By Napoleon Hill
Over 125 years ago, an old country doctor drove to town, hitched his horse, quietly slipped into a drug store by the back door, and began "dickering" with the young drug clerk. His mission was destined to yield great wealth to many people. For more than an hour behind the prescription counter, the old doctor and the clerk talked in low tones. Then the doctor left. He went out to the buggy and brought back a large, old fashioned kettle, a big wooden paddle (used for stirring the contents of the kettle), and deposited them in the back of the store.
The clerk inspected the kettle, reached into his inside pocket, took out a roll of bills, and handed it over to the doctor. The roll contained exactly $500.00, the clerk's entire savings! the doctor handed over a small slip of paper on which was written a secret formula. The words on that small slip of paper were worth a King's ransom! But not to the doctor! These magic words were needed to start the kettle to boiling, but neither the doctor nor the young clerk knew what the fabulous fortunes were destined to flow from that kettle. The old doctor was glad to sell the outfit for five hundred dollars. The money would pay off his debts, and give him freedom of mind. The clerk was taking a big chance by staking his entire life's savings on a mere scrap of paper and an old kettle! He never dreamed his investment would start a kettle to overflowing with gold that would surpass the miraculous performance of Aladdin's lamp. What the clerk really purchased was an IDEA! The old kettle and the wooden paddle, and the secret message on a slip of paper were incidental. The strange performance of that kettle began to take place after the new owner mixed with the secret instructions an ingredient of which the doctor knew nothing. Read this story carefully, give your imagination a test! See if you can discover what it was that the young man added to the secret message, which caused the kettle to overflow with gold. Remember,as you read, that this is not a story from Arabian Nights. Here you have a story of facts, stranger than fiction, facts which began in the form of an IDEA. This Idea of the clerk has produced the vast fortunes of gold. It has paid and still pays huge fortunes to men and women all over the world, who distribute the contents of the kettle to millions of people. The old kettle is now one of the world's largest consumer of sugar, thus providing jobs of a permanent nature to thousands of men and women engaged in growing sugar cane, and in refining and marketing sugar. The old kettle consumes, annually, millions of glass workers. The old kettle gives employment to an army of clerks, stenographers, copy writers, and advertising experts throughout the nation. It has brought fame and fortune to scores of artists who have created magnificent pictures describing the product. The Author met the wife of the drug clerk and it was she who first told him the story of the Enchanted Kettle. Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you may be engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words "COCA-COLA," that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single IDEA, and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk- Asa Candler- mixed with the secret formula was....IMAGINATION!
While the actual story might be slightly different, we like the way Napoleon tells it so many years ago. Almost all of Napoleon's words in the powerful book "Think And Grow Rich" still ring true to this day. Taught to Napoleon by Andrew Carnegie (the steel tycoon and at the time the richest man on earth), this philosophy of inspiration, planning and determination turned into a powerful movement and changed many lives.
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