Book Review: ‘Road To Success’ - Timeless Advice For Today

Source: Amazon

Introduction

Book’s Name - Road to success: Timeless advice for today

Author - Napoleon Hill

Language - English

Genre - Self-help

About the Author

Source: Think And Grow Rich Summary

Napoleon Hill, an American author (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) Virginia, is best known for his book, Think And Grow Rich, which is one of the best-selling books for a decade. His books are among the top 10 best-selling books of all time in America and around the globe. Napoleon Hill’s books are composed of extensive research and observations and are easy to read and understand by common people.

Most of his books are based on achieving success and life lessons that help to shape the lives of many lives. Napoleon Hill Foundation is another philanthropist, non-profit educational institution dedicated to making the world a better place through education.

Book Review

The author starts by asking readers to understand the book's context by going through 14 different billboards that come across the highway representing each quality. These 14 billboards of success are values and habits that are to be followed if you want to achieve long-lasting success.

Some of the key qualities are mentioned through the analogy of billboards that we see on the road and are explained very well by examples that happen in our day-to-day life. The specialty in this book is as you read each chapter you pass towards the next billboard and that reading journey teaches you all qualities that are needed to achieve the road to success.

"The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge."

The first billboard starts by understanding the definition of success and desire. Many of us desire success defined by the typical society of having a good paycheck, a big house, cars, and family. But to achieve that success, most people don’t know the why and how behind that success. In our life, if we want the success that we desire ideally then it's essential to have a definite aim and purpose in life.

Towards the 2nd billboard, the book mentions the gap between our expectations and reality. Many people often have an aim in their life to be successful but lack the self-confidence it takes to conquer that gap. The author talks about having the self-confidence to achieve success.

The author asks to take initiative to get things started. Having an image in your brain is important to know success and is an important ingredient of your foundation. Just like Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he had imagined the bulb in his mind before the invention happened. The author then emphasizes giving an example of being enthusiastic in your work and having excitement about the journey.

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way."

As we move forward to another billboard more qualities are explained in detail like taking daily action in your work and routine life and having self-control that guides you through the ups and downs of the success ladder. Another quality described is to attract success by having an attractive personality, accurate thoughts, and most important is concentration in your work.

One of the good things is that as I read the book, it feels like going through the journey and having improved on each quality, if implemented, adds the structure towards achieving the successful process. Each billboard or chapter coming afterward then talks about having persistence even if you fail and learning from failures gets you closer to success.

At the end of the book, Napoleon Hill mentions the most important quality of being a leader by the example of a boy who jumps in action to save the people and successfully saves everyone stranded in building fire when others were just waiting to get a firefighter helpline. Lastly, Napoleon Hill talks about having the vision and being optimistic to achieve the goal.

"Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

The Bottom Line

Reading this book feels like a journey where the author explains some of the most important concepts one at a time. This book is short in pages and easy to understand in simplistic language. The author leads to thought-provoking insight to the reader and as readers go through each chapter, there is a sense of realization in oneself.

Being a short book, and with little images, one will find a monotonous voice of the book in the middle of the journey and maybe will test your persistence a little bit. Other than that, this book helps one to understand where one stands and what improvements one should make to complete the road to success.

My rating - 3.6 on 5

You can get this book on Flipkart - Road To Success

Written By - Prajwal Barate