Legendary self-help writer Napoleon Hill is our featured author this week. Almost single-handedly launching the modern genre of personal-success literature with his 1937 masterpiece Think and Grow Rich, Hill’s motivational treatises have shaped the lives of – quite literally – millions of people.
Hill spent the larger portion of his life researching and investigating the everyday habits and personal belief systems of the world’s most successful and affluent people. During an encounter with industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie at the turn of the 20th century, Hill hypothesised that the process of personal success could be distilled into a simple formula that anyone could understand and, crucially, that anyone could use to change their life for the better.
In trying to work out the formula for sure success, Hill would interview and analyse the behaviour and belief systems of thousands of successful men and women from all fields of industry, attempting to figure out what made them different from the layperson. His conclusion? That most people hold no or few firm beliefs or ambitions and, because of that, are left behind. Without the “white heat of desire”, Hill postulated, “you may as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in great quantities.”
“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” was one of Hill’s trademark sayings. It was also the basis for his two most famous works, the seminal Think and Grow Rich, as well as the highly influential The Law of Success. Luckily for you (and your wallet), both of these books are available right now on Paperight. Success!