Table of Contents
AN INTRODUCTION
BY TOM BUTLER-BOWDON
AMERICA in 1908 was an exciting place. Henry Ford had ushered in the automobile age with the production of the first Model Ts, the Wright brothers were doing the same for flight when they kept a craft in the air for two hours, and the motion picture industry was just getting started. The country was in a short, sharp recession following a financial panic but would soon recover. There was much optimism.
In the Autumn of that year, young reporter Napoleon Hill was asked by a magazine to write a series on major business figures, with his first subject the great steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Now the richest person in America after the sale of his massive interests, Carnegie was in the process of giving away his fortune in history’s greatest act of philanthropy.
A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
When a nervous Hill walked into the grand library of Carnegie’s 5th Avenue New York mansion, he expected the interview to last for an hour or two. Carnegie asked him to stay for the weekend.
The wily Scot, who had come to America with nothing, had grown excited as he expounded on the idea that there should be a concrete ‘philosophy of success’ for the average person, drawn from the experience of great achievers. When Carnegie suddenly challenged him to spend the next 20 years formularising this philosophy, Hill was taken aback. But perhaps imagining a secure career in fascinating research bankrolled by a billionaire, Hill (according to his unpublished autobiography) took only 29 seconds to say ‘Yes’.
It was a golden opportunity, but in some ways Hill deserved it. In his 24 years he had notched up some remarkable achievements. Born in 1883, he had been one of the wild boys of Wise County in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, and after his mother’s death, when he was only 9 years old, the future did not look bright for a delinquent with little wish for self-improvement. Yet when his father James remarried, Hill’s new stepmother proved to be a godsend. She bought him a typewriter and persuaded him to use it, promising that writing skills would one day make him rich, respected and famous.
After a hated, physically exhausting stint in a coalmine he began to see the value of using his mind to progress in life, and at 15 was already contributing stories for local newspapers. Then followed business college, the management of a mine employing 350 men, a brief period in law school and, after proving to be an extremely effective salesman, an appointment as partner in a lumber company - an impressive resume indeed for someone raised in the cultural and material poverty of rural Virginia. It was after the stock market plunge of 1907, and the subsequent bankruptcy of the lumber firm, that Hill again found himself working as a reporter.
The Carnegie project may have seemed to Hill like his great calling, but there was a shock to come. Despite his vast wealth, Carnegie would not fund the project, noting that Hill’s chief reward would be the satisfaction of knowing that he would change many lives, and that the results of his research would, in any case, bring fame and riches. Hill’s disappointment was mitigated to some extent when, to get the project off to a good start, the steel king offered to provide letters of introduction to some famous friends including Henry Ford.
SCHOLAR OF SUCCESS
Carnegie’s estimate of 20 years to complete the great project proved remarkably accurate.
It was not until 1928, with Hill now in his mid-40s, that the results of his research were published. Law of Success, covering eight volumes and 1500 pages, elucidated 17 principles of achievement gleaned from Hill’s interviews with, and analysis of, 500 of America’s most successful people. From the inventors Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell to retail titans such as F.W. Woolworth, George Eastman and King Gillette, the list was an impressive roll call of the rich and famous of the day and even included presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft.
The intervening years had not been easy for Hill. To support himself and his young family he had sold cars, started a college teaching other car salesman, worked as assistant to the chief counsel of a gas company, held a job promoting courses at an extension university, invested in and ran a candy company, and sold by-correspondence sales courses.
In the year Carnegie died, 1919, Hill’s career took an upward swing when he found backers for a new national magazine, Hill’s Golden Rule. It did well, and a couple of years later he launched Napoleon Hill’s Magazine, ‘A national monthly magazine of business philosophy’. Coupled with lectures in cities across the nation, Hill was carving out a reputation as America’s scholar of success.
Despite its relatively high cost, the uniqueness of Law of Success led to high sales. The proceeds, in addition to his lecturing fees, enabled Hill to acquire a large estate in the Catskill mountains. Hill had in mind to create the first ‘Success University’ on the site, but also have it as a family home. His earnest pursuit of riches and recognition had meant time away from his wife Florence and their three sons, who had remained in Virginia waiting on infrequent visits and erratic cheques. As the family enjoyed their new surrounds, it seemed to vindicate all the years of uncertainty.
BIRTH OF A PHENOMENON
Unfortunately, as the American economy fell into Depression the following year sales of the book slowed to a trickle. The estate was foreclosed on and Hill found himself again starting from scratch. It was a blow to the family, and before the Depression was over Hill and Florence had divorced.
Another in the same situation might have railed against Fate, but one of Hill’s catchphrases was ‘Every failure carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater reward’.
Duly, in 1933, just before he turned 50, Hill received a phone call from the Roosevelt administration. Would he be enlisted to work as an adviser, speechwriter and public relations man for the National Recovery Administration in its ‘war against fear’? Hill leapt at the opportunity, and believing the job was his patriotic duty, refused a salary. He stayed for two years, and claims to have had significant input into FDR’s famous ‘fireside chats’ broadcast to millions of Americans.
During this period he also found time to draft a new book, The 13 Steps to Riches, which drew on the lessons of Law of Success. As demand for his lectures increased, the book was put on the backburner. Yet Hill was far from being out of the financial woods. In fact, in 1937 he had to borrow money from his son Blair, who was living in New York, and camp out at his apartment for several months. It was here that Hill revisited his manuscript, but feeling that it lacked something (to be specific, ‘transmuted sex emotion’, see below), he proceeded to rewrite it in a more dynamic way.
The manuscript was submitted it to his publisher, Albert Lewis Pelton, who apparently wished to call the book
Use Your Noodle to Win More Boodle. Luckily, the full title became:
Think and Grow Rich; Teaching, for the first time, the famous Andrew Carnegie formula for money-making, based upon the thirteen proven steps to riches
Priced at $2.50, Pelton optimistically ordered a print run of 5,000 copies. These sold in just three weeks. There would be countless reprints, and in the following few years the book would sell a million copies. Hill moved to an ostentatious home in Florida with his new wife Rosa, whom he had met at a lecture, and bought a Rolls-Royce.
When most people were still shaking off the mental evils of fear, doubt and poverty consciousness brought on by the Depression, there was some gall to a book that promised readers they could not only survive, but find great abundance. Powerfully distilling the lessons of Law of Success in a much shorter and cheaper form, Think and Grow Rich was just the tonic readers needed.
Of course, there is quite an irony to the fact that Hill had not been rich when he wrote Think and Grow Rich - far from it - which may, on the surface, undermine his apparent authority to write such advice. Yet Hill might have answered that this was exactly the point: here was a success philosophy that worked as long as it was faithfully practiced, and which inevitably would pay off handsomely.
HOW TO BECOME REMARKABLE
Though the book outlines an array of principles and tips for success, these can be boiled down to four clear elements: desire, faith, plans and persistence.
A burning desire to do something, Hill wrote, is the basis of all achievement, particularly when it is officially made our ‘definite major purpose’. He tells the story of Edwin C. Barnes, a man who looked like a tramp but walked into the office of Thomas Edison one day insisting that he would be a partner in Edison’s business. Though Barnes had arrived by ‘blind baggage’ (on the back of a freight train), Edison was impressed by the depth of his intention and decided to give him a job on the margins of his operation. But Barnes was not content to simply work for Edison, and waited for his opportunity. When the inventor brought out a new dictating machine that his sales force did not believe would sell, Barnes suggested he market it. This was the beginning of a highly successful and lucrative 30-year business alliance. As Hill puts it, Barnes ‘literally thought himself into’ his role with Edison with a burning desire that became his definite major purpose. In the end, who was Edison to prevent the fulfilment of such a strong intention?
Barnes had not only the desire, but the faith that he would get what he wanted. Before he even entered Edison’s office, he had at length pictured himself working with, and being of essential service to him. He knew it would happen. Yet Hill realised that most people do not naturally have such faith, and are at a disadvantage as a result. Enter ‘auto-suggestion’, the process by which we affirm to ourselves via a daily spoken mantra, charged with emotion, the person we wish to become. Over time these affirmations settle into the subconscious mind with the weight of fact, whether or not we initially believed in them. Mere thoughts become convictions. Faith is a feeling of relaxed inevitability that something will come to pass, yet through auto-suggestion (a process validated by today’s cognitive behavioural therapy) we can engineer this powerful state at will.
Faith also puts us in tune with what Hill called ‘Infinite Intelligence’, which we may experience as God, the Tao or the ‘other self’ (Carnegie’s term). When we clarify and intensify our desires and expect that they will be fulfilled, this ‘force that moves the universe’ responds.
Having created a powerful faith, we need a definite plan to enact what we desire, ‘burning all bridges and making retreat impossible’. Hill recalls the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. It was a brave act, yet in staking their lives on it, it was the catalyst for the United States coming into being as a free, sovereign country.
Most people, Hill notes, just fall into things to avoid making decisions. But career success and wealth only happen when we consciously commit to them and plan accordingly. In doing so, however, we need not walk alone. Carnegie attributed his fortune to having surrounded himself with 50 people who together created a reservoir of intelligence and experience. This was his ‘mastermind’. When these brains worked in harmony, the intelligence of each was available to all and virtually anything was possible. Henry Ford only made his great strides to prominence, Hill argues, after he had made the acquaintance of Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, John Burroughs and Luther Burbank. We too, will find such a mastermind critical to the realisation of our plans.
Finally, Hill’s philosophy calls for us to persist until our plan is realised. In noting that ‘The hidden Guide lets no one enjoy great achievement without passing the persistence test’, Hill infers that there would be little point to life if our desires were fulfilled instantly. In keeping going even though things do not look good, we cultivate strength of mind that is itself great reward. Most of the success stories that Hill studied had made their mark only after pushing beyond some significant setback.
The world, he tells us, ‘. . . acknowledges talent, recognizes genius, pays off in money, only after one has refused to quit.’
SEX AND SUCCESS
Any analysis of Think and Grow Rich must take account of its infamous Chapter 11, ‘The Mystery of Sex Transmutation’.
Hill’s purpose here was to reveal a power within us that few were aware of until later in life, when it could be of incalculable benefit to know of it earlier. He noticed that younger men dissipate much of their great energy in sex itself and the pursuit of it, when the same energy, redirected, could go into great accomplishments. His research showed that most people do not reach their peak of achievement until at least 40 or 50 when they have discovered, often by accident, that their creativity and output increases when they have had to pour their normal sexual energy into their work. Such a containment and redirection also, he observed, made them a more magnetic personality.
Though Hill was careful not to say ‘don’t have sex’, particularly if in a loving relationship, his point was that we should aim to be the beneficiary of our sex drive, ‘not a victim of it’.
HOW TO BE RICH AND A GOOD PERSON
Inevitably, the title of the book would forever damn it in some people’s minds as a shallow get rich quick manual, but Think and Grow Rich actually has a strong moral foundation. Hill was almost obsessed with the Golden Rule, or ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. In the ‘Self-Confidence Formula’ (Chapter 3) he underlines that whatever our main goal in life, it must benefit ‘all whom it affects’. The formula notes that we eliminate our bad traits such as hatred, envy and selfishness ‘by developing love for all humanity’, and the reader is prompted to repeat to themselves that ‘... a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success’. The book also discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Compensation, which noted that no good deed ever goes unrewarded, and in fact brings exponential returns over time.
Hill rightly identified success in our economic system as being the result of people ‘going the extra mile’, and ‘giving before getting’. Though capitalism was based on the pursuit of personal gain, it was interesting that the greatest of gainers also provided the most value to the greatest number. When we think in order to grow rich, he contended, what we are actually thinking about is ways to significantly improve the lives of people, either in an idea or a service.
DID HILL ‘WALK HIS OWN TALK’?
The only real obstacle to achieving great success, Hill suggested, was ourselves. He provides a list of 31 reasons why people fail, and a corresponding personal inventory to identify the aspects of our personality that may trip us up in achieving our goals. These exercises underscore the idea that a person can never achieve lasting riches until he or she has ironed out the major bumps in their character.
Hill, perhaps more than most, learnt this the painful way. His vaulting ambition, dynamism and skills in public relations, speaking and writing meant he was usually able to persuade people to help him in some new venture and then turn it into a success. The trouble was in his ability to keep his wealth, as his attention had often moved onto the next thing without fully establishing the first. Lifetime of Riches, an authorised biography of Hill, does not shy from the fact that his ego often caused problems with business associates, that he could be hot headed yet also surprisingly gullible, and that some of the attention he gave to wealth creation should have been given to his family.
It might seem fair, therefore, to ask today’s readers of Think and Grow Rich to use Hill’s ideas, rather than the man himself, as a model. On the other hand, his roller coaster life and career was often prey to the ups and downs of the 20th century. On several occasions, when things were just about to take off for him, a recession, Depression or war would intervene to foil the planned ascent. In 1941, for instance, Hill was trying to get back on track after his disastrous short-lived marriage to Rosa Lee Beeland (who had managed to relieve him of most of his newfound wealth, having written a book titled How To Attract Men and Money) and he had relocated to South Carolina where the president of Presbyterian College had invited him to give lectures. He was gratified when Mental Dynamite, a work based on his successful talks, began selling well. But just as the first print run had almost sold out, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and suddenly paper was rationed; reprints of motivational books were a low priority.
In this case, the seed borne out of failure came with an invitation to work at one of the giant Le Tourneau heavy construction machinery plants, which under the weight of orders from the US government in the war effort was also creating severely disgruntled workers. The only manager who wasn’t having problems with his men attributed it to having studied Think and Grow Rich, and so Hill was brought in to mend relations between labour and management. His consultancy, which involved inspiring lectures on the ‘philosophy of American achievement’ and instituting work practices using the principles from the book, was a success.
Hill’s time in South Carolina also led him to Annie Lou Hill, a level-headed secretary who for family reasons had never married. Their union, which at their stage in life came as a pleasant surprise to both, ushered in a time of serenity and financial independence that would last for the next three decades. With his rough edges smoothed out, Hill became the best example of his own concept that personal character and sustained material wealth go hand-in-hand. The couple moved to California where Hill lectured and wrote just as much as he wanted to, and his later years were blessed with a friendship and professional relationship with Clement Stone, the insurance magnate who had attributed much of his company’s success to Think and Grow Rich. In gratitude, Stone gave Hill stocks in his company that made Hill a wealthy man. In today’s dollar terms, he left an estate valued at around $6 million.
THE SUPREME SECRET
Think and Grow Rich famously alludes to a ‘great universal truth’ or secret that is the force behind the book’s 13 principles, the understanding of which will virtually guarantee a person the achievement of what they want. As Hill does not actually spell it out, this has kept readers guessing for decades, and has even led to entire books being written that purport to reveal the secret. Hill’s reasoning was that a person needed to be ready for it, but when they were, he wrote, this secret would leap out from the book’s pages as if obvious.
The secret was first suggested to him by Andrew Carnegie, but Hill himself later felt it confirmed through his interviews with hundreds of other achievers, the great majority of whom were self-made. These men had not only built great fortunes or distinguished careers from scratch, to do so they had had to consciously remake themselves. Carnegie had told Hill that ‘the mind was the true source of infinite power’ and indeed as Hill points out in the book, the example of Gandhi had shown that a single individual’s strong belief could move whole nations.
Yet this truth depended on a vital distinction. Hill was clear about the difference between mere wishing and hoping, and belief. While a wish or a hope is experienced as something external, a belief is part of you, and therefore you cannot stop its shaping of your reality. Most people never appreciate that by consciously creating new beliefs they can create the reality they want.
So what exactly is the ‘Supreme Secret’? Three years before he died, Hill published a book called
Grow Rich With Peace of Mind (1967). In one of the later chapters he states it clearly:
Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.
Underwhelming? Not if you consider the implications. Hill was saying that there were no limits to what a person could do, and history had proved it so thousands of times with the stories of any remarkable person.
It worked this way: the progression from mere thought to conviction cannot help but change a person’s behaviour; further, the rest of the world must make way for what is effectively a new person with precise goals and intentions. This powerful self-belief is broadcast to the rest of the universe, making that individual attractive to like people and situations that will help their cause. In short, the secret said, we attract things in the physical world in due proportion to our belief that they exist, or will exist.
This was the famous ‘law of attraction’ that early prosperity writers had focused on, and which more recently has been highlighted in books such as The Secret and Ask And It Is Given.
Very aware that people would arrive at the realisation differently, Hill articulates the concept in a variety of ways. In reciting this old verse, for instance, he illustrates the power of expectation in shaping our lives:
“I worked for a menial’s hire
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”
Though in the short term a person may be buffeted about by events, over the long haul our lives conform remarkably to our beliefs. If this was the case, Hill asked, why not design a magnificent life built on consciously created ones? It was actually no harder to think big, he remarked, as it was to think small.
While it could be argued that many people begin with high expectations which are then dashed by the vagaries of life, Hill observed that it is rarely ‘life’ that fails us in a terminal way, but the willingness to give up on what Claude Bristol called the ‘magic of believing’.
A PHILOSOPHY FOR YOU AND ME
The world had heard plenty of wise words from the likes of Plato and Aristotle, Carnegie had told Hill, but what the average person needed was a philosophy to help them succeed.
Throughout his life Hill insisted that his work was not just a method or a system, because it sought to answer the deeper question of why some people succeed and others fail. Applying success methods alone, he warned, would be like building on sand. Instead, the goal of his writings was to get a person to first fully understand themselves, and secondly to appreciate how they could become more effective within the context of immutable universal laws.
New readers of Think and Grow Rich are often surprised at the extent of its metaphysical or spiritual concepts, yet it is these that buttress Hill’s claim that the book was indeed a philosophical work. Of course its chief aim was to advance and enrich its readers, but as Max Weber demonstrated in his famous essay, spiritual and material goals can go together. Not only this, but combining them was part of the American way of life.
FINAL WORDS
Hill’s thought was the result of many influences. There was his Baptist upbringing, his stepmother’s emphasis on education and the intellect, Andrew Carnegie and the other great figures of his time, ‘New Thought’ writers of his era such as William Walker Atkinson, Charles F. Haanel and Frank Channing Haddock, whose writings mixed spiritual truths with ‘law of attraction’ materiality, and even the ideas of French hypnotist Emile Coue, whose concept of ‘autosuggestion’ for healing and self-confidence Hill deployed as one of his 13 principles.
To this we must add Hill’s considerable business experience. He was a genuine entrepreneur who had bootstrapped numerous enterprises, and like many of his readers he had also been a salesman and a manager. His career, replete with as many failures as successes, had made him search ever more keenly for business and personal principles that would stand the test of time.
Though some of the language may seem quaint, and many of the subjects of his research are no longer household names, the actual principles behind Think and Grow Rich have not dated and continue to inspire. Indeed, Hill’s notion that all wealth begins with an idea is perfectly aligned with the knowledge economy that we live in today.
On a more personal level, Think and Grow Rich is a vital reminder that we, not another person in our place, have the power to make our ideas real. Rather than empty motivational talk, this ability to dream, believe and create is basic to being human, and is our greatest privilege.
Tom Butler-Bowdon, 2009
SOURCES
Butler-Bowdon, T., ‘Think and Grow Rich’, 50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Work and Life From 50 Landmark Books (London: Nicholas Brealey), 2004.
Emmert, J.M., Rich Man, Poor Man: The Story of Napoleon Hill, Success, 6 January 2009.
Hill, N. Think and Grow Rich: teaching, for the first time, the famous Andrew Carnegie formula for money-making, based upon the thirteen proven steps to riches, Connecticut, The Ralston Society, 1937.
Note: This is the original version, which has fallen out of copyright. In 1960, Napoleon Hill produced a revised, copyrighted edition. However, it is an abridgement which cuts out some of the interesting details in the original, for example the full story of how Edwin Barnes came to be Edison’s business associate.
Hill, N., Grow Rich With Peace of Mind, New York, Plume, 1967.
Kim, B., The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich, e-book, 2006.
Ritt, M.J. & Flanders, K.A., A Lifetime of Riches: The Biography of Napoleon Hill, New York, Dutton, 1995.
THINK AND GROW RICH
FURTHER READING
William Walker Atkinson, Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, 1906
Claude M. Bristol, The Magic of Believing, 1948.
Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, 2006.
Emile Coué, Self-Mastery Through Conscious Auto-suggestion, 1922.
Charles F. Haanel, The Master Key System, 1912.
Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth, 1927.
Frank Channing Haddock, Power of Will, 1907.
Esther and Jerry Hicks, Ask And It Is Given, 2004.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1904.
WHAT DO YOU WANT MOST?
AS APPEARED IN ORIGINAL EDITION
Is It Money, Fame, Power,
Contentment, Personality,
Peace of Mind, Happiness?
The Thirteen Steps to Riches described in this book offer the shortest dependable philosophy of individual achievement ever presented for the benefit of the man or woman who is searching for a definite goal in life.
Before beginning the book you will profit greatly if you recognize the fact that the book was not written to entertain. You cannot digest the contents properly in a week or a month.
After reading the book thoroughly, Dr. Miller Reese Hutchison, nationally known Consulting Engineer and long-time associate of Thomas A. Edison, said—
“This is not a novel. It is a textbook on individual achievement that came directly from the experiences of hundreds of America’s most successful men. It should be studied, digested, and meditated upon. No more than one chapter should be read in a single night. The reader should underline the sentences which impress him most. Later, he should go back to these marked lines and read them again. A real student will not merely read this book, he will absorb its contents and make them his own. This book should be adopted by all high schools and no boy or girl should be permitted to graduate without having satisfactorily passed an examination on it. This philosophy will not take the place of the subjects taught in schools, but it will enable one to organize and apply the knowledge acquired, and convert it into useful service and adequate compensation without waste of time.”
Dr. John R. Turner, Dean of the College of The City of New York, after having read the book, said—
“The very best example of the soundness of this philosophy is your own son, Blair, whose dramatic story you have outlined in the chapter on Desire.”
Dr. Turner had reference to the author’s son, who, born without normal hearing capacity, not only avoided becoming a deaf mute, but actually converted his handicap into a priceless asset by applying the philosophy here described.
THE MOST PROFITABLE WAY TO USE THIS BOOK
After reading the story (starting on page 66), you will realize that you are about to come into possession of a philosophy which can be transmuted into material wealth, or serve as readily to bring you peace of mind, understanding, spiritual harmony, and in some instances, as in the case of the author’s son, it can help you master physical affliction.
The author discovered, through personally analyzing hundreds of successful men, that all of them followed the habit of exchanging ideas, through what is commonly called conferences. When they had problems to be solved they sat down together and talked freely until they discovered, from their joint contribution of ideas, a plan that would serve their purpose.
You, who read this book, will get most out of it by putting into practice the Master Mind principle described in the book. This you can do (as others are doing so successfully) by forming a study club, consisting of any desired number of people who are friendly and harmonious. The club should have a meeting at regular periods, as often as once each week. The procedure should consist of reading one chapter of the book at each meeting, after which the contents of the chapter should be freely discussed by all members. Each member should make notes, putting down all ideas of his own inspired by the discussion. Each member should carefully read and analyze each chapter several days prior to its open reading and joint discussion in the club. The reading at the club should be done by someone who reads well and understands how to put color and feeling into the lines.
By following this plan every reader will get from its pages, not only the sum total of the best knowledge organized from the experiences of hundreds of successful men, but more important by far, he will tap new sources of knowledge in his own mind as well as acquire knowledge of priceless value from every other person present.
If you follow this plan persistently you will be almost certain to uncover and appropriate the secret formula by which Andrew Carnegie acquired his huge fortune, as referred to in the author’s introduction.
PUBLISHER’S PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITION
THIS book conveys the experience of more than 500 men of great wealth, who began at scratch, with nothing to give in return for riches except thoughts, ideas and organized plans.
Here you have the entire philosophy of money-making, just as it was organized from the actual achievements of the most successful men known to the American people during the past fifty years. It describes what to do, also, how to do it!
It presents complete instructions on how to sell your personal services.
It provides you with a perfect system of self-analysis that will readily disclose what has been standing between you and “the big money” in the past.
It describes the famous Andrew Carnegie formula of personal achievement by which he accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and made no fewer than a score of millionaires of men to whom he taught his secret.
Perhaps you do not need all that is to be found in the book—no one of the 500 men from whose experiences it was written did—but you may need one idea, plan or suggestion to start you toward your goal. Somewhere in the book you will find this needed stimulus.
The book was inspired by Andrew Carnegie, after he had made his millions and retired. It was written by the man to whom Carnegie disclosed the astounding secret of his riches—the same man to whom the 500 wealthy men revealed the source of their riches.
In this volume will be found the thirteen principles of money-making essential to every person who accumulates sufficient money to guarantee financial independence. It is estimated that the research which went into the preparation, before the book was written, or could be written—research covering more than twenty-five years of continuous effort—could not be duplicated at a cost of less than $100,000.00.
Moreover, the knowledge contained in the book never can be duplicated, at any cost, for the reason that more than half of the 500 men who supplied the information it brings have passed on.
Riches cannot always be measured in money!
Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, harmonious family relationships, sympathy and understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one peace of mind measurable only in spiritual values!
All who read, understand and apply this philosophy will be better prepared to attract and enjoy these higher estates which always have been and always will be denied to all except those who are ready for them.
Be prepared, therefore, when you expose yourself to the influence of this philosophy, to experience a changed life which may help you not only to negotiate your way through life with harmony and understanding, but also to prepare you for the accumulation of material riches in abundance.
The Publisher.
[The Ralston Society, 1937]
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION TO ORIGINAL EDITION
IN every chapter of this book, mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years.
The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, more than a quarter of a century ago. The canny, lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind, when I was but a boy. Then he sat back in his chair, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and watched carefully to see if I had brains enough to understand the full significance of what he had said to me.
When he saw that I had grasped the idea, he asked if I would be willing to spend twenty years or more, preparing myself to take it to the world, to men and women who, without the secret, might go through life as failures. I said I would, and with Mr. Carnegie’s cooperation, I have kept my promise.
This book contains the secret, after having been put to a practical test by thousands of people, in almost every walk of life. It was Mr. Carnegie’s idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous fortune, ought to be placed within reach of people who do not have time to investigate how men make money, and it was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every calling. He believed the formula should be taught in all public schools and colleges, and expressed the opinion that if it were properly taught it would so revolutionize the entire educational system that the time spent in school could be reduced to less than half.
His experience with Charles M. Schwab, and other young men of Mr. Schwab’s type, convinced Mr. Carnegie that much of that which is taught in the schools is of no value whatsoever in connection with the business of earning a living or accumulating riches. He had arrived at this decision, because he had taken into his business one young man after another, many of them with but little schooling, and by coaching them in the use of this formula, developed in them rare leadership. Moreover, his coaching made fortunes for everyone of them who followed his instructions.
In the chapter on Faith, you will read the astounding story of the organization of the giant United States Steel Corporation, as it was conceived and carried out by one of the young men through whom Mr. Carnegie proved that his formula will work for all who are ready for it. This single application of the secret, by that young man—Charles M. Schwab—made him a huge fortune in both money and opportunity. Roughly speaking, this particular application of the formula was worth six hundred million dollars.
These facts—and they are facts well known to almost everyone who knew Mr. Carnegie—give you a fair idea of what the reading of this book may bring to you, provided you know what it is that you want.
Even before it had undergone twenty years of practical testing, the secret was passed on to more than one hundred thousand men and women who have used it for their personal benefit, as Mr. Carnegie planned that they should. Some have made fortunes with it. Others have used it successfully in creating harmony in their homes. A clergyman used it so effectively that it brought him an income of upwards of $75,000.00 a year.
Arthur Nash, a Cincinnati tailor, used his nearbankrupt business as a “guinea pig” on which to test the formula. The business came to life and made a fortune for its owners. It is still thriving, although Mr. Nash has gone. The experiment was so unique that newspapers and magazines, gave it more than a million dollars’ worth of laudatory publicity.
The secret was passed on to Stuart Austin Wier, of Dallas, Texas. He was ready for it—so ready that he gave up his profession and studied law. Did he succeed? That story is told too.
I gave the secret to Jennings Randolph, the day he graduated from College, and he has used it so successfully that he is now serving his third term as a Member of Congress, with an excellent opportunity to keep on using it until it carries him to the White House.
While serving as Advertising Manager of the La-Salle Extension University, when it was little more than a name, I had the privilege of seeing J. G. Chapline, President of the University, use the formula so effectively that he has since made the La-Salle one of the great extension schools of the country.
The secret to which I refer has been mentioned no fewer than a hundred times, throughout this book. It has not been directly named, for it seems to work more successfully when it is merely uncovered and left in sight, where those who are ready, and searching for it, may pick it up. That is why Mr. Carnegie tossed it to me so quietly, without giving me its specific name.
If you are ready to put it to use, you will recognize this secret at least once in every chapter. I wish I might feel privileged to tell you how you will know if you are ready, but that would deprive you of much of the benefit you will receive when you make the discovery in your own way.
While this book was being written, my own son, who was then finishing the last year of his college work, picked up the manuscript of chapter two, read it, and discovered the secret for himself. He used the information so effectively that he went directly into a responsible position at a beginning salary greater than the average man ever earns. His story has been briefly described in chapter two. When you read it, perhaps you will dismiss any feeling you may have had, at the beginning of the book, that it promised too much. And, too, if you have ever been discouraged, if you have had difficulties to surmount which took the very soul out of you, if you have tried and failed, if you were ever handicapped by illness or physical affliction, this story of my son’s discovery and use of the Carnegie formula may prove to be the oasis in the Desert of Lost Hope, for which you have been searching.
This secret was extensively used by President Woodrow Wilson, during the World War. It was passed on to every soldier who fought in the war, carefully wrapped in the training received before going to the front. President Wilson told me it was a strong factor in raising the funds needed for the war.
More than twenty years ago, Hon. Manuel L. Quezon (then Resident Commissioner of the Philippine Islands), was inspired by the secret to gain freedom for his people. He has gained freedom for the Philippines, and is the first President of the free state.
A peculiar thing about this secret is that those who once acquire it and use it, find themselves literally swept on to success, with but little effort, and they never again submit to failure! If you doubt this, study the names of those who have used it, wherever they have been mentioned, check their records for yourself, and be convinced.
There is no such thing as something for nothing!
The secret to which I refer cannot be had without a price, although the price is far less than its value. It cannot be had at any price by those who are not intentionally searching for it. It cannot be given away, it cannot be purchased for money, for the reason that it comes in two parts. One part is already in possession of those who are ready for it.
The secret serves equally well, all who are ready for it. Education has nothing to do with it. Long before I was born, the secret had found its way into the possession of Thomas A. E dison, and he used it so intelligently that he became the world’s leading inventor, although he had but three months of schooling.
The secret was passed on to a business associate of Mr. Edison. He used it so effectively that, although he was then making only $12,000 a year, he accumulated a great fortune, and retired from active business while still a young man. You will find his story at the beginning of the first chapter. It should convince you that riches are not beyond your reach, that you can still be what you wish to be, that money, fame, recognition and happiness can be had by all who are ready and determined to have these blessings.
How do I know these things? You should have the answer before you finish this book. You may find it in the very first chapter, or on the last page.
While I was performing the twenty year task of research, which I had undertaken at Mr. Carnegie’s request, I analyzed hundreds of well known men, many of whom admitted that they had accumulated their vast fortunes through the aid of the Carnegie secret; among these men were:—
Henry Ford
William Wrigley Jr.
John Wanamaker
James J. Hill
George S. Parker
E. M. Statler
Henry L. Doherty
Cyrus H. K. Curtis
George Eastman
Charles M. Schwab
Harris F. Williams
Dr. Frank Gunsaulus
Daniel Willard
King Gillette
Ralph A. Weeks
Judge Daniel T. Wright
Theodore Roose-Velt
John W. Davis
Elbert Hubbard
Wilbur Wright
William Jennings Bryan
Dr. David Starr Jordan
J. Odgen Armour
Arthur Brisbane
Woodrow Wilson
WM. Howard Taft
Luther Burbank
Edward W. Bok
Frank A. Munsey
Elbert H. Gary
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell
John D. Rocke-Feller
Thomas A. Edison
Frank A. Vander-LIP
F. W. Woolworth
Col. Robert A. Dollar
Edward A. Filene
Edwin C. Barnes
Clarence Darrow
John H. Patterson
Julius Rosenwald
Stuart Austin Wier
Dr. Frank Crane
George M. Alexander
J. G. Chapline
Hon. Jennings
Randolph
Arthur Nash
These names represent but a small fraction of the hundreds of well known Americans whose achievements, financially and otherwise, prove that those who understand and apply the Carnegie secret, reach high stations in life. I have never known anyone who was inspired to use the secret, who did not achieve noteworthy success in his chosen calling. I have never known any person to distinguish himself, or to accumulate riches of any consequence, without possession of the secret. From these two facts I draw the conclusion that the secret is more important, as a part of the knowledge essential for self-determination, than any which one receives through what is popularly known as “education.”
What is education, anyway? This has been answered in full detail.
As far as schooling is concerned, many of these men had very little. John Wanamaker once told me that what little schooling he had, he acquired in very much the same manner as a modern locomotive takes on water, by “scooping it up as it runs.” Henry Ford never reached high school, let alone college. I am not attempting to minimize the value of schooling, but I am trying to express my earnest belief that those who master and apply the secret will reach high stations, accumulate riches, and bargain with life on their own terms, even if their schooling has been meager.
Somewhere, as you read, the secret to which I refer will jump from the page and stand boldly before you, if you are ready for it! When it appears, you will recognize it. Whether you receive the sign in the first or the last chapter, stop for a moment when it presents itself, and turn down a glass, for that occasion will mark the most important turning-point of your life.
We pass now, to Chapter One, and to the story of my very dear friend, who has generously acknowledged having seen the mystic sign, and whose business achievements are evidence enough that he turned down a glass. As you read his story, and the others, remember that they deal with the important problems of life, such as all men experience.
The problems arising from one’s endeavor to earn a living, to find hope, courage, contentment and peace of mind; to accumulate riches and to enjoy freedom of body and spirit.
Remember, too, as you go through the book, that it deals with facts and not with fiction, its purpose being to convey a great universal truth through which all who are ready may learn, not only what to do, but also how to do it! and receive, as well, the needed stimulus to make a start.
As a final word of preparation, before you begin the first chapter, may I offer one brief suggestion which may provide a clue by which the Carnegie secret may be recognized? It is this—all achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea! If you are ready for the secret, you already possess one half of it, therefore, you will readily recognize the other half the moment it reaches your mind.
The Author
[Napoleon Hill, 1937]
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
THE MAN WHO “THOUGHT” HIS WAY INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH THOMAS A. EDISON
TRULY, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.
A little more than thirty years ago, Edwin C. Barnes discovered how true it is that men really do think and grow rich. His discovery did not come about at one sitting. It came little by little, beginning with a burning desire to become a business associate of the great Edison.
One of the chief characteristics of Barnes’ Desire was that it was definite. He wanted to work with Edison, not for him. Observe, carefully, the description of how he went about translating his desire into reality, and you will have a better understanding of the thirteen principles which lead to riches.
When this desire, or impulse of thought, first flashed into his mind he was in no position to act upon it. Two difficulties stood in his way. He did not know Mr. Edison, and he did not have enough money to pay his railroad fare to Orange, New Jersey.
These difficulties were sufficient to have discouraged the majority of men from making any attempt to carry out the desire. But his was no ordinary desire! He was so determined to find a way to carry out his desire that he finally decided to travel by “blind baggage,” rather than be defeated. (To the uninitiated, this means that he went to East Orange on a freight train).
He presented himself at Mr. Edison’s laboratory, and announced he had come to go into business with the inventor. In speaking of the first meeting between Barnes and Edison, years later, Mr. Edison said, “He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked for, because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved that no mistake was made.”
Just what young Barnes said to Mr. Edison on that occasion was far less important than that which he thought. Edison, himself, said so! It could not have been the young man’s appearance which got him his start in the Edison office, for that was definitely against him. It was what he thought that counted.
If the significance of this statement could be conveyed to every person who reads it, there would be no need for the remainder of this book.
Barnes did not get his partnership with Edison on his first interview. He did get a chance to work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work that was unimportant to Edison, but most important to Barnes, because it gave him an opportunity to display his “merchandise” where his intended “partner” could see it.
Months went by. Apparently nothing happened to bring the coveted goal which Barnes had set up in his mind as his Definite Major Purpose. But something important was happening in Barnes’ mind. He was constantly intensifying his desire to become the business associate of Edison.
