Napoleon Rules

No, not Bonaparte, Hill!  Napoleon Hill that is.

Napoleon Hill is most famous for his book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ which is one of the bestselling books of all time.

He was really an investigative journalist who died in 1970 at the age of 87.  He is also THE father of all personal success literature.

What is significant about Mr. Hill (other than being raised dirt-poor) is that he was little more than a newspaper writer for a local Virginia newspaper who hit upon the idea of finding the formula for success…………success in ANYTHING.  How did he do this?  He interviewed as many successful people as he could and took the essence of what they all told him and put his findings into his short book. Who did he interview?  Here are some of them:

Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Charles Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley and a few Presidents also.

So, do you think, after 20 years of speaking with these kinds of people he knew what he was talking about?  Yep, darn right he did.

Were all of these men geniuses? No, they weren’t (particularly the presidents!).

Do you need to be a genius to start and run a successful business?  Absolutely not! There have been a few real geniuses in the world (Leonardo DaVinci, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin etc.) and many of them never achieved financial success, though some did.  However there are THOUSANDS of normal AVERAGE people who HAVE made financial successes of themselves.

There’s a famous battle between two of my heroes, one of whom was a REAL genius and the other was a great businessman.  You can decide which was which.  Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla fought for many years over using two different systems for distributing electricity around the world.

Can you guess who won the battle?

Nikola Tesla, that's who!  Tesla won the electrical-distribution battle.  He is responsible for AC voltage, unlike Thomas Edison's DC voltage which is great for small local applications like electric-cars or toys, but it’s useless for long-distance applications like lighting up and powering a city or a country.

But guess who died broke???  Same guy, Nikola Tesla.  You see, though he was no doubt a REAL genius, who didn't have much idea about money.  He gave up many of his royalties that the Westinghouse Company owed him, so that they wouldn't go out of business.  He was amazingly successful as an inventor and engineer, but had the entirely wrong idea about money.  Money was just a means to an end to him, which is a good thing, but he simply didn't realize that he had to MANAGE his money.  In effect, he couldn't manage his SUCCESS!

Thomas Edison, on the other hand, was an incredibly good businessman.  He invented and produced products that people wanted the benefits of, and he did this not through genius-insight (like Tesla) but through sheer hard-work and lots of trial-and-error (LOTS of errors, but he NEVER QUIT TRYING).  He then took the products to market with other people's money, just like any great businessman would do.

So, back to Mr. Napleon Hill.  What did Napoleon Hill glean from all of the successful people that he spent 20 years interviewing?  The person who actually gave Napoleon Hill the commission for interviewing these successful people was Andrew Carnegie (not to be confused with Dale Carnegie who was not related to Andrew) and was also Hill’s first interviewee.  Hill's payment for doing this 20 year study?

Nothing!  Huh!?  NOTHING???  Yep, no money, BUT he would be given introductions to the interviewees by Andrew Carnegie (one of the most powerful and wealthy men in the world at the time, and the man responsible for public libraries today).  Hill would also be allowed to use any and all of the material he obtained to write his book.  That was payment enough for him, and it still earns Hill's estate money to this day based on royalties for the book he published in 1937!

So what exactly WERE Napoleon's rules, his rules for success?  Here are some of them:

1. Definiteness of purpose – Knowing what you want.

2. Mastermind – Be with like-minded people who want success, a mastermind group.

3. Attractive personality – People are drawn to strong, confident people.

4. Applied faith – Believe in what you will achieve.

5. Going the extra mile – Give more than is expected of you.

6. Persistence – Never quit (just like Thomas Edison).

7. Self discipline – Control yourself, don’t let others control you.

8. Learning – Learn from defeat and failure and keep moving towards your goal.

9. Focus – When you’re doing something, do it with all of your attention.

10. Habit – Get into good daily habits, which will naturally get you out of bad habits.

There are others (read Hill’s book!) but these are some key ones.  Try to understand that though you have thousands (millions in truth) of choices in your life, there are only two main choices.  You can either let life happen TO YOU, or you can MAKE A LIFE FOR YOURSELF.

The difference between the two is MASSIVE but to make the difference doesn't take a lot; just small choices every hour of every day.  Will you write that extra article to promote your website.  Will you work that extra hour. Will you eat that extra piece of cake. Will you run that extra mile. Will you smoke one less cigarette each day……… and so on.

Nobody has control over your life UNLESS YOU GIVE THEM CONTROL!

Follow Napoleon's rules and control your own life.  The alternative is unimaginable and certainly not something any sane person would want for their life.