He Made Success No (Up)Hill Task

By Rajgopal Nidamboor

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Napoleon Hill is said to have influenced more people into success than any other person in history — past, or present. His legendary personal success technique was primarily developed through his classic book, Think and Grow Rich. The monumental book has helped millions of the people all over world — with one result. It has changed lives; it has transformed destinies as well.

Hill has not only influenced people, but also ignited the vision of scores of hugely successful people — to name just two of them, W Clement Stone and Og Mandino.

Hill was born into poverty in a one-room tenement in Virginia, US, on October 26, 1883. He lost his mother when he was barely ten. Worse still, his father remarried, soon enough. It was a typical Freudian setting — one that also led Hill to become a radical. Rebel, he sure was — but, his amazing spark of intellect and drive led him to become his own man of destiny.

Hill began his writing career at age 13 as a ‘cub reporter’ for small newspapers. This was the base from which the ‘Hill Wisdom Fountain’ evolved. Slowly, but surely, it led him to set the writing platform for his type of work — motivational books.

Life wasn’t easy yet — even for a motivational author like Hill. He had to wage a lone battle against societal drawbacks and burdens. The result of it all speaks through his books, developed over a period of 25 years of his life. They highlight and explain a host of reasons as to why people fail to achieve true financial success and happiness in their life — in the face of difficulty and obstacles.

Hill was, in reality, a two-in-one genius — a lawyer and journalist. He wrote in his early years to provide himself with the finance for education. He graduated in law.

Hill, thanks to his writing skills, was given a challenging, yet exciting, assignment to sculpt a series of success stories of famous men. Destiny was manifest. His huge break came when he interviewed steel-mogul Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie spotted Hill’s sharp intellect and talent. Not only that. He commissioned him to interview over 500 millionaires. The idea? To ‘distil’ a success formula that could be used by any average person to attain success in life and career, just like Hill’s subjects — who were all successful folks themselves.

Hill, who passed away into sunset on November 8, 1970, interviewed a fulsome ‘Who’s Who’ of greats. His statistical celebratory roll-call included the likes of Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Charles M Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, George Eastman, Woodrow Wilson, and John D Rockefeller, among several other great success stories in their own right.

Carnegie's guidance was sure instrumental in giving the perfect ‘plan’ to Hill in his great rendition of a new philosophy of success, which chronicled the thoughts and experiences of a multitude of rags-to-riches magnates. That it took Hill over two decades to produce his monumental book is what big things are made of. The result was a classic, never before incarnate in print — Think and Grow Rich — which is today a bible on personality development and successful thinking and/or living.

That the book has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and helped millions achieve success is apparent. What makes the book unique is its simple formula. That the secret of success is simple — it is within you. Explore yourself, and seek yourself, and it is all yours. To paraphrase Hill, in the context: “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.”

Go read the book, and if you’ve read it, revisit, and re-read, it again — it will be worth your time.

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Rajgopal Nidamboor, PhD, is a wellness physician-writer-editor, independent researcher, columnist, author, and publisher. His published work includes hundreds of newspaper, magazine, Web articles, essays, meditations, columns, and critiques on a host of subjects, aside from four books on natural health, two coffee table tomes, a handful of eBooks, and an encyclopedic treatise on Indian philosophy. He calls himself an irrepressible idealist. What he likes best is spending quality time with his family and close friends, and in reading, writing, listening to music, watching cricket/old movies, and mindful meditation. He lives in Navi Mumbai, India.