Desire - The Role it Plays In Our Success

I was gratified by the number of entries and interactions between participants in the Chapter 1 post and can say without hesitation that everyone agreed how important a role thought plays in shaping our lives. Many examples were given that added to the value to that post.

I particularly enjoyed reading how the lessons in Chapter 1 are going to be used to help our online businesses grow and thrive.

Napoleon Hill ended Chapter 1 with the following statement:

Whatever the Mind of Man Can CONCEIVE and BELIEVE it Can ACHIEVE.

This is a great transition to Chapter 2 where the topic is DESIRE!

Burned Bridges

One of the main takeaways is that our desire to achieve one's goal must be so strong that we are willing to "burn bridges" remove any options of going back.

Failure is NOT an option. This doesn't mean we will have no setbacks. In fact, when we embark on our quest towards our main goal, we will experience setbacks. That is to be expected. In Napoleon Hill's lexicon a setback is not a failure. A failure occurs only when we give up on our dreams.

We have a choice to give up or not. As long as we do not give up, we have not failed.

I didn't see it that way before. I assumed that a setback was a failure. And that we need to fail our way to success.

My thinking has now changed. The tasks that we do can fail. That doesn't mean we have failed. When we face a barrier, we must look at alternate ways to overcome the problem that we face at that moment in time.

Wishy Washy Words

How often when we are given an important task to do, or in this case making our goals, we respond by saying,

"I will TRY my best."

Doesn't that create an out? If we try our best and fail, we somehow do not feel responsible, We are only admitting that our best effort was not enough. With an attitude like this we can never achieve our goals.

Once the desire to achieve our main goal is so strong, we must never use the word TRY. Instead, say, "I will DO my best" And never give up until our desire is met.

Achieving Goals

I found it inspiring how Edwin Barnes achieved his goal of becoming a fully fledged business partner of Thomas Edison. When he set out on this quest, there was no trying. Or having an alternative if he failed.

Failure was NO option. Mr. Barnes did succeed and achieved his goal.

He first thought about it. That thought morphed into a burning desire. He figured out the steps he needed to get what he wanted. And there was no going back. The outcome would be win or perish.

The Question We Have To Answer

When we embarked on our affiliate marketing journey I am assuming we all wanted to succeed. How strong is that desire? Is it as strong as Dr. Edwin Barnes? Do we want to succeed no matter what it takes or for how long?

Napoleon Hill provides us a process to make sure we can achieve our goal. It's in the section entitled, Six Ways to Turn Desires into Gold. Let me paraphrase it here.

Six Ways To Turn Desire Into Gold

1) We must know the EXACT amount of money we want. In my mind to figure this out we have to know precisely what we need that money for. Napoleon Hill doesn't mention this. It is up to you to decide if this step is necessary for you.

2) What are we willing to GIVE in return for that money. An exchange is necessary.

3) We have to set a date when we intend to POSSESS that money

4) Create a definite plan and start at once. Even if we are not ready. We must put this plan into action

I thought we were done here. But Napoleon Hill in his wisdom directed us to do the following two things.

5) Write this all down clearly, especially the action steps of the plan.

6) Read this aloud twice daily

He implied that we should not question the logic of these 6 steps. Just do it if we want to get that money we so desire.

It was the method Andrew Carnegie used and shared with Mr. Hill. Interestingly Edison "scrutinized' these six steps and expanded it to be used to accomplish any goal other than accumulating wealth.

The Wisdom Behind These Words

I am going to quote the following two paragraphs verbatim as I think it is the crux of this lesson:

"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."

The words in the next section, "The Power Of Great Dreams" is very important too. But I will leave you to read that.

The Universe Gives You What You Ask For

Another lesson I learned in this chapter is you get what you ask for. If you ask to earn a penny, that is all you will earn, metaphorically speaking of course.

The main point being we got to have BIG dreams. Since we have to put forth effort, it may take only a little more to achieve a BIG dream as a SMALL one.

In affiliate marketing I liken this to scaling up our business. Once we have something that works, the effort to double the outcome is not also double. It may be only a little more.

If that is the case, why not aim HIGH?

Some of us may feel that aiming to accumulate a lot of wealth is considered at best wishful thinking and at worse, being greedy. Not so according to Think and Grow Rich. Thinking that way could hold us back.

But money doesn't have to be our only desire. The story of Blair exemplifies an alternative desire.

The Story Of Blair

Napoleon Hill had a son called Blair who was born with no ears. He couldn't hear.

Most parents would have accepted that and prepared their kid to compensate for that by learning sign language and lip-reading.

Not Napoleon. He told his son that he will find a way for him to hear naturally. Instead of enrolling Blair into special needs schools he put him into regular school no matter how hard the challenge was.

This story is about how Blair eventually learned to hear without using his deaf ears. I am not going to summarize this story as I feel this is best enjoyed through the words of Napoleon Hill in his book.

This is the quintessential example of having a burning desire to achieve a goal, coming up with a plan, never giving up, nor stopping until that goal was realized. And this had nothing to do with money.

It proves an important point that Think and Grow Rich can also be used to achieve goals other than money. And that should resonate with a lot of people.

Assignment for Chapter 2

Review the 6 Steps in Chapter 2 and follow what it tells you to do. Please share Step 5 with the group if you so wish.

It would be great to know if you have started to read what you wrote in Step 5 twice a day and how did that feel.

Read what others have contributed and comment if you wish.

I wish you much success in your affiliate marketing journey.

Edwin

Links to this and previous Chapter Posts are provided in the original post:

Think and Grow Rich Couls Be Worth A Million Dollars To You!