Wallace D. Wattles

Who spent most of his life in poverty and failure, discovered New Thought philosophy in his forties, wrote The Science of Getting Rich in his fifties, and died the year after it was published — never seeing its influence.

Before the Work

Wallace Delois Wattles was born in Illinois in 1860. Almost nothing is known about his early life. He tried several times to make something of himself in conventional terms and failed repeatedly, living in poverty for most of his adult life. According to his daughter Florence, who wrote a brief biographical note, he studied the writings of Hegel and Swedenborg for years and tested their theories against his own experience. Somewhere in this process he discovered and became convinced by New Thought philosophy — the idea that mind is the fundamental reality and that conditions follow from mental states.

He began writing and lecturing, and in the final years of his life produced a series of books — The Science of Getting Rich (1910), The Science of Being Great (1911), and The Science of Being Well (1910) — that expressed his mature philosophy in practical form. He died in 1911 at approximately fifty-one, the year after The Science of Getting Rich was published.

The book might have remained obscure had Rhonda Byrne not described it as the primary inspiration for The Secret in 2006. The resulting attention sent millions of readers back to the original, which proved to be considerably more thoughtful and rigorous than its popular reputation suggested.

The Philosophy

Wattles's central argument in The Science of Getting Rich is that wealth is the natural result of thinking in a Certain Way — a phrase he capitalizes to indicate that he means something more precise than positive thinking. The Certain Way involves a clear mental image of what you want, held with gratitude for what you already have, combined with decisive action to move toward the desired result and faith that the result will come.

What distinguishes his approach from mere wishful thinking is his insistence on action: you cannot get rich by simply thinking rich thoughts. The thoughts create the direction and the confidence; the actions close the gap. This is, in different language, what Napoleon Hill means by organized planning and personal initiative — the mental state provides the fuel, but the engine is action.

His chapter on gratitude is particularly striking: he argues that gratitude is not a moral virtue but a practical mechanism. Gratitude keeps the mind in close touch with the source from which the blessings come — it prevents the attitude of resentment, entitlement, or anxiety that closes off opportunity and cooperation. This connection between gratitude and practical effectiveness is confirmed by modern psychological research: grateful people are more creative, more persistent, more cooperative, and more satisfied with their work.