886 THE P R INC I P L E S 0 F PER SON A LIN T E G R I T Y
I include this information only because I know how common it
is for all of us to measure success in terms of dollars and to refuse
as unsound all philosophy that does not effect a good bank balance.
For most of my life I have been poor-exceedingly poor-as far
as bank balances were concerned. This has been very largely a matter
of choice, because I have been putting the best of my time into the
toilsome job of gathering some much needed knowledge of life.
From the experiences described in my seven turning points, I have
gathered a few golden threads of knowledge that I could have gained
in no other way than through defeat. My own experiences have led me
to believe that the language of defeat is the plainest and most effective
language in the world, once one begins to understand it. I am almost
tempted to say that I believe it to be the language in which Nature
cries out to us when we will listen to no other language.
I am glad that I have experienced much defeat. It has had the effect
of tempering me with the courage to undertake tasks that I would
never have begun had I been surrounded by protecting influences.
Defeat is a destructive force only when it is accepted as failure. When
accepted as teaching some needed lesson it is always a blessing.COMMENTARY
A defeat to which Napoleon Hill does not refer in this book, but which
Michael Riff mentions in A Lifetime of Riches, was another shocking loss
that he suffered in 1923.
Returning to Chicago after the significant loss of his first magazine and
subsequent businesses, Hill found that the building in which he kept some
of his most treasured documents had been completely destroyed by a fire.
Among the losses were numerous letters from Woodrow Wilson as well as
an endorsement of Hill's proposal that Wilson had used to sell war bonds,
and a letter from President Taft endorsing Hill to potential employers.
But most stunning was the loss of Napoleon Hill's entire collection
of confidential questionnaires that had been completed by the most