Part III

In Part II, we learned how Mr. Edwin C. Barnes met with Mr. Thomas Edison and made a proposal for partnership. Edison made a counter-offer by offering Barnes a job instead of the partnership that he wanted. Instead of giving up and going back home, Mr. Barnes accepted the offer to work for Edison. Let's see what happens next in Barnes' quest to become a partner with one of the greatest inventors to have ever lived...

Staying focused

Mr. Barnes remained fixed on the idea of a partnership with Mr. Edison which caused him to “remain ready” for the opportunity when it presented itself – because he knew that the opportunity would always present itself because he used the powerful Law of Attraction.

How did Mr. Barnes keep himself motivated? Can you imagine the frustrating and stifling feelings that he experienced? He used positive self-talk and he continued to reaffirm his desire for a business partnership with Mr. Edison.

Mr. Barnes staked his life on his desire and he exhibited what I like to call a “no-fail” attitude – which means that failure was not an option – he would not allow the circumstance of failure to occur – he was unstoppable in his pursuit of his dream. Do you know anyone who is THAT definite? What do I mean? Do you know anyone who has identified their major definite purpose and who has stood on that purpose until it became an obsession?

Determination and persistence in pursuing a desire leads to greater opportunities – Vernon Myers

Barnes was so determined and persistent that he would have stayed as long as it took to capture his dream, however - something happened…

The opportunity appears…

During his daily work, Mr. Barnes was always on the look-out for ways to be of service and to spot potential opportunities. He must have been very observant of his surroundings because his big break came in an unrecognizable way and from a different direction than where he was expecting it. His level of attraction was so strong that he attracted his desire not in the way he wanted it but in the way that God wanted to bless him.

Mr. Hill states that opportunity often comes disguised as misfortune or temporary defeat. I am sure that Mr. Barnes may have experienced frustration and discouragement because things were not moving fast enough for him. I am sure that most of us would have failed to recognize the opportunity because it was not presented in a neatly wrapped package labeled “your opportunity of a lifetime.”

Mr. Edison created a dictating machine that his salesmen were not enthusiastic about selling. They didn’t think that it would sale without a lot of effort. Mr. Barnes immediately recognized an opportunity. Why? His mind was oriented to spot opportunities all around him. He clearly recognized that this was an opportunity to fulfill his desire of becoming Edison’s partner by taking the new invention and selling it to the best of his ability.

Mr. Barnes saw opportunity where others saw obstacles and fears because he was truly interested in Edison’s work, which ultimately lead to his goal of becoming a partner with Edison while everyone else continued to sit back and complain about how they “couldn’t” sell the dictating machines – basically giving a lot of excuses.

Mr. Barnes displayed outstanding confidence in his own abilities by suggesting to Edison that he would sell the machine. And sold it he did. Barnes lived up to his claim by selling the machine so successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute the machine nationally. Talk about exploiting an opportunity! He hit this opportunity out of the proverbial park. He hit a home-run. He became a business partner with the great Thomas Edison – goal achieved and desire fulfilled.

What can we learn from Mr. Barnes?

Mr. Barnes teaches us that thoughts are things and that our thoughts can make us rich. For example, Barnes earned two or three million dollars based upon one idea. Clearly, Barnes became a very wealthy man, but his greatest asset was not the money he earned, but the fact that he learned how to take his thoughts and transmute them into material rewards by the application of certain principles. Remember, the only assets he started with were his desire, his knowledge of what he wanted, and his determination to stick with it no matter how long it would take to realize.

So what is the secret of Think and Grow Rich?

The secret was revealed to us by Mr. Earl Nightingale, one of the pioneers of the self-improvement industry and co-founder of Nightingale-Conant, in one of his audio recordings. One night he jumped up because in an instant he was given the insight about what this secret was – he ran to his wife and said, “I’ve got it!” Obviously, she was probably thinking – what does he have that is causing so much excitement? Earl proceeded to tell her that the secret that he had been trying to find for all of these years is that you become what you think about most of the time! Your thoughts control who and what you become.

I know this is not an earth shattering insight, but this secret has puzzled me for years until I really started to pay attention to what Mr. Hill and other writers have been saying and writing. The key to really “getting” this insight is to examine how you think and the results you are getting right now.

If your results are not what you want them to be – examine what you have been thinking about on a daily basis and you will see that your results match your thoughts - exactly. If you want to change your results, change what you think about on a daily basis. Your outer “physical” world will match your inner “mental” world – perfectly. If you have not aligned your thinking then you will have the experience of incongruence – nothing will match.

The best way to find out if your thoughts are aligned with reality is to look at what you are currently experiencing. For example, if you want to experience success in your job, you first have to identify what success means to you. Does success mean promotions, more money, or more responsibility?

The next step is to look at what is actually happening in your current environment. Are you having the experience of promotions, more money, or more responsibility? If the answer is "no," your thoughts are not in alignment with your desires.

You are probably thinking, “Well, how can I align my thoughts with my desires?” Let me direct you back to Think and Grow Rich, Chapter 2: Desire – The Starting of All Achievement.

This is Part III and the last installment of the article titled The Secret of Think and Grow Rich.