Excerpts from
Believe and Achieve: W. Clement Stone's 17 Principles of Success by Samual A. Cypert Order in Adobe PDF eBook form for $9.95 click here to order on audio CD from Amazon.com for $17.90 or click here to order in printed form from Amazon.com for $13.95 Book Description
Together Hill and Stone published the magazine Success Unlimited and co-wrote bestselling books, including How to Raise Your Own Salary and Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, that inspired millions. Believe and Achieve takes the combined philosophies of Hill and Stone and uses each principle as a yardstick to measure how today's most successful people and companies have embraced these principles to reach the top. Through a step-by-step comparison and specific examples, it shows how you can create your own plan to take charge of your life and reach your highest goals. Introduction There's a great story
about Vince Lombardi and his dedication to the basics. Once, after the
Packers
played a particularly bad game, Lombardi got on the bus, held up the
ball and
said, 'Gentlemen, this is a football.' From the back of the bus, Max
McGee
spoke up and said. 'Coach, you are going to have to slow down; you're
going too
fast for us."' Patrick
Ryan chuckles obviously relishing telling the tale, as he segues into a
comparison of Lombardi and W. Clement Stone. "He [Stone] is a strict
fundamentalist in business principles and in the principles of life.
One of his
great successes — something that I have always believed in and tried to
stay
with — is to remember the value of the basics. A trip back to the
basics
periodically is always important, but it's especially essential when
things
aren't going so well to go back to the basics and remember where you
came from.
He's a great advocate of that and it has been the cornerstone of his
success — something
that has allowed his success to endure for so many decades." Pat Ryan knows
something of success himself. The son of a Ford dealer, Ryan pioneered
in the
sale of credit life and accident insurance sold through auto
dealerships. Since
merging his $560-million (assets) Ryan Insurance Group with Stone's
Combined
International Corp. in 1982, he has built a growing $5.4-billion
insurance conglomerate
and increased the value of his personal stake in the company to about
$240
million. As president and CEO
of Aon, the new name adopted by Combined early in 1987, Ryan has
steered the
company on a course of rapid growth through cost-cutting,
diversification, and
shrewd acquisitions. Stone continues to
serve as chairman of the board of Combined, but Ryan runs the company.
He's "fabulous"
to work with, Ryan says of Stone, describing him as "very supportive,
totally predictable (which is good), very consistent. He is a man with
keen
insights, therefore a man you can listen to and learn a lot from, yet
he is not
intrusive. He allows people to do; he doesn't get in the way
of people
meeting their responsibilities." The back-to-basics
approach to success that Stone advocates was, perhaps, the first
really
practical guide to achievement ever written. It had its origins in a
chance
meeting of its two principal proponents — Stone and Napoleon Hill.
At a
meeting of the suburban Chicago North Shore Kiwanis Club in 1952, the
program
chairman arranged for the two to sit together at the head table. Hill, at age
sixty-nine, was semi-retired, enjoying the fruits of a lifetime of
writing and
lecturing; Stone, at fifty, was head of Combined, an insurance empire
that he
built with an investment of $100 and dedication to his
Positive-Mental-Attitude
(PMA) philosophy. The
two dynamic personalities clicked, and before the luncheon was over
they had
struck a deal to collaborate on a series of books and self-help
courses. Both
were men of action who didn't hesitate to make the commitment, knowing
full
well the personal sacrifices such a venture would demand. Hill's life's work had
been the development of a series of principles that could be used by
anyone in
any field to achieve his or her goals, an idea he credits to
turn-of-the
century industrialist Andrew Carnegie. In 1908, as a
twenty-five-year-old journalist, Hill was assigned by a magazine to
write a
profile of the steel magnate. During the course of the interview,
Carnegie,
then in his early seventies, lamented. "It's a shame that each new
generation must find the way to success by trial and error when the
principles
are really clear-cut." He challenged young
Hill to develop a practical philosophy that anyone could use, and
by the time
Carnegie had finished elaborating on his beliefs, Hill was smitten. It
took him
exactly twenty-nine seconds to accept the challenge. Hill assumed Carnegie
was offering to underwrite the project and was stunned when the
industrialist
asked him if he was willing to devote twenty years of his life-while
supporting
himself — to accomplishing the task. "It is not my
unwillingness to supply the money," Carnegie said, "it is my desire
to know if you have in you the natural capacity for willingness to go
the extra
mile, that is, to render the service before trying to collect for it."
Successful people, Carnegie went on, are those who render more service
than
they are required to deliver. The canny Scotsman
stuck to his terms. He provided some of the introductions and much of
the material,
but none of the funding for the work, except some out-of-pocket and
travel
expenses. Hill kept his end of the bargain as well. He spent
almost exactly
twenty years interviewing the business and political leaders of his
day,
cataloging and refining the principles they revealed to him. Henry
Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, James J. Hill, Luther
Burbank,
William Howard Taft, Harvey Firestone, F. W. Woolworth, and William
Wrigley,
Jr., were but a few of the famous names who freely shared their secrets
of
success during Hill's marathon years of research. His personal success
philosophy of achievement was the first authoritative treatise on the
subject,
and his books. Law of Success and Think Grow Rich, were
read by
millions around the world. By the time Hill and
Stone met over lunch, Stone had read the books and had found in Hill a
kindred
spirit whose philosophy paralleled his own. To Hill's original
principles,
Stone added a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), which became the
fundamental
doctrine and driving force of the philosophy. During the ten years
they worked together, the two men published several books and
crisscrossed the
globe telling the story of success through PMA. During the 1950s,
thousands of
people flocked to Chicago hotels to hear them speak. "PMA Science of
Success" clubs based on their principles sprang up all over the
country.
Letters streamed into their offices telling of lives changed and
success
achieved by following the principles they taught. But something was
missing. They found that audiences responded enthusiastically to their
speeches
and lectures, but as time passed, spirits were dampened and negative
thoughts
returned. To fuel the fire and keep the flames of enthusiasm burning
brightly,
Stone and Hill founded Success Unlimited, the predecessor of
today's
popular Success! magazine. Their book, Success
Through A Positive Mental Attitude, has been translated into
several
languages and is widely recognized as a classic in the field of
motivational
literature. It formed the foundation on which many who followed built
success
models. In fact, virtually all modern motivation books have a germ
of Hill's
and Stone's philosophy in them. Nevertheless,
the world has changed dramatically in the twenty-seven years since
Stone and
Napoleon Hill published Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude;
and
Stone's The Success System That Never Fails will celebrate its
twenty-fifth birthday this year. In the quarter century since it was
first
published, we've put a man on the moon and personal computers and VCRs
in the
home. Smoke-stack industries crumbled, services displaced
manufac-turing, the
domestic auto industry lost ground to imports, and the flower-power
counterculture settled down to raise the "me" generation. Therefore, it seems
appropriate at this time to re-examine this philosophy — to determine
how valid
W. Clement Stone's PMA approach is in light of today's attitudes,
perceptions,
and role models. We began the project
with a survey, not exactly an original idea, but one that we believed
would
prove to be interesting and valuable to our readers. We can't prove
conclusively (within an acceptable error rate of plus or minus five
percent)
how Stone's original formula has held up. It's doubtful if we could
even prove
that our survey is scientifically or statistically valid. It was not a
blind
study. We identified ourselves in hopes that the executives who
answered the
questionnaire would subject themselves to an interview for this book.
Many did. While some names were
selected at random, some were chosen for inclusion precisely because
of
who they are. So much for the "nth name" random-sampling method. The
relatively small size of our sample would probably destroy our
credibility with
statisticians, but the unvarnished truth is that we were more
interested in
quality than quantity. We got it. Among the obstacles we
confronted in conducting the survey were: • First,
we found that CEOs of Fortune 500 companies have been surveyed to
death. Many
have developed formal policies about participating in surveys (they
don't). Of
course, there's always one guy who doesn't get the word. In one
instance, two
executives from the same company responded; one declined, citing
policy, the
other agreed to be interviewed. Some spent
more time writing to us to explain
their policy and the reasoning behind it than it would have taken to
fill out
the questionnaire. Letters declining participation were often
signed by the
CEOs themselves, wishing us luck with the project; one even went so far
as to
tell us that he regretted having made the decision, but trusted we
could
understand his reasoning. We tried. • Second,
though it
came as no surprise, we learned that there are a lot of busy people out
there.
Many of the achievers who wanted to participate couldn't; we would
arrange a
mutually convenient meeting time only to have the appointment evaporate
at the
last minute. Often, though, we were able to reschedule, and our
wait always
was worthwhile. • The old
Roman was
right. When Pliny the Elder noted in the first century that the only
certainty
in life is change, he might have been speaking about this project. Two
CEOs
were rescheduled because they were having surgery at the time of our
appointment,
one chairman canceled altogether when his company fell victim to a
hostile
takeover, and one public company went private while we were
researching it. The introduction to
our survey listed the Seventeen Principles of Success: 1. A
Positive Mental Attitude 2. Definiteness of Purpose 3. Going
the Extra Mile 4. Accurate Thinking 5. Self-Discipline 6. The
Master-Mind Alliance 7. Applied Faith 8. Pleasing Personality 9. Personal
Initiative 10. Enthusiasm 11. Controlled Attention 12. Teamwork 13. Learning from Defeat 14. Creative Vision 15. Budgeting
Time and Money 16. Maintaining Sound Physical and Mental Health 17. Cosmic Habit Force The executives who
responded said they understand these Seventeen Principles pretty well.
One
notable exception is the last one: Cosmic Habit Force. Their
confusion
about it prompted us to take extra care in writing that part of the
book, both
in explaining the principle and finding examples to illustrate how it
works. A number of CEOs said
they were unclear about the principle of The Master-Mind Alliance and
how
it differs from the principle of Teamwork. We took care also
to address
this distinction in the text. Among
the questions we asked on the survey was: Who is the business executive
you
most admire? The name of Lee Iacocca came up on the majority of
responses. Two
other names that occurred frequently, on roughly the same number of
survey
forms, were those of IBM's Thomas Watson, Jr. and General Motors's
Roger Smith. Although most of the
participants in our survey have reached the top position in
corporations that
post annual sales of hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, they
do not
rest on their laurels. Most of them stated that they practice the
principles of
success every day. One of the side
benefits that accrued to us in writing this book was learning how kind,
generous, thoughtful, and considerate the top executives of large
corporations
really are. They shared their experiences and insights with us in what
we
believe was a genuine desire to help others. Many of these individuals
are
identified in this book; others, for reasons of their own, preferred to
remain
anonymous. In all, writing this
book has been an entertaining, sometimes amusing, always enlightening
experience. Of course the real test of a book is what the readers, not
the writers, think of it. "A good book," said the
nineteenth-century
Dutch clergyman Talbot Wilson Chambers, "in the language of the
booksellers, is a salable one; in that of the curious, a scarce one; in
that
[of people] of sense, a useful and instructive one." We hope this book is
both salable and plentiful, but given an option, we'd settle for its
meeting
Chambers's last criterion. We hope you find the book useful and
instructive. Much of W. Clement
Stone's contribution to this book was made by means of transcripts of
his
tape-recorded thoughts about the Seventeen Principles. These tapes were
made at
a series of monthly meetings called "Essence Sessions," which
Stone
has held with a group of close associates for the last three
years. After careful study of
these transcripts and the wide-ranging philosophical discussions they
contain —
all based on some aspect of the Seventeen Principles — two ideas
gradually
emerged: First, the principles
seem to divide naturally into five categories: personal,
intellectual,
attitudinal, fraternal, and spiritual. That observation
led to the
organization of this book and the sequence in which the principles are
treated
herein. Second, there is a
need for emphasis on the importance of honesty and integrity in
business
dealings. While Stone and Hill stressed the importance of following the
Golden
Rule, they seemed to assume that honesty and integrity would be taken
for
granted by their readers. Stone still believes in trusting employees to
do the
right thing, but he makes clear in the "Essence Sessions" that it
behooves the executive to teach employees what the right thing is and
to make
regular checks on their performance to insure that they are doing
it. Our
survey of today's successful executives also reflects this concern with
honesty
and integrity. In the more populous and mobile society of the 1980s,
old-fashioned conventions frequently give way to expediency. The new
attitude
is one of pragmatism. Whatever it takes to get ahead seems to be
acceptable. Naturally, not
everyone agreed with this sentiment. Dr. James Botkin, whose insights
were invaluable
in explaining the intellectual principles, believes that our
fundamental values
are still intact. While today's generation may appear slicker and
faster, he
says, its members are not any less honest; they are just more
sophisticated
and faster moving. "It's a high-tech culture, a coast culture,"
which contrasts dramatically with the open, honest style that typifies
older
executives, he says. Whether it's
indicative of a lack of honesty or a cultural shift, the subject of
honesty was
mentioned so often by the leaders we interviewed that we felt compelled
to
mention it here. Virtually everyone we talked to voluntarily
included honesty
and integrity as being fundamental to achieving lasting success. Success
is relative. One CEO expressed great admiration for his gardener,
a man who,
he says, is a good husband and father, a respected member of the
community,
and happy and successful. Most survey respondents, however, defined
success in
terms of money, power, respect, and recognition. Success by any measure
is a moving target. It is never completely achieved. "I believe that at
each new level of achievement you have to push yourself or you'll
retrench,"
says Pat Ryan, "so I'm an advocate of reaching one plateau, then
springing
to another and so on. When you do, your capacity as a person is
expanded;
success is stretching to meet your goals, then never being
satisfied. "I once said,
'You can't conceive how far up is, except for the limitations
of your
own mind.' It may not be very good English, but a lot of people —
including Mr.
Stone — liked and responded to the idea. All I really mean is that once
you
decide how high it is that you want to go, that's as far as you will
go. People
sometimes ask me if I ever realized how big my company would become. I
tell
them that I honestly had no idea, but I knew it would be big from the
day I
started it back in 1963. I had a goal that it would be a national sales
organization. I could have decided that was enough, but I wanted to
build to
greater heights. I don't want to know how high it is because if you
establish
the height you want to achieve, that is where you will stop." Perhaps my greatest
revelation in doing the research for this book was the fact that, like
success
itself, the PMA philosophy is not static. It's alive, moving, ever
evolving to
meet changing needs and situations. Since Stone's early collaboration
with
Hill, he's refined the principles they developed and added new insights. "My perception is
that Mr. Stone's basic principles have outlived and endured far beyond
the
trendy situations we see so often," says Ryan. "It is important
for
the reader to understand that these principles are not a reflection on
a
successful man's life, but in my judgment are principles that extend
into
perpetuity. Readers should accept this philosophy as past, present, and
very
much a part of the future.'' Order
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