I am passionate about self development, and it is particularly relevant now that, as an entrepreneur, I am responsible of my own success. Remember how I shared Benjamin Franklin’s routine (1909)? I am even ore interested by words of wisdom coming from the past, detached from the modern world and its sense of immediacy.

Earlier this year, I cycled through Cambodia by myself, from one WILD to another, and I had ample time to read and reflect on Napoleon Hill’s « 13 Keys To Success – 13 Steps to Personal Achievement » I found at a Phnom Penh book store. It was published in the 1990’s but contains lifelong ideas from the author, who advised President Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936 and died in 1970 after decades of dispensing his thoughts to millions across the globe.

It was light, fitting into my MTB backpack, and I just thought I would get some insight from it, despite the slightly cringe title.

There are many pieces of wisdom in this book, which was great for self-reflection, without being particularly difficult or cumbersome to read. Page 135, Hill gives a list of « main causes of personal failure » which I wanted to share with you. He says that « the most common and powerful causes of failure » which « it is important that you do not berate yourself for their presence in your life »:

• The habit of drifting through life without a definite major purpose
• Meddlesome curiosity about other people’s affairs
• Inadequate education
• Lack of self-discipline, manifested as both uncontrolled appetites & indifference to opportunity
• Lack of ambition
• Ill health that results from negative thinking & poor diet
• Unfavorable childhood influences
• Lack of persistence and follow-through
• Negative mental attitude
• Lack of emotional control
• The desire to get something for nothing
• Failure to reach decisions promptly & firmly when ill the facts needed for the decision are available
• One or more of the seven basic fears (poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, loss of liberty, death)
• Poor selection of a spouse
• Overcaution or the lack of caution
• Poor choice of a vocation or occupation
• Indiscriminate spending of time & money
• Lack of control over the tongue
• Intolerance (note from myself: if you read German, a great resource about the matter here)
• Failure to cooperate with others in a spirit of harmony
• Disloyalty
• Lack of vision & imagination
• Egotism and vanity
• Desire for revenge
• Unwillingness to go the extra mile.

What do you think about them?

I, for myself, would like to think that only 4 of these 25 are possible flaws I have. At least that’s what I wrote on the pages when I read it on my journey between Wild Phnom Penh and Wild Siem Reap (see below, both are owned by great friends). I arrived at destination exhausted, happy and fully inspired 👇

Greetings from Paris, a couple of months later.

Yannig