Sharing Success
For ten years Mr. Stone served as Napoleon Hill’s business manager, an association that was valued by both men and obvious to all who knew them. What Mr. Stone felt about their association reveals much about himself. He said:
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill was given to me in 1937. Its philosophy coincided with my own in so many respects that I sent Think and Grow Rich to all my representatives. Then wonderful things began to happen. My salesmen began to become super salesmen, they began to acquire wealth, they brought happiness into their homes, and they began to try to make their world a better place in which to live. This is understandable. For Think and Grow Rich has motivated more men and women to success than any book of its kind.
In 1952, I met Napoleon Hill for the first time. Encouraged him to come out of retirement for a period of five years. He agreed on one condition: that I become his general manager. I agreed. Although I was very busy building up my insurance enterprises, I realized that it is very seldom in the course of a lifetime that one man can affect the lives of the masses of the people of his generation and the multitudes of future generations for the better.
For it’s no longer true that if you build the best mousetrap, a path will be beaten to your door. Regardless of how good your service or product may be…it has to be sold. I am a salesman by vocation: therefore I felt that I could help spread the philosophy of American achievement as taught in Napoleon Hill’s writings and thus render a real service to mankind. Now it always happens that when you share with others a part of what you have, that which remains multiplies and grows.
In my effort to help others through my association with Napoleon Hill, I was blessed ten thousandfold…more than anyone might expect or deserve.
It took us ten years to do the job we set out to do. During this period, my whole life was changed: my organizations prospered beyond the imagination of those who have not learned the art of motivation and the power of a positive mental attitude. I entered the fields of lecturing, writing, and teaching from a great philosopher and teacher – Napoleon Hill. But more important, I applied his principles.
Mr. Stone applied the principles of success with a fervor unmatched by few, if any, other persons. He also taught the principles to millions through his best-selling books, Success through a Positive Mental Attitude, The Success System that Never Fails, and The Other Side of the Mind, through lectures to countless thousands, and through his tireless support of professional, civic, educational, philanthropic, and youth organizations.
He has been awarded nineteen honorary doctorates by leading colleges and universities and literally hundreds of organizations have bestowed special awards upon him. Mr. Stone has received humanitarian awards from Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish religious organizations alike, as well as from American Red Cross. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he was awarded the Navajo Nation’s Medal of Honor, he is a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award, and he is a member of the council of trustees of the James S. Brady Presidential Foundation.
Although the awards given to Mr. Stone and the organizations he has supported during a lifetime of helping others number in the hundreds, the achievements of which he is most proud are the resulting from his association with youth organizations and his work in America’s prison system. Through those affiliations he touched people who desperately needed positive encouragement, people whose lives were forever changed for the better because of his influence. He recalled:
I saw poor students motivate to become good scholars by applying the principles of success; I saw youngsters in trouble with the law become fine decent citizens, and I saw drug abusers turn their lives around.
As a lecturer in prisons, I saw men and women motivated to change the course of their lives for the better. Recidivism among those who have been motivated to read inspirational self-help action books has been reduced to sixteen percent, while the records for the general prison population indicate that for every hundred who are incarcerated and released, forty-nine will return.
In my work with mental health organizations such as the Menninger Foundation and the National Association for Mental Health, I have learned of human lives saved by eliminating suicides among those who have such tendencies, and these fine organizations have given hope to the hopeless in our inner cities; the underprivileged have been motivated to achieve success and to encourage law an order within their communities. But most of all, individuals have learned how to avoid mental illness and maintain good mental health, to seek divine guidance, and to do the right thing because it is right.
Now the greatest service that I can render you, the reader, or any individual is to motivate you to learn and apply the principles to be found in this book. Memorize the principles – apply them. For the author, Napoleon Hill, has the power to motivate you to help yourself achieve any definite objectives you may have as long as these do not violate the laws of God and the rights of your fellowmen.
Source: Succeed and Grow Rich through Persuasion by W. Clement Stone
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Darkness and Light
As a blind Person, I have to constantly remind myself that the world is not simply divided into darkness and light. In reality, there are myriad degrees of darkness and intensities of light. I don’t know if the old phrase is literally true that it is always darkest before the dawn, but I do know that in human endeavor, social change, and global progress, it is always darkest before someone turns on the light. Those who simply curse the darkness have a powerful voice until one enlightened or determined individual turns on the light. Then the naysayers, complainers, and critics simply fade into obscurity.
I have heard it said and often repeated that there has never been a monument erected to a critic. The most widely-read book among achievers and successful people is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Hill turned on the light in the midst of a vast darkness. Many of us who have written and shared our ideas since the time of Napoleon Hill have mostly reflected his light to extinguish the darkness around us. Among Hill’s many breakthrough concepts was the idea that in every adversity there is a seed of a greater good. If we extend this into our lives, every opportunity comes disguised as a problem or challenge. The whole world is hoping and praying for a great idea, and as mentioned previously, they trip over one about three times each week but fail to recognize it because it appears to be a problem. All you need do to have a great idea is to go through your daily routine, wait for something bad to happen, and ask the powerful question, “How could I have avoided that?” The answer to that question is a great idea. To extend the concept a bit further, all you need to do to have a great business is to ask one further question. “How can I help other people avoid that problem?”
The world will give you fame, fortune, and security if you will focus on them and help them solve their problems, but if you choose to stand in the darkness and curse the current conditions as opposed to simply turning on the light, you are destined to live an unremarkable and frustrating existence.
Whenever possible in pointing out a problem to a col-league, friend, or family member, bring a potential solution to the discussion of the problem. You can succeed in business and in life if you become known as a problem-solver. In any organization, the person who solves the problems rises to the top. People want to be around those individuals and follow them. On the other hand, the person who constantly curses the dark-ness by pointing out every problem without offering or even considering a solution becomes someone to avoid.
As you go through your day today, use the darkness as an opportunity to let your light shine.
Today’s the day!
Jim Stovall
Source: Wisdom for Winners, Volume II by Jim Stovall
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Do you have a list of books that go well with each Principle of Success? Send your suggested list to Uriel at um17pma@gmail.com
Do you have a poem that goes well with one of the Principles of Success? Please share with me too.
Uriel Martinez
Director of Distance Learning
The Napoleon Hill Foundation
um17pma@gmail.com |
