The 12 Miracles of Life: The Science of Success - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

NAPOLEON HILL was born on October 26, 1883 in Southwest Virginia. Napoleon was born into a rural, poverty-stricken area where education was not important. At the time, boys quit school around age 13 or 14 and went to work in the coal mines. However, Napoleon wanted a different life, so he sought an opportunity to go to Tazewell Business School and later received a job as a secretary. Eventually, he took a job as a reporter and interviewed Andrew Carnegie, one of the world’s richest men. Mr. Carnegie urged Napoleon to devote his life to developing a simple success philosophy that anyone could follow, and Napoleon did just that. In 1928, he published his first book, The Law of Success, which was a result of studying 500 of the most successful men at the time. The Law of Success was a complex book and was over 1000 pages long, so Napoleon condensed his research and wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937. Think and Grow Rich has sold millions of copies all over the world and is a set of principles that we can all use to live successful lives. Napoleon Hill was a lifetime author and continued writing books until he passed in 1970. Today, the Napoleon Hill Foundation continues Napoleon’s work of making the world a better place in which to live and has published over 100 books by Dr. Napoleon Hill.

To learn more, go to naphill.org

DON M. GREEN (Wise, Virginia) is executive director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation and president of the foundation board at the University of Virginia-Wise. He became CEO of Black Diamond Savings Bank at 41 and studied under personal development master W. Clement Stone. He travels extensively, lecturing worldwide for the Foundation. Most recently, Mr. Green was featured in a United Nations forum on the importance of entrepreneurship within the national economy.

Green's first youthful business venture was charging admission to see his pet bear—yes, the living, growling kind! Since 2000, Green has traveled worldwide and used his finance skills to grow the Napoleon Hill Foundation’s funds in order to continue the Foundation’s educational outreach to prisons. Green has both modeled leadership skills as a CEO and taught them through the PMA Science of Success course at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Don specializes in discussing his personal experiences in leadership and providing audiences with proven methods of applying Dr. Hill’s success philosophy to business.

Green brings nearly 45 years of banking, finance, and entrepreneurship experience to his role as Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, and is the author of Everything I Know About Success I Learned from Napoleon Hill, Napoleon Hill My Mentor, Napoleon Hill’s Your Millionaire Mindset and The Gift of Giving. 

The author lives and works in the Wise metro area.

To learn more, go to naphill.org

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

THE 12 GREAT RICHES OF LIFE

1. A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

A Positive Mental Attitude heads the list of the Twelve Great Riches, because all riches, material or otherwise, begin as a state of mind, the one and only thing over which an individual has complete, inalienable powers of control.  One’s mental attitude supplies the “pulling power” which attracts to him the material equivalent of all fears, desires, doubts and beliefs.  Mental attitude is also the factor which determines whether one’s prayers bring negative or positive results.  It is but little cause for wonder, therefore, that A Positive Mental Attitude heads the list of all the great riches of life.

2. SOUND PHYSICAL HEALTH

Sound health begins with a “health consciousness,” the product of a mind which thinks in terms of health and not in terms of illness, plus temperance and moderation in eating and in the balancing of physical activities.  Maintenance of a Positive Mental Attitude is one of the greatest forms of prevention of ill health known to mankind.  It rates as “great” because it is under one’s control and is subject at all times, to one’s direction to any desired end.

3. HARMONY IN HUMAN RELATIONS

There are two forms of harmony both of which are required to entitle harmony to rank as one of the twelve great riches of life; namely, harmony with one’s self and harmony with others.  One’s first responsibility is that of establishing harmony within.  This calls for the mastery of fear, maintenance of a positive mental attitude, and the adoption of a major purpose in life behind which one can build an enduring faith in its achievement.  Be at peace within your own soul and you will have no difficulty in relating yourself in a spirit of harmony with others.  Friction in human relations often is the result of confusion, frustration, fear and doubt within the individual who, oftentimes, mirrors these negative states of mind in other people, thus making harmony impossible.

Harmony with others begins with harmony with oneself, for it is true, as Shakespeare said, there are great benefits available to those who comply with his admonition, “To think own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou cannot then be false to any man.”

4. FREEDOM FROM FEAR

No man who is held captive by fear is rich nor is he free.  Fear is a harbinger of evil, an insult to the Creator who provided man with the means of rejecting all things whatsoever which are not desired by giving him complete control over his mind power.  Before grading yourself on Freedom from Fear be sure to probe deeply into your soul and make certain that not one of the seven basic fears is hiding within you.  And remember, when these seven basic fears have been transmuted into faith, you will have arrived at the point in your life where you can take possession of your own mind, and through that possession acquire all your desire in life, as well as reject all you do not desire.  Without this Freedom from Fear the other eleven riches of life may be useless.

In a subsequent chapter you will find the formula with which you can conquer the fear of ill health and physical pain.  Apply the formula and conquer this fear, then follow through and conquer the other six basic fears with the same formula.

5. THE HOPE OF FUTURE ACHIEVEMENT

Hope is the forerunner of the greatest of all states of mind, Faith!  Hope sustains one in times of emergency when, without it, fear would take over.  Hope is the basic of the most profound form of happiness which comes from the expectancy of success in some as yet unattained plan or purpose.  Poor indeed is the person who cannot look toward the future with the hope he will become the person he would like to be, or attain the position he would like to hold in life, or attain the objective he has failed to acquire in the past.  Hope keeps the soul of man alert and active in his behalf, and clears the line of communication by which Faith connects one with Infinite Intelligence.  Hope is a right royal person and the Divine Decorator of the other eleven riches of life.

6. THE CAPACITY FOR FAITH

Faith is the means of communication between the conscious mind of man and the great universal reservoir of Infinite Intelligence.  It is the fertile soil of the garden spot of the human mind wherein may be produced all of the riches of life.  It is the “eternal elixir” which gives creative power and action to the impulses of thought.  It is the “elan vitals” of the soul and it is without limitations.  Faith is the spiritual quality which, when mixed with prayer, gives on direct and immediate connection with Infinite Intelligence.  Faith is the power which transmutes the ordinary energies of thought into their spiritual equivalent, and it is the only means by which Infinite Intelligence may be appropriated to the uses of man.

7. WILLINGNESS TO SHARE ONE’S BLESSINGS

He who has not learned the blessed art of sharing his blessings with others has not found the true path to enduring happiness, for happiness comes mainly from sharing oneself and one’s blessings.  Let it be remembered that the space on occupies in the hearts of others is determined precisely by the service he renders through some form of sharing.  Let it be also remembered that all riches may be embellished and multiplied by the simple process of sharing them where they may serve others.  Neglect or refusal to share one’s blessings is a sure way to cut the line of communication between a man and his soul.  A great philosopher said:  “The greatest among you is he who becomes the servant of all.”  Another great philosopher said: “Help thy brother’s boat across and lo thine own hath reached the shore.”  And still another great philosopher said:  “Whatsoever you do to or for another you do to or for yourself.”

8. A LABOR OF LOVE

There can be no richer man than he who has found a labor of love is the highest form of expression of human desires.  Labor is the liaison between the demand and the supply of all human needs, the forerunner of all human progress, the medium by which the imagination of man is given wings of action.  And all labor of love is sanctified because it brings the joy of self-expression to him who performs it.  Do the thing you like best and your life will be thereby enriched, your soul will be embellished, and you will be an inspiration for hope and faith and encouragement to all with whom you come into contact.  Engagement in a labor of love is the greatest of all cures for melancholy, frustration and fear.  And it is a builder of physical health without equal.

9. AN OPEN MIND ON ALL SUBJECTS

Tolerance, which is among the higher attributes of culture, is expressed only by the person who holds an open mind on all subjects, toward all people, at all times.  And only the person who maintains an open mind becomes truly educated, and is thus prepared to embrace and use the twelve great riches of life.  A closed mind atrophies and cuts off the line of communication between an individual and Infinite Intelligence.  An open mind keeps the individual eternally in the process of education and the acquisition of knowledge with which he may take...