Some words from the first flap of the book "Road to Success":

Lecturer, successful author, business consultant, and inspirational thinker Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in the American state of Virginia. Napoleon Hill, born in Virginia, began his journey at just 13 years old as a reporter for a local newspaper called the Mountain Reporter. He spent most of his life exploring why people fail to achieve economic success and why they remain unhappy. In this regard, his book Think and Grow Rich is considered his masterpiece. After its publication, it sold approximately 15 million copies worldwide, setting a record. Hill interviewed nearly 500 successful individuals and lived a long, successful life before passing away in 1970.

Introduction by Don M. Green, Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation:

Have you ever wondered why some people succeed while others fail? This was a question that fascinated Napoleon Hill from his youth, and he dedicated his entire life to finding the answer. He sought to understand why some people achieve success while millions of others do not, in a way that no one else in the world ever had.

Oliver Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in a remote, mountainous region in southwestern Virginia. There was no indication early in his life that Hill would achieve great success. Born in a log cabin, Hill once said, "My ancestors for three generations before me were born, lived, and died in poverty, struggling hard in these mountainous regions, completely unaware of the world beyond." Life there seemed very narrow compared to cities in the West. Expectations and ambitions were very limited. Due to inadequate nutrition, many Virginians suffered from chronic illnesses. By the age of ten, Hill had little hope of achieving any significant academic degree. At just 26 years old, his mother passed away. The following year, his father remarried, and this became a turning point in young Hill's life.

Napoleon's stepmother, Martha Ramey Banner, was an educated woman, the widowed wife of a high school principal and the daughter of a doctor. She saw potential in Hill that no one else had noticed. She persuaded the young Hill to take up a typewriter and enter the gun business, even training him in how to handle firearms. By the age of 15, that typewriter.