The man who 'Thought' his way into Partnership with Thomas A. Edison
Truly, 'thoughts are things', and powerful things at that, when mixed with purpose, persistence and a burning desire for their translation into riches or other material objects.
Edwin C. Barnes discovered how true it is that men really do think and grow rich. His discovery did not come about at one sitting. It came little by little, beginning with a burning desire to become a business associate of the great Thomas Edison. One of the chief characteristics of Barnes' desire was that it was definite. He wanted to work with Edison, not for fun for him.Observe, carefully, the disciption of how he went about translating his desire into reality, and you will have a better understanding of the 13 principles which lead to riches. When the desire, or impulse of thought, first flashed into his mind he was in no position to act upon it. Two difficulties stood in his way. He did not know Mr Edison, and he did not have enough money to pay his real fare to Orange, New Jersey. These difficulties were sufficient to have discouraged the majority of people from making any attempt to carry out the desire. But his was no ordinary desire! He was so determined to find a way to carry out his desire that he finally decided to travel by 'blind baggage', rather than be defeated. (To the uninitiated, this means that he went to East Orange on a freight train.) He presented himself at Mr Edison's laboratory, and announced he had come to go into business with the inventor. In speaking of the first meeting between them, years later, Mr Edison said, 'He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked for, because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved that no mistake was made'. Just what young Barnes said to Mr Edison on that occasion was far less important than what he thought. Edison himself said so! It could not have been the young man's appearance that got him his start in the Edison office, for that was definitely against him. It was what he thought that counted. If the significance of this statement could be conveyed to every person who reads it, there would be no need for the remainder of this. Barnes did not get his partnership with Edison on his first interview. He did get a chance to work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work that was unimportant to Edison, but most important to Barnes. It gave him an opportunity to display his 'merchandise' where his intended 'partner' could see it. Months went by. Apparently nothing happened to bring the coveted goal, which Barnes had set up in his mind as his definite major purpose. But something important was happening in Barnes mind. He was constantly intensifying his desire to become the business associate of Edison. Psychologists have correctly said,'when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance'. Barnes was ready for a business association with Edison; moreover, he was determined to remain ready until he got that which he was seeking. He did not say to himself,'Ah well, what is the use? I guess I'll change my mind and try for a salesman's job'. But he did say, 'I came here to go into business with Edison, and I'll accomplish this if it takes the remainder of my life.' He meant it! What a different story people would have to tell if only they would adopt a definite purpose, and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession! Maybe young Barnes did not know it at the time, but his bulldog determination, his persistence with a single desire, was destined to mow down all opposition and bring him the opportunity he was seeking. When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different direction than Barnes expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognise opportunity. Mr Edison had just perfected a new office device, known at the time as the Edison Dictating Machine (later called the Ediphone). His salesmen were not enthusiastic over the machine. They did not believe it could be sold without great effort. Barnes saw his opportunity. It had crawled in quietly, hidden in a queer-looking machine that interested no one but Burnes and the inventor. Barnes knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine. He suggested this to Edison and promptly got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he sold it so successfully that Edison gave a contract to distribute and market it all over the nation. Out of that business association grew the slogan,'Made by Edison and installed by Barnes'. This business alliance made Barnes rich in money, but he accomplished something infinitely greater:he proved that one really may 'Think and Grow Rich'. How much actual cash that original desire of Barnes was worth to him, I have no way of knowing. Perhaps, it brought him two or three million dollars. Whatever the amount, it becomes insignificant when compared with the greater asset he acquired, the definite knowledge that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles. Barnes literally thought himself into partnership with the great Edison! He thought himself into a fortune. he had nothing to start with, except the capacity to know what he wanted, and the determination to stand by that desire until he realised it. He had no money to begin with. He had but little education. He had no influence. But he did have initiative, faith and the will to win. With these intangible forces he made himself number one man with the greatest inventor who ever lived. Now, let us look at a different situation, and study a man who had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it because he stopped three feet short of the goal he was seeking. Three Feet from Gold One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. R.U.Darby, who later became one of the most successful insurance salesmen in the country, tells the story of his uncle, who was caught by the 'gold fever' in the gold-rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich. He had never heard the saying that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite. After weeks of labour, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williams burg, Maryland, and told his relatives and a few neighbours of the 'strike'. They got together money for the needed machinery and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine. The first car of ore was mined and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits. Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened - the vein of gold ore disappeared. They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there. They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again, all to no avail. Finally, they decided to quit. They sold the machine to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some 'junk' men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer advised that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with 'fault lines'. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darby's had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found. The junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R.U.Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbours,because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so. Long afterwards, Mr Darby recouped his loss many times over when he made the discovery that desire can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. Remembering that he had lost a huge fortune because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work. His simple method was to say to himself,'I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance.' He owes his 'stickability' to the lesson he learned from his 'quitability' in the gold mining business. Before success comes to most people, they are sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and perhaps some failure. When faced with defeat the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of people do. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one up when success is almost within reach.
