The Power of a Definite Purpose

There was Pastor of a small church by the Chicago Stockyards in the 1890s by the name of Dr. Gunsaulus.

He had an idea to start a new kind of school, a technical school. Students would be in the classroom half the day and they’d spend the other half with businesses applying what they had learned.

He needed a million dollars to get the idea off the ground. A million dollars was a lot of money back in the 1890s. He thought about it for 4 or 5 years.

Finally, he said, I am going to raise a million dollars in a week.

He wrote a sermon, “what I would do if I had a million dollars”? He put an announcement in the Chicago Tribune that he was going to preach on it the next Sunday.

He prayed that someone with a million dollars, would see the announcement, hear the sermon and provide the money.

When he got to the church, he forgot his notes. He delivered a very powerful message. When he finished his sermon, Philip Armour owner of Armour Packing, walked up and told him if you’ll come to my office, I’ll arrange for the million dollars.

That’s how he got the money to start Armour Institute of Technology, which is now Illinois Institute of Technology.

What can we learn from this? Dr. Gunsaulus was definite and knew exactly what he wanted. He believed in what he was doing. He had a plan and acted on it.

Most of us lay out a plan. We sleep on it and procrastinate. We dream about it but don’t take any action.

If you believe in something, you must back your belief with action and that’s what most people don’t do.

What do you want to accomplish? Are you ready to take action?