DESIRE

THE STARTING POINT OF ALL ACHIEVEMENT

The First Step toward Riches

WHEN Edwin C. Barnes climbed down from the freight train in Orange,

N. J., more than thirty years ago, he may have resembled a tramp, but his

thoughts were those of a king! 

As he made his way from the railroad tracks to Thomas A. Edison's office,

his mind was at work. He saw himself standing in Edison's presence. He heard

himself asking Mr. Edison for an opportunity to carry out the one CONSUMING

OBSESSION OF HIS LIFE, a BURNING DESIRE to become the business associate

of the great inventor.

Barnes' desire was not a hope! It was not a wish! It was a keen, pulsating

DESIRE, which transcended everything else. It was DEFINITE.

The desire was not new when he approached Edison. It had been Barnes'

dominating desire for a long time. In the beginning, when the desire first appeared

in his mind, it may have been, probably was, only a wish, but it was no mere

wish when he appeared before Edison with it. 

A few years later, Edwin C. Barnes again stood before Edison, in the same

office where he first met the inventor. This time his DESIRE had been translated

into reality. He was in business with Edison. The dominating DREAM OF HIS LIFE

had become a reality. Today, people who know Barnes envy him, because of the

"break" life yielded him. They see him in the days of his triumph, without taking

the trouble to investigate the cause of his success. 

Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal, placed all his energy,

all his will power, all his effort, everything back of that goal. He did not become

the partner of Edison the day he arrived. He was content to start in the most

menial work, as long as it provided an opportunity to take even one step toward

his cherished goal.