John Dilbeck And Friends

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 14. Who is the most inspiring person you know?

This is an interesting question, and I had to stop and think about it a few minutes before answering.

To answer this, I have to preface it by saying that I don’t personally know any of the people I’ve considered, but I do know them from their writings and some limited correspondence with a couple of them.

I thought hard about whether any of the people I know in “real life” would qualify for this, but, sadly, the answer is no.

So, I started thinking about authors who have influenced my life.

Certainly Napoleon Hill would count and he’d be in the top two or three.

I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from Zig Ziglar and Og Mandino.

I’ve read a variety of other books by authors who are very inspiring, but the more I think about it, the more one name rises to the top of the list.

For the last few years, the most inspiring person I know has to be Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell.

(Full disclosure: The links to Sitesell are affiliate links and I can earn a commission if you purchase from them. That’s how I earn my living. However, that’s not enough reason to choose Ken Evoy over the others I’ve considered. He just naturally rose to the top of the list the more I thought about the question.)

Ken has inspired me on numerous occasions and I look forward to his newsletters and his postings on the members-only forum that Sitesell hosts.

Ken was largely responsible for teaching me about affiliate marketing and that made a huge difference in my life over the last decade.

I’ve also watched him inspire many others along the way.

Ken is no Pollyanna, however. He won’t tell you everything is going to be great if he disagrees with your approach.

One of the main things I’ve learned from him and which I try to keep at the top of my mind, especially when I’m looking at new strategies for getting visitors to my websites, is his mantra of “Keep it real.”

That is a very grounding influence and has helped me avoid some things that look good at first glance, but don’t have the required reality when you look beyond the surface.

I recently wrote about a couple of Ken’s ebooks on my affiliate marketing blog: Getting back to the basics of affiliate marketing

I’m not the only person Ken has inspired.

Many thousands of websites have been built and hosted using Ken’s Site Build It service. Most of them were built by individuals and owners of very small businesses. They are learning how to be successful on the web by following the advice and the system that Ken founded. This is having a real, direct influence on their lives - for the better.

Did everyone who used Site Build It! succeed? Obviously, the answer is no. However, I believe they had a better chance at building an online business by following the SBI approach.

A good number of them are active on the Sitesell forums and I’ve watched Ken, over the years, offer helpful advice and inspirational support to a great number of them.

I have thought about other business, political, and religious leaders and I just don’t find them as inspiring as Ken Evoy has been to me personally.

I would have to include President Obama in the short list of inspiring people, but he hasn’t had as direct an influence on my life as some of the others.

Even after thinking about this for awhile, I’m sure I’ll kick myself when I remember others who have been inspirational after I publish this answer.

I’m sure you’ll have other choices and I look forward to hearing who they are.

What about you?

Who is the most inspiring person you know?

All the best,

JD