How To Build A Better World: Examples

I have a relative that sends me a subscription to Guideposts for Christmas every year.

Call me a snob, but having studied theology and because I really enjoy the tough mental workout that it takes to do theology and make sense of it, I tend to be somewhat dismissive of Guideposts. Its heart-warming feel-goodism seems to me to lack substance. It’s like eating pablum instead of a theological steak you can sink your teeth into.

But there are times, when I’m depressed, tired, confused, or intellectually hungry for a little pick-me-up rather than a full meal of philosophic/theologic spaghetti, that I will turn to an issue of Guideposts. Usually, if it is not theologically challenging, it is at least inspiring and “Fudge Pickles!” (my son’s favorite expletive) sometimes you just want to be inspired!

It is in that spirit that I offer you this roll call from Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich. Maybe it will inspire you to realize that it is possible for you to do what these men (unfortunately, most of them are men) did. Or at least it will help you understand why I’ve entitled this series How To Build A Better World. Few people would argue that some of these men have contributed greatly to making the world as we know it better place.

Consider Andrew Carnegie, for instance, who inspired Napoleon Hill in the first place and who used his fortune to build and endow libraries all over the country and world. He wasn’t born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth.
He began an an ordinary laborer in the steel mills but he had an idea, a goal, and the determination to parlay that into a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars.

Or Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, who dreamed of a horseless carriage. He went to work with the tools he possessed, without waiting for an advanced degree in automotive engineering, and built the first car. Think about him next time you drive to the store for groceries.

Or when you open your refrigerator to put those groceries away and the light comes on, you might spare a thought for Thomas Edison who dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity. He failed ten thousand times before he finally succeeded but he never gave up.

The Wright brothers, bicycle repairmen, dreamed of a machine that would fly through the air. Look up into the sky and chances are you’ll see one of those machine flying by.

Marconi dreamed of a system for harnessing the intangible forces of the ether. The fact that you are reading this stands as proof that he did not dream in vain. He may never have thought, when he invented the telegraph, that the whole world would be connected in a world-wide web but the first telegraph wire was the first strand of that web.

But we’re not just talking about industrialists and inventors. John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress after he had been confined in prison for his religious views.

Charles Dickens was employed pasting labels on blacking pots when the tragedy of his first love penetrated the depths of his soul. Disappointment over love affairs generally drives people to ruin because most people never learn the art of transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams of a positive nature.

Helen Keller (Finally! a woman. And what a woman!) became deaf, dumb [sic] and blind shortly after birth but she has written her name indelibly in the pages of the history of the great. Her life has served as evidence that no one is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.

Booker T. Washington was born in slavery and handicapped by race and color. He dreamed of getting an education and, through his Tuskegee Institute, made it possible for hundreds of other African Americans to get an education.

There are others that Napoleon Hill mentions, not the least of which was his own son, Blair, born without ears or audial canals. But that story is intensely personal and is best read, I believe, in Hill’s own words so I’m not going to include it here.

But I will share with you these words from Hill:

…kindle anew in your mind the fire of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind, and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need will come to you, when you are READY for it….No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage and belief.

Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty. A great poet (Hill does not tell us who this poet is) has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at eveningr
When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.

There are many worse examples that you could follow than these.