CHAPTER 2
DESIRE
THE STARTING POINT OF ALL ACHIEVEMENT
The First Step toward Riches
WHEN Edwin C. Barnes climbed down from the freight train in Orange, N. J.,
more than thirty years ago, 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 A. 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, which 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. Today, people who know
Barnes envy him, because of the “break” life yielded him. They see 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 will power, 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
in 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 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 soft.” 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 insured 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 men 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. Every person
who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his 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. 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 more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It stands there today,
a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as a
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. Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other
merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin C.
Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the Edison
organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who
succeed from those who fail. Eve ry human being who reaches the age of
understanding of 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 steps, viz:
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 steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the
instructions in the sixth paragraph. 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 has 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 steps, 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 beginning, to make these principles
yield him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars. It
may be of further help to know that the six steps here recommended were
carefully scrutinized by the late 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 credulous. To apply them calls for no
great amount of education. But the successful application of these six steps
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 is the greatest
potential power in the world today, 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 six year economic collapse has reduced
all men, substantially, to the same level. A ne w race is about to be run. The
stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten
years. The rules of the race have changed, because we now live in a
CHANGED WORLD that definitely favors the masses, those who had but
little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the
depression, when fear paralyzed 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 radio, new ideas
for moving pictures. 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.
The business depression marked 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 the real leaders of the
world always have been men who harnessed, and put into practical use, the
intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and have converted those
forces, [or impulses of thought], into sky-scrapers, 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 remoulded
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, the spirit which serves as the life-blood of
our own country—your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our
talents. 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 worshipped 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 has put more
wheels into operation than any man 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 ten
thousand failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality.
Practical dreamers DO NOT QUIT!
Whelan dreamed of a chain of cigar stores, transformed his dream into action,
and now the United Cigar Stores occupy the best corners in America.
Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black 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 ether.
Evidence that he did not dream in vain, may be found in every wireless and
radio in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the humblest cabin,
and the most stately ma nor house side by side. It made the people of every
nation on earth back-door neighbors. It gave the President of the United States
a medium by which he may talk to all the people of America at one time, and
on short notice. It may interest you to know tha t Marconi’s “friends” had him
taken into custody, and examined in a psychopathic 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. Nay, 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, but 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 REALITY.”
Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world. Your star is
now in the ascendency. The world depression brought the opportunity you
have been waiting for. It taught people humility, tolerance, and openmindedness.
The world is filled with an abundance of OPPORTUNITY which 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 the dreamer, nor calls him impractical. If you
think it does, take a trip to Tennessee, and witness what a dreamer President
has done in the way of harnessing, and using the great water power of
America. A score of years ago, such a dream would have seemed like
madness. You have been disappointed, you have undergone defeat during the
depression, you 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 the Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the finest of all
English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely punished,
because of his views on the subject of religion.
0. 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. Strange and varied are
the ways of life, and stranger still are the ways of Infinite
Intelligence, through which men are sometimes forced to undergo all sorts of
punishment before discovering their own brains, and their own capacity to
create useful ideas through imagination. Edison, the world’s greatest inventor
and scientist, was a “tramp” telegraph operator, he failed innumerable times
before he was driven, finally, to the discovery of the genius which 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 other works that made this a richer and better world for
all who read his books. Disappointment over love affairs, generally has the
effect of driving men to drink, and women to ruin; and this, because most
people never learn the art of transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams
of a constructive nature. Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly
after birth.
Despite her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly
in the pages of the history of the great. Her entire life has served as
evidence that no one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted
as a reality.
Robert Burns was an illiterate country lad, he was cursed by poverty, and
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.
Because he was tolerant, had an open mind at all times, on all subjects, and
was a DREAMER, he left his impress for good on an entire race.
Beethoven was deaf, Milton was blind, but their names will last as long as
time endures, because they dreamed and translated their dreams into
organized thought.
Before passing to the next chapter, kindle ane w in your mind the fire of hope,
faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind, and a working
knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need will come to you,
when you are READY for it. Let Emerson state the thought in these words,
“Every proverb, every book, every byword that belongs to thee for aid and
comfort shall surely come home through open or winding passages.
Every friend whom not thy fantastic will, but the great and tender soul in thee
craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace.” There is a difference between
WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. No one is ready for a
thing, until he believes he 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. A
great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:
“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 climax to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of the most unusual
persons I have ever known. I first saw him twenty- four years ago, a few
minutes after he was born. He came into the world without any physical sign
of ears, and the doctor admitted, when pressed for an opinion, that the child
might be deaf, and mute for life.
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 ears, 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 a deaf 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 newly born child, without the
natural equipment of hearing. Even though he might 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 it 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 bad 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
actions 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 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 ofthe
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 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 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 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 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 handicap 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. For example, the
teachers in school would observe that he had no ears, and, because
of this, they would show him special attention and treat him with
extraordinary kindness. They always did. His mother saw to that, by visiting
the teachers and arranging with them to give the child the extra attention
necessary. I sold him the idea, too, that when he became old enough to sell
newspapers, (his older brother had already become a newspaper merchant), he
would have a big advantage over his brother, for the reason that people would
pay him extra money for his wares, because they could see that he was a
bright, industrious boy, despite the fact he had no ears. We could notice that,
gradually, the child’s hearing was improving. Moreover, he had not the
slightest tendency to be selfconscious, 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 on the street alone.
Finally, he took matters in 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 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
forty-two cents. When we got home that night, we found him in bed asleep,
with the money tightly clenched in his 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 business man whose stock in himself had been increased a
hundred percent, because he had go ne 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 still follows that
plan!
Truly, my own son has taught me that handicaps can be converted into
stepping stones 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 the grades, high school, and college without
being able to hear his teachers, excepting when they shouted loudly, at close
range. He did not go to a school for the deaf.
WE WOULD NOT PERMIT HIM TO LEARN THE SIGN LANGUAGE.
We were determined that he should live a normal life, and associate with
normal children, and we stood by that decision, although it cost us many
heated debates with school officials. While he was in high school, he tried an
electrical hearing aid, but it was of no value to him; due, we believed, to a
condition that was disclosed when the child was six, by Dr. J. Gordon Wilson,
of Chicago, when he operated on one side of the boy’s head, and discovered
that there was no sign of natural hearing equipment. During his last week in
college, (eighteen years after the operation), 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 electrical hearing device,
which was sent to him on trial. He was slow about testing it, due to his
disappointment with a similar 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 heard practically as
well as any person with normal hearing. “God moves in mysterious ways, His
wonders to perform.”
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
talking pictures. 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
handicap 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 be 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 for all time to come. 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 deafened people who go through life without the benefit of
hearing devices, 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
carried on an intensive research, during which he analyzed the entire
marketing system of the manufacturer of the hearing device, and created ways
and means of communicating with the hard of hearing 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 deafened people who, without his help,
would have been doomed forever to deaf mutism.
Shortly after he became associated with the manufacturer of
his hearing aid, he invited me to attend a class conducted by his
company, for the purpose of teaching deaf mutes 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 mutes actually being taught to hear and to speak, through application of
the self-same principle I had used, more than twenty years previously, in
saving my son from deaf mutism. Thus, through some strange turn of the
Wheel of Fate, my son, Blair, and I have been destined to aid in correcting
deaf mutism for those as yet unborn, because we are the only living human
beings, as far as I know, who have established definitely the fact that deaf
mutism can be corrected to the extent of restoring to normal life those who
suffer with this affliction. It has been done for one; it will be done for others.
There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been a deaf mute 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, confidentially, the child might never
hear or speak. A few weeks ago, Dr. Irving Voorhees, a noted specialist on
such cases, examined Blair very thoroughly. He was astounded when he
learned how well my son now hears, and speaks, and said his examination
indicated that “theoretically, the boy should not be able to hear at all.” But the
lad does hear, despite the fact that X-ray pictures show there is no opening in
the skull, whatsoever, from where his ears should be to the brain.
When I planted in his mind the DESIRE to hear and talk, and live as a normal
person, there went with that impulse some strange influence which caused
Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf of silence between his
brain and the outer world, by some means which the keenest medical
specialists have not been able to interpret. It would be sacrilege for me to even
conjecture as to 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.
Verily, a BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting
itself into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing;
now he has it! He was born with a handicap which might easily have sent one
with a less defined DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin
cup. That handicap now promises to serve as the medium by which he will
render useful service to many millions of hard of hearing, also, to give him
useful employment at adequate financial compensation the remainder of his
life. The little “white lies” 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, has justified itself. Verily, there is nothing, right or wrong,
which BELIEF, plus BURNING DESIRE, cannot make real. These qualities
are free to everyone.
In all my experience in dealing with men and women who had
personal problems, I never handled a single case which more
definitely demonstrates 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 is 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 desire, is it logical that mere men can defeat a burning desire?
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 uncover this secret. I planted in
my son’s mind the DESIRE to hear and to speak as any normal person hears
and speaks. That DESIRE has now become a reality. I planted in his mind the
DESIRE to convert his greatest handicap into his greatest asset. That DESIRE
has been realized. The modus operandi by which this astounding result was
achieved is not hard to describe. It consisted of three very definite facts; 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. One short paragraph in the news
dispatch gives the clue to this unusual woman’s stupendous success as a
singer. I quote 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 have him test her voice. But, he did not test it. 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 of 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 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 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 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 depression Ame rica 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 numbers
who must reorganize the ir 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
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.
DESIRE
THE STARTING POINT OF ALL ACHIEVEMENT
The First Step toward Riches
WHEN Edwin C. Barnes climbed down from the freight train in Orange, N. J.,
more than thirty years ago, 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 A. 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, which 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. Today, people who know
Barnes envy him, because of the “break” life yielded him. They see 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 will power, 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
in 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 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 soft.” 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 insured 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 men 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. Every person
who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his 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. 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 more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It stands there today,
a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as a
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. Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other
merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin C.
Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the Edison
organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who
succeed from those who fail. Eve ry human being who reaches the age of
understanding of 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 steps, viz:
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 steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the
instructions in the sixth paragraph. 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 has 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 steps, 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 beginning, to make these principles
yield him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars. It
may be of further help to know that the six steps here recommended were
carefully scrutinized by the late 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 credulous. To apply them calls for no
great amount of education. But the successful application of these six steps
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 is the greatest
potential power in the world today, 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 six year economic collapse has reduced
all men, substantially, to the same level. A ne w race is about to be run. The
stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten
years. The rules of the race have changed, because we now live in a
CHANGED WORLD that definitely favors the masses, those who had but
little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the
depression, when fear paralyzed 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 radio, new ideas
for moving pictures. 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.
The business depression marked 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 the real leaders of the
world always have been men who harnessed, and put into practical use, the
intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and have converted those
forces, [or impulses of thought], into sky-scrapers, 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 remoulded
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, the spirit which serves as the life-blood of
our own country—your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our
talents. 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 worshipped 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 has put more
wheels into operation than any man 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 ten
thousand failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality.
Practical dreamers DO NOT QUIT!
Whelan dreamed of a chain of cigar stores, transformed his dream into action,
and now the United Cigar Stores occupy the best corners in America.
Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black 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 ether.
Evidence that he did not dream in vain, may be found in every wireless and
radio in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the humblest cabin,
and the most stately ma nor house side by side. It made the people of every
nation on earth back-door neighbors. It gave the President of the United States
a medium by which he may talk to all the people of America at one time, and
on short notice. It may interest you to know tha t Marconi’s “friends” had him
taken into custody, and examined in a psychopathic 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. Nay, 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, but 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 REALITY.”
Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world. Your star is
now in the ascendency. The world depression brought the opportunity you
have been waiting for. It taught people humility, tolerance, and openmindedness.
The world is filled with an abundance of OPPORTUNITY which 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 the dreamer, nor calls him impractical. If you
think it does, take a trip to Tennessee, and witness what a dreamer President
has done in the way of harnessing, and using the great water power of
America. A score of years ago, such a dream would have seemed like
madness. You have been disappointed, you have undergone defeat during the
depression, you 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 the Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the finest of all
English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely punished,
because of his views on the subject of religion.
0. 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. Strange and varied are
the ways of life, and stranger still are the ways of Infinite
Intelligence, through which men are sometimes forced to undergo all sorts of
punishment before discovering their own brains, and their own capacity to
create useful ideas through imagination. Edison, the world’s greatest inventor
and scientist, was a “tramp” telegraph operator, he failed innumerable times
before he was driven, finally, to the discovery of the genius which 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 other works that made this a richer and better world for
all who read his books. Disappointment over love affairs, generally has the
effect of driving men to drink, and women to ruin; and this, because most
people never learn the art of transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams
of a constructive nature. Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly
after birth.
Despite her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly
in the pages of the history of the great. Her entire life has served as
evidence that no one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted
as a reality.
Robert Burns was an illiterate country lad, he was cursed by poverty, and
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.
Because he was tolerant, had an open mind at all times, on all subjects, and
was a DREAMER, he left his impress for good on an entire race.
Beethoven was deaf, Milton was blind, but their names will last as long as
time endures, because they dreamed and translated their dreams into
organized thought.
Before passing to the next chapter, kindle ane w in your mind the fire of hope,
faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind, and a working
knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need will come to you,
when you are READY for it. Let Emerson state the thought in these words,
“Every proverb, every book, every byword that belongs to thee for aid and
comfort shall surely come home through open or winding passages.
Every friend whom not thy fantastic will, but the great and tender soul in thee
craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace.” There is a difference between
WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. No one is ready for a
thing, until he believes he 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. A
great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:
“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 climax to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of the most unusual
persons I have ever known. I first saw him twenty- four years ago, a few
minutes after he was born. He came into the world without any physical sign
of ears, and the doctor admitted, when pressed for an opinion, that the child
might be deaf, and mute for life.
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 ears, 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 a deaf 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 newly born child, without the
natural equipment of hearing. Even though he might 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 it 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 bad 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
actions 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 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 ofthe
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 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 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 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 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 handicap 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. For example, the
teachers in school would observe that he had no ears, and, because
of this, they would show him special attention and treat him with
extraordinary kindness. They always did. His mother saw to that, by visiting
the teachers and arranging with them to give the child the extra attention
necessary. I sold him the idea, too, that when he became old enough to sell
newspapers, (his older brother had already become a newspaper merchant), he
would have a big advantage over his brother, for the reason that people would
pay him extra money for his wares, because they could see that he was a
bright, industrious boy, despite the fact he had no ears. We could notice that,
gradually, the child’s hearing was improving. Moreover, he had not the
slightest tendency to be selfconscious, 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 on the street alone.
Finally, he took matters in 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 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
forty-two cents. When we got home that night, we found him in bed asleep,
with the money tightly clenched in his 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 business man whose stock in himself had been increased a
hundred percent, because he had go ne 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 still follows that
plan!
Truly, my own son has taught me that handicaps can be converted into
stepping stones 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 the grades, high school, and college without
being able to hear his teachers, excepting when they shouted loudly, at close
range. He did not go to a school for the deaf.
WE WOULD NOT PERMIT HIM TO LEARN THE SIGN LANGUAGE.
We were determined that he should live a normal life, and associate with
normal children, and we stood by that decision, although it cost us many
heated debates with school officials. While he was in high school, he tried an
electrical hearing aid, but it was of no value to him; due, we believed, to a
condition that was disclosed when the child was six, by Dr. J. Gordon Wilson,
of Chicago, when he operated on one side of the boy’s head, and discovered
that there was no sign of natural hearing equipment. During his last week in
college, (eighteen years after the operation), 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 electrical hearing device,
which was sent to him on trial. He was slow about testing it, due to his
disappointment with a similar 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 heard practically as
well as any person with normal hearing. “God moves in mysterious ways, His
wonders to perform.”
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
talking pictures. 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
handicap 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 be 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 for all time to come. 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 deafened people who go through life without the benefit of
hearing devices, 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
carried on an intensive research, during which he analyzed the entire
marketing system of the manufacturer of the hearing device, and created ways
and means of communicating with the hard of hearing 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 deafened people who, without his help,
would have been doomed forever to deaf mutism.
Shortly after he became associated with the manufacturer of
his hearing aid, he invited me to attend a class conducted by his
company, for the purpose of teaching deaf mutes 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 mutes actually being taught to hear and to speak, through application of
the self-same principle I had used, more than twenty years previously, in
saving my son from deaf mutism. Thus, through some strange turn of the
Wheel of Fate, my son, Blair, and I have been destined to aid in correcting
deaf mutism for those as yet unborn, because we are the only living human
beings, as far as I know, who have established definitely the fact that deaf
mutism can be corrected to the extent of restoring to normal life those who
suffer with this affliction. It has been done for one; it will be done for others.
There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been a deaf mute 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, confidentially, the child might never
hear or speak. A few weeks ago, Dr. Irving Voorhees, a noted specialist on
such cases, examined Blair very thoroughly. He was astounded when he
learned how well my son now hears, and speaks, and said his examination
indicated that “theoretically, the boy should not be able to hear at all.” But the
lad does hear, despite the fact that X-ray pictures show there is no opening in
the skull, whatsoever, from where his ears should be to the brain.
When I planted in his mind the DESIRE to hear and talk, and live as a normal
person, there went with that impulse some strange influence which caused
Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf of silence between his
brain and the outer world, by some means which the keenest medical
specialists have not been able to interpret. It would be sacrilege for me to even
conjecture as to 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.
Verily, a BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting
itself into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing;
now he has it! He was born with a handicap which might easily have sent one
with a less defined DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin
cup. That handicap now promises to serve as the medium by which he will
render useful service to many millions of hard of hearing, also, to give him
useful employment at adequate financial compensation the remainder of his
life. The little “white lies” 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, has justified itself. Verily, there is nothing, right or wrong,
which BELIEF, plus BURNING DESIRE, cannot make real. These qualities
are free to everyone.
In all my experience in dealing with men and women who had
personal problems, I never handled a single case which more
definitely demonstrates 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 is 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 desire, is it logical that mere men can defeat a burning desire?
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 uncover this secret. I planted in
my son’s mind the DESIRE to hear and to speak as any normal person hears
and speaks. That DESIRE has now become a reality. I planted in his mind the
DESIRE to convert his greatest handicap into his greatest asset. That DESIRE
has been realized. The modus operandi by which this astounding result was
achieved is not hard to describe. It consisted of three very definite facts; 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. One short paragraph in the news
dispatch gives the clue to this unusual woman’s stupendous success as a
singer. I quote 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 have him test her voice. But, he did not test it. 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 of 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 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 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 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 depression Ame rica 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 numbers
who must reorganize the ir 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
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.
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