SUCCESS HABITS - 8. PERSISTENCE & DECISIVENESS - Napoleon Hill

and home. While you have been telling our audience what they must do in order to achieve success, mister Hill, you also told our friends what they must not do, detailing in the last broadcast the fifteen major causes of failure. Will you continue your discussion of the causes of failure to day and of how to overcome them? Mister Hill. Yes, we will begin our program to day by describing the

two most common causes of failure. You will observe that these stumbling blocks can be converted into stepping stones to success by the simple process of following the rules I have previously presented. After discussing these causes and how to overcome them through persistence, and decisiveness, I will tell our audience how failure can be converted into success. Cause of failure number one is the habit of quitting when the

going is hard. No matter who you are or how skilled you may be in your occupation, there will be times when the going is hard and unpleasant circumstances will overtake you. If you yield easily to these obstacles, you may as well write yourself off as far as becoming

a great success is concerned. But assuming that you will follow the success rules I have presented in these programs, when you meet with opposition of any nature, instead of quitting, you will turn on more will power, stoke the fires of a stronger faith in your own ability, and make up your mind that, come what may, you will not sell yourself short. Do that, and you will soon succeed.

I had one of the greatest insights of my life when tom Us say Edison told me how he reacted to failure when he was trying to perfect the incandescent electric lamp. Before he found a solution to his problem, he tried more than ten thousand different ideas, every one of which was a failure. Just think of that. A man keeping on despite ten thousand failures, with faith unshaken and at long last being crowned with victory. One failure

is sufficient to make the average person quit. Perhaps this is why there are so many average persons and there was only one Thomas A. Edison. Cause of failure. Number two is procrastination, the inability to make prompt and definite decisions. Procrastination is the habit of waiting for something beneficial to

happen instead of getting busy and making something happen. All successful people make it their habit to create circumstances and opportunities favorable to themselves instead of accepting whatever life offers them. Mister Alderberg, could you tell us what happens to the person who fails to move on his own to achieve an embrace opportunity when it presents itself. Mister Hill, yes, I can give you a wonderful illustration of the cost

of this indecision and procrastination. Some years ago, one of the large automobile manufacturing companies decided to begin an extensive expansion program. The president called in one hundred young men from the various departments of the plant and said to them, gentlemen, we are going to enlarge our plant and greatly increase our output of automobiles, which means that we will need

executives and department managers far beyond our present staff. We are offering each of you young men the privilege of working four hours per day in the office, where you will learn to become executives, and four hours at your regular jobs in the plant. There will be some homework you must do at night, and there may be times when you will have to forego your social duties and work over time. Your pay will be the same that

you are now getting in the plant. I am passing out cards on which I wish each of you who will accept our offer to write your name, and I will give you one hour in which to talk among yourselves and make up your minds. Mister Alderberg, of course all of them accepted the opportunity, Mister Hill, No, they didn't. When the president of the company picked up the cards, he got one of the biggest surprises of his life. Only twenty three out of the one hundred had accepted

the offer. The next day, thirty more of the men came into the president's office and informed him they had made up their minds to accept, some of them, explaining they had reached the decision to accept after talking the matter over with their wives. Mister Alderberg, what happened to the thirty that did that, mister Hill? The President said, gentlemen, you were given one hour in which to make up your minds after you had all of the facts concerning

my offer that I could give you. I am very very sorry, but this opportunity is gone forever because I have learned from experience that the man who cannot or will not make up his mind quickly indefinitely when he has all of the necessary facts to enable him to do so, will change his mind quickly at the first sign of obstacles, or he will allow other people to talk him into changing his mind, mister Alderberg, mister Hill, you have told a remarkable story, and it is somewhat

similar to your relationship with Andrew Carnegie, which shows what promptness of decision can do to help one seize upon a favorable opportunity. I am sure our audience would like you to describe your experience, which was destined to benefit not only yourself but millions of men and women throughout the world. Mister Hill, The experience you mentioned happened over forty years ago when I first met Andrew Carnegie, the great industrialist who founded the United States Steel Corporation. I

described it briefly in our last broadcast. I went to see mister Carnegie to write a success story for Bob Taylor's magazine based on his stupendous achievements. Originally he allotted me three hours for the interview, but actually it lasted three days and nights, during which he was also interviewing me with a purpose without my knowing what he was

up to. During those three days, he was telling me that the world needed a new success philosophy, one that would give the average man or woman the full benefit of all that he and other successful men like himself had learned from a lifetime of experience. Mister Carnegie said it was a sin of major proportions that successful men allowed their hard earned experience to be buried with their bones. At the end of the third day, mister Carnegie said, I have been talking to you for three days about

the need for a written success philosophy. I am going to ask you one question, which I want you to answer with a simple yes or no, but don't answer it until you make up your mind. Definitely. If I commission you to organize the world's first practical success philosophy, will you devote twenty years to research and to interviewing successful people and earn your own way without a financial

subsidy for me? Yes or no? Mister Alderberg, of course you told him yes, because if you hadn't done so, we wouldn't be here on this program today, would we, mister Hill. I said, yes, mister Carnegie, I'll accept your offer and you may depend upon it, sir, that I will carry it out to the finish Mister Carnegie said, all right, you have the job, and I like the

mental attitude in which you accepted the assignment. I learned some years later that mister Carnegie was holding a stop watch under his desk, and in his mind he had given me exactly sixty seconds in which to make up my mind, after he had given me three whole days in which to get the facts. Mister Alderberg, why do you suppose mister Carnegie placed so much emphasis on the

matter of prompt decision, mister Hill. He explained that no one can be counted upon to carry out important assignments or to assume important responsibilities without following the habit of quick and definite decisions. Mister Carnegie was also searching for another quality without which he knew I would never follow through with twenty years of research, which quality was necessary in order to find out what makes SCXCE scessful men

and women. Mister Alderberg, what quality was that, mister Hill? It was the habit of turning on more will power instead of quitting when the going is hard. Mister Carnegie knew that there is always a time in every undertaking when one meets with obstacles and is overtaken by opposition, and he recognized that the quitter never wins and the

winner never quits. Mister Alderberg, what was your greatest obstacle that you had to overcome while you were doing the twenty years of research in organizing the success philosophy which has made you famous throughout the world. Mister Hill, you are going to be surprised. My greatest obstacle was friends and relatives who believed I had undertaken too big a job. They chided me for working for the richest man in the world for twenty years without financial compensation from him.

One of the queer traits of most people, especially one's own relatives, is that they so often discourage any member of the family who steps out ahead of the crowd and aspires to achieve outstanding success. Mister Alderberg, how did you manage to keep up your spirits and sustain your faith for so long a time in the face of this opposition from your relatives, mister Hill, I didn't do

it alone. I had helped through a mastermind alliance with two people who gave me encouragement when the going was tough. These were mister Carnegie, my sponsor, and my stepmother, who was the only member of my family that believed I would endure through twenty years of rough going. One of the great miracles in human relations consists in the power of survival, which one may acquire by a friendly alliance

with one or more other persons. Mister Alderberg, did you get help from other successful men besides mister Carnegie while you were organizing the philosophy of success? Mister Hill, Oh, yes, and if I hadn't, we wouldn't be here on this program today. There was scarcely a single person of outstanding achievements during my association with mister Carnegie, who didn't cooperate with me by supplying a portion of that which went

into the making of the science of success. But I also learned one interesting fact about many people while I was struggling to complete my work and receive recognition. I learned that when one needs anything very badly, it is very difficult for him to find anyone who wishes to help him get it. But when one gets over the hump, achieves recognition and no longer needs help, than just about

everybody on earth wants to do something for him. Mister Alderberg, isn't there something in the Bible that corroborates what you just said, mister Hill, Yes there is, And while I am not going to try to undertake to quote it verbat him, it goes something like this, to him that hath it shall be given, and to him that hath not it shall be taken away, even unto that which

he has. The first time I read this passage in the Bible, I questioned the soundness of it, But the sober experience of later years proves conclusively that this is a trade of mankind. No one wants to be associated with or to help a failure, while almost every one will go out of their way to help one who doesn't need help. This is explained by the law through

which like attracts like. Let me call your attention to the fact that every failure, every adversity, and every unpleasant circumstance carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit or advantage, and the person who has a sound philosophy to live by learns very quickly how to find this seed of equivalent benefit and to germinate it into advantage. As far as luck is concerned, it may be true that it often does play a temporary part in the

lives of people. But remember this. If luck brings temporary defeat or failure, one doesn't have to accept this as permanent, and by searching for that seed of equivalent benefit, one may actually transform a failure into an enduring success. Mister Alderberg, could you give me an example illustrating your point that adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit.

Mister Hill, Yes, there are hundreds of examples I could provide if time permitted, but I'll give you two, one of which changed the entire course of my life, and through my efforts, it has changed the lives of many people. My mother passed away when I was only eight years old. To most people, that, of course, would seem like a terrible loss. But the seed of an equivalent benefit which came from my loss was found in a wise and understanding stepmother, who took my mother's place and inspired me

with courage and faith when I most needed it. The other example is that of Abraham Lincoln's great sorrow over the loss of his first love, the death of an Rutledge. That experience reached deeply into the spiritual forces of the great Lincoln's soul and revealed to the world the qualities which were destined to make him one of the greatest

presidents in the time of our greatest need. You might say it was bad luck or misfortune which deprived Lincoln of his first love, but it was Lincoln's reaction and adjustment to this loss which revealed the greatness of his soul. He responded by recommitting himself to his professional and personal

ambitions and reaching for the stars. No human experience should ever be charged off as a complete loss, because every circumstance of our lives, whether pleasant or unpleasant, places us in the way of learning how to live and how to get along with other people. Mister Alderberg, speaking of adversity. During your contacts with mister Edison, did you get the

impression that he was handicapped by his deafness? Mister Hill, No, on the contrary, Much to my surprise, I discovered that mister Edison's deafness was a blessing instead of a curse, because he found the seed of an equivalent benefit that his deafness yielded, and he made astounding use of that seed. Once I asked mister Edison if his deafness were not a hand decap and he said, no, it is a blessing instead, because it has taught me to hear from within.

Mister Alderberg, just what did mister Edison mean by that remark, mister Hill. He meant that his deafness had caused him to tune in and make stronger contact with sources of knowledge outside of those available through the capacity of hearing. It was from these sources that he got much of the knowledge which made him the greatest inventor of all time. While I'm on this subject, may I tell you that throughout the twenty years I spent analyzing successful people to

learn what made them tick. I discovered that successful people almost invariably were successful in exact proportion to the extent that they had met and overcome obstacles and defeat. Mister Alderberg, how do you explain this, mister Hill. It can be explained by considering that nature has so arranged the affairs

of men that strength grows out of struggle. If men had no problems and were never forced to exert themselves, they would atrophy and wither away through disuse of their brain cells, the same as would happen with an arm or leg if it were not given exercise. Nature penalizes people for neglecting to properly use their physical bodies, as everyone knows, and the same is true of their brain cells, with which they think. If we do not use the mind,

it becomes lazy and unreliable. Human problems force people to develop their minds through use. Look what happens to the children of very wealthy people who allow their offspring to grow up under the delusion that because their parents have money, they don't have to work or to prepare themselves to live on their own initiative. Very rarely does such a person become fully independent or self determining. Mister Alderberg, you had some experiences with struggle during your early days, didn't you,

mister Hill. Yes, I was blessed at birth with four powerful causes for struggle, namely poverty, fear, superstition, and illiteracy. Mister Alderberg, did you say blessings, mister Hill, Yes, blessings because I was destined to devote my life to helping my fellow men overcome these four common causes of failure, and I needed to learn something about them at their source.

On the lighter side of my blessings, you may be interested in knowing that I was tagged with the name Napoleon, with the hope of my parents that a great uncle by the same name would leave me a portion of his fortune when he died. Fortunately he didn't. I say fortunately, because I know what happened to those to whom he

did leave his money. Whereas I, in my struggle to master poverty, fear, superstition, and illiteracy, uncovered knowledge which I have been privileged to share with millions of people who have benefited by it. They received only money which did not last long. Mister Alderberg, if you had a friend or a son or a listener who was preparing to make his own way in the world, and you had to select one trait on which you would urge him

to depend mostly for success. What would this trait be, mister Hill, That's a sixty four dollar question, But without hesitation, I'll say that I would select that trait which inspires or compels a person to keep on going when the going is hard, instead of giving up and quitting. I would select this trait because it is the one which has served me at times when my future seemed hopeless, better than any other trade by any standard of evaluation.

And I would select it because I have never seen or heard of any one who achieved success above mediocrity without it. And I would select it because I have reason to believe that the Creator intended people to become wise and strong through struggle. Mister Alderberg, your remarks about the sons of very rich men prompts me to ask if during your contact with wealthy Americans you discovered any son of a rich man who equaled or excelled his

father in business or otherwise. Mister Hill, only one, and that was John D. Rockefeller Junior, who not only caught up with the achievements of his father, but to my way of thinking, excelled his father in many respects. Inherited wealth is almost always a great curse. Poverty is often a great curse as well, but only because people accept it as such, and not as an inspiration to render

the sort of service which can overcome poverty. Mister Alderberg, from what you've been saying, I judge that you believe a poor man's son has a much better chance of success than the son of a rich man. Mister Hill. All of my observations during the past forty odd years convinced me conclusively that the poor man's son has a better chance, provided that he does not accept poverty as something he has to tolerate and makes up his mind

to master it. Mister Alderberg, what was your first reaction to Andrew Carnegie's offer to you to sponsor you to write a philosophy of success on condition that you earn your own way without a cash subsidy from him, Mister Hill, My first reaction was the same as that which most anyone would have experienced. I believe that his requirements were

unfair in view of his great wealth. But I learned later that this was one of the shrewdest moves that mister Carnegie ever made in his relations with me, because he forced me to become resourceful and to learn how to apply the principles of success in sustaining myself while engaged in a then and profitable work of research into the causes of success. Because of this foresight on the part of mister Carnegie, I lived to see the day and it was not too far off from my beginning

with him when I didn't need financial help. Mister Alderberg, I suppose that many of our friends would be interested in knowing how you managed to support yourself during the twenty years of research you devoted to your work before it became profitable. Mister Hill, I have been asked that same question many times. I was an experienced newspaper man when I first met mister Carnegie, and my work in

this field sustained me for a time. Later, I began to train men and women in salesmanship, and it turned out that I had talent in this field. During my work in the field of salesmanship, I trained over thirty thousand people, many of whom became outstanding master salesman. Mister Alderberg, just one more personal question, and I'll let you off the hook. How do you manage to stay so energetic and active and young at the age of sixty five,

mister Hill, thank you. I remain young by keeping busy in a labor of love, and by the habit of celebrating every birthday by taking off a year from my age instead of adding one. I am now back in my late thirties. But perhaps, to speak more seriously, I close each day's labor with a prayer which keeps my

store of blessings eternally filled. And I shall express that prayer now, Oh, Infinite Intelligence, I ask not for more riches, but for more wisdom with which to make better use of the blessings with which I was endowed at birth, to reach the goal of embracing my own mind and directing it to ends of my own choice. Amen, mister Alderberg, Mister Hill, the time has come now for you to answer a few of the many questions that have come into our office in reference to problems that have arisen

in the minds of individuals. Will you give our listeners the benefit of your wise counsel in answering some of them. The first one comes from a woman who says, I'm secretary to a man who believes that a woman is not entitled to promotion to an executive job. I have the ability to fill a more responsible position. How should

I go about getting that position, mister Hill? I would suggest that you manage to get permission to do some of the work connected with the higher position, and that you do it on your own time and without compensation. It is not likely that your employer would object to your working overtime without pay, and by doing so, you will prove your ability to fill the better position, mister Alderberg. The next one comes from a man who desires to

go into business for himself. He says, I work for a large trucking company, and I know their business from top to bottom. I wish to start a trucking business of my own, but I do not have the capital with which to buy the necessary equipment. How do you suggest that I get the necessary money, mister Hill, First, you should advertise for a partner who would be willing to lend you the necessary capital, and who would also take over a portion of the responsibilities of the business.

In this way, you would match your experience with the other fellow's money, and the arrangement should be satisfactory to both of you. If you get the right man, try an advertisement in the financial section of the local newspaper and the Wall Street Journal, and you will likely find the man you need. Mister Alderberg, here's one from a young man who's about to finish high school. He says, I will be graduating this year, and I wish to get a position with some able businessmen so I may

get the benefit of his experience. What should I do to get such a position, mister Hill. One approach would be for you to take a business college training course, unless you can get the business training in the high school and prepare yourself as a secretary. Good secretaries are exceedingly hard to find, and you would have no trouble locating a position. You could practically be sure of choosing

your own employer. In a job of this sort, you would have access to business contacts and the benefits of the experiences of successful businessmen, which would be of priceless value to you as a stepping stone to something better. Mister Alderberg, here is a question from a housewife who writes heights. Would you please tell me how I can find some sort of work I can do at home to add to our family income. Before I was married, I was chief operator for a telephone company, and I

have a very pleasing telephone voice. Mister Hill, you can capitalize on your telephone experience and your pleasing voice by selling merchandise over the telephone, or by procuring qualified leads for life insurance men, automobile salesmen, or practically any other source of services or merchandise. You would have but little difficulty in reaching the heads of families by telephone through the wires. I know one woman who has a battery of more than a dozen telephones working in New York City.

She has a staff of trained operators to assist her, and she is making more money than the average business men earns. Mister Alderberg, a college professor, says, a growing family makes it necessary for me to earn more money than my present position as a teacher now pays. What should I do about this, Mister Hill, The answer to that is obvious. Get into some other field of endeavor,

such as selling. For example, you could make the break from your present work by starting as a part time salesman, working during evenings until you prove to yourself that you can sell mister Alderberg. Thank you, mister Hill for your counsel to these problems. We have run out of broadcast time. Ladies and gentlemen. Join us next time, when Napoleon Hill will further detail the principles of success his years of

research have discovered. Mister Hill, Thank you every one. I hope you learned to day how decisiveness and persistence can help you turn adversity into advantage and overcome the causes of failure. Next time I will discuss self discipline, another critical success principle