Success in business
Positive psychology
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Book Details
Price
|
3.00 |
|---|---|
Pages
| 227 p |
File Size
|
2,902 KB |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN
| 978-0-470-41156-8 (pbk.) |
Copyright©
| 2009 by The Napoleon Hill Foundation |
Perhaps you are like millions the world over who have read
Napoleon Hill’s writings and have profited from them.
Whether you are a follower of Hill’s teaching or this is your first
encounter with his writing, you will benefit from these lessons on human potential.
The sources of the book you have in your hands are magazines Hill
published over eighty years ago. Hill’s Golden Rule Magazine and Hill’s
Magazine were published for several years before his first book
appeared. Hill’s lessons are a series of writings on human potential.
The remote mountains of Wise County, Virginia, where Hill was
born in 1883, did not provide a lot of opportunities for a boy being
raised in poverty. Hill’s mother died when he was ten years old, and
his father married again a year later. Napoleon’s new stepmother was
to be a blessing to the young boy. Martha was a young widow who was
educated, the daughter of a doctor; she took a liking to her highly
energized stepson, who was often involved in mischievous deeds.
The newest member of the Hill household was a source of encouragement
that lasted a lifetime. Later in life, Hill credited his stepmother
in a manner similar to the way Abraham Lincoln, the
sixteenth President of the United States, credited his, when he
once remarked that ‘‘whatever I am or ever aspire to be I owe to
that dear woman.’’ By the age of thirteen, with the help of his
stepmother, he had traded a pistol for a typewriter. A series of articles
would encourage his pursuit of a profession in writing.
After two years of high school, Hill enrolled in a business school,
and upon completion sought a job with Rufus Ayres, who had been
Attorney General of the State of Virginia, an officer in the Confederacy,
and at one time a candidate for the United States Senate.
General Ayres was into banking, lumber, and coal mining, and Hill
thought of him as the richest man in the mountains. Suddenly
attracted to the law profession, however, Hill convinced his brother
Vivian to apply with him to Georgetown Law School; Napoleon
would work as a writer and pay both of their ways. Both enrolled at
Georgetown Law School, and Vivian graduated but Napoleon was
detoured, obtaining a job with Bob Taylor’s Magazine, which was owned
by Robert Taylor, a United States Senator from Tennessee. Hill’s
assignments were success stories, including a story on the growth of
Mobile, Alabama, as a seaport. When he was sent to interview
Andrew Carnegie at his 45-room mansion, what was scheduled to
be a short interview lasted three days. Carnegie challenged him to
interview the successful and develop a philosophy of success, which
Hill would then teach to others. Hill’s life was changed drastically, and
his lifelong adventure was to interview successful people in his study
of why some were successful and so many others were not.
Carnegie’s introduction put the young Hill in contact with Henry
Ford, Thomas Edison, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, and
other noted people of the time. Hill’s study of the success principles
took twenty years with over five hundred interviews before he wrote his first book.
Hill lived to be 87 years old and during his lifetime developed the
philosophy of success principles that are as relevant today as when he
studied and recorded his findings in his books. Hill’s first title was
actually an eight-volume set called The Law of Success, published in
1928. He began to receive royalties of $2,000 to $3,000 per month,
such a huge sum that he purchased a Rolls-Royce for a visit up Guest
River in the mountains of Wise County, Virginia, where he had spent his childhood.
Hill wrote a small book called The Magic Ladder to Success, and while
it appeared to be a condensed version of The Law of Success, it added a
section called ‘‘Forty Unique Ideas’’ for making money. Among Hill’s
ideas were automatic gas filling stations at which motorists could
serve themselves either day or night, keyless locks to prevent theft,
and fountain drinks made of vegetables served fresh without preservatives.
Remember, this was in 1930; the list demonstrates what a visionary Hill was.
Further evidence that Hill was a visionary is found in the fact that
so much of the self-help material written today is simply a version of
what Hill studied and wrote about over 80 years ago.
Today a number of books have been written about the law of
attraction as if it is some newly discovered principle that will ensure
success. Hill wrote about this ‘‘new’’ principle in the March 1919 issue
of Hill’s Golden Rule Magazine, which is included in Lesson #4: The Law of Retaliation.
Today there are stacks and stacks of books that reference one or
more of Hill’s works, and he is no doubt quoted more than any other
motivational writer or speaker who ever lived. These quotes are
sometimes used verbatim and at other times with slight changes.
In 1937, Hill wrote his most famous book, Think and Grow Rich,
which sold out three times the year it was published at $2.50 a copy in
the middle of the Great Depression, and that was without mass
advertising that exists today. Think and Grow Rich has sold over sixty
million copies worldwide and still sells about one million copies per
year. Today a best seller is usually classified as a book that sells a
hundred thousand copies. All of Hill’s books have sold more than
that, and most exceed a million copies. The more popular books
today have what publishers refer to as a shelf life of one to two years
(the length of time the book is in demand and remains in stock at
major bookstores). Hill’s The Law of Success has been in continuous
publication since 1928, Think and Grow Rich since 1937, Master Key to
Riches since 1945, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude since 1960,
Grow Rich with Peace of Mind since 1967, and You Can Work Your Own
Miracles since 1971. In other words, Hill’s books sell better today than
when he first wrote them.
—Don M. Green
Executive Director
The Napoleon Hill Foundation
Preface
How to Get the Most from Reading This Book
If you read Napoleon Hill’s books, you will find several that include a
section from the best seller Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude,
which he wrote withW. Clement Stone. This article is called ‘‘How to
Get the Most from Reading This Book.’’
In order to tap into the powers that are available to you, you must first
be prepared to accept and apply the information.
The principles of success will work for you as they have for others,
regardless of education, heredity, or environment. But if you take the
belief you are destined to fail and that you cannot do anything to
prevent it, you will surely fail. The choice is yours and yours alone.
The R2A2 Formula
The formula will tell you not only what to do but how to do it. If you
are ready to use the R2A2 formula, here are two principles that will
assure your success:
1. Recognize, Relate, Assimilate, and Apply principles, techniques,
and methods from what you see, hear, read, and experience that
can help you attain your goals. This is called the R2A2 formula.
The R2 stands for Recognize and Relate and A2 for Assimilate
and Apply.
2. Direct your thoughts, control your emotions, and ordain your
destiny by motivating yourself at will to achieve worthwhile goals.
In using the formula, keep your goals in mind and be ready to
accept useful information.
As you read, concentrate on the meanings and words as they relate
to your own goals. Read the material as if the author is writing to you.
As you read, underscore sentences or passages you feel are
important to you.
Write in the margins when you are inspired with ideas that have
potential benefit.
As you read and apply the R2A2 formula, remember that the
second part of the formula is the most important point. This part
many people hurry over and tend to avoid. These are the same people
who make excuses or blame others for their lack of success. Without
action the material will not be worth the price you pay for any selfhelp book.
—The Napoleon Hill Foundation
Table of Contents
FOREWORD DON M. GREEN v
PREFACE ix
Lesson #1: Your Social and Physical Heredity 1
Lesson #2: Auto-Suggestion 7
Lesson #3: Suggestion 27
Lesson #4: The Law of Retaliation 51
Lesson #5: The Power of Your Mind 69
Lesson #6: How to Build Self-Confidence 81
Lesson #7: Environment and Habit 95
Lesson #8: How to Remember 121
Lesson #9: How Mark Antony Used Suggestion in
Winning the Roman Mob 147
Lesson #10: Persuasion versus Force 161
Lesson #11: The Law of Compensation 187
Lesson #12: The Golden Rule as a Passkey to
All Achievement 199
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