PROFITING BY FAILURE 885COMMENTARY
Again for readers who may have missed the note at the beginning of this
book, originally the Law of Success was indeed based on fifteen laws. The
Master Mind was initially considered to be just an introductory lesson, then
later became the first law and all the others moved down one. Later still,
the Universal Law of Cosmic Habitforce was added, for a total of seventeen
laws or principles.The estimated net income from the sale of the editorials is more
than enough to care for my needs.
I am now also working in collaboration with a group of scientists,
psychologists, and businessmen in writing a postgraduate course that
will soon be available to all students who have mastered this more
elementary Law of Success course, covering not only the fifteen laws
here outlined from a more advanced viewpoint, but also including
still other laws which have but recently been discovered.
COMMENTARY
In the latter part of 1929, as a result of the October 29 stock market
crash, book sales of Law of Success declined dramatically.
Napoleon Hill, ever the optimist, did not take the crash as seriously
as others did. He thought that the economy would recover quickly, and
he went to work turning his Magic Ladder to Success lecture series into
another book. He also organized the lectures to become a class.
But in 1930 when The MagiC Ladder to Success was published, books
were not a "Iuxury" that many people could afford, and few had any imme-
diate hope for the opportunities the book proposed. With the book failing
to sell, Hill realized that reports of the severe economic conditions had not
been greatly exaggerated at all. At this same time, many of the news-
papers that had been expected to become part of Hill's syndication deal
were having their own financial difficulties and there was little to be made
from this once-promising venture either.