The 17 Universal Principles of Success and Achievement

Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 and is best known for his writing, teaching, and lecturing about the principles of success. His work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation. From his many works, the 17 Universal Principles of Success and Achievement provides an insight into this great man’s work and findings.

I will be expanding on these Principles over the next few weeks so ensure that you are subscribed to the free RSS feed to get the latest updates.

Principle 1: Definiteness of Purpose

Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. Without a purpose and a plan, people drift aimlessly through life. Definiteness of Purpose is knowing what your goal is, knowing what you want – the starting point of all achievement.

Principle 2: Mastermind Alliance

The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective. Success does not come without the cooperation of others.

Principle 3: Use Applied Faith

Faith is a state of mind through which your aims, desires, plans and purposes may be translated into their physical or financial equivalent.

Principle 4: Go the Extra Mile

Going the extra mile is the action of rendering more and better service than that for which you are presently paid. Doing it all the time and doing it with a pleasing, positive attitude.

Principle 5: Create a Pleasing Personality

Personality is the sum total of one’s mental, spiritual and physical traits and habits that distinguish one from all others. It is the factor that determines whether one is liked or disliked by others. A pleasing personality helps you master the major cause of failure – the inability to get along with people harmoniously.

Principle 6: Create Personal Initiative

Personal initiative is the power that inspires the completion of that which one begins. No person is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own. Personal Initiative is the inner power that starts all action; the power that inspires the completion of all that one begins.

Principle 7: Build a Positive Mental Attitude

Positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in all circumstances. Success attracts more success while failure attracts more failure. To govern your life, your must be able to govern your mind, and that is the starting point of all riches.

Principle 8: Control Your Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is faith in action. It is the intense emotion known as burning desire. It comes from within, although it radiates outwardly in the expression of one’s voice and countenance. Enthusiasm is a contagious state of mind that not only helps you gain the cooperation of others but, more importantly, inspires you to draw upon and use the power of your imagination.

Principle 9: Self-Discipline

Self-discipline begins with the mastery of thought. If you do not control your thoughts, you cannot control your needs. Self-discipline calls for a balancing of the emotions of your heart with the reasoning faculty of your head. It is the only thing in life over which you have complete, unchallenged and unchallengeable control.

Principle 10: Accurate Thinking

The power of thought is the most dangerous or the most beneficial power available to man, depending on how it is used. The accurate thinker recognizes all the facts of life, both
good and bad, and assumes the responsibility of separating and organizing the two, choosing those which serve his needs and rejecting all others.

Principle 11: Controlled Attention

Controlled attention leads to mastery in any type of human endeavor, because it enables one to focus the powers of his mind upon the attainment of a definite objective and to keep it so directed at will. The highest form of self-discipline, the act of coordinating all your mind’s faculties and directing their combined power to a given end.

Principle 12: Inspire Teamwork

Teamwork is harmonious cooperation that is willing, voluntary and free. Harmony based on a definite motive, teamwork is the medium through which great personal power may be attained; the willing cooperation and coordination of effort to achieve a specific objective.

Principle 13: Learn from Adversity & Defeat

Individual success usually is in exact proportion of the scope of the defeat the individual has experienced and mastered. Hard-ship and adversity are a common language of nature in which she speaks to all living creatures and teaches them many things they would not learn in any other way.

Principle 14: Cultivate Creative Vision

Creative vision is developed by the free and fearless use of one’s imagination. It is not a miraculous quality with which one is gifted or is not gifted at birth.

Principle 15: Maintain Sound Health

Sound health begins with a sound health consciousness, just as financial success begins with a prosperity consciousness. The key that coordinates all other principles and sets all
ideas into motion, sound health provides the “flavor” to the good things in life.

Principle 16: Budgeting Time & Money

Time and money are precious resources, and few people striving for success ever believe they possess either one in excess. Successful people know themselves, not as they think they are, but as their habits have made them – the use of time and money are the most vital of these habits.

Principle 17: Cosmic Habitforce

Developing and establishing positive habits leads to peace of mind, health and financial security. You are where you are because of your established habits and thoughts and deeds.

Have a wonderful day

Get Shareaholic

If you like this post, you might also like:

If you found this page useful, why not use the social media buttons above to add it on your favorite social sites and also subscribe to the RSS feed for more interesting posts from Entrepreneurs Mindset.

Also Check Us Out On Facebook and Twitter

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Wal Heinrich May 14, 2010 at 9:49 am: I read most of Napoleon Hill’s work as a teenager when I did not have a mentor and I did not fully understand what he was saying. But as I look back on my life I can see how it influenced me. I acknowledge it has helped me to be one of the world leaders in my field of expertise. I wish he had advised me to do Tai Chi. I found his exercises to be too energy enhancing for my system, and it wasn’t until I did Tai Chi many years later that I was able to cope with them.

Reply
Year of the Dragon August 18, 2010 at 9:45 am: Napoleon Hill has become a mentor for many people. The principles he has taught us have been responsible for creating successful entrepreneurs that have acted on his words. These universal principles will never grow old. Thanks for sharing Cemil.

Reply