“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed”, Napoleon Hill. There are a number of quotes or ideas similar to this one that I have heard over the years, but this quote represents the earliest appearance of this idea in secular literature I can recall, it was in the late 1950’s or so. Napoleon Hill is considered to have influenced more people in success and self-empowerment than any other person in history. Napoleon Hill was a journalist who was hired by one of the wealthiest business tycoon’s of the time Dale Carnegie, to put together the first real book on success and self-empowerment, which became the “Philosophy of Personal Achievement”, an outline of the best success and self-empowerment ideas and practices ever. Hill is most famous for the book, “Think and Grow Rich’ one of the best selling books of all time, which is where our quote comes from today. Think and Grow Rich was the result of interviewing some of the best minds in the world at that time such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Charles M. Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and many others. W. Clement Stone, originally a successful Insurance magnate (Combined Insurance) is another person who was influenced by Napoleon Hill’s philosophy and started having all of his insurance sales people trained by Hill. Earl Nightingale read a copy of “Think and Grow Rich” and instantly turned his weekly radio talk show into a radical success based on Napoleon Hill’s self-empowering ideas. Together these four original gurus of positive thinking, Hill, Carnegie, Stone, Nightingale pioneered the way of self empowerment for the next generation of motivational guru’s, authors and sales people that came along. Among some of the greatest were Zig Ziglar, Toni Robins, Brian Tracy, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and Maxwell Maltz just to name a few. I received my sales and self-empowerment training from several men who were the third generation of self-help gurus who came along. Another quote which is my favorite take on Hill’s idea about helping others leads to success came from Zig Ziglar who said; “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” This idea is delicious to me.” All I needed was enough people to sell”, I thought to myself, “and I would be in business”. After years of selling believe me I know that it is true because I have tasted it myself. I know that in a very real way I always got what I needed and wanted after I helped others to succeed. In its most basic form, this describes most company’s remuneration systems. Salesmen get their commission after selling products to customers. Employees collect their pay after they have provided a service to their employers. However, there is something that goes deeper than just our salaries. There are other ways to get paid in life. There are ways we don’t even see. For example, if we maintain a good rapport with our customers and our customers go back and tell our bosses, our bosses often reward us for our extra effort by promoting us. That is pay isn’t it? The opposite is also true; if we treat our customers badly, we shall reap the whirlwind for that because it all gets back to the boss, doesn’t it? But I think our positive thinking gurus had something even more delicious in mind. I think its much more altruistic than that. I think our actions are seen by the unseen in our world. I think that they also report to a bigger chief, one who is also invisible. I think that we get our due compensation from him ultimately in due time. For example, if you are dishonest and you tell your customer a lie, the customer winds up eating the loss but refuse to shop there again. You get mugged outside by a stranger as you go to your car. Two totally unrelated things have happened here; or are they really unrelated? You have heard of “Bad Karma” right? Could this be your bad Karma? You see the whole universe conspires to help you no matter what you do. The universe also can work against you. Not to say that God has arranged for you to get mugged, no! I’m not saying that. It was actually you who worked to conspire with the universe, not the Almighty. In Wayne Dyers’ book, “The Power of Intention”, he describes this phenomenon as the spirit in the universe actually being part of us as we are a part of everything that lives. Dr. Dyer’s point is that our spirit within us knows what’s wrong and what’s right. It is part of the universe and so the universe works with our spirit to accomplish what we set out to do. In the case of us doing wrong, if we are righteous at heart, the universe seems closed to us or negative in some ways and indeed it is we who have shut the doors ourselves. We are in touch with the darker side of the force, if you believe the genius of George Lucas and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even if you can’t accept that idea, what about this one; you have little money in your pocket but you give it to a starving man you see on the street. Later that month you find a twenty dollar bill in some pocket in some jeans you wore a long time ago; two unrelated incidents right? I don’t think so. I believe that good catches up to you just as bad has a way of catching up to you. I have experienced it myself over and over again. Sometimes it is right after I help someone; sometimes its months later but the truth is I get help or something wonderful happens to me because I lets say gave something to the church when I had nothing left to give. This is called the power of Tithing in my church. Ouch, was that a religious overtone! I find it interesting that this idea about getting what you need by helping others get what they need is even in secular literature. This is after all a very religious idea. As a matter of fact if you look at the original ideas that came from Napoleon Hill, or Dale Carnegie, or others I spoke about, you will find many more spiritual ideas than these. They were very spiritual men. Carnegie gave Napoleon Hill a list of 500 of the most successful people to find and interview before collecting his thoughts in a book. What about those successful people; were they all religious? I don’t know, but I am willing to gamble that most of them were spiritual. I believe that there is no mystery in the fact that one of the richest men in the world would contract a stranger, Napoleon Hill who was one of the best journalists to write a book about the most successful ideas that makes a person self-empowered. He sent him off to interview from a list of 500 most successful people in the world some great souls who have experienced wealth, success and happiness. It’s not a mystery to me, because God wants us to learn all of that. He wants us to be wealthy, because wealth certainly goes a long way in getting things done in this physical world, doesn’t it? I tell my students, money solves a lot of problems. My students are usually the poorest of the poor, welfare recipients who have been collecting welfare for years as their mothers before them did, as did their mothers before them. I don’t think it’s a mystery that God wants them to know how to be self sufficient. But before we can become successful, we must learn how to change our behaviors which means changing what we believe sometimes. No wonder God took one of the wealthiest men in the world to get a journalist to investigate how to get wealthy the best and easiest way possible. It is further not a mystery that all of this knowledge trickled down to me, a teacher of the poorest of poor. If that doesn’t get you to wonder I don’t know what will. God wants us to be empowered. He wants us to have what it takes. He wants us to learn what we personally need to do to make that happen. That is the nature of self-help literature and all motivational speakers and seminars you might attend. How about you? Are you ready? Do you want to learn? There are many more truths like this expressed on my website. To subscribe as a reader go to http:
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