CHAPTER 2
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
