“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in the film, Wall Street

We saw it in the film Stay Hungry with Arnold Schwarzenegger and again in Wall Street with Michael Douglas, the secret to success is hunger… a deep insatiable hunger to win and succeed. It’s a simple message. It’s been promoted in movies, in books, tapes, CDs etc… yet it does not seem to get through.

The message gained worldwide attention in the 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In his book, Mr. Hill talks about a burning desire. He says, “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”

The secret for success has been called, greed, hunger, burning desire along with many other variations of the same element; however, for many people, the message does not seem to get across. The theory is mentally understood but the formula does not gel.

It is easy to understand that desire is essential to succeed at anything. What is not so evident is to grasp the intensity that this desire needs to be if it’s to be truly effective. The notion of desire is easy to understand. What is much harder to convey and to seize is the quality of the passion with which this desire has to be felt.

The intensity of the desire that is required has to be proportional to the scope of the object of that desire. The bigger the objective the more passionate the desire has to be. Anyone who can truly connect with this fundamental axiom does not need another piece of advice on how to succeed. It says it all.

The story of success is the story of desire and the story of great success is the story of passionate desire of epic proportion. The kind of desire that will motivate the world-class athlete to train everyday for years to the point of exhaustion.

The kind of desire that motivated actor Sylvester Stallone to turn down an offer of $350,000 for the script of the movie Rocky because they would not let him be the leading actor in the film. And that, at the time when Stallone was so broke that he had to sell his beloved dog, Butkus, for $15.00 because he could no longer afford to feed him.

Benjamin Disraeli said, “Nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.” That says something about the power of a burning desire. If the desire is great enough, almost anything is possible.

Do we have to be obsessed to succeed? Actually, what is needed for large-scale accomplishments and major success is what could be called, “a magnificent obsession.” That is, a consummate passion but not a consuming one. A passion that gives wings but not one that destroys. The kind of passion that can be controlled but is not controlling. The passion that stands at the edge but will not topple over.

Success is like a beautiful mistress that has to be pursued with the passion of a burning desire. Once that this truism is understood, accepted and assimilated, the path is open and the road is clear. Then, all that is required to succeed on any scale is to follow the heart’s dictate. That’s where the compass that leads to the brass ring resides.

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Tags: Personal Development