IF YOU formulate your desire upon a basis of misinformation and half-baked facts, the result will be misapplication of energy and half-baked success. You cannot feed the mind on husks and expect it to turn out gold dollars. It is not an alchemist's crucible to take the poverty of slothful-ness and transform it into the wealth that is industry's rewara.

Husks And Gold Dollars

A Factory and its Raw Materials With effort you can have the best that the world has to offer.

Your mind is a mighty structure filled with all kinds of intricate machinery. It is built to turn out the most wonderful of products, success and riches, health and happiness. And you are its master. You can direct its operations and determine the character and quality of its output. But you must furnish it with raw materials appropriate and ample.

And these raw materials are facts.

1. Attention.

Perception is the first step in mind-building.

The senses dig up all the raw material of the mind-life.

Yet how few people there are who attend fully and intelligently to their sensory messages.

There is all the difference in the world among men and women in this respect. S©me have a superficial knowledge of many things; others have but a smattering of one. A few there are who perceive not only outward aspects, but inner content and deep significance.

Says Professor Scripture, " Eyes and No-eyes journeyed together. No-eyes saw only what thrust itself upon him; Eyes was on the watch for everything. Eyes used the fundamental method of all knowledge - observation.

"This is the first lesson to be learned - the art of watching. Most of us went to school before this art was cultivated, and alas! most of the children still go to schools of the same kind. There are proper ways of learning to watch, but the usual object-lessons in school result in just the opposite. We, however, cannot go a step further till we have learned to watch."

2. Make systematic use of your sense-organs.

(See Studies in Volume Four.)

3. Fix ideas by their associates. (See Studies in Volume Four.)

4. Search systematically and persistently.

(See Studies in Volume Four.)

5. The instant you recollect a thing to be done, do it.

(See Studies in Volume Four.)

6. Learn to ask questions.

One of the most valuable things a man ever learns, and what saves years of effort, is the utilizing of the knowledge and experience of others. It may take a man ten years to learn a thing, but it requires only a minute to tell it. If you ask a question that will draw out his convictions, you can get the same conclusion you would probably reach if you went over the same ground that he did. You can begin where he left off. The inventor spent thirty years in perfecting the telephone, but you can pick it up and use it in an instant. If you had to invent one yourself before you could use it, you would lose valuable time doing something that has already been done.

Of course, it is to be understood that you should not ask stupid or impertinent questions, as that would cost you the confidence of the person you ask and shut off the help he might be willing to render you.

Questions that bring out the best information are specific questions thoughtfully asked, and sometimes involving fundamentals. Practice trying the different kinds of questions until you learn which are the best. Asking intelligent questions is an art - in fact, it is an accomplishment.

7. Get the habit of Thoroughness.

Make it your business to examine each new proposition from every side. Study every proposed transaction until you understand it inside, outside, bottom and top and all the way round. Get at the real facts stripped of all uncertainty. Never guess, assume or take for granted. Know - and know thoroughly.