Learn from the classic book of Success
“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.” — Napoleon Hill
Desire
Desire/Passion is crucial if you want to accomplish your dreams. Thomas Edison went through years, and over 10.000 failed experiments before he invented the working light bulb.
Many great writers first face innumerable rejections before they have a breakthrough. Fannie Hurst had to suffer 36 rejections before she could publish a story in a newspaper.
So the first question to ask is, are our desires strong enough.
Goals and planning
To accomplish your goals, you have to have concrete goals and plans. You need goals because otherwise, you don’t have a direction to move in. You need plans because otherwise, you wouldn’t know what concrete actions to take which will take you to your goals.
The first step is to write down your goals and your plan of achieving them. Writing down something forces you to think so that you can clearly define it. Then put your notes somewhere where you see it every day. Read it every morning and night.
Determination
Steadfastness is very important in the accomplishment of goals. An analysis of 25.000 life stories which failed to achieve professional success pointed at a lack of determination as the main reason.
Sometimes even stubbornness is useful. Henry Ford was known for his stubbornness. He insisted his engineers to keep working on a solution as long as necessary to accomplish the goal.
Have faith
The author emphasizes how every big historic achievement depended on faith. Faith is what leads people to start in the first place. If they hadn’t faith, new continents wouldn’t be discovered. Gandhi wouldn’t have defeated British colonialism in a peaceful manner, and Edison wouldn’t have invented electric light. Have unwavering faith that you can accomplish your goals.
Use auto-suggestion
Faith and many other traits are something not everyone has. Use auto-suggestion to get them. Design affirmations to and repeat them whenever you feel doubts or whenever you want to reinforce a quality.
Become a constant learning machine
Getting a formal degree won’t do the job, in fact, much “uneducated people” have become successful and rich. One example is Henry Ford. Ford knew that he didn’t have to know all the facts, it was enough that he knew whom to ask.
Know where to get the information and keep learning through whatever means possible. Take courses, read books, find mentors, attend university, but most importantly, make learning a daily habit.
Know thyself
To fix common reasons for failure, like lack of resolving, procrastination, etc., you need to have sufficient self-awareness so that you take the actions against these weaknesses.
A good way to perform such a self-analysis is by honestly answering a variety of questions like: Why haven’t I achieved my goal? Have I fixed my procrastination issue?
Positive emotions
To accomplish positive outcomes, we have to think positively or “feed” positive things to our subconscious mind. Increase positive impulses such as love and enthusiasm.
Personal remark: This book is a classic and contains very useful advice as well as some weird parts, but as always in life, it is useful to sort out the good stuff. The author dedicated a big part of his life to the study of success. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in the topic.