Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)

Napoleon Hill's hallmark quote was:

Hill learned from Marden that success is within reach of the average person, and, just like Marden, this principle became the focal point of his books.

Tom Butler-Bowdon, Napoleon Hill's biographer, wrote how Hill was born in an impoverished, one-room cabin in the Appalachian town of Pound in Southwest Virginia.

Hill's mother died when he was nine years old and his father remarried two years later. At the age of 15, Hill began writing as a "mountain reporter" for small-town newspapers in the area of Wise County and he later used his earnings as a reporter to enter law school (just like Marden had), but soon had to withdraw for financial reasons.

The turning point in the writing career of Napoleon Hill is considered to have occurred in 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous men, to interview billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who at the time was one of the most powerful men in the world.

Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be distilled into a simple formula that could be replicated by the average man or woman.

Carnegie was impressed with Hill and commissioned him (without pay) to interview over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.

As part of his research, Hill interviewed many of the most famous people of the time, including Orison Swett Marden, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Charles M. Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley Jr., John Wanamaker, William Jennings Bryan, Joseph Stalin, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Charles Allen Ward and Jennings Randolph.

The "millionaire" project lasted over twenty years, during which time Hill became an advisor to Carnegie.

Napoleon Hill was also an advisor to two presidents of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

As a result of Hill's studies, the 'Philosophy of Achievement' was offered as a formula for rags-to-riches success by Hill and Carnegie, published initially in 1928 as a study course called: 'The Law of Success.'

The Achievement formula was detailed further and published in home-study
courses, including the seventeen-volume "Mental Dynamite" series.

Hill later called his personal success teachings "The Philosophy of Achievement" and he considered freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony to be important contributing elements.

Hill reasoned that without these foundations, successful personal achievements
are not possible. He contrasted his philosophy with others, and thought Achievement was superior and responsible for the success Americans enjoyed for the better part of two centuries.

Negative emotions, fear and selfishness among others, were considered by Napoleon Hill to be the source of failure in unsuccessful people.

According to Hill, 98% of people had no firm beliefs, and this "quality" alone put true success firmly out of their reach.

Napoleon Hill's research, just like Orison Swett Marden's, is just as relevant today as it was in their time.

Below you have access to rare video footage of Napoleon Hill. Through these videos alone you will get insights into success principles:

Principle of Success - video #1

Principal of Success - video #2

Principle of Success - video #3

Priciples of Success #4

(coming soon) 

Why not take a look at the other "Success Masters" on this site by checking out the links at the foot of the index page - Success Leaves Traces - and you may well find that spark of inspiration you need to take the next step to success in your own life.

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