Law of Success (21st Century Edition)

PLEASING PERSONALITY 633

COMMENTARY

Napoleon Hill's second and third suggestions are really variations on the same

theme, and no doubt he chose these examples because he had personally

succeeded in doing something very similar. Although Hill was always a writer, the

difference between being a writer and being an author was years of research and

hard work. During those years he often put his talents to work as a freelancer

writing promotional and advertising materials.

Since Hill's time, advertising and marketing have overlapped into other

areas and become a part of a larger whole that is vaguely referred to as "the

media." This amorphous thing called the media now encompasses everything

from the copywriters and illustrators that Hill was familiar with to computer-

graphics designers, specialized artists, photographers, performers, interactive-

games designers, digital animators, infomercial producers, product-placement

specialists, creators of Web sites, and consultants of every stripe.

As new and different as all of these media types may seem, Napoleon Hill

would have been right at home with them. Like Hill, they are either freelancers

themselves or they rely on freelancers to run their business. Just as you don't

have to be the one who creates a toy in order to create a successful toy-

manufacturing company, in the service industry it's also not essential that you

be the writer or the computer designer to launch a successful media company.

What you do need is the imagination to find out what kind of talent and

services are in demand and who the people or businesses are who need those

talents. Combine that imaginative idea with the kind of pleasing personality that

can elicit the cooperation of freelancers who have the talents to fill that demand,

and you have just taken Napoleon Hill's 1927 business model as a blueprint for

creating a leading-edge media company.

You want to stop being an employee and become an employer. I

do not blame you for that. Most people want to do the same. The

best first step to take is to serve the firm or individual for whom you

are working just as you would wish to be served if you were that

individual or the head of that firm.