OUTWITTING THE DEVIL is the most profound book I have ever read. First, I was incredibly honored when Don Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, trusted me enough to ask me to become involved in this project. And then I read the manuscript! I couldn’t sleep for a week. Written on a manual typewriter in 1938 by the Master himself, Napoleon Hill, this manuscript had been locked away and hidden by Hill’s family for seventy-two years.
Why? Because they were frightened by the response it would invoke. Hill’s courage in revealing the Devil’s work around each of us every day, in our churches, our schools, and our politics, threatened the very core of society as it was known at the time. When asked why the family had hidden the manuscript, Don Green recites the following inside story: It was the objections of Hill’s wife, Annie Lou. She was secretary to Dr. William Plumer Jacobs, president of Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. Jacobs was also owner of Jacobs Press and a public counselor to a group of South Carolina textile firms. Jacobs hired Hill to come to Clinton to work for him, and Annie Lou did not want the book published because of the role of the Devil. She feared the response from organized religion (and maybe for Hill’s job). Even though Hill died in 1970, Annie Lou did not die until 1984. Upon Annie Lou’s death.
This was not the first time Hill used imaginary meetings to convey what he was writing about. In *Think and Grow Rich*, Hill, writing about the sixth sense, wrote about his imaginary council meeting with the nine men whose lifeworks had been the most impressive to Hill. These nine imaginary council members were Emerson, Paine, Edison, Darwin, Lincoln, Burbank, Napoleon, Ford, and Carnegie. Hill wrote in *Think and Grow Rich* that during his meetings with his “Invisible Counselors” he found his mind most receptive to ideas, thoughts, and knowledge that reached him during these times when his sixth sense was activated. *Outwitting the Devil* was by no means his first time to write about religion.
In fact, after he published *Law of Success* in 1928, he received letters of criticism about his stance on schools and religion. In *Think and Grow Rich*, in the chapter titled “The Six Ghosts of Fear,” Hill wrote that fear of death, in the majority of cases, could be charged to religious fanaticism. Hill had much to say about religious leaders in this section of his classic best seller.
*Outwitting the Devil* was by no means his first time to write about religion. In fact, after he published *Law of Success* in 1928, he received letters of criticism about his stance on schools and religion. In *Think and Grow Rich*, in the chapter titled “The Six Ghosts of Fear,” Hill wrote that fear of death, in the majority of cases, could be charged to religious fanaticism. Hill had much to say about religious leaders in this section of his classic best seller.
Hill had much to say about religion even in his *Hill’s Golden Rule Magazine*. He wrote an article, “A Suggestion to Ministers of the Gospel,” in which he admonished church leaders to teach their followers to practice harmony among each other. So the choice is yours. Did Hill actually talk to the Devil or is this a parable created to reach and touch your heart? Hill’s unique style will pull you in and move you in ways you never thought possible. The words in this book are Hill’s own. Since the original manuscript was quite lengthy, I edited with careful precision to preserve the profound impact of his message.
DR. NAPOLEON HILL is arguably the most famous self-help action writer, thinker, évocateur, and best-selling author of all time. We ask that you refer quickly to the actual interview with the Devil. You will thus get the impact in your life of who the Devil really is and what he does to 98 percent of living beings, according to the Devil himself. As a thought stimulator, Hill quickly starts the book’s journey, taking us through his life and what was meaningful and life-changing to him. Hill learned the greatest and most useful and instantly helpful success principles on the planet, but he did not know how to use and easily apply them. We predict that this is true for many people still today.
It is easy to say the words and sometimes even think the thoughts. It takes a profound and lasting decision to actually live by the principles daily in every way. Sharon Lechter illuminates what Hill’s words mean when transported into today’s dollars, thinking, and understanding. Dr. Hill’s goal was to communicate clearly a philosophy and practice of individual achievement that would stimulate lasting happiness. His inner knower guided him to find his own life’s rainbow.
FOR MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A CENTURY my major purpose has been that of isolating and organizing into a philosophy of achievement the causes of both failure and success, with the object of being helpful to others who have neither the inclination nor the opportunity to engage in this form of research. My labor began in 1908, as the result of an interview that I had with the late Andrew Carnegie.
I frankly told Mr. Carnegie that I wished to enter law school and that I had conceived the idea of paying my way through school by interviewing successful men and women, finding out how they came by their success, and writing stories of my discoveries for magazines. At the end of our first visit Mr. Carnegie asked whether or not I possessed enough courage to carry out a suggestion he wished to offer me. I replied that courage was about all I did have and that I was prepared to do my best to carry out any suggestion he cared to offer.