read it and write down everything you learn from it DESIRE

The Starting Point of All Achievement
The First Step to Riches

WHEN EDWIN C. BARNES climbed down from that freight train in Orange, N.J., 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 Edison’s office, his mind was at work. He saw himself standing in Edison’s presence. He heard himself asking Mr. Edison for an opportunity to carry out the one CONSUMING OBSESSION 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 DESIRE that transcended everything else. It was DEFINITE.

The desire was not new when he approached Edison. It had been Barnes’ dominating 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. People who later knew Barnes envied him because of the “break” that life had yielded him. They saw him in the days of his triumph, without taking the trouble to investigate the cause of his success.

Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal, placed all his energy, all his willpower, all his effort, everything back of that goal. He did not become the partner of Edison the day he arrived. He was content to start at 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 appearance. 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 to be 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 he wanted anything else. He created a plan by which to attain that purpose. But he BURNED ALL BRIDGES BEHIND HIM. He stood by his DESIRE until it became the dominating obsession of his life—and, finally, a fact.

When he went to Orange, he did not say to himself, “I will try to induce Edison to give me a job of some sort.” He said, “I will see Edison and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him.” He did not say, “I will work there for a few months and if I get no encouragement, I will quit and get a job somewhere else.” He did say, “I will start anywhere. I will do anything Edison tells me to do, but before I am through, I will be his associate.”

He did not say, “I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity in case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization.” He said, “There is but ONE thing in this world that I am determined to have, and that is a business association with Thomas A. Edison. I will burn all bridges behind me and stake my ENTIRE FUTURE on my ability to get what I want.”

He left himself no possible way of retreat. He had to win or perish!

That is all there is to the Barnes story of success!

A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which ensured his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his troops before the first battle, he said, “You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice. We win— or we perish!”

They won.

Those who would win in any undertaking must be willing to burn their ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE TO WIN, essential to success.

The morning after the great Chicago Fire, a group of merchants stood on State Street looking at the smoking remains of what had been their stores.1 They went into a conference to decide if they would try to rebuild or leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the country. They reached a decision—all except one—to leave Chicago.

The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a finger at the remains of his store and said, “Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down.”

That was in 1871. The store was built. It became a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as BURNING DESIRE. The easy thing for Marshal Field to have done would have been exactly what his fellow merchants did. When the going was hard and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where the going seemed easier.2

Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other merchants because it is the same difference that distinguished Edwin C. Barnes from thousands of other young people who worked in the Edison organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who succeed from those who fail.

Every individual who reaches the age of understanding the purpose of money, wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.

The method by which DESIRE for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of six definite, practical actions:

First. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say, “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be described in a subsequent chapter.)
Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”)
Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
Sixth. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ, SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.
It is important that you follow the instructions described in these six actions. It is especially important that you observe and follow the instructions in the sixth. You may complain that it is impossible for you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it. Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly DESIRE money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money and to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it.

Only those who become “money-conscious” ever accumulate great riches. Money-consciousness means that the mind has become so thoroughly saturated with the DESIRE for money that one can see one’s self already in possession of it.

To the uninitiated, who have not been schooled in the working principles of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical. It may be helpful to all who fail to recognize the soundness of the six actions to know that the information they convey was received from Andrew Carnegie, who began as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but managed, despite his humble beginnings, to make these principles yield him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars.3 It may be of further help to know that the six actions here recommended were carefully scrutinized by Thomas A. Edison, who placed his stamp of approval upon them as being not only the steps essential for the accumulation of money, but necessary for the attainment of any definite goal.

The steps call for no “hard labor.” They call for no “sacrifice.” They do not require one to become ridiculous or unthinking. To apply them calls for no great amount of education. But the successful completion of these six actions does call for sufficient imagination to enable one to see, and to understand, that accumulation of money cannot be left to chance, good fortune, and luck. One must realize that all who have accumulated great fortunes first did a certain amount of dreaming, hoping, wishing, DESIRING, and PLANNING before they acquired money.

You may as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in great quantities UNLESS you can work yourself into a white heat of DESIRE for money and actually BELIEVE you will possess it.

You may as well know also that every great leader, from the dawn of civilization down to the present, was a dreamer. Christianity became one of the greatest powers in the world because its founder was an intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form.

If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see them in your bank balance.

Never in the history of America has there been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now exists. The hardships of these recent tough and unsettled economic times have put many people back at square one. A new race is about to be run. The stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next few years. The rules of the race have changed because we now live in a CHANGED WORLD that definitely favors those who have had little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing recently, when fear often paralyzed personal and economic growth and development.

We who are in this race for riches should be encouraged to know that this changed world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching, new methods of marketing, new books, new literature, new features for the mass media, new ideas for entertainment. Back of all this demand for new and better things there is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE—the knowledge of what one wants and a burning DESIRE to possess it.

We have witnessed the death of one age and the birth of another. This changed world requires practical dreamers who can and will put their dreams into action. The practical dreamers have always been and always will be the pattern makers of civilization.

We who desire to accumulate riches should remember that the real leaders of the world always have been individuals who harnessed and put into practical use the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and converted those forces (or impulses of thought) into skyscrapers, cities, factories, airplanes, automobiles, and every form of convenience that makes life more pleasant.

Tolerance and an open mind are practical necessities of the dreamer of today. Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start. Never has there been a time more favorable to pioneers than the present. True, there is no “Wild and Woolly West” to be conquered as in the days of the covered wagon. But there is a vast business, financial, and industrial world to be remolded and redirected along new and better lines.

In planning to acquire your share of the riches, let no one influence you to scorn the dreamer. To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value. It is that spirit which serves as the lifeblood of America—the burning desire to take full advantage of the wonderful opportunity, yours and mine, to develop and market our talents in a free land.

Let us not forget, Columbus dreamed of an Unknown World, staked his life on the existence of such a world, and discovered it!

Copernicus, the great astronomer, dreamed of a multiplicity of worlds and revealed them! No one denounced him as “impractical” after he had triumphed. Instead, the world worshiped at his shrine, thus proving once more that “SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES, FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.”

If the thing you wish to do is right and you believe in it, go ahead and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what “they” say if you meet with temporary defeat, for “they” perhaps do not know that EVERY FAILURE BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT SUCCESS.

Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a “horseless carriage,” went to work with what tools he possessed without waiting for opportunity to favor him, and now evidence of his dream belts the entire earth. He put more wheels into operation than anyone who ever lived—because he was not afraid to back his dreams.

Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, began where he stood to put his dream into action, and despite more than 10,000 failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality. Practical dreamers DO NOT QUIT!4

Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the slaves, put his dream into action, and barely missed living to see a united North and South translate his dream into reality.

The Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through the air. Now one may see evidence all over the world that they dreamed soundly.

Marconi dreamed of a system for harnessing the intangible forces of the electromagnetic spectrum.5 Evidence that he did not dream in vain may be found in every radio and television set in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the humblest cabin and the stateliest manor house side by side. It has made the people of every nation on earth back-door neighbors. It gave the President of the United States the means by which to talk to all the people of America at one time and on short notice. It may interest you to know that Marconi’s “friends” had him taken into custody and examined in a mental hospital when he announced he had discovered a principle through which he could send messages through the air, without the aid of wires or other direct physical means of communication. The dreamers of today fare better.

The world has become accustomed to new discoveries. It has shown a willingness to reward the dreamer who gives the world a new idea.

“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. DREAMS ARE THE SEEDLINGS OF REALITIES.”6

Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world. Your star is in the ascendancy. Worldwide economic uncertainty has brought the opportunity you have been waiting for. It has taught many people humility, tolerance, and open-mindedness.

The world is filled with an abundance of OPPORTUNITY the dreamers of the past never knew.

A BURNING DESIRE TO BE, AND TO DO, is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness, or lack of ambition.

The world no longer scoffs at dreamers, nor calls them impractical. If you think it does, take a trip to Tennessee and visit the mighty dams and power plants of the Tennessee Valley Authority to witness what a “dreamer” President did in the way of harnessing and using the great water power of America. At one time, such a dream would have seemed like madness.7

You may have been disappointed, you may have suffered setbacks and defeat during hard economic times, you may have felt the great heart within you crushed until it bled. Take courage, for these experiences have tempered the spiritual metal of which you are made—they are assets of incomparable value.

Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they “arrive.” The turning point in the lives of those who succeed usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves.”

John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the finest works in all of English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely punished because of his views on religion.

O. Henry discovered the genius which slept within his brain after he had met with great misfortune and was confined in a prison cell, in Columbus, Ohio. Being FORCED, through misfortune, to become acquainted with his “other self” and to use his IMAGINATION, he discovered himself to be a great author, instead of a miserable criminal and outcast.8

Strange and varied are the ways of life, and stranger are the ways of Infinite Intelligence,9 through which human beings are sometimes forced to undergo all sorts of trouble and tribulation before discovering their own brains and their own capacity to create useful ideas through imagination.

Edison, the world’s greatest inventor and scientist, started out as a “tramp” telegraph operator.10 He failed innumerable times before he was driven finally to the discovery of the genius that slept within his brain.

Charles Dickens began by pasting labels on blacking pots. The tragedy of his first love penetrated the depths of his soul and converted him into one of the world’s truly great authors. That tragedy produced, first, David Copperfield, then a succession of works that made this a richer and better world for all who read his books.11 (Disappointment over love affairs can have the effect of driving many to drink and others to ruin—and this because most people never learn the art of transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams of a constructive nature. This power of “transmutation” will be dealt with in detail later.)

Helen Keller became deaf and blind shortly after birth and for years could not speak. Despite her misfortune, she wrote her name indelibly in the pages of the history of the great. Her entire life served as evidence that no one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.

Robert Burns was an illiterate country lad who was cursed by poverty and who grew up to be a drunkard in the bargain. The world was made better for his having lived because he clothed beautiful thoughts in poetry and thereby plucked a thorn and planted a rose in its place.

Booker T. Washington was born in slavery, handicapped by race and color in the society in which he lived. Because he was tolerant, had an open mind at all times and on all subjects, and was a DREAMER, he left his imprint for good on an entire nation.

Beethoven was deaf, Milton was blind, but their names will last as long as civilization endures because they dreamed and translated their dreams into organized thought.

Before passing to the next chapter, resolve yourself to kindle in your mind the fire of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance. Once you have these states of mind and a working knowledge of the principles described in this book, all else that you need will come to you—when you are READY for it.12

There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. You are never ready for a thing until you believe you can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief.

Remember—no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty. Jessie B. Rittenhouse has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines in his poem “My Wage”:

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.

Desire Outwits Mother Nature

As a fitting conclusion to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of the most unusual persons I have ever known. I first saw him many years ago, a few minutes after he was born. He came into the world without any external, physical sign of ears, and the doctor admitted, when pressed for an opinion, that the child would likely be deaf and mute for life.*

* This was long before the advent of the kind of reconstructive surgery that is commonplace today.

I challenged the doctor’s opinion. I had the right to do so. I was the child’s father. I, too, reached a decision and rendered an opinion, but I expressed the opinion silently, in the secrecy of my own heart. I decided that my son would hear and speak. Nature could send me a child without normal organs of hearing, but Nature could not induce me to accept the reality of the affliction.

In my own mind, I knew that my son would hear and speak. How? I was sure there must be a way, and I knew I would find it. I thought of the words of the immortal Emerson: “The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.”

The right word? DESIRE! More than anything else, I DESIRED that my son should not be deaf and mute. From that desire I never receded, not for a second.

Many years previously I had written, “Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.” For the first time I wondered if that statement were true. Lying on the bed in front of me was a newborn child, without the natural equipment of hearing. Even though he might eventually hear and speak, he was obviously disfigured for life. Surely, this was a limitation which that child had not set up in his own mind.

What could I do about it? Somehow, I would find a way to transplant into that child’s mind my own BURNING DESIRE for ways and means of conveying sound to his brain without the aid of ears.

As soon as the child was old enough to cooperate, I would fill his mind so completely with a BURNING DESIRE to hear that Nature would, by methods of her own, translate that desire into physical reality. 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 this disability for my 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 actions that he could hear certain sounds slightly. That was all I needed 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, an old fashioned phonograph. When the child heard the music for the first time, he went into ecstasies and promptly appropriated the machine. He soon showed a preference for certain records, among them “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” On one occasion, 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, at his jawbone near where his ear canal would have been. These discoveries placed into my possession the necessary means 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 discovered 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.

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 thought that his disability was not a liability, but an asset of great value. Despite the fact that all the philosophy I had examined clearly indicated that EVERY ADVERSITY BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT ADVANTAGE, I must confess that I had not the slightest idea how this affliction could ever become an asset. However, I continued my practice of wrapping that philosophy in bedtime stories, hoping the time would come when he would find some plan by which his disability could be made to serve some useful purpose.

Reason told me plainly that there was no adequate compensation for the lack of ears and natural hearing equipment. DESIRE, backed by FAITH, pushed reason aside and inspired me to carry on.

As I analyze the experience in retrospect, I can see now that my son’s faith in me had much to do with the astounding results. He did not question anything I told him. I sold him the idea that he had a distinct advantage over his older brother and that this advantage would reflect itself in many ways.13

We could notice that the child’s hearing was gradually improving. Moreover, he had not the slightest tendency to be self-conscious because of his affliction. When he was about seven, he showed the first evidence that our method of servicing his mind was bearing fruit. For several months he begged for the privilege of selling newspapers, but his mother would not give her consent. She was afraid that his deafness made it unsafe for him to go out on the street alone.

Finally, he took matters into his own hands. One afternoon when he was left at home with the servants, he climbed through the kitchen window, shinnied to the ground, and set out on his own. He borrowed six cents in capital from the neighborhood shoemaker, invested it in papers, sold out, reinvested, and kept repeating this process until late in the evening. After balancing his accounts and paying back the six cents he had borrowed from his “banker,” he had a net profit of 42 cents. When we got home that night, we found him in bed asleep with the money tightly clenched in his little hand.

His mother opened his hand, removed the coins, and cried. Of all things! Crying over her son’s first victory seemed so inappropriate. My reaction was the reverse. I laughed heartily, for I knew that my endeavor to plant in the child’s mind an attitude of faith in himself had been successful.

His mother saw in his first business venture a little deaf boy who had gone out in the streets and risked his life to earn money. I saw a brave, ambitious, self-reliant little businessman whose stock in himself had been increased a hundred percent because he had gone into business on his own initiative and had won. The transaction pleased me because I knew that he had given evidence of a trait of resourcefulness that would go with him all through life. Later events proved this to be true. When his older brother wanted something, he would lie down on the floor, kick his feet in the air, cry for it—and get it. When the “little deaf boy” wanted something, he would plan a way to earn the money, then buy it for himself. He would follow that pattern throughout adult life.

Truly, my own son taught me that disabilities can be converted into steppingstones on which one may climb toward some worthy goal—unless they are accepted as obstacles and used as alibis.

The little deaf boy went through grade school, high school, and college without being able to hear his teachers, except when they shouted loudly at close range. He did not go to a special school.14 We were determined that he should live as normal a life as possible and associate with children with hearing, and we stood by that decision although it cost us many heated debates with school officials.

While he was in high school, he tried a hearing aid, but it was of no value to him. During his last week in college, something happened which marked the most important turning point of his life. Through what seemed to be mere chance, he came into possession of another hearing aid device, which was sent to him on trial. He was slow about testing it because of his disappointment with the earlier device. Finally he picked the instrument up and more or less carelessly placed it on his head, hooked up the battery, and lo!—as if by a stroke of magic—his lifelong DESIRE FOR NORMAL HEARING BECAME A REALITY! For the first time in his life, he could hear practically as well as any person with normal hearing.15

Overjoyed because of the “Changed World” which had been brought to him through his hearing device, he rushed to the telephone, called his mother, and heard her voice perfectly. The next day he plainly heard the voices of his professors in class for the first time in his life! Previously he could hear them only when they shouted at short range. He heard the radio. He heard the movies. For the first time in his life he could converse freely with other people without the necessity of their having to speak loudly. Truly, he had come into possession of a Changed World. We had refused to accept Nature’s error, and, by PERSISTENT DESIRE, we had induced Nature to correct that error through the only practical means available.

DESIRE had commenced to pay dividends, but the victory was not yet complete. The boy still had to find a definite and practical way to convert his disability into an equivalent asset.

Hardly realizing the significance of what had already been accomplished, but intoxicated with the joy of his newly discovered world of sound, he wrote a letter to the manufacturer of the hearing aid, enthusiastically describing his experience. Something in his letter—something, perhaps, which was not written on the lines, but back of them—caused the company to invite him to New York. When he arrived, he was escorted through the factory and while talking with the chief engineer, telling him about his Changed World, a hunch, an idea, or an inspiration—call it what you wish—flashed into his mind. It was this impulse of thought which converted his affliction into an asset destined to pay dividends in both money and happiness to thousands of other people.

The sum and substance of that impulse of thought was this: It occurred to him that he might be of help to the millions of deaf people who go through life without the benefit of hearing aids, if he could find a way to tell them the story of his Changed World. Then and there he reached a decision to devote the remainder of his life to rendering useful service to the hard of hearing.

For an entire month he did intensive research during which he analyzed the entire marketing system of the manufacturer of the hearing device. He figured out possible ways and means to communicate with hearing-impaired people all over the world for the purpose of sharing with them his newly discovered “Changed World.” When this was done, he put in writing a two-year plan based upon his findings. When he presented the plan to the company, he was instantly given a position for the purpose of carrying out his ambition.

Little did he dream when he went to work that he was destined to bring hope and practical relief to thousands of people who without his help would never have overcome their hearing disability.

Shortly after he became associated with the manufacturer of his hearing aid, he invited me to attend a class conducted by his company to teach deaf people to hear and to speak. I had never heard of such a form of education; therefore, I visited the class, skeptical but hopeful that my time would not be entirely wasted. Here I saw a demonstration which gave me a greatly enlarged vision of what I had done to arouse and keep alive in my son’s mind the DESIRE for normal hearing. I saw deaf people actually being taught to hear and to speak through application of the self-same principle I had used more than 20 years previously with my son, Blair.

There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been unable to hear or speak for all his life if his mother and I had not managed to shape his mind as we did. The doctor who attended at his birth told us the child might never hear a sound or say a word. Later, Dr. Irving Voorhees, a noted specialist on such cases, examined Blair thoroughly. He was astounded when he learned how well my son could hear and speak, and he said his examination indicated that “theoretically, the boy should not be able to hear at all.”

When I planted in Blair’s mind the DESIRE to hear and talk and live normally, there went with that impulse some strange influence which caused Nature to become “bridge-builder” and to span the gulf of silence between his brain and the outer world— by some means which the keenest medical specialists were not able to interpret. It would be sacrilege for me even to pretend I fully understand how Nature performed this miracle. It would be unforgivable if I neglected to tell the world as much as I know of the humble part I assumed in the strange experience. It is my duty and a privilege to say I believe, and not without reason, that nothing is impossible to the person who backs DESIRE with enduring FAITH.

A BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting itself into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing. And he received it! He was born with a disability which might easily have sent one with a less defined DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin cup. That disability served as the medium by which he would go on to render useful service to many thousands of hearing-impaired people, and it gave him useful employment at adequate financial compensation for years.

The little “white lie” I planted in his mind when he was a child— by leading him to BELIEVE his affliction would become a great asset which he could capitalize on—justified itself. Verily, there is nothing, right or wrong, that BELIEF plus BURNING DESIRE cannot make real. These qualities are free to everyone.

In all my experience in dealing with men and women with personal problems, I never handled a single case which more definitely demonstrated the power of DESIRE. Authors sometimes make the mistake of writing of subjects of which they have but superficial or very elementary knowledge. It has been my good fortune to have had the privilege of testing the soundness of the POWER OF DESIRE through the affliction of my own son. Perhaps it was providential that the experience came as it did, for surely no one was better prepared than he to serve as an example of what happens when DESIRE is put to the test. If Mother Nature bends to the will of a burning desire, is it logical to think that mere human beings can defeat one?

Strange and imponderable is the power of the human mind! We do not understand the method by which it uses every circumstance, every individual, every physical thing within its reach as a means of transmuting DESIRE into its physical counterpart. Perhaps science will one day uncover this secret.

I planted in my son’s mind the DESIRE to hear and to speak as any other person hears and speaks. That DESIRE became a reality. I planted in his mind the DESIRE to convert his greatest disability into his greatest asset. That DESIRE was realized. The method by which this astounding result was achieved is not hard to describe. It consisted of three very definite acts: First, I MIXED FAITH with the DESIRE for normal hearing, which I passed on to my son. Second, I communicated my desire to him in every conceivable way available through persistent, continuous effort, over a period of years. Third, HE BELIEVED ME!

As this chapter was being completed, news came of the death of Mme. Schuman-Heink.16 One short paragraph in the news dispatch about her death gives the clue to this unusual woman’s stupendous success as a singer. I quote portions of the paragraph because the clue it contains is none other than DESIRE.

Early in her career, Mme. Schuman-Heink visited the director of the Vienna Court Opera to audition for him. But he did not grant the audition. After taking one look at 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 assumes the proportion of an obsession. If he had known more about that power, he would not have made the mistake of condemning genius without giving it an opportunity.

Several years ago, one of my business associates became seriously ill. He became worse as time went on and finally was taken to the hospital for surgery. 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 such a major operation successfully. The surgeon 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 whispered 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 possibility of death.”

I believe in the power of DESIRE backed by FAITH because I have seen this power lift people 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 individuals 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 severely disabled.

How can one harness and use the power of DESIRE? This question is answered through this and the subsequent chapters of this book. This message is going out to the world at the end of one of the most devastating economic upheavals America has ever known. It is reasonable to presume that the message may come to the attention of many who have been wounded by personal economic calamity, those who have lost their fortunes, others who have lost their positions, and great numbers who must reorganize their plans and stage a comeback. To all these, I wish to convey this thought: All achievement, no matter what may be its nature or its purpose, must begin with an intense, BURNING DESIRE for something definite.

Through some strange and powerful principle of “mental chemistry” which she has never divulged, Nature wraps up in the impulse of STRONG DESIRE that “something” which recognizes no such word as “impossible” and accepts no such reality as failure.

Fortunately, Nature has also given us the way to channel DESIRE unwaveringly toward the goals we name and seek. It is the way of FAITH—The Second Step to Riches.