Think and Grow Rich!

South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated his throne in 1918 after Germany was defeated in World War I and went into exile in Holland, where he lived quietly until his death in 1942. In early 1917, Nicholas II, last czar of Russia, was forced to abdicate his throne. He was subsequently executed along with his family. Spain’s
Alfonso XIII was deposed in 1931 following a decade of political upheaval. He died in exile 10 years later.
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That means, of course, Hill was decades ahead of his time. He touted the value of the art of delegating long before it became a management buzzword.
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SELFISHNESS. Leaders who It is tempting to believe that Think and
Grow Rich! may have had some influence, director indirect, on Coach
Paul Bear Bryant (1913-1983), who led the University of Alabama to six national football titles and ended his career with 323 wins, only losses, and 17 ties. One of his most characteristic sayings—“When we win, the team did it when we lose, it was my fault”—is a virtual paraphrase of No. 6 here and No. 10 of the 11 Major Factors of
Leadership listed earlier. Bryant was 24 years old when Think and
Grow Rich! was first published.
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They must cease Newspapers today are certainly less organs of propaganda for advertisers than they used to be, but the scandal- mongering and lewd-picture papers are still thriving. “Eventually”
could mean a very long time.
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APPLICATION THROUGH Almost half a century ahead of the pack Hill was recommending that people master the art of networking.
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In the future, Some people will occasionally suggest that Think and
Grow Rich! is too materialistic, with its emphasis on wealth-building skills, and too self-centered, with its emphasis on self-reliance,
personal achievement, and getting ahead in the world. Such people fail to understand how spiritual and altruistic Hill’s philosophy of success is at heart. The Golden Rule holds immense significance for
Hill. In 1921 he began publishing, in Chicago, Napoleon Hill’s

Magazine, subtitled A National Monthly Magazine of Business
Philosophy” and selling fora quarter a copy. Here is its editorial policy. Note the positive, nondiscriminatory, inclusive, “inspirational”
nature of his remarks (men and women together…regardless of race or creed. rendering service which helps to ameliorate the hardships of humanity”)—all the more remarkable since he was writing decades before the civil rights or women’s movements would begin.
This Magazine is the outgrowth of an idea that found a
lodging in its editor’s mind more than twenty years ago;
namely, the belief that the GOLDEN RULE ought to become
the guiding star in all human relationships, and especially in
business, industry and commerce.
The sole object in publishing this magazine is to bring
men and women together in a spirit of closer co-operation,
regardless of race or creed, and cause them to realize the
award which awaits all who place principle above the dollar
and humanity above the individual to inspire those who
have not yet arrived and help them to realize that the
rainbow’s end can be found only by the pathway which leads
through the field of useful service to teach men and women
the uselessness and folly of hatred and envy and intolerance;
to bring men to realize that success lies not so much in
owning property, as in rendering service which helps to
ameliorate the hardships of humanity and deposits
something to the credit of posterity to find the secret
doorway to its readers hearts and plant wholesome thoughts
where destructive ones existed before.
This is not intended as a magazine of literary
supremacy. Its business is to get the message over…and its
editor is willing to sacrifice literary art for the sake of
reaching men’s hearts by a more forceful and direct route. In
the editor’s personal writings the pronoun I is used freely
because he writes mostly of that which he has felt and
experienced in his walk through the Valley of the Shadow,’

during these past twenty years, which is an explanation more
than it is an apology.
This magazine is in noway connected with any other
magazine using the Golden Rule name, a distinction that
should be clearly borne in mind.
At the bottom of the page upon which this policy appears is this statement No Wealth or Position Can Permanently Endure Unless
Founded Upon Truth and Justice In another place, an “EDITORS’
CREED” states Your editors pledge themselves, without reservation,
to the task of helping people seethe necessity of placing principle above the dollar and humanity above the selfish individual whose only object in life is to get without giving It is against a backdrop of such sentiments that Hill was busy conducting his research for Think and
Grow Rich, which he would publish 16 years later. As aside note, it is interesting that Stuart Austin Wier is listed as Associate Editor of
Napoleon Hill’s Magazine. For more information on Wier, seepage. (The last sentence above beginning This magazine is in noway connected refers to Hill’s Golden Rule magazine, which he launched in 1919, but lost control of in October 1920, when the publisher took full control in a heated dispute.)
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