# Napoleon Hill

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**Created:** [September 12, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/napoleon-hill/19341 "2008-09-12T04:50:47Z")\
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**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/napoleon-hill/19341/1 "2008-09-12T04:50:47Z")

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From Think and Grow Rich (available for download from [4share.com](http://4share.com) or [books.google.com](http://books.google.com)). Original edition is more complete and better.

[Think and Grow Rich - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_and_Grow_Rich)

A teacher, who has trained and directed the efforts of more  
than 30,000 sales people, made the astounding discovery that  
highly sexed men are the most efficient salesmen. The explanation  
is, that the factor of personality known as “personal magnetism” is  
nothing more nor less than sex energy. Highly sexed people always  
have a plentiful supply of magnetism. Through cultivation and understanding,  
this vital force may be drawn upon and used to great  
advantage in the relationships between people. This energy may be  
communicated to others through the following media:

1. The hand-shake. The touch of the hand indicates, instantly, the  
presence of magnetism, or the lack of it.
2. The tone of voice. Magnetism, or sex energy, is the factor with  
which the voice may be colored, or made musical and charming.
3. Posture and carriage of the body. Highly sexed people move  
briskly, and with grace and ease.
4. The vibrations of thought. Highly sexed people mix the emotion  
of sex with their thoughts, or may do so at will, and in that way,  
may influence those around them.
5. Body adornment. People who are highly sexed are usually very  
careful about their personal appearance. They usually select  
clothing of a style becoming to their personality, physique, complexion,  
etc.  
When employing salesmen, the more capable sales manager  
looks for the quality of personal magnetism as the first requirement  
of a salesman. People who lack sex energy will never become  
enthusiastic nor inspire others with enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is  
one of the most important requisites in salesmanship, no matter  
what one is selling.  
The public speaker, orator, preacher, lawyer, or salesman who  
is lacking in sex energy is a “flop,” as far as being able to influence  
others is concerned. Couple with this the fact, that most people can  
be influenced only through an appeal to their emotions, and you  
will understand the importance of sex energy as a part of the  
salesman’s native ability. Master salesmen attain the status of  
mastery in selling, because they, either consciously, or unconsciously,  
transmute the energy of sex into SALES ENTHUSIASM! In  
this statement may be found a very practical suggestion as to the  
actual meaning of sex transmutation.  
The salesman who knows how to take his mind off the subject  
of sex, and direct it in sales effort with as much enthusiasm and  
determination as he would apply to its original purpose, has  
acquired the art of sex transmutation, whether he knows it or not.  
The majority of salesmen who transmute their sex energy do so  
without being in the least aware of what they are doing, or how they  
are doing it.  
Transmutation of sex energy calls for more will power than the  
average person cares to use for this purpose. Those who find it  
difficult to summon will-power sufficient for transmutation, may  
gradually acquire this ability. Though this requires will-power, the  
reward for the practice is more than worth the effort.  
The entire subject of sex is one with which the majority of  
people appear to be unpardonably ignorant. The urge of sex has  
been grossly misunderstood, slandered, and burlesqued by the  
ignorant and the evil minded, for so long that the very word sex is  
seldom used in polite society. Men and women who are known to be  
blessed—yes, BLESSED—with highly sexed natures, are usually  
looked upon as being people who will bear watching. Instead of  
being called blessed, they are usually called cursed.  
Millions of people, even in this age of enlightenment, have  
inferiority complexes which they developed because of this false  
belief that a highly sexed nature is a curse. These statements, of the  
virtue of sex energy, should not be construed as justification for the  
libertine. The emotion of sex is a virtue ONLY when used  
intelligently, and with discrimination. It may be misused, and often  
is, to such an extent that it debases, instead of enriches, both body  
and mind. The better use of this power is the burden of this  
chapter.  
It seemed quite significant to the author, when he made the  
discovery that practically every great leader, whom he had the  
privilege of analyzing, was a man whose achievements were largely  
inspired by a woman. In many instances, the “woman in the case”  
was a modest, self-denying wife, of whom the public had heard but  
little or nothing. In a few instances, the source of inspiration has  
been traced to the “other woman.” Perhaps such cases may not be  
entirely unknown to you.  
Intemperance in sex habits is just as detrimental as  
intemperance in habits of drinking and eating. In this age in which  
we live, an age which began with the world war, intemperance in  
habits of sex is common. This orgy of indulgence may account for  
the shortage of great leaders. No man can avail himself of the forces  
of his creative imagination, while dissipating them. Man is the only  
creature on earth which violates Nature’s purpose in this  
connection. Every other animal indulges its sex nature in  
moderation, and with purpose which harmonizes with the laws of  
nature. Every other animal responds to the call of sex only in  
“season.” Man’s inclination is to declare “open season.”  
Every intelligent person knows that stimulation in excess,  
through alcoholic drink and narcotics, is a form of intemperance  
which destroys the vital organs of the body, including the brain. Not  
every person knows, however, that over indulgence in sex  
expression may become a habit as destructive and as detrimental to  
creative effort as narcotics or liquor.  
A sex-mad man is not essentially different than a dope-mad  
man! Both have lost control over their faculties of reason and willpower.  
Sexual overindulgence may not only destroy reason and willpower,  
but it may also lead to either temporary, or permanent  
insanity. Many cases of hypochondria (imaginary illness) grow out  
of habits developed in ignorance of the true function of sex.  
From these brief references to the subject, it may be readily  
seen that ignorance on the subject of sex transmutation, forces  
stupendous penalties upon the ignorant on the one hand, and  
withholds from them equally stupendous benefits, on the other.  
Widespread ignorance on the subject of sex is due to the fact  
that the subject has been surrounded with mystery and beclouded  
by dark silence. The conspiracy of mystery and silence has had the  
same effect upon the minds of young people that the psychology of  
prohibition had. The result has been increased curiosity, and desire  
to acquire more knowledge on this “verboten” subject; and to the  
shame of all lawmakers, and most physicians—by training best  
qualified to educate youth on that subject-information has not been  
easily available.  
Seldom does an individual enter upon highly creative effort in  
any field of endeavor before the age of forty. The average man  
reaches the period of his greatest capacity to create between forty  
and sixty. These statements are based upon analysis of thousands  
of men and women who have been carefully observed. They should  
be encouraging to those who fail to arrive before the age of forty,  
and to those who become frightened at the approach of “old age,”  
around the forty-year mark. The years between forty and fifty are,  
as a rule, the most fruitful. Man should approach this age, not with  
fear and trembling, but with hope and eager anticipation.  
If you want evidence that most men do not begin to do their  
best work before the age of forty, study the records of the most  
successful men known to the American people, and you will find it.  
Henry Ford had not “hit his pace” of achievement until he had  
passed the age of forty. Andrew Carnegie was well past forty before  
he began to reap the reward of his efforts. James J. Hill was still  
running a telegraph key at the age of forty. His stupendous  
achievements took place after that age. Biographies of American  
industrialists and financiers are filled with evidence that the period  
from forty to sixty is the most productive age of man.  
Between the ages of thirty and forty, man begins to learn (if he  
ever learns), the art of sex transmutation. This discovery is  
generally accidental, and more often than otherwise, the man who  
makes it is totally unconscious of his discovery. He may observe  
that his powers of achievement have increased around the age of  
thirty-five to forty, but in most cases, he is not familiar with the  
cause of this change; that Nature begins to harmonize the emotions  
of love and sex in the individual, between the ages of thirty and  
forty, so that he may draw upon these great forces, and apply them  
jointly as stimuli to action.  
Sex, alone, is a mighty urge to action, but its forces are like a  
cyclone-they are often uncontrollable. When the emotion of love  
begins to mix itself with the emotion of sex, the result is calmness  
of purpose, poise, accuracy of judgment, and balance. What person,  
who has attained to the age of forty, is so unfortunate as to be  
unable to analyze these statements, and to corroborate them by his  
own experience?  
When driven by his desire to please a woman, based solely  
upon the emotion of sex, a man may be, and usually is, capable of  
great achievement, but his actions may be disorganized, distorted,  
and totally destructive. When driven by his desire to please a  
woman, based upon the motive of sex alone, a man may steal,  
cheat, and even commit murder. But when the emotion of LOVE is  
mixed with the emotion of sex, that same man will guide his actions  
with more sanity, balance, and reason  
…  
The hunter who excelled during prehistoric days, before the dawn of  
civilization, did so, because of his desire to appear great in the eyes  
of woman. Man’s nature has not changed in this respect. The  
“hunter” of today brings home no skins of wild animals, but he  
indicates his desire for her favor by supplying fine clothes, motor  
cars, and wealth. Man has the same desire to please woman that he  
had before the dawn of civilization. The only thing that has  
changed, is his method of pleasing. Men who accumulate large  
fortunes, and attain to great heights of power and fame, do so,  
mainly, to satisfy their desire to please women.  
Take women out of their lives, and great wealth would be  
useless to most men. It is this inherent desire of man to please  
woman, which gives woman the power to make or break a man.  
The woman who understands man’s nature and tactfully caters  
to it, need have no fear of competition from other women. Men may  
be “giants” with indomitable will-power when dealing with other  
men, but they are easily managed by the women of their choice.  
Most men will not admit that they are easily influenced by the  
women they prefer, because it is in the nature of the male to want  
to be recognized as the stronger of the species. Moreover, the  
intelligent woman recognizes this “manly trait” and very wisely  
makes no issue of it.  
Some men know that they are being influenced by the women  
of their choice—their wives, sweethearts, mothers or sisters—but  
they tactfully refrain from rebelling against the influence because  
they are intelligent enough to know that NO MAN IS HAPPY OR  
COMPLETE WITHOUT THE MODIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE  
RIGHT WOMAN. The man who does not recognize this important  
truth deprives himself of the power which has done more to help  
men achieve success than all other forces combined.