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Think and Grow Rich The 21st-Century Edition

Annotated with Updated Examples

NAPOLEON HILL

edited by Bill Hartley Contributing editor: Ann Hartley

Copyright © 2004 by The Napoleon Hill Foundation

First print edition published by Highroads Media, Inc., 2004,

First eBook Edition published by Highroads Media, Inc 2008

All rights reserved Reproduction without permission in writing from the publisher is prohibited, except for brief passages in connection with a review For permission, write: Highroads Media, Inc.,

8059 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, California 90046

CHAPTER 1

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

In every chapter of this book, mention is made of the money-making secret that has made fortunes for the exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years

The secret was first brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie The canny, lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind when I was but a boy Then he sat back in his chair, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and watched carefully to see if I had brains enough to understand the full significance of what he had said to me

When he saw that I had grasped the idea, he asked if I would be willing to spend twenty years or more preparing myself to take it to the world, to men and women who, without the secret, might go through life as failures I said I would, and with Mr Carnegie’s cooperation I have kept my promise

COMMENTARY

In 1908, during a particularly down time in the U.S economy and with no money and no work, Napoleon Hill took a job as a writer for Bob Taylor’s Magazine He had been hired to write success stories about famous men Although it would not provide much in the way of income, it offered Hill the opportunity to meet and profile the giants of industry and business the first of whom was the creator of America’s steel industry, multimillionaire Andrew Carnegie, who was to become Hill’s mentor

Carnegie was so impressed by Hill’s perceptive mind that following their three-hour interview he invited Hill to spend the weekend at his estate so they could continue the discussion During the course of the next two days, Carnegie told Hill that he believed any person could achieve greatness if they understood the philosophy of success and the steps required to achieve it “It’s a shame,” he said, “that each new generation must find the way to success by trial and error, when the principles are really clear-cut.”

Carnegie went on to explain his theory that this knowledge could be gained by interviewing those who had achieved greatness and then compiling the information and research into a comprehensive set of principles He believed that it would take at least twenty years, and that the result would be “the world’s first philosophy of individual achievement.” He offered Hill the challenge for no more compensation than that Carnegie would make the necessary introductions and cover travel expenses

It took Hill twenty-nine seconds to accept Carnegie’s proposal Carnegie told him afterward that had it taken him more than sixty seconds to make the decision he would have withdrawn the offer, for “a man who cannot reach a decision promptly, once he has all the necessary facts, cannot be depended upon to carry through any decision he may make.”

It was through Hill’s unwavering dedication that this book was eventually written For detailed information on the life of Hill, read or listen to the audiobook of A Lifetime of Riches: The Biography of Napoleon Hill by Michael J Ritt Jr and Kirk Landers Michael Ritt worked as Hill’s assistant for ten years and was the first employee

of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, where he served as executive director, secretary, and

treasurer The material in his book comes from his own personal knowledge of Hill as well as from Hill’s unpublished autobiography

This book, Think and Grow Rich, contains the Carnegie secret a secret that has been tested by thousands [now millions] of people in almost every walk of life It was

Mr Carnegie’s idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous fortune, ought

to be placed within reach of people who do not have the time to investigate how others had made their money It was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every calling He believed the formula should be taught in all public schools and colleges He said that if it were properly taught, it would revolutionize the entire educational system, and the time spent in school could be reduced to less than half

In chapter 4, on faith, you will read the astounding story of the organization of the giant United States Steel Corporation It was conceived and carried out by one of the young men through whom Mr Carnegie proved that his formula will work for all who are ready for it This single application of the secret, by Charles M Schwab, made him a huge fortune in both money and opportunity Roughly speaking, this particular application of the formula was worth $600 million

These facts give you a fair idea of what reading this book may bring to you, provided you know what it is that you want

COMMENTARY

According to one method of calculation, through inflation alone it would have taken approximately twenty dollars in 2001 to buy what one dollar would have bought in 1901 However, to find the contemporary equivalent value of $600 million is not simply a matter of multiplying by the increase in the cost of living Although there are other factors and variables in calculating buying power, and even by conservative estimates, the $600 million would translate into at least $12 billion at the beginning of the twenty- first century

The secret was passed on to thousands of men and women who have used it for their personal benefit Some have made fortunes with it Others have used it successfully in creating harmony in their homes A clergyman used it so effectively that it brought him

an income of upwards of $75,000 a year [approximately $1.5 million in con-temporary

terms]

Arthur Nash, a Cincinnati tailor, used his near-bankrupt business as a “guinea pig” on which to test the formula The business came to life and made a fortune for its owners The experiment was so unique that newspapers and magazines gave it millions of dollars’ worth of publicity

The secret was passed on to Stuart Austin Wier, of Dallas, Texas He was ready for it

so ready that he gave up his profession and studied law Did he succeed? You will read the answer in chapter 6, Specialized Knowledge

While I was the advertising manager for the LaSalle Extension University, I had the privilege of seeing J G Chapline, president of the university, use the formula so effectively that he made LaSalle one of the great extension schools of the country

The secret is mentioned no fewer than a hundred times throughout this book It has not been directly named, for it seems to work more successfully when it is merely left in sight, where those who are ready, and searching for it, may pick it up That is why Andrew Carnegie passed it to me without giving me its specific name

If you are ready to put it to use, you will recognize this secret at least once in every chapter, but you will not find an explanation of how you will know if you are ready That would deprive you of much of the benefit you will receive when you make the discovery

in your own way

If you have ever been discouraged, if you have had difficulties that took the very soul out of you, if you have tried and failed, if you were ever handicapped by illness or physical affliction, the story of my own son’s discovery and use of the Carnegie formula may prove to be the oasis in the Desert of Lost Hope for which you have been searching This secret was extensively used by President Woodrow Wilson during the world

war [and by President Roosevelt during the Second World War] It was passed on to

every soldier in the training received before going to the front President Wilson told me

it was a powerful factor in raising the funds needed for the war

A peculiar thing about this secret is that those who acquire and use it find themselves literally swept on to success However, as is often pointed out in this book, there is no such thing as something for nothing The secret cannot be had without paying a price, although the price is far less than its value

Another peculiarity is that the secret cannot be given away and it cannot be purchased for money Unless you are intentionally searching for the secret, you cannot have it at any price That is because the secret comes in two parts, and in order for you to get it, one of those parts must already be in your possession

The secret will work for anyone who is ready for it Education has nothing to do with

it Long before I was born, the secret had found its way into the possession of Thomas A Edison, and he used it so intelligently that he became the world’s leading inventor, although he had only three months of schooling

The secret was passed on to Edwin C Barnes, a business associate of Mr Edison’s

He used it so effectively that he accumulated a great fortune and retired from active business while still a young man You will find his story at the beginning of the next chapter It should convince you that riches are not beyond your reach, and that no matter where you are in life, you can still be what you wish to be Money, fame, recognition, and happiness can be had by you if you are ready and determined to have these blessings How do I know these things? You should have the answer before you finish this book You may find it in the very first chapter, or on the last page

While I was doing the research that I had undertaken at Andrew Carnegie’s request, I analyzed hundreds of well-known men Many of them attributed the accumulation of their vast fortunes to the Carnegie secret Among these men were:

Henry Ford [founder of the Ford automobile company, he started with no money and

little education yet became one of the most successful self-made businessmen in American history]

William Wrigley Jr [a traveling salesman who found that his customers liked the

chewing gum he gave away as a premium better than they liked the goods he sold, so he started his own company]

John Wanamaker [known as The Merchant Prince, he created the world’s

first department store and was hailed for his innovations in marketing, customer service, and employee benefits]

James J Hill [known as The Empire Builder, he built the transcontinental

established shipping routes linking America with Asia]

George S Parker [a school teacher who grew tired of fixing his students’ pens, he

created a new design, founded the Parker pen company, and turned a simple idea into a fortune]

E M Statler [the son of a poor pastor, he started as a bellboy and worked his way up

until he was able to start his own chain of Statler Hotels, famous for their luxury and

“service with a smile”]

Henry L Doherty [starting at age 12 as an office boy for Columbia Gas, he went on to

acquire 53 utilities companies, and patented 140 innovations for natural gas and oil production]

Cyrus H K Curtis [beginning with a small agricultural weekly, he turned

it into Ladies’ Home Journal, created Saturday Evening Post, then assembled one of the largest newspaper empires]

George Eastman [inventor and founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, he created

many of the innovations that popularized photography and transformed the picture industry]

motion-Charles M Schwab [the right-hand man of Andrew Carnegie, he was president of

Carnegie Steel Company, brokered the deal that formed U.S Steel, and went on to found Bethlehem Steel]

Theodore Roosevelt [26th president of the United States of America, 1901-09]

John W Davis [a lawyer and political leader, he was Solicitor General under president

Woodrow Wilson, and later appointed ambassador to Great Britain]

Elbert Hubbard [philosopher, publisher of The Fra magazine, and founder

of the Roycrofters artists’ colony, he was also the author of many bestsellers including A

Message to Garcia]

Wilbur Wright [a bicycle-shop owner who, with his brother Orville, became the first

American to fly motor-powered heavier-than-air aircraft; they pioneered the aviation industry]

William Jennings Bryan [newspaper publisher, presidential nominee, Secretary of State

under President William McKinley, but perhaps best known as the lawyer who defended creationism at the Scopes Monkey Trial]

Dr David Starr Jordan [educator, scientist, and author of over 50 books, he was the

nation’s youngest university president at Indiana University, and become the first president of Stanford University]

J Ogden Armour [inherited his family’s meat-packing business, turned it into a

conglomerate with more than 3,000 products, was an owner of the Chicago Cubs, and a director of National City Bank]

Arthur Brisbane [a crusading journalist and syndicated columnist, he was sought after

by every major news organization and was the most-read and highest-paid editorial writer of his day]

Dr Frank Gunsaulus [a Chicago preacher who delivered such a powerful sermon that

Philip D Armour gave him a million dollars with which to start the Armour Institute of Technology, and Gunsaulus was made president]

Daniel Willard [president of the B&O Railroad for more than thirty years, he was

honored by having the city of Willard, Ohio, named for him]

King Gillette [a traveling salesman and born tinkerer, he was trying to shave on a

moving train when he came up with the idea of the safety razor, which became the foundation of a corporate giant]

Ralph A Weeks [president of International Correspondence Schools, he helped finance

Napoleon Hill’s Intra-Wall Institute, established to educate and rehabilitate prison inmates]

Judge Daniel T Wright [instructor at Georgetown Law School, where Napoleon Hill

was studying when Bob Taylor’s Magazine gave him the assignment to write a profile of Andrew Carnegie]

John D Rockefeller [with $1,000 savings, plus another $1,000 borrowed from his

father, he started a kerosene company which he grew into the giant Standard Oil and one

of the world’s greatest fortunes]

Thomas A Edison [inventor and entrepreneur, he perfected the electric light bulb, the

phonograph, the motion-picture camera, and owned the rights to more than 1,000 patented inventions]

Frank A Vanderlip [a poor boy who became a journalist, social reformer, and

self-made millionaire, he was president of the National City Bank, now Citibank, and was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury]

F W Woolworth [a clerk in a general store, he pioneered the idea of fixed-price selling

and self-service, and forever changed retail selling with his chain of Woolworth 5 and 10 Cent Stores]

Col Robert A Dollar [starting with a small schooner bought to haul lumber down the

West Coast, he built the Dollar Steamship Company, the largest fleet of luxury liners sailing under the U.S flag]

Edward A Filene [founder of the Boston-based stores, he devised revolutionary

methods of distribution and merchandising, and became famous for originating the bargain-basement concept]

Edwin C Barnes [the only man Thomas Edison ever had as a partner, he took Edison’s

failing dictating machine, the Ediphone, and sold it so successfully that it became

a fixture in offices and made him a multimillionaire]

Arthur Nash [a Cincinnati clothing manufacturer who used his bankrupt business as a

guinea pig for the Carnegie secret and was so successful that the newspapers made him famous as “Golden Rule Nash”]

Clarence Darrow [famed as a lawyer, public speaker, and defender of the underdog, he

was perhaps best known as the lawyer at the Scopes Monkey Trial who defended teaching the theory of evolution]

Woodrow Wilson [28th president of the United States of America, 1913-21]

William Howard Taft [27th president of the United States of America, 1909-13]

Luther Burbank [world-renowned horticulturist who introduced over 800 varieties of

new plants in his effort to improve the quality of plants and thereby increase the world’s

food supply]

Edward W Bok [though he had only six years’ schooling, by the age of 20 he was

editor of Ladies’ Home Journal, which he helped to build into the world’s most widely circulated magazine]

Frank A Munsey [a telegraph operator who quit to launch Argosy magazine, and then

parlayed his fortune into a newspaper empire that included the Washington Times and the New York Herald]

Elbert H Gary [chairman of U.S Steel, at the time the largest corporation in the

world, he spearheaded the construction of its first major project, the Gary Works steel plant, and the city of Gary, Indiana]

Dr Alexander Graham Bell [best known as the inventor of the telephone, he also

perfected recording devices, advances in aircraft, and was a co-founder of the National Geographic Society]

John H Patterson [president of National Cash Register, he was known as an

advertising visionary and a genius at motivating his sales force, which made NCR the leader in its field]

Julius Rosenwald [a small manufacturer who foresaw the future of mail-order, he

bought 25 percent of Sears, Roebuck, & Co., and together with Richard Sears built it into

an icon of American business]

Stuart Austin Wier [a construction engineer Hill met in the Texas oil fields who,

inspired by the Carnegie secret, went to law school after age forty, and was also involved

in the publishing of Napoleon Hill’s Magazine]

Dr Frank Crane [a noted psychologist, essayist, and author of the book Four Minute

Essays on such subjects as The Price of Liberty, Pragmatism, The Duty of the Rich, and

How to Keep Friends]

J G Chapline [president of the LaSalle Extension University at the time Napoleon Hill

worked in the university’s advertising and sales department, where Hill first realized his talent for motivating people]

Jennings Randolph [airline executive, congressman, then U.S Senator from West

Virginia, he was a lifelong admirer of Napoleon Hill, and it was he who encouraged Hill

to act as adviser to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt]

These names represent a small fraction of well-known Americans whose achievements, financial and otherwise, prove that those who understand and apply the Carnegie secret reach high positions in life

COMMENTARY

As Napoleon Hill says, the preceding list includes only some of the more than 500 multimillionaires and extraordinarily successful individuals whom Hill interviewed prior

to writing Think and Grow Rich It does not include the equally impressive list of people

he came in contact with after the publication, nor does it include the names of those who did not have the opportunity to meet Napoleon Hill personally but who attribute their success to having read this book

It is said that Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich have made more millionaires than any other person in history It might equally well be said that Napoleon Hill inspired more motivational experts than any other man in history

It is practically impossible to find a motivational speaker who does not draw upon Hill’s work His influence can be seen in the writings of his early peers, Dale Carnegie

and Norman Vincent Peele Later, successful authors and speakers such as W Clement Stone, Og Mandino, and Earl Nightingale worked directly with either Napoleon Hill or with the Napoleon Hill Foundation Echoes of Hill’s principles can also be found in books by people as diverse as Wally “Famous” Amos, Mary Kay Ash, Ken Blanchard, Adelaide Bry, Chicken Soup for the Soul authors Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Debbie Fields, Shakti Gawain, John Gray, Susan Jeffers, Bruce Jenner, Charlie

“Tremendous” Jones, Tommy Lasorda, Art Linkletter, Joan Lunden, Dr Maxwell Maltz, James Redfield, Dr Bernie Siegel, Jose Silva, Brian Tracey, Lillian Vernon, and Dennis Waitley Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has often spoken of the influence of Napoleon Hill Anthony Robbins, arguably the most successful motivational author and speaker at the beginning of the twenty-first century, has acknowledged Napoleon Hill as a personal hero

I have never known anyone who was inspired to use the Carnegie secret who did not achieve noteworthy success On the other hand, I have never known any person to distinguish themself, or to accumulate riches of any consequence, without possession of the secret From these two facts I draw the conclusion that the secret is more important for self-determination than anything you receive through what is popularly known as

“education.”

Somewhere, as you read, the secret will jump from the page and stand boldly before you, if you are ready for it When it appears, you will recognize it Whether you receive the sign in the first chapter or the last, stop for a moment when it presents itself, and make a note of the time and place You will want to remember, because it will mark the most important turning point of your life

Remember, too, as you go through the book, that it deals with facts and not with fiction Its purpose is to convey a great universal truth through which you, if you are ready, may learn what to do and how to do it You will also receive the needed stimulus

to make a start

As a final word of preparation, may I offer one brief suggestion that could provide a clue how the Carnegie secret might be recognized? It is this: achievement, and all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea If you are ready for the secret, you already possess one-half of it Therefore, you will recognize the other half the moment it reaches your mind

COMMENTARY

Unlike much of the business and motivational literature available, with Think and Grow Rich it is not intended that readers skip around from chapter to chapter, taking a concept here and an idea there to solve the problem of the moment This book is written as a carefully integrated whole, to be read in its entirety from beginning to end Concepts that are introduced in one chapter recur in other chapters where their meaning and significance rely upon the reader having already assimilated the earlier knowledge The chapters are designed to build upon one another in such a way that every word is to be read, every idea is to be considered, and every concept is to be understood and absorbed

Think and Grow Rich is often called the first Philosophy of Personal Achievement,

and a philosophy is more than a collection of solutions to business problems A philosophy is a system of principles that will guide your thoughts and actions, and

provide you with a code of ethics and a standard of values This book will not just change what you think, but it will literally change the way you think

In preparing this new and updated edition, every aspect of Think and Grow Rich has been analyzed to ensure its relevance to the current business climate In those instances where material might be considered dated or out of step with contemporary practices, the original text has been updated or augmented with relevant new material

A hallmark of the original edition of Think and Grow Rich is that in every chapter Napoleon Hill cites real-life examples based on his own firsthand knowledge of America’s most successful self-made multimillionaires In this edition every one of Hill’s stories has been retained, and the editors have added contemporary examples and modern parallels which clearly demonstrate that Hill’s principles are as up-to-date as today, and are still guiding those who succeed

In addition to contemporary examples, where the editors felt it would be of interest to the reader, we have included marginal notes that provide relevant information about more recent developments Where applicable, we have also suggested books and other materials that complement various aspects of Napoleon Hill’s philosophy

On a more technical note, the editors have approached the written text as we would that of a living author When we encountered what modern grammarians would consider run-on sentences, outdated punctuation, or other matters of form, we opted for contemporary usage

Those readers familiar with earlier editions will notice that the chapter numbers have been changed in this edition Originally, Think and Grow Rich began with an unnumbered chapter, A Word from the Author In this edition, that text appears as chapter 1 and is renamed The Secret of Success The chapters that follow are renumbered sequentially and proceed in their original order The chapter that was previously titled The Mystery of Sex Transmutation has been retitled Sexuality: Charisma and Creativity, and the text has been restructured and annotated to reflect the role of women in contemporary society

All editorial commentary is clearly set off in a font and style that is different from the original text

BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE OFFSPRING

OF THOUGHT

CHAPTER 2

THOUGHTS ARE THINGS

The Man Who “Thought” His Way into Partnership with Thomas A Edison

Truly, “thoughts are things.” And powerful things, when they are mixed with definiteness

of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects

Some years ago, Edwin C Barnes discovered how true it is that you really can think

and grow rich His discovery did not come about at one sitting It came little by little,

beginning with a burning desire to become a business associate of the great Thomas Edison

One of the chief characteristics of Barnes’ desire was that it was definite He wanted

to work with Edison, not for him Pay close attention to the story of how he turned his

desire into reality, and you will have a better understanding of the principles that lead to riches

When this desire, or this thought, first flashed into his mind he was in no position to act upon it Two problems stood in his way He did not know Mr Edison, and he did not have enough money to buy a train ticket to West Orange, New Jersey, where the famed Edison laboratory was located

These problems would have discouraged the majority of people from making any attempt to carry out the desire But his was no ordinary desire!

THE INVENTOR AND THE TRAMP

Edwin C Barnes presented himself at Mr Edison’s laboratory and announced that he had come to go into business with the inventor Years later, in speaking about that first meeting, Mr Edison said about Barnes:

He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future

on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win I gave him the opportunity he asked for, because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded Subsequent events proved that no mistake was made

It could not have been the young man’s appearance that got him his start in the Edison office That was definitely against him It was what he thought that counted

Barnes did not get his partnership with Edison on his first interview What he did get was a chance to work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage

Months went by Nothing happened to bring nearer the goal that Barnes had set as his definite major purpose But something important was happening in Barnes’ mind He was constantly intensifying his desire to become the business associate of Edison

Psychologists have correctly said, “When one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.” Barnes was ready for a business association with Edison And he was determined to remain ready until he got what he was seeking

He did not say to himself, “Ah well, what’s the use? I guess I’ll change my mind and try for a salesman’s job.” But he did say, “I came here to go into business with Edison, and I’ll accomplish my goal if it takes the remainder of my life.” He meant it What a different story people would tell if only they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession

Maybe young Barnes did not know it at the time, but his bulldog determination, and his persistence in focusing on a single desire, was destined to mow down all opposition and bring him the opportunity he was seeking

When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form and from a different direction than Barnes had expected That is one of the tricks of opportunity It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door And often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat Perhaps this is why so many people fail to recognize opportunity

Mr Edison had just perfected a new device, known at that time as the Edison Dictating Machine His salesmen were not enthusiastic about the machine They did not believe it could be sold without great effort Barnes saw his opportunity It had crawled in quietly, hidden in a queer-looking machine that interested no one but Barnes and the inventor

Barnes knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine, and he told Edison so Edison decided to give him his chance And Barnes did sell the machine In fact, he sold

it so successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it all over the nation Out of that business association Barnes made himself rich in money, but he

did something infinitely greater He proved that you really can think and grow rich

How much actual cash that original desire of Barnes’ was worth to him, I have no

way of knowing Perhaps it brought him two or three million dollars [three million

dollars in the early years of the twentieth century would be comparable to more than fifty million dollars in terms of buying power at the beginning of the twenty-first century] But

the amount becomes insignificant compared with the greater asset he acquired: the definite knowledge that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into material rewards by the application of known principles

Barnes literally thought himself into a partnership with the great Edison! He thought

himself into a fortune He had nothing to start with, except knowing what he wanted, and the determination to stand by that desire until he realized it

THREE FEET FROM GOLD

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when you are overtaken

by temporary defeat Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another

During the gold-rush days, an uncle of my friend R U Darby was caught by “gold fever” and he went west to Colorado to dig and grow rich He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has ever been taken from the earth

He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface Quietly he covered up the mine and returned to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland He told his relatives and a few neighbors about the strike They got together the money for the machinery and had it shipped R U Darby decided to join his uncle, and they went back to work the mine

The first car of ore was mined and shipped to a smelter The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado A few more cars of that ore would clear their debts Then would come the big killing in profits

Down went the drills Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle Then something happened The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again all to no avail

Finally, they decided to quit

They sold the machinery to a junkman for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home The junkman called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating The engineer advised that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darby’s had stopped drilling And that is exactly where it was found!

The junkman took millions of dollars in ore from the mine because he knew enough

to seek expert counsel before giving up

Long afterward, Mr Darby recouped his loss many times over when he made the discovery that desire can be transmuted into gold The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance

Never forgetting that he lost a huge fortune because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his newly chosen field He simply said to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say no when I ask them

to buy insurance.”

Darby became one of a small group of men who sell over a million dollars in life insurance annually He owed his “stickability” to the lesson he learned from his

“quitability” in the gold-mining business

Before success comes in anyone’s life, that person is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure When defeat overtakes a person, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit That is exactly what the majority of people do More than five hundred of the most successful people this country has ever known told me their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning It takes great delight in tripping you just when success is almost within reach

COMMENTARY

Napoleon Hill’s creed, “Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success,” was the inspiration for entrepreneur and motivational speaker

Wayne Allyn Root to write his book The Joy of Failure Published in the late 1990s,

it not only tells Wayne’s personal story of using his failures as stepping stones to

success, but also recounts stories from other successful people which prove that the

rich and famous got to be that way only because of what they learned from their

failures People such as Jack Welch, the hugely successful CEO of General Electric,

who, early in his career, failed dramatically when a plastics plant for which he was

responsible blew up Billionaire Charles Schwab was a failure at school and

university, flunking Basic English twice due to a learning disability, and then failed on

Wall Street more than once, before he thought of the idea that grew to make him

very rich indeed Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Steven

Jobs, Donald Trump, and a host of other equally well-known achievers all had to fail

in order to learn the lessons that ultimately made them successes Every one of them was a failure, but none of them

was defeated

Charles F Kettering, who patented more than two hundred inventions including

the automobile ignition, the spark plug, Freon for air conditioners, and the automatic

transmission, said, From the time a person is six years old until he graduates from

college he has to take three or four examinations a year If he flunks once, he is out

But an inventor is almost always failing He tries and fails maybe a thousand times, if

he succeeds once, then he is in These two things are diametrically opposite We often

say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail

intelligently We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying

and failing until he learns what will work Failures are just practice shots.”

A FIFTY-CENT LESSON IN PERSISTENCE

Shortly after Mr Darby received his degree from the “University of Hard Knocks,” he

witnessed something that proved to him that no does not necessarily mean NO

One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old-fashioned mill The

uncle operated a large farm on which a number of sharecropper farmers lived Quietly the

door was opened, and a small child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her

place near the door

The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, “What do you want?”

Meekly, the child replied, “My mom says to send her fifty cents.”

“I’ll not do it,” the uncle retorted “Now you run on home.”

But she did not move

The uncle went ahead with his work, not noticing that she did not leave When he

looked up again and saw her still standing there, he said, “I told you to go on home! Now

go, or I’ll take a switch to you.”

But she did not budge

The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, and

started toward the child

Darby held his breath He knew his uncle had a fierce temper

When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped

forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her voice, “My

mom’s gotta have that fifty cents!”

The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her

The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for more than ten minutes He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had just taken

Mr Darby, too, was doing some thinking That was the first time in all his experience that he had seen a child deliberately master an adult How did she do it? What happened

to his uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did this child use that made her master of the situation? These questions flashed into Darby’s mind, but he did not find the answer until years later, when he told me the story

Strangely, the story of this unusual experience was told to me in the old mill, on the very spot where the uncle took his whipping

As we stood there in that musty old mill, Mr Darby repeated the story, and finished

by asking, “What can you make of it? What strange power did that child use, that so completely whipped my uncle?”

The answer to his question will be found in the principles described in this book The answer is full and complete It contains enough details and instructions for you to understand and apply the same force that the little child accidentally stumbled upon Keep your mind alert and you will learn exactly what strange power came to the rescue of the child You may catch a glimpse of the power in this chapter, or it may flash into your mind in some later chapter If you stay alert to the possibility, somewhere you will find the idea that will quicken your receptive powers and place at your command this same irresistible power It may come in the form of a single idea Or it may come as a complete plan, or a purpose It may even cause you to go back over your past experiences

of failure or defeat And, in doing so, it may bring to the surface some lesson by which you can regain all that you lost through defeat

After I had explained to Mr Darby the power unwittingly used by the little child, he mentally retraced his thirty years as a life insurance salesman As he did so, it became clear to him that his success was due, in no small degree, to the lesson he had learned from the child

Mr Darby pointed out: “Every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself: “I’ve got to make this sale.” The better portion of all sales I have made were made after people had said no.”

He also recalled his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold “But,” he said, “that experience was a blessing in disguise It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.”

Mr Darby’s experiences were commonplace and simple enough, yet they held the answer to his destiny in life In fact, to him the experiences were as important as life itself And he was able to profit from these two important experiences, because he analyzed them and found the lesson they taught

But what if you don’t see the events of your life as being experiences of such profound significance? And what about the young person who doesn’t yet have even

minor failures to analyze? Where and how will they learn the art of converting defeats into the steppingstones to opportunity?

That is exactly why this book was written to answer those questions

To convey my answer I have constructed thirteen principles These principles work

individually or together as catalysts The specific answer that you are looking for may

already be in your own mind Reading these principles may be the catalyst that causes your answer to suddenly come to you as an idea, a plan, or a purpose

One sound idea is all you need to achieve success These thirteen principles contain the best and most practical ways and means of creating ideas

SUCCESS CONSCIOUSNESS

Before I go any further in the description of these principles, you should know this: When riches begin to come, they come so quickly, and in such great abundance, that you will wonder where they have been hiding during all those lean years

This is an astounding statement, especially when you take into consideration the popular belief that riches come only to those who work hard and long

When you begin to think and grow rich, you will observe that riches begin with a

state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work What you need to know now is how to acquire the state of mind that will attract riches I spent twenty-five years researching the answer to that question because I, too, wanted to know “how wealthy men become that way.”

What you will learn is that as soon as you master the principles of this philosophy, and begin to apply those principles, your financial status will begin to improve Everything you touch will begin to transmute itself into an asset for your benefit Impossible? Not at all!

One of the main weaknesses the average person suffers is too much familiarity with

the word impossible We know all the rules that will not work We know all the things

that cannot be done This book was written for those who seek the rules that have made others successful, and are willing to stake everything on those rules

Success comes to those who become success conscious

Failure comes to those who allow themselves to become failure conscious

The object of this book is to help you learn the art of changing your mind from failure consciousness to success consciousness

Another weakness is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by your own impressions and beliefs Some of you reading this will have trouble believing that you

can think and grow rich, because your thought habits have been steeped in poverty,

misery, failure, and defeat

This kind of thinking reminds me of the story about the man who came from China to study at the University of Chicago One day President Harper met this young man on campus and stopped to chat with him for a few minutes He asked what had impressed him as being the most noticeable characteristic of the American people

“Why,” the student exclaimed, “the unusual shape of your eyes.”

It’s all a matter of perspective and habit

The same is true of your belief in what a person can achieve If you have formed the habit of seeing life only from you own perspective, you may make the mistake of

believing that your limitations are in fact the proper measure of limitations

THE “IMPOSSIBLE” FORD V-8 MOTOR

When Henry Ford decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, he chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block Ford instructed his engineers to produce

a design for the engine The design was drawn up on paper, but the engineers agreed, to

a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder engine block in one piece Ford said, “Produce it anyway.”

“But,” they replied, “it’s impossible!”

“Go ahead,” Ford commanded, “and stay on the job until you succeed No matter how much time is required.”

So the engineers went ahead Six months went by Nothing happened Another six months passed, and still nothing The engineers tried every conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of the question “Impossible!”

At the end of the year Ford again checked with his engineers, and again they told him they had found no way to carry out his orders

“Go right ahead,” said Ford “I want it, and I’ll have it.” They went ahead, and then,

as if by a stroke of magic, the secret was discovered

The Ford determination had won once more!

Henry Ford was a success because he understood and applied the principles of

success One of these principles is desire: knowing clearly what you want Remember this Ford story as you continue reading this book Pick out the lines in which the secrets

of his stupendous achievement have been described If you do this, if you can put your finger on those particular principles that made Henry Ford rich, you may equal his achievements in almost any calling for which you are suited

COMMENTARY

To those readers who may interpret Ford’s actions as nothing more than obstinacy, the editors would point out that he was employing a technique that has become a common part of strategic planning in many industries including aerospace, computers, medicine, and the military

When launching large, complicated, long-term projects the planners often know that at certain points along the way they will need components that simply do not yet exist The fact that at the beginning there is no way to get from A to B does not deter them There are many parts of the project they can get started on now, and they just assume that by the time they get to the point where they will need a technology or a device, they will have solved the problem of making it And they have been proven right time and again

Stated simply, the technique is to clearly know what you want to accomplish, have faith in your ability to do it, and persist until you have accomplished your goal

WHY YOU ARE “THE MASTER OF YOUR FATE”

When the famed English poet William Henley wrote the prophetic lines “I am the master

of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,” he should have informed us that the reason we are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls, is that we have the power to control our thoughts

He should have told us that it is because in some way our brains become

“magnetized” with the dominating thoughts that we hold in our minds And it is as though our magnetized minds attract to us the forces, the people, and the circumstances

of life that are in sync with our dominating thoughts

He should have told us that before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must magnetize our minds with intense desire for riches That we must become “money conscious” until the desire for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it But, being a poet, Henley contented himself by stating a great truth in poetic form, leaving those who followed him to interpret the philosophical meaning of his lines

Little by little the truth has unfolded itself, until I have come to know with certainty that the principles described in this book hold the secret of mastery over our economic fate

PRINCIPLES THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR DESTINY

We are now ready to examine the first of these principles, and as we do I ask you to maintain a spirit of open-mindedness Remember, as you read, that these principles are not my invention Nor are they the invention of any one person These principles have worked for literally millions of people You, too, can put them to work for you and your own enduring benefit You will find it easy, not hard, to do

Some years ago I delivered the commencement address at Salem College in Salem, West Virginia I emphasized with so much intensity the need to have a burning desire, that one of the members of the graduating class became completely convinced and made

it a cornerstone of his own philosophy That young man became a congressman and an important factor in President Franklin D Roosevelt’s administration He wrote me a letter

in which he so clearly stated his opinion of the principle of desire outlined in the next chapter, that I have chosen to publish his letter as an introduction to that chapter It gives you an idea of the rewards to come

My dear Napoleon:

My service as a member of Congress having given me an insight into the problems of men and women, I am writing to offer a suggestion, which may become helpful to thousands of worthy people

In 1922, you delivered the commencement address at Salem College, when I was a member of the graduating class In that address, you planted in my mind an idea, which has been responsible for the opportunity I now have to serve the people of my state, and will be responsible, in a very large measure, for whatever success I may have in the future

I recall, as though it were yesterday, the marvelous description you gave of the method by which Henry Ford, with but little schooling, without a dollar, with no influential friends, rose to great heights I made up my mind then, even before you had finished your speech, that I would make a place for myself, no matter how many difficulties I had to surmount

Thousands of young people will finish their schooling this year, and within the next few years Every one of them will be seeking just such a message of practical encouragement as the one I received from you They will want to know where to turn,

what to do, to get started in life You can tell them, because you have helped to solve the problems of so many, many people

There are thousands of people in America today who would like to know how they can convert ideas into money, people who must start from scratch, without finances, and recoup their losses If anyone can help them, you can

If you publish the book, I would like to own the first copy that comes from the press, personally autographed by you

With best wishes, believe me,

Cordially yours,

Jennings Randolph

Since that time in 1922, I watched Jennings Randolph rise to become one of the nation’s leading airline executives, a great inspirational speaker, and a United States senator from West Virginia

Thirty-five years after I made that speech, it was my pleasure to return to Salem College in1957 and deliver the baccalaureate sermon At that time, I received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Salem College

COMMENTARY

As you begin the next chapter, the editors would like to reinforce the earlier statement that what you are reading is not just a collection of theories out of which you can cherry-pick what you like

The thirteen principles of success were proven by the real-life experiences of the long list of famous successful people cited earlier by Napoleon Hill His techniques are also practiced and endorsed by the contemporary experts and authors whom the editors mentioned, following Hill’s list More than 60 million people have purchased copies of the book that you are now holding in your hands

If this book has proven to be that successful, surely you owe it to yourself to give it every chance to work for you too Read it Don’t question it Do it If you don’t, if you think that you know better than Napoleon Hill, if you decide to pick and choose the parts that you will believe or follow, then if you don’t succeed you will never know if your failure lies with this book or with you

WHATEVER THE MIND OF MAN CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE

IT CAN ACHIEVE

CHAPTER 3

DESIRE

The Starting Point of All Achievement

The First Step Toward Riches

When Edwin C Barnes climbed down from the freight train in West Orange, New Jersey,

he may have resembled a tramp but his thoughts were those of a king

As he made his way from the railroad tracks to Thomas A Edison’s office, his mind was at work He saw himself standing in Edison’s presence He heard himself asking Mr Edison for an opportunity to carry out the one consuming obsession of his life a burning desire to become the business associate of the great inventor

Barnes’ desire was not a hope It was not a wish It was a pulsating desire, which transcended everything else It was definite

A few years later, Edwin C Barnes again stood before Edison, in the same office where he first met the inventor This time his desire had been translated into reality He was in business with Edison The dominating dream of his life had become a reality Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal, placed all his energy, all his willpower, all his effort he put everything he had into achieving that goal

Five years passed before the chance he had been seeking made its appearance To everyone, except himself, he appeared to be just another cog in the Edison business wheel But in Edwin Barnes’ own mind, he was the partner of Edison every minute from the very day that he first went to work there

It is a remarkable illustration of the power of a definite desire Barnes won his goal because he wanted to be a business associate of Mr Edison’s more than he wanted anything else He created a plan by which to attain that purpose, and he burned all bridges behind him He stood by his desire until it became the dominating obsession of his life and finally, a fact

When he went to West Orange he did not say to himself, “I will try to induce Edison

to give me a job of some sort.” He said, “I will see Edison, and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him.”

He did not say, “I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization.” He said, “There is one thing in this world that I

am determined to have, and that is a business association with Thomas A Edison I will burn all bridges behind me and stake my entire future on my ability to get what I want.”

He left himself no possible way of retreat He had to win or perish!

That is all there is to the Barnes story of success

ALLOW YOURSELF NO RETREAT

A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation in which he had to make a decision that ensured his success on the battlefield He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe whose men outnumbered his He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, and unloaded the soldiers and equipment Then he gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them Addressing his men before the first battle, he said,

“You see the boats going up in smoke That means we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice we win or we perish!”

They won

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat That is the only way you can be sure of maintaining the state of mind known as a burning desire to win It is essential to success

The morning after the great Chicago fire a group of merchants stood on State Street, looking at the smoking remains of what had been their stores They went into a conference to decide if they would try to rebuild or if they would leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the country They decided to leave All except one The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a finger at the remains of his store and said, “Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down.”

That was in 1871 The store was built It still stands there today The Marshall Field’s Department Store is a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as a burning desire The easy thing would have been for Marshall Field to do exactly what his fellow merchants did When the going was hard, and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where the going seemed easier

Mark well this difference between Marshall Field and the other merchants It is that difference which distinguishes those who succeed from those who fail

Every human being old enough to understand the value of money wishes for it But wishing will not bring riches Desiring riches, with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence a persistence which does not recognize failure that’s what will bring riches

COMMENTARY

In other of his writings, Napoleon Hill uses the term definiteness of purpose as being interchangeable with desire The following explanation is adapted from the Napoleon Hill Foundation’s book Believe and Achieve

Desire or Definiteness of Purpose is more than goal setting In simplest terms, your Desire is your road map to achieving an overall career objective Your goals represent specific steps along the way

Having a Desire or Definiteness of Purpose for your life has a synergistic effect on your ability to achieve your goals As you become better at what you do you devote all

of your resources toward reaching your objective, you become more alert to opportunities, and you reach decisions more quickly Every action you take ultimately boils down to the question: Will this goal help me reach my Desire, my overall objective, or won’t it?

Your purpose will become your life; it will permeate your mind, both conscious and subconscious

SIX WAYS TO TURN DESIRE INTO GOLD

The method by which your desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of six definite, practical steps:

1 Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire It is not sufficient merely

to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite about the amount (There is a psychological reason for such definiteness explained in subsequent chapters.)

2 Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”)

3 Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire

4 Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action

5 Now write it out Write a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give

in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it

6 Read your written statement aloud, twice daily Read it once just before retiring at night, and read it once after arising in the morning As you read, see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money

It is important that you follow the instructions in these six steps It is especially important that you observe and follow the instructions in the sixth step You may complain that it is impossible for you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it Here is where a burning desire will come to your aid 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 become

so determined to have it that you convince yourself you will have it

If you have not been schooled in the workings of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical It may help you to know that the information they convey was given to me by Andrew Carnegie, who made himself into one of the most successful men

in American history Carnegie began as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but managed, despite his humble beginning, to make these principles yield him a fortune of considerably more than $100 million [In today’s terms, the value of Carnegie’s fortune

would be at least $20 billion, and probably a good deal more.]

It may be of further help to know that the six steps were carefully scrutinized by the famed inventor and successful businessman, Thomas A Edison He gave his stamp of approval, saying they are not only the steps essential for the accumulation of money, but also for the attainment of any goal

COMMENTARY

In the time since Napoleon Hill wrote these words, advances in our understanding of both the physiology of the brain and the psychology of the mind have yielded a much greater understanding of human motivation Even so, the methods used by modern motivational experts are essentially the same techniques advised by Hill Research studies confirm that there is sound psychological basis for doing as Hill advises: be very specific when setting goals, perform the physical act of committing those goals to paper, and repeat your stated goal aloud to yourself often

These techniques have gained wide acceptance among modern experts in the field The psychological principle at work is similar to that which underlies autosuggestion and self-hypnosis concepts that will be discussed in greater depth in chapter 5, Autosuggestion, and in chapter 13, The Subconscious Mind

Hill’s instruction to “see yourself as you will be when you have already achieved your objective” is also a specific technique Today it is commonly taught by motivational experts under the term “creative visualization.” In chapter 4 on faith and

in chapter 5 on autosuggestion, Hill elaborates on his method

Before moving on, the editors would like to reinforce Hill’s advice to follow his instructions to the letter The editors know there is a tendency for the reader to assume that it is enough for them just to intellectually understand a concept As you read Hill’s six points, you probably found yourself thinking, “Sure, some people might need to write things down, but I’m not a kid I get the idea.” Or, “Okay, I understand that saying it out loud might help some less sophisticated people, but I already understand the point intellectually.” If you feel that way, let us remind you that many

of the most successful people whom you admire did not think they were too smart or too sophisticated to follow Hill’s instructions The editors would again point out that

if Napoleon Hill believed the actual acts of writing and speaking your goals is important, and if psychologists and motivational experts agree, then you would be foolish not to follow this simple advice Just do it

The steps call for no hard labor They call for no sacrifice To apply them does not call for a great amount of education But the six steps do call for enough imagination to see, and to understand, that the accumulation of money cannot be left to chance or luck You may as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in great quantity unless you can work yourself into a white heat of desire for money, and actually believe you will possess it

THE POWER OF GREAT DREAMS

If you are in this race for riches, you should be encouraged by the following truth: The world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, and new methods, styles, versions, and variations of everything all of the time Behind all this demand for new and better things, there is one quality that you must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose the knowledge of what you want, and a burning desire to possess it

If you truly desire riches, remember that the real leaders of the world have always been people who harnessed, and put into practical use, the intangible, unseen forces of opportunity Leaders are the people who convert those opportunities into cities,

skyscrapers, factories, transportation, entertainment, and every form of convenience that make things easier, faster, better, or just make life more pleasant

In planning to acquire your share of the riches, don’t let anyone put you down for being a dreamer To win the big stakes in this changing world, you must catch the spirit

of the great pioneers, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value It is that spirit which serves as the life-blood of our own country your opportunity and mine,

to develop and market our talents

A burning desire to be and to do is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness, or lack of ambition

If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it, go ahead and do it Never mind what “they” say if you meet with temporary defeat “They” do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success

Marconi dreamed of a system for sending sound from one place to another without the use of wires It may interest you to know that Marconi’s “friends” had him taken into custody, and examined in a psychiatric hospital, when he announced he had discovered a principle by which he could send messages through the air Evidence that he did not dream in vain may be found in every radio[and television set, cellular phone, communications satellite, and every other “wireless” device] in the world

Fortunately, the dreamers of today fare better Today your world is filled with an abundance of opportunity that the dreamers of the past never knew

If you doubt this is true, if you are feeling crushed because of a recent failure, you are about to learn how your failure can be your most valuable asset Almost everyone who succeeds in life gets off to a bad start, and passes through many heartbreaking struggles, before they “arrive.” The turning point in the lives of those who succeed usually comes

at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves.”

COMMENTARY

Napoleon Hill’s concept of the “other self” is mentioned elsewhere in Think and Grow Rich, but he does not comment on it extensively The following elaboration

is taken from his later writings:

You’ve been thinking about your losses to the exclusion of everything else The more you concentrate on them, the more you attract other losses Stop thinking about them, and make up your mind that you are going to benefit from your experience Whatever personal obstacles you face, you must start getting to know that side of your personality that knows no obstacles, that recognizes no defeats Cultivate a friendship with the “other” you, so no matter what you are doing, you are allied with someone who shares your goals All the philosophy and advice about persuading others will be much more useful to you if you practice it yourself

Sydney Porter discovered the genius that slept within his brain only after he had met with great misfortune He was found guilty of embezzlement, and confined to a prison cell in Columbus, Ohio, and it was there that he became acquainted with his “other self.”

He began to write short stories Then, while locked in his cell, he began to sell those stories to magazines under the pen name O Henry Through the use of his imagination,

he discovered himself to be a great author instead of a miserable criminal and outcast By

the time he was released from prison, O Henry was the most popular short-story writer in the country

COMMENTARY

More recently, in another prison, another kind of writer met his other self, and country music gained one of its most talented songwriters and biggest stars As a kid, Merle Haggard’s family home was a converted boxcar in Bakersfield, California After his father died when Merle was nine, more often than not, home for young Merle was a series of juvenile detention centers At sixteen he quit school, and for the next four years the only mark Merle Haggard made in the world was a rap sheet for stolen cars, burglaries, and bogus checks By the age of twenty, he was serving time in San Quentin and gaining a reputation as a hard-case con

Then he met his other self Inspired by a concert Johnny Cash played for the inmates, plus conversations with men on death row and the time he spent in solitary confinement, Haggard learned that he had another self and that self had something to say through his music

When he got out of solitary Haggard asked for the hardest job the prison had to offer, he enrolled in night-school courses at the prison, straightened himself out, and won his parole after two and a half years He went back to Bakersfield, and dug ditches during the day so he could polish his songwriting and performing at night Within three years he had a recording contract, within five years he had his first top- ten hit, and has since gone on to become one of the most influential voices in modern country music

Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, and he began where he stood to put his dream into action He failed more than ten thousand times Despite his failures, he stood by that dream until finally he was driven to the discovery of the genius that slept within his brain

COMMENTARY

Dean Kamen got to know his other self very early in life While he was a teenager Kamen started his own company, building and selling control systems for automated sound and light shows He was still in high school when he got the contract

to automate the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball Though he went on to attend university, he never bothered to graduate because he was too busy working on something he called Auto-Syringe, the first wearable infusion pump for administering drug therapies His invention was hailed as a medical landmark, as were many of his other breakthroughs which include a revolutionary kidney dialysis machine, an insulin pump for diabetics, an improved stent used for heart patients, and more than one hundred and fifty other devices he has patented

One day, seeing the difficulty a man in a wheelchair was having getting up a curb, Kamen set his mind to creating a device that would liberate people confined to wheelchairs The result is the iBot, a revolutionary wheeled device that uses computers and a system of stabilizing gyroscopes that imitate the working of the human body It not only goes over curbs but it will even go up and down stairs, travel over almost any kind of rough ground, and will allow the user to raise themself eye-to-

eye with a standing person And it does it all without the user having to get out of the device or needing anyone’s assistance

In 2001 Kamen hit the front pages when he introduced the Segway, a one-person people-mover, based on his iBot technology It’s a two-wheel scooter-like device that zips and zooms forward, backward, left, right, and comes to a stop without the rider doing anything more than barely shifting his or her body It is so sensitive that it is almost as though it obeys the user’s thoughts The Segway may be a world-changing invention, with possible applications for work and travel that stagger the imagination

As this is being written, the Segway is already being used to navigate large warehouses and is being tested by police departments and postal employees

While traffic cops and city hall wrangle over whether the Segway belongs on the sidewalk or the road, Dean Kamen is dreaming a new dream This time the dream is

an invention that may literally bring light to some of the darkest corners of the earth Kamen has developed a nonpolluting electric generator that can use almost anything as fuel But here’s the extraordinary part he has created a revolutionary closed system so that the engine’s heat is used to purify ten gallons of drinkable water every hour This amazing invention could bring safe drinking water to parts of the world where contaminated water kills millions, and at the same time it will provide a source of cheap, reliable, electric power

Dean Kamen is not some academic hidden in a lab somewhere Kamen is an inventor, but like Thomas Edison, he is also an entrepreneur and businessman creating and marketing devices that are changing the public perception of what an inventor is

Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a horseless carriage He went to work with what tools he possessed, without waiting for opportunity to favor him, and now evidence of his dream belts the entire earth He put more wheels into operation than any man who ever lived, because he was not afraid to back his dreams

COMMENTARY

Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two university dropouts, dreamed of making and selling computers that the average person could use Like Ford, working with the tools they possessed, they built the first Apple computer in the Jobs’ family garage, and, like Ford, they weren’t afraid to back their dreams After showing their prototype to a local retailer they got an order for twenty-five machines, Jobs sold his Volkswagen and Woz sold his expensive Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator to raise $1,300 to start their new company They took the money, convinced the local electronics suppliers to grant them a line of credit, and started production of the Apple I

They revolutionized the computer hardware and software industries Released in

1976, and priced at $666, the Apple I earned them $774,000 Two years later they introduced the Apple II which, in the next three years, earned $140,000,000 In 1980 Apple went public, and after the first day of trading the company had a market value

of $1.2 billion Wozniak left the company in 1981, but Jobs pushed through the development of the Macintosh in 1984 In 1985 Jobs left too, but in 1998 he came back to Apple to revitalize the

floundering company with the creation of the iMac computers, the animation company Pixar, the iPod, and iTunes

In presenting stories of contemporary successes, the editors have followed Hill’s style of using real people to illustrate the principles of success But Napoleon Hill was granted a rare privilege Unlike anyone before or after, he had the opportunity to personally meet the most powerful and successful people and learn firsthand the dreams that inspired them, the obstacles that confronted them, and how they found the courage within themselves to overcome their failures Hill met many of the inventors and the empire builders who laid the foundations of twentieth-century American industry while they were still news, not history Then, for more than twenty-five years,

he studied the habits and learned the secrets of the next generations who built on the foundations, forged new industries, devised new systems, and dreamed new dreams It was only because Hill was given such unprecedented access over such a long period that he was able to compare, contrast, analyze, and then formulate a philosophy of achievement based on the real stories of real people who had used these techniques to create their success

Think and Grow Rich revolutionized self-help writing, and to this day is the standard against which all motivational literature is measured Its success also helped create the market for the thousands of business biographies that tell in detail how the dreams were born, plans were made, frustrations were faced, and triumphs achieved

in every sector of modern business And because this wealth of information is now available, with little more than the click of a mouse, you can read, hear, or watch today’s greatest entrepreneurs and most successful CEOs confirming, in their own words, the basic truth behind every one of the principles Napoleon Hill explains in this book

The products or services they sell may be different but the story of their success is the same: dreams, followed by failures, followed by lessons learned, then success For every Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, or O Henry that Napoleon Hill cites to make a point, today there is a Steve Jobs, Dean Kamen, or Merle Haggard proving that Hill’s points are still valid

There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it No one is ready for a thing until they believe they can acquire it The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope or wish Open-mindedness is essential for belief Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief

Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:

I bargained with Life for a penny,

And Life would pay no more,

However I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store

For Life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask,

But once you have set the wages,

Why, you must bear the task

I worked for a menial’s hire,

Only to learn, dismayed,

That any wage I had asked of Life,

Life would have willingly paid

DESIRE OUTWITS MOTHER NATURE

As a fitting climax to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of the most unusual persons I have ever known I first saw him a few minutes after he was born He came into the world without any physical sign of ears When pressed for an opinion, the doctor concluded that the child might be deaf and mute for life

I challenged that doctor’s opinion I had the right to do so I was the child’s father I, too, reached a decision, but I expressed my opinion silently, in the secrecy of my own heart

In my own mind I knew that my son would hear and speak How? I was sure there must be a way, and I knew I would find it I thought of the words of the immortal Emerson: “The whole course of things goes to teach us faith We need only obey There

is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.”

The right word? Desire! More than anything else, I desired that my son should not be deaf and unable to speak From that desire I never receded Not for a second

What could I do about it? Somehow I would find a way to transplant into that child’s mind my own burning desire for ways and means of conveying sound to his brain without the aid of ears

As soon as the child was old enough to cooperate, I would fill his mind so completely with a burning desire to hear, that Nature would, by methods of her own, translate it into physical reality

All this thinking took place in my own mind, but I spoke of it to no one Every day I renewed the pledge I had made to myself, that my son should not be deaf

As he grew older, and began to take notice of things around him, we observed that he had a slight degree of hearing When he reached the age when children usually begin talking he made no attempt to speak, but we could tell by his actions that he could hear certain sounds slightly

That was all I needed to know! I was convinced that if he could hear, even slightly, he might develop still greater hearing capacity Then something happened that gave me hope It came from an entirely unexpected source

We bought a phonograph When the child heard the music for the first time, he went into ecstasies He promptly appropriated the machine On one occasion he played a record over and over, for almost two hours, standing in front of the phonograph, with his teeth clamped on the edge of the case The significance of this did not become clear to us until years afterward At the time, we had never heard of the principle of “bone conduction” of sound

Shortly after he appropriated the phonograph I discovered that he could hear me quite clearly when I spoke with my lips touching his mastoid bone, at the base of the skull Having determined that he could hear the sound of my voice plainly, I began immediately to transfer to his mind the desire to hear and speak When I discovered that

my son enjoyed bedtime stories, I went to work creating stories designed to develop in him self-reliance, imagination, and a strong desire to hear

There was one story line in particular that I emphasized over and over Each time I told it, I gave it some new and dramatic coloring These stories were designed to plant in his mind the thought that his affliction was not a liability but an asset of great value As a result of my studies and personal experience, I firmly believed that every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage However, despite my beliefs, I must confess that I did not have the slightest idea how this disability could ever become an asset

He Won a New World with Six Cents!

As I analyze the experience in retrospect, I can see now that my son’s faith in me had much to do with the astounding results He did not question anything I told him I sold him on the idea that he had a distinct advantage over his older brother, and that this advantage would reflect itself in many ways For example, the teachers in school would observe that he had no ears, and because of this they would show him special attention and treat him with extraordinary kindness And they always did I also sold him on the idea that when he became old enough to sell newspapers (his older brother had already become a newspaper merchant) he would have a big advantage over his brother My reasoning was that people would pay him extra money for his wares, because they could see that he was a bright, industrious boy, despite the fact he had no ears

When he was about seven he showed the first evidence that my method of stimulating his mind was bearing fruit For several months he begged for the privilege of selling newspapers, but his mother would not give the project her consent

Finally he took matters in his own hands One afternoon, when he was left at home with the staff, he climbed through the kitchen window, shinnied to the ground, and set out

on his own He borrowed six cents in capital from the neighborhood shoemaker and invested it in papers, which he sold out He took his earnings, reinvested in more newspapers, and kept repeating until late in the evening After balancing his accounts, and paying back the six cents he had borrowed from his banker, he had a net profit of forty-two cents When we got home that night, we found him in bed asleep, with the money tightly clenched in his hand

His mother opened his hand, removed the coins, and cried Of all things! To me, it seemed she was crying over her son’s first victory My reaction was the reverse I laughed, for I knew that my endeavor to plant in my son’s mind an attitude of faith in himself had been successful

His mother saw, in his first business venture, a little deaf boy who had gone out in the streets and risked his life to earn money I saw a brave, ambitious, self-reliant little businessman whose stock in himself had been increased a hundred percent He had gone into business on his own initiative, and had won I was not only pleased, I was impressed

He had clearly demonstrated the first signs of a resourcefulness that would go with him all through life

The little deaf boy went through grade school, high school, and college without being able to hear his teachers, except when they shouted loudly at close range He did not go

to a school for the deaf and we did not use sign language We were determined that he should live like any other boy who could hear and speak We stood by that decision, although it cost us many heated debates with school officials

While he was in high school he tried an electronic hearing aid, but it was of no value

to him

During his last week in college, something happened that marked the most important turning point of his life Through what seemed to be mere chance, he came into possession of another electronic hearing device, which was sent to him on trial He was slow about testing it, due to his disappointment with a similar device Finally he picked it

up, carelessly, placed it on his head, and hooked up the battery Suddenly, as if by magic, his lifelong desire for normal hearing became a reality! For the first time in his life he heard practically as well as any person with normal hearing

Overjoyed because of the changed world that had been brought to him, he rushed to the telephone, called his mother, and heard her voice perfectly The next day, for the first time in his life, he plainly heard the voices of his professors in class! For the first time in his life, he could converse freely with other people, without them having to speak loudly Truly, he had come into possession of a changed world

His desire was finally paying dividends But the victory was not yet complete He still had to find a definite and practical way to convert his disability into an equivalent asset

Thought That Works Miracles

Intoxicated with the joy of his newly discovered world of sound, he wrote a letter to the manufacturer of the hearing aid, enthusiastically describing his experience Something in his letter prompted the company to invite him to New York He was escorted through the factory, and while talking with the chief engineer, telling him about his changed world, a hunch, an idea, or an inspiration call it what you wish flashed into his mind It was this impulse of thought that converted his disability into an asset An asset destined to pay dividends in both money and happiness to thousands for all time to come

The sum and substance of that impulse was this: It occurred to him that he might be

of help to the millions of people who go through life without the benefit of hearing devices, if he could find a way to tell them the story of his changed world

For one month he carried out intensive research, during which he analyzed the entire marketing system of the manufacturer of the hearing device Then he created a plan for reaching out to other hearing impaired people all over the world, to share with them his newly discovered changed world When this was done, he put in writing a two-year plan, based on his findings When he presented the plan to the company he was instantly given

a position, for the purpose of carrying out his ambition

Little did he dream, when he went to work, that he was destined to bring hope and practical relief to thousands of people who, without his help, would have been limited forever by deafness

There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been deaf and unable to speak all his life if his mother and I had not managed to shape his mind as we did

When I planted in his mind the desire to hear and talk and live as other people, there went with that impulse some strange influence that caused Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf of silence between his brain and the outer world

Truly, a burning desire has devious ways of transmuting itself into its physical equivalent Blair desired normal hearing; now he has it! He was born with a condition that, in those days, might easily have sent a person with a less-defined desire to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin cup

The little “white lie” I planted in his mind when he was a child, by leading him to believe his impaired hearing would become a great asset, has justified itself I am convinced it is a fact that there is nothing, right or wrong, that belief plus burning desire cannot make real These qualities are free to everyone

COMMENTARY

As Napoleon Hill was finishing this chapter on Desire, it was reported that the famed opera singer Madame Schumann-Heink had died A passage in her obituary struck Hill as being so appropriate to the subject of this chapter that he was moved to comment as follows

One short paragraph in the newspaper story about the famed opera singer Madame Schumann-Heink gives the clue to this unusual woman’s stupendous success I quote the paragraph, because the clue it contains is none other than desire

Early in her career, Mme Schumann-Heink visited the director of the Vienna Court Opera, to have him test her voice But he did not test it After taking one look at the awkward and poorly dressed girl, he exclaimed, none too gently, “With such a face, and with no personality at all, how can you ever expect to succeed in opera? My good child, give up the idea Buy a sewing machine, and go to work You can never be a singer.”

Never is a long time! The director of the Vienna Court Opera may have known much about the technique of singing, but he knew little about the power of desire when it assumes the proportion of an obsession If he had known more of that power, he would not have made the mistake of condemning genius without giving it an opportunity

COMMENTARY

Although few readers of this edition will be familiar with Madame Schumann-Heink, every reader knows a half-dozen similar stories It is true for every generation and every kind of music At some time, even the biggest stars were failures At some time, someone told them they weren’t good enough But every one of those times that they failed, their desire was bigger than their failure

That is why you know their stories And it’s also why you’ve never heard about the thousands of other performers who were also told they weren’t good enough The ones you’ve never heard of are the ones whose desire wasn’t big enough They’re the ones who believed that failure was defeat

Several years ago one of my business associates became ill He became worse as time went on, and finally was taken to the hospital for an operation The doctor warned me that there was little if any chance of my ever seeing him alive again But that was the doctor’s opinion It was not the opinion of the patient Just before he was wheeled away,

he whispered to me, “Do not be disturbed, Chief, I will be out of here in a few days.” The attending nurse looked at me with pity But the patient did come through safely After it was all over, his physician said, “Nothing but his own desire to live saved him

He never would have pulled through if he had not refused to accept the possibility of death.”

COMMENTARY

By the 1980s the phenomenon that Napoleon Hill wrote about in the preceding paragraph was embraced by a growing segment of the population Among the adherents were numerous medical professionals who incorporated the concept under the term “the body-mind connection” and by the turn of the twenty-first century the belief that the mind can manifest physical changes in the body had become a part

of mainstream medical practice In chapter 5, Autosuggestion, you will find further comment on the medical aspects of having a burning desire

I believe in the power of desire backed by faith in yourself, because I have seen this power lift people from lowly beginnings to places of power and wealth I have seen it rob the grave of its victims; I have seen it serve as the medium by which people staged a comeback after having been defeated in a hundred different ways And I have seen it provide my own son with a normal, happy, successful life, despite Nature’s having sent him into the world without ears

How can you harness and use the power of desire? The first part of the answer is in the technique at the beginning of this chapter You will learn more in the next and subsequent chapters of this book

Through some strange and powerful principle, Nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire “that something” which recognizes no such word as impossible, and accepts

no such reality as failure

THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS TO THE MIND EXCEPT

THOSE WE ACKNOWLEDGE

CHAPTER 4

FAITH IN YOUR ABILITY

Visualization of, and Belief in, Attainment of Desire

The Second Step Toward Riches

Faith is the head chemist of the mind When faith is blended with thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration The subconscious then translates it and transmits it to Infinite Intelligence

The emotions of faith, love, and sex are the most powerful of all the major positive emotions When the three are blended, they have the effect of “coloring” thought in such

a way that it instantly reaches the subconscious mind There, it is changed into a form that induces a response from Infinite Intelligence

COMMENTARY

In the preceding paragraph Napoleon Hill uses two terms, “faith” and “Infinite Intelligence,” both of which may convey to the reader a religious connotation that Hill did not intend The following will define the meaning of the words as Hill uses them in the following chapter

In modern usage, the word faith has become almost interchangeable with

“religious belief,” which is not the way Hill uses the word Faith, as it is used here, means having confidence, trust, and an absolute, unwavering belief that you can do something And in order for you to have faith in yourself as Hill means it, it has to be true on a subconscious level If you have a nagging doubt in the back of your mind, or

if you are just going through the motions of pretending you believe, it won’t work because your subconscious will know your doubts Unless you have absolute total confidence, unless you are convinced without question, then you don’t have faith Hill uses the term Infinite Intelligence to identify that part of the human mind and thinking process that produces hunches, flashes of insight, and leaps of logic Hill’s concept has similarities to what psychologist Carl Jung called the “collective unconscious,” and, on another level, it is very close to what contemporary psychologists refer to as “working in the flow state” or “being in the zone.” Infinite intelligence is discussed in greater depth in later chapters

Hill also uses another term, the subconscious mind, that should be commented on before the reader proceeds with this chapter Although there are differing schools of thought, in general, modern psychology developed from the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung Each believed that the human mind operates on both a

conscious and an unconscious level, but they differed on the role the subconscious plays and the way it influences attitude and action

Through his own research and studies, Napoleon Hill developed a theory of the conscious and subconscious that is closest to the Jungian view The following briefly describes the basis of Hill’s view

The Conscious Mind: Your conscious mind receives information through the five

senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch Your conscious mind keeps track of what you need for thinking and operating, and it filters out what you don’t need Your conscious mind (and what your memory retains) is the intelligence with which you normally think, reason, and plan

The Subconscious Mind: Your subconscious has access to all the same information your conscious mind receives, but it doesn’t reason the way your conscious mind does It takes everything literally It doesn’t make value judgments It does not filter, and it does not forget

You cannot command your conscious mind to reach out and dip into your subconscious mind However, under certain circumstances, all those forgotten facts and ideas that are always there in your subconscious can, if they are firmly rooted, influence your conscious attitudes and actions

HOW TO DEVELOP FAITH

The following statement is very important in understanding the importance of autosuggestion in the transmutation of desire into its physical or monetary equivalent, namely: Faith is a state of mind that may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of autosuggestion The repetition of affirmations is like giving orders to your subconscious mind, and it

is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith (absolute belief that you can do something)

As an illustration, consider why you are reading this book You want to acquire the ability to transmute the intangible thought impulse of desire into its physical counterpart, money By following the instructions laid down in the later chapters on autosuggestion and the subconscious mind, you will learn techniques to convince your subconscious mind that you believe you will receive that for which you ask Your subconscious will act upon that belief, and pass it back to you in the form of “faith,” followed by definite plans for procuring that which you desire

Faith in yourself and your abilities is a state of mind that you will be able to develop

at will, after you have mastered the thirteen principles in this book This is true because faith is a state of mind that will develop naturally within you when you use and apply these principles

The emotions, or the “feeling” portion of thoughts, are what give your thoughts vitality, life, and action The emotions of faith, love, and sex, when mixed with any thought impulse, give it even greater action All thoughts that have been emotionalized (given feeling) and mixed with faith (absolute belief in your ability) begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart

However, this is not only true of thought impulses that have been mixed with faith, but it is true with any emotion Including negative emotions

What this means is that the subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent a thought impulse of a negative or destructive nature just as readily as it will act upon thought impulses of a positive or constructive nature The following statement made by a noted criminologist illustrates the point: “When men first come into contact with crime, they abhor it If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become accustomed to it, and endure it If they remain in contact with it long enough, they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it.”

This is the equivalent of saying that a negative impulse of thought that is repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind often enough is, finally, accepted and acted upon by the subconscious mind The subconscious then proceeds to translate that impulse into its physical equivalent, by the most practical procedure available

This also accounts for the strange phenomenon that so many millions of people experience, referred to as bad luck

There are millions of people who believe themselves doomed to poverty and failure because of some strange force they call bad luck, over which they believe they have no control But the truth is that they are the creators of their own misfortunes, because this negative belief in bad luck is picked up by the subconscious mind and translated into its physical equivalent

Your belief, or faith, is the element that will determine the action of your subconscious mind Once again let me stress that you will benefit by passing on to your subconscious mind any desire that you wish translated into its physical or monetary equivalent, in a state of expectancy or belief that the transmutation will actually take place The subconscious mind will transmute into its physical equivalent, by the most direct and practical way available, any order that is given to it in a state of belief or faith that the order will be carried out

At this point it should also be noted that because of the way that the subconscious operates, there is nothing to stop you from “deceiving” your subconscious mind when giving it instructions through autosuggestion That is what I did when I “deceived” my son’s subconscious mind

To make this deception more realistic, when you call upon your subconscious mind you must conduct yourself just as you would if you were already in possession of the material thing that you are demanding

COMMENTARY

It is an axiom of contemporary motivation theory that the subconscious mind cannot distinguish between what is real and what is vividly imagined One of the most frequently cited studies supporting this concept was done with a group of basketball players The players were divided into three teams, and the players on each team were tested on their ability to make free throws The teams were then separated for a period

of time and each team was given instructions which they were told would improve their abilities One team was instructed to practice making baskets on a daily basis The second team was instructed not to practice during the period and not to even think about basketball The third team was also instructed not to practice during the period, but instead the members were told to spend their daily practice time visualizing in detail the process of making baskets At the end of the experiment the teams were again tested The team that rested showed a decrease in ability The team that

practiced showed a marked increase in ability And the team that didn’t practice but visualized making baskets showed an increase in ability almost equal to those who had practiced daily

As Hill says, you can “deceive” your subconscious through autosuggestion If you convincingly plant an idea in your subconscious, your subconscious will accept and work with the idea as though it were a fact

But the key word is “convincingly.” If you try to send a message to your subconscious but in the back of your mind you have a nagging doubt whether it will work, your subconscious will pick that up also You will have sent mixed messages that cancel each other out That is why Hill stresses the importance of doing

it with faith Your subconscious will not judge if it is true or false, positive or negative, but it does respond to the power of the input (how emotionalized the thought is)

It is essential for you to encourage the positive emotions as the dominating forces of your mind But faith in yourself doesn’t come from merely reading instructions Now that you understand the theory, you must begin to apply it By experimenting and practicing, you will develop your ability to mix faith with any order you give to your subconscious When you have faith in your ability, then you can give your subconscious mind instructions, which it will accept and act upon immediately When your mind is dominated by positive emotions it will encourage the state of mind known as faith

Faith in Yourself Is a State of Mind That You Can Create by Autosuggestion

All through the ages, religious leaders have admonished people to ”have faith.” They say

to have faith in this, that, and the other dogma or creed, but they have failed to tell people how to have faith They have not stated that “faith is a state of mind that may be induced by self-suggestion.”

In language that anyone can understand, this book explains the principle through which faith in your ability to accomplish a goal may be developed where it does not already exist

Before we begin, you should be reminded again that:

Faith is the “eternal elixir” that gives life, power, and action to the impulse of

thought The foregoing sentence is worth reading a second time, and a third, and a fourth

It is worth reading aloud!

Faith is the starting point of all accumulation of riches Faith is the basis of all

“miracles” and of all mysteries that cannot be analyzed by the rules of science

Faith is the only known antidote for failure

Faith is the element that, when mixed with desire, gives you direct communication

with Infinite Intelligence

Faith is the element that transforms the ordinary vibration of thought, created by the

human mind, into the spiritual equivalent

Faith is the only way the force of Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used

The Magic of Self-Suggestion

It is a fact that you will come to believe whatever you repeat to yourself, whether the statement is true or false If you repeat a lie over and over, you will eventually accept that lie as truth Moreover, you will believe it to be the truth You are what you are because of the dominating thoughts that you permit to occupy your mind Thoughts that you deliberately place in your own mind, and encourage with sympathy, and with which you mix any one or more of the emotions, constitute the motivating forces that direct and control your every movement, act, and deed

The following sentence is a very significant statement of truth: Thoughts that are mixed with any of the feelings of emotion become like a magnetic force, which attracts other similar or related thoughts

A thought that is “magnetized” with one of the emotions may be compared to a seed When it is planted in fertile soil, it germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again What was originally one small seed becomes countless millions of seeds of the same kind

The human mind is constantly attracting vibrations that are in sync with whatever dominates the mind Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose that you hold in your mind attracts a host of its relatives Add these “relatives” to its own force, and it grows until it becomes the prime motivator of the person in whose mind it has been housed

Now, let us go back to the starting point How can the original seed of an idea, plan,

or purpose be planted in the mind? The answer: any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed

in the mind through repetition of thought This is why you are asked to write out a statement of your major purpose, or definite chief aim, commit it to memory, and repeat

it out loud, day after day, until these vibrations of sound have reached your subconscious mind

You are what you are because of the dominating thoughts that you permit to occupy your mind If you choose to, you can throw off any bad influences from your past, and build your own life the way you want it to be For instance, by taking inventory of your mental assets and liabilities, you might discover that your greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence This can be overcome, and translated into courage, through the principle

of autosuggestion You can do this by writing out a set of simply stated, positive thought impulses, memorizing them, and repeating them until they become a part of the working equipment of your subconscious mind

The following is an example for someone whose definite purpose is to overcome a lack of self-confidence

Self-Confidence Formula

1 I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life Therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and

I here and now promise to render such action

2 I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves

in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality Therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes each day, visualizing the person I intend to become In this way I will create in my mind a clear mental picture

3 I know, through the principle of autosuggestion, that any desire I persistently hold in my mind will eventually find some practical means of attaining

my objective Therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence

4 I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying until I have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment

5 I fully realize that no wealth or position can last unless it is built upon truth and justice Therefore, I will engage in no transaction that does not benefit all whom it affects I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people I will persuade others to help me, because of my willingness to help others I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them and in myself

I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once

a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful, person

Behind this formula is a law of nature that psychologists call autosuggestion or suggestion It is a proven technique that will work for your success, if it is used constructively On the other hand, if used destructively, it will destroy just as readily In this statement may be found a very significant truth, namely, that those who go down in defeat, and end their lives in poverty, misery, and distress, do so because of negative application of the principle of autosuggestion All impulses of thought have a tendency to clothe themselves in their physical equivalent

self-The Disaster of Negative Thinking

The subconscious mind makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by fear just as readily

as it will translate into reality a thought driven by courage, or faith

Just as electricity will turn the wheels of industry, and render useful service if used constructively, it will snuff out life if wrongly used So too will the law of autosuggestion lead you to peace and prosperity, or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death It depends on your degree of understanding and application of it

If you fill your mind with fear or doubt, and if you do not believe in your ability to connect with and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence, then you will not be able to use those forces The law of autosuggestion will take your lack of belief and use that doubt as

a pattern by which your subconscious mind will translate it into its physical equivalent

COMMENTARY

When you have faith in your ability to accomplish what you want, it not only firmly plants ideas in your subconscious, but it then works to reinforce itself

When you have faith in your abilities, part of what you must have faith in is that it

is possible to tap into Infinite Intelligence And because you have faith that it will work, your conscious mind won’t be resistant When your conscious doesn’t resist, your subconscious mind can send creative ideas to your conscious mind more easily

Then the more you see the power working in your life, the easier it is for you to act on faith the next time

Will it work for you? You will never know unless you relax your resistance and just have faith that it will

Like the wind that carries one ship east and another west, the law of autosuggestion will lift you up or pull you down, according to the way you set your sails of thought The law of autosuggestion, through which any person may rise to altitudes of achievement that stagger the imagination, is well described in the following verse Observe the words that have been emphasized, and you will catch the deep meaning that the poet had in mind

If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think you dare not, you don’t;

If you like to win, but you think you can’t,

It is almost certain you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,

For out in the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow’s will

It’s all in the state of mind

If you think you are outclassed, you are,

You’ve got to think high to rise,

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can!

COMMENTARY

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, the way in which Napoleon Hill uses the word faith is meant to have no religious connotation However, it would be impossible for Hill to write this chapter without acknowledging the power of religious faith Therefore, in the following two paragraphs when Hill discusses Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi as exemplifying the power of faith, he is referring to their personal faith: the absolute trust in his beliefs that Jesus exhibited, and Gandhi’s total conviction and confidence in his cause In this way, they perfectly exemplify thought impulse mixed with faith

If you wish evidence of the power of faith, study the achievements of men and women who have employed it At the head of the list comes the Nazarene The basis of Christianity is faith, no matter how many people may have perverted, or misinterpreted, the meaning of this great force

The sum and substance of the teachings and the achievements of Christ, which may have been interpreted as “miracles,” were nothing more nor less than faith If there are