YOU CANNOT GIVE WITHOUT GETTING!
The Principle of Service works while you are asleep just the same as while you are awake. Applying this principle, as we are, we have every reason to expect to see this become the world’s greatest school of personal development.
Success and Salesmanship are not all we intend to give our students. These, in fact, are but incidental. We intend to develop in our students a magnetic personality, self-confidence, enthusiasm, courage, sincerity of purpose, strength of character, persistency, and determination!
With an aim like this, what, may I ask, shall hinder us from becoming the world’s greatest school?
You can help! You ought to help! Not to benefit us, particularly, but to exercise the Principle of Service and put it into action! Also, to help those who need what we have to offer – those in whom you are interested.
You will never know the real joy of living until you come into a full understanding of the Principle of Service. Try it! Give your employer a fuller measure of service tomorrow and note the increased happiness which you will enjoy tomorrow night!
Cordially and sincerely,
Napoleon Hill
80 East Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois
GITOMER’S THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THIS LESSON
When Hill says, “YOU CANNOT GIVE WITHOUT GETTING!” he means GIVE FIRST and the world will pay you back.
Of course I think of myself, and my accomplishments, as I read this lesson. You? Of course you did. It’s human nature. But the question is: Who did you serve and how did you serve in the process?
Most people have a “sales plan,” but very few have a “service plan.”
Hill’s immortal quote “Render more service and better service than you are being paid for” is at the heart of this book’s philosophy. Go back to all of your writings and add a service plan to each goal or task.
But here’s an easy way to make service a habit: Make a goal to perform one random act of kindness a day – and do it with a smile. This will, over time, give you a service heart – and the understanding that that is where service starts.
“Through your acts and deeds begin sowing seeds of kind thoughts and lo! they will take root and grow where thistles grew before.”
– Napoleon Hill
Lesson Number
23
A GREAT TRUTH WHICH I HAVE LEARNED FROM TWENTY YEARS’ EXPERIENCE
(An after-the-lesson visit with Mr. Hill)
GITOMER INSIGHT: This final lesson is not a summary – rather it’s a challenge. Like the first 22 lessons, it contains both information and the wisdom to help implement the lesson. BUT this is the most powerful lesson in the book. And keep in mind that Hill didn’t “save it for last” – rather, he knew that without the knowledge from the first 22 lessons, this lesson would not have had the impact it’s meant to convey. Read it. Do it.
It is Sunday morning – the day on which we should take a sort of personal inventory of ourselves to see what we have learned during the preceding six days.
I have just finished my inventory, not only for six days, but also for the twenty years which have just passed, this being my birthday.
I cannot give you all of the details of my inventory covering these twenty years, but I can and will give you the most important ones, with the hope that they will be of benefit to you. I believe it just as important to take a retrospective view of ourselves as it is to look ahead and try to anticipate what the future holds for us, because out of the great mass of mistakes which we have made we can learn a wonderful lesson if WE WILL!
Instead of telling you of a dozen or more important truths which I have learned from my experience during the past twenty years, I shall content myself with telling you of the BIGGEST, MOST STUPENDOUS, MOST WONDERFUL TRUTH THAT I HAVE LEARNED!
I shall tell you of this truth because I sincerely believe that it will aid you to live a better life, and to achieve your aims in less time and with greater satisfaction. In fact, I seriously doubt that you can either succeed or be happy without either consciously or unconsciously observing this great TRUTH!
It is not a new truth!
It is as old as the world itself, but nonetheless a truth on that account. Remember, that it is not new truths that we need to study, but the old ones which have been preached to us for so long that we have grown tired of them.
In telling you of this great truth, this GREAT LAW OF NATURE, I have no intention of trying to entertain you. The mission of this “visit” is to teach! If, perchance, it should be an entertaining nature, so much the better, but that is only an incident.
Nearly fifteen years of the past twenty years I have spent in unintentionally trying to deny this great truth – this law of Nature! Not only did I unintentionally try to deny it, but I unconsciously did so!
“Our only sin is that of ignorance.”
It was through ignorance concerning the simple laws of nature that I wasted fifteen years of tireless effort in trying to do the impossible task of defying Nature’s laws!
And the worst part of it all is the fact that my ignorance amounted to willful and wanton ignorance, because I had heard of this truth – this law of Nature of which I shall tell you – until I had become tired of hearing it.
I came to look upon it as being a parallel to the cry of “the wolf, the wolf!”
What is this great truth?
I will state it in the same words in which I so often heard it, but with the hope that you will make more ready and practical application of it than I did for over fifteen years. It is this:
“WHATSOEVER YE SOWETH THAT SHALL YE ALSO REAP.”
It has taken me fifteen years to accept and understand the truth stated in these simple words! Fifteen years of failure, unhappiness, and disappointment!
If I can save you fifteen years of heart-breaking errors, my Sunday morning effort in writing this “visit” will have been worthwhile. Yes, if I can save you five or even one year of misdirected effort, my time will have been decidedly worthwhile.
Knowing from my own experience how vague and meaningless these words which I have quoted above may seem, I shall proceed to show you, if I can, just how the truth which they convey really affects you in everything you do.
I can best do this by citing one of the experiences which have been poured from the crucible of my own life during those fifteen years of misdirected effort.
(In taking you behind the curtains, as I shall do, and divulging to you some of the mistakes I have made, I know you will understand that I am not doing so because I am proud of these mistakes, but because of my desire to help you avoid making the same mistakes.)
When I say that I was a failure during those fifteen years, I have no intention of conveying the impression that I was ever “down and out”! For at least a portion of that time I was far from being down-and-out, and nearly all of the time I had all I needed of this world’s goods and chattels, but I was a failure, just the same.
By “failure” I mean that I had unknowingly deprived myself of the greatest of all worldly possessions – the knowledge of how to be happy and of how to make others happy.
MY BIG MISTAKE: Trying to GET more than the real value of the services I GAVE! The hardest lesson I had to learn was that if I sowed a crop of poor work, I must necessarily reap a harvest of small pay!
I completely overlooked the fact that the SERVICE I RENDERED WAS CAUSE, while the PAY I RECEIVED FOR THAT SERVICE WAS EFFECT. I studied the effect – the PAY ENVELOPE – long and late hours, but made the regrettable error which so many others are making of overlooking CAUSE, which is the SERVICE I RENDERED!
The “Principle of Service,” as Sheldon has so well called it, is a law of Nature itself. It is immutable as the law of gravitation, and to violate it brings as sure a punishment as would the violation of the laws of gravity if you should climb to the top of a tree and jump off. In either case you will find yourself crushed as a result of either
your own ignorance or, worse still, your own carelessness.
“WHATSOEVER YE SOWETH THAT SHALL YE ALSO REAP.”
I now understand the great philosophy that is back of those words – those words which, for fifteen years, were meaningless to me!
Not only has my own experience convinced me of the futility of trying to evade or deny this great truth, but my observation of others convinces me that all who have truly “found themselves” have learned and made use of this same truth.
This great truth may be stated in another way:
“If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.”
As I write, being mobilized in America are millions of men and billions of dollars to bring home this great truth to an autocrat on the other side of the Atlantic who started out to rule the world by the sword some three years ago.
GITOMER NOTE: This is a reference to World War I.
Sometimes it requires the shedding of much blood and the devastation of great fortunes to impress this truth upon those who deny it, but in the end, after the “Law of Compensation” has done its work, the truth still prevails!
Napoleon Bonaparte learned this truth, even though he seemed well on the way toward world conquership before it cut him down.
Whenever there has been strife between the peoples of the earth, the oppressors and the aggressors have learned this truth to their sorrow.
Whenever there is strife between individuals, the aggressor has learned this truth sooner or later – mostly “later”!
Nature’s laws may be violated, but the violation brings sure punishment, even though it seems slow in arriving in many instances.
Go back and read the “SELF-CONFIDENCE-BUILDING CHART” which I present with the “visit” in Lesson Five. There you may find the sum and substance of the best philosophy that I have drawn from the past twenty years of experience. I particularly direct your attention to the sixth paragraph. You will do well to memorize that whole Chart and make the philosophy part of your own, but whether you do this or not, be sure not to overlook the sixth paragraph. At least memorize the second sentence in that paragraph:
“I will therefore engage in no transaction which does not benefit alike all who participate with me.”
GITOMER NOTE: (The entire chart is available at www.HillsFirstWritings.com).
In that one short sentence, you will find what I required fifteen years to learn! Taking the Chart as a whole, you will find that it contains all of the philosophy which any human being needs with which to succeed and be happy. In the seven short paragraphs of this Chart, as I have already stated, may be found the sum and substance of what I tried to deny for fifteen years, but which I was finally forced to accept or go through life a complete failure.
You ought to make it a part of you – not because I wrote it – but because it is the key to the storehouse of peace and plenty, happiness and success.
To GET you must GIVE! Conversely stated, you will GET that which you GIVE! To me this seems so simple, so plain and understandable that every human being on earth ought to profit by it. However, it has only been during the past five years that I have so readily accepted and made use of this great truth. Fifteen years of failure and then success, in my case, ought to give encouragement to those who have not yet learned this truth.
The curse of the human race today is the practice of trying to REAP that which was not SOWN! Nature will see to it that Nature’s laws are obeyed. Enforcement of these laws is not always swift, but it is SURE!
I am not sure, but if my own experience is a reasonable criterion by which to judge, I can state with positive assurance that the only real SUCCESS is that which is attained through some sort of service that is helpful to humanity! I have done more to help others during the past five years than I did in all of the other fifteen years which comprise my business experience. I have been happier and more prosperous in every sense of the word during these five years than I was during the entire previous fifteen years.
My humble advice to you is to lose yourself in some useful service to humanity, make the “Principle of Service” a part of your philosophy, master the “Self-Confidence Chart” and make it a part of your every-day efforts, and you may safely forget everything else, FOR YOU WILL BE BOUND TO SUCCEED!
Personally, I have turned my fifteen years of mistakes into capital, because it has been chiefly through my errors that I have learned what is right. In every failure that I have made I have learned a great lesson. Out of the mistakes of the past has come the new Napoleon Hill – the man that you know through these “visits.” If you have made similar mistakes, and doubtless you have, you may convert them into capital, but it will have to be done just as I have explained, by making the great truth herein stated a part of yourself.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Start today and make use of all that this “visit” has brought to you. If you will again read paragraph four of the “Self-Confidence-Building Chart,” it will aid you in making this start. All of the philosophy, all of the laws of Nature, all of the help in the world will do you no good unless you paint a definite picture of the person you intend to be, and then proceed to transfer that mental picture into reality.
Adopt a “Chief Aim in Life,” a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and then accomplish that purpose through SELF-CONFIDENCE, aided by the great powers of Nature’s own laws, as stated in that wonderful truth which is the subject of this “visit.” “WHATSOEVER YE SOWETH, THAT SHALL YE ALSO REAP!”
This is the greatest truth that I have learned from my past twenty years of experience. I never expect to learn of a greater truth. Make use of it in your relations with all of your fellow men! Take it with you to work tomorrow! Try it out for yourself!
Through your acts and deeds begin sowing seeds of kind thoughts and lo! they will take root and grow where thistles grew before. Instead of nursing hatred in your heart, even for those who have been unfair and unjust toward you, plant the seeds of love and charity and see how quickly these seeds will reproduce themselves. This is the Great Law of Harmonious Attraction which Dr. Sears mentions in his splendid book entitled, How to Attract Success.
The world is a great looking glass in which we see, not the imperfections of others as we imagine we do, but the thoughts and acts which we create ourselves.
Sincerely your friend,
Napoleon Hill
80 E. Randolph St.
Chicago, U.S.A.
GITOMER’S THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THIS LESSON
This lesson is both powerful and thought provoking. Not just a summation of the book, but a clear challenge to you, the reader. If you don’t take actions here, go back and read this book from the beginning. If you take action to develop your “chief aim” – later renamed by Hill as a “definite major purpose,” and subtitled as “the starting point of all achievement” – you will find yourself on an unstoppable path to success in any endeavor.
Now is the time to define and or refine your chief aim, and detail the steps necessary for achievement, the collaborations needed, the financial requirements, the dedication and allocation of time to be invested, the service you must provide, and of course, the expected outcome. This is a real plan – a life plan – a success plan that would make Napoleon Hill proud.
EPILOGUE BY JEFFREY GITOMER
The TRUTH, the Whole TRUTH, So Help Me HILL
NAPOLEON HILL: Although preceded by (and inspired by) the founding fathers of personal development: Samuel Smiles, Orison Swett Marden, George Clason, James Allen, Russell Conwell, and Elbert Hubbard, Napoleon Hill is clearly the most well-known and recognized positive attitude and achievement expert in the 20th and 21st centuries. His iconic book Think and Grow Rich has been, and still is, the global modern-day bible of personal development and positive thought.
With more than 500,000 interactive Facebook followers, an active and responsive Twitter audience, and millions of YouTube views, the Napoleon Hill Foundation has more
than kept up with the times, maintained a daily online presence, and as a result, Napoleon Hill has remained the voice of positive attitude and personal development in the 21st century.
For the past 100 years, Napoleon Hill’s writings have affected the way millions of people think, act, achieve, and prosper. He is by far, the global authority on introspective thinking, positive mental attitude, and personal achievement. Think and Grow Rich is the global standard for personal development, but is only one book of many in his amazing body of work. Truthful Living sets the foundation for all of Hill’s writings.
Here’s what this means to you. It’s exposure to Napoleon Hill’s original thinking and writing about personal development, positive attitude, and wealth.
“The world is a great looking glass in which we see, not the imperfections of others as we imagine we do, but the thoughts and acts which we create ourselves.”
– Napoleon Hill
Here’s why you need to reread this book again. There are so many gems in this book, it’s impossible to absorb all the information and feel the impact in just one reading. Keep in mind that I read Think and Grow Rich ten times in one year. Repetition leads to mastery.
Here’s where this helps you win and succeed. . .
This book is a gift and a challenge. The contents speak for themselves. The question (and the challenge) is, how will you speak them, implement them, use them, and convert them into success for yourself? Hill used them for his success. How will you convert them into your success 100 years later? Will you convert them into your success 100 years later? It is my sincere hope that you do.
Truthful Living Page 16