THE IMAGE-MAKER

THE IMAGE-MAKER


It’s Up To Me

I get discouraged now and then
When there are clouds of gray, Until I think about the things That happened yesterday.
I do not mean the day before
Or those of months ago,
But all the yesterdays in which I had the chance to grow.
I think of opportunities
That I allowed to die,
And those I took advantage of Before they passed me by.
And I remember that the past Presented quite a plight,
But somehow I endured it and The future seemed all right.
And I remind myself that I Am capable and free,
And my success and happiness Are really up to me.
James J. Metcalfe


THE IMAGE-MAKER
The ideas contained in this chapter could very well be the breakthrough for you, because ImageMaking, once we get a firm grip on it, is a truly dynamic idea.
I was speaking in Ohio a number of years ago, to a large group of business people, when an elderly gentleman in the audience suddenly stopped me as I was explaining the Image-Making concept. He stood up and informed the audience that he was sixty-five years of age, before he understood this idea. He mentioned that he had read about it, thought about it, and even talked about it, but he never really understood it until he was sixty-five years old.
I want to suggest, right at this moment, that you read this chapter over a few times, because most people live and die and never fully understand the power of Image-Making. Understand that we are relating this idea to “money” in this book; but I want you to know that once you fully understand the Image-Making concept, you can effectively use it for whatever good you desire.
I am not able to tell you the exact date on which I myself gained an understanding of Image-Making, but I can tell you it has had as great an impact on my life as any idea I have ever learned.
The knowledge of Image-Making eliminates competition from your life, by moving you from the competitive plane to the creative plane. You will soon understand therefore, that in truth, the only competition you will ever have is with your own ignorance.
This idea truly excites me. To be more accurate, I should probably say sharing this idea with you excites me, because I know how it can improve every aspect of your life. I honestly love watching people grow or unfold as new ideas register in their consciousness.
But before I delve into this idea, please understand that everyone is using the Image-Making concept and everyone always has. In fact, everything that has ever come into your life has come as a direct result of the Image-Making process. Therefore, if you will only become aware of the results which you have obtained, you will realize you have already employed this great mental tool. Just take a look at the results most people obtain. Generally speaking, you could say it is quite obvious that when they make use of their Image-Making ability, they almost always use it the wrong way.

You Are An Image-Maker
Most religions teach that God is responsible for everything made in this world and I would fully subscribe to this proposition. However, as cocreators, human beings must bear responsibility for WHAT God makes in their lives.

The Minister And The Farmer
A story I once heard illustrates this point exceedingly well. Many years ago, a minister was driving along a remote country road, when he happened upon a very beautiful farm. The farm was kept in absolutely magnificent condition. The fences were well cared for, the crops were a radiant green and although the house was set back some distance from the road, it was abundantly clear that it had a clean, fresh coat of white paint on it. Well-cultivated flower beds encircled the house and stretched all along both sides of the long, wide driveway, leading to it from the road. In a neat row along both sides of the drive as well, were straight lines of tall green poplar trees reaching up to a picturesque pale blue sky. The lawns surrounding the house were a deep rich green, and as well manicured as any putting green ever was. Indeed, the entire picture would have fit well on a post card, since it was absolutely breathtaking in its splendor.
Then the minister looked off to his right, to the other side of the road. Here the fields were ploughed, the earth was the deepest black the minister had ever seen and he was amazed at how the furrows had been plowed in such a way that they stretched out in rows “as straight as clothes lines.” Far off in the distance, the minister could see the farmer sitting up on his tractor, with a straw hat on the back of his head and clad in an old, light blue pair of overalls. It appeared that the farmer was moving toward the road as he was plowing. Since the minister was in no particular hurry, he pulled his car over to the side of the road, got out of it, and walked toward the fence. When he reached it, he just stood still, enjoying the light breeze, the warm sunlight and admiring the beauty of the farm and the farmer’s ability to plough such straight furrows.
As the farmer worked his way toward the road, he noticed the minister leaning against the fence. So he brought the tractor to a halt, climbed down from it, and slowly started to walk in the minister’s direction. As the farmer got closer the minister smiled, raised his arm, and waved saying, “My good man,
God has certainly blessed you with a beautiful farm.”
The farmer stopped, pulled out an old red and white polka-dot handkerchief from his pocket with his big, scarred and calloused hands. He raised his arm and wiped the sweat from his sun-scorched brow, still not saying a word. Then he reached up with his other hand, and gently took from his mouth the long piece of straw that had been bouncing and waving as he walked.
He stood in silence for a moment, looking at the minister, and then he spoke. With a slow, steady voice be replied, “Yes Reverend, you’re right. God has blessed me with a beautiful farm, but I just wish you could have seen it when he had it all to himself!”
Understand that “images” are mental pictures that are made from thoughts, and the magnificence of the mind lies in the fact that it can “think.” That is to say, it can tap into thought and create whatever image it chooses.
Now play with your mind for a few minutes and become aware of how you can flash one picture or image after another on the screen of your mind. It is almost as if you were sitting inside your body at a great theatre, and you are the writer, producer and director of this movie you are watching.
In a wonderful book I read a number of years ago titled The Science of Getting Rich, the author, Wallace D. Wattles, referred to “This thinking stuff that permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the cosmos.” It’s true that thoughts are everywhere and we can tap into this thinking stuff with our mind and form any image we choose.
Now become aware of this truth. Everything we do is preceded by an image. We think first in order to form an image, then we do the work.

Building The First Chair
Consider for a moment how the first “chair” was built. We did not always have chairs, you know. I suppose many years ago when we first started to become civilized, someone became tired of sitting on the ground. Whoever this person was, he probably started to think, and began to see a picture in his mind. He probably saw himself sitting on a “thing” with his legs hanging down and his back leaning against something. This picture or idea appealed to him, because he imagined that it would be a more comfortable position in which to sit; certainly much more comfortable than sitting on the ground with his knees shoved up under his chin!
Since this picture appealed to the person, the person thought of it often, until a desire to have such a thing began to develop. The desire moved the person into action, and with the picture in his mind, he began to build something outside of himself—in his physical world—that was, as close as possible, a replica of the image he held in his mind. Once the thing was completed, the person sat on it. He let his legs hang and his back lean and he found that it was good. He then called the thing a “chair.” The word “chair” is a symbol that has a corresponding image and when you see or hear the symbol chair, it triggers an image on the screen of your mind. From that day to this, others have been building images of more comfortable chairs—chairs with padding, chairs that fold and chairs that recline. Then someone got lonely sitting alone and the person began to think and they built an image in their mind of a very long chair. They constructed that long chair, found it was good and they called it a “sofa.”
Need we continue? Someone got tired of sleeping under a tree and they built an image of a roof over their head and on and on we go. Out of the cave into a condominium. We have truly built the world we live in.
Columbus imaged a new world and you and I are living in it. The Wright Brothers imaged us being propelled through the air and introduced us to a new kingdom. Samuel Morse imaged himself interrupting the flow of energy through metallic wires and gave us the telegraph with the Morse code. Copernicus imaged a multiplicity of worlds and now we have been there.
Through the years, history has recorded the results of great visionaries. In fact, everything ever accomplished was at first, and for a time, nothing more than an image held in the mind of the architect. Realize, now, that you too are the “mental architect” of your own destiny.

Going To The Movies
Consider this: Jack Nicklaus, the world famous golfer, explains he will not even pick up a club until he has a very clear image on the screen of his mind, showing exactly how the ball will fly through the air, how it will hit the ground and where it will roll after it hits. Nicklaus calls this “going to the movies” and he has become so proficient at it that he has become known throughout the world. Fame and fortune are his for the asking.
In a previous paragraph, I made reference to the statement by Wallace D. Wattles: “There is a thought stuff that permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the cosmos.” In truth, there is a thought stuff everywhere around you and within you. So become aware of this truth and tap into it now. Use it to form an image on the screen of your mind; see yourself already in possession of the amount of money you want, to provide the things you need, to live in the style you choose to live.

Personal Prosperity
You are using mental faculties that everyone has. They are exactly the same mental faculties used by Copernicus, Buddha and Morse whom we previously mentioned. You might have formed the habit of thinking that people like those just mentioned are different than you and I. But I want you to know the only difference between you and them, or anyone else, is only in appearance and accomplishments. We all live in different physical bodies and we all use our inherent mental faculties in a different way; but our basic structure is fundamentally the same.
I am well aware there are many professors and other professional people who will tell you what I have just said is a lot of nonsense. But disbelievers like these have always existed and they are, in my opinion, little people. For all of the truly great leaders are in complete agreement with what I have just explained, about your equality with great people of the past and present.
Even Jesus tried to tell the world, as he was doing his great work some two thousand years ago, that you too were capable of doing what he was doing. In fact, He even went a step further in saying, “Even greater things are you capable of.” Believe Him, He spoke the truth. The little people will say, that is not what He meant. But let me assure you, it is exactly what Jesus meant. If you can see it and believe it— you can do it.
Napoleon Hill spent almost his entire life studying five hundred of the world’s greatest achievers and the essence of his exhaustive studies and writings is contained in his great book, Think and Grow Rich. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” Not many people believe this, but the ones who do, prove it to themselves. Why don’t you prove it to yourself, now.
Just build the image of prosperity on the screen of your mind and watch what happens. Remember though, regardless of how tough things get, you must continue to hold the picture of personal prosperity. You will very likely run up against a series of circumstances that will, for a time, almost have you convinced you are actually going backwards; but, persistence is the key. Continue to hold the picture of personal prosperity and understand that what is happening to you, is what must happen, to prepare you to receive the good you desire.
“Persistence”—Napoleon Hill devoted an entire chapter in Think and Grow Rich to persistence. In that chapter he said, “There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence, but the character is to the quality of man what carbon is to steel.” Hill also pointed out in another part of the same chapter, that the only thing which separated Thomas Edison or Henry Ford from the rest of the people in the world was persistence. For both of these great men had an image and they would not let anyone or anything dissuade them—they were persistent. One illuminated the world, the other put the world on wheels. Both were, of course, richly rewarded.
In a previous chapter, we explained money is a reward for service rendered. These men provided a tremendous service to millions of individuals and their reward was in direct proportion to the service rendered. So build your image of prosperity and be persistent. The way for your image to materialize will be shown to you.

Persistence Always Pays
A number of years ago, John Kanary, a friend and business partner of mine, was discussing Hill’s chapter on “persistence” with me. We both seemed to be equally impressed with the importance of this quality, as well as with the necessity of a person having it, if they were to reach any worthwhile goal.
After a time and nearing the end of our discussion, we each agreed we would read the chapter on
“persistence”, once every day for thirty days. I don’t even have to ask John to find out if this exercise helped him—I know it did; and the exercise has most certainly benefited me on numerous occasions.
There is an interesting story concerning John Kanary, which would be very appropriate to share with you here, since it illustrates both the power of “imaging,” as well as “persistence.”
Although I had known John Kanary for a couple of years and had talked with him on many occasions, I certainly did not know him as intimately as I do at the time of this writing. It is important that I bring this out here, as I will be referring back to it shortly. The incident I am about to relate, took place in 1971.
I was living in Chicago at the time and had just completed a speaking engagement in Edmonton, Alberta. When I returned to my room, there was a telephone message for me to call John Kanary, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. I returned the call and after a couple of minutes of small talk, John said it was rather important that he meet with me, as he had something he wanted to discuss and he preferred not to “go into it” on the telephone. I asked John to wait while I looked over my calendar; it was, in the vernacular—packed tight. I was busy, to say the least; almost every day I had either a seminar or speaking engagement in a different city in North America. I explained this to John and told him that although I would love to visit, I really didn’t know when I could. John was persistent, so I said, “Listen, I’m leaving Edmonton for Chicago tonight at midnight. To get to Chicago I have to go through Toronto. I’ll arrive there at 7 a.m. I’ll have to change terminals and I leave from the second terminal, one hour and fifty minutes later. I’ll be happy to talk to you then, although I don’t promise to be too alert after flying all night.”
It is also worth mentioning that John had to get up early enough to drive the 125 miles from Belleville to Toronto, to meet my 7:00 a.m. arrival. I remember that all John said was, “I’ll be there.”
The next morning I sat in the airport coffee shop and listened as John explained how he “wanted to do what I was doing.” He wanted to conduct seminars. He also explained that he was prepared to pay the price, whatever it might be.
As I listened, it was like hearing a popular song on the radio—you keep hearing it, over and over again. In almost every seminar I conduct there is a man or woman in the seminar who wants to do “what I am doing.” I’ve heard it in Biloxi, Mississippi; Butte, Montana; Los Angeles, New York, Moncton and Montreal—it was an old tune. Now, here I was in Toronto with a friend who, as I have already mentioned, I did not know that well, and he was asking what “he had to do.”
As I was listening, the same images, which I had with all the others, were flashing through my mind. I was remembering all the travelling and the fear of standing up and speaking in a large hotel ballroom crowded with people who wanted you to get them excited, but who were mentally putting you on trial at the same time, thinking, “Does this guy know what he is talking about?” In many situations, such as a sales convention, you had forty minutes from beginning to end in which to build rapport with a few hundred strangers and get them excited about themselves.
The years of staying up nights reading and studying, the years of learning by attending seminars all over the continent, the years of working for next to nothing to prepare oneself to hold the attention of a group of people all day in a seminar, these were the images racing across my mind. It had taken me eleven years to get to that point.
But how do you say, “No, you’ll never do it,” when someone like John asks you, especially when the essence of what you teach is —you can do anything. Yet, how can you say “yes,” when everyone you know, with the exception of two or three others besides yourself, cannot earn a living in the public speaking business unless they are a celebrity. (And that is a whole different story.)
When John Kanary finished, I told him what I had told all the others: “Yes, you can do it, but it’s tough. Make sure you understand that, John. It’s tough. You will have to do a tremendous amount of studying, because you not only have to know what to say, but you must also have the answers to a thousand and one questions arising as a result of what you say. Some of the questions will come from professional people—medical doctors, engineers and lawyers—who, in most cases, know what they are talking about. So you not only have to be right, but confident as well, or you will be discredited with your entire audience; and that only has to happen a couple of times and you’re “out of business.”
You not only have to study these ideas, but you must use them as well, or there will be no conviction in your talks. (Not to mention the fact that you will be a walking physical contradiction to what you teach.) It is next to impossible, for example, to have a sick person teaching ‘health’.
You must develop showmanship and voice control, and on and on it goes. In short, John, for every one who makes it, a thousand fail miserably.”
Usually when this is explained, the person says they still want to go ahead, but you never hear from them again. John was no exception, in one sense— he still wanted to go ahead. However, in every other way he was an exception. I did see him again. I told him what to read and what to do and he read it and did it. John read hundreds of books—he “devoured” them. He narrated them onto tapes and then played the tapes in the car. At his own expense, he followed me all over the country and sat in hundreds of seminars. He wrote thousands of pages of notes and studied them diligently.
Finally, I would have him open and close the seminars. Then he w