The Law of Success Kindle Edition

In defense of a particular audio rendition of this work, I'll make a few points about what we commonly refer to as The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill.

Since few reviews list them, the 17 principles of success according to Dr. Hill are as follows:

1) The Master Mind - Learn the psychology behind success and how you can use it to enhance your personal power.

2) A Definite Chief Aim - Save wasted effort, and focus your heart and mind on a well-conceived, practical purpose.

3) Self-Confidence - Overcome the six basic fears and empower yourself without falling into the trap of egotism.

4) The Habit of Saving - Master this basic concept and learn to harness your greatest source of personal power.

5) Initiative and Leadership - Develop your instincts to anticipate problems and know when to seize opportunities.

6) Imagination - Stimulate your mind to create new concepts out of common ideas and put them to work for you.

7) Enthusiasm - Overcome uncertainty or shyness, and inspire others to take an interest in you and your ideas.

8) Self-Control - Find the firmness of character to truly be "master of your fate and the captain of your soul."

9) The Habit of Doing More Than Paid For - Take advantage of the Law of Increasing Returns to earn more for service rendered.

10) Pleasing Personality - Transform yourself so that you can master your relationships and control any situation.

11) Accurate Thinking - Separate real facts from mere information so you can devise definite, practical plans.

12) Concentration - Laser-focus your mind on one subject at a time so the plans you create are plans that will work.

13) Cooperation - Eliminate envy and greed, and learn to apply the Law of the Master Mind in all of your relationships.

14) Profiting by Failure - Train yourself to recognize the difference between failure and what is just a temporary defeat.

15) Tolerance - Eliminate mistrust and doubts so you can reap the rewards that come naturally to accurate thinkers.

16) The Golden Rule - Use this most basic law of life to ensure cooperation from any individual or group.

17) The Universal Law of Cosmic Habitforce - Transform your thoughts and habits so they harmonize with success-consciousness.

One reviewer here remarked that you ought to just skip this entire book set and instead get Think and Grow Rich, however a cursory examination of the table of contents for Law of Success and Think and Grow Rich shows that the latter book covers a slightly different set of topics. Law of Success lays the groundwork for a success mentality whereas Think and Grow Rich spreads into the realm of some specific actions which you ought to undertake. To expand out from there in the realm of modern reality, consult works by, say, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Dale Carnegie, etc.

As for the Law of Success course, the original text appears to be out of copyright protection, having been first published in 1928, so now we see a plethora of publishers performing the old "copyright two-step" where an original public domain work is reprinted in its entirety with a few minor editorial touch-ups here or there, some light editing work done, and/or a modern introduction by the editor. Thereafter, the entire work is re-copyrighted. Hence we see a collection of competing versions of the same original text, some of better quality than others. Any hard copy will run between 1,000 -1,600 pages, so check the page count to ensure you get what you are bargaining for.

As a personal fan of both the science of self-improvement and audiobooks, I recommend against both the BN Publishing edition and the Audible download edition.

The Audible edition is an earlier rendition of the text which contains only 15 original main principles, whereas Mr. Hill gradually expanded his Law of Success central thesis from 15 to 17 over the course of his later life. Additionally, I advise against any Audible product because I cannot in good faith suggest your purchase of any sort of digital media download which contains Digital Rights Management (DRM). With DRM downloads, you run into headaches with playback, copying or burning and ultimately you don't really own the media you paid for.

The BN Publishing edition gives the impression of being extremely poorly executed and the final product leaves a bit to be desired. The two-cd set is well-printed, but the text is an earlier version, the quality of the MP3's sound terrible, and the back cover points to the wrong homepage for the publisher(!).

Therefore, with neither package do you get the "real deal."

The best-quality audiobook of The Law of Success is the High Roads Media edition, which you can buy either from the Napoleon Hill Foundation or here at Amazon. It is a 4-volume unabridged set with some minor editing, some more current examples, and editorial clarifications.

The Law of Success, Volume I: Principles of Self-Mastery
ISBN: 1-932429-06-9

The Law of Success: The Principles of Personal Power, Vol. II
ISBN: 1-932429-08-5

The Law of Success, Volume III: the Principles of Self-Creation
ISBN: 1-932429-10-7

The Law of Success, Volume IV, 75th Anniversary Edition: The Principles of Personal Integrity
ISBN: 1-932429-12-3

This set is a bit more expensive than other audiobook approaches but you get the most exposure to the material for the money. Hard copies of this set are also available and are also strongly recommended.

For myself, I am about halfway through the third volume and the going is great. Already my mind and mentality is beginning to shift towards more success-consciousness. I feel better and my "success instincts" are beginning to sharpen. The content is a bit long-winded and archaic, but very solid and very well-thought out, what with 20 years of active research necessary to produce these insights. I heartily recommend it and it should not be passed over. I wish I had come across this 10 years ago.

If you want to see my opinion on this book go to my blog: imeducatingmyself.com/law-success-napoleon-hill-book-review

I will post here what this book is all about:

This book can put as a excellent reading material for those who are searching Self-help, Self-development and Self-improvements books to help them gain more confidence boost.

In next part I will summarize what every chapter in this book talks about; but everything is much more in depth described in book. And I’ll add some good quotes (in my opinion) that I’ve came across in this book.

In first part you’ll learn about most outstanding weaknesses that stands between men and women, and those are:

Intolerance
Cupidity
Greed
Jelaousy
Suspicion
Revenge
Egotism
Conceit
The tendency to reap where they have not shown
Habit to spend more than they earn
“No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in the mirror for the real cause of all his mistakes.“
In next chapter we will find 15 Laws of Success:

A definite chief aim
Self-confidence
Habit of saving
Initiative and Leadership
Imagination
Enthusiasm
Self-control
The habit of doing more than paid for
Pleasing personality
Accurate thinking
Concentration
Co-operation
Profiting by failure
Tolerance
Practicing the Golden Rule
“Render more service than that for which you are paid and you will soon be paid for more than you render. The law of ‘Increasing Returns‘ takes care of this.“
When it comes to Power (man power), that is organized knowledge, expressed through intelligent efforts. And we all have stubborn enemies that are constantly watching over us and wait for us to make a mistake. Our enemies are:

Ignorance
Illiteracy
Poverty
One important fact that author is teaching us that every man should have a woman with him that shares similar personalities – That is a great way to create a “Master Mind” group, than working on working on co-operating with other successful like-minded people. Same rule applies to women also, they can’t succeed in life the man with her is not similar to her.

When it comes to educating ourselves, one important part author has written; It’s not about learning as much as we can, it’s about taking that knowledge and putting it into use.

“If you cannot do great things yourself, remember that you may do small things in a great way.”
We all have fears that we need to work on overcoming those fears; and those fears are:

Fear of poverty
Fear of death
Fear of ill-health
Fear of the loos of love
Fear of old age
Fear of criticism
“Until a man selects a definite purpose in life he dissipates his energies and spread his thoughts over so many subjects and in so many different directions that they lead not to power, but to indecision and weakness.”
Author has added in book a simple Self-confidence formula that we can use:

Demand from yourself to be persistent, aggressive, and continuous action toward attainment.
Figure it out and visualize what kind of person you want to be. And then focus on how to become one.
Spend at least 10 minutes a day thinking about Law of Success and thinking on developing yourself.
Write in advance what you want to be in next 5 years, and how you plan on achieve that.
Fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure unless built upon truth and justice; There for everything you do need to be beneficial for everyone who is involved in your business and plans.
“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Do not be afraid of mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice.” – Roosevelt
When it comes getting into dept, there are two types of debt that are mentioned by author:

There are debt incurred for luxuries which becomes a dead loss.
There are debts incurred in the course of professional or business trading which represents service or merchandise that can be converted back into assets.
The first one it should be avoided at any cause, because we can get into serious trouble by spending money on things that we can afford, and become all materialistic.

The second on one may be indulged in, but clear judgement need to be used to avoid getting into debt more than we can afford. When we get into world of debt which we cannot afford, then we are entering into world of speculation, and most likely that we can loose everything rather than getting enrich.

When it comes to Money Saving Habit, there are two main reason to do that:

If you get opportunity to invest your saving and earn more money
You never know what kind of emergency can come up, so you always need to have money on side for that kind of situations
“Those who don’t have Saving Habit can be sure that they’ve never going to become financially independent.”
Three ways on how to become person of Initiative and Leadership:

You must eliminate habit of procrastination; which means stop delaying your plans
Only way to get happiness is by giving it away, to others
You must understand the meaning of term “Leadership”; because there are two explanation: the one is deadly and destructive, the other one is helpful and constructive.
Qualities that every great leader have to possess are:

Self-confidence
Moral ascendancy
Self-sacrifice
Paternalism
Fairness
Initiative
Decision
Dignity
Courage
Successful leaders also makes use of:

Laws of imagination
Self-control
Pleasing personality
Accurate thinking
Concentration
Tolerance
When it comes to Imagination Habit; it’s very important because it pushes you forward into creating way to achieve success. Also, Imagination is the only thing that we can control entirely.

Enthusiasm Habit is a state of where you are inspired to take action. It is most important factor entering into salesmanship. Enthusiasm is the vital force that can be harness and use with profit. It can also help you develop a dynamic personality.

Why should we render more service than that which we are paid for? This would give us advantage over ours competitors in the long run. And as author has stated, this will eventually get paid out.

Learning how to be a Pleasing Personality it’s very important in business; from smile, handshake and overall behaviour. When selling something everything needs to be focused on customer, every question asked and not to ourselves.

There are tips on how we can form an Attractive Personality:

Form habit of interesting yourself in other people
Develop the ability to speak with force and conviction
Clothe yourself in a style that is becoming to your physical build and the work you’r engaged in
Develop a positive character
Learn how to shake hands properly
Remember that your only limitation is the one you set up in your own mind
Accurate thinker deals with facts, regardless of they affect hi own interest, for he knows that ultimately this policy will bring him out on top, in full possession of the object of his definite chief aim in life.

To learn How to Think Accurately we must understand:

That the mind can be controlled, guided and directed to creative, constructive ends.
That the mind can be directed to destructive ends, unless we manage to control it into constructive ways.
That the mind can be used to control every cell in our bodies.
That all achievement of man is the results of his thoughts.
The majority of all thoughts conceived in the minds of men are not accurate, being more in the nature of “opinions” or “snap-judgement”
Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation. That means ability to keep our mind on one subject until we are thoroughly familiarized with it and master that subject.

There are two forms of Co-operation:

Co-operation between people who group themselves together or form alliances for the purpose of attaining a given end, under the principles known as the Law of the Masted Mind.
Co-operation between conscious and the subconscious minds, which forms a reasonable hypothesis of a man ability to contact, communicate with a draw upon infinite intelligence.
There are three motivating forces to which man respond:

The motive of Self-preservation
The motive of Sexual contact
The motive of Financial and Social Power
When it comes to a Failure, in this case that doesn’t mean that we are complete failures in life; but we need to look at failure as a “temporary defeat“. For as long as we don’t give up in reaching our definite aim in life, we are just temporary defeated.

Intolerance – there are two significant features about it:

Intolerance is a form of ignorance which must be mastered before any form of enduring success may be attained. It causes wars, and you gain much enemies in life.
Intolerance is the chief disintegrating force in the organized religions of the world, where it plays havoc with the greatest power into small sects and denominations which spend as much effort opposing each other as they do in destroying the evils of the world.
The Golden Rule:
“The Golden Rule means, substantially, to do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you if your position where reversed.”

If you want to see my opinion on this book go to my blog: imeducatingmyself.com/law-success-napoleon-hill-book-review

The content is great, that isn't the issue. The problem is that whoever compiled and organized the actual book into Kindle/Kindle App form didn't take the time to include a table of contents nor chapter breaks. It all runs together.

One of the best, fully explained books of the old school of thinking for being successful in every avenue of your life. While it is written using the male version of thinking from the 1920's-30's, the guidance still holds true today. If you aren't focused on what you want, if you aren't disciplined daily to think on what you want, if you don't set goals for accomplishment, if you don't chart your coarse and keep track of what you are doing, you will never achieve any goal.

This book breaks it down for you, in steps, and focuses with examples to show what works and what doesn't.

Hill knew and had personal access to those who were the world's richest men of their day. He spent his life researching each of them and knew what their personal habits were. He charts them in this book. He outlines what works. If you want a quick, easy read, this is not the book for you. If, however, you are willing to take your time, plot your coarse and take full guidance from the Master himself, then use this as a guide and develop your own Mastermind Group and thrive.

Many people don't know this but the Law of Success in 16 sessions is a powerful, powerful book but Napoleon Hill was asked to rewrite this book and to "Water It Down" the book became "Think and Grow Rich"

So true this book is. Many other personal development books may have gotten their info from this one. It essentially serves render the majority of self development books redundant. A must read for anyone serious about creating your reality from your dreams.