Paris Hilton—Good Genes Gone Bad?

But it needn't be this way. Paris Hilton is the paternal great grand-daughter of one of America's greatest entrepreneurial success stories: Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotel chain.

With all of Paris's spoiled sex-kitten notoriety, it may come as a surprise to some that Conrad "Connie" Hilton was anything but a pampered self-indulgent rich kid. While his children, including Barron Hilton (Paris's grandfather) were born into the opulence created by the world-famous Hilton brand, Conrad slugged it out on his own, using his wit, charm, intuition, enthusiasm for life, and HARD WORK to build the Hilton empire.

Conrad Hilton told his story in a fascinating autobiography published in 1957 entitled, Be My Guest. As one would assume, the book holds many tales of trials and errors, friendships, challenges...and ultimately phenomenal success.

But the best part of the book is saved for the last chapter, "THERE IS AN ART TO LIVING." Everyone aspiring to achieve anything in life should read these few pages. They are the recipe for success.

"Find Your Own Particular Talent: Finding [your] particular talent or vocation is the first step in the art of successful living. Great frustration and the feel of failure can be present in the face of material success if we follow someone else's footsteps rather than our own...

"Be Big: Think Big. Act Big. Dream Big. Your value is determined by the mold you yourself make...It has been my experience that the way most people court failure is by misjudging their abilities, belittling their worth and value. Did you ever think what can happen to a plain bar of iron, worth about $5.00? The same iron when made into horseshoes is worth $10.50. If made into needles, it is worth $3,250.85, and if turned into balance springs for watches its value jumps to $250,000...The same is true of another kind of material—You!...

"Live with Enthusiasm: ...nothing worth doing can be done without it. Ability you must have, but ability sparked with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is an inexhaustible force, so mighty that you must ever tame and temper it with wisdom. Use it and you will find yourself constantly moving forward to new forms of expression..."

SIDEBAR: It has been reported that the Paris Hilton/Nicole Richie reality TV show, The Simple Life, was loosely based on the famous 1960s TV sitcom, Green Acres. Eva Gabor played Lisa Douglas on the show. Interestingly, Paris is related by marriage to Eva's famous sister Zsa Zsa Gabor. Zsa Zsa was married to Paris's great-grandfather Conrad from 1942-1946.

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