Success Habits: Proven Principles for Greater Wealth, Health, and Happiness

This appealing guide to success marks the latest installment in the Napoleon Hill Is On the Air series, which presents writings from Hill (1883–1970), best known for the 1937 bestseller Think and Grow Rich. Don Green, executive director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, discovered the forgotten tapes of Hill’s radio and TV lecture programs, and has since been transcribing and publishing them for fans of “success philosophy.” This entry derives from weekly radio broadcasts from a 1952 series in which Hill, in a folksy tone, discusses ways to build habits in order to capitalize on his success principles: mastering one’s definite purpose and developing a pleasing personality. Some of it sounds like magical thinking—the “law of cosmic habit force” and similarly named concepts will raise some initially skeptical eyebrows—but at heart the advice is eminently practical and solid, as when he warns businesspeople against reading their contracts carelessly, stating that “taking the path of least resistance makes all rivers and some men crooked.” Though some may find this quiet and very much a product of its different time, Hill’s large and devoted fan base will be glad to have this good-natured addition to his library of success literature. (Dec.)