Posts Tagged ‘Napoleon’
Are you Dreamer or an Achiever?
In the 1920′s and 30′s, a young journalist called Napoleon Hill, interviewed 500 of the most successful people in America. He found that people who create success have many things in common. These are some of them as described in his best-selling book, “Think and Grow Rich”
- Decide what you want. Desire is the starting point of all achievement. Desire is a crazy mad emotion that you absolutely have to satisfy, not a rational reasoned argument for doing something.
- Believe that you can get what you want. Self doubt will prevent you from taking action. No-one is born with a sense of what they can’t do. Limiting beliefs are learned and they can and must be unlearned. It is usually easier to overcome other people’s judgements than our own.
- You don’t have to do it all yourself. As Mother Teresa famously told Bob Geldof, “I can’t do what you do and you can’t do what I do but together we can change the world.” Surround yourself with people who can do what you can’t and who respect you for what you can do. Start or join a MasterMind Group with like minded people.
- Make practical use your imagination. Work out how to turn your dreams into reality. Everything, everything, starts out as an idea. Ideas are the beginning point of all achievement but they need to be harnessed into practical action.
- Create a plan, organise your ideas and take continuous action. Most people put more effort into planning a holiday than planning their life. Successful people don’t just react to things that happen to them, they question whether something will take them closer to their goal before acting on it or rejecting it.
- Avoid procrastination and make decisions. The ability to make decisions comes back to understanding exactly what it is that you want, to the burning desire and definite purpose that underpins all achievement. Successful people in all walks of life decide quickly and firmly and the world has a habit of making room for the person who knows where they are going and why.
- Persist. Things will go wrong, people will let you down. If your desire is strong enough you will find a way through all difficulties to achieve your desire. Don’t keep doing the same things and expecting different results. Find different ways to achieve your goals. Paulo Coelho was committed to a mental asylum by his parents three times and subjected to electro-convulsive therapy because they thought he must be mad to want to become a writer instead of a lawyer. He persisted and his book, The Alchemist, sold over 40 million copies.
- Aquire power and learn how to use it. The ability to lead others in a spirit of harmony to achieve a definite objective is a major source of success but successful people say that personal power and self mastery are most important.
- Understand that sex is the most powerful of human desires. When this desire is harnessed into a creative process it can be the source of genius. It can also be a huge temptation and has destroyed many great people. Successful people say that they are able to transmute its power into a creative force that helps them to produce and action ideas that in many instances makes their fortunes.
- Learn to use the power of the subconscious mind. Everything we have ever experienced is kept in the vast storehouse of our sub-conscious. It can work for or against us but when we learn how to harness this power it makes us unstoppable. What we think of the world and ourselves makes us not only who we are but who we can be.
- Develop and learn to trust the ‘sixth sense’. Intuition can help us to avoid dangers and grasp opportunities. Intuition is part of our nature and many successful people admit that intuition is a big part of their success including Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson and even Bill Gates. Einstein and Edison described their creative process as having original ideas that didn’t come from the rational foundation of the mind. Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, says, ‘The intuitive mind tells the logical mind where to look next.’
- Deal with fear, the major obstacle to achievement. Almost every feeling of fear we experience is as the result of an IMAGINED situation, not a real one. In almost every case, the imagined situation that we most fear never happens. When a situation that we had feared actually materialised, most of us deal with it without any real consequences. The only thing holding most people back is their own imagination!
Is it ever too late to do the things you once dreamed of doing?
Mary Wesley, best-selling author, took up writing at 70
Charles Darwin’s first book wasn’t published until he was in his 50’s
Colonel Sanders was in this 60’s when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken
Ray Kroc was in his 50’s when he launched McDonalds
Agatha Christie was 62 when she wrote The Mousetrap
Julia Child was 50 before she took up cooking professionally
Benjamin Franklin was 78 when he invented bifocals.
Life expectancy has doubled in the last 100 years. There is no longer an official retirement age. If you go to college at 40 and qualify at 45 you could still have half your life left to work at what you love. It’s never too late to become an achiever instead of a dreamer!
How to be Unique in Business

Creativity test by Paul Lane http://designsavvy.co.uk
To be unique in business you just need a good idea!
Where do good ideas come from?
Some people are creative and some people aren’t, right?
Look, we can prove it:
Put your palms together, interlace your fingers, note which thumb is on top.
If your left thumb is on top of the right one you are very creative.
If the right one is on top you aren’t. Do you believe that?
The exercise above is a complete lie. It’s just made up.
Everyone is born equally creative but the older we get and the more schooling we have, the more we believe we are either academic or creative but rarely both.
This isn’t a fault with us. It’s a fault with the system of education in most western cultures. The system is still based on the 19th Century requirement for factory fodder which needed people to do as they are told, start and end work in response to a whistle or bell, not talk to each other or collaborate and accept a judgement on their aptitudes and abilities based on a very narrow set of tests.
How do you think a child feels when they are told at school that they’re not very good at drawing, or singing or playing an instrument? Mostly they believe it. They often believe it for the rest of their lives.
Creativity is most often associated with the arts but scientists and engineers are amongst the most creative and innovative people in the world and yet most education systems segregate the arts from the sciences so that students have to choose to be one or the other.
The work of Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein and Mozart all display a mix of art and science and are designated ‘genius’.
“Most great achievers are practical dreamers” said Napoleon Hill in 1937 after interviewing 500 amazingly successful people. So why do we tell our children and our staff to stop daydreaming and get on with what they are ‘told’ to do? Do you believe that you are creative? Or do you believe that you aren’t? To paraphrase Henry Ford, whatever you believe, you’re probably right.
Lots of things could be open to you that you believe might not be.
What does this mean for you if you are running a business?

Good ideas by Paul Lane http://designsavvy.co.uk
Everyone wants their business to stand out from the crowd, to be noticed, to attract customers but how do you do this if your business is basically the same as your competitors?
Telling everyone about your great customer service doesn’t work. It’s what they expect.
Telling them you are passionate about what you do doesn’t work. Who cares except you?
Your products, your packaging or your pricing could be unique for a while but if they’re any good they’ll be copied.
Being unique is more than having a USP.
There are some great examples of people who have used their own unique style to stand out from the crowd:
The Wine Critic
Gary Vaynerchuck increased the turnover of his family business by several million dollars by recording wine reviews on YouTube. His brash, straight talking style was so different to the elite mystique of the wine world that he stood out a mile just by being himself.
The Chef
In a world of bullying, egotistical chefs braying about ‘classical training’, young Jamie Oliver, an Essex lad to the core, scruffy, almost inarticulate and severely dyslexic made good, uncomplicated cooking available to millions of people. His vulnerability, curiosity and ability to connect to people through a shared delight in food has revealed a young man of exceptional values, who has grown into a great role and a powerful campaigner for social change. 
The Accountant
Accountancy isn’t usually associated with fun but if you were to meet Kelly Anstee, a beautiful young woman who likes to party and who also happens to be an accountant, you might take another view of this world. Kelly connects with people on Facebook and Twitter by talking about music, parties and social gatherings as well as her work. The warmth of her personality shines and the referrals come tumbling in. Her employers at Tyrrell and Company in Cambridge are savvy enough to encourage her to just be herself and don’t try and make her fit the mould of traditional accountant and so everybody wins.
The Professional Speaker
The presentation that inspired this article was given by profession speaker, Ayd Instone. There are many thousands of motivational speakers in the world with slick PowerPoint presentations, a holier than thou attitude and a slew of improving proverbs but Ayd’s performance is unique because he doesn’t preach, he sings. He doesn’t borrow tired aphorisms, he writes his own thought provoking songs. Most importantly, he teaches creativity by being creative and does it all with a light touch that brings laughter and fun to his audience.
Innovation and creativity are often thought to be the result of a ‘eureka’ moment but they can also be the result of a ‘slow hunch’ that takes time and the right circumstances to develop. Finding the right people with whom to collaborate, regularly seeking ways to be inspired, being open to new ideas, taking time out for ‘re-creation’ are all proven ways of increasing creativity.
Making ‘space’ for creativity is important
This is increasingly being recognised as so important that a number of innovative ideas are growing to accommodate it, one of which is called a ‘jelly’.
It’s an informal gathering of people who usually work alone who come together with no agenda, just to see who they meet and what’s going on. There is no obligation to talk to anyone or share anything but just being in a collaborative space can be very inspiring. There’s a great example of this at CamJelly at Ideas Space in Cambridge. Contact Alistair Paterson for more information
Ayd Instone asks these questions:
- How can YOU be more innovative and imaginative to create a better future?
- What untapped resources do you have, linked to your own uniqueness?
- What great ideas are lurking just our of your conscious reach?
Share your thoughts with us, add to the discussion, be creative!
Power – the essential ingredient for success

Photo by Adam Hawkins http://anodizeproductions.com
At our monthly events we’re following the Steps to Success as outlined by Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich.
I asked for ideas and thoughts on the positive uses of power in business and especially how it can be used to create harmony and achieve common goals.
A further thought:
“I have a 16 year old Son – 70 years ago he would have been called up (as my Father was).
How to master procrastination and make decisions

Why making decisions is crucial to success
The procrastination I’m talking about is not about putting things off but rather about not making decisions. Until a decision is taken no action is possible and it the lack of action that causes most failures. Procrastination is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree or another. While it can be a minor irritation for some people it a source of considerable stress and anxiety for others.
Procrastination is sometimes confused with time management but this is not really the issue.
An analysis of over 25,000 people who had experienced some kind of failure revealed that the inability to make decisions was near the top of the list of reasons. (Napoleon Hill ‘Think and Grow Rich’)
Henry Ford was renowned for attributing his success to his ability to make decisions quickly and stick to them, often despite fierce opposition from his advisors.
Are you easily swayed by others?
If you find you are easily swayed by the opinions of others and constantly change your mind because you are afraid of what others might say or think about you, procrastination will cripple you and stop you from making a decision and more importantly, from taking action. The ability to make decisions comes back to understanding exactly what it is that you want, to the burning desire and definite purpose that underpins all achievement.
Leaders in all walks of life decide quickly and firmly and the world has a habit of making room for the person who knows where they are going and why.
Have you worked out how you make decisions?
Do you work from logic, from gut instinct or do you take advice from others? Recent studies have shown that decision making can be affected by our prejudices, our past experience and even our surroundings.
However, the reason that most people put off making a decision is the fear of getting it WRONG.
Procrastination leads to inaction. Inaction leads to failure. Failure leads to loss of confidence which make it hard to make decisions. The only way out of this loop is to have courage, make a decision in the full knowledge that whatever happens you will deal with it and remember that most fears are about things that never happen.
Steps to Success
(Inspired by Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”)
1. Decide what you want. Desire is the starting point of all achievement.
2. Believe that you can get what you want. Self doubt will prevent you from taking action.
3. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Surround yourself with people who know what you don’t know and who can do what you can’t do.
4. Make practical use your imagination. Work out how to turn your dreams into reality.
5. Create a plan, organise your ideas and take continuous action.
6. Avoid procrastination and make decisions. Use information and knowledge from others but let the decisions be your own.
7. Persist. Things will go wrong, people will let you down. If your desire is strong enough you will find a way through all difficulties to achieve your desire.
8. Aquire power and learn how to use it. The ability to lead others in a spirit of harmony to achieve a definite objective is a major source of success.
9. Understand that sex is the most powerful of human desires. When this desire is harnessed into a creative process it can be the source of genius.
10. Learn to use the power of the subconscious mind which can work for or against you but which can be controlled.
11. Develop and learn to trust the ‘sixth sense’. Intuition can help us to avoid dangers and grasp opportunities.
12. Deal with fear, the major obstacle to achievement.
Join us at our next event for more Inspirational Ideas
Putting Desire into Action

Here are the pictures from the event
According to Napoleon Hill ‘Desire is the starting point of all achievement’. Bob Garbett takes it one step further and says ‘Desire is nothing without passion’.
Passion was in evidence in every word of Bob’s presentation as he explained how his military training is easily translated into taking action to get a business idea working.
His main points are:
*If you aren’t passionate about what you’re doing – do something else. He describes passion as a crazy mad emotion that you absolutely have to satisfy, not a rational reasoned argument for doing something.
*Aim for complete success – why would you settle for anything less?
*Don’t do it for the money.
*Don’t listen to reason, just the facts. There will always be people who tell you it can’t be done and why – you may even tell yourself this but if the facts add up and you’re passionate enough you’ll make it happen.
*Make decisions not deliberations. Don’t spend so much time weighing up the pros and cons that you drive yourself mad. Just get on with it.
*Never give up. You may need to find a way around obstacles or take a different route but keep going until you get there.
*Think fast and move fast. Don’t look back in ten years time and wonder why you didn’t get anywhere.
*Manage the risk. What will you need or risk in terms of money/ getting the right team/ the right environment?
*Just do it. We regret the things we didn’t do more than the things we do.
*Follow through. It will get rough, you will get criticism, you will fail occasionally, but if you follow through you cannot FAIL.
Inspired events are very different and very special – join us at the next one on November 18th when Andy Gibney will be talking about“How to Master Procrastination and Overcome Obstacles”
Putting Desire into Action
Some people make things happen, some people watch what happens and others sit and wonder what the hell happened
Having good ideas and a strong vision is not enough. Organised planning is the key to taking the right action that will bring the right results. Many people have a desire to achieve great things but the key steps to this achievement involve putting into practice true leadership skills so that other people buy into your vision and help you to achieve it.
This is just one of the steps to success – the others are outlined below. You can read more in other posts here and join a dynamic group of business owners as they put them into action.
http://theinspiredgroup.com/inspired-events/
Steps to Success
(Inspired by Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”)
1. Decide what you want. Desire is the starting point of all achievement.
2. Believe that you can get what you want. Self doubt will prevent you from taking action.
3. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Surround yourself with people who know what you don’t know and who can do what you can’t do.
4. Make practical use your imagination. Work out how to turn your dreams into reality.
5. Create a plan, organise your ideas and take continuous action.
6. Avoid procrastination and make decisions. Use information and knowledge from others but let the decisions be your own.
7. Persist. Things will go wrong, people will let you down. If your desire is strong enough you will find a way through all difficulties to achieve your desire.
8. Aquire power and learn how to use it. The ability to lead others in a spirit of harmony to achieve a definite objective is a major source of success.
9. Understand that sex is the most powerful of human desires. When this desire is harnessed into a creative process it can be the source of genius.
10. Learn to use the power of the subconscious mind which can work for or against you but which can be controlled.
11. Develop and learn to trust the ‘sixth sense’. Intuition can help us to avoid dangers and grasp opportunities.
12. Deal with fear, the major obstacle to achievement.
Join us at our next event on October 14th when keynote speaker
Bob Garbett, military veteran, MD of RMIS Ltd and Founder of O4RB brings his own brand of leadership skills, military and business experience together in a riveting talk that explains why some people make things happen while others are still wondering what to do.
http://theinspiredgroup.com/inspired-events/
Influencing the subconscious

What an inspiring night! To me, what made a huge impact were all the possibilities in terms of personal development that were expressed in Sanjay’s talk. The networking was great, but this profound understanding of the human mind by Sanjay and Billy was very impressive. I took a lot of lessons home, and I’ve decided to start applying them right now! :o) Marie Luccetta www.e-translationservices.com
Look below the surface – you’ll be amazed at what you find!
Napoleon Hill suggested that one of the things that successful people do is use their imagination to create a belief that they can have what they desire and to communicate between the conscious the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is protected – which is usually a good thing as it contains all the things we have ever learned and we wouldn’t want to have to re-learn most of them. However, it also contains less useful things that may stop us from achieving all that we might otherwise be capable of. Fear of failure, of taking risks, of criticism, of losing, of being thought pushy or arrogant or proud are all stored there along with beliefs about whether we are entitled to expect, or deserve, more than we already have.
Anything that comes to us through our five senses is unlikely to affect the subconscious so how do we reach and change those things that are not useful to us?
Hill suggests (long before NLP was invented) that in order to create the belief that we can have something we must imbue it with emotion, imagine that we already have it and create the experience of already having it.
Vividly imagine having whatever it is you desire and experience how that will feel and what you will see, hear, taste and smell. The emotions and physical reactions caused by these thoughts are generated internally rather than coming to us externally through our senses (and could be described as non-sense) and so are more likely to escape the gatekeeper of the subconscious mind.
The subconscious has no critical faculty. It doesn’t decide whether a thought is good or bad, useful or destructive and so once the thought is lodged there it can be useful as a new belief enabling us to do things we previously thought impossible.
There has been vigorous research into how emotions cause physical reactions, how physical sensations trigger emotions and how both emotions and physical reactions can be produced by thought alone. Belief may not move mountains but it can remove limitations and control physical experiences.
Our speaker on the third part of Napoleon Hill’s Steps to Success was Sanjay Shah. Sanjay offers a quick route to change by employing NLP, firewalking, Enneagram analysis and emotional freedom techniques, all of which are based on this psychology.
One of the most popular sayings arising from these theories is that “Thoughts Become Things” and while it is undoubtedly true that this can be the case, it can also be too simplistic. I have seen already distressed people puzzled and hurt at the implication that they have brought misfortune on themselves because their thoughts are not positive enough. Moreover, if we all got what we focused on most of the time, teenage boys would live in a constant state of bliss!
However, that doesn’t change the fact that we are still discovering amazing things about the power of the mind and by using it to create useful thoughts and emotions there is no doubt that we can make life easier and more satisfying.
For more information on Sanjay’s work see www.pslifecanbeeasy.com
Our next speaker, on July 15th is Dr Michael Sanderson, CEO of 1Spatial.com http://annhawkins.com/inspirational-events/
Here are the pictures from the June event: http://tinyurl.com/m49cxr
WONDERFUL evening.Very much enjoyed, and learned/cemented a lot of useful practical information. Great motivation. Also networked bringing me contacts not only for the Lady Florence River Cruise Restaurant, but also giving me contacts for computer systems, possible franchising etc. Compliments to the chef also.An evening that had so much to offer and well worth the three hour drive from the coast. MANY THANKS. John Haresnapewww.lady-florence.co.uk
Desire is the Starting Point
The first lesson in Napoleon Hill’s 13 proven steps to riches is that Desire is the starting point of all achievement. He also said this:
You must have a definite major purpose – do you want money, fame, power, contentment, personality, peace of mind, happiness or something else?
You must know what you want, what you will give to get it and a definite plan and time by which you will get it.
All earned riches have their beginning in an idea.
Opportunity often comes in a different form to the one we might have been expecting.
When one is truly ready for a thing it puts in an appearance.
Disappointments and difficulties do not turn aside true desire.







Writing at the end of the Great Depression, Napoleon Hill suggests that most people have six basic fears. They are: fear of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age and death.

