The biography of Napoleon Hill is interesting to everyone who has at least once read his famous book, Think and Grow Rich. An American journalist, philosopher and psychologist, he was the first to come up with a universal formula for success that works even for people with very mediocre abilities. After the release of the book in 1937, the author became incredibly popular all over the world, and his amazing creation was translated into many languages.
Hill Achievements
Think and Grow Rich is Hill's most famous work. This is a book on how to become rich, how to become successful in any field of activity, relying on a special way of thinking. It is on the list of best-selling books of all time, and despite the fact that more than eighty years have passed since its publication, this information is as relevant as on the day of writing. Napoleon Hill is also the author of other essays on the topic of personal success, which have also become bestsellers, however, only one of them has been translated into Russian: "Outsmart the Devil. The Secret of Freedom and Success."
This extraordinary writer, philosopher, psychologist, throughout almost his entire life, studied the biographies of the richest and most successful people in America, as a result of which he himself turned into an object of study. The success story and biography of Napoleon Hill is of interest to readers as well as the biography of other prominent personalities. His path to success was not easy, like all the discoverers before him. After the release of his famous book, Hill continued his writing career, and also promoted his philosophy.
Childhood and youth
Napoleon Hill was born October 26, 1883 in the United States, Virginia, in a very poor family. Almost nothing is known about his parents, except that her father's name was James Monroe Hill and her mother was Sarah Sylvania Blair, she died in 1891, when her son was barely eight. After leaving school, the young man entered Georgetown University at the Faculty of Law. In the biography of Napoleon Hill, success did not come immediately. To pay for tuition, Napoleon worked in a small local newspaper. His journalistic talent and beautiful style determined the future profession. Brilliant, poignant articles did not escape the attention of Tennessee Governor Robert L. Taylor, who was the founder of Bob Taylors Magazine. He hired Hill for his publication and ordered a series of articles about famous and successful people.
The first on this list was Andrew Carnegie, a famous industrialist and philanthropist, whose conversation abruptly changed the biography of Napoleon Hill. His keen eyes quickly saw the talent of a young journalist, and Carnegie instructed Hill to conduct extensive research on the biographies of the five hundred richest and most prosperous citizens of America, to then create a formula of success that can be applied even to ordinary people with mediocre abilities.
Work on the first edition
In the process of collecting material and writing the book, Hill's interlocutors at different times were such outstanding personalities as Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Luther Burbank, and many others. Among those who gave Napoleon an interview were even three US presidents. Work on the book took two decades. In 1928, the first edition of Napoleon Hill's book was published, and the biography of the author also began to interest readers. This version of the philosophy of success has become popular, but not as much as the next reprint.
An interesting fact from the biography of Napoleon Hill: while the author wrote the book, collected and systematized the material, he was forced to look for a variety of sources of income. The author of the best-selling book on how to become rich, moonlighted as an advertising agent for the University of Chicago, published the Golden Rule magazine, which is translated into Russian as the Golden Rule. None of these professions has turned a writer into a rich man.
When World War I broke out, Napoleon got a job at the US President Woodrow Wilson’s administration as a public relations expert. In 1933, a senator from an American state introduced Hill to President Roosevelt, and Napoleon was again admitted to the presidential administration. A few months later, Hill began work on improving his first book and preparing a second edition of Think and Grow Rich.
1937 year
This year was a turning point in the biography of Napoleon Hill. A new edition of Think and Grow Rich was published, improved, more systematized, clear and precise. In this work, the author broke the foundations of the philosophy of success existing at that time and created something completely unusual - he derived a formula for success that could be used by any person on the planet. Even those who were born in a poor or dysfunctional family, who did not have the outstanding abilities of an entrepreneur, did not have a brilliant education - each reader got the opportunity to learn how to succeed and become rich.
Napoleon Hill Family
The biography of the best-selling author tells little about his personal life. In 1908, Hill lived in Washington. In one of the newspapers, he published an announcement that he wanted to meet a girl. The first answer was not long in coming and Napoleon was already going on a date with a potential lover, but along the way he accidentally met his cousin. They began to talk, an attraction arose and young people began to meet. Two years later, the couple entered into a marriage in which three sons were born.
According to family friends and researchers of the biography of Napoleon Hill, he loved his wife, and he took the responsibility for the role of father. But the desire for success, his desire to write a book turned out to be more important. After the birth of his second child, Hill went to Chicago, and his family stayed on to live in Washington. Over the next nearly twenty years, he almost did not see his relatives and did not feel sadness due to separation from them. This interesting fact makes one doubt whether the famous formula for success works, even if its author did not manage to become successful in his personal life.
Napoleon Hill Organizations
In 1952, the Napoleon Hill Association was founded, which was engaged in educational activities. Shortly afterwards, the author of the science of success established another educational organization, the Napoleon Hill Foundation.
Educational activities
The book and subsequent admiring reviews in the biography of Napoleon Hill played an important role. The author decided to devote himself to enlightenment and began to actively educate all who wish their philosophy of success. Some skeptics have noted such an interesting fact: in fact, Hill did not become rich in the generally accepted sense of the word, that is, he did not own business, assets, bank accounts. However, he had many generous sponsors, so neither he nor his family ever needed.
In 1963, the Academy of Personal Achievements was opened, for which Hill personally drew up a training program and organized the process so that even those who did not have time for education could receive new knowledge. From now on, the philosophy of success was taught not only in full-time, but also in correspondence, remote form, as well as at home.
Pupils and followers of Napoleon Hill
Hill's formula for success can be expressed in one sentence: "You are what you think." On the basis of this statement, the business of coaches, trainers and all kinds of gurus is flourishing all over the world, for the money teaching everyone who wants a philosophy of success. After the publication of the book “Think and Grow Rich”, the newly emerging “philosophers” added almost nothing to it, but only adapted the idea for a certain segment of society. Nevertheless, the business is booming, according to the most conservative estimates, the profit is at least eight billion US dollars per year.
Education in such schools of success can cost from a few dollars to several thousand dollars a year, depending on the level of fame of the author, however, the primary source is Napoleon Hill's book “Think and Grow Rich”, which costs significantly less.
Napoleon Hill continued to work until almost the last day of his life. Every day, he proved the effectiveness of his idea by personal example. He died in 1970. A book entitled You Can Work Your Own Miracles was the last written by Napoleon Hill, and was published after his death.