THE POWER OF APPLIED FAITH!

At one time in his life, eighteen cents and two cans of sardines were the only thing that stood between him and starvation. He moved from one cheap Greenwich Village apartment to another - simply because he couldn't pay the rent. Twenty years of his life had already been spent in the military. While serving as a cook in the Coast Guard, he used nights and free time to write letters for fellow enlistees to their wives and girlfriends back home. Men who were either illiterate or found it too difficult to express themselves - at least on paper - became routine customers.

It was during this time that he, too, fell in love - with writing. He didn't know it then, but his literary talents would eventually carry him to fame and fortune. But his success was anything but instant. Like so many things in his life, writing did not come easy. Creativity and composition were brutally difficult barriers. He labored seven nights a week for eight years before he sold his first article. When he retired from the Coast Guard, he dedicated himself full-time to his writing. Though his income was paltry and erratic, his bills never failed to arrive on time. He was offered several nine-to-five jobs, but refused them all. Why? "Because I'm a writer!" he said. "I've got to keep writing."

Determined to scratch out a living in the literary field, he came up with an idea - a book which as originally planned would take no more than three years to write.

Actually, the project took twelve years, leaving him on the brink of bankruptcy - both financially and spiritually. For these twelve years he spent every waking moment either writing or researching. He devoted more than 6500 hours in 57 libraries on what seemed to be an endless search. His airfares alone, commuting between the United States, London, and the west coast of Africa, totaled more than $30,000. Nine years after starting this complicated task, he found himself $100,000 in debt, depressed, and contemplating suicide.

While preparing an editorial assignment on a private yacht of a friend, he figured the only solution to his problems was for him to simply throw himself overboard and end it all.

But something stopped him! At his lowest point of despair, after hundreds of setbacks that penetrated the depths of his soul, while constantly surrounded and harassed by unsympathetic family and friends, he met his greatest source of power - applied faith!

"Recognizing, perhaps for the first time in my life," he said, "the amazing power of an enduring faith, I carefully surveyed my bleak circumstances to determine just how much of this form of riches I possessed. The assessment was both revealing and gratifying." In his own words, these are the thoughts of a man who discovered how to condition his mind for the expression of faith. Something rose up within greater than himself. Believing his book would be of enormous value, he dismissed all notions of ending his life.

Roots, the book that made Alex Haley a millionaire, traced the story of the author's family beginning in Africa in 1750 and ending 117 years later in Henning, Tennessee. This monumental 885-page best-seller had the largest printing for a hardcover book in U.S. publishing history. Since 1977 - for his faith - Haley has been honored by more than 400 different countries, institutions, and organizations. For his faith, Roots, the television series, broke all viewing records and seized nine Emmys, becoming the highest rated television show ever.

What was Alex Haley's response to his newfound success? He declared, "The only way to succeed is through hard, hard work and plenty of faith."


Excerpt from the book THINK AND GROW RICH, A BLACK CHOICE