Wealth Creates Wealth

by Dr. Napoleon Hill

Wealth creates wealth. A large sum of money in the hands of one man generally does not create as much wealth as does money which circulates, provided that those who handle its circulation are interested in creating wealth.

A man’s happiness and peace of mind depend on his sharing all kinds of wealth. Business relations cannot properly be described as a relationship of love between buyer and seller; yet when the idea of service to one’s fellow men comes into the relationship, much that is profitable to both parties also enters in. “A little bit of myself,” said Henry Ford, “goes into every automobile that rolls off our assembly lines, and I think of every automobile we sell, not in terms of the profit it yields us, but in terms of the useful service it may render the purchaser.” Thomas A. Edison said: “I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others.”

The idea that a business should give its customers more than a product for a price is not new, and history proves it creates both good businesses and good customers. Good relations between an industrial employer and his employees, however, are not very old as history goes. This is natural enough when we consider that enterprises which employ people by the thousand have not been with us more than a few generations. They are a great way for the owner of the business to make money, and unfortunately many a labor force has been badly treated in the process.

In past years we have our own era of those industrial pirates who never thought of sharing with their employees the wealth their employees helped to create. While they made a great show of their money in New York, Newport or Palm Beach those men would have sneered at the idea that a society needs a large number of well-paid people who are able to buy more goods and lead better lives.

Millionaires are far more numerous today. More than five thousand new millionaires have so declared themselves on their tax returns in the last decade. Also, as I have mentioned, today’s millionaires do not seem to want the notice that rich men used to require. Most of my readers will not recognize the names of some of the present-day millionaires and multimillionaires I have cited.

Nor do today’s moneyed men seem anxious to form a definite class to which the poor may not aspire. I quote Arthur Decio, who made so much money in building and selling mobile homes: “It’s easier to get ahead than it was fifteen or forty years ago. Look at the population growth and the tremendous rise in personal income . . . . This country is just loaded with opportunities.”

So it is, and many of the opportunities would not exist if wealth were not better distributed than it used to be. Employers have seen the value to themselves, to their people and to society of taking workers into partnership with industry. A capitalist society proves over and over that it is the best way to create maximum, widespread wealth.

Source: Grow Rich! With Peace of Mind. 1967. Fawcett Crest. Pgs. 80 & 81.