The Complete Master Key System

The Complete Master Key System builds on the classic work of Charles Haanel to teach contemporary audiences how to tap into their personal potential and manifest harmony, abundance, and fulfillment.

Published in 1912, The Master Key System went on to influence Ernest Holmes, Napoleon Hill, and many others who sought to use mental power as a means of attaining success. In The Complete Master Key System, William Gladstone, Richard Greninger, and John Selby hark back to Charles Haanel’s original text, and develop exercises that heighten readers’ ability to implement Haanel’s core principles. Their Daily Manifestation Sessions incorporate the most effective focusing methods used today and integrate ancient meditative techniques with new insights in cognitive psychology.
The Complete Master Key System is packaged with Haanel’s original Master Key System in the appendix and includes a foreword by Mark Victor Hansen and an afterword by Jack Canfield. | "If you read only one book this year, be sure it’s THE COMPLETE MASTER KEY SYSTEM!"
—Mark Victor Hansen, bestselling author, Chicken Soup for the Soul

“If you want to take your life to the next level, read THE COMPLETE MASTER KEY SYSTEM.”
—Jack Canfield, bestselling author, Chicken Soup for the Soul

"Whether you need more money, a great job, an amazing relationship, this book tells you what you have to do, and it is really simple."
—Arielle Ford, author, The Soulmate Secret
 
"Tapping the source using the master key system for abundance and happiness is one of the most direct paths to fulfillment that I’ve seen. THE COMPLETE MASTER KEY SYSTEM is a wonderful book, a master key to fulfillment and conscious evolution."
—Barbara Marx Hubbard, futurist, author

“When you tap in to the source, everything flows and you are successful in all aspects of your life. This book is one of the keys to do that. Read it.”
—Marilyn Tam, humanitarian and author, How to Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want

“Joie de Vivre means ‘joy of life.’ THE COMPLETE MASTER KEY SYSTEM is about how to actually connect with that joy. I’m looking forward to giving the book to each of our employees.”
—Chip Conley, founder at Joie de Vivre Hospitality, author | William Gladstone is an author and literary agent who has worked with Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and Barbara Marx Hubbard.

Richard Greninger is a producer at Coast to Coast Production.

John Selby is the author of more than two dozen self-help, spiritual growth, business success, and psychology books. |

DAILY MANIFESTATION PROCESS

We are always in the presence

of an Infinite and Eternal Energy

from which all things proceed.

A single idea may be worth millions of dollars, and these ideas can only come to those who are receptive, who are prepared to receive them, who are in a successful frame of mind. Is it not worthwhile to make the effort?

—CHARLES HAANEL, The Master Key System

FOREWORD

What a treasure you have in front of you in Tapping the Source. I know something about manifesting and thinking on a large scale. My Chicken Soup book series has sold more than one hundred and fifty million copies, and I have encouraged and taught tens of thousands of ordinary people just like you to live their dreams and become successful authors and speakers. In Tapping the Source, you now have the formula for manifesting your own dreams, whatever they may be. You may be working in the real estate industry, or working as an automobile mechanic, or taking care of your children as a stay-at-home parent. It really does not matter what or if you have a profession because Tapping the Source is the key to your true fulfillment and happiness in life. That’s right. This book you hold in your hands is all you need to start living the life of your dreams.

Richard Greninger, whom I have worked with as a friend and colleague for more than twenty years, has done us all an enormous service in rediscovering the Master Keys of Charles Haanel and teaming up with William Gladstone and John Selby to create an immediate action plan for twenty-first-century readers not just to read the original keys, but also to implement them. The Focus Phrases and exercises in Tapping the Source are unique. No other self-help book gives you these simple exercises that capture the wisdom of the ages and allow you to not just understand how to manifest but also feel the energy of manifestation in your very own body.

In studying with my mentor Buckminster Fuller, I was exposed to cutting-edge thought and a mind that was capable of dreaming big dreams. From Bucky I learned to dream big, to dream differently, and to overcome obstacles. With the tools you now have in Tapping the Source, I encourage you to dream big, to dream differently, and to overcome the obstacles in your own life. I know you can, and I know that the process of doing so will bring you great joy.

We are living at a unique time in human history. All the technology and building blocks necessary for creating a world that works for everyone already exist. The missing ingredient has been human will and dedication to a larger vision. That larger vision has actually been with us for hundreds of years. Charles Haanel was the first modern thinker to see how to use this ancient wisdom to manifest abundance and happiness. One of my favorite quotes from the Master Key System of Charles Haanel is: “Large ideas have a tendency to eliminate all smaller ideas so that it is well to hold ideas large enough to counteract and destroy all small or undesirable tendencies. This is one of the secrets of success: Think big thoughts. The creative energies of mind find no more difficulty in handling large situations than small ones.”

My advice to you is that you use the tools you now have before you in Tapping the Source to “think big thoughts.” Start with big thoughts and build big dreams. Make them real and share them with humanity. You are here to make a difference.

With my sincere wishes for your highest success,

Mark Victor Hansen

INTRODUCTION

Everything you ever wanted can be yours. Everything. Not just wealth, health, and material abundance but also true eternal happiness.

How can we know this? How can we offer such assurance? What is the source of our knowledge and confidence that this is true?

This book will reveal these secrets in accessible language with easy-to-follow exercises that have proven to be effective. But where did this information come from? Why should you trust that this book is the true guide to all you have been seeking?

In all areas of your life you must always examine the source. This book is not just the creative output of three successful and widely divergent intellects. Tapping the Source is first and foremost a modern-day presentation of the ideas provided to the world by an extraordinary individual named Charles Haanel.

Charles Haanel lived from 1866 to 1949. During his lifetime, Haanel created a great fortune and dedicated himself to teaching others his secrets of manifestation. Haanel combined the unique skills of being both a practical businessman and a metaphysician interested in esoteric beliefs and esoteric practices. He was one of the first individuals in America to believe in meditation and manifestation through concentrated focus and discipline. Haanel believed in hard work, but he also believed in something more: the ability of each individual to tap into the Divine Source of knowledge and wisdom that permeates the universe. Of the many books Haanel wrote, his most famous and useful, The Master Key System, was published in 1912, almost one hundred years ago. This book went on to influence Ernest Holmes, Napoleon Hill, and many other authors and individuals through to the present day, including the creators of The Secret. Anywhere you go on the Internet, you will see the links between Charles Haanel and The Secret.

The Master Key System, as a book and correspondence course, sold in excess of two hundred thousand copies at a time when America had perhaps only one-tenth the reading population it has today. One of those readers was a gentleman named Napoleon Hill. Hill is famous for his classic work Think and Grow Rich, which has sold tens of millions of copies and is widely regarded as the first and most useful self-help book ever published. He went on to create the Napoleon Hill Institute, which remains robust and active today, still touching the lives of millions of individuals focused on creating material wealth.

Hill wrote a letter in April 1919 in which he gave full credit to Charles Haanel and his Master Key System as the source for his own books and teachings. At this time, Hill had already published the first edition of his book The Law of Success and was also publishing his Golden Rule magazine, both precursors to Think and Grow Rich. In today’s world of self-aggrandizing self-help teachers and gurus, this is a truly gracious letter of recognition:

My dear Mr. Haanel:

I believe in giving credit where it is due; therefore, I believe I ought to inform you that my present success and the success which has followed my work as President of the Napoleon Hill Institute is due largely to the principles laid down in The Master Key System. I shall cooperate with you in getting your course into the hands of the many who so greatly need your message.

Cordially and sincerely,

Napoleon Hill

Hill was not just a powerful self-help author. He practiced the principles he learned from Haanel and amassed one of the largest fortunes in America through Golden Rule, consulting agreements with business titan Andrew Carnegie, and the creation of his own publishing empire. Perhaps even more importantly, he focused on philanthropic activities and sharing his knowledge with others. Indeed even his act of acknowledging Haanel can be interpreted as part of the wisdom imparted in the Master Key System itself. The true power of the Law of Attraction and other laws of abundance that are at the center of the Master Key System is about constantly giving to others and acknowledging the role of others in everyday success on every level of our lives.

Many books, such as The Law of Attraction by Jerry and Esther Hicks and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, have taken an idea here and there from the writings of Napoleon Hill and Charles Haanel, but there has never been a book that goes back to Haanel’s original words and provides the full context of what his principles and laws really are and how to implement them. Part of the reason for this may be that times have changed since his work was first published, and some of the insights provided are no longer as timely. This in fact is not the case. Though his writing may seem dated, his ideas are timeless. There is not a single principle or law in the original Master Key System that is less relevant today than when originally published. The Master Key System is truly a book of timeless wisdom and insight. The modern world has progressed in many areas in one hundred years, however, and one of the areas of such progress has been specifically in how to use meditation and focused concentration to reach alpha states for peak performance. Books have been written, such as Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Zone Tennis by Jay P. Granat, about how to be “in the flow” or “in the zone” and reach maximum physical and mental potential at all times. The Secret hinged on just one of Haanel’s principles, but in fact The Master Key System illustrates that a single principle from the full twenty-four presented is not sufficient for success.

In Tapping the Source, we have gone back to Haanel’s original words and principles and have added specific easy-to-follow exercises that enhance your ability to implement Haanel’s recommendations. In the original Master Key System, Haanel provided a powerful principle, such as focusing on your connection to the source of abundance in the universe, and then told his readers to sit quietly and meditate on that idea. In Tapping the Source, John Selby has developed specific Focus Phrases that mirror Haanel’s instructions so that you have a practical guide that will enable you to more thoroughly and more quickly capture the experience of not just understanding but feeling what it means to be centered and connected to your ultimate and unlimited potential.

We are humbled to serve as your guides to the wonderful wisdom of Charles Haanel. This is a magical book that will change your life—not just in helping you achieve your own material and emotional desires, but also in helping you help others achieve their goals as well. At the heart of Tapping the Source is the awareness that all life is interconnected and that the true secret of happiness is connecting to others and helping them connect to the same Source from which all is manifested. In so doing we all have the potential to live our lives to our fullest potential and to create the conditions for humanity as a collective whole to also reach its highest potential.

As you read Tapping the Source, remember to breathe and enjoy.

Part One

GETTING STARTED

CHAPTER 1

WHO WAS CHARLES HAANEL?

It is hard to overstate the magic and wisdom of Charles Haanel’s lifework. He was a living example of the synthesis of both Western and Eastern philosophies, a man who appreciated material abundance but who never lost sight of the importance of inner calm and inner peace. Haanel was a man with a healthy ego and concern for his own well-being but also a man with tremendous compassion and interest in helping others. He had an innate ability to penetrate the true meaning of world religions and an awareness of the ability of each and every human being to have a direct relationship with the Divine Source of intelligence and abundance that created the universe.

Charles Haanel (pronounced HAH-nell) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 22, 1866, to Hugo and Emeline Haanel. Hugo, like many Americans of his generation, was born in Europe and arrived first in New York City. He relocated to Maryland before moving to Michigan shortly after his discharge from military service in 1862. Hugo married Emeline Fox in 1865, and Charles was born a year later. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, when Charles was four years old. Hugo’s family was not wealthy and neither was he, but he attended college in Michigan and became the principal first of the Picker School and then of the North School of the Church of the Holy Ghost, both in St. Louis. Hugo and Emeline had four other children, all of whom were brought up in St. Louis. We can deduce from Hugo also having served as a minister that Charles was raised with religious training in the independent Evangelical Protestant traditions of these schools.

Charles was educated in St. Louis, and it was there that he started his business career, quite modestly, as an office boy and then as a clerk for the St. Louis Stamping Company, a Company that perfected the manufacturing of cooking pans. Although records are not definitive, it seems Charles started his work life before the age of fourteen. It is believed he worked for the St. Louis Stamping Company for fifteen years, and by the time he was twenty-nine, he was also president of his own publishing company. At thirty-five, he became the secretary of the Oaxaca Coffee Culture Co., and just four years later—at not yet forty years of age—he was appointed president of the Continental Commercial Company. Continental was a good-sized company with ownership of many sugar, coffee, grape, and cattle plantations spread throughout California and Mexico. At the same time, he was also secretary of the Mexico Gold and Silver Mining Company.

Charles married, at the age of twenty-two, Esther Smith, who bore four children before her untimely death in 1904 at the height of Charles’s business success. Charles married Margaret Nicholson of St. Louis in 1908, and Margaret bore him two additional children. Charles died in 1949 at the age of 83, Margaret in 1951. Throughout his business career, Charles maintained an interest in esoteric subjects and was a member of the Keystone Lodge, the Shriners, the Masons, and the Missouri Athletic Club. He was a Republican and a firm believer in the basic family values that he and his family supported throughout their lives.

This seemingly prosaic biography is important for what it doesn’t recount: Charles Haanel was a true American. He was not someone who took advantage of others. He was not someone motivated by amassing wealth alone. He understood the common man and woman. He was an entirely self-made business success and rose through the ranks after many years of hard work. He did not just write down his goals and expect them to magically come to fruition. He focused and was disciplined in seeking knowledge and working one day at a time toward success. Nor was he immune to tragedy—not only did his first wife die prematurely, but one of his daughters also died while still a child.

Throughout his life, however, Haanel was obsessed with learning and sharing information with others. He started his first publishing venture while still in his twenties and perhaps while still working as a clerk for the St. Louis Stamping Company. It was during this time that Haanel developed, first as a correspondence course, the Master Key System that is the inspiration for Tapping the Source. Haanel went on to write many other books, some of them related to his interest in meditation and Eastern religions. However, none of the books written after The Master Key System come close to the power contained in those courses and the eventual book first published in 1917.

Some have speculated that the Master Key System was first created to be shared only with elite business leaders and those with the sophisticated educational background that Haanel himself did not have. We do not believe that was the case, though clearly it was not until Napoleon Hill and others started to publicly acknowledge their debt to the Master Key System that Haanel became a popular public figure. However, even before the Master Key System was published as a book accessible to all, Haanel had already achieved a position of prominence and esteem in St. Louis society.

Writing in St. Louis: The Fourth City (St. Louis: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1909), author Walter B. Stevens introduces us to Haanel, stating:

Charles Haanel is largely associated with the business interests of the city, being affiliated with a number of enterprises of acknowledged financial worth. . . . Mr. Haanel is in every sense of the word a self-made man, having risen in the commercial world to his present situation of worth and prominence by the utilization of his own natural resources.

This is not from an obituary, but from a book about the history of St. Louis at a time when Haanel was not yet forty-five years old. This was also written at a time when very few, if any, people knew of the Master Key System. This is important, since so many of today’s self-development and get-rich-quick gurus are getting rich only on the advice they are providing and not on the actual experience of creating real value in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and industry as Haanel had prior to ever writing about or sharing his secrets to wealth creation.

Stevens concludes his entry on Haanel for the 1909 publication with perhaps the most succinct and complete overview of Haanel ever written:

He is a man of mature judgment, capable of taking a calm survey of life and correctly valuing its opportunities, its possibilities, its demands, and obligations. He has wisely sought success along the lines of least resistance, and yet, when difficulties and obstacles have confronted him, he has displayed a force of character that has enabled him to overcome them and continue on the pathway to prosperity. Many a man whose life is one of untiring industry does not win success for he lacks the complement to industry a laudable ambition which prompts the individual to reach out into other fields and eagerly grasp the opportunities that are presented. In these qualities Mr. Haanel is richly endowed and has thus attained his present enviable position in financial circles.

The key points for us, as advocates of Haanel, is to recognize that he was a truly self-made man and one whose “laudable ambition” prompted him to “reach out into other fields and eagerly grasp the opportunities.” We do not believe from examining Haanel’s life and work that these ambitions were limited to financial interests only. Why would a man who, at the age of forty-four, had already achieved such remarkable financial success and recognition dedicate so much of his time and energy to creating the Master Key System and sharing his success secrets with others? In part it could be just good business practice, for, as Haanel has written in the first explanation ever formulated of the Law of Attraction, giving to others is the key to attracting, but it seems more likely that Haanel’s having achieved a high level of material and emotional happiness in his own life was sincerely motivated by an altruistic impulse to help others.

Because this book is called Tapping the Source, it is essential that you know the source of the information you are reading. Haanel, in our opinion, is an impeccable source. And, just as you have read, it is not just our opinion, but also the opinion of Napoleon Hill and many other self-made millionaires and self-development teachers. For many, Haanel is considered to be “the Father of Personal Development,” and we as authors of Tapping the Source fully agree. But before you go forward in your reading of our presentation of the modern, up-to-date, enhanced-power version of the Master Key System that Tapping the Source is meant to be, you should also know something about Richard, William, and John, your guides to the brilliant teachings and techniques of Charles Haanel.

CHAPTER 2

WHO ARE RICHARD, WILLIAM, AND JOHN?

Okay, so Charles Haanel was an extraordinary and extraordinarily accomplished human being. But what does that matter to you? Well, it so happens that the techniques that Haanel developed actually work and have worked for millions of people over the last one hundred years. Even more important, there are profound and practical insights Haanel shares that will help you no matter what your position in your life, your educational background, or your personality type. This is what is truly extraordinary. Most self-help authors and teachers provide information and techniques that are useful for certain types of individuals and certain types of thinking. Haanel’s Master Key System, unlike any of the other dozens of systems we three authors have ever studied or used, is truly universal.

You could not find three more divergent personalities than your author team of Richard Greninger, William Gladstone, and John Selby. Each of us has been extremely successful in aspects of our lives. Each of us, upon studying Haanel’s Master Keys, achieved personal mastery in our own lives when we followed the guidance provided in his book. And based on what we know now, we have come together to share what we each believe is the simplest and most powerful guidance any human being can have toward living a happy and successful life.

RICHARD GRENINGER

Richard Greninger never thought that he would be an author or teacher. Richard attended the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, which is known the world over for developing famous world-class photographers, filmmakers, and automobile designers. Richard’s commercial career began in 1970, and he was a commercial producer in Hollywood for some fifteen years. As his career progressed, he became familiar with the personal development field of production. He was introduced to Berny Dohrmann, founder of CEO Space and a visionary in transforming people’s way of thinking, and was asked to create live videos for a self-help seminar called IBI. IBI was about teaching people how to create multiple streams of income. Among the speakers who spoke at these seminars were the creators of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield, and many other self-help gurus and inspirational speakers. As it turned out, Richard had a wonderful ability to capture Mark and Jack’s presentations and their audiences in a way that grabbed people’s attention. Word spread, and soon Richard was the go-to videographer for Tony Robbins, T. Harv Eker, and many other motivational speakers.

Richard’s videography business thrived, and along the way Richard could not help but notice that the basic messages of many of these speakers were similar and that the people attending were not coming just to increase their incomes, but also to be inspired and motivated to live happy and fulfilling lives. The energy at many of these events was extraordinary, and Richard was able to observe firsthand the near-miraculous transformations and successes of many who had attended. But Richard also observed that in many cases the same people would return again and again, even after achieving success, still seeking more profound results or simply because they enjoyed being in the energy created at these events. Why was that so?

Richard, being someone who wants to know why things work, started to study on his own. In the process, he came upon the work of Haanel and his Master Key System. Haanel was a revelation for Richard. Here, in one small book, were all the keys that all of the other self-help teachers were talking about. Richard became so motivated that he created his own very basic video version of the Master Key System and started living the principles in his daily life. Although the video series did not take off at that time, Richard felt and saw the powerful success these tapes had with those who viewed them. He vowed then that, when the time presented itself, he would find a way to bring the wisdom of the Master Key System to millions of people through a book and a new and better video series. Of course, one of the major problems for Richard was that he was not an experienced writer. And so he waited.

WILLIAM GLADSTONE

As John Lennon wrote, “Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans.” One of Richard’s other plans was to work on a promotional video for a novel by a friend of Mark Victor Hansen’s, William Gladstone. The novel was called The Twelve, and part of the assignment included flying to New York City to shoot some subway scenes with William. In the process, Richard and William became good friends. Shortly after the promotional video for The Twelve was completed, Richard drove down from his home and studio in Newport Beach, California, to William’s home and office in Cardiff by the Sea, California, to go over the final cut and make some tweaks. The meeting turned into lunch, and after lunch Richard mentioned to William that his own dream—much like the writing of The Twelve had been William’s—was to write and publish a major book acknowledging Charles Haanel and his Master Key System as the most powerful self-help guide ever written.

William was busy with many other projects in addition to promoting his novel. As the founder and active president of Waterside Productions, a major literary agency, he was personally representing best-selling authors such as Eckhart Tolle and Neale Donald Walsch. However, William could not ignore the enthusiasm with which Richard raved about Haanel and his Master Key System. Finally, with some reluctance, William gave in. “Okay, send this Master Key System to me and I will see what I can do. We will need to bring in a writer to update the story for twenty-first-century readers, but if the original is as strong as you say it is, I am sure I will be able to find a writer.”

A few days later, the manuscript of the original Master Key System arrived. William was too busy to do more than spend about five minutes with it, but he thought a local writer he was meeting with that very day might be ideal to rewrite the text. So William gave this writer the manuscript with the hope that he would be inspired to become part of the project. The writer took about a week before responding to William, and though he was excited by the material, he had another project that required his immediate attention. It looked unlikely that he would be able to even consider becoming the coauthor of a book about the Master Key System for another five or six months. That was just too long to wait, so William had the writer return the manuscript and decided he would take it with him the following weekend when he went to Kauai, Hawaii, for his annual spring vacation.

William is not your ordinary literary agent. He grew up in a wealthy book publishing family and wanted to be a writer before his father persuaded him that writing was an unlikely profession if he ever expected to support a family or maintain the highly affluent lifestyle he had experienced as a child. William had obtained an advanced degree in cultural anthropology at Harvard University before entering the world of business, and from his first days as a film producer working with Rod Serling and NBC Television, and then as an executive editor for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishing, it was clear William had a unique talent for selecting and managing creative talent. William is always focused, disciplined, and a hard worker. Utilizing these Haanel-like qualities, as well as his natural openness to “synchronicity” and “good fortune,” William soon built his own multimillion-dollar literary agency, Waterside Productions, which not only represents book authors but entire companies, including mid-level mergers and acquisitions up to $30 million in individual transactions. William is a busy guy but believes in living a balanced life that includes playing golf and taking frequent visits to his second home in Kauai.

JOHN SELBY

One of the friendships William had developed in Kauai was with an author named John Selby. John is an accomplished writer and has worked with a number of literary agents in order to build his résumé, which includes more than twenty books with more than a million copies sold in total. The relationship between William and John sometimes included some agenting, but William is not John’s primary literary agent and their relationship is based more on having children with similar interests and both having received Ivy League educations (William went to Yale as an undergraduate, John to Princeton).

John knew William was coming to Kauai that May and had invited William to dinner soon after he was due to arrive. A funny thing happened to William on the plane ride from San Diego to Kauai. He read Haanel’s original The Master Key System cover to cover. He couldn’t believe the manuscript. He later commented to Richard and John, “I felt that I was reading a manuscript that I could have written myself. I have been living these principles in my work for the last twenty-five years. Haanel’s Master Keys are literally the keys to my own career and financial success.”

Well, the dinner with John took