Page 11 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

Barnes knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine. He suggested this to
Edison, and promptly got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he sold it
so successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it all over
the nation. Out of that business association grew the slogan, "Made by Edison
and installed by Barnes."

The business alliance has been in operation for more than thirty years. Out of
it Barnes has made himself rich in money, but he has done something infinitely
greater, he has proved that one really may "Think and Grow Rich."

How much actual cash that original DESIRE of Barnes' has been worth to him,
I have no way of knowing. Perhaps it has brought him two or three million dol-
lars, but the amount, whatever it is, becomes insignificant when compared with
the greater asset he acquired in the form of definite knowledge that an intangible
impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the appli-
cation of known principles.

Barnes literally thought himself into a partnership with the great Edison! He
thought himself into a fortune. He had nothing to start with, except the capacity
to KNOW WHAT HE WANTED, AND THE DETERMINATION TO STAND BY
THAT DESIRE UNTIL HE REALIZED IT. He had no money to begin with. He
had but little education. He had no influence. But he did have initiative, faith, and
the will to win. With these intangible forces he made himself number one man
with the greatest inventor who ever lived.

Now, let us look at a different situation, and study a man who had plenty of tan-
gible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three feet short of the goal
he was seeking.

THREE FEET FROM GOLD

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is
overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time
or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the "gold fever" in the gold-
rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that
more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from
the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going
was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He