Table of Contents
Dedicated to
ALL WHO HAVE TRIED AND FAILED
BUT STILL FIGHT ON
WITH
DETERMINATION
TO MAKE LIFE PAY
FOREWORD
LIKE millions of others, I am a big fan of Napoleon Hills timeless classic, Think and Grow Rich. First published in 1937, it has the distinction of being the best read self-help book of the twentieth century.
Not so well known is how Napoleon Hill earned his livelihood before he wrote Think and Grow Rich. In How to Sell Your Way Through Life, Hill explains how he spent many years perfecting his skills as a master salesman and sales trainer. How to Sell Your Way Through Life was written in the depths of the Great Depression. To write it, Hill drew upon contacts, interviews, and the cooperation of the most successful men in the country, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and others.
The information in How to Sell Your Way Through Life is as relevant in todays economy as it was in a time very similar to ours. Hill could have been writing about today when he said, Business depressions do not destroy the market for imagination; they merely increase the need and extend the demand for imagination. The world stands in need of men who will use their imagination.
From the psychology of negotiation and selling to an analysis of proven methods, positive thinking, and the all-important Golden Rule, How to Sell Your Way Through Life is an outstanding course in salesmanship. Invest some time in reading these pages and youll understand why Napoleon Hill stands as one of the most masterful business philosophers of our time.
Ken Blanchard,
co-author of The One Minute Manager
and The One Minute Entrepreneur
THE AUTHOR SOLD HIS WAY INTO THIS FAMOUS CASTLE ON THE HILL
A glimpse of the magnitude and magnificence of Napoleon Hills Model American Home overlooking beautiful Lake Dora, Florida.
ONE OF THE FINE THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK IS THAT IT WORKS
TO write a book of theories on how the other fellows hould succeed is quite common. But for an author to definitely demon strate that his ideas will work, and that he personally can make them work, is quite rare.
Hence, it is not for the purpose of boastingbut to give you confidence that what you are about to read is practical, workable, proven philosophywhen we mention the following. As you read this book, you will feel as though the author was present in the pages. The lessons were not just written; they were first lived, and then put into print.
The author has sold his way through life so successfully using the philosophy and methods taught in this book, that he lives in a castle in Florida, which is one of the famous showplaces of the entire South. From it he commands not only a rare view of beautiful Lake Dora, but also of the entire town of fashionable Mount Dora, in the Golden Triangle.
He is the first to occupy this castle, upon which it is reported the builder spent about $100,000. It is to be developed into a model American home. It is here that 15 children are to be adopted who will be schooled in these principles, so that they, too, may sell their way through life successfully
This visible evidence of opulence demonstrates in a definite way that the author can not only prescribe the medicine of success, but that he can make it work for himself. In a personal letter to his publishers (not intended for publication), he wrote:
There is one thing of which you can be sure. Mrs. Hill and I have whipped life and actually made it pay in terms of complete and continuous happiness. We have found that something which brings peace of mind and genuine joy in just living. I am astonished at not having discovered our vast riches before this.
If I were only able to paint word pictures that truly represent the fortune Mrs. Hill and I have captured, by applying the philosophy I am trying to teach the American public, I believe you would not be able to produce books fast enough to meet the demand.
And so, in this spirit, we pass on to you How to Sell Your Way Through Life.
The Publishers
The great Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the incandescent electric light work. Do not become discouraged and quit if you fail once or twice before making your plans work.
THE CHALLENGE TO LIFE
The Spirit in which the Author of This Book Has
Related Himself to Life
Life, you cant subdue me, because I refuse to take your discipline seriously.
When you try to hurt me, I laugh, and laughter knows no pain.
I appropriate your joys wherever I find them. Your sorrows neither discourage nor frighten me, for there is laughter in my soul.
When I get the thing I want, I am glad, but temporary defeat does not make me sad. I simply set music to the words of defeat and turn it into a song about laughter.
Your tears are not for me. I like laughter much better, and because I like it, I use it as a substitute for grief and sorrow and pain and disappointment.
Life, you are a fickle trickster, dont deny it!
You slipped the emotion of love into my heart so you might use it as a thorn with which to prick my soul, but I have learned to dodge your trapwith laughter.
You try to lure me with the desire for gold, but I have outwitted you by following the trail that leads to knowledge, instead.
You induce me to build beautiful friendships, then convert my friends into enemies so you may harden my heart, but I sidestep your fickleness by laughing off your attempt and selecting new friends in my own way.
You cause men to cheat me in trade, so I will become hard and irritable, but I win again because I possess only one precious asset, and this is something no man can stealIT IS THE POWER TO THINK MY OWN THOUGHTS AND BE MYSELF, plus the capacity to laugh at you for your pains.
You threaten me with death, but to me death is nothing worse than a long, peaceful sleep, and sleep is the sweetest of human experiencesexcept laughter.
You build the fire of hope in my breast, then sprinkle water on the flames, but I go you one better by rekindling the fire on my own accountand laugh at you once more.
You plant vicious enemies in my path who try to assault my reputation and destroy my self-reliance, but you fail again because I turn their efforts into publicity that brings me to the attention of new friends whom I would never know without this perfidy.
For a quarter of a century, you hurdle-jumped me over every conceivable form of failure, but I coined the knowledge gained from these failures into a philosophy of success that now renders useful service and brings countless thousands of others the joy of laughter; and these newly made friends willingly pay me compound interest for every second of failure you have imposed upon me.