Page 22 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

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 he made 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 him-
self asking Mr. Edison for an opportunity to carry out the one CONSUMING OB-
SESSION 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 DE-
SIRE, which transcended everything else. It was DEFINITE.

The desire was not new when he approached Edison. It had been Barnes' domi-
nating 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 inves-
tigate 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 part-
ner 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 appear-
ance. During all those years not one ray of hope, not one promise of attainment of
his DESIRE had been held out to him. To everyone, except himself, he appeared

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

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