534 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
conversation carefully. There can be no gain from a barrage of unin-
vited, uncontrolled, loosely spoken words.
It is nearly always more profitable to listen than it is to speak. A
good listener may, once in a great while, hear something that will add
to their stock of knowledge. It requires Self-Control to become a good
listener, but the benefits to be gained are worth the effort.
"Taking the conversation away from another person" is a common
form of lack of Self-Control that is not only discourteous but it deprives
those who do it of many valuable opportunities to learn from others.
Self-Control was one of the marked characteristics of all successful
leaders whom I have analyzed in gathering material for this course.
Luther Burbank said that, in his opinion, Self-Control was the most
important of these seventeen laws. During all his years of patient study
and observation of the evolutionary processes of vegetable life, he had
found it necessary to exercise the faculty of Self-Control despite the
fact that he was dealing with inanimate life.
John Burroughs, the naturalist, said practically the same thing; that
Self-Control stood near the head of the list, in importance, of the
seventeen laws of success.
The person who exercises complete Self-Control cannot be per-
manently defeated, as Emerson has so well stated in his essay on
Compensation, because obstacles and opposition have a way of melting
away when confronted by the determined mind that is guided to a
definite end with complete Self-Control.
Every wealthy person I have analyzed (referring to those who have
become wealthy through their own efforts) showed such positive
evidence that Self-Control had been one of their strong points that I
reached the conclusion no one can hope to accumulate great wealth and
keep it without exercising this necessary quality.
The saving of money requires the exercise of Self-Control of the
highest order, as I hope has been made quite clear in the fourth lesson
of this course.