Napoleon Hill passed away 38 years ago in 1970. However, you’d have to look long and hard to find a leader in today’s business environment that wasn’t strongly influenced by his work. This American author is considered to have influenced more people to become successful than any other person in history. He has been perhaps the most influential author in the area of personal success technique development, primarily through his classic book Think and Grow Rich, one of the best-selling books of all time.
In his many bestsellers, Hill taught people how achievement actually occurs, created a formula for the process, and made the average person feel as though they could achieve success. He summed up the process with a simple statement that will live on forever:
“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe … it can achieve!”
What a powerful statement! One that continues to be proven valid each and every day! Think about it.
If you can come up with an idea, strategy, concept, product, service, innovation, etc. …
If you believe in your heart and mind that it can be accomplished …
You’ll find a way to make it happen!
That simple but powerful declaration has served as a battle cry for many individuals, teams, organizations etc. for decades!
Napoleon Hill’s many works examined the power of personal beliefs and the critical role they play in your personal success. Many leaders in a wide variety of organizations credit their success to information they assimilated from his books, audio tapes, and personal appearance across the country.
Napoleon Hill was born into poverty in a one-room cabin in Wise County, Virginia. He began his writing career at age 13 as a “mountain reporter” for small town newspapers and went on to become America’s most beloved motivational author. His early career as a reporter helped finance his way through law school.
He was given an assignment to write a series of success stories of famous men, and his big break came when he was asked to interview steel-magnate Andrew Carnegie, one of the world’s wealthiest businessman and philanthropist.
Mr. Carnegie commissioned Hill to interview over 500 millionaires to find a success formula that could be used by the average person. These included Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, William Wrigley Jr, WIlliam Jennings Bryan, George Eastman, Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, John D. Rockefeller, and F. W. Woolworth among others.
He became an adviser to Andrew Carnegie, and with Carnegie’s help he formulated a philosophy of success, drawing on the thoughts and experience of a multitude of rags-to-riches tycoons. It took Hill over 20 years to produce his Personal Development classic Think and Grow Rich. As you read it, you must remember that you’re receiving advice from some of the greatest minds in the world!
This particular masterpiece has sold over 7 million copies and has helped thousands achieve success. He has also inspired many other authors and success gurus to follow in his footsteps.
Napoleon Hill enjoyed a long and successful career writing, teaching, and lecturing about the principles of success. His work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation.
Here are some interesting observations by one of our greatest gurus on achieving success, Napoleon Hill:
- “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements!”
- “You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee!”
- “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.”
- “Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind’s eye, and you will be drawn toward it.”
- “The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.”
- “Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.”
To insure a complete and authentic corporate or personal business library, make certain it contains as many of the following titles as possible:
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About Harry K. Jones
Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.