Mindset · editorial rating

Napoleon Hill

Hill gets real credit for specific goals and written plans, which research supports. But the headline story that sold the book, a Carnegie commission and 500 interviews, has no supporting evidence, and his record includes warrants and an FTC charge with no reported convictions.

Editorial opinion: SG Score 35 out of 100. Verdict: OVERSTATED. This is not a customer star rating and not a finding by a court.

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Strengths

• Specific goals, deadlines, and written plans line up with goal-setting research
• The master mind idea of a peer support group is a practical, cheap habit
• The core book is free to read online

Weaknesses

• Carnegie biographer David Nasaw told Gizmodo he found no evidence that Carnegie and Hill ever met (S1).
• Gizmodo found no evidence for most of the claimed meetings with 500 wealthy men outside Hill's own writing (S1).
• The desire chapter tells readers to see and feel the money as already theirs (S6). Research links that kind of outcome fantasy to lower effort (S7).

Claims

1. fails. Andrew Carnegie induced Hill in 1908 to organize the world's first philosophy of personal achievement.

   Carnegie biographer David Nasaw told Gizmodo he found no evidence that Carnegie and Hill ever met.

   Sources: S1

2. fails. The secret made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy men whom Hill says he carefully analyzed over a long period of years.

   No list, notes, or interview records of the 500 have been produced. Gizmodo found no evidence of most of the claimed meetings outside Hill's own writing.

   Sources: S1

3. partly. Fix an exact sum, set a date, write a plan, then read it aloud twice daily and see and feel yourself already in possession of the money.

   Specific goals, deadlines, and plans match strong research. Picturing the outcome as already achieved is the part studies warn against: positive fantasies sap energy and process simulation beats outcome visualization.

   Sources: R01 R02 R12 R13 R41

Public record

• 1908-09: Gizmodo reported that Hill's Acree-Hill Lumber Company in Mobile, Alabama had taken $10,000 to $20,000 of lumber on credit and that warrants were issued for his arrest in Alabama. No conviction was reported. S1
• 1918-06: Illinois issued warrants charging Hill with violating the state's Blue Sky Law in selling shares of his George Washington Institute in Chicago; Gizmodo reported he posted a $2,000 bond. No conviction was reported. S1
• 1919-10: Gizmodo reported the Federal Trade Commission charged Hill over false and misleading statements in an April 1919 Hill's Golden Rule magazine article promoting an oil company's founders. We found no record of the outcome. S1

Also in Mindset

• Mel Robbins (61, MIXED)
• Tony Robbins (36, OVERSTATED)
• Rhonda Byrne (36, OVERSTATED)

Sources

1. S1 The Untold Story of Napoleon Hill, the Greatest Self-Help Scammer of All Time. Gizmodo (Matt Novak). https://gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon-hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645
2. S2 Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill Foundation. https://www.naphill.org/napoleon-hill/
3. S3 Think and Grow Rich: Author's Preface. Sacred Texts Archive. https://sacred-texts.com/book/think-and-grow-rich/read/author-s-preface
4. S4 Napoleon Hill Timeline. Napoleon Hill Foundation. https://www.naphill.org/napoleon-hill/napoleon-hill-timeline/
5. S5 Napoleon Hill Online Distance Learning Class. Napoleon Hill Foundation. https://www.naphill.org/shop/education/online-distance-learning-class/
6. S6 Think and Grow Rich: Chapter 2, Desire. Sacred Texts Archive. https://sacred-texts.com/book/think-and-grow-rich/read/chapter-2-desire-the-first-step-toward-riches
7. S7 Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.02.003

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