Robert Collier and the Art of Unlimited Possibility
Robert Collier was born in 1885 into relative wealth as the son of a prominent publisher. Yet he squandered his inheritance through poor business decisions and personal struggles before his twenties ended. This dramatic reversal of fortune became the crucible that forged his life’s philosophy.
Rather than succumb to despair, Collier embarked on an intensive self-study journey during the early 1900s. He absorbed everything from practical business manuals to esoteric philosophy and metaphysics. He spent years studying contemporary self-help pioneers, Eastern philosophy, and the emerging field of New Thought. New Thought was a spiritual and philosophical movement that emphasized the power of the mind to shape reality.
This personal transformation became more than his own redemption story. It became the raw material he would mine for decades of influential writing. His work helped define the self-improvement genre.
Origins and Context of This Powerful Quote
The quote “You can do anything you wish to do, have anything you wish to have, be anything you wish to be” emerged from Collier’s magnum opus. This comprehensive correspondence course was called “The Secret of the Ages.” He began publishing it in 1926.
Unlike many self-help authors, Collier didn’t focus narrowly on financial success or positive thinking. Instead, he crafted a holistic philosophy. He synthesized practical business strategy with deeper metaphysical principles. The course became extraordinarily successful, with hundreds of thousands of enrollees worldwide. Collier became one of the wealthiest and most influential self-improvement authors of the mid-twentieth century.
His work appeared in numerous forms—serialized newspaper columns, magazine articles, books, and his famous correspondence course. This gave his ideas unprecedented reach. The quote itself encapsulates his central thesis: human potential is essentially unlimited. Only belief and imagination constrain us, not external circumstances or inherent limitations.
Many modern readers don’t know that Collier was deeply influenced by Wallace D. Wattles, particularly “The Science of Getting Rich.” Collier discovered this work during his period of financial recovery. Collier built upon and expanded Wattles’s ideas, but with a crucial difference.
Wattles emphasized visualization and “gratitude.” Collier added layers of practical business wisdom, psychological insight, and what might be called proto-cognitive behavioral techniques. He was also profoundly influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” and the transcendentalist movement. Hindu and Buddhist philosophy texts influenced him as well.
You can do anything you wish to do means
What’s striking is that Collier wasn’t merely recycling ideas. He was synthesizing diverse traditions into a uniquely American philosophy of unlimited potential. He lived modestly despite his wealth. He maintained a disciplined writing practice throughout his life. He continued refining his ideas even as his books remained in continuous print throughout the twentieth century.
The context in which Collier developed this quote is crucial to understanding its power. The 1920s and 1930s were periods of both unbridled optimism and devastating economic collapse. After the prosperity of the roaring twenties came the Great Depression. During this time, belief in unlimited possibility seemed almost delusional to many.
Yet Collier’s message resonated precisely during these circumstances. It offered a psychological and philosophical lifeline to millions struggling with poverty and despair. His books and courses sold phenomenally during the Depression itself. This counter-intuitive phenomenon has a simple explanation: people in desperate circumstances desperately need to believe that change is possible.
Collier positioned his quote and broader philosophy not as empty platitude but as practical science. He grounded it in laws of thought, as immutable and reliable as physical laws. He repeatedly emphasized that understanding these principles required study, practice, and persistent effort. This was no passive daydreaming but an active methodology.
How This Message Transforms Lives Today
The cultural impact of Collier’s work cannot be overstated. “The Secret of the Ages” went on to sell millions of copies. It established a template for the entire self-help industry that emerged in the latter twentieth century.
Later influential figures built directly upon foundations that Collier had laid. These figures include Napoleon Hill (whose “Think and Grow Rich” was published a few years after Collier’s major works), Earl Nightingale, and contemporary authors like Jack Canfield and Oprah Winfrey. The specific formulation of the quote became a tripartite framework. It emphasizes action (“do”), acquisition (“have”), and identity (“be”). Countless authors would repeat and reinvent this framework in different language.
Interestingly, while Collier’s work was enormously popular, he never achieved the household name recognition of some successors. He is something of a godfather figure to the self-improvement movement. His contributions are less explicitly acknowledged than they should be. His books remained continuously in print throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. His ideas permeate contemporary life coaching, motivational speaking, and business training worldwide.
Perhaps the most important aspect is recognizing what Collier actually meant by this quote. Its meaning is subtly but significantly different from how people often interpret it. Collier was not claiming that reality bends to wishes or that mere wishing creates results.
Rather, he understood that the human mind operates according to certain laws. We tend to create external circumstances that match our internal beliefs. We gravitate toward opportunities that we believe are possible for us.