I owe my positive attitude to Napoleon Hill. During one year of daily, four-hour intensive sales and positive attitude training back in 1972, I was fortunate enough to expose myself to his success principles.
Each day one of the eight guys on my team had to give a book report on a chapter from Think and Grow Rich. Since there were only 15 chapters in the book, we reviewed it in its entirety every three weeks. We went through the book more than 15 times in one year. I felt like I had memorized it.
And somewhere during that year, something clicked. I realized that by adopting the fundamental Hill principles, and adapting them to my life and family, I could achieve and maintain a positive mental attitude. I became an achiever and a believer – and have never lost that belief.
I identified with Hill’s philosophy. It became part of the fabric of my thoughts, my outlook on life, and my expressions to others – both written and verbal.
Who do you identify with?
What do you identify with?
Whose principles do you follow?
How dedicated to achieving and maintaining a positive attitude are you?
Napoleon Hill’s success principles are timeless, and there’s a reason. Actually there are 11.5 reasons and all of them create an atmosphere and environment conducive to learning and succeeding:
1. He’s gentle, and his words are gentle.
2. He’s insightful, and his principles are sound and time tested.
3. His writing is easy to read, understand, and apply.
4. He’s on target with what’s wrong and what’s weak.
5. He’s on target with how to make it right and strong.
6. His wisdom is right on the money.
7. His ethics ring true and genuine.
8. He reinforces his advice with real-world examples.
9. He encourages you to do it.
10. He has faith that you can achieve.
11. He warns you of outside influences that will be jealous of your endeavors.
11.5 He has a track record that includes tens of millions of success stories.
A thousand people have come and gone claiming to be personal development gurus – all of them quote Hill and reference him as their inspiration.
Here are a few selected quotes of Napoleon Hill to get you started:
* All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.
* All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination. Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.
* Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.
* Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.
* Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.
* Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
* Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.
* Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
* Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
* Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.
* Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
* Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.
* Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.
* First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.
* Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.
* Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
Napoleon Hill has stood the test of time, and has remained THE icon of Positive Mental Attitude. No one ever says a bad word about Napoleon Hill.
If you asked people to make a list of the top five most positive books in the world, Think and Grow Rich probably wouldn’t top every list – but I guarantee it would be somewhere on EVERY list. Pretty remarkable for an 80-year-old book.
Hill’s book is a gift. You give it to yourself FIRST. Become a believer by taking action, and seeing the results. THEN begin to share the gift with others.
