Page 169 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

The salesman who knows how to take his mind off the subject of sex, and direct it
in sales effort with as much enthusiasm and determination as he would apply to
its original purpose, has acquired the art of sex transmutation, whether he knows
it or not.

The majority of salesmen who transmute their sex energy do so without being in
the least aware of what they are doing, or how they are doing it.

Transmutation of sex energy calls for more will power than the average person
cares to use for this purpose. Those who find it difficult to summon will-power

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

sufficient for transmutation, may gradually acquire this ability. Though this re-
quires will-power, the reward for the practice is more than worth the effort. The
entire subject of sex is one with which the majority of people appear to be unpar-
donably ignorant. The urge of sex has been grossly misunderstood, slandered,
and burlesqued by the ignorant and the evil minded, for so long that the very
word sex is seldom used in polite society. Men and women who are known to be
blessed-yes, BLESSED-with highly sexed natures, are usually looked upon as be-
ing people who will bear watching. Instead of being called blessed, they are usu-
ally called cursed.

Millions of people, even in this age of enlightenment, have inferiority complexes
which they developed because of this false belief that a highly sexed nature is a
curse. These statements, of the virtue of sex energy, should not be construed as
justification for the libertine. The emotion of sex is a virtue ONLY when used in-
telligently, and with discrimination. It may be misused, and often is, to such an
extent that it debases, instead of enriches, both body and mind. The better use of
this power is the burden of this chapter.

It seemed quite significant to the author, when he made the discovery that practi-
cally every great leader, whom he had the privilege of analyzing, was a man whose
achievements were largely inspired by a woman. In many instances, the "woman
in the case" was a modest, self-denying wife, of whom the public had heard but
little or nothing. In a few instances, the source of inspiration has been traced to
the "other woman." Perhaps such cases may not be entirely unknown to you.

Intemperance in sex habits is just as detrimental as intemperance in habits of
drinking and eating. In this age in which we live, an age which began with the
world war, intemperance in habits of sex is common. This orgy of indulgence may
account for the shortage of great leaders. No man can avail himself of the forces
of his creative imagination, while dissipating them. Man is the only creature on
earth which violates Nature's purpose in this connection. Every other animal in-