Necessity plus PMA can motivate you to succeed

Now there is one word which, when used with PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), motivates a person to honorable achievement. When used with NMA (Negative Mental Attitude), it becomes the excuse for lies, deception, and fraud. Necessity is the word. Necessity is the mother of invention and the father of crime.

Inviolable standards of integrity are fundamental to all worthwhile achievement and are an integral part of PMA.

Lee Braxton is such a man. Lee Braxton, of Whiteville, North Carolina, was the son of a struggling blacksmith. He was the tenth child in a family of twelve. “….. so you might say,” says Mr. Braxton , “that I became acquainted with poverty early in life. By hard work I managed to get through the sixth grade in school. I shined shoes, delivered groceries, sold newspapers, worked in a hosiery mill, washed automobiles, and served as a mechanic’s helper.”

When he became a mechanic, it appeared to Lee that he had risen as far as he could go. Perhaps he had not yet developed inspirational dissatisfaction. In due course he married. And together he and his wife scrimped along. He was used to poverty. And it now seemed to him that it was impossible for him to break the ties which held him down, although he was poorly paid and just barely supporting his family. The Braxtons were already having a terrible time making ends meet when, to complete the picture of defeat, he lost his job. His home was about to be taken from him because he was unable to meet the mortgage payments. It seemed a hopeless situation.

But Lee was a man of character. He was also a religious man. And he believed that God is always a good God. So he prayed for guidance. As if in answer to his prayer, he received the book, “Think and Grow Rich” from a friend. This friend had lost his job and his home in Depression. And he had been motivated to recoup his fortune after reading “Think and Grow Rich.”

Now, Lee was ready.

He read the book again and again. He was searching for financial success. He said to himself: “It seems to me there is something I have to do. I have to add something. No book will do it for me. The first thing I must do is develop a POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE regarding my abilities and my opportunities. I must certainly choose a definite goal. When I do, I must aim higher than I have in the past. But I must get started. I’ll begin with the first job I can find.”

And he looked for a job and found one. It didn’t pay much to start.

But it wasn’t many years after he had read “Think and Grow Rich” that Lee Braxton organized and became President of the First National Bank of Whiteville, was elected Mayor of the City, and engaged in many successful business enterprises. You see: Lee aimed high – in fact, very high. He had taken as his major purpose the goal of being rich enough to retire at the age of 50. He achieved this goal six years ahead of time – retiring from active business with substantial wealth and a fine independent income at the age of 44. Today Lee Braxton is leading a useful life. He is devoting his entire efforts to helping Oral Roberts, the evangelist, in his ministry.

Now, the jobs that he took and the investments he made is climbing from failure to success are not important here. What is important is that necessity motivates a man with PMA to action without transgressing recognized inviolable standards. An honest man won’t deceive, cheat or steal because of necessity. Honesty is inherited in PMA (POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE).

~ Excerpt from “Success through POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone”