Napoleon Hill's Success Masters

by Napoleon Hill

  We are to see that which man was tending to do in a given period and was hindered, or if you will, modified in doing by the interfering volitions of Phidias, of Dante, of Shakespeare, the organ whereby man at the moment rot. Still more striking is the expression of this fact in the proverbs of all nations, which are always the literature of reason or the statements of an absolute truth without qualifications. Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. That which the droning world chained to appearances will not allow the realist to say in his own words; it will suffer him to say in proverbs without contradiction, and this law of laws which the pulpit, the senate, and the college deny is hourly preached in all markets and all languages by flights of proverbs, whose teaching is as true and as omnipresent as that of birds and flies. All things are double one against another, tit for tat, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, measure for measure, love for love. Give and it shall be given to you. He that watereth shall be watered himself. What will you have, quotes God? Pay for it and take it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thou shalt be paid exactly for what thou hast done, no more, no less. Who doth not work, shall not eat. Harm watch, harm catch. Curses always recoil on the head of him who importees them. If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own. Bad counsel confounds the advisor. The devil is an ass. It is thus written because it is thus in life. Our action is over mastered and characterized above our will by the law of nature. We aim at a petty end quite aside from the public good, but our act arranges itself by irresistible magnetism in align with the poles of the world. A man cannot speak, but he judges himself. With his will or against his will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a thread ball thrown at a mark but the other end remains in the thrower’s bag, or rather it is a harpoon thrown at the whale unwinding as it flies a coil of cord in the boat, and if the harpoon is not good or not well thrown, it will go nigh to cut the steersman in twain or to sink the boat. You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. No man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him. The exclusive and fashionable life does not see that he excludes himself from enjoyment in the attempt to appropriate it. The exclusionist in religion does not see that he shuts the door of heaven on himself in striving to shut out others. Treat men as pawns and ninepins and you shall suffer as well as they. If you leave out their heart, you shall lose your own.

  ENTREPRENEUR ACTION ITEM

  Make Time for Mentorship

  In “Compensation,” Emerson meditates on the idea that what we put into the universe, we get back. In other words, there is a dualism that creates balance in the world. This is nowhere truer than in the universe of entrepreneurship. You will get out of your journey exactly what you put into it. One great example of this can be found in networking and mentorship, particularly in highly focused mastermind groups. Being an entrepreneur is a busy job. But if you can take time out to connect with other like-minded business owners in a mastermind setting, you can not only share your expertise, but also get some in return. That said, when you’re the boss, it can be near impossible to escape from the office to connect with other entrepreneurs for more than an hour or two. But the less you can afford the time, the more you need it. Here are six reasons why:

  1. Perspective

  Distancing yourself from the daily grind provides an entirely new view on your business—and your life. Your shoulders sink a little bit from their usual position near your ears. Those email messages waiting in your inbox seem a little less urgent than they did 24 hours ago. Just as objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear, problems seen from inside the office appear larger than they actually are.

  2. Resource Sharing

  In our world of information overload, it’s impossible to be up to date on everything. Swapping resources—whether the latest trend in project management or the name of a great app developer—is one of the most valuable parts of connecting with other business owners. Come with your recommendations as well as your wish list and leave with your desires fulfilled.

  3. Breathing Room

  The poet Khalil Gibran wrote that to experience a successful romantic relationship, couples should “… let there be spaces in your togetherness.” This is great advice for business relationships, too. Retreating gives your employees a chance to sink or swim without your immediate guidance, and there’s no better cure for a control freak than to watch (from a distance) as the business not just survives, but thrives in your absence.

  4. The Power of the Collective Mind

  “No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible, intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind [the master mind],” wrote Napoleon Hill. Anyone who’s ever been part of a serious mastermind group can attest to this “third mind” force. Throw out a business problem, then sit and listen while your colleagues go to work dismantling your obstacle and suggesting a plethora of ideas, most of which would never have occurred to any individual.

  5. Focus

  On any given day, 101 possible projects clamor for your attention, and that list gets even longer when you’re out of the office. Whether you’re away for a day or a weekend, having a specific intention will give your retreat structure and purpose. By setting a narrow target, you can filter out all the possible distractions and laser in on what’s most important to tackle right now.

  6. Connections

  While it’s great to head out to dinner with a colleague, you don’t really get to know someone until you see them at 7 a.m. on their way to the shower, at lunch after a full morning struggling with a new customer service standard operating procedure (SOP), and after a long night of karaoke. After spending extended time with your mastermind partners, you’ll love them or hate the very sound of their breathing. You’ll either end up great friends, or you’ll thank your lucky stars you never signed that multi-year partnership agreement. Nothing serves as a better crucible than a few days in close quarters.

  There is no telling what incredible synergistic results you might achieve from spending a few days with your mastermind group. From new relationships to new product ideas to new inspiration, a mastermind retreat can give you support, renewal, and even a good kick in the pants. Get unplugged and give yourself a chance to really master your business—with the help of your mastermind.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Selling

  Paul Harvey

  Paul Harvey was a famous talk-radio broadcaster, and his program, “The Rest of the Story,” was popular worldwide. He was a radio broadcaster for over seventy years and was well known for his plain talks.

  At one time, his broadcasts on ABC were carried on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces networks, and in 300 newspapers. Harvey’s broadcasts reached over 24 million people.

  “The Rest of the Story” was presented as little-known or forgotten facts pertaining to a well-known news story at the time. The broadcasts were always concluded with a variation of the tagline “and now you know the rest of the story.”

  This chapter features Harvey’s speech on “Selling.” It was originally presented in 1976, 200 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. You will notice the examples he references were appropriate for the times, so feel free to think of your own examples that may be relevant to our current business and geopolitical climate.

  WE ARE ALL IN SALES

  Everybody is a salesman. If you compare occupations to sports, selling is most like football in the commission selling of a quality product. Boy, that’s pro football in the big leagues.

  Selling is a profession that combines all the psychology of a quarterback with the calculated risk of slam-bang, head-on, hit-the-line body contact. No profession more than selling demands a person to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep on keeping on; and few rewards are more thrilling than a signed dotted line. And the fiercer the competitio
n, the more precious the prize.

  You know what I think? I recently instituted a new series of programs on the ABC network called “The Rest of The Story” because I think there is no more thrilling adventure story in the literature of commerce than the several Horatio Alger stories of those who learned the skill of overcoming resistance with persistence when selling. Richard Sears was a mail order watch salesman when he and Albert Roebuck teamed up. Billy Graham was a Fuller brush man. William Wrigley peddled products door-to-door, and others who got their first training in patience and perseverance by selling face-to-face were Abraham Lincoln, and Gary Cooper, and George Peabody, and Arthur Godfrey.

  To me, there’s no more inspiring story anywhere in American literature than the story of James “Cash” Penney. Remember, at an age that most men expected to retire, Mr. Penney started over. He was flat broke. He was $7 million in debt. He was a frail, nervous, and physical wreck and had been committed to a sanitarium. His fortune gone and his health broken, Jim Penney, at 56, began a comeback until healthy, happy, and 90, he headed an advanced empire of almost 2,000 J.C. Penney stores. And Horatio Alger still lives.

  Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel started in the basement of Jay’s modest home in Michigan 18 years ago, and since then they’ve developed a selling organization which has 250,000 distributors [you know it as Amway]. No profession has done more to raise our level of living by raising our level of longing. And you don’t learn selling in school. The only two universities, as far as I know, that offer a degree in this high-paying profession are Memphis State and Syracuse.

  But when you learn to sell yourself and your product, the horizon is limitless. Half the presidents of America’s top 500 corporations came up through sales and/or marketing.

  But now, football and selling take guts. The other guy doesn’t get out of your way; he purposely does everything he can to get in your way. And for most of us, there’s no guaranteed security, no protracted vacations, no promise of early retirement, but—man alive—who would want to retire from a vocation that’s more fun than most any avocation could be?

  I am a salesman and will be until the day they nail the lid on that box. As a matter of fact, shortly after they nail the lid on that box, I’m likely really to have to be doing some selling. But I’m ready for it. When St. Peter says, “Paul Harvey, what’d you do down there that makes you think you deserve to be up here?” I’m going to say, “Sir, I don’t deserve to be here, but I had your promise that believing in certain things, I’ll get here, so I’m here. And just this much more—just this much more, St. Peter, down there on that ball of mud, planet Earth, there is a potential paradise called the United States of America, the world’s finest government under God. Sir, I did what I could while I could to keep it sold on itself.”

  SELLING THE IDEA OF AMERICA

  Nowhere else do people criticize their leaders as they do in our country. Do you know if any man dared to talk about your wife in a nitpicking, carping, unflattering, sometimes cruel way the way some people talk about your president, you’d punch him in the mouth? Turn that around, and hang our flag right side up again, and you’ll have Americans standing and saluting, and cheering again, and believing again in our country and in themselves. Honesty and integrity could become as fashionable as shortcutting now is. Even work could have a new dignity and a new desirability when we’re working for something that’s bigger than ourselves.

  Now every man and woman [reading this] is in the front lines of a high noon defense of what’s left of freedom. At whatever job, however lofty, tomorrow morning you’re going to be selling yourself or your service or your product. Will you please help to resell our country to our countrymen before we all end up with 15 percent of nothing?

  I don’t think any president, for all his bicentennial years’ speeches, for all the inaugural pageantry, pointing the way to a reaffirmation of Americanism, I don’t think any president, doing the best he can do, can match you when it comes to showing the way, nurturing the deep roots of this fragile American beauty rose, fertilizing it with shoe leather, and watering it with sweat. American capitalism is no longer viable, unless you reprove its virility every day.

  ENTREPRENEUR TIP

  Harvey mentions many of the social and political issues of his time in this selection, and how they can affect everyday business practices. It’s always a good idea to keep abreast of the national issues that may affect your own business, even if you don’t consider yourself a history buff. Getting to know the history of your industry and its place in your country’s story can help you chart trends over time and identify issues that may affect your bottom line.

  There’s a recession in Raleigh, North Carolina. Every day, Mike Sills sells himself in Raleigh, North Carolina, washing cars wherever. He’s got himself a van loaded with 55-gallon barrels of water and detergent. He makes house calls to wash your car wherever it’s parked. He has wax if you like, and he always vacuums the interior at no extra charge. In Savannah, Illinois, the Savannah Army depot closed down. Unemployment went to 12 percent of the local population, but in Savannah, Illinois, Mr. Martin Blasix is self-employed. Every morning at daybreak, he’s down on the bank of the Plum River spading worms and selling them to fishermen and bait shops. He digs usually 600 every day and sells them at 60 worms to the dollar. He puts a sign out front: Worms for Sale. Incidentally, Mr. Blasix says these are good times for his business when people have time to fish, but are still too lazy to dig.

  Selling to Skeptics

  Did you know that the Union Bank of Switzerland sent it’s emissaries all over the world looking for the best place to live? They went all over the world, went back to Switzerland and fed their findings into a computer, all their statistics, asked the computer where in the world is the best place to live, and guess where? You’re there! Everywhere else on planet Earth, you would have to work more hours to buy food, clothing, and rent. So while Americans’ standard of living is still the best in this world, I see a survey which says that a third of voting-age Americans, one third of us, believe that our nation is over the hill. I guess they are judging from what they see, hear, and read. They figure our future is now in the past, and from here on, it’s all downhill. Now, wouldn’t that rot your socks!

  In this country, we don’t plow up the garden just because some weeds sprout in it, and if we’d leave it, if we’d give up and run for cover every time it rained, we’d still just be 13 colonies. Do you realize that in spite of the worst, we’ve been able to do all right? Our Americanism is made of very durable stuff.

  In the 200 years since we’ve weaned ourselves, every other nation on Earth has been turned upside down. Two hundred years ago, England and France were monarchies; kings ruled both of them. Italy and Germany weren’t even on the map. They didn’t even exist. Our Latin American neighbors were colonies. China was ruled by the Manchu, Japan by the shoguns. It was only what we built here that’s done so well, and it’s remained more or less intact. But it was for us, our generation, recently to become distressed with some of these problems that I’ve outlined in which some of our temporarily elected leaders failed us, and some decided to burn our flag. Oh for goodness sake, our flag has failed us in no way. However, many of us have sometimes failed it.

  There are very real problems deserving of our urgent consideration; Uncle Sam is sick. But what I’m saying is, Uncle Sam’s been sick before. Every few years he gets sick. And every now and then in November, sometimes in between, he falls down and he gets up, and he gets going again.

  You know, I had a birthday last September and you want to hear about a sobering experience! I awakened that September morn on a Missouri farm to the sudden realization that a boy baby born when I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had a life expectancy of 50 years and six months. Suddenly, I am on borrowed time. And that’s not the worst of it. The distress is real when I say this next, but it’s haunted me ever since.

  I realized that morning that I, Paul Harvey, was now one-fourth as old as our count
ry. My goodness, I had always thought of my beloved Republic as having such deep roots. Our country is only four times as old as I am, for goodness sake. Our country is not over the hill; it’s barely a beardless, post-puberty adolescent. What’s messing up our country is not senility, it’s acne. (I’m not far from the finish, so stay with me.) Our balance of trade with other nations is unbalanced in their favor. For the ninth straight month, mostly because of the higher prices, we’re having to pay for all that imported oil, and the OPEC nations are in conference right now getting ready to tack on another 10 percent. Another penny a gallon for gasoline, another four cents a gallon for crude. I’m going to say this next with due deference to those who are inconvenienced or hurt by it, but I think in my third of a century as a professional parade watcher, this so-called energy crisis might be the best thing that’s happened to our America the Beautiful to get our people off their posteriors and back to using their imaginations again. Boy, what exciting years these next ten are going to be! So if they’re going to charge us too much for oil, we’ll use something else. Off Florida, we’re going to sink turbines in the Gulf and we might be able to harness a movement of water greater than 10,000 Niagaras. We do what we have to do. Off the rock-bound coast of Maine, we may be able to harness the tides to produce commercial quantities of mechanical or electrical power. In far-western states, we’ll generate increasing amounts of electricity with geothermal steam. Solar energy. We’ll see the second coming of age for nuclear energy, already producing 11 percent of our nation’s electricity. And in the name of progress, we’re going to harness the wind with streamlined, sophisticated windmills.

  Necessity (and Recessions) Breeds Invention

  Recessions teach resourcefulness. For example, Economy Furniture Company in Austin, Texas, a furniture company now, is generating electricity for operating its machinery by burning sawdust that they used to throw away.