Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice

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Inner Space:
The Final Frontier
 
“Wealth is the progressive mastery of matter by mind.”
—R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER
 
“Poverty is a disease of the mind.”
—S.B. FULLER
 
We have always been explorers. It is a part of our nature. Since we first evolved a million years or so ago in Africa, we have wandered and explored our way across the planet. Humans have explored every continent—from pole to pole, from Mount Everest to the Dead Sea. This exploratory urge has clear survival value and is not restricted to any one nation or ethnic group. It is an endowment that the human species has in common. But at just the time when the earth has become almost entirely explored, other worlds beckon.
 
“T minus two minutes and counting!”
 
The voice giving that command belongs to the test conductor in the firing room of NASA’s Launch Control Center. He is completing the countdown for the “greatest” adventure in the history of civilization, the first manned lunar flight. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
 
It somehow seems difficult to believe that the Space Age is still in its infancy. Today, satellites routinely orbit the earth, relaying television programs from points all over the world, flashing warnings of developing storms, and surveying the planet’s precious supply of natural resources. Robot spacecraft journey far into the solar system, transmitting unprecedented photographs of the once-mysterious faces of the moon, Jupiter, and Mars.
 
Man now talks almost matter-of-factly about the day when he will venture to other galaxies.
 
“T minus one minute and counting!” The voice crackles over one of the hundreds of communication circuits monitored by launch crew members.
 
Paracelsus, a sixteenth-century European philosopher, challenged our character when he wrote, “God did not create the planets and stars with the intention that they should dominate man, but that they, like other creatures, should obey and serve him.” Yet historians will record that the opening of this era of infinite promise and potential occurred only in the middle of the twentieth century, when man first successfully launched a package of scientific instruments called Sputnik 1. The foundation for space exploration for the betterment of life on earth had been laid.
 
“T minus thirty seconds and counting!”
 
A button is pushed. An electronic sequencing springs into action. The rest of the countdown will be done automatically. If any trouble develops past this point, computers will electronically shut down the operation. Engineers and technicians will monitor the series of final events now taking place.
 
“T minus ten seconds and counting!”
 
Exploring outer space has been both a challenge and an obligation; Like runners exchanging a baton, scientists, engineers, and mathematicians employed the successes of past explorers to satisfy their hunger of discovering the universe and learning truths.
 
“T minus three … two … one! Lift-off!”
 
Rivers of flame gush down the scorched deflector and funnel out on both sides of the launching pad for several hundred feet. For nearly nine seconds the booster remains locked on its mobile launcher; the ground for miles rumbles and swells as if an earthquake were taking place. The rocket is finally freed. Slowly, ever so slowly, it begins to rise.
 
Mankind has now embarked on a new, cosmic stage of existence of terrestrial civilization. The message is clear—earth is seen not as our world, but as a part of a greater system of worlds that has now become accessible. It is thought that space exploration will have a profound effect upon life on earth. We have been informed that if man is wise enough to constructively apply this knowledge, the greater will be his opportunities. But what lies beyond this latest expedition into the outer regions of the universe? What will follow once the solar system’s planets have been visited, first by robot spacecraft, then by man? What benefits will be reaped from the conquest of the endless seas of outer space—twenty years from now, thirty years, fifty years? Through the magic of satellites, will man have created a unified world? Will this improve human relations? Will famine wane? Will this finally bring a halt to poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, war, or despair?
 
The answer to these questions will not be found within the realm of some far-off sphere or galaxy unknown. Though man has traversed the earth, climbed its highest mountains, explored the depths of its oceans, harnessed electricity, uncovered the secrets of the atom, transmitted pictures and sound from continent to continent, healed with a pill, destroyed with an invisible beam, and now fired projectiles into outer space, the answers he seeks may be found much closer to home.
 
But something has gone amiss. The anticipation of progress has been supplanted by a foreboding of technological ruin. As I look into the eyes of my fellow man and ask myself what kind of future is being planned by those who have never explored outside of their seemingly limited domains, I realize they have been offered visions of a future that includes the inability to read, to compete, to anticipate events, to invent, or to think. There are those who sink into lethargy and economic decay as fear and ignorance conspire to destroy their opportunities.
 
Even as our investigation of the outer world has produced such startling results, we must now turn our attention inward to an investigation of ourselves. After many concerted, systematic, and historic missions to other worlds—including the reconnaissance of several planets witnessed in the night sky—we must focus our being inward, at “inner space” and the conquering of our minds.
 
The human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches—material and spiritual—beyond our wildest dreams. However, like a fertile field, the mind will return anything that we plant.
 
Now you might say, “If that’s true, why don’t individuals use their minds more?” The answer is quite simple. Our mind comes to us as standard equipment at birth—it’s free. Predictably, we place little or no value on that which is given to us for nothing. On the other hand, things that we pay money for, we value. But the paradox is closer to the truth. Everything that is really worthwhile in life comes to us free. Our minds, our souls, our bodies, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family—all these priceless possessions are free!
 
Ironically, things that cost us money can be replaced. A good man or woman can experience bankruptcy, but live to build another fortune. That can be done several times. Even if a home burns down, it can be rebuilt. But those things we get for nothing can never be replaced.
 
The mind isn’t used because we take it for granted. It can do any task we assign to it, but regrettably, we use it for little jobs instead of big important ones. A 1970 Stanford University study proved that most of us are operating on less than five percent of our capacity. Though we are blessed with unlimited power, we use only a fraction of it. Unlimited wealth lies around us, but for numerous reasons, we don’t grasp our share. With powers endowed to us by our Creator, we are content to continue in this daily grind—eating, sleeping, wandering—plodding through an existence less eventful than that of dumb animals, while all of nature, all of life, calls upon us to awaken from our slumber, to better ourselves.
 
But you are now entering a new age. An age when you will be your own master; when poverty, ignorance, and fear will no longer hold you captive. And where the very least among us can capture a place side by side with those who have attained greatness. The power to be whatever you wish, to obtain whatever you desire, to accomplish all that you can conceive, abides within the wellsprings of your being.
 
To those of you who do not know the resources of this innermost power, these will sound like rash statements. But science has proved beyond question that in the depths of everyone’s consciousness are untapped deposits of ability, wisdom, greatness—and yes, riches.
 
Thousands of black Americans have applied this power for their own personal enrichment. For example, when Henry Flipper first took hold of this motivating force, he was a poor and friendless youth. Born in 1856 in Thomasville, Georgia, to ex- slaves, Flipper dreamed of a military career. Though victimized and discriminated against by an insensitive society, he achieved his goal and became the first of his race to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
 
Charles Clinton Spaulding took a small North Carolina insurance firm that was nearly bankrupted by a forty-dollar claim and built it into the largest black insurance company in the nation. Spaulding became acquainted with poverty at an early age. Born in North Carolina, and one of fourteen children, he grasped opportunity wherever and whenever he could seize it. With a vision of greater things to come, he saw education as his magic ladder to success. He rapidly absorbed all that he could, attacking his lessons with unprecedented vigor. To keep money in his pockets, he shined shoes, delivered groceries, sold newspapers, and picked tobacco into the morning hours. By hard work he managed to graduate from Durham’s segregated public schools.
 
After graduation he worked as a stock boy in a nearby general store. It appeared to Spaulding that he had risen as far as he could go. But he had yet to recognize and use his greatest asset—the secret power within. And then it happened! Spaulding decided to apply himself to his task at hand. He started work early, stayed late, and worked tirelessly in between. His goal was to make his employer the most profitable man in town. Spaulding went the extra mile to please each customer, and soon word spread. Under his leadership the small enterprise prospered and Spaulding was promoted. And then came the opportunity he had so diligently sought.