30 Ways to Fail

[From Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, (c) 1937]


1. Unfavorable hereditary background
2. Lack of a well-defined purpose
3. Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity
4. Insufficient education
5. Lack of self-discipline
6. Ill health
7. Unfavorable environmental influences during childhood
8. Procrastination
9. Lack of persistence
10. Negative personality
11. Lack of controlled sexual urge
12. Uncontrolled desire for something for nothing
13. Lack of a well-defined power of decision
14. One or more of the six basic fears *
15. Wrong selection of a mate in marriage
16. Overcaution
17. Wrong selection of an appropriate associate in business
18. Superstition and prejudice
19. Wrong selection of a vocation
20. Lack of concentration of effort
21. The habit of indiscriminate spending
22. Lack of enthusiasm
23. Intolerance
24. Intemperance
25. Inability to cooperate with others
26. Possession of power that was not acquired through self-effort
27. Intentional dishonesty
28. Egotism and vanity
29. Guessing instead of thinking
30. Lack of capital

Twenty of these, each to varying degrees, are responsible for my situation: stuck in limbo, in a holding pattern, circling over the airport but gradually being sucked down by the force of gravity. Which twenty I'm not going to say despite my attempts at rigorous honesty with this blog (even though the blog's technically anonymous). Though it's not an excuse, it is tougher to address a lot of these issues the older one is. How I wish someone - anyone! - had handed me this book or any of it's clones when I was a teenager. Oh well. The past is the past; LE, roll up your goddamn sleeves and get to work!


* according to Hill the six basic fears we face are the fears of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age, and death.