Title and author: The Success System That Never Fails by W. Clement Stone

Content Synopsis:

Success is a system. You can learn from those who have achieved success. In this book, Stone recounts his own meteoric success in rising from rags to riches and starting in the Great Depression. She teaches what she learned from life experience, business, her mentors and others who taught her how to be successful in business.

The Success System That Never Fails encompasses the importance of selecting the right environment for success, understanding the formula for success, thinking for yourself, the importance of taking action, and many other rules and disciplines that lead to success.

Stone teaches what he calls the three essentials for success: inspiration to action; Know how; and Knowledge of the Activity. These would also be understood as inspiration and motivation, knowledge of how to do something, and knowledge gained from experience. Each of these is essential in the pursuit of success.

He emphasizes the importance of proper planning and goal setting, how it takes less effort to succeed than to fail, finding and maintaining the right path to success, the importance of energy and motivation, and the importance of the right team. .

Stone was a devout man and includes discussions of the importance of personal faith and prayer. He also touches on what later became known as the power of attraction. He talks about the importance of developing success-oriented skills, like becoming an effective public speaker, how to use your mind to accomplish more, how to relate and assimilate useful information, and the many small steps that lead to success.

Stone’s formulas for success are the traditional list of having a purpose, planning, using goals, working hard, working smart, and constantly learning and improving. While she won’t find anything new or revolutionary in this classic work, she will find solid success tools that have worked for millions of people for centuries and are as valid today as they were in 1962 when the book was written.

The examples and mentors you list are a bit dated, but they accurately illustrate your points well. To truly understand where success literature and theory is today, it is helpful to study its history. Stone was not a pioneer in this work, but he did work with at least one of those pioneers and studied others.

Readability/Writing Quality:

This book is very readable. He was ahead of his time in carefully organizing it. Atypical of books of that period, it contains no large blocks of text, but is divided into an easy-to-follow outline with many illustrations.

Notes about the author:

W. Clement Stone was one of the most successful salesmen and entrepreneurs of the mid-20th century. He turned $100 into one of the largest insurance companies in the world and launched it in the middle of the Great Depression. He was also a successful student and collaborator of Napoleon Hill during the 1950s.

Three great ideas you can use:

1. You can neutralize a limiting negative emotion through well-directed action. You can change how you feel and think through your own directed action.

2. While learning and planning are critical to success, nothing is more important than taking action and taking action when the opportunity presents itself. “Do it now” is an axiom that will empower you.

3. If you can’t save money, the seeds of success will remain elusive forever. Having a budget and planning for the future are essential.

Release information:

The Success System That Never Fails by W. Clement Stone

Copyright 1962 by W. Clement Stone

Published by Prentice Hall, Inc.

Rating of this book

Overall Book Rating: Very Good

Writing style: easy to follow and understand.

Utility: Very useful for anyone who aspires to succeed.