Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success

Introduction

Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 and his family was very poor. He was born and bought up in Virginia, USA. At the age of 13, he started writing for a paper and utilised his earnings to enter into a law school. But shortly he observed that practical implementation of his studies were not reasonable and left his course. He continued his writing and major turning point of his life came when he got an opportunity to interview Mr. Andrew Carnegie. At that time, Mr Carnegie was one of the most powerful personalities in the world. The interview duration ballooned to 3 days period instead of the scheduled 3 hours. Andrew Carnegie offered him a proposal to study and understand success formula of wealthy people but without any payment. Napoleon immediately agreed and started taking interviews of successful people like Thomas Edison, Graham Bell, Henry Ford etc. He observed that every successful perAnson work in line with the 17 principles of success.

Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success

Principle 1: Definiteness of Purpose
Purpose of life is the starting point of all achievements. People who have definiteness of purpose are more happy and satisfied.
Principle 2: Mastermind Alliance
When two or more minds work for a common goal then they are working in perfect harmony and this process is called mastermind alliance. One person can achieve only a limited accomplishments but team can do wonders.
Principle 3: Applied Faith
Applied faith is not related to radicals but its being used by all successful people in this world. Faith motivates people to convert dreams into physical reality.
Principle 4: Going the Extra Mile
It is rightly said that there are no queues at the top and people reach the top by rendering more and better services as compared to their current compensation levels.
Going the extra mile will give you unexpected and wonderful results.
Principle 5: Pleasing Personality
Pleasing personality is our biggest asset and we can become a great personality just by making us more pleasant and lively with others and ourselves. The legendary industrialist Andrew Carnegie used to pay millions of dollars to his CEO Charles M. Schwab for his pleasing personality.
Principle 6: Personal Initiative
Personal initiative is a power to complete anything which was started by you. This principle can also be called as Do it now principle.
Principle 7: Positive Mental Attitude
It is rightly said that success always attracts success and failure attracts more failure. Right positive mindset is a seed of all major achievements.
Principle 8: Enthusiasm
It is also known as burning desire of a person. Its our inner strength of keep smiling even on a face of adversities.
Principle 9: Self-Discipline
If we can control our thoughts then we can master this principle. Self discipline is the basis of all achievements. Our wants will increase if we do not control our thought process. Mind can be our greatest friend if controlled well and it can be greatest enemy if not controlled.

Principle 10: Accurate Thinking
The power of thinking can be our greatest friend or can be our greatest enemy if not used well. So we must accurately think about solving problems of our life and not look for shortest way.
Principle 11: Controlled Attention
In Bhagavad Gita, lord Krishna confirmed that it is very difficult to control the restless mind but this can be only done by suitable practice and detachment from unnecessary things (BG 6.35). The same thing was reiterated by Napoleon Hill after 5000 years in his eleventh principle of success.
Principle 12: Teamwork
In mastermind alliance, we work in small group of people with same burning desire. But in teamwork, we have to work in larger groups and people in those groups can have different goals. Teamwork is required to achieve larger organisational goals.
Principle 13: Learn from Adversity & Defeat
Whenever we work for a big thing then there are only two possibilities. First is if we achieve our target then we will be called a winner but if we were unable to achieve that goal then we will be known as learner. Many people think that they will be known as a loser if they do not achieve their goal and hence they don't even try to target big things. Always learn from adversities and defeats.
Principle 14: Creative Vision
We must cultivate a creative vision to target our major definite purpose. It is the medium through which we perceive creative ideas and plan to implement our learnings.
Principle 15: Maintenance of Sound Health
In one of our articles, we explained how BMW is very important for us. BMW refers to Body, Mind and Words. Our body is a very important asset for us and we can achieve nothing without a healthy body.
Principle 16: Budgeting Time & Money
Both time and money are very scarce resources and we must set aside their limited quota for different activities.
Principle 17: Cosmic Habit Force
We must repeat the required behaviours and thought patterns until they become self moving and effortless. We create our habits as we move along our life journey. Do your best to develop good habits and uninstall bad habits.

Conclusion

If we learn Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success then we can achieve our goals and become a successful person. All these principles are very relevant and can transform our lives.