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It is a new week, and as we all know, on Mondays we publish a
motivational post which we styled food for thought. Today we are going to learn how important it is to
have a strong desire that compels one to “burn the bridges”

A long
while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to
make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to
send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He
loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded
soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried
them. Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, “You see the
boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive
unless we win! We now have no choice—we win, or we perish! They
won.

Every
person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut
all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that
state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE TO WIN, essential to success.

The morning after the great Chicago fire, a group of
merchants stood on State Street, looking at the smoking remains of what had
been their stores. They went into a conference to decide if they would try to
rebuild, or leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the
country. They reached a decision—all except one—to leave Chicago.

The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a
finger at the remains of his store, and said, “Gentlemen, on that very
spot I will build the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may
burn down.”

That was more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It
stands there today, a towering monument to the power of that state of mind
known as a BURNING DESIRE. The easy thing for Marshal Field to have done, would
have been exactly what his fellow merchants did. When the going was hard, and
the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where the going seemed
easier.

Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the
other merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin C.
Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the Edison
organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who
succeed from those who fail.

Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of
the purpose of money, wishes for it. Wishing
will not bring riches. But desiring riches
with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and
means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring
riches.