The Law of Success
The original sixteen-lesson course in personal achievement.
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This book is in the public domain. Download the PDF, or read it online at the source library.
About the book
Published in 1928, The Law of Success is Napoleon Hill's first major work and the fullest statement of the philosophy he spent decades developing. Across sixteen lessons it lays out the qualities Hill believed underpin achievement: a definite chief aim, self-confidence, initiative, imagination, enthusiasm, self-control, the habit of doing more than you are paid for, and — most famously — the "master mind," the coordinated effort of a group working toward a shared goal. Hill claimed the material grew out of years spent studying the most successful people of his age.
At several times the length of his later bestseller, this original course is more detailed and more explicitly structured, functioning almost like a self-study curriculum in personal effectiveness.
About the author
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) was an American author who became one of the most widely read writers on success and motivation. The Law of Success was the direct predecessor to his celebrated 1937 book Think and Grow Rich, and it introduced many of the principles that book would later condense for a mass audience.
Why it still matters
Much of the modern self-improvement and business-motivation genre traces back to Hill's framework of definite goals, disciplined habits and collaborative "master mind" thinking. Reading the 1928 original shows those ideas in their earliest and most complete form. Because this edition is in the public domain, the full sixteen-lesson course can be studied freely.