Page 32 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

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 ac-
tions 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 prefer-
ence for certain records, among them, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." On one oc-
casion, 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 discov-
ered 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 coloring each time it was told. It was designed to plant in his mind the

32

NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

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 AD-
VERSITY BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT ADVANTAGE,
I must confess that I had not the slightest idea how this affliction could ever be-
come an asset. However, I continued my practice of wrapping that philosophy in