Does the world revolve around money?
My son, currently a stocker (that’s s-t-o-c-k-e-r, not s-t-a-l-k-e-r) at Walmart, was listening to NPR at breakfast one morning recently and bemoaning the idea that everything seems to revolve around money.

It does seem that way at times. We have just come through the highly commercialized period from Black Friday to Fabulous Friday (otherwise known as the Christmas season).

The media frenzy over the “Tea Party Revolt”, the general election in November, and now the seating of the newly minted (and determined) representatives and senators certainly does give the impression that it is all about money.

As I write this, my daughter and her children are in California visiting her husband and their father who flew in from Afghanistan to spend some time with them. My son-in-law, David, is not in the military. He’s a civilian contractor. When asked why he is spending so much time away from his family, he acknowledges that “the money is good.” Well, not to sound like a mother-in-law, but….

When I set making money as one of my goals for the New Year, I had my qualms. Being a bona fide idealist, I know that money is NOT the most important thing in life. But having money to buy food, shelter and clothing does help.

There Is More to Life
The publishers of the original version of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Richhad this to say: “Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, harmonious family relationships, sympathy and understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings peace of mind measurable only in spiritual values!”

Yeah, and I’m one of those who believe that. But, the publishers point out, those who read and understand the ideas behind Hill’s philosophy “will be better prepared to attract and enjoy these higher estates which always have been and always will be denied to all except those who are ready for them

The publishers caution the reader to be prepared“to experience a CHANGED LIFE which may help you not only to negotiate your way through life with harmony and understanding, but also to prepare you for the accumulation of material riches in abundance.”

Readiness
This theme of readiness is recurrent in Hill’s own preface to the book. He writes of a “money-making secret” that Andrew Carnegie challenged him to study, understand, and reveal to the world. Mr. Hill took twenty years studying the lives of some of the great men of his generation and found that many of them understood and applied this “money-making secret”.

If you live anywhere near a library, by the way, you probably have Andrew Carnegie to thank for that. He used his “money-making secret” to amass a fortune that he then used to establish more than 2,500 libraries. For many years, most public libraries were known as “Carnegie libraries”. Some of them still bear that name, if not on their signboards, on their cornerstones.

Carnegie, ever the thrifty Scotsman, believed in giving to the “industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others.”

It is in that spirit, presumably, that he encouraged Napoleon Hill to conduct his study and publish his findings.

Hill cites examples of those who followed Andrew Carnegie’s coaching and made fortunes. “These facts,” he says, “- and they are well known to almost everyone who knew Mr. Carnegie – give you a fair idea of what the reading of this book may bring to you, provided you KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT.”

The “money-making secret” is never directly named in Hill’s book “for it seems to work more successfully when it is merely uncovered and left in sight, where THOSE WHO ARE READY, and SEARCHING FOR IT, may pick it up.”

One Caveat
One point Mr. Hill is very explicit about is that “there is no such thing as SOMETHING FOR NOTHING! The secret cannot be had without a price, and it cannot be had, at any price, by those who are not intentionally searching for it.

Among others, the list of which sounds like a who’s who of the early twentieth century, Mr. Hill cites his own son, born deaf, as one who used the secret to his advantage. “…if you have ever been discouraged, if you have had difficulties to surmount which took the very soul out of you, if you have tried and failed, if you were ever handicapped by illness or physical affliction, this story of my son’s discovery and use of the Carnegie formula may prove to be the oasis in the Desert of Lost Hope, for which you have been searching.”

What Is Your Problem?
Most of us have not been born deaf, but most of us have been discouraged and most of us have had difficulties to surmount – and many of us have tried and failed.
So what’s all this talk about “building a better world”?

I can only repeat what Mr. Hill maintained – that the secret is available to those who know what it is that they want and are ready to work for it.

Readiness is all. Let’s get to work.

Author's Bio: 

Sara Dillinger is a Baby Boomer herself and a newbie internet entrepreneur focusing on the Baby Boomer generation because she spent sixteen years serving as pastor in United Methodist congregations all over Kansas. Those congregations were made up primarily of Baby Boomer or older members, so Sara has developed some expertise with the Baby Boomer generation. Sara is now on leave of absence and living in Atchison, Ks. with her almost-thirty year old son and two cats. She also helps her daughter, also living in Atchison, with three sons, ages 8, 6, and 1, while their father is in Afghanistan. Her blogs are found at http://www.for-boomers.com.