“One of the giants of the 20th Century was Henry Ford. His vision, ingenuity and determination made him an incredible success. Yet, it has been reported that Henry Ford was terribly shy and lacked charisma. This is wonderful news. If Ford could succeed as lackluster as he was, perhaps, all of us can. So how did he?
Napoleon Hill offered us lots of examples of success because he studied more 500 of the richest and most powerful of his day. He claims that Ford possessed something quite remarkable. He possessed enthusiasm but Ford’s enthusiasm was what Hill calls ‘passive’. His personality was limp but inside he was on fire.
Hill pointed out that if you have a white hot burning desire for your Definite Chief Purpose you can develop effective working enthusiasm. This is what he maintains Ford had. While seemingly passive on the outside his enthusiasm was quite active and dynamic on the inside. I quote Napoleon below.
If You Think You Can Or You Think You Can’t You Are Right
‘When you want something real badly, you make up your mind to get it. You have that burning desire. It steps up your thinking processes. It wakes your imagination so that your imagination goes to work and works all the ways and means for getting the thing you desire.’
‘That enthusiasm gives you a brighter mind. It makes you more alert to opportunities. You see opportunities that you never saw before when your mind is stepped up to that state of enthusiasm for a burning desire for something definite.’
Ford’s enthusiasm was inwardly directed. His enthusiasm was focused on and transmuted into his imagination, his power of faith and his personal initiative. Ford believed that he could do whatever he wanted to do. So he went and did it or got it done.
Don’t Find A Fault Find A Remedy
He kept his mind sharp and alert with applied faith (the ability to believe fully and take action toward your goal because of that certainty) through his passive enthusiasm. He delighted in thinking about what it was he was going to do and all the joy would get from doing it.
Hill, said he once asked him, after Ford was already greatly successful, if he ever wanted anything or wanted to do anything that he couldn’t do. Ford said, ‘No. Not in the recent years.’ He said when younger, until that time he learned how to get or to do whatever he wanted to do, he couldn’t answer in the affirmative.
Hill then said, ‘Mr. Ford, are you saying if there is anything that you need or want you can get it?” Ford said, ‘That’s right. I’ve formed the habit of putting my mind on the can-do part of every problem. If I have a problem, there’s always something I can do about it; there are many things I can’t do but something I can do and I start where I can do something.’
Failure Is The Opportunity To Begin Again More Intelligently
Ford added, ‘As I use up the can do part of it, the no can do simply just vanishes. When I get to the river where I expected to have a bridge, I didn’t need the bridge because the river was dry.”
Hill says, ‘People have the greatest asset in the world; an asset sufficient unto all of their needs. That asset consists of the privilege of using their own mind and thinking their own thoughts and directing those own thoughts to whatever objective they choose and yet they don’t do it.’ That is sad and unfortunate.
Yet, Hill says, ‘When people do change the reason they change is that they discovered this great mind power and start using it.’ You and I can use our minds in much more efficient and better ways to live the kind of life we want. We can make our dreams come true.
Obstacles Are What You See If You Take Your Eyes Off The Goal
There is absolutely no reason we can’t or shouldn’t. It is making the best use of your natural resources and learning to develop our talents and abilities. We CAN DO just as Henry Ford did. We can put all of our resourcefulness to work for us. We can develop our inner enthusiasm and our abilities toward productive means and ends.
Ford maintained that whenever anyone gave him a counter opinion or information from the media of his day or they said ‘I hear tell’ that he did not pay any attention to what was said. He maintained that it was because what they were saying might not be accurate.
Once he knew the source, if the source was faulty, then there were chances the statement was faulty. If he wanted to do something he wasn’t discouraged by the experts, or the popular opinions of his day. He wasn’t put off by attempts to discourage him whatever the reasons. He went ahead anyway.
You Can Do Anything If You Have Enthusiasm
If he had a problem he wanted to solve or an objective he wanted to realize, if he wanted to turn out a new model or increase his production, he immediately put his mind to work on the plan to make it happen. He looked for how he could do it and he never paid any attention to the obstacles.
Ford did this because he knew, after years of applying his mind in particular ways to make his plans come true, that his new plan was strong and definite and backed with the right kind of active faith. He was convinced that any opposition he might meet with would melt away. He developed experience using and relying on his mind.
Ford said, ‘The astounding thing is, that if you took that attitude of putting your mind behind the ‘can-do’ part of every problem then the ‘no-can-do’ part takes to it’s heels and runs.’ Hill stated that was true in his experience as well. Turn on the light and darkness flees on its own. You don’t have to push the darkness out.
Anyone Who Stops Learning Is Old Whether Twenty or Eighty
Hill, states, ‘And my experience has been that if you want to do something, you’ll work yourself up into a faith of white hot enthusiasm. Go to work where you stand.’ If it’s nothing more than drawing a picture in your mind of the things you want to do then keep drawing that picture and making it more vivid all the time… That’s one of the strange things of life but that’s the way it works.’
He encouraged all of us to use the mental tools available to us. Happily, we all can. AND we can use all the tools. We just have to begin where we are. Right now. As we are. We can decide to make our lives more of what we want. It begins with the decision. What decision will you make today?” Rex Sikes
Today, make more moments to delight in!
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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.
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