"An open mind is a free mind. The person who closes his mind to new ideas, concepts and people is locking a door that enslaves their own mentality. Intolerance is a two-edged scythe that on its backswing cuts off opportunities and lines of communication.

When you open your mind, you give your imagination freedom to act for you. You develop vision.

It’s hard to realize now that there were people who laughed at the Wright Brothers’ experiments at flight. And, Lindbergh could scarcely find backers for his Trans-Atlantic flight.

Then mankind went to the moon – no one’s laughing now. It’s the scoffers who are held in scorn. A closed mind is a sign of a static personality. It lets progress pass it by and hence can never take advantage of the opportunities progress offers.

Only if you have an open mind can you grasp the full impact of the first rule of success: 'Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, your mind can achieve.'

People blessed with an open mind perform wonderful feats in business, industry and the professions while people with closed minds are still shouting 'impossible.'

It would be well for you to take stock of yourself. Are you among those who say 'I can' and 'It will be done' or do you fall in the group that says 'Nobody can' the very moment somebody else is accomplishing it?

An open mind requires faith – in yourself.

The days of superstition are gone. But the shadow of prejudice is as dark as ever. You can come out into the light by closely examining your own personality. Do you make decisions based on reason and logic rather than on emotion and preconceived ideas? Do you listen closely, attentively and thoughtfully to the other fellow’s arguments? Do you seek for facts rather than hearsay and rumor?

The human mentality withers unless in constant contact with the stimulating influence of fresh thought. The Communists knew, in their brain-washing technique, know that the quickest way to break a person’s will is to isolate their mind, cutting them off from books, newspapers, radio and other normal channels of intellectual communication.

Under such circumstances, the intellect dies for lack of nourishment. Only the strongest will and the purest faith can save it.

Is it possible that you have imprisoned your mind in a social and cultural concentration camp? Have you subjected yourself to a brainwashing of your own making, isolating you from ideas that could lead to success?

If so, it’s time to sweep aside the bars of prejudice that imprison your intellect.

Open your mind and set it free!"

-Updated Napoleon Hill