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Napoleon Hill (October 25, 1883–November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill's works examined
the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe,
it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions.[1][2] How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach for the average person, were the focus
of Hill's books.
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Life and works
According
to his official biographer, Napoleon Hill was born in an impoverished, one-room cabin in the Appalachian town of Pound in Southwest Virginia.[3] Hill's mother died when he was ten years old and his father remarried two years later. At the age of 13, Hill began
writing as a "mountain reporter" for small-town newspapers in the area of Wise County and he later used his earnings as a reporter to enter law school,
but soon had to withdraw for financial reasons.[4]
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Influence of Andrew Carnegie
The turning point in the writing career Napoleon Hill is considered to have occurred in 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous men,
to interview billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who at the time was one of the most powerful men in the world. Hill
discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be elaborated in a simple formula that could be duplicated
by the average person. Impressed with Hill, Carnegie commissioned him (without pay and only offering to provide him with letters
of reference) to interview over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.[5]
As part of his research, Hill interviewed
many of the most famous people of the time, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Charles M. Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley Jr., John Wanamaker, William Jennings Bryan, Joseph Stalin, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Charles Allen Ward and Jennings Randolph. The project lasted over twenty years, during which Hill became an advisor
to Carnegie.[6] Mr. Hill was also an advisor to two presidents of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.[7]
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The Philosophy of Achievement
As a result of Napoleons studies via Carnegie's introductions, the Philosophy of Achievement was offered
as a formula for rags-to-riches success by Hill and Carnegie, published initially in 1928 as a study
course called, The Law of Success. The Achievement formula was detailed further and published in home-study courses, including
the seventeen-volume "Mental Dynamite" series until 1941.
Hill later called his personal success teachings "The Philosophy of Achievement" and he considered
freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony to be important contributing elements. For without these foundations to build
upon, as Hill demonstrated throughout his writings, successful personal achievements are not possible. He contrasted his philosophy
with others, and thought Achievement was superior and responsible for the success Americans enjoyed for the better part of
two centuries. Negative emotions, fear and selfishness among others, had no part to play in his philosophy, and Hill considered
them to be the source of failure for unsuccessful people.[8]
The secret of Achievement was tantalizingly
offered to readers of Think and Grow Rich, and was never named directly as Hill felt discovering it for themselves would provide
readers with the most benefit. Hill presented the idea of a "Definite Major Purpose" as a challenge to his readers,
to make them ask of themselves "in what do you truly believe?" For according to Hill, 98% of people had no firm
beliefs, putting true success firmly out of reach.[9]
Hill's numerous books have sold
millions of copies, proving that the secret of Achievement is still highly sought-after by modern Americans. Hill dealt with
many controversial subjects through his writings including racism, slavery, oppression, failure, revolution, war and poverty.
Persevering and then succeeding in spite of these obstacles using the philosophy of Achievement, Hill stated, was the responsibility
of every American.[10]
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Writings and other works
- Hill's Golden Rule magazine, publisher and editor (1919-1920)
- The Magic Ladder to Success (1930)
- unpaid advisor to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1936)
- Think and Grow Rich - still in print in several versions, and has sold more than 30 million
copies (1937).
- How to Sell Your Way through Life
(1939)
- How to Raise Your Own Salary (1953)
- taught Philosophy of Personal Achievement with W. Clement Stone and lectured on the Science of Success (1952-1962)
- Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960)
- abridged version of Think and Grow Rich (1960)
- You Can Work Your Own Miracles, was published posthumously (1971) following Napoleon Hill death
in 1970 at age 87 in South Carolina
- Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised (2004, published by Ross
Cornwell)
