The Importance of Desire

I have to say this right out, "Think and Grow Rich" is not the book I thought it was going to be.  When you hear the title you think that the author is going to talk about how to handle your finances and what investments you should make.  But, as I've been reading, there has not been one reference to savings accounts or 401Ks. 

What I have seen references to is the building blocks of becoming rich.  And I need to emphasize that becoming rich not only reflects money.  These steps can be used to for attaining anything you desire. 

See, I connected what I was saying to the title of this post!

Now this book is broken down into sixteen chapters, thirteen of them are the steps to riches. And this is what Napoleon Hill, the author, says is the first step to riches. Desire!  And not just any desire.  A BURNING DESIRE.  The kind that will keep you going no matter how many times you fail trying to achieve your goal.  The kind that you will stake your entire future on.  The kind that will.... well you get the picture.  And it's only this kind of desire that makes nothing seem impossible.

Now through the book you get to read the success stories of many famous, rich and successful people out there, both from the 1920's and 30's, as well as present day (if you have the modern edition like I do).  And it's through these stories that the thirteen steps to riches, developed by Napoleon Hill, are shown to be the truth.  It's easy to say that you should do this and that to make yourself rich.  But when you have several hundred rich, powerful, and successful people agreeing with these steps, then it's probably a good idea to follow through with them if you too want to be rich, powerful and successful.

Now the chapter on desire goes into how perseverance, tolerance and an open mind are all necessary with following your desires.  And the ability to see each failure as a lesson on how to succeed rather than a roadblock that should stop you.  It also tells several great stories about people following their desires no matter what naysayers said or how many times they failed.  But there was one particular story that was told that really resonated with me.  That was the story Napoleon Hill wrote about his son.

He doesn't say his name but his second son was born with a defect that caused him to have no hearing whatsoever.  And not just the act of hearing, he had no ears or physical parts to be able to hear.  And Napoleon was told this by the doctors when he was born, that he would be a deaf mute for the rest of his life.  Napoleon wouldn't hear it though.  He was determined to make sure his son would hear.  There is alot more to this story then what I'm going to tell you, but the point of it was that every day Napoleon made sure that he spoke to his son as if he could hear.  He played music for him and would clap and make loud noises to get him to hear.  And what little hearing could possibly have been there came through.  Napoleon sent him to school with normal children, had him earn money when he wanted something, and had him do chores like any other child.  And every day he would say to his son how special he was with his gift and that he would change the world one day with it.  And in the end he did when he helped thousands of deaf people get access to hearing aids when they were first being developed. 

I was extremely effected by this story because I think it's just incredible.  I mean Napoleon didn't have to support his child this way.  He could have agreed with everyone that his child was deaf and should be treated like such.  And then he wouldn't have done these amazing things.

But the other reason this story effected me so was that desire persevered over failure and negativity.  This child could have just been told to accept that he was deaf and that there was nothing he could do about it.  He could have gone on with his life never trying to hear again.  All because from birth he was told by doctors and other naysayers that he would never hear.  And I can see this rhythm happening for many desires in life.  There always seems to be the people who think something is impossible, or crazy, or downright insane.  And, more often than not, those thoughts get into our heads and poison our desires, our dreams.  I know it as well as anyone.  It only takes someone to disagree with me to make me think twice about what I'm doing.  I might not change what I'm doing, but it will give me pause and allow that evil feeling of doubt come in.

So I have decided that if desire is what is the first step to anything I want then I must not let my desires be doubted or thought impossible.  That I must not see failure as a stopping point but as a lesson on how I can fulfill my desires. That I must be open minded to new ideas because they might be the building blocks to my dreams.

And I'll start all that with my first activity of this book.......

......which I'll tell you all about in my next blog post.