Her one period of happiness followed her marriage to a school teacher on a sub-standard salary. Upon his death in an accident, she was left with a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. The insurance policy was almost too meager to contemplate. That was the blow that convinced her that she was doomed to poverty for life.
Some of her story I got from her brother. "I wanted to help her," he told me, "but she insisted I needed my money for my own sons. Finally I sent her thirty dollars, and to make sure she didn't think it was charity, I insisted she take the kids to the finest restaurant she could find for a real banquet. I hoped dining in a nice place would cheer her up and give her something pleasant to remember for a change. Know what she did? She took the kids to the Automat, and then cried for a week because she couldn't afford to do better for them. The funny thing is, she works on old-clothes drives for the poor when her own kids wear the poorest clothes in the neighborhood. She works on the committees to raise funds for refugees, and for milk funds, and for fresh air camps. I'm in favor of this. These committees need somebody to work for them to help the poor, but my sister seems to have a different approach. Mr. Haldane: that girl works harder at being poor than any human I've ever seen."
Of course I agreed to be of assistance, not knowing I was up against the toughest challenge of my life. She "thought poor" so consistently that she could find only four achievements - her college degree, volunteer pre-kindergarten teaching, and her two children. Even when it developed that her college degree qualified her as a school teacher, and teachers were in great demand, she began offering excuses. She couldn't leave her two-year-old son, she couldn't neglect her daughter, their clothes needed constant mending, the house took all her time, and who would do her charity work?
My own thought was that she didn't want to face a classroom filled with well-dressed, happy children, fearing that in comparing them to her own "neglected" two she would feel worse than ever. But there was one field in which she could be of invaluable assistance. In several schools there were "slow-learner" groups in desperate need of the special coaching of part-time teachers.
That was something she could understand. These were children more in need of help than her own bright ones. She began by working two hours a day, soon increased to four when a neighbor proved fully capable of caring for her children during her absence. And she proved to be a tigress at fighting for new equipment and brighter-looking books for her retarded children. A grateful mother wrote to the school board in praise of what she had done for her "slow" son. A newspaper picked up the story and followed it up with a feature article on her work, complete with pictures.
Was she rewarded? At one meeting of the school staff an envious teacher who had never had her picture in the paper in 20 years of teaching called her a publicity seeker. An indignant mother at a PTA meeting used the article as proof that the school was spending more time and money on the "dumb kids" than on her smart one. Her principal defended her work, but that he should have to do so made her worry about how long he could put up with the attacks. Fear and doubt made her nervous, she found herself sleepless at night, and when she came to me again, it was only to tell me my Success Therapy couldn't work for her. She had her mind made up to quit.
"Don't be afraid to accept a little help," I assured her. "You know how much your slow learners need help, and fast learners can't get there without help, either. Now about that newspaper article-your good work is what made it a good article. Did it ever occur to you that newspapers are not in the habit of wasting valuable space on subjects that are not worthy of it? Maybe the publicity created a little envy, and then again, maybe it gave you the support you need to fight harder for your children." At that point I remembered enough from Shakespeare to quote: "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
That restored her courage. "Yes," she said, "and if I don't fight for my poor children, who will?" She was still thinking in terms of "poor" children, but at least she was thinking more richly. She went back to organize meetings and conferences with parents that brought her further newspaper attention. The envy and the carping didn't stop, but it was recognized for what it was, and its power was gone. In another year she was sent as the local delegate to a national convention on the teaching of retarded children, and won national publicity for the work her school was doing. Envy turned to pride in being associated with the school which she represented, and her principal, instead of being the goat, became something of a hero for supporting her.
All told, six years of constant encouragement and even prodding were necessary to shift this lady's gears from thinking poor to thinking rich, but the results were well worth it. Today, recognized across the nation for her pioneering work with slow children, she has made such a habit of success that even her children are infected with it. Thanks to her, many of her students otherwise doomed to become public wards are now useful citizens.
These examples, backed by thousands of others, demonstrate what rich thinking can do and does for your career. It is not that thinking makes it so any more than, in the words of the old song, "wishing will make it so." But success-oriented thoughts, supported by knowledge of your own achievements and guided by intelligent planning, will certainly make it so.
