The Story of Napoleon Hill

The greatest achievers say that in a lifetime of setbacks and comebacks, the truest sense of accomplishment is not found in the realization of the goal, but rather in the will to continue when failure breeds doubt.

And so it was in 1927 when 44-year-old Napoleon Hill tried challenging himself to action. He struggled to shake off the living death that had enveloped him for more than a year and left him wondering whether to fall quietly into the abyss or rise again.

An assassination attempt in July 1926 had failed, but the fear it had instilled in him had been all encompassing, paralyzing him both physically and mentally. He had met disappointment and failure before and brushed them aside, racing furiously after the rainbow that he was certain would lead him to untold success. But this time, the man who had been in constant motion all his life found himself at a complete standstill.

Appalachian Childhood

Oliver Napoleon Hill was born in Wise County, Va., on Oct. 26, 1883. For young Napoleon, the wealthy industrialists he came to admire in later years were far removed from this primitive land where poverty, illiteracy and superstition reigned.

Nap, as he was called, was 10 when his mother passed away, leaving his father to care for him and his brother. James Hill was ill-equipped as a single parent and had difficulty in taming his sons increasingly wild nature. Napoleon was enamored with the outlaw Jesse James, carried a six-shooter on his hip and went about the county terrorizing its citizens.

But James Hill soon remarried, and his new wife Martha quickly established herself as a force in the two-room log cabin. Napoleon, still pained from the loss of his mother, found a guiding light. Martha saw the boys potential and encouraged him. She told him he wasnt a bad boy, and that he just needed to direct his energy toward accomplishing something worthwhile.

She suggested he use his overactive imagination to become a writer. When he welcomed the idea, the well-educated Martha spent the next year tutoring him. She promised to buy him a typewriter if he gave up his six-shooter. If you become as good with a typewriter as you are with that gun, she said, you may become rich and famous and known throughout the world. Napoleon agreed to the deal.

The Hand of Destiny

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The Story of Napoleon Hill - SUCCESS magazine