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Napoleon Hill's Success Masters

Page 19

by Napoleon Hill


  As you begin to see yourself and your own journey reflected in these essays, think about advice you’ve gotten over the years. Do any of the suggestions or concepts in this book remind you of success strategies you’ve heard in your own life? If so, how?

  Share some favorite quotes from the book with someone you interact with on your own success journey. How you can you explain those quotes to a mentee or someone who has coached or mentored you?

  If you could have a personal chat with any of the authors in this book, what would you ask them?

  If you could take any of the essays here and put your own spin on it, what would you change? How would you help apply lessons from your own life to what the Success Masters have already written?

  What is something you learned in this book that you didn’t already know?

  Do any of the essays spark new questions for you about your own success journey? What are they?

  What advice in the book is most relatable to you? The least? Why?

  What common themes do you see running through the essays?

  How do those common themes apply to you?

  If you wrote your own essay on success, what would it be about? Would that topic change over time?

  Think about your five- and ten-year goals. Where do you want to be? What do you want to be doing? If you could assign your future self an essay to read based on those goals, what would it be? Why?

  Resources

  The Entrepreneur Action Item sections that accompany each selection are derived from articles and content originally appearing on entrepreneur.com. They include:

  “8 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs” by Sherrie Campbell, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/327113

  “5 Ways to Rewire Your Brain to Be Positive” by Deep Patel, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296779

  “6 Reasons Why You Need to Mastermind Your Business” by Lain Ehmann, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274315

  “8 Keys to Coming Off as the Expert in Whatever You Sell” by Marc Wayshak, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295703

  “What Smart Entrepreneurs Know About Problem Solving” by Dipti Parmar, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/313089

  “15 Ways to Drown Out the Destructive Voices in Your Head” by Lydia Belanger, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/289160

  “How to Live with Purpose and Stay Focused on Long-Term Goals” by Dan Dowling, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/315502

  “The 7 ‘Senses’ of Self-Development” by Sherrie Campbell, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331147

  “This Is What It Takes to Spark Change in Your Life” by Raul Villacis, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325937

  “Why Time Is Your Most Important Business Resource” by Chris Porteous, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/328205

  “6 Principles for Overcoming Entrepreneurial Adversity” by Martin Zwilling, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275571

  About Napoleon Hill

  Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in a one-room cabin on the Pound River in Wise County, Virginia. He began his writing career at age 13 as a “mountain reporter” for smalltown newspapers and went on to become America’s most beloved motivational author. Hill passed away in November 1970 after a long and successful career writing, teaching, and lecturing about the principles of success.

  Dr. Hill’s work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation. His book, Think and Grow Rich, is the all-time bestseller in the field. Hill established the Napoleon Hill Foundation as a nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to perpetuate his philosophy of leadership, self-motivation, and individual achievement. Learn more about Napoleon Hill at www.naphill.org.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  A

  ABC priority system

  accountability

  action planning

  adversity. See also challenges, facing; obstacles, overcoming; problem-solving

  affluence

  attitude

  B

  belief

  brainstorming

  Branson, Richard

  breathing room

  C

  cause and effect. See also compensation

  challenges, facing. See also adversity

  affluence and

  answers to problems in

  goal-setting for

  groupthink, avoiding

  happiness and

  lifelong learning for

  risk and reward in

  challenges, sharing

  change

  characteristics of effective entrepreneurs

  choosing your path

  collective mind

  collective problem-solving

  commuting time

  compensation

  about law of

  cause and effect and

  dualism and

  mentorship as

  networking as

  confidence

  connectedness

  courage

  creating

  curiosity

  D

  dead vs. quick

  direction, sense of

  disagreement

  discouragement

  disagreement and

  exit strategies and

  giving up and

  perfectionism and

  perseverance and

  seriousness and

  strategies for overcoming

  doctor mindset

  dualism. See also compensation

  E

  early rising

  education

  effectiveness

  80/20 Rule

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo

  enthusiasm. See also positivity

  entrepreneur defined

  environment

  exit strategies

  expert positioning

  F

  fear

  percent rule in sales

  finances, managing

  financial independence

  flexibility

  focus

  follow-through

  forgetting

  freedom

  G

  Gates, Bill

  Gestalt Therapy (Perls)

  giving up

  goal-setting

  groupthink

  H

  habits

  Hall, Lacy

  happiness

  Harvey, Paul

  health, prioritizing

  I

  ideas, bringing to life

  imagination

  important vs. urgent tasks

  imposter syndrome

  intelligence

  inventorying needs

  investments

  J

  journaling

  K

  “Kierkegaard, the Self and Ethical Existence” (Stack)

  Kohe, J. Martin

  L

  Lakein, Alan

  law of attraction

  learning, lifelong

  Libermann, Nate

  lightening up

  living beyond means

  living within means

  lunch time

  M

  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

  meditation

  memorized peacefulness

  mentoring

  mindfulness

  money, role of

  N

  needs

  actions honoring

  change and

  goal-setting and

  identifying

  inventorying

  strengths and

  negativity

  networking

  Nightingale, Earl

  O

  obsession

  obstacles, overcoming. See also adversity; probl
em-solving

  opportunities, problems as

  optimism

  organization

  Owens, Jesse

  P

  Paddock, Charlie

  Parkinson’s Law

  path, choosing

  Peale, Norman Vincent

  P.E.P. (persuasion, enthusiasm and pitching)

  perfectionism

  perseverance

  perspective

  positioning as expert

  positivity

  prioritizing

  problems as part of life

  problem-solving. See also adversity; Story of The Other Wise Man

  belief and

  breaking down problems into steps

  collective

  cultural impact on

  problems as opportunities

  subconscious

  thinking through problems

  procrastinating

  production

  Psychology of Winning

  Q

  quality

  quick vs. dead

  quitting too soon

  R

  recognition

  relationships

  relaxing

  resiliency

  resource sharing

  “Rest of The Story, The” (radio program)

  rising early

  risk and reward

  rocks, collecting wisely

  S

  salespeople, thinking like

  scheduling

  security

  self, sense of

  self-awareness

  self-care

  self-development mindset

  self-discipline

  self-esteem

  self-government

  self-obsession

  self-regulation

  selling

  everybody is in sales

  expert positioning in

  idea of America

  optimism

  self-discipline

  seriousness

  service-mindedness

  simplicity

  sleep

  social entrepreneurship

  socializing

  solving problems. See problem-solving

  Stevenson, Robert Louis

  stimulation

  Stone, W. Clement

  Story of The Other Wise Man, The (Van Dyke). See also problem-solving

  strategizing

  strengths and needs, connecting

  success defined

  successful entrepreneurs, characteristics of

  T

  technology

  “think” process

  thinking through problems. See also problem-solving

  time management

  identifying wasted time

  important vs. urgent

  learning to do less

  maximizing your time

  perfectionism and

  prioritizing

  procrastination and

  as a stressor

  time off

  to do lists

  transition time

  U

  urgency, sense of

  urgent vs. important tasks

  V

  Van Dyke, Henry

  visionary mindset

  visualization

  W

  waiting time

  Waitley, Denis

  walking away

  wasting time. See also time management

  winning

  writing things down

  Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

  Cover Design: Andrew Welyczko

  Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

  © 2019 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed Entrepreneur Media Inc. Attn: Legal Department, 18061 Fitch, Irvine, CA 92614.

  This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

  Entrepreneur Press® is a registered trademark of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

  ebook ISBN: 978-1-61308-396-3

  LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

  Before you get to know all of the many ways you can make passive income work for you, we are going to talk about some of the basics behind the power of passive income. Let’s start with the name of it—passive income. The word “passive” sometimes gets a bad rap. We are urged to be active participants in our lives, not passively let life happen to us. That’s a fair point, and it’s a useful rule to follow. After all, you are the driver of your destiny, and only you can make success happen. However, when it comes to making money, there is a power in doing so passively. In other words, getting the most bang for your buck with the least effort. Wouldn’t it be great to have an income stream (or two, or three) that, once set up, brought in money for you while you were doing other things? Of course! Think of the time you could spend doing what you like with the people you love if you had an income stream that was doing most of the work for you. That’s the power of passive income!

  The amazing thing is, huge numbers of people don’t know that passive income even exists. If you’re one of those people, you work hard for your money, and in order to have more money, you think you may have to work even harder. Since there’s a good chance that’s how you see things right now, try making a radical change in your perceptions—let’s call it a paradigm shift. It’s more than just changing the way you earn money or gain income. It’s a transformation in the way you see money itself. It’s seeing wealth and success in entirely new ways.

  Right now, for example, perhaps you see wealth in terms of a dollar amount. Let’s consider a quick scenario. Say Mr. Smith has $20 million, so he’s wealthy. Mr. Jones is $20,000 in debt, so he’s the opposite of wealthy. But a number is just a number—it’s not true wealth (or lack thereof). For our purposes here, we’re going to ask you to take the price tag off wealth. Instead of thinking in terms of thousands or millions or billions, we’re going to be talking about freedom and fulfillment and creativity. That doesn’t mean you’re not going to be making more money—because you definitely are. However, you’re going to make that because you’ve learned how to see money very differently than before.

  KNOW YOUR “WHY”

  In this book, we’re going to be asking and answering a lot more “what” questions than “why” questions. For example, we’re going to talk about what you can do to start an online business or what you’ll need to develop income from real estate. But here at the start there are a few why questions that need to be answered. Once you’ve got those answers in place, the tools and tactics of passive income will be a lot more effective.

  So, ask yourself why you want more income. For a lot of people, that may seem like a foolish question. Wanting more money is just hardwired into us, isn’t it? It’s like the old saying: You can’t be too thin or too rich. But if you think about it, money is never really an end in itself. The desire for wealth is something different from just wanting to hold a lot of bills in your hand. For some people, money means access to material possessions, whether it’s a big yacht or fine watch or just a nice house to live in. For others, wealth means security. It’s not having to worry about how you’re going to pay the mortgage or fund your children’s education. All those things are very worthwhile expressions of wealth.

  THE NEW MEANING OF WEALTH

  For our purposes, however, we’re going to suggest a slightly different way of thinking of wealth. At least initially, your goal in creating passive income will not be the same as the other financial objectives you set for you
rself. In one word, what we’re going to achieve here is freedom—freedom from the need to keep earning more, working harder, and trying to sell your time to the highest bidder. The passive income streams you create are going to relieve that pressure. Once the pressure is relieved, you’ll have much greater freedom to make key decisions in your life—both financially and in every other area.

  Right now, you may be in the position of having to take every assignment that comes along. For good reason, you may be unwilling to think about making a job change or a career transformation—because you’re worried about missing a paycheck. In your heart, you may still have larger financial hopes and dreams, but right now you’re in bondage. You’re tied to the time-for-money framework, and within that framework, your options are very limited. Creating passive income will take you outside that box. Bondage will be replaced by freedom. Instead of just meeting your financial needs, you’ll begin to make your own financial choices.

  This is an extremely important point, so let’s make sure we’re clear about it. It’s great to have lofty, long-term financial goals—but it’s going to be hard to achieve them if your single income stream goes to just maintaining the lifestyle you have now. Passive income streams will give you the liberty to pursue your goals more aggressively. It’s certainly true that the passive income ideas we’ll be talking about can themselves become major income sources—but initially they are sources of freedom. They’ll give you the freedom to look at the big picture of your financial life, to see the opportunities, and to act on them immediately.

  FIND YOUR FREEDOM

  By now you’re probably starting to see that the concept of passive income is a major viewpoint shift. Within the time-for-money equation, most people spend their whole lives trying to achieve a big income. They think a big income will make them rich. But a big income is worth little if expenses are just as big. People who are still working harder and harder to sell time for money are not really living the life of wealthy individuals, no matter how big the numbers are.

  This leads to a second shift in viewpoint. We’ve said that our initial goal for passive income is financial freedom. If you’re like most people, this is a goal that will be attained incrementally over time. You may not be able to quit your day job immediately—you may not even want to quit it—but as your passive income increases, your dependence on your day job will decrease. Ultimately, of course, passive income can liberate you from needing to work at all. You may still choose to work, but that’s very different from needing to.

  But here’s the point: Whether this happens will depend not only on the amount of your passive income, but on how you spend it. To help understand this, there’s a well-established principle of workplace behavior called Parkinson’s Law. This principle states that the time needed to complete a particular task will expand to fill the time available. If people have a two-week deadline to complete a report, the vast majority of them will take two weeks to do it—not because they need that much time, but because that’s how much time they have. If they had a week to do the report or if they had a month, they would get it done in that time, too.

 

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