48 Facts About Napoleon Hill

Oliver Napoleon Hill was an American self-help author.

Napoleon Hill is best known for his book Think and Grow Rich, which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time.

Napoleon Hill was born in a one-room cabin near the Appalachian town of Pound in southwest Virginia.

Napoleon Hill's parents were James Monroe Hill and Sarah Sylvania, and he was the grandson of James Madison Hill and Elizabeth.

Napoleon Hill's grandfather came to the United States from England and settled in southwestern Virginia in 1847.

Napoleon Hill's father was a dentist, at first unofficially and then with a license.

Napoleon Hill's mother died when he was nine years old, and his father remarried two years later to Martha.

At the age of seventeen, Napoleon Hill graduated from high school and moved to Tazewell, Virginia, to attend business school.

In 1901, Hill accepted a job working for the lawyer Rufus A Ayers, a coal magnate and former Virginia attorney general.

Author Richard Lingeman wrote that Napoleon Hill received this job after arranging to keep confidential the death of a black bellhop whom the previous manager of the mine had accidentally shot while drunk.

Napoleon Hill left his coal mine management job soon afterward and enrolled in law school before withdrawing owing to a lack of funds.

In 1903, Napoleon Hill married for the second time to Edith Whitman; in 1905 their child Edith Whitman Napoleon Hill was born.

Napoleon Hill relocated to Mobile, Alabama, in 1907 and co-founded the Acree-Napoleon Hill Lumber Company.

Napoleon Hill subsequently moved to Chicago and accepted a job with the La Salle Extension University, before co-founding the Betsy Ross Candy Shop.

Napoleon Hill was forced out of the candy shop by his partners and had left La Salle within a year of starting.

In 1917, Napoleon Hill threatened the Illinois Central Railroad with a lawsuit due to low lighting in their cars allegedly making him need glasses.

Napoleon Hill claimed that he was so important and involved in the war effort that he had the power to veto the President.

Napoleon Hill claimed to have participated intimately in the negotiation of the armistice with Germany.

Napoleon Hill lost control over Napoleon Hill's Golden Rule to a group of disgruntled employees.

Napoleon Hill attempted to get revenge against one of the employees by reporting them to the FBI as a spy.

Napoleon Hill founded the Peptomists and the Co-Operative Club which advertised themselves as business organizations in the style of the rotary club.

Napoleon Hill went broke, forcing his wife's family to pay for the expenses of Florence and her children.

Napoleon Hill's next published work, The Magic Ladder to Success, proved to be a commercial failure.

Napoleon Hill was involved in the production of the first Mormon film Corianton: A Story of Unholy Love, which collapsed after investors accused Hill of malfeasance.

In 1937, Napoleon Hill published the bestselling book Think and Grow Rich, which became Napoleon Hill's best-known work.

Wealthy once more, Napoleon Hill resumed his lavish lifestyle and purchased a new estate in Mount Dora, Florida.

Napoleon Hill became the godfather of "Baby Jene", a child the cult had adopted and claimed to be raising in such a way that she would be immortal.

In 1941 Napoleon Hill published Mental Dynamite, but it was a commercial failure.

Napoleon Hill met Annie Lou Norman, who was 47 years old, where he rented a room from her.

Napoleon Hill turned to selling his course Science of Success through franchises.

Napoleon Hill identified freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony as being among the foundations to his "Philosophy of Achievement".

Napoleon Hill asserted that without these foundations, great personal achievements would not be possible.

Napoleon Hill claimed his philosophy was superior to those of others and that its principles were responsible for the successes of Americans.

Napoleon Hill blamed failure on such emotions as fear and selfishness.

Napoleon Hill returned to the topic of a secret in a 1967 book, where he explicitly stated:.

Napoleon Hill declares that the life story of his son Blair is an inspiration to him, claiming that despite being born without ears, Blair had grown up able to hear and speak almost normally.

Napoleon Hill claimed insight into racism, slavery, oppression, failure, revolution, war, and poverty, asserting that overcoming these difficulties using his "Philosophy of Achievement" was the responsibility of every human.

Later in life, Napoleon Hill claimed that the turning point of his life had been a 1908 assignment to interview the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Napoleon Hill wrote that Carnegie had actually met with him at that time and challenged him to interview wealthy people to discover a simple formula for success, and that he had then interviewed many successful people of the time.

The authenticity of many of Napoleon Hill's claims has been widely disputed.

Hill reported that Carnegie had given him a letter of introduction to Ford, who Hill said then introduced him to Alexander Graham Bell, Elmer R Gates, Thomas Edison, and Luther Burbank.

Napoleon Hill described them as unseen friends, unseen watchers, strange beings, and the Great School of Masters that had been guarding him, and who maintain a "school of wisdom".

Napoleon Hill refers to these meetings with his counselors as being real because he consistently told himself they were real, a principle he refers to as "autosuggestion".

Napoleon Hill does admit the talks were only real to him because of his imagination but professes his belief that the "dominating thoughts and desires" of one's mind make those thoughts real.

Napoleon Hill's estimated net worth at the time of his death was about $1 million.

Napoleon Hill's works were inspired by the philosophy of New Thought and the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and are listed as New Thought reading.

Napoleon Hill has been seen as inspiring later self-help works, such as Rhonda Byrne's The Secret.

The Napoleon Hill Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that promotes the teachings of Napoleon Hill.