What You Need to Know

The first thing you need to know is how to make sense of the opening passage of Napoleon Hill’s first story, “The End of the Rainbow.” Hill introduces this article with a statement that would have been completely understood by his loyal readers at the time, but will leave modern readers scratching their heads.

Hill begins with the somewhat grandiose announcement that this story is going to be a retelling of the dramatic turning points in the previous 12 years of his life. Then, in the very next sentence, he says that he isn’t going to tell everything because he has been warned by his friends to leave out the final part of the story. What is he talking about?

The answer is that he’s talking about a scandal that took place a year earlier, and to appreciate why this is important to him, you must first know that Napoleon Hill’s Magazine in which this article appeared, was not Hill’s first magazine. It was his second, and the scandal that is so cryptically referred to involves his ouster as publisher of the first one.

The first magazine was called Hill’s Golden Rule and it was born in Napoleon Hill’s mind on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. The end of the World War so inspired Hill that he vowed that day to create a new magazine to promote the philosophy of the Golden Rule in personal achievement and business success. He found a printer who shared his vision, and they published the first edition in January 1919. It was an instant success.

To Hill, it seemed that this magazine was the fulfillment of everything he had dreamed of and worked for. It gave him a national platform for the secrets of success he had learned from his years of researching the most successful people in America, and it allowed him to teach the lessons he had learned from his own business triumphs and failures. Hill’s Golden Rule was in every way an extension of him, his talent, his philosophy, and his passion.

Then in the late summer of 1920, Napoleon Hill discovered that his partner had gone behind his back and tried to seize control of the magazine. At first, the partner offered to pay Hill if he would sign an agreement promising to get out of publishing. Hill refused. But when the October issue came out, he saw that his name had been removed from the masthead. He was devastated for about a month—then he got mad. Then he got even.

Within two months, Hill moved from Chicago to New York City and raised enough money to launch a new publication, Napoleon Hill’s Magazine. The first issue hit the stands in April, and by the time “The End of the Rainbow” article appeared in the September issue, it was clear that he had accomplished the almost unheard-of feat of launching a magazine that would be profitable in its first year.

The publication of this article marked the one-year anniversary of Napoleon Hill being removed from Hill’s Golden Rule, which explains why Hill was being so cryptic when he wrote the opening passage to “The End of the Rainbow.”

Chapter 3, “A Personal Inventory,” is reprinted from the December

1919 issue of Hill’s Golden Rule. In the story, you will see a familiar word spelled in an unfamiliar way: kultur. At the time Hill wrote this story, it had been barely a year since the end of the World War, and kultur was a term that appeared often in newspaper stories during the war with Germany. To the German elite, kultur meant their sense of national pride and belief in Germany’s natural superiority over other people and nations, and well as a belief in the subordination of the individual for the good of the state.

In that same paragraph, there is another reference that may elude some readers. Hill refers to standing at the graveside of John Barleycorn. John Barleycorn was a common term for whiskey and other alcoholic drinks and by “laying him away,” Hill is referring to the ratification earlier that year of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act which would establish prohibition in the U.S. commencing the next month on January 16, 1920.

In Chapter 4, “When a Man Loves His Work” is reprinted from the October 1921 issue of Napoleon Hill’s Magazine. In it, Hill predicts that President Harding would send in U.S. troops to settle the West Virginia mine wars. Hill’s prediction was right. Harding did send in army troops, including an air squadron led by war hero Billy Mitchell. This confrontation was the culmination of a conflict that had gone on since the turn of the century between labor organizers and the mine owners who refused to allow their mines to become unionized. The ensuing conflict, known as the Battle of Blair Mountain, lasted about 5 days, and in the end those strikers who surrendered were sent home, while a number of the strike leaders were tried and jailed.

Although Blair Mountain did not end the labor problems that plagued the coalfields of West Virginia, the actions of President Harding brought things to a head and forced the owners and miners to seek less-volatile ways to resolve their differences.

In Chapter 5, “Initiative,” reprinted from the August 1921 Napoleon Hill’s Magazine, Hill makes reference to having taken a try at Thomas Edison’s test questions. What he’s referring to is a questionnaire created by Edison as a test for anyone who wanted to apply for a job as a manager of his company.

When The New York Times ran a story about the test, it became the talk of the town and everybody, including Napoleon Hill, was trying it out to see how well it would do. There were 150 questions covering everything from math and science to current events and personal habits. Applicants were given two hours to answer the questions, and most got a failing grade— including Edison’s son Theodore, who was an MIT graduate in physics.

In Chapter 6, “Permanent Success,” reprinted from the April 1921 Napoleon Hill’s Magazine, Hill writes about Abraham Lincoln’s humble birth and the hardships he endured growing up. In his comments, Hill mentions the name Nancy Hanks without explanation, knowing that his readers would immediately know who she was.

But times have changed, and what people learn in school or on their own through Google has changed even more, so it may be that the modern reader is not as well-versed in the finite details of history as was common in Hill’s day. If that is so, you heard it here first: Nancy Hanks was Abe Lincoln’s mother. She died October 5, 1818, when Abe was 9 years old. His father remarried a year later to Sarah Bush Johnson Lincoln.

The magazine stories and articles that make up the book are excerpted from issues of Hill’s Golden Rule published between February 1919 and August 1920, and issues of Napoleon Hill’s Magazine published between April 1921 and September 1923. Preceding each of the major stories is a reprint of the cover of the edition the item is taken from.

As you will have discovered by the time you come to the second story, these items do not follow one another in chronological order, but rather, have been arranged by subject in order to provide a comprehensive overview of Hill’s philosophy.

As to the writing style and content, the intent of this book is to give you the chance to see what Napoleon Hill was like when he was first hitting his stride. We have opted to not update or modernize the stories and articles beyond offering the occasional editorial notes (set off in brackets) and to update some gendered references to be more inclusive. We have not converted Hill’s references to money. However, if you would like to know what those amounts mean today, as a rule of thumb you can assume that $1,000 in 1920 would be comparable to approximately $13,600 today.

We close this introductory chapter with an item excerpted and adapted from the bestseller Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, which was co-authored by Napoleon Hill with his friend and partner W. Clement Stone almost 40 years after the doors closed on Hill’s magazines. It is called “How to Get the Most from Reading This Book,” and some version of it appears in most publications from The Napoleon Hill Foundation.

How To Get The Most From Reading This Book

When you read, concentrate. Read as if the author were a close personal friend who is writing to you and you alone.

Spend a few minutes each day studying the principles and concepts contained in each article, in Napoleon Hill’s own words.

Set aside a specific time each day, at least 15 minutes, to be spent reading and reflecting on how the things you have learned or the ideas you received can be applied in your own life. Choose a time when you are relaxed and your mind is receptive—and do it every day.

Take notes in the text, and jot down any flashes of inspiration, ideas, techniques, or answers to problems you discover while writing.

The R2/A2 Formula

Know what you are looking for as you read. Commit yourself to using the R2/A2 Formula: recognizing, relating, assimilating, and applying the principles, techniques, and ideas you read about in the book.

Your ability to use this formula will give you the key to open any door, meet any challenge, overcome any obstacle, and achieve wealth, happiness, and the true riches of life. Let’s take a look at what the R2/A2 Formula looks like in practice:

Recognize. Identify the principle, idea, or technique that is being used: “It helped someone else, I can see the results, and it will work for me if I use it.”

Relate. It is most important that you relate each concept to yourself and to your own actions and thoughts. Ask yourself, “What will the success principle, idea, or technique do for me?”

Assimilate. Ask yourself, “How can I use this principle, idea, or technique to achieve my goals or solve my problems?”

Apply. Ask yourself, “What actions will I take? When am I going to start?” Then follow through with the action.