Exploring Leadership Soulutions

Those who talk too much do little else. If you talk more than you listen, you not only deprive yourself of many opportunities to accumulate useful knowledge, but you also disclose your plans and purposes to people who will take great delight in defeating you, because they envy you.

Remember, also, that every time you open your mouth in the presence of a person who has an abundance of knowledge, you display to that person, your exact stock of knowledge, or your lack of it! Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence.

~ Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich (1937)

Poverty and riches often change places. The Crash taught the world this truth, although the world will not long remember the lesson. Poverty may, and generally does, voluntarily take the place of riches. When riches take the place of poverty, the change is usually brought about through well-conceived and carefully executed PLANS. Poverty needs no plan. It needs no one to aid it, because it is bold and ruthless. Riches are shy and timid. They have to be “attracted.” Riches are shy and timid. They have to be “attracted.”

Anybody can wish for riches, and most

People do, but only a few know that a

definite plan, plus a burning desire

for wealth, are the only dependable

means of accumulating wealth.

~ Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich (1937)

Persistence is a state of mind, therefore it can be cultivated. Like all states of mind, persistence is based upon definite causes, among them these:-

1. Definiteness of purpose. Knowing what one wants is the first and, perhaps, the most important step toward the development of persistence. A strong motive forces one to surmount many difficulties.
2. Desire. It is comparatively easy to acquire and to maintain persistence in pursuing the object of intense desire.
3. Self-reliance. Belief in one’s ability to carry out a plan encourages one to follow the plan through with persistence. (Self-reliance can be developed through the principle described in the chapter on auto-suggestion.)
4. Definiteness of plans. Organized plans, even though they may be weak and entirely impractical, encourage persistence.
5. Accurate knowledge. Knowing that one’s plans are sound, based upon experience or observation, encourages persistence; “guessing” instead of “knowing” destroys persistence.
6. Co-operation. Sympathy, understanding, and harmonious cooperation with others tend to develop persistence.
7. Will-power. The habit of concentrating one’s thoughts upon the building of plans for the attainment of a definite purpose, leads to persistence.
8. Habit. Persistence is the direct results of habit. The mind absorbs and becomes a part of the daily experiences upon which it feeds. Fear, the worst of all enemies, can be effectively cured by forced repetition of acts of courage. Everyone who has seen active service in war knows this.

Before leaving the subject of persistence, take inventory of yourself, and determine in what particular, if any, you are lacking in this essential quality. Measure yourself courageously, point by point, and see how many of the eight factors of persistence you lack. The analysis may lead to discoveries that will give you a new grip on yourself.

~ Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich

We who stand on the side-lines of Life see the overwhelmingly large number who go down in defeat, never to rise again. We see the few who take the punishment of defeat as an urge to greater effort. These, fortunately, never learn to accept Life’s reverse gear. But what we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement. If we speak of this power at all we call it persistence, and let it go at that. One thing we all know, if one does not possess persistence, one does not achieve noteworthy success in any calling.

~ Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich

Faith is a State of Mind Which May Be Induced By Auto-Suggestion.

It is a well-known fact that one comes, finally, to believe whatever one repeats to one’s self, whether the statement be true or false. If a man repeats a lie over and over, he will eventually accept the lie as truth. Moreover, he will believe it to be the truth. Every man is what he is because of the dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind. Thoughts which a man deliberately places in his own mind, and encourages with sympathy, and with which he mixes any one or more of the emotions, constitute the motivating forces which direct and control his every movement, act, and deed!

~ Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich (1937)

Never in the history of America has there been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now exists. The six-year economic collapse has reduced all men, substantially, to the same level. A new race is about to be run. The stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten years. The rules of the race have changed, because we now live in a changed world that definitely favors the masses, those who had but little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the depression, when fear paralyzed growth and development.

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich (1937)

Self Confidence Formula. 

Positive thought impulses, written down, memorized, read aloud, repeated until they become a part of the working equipment of the subconscious faculty of your mind.

1. I know that I have the ability to achieve my definite purpose in life. Therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment and I here and now promise to render such action.
2. The dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward physical action and gradually transform themselves into physical reality. Therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for 30 minutes daily upon the task of thinking of the person that I intend to become. Thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture.
3. I know through the theory of autosuggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek some expression through some practical means of obtaining the object or position I desire.
4. I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim and I will never stop trying until I develop sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.
5. I realize that no wealth or position can long endure unless built upon truth and justice. I will engage in no transaction that will not benefit all whom it effects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces that I wish to use and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve them. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness and cynicism by developing love for all humanity for I know that a negative attitude toward others will never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me because I will believe in them and in myself.

I will sign my name to this formula commit to memory and repeat it aloud once a day in full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so I will become a self-reliant and successful person.

~ Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich (1937)