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Positive Thinking
I remember meeting with W. Clement Stone for the first time in his Chicago office in the mid-1980s.
This insurance tycoon was also the head of The Napoleon Hill Foundation and granted to this stranger from the Eastern Hemisphere the right to promulgate the “positive mental attitude” spirit in Japan.
I tried to persuade this billionaire by saying that success must be achieved both in material and spiritual terms, in fulfilling one’s ideals by improving one’s inner self and gaining peace of mind, rather than just by achieving wealth or fame.
I emphasized that only PMA can bring out success, that is, real self-fulfillment.
Listening with a smile, Mr. Stone offered his hand to me, who dared to preach PMA to Mr. PMA.
Since then, two Japanese-translated books, “Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude,” co-authored by him and Dr. Napoleon Hill, and Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich,” have been my company’s long-selling books and have affected many, many Japanese youth and businesspeople.
My deepest and sincerest condolences on the passing away of my mentor, Mr. W. Clement Stone.
Tanaka Taka-aki
Tokyo
Historical Life
He started out with nothing and built an insurance empire.
W. Clement Stone founded a multibillion-dollar insurance empire with $100 and sought to buck up the world with the idea that anyone might do the same-all they need is “positive mental attitude.”
“All I want to do is change the world,” he said.
The founder of Combined Insurance Co., who through his private foundation passed along $275 million-especially for education and childhood development-since 1958, died Tuesday September 4, 2002 of pneumonia at Evanston Hospital. He was a resident of the North Shore suburb.
He celebrated his 100th birthday in May with a gift of $100,000 to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Famous for his pencil-thin black mustache, his polka-dot bow ties and a solid fix on motivation as the engine of success, Mr. Stone identified so strongly with PMA-positive mental attitude-that it was the ticker symbol for his holding company, Combined International Corp., when shareholders formed it in 1980.
Combined Insurance merged in 1982 with Ryan Insurance, and in 1987 the name changed to Aon Corp. Last year, it reported total revenue of more than $2.035 billion.
Mr. Stone’s notion was that any man can become wealthy “no matter how poor his start in life.”
He wrote books-most famously, with Napoleon Hill, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, published in 1960.
His own rags-to-riches tale started May 4, 1902, in Chicago, where he was born to Louis and Anna Gunn Stone. His father, Louis, a clothing manufacturer, died when he was 3. His mother found work as a dressmaker, while the boy, at 6, was on the streets, hawking the Examiner newspaper to help pay the rent.
At 13, he had his own newsstand at 31st and Cottage Grove.
At the age of 16, he joined his mother in Detroit, where she ran an insurance agency.
By 20, he had his own agency in Chicago and by 1930 had rounded up 1,000 agents.
As a teen, Mr. Stone dropped out of Senn high, but eventually completed a diploma at YMCA night classes.
Before leaving Senn, he met Jessie Verna Tarson. They married in 1923 when he was 21 and went on to rear three children. He always said she was part of his secret.
He contended that he lived so long “because I was married to the most beautiful girl in the world, and dancing every chance I could,” friends remember him saying.
Even the Depression didn’t get Mr. Stone down. He was quoted in the New York Times saying it forced good work habits.
He read and then embodied the Horatio Alger books, many of which were shelved at Combined’s office at 5050 N. Broadway.
He called his books “inspirational self-help action books” but it was the Bible, he said, that was “the world’s greatest self-help book.”
A generous backer of Republicans, he contributed to Richard M. Nixon-with whom he bonded because of interest in the Boys Clubs-and was named a trustee of the Nixon Foundation. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his philosophy and his philanthropy, including the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation.
Survivors include his wife; a son, Norman, 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
1902-2002
As a testimonial to the greatness of W. Clement Stone, and in memorium for his passing on September 3rd, printed below is a copy of his own advice for a fulfilling life as published in Success Unlimited. As we pause and reflect on Mr. Stone’s life’s mission, the greatest tribute that can be paid to this gentleman and philanthropist is to emulate his style, grace, and goodwill. May he rest in peace.
BE GENEROUS!
By W. Clement Stone
Be generous! Give to those whom you love; give to those who love you; give to the fortunate; give to the unfortunate; yes—give especially to those to whom you don’t want to give.
Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them. You will receive abundance for your giving. The more you give—the more you will have!
Give a smile to everyone you meet (smile with your eyes)—and you’ll smile and receive smiles . . .
Give a kind word (with a kindly thought behind the word)—you will be kind and receive kind words . . .
Give honor, credit and applause (the victor’s wreath)—you will be honorable and receive credit and applause . . .
Give time for a worthy cause (with eagerness)—you will be worthy and richly rewarded . . .
Give hope (the magic ingredient for success)—you will have hope and be made hopeful . . .
Give happiness (a most treasured state of mind)—you will be happy and be made happy . . .
Give encouragement (the incentive to action)—you will have courage and be encouraged . . .
Give cheer (the verbal sunshine)—you’ll be cheerful and cheered . . .
Give a pleasant response (the neutralizer of irritants)—you will be pleasant and receive pleasant responses . . .
Give good thoughts (nature’s character builder)—you will be good and the world will have good thoughts for you . . .
Give prayers (the instrument of miracles) for the godless and the godly—you will be reverent and receive blessings, more than you deserve!
Be generous! Give!
Napoleon Hill Foundation – Store
http://www.naphill.org/store/index.asp?DEPARTMENT_ID=37
Personal Info
Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in a one-room cabin on the Pound River in Wise County, Virginia. He began his writing career at age 13 as a “mountain reporter” for small town newspapers and went on to become America’s most beloved motivational author. Hill passed away in November 1970 after a long and successful career writing, teaching, and lecturing about the principles of success. His work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation. His book, Think and Grow Rich, is the all time bestseller in the field. Hill established the Foundation as a nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to perpetuate his philosophy of leadership, self-motivation, and individual achievement. His books, audio cassettes, videotapes, and other motivational products are made available to you as a service of the Foundation so that you may build your own library of personal achievement materials… and help you acquire financial wealth and the true riches of life.
Historical Events
1908
Carnegie induced him to organize the world’s first philosophy of personal achievement.
1933-36
Presidential Advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1942
“Mental Dynamite” study course in 17 volumes program discontinued with advent of World War II
1952 -62
Associated with W. Clement Stone of Combined Insurance Co. of America. Taught his Philosophy of Personal Achievement. Lectures on “Science of Success”.
Book Chronology 1919-1920
“The Golden Rule Magazine”
Napoleon Hill edited and published
1928
“Law of Success”
published (Ralston Society, Publishers)
1930
“The Magic Ladder to Success”
1937
“Think and Grow Rich”
1939
“How to Sell Your Way Through Life”
1953
“How to Raise Your Own Salary”
1960
“Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude”
1970
“You Can Work Your Own Miracles”
“7 Basic Fears”
by Napoleon Hill
Fear can be both a blessing and a curse, depending upon how and when one yields to it or rejects it.
The fear of failure can attract the causes of failure, and the fear of defeat is an open invitation for defeat. Fear is so powerful that it can do as much damage as its opposite-faith-can do good. As a matter of fact fear is nothing but faith in reverse gear.
There are seven basic fears which hold many people in bondage throughout their lives. No great and enduring success can be achieved by anyone until he has mastered all seven.
Fear of poverty: This fear is harbored by people who allow their minds to dwell on the circumstances and things they do not want. All thoughts have the habit of attracting to one the things one thinks about. This explains why one must condition his mind with a “success consciousness” before he can attract success. The emotions of faith and fear have equal pulling power-one attracts failure and the other attracts success as surely as water runs down hill in response to the law of gravitation.
Fear of criticism: The fear of what “they will say” of one’s ideas or plans keeps millions of people from using their initiative in bringing forth ideas that could make them rich. And fear of criticism causes some minds to close up like clams, thereby depriving individuals of priceless opportunities to improve themselves by discovery of their weaknesses, mistakes, and poor judgment. The successful person invites criticism because he knows that it may reveal to him some advantage he had overlooked, or bring him some opportunity he had not expected.
Fear of ill health: Doctors have a sixty-four dollar word for this fear. It is hypochondria (imaginary illness). Here, the same as in connection with material things of a financial nature, the mind attracts that which it believes in, whether the belief is expressed through fear or by faith. Talking, thinking, and believing one is sick will bring about the effects of illness, and strangely enough, the symptoms appear to be the same as those which accompany real illness.
Fear of the loss of love: This is the fear which causes jealousy. Not infrequently it leads to both temporary and permanent insanity. Whether it is justified or not, jealousy destroys homes, breaks up business and professional relationships, and leads to physical ailments on a scale scarcely equaled by any of the other fears. It has been said that women are more susceptible to the fear of jealousy than men are, due perhaps to their knowledge of the polygamous nature of the male.
Fear of the loss of liberty: Every human being has a deeply seated and inborn desire for freedom, a gift perhaps by the Creator who gave man complete rights to use his mind-power as a means of providing himself with freedom to work out his own earthly destiny. This is the only one of the seven basic fears which is founded upon circumstances over which the individual does not have the power of control. With the world in the state of chaos and frustration existing today there is ample reason to justify one’s fear of losing his liberty.
Fear of old age: Just why men and women should curtail their usefulness because of their fear of old age is difficult to define. For it’s obvious that the Creator has so wisely provided man with everything he needs, with which to work out his earthly existence, that nothing can be taken away from him without something of equal or greater value becoming available to take its place. As one gives up his youth, its place is filled by wisdom. And history proves that man’s greatest achievements take place after he passes the half-century mark. Moreover, age is not accurately measured by the years one has lived, but it is determined by the nature of the thinking he does and his reactions to his experiences.
Fear of death: This is the grandfather of all of the seven basic fears, and the most unnecessary of them all because it is something over which no one has enduring control. One man who mastered this fear explained how he did it this way: “I believed” said he, “that death brings one or the other of two conditions. Either it results in one long, eternal sleep, or it carries us to another world far superior to the one we leave behind, and neither of these possibilities is terrifying.”
Source: Success Unlimited. May, 1965, pgs. 8 – 10.
