The First step towards Riches

In this chapter, Napoleon Hill talks about the starting point of all achievement - Desire. He writes that the desire or impulse to achieve something in life can be so great that any obstacles no matter how big or small can stop an individual from reaching the goal he has set up for him. A person with burning desire, an obsession with success can go to any lengths until he succeeds. Failure does not bother him and in fact he uses it as a stepping-stone to fuel his burning desire for achievement.

Napoleon Hill mentions a couple of stories of everyday common people who in the face of insurmountable odds came out victorious. Read on to understand how desire can change a mans life.

Mr. Edwin C. Barnes had one consuming obsession of his life; in fact it was a burning desire to become a business partner with a great inventor. So extraordinary was his desire to become the business associate of Thomas A. Edison that he caught a freight train to Orange, New Jersey because he never had money to pay for the fare. After arriving he straight made his way to Edison office and presented himself and asked Mr. Edison for a opportunity to become his business partner.

Mr. Edison was very impressed with Barnes determination that he gave him a chance to work in the office at a very nominal wage. He worked with great eagerness but never gave up the desire to be his business partner. He waited for his opportunity and when it came in the form of a new invention known at that time as the Edison Dictating Machine. Mr. Edison's salesmen were not very excited over the machine. They believed that the machine had no future and thus selling it would be a difficulty.

Barnes knew that he could sell the product and suggested this to Edison who agreed immediately. Barnes did sell the machine and went to become Edison's partner. He was so successful that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market the product all over the nation. In fact their business grew by the slogan, Made by Edison and installed by Barnes.

So strong was his desire that he achieved what he was out for. That is all there is to the Barnes Story of success!

So we see that just wishing will not make a person rich but one must desire richness with a state of mind that becomes a passion, then planning definite ways and means to acquire those riches and not recognizing failure but persisting with a one track mind towards your goal.

You may as well know that you can never have enough riches unless you work hard for it, it is a well known fact that as you shall sow, so shall you reap. You should know that every great leader, poet or actor is dreamers. In fact so intense are their dreams that they see their dreams in spiritual form before it can transpire into physical form. If you do not see riches in your imagination you will never see them in your bank balance.

Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, he put his dreams into action and despite more than ten thousand failures; he stood by his dreams until he made it a physical reality

Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put his dreams into action, and barely missed living to see a united North and South translate his dream into reality.

The same way Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through air now one may see evidence all over the world how successful their dreams were. Always remember that practical dreamers do not quit!

As Napoleon Hill says "All who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heart-breaking struggles before they arrive."

How can one harness and use the power of desire? This has been answered in this and the subsequent chapters in this book.