Step one: Establishing A Purpose
by Foster Hibbard

The System for guaranteed goal achievement provided in this book evolves from the experiences and teaching of Andrew Carnegie, the world's first billionaire, and from the teachings of Carnegie's protege', Napoleon Hill, my teacher, and the father of motivation here in America.

Napoleon Hill spent twenty years interviewing over 500 of the most amazing human beings who were living here in America during the early two decades of the century. His list included people like Henry Ford, William Wrigley, John Wanamaker, James Hill, Statler, Curtis, Eastman, Teddy Roosevelt, Jennings Bryan, Charles Schwab, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Woolworth, Dollar, Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, Clarence Darrow, Luther Burbank, J. Pierpont Morgan and Harvey Firestone. Over 500 people of that caliber!

Napoleon Hill invested twenty years interviewing these giants over and over again. He then took all that he had compiled and created powerful teachings, including his best-selling book: THINK AND GROW RICH; other books, and courses. It is estimated that over 100,000,000 people have studied these teachings.

During the twenty years since I was associated with Napoleon Hill, I have imbued myself with all that he had acquired from his research with those phenomenally exciting people in the early part of this century. I have also studied every major religion, every major philosophy -- all of the master teachings of the ages! As a result of all this, the System provided in this book is, in my opinion, the most powerful success program that has ever been taught or published in all of the history of the world.

THE FIRST STEP to guaranteed goal achievement is called:
definiteness of purpose. Of the seventeen steps that you and I will study together, the first, and most important, is definiteness of purpose. Your main purpose in life. What your life is all about. What it is that you intend to do to make an impact on yourself, those around you, and your country, even the world.

Think of this purpose as a star upon which you set and steer your life course! Think of it as the compass, the magnetic pull. Think of it as the rudder. It's used to guide you to a definite, distinct destiny. The world stands aside for the person who knows where he or she is going! Therefore, we must know exactly where it is we have decided to go.

What is life all about for you? What excites you? What is your burning desire? What do you want more than anything else on earth? Realize that "whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve." Memorize that phrase and say it silently over and over again, imbedding the phrase into your subconscious mind. The world stands aside for the person who knows where he is going.

This entire System is based upon ideas. There is nothing more powerful than an idea! You have heard it said that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. When the world is ready to accept and act on an idea, everything materializes ... moves in conjunction ... flows in the correct direction to bring that idea into actuality, in the lives of those of us who are ready. An old Oriental proverb says: "If you would plant for days, plant flowers. But if you would plant for eternity, plant ideas."

The important part of this step, and each of the remaining sixteen steps, is already within you, deep within you, awaiting an awakening. Working together, we can awaken your tremendous power. A great ship suddenly starts its engines and ever-so-slowly, with sputtering at first, and then working into a roar of power, moves from wherever it sits at the moment to wherever on earth it is directed to go. There is an even greater (but similar) power that lies within us, because within us is a connecting link with all of the universal intelligence and power.

You are ready -- or you would not be reading this book. You are ready and this is the moment! An evolution is beginning now in which we will feel more powerful; in which we will utilize the ideas that are around us and in us. For this to transpire, there are several major ideas that we must understand. Let me single them out, one by one:

The first major idea to work on is this: that the starting point of all personal achievement is the adoption of a definite major purpose, and a plan for its attainment. Just this alone will automatically produce all of these advantages:

* Self Reliance * Personal Initiative * Increased Imagination * Increased Enthusiasm * More Self Discipline * Better Concentration

All these advantages will be "bonuses," from this first idea. You will become better at budgeting time and money. You will move toward greater specialization in your work. You'll grow more aware of opportunities. You'll develop a greater capacity for decision-making. This last benefit, incidentally, is extremely important. One of the greatest weaknesses of all human beings is indecisiveness!

You must learn how to make decisions. Make a decision every day, and stop worrying about whether it is the right decision. Practice making small decisions, and greater decisiveness will start evolving within you. There is no need to be overly concerned about making mistakes.

To this day Babe Ruth's strike-out record stands. He struck out so many times because he was always swinging, but in always swinging, he also hit 735 home runs. Go for it! Know that you, too, will get your share of home runs!

The second major idea in definiteness of purpose is that all individual achievements are the result of a motive, or combination of motives. And the three most powerful motives behind our actions are: love, sex, and the desire for material gain. By taking those three, working on them, and combining them, the combined emotion will be a powerful motivating force.

Obviously the greatest of all motivating forces should be love. Everything we do should be based on love; love of one's self, love of mankind. (Jesus Christ gave us two commandments and both of them were love).

The third major idea is that any dominating idea, plan or purpose held in the mind through repetition of thought and "emotionalized" with a burning desire is taken over by the subconscious mind and acted upon through whatever means may be available. Any dominating idea, plan or purpose! This is the crux of the entire step of definiteness of purpose.

It is important that you accept the reality that the only thing over which we have complete control at all times is our mental attitude. We have the right to control our attitude, and to the degree that we control it will our lives be all that we want. I have now given you the key to exercising this control! I mentioned "burning desire."

A burning desire is developed with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm and burning desire are products of repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Napoleon Hill called repetition the mother of money. And I've now given you a second key to exercising control.

The fourth major idea: any dominating desire, plan or purpose which is backed by faith is taken over by the subconscious mind, and acted on immediately. The key word here is faith. Faith means nothing other than acceptance. To the degree that you accept any idea, any definite purpose, will it materialize.

The fifth major idea: the power of thought is the only thing over which any human being has complete, unquestionable control. You can take control of your conscious mind and use it as a selector, to select the goals you want. Remember that the subconscious mind is the respondent. It will respond to whatever suggestion we give to it, in an emotionalized state. Get excited about your purpose and your subconscious mind will act on it!

The sixth major idea: The subconscious mind appears to be the only doorway to infinite intelligence. It is our connecting link with infinite intelligence ... infinite power... infinite energy. Therefore, all of the universe is available to us at any particular moment through the use of our subconscious mind.

Think of the subconscious mind as rich, black loam. The seeds that we choose to work on through repetition are implanted into that loam. The loam takes those seeds, works upon them, feeds them, gives them all the nourishment they need. The seeds break open, flourish and give us a harvest after their kind.

The seventh major idea is that every brain is both a broadcasting station and a receiving set for the vibrations of thought. We are constantly transmitting thoughts from one another, and the transmission is being done by the energy that we are emanating through our entire nerve network -- the communication network of the body -- out through the nerve ends, called the synapse.

As we become more filled with enthusiasm, love, desire and other positive emotions, the transmission becomes more powerful, more definite, and the results appear like miracles. The brain may be so charged with definiteness of purpose that it will begin to attract the physical aspects of that purpose.

Each of us is energy; each of us is electricity. That electricity is magnetism. We are constantly attracting, magnetizing to ourselves whatever it is we are concentrating upon. If you're concentrating upon money, you are magnetizing more money to you. As we become more excited about anything, the energy that we are transmitting goes out and magnetizes back precisely what we've been concentrating on, and to the degree that we were concentrating upon it. We are constantly attracting whatever it is we are concentrating upon

Now, to the application of definiteness of purpose! By using the System provided in this book, you can gain full control of your faculties. But the one thing that this System will not do for you and cannot do for you is to make up your mind for you! You have to decide what it is that you desire to do with your life and what it is you wish to contribute to mankind. You and you alone must decide that.

This is the first step that begins the journey of the rest of your life. Write out a clear, concise statement of your major purpose in life. List the objectives you want to attain. List the information and knowledge you want to acquire. List the kind of work you want to do. List the kind of person you want to be.

Write down how much you want to earn each year and over a lifetime. List the places you want to visit. Sign this statement. Make it a legal document. Read it over every morning and every evening. Think about it during the day. Emotionalize each item in the statement. Visualize the benefits that will come to you as a result of your accruing all of these marvelous objectives.

Andrew Carnegie said: "No one has ever been known to succeed without applying the principle of definiteness of purpose." Now you are being told to write down the things you want to achieve. You are being told to write out a plan by which you intend to achieve your definite major purpose. You are now creating your own road map.

You must also determine and define precisely what you plan to give to humankind in return for the realization of your purpose. I never cease to be astonished as I see people of great intelligence who do not understand that there is nothing in life that you can get without first giving something for it.

Whatever it is you want in life, start giving some and it will come back to you. Ideas, emotions, words that you speak and the actions that you perform are little seeds that you are planting, and they come back to you as a harvest. So if you're lacking something at this moment, start giving something!

If you're lacking money, start giving money. Whatever it is you want in life -- plant some of it! Now, a major caution: keep your definite major purpose private. if you talk about it indiscriminately, you dissipate the energy needed to make it come true. The steam that makes the whistle blow will never make the engine go!

When you and I talk much about our goals, that's steam going out from us that can never be used to put us into action and create the energy we need to achieve what we want in life. And there is one more reason why you must not talk about your major purpose: most people, not wanting to do much with their lives, and therefore, not wanting you to do much with your life either, will do their best to discourage you.

All of the ideas being shared throughout this document were accumulated and used by Andrew Carnegie -- the little uneducated boy who came from Scotland and became the world's first billionaire by conquering American industry! Napoleon Hill, the man known as the kingmaker of millionaires, who spent decades interviewing the giants of American business and statesmanship, and I, who have spent a lifetime studying the master teachings of the ages, have used these ideas to create absolutely reliable methods of goal achievement.

I now urge you to place appropriate importance on these
methods! Take appropriate action on these suggestions!
The result will be guaranteed goal achievement.