Stickability: The Power of Perseverance

Introduction

The Key to All Great Achievements

by J. B. Hill, grandson of Napoleon Hill

Words of wisdom, age-old adages, myths and folktales—whatever we call them, the stories we tell one another and pass down to the next generation connect us across race, religion, and national boundaries. Although these stories have diverse themes, each is powered by the testimony of example, and no story resonates so universally as the tale of how to succeed in life.

But what does this mean? For most of us, it is the application of the experience of others to our own lives. Samuel Smiles, a Scottish author, wrote the first book about success in 1859. Appropriately titled Self Help, it laid the framework for the writings of Orison Swett Marden, and later Napoleon Hill, by teaching success through the parables of experience. Napoleon Hill, who is arguably the founder of the modern-day success movement, was a master storyteller who compiled the first comprehensive philosophy of success. He did this after discovering that the most remarkable self-made men of his time—like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford—all did the same thing to succeed, although they each used different means.

For the past 150 years, success philosophers and thinkers have proved time and again that one trait in particular appears to be a key to all great achievement—persistence. It was persistence that allowed George Goethals to build the Panama Canal when so many had failed. It was persistence that drove Edison to success in devising a viable lightbulb. It was persistence that pushed Abraham Lincoln through a broken heart, two business failures, and eight losses for election to public office to become president of the United States. Napoleon Hill wrote:

One reason why most men seldom accumulate fortunes until they have passed well beyond the 40-year goal post of life is that they must undergo failures and adversities and overcome sufficient obstacles to develop in them sufficient knowledge to accumulate wealth.

Therefore, it is those who persist and learn from failure who carve their place in history.

As I read Stickability, I was reminded of a boy I knew more than fifty years ago named Scott Shaw. He was my playmate during early adolescence and was perhaps the most obnoxious kid in the world. One day, our jostling turned into a knock-down fight. There was no one around to cheer us on or to stop the fight. So we fought as boys do, until we didn’t fight anymore. I was bigger and stronger than he was and I kept knocking him down. But every time Scott went down, he got up and came at me.

With bloody lip, tears flowing from his eyes, and snot dripping from his nose, he kept getting off the ground and coming at me. He took everything I dished out, and still he came at me, time after time. After he got off the ground for the last time, he was met with my hand, offering him a handshake. Mastered, I said, You win, Scott . . . you win. He glared at me, wiped his nose, stifled a tear, and shook my hand. We were friends until I moved away a few years later.

Stickability is full of stories about people like Scott Shaw—men and women who refused to submit to defeat. It is a delightful book, written with the same energy, impact, and simplicity as Outwitting the Devil and Think and Grow Rich: Three Feet from Gold. This new Napoleon Hill Foundation book shares insight from the people who have helped shape our world. They are the leaders who began a pathway to success with nothing more than an idea to follow. Their goals may not be your goals, and their setbacks and failures are not yours either. However, their stories are parables of success that will inspire you to find your own road to personal achievement.

Stickability reinforces the proven success principles that were compiled by my grandfather, Napoleon Hill, during his lifetime by providing valuable, thought-provoking insight from the lives of incredible people. Their stories demonstrate that a definite goal strengthened by persistence will always lead to success. They show that negatives are just the tasks that need to be done to avoid a setback and that setbacks should be viewed as opportunities to reroute a path to success.

This is the book to pick off a shelf and read and reread during those discouraging moments when the temptation to quit looms larger than the desire for success. It is a book that clearly explains why Napoleon Hill wrote, Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step BEYOND their greatest setback and failure.

So when the time comes to refocus, redirect, and recommit (as it surely will), take a copy off the shelf, put your feet up for an hour or so, and read Stickability again. It is a small price for success.

CHAPTER 1

The Three Causes of Failure

You’ve seen those infomercials. The ones that make elaborate claims like:

You too can make money in real estate and be a mogul like me! Buy our 30-day course and we’ll make you an instant millionaire.

Maybe you’ve even bought a book that promised to change your life overnight, or attended a seminar to learn the latest investment tips to become financially independent in no time.

Both late-night TV and local bookstores are filled with the latest and greatest get rich opportunities that are guaranteed to succeed. Each novel idea is larger than the next. Whether it’s stocks, bonds, real estate, or what have you, the solution is always the same: Follow these simple, easy steps and watch your bank account grow with little effort.

Thus, happiness is achieved.

The leaps from get-rich-quick to success to happiness are there, although they are implied, for the most part. They are nestled in between the lines of stories that have little relevance to your power—which is the power to define what it is you want.

Get-rich-quick narratives distract us from this. We are then left only to adopt someone else’s goal and perhaps quit halfway to achieving it. Obstacles are only as insurmountable as your goal—your want—is weak.

Unfortunately, these narratives rarely tell us that success is seldom easy. The fact is that we will have to face challenges and obstacles in order to achieve most goals. They forget to mention that unexpected circumstances are inevitable, and more important that how we accept, deny, or capitalize on these circumstances is entirely up to us—and will ultimately determine our success or failure.

Every individual who has attained personal achievement can tell you that the question is not will there be tough times, the question is when will they arrive? It’s through these moments of uncertainty that our character is revealed.

For many, the first sign of difficulties can be enough for them to become discouraged and stop doing what they intended, while others find the determination to discover another way to prevail. Rather than giving up, they look for the opportunity within the challenge—and it’s there, always. Some opportunities are buried deep within the challenge. Others are easy to find. The extent to which we’re able to slow down, breathe, and adopt perspective is the extent to which we’re able to find the opportunity within the challenge. We’re then in a much better position to overcome any challenge and achieve whatever it is we want to achieve.

Make no mistake—adopting perspective in the face of challenge is not easy. This in itself is the challenge.

We can agree that we all want happiness and prosperity in our lives, and also know that . . .

Happiness takes discipline.

To achieve happiness we must first have the discipline to determine carefully what this means for us. Once we have a clearly defined goal, we must maintain discipline to find the opportunities within the challenges we’ll face along the way. This is when we make strides in what we call self-development.

Think about it. It’s easy to be happy-go-lucky and make great decisions when everything is going our way. The question is, how do we respond when a challenge comes? It’s at this precise moment that who we are as people is revealed to the world, and to us. When we quit, we automatically fail—meaning simply that we do not achieve a goal. Yet, when we accept the challenge, we’re able to clearly understand the reason(s) for the challenge, find the opportunity, and continue on a different path.

How we handle temporary setbacks will ultimately determine our outcome.

Remember this: whether it’s a weed in the garden, a dream, desire—or even fear—what we feed and focus attention on will eventually grow the most. The same applies to opportunity. What we focus on is what we see. When one seeks the good, good things happen. When one seeks opportunity, opportunities occur.

When it comes to financial matters, for example, you may fixate on media buzz or a temporary dip in the market, get anxious, and veer from your long-term intention by selling your interest. Alternatively, someone else may see a golden opportunity to take advantage of the dip and buy more at a lower rate.

The realities are the same for us all. Yes, the market may be the lowest in years, yet where one person sees only loss and challenge, another sees opportunity and possibility.

Just the fact that you are reading this shows you are smart enough to know that somewhere along life’s journey, a wrench will be thrown into the gears. It also shows that you are intelligent enough to know right from wrong.

When hurdles arise, will you cut corners or stay the course? Will you fudge the numbers or keep what’s true? You can see someone’s true self simply by observing how they act when they’re faced with a difficult situation and think no one is watching.

And someone is always watching, even when we’re not aware of it.

Moral philosopher and political economist Adam Smith introduced the concept of the impartial spectator to help us understand this phenomenon. The impartial spectator refers to the general notion that we all have of what is commonly expected of us. In this sense, society’s expectations act as a body of surveillance that affects our actions and thoughts. When we are faced with challenges, our reactions expose our true character to others specifically, and to the impartial spectator generally. This is why it is crucial to know clearly who we are and who we want to be. Seizing opportunities within challenges exposes a character of strength, resolve, patience and, yes, stickability.

Let’s look at success from a different perspective and turn the principle upside down. Rather than focus on and illustrate another surefire blueprint for abundance, as mentioned earlier, let’s place our attention on its counterpart: failure, and its often forgotten component, missed opportunity.

It’s been suggested that personal achievement eventually comes from focusing on our major definite purpose (some call it passion) and then from the courage and stickability to see that vision through.

Those of us who are familiar with this concept from Napoleon Hill may be surprised to find that he also had brilliant insights into failure and challenges that have gone relatively unnoticed in subsequent decades.

Let’s take a look back . . .

In 1938, one year after releasing what many refer to as the bible of personal development, Think and Grow