The Real Romney by Michael Kranish, Scott Helman Page B

famous Americans to learn the secret of success, concluded that wealth grew out of the rigorous application of personal beliefs and an ability to work with people of like-minded determination. Some of the chapter titles serve as guides to how Romney achieved success in his future careers in business and politics. Chapter 2 is titled “Desire: The Turning Point of All Achievement.” It seems no coincidence that at a missionary conference Romney gave a talk with a similar theme, about “desire” and “how we can obtain anything we want in life—if we want it badly enough,” as summarized in a missionary’s journal.
    One of the more unlikely lessons in the book was called “The Mystery of Sex: Transmutation.” In this chapter, Hill advises that a successful person converts some of his sexual energy, “the most powerful of human desires,” into other kinds of action. “Love, Romance, and Sex are all emotions capable of driving men to heights of super achievement,” Hill wrote. “Love is the emotion which serves as a safety valve, and insures balance, poise, and constructive effort. When combined, these three emotions may lift one to an altitude of a genius.” The message was welcomed by the missionaries, struggling as many were with their faith’s prohibition of premarital sex. “We were red-blooded American boys. We were not eunuchs,” said Dane McBride, one of Romney’s fellow missionaries. “We joked about the fact that we didn’t have much choice but to put sex drive into succeeding at something else. It fit our situation very well.”
    No one doubted Romney’s determination. His fellow missionaries remember him as charming, charismatic, and passionate. In the “Conversion Diary,” then a newsletter of the French mission, he is mentioned repeatedly for his standout numbers of hours spent knocking on doors, numbers of copies of the Book of Mormon distributed, and numbers of invitations for return visits. On the occasions when he was allowed to deliver his full pitch, it went something like this, according to McBride. Romney and his partner would explain that they were students from the United States who interrupted their studies to tell the French that they had a “great message” about Jesus Christ’s ministry. They said that Christ’s ministry “extended far beyond the small area in which he walked. . . . After his resurrection he visited a civilization living in the Americas at that time.” As a result, the missionaries continued, “what we have in our Book of Mormon is another witness for Jesus Christ.” The missionaries said that at a time when people questioned whether Jesus was the son of God, “we have very strong evidence he was who he said he was.”
    A number of those who heard them out, particularly those committed to their own faith, were offended. Some of those who had lost their faith were intrigued. The missionaries urged those people to return to a faith and to consider Mormonism and asked the others to think about converting. Relatively few accepted the message, however, and Romney grew frustrated. Convinced that door-to-door work was mostly unproductive, Romney came up with innovative ways to engage the French. In a letter to his parents, he talked about reaching out to people through “singing, basketball exhibitions, archelogy [ sic ] lectures, street meetings. . . . Why even last Sat. night my comp [companion] and I went into bars, explaining that we had a message of great happiness and joy, and that we would like to talk to anyone who had a few minutes! Amazing how that builds one’s courage!” Noticing some French people’s interest in America, he staged “USA nights,” complete with a slideshow. But the work took a toll on him. “I must admit that one gets really tired—I had never imagined that it’s so hard to drive and drive.”
    Romney later said he converted ten to twenty people during his time as a missionary, but even that small-sounding number stood