Page 38 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

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 as-
sumes 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 op-
portunity. 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 whis-
pered 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 pos-
sibility 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 depres-
sion 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 num-
bers 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 defi-
nite.

38

NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

Through some strange and powerful principle of "mental chemistry" which she