Napoleon Hill - Napoleon Hills Philosophy of Success

THE 17 ORIGINAL LESSONS

Published 2021 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

NAPOLEON HILLS PHILOSOPHY OF SUCCESS. Copyright 2021 by The Napoleon Hill Foundation. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Front Cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2421-0

10987654321

Napoleon Hill was sixty-eight years old and living happily in semi-retirement in California with his wife Annie Lou when he was induced to start a new enterprise, Napoleon Hill Associates. It began when insurance tycoon W. Clement Stone, a long time fan of Napoleon Hills philosophy, was invited by his dentist to hear Napoleon address a dental convention in Chicago. Stone had been giving his employees at insurance giant Combined Insurance Company of America copies of Hills best selling book Think And Grow Rich for years, and was thrilled to finally meet the great philosopher.

The two men were seated together at the convention, and from their lunchtime discussion emerged the idea of establishing Napoleon Hill Associates, an organization which would train people to instruct others on how to implement the seventeen principles of success Hill had discovered through over twenty years of research. This enterprise lasted from 1952 until 1962, during which time Messrs. Hill and Stone wrote a book together, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, published a magazine titled Success Unlimited, and traveled extensively to teach, lecture and present radio and television programs explaining the principles of success.

In the early days of Napoleon Hill Associates, Napoleon wrote a series of seventeen lectures designed to instruct its employees and representatives about each principle of success, so that they could then teach others how to use these principles. The Trustees of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, established by Napoleon and Annie Lou in 1967, knew about the existence of these lectures (Mr. Stone was Chairman of the Foundation for more than two decades until his death in 2002), but did not have them. They were only recently discovered after the 2019 death of the Foundations then Chairman, Dr. Charles Johnson, Napoleon Hills nephew, and are presented here for the first time since the lectures were delivered.

Each of these lectures explains in detail the meaning, importance and means of application of the success principle it discusses. The lectures also explain the inter-relationship of the principles. They were intended to serve as a training manual, but I believe you will find that they are also a very understandable and impactful how to guide about the many ways these success principles can be used by you, the reader, to achieve the success, happiness and peace of mind you desire.

The Trustees of the Napoleon Hill Foundation are proud and happy to partner with our esteemed publisher to bring you this long lost work of the greatest self help philosopher of all time. We are confident you will enjoy and benefit from it.

Don M. Green

CEO and Trustee, Napoleon Hill Foundation

Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. It is the stumbling block of ninety-eight out of every hundred persons because they never really define their goals or start toward them with definiteness of purpose.

Think it over: 98 percent of the people of the world are drifting aimlessly through life without the slightest idea of the work for which they are fitted, and with no conception whatsoever of even the need for a definite objective toward which to strive. This is one of the greatest tragedies of civilization. I hope that you will resolve that from this day forward you will not settle with life for anything short of what you want. I hope that I shall convince you that when I say you dont have to settle for anything less than what you want, I am not just using idle words. I am making that statement from my observation of thousands of people over more than fifty years.

At this point I want to discuss ideas, for although ideas are the only asset that have no fixed value, they are the beginning of all achievements. This book has been organized for the purpose of inducing a flow of ideas through your mind. It is intended to introduce you to your other self: the self that has a vision of your innate spiritual powers and will not accept or recognize failure, but will arouse your determination to go forth and claim what is rightfully yours.

Ideas form the foundation of all fortunes and the starting point of all inventions. They have mastered the air above us and the waters of the ocean around us. They have enabled us to harness and use the energy known as the ether, with which one mind may communicate with another mind by means of telepathy. There can be no evolution of any idea without a starting point in the form of definiteness of purpose. Hence this principle takes first position in the philosophy of personal achievement.

There are big ideas behind definiteness of purpose. Certain factors that enter into the subject may be classified as mental; others might be classified as economic. I am going to analyze each one of these factors so that you will have a complete and thorough understanding of them and can take full advantage of the benefits of this great principle of personal achievement. There are seven big ideas.

The first big idea is this: the starting point of all personal achievement is the adoption of a definite major purpose and a definite plan for its attainment. As soon as you have decided what your definite major purpose of life is, you can expect to enjoy some of its advantages. The advantages come almost automatically.

The first advantage, definiteness of purpose develops (a) self-reliance, (b) personal initiative, (c) imagination, (d) enthusiasm, (e) self-discipline, and (f) concentration of effort. All of these are required for material success.

The second advantage is specialization. Definiteness of purpose encourages you to specialize, and specialization tends toward perfection. You will become a specialist in success. Definiteness of purpose has a way of magnetizing the mind so as to attract to you the specialized knowledge for success.