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Super Bowl 2015 host city to consider LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The city of Glendale, Ariz., could become the fifth Arizona city to pass an LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance under a proposal from a local city councilman. The west Phoenix suburb is home to the Arizona Cardinals and will host Super Bowl XLIX on Feb.1.
By Staff Reports Tuesday, November 4, 2014
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The city of Glendale, Ariz., could become the fifth Arizona city to pass an LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance under a proposal from a local city councilman.
University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale, Ariz., is home to the Arizona Cardinals and host of the 2015 Super Bowl.
The west Phoenix suburb is home to the Arizona Cardinals and will host Super Bowl XLIX on Feb.1.
Councilman Gary Sherwood says the ordinance would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations, and send a message that the city supports diversity and inclusiveness, reports the Arizona Republic.
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Earlier this year, some feared Glendale might lose the 2015 Super Bowl after the Arizona Legislature passed Senate Bill 1062. That bill, which would have allowed business owners to refuse service to people based on religious beliefs, was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer after a backlash from business and civil-rights leaders.
Despite the veto, however, Arizona is among the states in which it's still legal to fire someone based on sexual orientation.
Last month, a federal judge struck down Arizona's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and state officials declined to appeal the ruling.
"I think we need to show inclusiveness, that we are a diverse community in light of the rulings" that led to marriage equality in Arizona, says Sherwood.
Article continues below
The city hopes to discuss the proposed ordinance at its next City Council workshop on Dec. 2. "If there is consensus to move forward, we could get it done before the Super Bowl," says Jim Brown, Glendale director of human resources.
Councilman Sam Chavira said that with all the big sporting events Glendale hosts, the city needs to put it in writing and adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance. Glendale is also home to the NHL's Arizona Coyotes.
Similar ordinances have already been adopted in Tucson (sexual orientation, 1977; gender identity, 1999), Phoenix and Flagstaff (2013) and Tempe (2014, the day after Brewer vetoed SB 1062).
Glendale is Arizona's fourth largest city.
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Jack Phillips has spent years fighting for the right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. He just lost his battle.
Failed gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano plans to introduce a drag ban bill
The move follows right-wing outrage over a queer prom in the state that featured a drag performance.
Republicans introduced a bill to ban students who identify as animals from public schools
A&W pulled a fast one on Fox & now everyone is laughing
Apparently, self-awareness is not a prerequisite to getting on air.
Arkansas moves forward on criminalizing drag shows
The measure endangers trans people, too.
Lesbian shop owners allegedly forced out of town by anti-LGBTQ+ harassment
"We couldn't escape. We couldn't do business."
More than half of LGBTQ+ parents in Florida are considering moving out of state
Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Republicans have terrified queer families into leaving.
Supreme Court may be forced to consider transgender bathroom bans
The court may have to take up the issue following a lower court decision denying a transgender student access to the boys' restroom at his public high school.


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El cinema kannada, també conegut com Sandalwood, Kannada Film Industry o Chandanavana, és el cinema indi dedicat a la producció de pel·lícules en llengua kannada àmpliament parlades a l'estat de Karnataka. La pel·lícula Sati Sulochana de 1934 dirigida per YV Rao va ser la primera pel·lícula parlada en llengua kannada. Va ser també la primera pel·lícula protagonitzada per Subbaiah Naidu i Tripuramba, i va ser la primera pel·lícula que es va projectar a l'antic regne de Mysore. La pel·lícula va ser produïda per Chamanlal Doongaji, que el 1932 va fundar el sud de l'Índia Movietone a Bangalore.

Les principals obres literàries s'han adaptat a la pantalla kannada com Chomana Dudi de BV Karanth (1975), Kaadu de Girish Karnad (1973), Samskara de Pattabhirama Reddy (1970) (basada en una novel·la d'UR Ananthamurthy), que va guanyar el lleopard de bronze al Festival Internacional de Cinema de Locarno, i Mysuru Mallige de TS Nagabharana (basat en les obres del poeta KS Narasimhaswamy).

El cinema kannada és conegut per produir treballs experimentals com Ghatashraddha (1977) de Girish Kasaravalli, que va guanyar el Premi Ducats al Festival de Cinema de Manneham Alemanya, Dweepa (2002), que va guanyar la millor pel·lícula al Festival Internacional de Cinema de Moscou, La pel·lícula muda de Singeetam Srinivasa Rao Pushpaka Vimana (1987), projectada al Festival de Cannes i el drama històric de Prashanth Neel, KGF: Chapter 1 (2018), que es va convertir en la primera La pel·lícula en kannada ha recaptat 250 milions de ₹ a tot el món a la taquilla.

Vegeu també
 B. Jaya

Referències

Cinema a l'Índia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Romania Confirms Second Bird Flu Outbreak
Poultry health
31 March 2010, at 8:03am
ROMANIA - Earlier reports of a second case of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry has now been confirmed.
The veterinary authority sent Follow-up Report No. 1 dated 30 March to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
The report describes the outbreak as starting on 27 March at Plaur in the region of Tulcea. This is the same region as the previous outbreak. Of a population of 80 hens in a backyard, 28 were found dead and 52 sick at the veterinarian's visit.
Plaur is situated in the Danube Delta, 55km from Letea. The village has 31 backyards, of which 17 hold 699 poultry (626 hens, 18 ducks, 28 geese, 21 turkeys and six guinea hens).
The presence of the H5N1 sub-type of the virus has been confirmed.
- You can visit the Avian Flu page by clicking here.
Getting egg orientation right: air cell up when setting eggs
Care must be taken to ensure correct orientation of the eggs when placing them on setter trays.
The Chicken Whisperer: identifying the causes of egg abnormalities
Andy Schneider and Dr Pitesky discuss what eggs can reveal about hen health.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Learning through creativity: how creativity can help machine learning achieving deeper understanding
Caterina Moruzzi
Keywords: creativity, artificial intelligence, autonomy, problem-solving, machine learning
In this paper, I address the difficult task of analysing the nature of creativity by suggesting a more objective way of defining it. In particular, I propose a minimal account of creativity as autonomous problem-solving process. This definition is aimed at providing a baseline that researchers working in different fields can agree on and that can then be refined on a case by case basis. Developing our insight on the nature of creativity is increasingly necessary in the light of recent developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence. In the second part of the paper, I discuss how an investigation on the main features of human creativity can support the advancement of machine learning models in their current areas of weakness, such as intuition, originality, innovation, and flexibility. I suggest how methods such as modelling the human brain or simulation can be useful to extract the main mechanisms underlying creative processes and to translate them to machine learning applications. This can eventually aid both the development of machine learning systems that achieve a deeper and more intuitive understanding and our exploration of human creativity.
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Elton, Matthew (1995), «Artificial Creativity: Enculturing Computers», in Leonardo, vol. 28, pp. 207–213.
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Gaut, Berys (2010), «The Philosophy of Creativity», in Philosophy Compass, vol. 5, n. 12, pp. 1034-1046.
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Jiang, Mingming, Thagard, Paul (2014), «Creative Cognition in Social Innovation», in Creativity Research Journal, vol. 26, n. 4, pp. 375-388.
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Copyright (c) 2020 Caterina Moruzzi


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Abdullah Abdullah (Dari/, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government was overthrown by the Taliban. The council had been established to facilitate peace talks between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban insurgents. Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan from September 2014 to March 2020, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2001 to April 2005. Prior to that, he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance, working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He worked as an ophthalmologist and medical doctor in the 1980s.

Abdullah ran against President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 Afghan presidential election, coming second with 30.5% of the total votes. In 2010, he created the Coalition for Change and Hope, which became the National Coalition of Afghanistan in 2011 and is one of the leading democratic opposition movements in Afghanistan. He ran again in the 2014 presidential election and went to the second round with 45% the total vote. His closest rival, Ashraf Ghani, had secured 35% of the total vote. Due to signs of fraud, the results of the second round were heavily contested and led to a deadlock. Despite the controversy regarding the results of the second round of elections, the final certified result by the Independent election commission of Afghanistan shows that Ashraf Ghani received 55.3% of the votes while Abdullah Abdullah secured 44.7% of the vote. After months of talks and US mediation, the two candidates established a national unity government in which Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan.

Following the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on 17 August 2021, leader of the Taliban-affiliated Hezb-e-Islami party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar met with Abdullah and Karzai in Doha, seeking to form a government. Reports emerged on 25 August that a 12-member council will be formed to govern the de facto newly-reinstated Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Reportedly 7 members were already agreed upon: Abdullah himself, Karzai, Hekmatyar, Abdul Ghani Baradar, Mohammad Yaqoob, Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, and Hanif Atmar. However, it was later announced that Abdullah Abdullah and Karzai had failed to secure roles in the new government.

Early life
Abdullah was born in the second district of Kārte Parwān in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is the son of a Pashtun father, Ghulam Mahyyoddin Zmaryalay, from the Kandahar area, and a Tajik mother from Panjshir. His early years were split between living in Panjshir Province, Kandahar and Kabul, where his father was serving as an administrator in the land survey, and subsequently the audit section of the Prime Minister's office. His father was a senator during the final years of King Zahir Shah's rule. Abdullah has seven sisters and two brothers. His nephew was Mohammad Fahim Dashty, the spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan during the Panjshir conflict.

Until he became a government minister, Abdullah had only a first name; demands from Western newspaper editors for a family name led him to adopt the full name "Abdullah Abdullah". Abdullah is married, and has three daughters and a son.

Education and medical career
Abdullah graduated from Naderia High School in 1976. He studied ophthalmology at Kabul University's Department of Medicine, where he received an MBBS in 1983. After graduating, he worked for several months as a resident ophthalmologist at the National Organisation for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR) hospital in Kabul. Then he moved to Pakistan, where he worked in the Syed Jamaluddin Afghan Eye Hospital for Afghan Refugees in Peshawar for more than a year.

Early political career
In 1985, Abdullah returned to Afghanistan to join the resistance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and made his way to Panjshir. In September, he became the head of the Health Department for the Panjshir Resistance Front, coordinating treatments and health care for the resistance fighters and the civilian population. He became a close associate and adviser to mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

After the fall of the communist government in 1992, the Peshawar Accord established the Islamic State of Afghanistan with a provisional government led by Burhanuddin Rabbani. Abdullah was appointed chief of staff and spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense.

On 27 September 1996, the Taliban seized power in Kabul and 90% of the country, with military training support by Pakistan, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, the Northern Alliance, also called the United Islamic Front, was created under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud. The Northern Alliance was supported by Russia, Iran and India. Abdullah became the United Front's Minister of Foreign Affairs. Islamic State of Afghanistan elements of the United Front, including the Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, remained Afghanistan's internationally recognized government. The Taliban government was recognized by only three countries – Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

In early 2001, Abdullah traveled with Ahmad Shah Massoud to Brussels, where Massoud addressed the European Parliament asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan. Abdullah translated when Massoud stated that the Taliban and al-Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan and Bin Laden, the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.

Modern Afghanistan

Foreign ministry

In October 2001 the Taliban regime was overthrown by Operation Enduring Freedom including American and United Front forces. As a result of the International Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn in 2001, Abdullah was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Interim Administration in December 2001.

In November 2001, a diplomatic crisis unfolded when the British government, without any forewarning or seeking permission from the Northern Alliance, flew members of the British Special Boat Service to Bagram. Abdullah was "apoplectic" as he considered the uninvited arrival to be a violation of sovereignty, and complained bitterly to the head of the CIA field office, threatening to resign if the British did not withdraw. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw tried to reassure the Northern Alliance that the deployment was not a vanguard of a British peacekeeping army, but Northern Alliance leaders did not believe them; with the threat of the Northern Alliance opening fire on incoming Royal Air Force troop transports, the deployment was put on hold.

Following the 2004 Afghan presidential election, Abdullah was one of the few people who kept their position from the Transitional Government and was re-appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs for another year. In 2005 he resigned his position.

2009 presidential election

On 6 May 2009, Abdullah registered as an Independent candidate for the 2009 Afghan presidential election, running against incumbent president Hamid Karzai. Abdullah selected as his running mates Humayun Shah Asefi as his First Vice President and Dr. Cheragh Ali Cheragh (a surgeon from Kabul who is a practicing Shi'i Muslim) as Second Vice President. Afghanistan has an executive structure featuring two vice presidents, a First VP and a Second VP, to help ensure a stable government by attempting to provide ethnic and religious balance to senior government leadership positions. Unofficial and non-certified electoral results were announced during the day on 16 September 2009, showing that Abdullah was in second position with 27.8% of the total votes cast. President Karzai did not achieve the 50.01% vote majority required to avoid a runoff election. A large number of fraudulent ballots, mostly belonging to Karzai's camp, were disallowed by the Independent Afghan Electoral Commission. Karzai came under intense international political and diplomatic pressure from international leaders because of allegations of large-scale fraud. Hamid Karzai eventually agreed to participate in a designated head-to-head runoff election (held between the contenders with the two largest numbers of total votes in the first election) which was scheduled nationwide for 7 November 2009.

On 1 November 2009, Abdullah announced that he had decided to withdraw from the runoff election, citing his lack of faith in the President Karzai government's ability to hold a "fair and transparent" second election process. Subsequently, Hamid Karzai was declared the winner by the Afghan Electoral Commission (essentially winning by default).

National Coalition of Afghanistan

After the 2009 Afghan Presidential Elections, Abdullah created the Coalition for Change and Hope (CCH). The NCA presented the leading democratic opposition movement against the government of Hamid Karzai.

In the 18 September 2010 parliamentary election, the Coalition for Change and Hope won more than 90 seats out of 249 seats, becoming the main opposition party. As a result, it is assumed that the new Parliament will introduce some checks and balances on the Presidential power.

Regarding the Taliban insurgency and Karzai's strategy of negotiations Dr. Abdullah stated:

In December 2011, the National Coalition of Afghanistan, supported by dozens of Afghan political parties and led by Abdullah, was formed to challenge the government of President Hamid Karzai. Major figures associated with the coalition include Yunus Qanuni (the former head of the Afghan Parliament), Homayoon Shah-asefi (a former presidential candidate and leader of the monarchist party with ties to the family of former king Mohammed Zahir, Noorolhagh Oloumi (a senior political figure in the former Afghan communist government), Ahmad Wali Massoud (a younger brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud) and several current Members of Parliament.

Massoud Foundation
Abdullah has been the Secretary General of the Massoud Foundation since June 2006. The Massoud Foundation is an independent, non-aligned, non-profitable and non-political organization established by people who have been affected by the life of Massoud. It provides humanitarian assistance to Afghans especially in the fields of health care and education. It also runs programs in the fields of culture, construction, agriculture and welfare.

2014 presidential candidacy

On 1 October 2013, Abdullah officially announced his nomination for the presidential election held on 5 April 2014. On 13 April, BBC News reported that the counting indicated that Abdullah had thus far received 44.65% of the vote, with Ashraf Ghani following behind with 33.6%. Abdullah and Ghani were then bound to compete in a run-off election in June 2014. The results of that election remained in dispute through until September 2014, with Abdullah claiming the government and the national electoral institutions manipulated the results. Pressure from the United States on the two candidates to resolve their differences, and to negotiate a power-sharing deal were initially agreed to, but Abdullah later remained defiant. A UN-led audit failed to sway Abdullah as he insisted the audit team could not explain a million extra votes counted in the run-off. Ghani supporters insisted they wanted to do a deal with Abdullah, and said they were leaving the door open to negotiations.

On 19 September, the Independent Election Commission announced Ghani the winner. Five hours later, Abdullah and Ghani signed a power-sharing agreement, with Ghani being named president and Abdullah taking on an important position in the government; the deal was signed in front of the presidential palace, with incumbent president Hamid Karzai in attendance. Part of the deal stipulated that the Independent Election Commission would not release the exact vote totals of the second round of voting.

Chief Executive (2014–2020)
Following a close loss to Ashraf Ghani in the second round of the 2014 election, Abdullah became Chief Executive, a newly created position that encompasses prime ministerial powers. Serving as Chief Executive, Abdullah has actively met with international business leaders and politicians alike, seeking foreign investment and support. He has further sought to implement a number of ceasefires with the Taliban. Citing mistrust of the Taliban, Abdullah has taken a somewhat more hardline stance against the Taliban movement than his presidential counterpart Ashraf Ghani, noting a number of failed attempts at long-term peace. In April 2019, Abdullah opted not to attend the Consultative Peace Jirga, noting that the Jirga was unlikely to resolve any issues.

2019 presidential election

Incumbent Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah registered as a candidate for the 2019 Afghan presidential election. Abdullah selected Enayatullah Babur Farahmand as his First Vice President and Asadullah Sadati as Second Vice President.

After the election results showed that Ashraf Ghani was declared as the winner, Abdullah declared himself winner as well, sparking a political crisis and leading him to publicly state that he would form a parallel government. On 9 March, both Abdullah and Ghani took the presidential oath of office at separate inauguration ceremonies. The United States pressured the Afghan government to come up with a solution by cutting $1 billion of aid. This, with mounting international pressure and the threat of the Taliban, forced officials to strike a deal between Abdullah and Ghani. The deal left President Ghani in charge of executive power and created the High Council of National Reconciliation. Mr. Abdullah is head of the council, where he will lead peace efforts with the Taliban.

High Council for National Reconciliation (2020–2021)

On 17 May 2020, a deal was reached where Abdullah was to lead the country's High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) as a chairman. Moreover, HCNR was given the authority to handle and approve all affairs related to the Afghan peace process. The Council held its first meeting in December 2020, several months after its official creation, despite having incomplete membership and power struggles.

Following the collapse of the Republican government and Abdullah's meeting with Hekmatyar, the political fate of the HCNR remains unclear.

On 1 September 2021, Taliban representatives said that they had approached former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah. The representatives said that the Taliban was "ready to recruit them" but said that Karzai was unlikely to be part of the government as they do not want "old horses". As for Abdullah, the Taliban showed a different approach saying that he was the "least controversial."

Taliban takeover and subsequent activities
In February 2022, Abdullah was temporarily placed under house arrest by the Taliban in Afghanistan. On May 4 2022 he was allowed to leave for India to be with his family during Eid al-Fitr. He returned to Afghanistan on June 11.

References

External links

 with Ahmad Shah Massoud in the European Parliament
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah Official Presidential Campaign Website

Karzai's Challenger Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Aryn Baker in Pashir, Time, 5 August 2009
Video: Abdullah Abdullah at the Asia Society, New York, 27 May 2010

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1960 births
Living people
People from Kabul
Foreign ministers of Afghanistan
Afghan diplomats
Afghan Muslims
Afghan ophthalmologists
Afghan Tajik people
Pashtun people
Afghan expatriates in Pakistan
People of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
21st-century Afghan politicians


It is expected that the reader will take the fundamental statements upon faith, just as he would take statements concerning a law of electrical action if they were promulgated by a Marconi or an Edison; and, taking the statements upon faith, that he will prove their truth by acting upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will certainly get rich; for the science herein applied is an exact science, and failure is impossible. For the benefit, however, of those who wish to investigate philosophical theories and so secure a logical basis for faith, I will here cite certain authorities.
The monistic theory of the universe the theory that One is All, and that All is One; That one Substance manifests itself as the seeming many elements of the material world -is of Hindu origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western world for two hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies, and of those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Emerson.
The reader who would dig to the philosophical foundations of this is advised to read Hegel and Emerson for himself.
In writing this book I have sacrificed all other considerations to plainness and simplicity of style, so that all might understand. The plan of action laid down herein was deduced from the conclusions of philosophy; it has been thoroughly tested, and bears the supreme test of practical experiment; it works. If you wish to know how the conclusions were arrived at, read the writings of the authors mentioned above; and if you wish to reap the fruits of their philosophies in actual practice, read this book and do exactly as it tells you to do.
CHAPTER 1 The Right To Be Rich.
There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy. The man who does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the man who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal.
Man cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter; and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life .
THERE is a Science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.
Getting rich is not a matter of environment, for, if it were, all the people in certain neighborhoods would become wealthy; the people of one city would all be rich, while those of other towns would all be poor; or the inhabitants of one state would roll in wealth, while those of an adjoining state would be in poverty.
But everywhere we see rich and poor living side by side, in the same environment, and often engaged in the same vocations. When two men are in the same locality, and in the same business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it shows that getting rich is not, primarily, a matter of environment. Some environments may be more favorable than others, but when two men in the same business are in the same neighborhood, and one gets rich while the other fails, it indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way.
And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely to the possession of talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while other who have very little talent get rich.
Studying the people who have got rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects, having no greater talents and abilities than other men. It is evident that they do not get rich because they possess talents and abilities that other men have not, but because they happen to do things in a Certain Way.
Getting rich is not the result of saving, or "thrift"; many very penurious people are poor, while free spenders often get rich.
Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do; for two men in the same business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains poor or becomes bankrupt.
The question arises here, whether this Certain Way may not be so difficult that only a few may follow it. This cannot be true, as we have seen, so far as natural ability is concerned. Talented people get rich, and blockheads get rich; intellectually brilliant people get rich, and very stupid people get rich; physically strong people get rich, and weak and sickly people get rich.
Some degree of ability to think and understand is, of course, essential; but in so far natural ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense enough to read and understand these words can certainly get rich.
Also, we have seen that it is not a matter of environment. Location counts for something; one would not go to the heart of the Sahara and expect to do successful business.
If anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you; and if anybody else in your state can get rich, so can you.
Again, it is not a matter of choosing some particular business or profession. People get rich in every business, and in every profession; while their next door neighbors in the same vocation remain in poverty.
It is true that you will do best in a business which you like, and which is congenial to you; and if you have certain talents which are well developed, you will do best in a business which calls for the exercise of those talents.
Also, you will do best in a business which is suited to your locality; an ice-cream parlor would do better in a warm climate than in Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed better in the Northwest than in Florida, where there are no salmon.
But, aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not dependent upon your engaging in some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a Certain Way. If you are now in business, and anybody else in your locality is getting rich in the same business, while you are not getting rich, it is because you are not doing things in the same Way that the other person is doing them.
CHAPTER 3  Is Opportunity Monopolized?
So the factory workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not deprived of opportunity. The workers are not being "kept down" by their masters; they are not being "ground" by the trusts and combinations of capital. As a class, they are where they are because they do not do things in a Certain Way. If the workers of America chose to do so, they could follow the example of their brothers in Belgium and other countries, and establish great department stores and co-operative industries; they could elect men of their own class to office, and pass laws favoring the development of such co-operative industries; and in a few years they could take peaceable possession of the industrial field.
The visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really IS inexhaustible.
New Forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all are shapes assumed by One Thing.
CHAPTER 4  The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich.
THOUGHT is the only power which can produce tangible riches from the Formless Substance. The stuff from which all things are made is a substance which thinks, and a thought of form in this substance produces the form.
Original Substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in nature is the visible expression of a thought in Original Substance. As the Formless Stuff thinks of a form, it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is the way all things were created. We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought universe. The thought of a moving universe extended throughout Formless Substance, and the Thinking Stuff moving according to that thought, took the form of systems of planets, and maintains that form. Thinking Substance takes the form of its thought, and moves according to the thought. Holding the idea of a circling system of suns and worlds, it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks. Thinking the form of a slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree, though centuries may be required to do the work. In creating, the Formless seems to move according to the lines of motion it has established; the thought of an oak tree does not cause the instant formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces which will produce the tree, along established lines of growth.
Every thought of form, held in thinking Substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.
The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon Formless Substance, might not cause the instant formation, of the house; but it would cause the turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the speedy building of the house. And if there were no existing channels through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance, without waiting for the slow processes of the organic and inorganic world.
And so far man has confined his efforts wholly to the work of his hands; he has applied manual labor to the world of forms, seeking to change or modify those already existing. He has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new forms by impressing his thoughts upon Formless Substance.
When man has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature, and makes an image of the form which is in his mind. He has, so far, made little or no effort to co-operate with Formless Intelligence; to work "with the Father." He has not dreamed that he can "do what he seeth the Father doing." Man reshapes and modifies existing forms by manual labor; he has given no attention to the question whether he may not produce things from Formless Substance by communicating his thoughts to it. We propose to prove that he may do so; to prove that any man or woman may do so, and to show how. As our first step, we must lay down three fundamental propositions.
It may be asked if I can prove these statements; and without going into details, I answer that I can do so, both by logic and experience.
Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original thinking substance; and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to man's power to cause the formation of the thing he thinks about.
If one man who reads this book gets rich by doing what it tells him to do, that is evidence in support of my claim; but if every man who does what it tells him to do gets rich, that is positive proof until some one goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until the process fails; and this process will not fail, for every man who does exactly what this book tells him to do will get rich.
I have said that men get rich by doing things in a Certain Way; and in order to do so, men must become able to think in a certain way.
A man's way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things.
To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think; this is the first step toward getting rich.
Every man has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearance is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious, and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work man is called upon to perform.
There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it; and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the TRUTH.
To look upon the appearance of disease will produce the form of disease in your own mind, and ultimately in your body, unless you hold the thought of the truth, which is that there is no disease; it is only an appearance, and the reality is health.
To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.
To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease, or to think riches when in the midst of appearances of poverty, requires power; but he who acquires this power becomes a MASTER MIND. He can conquer fate; he can have what he wants.
This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all appearances; and that fact is that there is one Thinking Substance, from which and by which all things are made.
Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that man can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and become visible things.
You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe than this monistic one; and you must dwell upon this until it is fixed in your mind, and has become your habitual thought. Read these creed statements over and over again; fix every word upon your memory, and meditate upon them until you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast it aside as a sin. Do not listen to arguments against this idea; do not go to churches or lectures where a contrary concept of things is taught or preached. Do not read magazines or books which teach a different idea; if you get mixed up in your faith, all your efforts will be in vain.
Do not ask why these things are true, nor speculate as to how they can be true; simply take them on trust.
The Intelligent Substance which is All, and in All, and which lives in All and lives in you, is a consciously Living Substance. Being a consciously living substance, It must have the nature and inherent desire of every living intelligence for increase of life. Every living thing must continually seek for the enlargement of its life, because life, in the mere act of living, must increase itself.
Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. Every thought we think makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding. Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is continually increasing. Every talent we cultivate brings to the mind the desire to cultivate another talent; we are subject to the urge of life, seeking expression, which ever drives us on to know more, to do more, and to be more.
The desire for riches is simply the capacity for larger life seeking fulfillment; every desire is the effort of an unexpressed possibility to come into action. It is power seeking to manifest which causes desire. That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the plant grow; it is Life, seeking fuller expression.
Nature is friendly to your plans.
Everything is naturally for you.
Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind.
What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.
Remember, however, that the desire of Substance is for all, and its movements must be for more life to all; it cannot be made to work for less life to any, because it is equally in all, seeking riches and life.
Intelligent Substance will make things for you, but it will not take things away from some one else and give them to you.
You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created.
I am aware that there are men who get a vast amount of money by proceeding in direct opposition to the statements in the paragraph above, and may add a word of explanation here. Men of the plutocratic type, who become very rich, do so sometimes purely by their extraordinary ability on the plane of competition; and sometimes they unconsciously relate themselves to Substance in its great purposes and movements for the general racial upbuilding through industrial evolution. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, et al., have been the unconscious agents of the Supreme in the necessary work of systematizing and organizing productive industry; and in the end, their work will contribute immensely toward increased life for all. Their day is nearly over; they have organized production, and will soon be succeeded by the agents of the multitude, who will organize the machinery of distribution.
Riches secured on the competitive plane are never satisfactory and permanent; they are yours to-day, and another's tomorrow. Remember, if you are to become rich in a scientific and certain way, you must rise entirely out of the competitive thought. You must never think for a moment that the supply is limited. Just as soon as you begin to think that all the money is being "cornered" and controlled by bankers and others, and that you must exert yourself to get laws passed to stop this process, and so on; in that moment you drop into the competitive mind, and your power to cause creation is gone for the time being; and what is worse, you will probably arrest the creative movements you have already instituted.
KNOW that there are countless millions of dollars' worth of gold in the mountains of the earth, not yet brought to light; and know that if there were not, more would be created from Thinking Substance to supply your needs.
Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with Him by failing to make acknowledgment.
It is easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth we shall receive; and it is easy also to understand that the soul that is always grateful lives in closer touch with God than the one which never looks to Him in thankful acknowledgment.
"Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you." That is a statement of psychological truth.
And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in Formless Substance will be strong and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be always toward you. Notice the grateful attitude that Jesus took; how He always seems to be saying, "I thank Thee, Father, that Thou hearest me." You cannot exercise much power without gratitude; for it is gratitude that keeps you connected with Power.
Also, faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things, and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one's own mind produces faith; and every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. He who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith; and without a living faith you cannot get rich by the creative method, as we shall see in the following chapters.
Do not rage against, corrupt politicians; if it were not for politicians we should fall into anarchy, and your opportunity would be greatly lessened.
CHAPTER 8 Thinking in the Certain Way.
It is not enough that you should have a general desire for wealth "to do good with"; everybody has that desire.
It is not necessary to take exercises in concentration, nor to set apart special times for prayer and affirmation, nor to "go into the silence," nor to do occult stunts of any kind. There things are well enough, but all you need is to know what you want, and to want it badly enough so that it will stay in your thoughts.
And behind this purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that the thing is already yours; that it is "at hand" and you have only to take possession of it.
"Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them," said Jesus.
"Use not vain repetitions as the heathen do," said Jesus said to his pupils, "for your Father knoweth the ye have need of these things before ye ask Him."
Oral prayer is well enough, and has its effect, especially upon yourself, in clarifying your vision and strengthening your faith; but it is not your oral petitions which get you what you want. In order to get rich you do not need a "sweet hour of prayer"; you need to "pray without ceasing." And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision, with the purpose to cause its creation into solid form, and the faith that you are doing so.
"Believe that ye receive them."
CHAPTER 9 How to Use the Will.
Your have no right to do so, anyway.
It is as flagrantly wrong to coerce people by mental power as it is to coerce them by physical power. If compelling people by physical force to do things for you reduces them to slavery, compelling them by mental means accomplishes exactly the same thing; the only difference is in methods. If taking things from people by physical force is robbery, them taking things by mental force is robbery also; there is no difference in principle.
You have no right to use your will power upon another person, even "for his own good"; for you do not know what is for his good. The science of getting rich does not require you to apply power or force to any other person, in any way whatsoever. There is not the slightest necessity for doing so; indeed, any attempt to use your will upon others will only tend to defeat your purpose.
When you know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think and do the right things. That is the legitimate use of the will in getting what you want--to use it in holding yourself to the right course. Use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting in the Certain Way.
Do not try to project your will, or your thoughts, or your mind out into space, to "act" on things or people.
Keep your mind at home; it can accomplish more there than elsewhere.
Use your mind to form a mental image of what you want, and to hold that vision with faith and purpose; and use your will to keep your mind working in the Right Way.
The more steady and continuous your faith and purpose, the more rapidly you will get rich, because you will make only POSITIVE impressions upon Substance; and you will not neutralize or offset them by negative impressions.
The picture of your desires, held with faith and purpose, is taken up by the Formless, and permeates it to great distances-throughout the universe, for all I know.
As this impression spreads, all things are set moving toward its realization; every living thing, every inanimate thing, and the things yet uncreated, are stirred toward bringing into being that which you want. All force begins to be exerted in that direction; all things begin to move toward you. The minds of people, everywhere, are influenced toward doing the things necessary to the fulfilling of your desires; and they work for you, unconsciously.
But you can check all this by starting a negative impression in the Formless Substance. Doubt or unbelief is as certain to start a movement away from you as faith and purpose are to start one toward you. It is by not understanding this that most people who try to make use of "mental science" in getting rich make their failure. Every hour and moment you spend in giving heed to doubts and fears, every hour you spend in worry, every hour in which your soul is possessed by unbelief, sets a current away from you in the whole domain of intelligent Substance. All the promises are unto them that believe, and unto them only. Notice how insistent Jesus was upon this point of belief; and now you know the reason why.
Since belief is all important, it behooves you to guard your thoughts; and as your beliefs will be shaped to a very great extent by the things you observe and think about, it is important that you should command your attention.
And here the will comes into use; for it is by your will that you determine upon what things your attention shall be fixed.
Do not spend your time in charitable work, or charity movements; all charity only tends to perpetuate the wretchedness it aims to eradicate.
I do not say that you should be hard hearted or unkind, and refuse to hear the cry of need; but you must not try to eradicate poverty in any of the conventional ways. Put poverty behind you, and put all that pertains to it behind you, and "make good."
Get rich; that is the best way you can help the poor.
And you cannot hold the mental image which is to make you rich if you fill your mind with pictures of poverty. Do not read books or papers which give circumstantial accounts of the wretchedness of the tenement dwellers, of the horrors of child labor, and so on. Do not read anything which fills your mind with gloomy images of want and suffering.
What tends to do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty into your mind, but getting pictures of wealth into the minds of the poor.
Poverty can be done away with, not by increasing the number of well to do people who think about poverty, but by increasing the number of poor people who purpose with faith to get rich.
The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an hour or two; but inspiration will cause them to rise out of their misery. If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can become rich; prove it by getting rich yourself.
Every man who becomes rich by competition throws down behind him the ladder by which he rises, and keeps others down; but every man who gets rich by creation opens a way for thousands to follow him, and inspires them to do so.
You are not showing hardness of heart or an unfeeling disposition when you refuse to pity poverty, see poverty, read about poverty, or think or talk about it, or to listen to those who do talk about it. Use your will power to keep your mind OFF the subject of poverty, and to keep it fixed with faith and purpose ON the vision of what you want.
CHAPTER 10  Further Use of the Will.
"Let the dead bury their dead," as Jesus said.
You should interest yourself in the world's becoming rich.
Think of the riches the world is coming into, instead of the poverty it is growing out of; and bear in mind that the only way in which you can assist the world in growing rich is by growing rich yourself through the creative method--not the competitive one.
Whenever you think or speak of those who are poor, think and speak of them as those who are becoming rich; as those who are to be congratulated rather than pitied. Then they and others will catch the inspiration, and begin to search for the way out.
You can serve God and man in no more effective way than by getting rich; that is, if you get rich by the creative method and not by the competitive one.
Another thing. We assert that this book gives in detail the principles of the science of getting rich; and if that is true, you do not need to read any other book upon the subject. This may sound narrow and egotistical, but consider: there is no more scientific method of computation in mathematics than by addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; no other method is possible. There can be but one shortest distance between two points. There is only one way to think scientifically, and that is to think in the way that leads by the most direct and simple route to the goal. No man has yet formulated a briefer or less complex "system" than the one set forth herein; it has been stripped of all non-essentials. When you commence on this, lay all others aside; put them out of your mind altogether.
Read this book every day; keep it with you; commit it to memory, and do not think about other "systems" and theories. If you do, you will begin to have doubts, and to be uncertain and wavering in your thought; and then you will begin to make failures.
And read only the most optimistic comments on the world's news; those in harmony with your picture.
CHAPTER 11  Acting in the Certain Way.
THOUGHT is the creative power, or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act; thinking in a Certain Way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck--the failure to connect thought with personal action.
We have not yet reached the stage of development, even supposing such a stage to be possible, in which man can create directly from Formless Substance without nature's processes or the work of human hands; man must not only think, but his personal action must supplement his thought.
By thought you can cause the gold in the hearts of the mountains to be impelled toward you; but it will not mine itself, refine itself, coin itself into double eagles, and come rolling along the roads seeking its way into your pocket.
Under the impelling power of the Supreme Spirit, men's affairs will be so ordered that some one will be led to mine the gold for you; other men's business transactions will be so directed that the gold will be brought toward you, and you must so arrange your own business affairs that you may be able to receive it when it comes to you. Your thought makes all things, animate and inanimate, work to bring you what you want; but your personal activity must be such that you can rightly receive what you want when it reaches you. You are not to take it as charity, nor to steal it; you must give every man more in use value than he gives you in cash value.
The scientific use of thought consists in forming a clear and distinct mental image of what you want; in holding fast to the purpose to get what you want; and in realizing with grateful faith that you do get what you want.
Do not try to 'project' your thought in any mysterious or occult way, with the idea of having it go out and do things for you; that is wasted effort, and will weaken your power to think with sanity.
The action of thought in getting rich is fully explained in the preceding chapters; your faith and purpose positively impress your vision upon Formless Substance, which has THE SAME DESIRE FOR MORE LIFE THAT YOU HAVE; and this vision, received from you, sets all the creative forces at work IN AND THROUGH THEIR REGULAR CHANNELS OF ACTION, but directed toward you.
It is not your part to guide or supervise the creative process; all you have to do with that is to retain your vision, stick to your purpose, and maintain your faith and gratitude.
But you must act in a Certain Way, so that you can appropriate what is yours when it comes to you; so that you can meet the things you have in your picture, and put them in their proper places as they arrive.
You can really see the truth of this. When things reach you, they will be in the hands of other men, who will ask an equivalent for them.
Your pocketbook is not going to be transformed into a Fortunata's purse, which shall be always full of money without effort on your part.
This is the crucial point in the science of getting rich; right here, where thought and personal action must be combined. There are very many people who, consciously or unconsciously, set the creative forces in action by the strength and persistence of their desires, but who remain poor because they do not provide for the reception of the thing they want when it comes.
Whatever your action is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past, and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here yet. And you cannot tell how you will want to act in any future contingency until that contingency has arrived.
Because you are not in the right business, or the right environment now, do not think that you must postpone action until you get into the right business or environment. And do not spend time in the present taking thought as to the best course in possible future emergencies; have faith in your ability to meet any emergency when it arrives.
If you act in the present with your mind on the future, your present action will be with a divided mind, and will not be effective.
Do not give your creative impulse to Original Substance, and then sit down and wait for results; if you do, you will never get them. Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready for the reception of what you want, you must begin now.
And your action, whatever it is, must most likely be in your present business or employment, and must be upon the persons and things in your present environment.
You cannot act where you are not; you cannot act where you have been, and you cannot act where you are going to be; you can act only where you are.
Do not bother as to whether yesterday's work was well done or ill done; do to-day's work well.
Do not try to do tomorrow's work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it.
Do not try, by occult or mystical means, to act on people or things that are out of your reach.
Do not wait for a change of environment, before you act; get a change of environment by action.
You can so act upon the environment in which you are now, as to cause yourself to be transferred to a better environment.
Hold with faith and purpose the vision of yourself in the better environment, but act upon your present environment with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.
Do not spend any time in day dreaming or castle building; hold to the one vision of what you want, and act NOW.
Do not cast about seeking some new thing to do, or some strange, unusual, or remarkable action to perform as a first step toward getting rich. It is probable that your actions, at least for some time to come, will be those you have been performing for some time past; but you are to begin now to perform these actions in the Certain Way, which will surely make you rich.
If you are engaged in some business, and feel that it is not the right one for you, do not wait until you get into the right business before you begin to act.
Do not feel discouraged, or sit down and lament because you are misplaced. No man was ever so misplaced but that he could not find the right place, and no man ever became so involved in the wrong business but that he could get into the right business.
Hold the vision of yourself in the right business, with the purpose to get into it, and the faith that you will get into it, and are getting into it; but ACT in your present business. Use your present business as the means of getting a better one, and use your present environment as the means of getting into a better one. Your vision of the right business, if held with faith and purpose, will cause the Supreme to move the right business toward you; and your action, if performed in the Certain Way, will cause you to move toward the business.
If you are an employee, or wage earner, and feel that you must change places in order to get what you want, do not 'project" your thought into space and rely upon it to get you another job. It will probably fail to do so.
Hold the vision of yourself in the job you want, while you ACT with faith and purpose on the job you have, and you will certainly get the job you want.
In order to do this, man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed PURPOSE to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get what he wants, closing his mind to all that may tend to shake his purpose, dim his vision, or quench his faith.
That he may receive what he wants when it comes, man must act NOW upon the people and things in his present environment.
You are not to try to do tomorrow's work today, nor to do a week's work in a day.
CHAPTER 13  Getting into the Right Business.
Generally speaking, you will do best in that business which will use your strongest faculties; the one for which you are naturally "best fitted." But there are limitations to this statement, also. No man should regard his vocation as being irrevocably fixed by the tendencies with which he was born.
CHAPTER 14  The Impression of Increase.
WHETHER you change your vocation or not, your actions for the present must be those pertaining to the business in which you are now engaged.
You can get into the business you want by making constructive use of the business you are already established in; by doing your daily work in a Certain Way.
And in so far as your business consists in dealing with other men, whether personally or by letter, the key-thought of all your efforts must be to convey to their minds the impression of increase.
The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the universe. All human activities are based on the desire for increase; people are seeking more food, more clothes, better shelter, more luxury, more beauty, more knowledge, more pleasure-- increase in something, more life.
Man instinctively knows this, and hence he is forever seeking more. This law of perpetual increase is set forth by Jesus in the parable of the talents; only those who gain more retain any; from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
The normal desire for increased wealth is not an evil or a reprehensible thing; it is simply the desire for more abundant life; it is aspiration.
And because it is the deepest instinct of their natures, all men and women are attracted to him who can give them more of the means of life.
In following the Certain Way as described in the foregoing pages, you are getting continuous increase for yourself, and you are giving it to all with whom you deal.
You are a creative center, from which increase is given off to all.
Be sure of this, and convey assurance of the fact to every man, woman, and child with whom you come in contact. No matter how small the transaction, even if it be only the selling of a stick of candy to a little child, put into it the thought of increase, and make sure that the customer is impressed with the thought.
Convey the impression of advancement with everything you do, so that all people shall receive the impression that you are an Advancing Man, and that you advance all who deal with you. Even to the people whom you meet in a social way, without any thought of business, and to whom you do not try to sell anything, give the thought of increase.
You can convey this impression by holding the unshakable faith that you, yourself, are in the Way of Increase; and by letting this faith inspire, fill, and permeate every action.
Do everything that you do in the firm conviction that you are an advancing personality, and that you are giving advancement to everybody.
Feel that you are getting rich, and that in so doing you are making others rich, and conferring benefits on all.
Do not boast or brag of your success, or talk about it unnecessarily; true faith is never boastful.
Wherever you find a boastful person, you find one who is secretly doubtful and afraid. Simply feel the faith, and let it work out in every transaction; let every act and tone and look express the quiet assurance that you are getting rich; that you are already rich. Words will not be necessary to communicate this feeling to others; they will feel the sense of increase when in your presence, and will be attracted to you again.
You must so impress others that they will feel that in associating with you they will get increase for themselves. See that you give them a use value greater than the cash value you are taking from them.
Take an honest pride in doing this, and let everybody know it; and you will have no lack of customers. People will go where they are given increase; and the Supreme, which desires increase in all, and which knows all, will move toward you men and women who have never heard of you. Your business will increase rapidly, and you will be surprised at the unexpected benefits which will come to you. You will be able from day to day to make larger combinations, secure greater advantages, and to go on into a more congenial vocation if you desire to do so.
But doing thing all this, you must never lose sight of your vision of what you want, or your faith and purpose to get what you want.
Let me here give you another word of caution in regard to motives.
Beware of the insidious temptation to seek for power over other men.
Nothing is so pleasant to the unformed or partially developed mind as the exercise of power or dominion over others. The desire to rule for selfish gratification has been the curse of the world. For countless ages kings and lords have drenched the earth with blood in their battles to extend their dominions; this not to seek more life for all, but to get more power for themselves.
To-day, the main motive in the business and industrial world is the same; men Marshal their armies of dollars, and lay waste the lives and hearts of millions in the same mad scramble for power over others. Commercial kings, like political kings, are inspired by the lust for power.
Jesus saw in this desire for mastery the moving impulse of that evil world He sought to overthrow. Read the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, and see how He pictures the lust of the Pharisees to be called "Master," to sit in the high places, to domineer over others, and to lay burdens on the backs of the less fortunate; and note how He compares this lust for dominion with the brotherly seeking for the Common Good to which He calls His disciples.
Look out for the temptation to seek for authority, to become a "master," to be considered as one who is above the common herd, to impress others by lavish display, and so on.
The mind that seeks for mastery over others is the competitive mind; and the competitive mind is not the creative one. In order to master your environment and your destiny, it is not at all necessary that you should rule over your fellow men and indeed, when you fall into the world's struggle for the high places, you begin to be conquered by fate and environment, and your getting rich becomes a matter of chance and speculation.
CHAPTER 15 The Advancing Man.
WHAT I have said in the last chapter applies as well to the professional man and the wage-earner as to the man who is engaged in mercantile business.
No matter whether you are a physician, a teacher, or a clergyman, if you can give increase of life to others and make them sensible of the fact, they will be attracted to you, and you will get rich. The physician who holds the vision of himself as a great and successful healer, and who works toward the complete realization of that vision with faith and purpose, as described in former chapters, will come into such close touch with the Source of Life that he will be phenomenally successful; patients will come to him in throngs.
No one has a greater opportunity to carry into effect the teaching of this book than the practitioner of medicine; it does not matter to which of the various schools he may belong, for the principle of healing is common to all of them, and may be reached by all alike. The Advancing Man in medicine, who holds to a clear mental image of himself as successful, and who obeys the laws of faith, purpose, and gratitude, will cure every curable case he undertakes, no matter what remedies he may use.
In the field of religion, the world cries out for the clergyman who can teach his hearers the true science of abundant life. He who masters the details of the science of getting rich, together with the allied sciences of being well, of being great, and of winning love, and who teaches these details from the pulpit, will never lack for a congregation. This is the gospel that the world needs; it will give increase of life, and men will hear it gladly, and will give liberal support to the man who brings it to them.
What is now needed is a demonstration of the science of life from the pulpit. We want preachers who can not only tell us how, but who in their own persons will show us how. We need the preacher who will himself be rich, healthy, great, and beloved, to teach us how to attain to these things; and when he comes he will find a numerous and loyal following.
The same is true of the teacher who can inspire the children with the faith and purpose of the advancing life. He will never be "out of a job." And any teacher who has this faith and purpose can give it to his pupils; he cannot help giving it to them if it is part of his own life and practice.
What is true of the teacher, preacher, and physician is true of the lawyer, dentist, real estate man, insurance agent--of everybody.
` The combined mental and personal action I have described is infallible; it cannot fail. Every man and woman who follows these instructions steadily, perseveringly, and to the letter, will get rich. The law of the Increase of Life is as mathematically certain in its operation as the law of gravitation; getting rich is an exact science.
Do all the work you can do, every day, and do each piece of work in a perfectly successful manner; put the power of success, and the purpose to get rich, into everything that you do.
But do not do this merely with the idea of currying favor with your employer, in the hope that he, or those above you, will see your good work and advance you; it is not likely that they will do so.
The man who is merely a "good" workman, filling his place to the very best of his ability, and satisfied with that, is valuable to his employer; and it is not to the employer's interest to promote him; he is worth more where he is.
Do not try to more than fill your present place with a view to pleasing your employer; do it with the idea of advancing yourself. Hold the faith and purpose of increase during work hours, after work hours, and before work hours. Hold it in such a way that every person who comes in contact with you, whether foreman, fellow workman, or social acquaintance, will feel the power of purpose radiating from you; so that every one will get the sense of advancement and increase from you. Men will be attracted to you, and if there is no possibility for advancement in your present job, you will very soon see an opportunity to take another job.
There is a Power which never fails to present opportunity to the Advancing Man who is moving in obedience to law.
God cannot help helping you, if you act in a Certain Way; He must do so in order to help Himself.
There is nothing in your circumstances or in the industrial situation that can keep you down. If you cannot get rich working for the steel trust, you can get rich on a ten-acre farm; and if you begin to move in the Certain Way, you will certainly escape from the "clutches" of the steel trust and get on to the farm or wherever else you wish to be.
If a few thousands of its employees would enter upon the Certain Way, the steel trust would soon be in a bad plight; it would have to give its workingmen more opportunity, or go out of business. Nobody has to work for a trust; the trusts can keep men in so called hopeless conditions only so long as there are men who are too ignorant to know of the science of getting rich, or too intellectually slothful to practice it.
Begin this way of thinking and acting, and your faith and purpose will make you quick to see any opportunity to better your condition.
Such opportunities will speedily come, for the Supreme, working in All, and working for you, will bring them before you.
Do not wait for an opportunity to be all that you want to be; when an opportunity to be more than you are now is presented and you feel impelled toward it, take it. It will be the first step toward a greater opportunity.
There is no such thing possible in this universe as a lack of opportunities for the man who is living the advancing life.
It is inherent in the constitution of the cosmos that all things shall be for him and work together for his good; and he must certainly get rich if he acts and thinks in the Certain Way. So let wage-earning men and women study this book with great care, and enter with confidence upon the course of action it prescribes; it will not fail.
CHAPTER 16  Some Cautions, and Concluding Observations.
CHAPTER 17  Summary of the Science of Getting Rich.
Man may come into full harmony with the Formless Substance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies the mind of man with the intelligence of Substance, so that man's thoughts are received by the Formless. Man can remain upon the creative plane only by uniting himself with the Formless Intelligence through a deep and continuous feeling of gratitude .


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Siegel+Gale put together this PDF which boils down a sample credit card's terms to one page.
While the language is simpler than your average 30-page contract, it's still not ideal; note that the late fee is still $39, there's Binding Mandatory Arbitration language, and the bank reserves the right to change the credit limit at any time for any reason. It's less clear if this contract allows the bank to change any of the terms at any time for any reason, which is the reality for most cards.
Dear Credit Card User,You owe us money. We can raise your interest rate just because we feel like it. We can do this even if you have always paid us on time and your credit is still good.We gave you a zero percent interest rate to entice you to transfer a balance to us. Now that you have, we can raise your rate from zero to our standard rate or even higher, to our default rate, if you pay us late or go over your credit limit just one time.
You may have to get your payment to us 20 days from when we mail you the bill. Mail delays in either direction are your problem. If your payment is late even once, we can boost your interest rate to as high as 29.99 percent.
And you out there on the West Coast: Your electronic payment is late if you set it up after 2 p.m. Pacific time on the date it's due.
As we've blogged about before, in February some great changes will go into effect, and banks won't be able to raise your interest rate on old debt unless you pay more than 60 days late. If you'd like to see that change go into effect sooner (like in time for the holidays), click here to take action.
Siegel+Gale, a strategic branding company and a pioneer in simplifying complex customer communications, is not in the business of changing content. Rather, we work with the elements of a standard agreement and make it more readable by simplifying the language and design.
Hi Alan – I realize it's not Siegel+Gale's fault that credit card contracts contain problems. It's interesting that even when the language is simplified and the disclosure is perfect, as in your document, there are still problems!


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M&A Fee Survey 2020
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VDR Tips and Tricks
Why investment bankers should invest time in LinkedIn
Investment bankers have traditionally been wary of LinkedIn and other social media networks, but now that's a thing of the past. With big firms caring more and more about online presence, and networking increasingly taking place online, investment bankers can't afford not to be on LinkedIn anymore.
By Lena Desmond
Consider this example. Do you think it's possible for an investment banker to:
Break into an emerging international market with absolutely no regional business ties?
Transition from a career in law to finance?
Do all of this in a foreign country, where they don't know the language?
No? Recently, one lawyer-turned-banker did just that, and when asked how he contacted firms in order to make the transition possible, he responded:
"I used LinkedIn extensively and even went through their paid options (InMail, etc.) so that I could contact people directly. I would search for terms like 'China private equity' and 'China investment banking' and also look up fellow expats who had indicated they were from my country but were now in China doing business. I got around a 30% response rate from the messages I sent there."
All that through LinkedIn? Absolutely, and this is not even a rare example.
LinkedIn is full of opportunities, even in the traditionally social media-adverse fields of of investment banking and private equity. There are no limits to its creative possibilities, which go far beyond a digital resume. For the investment banker, LinkedIn enables speedy networking forward-thinking self marketing.
Here are three reasons why every investment banker, from first-year analyst to top-tier managing director, should invest their precious time on LinkedIn.
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Job Opportunities Abound
Last year, 73% of 18-34-year-olds found their last job over a social network. While that number may seem high, it makes sense knowing that 94% of recruiters are using LinkedIn to source candidates. It's a good thing social media is turning into the most prolific recruitment tool because bulge bracket banks are inundated with resumes from traditional applications.
Take Goldman Sachs, for example. According to CEO Lloyd Blankfein, "Almost 300,000 individuals applied for full-time positions at Goldman Sachs for 2010 and 2011. We hired fewer than 4% of that population." In that time, they've ramped up their LinkedIn page into one of the most active online communities in the business, and their careers section is the fastest and most direct place to learn about openings. You can't afford not to be on there.
With competition increasing, a LinkedIn presence is paramount, especially for those trying to get their foot in the door of a big firm.
While creating a robust profile may seem time consuming for the 90-hour work week banker, once you've crafted your profile it takes very little effort to maintain. Simply showcasing your past employment, major accomplishments, awards and academic achievements allows recruiters and employers to find you. To optimize your profile even further, add industry keywords. These enhance your traceability within LinkedIn's search engine. The banker mentioned above stressed that part of his success was due the keywords in his profile, like "M&A" and "cross-border transactions," amongst others words chosen to attract the firms and positions he wanted.
You Have a New Connection: The New Networking
Networking has gone digital. A 2012 LinkedIn survey found that 66% of High Value Investors use LinkedIn to network for jobs and 34% use it to research and develop business ventures. There are over 1000 LinkedIn groups catering specifically towards investment bankers and myriad other niche groups that range from current events to job postings to alumni associations to regional communities.
In many cases, when you join a group, thought leaders and experts who are out of your professional network become accessible via InMail (LinkedIn's private messaging function).
But it's not just a matter of adding as many contacts as possible and liking their posts. On LinkedIn, you still have to network the right way.
One sage piece of advice comes from Moorad Choudhry, the former Head of Business Treasury, Global Banking and Markets at Royal Bank of Scotland. He says, "Networking is not calling someone when you need help. I never accept LinkedIn requests from people who don't bother to write a personal message. If someone gets in touch because they knew me years ago or they've read my book and have a comment, then that's fine, but make an effort to write a personal greeting!"
While networking may now include liking, sharing, and pressing the connect button, developing trust is still necessary to build and develop relationships. LinkedIn just makes it a lot easier.
Establishing Street Cred: Posting to Create Trust and Credibility
While you would be wise to save the pictures of your last martini party for your private Facebook account, establishing a professional commentary and posting relevant content on LinkedIn serves to increase your credibility.
Urs Haeusler, CEO at DealMarket, hits the nail on the head when he asks, "Who would you trust: The investor who is open on social media and discusses the industry, or the one with a five page website that won't discuss what they do?"
Social media, especially LinkedIn, now materially impacts the finance community and its players. A study from the Brunswisk group surveyed 500 institutional investors and sell-side analysts. They found that ~30% had followed up on investments identified on social media and nearly 70% believed social media's influence for investment decisions would increase in the future.
For any mistrust harbored against the finance community, sharing knowledge on LinkedIn increases trust in the individuals who are doing the sharing. LinkedIn's study on High Value Investors found that "Ultra Affluent [high value investors] are 37% more likely to trust information from their LinkedIn network and 157% more likely to trust articles that are shared on LinkedIn." While investment bankers may be reluctant to say too much publicly because of their firm's code of conduct and confidentiality requirements, sharing articles or thoughts on industry news helps solidify one's public professional reputation.
While you should be aware of the US Federal Trade Commission's social media disclosure rules – which in a nut shell stipulate that you must not disclose any privileged information within a post – and abide by your firm's code of conduct, the benefits of sharing your expertise publicly outweigh the cons and prove to be an integral strategy for forward looking organizations.
The Time to Press Connect is Now
LinkedIn's average individual user isn't an intern looking to earn some chops, but a seasoned executive who brings home a salary of $150 000+ and holds a graduate level education. It's no surprise that at this point LinkedIn's potential for opportunity is bordering on limitless. It's high time investment bankers got in on the goods. Who knows? You could end up overseas, learn Mandarin, or right at home at your dream firm.
Tags: Investment Banking
Lena Desmond
Lena is a freelance finance, B2B, and culture writer.
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BME Sport Cymru helps increase BME participation in Welsh sport by supporting organisations to work with minority ethnic communities.
BME Sport Cymru is an initiative designed to make it easier for BME communities to engage with sport in Wales. The project is funded by Sport Wales and is led by WCVA.
The project works by offering guidance on how to make sports clubs more welcoming and inclusive for people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Training and workshops are also delivered to increase knowledge, awareness of barriers and how to engage with different BME groups.
For more information, please contact: Rajma Begum – National BME Diversity Officer: rbegum@WCVA.cymru
The BME Sport Cymru project was set up in 2016 to support a sustainable approach to BME sports participation, with 3 main priorities:
Increase BME participation in sport
Build capacity for BME engagement in sport
Tackle inequality
The project has not only achieved the delivery targets (around participation, volunteering, events, partnerships) but it has also achieved many other additional outcomes around health, crime, training and education, community cohesion, confidence, and tackling isolation which far outweigh the initial objectives alone.
For example, Heather Lewis from Cardiff got to know some of the refugees and asylum seekers in her area and was struck by some of the incredibly difficult and awful things they'd experienced.
After they showed enthusiasm at watching her netball team play, started a team exclusively for women who were refugees and asylum seekers.
We funded the room hire and coaching qualifications for Heather to run the team efficiently.
Since then they have since received donations of equipment from local athletes and the room is now offered to the team free of charge by the local church where the sessions are held.
'My life has changed by accessing your project activities. I don't feel lonely or depressed anymore'
BME Sport Cymru has made a huge difference at many levels:
Participants and volunteers have described an increase in their health, wellbeing, confidence, and have more optimism towards their pathways for development.
The BME community in Wales has more awareness of sport and is more active, inspiring a wider circle through word of mouth
Community organisations have strengthened governance and broken into new areas of delivery, with increased funding support to sustain activities, and better relations with Sport Wales and NGBs
The project team themselves have developed more skills and knowledge, confidence in development work, tutor training, some are now on equality boards and have NGB coaching qualifications
NGBs and sporting partners have better engagement with BME communities in Wales, a better understanding of cultures and barriers, and of course having a broader diversity of players means that the wealth of talent will continue to increase for NGBs!
Partnerships with Police on engagement through sport and crime reduction and to encourage more reporting of hate crime
And of course, WCVA get to work in a new area of sport and have better engagement with BME groups.