W. Clement Stone
Promoter of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)
William Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) was a prominent businessman, philanthropist and self-help book author. Stone is remembered for contributing $2 million to President Richard Nixon's election campaigns in 1968 and 1972—these were cited in Congressional debates after Watergate to institute campaign spending limits.W. Clement Stone was born in and grew up on Chicago’s South Side. From an early age, he demonstrated the entrepreneurship, tenacity and optimism that were hallmarks of his life.
To help support his family, Mr. Stone began selling newspapers on the street at the age of six. When older youth drove him away from the busiest corners, he moved his sales to restaurants where he eventually won over owners and customers.
At age 19, Stone started working with his mother selling accident policies. He evidently had enormous energy and drive. At age 19, he averaged selling 48 policies per day. Later in his life, he reached a nine-day average of 72 policies per day, and sold 122 policies in one day. One of the decisions that Stone made to increase his production was to limit the time he would spend on his sales effort. If a customer wouldn't make the commitment in the designated time, he would move on to the next call.
When Stone reached the 72 policy per day level, he started concentrating on building his own sales force. When the Great Depression hit, he devoted more of his attention to creating a sales training program to improve the effectiveness of his sales team, including spending some initial time with new salespersons in the field. He also developed custom insurance policies that would be easy to sell and renew.
Through these experiences, Mr. Stone developed his lifelong philosophy of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), which he viewed as the cornerstone of his success. He believed in the power of optimism and that even in adversity lay seeds of success.
W. Clement Stone shared his belief in the power of optimism in three books that continue to be read today: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (co-authored with Napoleon Hill), The Success System That Never Fails, and The Other Side of the Mind (co-authored with Norma Lee Browning).
Mr. Stone's inspirational self-help books, which have reached a world-wide audience, reinforce the conviction that anyone can become successful “no matter how poor his start in life.”
Believe and Achieve: W. Clement Stone 17 Principles of Success eBook by Samual A. Cypert
Together Napoleon Hill and Stone published the magazine Success Unlimited and co-wrote bestselling b..
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The Success System That Never Fails eBook by W. Clement Stone
The search for success has been prominent in the thoughts of countless millions from all walks of li..
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