Law of Success (21st Century Edition)

(^416) THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
A farmer moved to the city, taking with him his well-trained shepherd
dog. But he soon found that the dog was out of place in the city, so
he decided to "get rid of him:' Taking the dog with him, he went out
into the country and knocked on the door of a farmhouse. A man came
hobbling to the door, on crutches. The man with the dog greeted the
man in the house in these words:
"You wouldn't care to buy a fine shepherd dog that I wish to get rid
of, would you?"
The man on crutches replied No! and closed the door.
The man with the dog called at half a dozen other farmhouses, ask-
ing the same question, and received the same answer. He made up his
mind that no one wanted the dog and returned to the city. That evening
he was telling of his misfortune, to someone with Imagination. The man
heard how the owner of the dog had tried in vain to "get rid of him:'
"Let me dispose of the dog for you;' said the man of Imagination.
The owner was willing. The next morning the man of Imagination
took the dog out into the country and stopped at the first farmhouse
at which the owner of the dog had called the day before. The same old
man hobbled out on crutches and answered the knock at the door.
The man of Imagination greeted him in this fashion:
"I see you are all crippled with rheumatism. What you need is a fine
dog to run errands for you. I have a dog here that has been trained to
bring home the cows, drive away wild animals, herd the sheep, and per-
form other usefUl services. You may have this dog for a hundred dollars:'
"All right;' said the crippled man, ''I'll take him:'
That, too, was Imagination!
Most anyone would like to own a dog that would herd sheep and
bring home the cows and perform other useful services. The dog was
the same one that the crippled buyer had refused the day before, but
the man who sold the dog was not the man who had tried to "get rid of
him." If you use your Imagination, you will know that no one wants
anything that someone else is trying to "get rid 0("