Let Others Help You Achieve Success by Napoleon Hill

Success will come more quickly and surely if you learn how to make use of the education, experience, ability and influence of others.

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker thinks his greatest personal asset is his “ability to get other people to lend me the use of their brains in a friendly spirit of cooperation.”

“If I exchange the dollar I have for the dollar you have, we both end up no better off than when we started. But, if I exchange an idea for the idea you have, then we both end up twice as rich as we were. And teamwork is the means of multiplying our spiritual wealth to infinity,” says Capt. Rickenbacker.

Remember that two or more persons, working closely in an alliance by which they complement and supplement each other’s abilities, can always achieve far more than one.

Thomas A. Edison’s greatness as an inventor resulted from his genius for organizing teams of individuals, each with far more knowledge in their specialties than he possessed, for a common goal.

The greatest achievements of our free enterprise system come from group—rather than individual—enterprise. But the group will always require a leader. In seeking the help of others, you must be prepared to make an even trade. You can’t come empty-handed.

Lloyd Weeks of Salem, Ill., is a mechanical engineer who conceived a unique idea for constructing oil tanks. But the idea would take money to put into development. Dr. Everett O. Hancock, a neighbor, didn’t have Weeks’ engineering know-how—but he had some money, saved from his practice as a dentist.

Each contributed his resources into a business alliance that is netting them $5,000 profit each month.

It is absolutely essential that all members of an alliance share in its benefits. Otherwise the team will soon fall apart.

One evening Henry Ford was walking through his plant and stopped to talk with a floor sweeper.

“Like your job?” Ford asked.

“Yep,” the janitor said, “But I’d like it better if you sold these metal filings, instead of throwing them away, and gave me part of the money.”

Ford put the idea into operation the next day. It saved the Ford Company a worthwhile sum and gave a promotion to the janitor.

J. Edgar Hoover’s success as the greatest crime-fighter in history relies entirely upon his ability to fuse the abilities and knowledge of hundreds into a hard-hitting closely coordinated team.

What do you need to achieve success? Who has it? What can you offer in return? Maybe it’s exactly what someone else is seeking.

If so, you can pool your resources and make the fight for success much easier.

Source: Success Unlimited. December, 1962. Pg.18.