality of life and desired lifestyle

• Fulfilling life purpose and personal desires

No man or woman is an island and our personal success in life is directly tied to our involvement in the life growth of other’s. Here on Life Growth Strategies we focus on both aspects – individual life growth or development and also the life growth and development of others.

“Nothing happens until something moves”. This statement long attributed to Albert Einstein has been stuck in my mouth lately. I just can’t seem to get away from this thought and idea.

The law of inertia in physics states that, “A body in motion tends to remain in motion whereas a body at rest tends to remain at rest. It takes considerable more energy to move a stationary object then it does one that is already moving”.

This quote long attributed to Goethe by mistake draws upon this point:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” William Hutchinson Murray (1913-1996), from his 1951 book entitled The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.

A story I read recently perhaps illustrates this idea:

“When it became apparent that Humvees in Iraq needed to be armored, he explained, the command sent a certain number of sets via air to get the process moving forward. Once those were delivered, TRANSCOM dispatched a ship with hundreds of sets of armor. The airlifted sets allowed the process to start, the sealifted sets allowed the process to continue. There was no pause or hold-up in placing the armor on the vehicles”.

http://www.defense.gov/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2297

The tendency for many of us is to have lots of ideas but then to put things off and delay implementing them. This leads to stress because you know there are things you should be working on now. When we see others moving on these ideas this only adds to the frustration we feel.