Think And Grow Rich 2

DESIRE

THE STARTING POINT OF
ALL ACHIEVEMENT

The First Step toward Riches
WHEN Edwin C. Barnes climbed down from the freight train in
Orange, N. J., more than thirty years ago, he may have resembled
a tramp, but his thoughts were those of a king! As hemade his
way from the railroad tracks to Thomas A. Edison’s office, his
mind was at work. He saw himself standing in Edison’s presence.He heard
himself asking Mr. Edison for an opportunity to carry out the one
CONSUMING OBSESSION OF HIS LIFE, a BURNING DESIRE to
become the business associate of the great inventor.
Barnes’ desire was not a hope! It was not a wish! It was a keen, pulsating
DESIRE, which transcended everything else. It was DEFINITE.
The desire was not new when he approached Edison. It had been
Barnes’ dominating desire for a long time. In the beginning, when the
desire first appeared in his mind, it may have been, probably was, only a
wish, but it was no mere wish when he appeared before Edison with it.
A few years later, Edwin C. Barnes again stood before Edison, in the
same office where he first met the inventor. This time his DESIRE had
been translated into reality. He was in business with Edison. The dominating
DREAM OF HIS LIFE had become a reality. Today, people who know Barnes envy him, because of the “break” life yielded him. They see
him in the days of his triumph, without taking the trouble to investigate
the cause of his success.
Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal, placed all his
energy, all his will power, all his effort, everything back of that goal. He
did not become the partner of Edison the day he arrived. He was content to
start in the most menial work, as long as it provided an opportunity to take
even one step toward his cherished goal.
Five years passed before the chance he had been seeking made its
appearance. During all those years not one ray of hope, not one promise
of attainment of his DESIRE had been held out to him. To every-one,
except himself, he appeared only another cog in the Edison business
wheel, but in his own mind, HE WAS THE PARTNER OF EDISON
EVERY MINUTE OF THE TIME, from the very day that he first went
to work there.
It is a remarkable illustration of the power of a DEFINITE DESIRE.
Barnes won his goal, because he wanted to be a business associate of Mr.
Edison, more than he wanted anything else. He created a plan by which
to attain that purpose. But he BURNED ALL BRIDGES BEHIND HIM.
He stood by his DESIRE until it became the dominating obsession of his
life — and — finally, a fact.
When he went to Orange, he did not say to himself, “I will try to
induce Edison to give me a job of some sort.” He said, “I will see Edison,
and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him.”
He did not say, “I will work there for a few months, and if I get no
encouragement, I will quit and get a job somewhere else.” He did say, “I
will start anywhere. I will do anything Edison tells me to do, but before I
am through, I will be his associate.’’
He did not say, “I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity, in
case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization.” He said,
“There is but ONE thing in this world that I am determined to have, and
that is a business association with Thomas A. Edison. I will burn all
bridges behind me, and stake my ENTIRE FUTURE on my ability to get
what I want.”
He left himself no possible way of retreat.
He had to win or perish!
That is all there is to the Barnes story of success!
A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it
necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the
battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose
men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the
enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to
burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first
battle, he said, “You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we
cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice —
we win — or we perish! They won.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his
ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of
maintaining that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE TO WIN,
essential to success.
The morning after the great Chicago fire, a group of merchants stood
on State Street, looking at the smoking remains of what had been their
stores. They went into a conference to decide if they would try to rebuild,
or leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the country.
They reached a decision— all except one — to leave Chicago.
The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a finger at the
remains of his store, and said, “Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build
the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down.”
That was more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It stands there
today, a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as
a BURNING DESIRE. The easy thing for Marshal Field to have done,
would have been exactly what his fellow merchants did. When the going
was hard, and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where
the going seemed easier.
Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other
merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin
C. Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the
Edison organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically
all who succeed from those who fail.
Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose
of money, wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches
with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways
and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence
which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.
The method by which DESIRE for riches can be transmuted into its
financial equivalent, consists of six definite, practical steps, viz:
FIRST Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not
sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as
to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness
which will be described in a subsequent chapter).
SECOND Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the
money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for
nothing.)
THIRD Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money
you desire.
FOURTH Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at
once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
FIFTH Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you
intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state
what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe
clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
SIXTH Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before
retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU
READ — SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF
ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.
It is important that you follow the instructions described in these six
steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the instructions
in the sixth paragraph. You may complain that it is impossible for
you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it.
Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly
DESIRE money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have
no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is
to want money, and to become so determined to have it that you
CONVINCE yourself you will have it.
Only those who become “money conscious” ever accumulate great
riches. “Money consciousness” means that the mind has become so thoroughly
saturated with the DESIRE for money, that one can see one’s self
already in possession of it.
To the uninitiated, who has not been schooled in the working principles
of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical. It may
be helpful, to all who fail to recognize the soundness of the six steps, to
know that the information they convey, was received from Andrew
Carnegie, who began as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but
managed, despite his humble beginning, to make these principles yield
him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars.
It may be of further help to know that the six steps here recommended
were carefully scrutinized by the late Thomas A. Edison, who placed his
stamp of approval upon them as being, not only the steps essential for the
accumulation of money, but necessary for the attainment of any definite
goal.
The steps call for no “hard labor.” They call for no sacrifice. They do
not require one to become ridiculous, or credulous. To apply them calls
for no great amount of education. But the successful application of these
six steps does call for sufficient imagination to enable one to see, and to
understand, that accumulation of money cannot be left to chance, good
fortune, and luck. One must realize that all who have accumulated great
fortunes, first did a certain amount of dreaming, hoping, wishing, DESIRING,
and PLANNING before they acquired money.
You may as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in
great quantities, UNLESS you can work yourself into a white heat of
DESIRE for money, and actually BELIEVE you will possess it.
You may as well know, also that every great leader, from the dawn of
civilization down to the present, was a dreamer. Christianity is the
greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an
intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities
in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into
physical form.
If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see
them in your bank balance. Never, in the history of America has there
been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now exists. The
six year economic collapse has reduced all men, substantially, to the
same level. A new race is about to be run. The stakes represent huge
fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten years. The rules
of the race have changed, because we now live in a CHANGED
WORLD that definitely favors the masses, those who had but little or no
opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the depression,
when fear paralyzed growth and development.
We who are in this race for riches, should be encouraged to know that
this changed world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways
of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching,
new methods of marketing, new books, new literature, new features for
the radio, new ideas for moving pictures. Back of all this demand for new
and better things, there is one quality which one must possess to win, and
that is DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE, the knowledge of what one
wants, and a burning DESIRE to possess it.
The business depression marked the death of one age, and the birth of
another. This changed world requires practical dreamers who can, and
will put their dreams into action. The practical dreamers have always
been, and always will be the pattern-makers of civilization.
We who desire to accumulate riches, should remember the real leaders
of the world always have been men who harnessed, and put into practical
use, the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and have
converted those forces, (or impulses of thought), into sky-scrapers, cities,
factories, airplanes, automobiles, and every form of convenience that
makes life more pleasant.
Tolerance, and an open mind are practical necessities of the dreamer of
today. Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start.
Never has there been a time more favorable to pioneers than the present.
True, there is no wild and woolly west to be conquered, as in the days of
the Covered Wagon; but there is a vast business, financial, and industrial
world to be remolded and redirected along new and better lines.
In planning to acquire your share of the riches, let no one influence
you to scorn the dreamer. To win the big stakes in this changed world,
you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams
have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit which serves
as the life-blood of our own country — your opportunity and mine, to
develop and market our talents.
Let us not forget, Columbus dreamed of an unknown world, staked his
life on the existence of such a world, and discovered it!
Copernicus, the great astronomer, dreamed of a multiplicity of
worlds, and revealed them! No one denounced him as “impractical”
after he had triumphed. Instead, the world worshipped at his shrine, thus
proving once more that “SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES,
FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.”
If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it, go ahead
and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what “they” say if
you meet with temporary defeat, for “they,” perhaps, do not know that
EVERY FAILURE BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT
SUCCESS.
Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a horseless carriage,
went to work with what tools he possessed, without waiting for opportunity
to favor him, and now evidence of his dream belts the entire earth.
He has put more wheels into operation than any man who ever lived,
because he was not afraid to back his dreams.
Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity,
began where he stood to put his dream into action, and despite more
than ten thousand failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical
reality. Practical dreamers DO NOT QUIT!
Whelan dreamed of a chain of cigar stores, transformed his dream into
action, and now the United Cigar Stores occupy the best corners in
America. Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put his dream
into action, and barely missed living to see a united North and South
translate his dream into reality. TheWright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through the air.
Now one may see evidence all over the world, that they dreamed soundly.
Marconi dreamed of a system for harnessing the intangible forces of the
ether. Evidence that he did not dream in vain, may be found in every
wire-less and radio in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the
humblest cabin, and the most stately manor house side by side. It made
the people of every nation on earth back-door neighbors. It gave the
President of the United States a medium by which he may talk to all the
people of America at one time, and on short notice. It may interest you to
know that Marconi’s “friends” had him taken into custody, and examined
in a psychopathic hospital, when he announced he had discovered a principle
through which he could send messages through the air, without the
aid of wires, or other direct physical means of communication. The
dreamers of today fare better.
The world has become accustomed to new discoveries. Nay, it has shown
a willingness to reward the dreamer who gives the world a new idea.
“The greatest achievement was, at first, and
for a time, but a dream.”
“The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in the highest
vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. DREAMS ARE THE
SEEDLINGS OF REALITY.”
Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world. Your star
is now in the ascendancy. The world depression brought the opportunity
you have been waiting for. It taught people humility, tolerance, and openmindedness.
The world is filled with an abundance of OPPORTUNITY which the
dreamers of the past never knew.
A BURNING DES IRE TO BE, AND TO DO is the starting point from
which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference,
laziness, or lack of ambition.
The world no longer scoffs at the dreamer, nor calls him impractical. If
you think it does, take a trip to Tennessee, and witness what a dreamer
President has done in the way of harnessing, and using the great water
power of America. A score of years ago, such a dream would have
seemed like madness.
You have been disappointed, you have undergone defeat during the
depression, you have felt the great heart within you crushed until it bled.
Take courage, for these experiences have tempered the spiritual metal of
which you are made — they are assets of incomparable value.
Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and
pass through many heart-breaking struggles before they “arrive.” The turning
point in the lives of those who succeed, usually comes at the moment
of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves.”
John Bunyan wrote the Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the finest
of all English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely
punished, because of his views on the subject of religion.
O. Henry discovered the genius which slept within his brain, after he
had met with great misfortune, and was confined in a prison cell, in
Columbus, Ohio. Being FORCED, through misfortune, to become
acquainted with his “other self,” and to use his IMAGINATION, he
discovered himself to be a great author instead of a miserable criminal
and outcast. Strange and varied are the ways of life, and stranger still are
the ways of Infinite Intelligence, through which men are sometimes
forced to undergo all sorts of punishment before discovering their own
brains, and their own capacity to create useful ideas through imagination.
Edison, the world’s greatest inventor and scientist, was a “tramp” telegraph
operator, he failed innumerable times before he was driven, finally,
to the discovery of the genius which slept within his brain.
Charles Dickens began by pasting labels on blacking pots. The tragedy
of his first love penetrated the depths of his soul, and converted him into
one of the world’s truly great authors. That tragedy produced, first, David
Copperfield, then a succession of other works that made this a richer and
better world for all who read his books. Disappointment over love affairs,
generally has the effect of driving men to drink, and women to ruin; and
this, because most people never learn the art of transmuting their
strongest emotions into dreams of a constructive nature. Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly after birth. Despite
her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly in the pages of
the history of the great. Her entire life has served as evidence that no one
ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.
Robert Burns was an illiterate country lad, he was cursed by poverty,
and grew up to be a drunkard in the bargain. The world was made better
for his having lived, because he clothed beautiful thoughts in poetry, and
thereby plucked a thorn and planted a rose in its place.
Booker T. Washington was born in slavery, handicapped by race and
color. Because he was tolerant, had an open mind at all times, on all
subjects, and was a DREAMER, he left his impress for good on an
entire race.
Beethoven was deaf, Milton was blind, but their names will last as
long as time endures, because they dreamed and translated their dreams
into organized thought.
Before passing to the next chapter, kindle anew in your mind the fire
of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind,
and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else that you
need will come to you, when you are READY for it. Let Emerson state
the thought in these words, “Every proverb, every book, every byword
that belongs to thee for aid and comfort shall surely come home through
open or winding passages. Every friend whom not thy fantastic will, but
the great and tender soul in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace.”
There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being
READY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can
acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish.
Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire
faith, courage, and belief.
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand
abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.
DESIRE OUTWITS MOTHER NATURE
As a fitting climax to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of the most
unusual persons I have ever known. I first saw him twenty-four years ago,
a few minutes after he was born. He came into the world without any
physical sign of ears, and the doctor admitted, when pressed for an opinion,
that the child might be deaf and mute for life.
I challenged the doctor’s opinion. I had the right to do so, I was the
child’s father. I, too, reached a decision, and rendered an opinion, but I
expressed the opinion silently, in the secrecy of my own heart. I decided
that my son would hear and speak. Nature could send me a child without
ears, but Nature could not induce me to accept the reality of the affliction.
In my own mind I knew that my son would hear and speak. How? I
was sure there must be a way, and I knew I would find it. I thought of the
words of the immortal Emerson, “The whole course of things goes to
teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and
by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.”
The right word? DESIRE! More than anything else, I DESIRED that
my son should not be a deaf mute. From that desire I never receded, not
for a second.
Many years previously, I had written, “Our only limitations are those
we set up in our own minds.” For the first time, I wondered if that state
ment were true. Lying on the bed in front of me was a newly born child,
without the natural equipment of hearing. Even though he might hear and
speak, he was obviously disfigured for life. Surely, this was a limitation
which that child had not set up in his own mind.
What could I do about it? Somehow I would find a way to transplant
into that child’s mind my own BURNING DESIRE for ways and means
of conveying sound to his brain without the aid of ears.
As soon as the child was old enough to cooperate, I would fill his mind
so completely with a BURNING DESIRE to hear, that Nature would, by
methods of her own, translate it into physical reality.
All this thinking took place in my own mind, but I spoke of it to no
one. Every day I renewed the pledge I had made to myself, not to accept a
deaf mute for a son.
As he grew older, and began to take notice of things around him, we
observed that he had a slight degree of hearing. When he reached the age
when children usually begin talking, he made no attempt to speak, but we
could tell by his actions that he could hear certain sounds slightly. That was
all I wanted to know! I was convinced that if he could hear, even slightly,
he might develop still greater hearing capacity. Then something happened
which gave me hope. It came from an entirely unexpected source.
We bought a victrola. When the child heard the music for the first time,
he went into ecstasies, and promptly appropriated the machine. He soon
showed a preference for certain records, among them, “It’s a Long Way
to Tipperary.” On one occasion, he played that piece over and over, for
almost two hours, standing in front of the victrola, with his teeth, clamped
on the edge of the case. The significance of this self-formed habit of his
did not become clear to us until years afterward, for we had never heard
of the principle of “bone conduction” of sound at that time.
Shortly after he appropriated the victrola, I discovered that he could
hear me quite clearly when I spoke with my lips touching his mastoid
bone, or at the base of the brain. These discoveries placed in my
possession the necessary media by which I began to translate into reality
my Burning Desire to help my son develop hearing and speech. By that
time he was making stabs at speaking certain words. The outlook
was far from encouraging, but DESIRE BACKED BY FAITH knows
no such word as impossible.
Having determined that he could hear the sound of my voice plainly, I
began, immediately, to transfer to his mind the desire to hear and speak. I
soon discovered that the child enjoyed bedtime stories, so I went to work,
creating stories designed to develop in him self-reliance, imagination, and
a keen desire to hear and to be normal.
There was one story in particular, which I emphasized by giving it
some new and dramatic color-ing each time it was told. It was designed
to plant in his mind the thought that his affliction was not a liability, but
an asset of great value. Despite the fact that all the philosophy I had examined
clearly indicated that EVERY ADVERSITY BRINGS WITH IT
THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT ADVANTAGE, I must confess that I
had not the slightest idea how this affliction could ever become an asset.
However, I continued my practice of wrapping that philosophy in bedtime
stories, hoping the time would come when he would find some plan by
which his handicap could be made to serve some useful purpose.
Reason told me plainly, that there was no adequate compensation for
the lack of ears and natural hearing equipment. DESIRE backed by
FAITH, pushed reason aside, and inspired me to carry on.
As I analyze the experience in retrospect, I can see now, that my son’s
faith in me had much to do with the astounding results. He did not question
anything I told him. I sold him the idea that he had a distinct advantage
over his older brother, and that this advantage would reflect itself in
many ways. For example, the teachers in school would observe that he
had no ears, and, because of this, they would show him special attention
and treat him with extraordinary kindness. They always did. His mother
saw to that, by visiting the teachers and arranging with them to give the
child the extra attention necessary. I sold him the idea, too, that when he
became old enough to sell newspapers (his older brother had already
become a newspaper merchant), he would have a big advantage over his
brother, for the reason that people would pay him extra money for his
wares, because they could see that he was a bright, industrious boy,
despite the fact he had no ears. We could notice that, gradually, the child’s hearing was improving.
Moreover, he had not the slightest tendency to be self-conscious, because
of his affliction. When he was about seven, he showed the first evidence
that our method of servicing his mind was bearing fruit. For several
months he begged for the privilege of selling newspapers, but his mother
would not give her consent. She was afraid that his deafness made it
unsafe for him to go on the street alone.
Finally, he took matters in his own hands. One afternoon, when he was
left at home with the servants, he climbed through the kitchen window,
shinnied to the ground, and set out on his own. He borrowed six cents in
capital from the neighborhood shoemaker, invested it in papers, sold out,
reinvested, and kept repeating until late in the evening. After balancing his
accounts, and paying back the six cents he had borrowed from his banker,
he had a net profit of forty4wo cents. When we got home that night, we
found him in bed asleep, with the money tightly clenched in his hand.
His mother opened his hand, removed the coins, and cried. Of all things!
Crying over her son’s first victory seemed so inappropriate. My reaction
was the reverse. I laughed heartily, for I knew that my endeavor to plant in
the child’s mind an attitude of faith in himself had been successful.
His mother saw, in his first business venture, a little deaf boy who had
gone out in the streets and risked his life to earn money. I saw a brave,
ambitious, self-reliant little business man whose stock in himself had been
increased a hundred percent, because he had gone into business on his
own initiative, and had won. The transaction pleased me, because I knew
that he had given evidence of a trait of resourcefulness that would go with
him all through life. Later events proved this to be true. When his older
brother wanted something, he would lie down on the floor, kick his feet in
the air, cry for it — and get it. When the “little deaf boy” wanted
something, he would plan a way to earn the money, then buy it for
himself. He still follows that plan!
Truly, my own son has taught me that handicaps can be converted into
stepping stones on which one may climb toward some worthy goal, unless
they are accepted as obstacles, and used as alibis.
The little deaf boy went through the grades, high school, and college
without being able to hear his teachers, excepting when they shouted
loudly, at close range. He did not go to a school for the deaf. WE WOULD
NOT PERMIT HIM TO LEARN THE SIGN LANGUAGE. We were
determined that he should live a normal life, and associate with normal
children, and we stood by that decision, although it cost us many heated
debates with school officials.
While he was in high school, he tried an electrical hearing aid, but it
was of no value to him; due, we believed, to a condition that was disclosed
when the child was six, by Dr. J. Gordon Wilson, of Chicago, when he
operated on one side of the boy’s head, and discovered that there was no
sign of natural hearing equipment.
During his last week in college, (eighteen years after the operation),
something happened which marked the most important turning-point of his
life. Through what seemed to be mere chance, he came into possession of
another electrical hearing device, which was sent to him on trial. He was
slow about testing it, due to his disappointment with a similar device.
Finally he picked the instrument up, and more or less carelessly, placed it
on his head, hooked up the battery, and lo! as if by a stroke of magic, his
lifelong DESIRE FOR NORMAL HEARING BECAME A REALITY! For
the first time in his life he heard practically as well as any person with
normal hearing. “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.”
Overjoyed because of the Changed World which had been brought to him
through his hearing device, he rushed to the telephone, called his mother, and
heard her voice perfectly. The next day he plainly heard the voices of his
professors in class, for the first time in his life! Previously he could hear
them only when they shouted, at short range. He heard the radio. He heard
the talking pictures. For the first time in his life, he could converse freely
with other people, without the necessity of their having to speak loudly.
Truly, he had come into possession of a Changed World. We had refused to
accept Nature’s error, and, by PERSISTENT DESIRE, we had induced
Nature to correct that error, through the only practical means available.
DESIRE had commenced to pay dividends, but the victory was not yet
complete. The boy still had to find a definite and practical way to convert
his handicap into an equivalent asset. Hardly realizing the significance of what had already been accomplished,
but intoxicated with the joy of his newly discovered world of
sound, he wrote a letter to the manufacturer of the hearing-aid, enthusiastically
describing his experience. Something in his letter; something,
perhaps which was not written on the lines, but back of them; caused the
company to invite him to New York. When he arrived, he was escorted
through the factory, and while talking with the Chief Engineer, telling him
about his changed world, a hunch, an idea, or an inspiration — call it what
you wish — flashed into his mind. It was thi s impulse of thought which
converted his affliction into an asset, destined to pay dividends in both
money and happiness to thousands for all time to come.
The sum and substance of that impulse of thought was this: it occurred to
him that he might be of help to the millions of deafened people who go
through life without the benefit of hearing devices, if he could find a way
to tell them the story of his “changed world”. Then and there, he reached
a decision to devote the remainder of his life to rendering useful service
to the hard of hearing. For an entire month, he carried on an intensive
research, during which he analyzed the entire marketing system of the
manufacturer of the hearing device, and created ways and means of
communicating with the hard of hearing all over the world for the purpose
of sharing with them his newly discovered “changed world.” When this
was done, he put in writing a two-year plan, based upon his findings.
When he presented the plan to the company, he was instantly given a position,
for the purpose of carrying out his ambition.
Little did he dream, when he went to work, that he was destined to
bring hope and practical relief to thousands of deafened people who,
without his help, would have been doomed forever to deaf mutism.
Shortly after he became associated with the manufacturer of his hearing
aid, he invited me to attend a class conducted by his company, for the
purpose of teaching deaf mutes to hear, and to speak. I had never heard of
such a form of education, therefore I visited the class, skeptical but hopeful
that my time would not be entirely wasted. Here I saw a demonstration
which gave me a greatly enlarged vision of what I had done to arouse and
keep alive in my son’s mind the DESIRE for normal hearing. I saw deaf
mutes actually being taught to hear and to speak, through application
of the self-same principle I had used, more than twenty years previously,
in saving my son from deaf mutism.
Thus, through some strange turn of the Wheel of Fate, my son, Blair,
and I have been destined to aid in correcting deaf mutism for those as yet
unborn, because we are the only living human beings, as far as I know,
who have established definitely the fact that deaf mutism can be corrected
to the extent of restoring to normal life those who suffer with this affliction.
It has been done for one; it will be done for others.
There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been a deaf mute
all his life, if his mother and I had not managed to shape his mind as we
did. The doctor who attended at his birth told us, confidentially, the child
might never hear or speak. A few weeks ago, Dr. Irving Voorhees, a noted
specialist on such cases, examined Blair very thoroughly. He was
astounded when he learned how well my son now hears, and speaks, and
said his examination indicated that “theoretically, the boy should not be
able to hear at all.” But the lad does hear, despite the fact that X-ray
pictures show there is no opening in the skull, whatsoever, from where his
ears should be to the brain.
When I planted in his mind the DESIRE to hear and talk, and live as a
normal person, there went with that impulse some strange influence
which caused Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf of
silence between his brain and the outer world, by some means which the
keenest medical specialists have not been able to interpret. It would be
sacrilege for me to even conjecture as to how Nature performed this miracle.
It would be unforgivable if I neglected to tell the world as much as I
know of the humble part I assumed in the strange experience. It is my
duty, and a privilege to say I believe, and not without reason, that nothing
is impossible to the person who backs DESIRE with enduring FAITH.
Verily, a BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting itself
into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing; now he has it!
He was born with a handicap which might easily have sent one with a less
defined DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin cup. That
handicap now promises to serve as the medium by which he will render
useful service to many millions of hard of hearing, also, to give him useful
employment at adequate financial compensation the remainder of his life.
The little “white lies” I planted in his mind when he was a child, by
leading him to BELIEVE his affliction would become a great asset, which
he could capitalize, has justified itself. Verily, there is nothing, right or
wrong, which BELIEF, plus BURNING DESIRE, cannot make real.
These qualities are free to everyone.
In all my experience in dealing with men and women who had personal
problems, I never handled a single case which more definitely demonstrates
the power of DESIRE. Authors sometimes make the mistake of
writing of subjects of which they have but superficial, or very elementary
knowledge. It has been my good fortune to have had the privilege of testing
the soundness of the POWER OF DESIRE, through the affliction of
my own son. Perhaps it was providential that the experience came as it did,
for surely no one is better prepared than he to serve as an example of what
happens when DESIRE is put to the test. If Mother Nature bends to the will
of desire, is it logical that mere men can defeat a burning desire?
Strange and imponderable is the power of the human mind! We do not
understand the method by which it uses every circumstance, every
individual, every physical thing within its reach, as a means of transmuting
DESIRE into its physical counterpart. Perhaps science will
uncover this secret.
I planted in my son’s mind the DESIRE to hear and to speak as any
normal person hears and speaks. That DESIRE has now become a reality.
I planted in his mind the DESIRE to convert his greatest handicap
into his greatest asset. That DESIRE has been realized. The modus
operandi by which this astounding result was achieved is not hard to
describe. It consisted of three very definite facts; first, I MIXED FAITH
with the DESIRE for normal hearing, which I passed on to my son.
Second, I communicated my desire to him in every conceivable way
available, through persistent, continuous effort, over a period of years.
Third, HE BELIEVED ME!
As this chapter was being completed, news came of the death of Mme.
Schuman-Heink. One short paragraph in the news dispatch gives the clue
to this unusual woman’s stupendous success as a singer. I quote the paragraph,
because the clue it contains is none other than DESIRE.
Early in her career, Mme. Schuman-Heink visited the director of the
Vienna Court Opera, to have him test her voice. But, he did not test it.
After taking one look at the awkward and poorly dressed girl, he
exclaimed, none too gently, “With such a face, and with no personality at
all, how can you ever expect to succeed in opera? My good child, give
up the idea. Buy a sewing machine, and go to work. YOU CAN
NEVER BE A SINGER.”
Never is a long time! The director of the Vienna Court Opera knew
much about the technique of singing. He knew little about the power of
desire, when it assumes the proportion of an obsession. If he had known
more of that power, he would not have made the mistake of condemning
genius without giving it an opportunity.
Several years ago, one of my business associates became ill. He
became worse as time went on, and finally was taken to the hospital for
an operation. Just before he was wheeled into the operating room, I took
a look at him, and wondered how anyone as thin and emaciated as he,
could possibly go through a major operation successfully. The doctor
warned me that there was little if any chance of my ever seeing him alive
again. But that was the DOCTOR’S OPINION. It was not the opinion of
the patient. Just before he was wheeled away, he whispered feebly, “Do
not be disturbed, Chief, I will be out of here in a few days.” The attending
nurse looked at me with pity. But the patient did come through safely.
After it was all over, his physician said, “Nothing but his own desire to
live saved him. He never would have pulled through if he had not refused
to accept the possibility of death.”
I believe in the power of DESIRE backed by FAITH, because I have
seen this power lift men from lowly beginnings to places of power and
wealth; I have seen it rob the grave of its victims; I have seen it serve as
the medium by which men staged a comeback after having been
defeated in a hundred different ways; I have seen it provide my own son
with a normal, happy, successful life, despite Nature’s having sent him
into the world without ears.
How can one harness and use the power of DESIRE? This has been
answered through this, and the subsequent chapters of this book. This
message is going out to the world at the end of the longest, and perhaps, the most devastating depression America has ever known. It is reasonable
to presume that the message may come to the attention of many who
have been wounded by the depression, those who have lost their fortunes,
others who have lost their positions, and great numbers who must
reorganize their plans and stage a comeback. To all these I wish to
convey the thought that all achievement, no matter what may be its
nature, or its purpose, must begin with an intense, BURNING DESIRE
for something definite.
Through some strange and powerful principle of “mental chemistry”
which she has never divulged, Nature wraps up in the impulse of
STRONG DESIRE “that something” which recognizes no such word as
impossible, and accepts no such reality as failure.