Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Think And Grow Rich was written in 1937 and sold 70 million books before its author, Napoleon Hill, died in 1970. Who knows how many copies since. Talk about a best seller. It’s still in print. It’s about the science of personal achievement; the philosophy of success. There’s a lot in it for you.
Andrew Carnegie, the philanthropist of U.S. Steel and Carnegie Hall fame (the Bill Gates/Warren Buffet of the day), wanted to leave the masses a timeless formula for prosperity. He challenged a young buck, a West Virginia reporter by the name of Napoleon Hill, to research and write it. He didn’t pay Hill – Carnegie just introduced Hill to the players of the time – writers, inventors, business people, presidents, royalty, socialites, clergy, sports stars & entertainers.
Hill spent 20 years studying the secret of what makes people successful. He identified 17 common principles and wrote a heady book titled The Philosophy of Success. It didn’t sell well, so he modified it as The Science of Personal Achievement. That didn’t do so good, neither.
Napoleon Hill didn’t quit. He condensed it with a catchy cover and a slick title: Think and Grow Rich.
People wanted to get rich, so they bought up his book and, when everybody started talking about it, they told their friends, who wrote their pen-pals, who dialed-up others, who lettered-the-editor, …
Napoleon Hill spew pure truth. He got it bang-on and his secret has stood the test of time. Read it. Modern updates are available if you can’t handle the male vernacular of the time.
Here’s Napoleon Hill’s 17 principles of success. Think about how they can work into your writing… or whatever you need.
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Definiteness of Purpose
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Positive Mental Attitude
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Self Discipline
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Personal Initiative
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Enthusiasm
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Creative Vision
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Accurate Thinking
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Controlled Attention
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Learning From Adversity and Defeat
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Maintenance of Sound Health
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Budgeting Time and Money
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Pleasing Personality
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Applied Faith
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Teamwork
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Going The Extra Mile
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Master-Mind
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Cosmic Habit-Force
These principles are of no particular order, but follow a pattern. To achieve something, you must first conceive what you want – your definite purpose – knowing where you want to go. Then, you must have a positive mental attitude to go with it. In other words – you must believe that you are going to achieve your definite purpose – and then you must build your world around it – using all these principles – especially the mastermind.