Thought of the Week

Try, try, try, then try again. Try till you drop. Then pick yourself up and try again. The single most important word in the dictionary of success is try. To try and fail is progress. To never try is to die. Trying even when apparently doomed can snatch victory from jaws of defeat, destruction and even death. - Dato' Vijay Eswaran

Prominent Personal Pick of the Month

Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill's death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies). Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill's books.

Life & Works

According to his official biographer Tom Butler-Bowdon, Napoleon Hill was born in a one-room cabin in the Appalachian town of Pound in Southwest Virginia. Hill's mother died when he was eight years old, and his father remarried two years later. At the age of 13, Hill began writing as a "mountain reporter" for small-town newspapers in the area of Wise County, Virginia. He later used his earnings as a reporter to enter law school, but soon he had to withdraw for financial reasons.

Influence of Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919)

Hill considered the turning point in his life to have occurred in the year 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous and successful men, to interview the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. At the time, Carnegie was one of the most powerful men in the world. Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be outlined in a simple formula that anyone would be able to understand and achieve. Impressed with Hill, Carnegie asked him if he was up to the task of putting together this information, to interview or analyze over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.

As part of his research, Hill interviewed many of the most famous people of the time, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Charles M. Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley Jr., John Wanamaker, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and Jennings Randolph. Hill was also an advisor to two presidents of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The Philosophy of Achievement

As a result of Hill's studies via Carnegie's introductions, the Philosophy of Achievement was offered as a formula for rags-to-riches success by Hill and Carnegie, published initially in 1925 as a multi-volume study course called The Law of Success, later re-released in 1928 in an abridged version under the same title. The Achievement formula was detailed further and published in home-study courses, including the seventeen-volume "Mental Dynamite" series until 1941.

Hill later called his personal success teachings "The Philosophy of Achievement", and he considered freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony to be important contributing elements to this philosophy. Hill claimed throughout his writings that without these foundations upon which to build, successful personal achievements were not possible. He contrasted his philosophy with others' and thought that the Achievement Philosophy was superior. He felt that it was responsible for the success Americans enjoyed for the better part of two centuries. Negative emotions such as fear, selfishness, etc., had no part to play in his philosophy. Hill considered those emotions to be the source of failure for unsuccessful people.

The secret of achievement was tantalizingly offered to readers of Think and Grow Rich, but Hill felt readers would benefit most if they discovered it for themselves. Although most readers feel that he never explicitly identified this secret, he offers these words about 20 pages into the book: If you truly desire money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to be so determined to have it that you convince yourself that you will have it. . . You may as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in great quantities unless you work yourself into a white heat of desire for money, and actually believe you will possess it.

He presented the idea of a "Definite Major Purpose" as a challenge to his readers in order to make them ask themselves, "In what do I truly believe?" According to Hill, 98% of people had few or no firm beliefs, and this alone put true success firmly out of their reach.

One of Hill's most moving stories was about his own son, Blair. He tells how his son was an inspiration to him, because although Blair was born without ears, without any normal hearing organs at all, even though his doctor told Hill that his son would neither be able to hear nor speak, Blair grew up to be able to hear and speak almost normally. Hill tells how his son, in his last year of college, picked up the manuscript of chapter two of Think and Grow Rich, discovered Hill's secret for himself and went on to be an inspiration for hundreds and thousands of people who could not hear or speak.

From 1952 to 1962, Hill taught his Philosophy of Personal Achievement – Lectures on "Science of Success" in association with W. Clement Stone. In 1960, Hill and Stone co-authored the book, Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude. Norman Vincent Peale stated "These two men [Hill and Stone] have the rare gift of inspiring and helping people...In fact; I owe them both a personal debt of gratitude for the helpful guidance I have received from their writings."

Think and Grow Rich remains the top seller of Napoleon Hill's books – a perennial best-seller after 70 years (Business Week Magazine's Best-Seller List ranked Think and Grow Rich as the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was first published). Think and Grow Rich is listed in John C. Maxwell's A Lifetime "Must Read" Books List.

Hill's numerous books have sold millions of copies, showing that the secret of achievement is still highly sought-after by many today. Hill dealt with many controversial subjects through his writings including racism, slavery, oppression, failure, revolution, war and poverty. Persevering and then succeeding in spite of these obstacles using the Philosophy of Achievement, Hill stated, was the responsibility of every human.

Today's philosophy-of-success teachers still use the research formulas taught by Hill to expand their students' knowledge of personal development.

Mother’s LOVE is Unconditional

MY parents were of south Indian origin and came from the state of Tamil Nadu. My mother was a beautiful lady with fair skin and was staying in the town of Kamunting, Perak, when my father first met her.

 

My father, a cook for a rubber estate manager, was dark. He was captivated by my mother’s looks and married her.

 

My father took my mother to the estate and taught her to tap rubber and when she was good enough she joined the estate work force.

 

Every day she would get up early and set off to answer the roll call before going into the field to tap rubber with two metal pails dangling on either end of pole balanced over her shoulders.

 

Mosquitoes were a nuisance and deadly snakes were abundant in the rubber estate, and tigers were also often spotted. The workers had to brave all these creatures to make a living.

 

Many amenities were lacking. There was no electricity or tap water in the estate then. They depended on wells, rain and the river for water. They went into the bushes to answer the call of nature.

 

My mother became pregnant soon and she went to work, with me in her womb. She was still working on the day her water bag burst and had to be rushed to hospital.

 

I was born on Aug 15, 1947, the day India achieved its independence. She was the happiest person in the estate and everyone came to congratulate my mum.

 

It was an auspicious day for the Indians. I was considered a lucky baby. Even though I was pitch dark, to my mum I was the fairest baby on earth.

 

When she went to tap rubber I was left in the hands of the estate nanny known as Ayamah and when work was over my mother would come running to fetch me at the estate nursery with great speed and relief. She would hug and kiss me as if I had been lost and found after many months.

 

Her love for me was unconditional and she would starve to feed me. Later, she took me with her when she went to tap rubber and I would help her clean the rubber cups.

 

When an ant bit me, she would shamelessly cry with me. I cried more on seeing her cry and that would make her cry, even more.

 

As I grew up I got sick many times, mostly due to malaria, and as I shivered she would be by my side to console and nurse me back to health. Every tear from my eyes would break her heart. She bled inside her and shed a thousand tears for every tear of mine.

 

When I reached schooling age my father was not keen on sending me to school because hardly any estate boy succeeded in school. My mother never went to school and she did want me to be deprived of an education and she insisted that I go to school and so I went.

 

I had to walk several kilometres to school come rain or shine and she would not fail to give me a few coins to quench my thirst.

 

However, it was never enough because of the extreme heat so I resorted to stealing coins from her copper containers which she kept at the alter.

 

She knew that it was me who emptied the containers. She scared me by saying that God would make the person who stole the coins blind without pointing the finger at me.

 

I was worried for a week but as I was still able to see it only encouraged me to continue with my thieving ways.

As I faced my examinations and late night studying, she was there to make me coffee and my suffering less painful.

 

When I grew up and married a girl from another race she never objected and cared for my wife the way she cared for my sister.

 

When the grandchildren came she descended gracefully into the role of a grandmother and took care of them, saving us anxiety and the cost of hiring a maid. My children were always safe in her hands and her love for them was as unconditional.

 

When she grew old she became a different person. She became a child and it was difficult for everyone around her. I understood her condition.

 

She began imagining things and would tell me that someone wanted to kill her, and she was having horrible dreams. I would sleep next to her and I cried within. I was helpless.

 

One day she complained of severe pain in her abdomen and we rushed her to the hospital. She was operated on but passed away the next day.

 

Mothers are special and there can be only one mother. They will sacrifice their happiness for the sake of their children.

 

We must never forget their love and sacrifices and ensure their last days on earth are as painless as possible.

 

GOPAL ANNAMALAI,

Nilai, Negri Sembilan.

Internet Video Conferencing Excellent Features

By Matt Gibbons

Internet video conferencing is an enormous device if you and your colleagues need to distribute visual information. This information may possibly take account of graphic representations, surveys and additional things related to that. Video conferencing services have transformed the system on how businesses are done. They have supported offshore outsourcing in a substantial approach. Straightforward and cost efficient communication in the course of such services has smoothed the progress of distance meetings. Meetings within company employees across distinct geographical boundaries as well as client conferences have been made straightforward and well-situated.

Internet video conferencing succeeds in much of the equivalent technique as the usual teleconferencing. Throughout an Internet conference call, the participants will sit at their particular offices at the same time as being connected to each other through the Internet. The development of the Internet has changed the transmitting of information enormously. It is no surprise that conference calls have moved from the usual telephone to the Internet as well. Indeed, industries are progressively switching more to Internet conferencing so they can take advantage of reduced travel and telephone costs. This fund in expenses translates to better time management and improved efficiency.

Internet video conferences are much more enthusiastically acknowledged and utilized for several reasons. One of the major grounds is the actuality that the individual or individuals on the other end are capable to distinguish accurately what the other related participant is doing. This is amazing if you are looking to distribute information such as charts and graphs.

An extra enormous feature of Internet video conferencing is that there is less of a possibility of mystification and disturbance. With audio conferences, there is an enormous possibility that someone will be intermittent throughout their speech and this may possibly instigate problems within the company.

On the other hand, with video conferencing, everybody is capable to see accurately when the presenter is done with their part and everybody on the opposite end knows when they can talk. An additional great feature of video conferences is the sum of money that a company can accumulate by adopting this equipment. Another great feature is online video conferencing. With technology recently, you don't even need to obtain the most excellent conferencing software to facilitate or carry out these forms of meetings. With plain software, you can carry out these meetings throughout the Internet at an incredibly small expenditure.

Internet video conferencing has swiftly turned out to be the innovative wave, so it is desirable for companies to search for this type of promotion in order to make the most of their prospective and lessen their costs.

Matt Gibbons owns and operates http://www.goodeventplanning.com/, Corporate Event Ideas

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