A Modern Napoleon Hill Story

From Selling Scoops Of Ice Cream To Founding ZeroCater

Trust me, you must read that. It’s one of the most inspirational things I’ve ever read.

1) There’s no shame in starting at the bottom. The bottom is what most people ignore. But that’s where the rich soil is that will make things really grow. It seethes with opportunities.

2) At a discussion elsewhere, someone used the phrase “valuable problem.” If you can find one of those to solve, you’ll make money. He did. But he found it only because he was at the bottom. When someone says, “I hate this and don’t want to do it,” an alarm should blare: “Opportunity!”

3) Napoleon Hill said, “Start where you are with what you have.” He did. He had just a spreadsheet! Let that sink in. His entire business was a spreadsheet and it grew from that. Would you think a spreadsheet could grow into something?

4) He didn’t have to know everything to start. I have zero idea of what technical infrastructure his company now runs on. And when he began, he probably didn’t know what he’d need, either. But what he didn’t know didn’t stop him.

5) He had determination. That’s most of the damn battle right there, what used to be called “stick-to-itiveness.” Determination can be applied to anything. It’s the overriding trait that makes everything possible.

Additional:

Past real-life inspirational stories at The iPeople Blog

1920: Advice From Charles M. Schwab

From a 1920 issue of American Stationer and Office Outfitter:

Charles M. Schwab Tells How to Succeed in Business

In an Address at Princeton University Last Week Mr. Schwab Puts Loyalty, Concentration, Good Humor and the Ability to Make Friends as Prime Essentials of Commercial Success — Whether in Big Business or Small, the Qualifications Are Similar, in Proportion

Following are some of the important excerpts from Mr. Schwab’s address.

I know that it is very difficult to convince the great majority of people that men who are in active pursuit of life have any other object in view than the making of money. Well, now, boys, that is a great mistake. The real leaders of industry and the real men in life and the real successes in life are not always the men who have made lots of money or a great fortune.

Charles F. Haanel Advertisements

It’s no secret that Napoleon Hill thought the world of what Charles F. Haanel was selling with his Master Key System. Let me repeat his worshipful letter to Haanel from a prior post:

I was asked if Haanel spread himself around in publications as Hill did.

Another Bit By Napoleon Hill Surfaces

From the same 1920 issue of Gas Industry noted earlier.

Google Book Search is an embarrassment and this should have surfaced in my earlier search.

PATRIOTIC AMERICANS!

Not all who wear little American flags in the lapel of their coats and take off their hats as the flag goes by, are loyal Americans.

Napoleon Hill: More Miscellany

Battling with the inept Google Books search facility (it’s almost as bad as Google search itself now!), I was able to extract five new things relating to or by Napoleon Hill.

Updated with a sixth thing.

Napoleon Hill And The Master Key

Searching Google Books is an exercise in being abused. The same results never turn up twice. Which is why this has never appeared before now.

From a 1919 edition of The Master-Key to Riches by Charles Francis Haanel:

Chicago, 111.,
April 21, 1919.

Mr. Chas. F. Haanel,
St. Louis, Mo.

My dear Mr. Haanel:

You probably know, from the editorial in the January issue of the Golden Rule, copy of which my Secretary sent to you, that I began twenty-two years ago as a coal miner at a dollar a day.

I have just been retained by a ten million dollar corporation at a salary of $105,200.00 a year, for a portion of my time only, it having been agreed that I shall continue as editor of the Hill’s Golden Rule.

I believe in giving credit where it is due, therefore I believe I ought to inform you that my present success and the success which has followed my work as President of the Napoleon Hill Institute is due largely to the principles laid down in the Master-Key System.

You are doing a good work by helping people to realize that nothing is impossible of accomplishment which a man can create in his imagination. Surely my own experience proves this.

I shall co-operate with you in getting your course into the hands of the many who so greatly need your message.

Cordially and sincerely,

NAPOLEON HILL,
Editor

Napoleon Hill: The “Missing Pages”

Some scam site says of Think and Grow Rich:

Unless you read one of the rare original copies of the book you probably missed the critical instructions from Napoleon Hill. There are actually two pages missing from almost every single version ever printed. Below is a copy of part of one of those missing pages.

Let me save you from being preyed on.

After the break, here are those two pages, from this site. The text is in the public domain, but not all editions available online have these two pages. No one should be suckered to get these two pages.

Napoleon Hill Miscellany

From a 1914 issue of the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office:

I have not been able to find a patent associated with that. The application might not have been granted.

1921: Napoleon Hill: Not His Finest Hour

From a 1921 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association:

DOCTORS, BEWARE!

We are undone — or possibly it would be more accurate to say that we are about to be undone. The medical profession is to meet its Napoleon. A few days ago those fortunate individuals whose names are on the mailing list of the Palmer School of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa, received a three-page letter from Napoleon Hill, the editor of Napoleon Hill’s Magazine, “A Magazine of Economic Philosophy” having offices in New York City. Napoleon has a secret for the chiropractors — such a vital secret that he can make public only a small part of it at this time. It is this: Napoleon, “in addition to carrying on a systematic propaganda … in behalf of Chiropractic” in his magazine, has “arranged with one of the best men in the moving picture business to write a psychological play that will be filmed and shown broadcast over America and in Canada.” But let Nap. tell it:

Napoleon Hill: Two Photos

A Commenter suggested I search the Library of Congress catalog for that rare Napoleon Hill book.

They had no record.

But I found two photos I’ve never seen before.

Source: Library of Congress