(Excerpts from “The Executive Mind” taught by Yogi Bhajan April 9, 1982) Success is a natural Divine instinct. By hassling you don’t succeed. By hassling you get sick. Success should be allowed to come normally because it’s a natural instinct. Each day we live, we live successfully. Here and there we patch up and take care of ourselves. Sometimes we are good in taking care of ourselves; sometimes we are not good in taking care of ourselves, but each day lived is a successful day. There’s another theory of success. It’s the key to life: Through bad or good, keep up. That’s the real key to success. I’ll tell you a story. One day, my father (who was a physician) was so sick that he had two other doctors attending him. We were all worried and hovering around him. It was a very amazing situation. Then a phone call came that a certain patient of his was seriously ill. On hearing that news, his mental projection became so good that within 15 to 20 minutes his fever went down, and he almost became happy. He took a shower, dressed himself, picked up his medical bag, and took those two doctors with him, so that if he collapsed on the way, they would be available for him. It was a two-hour horse ride. He went and attended his patient and he came back, and thereafter we didn’t see him sick. It was such a powerful mental projection that I saw, and I was amazed. Success is a natural thing. To make it unnatural is actually defeating your own life. If you are successful, that’s the way it should be. If you are successful unto the point of Infinity, you won’t know why you are successful. Most of the time, when you are successful, you can’t attribute it to any reason, so we call it “luck.” Actually, luck is nothing but a common inflow. So, who is lucky and who is not? This is Mr. Lucky (Figure 1). Why have I drawn him in an egg shape? It’s very simple. He’s hatched, but he doesn’t know it. That’s what luck is about. So what is luck? It is a very simple thing. Mr. Lucky is a magnetic field that attracts all opportunities. Luck is nothing but opportunity plus chance. And what is success? Success is when you cash it, and you can cash it without cash. Money is never success. You totally misunderstand. Money is what money does. Money has no personality of its own. And the greatest problem with you is that you don’t understand each and every time that money has no personality. As long as you think that money has a personality, you can never be successful. Period. There are no two ways about it. Because money is the means; you can be very mean for money, but you won’t be successful. Even if you push, push, push to the point that you can’t push anymore. So what is success? Success is when you make your personality infinite. From “I am happy,” make everybody happy; “I am satisfied,” make everybody satisfied; “I am healthy,” make everybody healthy; “I am spiritual,” make everybody spiritual. These are certain secrets of success, and they are the hardest work. We have decided what is lucky. Now we have to find out how to remain lucky. This whirlwind Mr. Lucky (Figure 2) is very continuous. He feels everything at the center of his navel point, and he looks at everything all the time. You’ll notice there are no eyelashes on his eyes. His head is very smooth; you can slip over it. It’s like the head of a dolphin. What is the quality of a dolphin? It looks pretty. It plays with everybody. That’s why people don’t eat it, though it has tasty meat. It keeps all the dangers away. It’s very successful. Your mental structure has two destructions in it: bullheadedness and bullish language. These are two things that shall work against your luck. Luck is a plus, but it can become a negative if you’re bullish. If somebody wants to talk to you, hear that person. If you don’t agree, very politely say, “I don’t understand.” And when you don’t want to say anything, just say, “I don’t understand. Really I don’t.” And let the other person exhaust himself explaining to you what he wants. And still say, “Really, it doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t understand.” There’s no point in saying, “Get out of here, you so-and-so! That’s ridiculous.” There are certain faculties that you must have if you want to continue to be lucky. The first is kindness. The second is patience. The third is organization. The fourth is courage. And the fifth is to be regal. These are the five faculties that are the secret if you want to continue to be successful. Understand that your unkind behavior can blow up anything. Patience pays. And when I say to be organized, it means to be methodical. And it doesn’t matter how great the truth you speak is, if you do not show a sense of courage, nobody will believe you. People do not trust you; they trust your courage. There have been many like you, there are many like you, and there shall be many like you, but if you stand out as a symbol of courage, many people, who want to be courageous, will follow you. That’s why I say courage is a sign of infinite leadership. If you want to be a successful leader, have courage. What is behind courage? Spirit, truth, and steadfastness. These three things are the qualities of a courageous man. And if you want to be courageous and a leader, first you have to have the characteristics of character. It is very important. There is no image in the world that you can create if you do not “sell” your characteristics of character, and you have to do it yourself. All men and women who cannot sell their inner characteristics of character are miserable. You’ve got to sell the idea that you came through in the past, you come through now, and you will come through in the future. You’ve got to prove that you have a habitual characteristic to be a person of character. Secondly, you have to prove that you have good will in your character, that you are honest by nature; you are truthful by nature; you are active by nature; you are a giver by nature; you are a helper by nature; you sacrifice by nature; you love principles by nature; and you are compassionate by nature. The power of the word is the power of communication. It’s not defiance; it’s not the ego. You have to say, “I am honest. I am truthful. I am active. I am a giver. I am a helper. I know how to sacrifice. I love principle. I have compassion.” You must create goodwill with these eight faculties. And if you think you can be successful without these eight faculties, you are totally befooling yourself. Well, one thing can happen. A tidal wave can come and enrich you and fill you, but when it goes away, it will take away everything that it has brought. These eight faculties make you a conscious human being. This is not the end of it; this is the spiritual thought of it. So what is success? Success is a continuous process. It stops nowhere. It’s an inflow. It must not be stopped. It is nothing other than a simple “rocking zero” (Figure 3). You rock on your tail, and that’s all you can do. You can’t move more than this. Actually, this is the only movement you have. Beyond this is illusion—maya. I know this is very difficult for you to understand. The rocking motion is called “intercourse”—that means communication in an established way on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. The power of productivity in you lies in your intercourse and how you do it. Don’t forget what I’m going to tell you right now. For every graceful person, overdoing is not a plus. It’s a minus. And underdoing is a minus; it’s not a plus. So, in reality, neither overdo nor underdo. There-fore, in your life, by overworking or underworking you do not make sense. If somebody will see you overworking, you will make a bad impression. If somebody sees you under-working, you’ll make a bad impression. Now this is Mr. Imbalance (Figure 4). One eye is bigger. The other is smaller. When he looks at other people’s things, he looks very widely. When he looks at his own things, he looks very narrowly. His nose is on the other side. He smells other things better than his own things. His mouth is open on the other side. Everything is tilted this way. And the problem with him is, he has one very small ear and one very big one. What is the imbalance? These are his “overlords” whom he has to satisfy and his “under-lords” whom he must keep satisfied, and in this situation, he does not suit his overlords. Now, there is only one Lord of all overlords. You can call Him God, but we don’t call Him God in economics. We call it “goodwill.” You have to cater “from A to Z” to one overlord, and that overlord is goodwill. Your goods must have goodwill. Your surroundings must have goodwill. Your community must have goodwill. Everything should be based on one overlord—and that overlord is goodwill. Now the underworld has a lot of situations that you must pay attention to. You all have “under-lords” to carry you up and up and up. Therefore, you must work through them if you want to be secure. That means, in the case of those who work for you, under you, or around you, you must know their personal lives and help them; you must know what their needs are and help them; you must know what their circumstances are and help them; you must know what their planning is and help them. You must penetrate through these situations in their past, present, and future; otherwise you are sitting on a sand castle. Love begets love. Truth begets truth. Security must beget security. If you want people to be decent to you, be decent to them. If you want people to be kind to you, be kind to them. That means giving is equal to getting. The balance is the magnetic field. Give you must; you shall get because those who give and feel that they do not get are only those fools who subject themselves to time and space. Soul, the self, does not obey time and space. Success does not obey time and space. Therefore, the secret of success is to create a balance in giving and getting beyond time and space. That’s why people do charity. Whatever they give to their relatives, nobody remembers, but whatever they give to charity is always remembered. When you give to the church, the church remembers. When you give to God, God remembers. When you give to the world, the world remembers. What did Mahatma Gandhi give? He gave people peace. He gave them a new technology. You may be surprised to know that upon Mahatma Gandhi’s death, all the flags of all countries at the United Nations were hung at half-mast. One man in the whole world? Because he gave humankind a successful experiment that proved that you can be free and sovereign without lifting a rifle. And that’s why they called him “Mahatma.” Mahatma means “great soul.” Atma means “soul” and maha means “great.” And there’s one beautiful thing about him—he could have become the president or the prime minister, but he gave of himself and he got in return. Not only did the Indian government consult him at a later stage of his life, but all the world governments consulted him in many, many situations. What I’m saying to you is that life is a balance, and success is the natural revenue of a balanced life. 1.Mr. Lucky 2.Whirlwind Mr. Lucky 3.Rocking Zero 4.Mr. Imbalance Invest in Your Tomorrow July 14, 2002As we progress toward the Age of Aquarius we must understand the psychology and analogy that, as we have a child who we nurture, we have to grow and keep expanding our mental attitude. We want our child to breathe long and deeply; we want him to be healthy; we want her to eat right; and we want him to grow as the best person. Similarly, we need to nurture ourselves in the same way. If there are good vibrations, good thoughts, good imagination—all of what we do is good, good, good—the results will be the best. And that is the process of dharma, growing into our higher Self so that we can be safe. We have to stabilize everything with character and with habits, which is called sadhana.2 You and another and God make the trinity. But in most of our dealings and feelings, we forget the hand of God. We forget it was the destiny that brought us together. It was the hand of God that brought us together. This trinity is the essence of divinity and reality and personality—all three put together. It cannot be separate. But in our mind we do not consider them as one unit. That is why Guru used the words Ek Ong Kar: “There is one Creator of the whole creation.” This creation is subjected to the Creator, the One, from Whom the flow of everything comes. I know you need prosperity, you need peace, and you need happiness. They shall come to you if you are willing to invest in life, if you are willing to invest in your children, if you are willing to invest in your relationships. You have to invest, because if you don’t, life will go sour. My prayer is that you must be aware that it is you and you alone who can invest in your own tomorrow so that you can be healthy, happy, and holy.Sat Nam.