"Truly, 'Thoughts are things,' and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects."
That is how Mr. Hill decided to start his book. It's a powerful statement that gets your attention, then he spends the rest the chapter proving it.
He starts proving it with a story of a man who started out with a thought and nothing more. Edwin C. Barnes had no money, but he decided that he wanted to go to Orange, New Jersey to become a business associate of Thomas A. Edison. Besides being destitute, there was one other problem Mr. Barnes had. He didn't know Edison and Edison didn't know him, but there he was standing in front of Mr. Edison telling him that he will be an associate of his. Not an employee, an associate.
Thomas Edison gave him a menial job at menial pay until one day Edison's salesmen refused to sell an item they thought would be a flop. The product was the Edison Dictating Machine. Edwin Barnes saw his opportunity and grabbed it. He offered to go out and sell Edison's new invention and wound up getting a contract to sell them nation wide.
The next story Mr. Hill tells, demonstrates the rewards of persistence and the damage done when persistence is not practiced. I wrote a blog about this story of R. U. Darby called "Lessons in Character". In it, I not only told this story, but another story where a lack of persistence lead to a greater tragedy then R. U. Darby's.
R. U. Darby was digging for gold, with his uncle in Colorado. When the vein ran out of gold they sold all of their equipment and their property to a junk dealer. It was not to long after when they found that the junk dealer found the largest vein of gold just three feet below where they stopped digging.
Mr. Darby used this as a learning lesson which he reminded himself of with a statement he memorized. "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no'"
Maybe we can say, "When you can't find the gold, dig three more feet".
There is another story about R. U. Darby and his uncle. Mr. Darby told Napoleon Hill about a time when his uncle got his clock cleaned by a little black girl. The black girl came to collect fifty cents that was owed to her mother. When R. U. Darby's uncle threatened her with a stave from a barrel, in stead of running, she stepped forward and demanded the fifty cents. His uncle relented and gave her the money.
Mr. Hill said, even though she probably didn't it, she used the unnamed secret he talked about in his forward.
As Napoleon Hill got back to the subject of Thoughts, he reminds us, "One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man's familiarity with the word 'impossible'. He knows all the rules which will not work. He knows all the things which cannot be done." Napoleon Hills facetiousness' reminds us of how easy it is to find someone to shoot down your ideas as they lift off the ground and how difficult it is to find people who are willing to believe in your ideas.
Many of these "duck hunters" mean well, but they don't understand that some of the things which are common place today got people thrown into mental institutions because they dared to dream they were possible.
Henry Ford walked into the engineers' offices one day and told them he wanted an eight cylinder engine cast in one block. The engineers told him right off that it was impossible. He said, "Produce it anyway". After a year of development, the engineers still had nothing, but Ford told them to proceed. Finally, after two years, the engineers succeeded and today we have the modern V 8 engine.
The V 8 is a product of an impossible dream mixed with patience and persistence. If you encounter a "duck hunter", remind him of the radio, plains, nuclear power, computers, that little moon landing in 1969 and if you do a little research and use your imagination, you can think of hundreds more.
Any of your dreams are possible as long as you have an idea that you are truly passionate about. It is not enough to have a dream. You must be truly passionate. You must have, as Mr. Hill calls, a burning desire. And that burning desire is the first step on the road to success.
Mr. Hill wrote, "But what of the man who has neither the time, nor the inclination to study failure in search or knowledge that may lead to success? Where and how is he to learn the art of converting defeat into stepping stones to opportunity?
"In answer to these questions, this book was written
"The answer called for a description of thirteen principles, but remember, as you read, the answer you may be seeking to the questions which have caused you to ponder over the strangeness of life may be found in your own mind, through some idea, plan, or purpose which may spring into your mind as you read."
The rest of this book is dedicated to going over all thirteen principles and I am excited to be going through it.
I'll post the commentary for Chapter II - Desire on Friday August 3rd.
