Attitude Is Everything: "Failure Is Not An Option"

Napoleon Hill captures and concretizes this "Failure Is Not An Option" mind set in the story of Edwin C. Barnes who, out of nowhere, became one of Thomas Edison's most successful business partners.

So poor, Mr. Barnes could not afford transportation to Orange N.J., the location of the Edison offices, so he hitched a ride on an open freight train car with one burning objective -- to become a business associate of Mr. Edison:

Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal, placed all his energy, all his willpower, all his effort, everything back of that goal.

Edison hired him -- not as a business partner -- but as a menial office worker.

For five years, not one ray of hope, not one promise of attainment of his desire had been held out to him. To everyone he appeared only as 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.

When he went to Orange, he did not say to himself "I will try to induce Edison to give me a job of some sort." He said, "I will see Edison, and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him."

He wasn't goal shy: he set his sights high and he made his goals public.

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." [instead, he said] "I will start anywhere. I will do anything Edison tells me to do, but before I am though, 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." [instead, 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 sake my entire future on my ability to get what I want."

~ quotes italized, from "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill

A personal prayer . . .