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4.5
In defense of a particular audio rendition of this work, I'll make a few points about what we commonly refer to as The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill.Since few reviews list them, the 17 principles of success according to Dr. Hill are as follows:1) The Master Mind - Learn the psychology behind success and how you can use it to enhance your personal power.2) A Definite Chief Aim - Save wasted effort, and focus your heart and mind on a well-conceived, practical purpose.3) Self-Confidence - Overcome the six basic fears and empower yourself without falling into the trap of egotism.4) The Habit of Saving - Master this basic concept and learn to harness your greatest source of personal power.5) Initiative and Leadership - Develop your instincts to anticipate problems and know when to seize opportunities.6) Imagination - Stimulate your mind to create new concepts out of common ideas and put them to work for you.7) Enthusiasm - Overcome uncertainty or shyness, and inspire others to take an interest in you and your ideas.8) Self-Control - Find the firmness of character to truly be "master of your fate and the captain of your soul."9) The Habit of Doing More Than Paid For - Take advantage of the Law of Increasing Returns to earn more for service rendered.10) Pleasing Personality - Transform yourself so that you can master your relationships and control any situation.11) Accurate Thinking - Separate real facts from mere information so you can devise definite, practical plans.12) Concentration - Laser-focus your mind on one subject at a time so the plans you create are plans that will work.13) Cooperation - Eliminate envy and greed, and learn to apply the Law of the Master Mind in all of your relationships.14) Profiting by Failure - Train yourself to recognize the difference between failure and what is just a temporary defeat.15) Tolerance - Eliminate mistrust and doubts so you can reap the rewards that come naturally to accurate thinkers.16) The Golden Rule - Use this most basic law of life to ensure cooperation from any individual or group.17) The Universal Law of Cosmic Habitforce - Transform your thoughts and habits so they harmonize with success-consciousness.One reviewer here remarked that you ought to just skip this entire book set and instead get Think and Grow Rich, however a cursory examination of the table of contents for Law of Success and Think and Grow Rich shows that the latter book covers a slightly different set of topics. Law of Success lays the groundwork for a success mentality whereas Think and Grow Rich spreads into the realm of some specific actions which you ought to undertake. To expand out from there in the realm of modern reality, consult works by, say, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Dale Carnegie, etc.As for the Law of Success course, the original text appears to be out of copyright protection, having been first published in 1928, so now we see a plethora of publishers performing the old "copyright two-step" where an original public domain work is reprinted in its entirety with a few minor editorial touch-ups here or there, some light editing work done, and/or a modern introduction by the editor. Thereafter, the entire work is re-copyrighted. Hence we see a collection of competing versions of the same original text, some of better quality than others. Any hard copy will run between 1,000 -1,600 pages, so check the page count to ensure you get what you are bargaining for.As a personal fan of both the science of self-improvement and audiobooks, I recommend against both the BN Publishing edition and the Audible download edition.The Audible edition is an earlier rendition of the text which contains only 15 original main principles, whereas Mr. Hill gradually expanded his Law of Success central thesis from 15 to 17 over the course of his later life. Additionally, I advise against any Audible product because I cannot in good faith suggest your purchase of any sort of digital media download which contains Digital Rights Management (DRM). With DRM downloads, you run into headaches with playback, copying or burning and ultimately you don't really own the media you paid for.The BN Publishing edition gives the impression of being extremely poorly executed and the final product leaves a bit to be desired. The two-cd set is well-printed, but the text is an earlier version, the quality of the MP3's sound terrible, and the back cover points to the wrong homepage for the publisher(!).Therefore, with neither package do you get the "real deal."The best-quality audiobook of The Law of Success is the High Roads Media edition, which you can buy either from the Napoleon Hill Foundation or here at Amazon. It is a 4-volume unabridged set with some minor editing, some more current examples, and editorial clarifications.The Law of Success, Volume I: Principles of Self-MasteryISBN: 1-932429-06-9The Law of Success: The Principles of Personal Power, Vol. IIISBN: 1-932429-08-5The Law of Success, Volume III: the Principles of Self-CreationISBN: 1-932429-10-7The Law of Success, Volume IV, 75th Anniversary Edition: The Principles of Personal IntegrityISBN: 1-932429-12-3This set is a bit more expensive than other audiobook approaches but you get the most exposure to the material for the money. Hard copies of this set are also available and are also strongly recommended.For myself, I am about halfway through the third volume and the going is great. Already my mind and mentality is beginning to shift towards more success-consciousness. I feel better and my "success instincts" are beginning to sharpen. The content is a bit long-winded and archaic, but very solid and very well-thought out, what with 20 years of active research necessary to produce these insights. I heartily recommend it and it should not be passed over. I wish I had come across this 10 years ago.
