The fact is no man can succeed in any pursuit unless he has a creative imagination. Without creative imagination the human race would still be living in caves. Without creative imagination there would be no ships, no engines, no automobiles, no corporations, no systems, no plans, no business. Nothing exists in all the world that had not a previous counterpart in the mind of him who designed it. And back of all is the creative mind of God. [Sidenote: _How Wealth is Created_] Mind is supreme. Mind shapes and controls matter. Every concrete thing in the world is the product of a thinking consciousness. The richly tinted canvas is the physical expression of the artist's dream. The great factory, with its whirling mechanisms and glowing furnaces, is the material manifestation of the promoter's financial imagination. The jeweled ornament, the book, the steamship, the office building, all are but concrete realizations of human thought molded out of formless matter. Mind, finite and infinite, is eternally creative and creating in the organization of formless matter and material forces into concrete realities. [Sidenote: _The Klamath Philosophy_] Says Max Mueller in his "Psychological Religion": "The Klamaths, one of the Red Indian tribes, believe in a Supreme God whom they call 'The Most Ancient One,' 'Our Old Father,' or 'The Old One on High.' He is believed to have created the world--that is, to have made plants, animals and man. But when asked how the Old Father created the world, the Klamath philosopher replies: _'By thinking and willing.'"_ [Sidenote: _How Men Get Things_] We get what we desire because the things we desire are the things we think about. Love begets love. The man who is looking for trouble generally finds it. Despair is the forerunner of disaster, and fear brings failure, because despair and fear are the emotional elements attendant upon thoughts of defeat. Behind every thing and every act is, and always has been, thought--thought of sufficient intensity to shape and fashion the physical event. Mind, and mind alone, possesses the inscrutable power to create. Your career is ordered by the thoughts you entertain. Mental pictures tend to accomplish their own realization. Therefore, be careful to hold only those thoughts that will build up rather than tear down the structure of your fortunes. [Sidenote: _Prerequisites to Achievement_] Creative imagination is an absolute prerequisite to material achievement. The business man must scheme and plan and devise and foresee. He must create in imagination today the results that he is to achieve tomorrow. He must combine the elements of his past experiential complexes into a mental picture of future events as he would have them. Riches are but the material realization of a financial imagination. The wealth of the world is but the sum total of the contributions of the creative thoughts of the successful men of all ages. [Sidenote: _How to Take Radical Steps in Business_]