During Happiness Happens Month we’re posting lots of blogs including many from guest bloggers.

Today we’re happy to share a book excerpt from the newly released Everything I Know About Success I Learned from Napoleon Hill by Don M. Green. (McGraw-Hill)

If you comment on this blog you’ll be entered into a drawing for a copy of the book.

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY IS akin to reaching a goal. To get past adversity or reach a goal, you need not know all the answers before you start your mission. But you do need to have a clear view of what your goal is or a clear view of the problem you are facing. At this juncture, the most important thing is to be on the right course. To begin to solve a problem or reach a goal, you first must determine what you want in your future. Albert Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

You should always remember that while you may know what you want and have a good idea of how to get it, unless you are inspired to put forth the necessary effort, you will not be a success. However, once you raise your desire to a burning passion, you will find the means to accomplish what you want. You will not have all the answers, but you will accumulate answers and assistance from others once you are inspired enough to start your journey to success.

People who are successful used what they knew when they started plus the knowledge that they acquired on their voyage. Inspiration kept them going even when obstacles got in their way. In Victor Frankl’s milestone book Man’s Search for Meaning, about his confinement in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Frankl said that he discovered that man would find a how once he had a why. This is like a goal or obstacle that will be met with success or overcome once the why is developed into a passion or a burning desire to overcome whatever may lie in one’s path to success.

Winston Churchill put it well when he said, “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

This is the reason why many people start for a specified destination and do not quit until they reach that destination. Those who know their destination and have a strong desire to reach it will not stop until they do so. Also, there is one main reason why many people fail: they do not get started. Either they simply do not begin or they start, but are stopped by the slightest obstacle in their path. As writer Frank Clark put it, “If you can find a path that has no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” Your journey is not likely to be smooth, but you will learn from your failures—sometimes even more than from your successes.

While you are on your journey, remember that each of us should make the world a better place in which to live. Progress has always been a result of each generation’s desire to make the world a better place for the generation that follows.

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with. —THOMAS CARLYLE

You will learn sooner or later that we promote our own happiness to the exact degree that we contribute to the comfort and happiness of others.

To overcome obstacles and hardships, steadiness in one’s progress and a determination to succeed must always be present. Remember what writer Elbert Hubbard said, “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one.” If you give up easily, become disenchanted when your goals are blocked, and think that you must wait until all conditions are favorable and your progress appears easy, you will be very unlikely to go far in today’s fast-paced world. Circumstances will probably never be such that success is assured, and there will never be a time when all conditions are ideal, and the reason most people never succeed is that they wait for perfect circumstances.

Obstacles are not there to block one’s path, but to be used as stepping-stones on the path of life.

Meet Don M. Green

Don Green, a resident of Wise, Virginia, the birthplace of Napoleon Hill, Don Green brings nearly 45 years of banking, finance, and entrepreneurship experience to his role as Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. His first youthful business venture was charging admission to see his pet bear–yes, the living, growling kind! Since 2000, Green has traveled worldwide and used his finance skills to grow the Foundation’s funds in order to continue the Foundation’s educational outreach to prisons. Green has both modeled leadership skills as a CEO and taught them through the PMA Science of Success course at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Don specializes in discussing his personal experiences in leadership and providing audiences with proven methods of applying Dr. Hill’s success philosophy to business. He was recently featured in a presentation on the Importance of Entrepreneurship in a National Economy by Dr. Peter Yun at a United Nations Forum.

Written by Pamela Gail

Pamela Gail Johnson founded the Society of Happy People in 1998.
The Society is grounded on Pamela’s four key Practical Happiness Principles:

• Happiness Zappers Can be Managed
• Happiness is Personal
• Happiness Changes as You Change
• Happiness is Bigger Than You Think

Pamela identified 31 Types of Happiness that are on the SOHP App Happiness Counter to make it easier to recognize moments of happiness.

Pamela also plans and organizes the Society of Happy People's annual happiness celebrations:

• Happiness Happens Day - August 8
• Happiness Happens Month - August
• Hunt for Happiness Week - January

She's also a speaker, trainer, and author.

A few of her personal smile starters include her monthly book club, yoga, traveling and meeting new happy people.