The Top 5 Self-Help Gurus of All Time - Motivational Speakers Who Changed the World and Our Lives

There's little that self-help guru Napoleon Hill doesn't promise us. If we can conceive it, he was famous for saying, we can achieve it. And if anyone's a poster child for achieving incredible success, Hill himself is. Arguably, he's the sole founder of the entire modern self-help industry - a staggeringly powerful $10 billion industry that's growing by more than 10% a year according to Marketdata Enterprises. In honor of Hill and his predecessors, I've put together a list of the Top 5 Self-Help gurus of all time. Miners of soul - people who have changed not only the outer world, but our more personal, inner landscapes as well. When we need it most, it seems, we hear their voices in our heads, urging us to work a little bit harder for our goals. 1)Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill was an impoverished newspaper reporter when he was assigned to write a story on one of the most famous men in America: Andrew Carnegie. During his interview with the steel magnate, Hill learned that Carnegie had a very interesting philosophy. Namely, that success wasn't a matter of luck, breeding or family ties, but rather that it was a formulaic process that anyone could learn. Carnegie then offered to provide Hill with a letter of recommendation if he would attempt to interview 500 other successful people to figure out precisely what the formula was. Hill agreed. Hundreds of interviews and 20 years later, Hill would publish his first book in the form of a study guide called "The Law of Success." Nearly 10 years after that, Hill would tinker with and perfect his ideas in a new book called, "Think and Grow Rich!" Published in the midst of the Great Depression, it would prove an instant bestseller, and it's still regularly reprinted - testament to its power to inspire and motivate. In it, Hill lays the foundation for almost all modern-day books one finds in the self-help aisle at their local bookstores. He does it with 17 principles of success. The first of these, he says, is a "definiteness of purpose." "If you will decide definitely what you want most in your entire lifetime, and write it down on paper so that I can read it, I will give you the master key with which you may open the door to the attainment of your desires, whatever they may be," he says. 2)Dale Carnegie. Born a poor farming family in Missouri, Dale Carnegie would eventually become one of the most famous authors in self-help history. Unlike Napoleon Hill who was given a mandate to lean about success, Carnegie almost inadvertently stumbling into motivational speaking. Strapped for cash in New York City, he thought he might be able to make some money teaching a course on public speaking. He secured a classroom at a local YMCA, found several students, and then, promptly ran out of material with which to teach them. Floundering in front of the class, he thought he'd best give the students something to talk about. So, he asked them each to give a speech on something that made them angry. The results were astounding. The students took on new, more powerful personas, speaking in front of a group without fear and without self-consciousness. It was enough for Carnegie to realize that there had to be very specific techniques (not just luck or natural-born skills) that people could use to change their fears, attain their desires and get what they wanted out of life. In 1937, Carnegie published his most famous book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." The advice he offers reads like a manual for success in almost any endeavor that involves other people, from management jobs to family and friendships. One of his

most famous pieces of advice? Get others to talk about themselves if you want them to like you. "I" is, after all, the most common word in almost any conversation. 3)Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins first started generating attention in one of the least likely places a self-help guru might be born: infomercials. Promoting seminars for public speaker Jim Rohn, Robbins eventually carved out enough credence for his own series of seminars. How exactly is that possibly? By the sheer force and infectiousness of his personality. His seminars, with names like "Date with Destiny" and "Unleash the Power Within," drum up the sort of excitement usually reserved for rock concerts. The seminars focus, too, on immediate action - the No. 1 hurdle to accomplishment, Robbins argues. To illustrate the power of action, Robbins designed his "Unleash the Power Within" seminar around the "firewalk," a ritualistic march that his seminar-goers take over a bed of hot coals. The purpose? To prove that we can accomplish things most people never try simply by taking action. Robbins has also written some heavyweight books to back his ideas - of which the two most famous are "Awaken the Giant Within" and "Unlimited Power." Both ended up on bestseller lists and both focus on similar things: 1) keeping our energy and excitement levels high so that we can accomplish difficult tasks, and 2) changing not only our thoughts, but our "neurological" links with negative thoughts and habits. Once we've done that, we're free to reach our full potentials. 4)Deepak Chopra. Dubbed the "poet-prophet of alternative medicine" by Time Magazine, Deepak Chopra has written more than 50 self-help books -- a staggering sum for any author in any field. He's, perhaps most famous, though, for his arguments on the power of the mind-body connection. Without a healthy body, he says, our minds can't function optimally. In fact, he even argues that our minds have the power to heal or harm themselves on a quantum level. Trained as a medical doctor, Chopra's also well-versed in alternative Eastern medicine and thought, including Ayrveda ("the science of life") and Vedanta (a philosophical system rooted in the Upanishads). The goal of Vendanta is to free oneself from his or her own self-imposed limitations. In that sense, we're our own worst enemies. And that is, indeed, one of Chopra's central teachings: we must align ourselves with principles deeper than day-to-day trifles. When we're unaffected by inconveniences, we reserve energy for life's more important things. 5)Stephen Covey. If you haven't heard of Stephen Covey's self-help books, you've probably seen his Franklin-Covey products at your local Office Max. Day planners and schedule books, Covey sells products to increase your effectively - the same thing he argues for in his books. The author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey's self-help book was an international phenomenon that continues to sell copies to this day (more than 15 million copies in all). In "7 Habits," Covey argues that effectiveness isn't a skill, it's simply a habit or a decision to take serious, dedicated action. A Harvard MBA student, Covey spent decades teaching organizational behavior and business management at Brigham Young University. Drawing on that experience, he produced a book that crystallizes effective action. The seven habits he laid out have become blueprints for modern-day managers. Among the most powerful? Seek first to understand, then to be understood. After it's all said and done, Covey writes, you've got to take a break and renew yourself.