Page 220 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP: THE SEVENTH BASIC EVIL

In addition to the Six Basic Fears, there is another evil by which people suffer. It
constitutes a rich soil in which the seeds of failure grow abundantly. It is so subtle
that its presence often is not detected. This affliction cannot properly be classed
as a fear. IT IS MORE DEEPLY SEATED AND MORE OFTEN FATAL THAN ALL
OF THE SIX FEARS. For want of a better name, let us call this evil SUSCEPTI-
BILITY TO NEGATIVE INFLUENCES.

Men who accumulate great riches always protect themselves against this evil! The
poverty stricken never do! Those who succeed in any calling must prepare their
minds to resist the evil. If you are reading this philosophy for the purpose of
accumulating riches, you should examine yourself very carefully, to determine
whether you are susceptible to negative influences. If you neglect this self-analy-
sis, you will forfeit your right to attain the object of your desires.

Make the analysis searching. After you read the questions prepared for this self-
analysis, hold yourself to a strict accounting in your answers. Go at the task as
carefully as you would search for any other enemy you knew to be awaiting you in
ambush and deal with your own faults as you would with a more tangible enemy.
You can easily protect yourself against highway robbers, because the law provides
organized cooperation for your benefit, but the "seventh basic evil" is more diffi-
cult to master, because it strikes when you are not aware of its presence, when you
are asleep, and while you are awake. Moreover, its weapon is intangible, because
it consists of merely-a STATE OF MIND. This evil is also dangerous because it
strikes in as many different forms as there are human experiences. Sometimes
it enters the mind through the well-meant words of one's own relatives. At other
times, it bores from within, through one's own mental attitude. Always it is as
deadly as poison, even though it may not kill as quickly.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST NEGATWE INFLUENCES

To protect yourself against negative influences, whether of your own making, or
the result of the activities of negative people around you, recognize that you have
a WILL-POWER, and put it into constant use, until it builds a wall of immunity
against negative influences in your own mind.

Recognize the fact that you, and every other human being, are, by nature, lazy,
indifferent, and susceptible to all suggestions which harmonize with your weak-
nesses.

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

Recognize that you are, by nature, susceptible to all the six basic fears, and set up.