family would have to live out their lives in disgrace and
poverty.
But by taking just one fact and magnifying it
by adding a number of opinions (which are not facts) you
can reach conclusions which are so wrong that they can
do great damage.
Let's take the case of the middle-aged "failure"
just described.
We'll start with his one fact: he had lost his
money through unwise investments. Well, maybe that was
stupid. Perhaps with more caution and better advice the
loss could have been avoided. But certainly it was neither
original nor unusual. Often men who amass large fortunes
lose substantial sums of money from time to time. They
accept their losses as part of the business of fortune-
making.
Many men have made and lost a number of
fortunes. Almost all of them have recouped their losses
and greatly increased their wealth. There is a state of mind
and a technique of fortune-making.
So even the fact that our friend did lose his
money was no cause for panic. Surely it was no cause for
him to compound his misfortune by adding adverse opin-
ions which were not even facts.
Now, let's have a look at his own opinions
which he mistook to be facts and which caused his des-
peration and his hesitation to vigorously work his way
back to the top.
(1 ) "It's too late to start over." That, of course,
was merely his opinion. It is not a fact-unless he, himself,