Sean Rasmussen

Darby stands as illustration to both failure in the face of temporary defeat and success in the face of persistence. In the end, we are able to look back with Napoelon Hill and learn how each instance had an effect on Darby’s ultimate financial success.

“After Mr. Hill described to Mr. Darby the power the girl unwittingly used on his uncle, Darby quickly reassessed his thirty years as a life insurance salesman, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that field was due, in large part, to the lesson he had learned from the child.

Darby pointed out: “every time a potential customer tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to make this sale.’ The majority of all the sales I have made were made after people had said ‘No’.”

Darby did acknowledge his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold; “but,” he said, “that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.”

Work Through Your Obstacles

To be sure, that is a lesson that must be learned by all who will succeed and become wealthy. Perhaps with our help you’ll be able to forgo learning the lesson the ‘hard way’ like Darby did, and learn it instead from these pages. Either way, as I’ve said before, working through obstacles and temporary defeat is empowering; once you know you can succeed by pushing forward, success is quick to come.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

You can find examples of modern persistence that has paid off (as well as, no doubt, failure to persist that didn’t) in many of the world’s most loved authors.

“This same persistence is what often brings us the greatest modern authors. The best-selling authors of our time do not become famous only because of their superior writing talents. They also excel because they persevere until their works are published. They refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer. Nearly every well-known author—Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, and so many more—had their works rejected numerous times before being published and made rich for their efforts. (Rowling’s famed first Harry Potter novel was rejected eight times before being published; since then, the Potter series has made J.K. Rowling the richest writer in history.)

If you stay sharp and pay attention, you’ll see exactly what strange power came to the rescue of the child; you’ll get a glimpse of this power in the next chapter. Somewhere in the book you will key in on an idea that reveals this same irresistible power to you, and then you will be able to use it to your own advantage. The awareness of this power may come to you in the first chapter, or it may flash into your mind later on. It may come in the form of a single idea. Or, it may come as a part of a larger plan or purpose. Again, it may prompt you to look back into your past experiences of failure or defeat, and teach you some lesson you missed before, a lesson that allows you to regain all you lost through defeat.”

When you put your finger on this power, you’ll have an indispensable tool that will guide every decision you make from that day forward, and you’ll see why you’ve not become wealthy before being conscious of this power and the Secret revealed in this book.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

The title of this post is introduction enough to the next installment from Mindset Mastery, so I’ll let Napoleon Hill continue with the conclusion to this episode.

“Ironically, Darby told this unusual story to the author inside the old mill, on the very spot where the uncle took his whipping. Ironically, too, this story was told to the author after he had devoted nearly a quarter of a century to studying that very power–the power which enabled an ignorant, illiterate colored child to conquer an intelligent man.

As the two (the author and Darby) stood there in that musty old mill, Darby repeated the story of the unusual conquest, and finished by asking, “What can you make of it? What strange power did that child use, that so completely whipped my uncle?”

The answer to his question will be found in the principles detailed in this book. The answer is full and complete. It contains details and instructions sufficient enough to enable anyone to understand and apply the same force the small girl accidentally stumbled upon.”

The power is more than persistence

We’ve mentioned persistence as this power, but to be fair, this power is more than simple persistence. What that additional power is may be different for individual readers, as is its bearing on their own experience and circumstance; Napoleon Hill does not define the power because he wishes for each reader to discover its form and importance on their own, in the way that it will benefit them the greatest. I’ll do the same and not venture too much of my own personal conjecture. We’ll see what else of it we can uncover as we move along.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008

We’ll pick up the story of Darby’s Uncle and the young tenant-farmer’s girl where we left off…

“Darby held his breath. He was certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper. He knew that colored children were not supposed to defy white people in that part of the country.

When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her lungs, “my Mammy’s gotta have that fifty cents!”

The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the wood on the floor. He put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her.

The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered. After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and stared out the window into space for more than ten minutes. He was contemplating, with awe, the whipping he had just taken.

Mr. Darby, too, was doing some thinking. That was the first time in his life he had seen a colored child deliberately master an adult white person. How did she do it? What happened to his uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other similar questions flashed through Darby’s mind; but he did not find the answer until years later, when he told me the story.”

No doesn’t always mean no

You might be finding it difficult, just as Darby did, to put a name to the power Napoleon Hill refers to here. Regardless, at least take away this fact that Hill is working hard to bring to light—that ‘No’ doesn’t always mean ‘No’ if you have the courage and persistence to see a thing through, and refuse to be bullied by powers who seem bigger than you. Add this to your list of small lessons that will complete the whole of the Secret.

I will see you back here Monday and Thursday every week for the continuation of the Mindset Mastery series.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 - 2008