I am reading this book; Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, for like the umptieth time. And the opening still gets me even more than it did the first time. It is this part where the authors say, “Meet the Most Important Living Person.”
With passionate emphasis, the authors romance the importance of having a positive mental attitude and how it will impact your success. They go on to suggest that the most important living person you can ever meet is “You.” How you perceive yourself has greatly affected your station and life situation– success or failure.
Hill and Stone encourage you to cultivate a positive mental attitude by focusing on your strengths and abilities rather than your weaknesses and limitations. This is common among all who get ahead. In pursuit of your dreams, they say, you should set goals and work towards them with a positive mindset, believing fully that you can and will achieve them.
To appreciate the power of this suggestion, you need not look too far. Just examine your surrounding, the people you admire, especially those who seem to have the golden touch – with everything they touch turning to gold, and you will see a positive mental attitude in action. These people have met the most important living person, and so can you.
History is replete with people who have met “the most important living person.” And when you do meet this person, you will realize that it has been you all along. Several successful individuals have overcome challenges and achieved success through a positive mental attitude, including Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Kwame Nkrumah and a host of his peers who liberated Africa from the yoke of colonial powers.
Meeting the most important person will take effort because it requires you to “search for yourself.” All the answers are within, and it all lies in cultivating a positive mindset and believing in yourself, which is essential to achieving personal success.
