The Source of the Success Principles

The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles was featured recently in the book, The Secret, but was originally published in 1910. Wattles spent his early years considering the laws of success and studying the great philosophers of the world. It is interesting that Napoleon Hill did the same thing later in Think and Grow Rich but used as his source the great titans of industry in America, the emerging economic giant.
The difference between the two would seem to be the sources from which they derived their success philosophies, but the conclusions were almost identical. Both men sought to provide a “how to” guide for readers to self discover the laws of success. Both provided specific steps. Napoleon Hill provided his six step program and Wattles wrote a classic essay called, How to Get What You Want, which has been included in later publications of The Science of Getting Rich.

“Wattles describes a definite science of wealth attraction, built on the foundation of one commanding idea: “There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made … A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.” I suggest that he does much more than explain the Universal Law of Pure Potentiality, which the publisher is describing. Because Wattles derived his philosophy from the famous philosophers of history and not from successful business men as did Napoleon Hill, the quotes actually describe the Universal Laws more specifically. “There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.”
Hill recognizes that there are 13 principles but does not state them in the same manner as spiritual masters over the centuries have stated them. He puts everything in the terms he discovered them from the highly successful men he has come in contact with. He refers to these Universal Principles throughout the book and further defines their nature when he writes, “You can build a fortune through the aid of laws which are immutable, but, first, you must become familiar with these laws, and learn to use them.” He is saying that these Laws are unchangeable principles – fixed laws that everything is based on and relates to.

The fact is that it is not so much that we learn to use the Laws as it is we must learn to come into harmony with them. Once we are aware through the process of identification and verification of these Laws we learn to operate within them as we do physical laws like gravity. He states, “The building of a fortune, generally, involves the application of the entire thirteen factors of this philosophy. These principles must be understood, they must be applied with persistence by all who accumulate money.”

As noted, the success principles did not originate with these famous writers on the process of getting rich. They did not begin with the statements by Jesus though every time he opened his mouth (as recorded) he was explaining or illustrating one of the 13 Universal Laws or some aspect of a Law. Throughout the Tao Teh Ching, Lao Tzu is explaining the Laws and the same is true of the teachings of Buddha and the Vedic writers. The same Universal Principles are being explained and illustrated with short stories, but where did they get them? What was the source?

There are those who claim that they originated with Hermes Trismegistus, the master teacher or “teacher of teachers” who is supposed to have lived before or about the time of Abraham in Egypt where he developed the mystery school to which masters from all over the world came to perfect their understanding. The Hermetic Teachings are often referred to as axioms, rudiments of the Laws, precepts and principles. They are 1) Mentalism, 2) Correspondence, 3) Vibration, 4) Polarity, 5) Rhythm, 6) Cause and Effect and 7) Gender. These axioms or rudiments are like the radicals in the Chinese written language. There are 215 radicals from which in excess of 5,000 characters (Chinese words) are made. You might say that these Hermetic axioms are like the alphabet that makes up our English words. In other words, these axioms can be found in each statement describing or defining a Universal Law.

Though ancient, the Hermetic teachings are not the origin of the Universal Laws. There are metaphysical writers and speakers who are adopting some of the Hermetic axioms and defining them as Universal Laws but this is due to limited understanding. In the Hua Hu Ching, the Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu it is noted, “The world is full of half-enlightened masters. Overly clever, too ‘sensitive’ to live in the real world, they surround themselves with selfish pleasures and bestow their grandiose teachings upon the unwary. Prematurely publicizing themselves, intent upon reaching some spiritual climax, they constantly sacrifice the truth and deviate from the Tao. What they really offer the world is their own Confusion.”

Proverbs 8:22 which either is derived from even earlier sources or was a downloading from Universal Mind provides a clear picture of the source of the Universal Laws states, "The Lord begot me, the first born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; From of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water; Before the mountains were settled into place before the hills, I was brought forth; While as yet the earth and the fields were not made, nor the forest clouds of the world. When he established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; When he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth; When he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command; Then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, Playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the sons of men."

Traditionalists are quick to say this was talking about Jesus. I maintain that every time Jesus told a story, answered a question or took any kind of action, he was illustrating and explaining the Universal Laws. I see correspondence between this verse and the following verse: John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him and without him nothing came to be.” What is being said in these quotes is that the Universal Laws are aspects of God and are the Laws of Creation. To understand them we must look for these aspects in ourselves and can fathom them and God no other way.

The Universal Laws are the source of the success principles. Any explanations of them that leave any of them out is inadequate and insufficient. The success principles are the application of the laws of creation and are integral to the successful creation of anything.