This content highlights the profound influence of Charles F. Haanel's "The Master Key System," a foundational work in the New Thought movement, emphasizing its principles of thought control, self-architecting one's destiny, and tapping into universal intelligence, and its historical impact on figures like Napoleon Hill.
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Hey, this is Russell. Welcome back to
the vault. Today I'm going to show you
guys some insanely cool stuff from one
of the pioneers of this industry that
almost nobody has ever heard of before.
Uh yet he was one who inspired and
actually helped so many of the top
people. In fact, including Napoleon
Hill. I got a testimonial from Napoleon
Hill about the course right here that
we're going to be diving deep into. This
is uh the same course, three different
publications. The first one, this is the
first edition master's key system. I
spent exactly $1,324.95
on the first edition master key systems,
which is pretty cool. But then um before
the master key system was a book set, it
was a home study course. This is an
original copy of the home study course.
What they would do is every single month
they would uh ship it out. You'd go
through the lesson, you'd fill it out,
you send it back in, and uh and then you
get the next lesson. And so it's almost
impossible to find because nobody has
all the lessons. You would send you
would fill it out, send it in, and they
send you the next one. So you'd only
have the last lesson. So, I found two
complete sets. This one right here I was
able to buy from one of our members at
Secrets of Success. One of our members
had it. Spent $8,000 to buy this
edition. And then this is one other
edition I found, which is the most
pristine copy. It looks like it's brand
new, but is this was published in 1916.
And I spent $100,000 to acquire this
version of the entire uh home study
course. So, these are all of the master
key systems written by Charles Hannel,
who's one of my favorite authors from
the new thought movement. In a minute,
I'm going to show you guys my favorite
lesson I learned from the master key
system, which is one of the coolest
things ever. And I'm also going to show
you Napoleon Hill's actual testimonial
that he sent to Charles Handle, which is
inside of some of these books. But
before I do, I want to tell a little bit
of the story because you may have heard
this before. If you have heard of Master
Key system, there's some big controversy
behind it. Okay. So, Charles Handle
launched the the home study version of
the Master Key systems in 1912. And then
four years later, we came out with the
first edition book and it ran for a long
time. I said it changed so many people's
lives. from 1933 to 2003 for 70 years it
was out of print and it disappeared off
the face of the planet for the most part
other than old copies that people were
sharing and handing around but it wasn't
in print for that time and so because of
there all these big controversies in
fact if you Google you'll see there's
people that talked about how the church
banned this and that's why it
disappeared like the the churches not
did not want people finding out about
this there's other stories and folklore
that there were business entities who
did not want these the secrets of the
master key system falling into their
competitor's hands and there's all these
different things about it being banned
and literally taken offline line and we
have no idea which of those stories are
true or not true but we do know it was
off print for 70 years until 2003 is
when somebody found it found it in the
public domain and started reprinting it
and bringing it back forward and in the
last little while there's a lot of
really big celebrities like one good
example is Terry Cruz who literally
quotes that his success came from
Charles Handle in the master key system
so it's kind of a cool thing that was
disappeared for so long that now is back
in our world like we can read it we can
study it and it brings back some really
cool philosophies that I think have been
lost to lost to time oh and Um, I'm
going to show you actually the ads of
how Charles Har used to sell this in
some of these magazines like Nautles.
I'll show you that here at the end. I
think my favorite principle that came
from the whole master key systems. Okay,
the master key system is broken up into
24 lessons, right? So each week you get
a lesson, ship it back and all of them
like they compound and they build on
each other. But the very last lesson in
the series is my favorite. Uh the title
of it is that you are the architect of
your own destiny, right? And he talks
about here how so many people they they
look at the circumstances of life and
they think like this is this is what God
gave me. This is the life I have. This
is my family. This is where I was
growing up. Like like they think that
that is their life. What he's trying to
show everyone is like you're literally
the architect. You can design whatever
it is you want. Like you can design if
you want to be rich, you want to be
poor, you want to be an athlete, you
have the ability to architect it. And
the way you do that, it all comes back
to your thoughts. Like learning how to
control your thoughts and how to
structure things. He said that your
thoughts create your environment, right?
Right? A lot of times we think that the
environment we're in is the environment
we're stuck in. You see people who are
grown up in poverty and come and become
like these, you know, amazing
influencers or people like so it's not
the environment you're in. It's the
thoughts that create the environment
that you're locked in, you know? And so
what happens a lot of times people are
in a bad environment because that they
hear bad thoughts all the time. It's
going through their head. So they locks
themselves in this prison that's not
real, right? This prisons that they're
locking themselves are aren't actually
real. And when you learn that, you're
like realizing the environment I'm in is
all tied to my thoughts and what's
happening here. Then you can break away
and you say, "Okay, how do I want to
architect my life? What do I want to
believe? What do I need to do to be
successful? What are other people who
are successful? What are they doing? And
how do I tap into that?" And that's one
of my favorite lessons from the entire
master key system is understanding that
and really believing that you are the
architect of your life. If you are the
architect, you know, what does an
architect do? It has a vision for like
this is what the building's going to
look like. Okay, based on that, you
know, I'm going to design. I'm going to
map it out. You start kind of figuring
those things out. Like that's what you
can do as well is come back and say
what's the life that you want, right?
Who already has the thing that you
desire? like what does that look like?
And you can find people who've already
figured it out, right? People have
already built the house uh that you're
trying to build and you look at that and
from there you can reverse engineer
architect your life. Tony Robbins calls
this modeling. Like if you want to be
successful, all you got to do is find
somebody who's already successful and
model them, right? And that's what
architecting is all about is finding
those things, not defaulting to like
here's the environment that I'm born and
therefore I will be this way forever.
It's like no, no, my environment is
based on my thoughts. Let me change my
thoughts so I can change my environment.
I can change my life. The other really
interesting thing he talks about in the
master key system, he calls it the
universal mind. Napoleon Hill used to
call it infinite intelligence, right?
But basically it's God. It's the
universe. It's this thing. And he talks
about he's like all of us are tapped
into that, right? I believe Charles
Han's beliefs. A lot of people from the
early thought movement, they talk about
we have our conscious mind and our
subconscious. And their subconscious
mind is what they believe is is attached
to infinite intelligence. What he calls
the universal mind, right? It's the mind
of of God across everything. And we're
all tapped into that. And so it's
interesting you think about for most of
us like if we want to consciously figure
something out. You've got your five
senses. You can see something, you can
smell something, you can taste
something, you can hear something, you
can feel something. Like those are our
five senses. We can get things from
those things, right? From the from the
five senses. I can go read a book, I can
watch a video, I can listen to
something. But if I can't get it from
those five senses, it's not in my brain.
So how does our brain get all the other
ideas and thoughts and everything? And
their belief and his belief specifically
is that there's this one universal mind,
our subconscious mind, that we're all
attached into the infinite. We're all
attached to God. And so when we
understand that, it's like, okay, I'm
one with God. Like if I will sit and I
will concentrate. He talks about
concentrated thought. Like you want to
have concentrated thought on something.
It's not you're like you're going to
read and find it. You're you're
concentrating your thought so your
subconscious mind so God can bring you
the answers and hand it to you on a
silver platter. And it's true because
think about how many of us in our life
when we're trying to consciously figure
out the problem to something, we can't
figure it out. We can't solve it. We're
studying. We're learning. We're checking
chat chat GBT. We can't figure it out.
And then you take a break and you go to
the bathroom or you jump in the shower
and you're showering and 5 seconds later
the answer pops into your mind. Like
what just happened? Like the answers
popped in my head. Like where'd that
come from? Okay. Well, it came from
again what he calls the universal mind.
It's your subconscious mind that's
attached to God. He's the one who can
give you these ideas that are external
from the things that we're getting from
our five senses. And Napoleon Hill
again, he calls it the sixth sense. Like
you're tapping into the six sense that
isn't the things that have been put into
your brain. These are things that are
delivered to you when you need them,
when you're willing to tap into it. I
know it's kind of woowoo for some of you
guys out there, but you can't deny that
these things happen to you where you get
an idea that that didn't come from
anywhere. That didn't come from me.
Sometimes I'm on stage speaking in a
seminar with 5,000 people and something
shows up. I start talking, it turns out
to be the thing that people need. I'm
like, I don't where did that come from?
This is not something I studied or I
read or I had notes on, it just
magically shows up. And the way that
Charles Han inside the master key
systems explains it is through the
universal mind. It's interesting as I've
been studying the new thought movement,
it's really fascinating. There's
different shades of it, right? And it
what I find most interesting is like
when people started so the new thought
movement happened between 1880 and like
1920, right? And there's all these
people who started realizing like I can
think and I can change my life. I can
think and grow rich. I can think and
change my circumstance. I can think and
change my environment, right? And
they're freaking out about this. And
then over here in America, you had this
uh you know the beginning of like
Christianity really coming and growing.
And a lot of times the Christians
believe that this stuff was evil and
vice versa. And uh but there was this
time where in between these two like the
Christian community and new thought
movement kind of bumped into each other
and it's fascinating because you read a
lot of the authors during this time who
were trying to reconcile these two
things like wait a minute uh I believe
in God and Christ but these things are
happening like how does this work and
like is this coming from God is it not
coming from God and there's this
crossover that happens in the middle and
so for me like I I really enjoy the
crossover where it's like the personal
development stuff where you're focusing
on thinking in you know your mindset but
I believe it's coming from God and I'm
obviously a Christian so I believe in
that it's coming from Christ and those
things and But then inside there there's
there's this whole other section which
is more of the metaphysical which then
transitions more to you know what we
would affectionately call more woowoo
stuff. Um I like studying those things
but like sometimes it goes deeper than
I'm willing to believe. And I think
everyone for all of us it's it's our
shot to figure out like what are we
actually going to believe or not believe
because it goes deep into like
telekinesis and like all sort like all
sorts of different levels here inside of
people's beliefs and thoughts. For me, I
default a lot more towards, you know,
understanding the the conscious and
subconscious mind, using thoughts to uh
rewire our subconscious mind. And I
believe God is definitely tied into and
part of the whole thing, but I don't
tend to go all the way to the the purely
metaphysical side. I think for me, as I
get closer to those things, I get more
and more uncomfortable. I'd rather stay
closer um on the spiritual side. So,
that's kind of me personally where where
things fall as I'm studying a lot of the
things from the new thought movement.
Okay. So, what's cool about Charles
Hanel is uh he was out there, he wrote
this and he wanted to promote it like
crazy. And they said that um I think
over the first three or four years he
sold 200,000 copies of the actual Master
Key systems book set. Like think about
that. Most people don't sell like 20
copies of their book and they got
Facebook, Instagram, you all the
different tools, right? He's selling
this back way back in the day. So, like
how in the world did he sell 200,000
copies of this? Now, in the thought
movement, there are a lot of different
magazines that kind of popped up, but
there's one specifically, and we'll
probably go deep into this woman and her
writings in the future. But name is
Elizabeth Town, and she had a magazine
called The Nautilus. And this this
became like literally like the
distribution channel of all of this kind
of work, these books, these magazine,
all these kind of things back in the
day. The Nautilus magazine was I mean,
her subscribership was huge. And so, um,
I've been collecting as many editions of
this all the way back to the late 1800s,
all the way through like 1950, 1960,
this magazine's out there. And what's
interesting is you read these uh you see
that this was the the core way that
people got their message out back then.
And so they would come and so Charles
Hann would come to Elizabeth Town and
say, "Hey, I want to write a free
article for your magazine." So he'd
write a free article talking about
Master Key system. Then he's like, "I
want to buy an ad in here talking about
Master Key system." Okay? You see
Napoleon Hill, same thing. Napole Hill
would write articles about Thinking and
Growing Rich and then he would link in
the in the bio back to buy Think and
Grow Rich. And then he would pay for ads
about Think and Grow Rich inside of
here. So this magazine was the
distribution channel. This was what TV
was in the 80s. How to get your message
out, right? This is what the internet is
today to get your message out was
Nautilus magazine if you were in the new
thought movement. And so inside of here,
um, I literally just grabbed one off the
shelf. I'm like, I'm pretty sure Charles
Handle promoted in here. I grabbed the
one. This one is from December 1924.
You open it up and page number one, you
got the Nautilus news and then boom,
right there is master key systems. And
so right here, Charles Hanel is uh
promoting Master Key systems. He says,
"The master key is the key with which
thousands and tens of thousands are
converting loss into gain, fear into
courage, despair into joy, hope into
fruition. It is a concise, definite
statement of the mighty law that
underlies and controls every living
thing. It is the open sesame to the
treasure house of nature. By it you may
compel conditions by controlling and
causing by which the conditions are
produced." And it goes on and calls out
like inventors, mechanics, economists,
psychotherapists, chemists, electrician
uh get a copy of it says send for your
free bookman. So basically you send out
for free copy and it says send for a
master keys booklet which will be sent
without cost or obligation of any kind
and has an address. So you would watch
that and then you would send out send me
a copy and then they would ship you out
a copy of the book set and you send it
back money afterwards. And so that's how
it worked and literally you see ads for
the master key systems in front of
almost every magazine that was published
during this time. So, inside of Napoleon
Hills, Hill Golden Rule magazine, boom,
Charles uh Handle is promoting in it.
Inside of Yeah, basically all the
publications back there almost 100% of
the time when you open it, you'll see
Charles Handle promoting the Master Key
system. So, kind of exciting. Just the
first magazine I grabbed today,
literally had it right there on page
number one. And now I want to take you
guys to the testimonial. So, Napoleon
Hill, I'm not sure if he got the home
study version. Can you imagine if this
was Napoleon Hill's copy of it? That
would be insane. Maybe it is. I don't
know. uh Napoleon Hill uh read it or he
read the the book but somewhere as he
was growing and developing he found this
book set he found these lessons he
studied them and this is the actual
testimonial he sent back to Charles
Hanel April 21st 1919 uh it says Mr.
Charles F Hanel St. Louis Missouri dear
Mr. panel. You probably know from the
editorial in the January issue of Hills
golden rule copy in which my secretary
sent to you that I began 22 years ago as
a coal miner at a dollar a day. I had
just been retained by a $10 million
corporation at a salary of $105,200 a
year for a portion of my time only. It
having been agreed that I shall continue
as the editor of Hills golden rule. I
believe in giving credit where credit 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
systems. You are doing a good work by
helping people to realize that nothing
is impossible of accomplishment which a
man can create in his imagination.
Surely my own experience proves this. I
shall cooperate with you in getting your
course into the hands of the many who
are so greatly needed this message.
Cordially and sincerely, Napoleon Hill
editor. And one thing that's kind of
crazy later in his life after Charles
Hamill passed away when Napoleon Hill
was in later years, he actually also
wrote a book called The Master Key
Systems. In fact, I think I have it on
the shelf. Do you want to see it? If I
can find it real quick. So, you may
wonder where did Paul Hill get the idea
for this title, The Master Key to
Riches? Uh, I'm assuming it came from uh
Mr. Charles Hanel. And check this out.
This was a signed copy September 1948 to
Mary from Napoleon Hill with Love. So,
there's a signed copy of Napoleon Hill's
version of Master Key to Riches. So
there you go. Definitely inspired him
and Charles Handle is the man. If you
haven't heard of him yet, I highly
recommend reading the Master Key
systems. Obviously, it's a rare book out
there. I did go through the entire book
and I got my notes. So, if you want to
see my best notes, things I learned the
best, my favorite things from the master
key systems down in the description,
click that link, go to the notes page,
and you can download my notes from the
book and get the highlights of the best
things from the master key system. So,
you can take those ideas, plug them into
your head, and start applying them
instantly inside of your life. It's
interesting when when I look at these
authors, the authors who seem to still
be around and still relevant today are
the ones who first off they were great
marketers and advertisers. They got
their message out to a lot of people.
When they die, who is the person that
takes over their estate afterwards? Like
one of the most brilliant things that
Napoleon Hill did is before he passed
away, he set the Napoleon Hill
Foundation. He set up for president, a
CEO, all sorts of stuff. So there was
like a secession plans when he passed
away. With Charles Handel, I don't know
the story exactly, but after he died, it
stopped. Right? There's 70 years where
this book was no longer published. there
wasn't like a predecessor or a kid or a
foundation that was taking this and
continuing the message to go out there.
It just kind of ended. Whereas these
other people, the ones who more people
are familiar with are the ones where
they're able to figure out how to extend
their legacy past their life. And
unfortunately, it's true so many authors
where they spend their life creating and
figuring out and writing these books and
then they go out there and they publish
them and and within a generation, within
years, then 10 years, like people forgot
about them. And so I think for any of us
who are impact driven entrepreneurs who
are trying to figure out the impact
which is for me it's like someone once
asked me at one of my inner circle
meetings like why are you buying all
these old books and I said uh the reason
why I'm buying these and republishing
and sharing the stories is because the
vehicle that I will have to create to
extend the lives of these authors are
the same vehicle that I will be able to
use to extend my life for me like I want
my message to continue to go beyond my
generation when I die. I mean another
good example is Maxwell Maltz, one of
the greatest books of all time,
psychocybernetics, right? And most
people never heard of it. They've been
influenced by it, I guarantee, because
most of the teachers of today have used
his ideas to to teach and to frame, but
because he's his me and I think he sold
like 40 million copies of the book in
the 60s and no one's heard of him
anymore, right? I think it's because
after he passed, the family didn't know
what to do with it and it just it
disappeared. So, um, if you are legacy
driven like me, make sure you're
thinking about like how do you how do
you make sure that when you end the
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