The Law Of Success by Napoleon Hill Summary

Lesson #1: Learn to control your mind; otherwise, you will unsuccessfully live your entire life in fear.

You are the real master of your mind.

But people live their whole lives in fear of losing what they have acquired. For instance, people fear losing status and wealth.

These fears exist for many reasons.

Most of them exist for hereditary reasons.

Our goal is to identify the fears that do us the most damage.

These fears are not very clearly visible, as they are hidden behind our actions.

This is why most people don’t even realize that their fears are controlling their lives.

To become the masters of our own minds, we have to take control back and become fearless.

There are six common and very dangerous fears that run our lives.

The first fear is “The Fear of Poverty.”

Nature is very competitive. It follows the rule of “The Survival of the Fittest.”

Strong people prey on weak people.

It’s the same thing that happens in the jungle. Physically stronger animals prey on smaller animals who are physically weaker.

Humans don’t like to call themselves animals. We think we are special. So these days, we avoid physical battles. But still, people fight using their soft power. Using the power of thought, they prey on other humans who have less intellectual capabilities.

For example, rich people will keep poor people poor so that they can hold a higher position in the social hierarchy.

Fear of poverty exists because if you are financially weak, your survival on this planet will become difficult.

The second fear is “The Fear of Old Age.”

Old age brings poverty and physical weakness. So no wonder it’s one of the biggest fears of humankind.

The third fear is “The fear of ill health.”

Health makes you physically weak.

Plus, if you’re not healthy, a lot of your wealth will be wasted on improving your health.

Nature gives us this fear so that we do something and live longer.

The fourth fear is “The fear of losing love.”

This fear exists because of hereditary reasons. Nature wants us to find a mate and reproduce. So if there is no fear of losing the love of someone, we won’t spend time finding a mate. Also, we fear because there is always a chance that a stronger animal will steal your mate from you.

The fifth fear is “The Fear of Criticism.”

Have you seen that if you wear something that is not accepted by others, you will be judged harshly? And then you will develop insecurity, or the fear of being judged or criticized.

The fear of criticism exists for social hereditary reasons.

People who are more socially acceptable have higher chances of survival and are more likely to gain status and wealth, which are connected with survival.

The sixth fear is “The fear of death.”

This is the most dangerous one. We all live with it, and it scares us so much that we avoid talking about it.

Now that you have understood the six basic fears, your goal is to slowly work on yourself and reduce the effect these fears have on you and your life.

Lesson #2: Set an objective and believe that you can achieve it.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

But it is the first step to success.

Most people set objectives but never take them seriously.

Why? It doesn’t make sense, right?

That’s because, although they set objectives, they don’t have enough self-confidence or belief in themselves to achieve them.

The first step is to realize that you have the ability to achieve your purpose or goals.

When you tell yourself that you can achieve something, you use the power of autosuggestion, which means whatever affirmations you repeat, they eventually turn into your beliefs, and those beliefs later show up in your actions.

We are all driven by our desires.

Whatever thoughts and desires we hold in our minds express themselves in our day-to-day reality in many ways.

Note that this only works when you have a clear map for whatever you want to achieve. If you are not clear about your goals, it’s better to write them down.

To sum this up, you need to have clarity in your vision and also have enough self-confidence to take the action necessary to achieve your objectives.

Lesson #3: Learn the habit of saving.

We are bombarded with the message that we have to live like successful people.

But to live like them, you have to first become successful.

And you don’t become successful with bad habits.

One of the worst habits you can have is spending more money than you earn.

Those who don’t save, don’t get rich.

This is why learning the habit of saving money is important.

At the same time, you have to increase your earnings.

If you are only good at saving but your earnings are low, saving money alone won’t help you much.

You have to operate with the mindset of abundance.

Most people save money with a mindset of scarcity or with a fear of poverty.

This is why the above lessons are important.

You must have the self-confidence within yourself to be successful. And you must know how to control your mind so that it doesn’t blindly follow your fears and desires.

A lot of people say that money is not important. But it’s not true.

Poverty can kill ambition.

You perform your best when you are in abundance.

Many people live in debt and don’t save money. Thus, they live miserably.

Why do they fall into debt in the first place? Because they develop the bad habit of relying on other people’s money and lack belief in themselves that they can make their own money.

So they mindlessly keep taking on debt and spending it on luxuries.

Kindly note that debts can also be helpful if a mindful, rich businessman is taking them. But for most people, it’s a bad habit and should be avoided.

If someone is already in poverty, they should not live beyond their means and try to save money.

The trick is to save before you spend. Avoid the opposite.

Lesson #4: Learn to take small initiatives and lead people in the right direction.

Leadership is not just about getting to the top.

It’s more of a service to the people.

People today want to become leaders not because they want to give service to other people, they do it make more money.

And this is why we see that today the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.

Most leaders today are selfish and don’t believe in taking good initiatives.

One of the most important qualities a leader must learn is to take initiative and also learn how to convince others to take intiatives.

These days, anybody with some followers can call themselves a leader. But most of them are bad leaders. They don’t lead their followers in the right direction.

Merely making some followers is not leadership.

A leader must possess great qualities.

For example, a leader must seek truth and justice. A leader must know how to cooperate and make people do what’s good for them.

Furthermore, leadership comes at a cost.

Not everyone will like you or be sweet to you.

People will be jealous of you and try to talk badly behind your back.

If something goes wrong under your leadership, all the blame will be on you.

Lesson #5: Try to bring enthusiasm and love to your work.

Enthusiasm is the driving force that impels you to take action.

Imagine a machine without power.

That’s what we become when we do something without enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm isn’t just excitement. It’s a different state of mind.

You can clearly tell the difference when a person is working enthusiastically.

Your productivity increases when you have more energy to do work. You produce high quality output.

On the other side, when you are not working enthusiastically, you feel tired after completing your work.

Enthusiasm comes naturally when you do something you like the most.

But if you are someone for whom enthusiasm doesn’t come naturally, then you must learn how to acquire it.

Yes, it’s possible to do so.

That’s because enthusiasm is a state of mind.

Let’s say you are doing boring work that you don’t like.

You can still arouse some enthusiasm by looking at the good parts of the work.

In the worst case, you can feel enthusiastic about finishing the work and finally doing what you like. Getting rid of the work you don’t like and getting it done as soon as possible can also be a motivating factor in your success.

You can think about how that tough journey can help you become a better person and develop your character.

When you think this way, you are naturally enthusiastic about your growth and not just concerned about whether work is enjoyable or boring.

If you are willing to work more than what you are paid for, then you will never face issues with loving your work.

The author says that “work that one does merely for the sake of earning a living is seldom liked. More often, it is disliked, or even hated.”

Lesson #6: Try to become an attractive personality and increase your chances of success.

When we think about personality, what first comes to mind?

Most people associate looks and other superficial things with personality.

But that’s not the true representation of personality.

A person’s personality can always be fabricated.

It might attract people in the short term, but over time, that attraction will fade.

The reason is that an attractive personality isn’t just based on looks. It’s based on character.

A person may be wearing attractive clothes, but they may still lack good character. This means their personality is weak.

We are being conditioned to think that looks are everything.

Yes, good looks give you an edge when you make a good first impression. But as soon as people learn about you more and more, they notice that you are not that cool as a person.

Your character must shine more than your clothes.

Your personality is the collective sum of what you think, what you do, what you believe in, what principles you follow, how you present yourself in front of others, etc.

It’s not just about wearing expensive clothes and flexing wealth. If you find someone doing this, just know that they might be rich externally, but internally they are still poor.

The problem is that character is judged correctly when you have deep knowledge of human psychology.

So we often have to rely on little cues to assess a person’s true personality.

If your true personality is strong and magnetic, you will notice that people will be more drawn towards you.

Lesson #7: Learn the art of cooperation to realize the power of organized effort.

We have heard that the road to success is lonely.

Yes, it could be lonely at times, but as you level up, you have to learn how to cooperate with other people and achieve bigger goals.

But this isn’t the only type of cooperation.

There are actually 2 types of cooperations:

The other type of cooperation is the one that happens between our conscious and subconscious minds.

The conscious mind involves all the things you are currently aware of or thinking about.

It’s has a limited capacity. It has a short term memory. In simple terms, you might not remember what you are thinking right in the future.

On the other hand, the subconscious is made of things that we might not be aware of in the present moment. But we can bring it into our conscious mind by thinking about it.

So, you see, there is some kind of connection between the conscious and subconscious minds.

To truly understand the organized effort, you must understand how humans use their minds.

If you yourself are not good at cooperating between your both the minds, you will not be able to cooperate with other people, who most of the time, themselves are not very aware.

If you want to influence people and collaborate with them on larger goals, you must know how to impress ideas on other minds.

To truly impress an idea in the mind, it has to sink deep into the subconscious mind.

People who have less awareness and don’t do self-talk don’t understand how the subconscious mind works. Thus, they also fail to impress other people.

In modern times, you can’t be successful by yourself. You must learn how to cooperate and form alliances.

A cooperative effort produces power. Just observe how most powerful people today are good at organized and cooperative work.

For example, a businessman might not be the best man for the job, but because he understands the law of cooperation, he can use this power and build wealth.