Page 15 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

After I had described to Mr. Darby the power unwittingly used by the little colored
child, he quickly retraced his thirty years of experience as a life insurance sales-

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

man, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that field was due, in no small
degree, to the lesson he had learned from the child.

Mr. Darby pointed out: "every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buy-
ing, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance,
and I said to myself, "I've gotta make this sale.' The better portion of all sales I
have made, were made after people had said "NO'."

He recalled, too, his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold, "but,"
he said, "that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to keep on keep-
ing on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I
could succeed in anything."

This story of Mr. Darby and his uncle, the colored child and the gold mine, doubt-
less will be read by hundreds of men who make their living by selling life insur-
ance, and to all of these, the author wishes to offer the suggestion that Darby
owes to these two experiences his ability to sell more than a million dollars of life
insurance every year.

Life is strange, and often imponderable! Both the successes and the failures have
their roots in simple experiences. Mr. Darby's experiences were commonplace
and simple enough, yet they held the answer to his destiny in life, therefore they
were as important (to him) as life itself. He profited by these two dramatic experi-
ences, because he analyzed them, and found the lesson they taught. But what of
the man who has neither the time, nor the inclination to study failure in search of
knowledge that may lead to success?

Where, and how is he to learn the art of converting defeat into stepping stones to
opportunity?

In answer to these questions, this book was written. The answer called for a de-
scription of thirteen principles, but remember, as you read, the answer you may
be seeking, to the questions which have caused you to ponder over the strange-
ness of life, maybe found in your own mind, through some idea, plan, or purpose
which may spring into your mind as you read.

One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success. The principles described
in this book, contain the best, and the most practical of all that is known, concern-
ing ways and means of creating useful ideas.