The Law of Success, by Napoleon Hill

Today I will tell you a story that will change the course of your life. This is the story of a rich Scotsman who was once curious to find out what were the habits and attitudes of the most successful people.

I’m talking about Andrew Carnegie, the steel mogul who made fame and fortune in the United States at the beginning of the last century. When he had all the success he could have, he decided to hire a researcher to study all the richest and most powerful people in the world. The idea was to research what all these people had in common.

This research lasted almost twenty years. At that time, a young man named Napoleon Hill surveyed 6,000 people who succeeded in different fields. He even interviewed several of them, including names like Thomas Edison, Graham Bell, Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, and Theodore Roosevelt.

After being presented to Andrew Carnegie, the research result was turned into a book called The Law of Success. This book explains in detail the sixteen habits that all highly successful people follow.

In today’s Arata Academy Summary you will find out what these sixteen laws of success are. That is why, from today, your life will take a new direction. When you follow these lessons, you will be walking the proven path of success of all the people studied in producing this work.

Lesson 1: The Master Mind

What is the first point in common among all extremely successful people? They understand the importance of associating with others who have similar thoughts.

We like to hear stories of super entrepreneurs. Icons that display the success of a company in one individual. For example Steve Jobs and Apple. But the truth is that no great venture can be successful with just one person. Alone, none of them would have achieved their success.

When two or more minds unite with the same way of thinking and common goals, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This whole is called the master mind. A union that results from the mental chemistry between the various brains associated around the same enterprise.

The truth is that when we are alone we have several fears that keep us from moving forward. When we are together with other like-minded people, when we share common goals, these fears seem to be less powerful.

The master mind is essential to overcoming the six most dangerous enemies for those seeking personal and professional success: 1) the fear of poverty, 2) the fear of death, 3) the fear of illness, 4) the fear of losing love from someone, 5) the fear of old age and 6) the fear of criticism.

To implement this first lesson in your life, you should look for people who have similar thinking and goals. Search for courses, communities, chambers of commerce, associations, any space you can meet people with whom you can associate.

When you meet these people, you can apply the second lesson: having a definite primary purpose.

Lesson 2: A Definite Chief Aim

The second commonality among successful people is to have a definite main goal. You need a clear mission to accomplish. The definite goal is your purpose that drives you to act with focus and consistency.

This definite main purpose brings motivation and clarity. A lot of people say they want to succeed. But when we ask these people what it means to succeed, few can explain. People cannot say exactly what goal needs to be met in order for them to consider themselves successful people. They know they don’t want to go on the way they are. But a life plan is missing. They do not have a plan with a clear objective of where they want to go, what they really want to change.

The main objective should be set with great care. And, once chosen, it should be written and placed where you can see it at least once a day. It helps you take on this purpose as a motto, a project. It will be like a mantra that will dominate your activities. The mantra is important because otherwise you are at the risk of forgetting this important goal as you are engulfed by so many other things you have to do in your life.

Did you understand the importance of the life plan? Without having a clearly defined main purpose in a well-built logical life plan, it is very unlikely to accomplish great things. That is why most people are in mediocrity. Mediocrity is not insult, by the way. Mediocrity simply means being average and not standing out at all.

Lesson 3: Self Confidence

Successful people seem to have great confidence that they will make the best decisions. They truly believe they will be able to meet their goals. They act as if they already know that everything they do will work out in the end.

This is a common behavioral trait in successful people. People who are high achievers often show great confidence in their own potential. Even if they are not going to solve the problems themselves, they know who to call to solve those problems.

The truth is that these people also have their own insecurities, just like us. The difference is that they can ACT even in spite of these insecurities. They can demonstrate a confidence in themselves that can inspire others around them.

Self-confidence is essential for anyone who wants to do something or do a great thing. After all, who would trust someone who doesn’t show security, before deciding to join some new business venture? What type of a customer would buy something from someone who doubts himself? Which employee will faithfully follow a leader who does not convey confidence in his own decisions?

One way to train self-confidence is simply to start practicing that confidence on yourself as if it were a habit. And, just like any habit, you can and should accomplish the sequence of habit creation, step by step. I’ve talked about this many times in Arata Academy materials.

Lesson 4: The Habit of Saving

The fourth lesson of successful people is the habit of saving. Living below your means is essential so that you do not become a slave to debt or work.

Of course, with the exception of the heirs of great fortunes, most people begin their journey to enrichment from virtually zero. In the beginning, almost everyone has to work to pay the bills, even if they have to do work outside their true purpose.

The point here is to build the habit of saving. The habit of living below one’s financial means allows you to start accumulating financial wealth. This equity may be invested in your own definite goal or in financial investments. This is how you can generate passive income for your future freedom.

Successful people know how to control their finances. With this control they can always have money available to invest in opportunities and ventures. And even if these initiatives fail, the financial reserve will be sufficient to continue to ensure quality of life.

Lesson 5: Initiative and Leadership

You should develop leader traits, not follower traits. Successful people take the initiative to take control of their own lives, to undertake and bring other associates together along the way.

Even people who are not natural-born leaders eventually develop the qualities that make a good leader. This skill develops itself as you overcome obstacles that come your way.

You need to show leadership to get others to work with you on their own initiative or even to convince others to buy your services and products.

Lesson 6: Imagination

Lesson six shows the importance of imagination for the realization of great endeavors.

We can understand the importance of imagination in two ways. The first way is when great leaders imagine their accomplishments first in their minds and then bring those accomplishments from the world of ideas to the concrete world. They create a vision of the future and then set concrete goals to make that vision a reality, just as we teach in the Planning Your Life course.

The second way is to think outside the box to figure out innovative solutions to the problems that naturally arise when we try to meet our life goals. The greatest entrepreneurs often had to use their imagination to think of a business that didn’t exist, to create a solution no one had thought of before, to create new things.

To practice using imagination you have to force yourself to change. Try new routines, new actions, new thoughts. Don’t be afraid to experiment new things.

Lesson 7: Enthusiasm

Here we come to a very important point. A lot of people seem to have a desire to change their lives, but they just don’t get started. It is as if the fuel is missing to carry out the necessary actions to fulfill the desired objectives.

This fuel that drives people toward great discoveries and endeavors is enthusiasm. The world’s greatest achievers are passionate about their definite core goals. They can move on even when all conditions seem adverse.

We can accomplish almost any goal more easily when we engage with enthusiasm. Living with passion for your goals is one of the most intense and pleasurable challenges you can set to yourself.

Lesson 8: Self-Control

Self-control is the ability to maintain discipline to continue acting on our schedule. And we move on even when the temptations of life arise. Even when we are lazy. Even when it’s hard. Even when we want to quit.

If we think about it, the eighth lesson on self-control is well aligned with the fifth lesson on leadership. After all, having self-control means being your own leader. It is thinking long term, assessing the consequences of each action, having the exact idea that everything you do either brings you closer or further away from your definite purpose.

Self-control is also important in resisting worldly temptations and altered states of consciousness. For example, drunkenness is an altered state of consciousness that can destroy any life planning. In addition to damaging your plans, it can also disrupt the lives of those who live with you.

You need to be clear that usually the person who makes the plan is not the same person who has to follow the plan. If you’ve ever done life planning, even a list of New Year’s resolutions, you know that. Your self that writes the plan full of good intentions is not the same self that has to perform actions in the face of the natural problems of life.

To give a well-known example, think of the person who makes a weight loss plan. This person sets up a healthy diet and sets a goal to lose a certain number of pounds. When making the plan, this person is in a certain emotional state, excited to lose weight.

But this person has to have the self-control to persist in the diet even when times are tough. Even when you are at a social event, when you are tired, when you are facing tasty and fattening foods. Without self-control, planning can hardly be accomplished.

Not being a slave to temptations or altered states of consciousness is an essential step for those who want to be in charge of their lives.

Lesson 9: The Habit of Doing More Than Paid For

There are two types of people who cannot succeed in life: those who do not do what is asked  and those who ONLY do what is asked.

Do you want to stand out in your field? So you need to create the healthy habit of walking the extra mile, always doing more than you are asked, always doing more than you are required to do. Otherwise, you will be just an average person, just like so many others.

The more unique (rare) you are as a person and professional, the more valued you will be. It is difficult to find people who do what is asked. And finding ones that do more than is asked is extremely rare.

Rare items on the market tend to be better paid. By doing more than you have you, you earn more money, accelerate your growth and become an inspiration. People around you see you as a person who is clearly above average.

Lesson 10: Pleasing Personality

Business is a direct result of human interactions. Leadership requires human interaction. Selling also requires that you interact with other human beings. And every human interaction is easier to do if you have a pleasing personality.

Cultivating a pleasing personality is being a nice, friendly, well-presented person. We are not talking here about beauty standards but behaviors that make you a pleasant and inspiring companionship for others.

There are people who don’t care about being nice. And that’s okay if they are not interested to be successful. However, if you want to take your career to higher levels, then you must be a pleasant person. It’s no use just being competent. It is necessary to be competent and also pleasant.

Many of the previous lessons help you cultivate an attractive personality. Focus, self-confidence, financial education, initiative, leadership, imagination, enthusiasm and self-control are admirable traits. Those with these characteristics can usually convey a pleasant personality. This personality becomes even more attractive when coupled with other qualities such as being humble, having compassion, empathy and good manners.

Lesson 11: Accurate Thought

The eleventh lesson talks about the common characteristic that great leaders have of thinking accurately. Although they have imagination as one of their traits, they are not lost in daydreams and delusions when acting and solving problems.

Thinking accurately also helps us nurture the desire to fulfill our defined primary goal.

We should learn to direct our thoughts only to the right subjects, facts, and information. We want to focus on the thoughts that will somehow bring us closer to our definite main goal.

The idea is to reason deductively, based only on proven facts. Facts that are of real importance and useful in some way. It is to use numbers, statistics and method when necessary. It is focusing on what works, sometimes in a very pragmatic way. And this focus takes us to the next lesson …

Lesson 12: Concentration

Many people suffer from attention deficit disorders. New technologies and their multitasking processes give us a lot of information. Therefore, we divide our attention in several different places. The result? Poor work, lack of focus, a sense of information overload and a great sense of frustration.

The way out here is to train one’s mind for concentration. Increase your clarity of what is the next step to bring you closer to your defined primary goal. Use meditation techniques and the habit of dealing with only one thing at a time, with full focus.

Lesson 13: Cooperation

We want to associate with like-minded people to form a master mind. Moreover, we must understand that cooperation is the best way for personal and collective fulfillment.

This includes seeing competitors only as other components of the market, not as enemies. It means seeing employees not as mere employees, but as people who are collaborating to make the dream come true.

Cooperation must take place at all levels. Don’t just think about your self-interest. To be successful you must also think about the welfare of the people with whom you relate to.

Lesson 14: Failure

How can failure be one of the laws of success? It’s simple: all people who have conquered a great achievement in life have failed a few times before. Each failure is a valuable lesson to identify what doesn’t work in practice.

Failure must be seen as a great ally. Each time you fail, you find a way not to accomplish your goal. Keep doing this until you find the ideal path.

How many times would you let your child fall before giving up teaching him to walk? You have to allow him to fall a few times so that one day he will be able to walk on his own feet. You must fail as many times as necessary until you learn the path to success.

Lesson 15: Tolerance

Coping with failure requires a good deal of tolerance and patience. After all, we will have to deal with life’s adversities, other people’s limitations, and our own limitations.

You may have realized that there is no one in the world who can have everything under control. Things we want don’t happen. Things we don’t want happen. The key is to let go of wanting to control everything and have the tolerance to hit and miss until you get where you want, moving on.

Enjoy the entire journey, not just the accomplishment of the set main goal. Do not condition your happiness only at the moment of achievement of goals. This is condemning oneself to a sad life. As the road ahead will be long, we need to appreciate each step of the journey.

Lesson 16: The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is to do to others what you would want done to yourself. This lesson is used in most of the religions and philosophies of life ever created in the world. If The Golden Rule were really taken seriously by the majority, we would live a much better world.

You must understand that we are all one interdependent network. Thus, the idea of self as a distinct and independent thing is nothing but an illusion. This realization will assist in releasing various limiting beliefs. Treating other people as yourself is an important step towards this understanding.

By applying the golden rule, you get better partners, better employees, better customers. You become someone who really cares about others. And this is essential for associations, leadership, and even sales.

A plan to apply the 16 laws of triumph in your life

So far we have seen that there are sixteen laws that all successful people follow to achieve great achievements in life:

The question now is: what will you do with this knowledge in practice? Which of these sixteen characteristics do you already have in your life? And which ones do you need to work better?

The Law of Success is a book from 1928, but with lessons that in essence remain very current, which proves that the sixteen characteristics remain valid even today.

That’s why I wanted to invite you to make a plan to acquire these sixteen characteristics, to bring into your own life these habits and attitudes of successful people. With them, you can finally fulfill your potential and become the person you ultimately want to be.

If you really paid attention, you understood the importance of creating a life plan. The life plan is important as it is a tool to help you developing a vision of the future you want for yourself. In addition, the life plan transforms this vision into a definite primary aim, with goals, actions, and practical habits to bring this vision into the real world.

But it’s no use just having a plan. You also need to transform your mindset for the better. You need to develop true enthusiasm to pursue your dreams. You need self-control to act consistently until you reach your goals. Knowing how to deal with failure and tolerating your own mistakes is critical.

If you agree with these conclusions, so I invite you now to get to know the Planning Your Life course by taking a special lesson on how to discover your highest personal values. To see the class, simply go to this link and start today to draw up a life plan that will make your biggest dreams come true.