The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.

This maxim is associated with Napoleon Hill’s early self-help writings in the 1920s–1930s, where he framed “desire” as the first principle in a sequence leading from mindset to concrete results. Hill developed these ideas while promoting a program of personal achievement and sales-minded motivation, often presenting them as distilled lessons from studying successful business figures. The line is typically presented as a didactic aphorism—meant to be memorized and applied—emphasizing intensity of purpose as the catalyst for sustained effort, persistence, and goal-directed planning in the face of obstacles.

Hill frames achievement as beginning not with talent or luck but with a motivating force: desire. By capitalizing “DESIRE” and pairing it with the fire-and-heat analogy, he argues that intensity matters as much as direction—halfhearted wanting produces correspondingly modest outcomes. The metaphor also implies that desire is generative: it supplies the energy that makes discipline, planning, and persistence possible. In Hill’s broader worldview, desire is not mere wishing; it is a focused, sustained commitment that organizes behavior and attracts opportunities. The quote’s significance lies in its insistence that inner motivation is the primary lever for outward results.