Law of Success (21st Century Edition)

PLEASING PERSONALITY 629

COMMENTARY

In reading Napoleon Hill's example of starting a toy company you may have

thought to yourself, "How quaint, toy trucks and rag dolls, but that idea belongs

to another era. You could never do that today. II

Be assured, the basic principles Hill outlines are exactly the principles upon

which companies making today's latest computer games are founded. And not

only can you do it today but someone is doing it, right now.

Every January or February in New York City, in lower Manhattan where

Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersect, as well as at the Javits Convention Center,

Toy Fair happens. Everybody who is anybody in the toy business is there displaying

their latest toys and games and trying to convince the buyers for the major retail

stores that they've got the one that's going to be the big seller at Christmas. And

every year, just like at any other trade show, the big guys have the big displays

and the big announcements. And every year some little guy with nothing more than

a ten-by-ten booth and an original idea will catch the fancy of the buyers.

Clearly, the editors acknowledge that it's the big toy companies that consist-

ently tum out the bestselling toys. The well-known brands have the resources

to develop many different lines each year for Toy Fair, and they have estab-

lished relationships with the buyers. But it is surprising how often it's been a

little guy who had the hit of the show that really did become the big seller the

following Christmas.

Toy companies aside, the larger point that Hill was making was that new

products are coming into the market all the time, and not all of them are created

by established companies. It was true when Hill first wrote Law of Success and it

remains true. As this updated edition is being written, new products are still being

created and someone with imagination and a pleasing personality is getting the

cooperation of other people to help finance and manufacture those products.

Idea Number Two

This idea will be of interest only to the man or woman who has the
Self-Confidence and the ambition to "run the risk" of making a big
income, which, I might add, many people do not have.