Napoleon Hill gave up his plans to become a lawyer when Mr. Carnegie induced him to organize the world’s first philosophy of personal achievement in 1908. These principles were based on ideas which Mr. Carnegie had used in accumulating his vast fortune.
This was made possible through the cooperation and experience of Mr. Carnegie and 500 other leading Americans, including Thomas Alva Edison, Cyrus H. K. Curtis, F. W. Woolworth, Theodore Roosevelt, Elbert Hubbard, Alexander Graham Bell, William H. Taft, Luther Burbank, James J. Hill, Dr. Almer R. Gates, Edward Bok, Harvey Firestone, Dr. Frank Crane, and Woodrow Wilson.
The first presentation of this philosophy was entitled The Law of Success, and was published in 1928 by the Ralston Society, Publishers, Meridan, Connecticut (later Ralston Publishing Company of Cleveland, Ohio) and is still currently being published by Hawthorn Books, Inc.
Napoleon Hill’s 10 Rules for Success:
1. Set your head and heart upon a DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE and go to work, right where you stand, to attain it; and begin NOW.
2.Adopt a follow the habit of GOING THE EXTRA MILE by rendering more service and better service than you are paid for, thus enlarging the space you may occupy in the world.
3 Control your MENTAL ATTITUDE and keep it always positive and free from the spirit of defeatism.
4 Apply the GOLDEN RULE in all your human-relationships, no matter what others may do.
5 Learn all that others have discovered in connection with your occupation, job or business, and profit by their experience, thus saving yourself both grief and loss of time.
6 Be prudent with your diet, exercise regularly, and avoid dependence on drugs, alcohol, or tobacco.
7 Keep your dominating thoughts upon the things you desire and demand of life, and off the things you do not desire.
8 Learn to transmute your sex emotion into the attainment of your DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE, at will, remembering that this is a creative force of unknown, unlimited possibilities.
9 If you work for another person, do your work HIS WAY, not yours, and do it in a gracious, pleasing manner.
10 Instead of criticizing others (no matter how much they may deserve it) devote your time to the discovery of traits of your own which should be corrected lest they provide the basis of just criticism against you.