The Prosperity & Wealth Bible - Kahlil Gibran

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      Before you do a thing — ask Why?

      A great deal of the Lost Motion of the world results from Head-long Action — going into a task without Cause — without some definite Purpose — without first finding out — Why.

      Before you do a thing — ask Why?

      Let Why lead you on and save you Power. Simply answer with promptness its Silent questionings. Give unto Why a substantial reason for the fiber that is within you.

      Before you do a thing — ask Why?

      Ask yourself: “Why should I do this thing? Why should I refuse to do it?” Put your actions to the Why test. Think of the wealth of happiness that the habitual use of Why can bring you!

      Before you do a thing — ask Why?

      Make Why very personal. “Why do I squander so much Time? Why do I appreciate so little the chance to Live? Why do I use so small a fraction of my Brain Ability? Why do I not make more Friends? Why do I worry about things that Never Happen? Why do I scold when I should Cheer?” Why?

      Before you do a thing — ask Why?

      Keep Why busy about your House. And at the Night-fall of each day gather into convention the Whys of each Thought and Act.

      Before you do a thing — ask Why?

      Eliminate the regretful Why. Put yourself on the Stand hourly. Ask and Answer with fortitude and freedom — unafraid of Right conscientiously performed.

      Frankness

      Frankness is the art of saying things you honestly think exactly as you think them. To be Frank is to be naturally straightforward.

      Look the other fellow in the Eye.

      Just as a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, so is Frankness the only right course between all people. Because nothing is wasted. The Frank man is the only man worthy of trust.

      Look the other fellow in the Eye.

      Frankness between Employer and Employee, Frankness between a Man or a Woman, Frankness between yourself and the one who disagrees with you, is the only sensible way.

      Look the other fellow in the Eye.

      The beginning of mutual respect is trust. No satisfactory result in anything was ever achieved without Frankness.

      Look the other fellow in the Eye.

      Never think that Frankness is Impudence, nor crude Opinion. It is the face to face openness of Mind and Heart that challenges immediate acceptance of what you have to say as the uncoated Truth.

      Look the other fellow in the Eye.

      To-day, don’t hedge. Stand squarely on your own legs. Be Frank. And you will marvel at the ease with which other people will understand and respect you. Frankness, a very precious possession, is possible to all — save one, the Coward. You — start to put Frankness into use. Make it earn its board and lodging. Say out what you have to say — with Frankness.

      Look the other fellow in the Eye.

      Faces

      The most marvelous of all pieces of work is the human Face. Strange that out of all the billions of Faces made since Time got to going, no two Faces have ever been exactly alike. Strange, too, that no one Face long remains the same!

      Make Something of YOUR Face.

      The Face is the Revelation of Character. As surely and positively as does the hand guided by the orders of the Brain clear wide wastes, build great cities, and cut into life-like figures from bare rocks the story of men’s achievements, so does the Brain and Thought of a man carve and fashion daily the secret workings of his Ideals and Purposes into the Lines and Planes of his own Face.

      Make Something of YOUR Face.

      There is one thing a man cannot hide from — his own Face! Where the Man goes the Face must go. How tremendous the responsibility, then, of making your Face a good Companion, a faithful Servant, an active Force, an interesting Study — a Face worth remembering! Make Something of YOUR Face.

      The only way to make Something of your Face is to make Something of your Character.

      A Face never lies. It may be a Comic Picture, a Comedy of Errors, a Shakespearean Tragedy, a chiseled piece of Power, or a wrecked god — but it is no lie. If you would know your Friend, study the history of his Face.

      Make Something of YOUR Face.

      No one could get a hearing if he wrote a whole library of malicious tales about Lincoln. His wonderful Face would contradict them all. To learn what manner of person a man is, study his Face. His Character is proclaimed there as Trumpet Tones. Pope said that the proper study of mankind was man. But the way to study a man is to study his Face. Be not so foolish as to try to “hop bail” on your own Face. You can’t. Better start associating more with it. It is your largest asset, for no man can take it from you. Realize now, then, that the most important job for you each day is to —

      Make SOMETHING of your Face.

      Responsibility

      A great man by the name of Ansalus de Insulis — remember the name — once wrote these wonderful words: “Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die to-morrow.”

      Be Responsible, first, to Yourself.

      Responsibility is one thing that all must face and that none can escape. It starts with the baby in the cradle. It never ends! For the Responsibility of a man goes on even after his work in the flesh is over. A man performs a great deed. It lives in printed pages and goes on in its influence as long as there is any life in the world at all.

      Be Responsible, first, to Yourself.

      Individual Responsibility! It’s the thing that makes the Man. Without it there is no Man. Bear in mind, you who must realize Responsibility to your Employer, or to your Friend, or to your Home, — your first Responsibility is to Yourself. And if you are weak and false to yourself — if you wabble in doing the things that mean your very life and Success — you are already a Failure.

      Be Responsible, first, to Yourself.

      Then FEEL your Responsibility. No one is useless who believes that some things depend upon him alone. You who read this little preachment, take it to heart. Be unafraid of at least attempting larger things. Convince your own self that you have worth and can prove it — and the tasks of big moment will take care of you and lift you into importance and affluence — the gifts of having the courage to take Responsibility and shoulder it. But, remember to —

      Be Responsible, first, to Yourself.

      Happiness

      Happiness is Helpfulness bubbling over at the rim. Also, Happiness is getting in time with the music of the Band of The-Out-of-Doors. There is no unhappiness in Nature.

      Lend a Hand. Make Happiness a Habit.

      The people who are Happy are the people who are Successful — not in money, merely, but in Contentment, realized Aims and completed Effort. To win — be Happy. To be Happy — do something worthwhile.

      Lend a Hand. Make Happiness a Habit.

      The fastest growing concern is the one with the most Happy helpers. Happiness produces health. Health plows up the field of native ability and makes ready the soil for the Happy Harvest.

      Lend a Hand. Make Happiness a Habit.

      Happiness cannot be bought. Being rated as of all things about the most Precious — it is at the same time free. It is for all. But there must be mustered the effort to take it. And after you have it,

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