Napoleon Hill (October 26,
1883 -- November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the
earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature.
He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.
His
most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling
books of all time (at the time of Hill's death in 1970, Think and Grow
Rich had sold 20 million copies).
Hill's works examined the power of
personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became
an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-36.
"What the
mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's
hallmark expressions.
| Napoleon Hill |
|---|
Portrait of a young Napoleon Hill |
| Born |
October 26, 1883
Pound, Virginia |
| Died |
November 8, 1970 (aged 87)
South Carolina |
| Occupation |
author, journalist, attorney, lecturer |
| Nationality |
United States |
| Period |
1928–1970 |
| Genres |
non-fiction, how-to, treatise |
| Subjects |
personal development, self-help, motivation, finance, investment |
| Literary movement |
personal development, self-help |
| Notable work(s) |
Think and Grow Rich
The Law of Success
Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude |
|
|
|
| Signature |
 |
The Napoleon Hill Foundation naphill.org the napoleon hill foundation |
 Literature portal |
Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author in the area of the
new thought movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of
personal-success literature.
He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.
[1]
Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they
play in personal success.
He became an adviser to President Franklin D.
Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936.
"What the mind of man can conceive and
believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions.
[3][4]
How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success
in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill's books.
Life and works
Hill's mother died when he was nine years old, and his father remarried
two years later.
At the age of 13, Hill began writing as a "mountain
reporter" for small-town newspapers in the area of
Wise County, Virginia.
He later used his earnings as a reporter to enter law school, but soon he had to withdraw for financial reasons.
[6]
Influence of Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919)
Hill considered the turning point in his life to have occurred in the
year 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about
famous and successful men, to interview the industrialist
Andrew Carnegie.
At the time, Carnegie was one of the most powerful men in the world.
Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could
be outlined in a simple formula that anyone would be able to understand
and achieve.
Impressed with Hill, Carnegie asked him if he was up to
the task of putting together this information, to interview or analyze
over 500 successful men and women, many of them
millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.
[7]
As part of his research, Hill claims to have interviewed many of the most famous people of the time, including
Thomas Edison,
Alexander Graham Bell,
George Eastman,
Henry Ford,
Elmer Gates,
John D. Rockefeller, Sr.,
Charles M. Schwab,
F.W. Woolworth,
William Wrigley Jr.,
John Wanamaker,
William Jennings Bryan,
Theodore Roosevelt,
William H. Taft and
Jennings Randolph.
Hill was also an advisor to two presidents of the United States of America,
Woodrow Wilson and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
[8]
The Philosophy of Achievement
As a result of Hill's studies via Carnegie's introductions, the Philosophy of Achievement was offered as a formula for
rags-to-riches success by Hill and Carnegie, published initially in 1925 as a multi-volume study course called
The Law of Success,
later re-released in 1928 in an abridged version under the same title.
The Achievement formula was detailed further and published in home-study
courses, including the seventeen-volume "Mental Dynamite" series until
1941.
Hill later called his personal success teachings "The Philosophy of
Achievement", and he considered freedom, democracy, capitalism, and
harmony to be important contributing elements to this philosophy.
Hill
claimed throughout his writings that without these foundations upon
which to build, successful personal achievements were not possible.
He
contrasted his philosophy with others' and thought that the Achievement
Philosophy was superior.
He felt that it was responsible for the success
Americans enjoyed for the better part of two centuries. Negative
emotions such as fear, selfishness, etc., had no part to play in his
philosophy.
Hill considered those emotions to be the source of failure
for unsuccessful people.
[9]
The secret of achievement was tantalizingly offered to readers of
Think and Grow Rich,
but Hill felt readers would benefit most if they discovered it for
themselves.
Although most readers feel that he never explicitly
identified this secret, he offers these words about 20 pages into the
book:
If you truly desire money so keenly that your desire is an
obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you
will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to be so determined to
have it that you convince yourself that you will have it. . . You may
as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in great
quantities unless you work yourself into a white heat of desire for
money, and actually believe you will possess it.
However, Napolen
Hill also states at the introduction that the secret that the 'canny,
lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind' (Andrew
Carnegie) was also the same secret that Manuel L. Quezon (then Resident
Commissioner of the Philippine Islands) was inspired by to 'gain freedom
for his people, and went on to lead them as its first president.'
And
although a burning desire for money is mentioned throughout the book, it
would be both presumptuous and folly to presume it is this which is the
secret that Hill refers to, especially since the 'secret' is far more
effective if realized by the reader when they are ready for it.
He presented the idea of a "Definite Major Purpose" as a challenge to
his readers in order to make them ask themselves, "In what do I truly
believe?"
According to Hill, 98% of people had few or no firm beliefs,
and this alone put true success firmly out of their reach.
[10]
One of Hill's most moving stories was about his own son, Blair.
He
tells how his son was an inspiration to him, because although Blair was
born without ears, without any normal hearing organs at all, even though
his doctor told Hill that his son would neither be able to hear nor
speak, Blair grew up to be able to hear and speak almost normally.
Hill
tells how his son, in his last year of college, picked up the manuscript
of chapter two of
Think and Grow Rich, discovered Hill's secret
for himself and went on to be an inspiration for hundreds and thousands
of people who could not hear or speak.
[11]
From 1952 to 1962, Hill taught his Philosophy of Personal Achievement – Lectures on "Science of Success" in association with
W. Clement Stone.
[12]
In 1960, Hill and Stone co-authored the book,
Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude.
Norman Vincent Peale
stated "These two men [Hill and Stone] have the rare gift of inspiring
and helping people...In fact, I owe them both a personal debt of
gratitude for the helpful guidance I have received from their writings."
[13]
Think and Grow Rich remains the top seller of Napoleon Hill's books – a perennial best-seller after 70 years (
Business Week Magazine's Best-Seller List ranked
Think and Grow Rich as the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was first published).
[14]
Think and Grow Rich is listed in
John C. Maxwell's
A Lifetime "Must Read" Books List. [15]
Hill's numerous books have sold millions of copies, showing that the
secret of achievement is still highly sought-after by many today.
Hill
dealt with many controversial subjects through his writings including
racism, slavery, oppression, failure, revolution, war and poverty.
Persevering and then succeeding in spite of these obstacles using the
Philosophy of Achievement, Hill stated, was the responsibility of every
human.
[10]
Today's philosophy-of-success teachers still use the research
formulas taught by Hill to expand their students' knowledge of personal
development.
[15]Source: Wikipedia.org
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