An Essay on Life

By Napoleon Hill

Life, you can’t subdue me because I refuse to take your discipline too seriously. When you try to hurt me, I laugh — and the laughter knows no pain. I appreciate your joys wherever I find them; your sorrows neither frighten nor discourage me, for there is laughter in my soul.

Temporary defeat does not make me sad. I simply set music to the words of defeat and turn it into a song. Your tears are not for me, for I like laughter much better, and because I like it, I use it as a substitute for grief and sorrow and pain and disappointment.

Life, you are a fickle trickster — don’t deny it. You slipped the emotion of love into my heart so that you might use it as a thorn with which to cut my soul — but I learned to dodge your trap with laughter. You tried to lure me with the desire for gold, but I have fooled you by following the trail which leads to knowledge instead. You induced me to build beautiful friendships — then converted my friends to enemies so you may harden my heart, but I sidestepped your figure on this by laughing off your attempts and selecting new friends in my own way.

You caused men to cheat me at trade so I will become distrustful, but I won again because I possess one precious asset which no man can steal — it is the power to think my own thoughts and to be myself. You threaten me with death, but to me death is nothing worse than a long peaceful sleep, and sleep is the sweetest of human experiences — excepting laughter. You build a fire of hope in my heart, then sprinkle water on the flames, but I can go you one better by rekindling the fire — and I laugh at you once more.

You have nothing that can lure me away from laughter, and you are powerless to scare me into submission. To a life of laughter, then, I raise my cup of cheer!

From Judith Williamson

Director of Napoleon Hill World Learning Center

When we take positive action before someone tells us that we have to do it, we exert our independence, strengthen our self-discipline muscle, negate our stress level, sharpen our persistence saw, and unite with the law of attraction. If we fail to act now, the very opposite outcomes appear and eventually wear us down. Good habits breed good outcomes, and an action becomes a habit over a period of repetition. This repetition ingrains the habit into our lifestyle, and sooner rather than later we become a model for this behavior. We become doers instead of procrastinators.

If you decide to take positive action now, you will begin to reap the benefits immediately. As you work through this book, you decree to your subconscious mind that you are an action-oriented person who accepts no excuses. By doing, you kick in the reciprocal action of receiving since it is the cycle that naturally occurs. The strength of the action coupled with the determination to achieve the outcome is a powerful process that will not be overcome. By taking personal initiative with a positive mindset, you will decree your future one action at a time. Start now, don’t delay your reward. Plug into the Power of Positive Action and qualify for the treasures in life that you deserve.