More and better service build your reputation.

The Law of Increasing Returns has to do with this.  By putting in just a little bit more than someone else you can reap more and better rewards.  The example in the book is from Hill's time but it still applies today.  The example is when Henry Ford began paying the then famous five-dollar-a-day minimum wage.  By paying more wages than the average, he received more service and better service than the average at that time.

Another example is from the movie "Miracle on 34th Street" when Kris Kringle starts sending mothers to other stores to get their toys because Macy's didn't have what they were looking for.  Seems foolhardy at first but makes people buy more from Macy's - "The Store that cares".

Farmers have always understood that you reap more than you sow.  Every seed that goes into the ground will produce much more than that one little seed.  And Goodwill brings in more clients than any dollar spent in advertising.

If you are employed then make yourself so useful to your employer that they wouldn't think of hiring someone else.  If you run your own business then make yourself so useful to your clients that they wouldn't think of going to anyone else.  And sometimes you just need to do things without ever expecting payment.

"That's not my job" should not be in your vocabulary!

Napoleon Hill states: "Render service to at least one person everyday, for which you neither expect or accept monetary pay."

Put yourself ahead by first helping others to get ahead.  Napoleon Hill was asked by Palmer School to speak at the school with a $100 speakers fee.  He refused the $100 but still spoke.  Dr. Palmer encouraged students to buy the magazine that he was at that time publishing.  Two thousand students netted Mr. Hill $6000 in subscriptions within 1 week!

Take the initiative, follow it with aggressive action and do more than you are paid for.

In Lesson 7, Napoleon Hill talks about self-control.  He states that lack of self control can lead to the loss of the power needed to achieve your definite purpose.  In other words, loss of self control can defeat you.  The enthusiasm that you have for a project must balance with the self-control needed to rush too fast into things or the desire to proceed in the face of danger or without regard to others.

If a part of your definite purpose is to be in charge of others then you need to understand that you cannot control others if you cannot control yourself.  Sometime we need to wear mental ear muffs.  The old adage of just letting things roll off of you rather than to respond.

Hill says that Imagination + a definite plan + self-confidence + action directed through self-control is the way to get to your success.

You have a tremendous advantage over the man who does you an injury; you have it within your power to forgive him while he has no such advantage over you.  N. Hill

In other words, don't strike back.  

Get angry, write it down, throw it out!  Get it out of your system and don't hold on to it!

One of my client's once gave me a gift.  He called it a God box.  It looks like a bank with a slot at the top to put in coins, however it has no way of opening it so whatever you put in it stays in it, never to be seen again.  It is the old forgive and forget or as I like to say, "let go, Let God".  Now I don't care what your perception of God is, all I am saying is to let go of those things that anger, frustration or worry you.  And as you forget about them they will be released.  You have control over your thoughts and you can select which thoughts you let in AND the ones  you let go!

Self-control = thought control.

Using auto-suggestion and positive, constructive thoughts in harmony with your definite purpose to transform those thoughts into physical reality. Deliberately choosing your thoughts is self-control at its highest level.  Thought is the most highly organized function of the mind and we consciously control it.

Have you ever had to change your tone of voice in order to hide your true feelings.  For example, have you ever been in an argument with someone and the phone rings?  Have you answered the phone and the person on the other end had no idea you were in the middle of a heated argument?  Then you know how easy it is - WHEN YOU WANT TO DO IT.

This is Desire!  You have the power to think and the power to control your thoughts and direct them.