Napoleon Hill could easily be coined one of the greatest American authors of all time because of the way his book, Think and Grow Rich impacted the lives of all who picked up the book to read and follow the advice from within the pages of Hill’s great formula for success.
Napoleon Hill was born in the rural, but beautiful area of Wise County, Virginia. When he was ten years old, Napoleon Hill’s mother died and he was raised by his father and stepmother. While many people attribute lifelong achievements to their parents and grandparents, Hill’s successes would be due in part to the fact that Andrew Carnegie took a keen interest in Napoleon Hill as a writer.
Andrew Carnegie suggested and requested that Napoleon Hill interview wealthy and more importantly, very successful men and women and learn their secrets to success. Carnegie, though supportive of Hill’s work, never offered to pay him for his documentation realizing perhaps, the author would undoubtedly be able to stand on his own two feet because of his splendid writing talent.
For the sole purpose to find out the secrets behind the men and women who were certainly successful and to begin documenting what he learned in order to develop a book which would later become Think and Grow Rich, Hill began his interviews and research. He spoke with some of the most famous and influential people of all time including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and many others. His research was a twenty year undertaking and produced a guide to success which was initially titled The Law of Success.
Aside from being a well respected writer, Napoleon Hill was an editor and publisher as well as an advisor. He often gave his insights on many subjects to Carnegie but he also formally advised President Franklin Roosevelt.
In 1937, Hill’s polished and most notorious manuscript Think and Grow Rich went into print and has remained in print throughout the years with over thirty million copies sold and with that number still growing.
Most notably, some of Napoleon Hill’s quotes are still used in training seminars and goal-oriented training manuals as well as throughout other courses of study both in and out of the universities across the world. “A goal is a dream with a deadline” is one of Napoleon Hill’s famous quotes that many writers still use fondly.
Other Napoleon Hill quotes include: “Your big opportunity may be right where you are now,” and “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” The inspirational quotes of Napoleon Hill show that he was certainly a protégé of Andrew Carnegie but also show that he was able to clearly motivate individuals to lead extraordinary lives even when those people might otherwise consider themselves ordinary if it wasn’t for the writings of Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich will always be responsible for motivating numerous successes among average individuals thanks to the work of Napoleon Hill.
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