THE H A BIT 0 F 0 0 I N G M 0 RET HAN P A I 0 FOR 607COMMENTARY
Andrew Carnegie had told Napoleon Hill that during the twenty years it would
take to compile the research and information that would go into the development
of "the world's first philosophy of individual achievement, " he must be willing
to starve rather than quit. There were many times when he was nearly doing
the former, but he never gave in to the latter.
Hill believed so strongly in service to others and in doing more than what he
was paid to do, that on at least two occasions-first in 1917 during the First World
War, when he wrote material for President Woodrow Wilson to keep the industrial
workers motivated, and again in 1933 during the depression, when he joined
President Franklin Roosevelt's White House staff as an adviser, speechwriter, and
p.r. man for the National Recovery Administration-Hill willingly worked for the
government for just one dollar a year, when he had barely enough money to live on.It is only through the delivery of such service that mastery in
your chosen field can be attained. For this reason you should make
it a part of your Definite Chief Aim to strive to surpass all previous
records in all that you do. Make this a part of your daily habits, and
follow it with the same regularity with which you eat your meals.
Make it your business to render more and better service than that
for which you are paid, and before you realize what has happened, you
will find that the world is willingly paying you for more than you do!
Compound interest upon compound interest is the rate that you
will be paid for such service. Just how this pyramiding of gains takes
place is left entirely to you to determine.
Now, what are you going to do with what you have learned from
this lesson? and when? and how? and why? This lesson can be of no
value to you unless it moves you to adopt and use the knowledge it has
brought you. Knowledge becomes power only through organization
and use. Do not forget this.
You can never become a leader without doing more than you are
paid for, and you cannot become successful without developing Leader-
ship in your chosen occupation.