14 Secrets to Success
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The following 14 points are taken from a new updated version of the classic book The Magic Ladder to Success by Napoleon Hill. Your Magic Power to be Rich!, pictured on the left is a brand new book and contains three of Napoleon Hill’s originals, which have been updated to include anecdotes and revisions in an effort to make them more relevant to the present day.
They were written in response to a letter that Mr. Hill received asking, “will you show us how to secure the confidence of the public in our work…?”
14 Secrets to Success
- I render more service than I ask people to pay for.
- I engage in no transaction, intentionally, that does not benefit all whom it affects.
- I make no statements that I do not believe to be true.
- I have sincere desire in my heart to be of useful service to the greatest possible number of people.
- I like people better than money.
- I am doing my best to live as well as to teach my own philosophy of success.
- I accept no favors from anyone without giving favors in return.
- I ask nothing of any person without having a right to that for which I ask.
- I enter into no arguments with people over trivial matters.
- I spread the sunshine of optimism and good cheer wherever and whenever I can.
- I never flatter people for the purpose of gaining their confidence.
- I sell counsel and advice to other people, at a modest price, but never offer free advice.
- While teaching others how to achieve success, I have demonstrated that I can make my philosophy work for myself as well, thus “practicing what I preach.”
- I am so thoroughly sold on the work in which I am engaged that my enthusiasm over it becomes contagious and others are influenced by it.
Some interesting ideas there. The most surprising to me is number 12.
I sell counsel and advice to other people, at a modest price, but never offer free advice.
This was written in 1930, long before the information age that we live in now. Wouldn’t it de-clutter the Internet very nicely if all the “free advice” disappeared overnight?
I’m still a little puzzled about his statement. I assume he would make a distinction between advice and information. Advice being more personal and specific and information being impersonal and general, but maybe not.
Do you offer free advice?
Isn’t that a large part of what blogging is all about?
Any of the other “secrets” strike a cord with you?
I can’t help getting the feeling that Mr. Hill is posthumously urging us all to create more products to speed along our success.
btw… This book, Your Magic Power to be Rich! just showed up in my post office box yesterday. Do you have your physical address on your contact page yet?
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Comments ( 9 )
Kyle added these pithy words on Jul 13 07 at 10:14 amI think you’re on the money there. Your blog is “information” and even though it’s technically free you are still making money from it.
“Advice” would be if someone approached you to help them personally (set up my blog, review my site, etc.) and for that there should always be some sort of nominal charge, if only so people will understand that your time has value attached to it.
Even in the case where you were offering to set up people’s blogs for free the price you were charging was a written referral, their time for yours.
Rich Minx added these pithy words on Jul 13 07 at 10:41 amI’m not sure about #12. It seems to contradict that he likes “people better than money”. If someone he cared for desperately needed advice, would he have charged them?
Kyle added these pithy words on Jul 13 07 at 12:02 pmThis advice comes from a time when if you walked up to a business giant and asked “can you give me advice on starting a business” he probably would have put you to work in his office (without pay) as the best “education” you could get.
Leo Dimilo added these pithy words on Jul 13 07 at 12:50 pmYeah, #12 does seem a bit crazy but I have heard and read that people tend to respond more to paid advice than free advice. I guess the theory is that if you are charging for it, it must be better than all the other advice that people are handing out for free? But I wonder if the author would feel different today since information is so prevalent and you can find virtually anything by simply googling it.
Jon added these pithy words on Jul 13 07 at 5:16 pm“I have heard and read that people tend to respond more to paid advice than free advice”
Leo, I have a hunch that you are on the mark with this thought. Mr. Hill was all about being a “good” person, so I doubt if he would refuse to help someone if they desperately needed it, but rather he would feel it in their best interest to have it be a formal transaction of some kind. As I think more about it, payment can mean many things, and there is always something to give, not necessarily money, even when you are desperate.
Mindanao Bob added these pithy words on Jul 13 07 at 7:34 pmOn Number 12, Hill says he never OFFERS free advice. He did not say he doesn’t give free advice. If a person asks him for advice, he can give it without breaking his rule. If he offers advice unsolicited, then he is breaking rule #12.
Ross Cornwell added these pithy words on Jul 18 07 at 2:59 pmEnjoyed reading your blog today, and I thought that you might be interested to learn that a new edition of Napoleon Hill’s classic book “Think and Grow Rich” has been published.
Its title is “Think and Grow Rich!” (subtitled) “The Original Version, Restored and Revised.” I am the editor/annotator of this new 412-page edition, which is really an homage to Dr. Hill. (For several years I was the editor-in-chief of “Think & Grow Rich Newsletter.”)
What I have done is this: to restore Dr. Hill’s book to its original manuscript content (it was first published in 1937, but was abridged in 1960), annotate it with more than 50 pages of endnotes (most of the persons and events he discusses are generally unknown to readers today), index it thoroughly, add an appendix with a wealth of additional information about Dr. Hill and his work, and revise the book in ways to help remove certain “impediments” to reading the book today (language that today would be considered obsolete, sexist or racist). None of these things had previously been done with TGR.
If you would like to learn a little more about this project, a quick visit to http://www.tgr-restored-revised.com will give you some details. The “Editor’s Foreword” provides more complete information, and the “Testimonials” page will demonstrate how well-received this new book is around the world.
Here is the book’s Amazon.com page…
The book is available on all the Amazon websites and most other online sellers, it can be ordered by any bookstore, and it will start appearing in bookstores soon. We also sell direct, at steep discounts, to personal success coaches and motivational speakers who use it for back-of-the-room sales and to teach Master Mind Study Groups.
Our edition of TGR! is superior in every way to other versions on the market. It is a trade paperback, not a pocket-size mass market paperback. It is 412 pages versus 230+ (depending on the edition). It looks better, feels better, reads better than any other version. It is fast becoming the “version of choice” among Napoleon Hill devotees and other students of success and high achievement.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Ross Cornwell, Editor
azsuperbowlblogger added these pithy words on Jul 22 07 at 11:08 amI completely understand what he is saying about valuing people, yet still charging at least something modest for your time and knowledge.
In the blogging world, I still have a lot to learn, but I come into contact with a lot of people offline who do not have the first clue about how to get online.
I have offered advice for free, to help, and it only wastes all of our time. I have worked and continue to work hard to learn, I am creating a bankable skill set- it is only right that I receive compensation for my time, effort and knowledge I have spent time to learn.
People do value what they pay for more- and you can’t build a successful business if you are always giving that away- if thats what you want to do- start a charity, you know?
(My caffeinated two cents)
Jon added these pithy words on Jul 23 07 at 10:30 pmHey Erin, caffeinated two cents are very welcome here. About 90% of Art of Money is written at Starbucks aka “My Office.”