Napoleon Hill - Napoleon Hill: Adversity & Advantage: Achieving Success in the Face of Challenges

Every defeat, every disappointment, and every adversity
carry seeds of equivalent or greater benefits.

Napoleon Hill

FOREWORD

NAPOLEON HILL IS ON THE AIR

N apoleon Hill, author of many popular motivational books, including the groundbreaking Law of Success in 1928 and Think and Grow Rich in 1937, adviser to Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and lecturer and instructor to tens of thousands of people, had begun to settle into retirement with his wife at their Los Angeles home in the 1950s. He was approaching his seventieth year and was enjoying slowing down, although somewhat grudgingly, after living such an active and prolific life. I say somewhat grudgingly because, though he deeply loved his wife Annie Lou, he was a restless man who believed so strongly in the success principles he had studied for nearly half a century that he wanted to see them continue to spread throughout the world.

Mr. Hill did have a few remaining speaking commitments, one being at a dental convention in Chicago in 1952. At that event he was introduced to W. Clement Stone, a longtime follower who was also giving a speech to the conventioneers. Mr. Stone, a multimillionaire insurance tycoon, persuaded him to come out of retirement and to resume his speaking and writing career full time. In 1955, Mr. Hill, in partnership with Mr. Stone, presented a series of thirteen lectures on the radio on successive Sundays in Chicago, Illinois. Fortunately, these broadcasts were recorded. They have never been published before. The recordings were only recently found in the archives of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, tucked away in a dusty box on a high shelf in a storeroom, and long forgotten.

In these programs, Mr. Hill was interviewed by Henry Alderfer, the associate director of the Napoleon Hill Institute, an organization Mr. Stone and Mr. Hill had established to teach the principles of success developed by Mr. Hill over the decades. The first three shows dealt with three of the four most important principles previously disclosed by Mr. Hill, namely, having a definite major purpose, going the extra mile, and having a master mind alliance. The sixth show dealt with the fourth such principle, applied faith. Broadcasts eight and nine dealt with two more of the seventeen success principles, self-discipline and a positive mental attitude. The remaining broadcasts diverged from focus on a single principle, dealing with such subjects as the twelve great riches of life, the factors making up a positive mental attitude in ones personality, conditioning ones mind for success, developing a winning personality, and the major causes of failure.

A theme running through many of these broadcasts, perhaps counterintuitive when first encountered, is that no one truly succeeds without first experiencing failure. One learns from failure and can put the lessons learned to good use in moving forward to achieve success. As Mr. Hill wrote, Every adversity, every defeat, and every heartbreak carry with it the seed of an equivalent advantage. This is a powerful message, worthy of much contemplation, and these broadcasts provide many illustrations of the truth of this principle.

Delivered in the mid-1950s, while the United States (and much of the rest of the world) was still recovering from the horrors and privations of World War II and the Korean War, these messages, particularly those dealing with recovering from adversity, were especially timely. And, though presented many decades ago, they are as timely now as they were then.

The Trustees of the Napoleon Hill Foundation are proud to be preserving the memory, legacy, and teachings of Dr. Napoleon Hill and believe you will benefit from and enjoy these valuable radio programs.

As a special bonus feature, we have included as an appendix the never before published talk presented by Napoleon Hill at the Chicago dental convention in 1952, the occasion of his introduction to W. Clement Stone.

Don Green

Executive Director and Trustee

Napoleon Hill Foundation

INTRODUCTION

N apoleon Hills work has touched and transformed the lives of millions. His success philosophy has empowered people worldwide to pull themselves out of poverty and a state of perpetual unhappiness to lead a life of abundance, achievement, and joy.

As one of the most revered and influential figures in the field, Napoleon Hill created a body of work that is as relevant today as it has been over the past eighty years. His work reveals the secrets of the minds of those who have shaped their own destiny, and the destiny of the world. Modern-day personal development gurus continue to turn to Napoleon Hills principles for guidance and inspiration.

The great author Ben Jonson said that Shakespeare was not of an age, but of all time. So too is Napoleon Hills legacy in the field of personal development literature. Like Shakespeare, the depth and elegance of Hills work is unparalleled to this day, ensuring that it will continue to inspire millions for centuries to come.

Shakespeare made language come alive with phrases such as Alls well that ends well, that are still commonly quoted today. He humanized his characters by making them so lifelike that we could easily relate to their weaknesses and strengths, their limitations and limitlessness, their failures and successes.

Similarly, Hills phrases such as Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve, have become common currency of todays success literature. Hills success principles were humanized through the experience of real people who, through their own stories, characterized their successes or their failures by their adherence, or lack of it, to Hills principles.

This book is a collection of talks that Napoleon Hill delivered over the radio, explaining the basic steps by which one may overcome adversity of any kind and turn it into an advantage of greater magnitude than the adversity itself. Like his other works, it reveals the true path to enduring success for anyone who wishes to follow it.