How to SELL Your Way Through LIFE. Napoleon Hill

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What do I love about: Selling your way through life?

Contrary to the name- SELLING, this book lays out success strategies applicable to forge ahead in every area of your life. Like his previous book “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon outlines selling strategy for all salesmen. Remember that we are all salesmen trying to sell our way through our career, education and personal lives. I love how the writer lays emphasis on issues such as habit, persistence and failure. In selling, Napoleon emphasizes that the biggest secret to success is not on the actual merchandise in question but on issues that revolve around PERSONALITY. He talks about the nine(9) motives (see below) that people respond to and how we can apply them to all areas of our life.

Once again, Napoleon has done a good job providing life strategies that help you remain ahead of the crowd

What do I not love about: Selling your way through life?

Zilch

Who should read: Selling your way through life?

Anyone with a knack for personal development

What should not read: Selling your way through life?

If you are tired of personal development literature

Notes on selling your way through life

The nine basic motive to which people respond most freely

The motive of self-preservation.
Motive financial gain.
The motive of love.
The motive of sexual urge.
Motive for desire for power and fame.
The motive of fear.
The motive of Revenge.
FREEDOM (of body and mind)
The motive of desire to build and to create in thought and in material.

Interesting points found throughout each chapter

Chapter 1: Definition of Salesmanship

The greatest Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the incandescent electric light work. Do not become discouraged and quit if you fail once or twice before making your plans work
All anyone needs as a capital on which to start a successful career, is a sound mind , a healthy body, and a genuine desire to be as much service as possible to as many people as possible.
Employers are always on the look for a man who does a better job of any sort than is customary, whether it be wrapping a package, writing a letter, or closing a sale.
Perhaps, by the law of averages, OPPORTUNITY is thrust upon one out of every hundred thousand people. The others must create OPPORTUNITY.
Selling is an art of planting in the mind of another a motive which will induce favorable action.
The “go-getter” will have to make room for the “go-giver” in every walk of life, selling included.

Chapter 2: You need intelligent promotion to succeed

The better plan is not to wait for “DISCOVERY”, no matter who you are or what you have to offer the world. The better plan is to search until you find the one-person best equipped to market the sort of services you have to offer, then give that person a good block of stock in yourself and tell him to go ahead and promote you.
Self-advancement cannot be built on bluff, fear or flattery! Life demands of the successful man sterner stuff than these. Mere words and fine platitudes will never take the place of a practical plan doggedly put into action.
Seek the counsel of men who will tell you the truth about yourself, even if it hurts you to hear it. Mere commendation will not bring the improvement you need.

Chapter 3: The strategy of master salesmanship

People buy PERSONALITIES and IDEAS much more quickly than they buy MERCHANDISE.
Being an able salesman, you can be almost anything else you wish to be.

Chapter 4: Qualities the salesman must develop

HARDWORK is the only thing that will turn sale training and ability into money.
The mastermind principle refers to “the coordination of two or more individual’s minds, working in perfect harmony for a definite purpose.
With all thy getting, get ENTHUSIASM.

Chapter 5: Autosuggestion, the first step in salesmanship

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
Never, in the history of the world, has there been such an abundant opportunity as there is now for the person who is willing to serve before trying to collect.

Chapter 6 & 7: The mastermind / Concentration

The mastermind principle, the principle of concentration and the principle of autosuggestion constitute a triumvirate that must be used in reaching and influencing the subconscious mind.
PERSISTENCE is merely concentrated effort well mixed with determination and faith
What-ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap
Your employer does not control the sort of service you render. You control that, and it is the thing that makes or breaks you.

Chapter 8: Initiative and Leadership

PERSISTENCE is the keynote to success for all great leaders. If you are going to become discouraged at the first sign of opposition or adversity, you will never become a great leader.
A man is paid not merely for that, which he knows, but more particularly, for what he does with what he knows, or that which he can get others to do.
One of the greatest leaders that ever lived stated the secret of his leadership in six words as follows. “KINDNESS is more powerful than COMPULSION”.

Chapter 9 & 10: Qualifying and neutralizing the prospective buyer

If you are a successful salesman, remember that somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a lift or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember, also, that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

Chapter 11 & 12: The use of salesmanship in marketing personal services / choosing your job

Quibbling over salary to start with has lost many a man the big opportunity of a lifetime. If the position you seek is one that you know you can throw your whole heart into, take it, even if you have to work for nothing until you deliver a good sample of your “goods”. Thereafter, you will receive pay in proportion to the quality and quantity of the work you perform.
We can change our situation in life- and this is the only way we can change it-by changing our HABITS.
Happiness comes from ASPIRING not from ACQUIRING.

Chapter 13 & 14: Selecting a definite major aim as your lifework / The habit of doing more than paid for

Every failure will teach you a lesson that you need to learn if you will keep your eyes and ears open and be willing to be taught. Every adversity is usually a blessing in disguise. Without reverses and temporary defeat, you would never know the sort of metal, which you are made of.
He profits most who serves best.

Chapter 15 & 16 & 17: A pleasing personality / Cooperation / How to create a job

Every business is the extended shadow of one person.
Indispensability commands a high price and permanency of employment at all times.

Chapter 18 & 19 & 20: How to choose an occupation / How to budget your time / The master plan for getting a position

Young women usually begin to think in terms of marriage about the time they complete their high school training. While marriage is a lofty ambition, it brings responsibilities and creates emergencies that call for wise thought and action. The woman, who has been schooled in a business college and who has had some experience in a business office, is much better prepared to assume the practical responsibilities of a home.
The educated man is the man who has learned how to get everything he needs without violating the rights of his fellow men. Education comes from within; you get it by struggle, thought, and effort.

Chapter 21 & 22 & 23: Singleness of purposes / Persistence / Faith

If you have tried and met defeat, if you have planned and watched your plans as they were crushed before your eyes, just remember that the great men in all history were the products of courage, and courage, you know, is born in the cradle of ADVERSITY.

Chapter 24 & 25 & 26 & 27: Decision / Sportsmanship / Budgeting of time and expenditures / Humility

When in doubt, do something, even if it is no more than to walk around the block and think what to do.
I would rather try to fail a thousand times than to fail by never trying.
Make excuses for the shortcoming of others if you wish, but hold yourself to strict accountability if you would attain leadership in any undertaking.

Chapter 28 & 29 & 30 & 31: The habit of doing more than one is paid to do / Ford the master salesman / Accumulation of Power / Self-Control

Think well before you SPEAK because your words may plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of some other person.

Chapter 35: The golden rule in use

Where we are and what we are, financially and spiritually, are because of the dominating THOUGHTS that occupy our minds.

Chapter 37: Some personal experiences

Every adversity brings with it a seed of equivalent advantage.

Chapter 39: The new world

FEAR is man’s worst enemy. Like a demon of hell, it sits upon one’s shoulder and whispers, “You can’t write/ do that”.
FEAR of POVERTY and FEAR of CRITICISM are two of man’s worst enemies.
A burning DESIRE to be and to do is the starting point from which a DREAMER must take off.
Great riches do not always bring FREEDOM; usually WEALTH brings only more responsibilities, fears, and worries.
You are truly the master of your own FATE, the captain of your SOUL, because you are what you are, because of your own habits of THOUGHT.