Free Hillbilly Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus, Todd Gold Page A

make sure you were OK,” I said.
    “Actually, I stopped to admire the cattle over there,” he said, pointing off to a hilly pasture where a herd of cows were grazing on fresh spring grass. “I’d like to ask you something, son.”
    “Yes, sir?”
    “You gave me something when you stopped here,” he said. “You gave me your time. The fact that you cared whether I was OK speaks volumes about your character. That’s a rare quality, son.”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “That’s just how I was raised.”
    “Well, I’ve been around a little longer than you, and I think it is. And I want to give you something in return. How would you like to know the secret that could lead you to see, have, or do anything you want in this world?”
    Inside, I was thinking Hell yes! What’s the catch? Outwardly, I was more polite and restrained.
    “I would love that, sir,” I said. “It sounds incredibly exciting. What do I do?”
    “Good, very good,” he said, offering a hint of smile, before introducing himself as Dr. H. V. Bailey, a local chiropractor. “My office is right down on Argillite Road. As a matter of fact, I started renting the place in 1950 from your grandfather. You can’t miss it. You come by next Wednesday at five p.m.”
    “I’ll be there, sir,” I said.
    For some reason, I never doubted Dr. Bailey’s credibility or intent. If the same thing happened to me today, I probably would have written him off. But something he said turned my brain on. For the first time in my life, I was hungry to learn. Basically, I was in from the start. And when I showed up at his office the following week, Dr. Bailey’s last patient was on his way out. Dr. Bailey greeted me warmly, led me into his office, and presented me with a book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. Hill was a newspaper reporter and motivational speaker from southwest Virginia who published his bestselling book in 1937. It went on to become one of the bestselling books of all time.
    I stared at the cover almost as if it were a foreign object. Dr. Bailey was the first person who ever gave me a book. While I flipped through the pages, he explained the process of positive thinking and visualization that formed the basis of the book. He reiterated the message: I could achieve whatever I wanted with the techniques in the book. As we talked, I let him know I was ready. I kept waiting for Dr. Bailey to share some Yoda-type line that would instantly unlock the secret, but it turned out the wisdom was in learning the lessons and committing to them.
    We started studying Think and Grow Rich together, as we would weekly for the next few months, reading each chapter together and discussing the passages we’d read. I copied key lines in a notebook and memorized important passages. Like “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” Or “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Or “As a man thinks in his heart and in his soul, so is he.” It all came down to this: thoughts are things. I had never been much of a reader, but this book obviously struck a nerve, as did Dr. Bailey. I had a pretty realistic view on my own life—the anger andshame I’d buried, having come from a family split by divorce—and I wanted, more than anything, to figure out a way to do better. According to Dr. Bailey, this book, Think and Grow Rich, was the way.
    As I was studying, Robbie returned to Flatwoods, but he was extremely ill. He’d gotten into harder drugs and somehow contracted severe hepatitis. I was shocked when I saw him in the hospital. He was emaciated. He’d lost a ton of weight. His body mass was gone, and so was his passion for life. His latest girlfriend had left, he’d lost his scholarship, and he’d been expelled from school. Everything had crashed down around him, he said.
    On my next visit, I brought him a Playboy magazine. I should have brought a Bible, or even Think and Grow Rich. But I didn’t. I still regret that choice. I just thought the