Mr. Napoleon Hill
Well alright…We are back!
A couple of days ago I did a post on applying the Law of Success! To check out part 1 Click Here! In part 1 of this series we covered the principals of the Master Mind, creating your Definite Purpose and we touched on the concept of Auto-suggestion.
Today as promised we are going to jump in with part 2!
But before I do, I just want to do a quick review of the Law of Success!
The Law of Success is a book by Napoleon Hill. It was original published as a 3 volume series and was considered to Hill’s definitive book on achieving success and wealth! Having read many of Hills other books, I can certainly agree that it is his most in depth book on his success formula.
In my opinion you should read all of Hill’s books. They are that good. My wife and I have made Think and Grow Rich mandatory reading for our kids. Now if we could just get the schools to follow suite. Probably not but hey you never know…
The 6 Fears or Most Dangerous Enemies
In most of Hill’s works he talks about the 6 Basic Fears that must be mastered before you can achieve any kind of real success. These are the 6 Fears he is referring to.
1) The Fear of Poverty
2) The Fear of Old Age
3) The Fear of Ill Health
4) The Fear of Loss of Love
5) The Fear of Criticism
6) The Fear of Death
Hill claims that every man is afraid of something and we must determine how to conquer them.
Keep in mind that Hill wrote this back in the 1920′s. Psychology was still in its infant stages. Conventional therapy as we know it now did not exist. Therefore Hill did not tell us to seek counseling or medication in order for us to master our fears.
In the 1920′s men were still men and did things for themselves. Hill suggested studying these Fears to better understand their causes and dealing with them on our own. It was his belief that most of our Fears were inherited, meaning they had some kind of external cause.
In short our Fears became something that we could master by using our minds through the power of auto-suggestion.
The Fear of Poverty
Hill perceived the Fear of Poverty to be one of the most destructive fears and in my opinion rightly so.
Poverty is something that many of us are born into. But there are many who start down the road of poverty of their own freewill. Hill compares this to our habits. Not just our physical habits but our mental or psychological habits.
In the case of poverty our habits may consist of spending more than we make. This amounts to the habit of buying. A new car as a status symbol. Clothes. The newest cell phone or ipad. We spend tons of money on entertaining ourselves which weakens our minds. Oh and most of this spending beyond our means is done on credit. Store credit. Credit cards. Dealership credit.
Sooner or later though it all catches up with us. Then we have bill collectors calling at all hours of the day. We get further in debt borrowing more money only to pay the high interest on one credit card with another. We fight with our spouse over money. We start telling ourselves we will never amount to anything. Everyone and everything seems to confirm our worst fears.
Debt is nothing more than another form of slavery. In the end it robs us of everything. Not just our material possessions but our minds, body and soul.
It should go without saying that businesses that develop the habit of over spending are just as doomed. They will eventually Fail just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.
Breaking the Chains of Debt
According to Hill two thing need to happen in order to get out of debt and defeat the fear of poverty.
1) Quit Buying On Credit
By doing this you are starting to solve many of your financial problem. You stop your debt from growing larger and destroying yourself quicker. Slowly if you stick with this consistently your debt will start to get smaller!
This will also help you start to break the habit of spending. You will start asking questions like, “Do I really need this?” or “Am I able to get this without using credit to get it?” You will be more conscientious of your money and gain more control over it.
2) Start SAVING Money
This one is HUGE! I want to ask you how much money you have saved right now. If your like most of us it is very little if anything. Why is that? Here are a few reasons.
We like to rationalize and make excuse for everything. I hear this all the time, “we are living paycheck to paycheck”. Here’s the thing they probably are but there has to be a way to save something. Maybe you are paying $8 a month for Netflix. Tell you what. If you were to save that $8 a month at the end of the year you would have $96. Maybe you are paying another $18 a month for your movie channel package. What if you canceled that too and put the money in a savings account. At the end of year one you would have $312. After 5 years you would have $1560. Keep in mind these numbers do not reflect the interest that you would be generating so it would actually be more.
Hill says that no one will ever achieve success without developing the habit of saving money. This is crucial. The more money that you save the better attitude you will have. You become more confident in yourself. You will find more opportunities to make more money and the whole process snowballs.
I’m not saying that money is everything. It’s not. But make no mistake about it. Money is power and all of us need to have it.
Keep in mind that there is no set amount that you have to start saving. Hill does recommend 15-20 percent of your total income. I see that as more of a goal than a starting point. Start from where ever your at and go from there even if it is just $5 a month. You will be way ahead of he game if you get started now rather than 5 years from now. So just do it!
Don’t just take my word for it though. Do yourself a huge favor and read The Law of Success for yourself. I DARE you. Or if you don’t like reading get the audio book version and listen to it.
Another great book that you should read on saving money is “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason. In fact read it over and over again until you develop the habit of saving money.
As always love to see what you think or have to add on The Law of Success! Shoot us a comment!
WANT TO ADD SOMETHING
AGREE? DISAGREE?
P.S. Don’t Forget! To check out part 1 Click Here!
