THE H A BIT 0 F 0 0 I N G M 0 RET HAN P A I 0 FOR 571"Would you mind telling me your entire life story, from the days
of your early childhood on up to the present? What I wish you to do;'
he said, "is to mix the fat with the lean and let me take a look at your
very soul, not from its most favorable side, but from all sides:'
For three hours I talked while Mellett listened. I omitted nothing.
I told him of my struggles, of my mistakes, of my impulses to be
dishonest when the tides of fortune swept against me too swiftly,
and of my better judgment which prevailed in the end, but only after
my conscience and I had engaged in prolonged combat. I told him
how I conceived the idea of organizing the Law of Success philosophy,
how I had gone about gathering the data which had gone into the
philosophy, of the tests I had made that resulted in the elimination
of some of the data and of the retention of other parts of it.
After I had finished, Mellett said: "I wish to ask you a very
personal question, and I hope you will answer it as frankly as you
have told the rest of your story. Have you accumulated any money
from your efforts, and if not, do you know why you have not?"
"No," I replied, "I have accumulated nothing but experience
and knowledge and a few debts. And the reason, while it may not
be sound, is easily explained. The truth is that I have been so busy
all these years in trying to eliminate some of my own ignorance so
I could intelligently gather and organize the data that has gone into
the Law of Success philosophy, that I have had neither the opportu-
nity nor the inclination to turn my efforts to making money:'
The serious look on Don Mellett's face, much to my surprise,
softened into a smile as he laid his hand on my shoulder and said,
"I knew the answer before you stated it, but I had wondered if you
knew it. You probably know that you are not the only man who has
had to sacrifice immediate monetary remuneration for the sake of
gathering knowledge. Your experience has been that of every philoso-
pher from the time of Socrates down to the present:'
Those words were like music to my ears!