I want you to forget will power. Some people throw away their money in one way and some in another; and very often it all amounts to about the same thing in the end. Some like to joy ride, while others prefer to gamble in wildcat shares. But if anyone really wants to qualify as a first-class idiot in money-wasting, no better opportunity exists than to buy and read all the stupid books that have been written about will power.

Peary succeeded in reaching the North Pole, Stan­ley traversed Darkest Africa, and Byrd crisscrossed the Antarctic. These are examples of great mental application and physical endurance by means of which the ends of the earth have become opened up.

If asked to define the driving force behind such instances the popular mind at once thinks of will power.

Let us bury that meaningless term will power, and bury it so deeply that it can never be resurrected. It is dead anyway.

The so-called will power was simply energy plus interest, or, if one cares to reverse the order, interest plus energy. Peary wanted to reach the North Pole; he badly wanted to reach it, too. His whole mental attitude revolved around that great adventure. Hence his whole interest lay in that direction. He was also pulsating with energy, and therefore possessed the requisite driving force. When this energy became linked up with the interest, the great undertaking com­menced; and just as long as this union existed the effort was maintained. Furthermore, when his great life's object was at last attained, those two contribut­ing factors reached their culminating expression.

If Peary had had the energy of a Bengal tiger, but had lacked interest in Polar exploration, he would never have reached the North Pole. On the other hand, if he had happened to have so much interest that it dominated his every waking moment, it would have availed him nothing if he lacked the necessary energy.

In business, engineering, original research, and every other branch of mental endeavor, the same simple principles govern individual accomplishments. In the first place, a person must have an interest in an objective, otherwise he will not apply himself to obtaining it. Then he must have the necessary energy to follow the trail along which his interest beckons. With these two factors linked up in double harness a desirable outcome is assured.

Everyone may have all the interest-energy that he wants. The trouble with many people, however, is that a large proportion of this quality is never utilized. In the first place, there is a dissipation of energy through unconscious anarchy; and then the amount actually available to the consciousness is oftentimes not linked up with any strongly attractive interest-object.

To like to do a thing is not an ability; neither is it any power. We might just as well speak of a liking to cultivate roses as being a power.

Over to my left, as I sit typing this chapter, there are about ten feet of book-shelves on which there is a copy of almost every book on psychoanalysis that has been written in the English language. In that array there is practically everything available on this sub­ject.

I have not only read these books, but have also scribbled in them and dog-eared them until they are disreputable in appearance. Is it any wonder, there­fore, that I gravitated into psychoanalysis? And is it any wonder that I have tried to explain its theory and practice by means of a book, written in simple form, so that other people may have an opportunity to bene­fit from what I myself have studied and applied?

The writing of this book has not been work; it has been a pleasure. So it should not require much imagi­nation to understand the great difference that it made to me, personally, when I led that energy-ability of mine into a channel where I have an overwhelming interest.

Let us imagine a person possessed with an inor­dinate desire for strong drink, actually standing out­side a place where liquor is to be bought; and let us further imagine this unfortunate individual being torn by two sets of interests: the one to go in and drink, while the other is to keep off it.

This is a condition where the term "will power" is worked with great enthusiasm by some machine-made psychologists. As a matter of fact, however, there is no will power involved.

What this unfortunate person is doing is already having a drink mentally, and deciding whether he shall have one in reality. He is not drawing mental pictures of being at home painting the garden fence. He has simply directed his interest to imagining how it would feel to be standing in front of a bar, with the right foot nonchalantly poised on the brass rail, hold­ing a glass in his left hand as he pours whisky into it with his right, and then, having lifted the drink to his lips, gurgling it lovingly down so that every drop, right down to his stomach, tastes like heaven.

This poor chap has thrown his whole interest-power into that anticipation of drinking. The bar just inside that door is his North Pole; he could no more keep away from it than Peary could keep away from his "Call of the North."

The poor individual who fell into the liquor trap didn't fall down because of lack of will power. As a matter of fact, it was that very "power" that caused him to go where he did. He simply went where he wanted that "power" to take him. His interest lay in the direction of the drink; hence he went and got it.

When we hitch up our interest-object to our energy we generally manage to reach our objective; but when we allow our interest-object to draw in one direction, and our energy to take us in an opposite, we are liable to end up by becoming first-class misfits accomplish­ing—nothing.

The driving force which so many people still in­sist on calling will power, and which everyone longs to possess, is already possessed. No intellectual stir­rings are required, nor is there need to pay any "hand-me-down" psychologist a fee for "courses" in order to acquire this will power.

Everyone has energy, and everyone has some in­terest-object; and just as sure as those two factors are brought together the personality comes into its own; its own driving power.

Go and find your interest-object. It is knocking around somewhere, and not very far away. When you have found it, hitch it up to your energy; and when you do that you will start to get somewhere worth while.

If you don't like growing cabbages, or trying to make hens lay eggs, stop trying to do so. Let soma other cabbage-grower take over your vegetable indus­try, and let some other worthy soul specialize in try ing to make reluctant hens speed-up in the egg-laying business.

Take hold of your own real interest-object with both hands, and bring your hitherto non-utilized energy to bear on it. Then, some fine morning, you will wake up feeling that the world is yours.

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