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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

Chapter 9

Persistence: The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce

Faith

The Eighth Step toward Riches

PERSISTENCE is an essential factor in the procedure of transmuting DESIRE
into its monetary equivalent. The basis of persistence is the POWER OF WILL.

Will-power and desire, when properly combined, make an irresistible pair. Men
who accumulate great fortunes are generally known as cold-blooded, and some-
times ruthless. Often they are misunderstood. What they have is will-power,
which they mix with persistence, and place back of their desires to insure the at-
tainment of their objectives.

Henry Ford has been generally misunderstood to be ruthless and cold-blooded.
This misconception grew out of Ford's habit of following through in all of his
plans with PERSISTENCE.

The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard,
and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on DESPITE
all opposition, until they attain their goal. These few are the Fords, Carnegies,
Rockefellers, and Edisons.

There may be no heroic connotation to the word "persistence," but the quality is
to the character of man what carbon is to steel. The building of a fortune, gen-
erally, involves the application of the entire thirteen factors of this philosophy.
These principles must be understood, they must be applied with PERSISTENCE
by all who accumulate money.

If you are following this book with the intention of applying the knowledge it con-
veys, your first test as to your PERSISTENCE will come when you begin to follow
the six steps described in the second chapter. Unless you are one of the two out of
every hundred who already have a DEFINITE GOAL at which you are aiming, and
a DEFINITE PLAN for its attainment, you may read the instructions, and then
pass on with your daily routine, and never comply with those instructions.