Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in Wise County, Virginia. He began his writing career at age 13 as a "mountain reporter" for small town newspapers and went on to become America's most beloved motivational author. His work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill established the Foundation as a nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to perpetuate his philosophy of leadership, self-motivation, and individual achievement.
“Whatever success I may have attained I owe, entirely, to the application of your 17 fundamental principles of the Law of Success. I believe I have the honor of being your first student.” -- William Wrigley, Jr., Founder, The Wrigley Company
“By applying many of the 17 fundamentals of Law of Success philosophy we have built a great chain of successful stores. I presume it would be of no exaggeration of fact if I said that the Woolworth Building might properly be called a monument to the soundness of these principles.” -- F.W. Woolworth, Founder, Woolworth stores
Below are the 17 fundamental principles of the Laws of Success in PDF form for individual download.
Principle 1: Definite Major Purpose
His success has come from setting them, reaching them and setting them again.
A mastermind alliance involves two or more people who work in perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose.
Your personality is your unique trademark. It determines your success or your failure in selling yourself. It consists of more than 30 factors, all under your control. The most important factor is your mental attitude, which must be positive to attract others to you.
Your personality is the sample case which shows what you have to offer. A pleasing personality can become your greatest asset-because with it you can sell your way through life on your own terms.
Render more and better service than you are paid for, and sooner or later you will receive compound interest from your investment. It is inevitable that every seed of useful service you sow will sprout and reward you with an abundant harvest.
One of the biggest benefits from going the extra mile is the emphasis it requires you to place on personal initiative. This chapter will round out your understanding of personal initiative, and through example it will show you how to multiply that quality in yourself.
A positive mental attitude is the single most important principle of the science of success. You will depend upon it in everything you do. You cannot get the maximum benefit out of the other sixteen principles without understanding and employing PMA.
Enthusiasm changes lives. Enthusiasm bears the same relationship to your PMA and your progress toward success as gasoline to a car’s engine; it is the fuel that drives things forward. In working on your PMA, you will learn to control your mind.
The power of the will. Earlier chapters have placed heavy emphasis on the importance of taking control of your mind. This control is pivotal to your personal initiative, positive mental attitude, and controlled enthusiasm. Self-discipline is the process that ties all these efforts together for you.
Think of your mind as a piece of land. Through diligent, planned work, it can be cultivated into a beautiful and productive garden. Or it can lie fallow, overrun by weeds sprouting from seed carried by passing birds and the wind.
By adopting a definite major purpose, you have selected an object on which you have to focus your controlled attention. Forget the old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” You have to put all your eggs in one basket and concentrate your attention on protecting that basket and getting it to the market.
Teamwork as a model for business. Cooperation, like love and friendship, is something you get by giving. There are many travelers on the road that leads to happiness. You will need cooperation, and they will need yours.
Your attitude toward defeat. Throughout this book I’ve reminded you to look for the seed of an equivalent benefit in every defeat you experience. This isn’t always easy when you’ve suffered a setback, but it is an important part of the science of personal achievement.
Creative vision Is needed today. Creative vision requires you to stimulate your imagination to work toward your definite major purpose and to put the results of that imagination to work. Expressed by people unafraid of criticism, creative vision is responsible for the shape of civilization today.
Effective mind-body stimulants. You want to get the greatest vigor and fullest use from your body. You can do this if you understand two important points: 1. Your body and mind are one, effectively a mind-body. 2. Your mind-body is, in turn, at one with nature.
Time and money are precious resources, and few people striving for success ever believe they possess either one in excess. Understanding how you use them is an important part of evaluating your progress toward success and analyzing what may be holding you back.
You are where you are and what you are because of your established habits. The aim of this book has been to force you to examine those habits and to teach you ways to change them. To do this, you need to understand and apply a universal principle I call cosmic habitforce.
Quick Tools
Featured Downloads
Think and Grow Rich is a motivational personal development and self-help book written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion from businessman Andrew Carnegie. Organized through 25 years of research, in collaboration with more than 500 distinguished men of great wealth, who proved by their own achievement that this philosophy is practical. The author explains that the philosophy taught in the book can be used to help individuals do or be almost anything they want in this world.
The first edition of Think and Grow Rich was released in March 1937 with 5,000 copies printed – with only word of mouth advertising to its credit, the original prints were sold out in six weeks at a price of $2.50 each. Another 10,000 copies were printed to meet demand, all of which also sold out in six weeks. The third print totaled 20,000. At the time of Hill’s death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold more than 20 million copies.
We are pleased to make available the original (323 pages) 1937 edition of Think and Grow Rich free for download.
Think and Grow Rich (PDF; 868 KB)
17 Principles of Success
Napoleon Hill’s 17 fundamental principles of the Law of Success are outlined on this page, and can be downloaded by individual principle – or, for your convenience, feel free to download the complete set of principles in one document below.
17 Principles (PDF; 1 MB)
Napoleon Hill Foundation
The Napoleon Hill Foundation is a nonprofit educational institution dedicated to making the world a better place in which to live.