Napoleon Hill

<p><b>Napoleon Hill</b> (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author in the area of the <a title="New thought" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_thought">new thought</a> movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of <a title="Personal-success literature" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal-success_literature">personal-success literature</a>. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> His most famous work, <i><a title="Think and Grow Rich" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_and_Grow_Rich">Think and Grow Rich</a></i> (1937), is one of the <a title="Best selling books" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_selling_books">best-selling books</a> of all time (at the time of Hill's death in 1970, <i>Think and Grow Rich</i> had sold 20 million copies).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became an advisor to President <a title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> from 1933 to 1936. <i>"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve"</i> is one of Hill's hallmark expressions.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup> How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill's books.</p>