We make money by making friends and we enlarge our circle of friends by making money for them, by helping them, by being of service to them. The first law of success then, is service, and this is in turn built on integrity and justice. The man who at least is not fair in his intention is simply ignorant; he has missed the fundamental law of all exchange, he is impossible; he will lose surely and certainly; he may not know it; he may think he is winning, but he is doomed to certain defeat. He cannot cheat the infinite. The law of compensation will demand of him an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

The Master Key, Charles Haanel, 23:3

The average person is entirely innocent of any deep thinking; he accepts the ideas of others and repeats them, in very much the same way as a parrot; this is readily seen when we understand the method which is used to form public opinion, and this docile attitude on the part of a large majority who seem perfectly willing to let a few persons do all of their thinking for them is what enables a few men in a great many countries to usurp all the avenues of power and hold the millions in subjection. Creative thinking requires attention.

The Master Key, Charles Haanel, 23:9

Growing up I heard sayings like, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” I grew up in a lower middle-class home. We were not the poorest on the block. Both my parents worked as laborers in factories. I know that my parents went without a lot so that us kids would have what we did. I went to work as a paperboy at age 7 and worked for the next 60 years, sometimes two or 3 jobs at a time.

I always said, while looking up to the sky, that if I ever won the lottery, I would be “very generous”. I said that I didn’t want to win the entire jackpot – just enough for me to take care of myself, the family and to have enough to give some away. My thinking has changed in the past 6 months,

I have learned, through The Master Key Experience, to become a self-directed thinker. Through the teachings of those like Haanel, Wattles and Emerson, I now know that abundance is the key! I know now that in order for me to receive, I must give and that I cannot give what I do not have.

I know now that the first law of success is SERVICE! Service to myself and service to others. And that means service built with integrity. Any deal or transaction must benefit both parties equally. I will always give more value than what I am receiving in return.

I am no longer “innocent of any deep thinking”. I have learned to “sit” and meditate and envision what I want in life by becoming the person who I intend to be. I am able to see the “world within” and how it relates to the “world without”.

I no longer am part of the majority where everyone thinks the same way and I am no longer willing to let a few people do my thinking for me. I have learned that just because everyone is doing something, it doesn’t necessarily make it right.

As we come to the end of our 26 weeks of workshops and our “commencement/graduation” next Sunday, I thought that I would be thinking “what now”?

But I already know, because I have been asking myself, for a while now, “what will the person that I intend to become do next”? Mark said something in last week’s workshop that really resonated with me, he said, “really, we have already graduated!” Oh, how true that is!