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In 1928, 81 years ago, Napoleon Hill released the “Law of Success in 16 Lessons”, based on his research initiated at the suggestion of Andrew Carnegie. It was to take approximately 20 years of research, interviewing 500 of the wealthiest and most successful, self-made men (and women) in America, to formulate the “Law of Success”. The final result was released in four volumes, totaling over 1,100 page, comprised of 16 lessons documenting Napoleon Hill’s philosophy of success.
In 1937, Napoleon Hill released his more widely known book “THINK AND GROW RICH”, again, a synthesis of his research having some overlap with the earlier “LAW OF SUCCESS”.
Many readers might be put off by the titles of these books, thinking the books emphasize the pursuit and acquisition of wealth, thereby defining “Success”. Such a conclusion would be a lamentable mistake.
“Success is a state of Mind”. If you choose to define success in terms of financial wealth, then your success will always be defined by money, assets and the endless pursuit of more money and the ever elusive goal of happiness.
However, should you choose to define success in terms other than money, you make it possible to achieve success and the satisfaction that goes with it.
If you choose to define success in terms of your family; their health, happiness and achievements, you have achieved success for yourself.
If you choose to define success in terms of your lifestyle, then perhaps you can achieve success on a small hobby farm rather than through the hustle and bustle of Wall Street.
There is a mindset that accompanies success and that is the objective of Napoleon Hill’s book and assorted essays. How do you achieve the mindset and character traits that accompany those we recognize as “successful”? Can we develop that mindset and those character traits in ourselves and, thereby, achieve success? That is the purpose and lesson contained within the books of Napoleon Hill. With that objective in mind, these books make for valuable, arguably mandatory, reading.
LAW OF SUCCESS
I. THE MASTER MIND emphasizes one of the key principals of the “LAW OF SUCCESS”, as well as Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich”, namely, the creation of your Master Mind Group. This lesson outlines identification of the members of your Master Mind Group, the characteristics you should look for, the optimum number and the specifics of your meetings.
Lesson by lesson, the following is the Napoleon Hill’s summary of what you may expect to receive from the Fifteen Laws of Success:
II. A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM will teach you how to save the wasted effort which the majority of people expend in trying to find their lifework. This lesson will show you how to do away forever with aimlessness and fix your heart and hand upon some definite, well conceived purpose as a life-work.
III. SELF-CONFIDENCE will help you master the six basic fears with which every person is cursed-the fear of Poverty, the fear of Ill Health, the fear of Old Age, the fear of Criticism, the fear of Loss of Love of Someone and the fear of Death. It will teach you the difference between egotism and real self-confidence which is based upon definite, usable knowledge.
IV. HABIT OF SAVING will teach you how to distribute your income systematically so that a definite percentage of it will steadily accumulate, thus forming one of the greatest known sources of personal power. No one may succeed in life without saving money. There is no exception to this rule, and no one may escape it.
V. INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP will show you how to become a leader instead of a follower in your chosen field of endeavor. It will develop in you the instinct for leadership which will cause you gradually to gravitate to the top in all undertakings in which you participate.
VI. IMAGINATION will stimulate your mind so that you will conceive new ideas and develop new plans which will help you in attaining the object of your Definite Chief Aim. This lesson will teach you how to “build new houses out of old stones”, so to speak. It will show you how to create new ideas out of old, well known concepts, and how to put old ideas to new uses. This one lesson, alone, is the equivalent of a very practical course in salesmanship, and it is sure to prove a veritable gold mine of knowledge to the person who is in earnest.
VII. ENTHUSIASM will enable you to “saturate” all with whom you come in contact with interest in you and in your ideas. Enthusiasm is the foundation of a Pleasing Personality, and you must have such a personality in order to influence others to co-operate with you.
VIII. SELF-CONTROL is the “balance wheel” with which you control your enthusiasm and direct it where you wish it to carry you. This lesson will teach you, in a most practical manner, to become “the master of your fate, the Captain of your Soul”.
IX. THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR is one of the most important lessons of the Law of Success course. It will teach you how to take advantage of the Law of Increasing Returns, which will eventually insure you a return in money far out of proportion to the service you render. No one may become a real leader in any walk of life without practicing the habit of doing more work and better work th an that for which he is paid.
X. PLEASING PERSONALITY is the “fulcrum” on which you must place the “crow-bar” of your efforts, and when so placed, with intelligence, it will enable you to remove mountains of obstacles. This one lesson, alone, has made scores of Master Salesmen. It has developed leaders over night. It will teach you how to transform your personality so that you may adapt yourself to any environment, or to any other personality, in such a manner that you may easily dominate.
XI. ACCURATE THINKING is one of the important foundation stones of all enduring success. This lesson teaches you how to separate “facts” from mere “information”. It teaches you how to organize known facts into two classes: the “important” and the “unimportant”. It teaches you how to determine what is an “important” fact. It teaches you how to build definite working plans, in the pursuit of any calling, out of FACTS.
XII. CONCENTRATION teaches you how to focus your attention upon one subject at a time until you have worked out practical plans for mastering that subject. It will teach you how to ally yourself with others in such a manner that you may have the use of their entire knowledge to back you up in your own plans and purposes. It will give you a practical working knowledge of the forces around you, and show you how to harness and use these forces in furthering your own interests.
XIII. CO-OPERATION will teach you the value of team-work in all you do. In this lesson you will be taught how to apply the law of the “Master Mind” described in this Introduction and in Lesson Two of this course. This lesson will show you how to co-ordinate your own efforts with those of others, in such a manner that friction, jealousy, strife, envy and cupidity will be eliminated. You will learn how to make use of all that other people have learned about the work in which you are engaged.
XIV. PROFITING BY FAILURE will teach you how to make stepping stones out of all of your past and future mistakes and failures. It will teach you the difference between “failure” and “temporary defeat”, a difference which is very great and very important. It will teach you how to profit by your own failures and by the failures of other people.
XV. TOLERANCE will teach you how to avoid the disastrous effects of racial and religious prejudices which mean defeat for millions of people who permit themselves to become entangled in foolish argument over these subjects, thereby poisoning their own minds and closing the door to reason and investigation. This lesson is the twin sister of the one on ACCURATE THOUGHT, for the reason that no one may become an Accurate Thinker without practicing tolerance. Intolerance closes the book of Knowledge and writes on the cover, “Finis! I have learned it all!” Intolerance makes enemies of those who should be friends. It destroys opportunity and fills the mind with doubt, mistrust and prejudice.
XVI. PRACTICING THE GOLDEN RULE will teach you how to make use of this great universal law of human conduct in such a manner that you may easily get harmonious co-operation from any individual or group of individuals. Lack of understanding of the law upon which the Golden Rule philosophy is based is one of the major causes of failure of millions of people who remain in misery, poverty and want all their lives. This lesson has nothing whatsoever to do with religion in any form, nor with sectarianism, nor have any of the other lessons of this course on the Law of Success.
THINK AND GROW RICH
THINK AND GROW RICH is, arguably, the best self-help or, more accurately, “philosophy of personal achievement” book ever published, with more than 60 million copies sold worldwide. As a result of the success of THINK AND GROW RICH (and it’s companion LAW OF SUCCESS), Napoleon Hill is said to have made more millionaires and inspired more success than any other person in history.
THINK AND GROW RICH was Napoleon Hill’s second presentation of the material comprising his personal philosophy of success based on almost 30 years of research into the characteristics of many of America’s wealthiest and successful entrepreneurs, inventors, businessmen, industrialists and political leaders.
The following represents the Table of Contents from THINK AND GROW RICH, consisting of Chapter headings and sub-headings.
Chapter 1: Introduction
- The Man Who “Thought” His Way into Partnership with Thomas A. Edison
- Three Feet from Gold
- A Fifty-cent Lesson in Persistence
Chapter 2: Desire
- The Starting Point of All Achievement (The First Step Toward Riches)
- Desire Outwits Mother Nature .
Chapter 3: Faith
- Visualization Of, and Belief in Attainment of Desire (The Second Step Toward Riches)
- How to Develop Faith
- Faith Is a State of Mind Which May Be Induced by Autosuggestion
- Self-confidence Formula
- “A Pretty After-dinner Speech for a Billion Dollars
Chapter 4: Auto-Suggestion
- The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind (The Third Step Toward Riches)
- Summary of Instructions
Chapter 5: Specialized Knowledge
- Personal Experiences or Observations (The Fourth Step Toward Riches)
Chapter 6: Imagination
- The Workshop of the Mind (The Fifth Step Toward Riches
- Two Forms of Imagination
- How to Make Practical Use of Imagination
- The Enchanted Kettle
- What I Would Do If I Had a Million Dollars
Chapter 7: Organized Planning
- The Crystallization of Desire into Action (The Sixth Step Toward Riches)
- The 10 Major Causes of Failure in Leadership
- When and How to Apply for a Position
- How to Get the Exact Position You Desire
- The New Way of Marketing Services “Jobs” Are Now “Partnerships”
- The Thirty Major Causes of Failure
- Take Inventory of Yourself
- Where and How One May Find Opportunities to Accumulate Riches
Chapter 8: Decision
- The Mastery of Procrastination (The Seventh Step Toward Riches)
Chapter 9: Persistence
- The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith (The Eighth Step Toward Riches)
- Intensity of One’s Desire
- How to Develop Persistence
- The Last Great Prophet
Chapter 10: Power Of The Master Mind
- The Driving Force (The Ninth Step Toward Riches)
Chapter 11: The Mystery Of Sex: Transmutation
- The Mystery Of Sex: Transmutation (The Tenth Step Toward Riches
- The Ten Mind Stimuli
- Why Men Seldom Succeed Before Forty
Chapter 12. The Subconscious Mind
- The Connecting Link (The Eleventh Step Toward Riches)
Chapter 13: The Brain
- A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought (The Twelfth Step Toward Riches)
- The Greatest Forces Are “Intangible”
- The Dramatic Story of the Brain
Chapter 14: The Sixth Sense
- The Door to the Temple of Wisdom (The Thirteenth Step Toward Riches)
- Building Character Through Auto-suggestion
- Faith Vs. Fear!
Chapter 15. How to Outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear
- The Six Basic Fears
- The Fear of Poverty
- The Fear of Criticism
- The Fear of Ill Health
- The Fear of Loss of Love
- The Fear of Old Age
- The Fear of Death
- The Devil’s Workshop
- How to Protect Yourself Against Negative Influences
- Self-analysis Test Questions
- “Fifty-seven” Famous Alibis
A comparison of the material (above) contained in LAW OF SUCCESS and the subsequently released THINK AND GROW RICH, reveals the similarity of the material in these two separate and distinct versions of Napoleon Hill’s personal philosophy of success (or achievement). Although much of the material in THINK AND GROW RICH is similar to that contained in LAW OF SUCCESS, the presentation and, in particular, emphasis does differ, as evidenced by Chapter Headings and sub-headings reproduced above.
Whichever of Napoleon Hill’s books you choose to study initially, the other makes a valuable, perhaps mandatory, companion to ensure your complete understanding of his personal philosophy of success.
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