Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude About the Author Napoleon Hill, born in Pound, Southwest Virginia in 1883, was a very successful American author in the area of the new thought movement—one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success. Hill had to drop out of college because of lack of funds to support his education. The turning point in his life occurred in 1908 when he interviewed the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the most powerful men in the world at that time, as a part of an assignment. As a result of Hill’s studies via Carnegie’s introductions, the Philosophy of Achievement was offered as a formula for rags-to-riches success by Hill and Carnegie. It was published initially in 1928 as the multi-volume study course The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons. He later produced his most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, which is one of the bestselling books of all time. Hill, who had even served as the advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-36, passed away at the age of 87.