The Master Key System

Charles Francis Haanel (May 22, 1866 – November 27, 1949) was a noted American New Thought author and a businessman. He is best known for his contributions to the New Thought Movement through his book The Master Key System. Hannel's book The Master Key System, was published in 1912, when he was 46 years old. It is written in the form of a course in New Thought, mental development, financial success, and personal health. The book was heavily promoted in the pages of Elizabeth Towne's New Thought magazine The Nautilus. By 1933 it had sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. Haanel practiced the financial principles he preached and was a self made success who owned several major companies. According to Stevens, writing in 1909, "He was president of the Continental Commercial Company, president of the Sacramento Valley Improvement Company, and president of the Mexico Gold & Silver Mining Company." The original Master Key System contained 24 parts or modules of study. The allegedly "lost" chapters of the Master Key System, chapters 25-28, which are found in some editions, are not original, but have been copied from the chapters 11-14 of A book about You. Among the key points of Haanel's system are what he refers to as the laws of concentration, attraction, and harmonious thinking and action. Unique to the Master Key System is a set of exercises that accompany each chapter, and which are systematically building upon each other — they are what makes the Master Key System a system.