Jot down the thoughts which come to you from everything you read. Take these thoughts and build stories around them – “human interest” stories that will serve as attention-getters. There is practical value in all of this.
Do not feel that I expect you to be perfect in your work. None of us are. The age of infallibility has not yet arrived. We all make mistakes. That’s why they place rubbers [erasers] on the ends of lead pencils. BUT – remember that you will be nearer perfection at the end of this book than you are now.
It is just as well to mention here the fact that your first twenty lessons will deal largely with principles. Just as you first learned the principles of grammar and arithmetic, and then proceeded to apply those principles, so will you first master the principles of psychology, and then apply these principles, as you go along in this book.
Do not become frightened at the word “psychology”! I am well aware of the fact that for many years most people have looked upon psychology as being a subject which only long-haired professors could unearth. The truth of the matter is that psychology, as it should be taught, is the most interesting and the most vital subject underlying the great mass of commercial activity today.
What is psychology?
Look up the word in your dictionary, but before you do this allow me to give you my conception of it. Psychology is nothing more nor less than a thorough understanding of the manner in which the human mind works. To understand psychology is to understand humanity. To make practical application of psychology is to direct and control the human mind at will – particularly your own mind!
The principles through which psychology may be used are comparatively simple. You saw a splendid example of the practical application of psychology in Mark Antony’s speech to the Roman mob. In that speech, through the words which Shakespeare placed in the mouth of Mark Antony, SUGGESTION was a leading factor which swayed the mob and caused it to do his bidding. Bear in mind that suggestion is one of the mental phenomena known as psychology. Suggestion is the chief factor through which the hypnotist works. The other factor, which dove tails with suggestion, is CONCENTRATION. All through this book you will find very simple yet understandable and practical applications of the principles of both SUGGESTION and CONCENTRATION.
I also believe it’s just as well to inform you right now that the book which you are beginning embodies much more than the mastery of living. By “mastery” I mean the study of life. Before I come to details, you must master the more fundamental PRINCIPLES through which these details are organized and make use of.
GITOMER NOTE: Napoleon Hill always presented the validity of challenging the big picture, then broke down the details into principles and actions.
Among the other qualities which I intend to develop for you, through this book, are some of the most vital essentials for success and happiness, such as self-confidence, courage, faith, humility, a good working knowledge of “self,” etc. No person can go through this book without developing a much more positive, pleasing, and forceful personality than he possessed when he began. I give you this information in the very beginning so you may cooperate with me more effectively because you will understand the end for which I am helping you strive.
Let me explain also, that neither “religion” nor “politics” can enter into the work that I am doing in this book. My teachings are based strictly on facts that have been tried and proved to be practical by the leading philosophers and scientists of the world. I make this explanation so you may not make the mistake of feeling that I have allowed either of these subjects to creep in where they should have been excluded, if at any time it should appear to you that some of the principles with which I deal in this book are closely related to similar principles which are being disseminated under one creed or another, in the disguise of “religion.”
GITOMER NOTE: Hill understood that he was teaching some of the things that religions usually dealt with, but adequately deflected the criticism and boldly declared his work secular.
Also note well that the person who fails to realize that his success in his field of endeavor will depend, to a large extent, upon how well he acquires this viewpoint concerning “truthful living” might as well stop right here and discontinue this book. “Cleverness” and the ability to “put it over on the public” will lead any person who engages in these tactics to sure and swift defeat.
Your salary or revenue from the sale of your products or services in your field of endeavor will come from someone else. This is a fact well worth remembering, and the moment you begin to play your employer (the consuming public) false, that moment begins your downfall.
If there is one big idea that I shall constantly endeavor to develop in this book, it is the idea of building all living upon the foundation of TRUTH! Without this firm foundation, no person or business can hope to permanently succeed in this day of progressive policies.
Not only is the time coming, but it is actually here, when to tell a lie on paper, directly or by innuendo, will bring the same punishment and rebuke to the person who tells it as the same lie would bring if told orally. It is personal and business suicide to “fool the buying public.”
Take the great business built by Marshall Field, John Wanamaker, Sears, Roebuck & Company, Montgomery Ward & Company, Butler Brothers, and other reliable Mail Order Houses: underlying their success you will find a fundamental principle which is responsible for that success. That principle is “TRUTHFUL ADVERTISING.” These firms have always practiced the habit of sending their customers away satisfied. That is what all successful firms must do.
BUT, if you are not in the mail order business, and you are not selling advertising, this principle is equally applicable to you. More so, it is a concept bigger than business, bigger than mail order, and bigger than advertising. It applies equally to life. The key concept to understand and internalize here is just that: TRUTHFUL LIVING.
CAUTION: Do not read ahead in this book until you finish the lesson at hand. The average person will find it necessary to read the text at least three times before beginning to live the philosophy: the first time to get a general outline of the subjects covered, the second time for the purpose of cross-indexing the questions and the places where the answers may be found, and the third to get a final summary.
Some of the ideas are intended to test your ability to think in your own terms, and the answers will not be found in this book. When you come across an idea of this sort, use your own judgment and use it accordingly.
Before undertaking this book, I want you to fully appreciate the following:
YOU WILL GET OUT OF THIS BOOK EXACTLY IN PROPORTION TO WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT IN TIME AND EARNEST EFFORT.
A Warm Handshake by Proxy
A written visit from Napoleon Hill
Friend, reader, and student of success, we are starting on what I believe will prove to be a very pleasant and profitable journey into living your BEST life.
We will get along better on this journey if we understand each other thoroughly before we start!
Frankness is one of the virtues I possess – the one of which I am proudest. I believe in laying all of the cards on the table, FACE UPWARD, in the beginning of the game.
Now if you were here at my desk we could accomplish more in half an hour, in getting acquainted with each other, than we could through exchanging a dozen or two letters. It is exceedingly difficult to place one’s thoughts on paper in such a manner that they are thoroughly and correctly understood by those who read them.
In view of this, I ask you to overlook what I believe to be your shortcomings, and I will do the same with you. If I make a mistake – as all people do at times – I ask your indulgence.
I have set aside pages for my “visits” with you after each lesson. I call them my “sacred garden spot.”
I shall do my best to bring to you, through each of these “visits,” some new thought, and fill you with renewed enthusiasm, hope, faith, cheerfulness, charity, and self-confidence. I shall do
my utmost to help you build up the idealistic side of yourself. There will be no complaining done through these pages. They must bring only optimism and pleasant thoughts.
“If you become a great person, it will be because you have first WILLED TO BECOME GREAT! If you fail to become a great person, it will be because your will power was of the half-hearted brand.”
– Napoleon Hill
Among our readers we have nearly all nationalities – people who belong to various and sundry religious and political organizations. It makes no difference what is your religion or politics – I am your friend! And now I shall leave nothing undone that I can do on your behalf.
Here is a thought which I want you to get well established in your mind: I cannot teach you anything unless you have implicit faith in my ability and my sincerity. Through mutual faith we can turn mountains over, so to speak, but without this we cannot work in harmony. We must be attuned to and in harmony with each other in our work as we go along. This can best be brought about by being frank with each other.
If any condition arises in your life, as you go along with your book, concerning which you wish to consult with me, feel free to come, just as you would to any other close friend. Let us understand each other all through this journey! Let us be in full harmony at every step along the way!
I am going to make of you a person who FINISHES EVERYTHING HE STARTS! This book is going to be much more than a mere book on the technique of living. You will see, long before you reach the twenty-third lesson, that the book is a builder of STRONG, MAGNETIC, and FORCEFUL PERSONALITY.
What, may I ask, is the value of a book that will do this?
You now have some negative qualities, which stand between you and the success which you are going to attain. You may know what these negatives are, or you may not know. Be this as it may, you are going to have fewer negative qualities before you finish this book. You are going to have a much more pleasing personality. You are going to possess the ability to get people to do what you want them to do because they wish to do it!
Life, ah! What a wonderful study it is!
And, what is the study of life?
Friend, I will tell you what LIVING is –
IT’S THE STUDY OF THE HUMAN MIND – OF HUMANITY ITSELF!
What, may I ask, is more interesting than this wonderful machine, which we call the human mind? What is more to be desired than the ability to control, direct, and dominate the human mind – especially our own mind?
A successful person is one who can dominate and direct his own mind and the minds of others. A wonderful power, this! Then let us use it only for legitimate and honorable purposes.
Before you finish this book you will learn a great many things about living that you probably never thought of as being connected with this subject. You will learn things about the human mind – especially your own – that you probably never thought about before.
You will learn how to select words that will play upon the emotions as an expert violinist plays upon his instrument. You will learn how to affect your friends, family, and consumers as the violinist affects his listeners when he draws the bow across the strings of his violin in harmony with the vibrations which reach your mind through your ears.
What a wonderful accomplishment this is!
You will learn that you can reach the minds of others only through the five senses of – SIGHT, SMELL, HEARING, FEELING, and TASTING. And by reaching others through those senses you will create THINKING and ACTING in your favor.
You will learn to select words, which will most effectively appeal through one or more of those five senses.
That Habit of Completing
Make up your mind right in the beginning that you are going to have to sacrifice something in order to complete this book. Everything that is worth having costs a price. The book which you have begun, while it is well sprinkled with variety and human interest, is no mere “pink tea” party.
However, there is nothing in the book which ought not to be there. Many of you have been through the mill of hard experience, and have eliminated everything that is not essential. This book does the same. Bear this in mind when you come across some problem which you believe involves more work than you would like to do – DO IT GLADLY.
As I said in the beginning, you must have faith in yourself. You must believe in me, doing exactly as I say and holding me responsible only for results in the end.
I accept responsibility for your success, only on condition that you follow my instructions, just as an obedient soldier must follow the instructions of his superior officer.
There is no red-tape between you and me. There are no formalities or invisible barriers. The latchstring is always on the outside to you. I am your teacher and friend, loyal, faithful and sympathetic, ready and willing to share your heartaches as well as your joys.
These words are not written just to fill up space! When you know me as I really am, you will be thoroughly convinced of this fact. My heart and soul are in this book which you have begun. I am interested in you and your affairs. Your friends are my friends. Your joys are my joys and your sorrows are my sorrows.
I shall strive hard always to be a bubbling spring from which you can draw new inspiration, hopes, encouragement, and self-confidence; we all need this source of inspiration. The spring is right here, waiting for you. Drink from it freely, as often as you may be thirsty, and in the years to come if I have reason to feel that through my efforts you have become a bigger, better, and more prosperous citizen of America, I shall feel well repaid for my sincere efforts to benefit you.
With every good wish for your success and happiness believe me.
Cordially, your friend,
Napoleon Hill
GITOMER’S THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THIS LESSON
This first lesson should be immediately reread so that you understand both the opportunity and the challenges that face you in this book and in your life. The reason I recommend rereading is for both clarity and intention. You can intend to “read the book,” or you can intend to make the book part of the fabric of your life. I recommend the latter. The second reading will clarify your intentions.
Twenty years from Hill’s first writings which appear here, he will begin Think and Grow Rich with the phrase, “Thoughts are things.” Please think of this book as the precursor and the preamble to the next step in your journey for success and wealth.
Persuasion is critical to winning in the real world. Your real world. Hill states first you must gain attention or persuasion is not possible. Seems obvious, but wait until you see the depth of Hill’s words. . .
“It seems to me that one of the great purposes of life is to: BE HAPPY ALL THE TIME AND TO MAKE OTHERS HAPPY!”
– Napoleon Hill
Lesson Number
2
FINISH WHAT YOU START
GITOMER INSIGHT: Are you ready to start? Are you willing to finish? It’s easy to see what other people have not completed. It’s much more difficult when you’re looking at your own life. When you see other people, you justify it with reasons. When you see yourself, you short-circuit it with excuses and blame. Finishing what you start requires that you take cynicism and negativity and convert them into optimism and positivity. Drive. Determination. And the vision to see the outcome and take daily steps toward that goal, or as Hill would say, that “definite major aim.”
One of the really worthwhile qualities which we have planned to develop in you through this course is that of FINISHING ALL THAT YOU START!
Maybe you already possess this sterling quality.
If so, congratulations! You have the first essential for success in everything you undertake. After reaching the tenth lesson, one of our students wrote:
“I want to say to you right here and now that I have received a thousand percent on my investment in your course, because you have made me WANT TO FINISH THINGS THAT I BEGIN! You have been so kind and patient, yet so firm and persistent w
ith me that I have wrested from this course already the real secret to success.
Enclosed you will find my check for the remainder of my tuition in full. I am paying this in advance on the theory that when I have paid you I will let nothing stand between me and the last lesson in this great course. The tenth lesson alone is worth ten times what you charge for the entire course. It may please you to hear that through the application of the principles laid down in the ‘after-the-lesson visit’ with lesson ten I have changes in my business that will net me over $1,000 a year in additional profits.”
I have quoted this letter because it is typical of others we receive from men and women all over the world who have “found” themselves through the application of the philosophy that is the very warp and woof of the course you have commenced.
Every principle laid down throughout this course has been thoroughly tried out and tested in our resident classroom here in Chicago. Our class has served as part of a human laboratory in which we have thoroughly tested every principle that we are passing on to you. Furthermore, these principles have been poured from the crucible of actual business experience of the men who built this course, covering a period from ten to thirty years.
To prove the accuracy of these principles has cost not only millions of dollars in sales and advertising campaigns, but endless and untiring effort upon part of the various members of our staff.
It is my aim to present this philosophy in as simple a manner as possible. It is also my aim to make these lessons absorbing, to fill them with life so they will breathe the very essence of the good cheer, courage, self-confidence, and optimism which we have tried to inject into them. There is a scientific reason for this, as you will learn before you reach the middle of the course.
If for any reason whatsoever, either consciously or unconsciously, you have allowed a shell of cynicism to grow around you, we intend to break this shell and remove it. No person can go through this course and be unhappy at the same time.
Truthful Living Page 2
