Page 82 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned
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world, and that ANY IDEA you may create, as 80Ufld and meritorious as Coca-
Cola, has the possibility of duplicating the stupendous record of this world-wide
thirst-killer.
Truly, thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the world, itself.
WHAT I WOULD DO IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS
This story proves the truth of that old saying, "where there's a will, there's a
way." It was told to me by that beloved educator and clergyman, the late Frank
W. Gunsaulus, who began his preaching career in the stockyards region of South
Chicago.
While Dr. Gunsaulus was going through college, he observed many defects in
our educational system, defects which he believed he could correct, if he were
the head of a college. His deepest desire was to become the directing head of an
educational institution in which young men and women would be taught to "learn
by doing."
He made up his mind to organize a new college in which he could carry out his
ideas, without being handicapped by orthodox methods of education.
He needed a million dollars to put the project across! Where was he to lay his
hands on so large a sum of money? That was the question that absorbed most of
this ambitious young preacher's thought.
But he couldn't seem to make any progress. Every night he took that thought to
bed with him. He got up with it in the morning. He took it with him everywhere
he went. He turned it over and over in his mind until it became a consuming ob-
session with him. A million dollars is a lot of money. He recognized that fact, but
he also recognized the truth that the only limitation is that which one sets up in
one's own mind.
Being a philosopher as well as a preacher, Dr. Gunsaulus recognized, as do all
who succeed in life, that DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE is the starting point from
which one must begin. He recognized, too, that definiteness of purpose takes on
animation, life, and power when backed by a BURNING DESIRE to translate that
purpose into its material equivalent.
He knew all these great truths, yet he did not know where, or how to lay his hands
on a million dollars. The natural procedure would have been to give up and quit,
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