Think and Grow Rich!
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| It is the faculty In an interview in Parade Magazine, singer- songwriter Lionel Ritchie provided an excellent description of how Creative Imagination works. Asked, Where do your melodies come from he replied I wish I knew…It’s like radio stations playing in my head. I’m in the shower singing along to this great song, and then I stop one moment and go, Hey, it’s not on the radio What’s frightening about it is I’m not singing a song, I’m singing along with the song that’s playing in my head Asked if it were true that he considers God to be his co-writer, Ritchie said, Absolutely. I believe that in life, if you’re lucky enough, the universe gives you something that nobody else can do but you.” 2 It was the product At this point in the original version of Think and Grow Rich!, Hill launches into what is virtually a commercial advertisement for the famous soft drink, complete with praises for its “mind stimulation attributes. (The soda’s caffeine had a stimulative effect that cola consumers of the time felt but likely did not fully understand. Until 1892 the drink contained cocaine) Here’s what Hill wrote Now that you know the content of the Enchanted Kettle is a world famous drink, it is fitting that the author confess that the home city of the drink Atlanta supplied him with a wife, also that the drink itself provides him with stimulation of thought without intoxication, and thereby it serves to give the refreshment of mind which an author must have to do his best work.” 3 Whoever you are Asa Candler (1851-1929) was one of the most imaginative salesmen and marketing geniuses the world has ever seen. In 1891 he quit his Atlanta, Georgia, drugstore, took a poorly selling stimulant and headache remedy he bought the right to, and went onto make it known worldwide—as The Real Thing He worked hour days, slept only five hours at night, and was an indefatigable spokesman and pitchman for his product. He was fond of saying, “A sale of Coca-Cola lost today is not a sale that maybe made tomorrow,” and if one of his customers wanted only a single gallon of Coca-Cola syrup, he would prepare it himself just to make the sale. He passed out free Cokes on elevators. He gave businesses free Push and “Pull” signs with the Coke logo printed on them to goon their doors. His advertising budget was bigger than his sales for several years, and by Coca-Cola had become America’s best-advertised consumer product, with Coke ads on 2.5 million square feet of walls of buildings in the nation. Candler was a prototypical Think and Grow Rich entrepreneur. He set and wrote goals for everything. He set sales goals by the month—both sequentially and year by year. He never started a business meeting without first writing down how he wanted the meeting to be resolved. A devout Methodist, Candler also wrote down his spiritual goals—such as his prayer topics and Bible readings…. When Candler made a plan, he stuck by it. He didn’t think he could fail. He refused to accept it,’[Elizabeth Candler, his great-great- granddaughter Graham said. He lacked formal training, but he was always searching for ways to expand his mind. As a teenager, landing a job as a pharmacy clerk, he read medical books and studied Latin and Greek at night. All told, it was Candler’s determination—not his training or intelligence—that built his business and made him a success (Michael Tarsala, “Coca-Cola’s Asa Candler Investor’s Business Daily, February 1, 1999, p. A) Candler, like so many successful entrepreneurs who amass great fortunes, spent the last years of his life as a philanthropist donating to hospitals, orphanages, and educational institutions. He gave $8 million—more than million in today’s dollars—to Emory University in Atlanta. 4 Download 3.05 Mb. Share with your friends:
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