How To Build A Better World: Leaving On a Freight Train

Food For Thoughtr
Have you ever thought about thought? Think about it.

In my current recreational fiction (I have several great American novels in various states of completion), I have a character say that words are just the sounds that thoughts leave behind. I think this is true even of the written word, because do we not read a word and hear the sound of it in our mind.

The first line of the first chapter of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich tells us this:

Truly, ‘thoughts are things,’ and powerful things at that when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation into riches or other material objects.

Burning Desirer
Hill tells us the story of Edwin C. Barnes who had a BURNING DESIRE to become a business associate of the great inventor, Thomas Edison (think light bulbs among other things).

Barnes was definite in his ambition. He wanted to work with Edison, not for him. But there were two major problems: He did not know Mr. Edison and he did not have the money for railroad fare to Orange, New Jersey, where Edison had his headquarters.

Determinationr
But Barnes had determination. He merely hopped a freight train. Mr. Edison had this to say about Barnes when he presented himself to him for the first time:

He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp (My note: which, since he had hopped a freight train, he was.), but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really DESIRES a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked for, because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved that no mistake was made.

Apparently what young Barnes said to Mr. Edison on that occasion was less important than what he thought. It was the THOUGHT that counted.

The Climb Upr
Now, Barnes didn’t get his partnership with Edison on that first visit, but he did get a chance to work his way up. He took a minor position at a nominal wage, because it gave him the opportunity to display his “merchandise” (himself and his determination) where his intended “partner” could see it.

Months went by when it seemed that nothing was happening to bring Barnes closer to his BHAG (Modern parlance: Big Hairy Audacious Goal). But “when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.”

Barnes was ready and he was determined to stay ready until he got what he wanted. he didn’t content himself with his menial job and low wage. He didn’t say “Ah, well, what’s the use? I guess I’ll change my mind and try for a salesman’s job.”

He did say to himself, “I came here to go into business with Edison and I’ll accomplish it if it takes the remainder of my life.” He meant it!

As Hill points out, “What a different story men (My addition: and women) would have to tell if only they would adopt a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession.

Never Give In, Never Give Upr
This story reminds me of what Winston Churchill said at Harrow School in 1941 (after Hill had published his book) “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”

Barnes finally got the opportunity he was seeking but it came in a different form and direction than he expected (My note: When opportunity knocks, it may be wearing a disguise.).

Mr. Edison had just perfected a new office device, a dictating machine. His sales people weren’t enthusiastic; they didn’t think that they would be able to sell it. But Barnes thought he could, and he did. Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it all over the country. “Made by Edison and installed by Barnes”. The business partnership that Barnes had desired was now in place. And it made him rich.

More Important Than Money?
But perhaps more important than the money the partnership made him, Barnes acquired a definite knowledge that “an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles.”

He literally THOUGHT his way to what he wanted because he had the capacity to “KNOW WHAT HE WANTED, AND THE DETERMINATION TO STAND BY THAT DESIRE UNTIL HE REALIZED IT.”

Like the Little Engine That Could, Barnes thought he could and he did.