The Second Scroll: Making Love the Greatest Weapon in the Market

Place Welcome back to the deep dive.

After chapter one”s foundational work—where we committed to shedding our old skin and becoming slaves to good habits to install our new program into our mysterious subconscious mind, or “subby”—we move into the meat of the method.

We recognized that building the right habit is the crucial first step, akin to pouring the concrete foundation for the skyscraper of success. Now, with the foundation set, what is the first, most powerful tool we grab?

If you thought it was persistence or action, you’d be missing the biggest secret of all.

Og Mandino reserves the Scroll Marked II for a concept that is often dismissed in the relentless, results-driven world of business, yet is the absolute key to success in all
ventures.

That secret is Love. The Greatest Secret in All Ventures. This scroll opens with a mandate that sounds less like a business strategy and more like a spiritual decree: “I will greet this day with love in my heart”.

This isn’t about weak, fluffy feelings; this is about applying an unseen, undeniable power. We are told that muscle can split a shield and even destroy life, but only the unseen power of love can truly open the hearts of men.

The sales professional—or the entrepreneur, or the person striving for their Definite Major Purpose (DMP)—must make love their greatest weapon. Why is this so vital? Because if you have no other qualities, you can succeed with love alone.

But if you possess all the knowledge and skills the world offers, you will fail without love. That’s a bold declaration, positioning love as the single non-negotiable principle for long-term greatness. Mandino is telling us to trade our brass knuckles for heart-ware.

No one can defend against the force of love. Your reasoning, your speech, your appearance, or your bargains might be countered or rejected, but your love will melt all hearts like the sun’s rays soften the coldest clay.

Looking on All Things with Love: The Internal Reset We spent the last thirty days reprogramming “subby” to accept good habits. Now, we feed it the doctrine of love, transforming how we perceive the world.

Henceforth, the scroll instructs us to look on all things with love and essentially become born again. This process involves re-calibrating our relationship with the natural world and our internal emotional landscape:

• Love the sun because it warms the bones.

• Love the rain because it cleanses the spirit.
• Love the light because it shows the way.
• Critically, love the darkness because it shows the stars.

This profound shift means embracing the dualities of life, understanding that growth comes from both comfort and adversity.

Just as I know that anything worthwhile is likely uphill, the scroll confirms this philosophy by instructing us to endure sadness, for it enlarges the soul, and to welcome obstacles, for they are my challenge.

We aren’t denying the difficulty of the journey; we are simply changing the frame. When I talk about doing the hard work on our inner self—the “surgery with no anesthetic”—this is precisely what Mandino means.

This is the conscious effort to swap fear and pessimism for love and challenge, thereby reinforcing the positive program we are writing into our minds. The Active Application: Speaking Praise and Building Bridges.

The next step is translating this internal mindset into tangible action and speech. This is the behavioral change that drives our purpose. The scroll provides precise instructions on how to use language to generate success:

1. Laud Your Enemies: You must laud your enemies and they will become friends. If that sounds intense, remember that you are building bridges where suspicion and hate once stood, so that others may enter your soul.

2. Encourage Your Friends: Encourage friends, and they will become brothers. This is about digging for reasons to applaud, not scratching for excuses.

3. Bite the Tongue, Shout the Praise: Here is the crucial self-discipline. When you are tempted to criticize or gossip, you must bite your tongue. But when you are moved to praise, you must shout from the roofs.

This isn’t just politeness; it’s a commitment to positive reinforcement. If nature speaks with music of praise for its creator (the birds, the sea, the wind), cannot we speak with the same music to our children, our colleagues, and our customers?

This habit of praise and encouragement is the “first step required to become a man among
men”.

The Universal Love Mandate Love isn’t meant to be applied selectively. The scroll mandates that we love all manners of men, even if their admirable qualities are hidden. This is especially relevant in the market place where you encounter all types:

• I will love the ambitious for they can inspire me.
• I will love the failures for they can teach me.
• I will love the rich for they are yet lonely.
• I will love the poor for they are so many.

The mandate extends even to loving the beautiful for their eyes of sadness, and the ugly for their souls of peace.

This principle removes judgment and replaces it with empathy, enabling you to connect deeply with everyone you encounter, which, in turn, allows you to increase your sales a
hundredfold.

Love as a Shield and Self-Mastery Beyond opening doors, love performs another crucial function: it is your shield. Love repulses the arrows of hate and the spears of anger.

When faced with adversity and discouragement—the very things that scream “quit” when you are on an uphill climb—this new shield will beat them back, becoming as soft as the rain. It will uplift you in moments of despair and calm you in times of exultation.

The source of this shield is internal purity. The scroll commands us to love ourselves, which means zealously inspecting all things that enter the body, mind, soul, and heart. This
includes:

• Body: Never overindulge; cherish the body with cleanliness and moderation.
• Mind: Never allow it to be distracted to evil or despair; uplift it with knowledge and wisdom of the ages.
• Soul: Feed it with meditation and prayer; never let it become complacent or satisfied.
• Heart: Never allow it to become small and bitter; share it so it may grow and warm the
  earth.

This is the ultimate self-programming mandate.

If the first scroll required us to become masters of habit, the second scroll requires us to become masters of self-love and universal empathy, ensuring that the engine (subby) is not fueled by junk food (hate and criticism) but by pure, undeniable power.

The Oath: Only Time to Love.

The goal is absolute: Henceforth I will love all mankind. From this moment forward, hate is to be completely let from our veins, leaving us with only time to love.

Love is the first step to becoming the greatest man among men. If we choose to follow this path, we are guaranteed to succeed.

Just like my exercise habit that has served me well since I was young, the daily repetition of Scroll II for thirty days ensures this philosophy becomes an automatic, joyful, and successful habit. We are not quitting this journey.

We are fully in until the change comes about