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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Millard Fuller -- and Habitat For Humanity

Here is an insightful excerpt from the Jose Silva Ultra Mind System site. I signed up and have received the full preliminary 'course' for free. You will get this text and other valuable material as well -- but be patient, it takes a while to complete the process.

"Sometimes what appears to be a negative situation may actually be good luck in disguise.

The Example of Millard Fuller.

By the age of thirty Millard had made his first million and was aiming for $10 million more. He owned everything he could hope for - 2,000 acres of land, speed boats, luxury cars. But, as his business empire grew his marriage was crumbling. One day he received a letter from his wife Linda declaring that she had fallen out of love with him and was seeking a divorce.
The week that followed was one of the most agonizing weeks of his life. He called Linda and begged for a second chance. Reluctantly, with tears in her eyes, she agreed. Together they decided to get rid of everything they owned and start anew. They sold everything - the business, the homes, the cars. But what next?
Somehow Millard and Linda found themselves in Georgia a few years later. While doing volunteer work they were struck by the dilapidated shacks many impoverished families had to live in. Millard and his co-workers started building homes for these needy people. Moved by the powerful impact these homes had on the people who moved into them, Millard decided to see if these simple concepts could be applied around the world.
He knew that 25% of the world's population lacked decent housing.
Millard's goal was once to make $10 million - he now had a new goal - could he build homes for 10 million people? Convinced that he had a concept that could work worldwide he launched Habitat for Humanity International in 1976.
Habitat has already built more than 60,000 houses around the world for 300,000 people. Habitat now coordinates 800 building projects in fifty-one foreign countries.
Millard and Linda now see themselves as two of the luckiest people alive.
A single event - the threat of divorce led them onto a completely different path, one that has not just made them happier, but benefited thousands of people around the world.
Sometimes, like Millard, people pursue a goal that they think is correct - but this goal may be out of line from what their life purpose is. This is why in the Silva UltraMind seminar we always encourage people to use their intuition to first determine if they are on the right path - and once they get an answer, only then do they set their goals."

A cautionary note: Jose Silva is a fan of Napoleon Hill, but his story is more complex than may seem on the surface. See this reference on Amazon.com (from Publishers' Weekly: From Publishers WeeklyHill (1883-1970) was the author of several early self-help books-Law of Success, 1929; Think and Grow Rich, 1937; Mental Dynamite, 1941-all promoting an inspirational philosophy of personal achievement that, if followed, purportedly would lead to wealth and success. Although Hill died a prosperous man, he spent most of his life jumping from one get-rich-quick scheme to another and experienced long periods of poverty. Landers, a freelance writer, and Ritt, former executive director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, have put a good spin on Hill's contradictory life. Yet their account does not provide any real insight into why a man whose books were able to motivate others nonetheless deserted his wife and children several times to follow his dreams and left their financial support to others. After his wife finally divorced him, Hill married two more times. This is a public-relations bio marked by stilted writing. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. )

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