I was listening to Napoleon Hill’s Think And Grow Rich by Audio Renaissance this morning and he distinguished what sets people who are successful aside from those who fail. One thing is Winners Never Quit and Quiters Never Win. He illustrated this with the story about Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb. The man failed over ten thousand times and went on with the next effort and the next and the next untill he finally made it.

Napoleon also found that wishing and hoping brings us nothing else then wishing and hoping.

What really works is a burning desire to achieve something. In other words close the doors behind you, so you can’t come back. This he illustrated with the story about the Vikings coming to Yorkshire. They were on the beach and their commander said to one or two of them: Here you have torches. Go back to the ships and burn them. When they came back on the beach the commander said to his men: Now we have two choices. Either we win or die. They won against an enemy that outnumbered them many times.

The rest is history.

Robert Oosthout