Napoleon Hill
Underworld characters who are engaged in the dangerous
business of highway robbery, burglary, etc., generally "dope" themselves for
the occasion of their operations, with cocaine, morphine and other
narcotics. Even in this there is a lesson which shows that practically
all men need temporary or artificial stimuli to drive them to greater
effort than that normally employed in the ordinary pursuits of life.
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SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE DISCOVERED WAYS AND MEANS WHICH THEY BELIEVE BEST SUITED TO THEIR OWN NEEDS, TO PRODUCE STIMULI WHICH CAUSE THEM TO RISE TO HEIGHTS OF ENDEAVOR ABOVE THE ORDINARY. |
One of the most successful writers in the world employs an orchestra of beautifully dressed young women who play for him while he writes. Seated in a room that has been artistically decorated to suit his own taste, under lights that have been colored, tinted and softened, these beautiful young ladies, dressed in handsome evening gowns, play his favorite music.
To use his own words, "I become drunk with enthusiasm, under the influence of this environment, and rise to heights I never know or feel on other occasions. It is then that I do my work. The thoughts pour in on me as if they were dictated by an unseen and unknown power."
This author gets much of his inspiration from music and art. Once a week he spends at least an hour in an art museum, looking at the works of the masters. On these occasions, again using his own words, "I get enough enthusiasm from one hour's visit in the museum of art to carry me for two days." Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Raven" when, it is reported, he was more than half intoxicated.
Oscar Wilde wrote his poems under the influence of a form
of stimulus which cannot be appropriately mentioned in a course of this
nature. Henry Ford (so it is believed by this author, who admits that this
is merely the author's opinion) got his real start as the result of his love
for his charming life-companion.
It was she who inspired him, gave him faith in himself, and kept him keyed up so that he carried on in the face of adversities, which would have killed off a dozen ordinary men. These incidents are cited as evidence that men of outstanding achievement have, by accident or design, discovered ways and means of stimulating themselves to a high state of enthusiasm.