PROFITING BY FAILURE 869At one stroke I charged off more than $75,000 in tuition fees and at
the same time contributed my own service to my country.
Once more I was penniless! Unfortunate is the person who has
never had the thrill of being penniless at one time or another, for as
Edward Bok has truthfully stated, poverty is the richest experience that
can come to a person-an experience which, however, he advises one
to get away from as quickly as possible.
COMMENTARY
Napoleon Hill knew something of the "value" of poverty from his own modest
upbringing in the backwoods of Virginia. Edward Bok, whose writing on the
subject is excerpted in Lesson Eight, Self-Control, also wrote from personal
experience. And this same sentiment was expressed to Hill by Andrew
Carnegie at their first meeting in 1908.
In telling Hill that his own humble beginnings had been his inspiration
to reach seemingly impossible goals, Carnegie had also said, "The richest
heritage a young man can have is to be born into poverty. "
This story is told in greater detail in the book A Lifetime of Riches:
The Biography of Napoleon Hill by Michael J. Riff Jr. and Kirk Landers. Riff
worked as Hill's assistant for ten years and was the first employee of the
Napoleon Hill Foundation, where he served as executive director, secretary,
and treasurer. The material in Rift's book comes from his own personal
knowledge of Hill as well as from Hill's unpublished autobiography.Again I was forced to redirect my efforts. But before I proceed to
describe the next and last important turning point, I should mention
that no single event described up to this point is, in itself, of any
practical significance. The six turning points I have briefly described
meant nothing to me taken singly, and they will mean nothing to
you if analyzed singly. But take these events collectively and they
form a very significant foundation for the next turning point. They