The Science of Getting Rich

Wattles wrote this book as an explicit "how-to," aimed at people who'd read plenty of inspirational material but wanted something closer to a method. It's the direct ancestor of most modern "abundance mindset" writing, and it's more concrete and structured than its reputation suggests.

What it says

Wattles' core claim is that getting rich is a "science" in the sense of following a repeatable process, not a matter of luck, location, or raw talent — and that the process runs through creating value for others in a specific, differentiated way, rather than competing for a fixed slice of existing value. His famous phrase for this is doing things "in a certain way": the goal isn't just hard work, but ambitious, forward-looking work aimed at growth rather than mere subsistence.

Where it holds up

The "create value, don't just compete for existing value" framing anticipates a real and durable distinction in business strategy: businesses that grow a market or solve an unaddressed problem tend to outperform ones purely fighting over an existing, fixed pie — a point later echoed by strategists writing about differentiation and "blue ocean" markets a century afterward.

Where it doesn't

The book's metaphysical scaffolding — a claim that thought operates on a literal "formless substance" that shapes matter — has no evidentiary basis and should be read as the era's popular pseudo-science, not as part of the practical advice. The useful content survives entirely without that framing; you can discard the metaphysics and keep the method.

Apply it this week

Write one sentence describing the specific, differentiated value you create for whoever pays you — not your job title, but the actual outcome you produce that's harder to get elsewhere. If you can't write that sentence cleanly, Wattles would say that's the first problem to solve, before anything about mindset.