Page 68 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

to insist upon prompt payments. Being asked to pay, whether the student makes
good grades or poor, has the effect of causing one to follow through with the
course when he would otherwise drop it. The correspondence schools have not
stressed this point sufficiently, for the truth is that their collection departments
constitute the very finest sort of training on DECISION, PROMPTNESS, ACTION
and THE HABIT OF FINISHING THAT WHICH ONE BEGINS.

I learned this from experience, more than twenty-five years ago. I enrolled for a
home study course in Advertising. After completing eight or ten lessons I stopped
studying, but the school did not stop sending me bills. Moreover, it insisted upon
payment, whether I kept up my studies or not. I decided that if I had to pay for
the course (which I had legally obligated myself to do), I should complete the les-
sons and get my money's worth. I felt, at the time, that the collection system of
the school was somewhat too well organized, but I learned later in life that it was
a valuable part of my training for which no charge had been made. Being forced
to pay, I went ahead and completed the course. Later in life I discovered that the
efficient collection system of that school had been worth much in the form of
money earned, because of the training in advertising I had so reluctantly taken.

We have in this country what is said to be the greatest public school system in
the world. We have invested fabulous sums for fine buildings, we have provided
convenient transportation for children living in the rural districts, so they may
attend the best schools, but there is one astounding weakness to this marvelous
system-IT IS FREE! One of the strange things about human beings is that they
value only that which has a price. The free schools of America, and the free public
libraries, do not impress people because they are free. This is the major reason
why so many people find it necessary to acquire additional training after they
quit school and go lo work. It is also one of the major reasons why EMPLOY-
ERS GIVE GREATER CONSIDERATION TO EMPLOYEES WHO TAKE HOME
STUDY COURSES. They have learned, from experience, that any person who has
the ambition to give up a part of his spare time to studying at home has in him
those qualities which make for leadership. This recognition is not a charitable
gesture, it is sound business judgment upon the part of the employers.

There is one weakness in people for which there is no remedy. It is the univer-
sal weakness of LACK OF AMBITION! Persons, especially salaried people, who
schedule their spare time, to provide for home study, seldom remain at the bot-
tom very long. Their action opens the way for the upward climb, removes many
obstacles from their path, and gains the friendly interest of those who have the
power to put them in the way of OPPORTUNITY.

69