Page 107 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

Money is worth no more than brains. It is often worth much less. Competent
"brains," if effectively marketed, represent a much more desirable form of capi-
tal than that which is required to conduct a business dealing in commodities,
because "brains" are a form of capital which cannot be permanently depreciated
through depressions, nor can this form of capital be stolen or spent.

Moreover, the money which is essential for the conduct of business is as worth-
less as a sand dune, until it has been mixed with efficient "brains."

THE THIRTY MAJOR CAUSES OF FAILURE

HOW MANY OF THESE ARE HOLDING YOU BACK?

Life's greatest tragedy consists of men and women who earnestly try, and fail! The

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

tragedy lies in the overwhelmingly large majority of people who fail, as compared
to the few who succeed. I have had the privilege of analyzing several thousand
men and women, 98% of whom were classed as "failures." There is something
radically wrong with a civilization, and a system of education, which permit 98%
of the people to go through life as failures. But I did not write this book for the
purpose of moralizing on the rights and wrongs of the world; that would require
a book a hundred times the size of this one.

My analysis work proved that there are thirty major reasons for failure, and thir-
teen major principles through which people accumulate fortunes. In this chapter,
a description of the thirty major causes of failure will be given. As you go over the
list, check yourself by it, point by point, for the purpose of discovering how many
of these causes-of-failure stand between you and success.

1. UNFAVORABLE HEREDITARY BACKGROUND. There is but little, if anything,
which can be done for people who are born with a deficiency in brain power. This
philosophy offers but one method of bridging this weakness-through the aid of
the Master Mind. Observe with profit, however, that this is the ONLY one of the
thirty causes of failure which may not be easily corrected by any individual.

2. LACK OF A WELL-DEFINED PURPOSE IN LIFE. There is no hope of success
for the person who does not have a central purpose, or definite goal at which to
aim. Ninety-eight out of every hundred of those whom I have analyzed, had no
such aim. Perhaps this was the

3. LACK OF AMBITION TO AIM ABOVE MEDIOCRITY. We offer no hope for