Page 127 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions"
when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking, much less
in that of transmuting YOUR OWN DESIRE into money.

If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your
own. Keep your own counsel, when you begin to put into practice the principles
described here, by reaching your own decisions and following them. Take no one
into your confidence, EXCEPT the members of your "Master Mind" group, and be
very sure in your selection of this group, that you choose ONLY those who will be
in COMPLETE SYMPATHY AND HARMONY WITH YOUR PURPOSE.

Close friends and relatives, while not meaning to do so, often handicap one
through "opinions" and sometimes through ridicule, which is meant to be hu-
morous. Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes with them
all through life, because some well-meaning, but ignorant person destroyed their
confidence through "opinions" or ridicule.

You have a brain and mind of your own. USE IT, and reach your own decisions. If
you need facts or information from other people, to enable you to reach decisions,
as you probably will in many instances; acquire these facts or secure the informa-
tion you need quietly, without disclosing your purpose.

It is characteristic of people who have but a smattering or a veneer of knowledge
to try to give the impression that they have much knowledge. Such people gener-
ally do TOO MUCH talking, and TOO LITTLE listening. Keep your eyes and ears
wide open-and your mouth CLOSED, if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt
DECISION. Those who talk too much do little else. If you talk more than you
listen, you not only deprive yourself of many opportunities to accumulate useful
knowledge, but you also disclose your PLANS and PURPOSES to people who will
take great delight in defeating you, because they envy you.

Remember, also, that every time you open your mouth in the presence of a per-
son who has an abundance of knowledge, you display to that person, your exact
stock of knowledge, or your LACK of it! Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous
through modesty and silence.

Keep in mind the fact that every person with whom you associate is, like yourself,
seeking the opportunity to accumulate money. If you talk about your plans too
freely, you may be surprised when you learn that some other person has beaten
you to your goal by PUTTING INTO ACTION AHEAD OF YOU, the plans of which
you talked unwisely.