I am making available through my Author’s page, Napoleon Hill’s How To Overcome Failure And Achieve Success. In the book there is a detail description of 30 Ways to fail.
You can find Napoleon Hill’s 30 reasons for failure here. I asked my LinkedIn network to take a look at the list and make some comments.
The replies reinforce the idea that Napoleon Hill’s ideas are still very relevant for today’s business world (notwithstanding the one or two critics). Start reading Napoleon Hill now, and start succeeding!
Click here to find the original question and answer on LinkedIn Answers
The Success Stories series provides case studies from people about what it takes to become successful. Each of us is unique in our goals and aspirations, but we have things in common with others. Through the 10,000,000 people in my LinkedIn network we can share ideas and solutions that will help you achieve your goals. While I don’t always agree with all the comments I receive, I include all that are presented coherently and could help at least one of my readers.
The questions have been slightly edited for grammar and presentation. Comments and Kudos, while always appreciated, have been edited out.
President at FLARB LLC and Owner, FLARB LLC
Napoleon Hill was clearly a loon. "Think and Grow Rich" was recommended to me some time ago as some kind of business classic–I found it to be the delirious rantings of a madman. Isn’t there a part of the book where he suggests conjuring up the dead spirits of George Washington and other great figures of history to solicit their advice in "council meetings?” That’s my favourite part.
Also, I recall good ol’ Napoleon Hill gives some handy tips for dealing with the ladies in that book. Although I’m not sure if his macking techniques from the ’30s work today.
[ZT - Interesting first post. I think this is the first criticism of Napoleon Hill I have ever read.]
Creative Technology Strategist
Napoleon Hill is not that different from L. Ron Hubbard. They are all selling the value of faith, unfounded belief or prayer in one form or another as a way of solving life’s apparent problems.
The only difference between them is that L Ron Hubbard admitted the scam openly.
[ZT - Interesting second post. This is probably the second criticism of Napoleon Hill I have ever read.]
Purchasing&Material Administration Manager at Electrolux
Sincerely I prefer 30 Reasons for Winning, but if we are talking about failures I suggest SWOT analysis. Increase strengths and minimize weakness.
Of the above mentioned reasons, I consider as most dangerous: intolerance, inability to cooperate with others, intentional dishonesty, egotism and vanity. How to overcome these? Get rid of them! (Not so pleasant, but prophylactic)
[ZT - I agree about the winning list. However, Napoleon Hill writes about the negative, so that people can connect and say "That's me. And once they do that - maybe they will be open to looking for ways to overcome their problems. In the section that follows the list - Napoleon Hill explains why the reasons are fallacious.]
Sales and Marketing Professional
He also had 13 secrets of success. I found them on the web. Here they are cut way down with a few personal comments:
1. DESIRE
It is not accidental that Hill begins with desire. Success always begins with desire. You must have or develop a burning passion for success. Without it, you are highly unlikely to achieve it. Get passionate or stay home.
2. FAITH
Your faith in your ideal and your faith in your right to the having of this ideal is crucial to your being able to end up having it.
3. AUTO-SUGGESTION
The crucial importance of having clearly defined written goals that are repeated, preferably out loud throughout the day. For example, ’79 Harvard MBA students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only 3% said yes. 10 years later, they were interviewed again. The 3% who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97% put together.
4. SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge, by itself, has little, if any, value. Knowledge only becomes valuable in its application. You may have heard that knowledge is power. Wrong. It is applied knowledge that begets power & wealth.
5. IMAGINATION
The creation of wealth can be obtained, with diligence, through the informed and practical use of synthetic imagination (e.g. creating a better mouse trap), but most wealth and most advancement in human technology comes about through the use of creative imagination. Succinctly put, your imagination is the workshop in which you, mostly without conscious recognition, create the results that show up in your life.
6. ORGANIZED PLANNING
Goals are not vague aspirations like, ‘I want to be rich.’ They are concrete, defined steps in the fulfillment of your personal vision or purpose. They are a specific plan. Businesses that succeed have a business plan. The business of life also requires a plan.
7. DECISION
Napoleon Hill says this, "Analysis of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark, disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of reaching decisions promptly, and changing these decisions slowly, if and when they were changed at all.
8. PERSISTENCE
Hill says this, "Persistence is an essential factor in transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent." He goes on to explain that desire (passion) plus the power of will (persistence) make an irresistible pair and almost always end up producing wealth. .
9. POWER OF THE MASTER MIND
The importance of brainstorming with like-minded individuals cannot be overstated. Work groups, executive teams, board members are all the direct recognition that the collective power of several minds working and planning together can accomplish much more than one mind alone. Imagine what wikis and blogs can do here.
10. TRANSMUTATION
No comment…OK so he is 12 for 13.
11. THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
It is the subconscious mind, NOT the conscious mind that exerts the most control over your beliefs, thoughts and actions and thus, your results. The subconscious can, however, be consciously programmed and controlled by the conscious mind.
12. THE BRAIN
The average human has about 60,000 thoughts per day; 99% of these are non-productive, non-contributory random subconscious noise. The few who learn how to examine and exert control over the thoughts that they allow to pass through mind are the ones who attain, achieve and accomplish so much more than their fellows.
13. THE SIXTH SENSE
What Hill calls the sixth sense is your direct and intimate connection to the infinite, ineffable universal mind, source of all that is and all that can be. Very Zen. Very Lao Tsu. You are the channel whereby the infinite makes manifest the finite. You are wealthy beyond measure. All you need to do is to claim your birthright.
[ZT - In The Law Of Success - Napoleon Hull goes into much more detail The standard version has 16 lessons. But, once you start reading it in depth, you quickly realize it's many more than 16 lessons. The version of The Law Of Success that I teach has over 70 separate lectures.As a footnote, the first version of The Law Of Success had 15 Lessons, bt in the final version, Napoleon Hill separated the Mastermind description from the introduction and made it a separate lesson]
Chief Consumer Coach (CCC) at EXIT3A.com
Read only 29 of them.
[ZT - Which one should we drop? I guess its not finishing something you have started.]
Owner Loving Connections LLC
Actually, I do believe that there is some truth to nine of the reasons.
LACK OF A WELL-DEFINED PURPOSE IN LIFE — Without purpose it is a challenge to have the motivation to keep going no matter what.
LACK OF AMBITION TO AIM ABOVE MEDIOCRITY– One definitely gets to have ambition or drive.
LACK OF SELF-DISCIPLINE — I believe without self-discipline little is accomplished.
PROCRASTINATION and LACK OF PERSISTENCE — are real deterrents to success.
ONE OR MORE OF THE 6 BASIC FEARS — don’t know which fears he is referring to, but Fear is a major reason for failure.
OVER-CAUTION — without risk how can one succeed.
LACK OF ENTHUSIASM — Enthusiasm sure makes life a lot more exciting!
EGOTISM AND VANITY — Ego definitely can get in the way, especially if you are the people business, which I believe everyone of us are.
The main answer for me personally — LIVE IN SPIRIT, because spirit knows its purpose, has drive and enthusiasm, self-discipline and chases out all FEAR!
Attorney at Gassner & Gassner, Inc.
Visualize your success. See it. Do not disregard the reasons for failure; instead, you work with them, circumvent them. Notice when you’re focused on the negatives, and change your attitude. Choose to enjoy doing what your brain says is productive, but your senses say is supposed to be boring.
[ZT - As per Dr. Maxwell Maltz and Psycho-Cybernetics]
Senior Sales and Leadership Strategies, Tactics and Techniques Expert Designer.
I’m still amazed that those motivational writers never think or write or explore that the main cause of failure is the inability of a person to work 8 hours a day. In fact, people fail because they don’t work, that’s it.
I have coached a lot of sales professionals and their results are always related with the seriousness (not in the face, of course) in which they approach their job. If they work they get results, if they don’t work they don’t get them.
In a recent meeting with one client, and after analyzing her working patterns, for me it was evident that the reason behind her lack of money and results was that she was not working. But it amazed more that she was blind about it.
She asked me: "So, what can I do to do better?"
I told her: "It’s simple-Work. Do the job."
It still amazes me.
[ZT - Napoleon Hill talks a lot about doing the work. So does Brian Tracy, Dan Kennedy, Jim Rohm, Denis Waitely so I am surprised about your comments.]
Asset Management Intern at UBS
Many people, particularly students, do not project themselves 10 or 15 years ahead and tend to limit themselves to 3-5 years, sometimes less. Waking up one day and observing that well, it is too late, is a terrible sentiment.
[ZT - You must be a Brian Tracy reader. He is big on visualizing one's future.]
Training & Development Manager at The Sherwin-Williams Company
To your point, are these "reasons" or "excuses?" I would agree that they are excuses people give to explain failure. And if they are truly excuses, the only way to overcome them is to be AWARE that you are making these excuses. Self-awareness, and the desire to change, is critical to overcoming this negative way of thinking.
Graphic design, technical writing, packaging and labelling, project management, team leader
Insufficient education: I earned a BA and an MBA while working full-time. It was difficult and expensive, but I got through it. I learned much from faculty and colleagues. Did it help me find a better job? Yes and no. The BA is essential to getting a good job these days, but the MBA might have put me into the "overqualified" category. I’m seriously thinking about leaving it off of my resume. Has anyone else had this experience?
Creative and Fun Strategic Leader with expertise in financial management, customer service, and inspiring teams
My biggest one is probably procrastination. I often feel like since I have a job, I don’t need to work to hard at getting outside business. I’ve finally determined to stop procrastinating. I set up two or three things that I have to get done over a short period of time (normally two to three days). If I don’t get them done, then I stay up late or get up really early to finish them off. It’s sort of a penalty and a reward at the same time. It’s a penalty because I lose sleep, but it’s a reward because I get things done. I look at the success it’s brought me just over the past three or four months and project that forward, which is even more encouragement to continue these good habits.
Team Leader – Advanced Security Technologies at Chevron
Perhaps anyone reading a list on causes for failures is simply looking for an excuse? I believe several "causes" in this list are not drivers for failure but rather could be considered "springboards" to success!
As an example – take "Ill Health" – cancer survivors Lance Armstrong and Kylie Minogue may argue that their conditions drove them harder!
Procrastination – there are both successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs that take numerous risks chasing every first opportunity. Why could there also be procrastinators that wait for an opportunity until they reduce the likelihood of failure to an acceptable level that are also successful? Which of the two types do you think is less stressed at the end of the venture?
A good number of the above "failure" elements could also be described as success vectors – I’ll leave you with a last thought that utilizes in several of the above as a possible root cause for success.
Surely many of the most successful politicians leverage "intentional dishonesty" by "guessing instead of thinking" to embark on a "habit of indiscriminate spending" in order to fuel their "egotism and vanity"? Now there’s all the ingredients required to be a successful politician!
[ZT - Almost said exactly like Napoleon Hill - did you quote it?]
Seiser Institute of IdentityTherapy
In my honest opinion, you overcome failure by learning what doesn’t work, stop using it as an excuse, figure out what you do want, define what you have to do to get it, and do it everyday.
[ZT -- YEA! YEA! YEA!]
Project Manager at Susquehanna Technologies
Negative Personality.
I grew up in a poor family that had very little formal education and no one had a clue how to be successful. Needless-to-say, I was surrounded by negative personalities and always heard how this and that couldn’t be done and what was wrong with everything in the world, but never was I taught that success was an option or what solutions were available to improve whatever it was they were complaining about.
It’s easy to get caught up in negativity. When I was young, I was fortunate enough to meet a successful man that helped me realize that any idiot can point out the problems, but it takes a leader and it takes risk to formulate solutions to problems, and that’s where the true value is.
I admit, I sometimes still catch myself in negative mode, but I always fall back on his teachings and my own experience and maturity to pull back through to the positive side. When I’m faced with issues and circumstances I don’t like, I focus on what solutions I can offer that may improve those situations. Always thinking about solutions has improved my creative problem-solving ability, keeps me focused on positive outcomes, and ultimately helps me find success. Even when I fail, I’ve learned that positive can come from failure and that’s where most all my growth has come from. I am proud of my failures and believe that who I am today is a result of failing and going through those tough experiences.
Owner, Manifesting Success & Wellness | Business Therapist | Motivational Coach | Energy Expert
I would like to see these not as "30 ways to fail" but instead as "possible obstacles to overcome in your way toward manifesting success" — in this way there’s already a positive approach and a motivation toward change and toward working on becoming successful.
In different cases people may have to overcome one or several of these, for which strength if character is needed. But in aiming toward becoming successful-at whatever level that might be "Constancy of Aim and Effort" or as it’s called "concentration on effort" could be the most important: Maintaining your Aim and your effort toward achieving a goal implies that there’s no fear, no procrastination, no "wrong" background" that could stand between you and success. Your mind is set in the right place, your heart is passionate and you have the will power to move forward.
Maybe seconded by Self-Honesty in order to be able to take a look at your own shortcomings, a true look at the situation and at what has to be done. With this you can make corrections within.
Technical Consultant – Data Warehouse, Giant Eagle, Inc.
While one cannot land the job without the ability, one cannot overcome this list without the right attitude – that is the difference maker. It’s no substitute for ability, but without the proper attitude, failure is inevitable.
UNFAVORABLE HEREDITARY BACKGROUND. – attitude makes the best of what you do have and doesn’t bother with what you might have.
LACK OF A WELL-DEFINED PURPOSE IN LIFE. – attitude drives one to seek and fulfill his purpose
LACK OF AMBITION TO AIM ABOVE MEDIOCRITY. – this is all attitude
INSUFFICIENT EDUCATION. – attitude can over come deficiency in education by demonstrating willingness to be teachable. I’ve been told I’m over-educated, to which I reply “impossible.” My attitude is to remain teachable.
LACK OF SELF-DISCIPLINE. – this is all attitude
ILL HEALTH. – attitude, again, overcomes the outward projection of the inward sickness. No one who works with me really knows how bad my health is, because through attitude I’ve chosen not to live under it, but rise above it. I take care of myself best I can – but I am not controlled in attitude by it.
UNFAVORABLE ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES DURING CHILDHOOD – again it’s a matter of attitude. Release the anger and move on – if not, carrying it around affects/infects those around.
PROCRASTINATION. – setting your mind to do first things first then setting your mind to follow through.
LACK OF PERSISTENCE. – setting your mind to follow through
NEGATIVE PERSONALITY – 100% attitude
LACK OF CONTROLLED SEXUAL URGE. – related to self-discipline and temperance
UNCONTROLLED DESIRE FOR “SOMETHING FOR NOTHING” – entitlement is a negative attitude – attitude adjustment needed
LACK OF A WELL DEFINED POWER OF DECISION. – attitude is all that’s needed once a person has a defined decision making model – these are a dime a dozen
ONE OR MORE OF THE 6 BASIC FEARS. – realizing fear is a response to an outside stimulant – one can overcome the paralysis despite the response
WRONG SELECTION OF A MATE IN MARRIAGE – realizing we do make mistakes and being teachable and making the best of every day; love, genuine love must be learned
OVER-CAUTION – taking on of risk, calculated risk is an attitude that failure is not always the worst case.
WRONG SELECTION OF ASSOCIATES IN BUSINESS – realizing we do make mistakes and being teachable
SUPERSTITION AND PREJUDICE – need to be patient to have more information before judgment
WRONG SELECTION OF A VOCATION – realizing we do make mistakes and being teachable
INABILITY TO COOPERATE WITH OTHERS – realizing we do make mistakes and being teachable
POSSESSION OF POWER THAT WAS NOT ACQUIRED THROUGH SELF EFFORT – humility
GUESSING INSTEAD OF THINKING – really this is pride
LACK OF CAPITAL – will find a way that makes the best use of resources available
Add your insights and opinions in the comments section below!
Success Stories are part of my Success Through Balance approach to life. I believe that Success comes from living a balanced life. You can read more about being successful and the skills required here.
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