A carpenter will spend ten hours a day for weeks on end to build a house for someone else.

A business man spends time, money, and effort planning a factory to manufacture televisions for people he will never meet.

A writer pens a book so people he may never meet will see the world a little differently.

In these cases, it’s people doing things for other people.

In these three cases, the carpenter, the businessman, and the writer gave.

They did not give in the charitable sense of the word. They didn’t reach into their pockets and merely toss a few coins.

This is something different.

In point #6 of Week Twenty-three, Charles F. Haanel wrote in The Master Key System

6. A generous thought is filled with strength and vitality, a selfish thought contains the germs of dissolution; it will disintegrate and pass away. Great financiers like Morgan and others are simply channels for the distribution of wealth; enormous amounts come and go, but it would be as dangerous to stop the outgo as the income; both ends must remain open; and so our greatest success will come as we recognize that it is just as essential to give as to get.

Wealth comes in many forms …

… money (of course) …

… skill …

… talent …

…ability.

Those are just a few.

All wealth has one thing in common …

In order for you to benefit from whatever wealth you have, you must “give” it — you must use it.

Even before one book is sold, a writer will toil over his tome for months, years.

A carpenter will study his craft for years, will apprentice for years, will do lowly jobs for years, before he makes top dollar doing the big jobs.

The businessman will study, will try, will fail, will take risks, until he strikes upon that one good enterprise.

We must give to get.

You must give to get.

That does not mean donating to charity.

It doesn’t mean giving possessions or time away haphazardly.

In point #7 of Week Twenty-three, Mr. Haanel clarifies this.

7. If we recognize the Omnipotent power that is the source of all supply, we will adjust our consciousness to this supply in such a way that it will constantly attract all that is necessary to itself and we shall find that the more we give the more we get. Giving in this sense implies service. The banker gives his money, the merchant gives his goods, the author gives his thought, the workman gives his skill; all have something to give, but the more they can give, the more they get, and the more they get the more they are enabled to give.

Get it?

Are you really getting it?

Giving implies service.

Look at Mr. Haanel’s examples.

The banker gives money.

The merchant gives goods.

And it’s not just the money and the goods that are involved; it’s all the planning, the paperwork, the wheeling and dealing …

It’s the hard work that Mr. Haanel writes about.

Everything to make it possible for you and I to purchase the car of our dreams or to easily get the books we desire.

Now you got it.

So use it.

Give to get.

Give a lot to get a lot.

Make a difference in the world.

And move forward boldly.

—

Books are great things to give to friends and those we wish to become friends with.