In the rugged mountains of Southwest Virginia, where coal seams once fueled the economy and identity, Don M. Green has forged a legacy not from what was extracted from the earth, but from what he believes can be cultivated in the hearts and minds of the region’s youth.

At 84, Green is more than a former successful banker or successful published author. As some describe him, he is the “believer-in-chief” for a generation of Appalachian students. From his modest office at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, Green leads the Napoleon Hill Foundation, championing a mission to instill timeless success principles in high schoolers across the region. His flagship initiative, the Keys to Successprogram, has reached hundreds of students, offering them not just coursework, but hope.

A coal miner’s son

Green’s story begins in Stratton, Virginia — a town in Dickenson County with more memory than a map. Born in 1941, one of five siblings in a family bound by grit, Green grew up watching his father, a coal miner who broke his back in a mining accident, reject government assistance and instead build a makeshift coal-hauling business until he could stand again. This early exposure to resilience and determination would shape Green’s own journey in the years to come.

“I learned early on that when life knocks you down,” Green says, “you figure out how to stand back up,” in a recent two-hour interview on the “Matt Sweeny Show.”

His mother, one of 16 children, raised the family with little formal education but an unshakable faith in hard work and self-reliance. Education was never an option — it was a necessity. As a teenager, Green didn’t just earn money mowing lawns. He ran a backyard zoo complete with rattlesnakes, copperheads, a bobcat, and even a black bear.

“It wasn’t exactly OSHA-compliant,” he laughs, “but it helped pay the bills.”

From debt collector to bank president

Green’s professional path was anything but conventional. He began his career as a debt collector with a finance company. Thanks to relentless effort and sharp problem-solving, he quickly climbed the ranks, becoming the youngest branch manager in the history of Time Finance (later CIT) in Indiana.

Returning to his home region, he served as Vice President at First State Bank in Norton before taking the helm of Black Diamond Bank in 1983. Then, just 41, Green turned around the financially flailing institution into a profitable lending institution, sold in 2000.  

But banking was only a platform for Green. He built businesses, invested in real estate, a technology-tilted stock portfolio, and quietly gained financial independence.  “I’ve always believed that money is a tool,” he says. “But it’s what you build with it that matters,” Green said. 

Steward of a global legacy

In the millennial year 2000, Green accepted the role of executive director and CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, which preserves and promotes the work of the celebrated self-help author of “Think and Grow Rich.”

One of Green’s first moves was relocating the foundation’s headquarters to Wise from Chicago, a powerful gesture of belief in his community. Green sought to boost the University of Virginia’s College at Wise following the name change of his alma mater Clinch Valley College. He was later appointed to the College at Wise board. 

While Hill’s works had already sold millions worldwide, Green saw an opportunity closer to home. “I thought, why not bring these principles to students — right here, where so many young people never get to see how far they can go?” After all, the late Napoleon Hill was rooted in Wise County. 

And so began Keys to Success, a course built from Hill’s books and Green’s vision. First offered as a three-credit elective at University of Virginia’s College at Wise, the program later expanded into high schools throughout Southwest Virginia. With support from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, RAPHA Foundation, Dominion Energy, Food City, First Bank & Trust, Eastman Credit Union, Richard & Leslie Gilliam Foundation, Pepsi of Norton, LG&E/KU Foundation, Miners Exchange Bank, Wise County and others, the curriculum became a free, online offering for high school juniors and seniors in 10 counties and two cities. 

Every day, Don Green is reaching out to the regional Generation Z, while recruiting businesses to take interest in hiring them.

To Green, Keys to Success is more than a class — a cultural intervention. His goal is to reach one thousand of the region’s high school students before the end of 2027. He is already more than half way there. 

“This isn’t just about teaching business principles,” he says. “It’s about helping young people believe they can build something right where they are.”

“Students learn practical and personal skills, such as how to set goals, stay accountable, show initiative, and adopt a positive mental attitude,” with Green noting that “employers across the region report the impact is tangible: young people are more prepared, more driven, and more hopeful.”  

High school youth enroll from throughout southwestern Virginia’s school districts. Green continues to work to make certain each high school student who attends UVA-Wise full-time after taking the online high school course has access to a college scholarship to boost their education into career action. 

Green’s work has helped raise over $4 million in scholarships and endowment funds for UVA-Wise students. In 2022, he brokered a $2 million scholarship partnership between the Napoleon Hill Foundation and the University of Virginia.

“When you invest in a student,” Green says, “you’re not just helping that young person. You’re lifting up an entire family — and a community.”

‘Go search for opportunities‘

Green’s personal maxims, rooted in Hill’s philosophy, are bold and biting. He keeps them sharp for a reason. These maxims are not just words, but a call to action, a source of motivation and empowerment for all.

• “Rich people read while poor people watch TV.”
• “To become successful, you must first have a major purpose and vividly imagine your success.”
• “If you want to be successful, don’t wait on opportunities. Go search for them.”
• “Don’t be afraid to ask, because you never know what help you may get if you try.”

Each quote, delivered with Green’s Appalachian pragmatism, becomes a challenge to students: Think. Ask. Try. Rise.

Beyond education, Green is a prolific author and editor of Hill-inspired books, including “Napoleon Hill: My Mentor, Your Millionaire Mindset” and “Everything I Know About Success I Learned from Napoleon Hill.” He co-wrote “The Gift of Giving” with Jim Stovall, further cementing his role as a translator of Hill’s ideas for modern audiences. Green has recently completed his eighth book. 

Green travels internationally, most recently to Japan, and to Germany nearly every year to negotiate international licensing deals for Hill’s work. His efforts have brought Think and Grow Rich to readers in nearly every language and corner of the globe. Numerous international motivated people come to Wise to see Green on a regular basis. 

A decade or so ago, the world’s first female commercial astronaut and X-Prize Foundation CEO Anousha Ansari came to the College at Wise, hosted by Green, for thousands of southwestern Virginia school students to hear her and Lynchburg astronaut Leland Melvin tell of their career challenges, and to connect the four thousand students to astronauts aboard the International Space Station, to share their off-Earth experiences. Green MC’ed the event.

Green encouraged Ansari to talk about a book she wrote with Homer Hickam, “My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer.” From that point, Green took interest in how the students responded to space technology innovations in subsequent years, especially the Wise County student leaders building satellites, or ThinSats, to launch on a rocket from Wallops Island in 2019. He also took interest in the use of Starlink by the local school district during the COVID pandemic school closures. 

Learning of the space-based broadband technology applications, Green personally donated funds to the Health Wagon to purchase its first mobile Starlink capability to assist those in need of telehealth services in remote rural areas. Yet one of his most ambitious projects is beyond orbiting Earth — one 250,000 miles away.

Recently, Green has partnered with Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based lunar delivery company, to preserve Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich” on the moon. Using NanoFiche, a cutting-edge micro-storage medium, the text will be included in a time capsule aboard the Griffin-1 lander later this year, designed to last millions of years.

Green has developed a limited-edition necklace to commemorate this milestone, featuring micro-etched versions of “Think and Grow Rich.” Each crafted piece holds a complete, readable book copy within a pendant-sized micro-text engraving. The necklaces are symbolic and practical — wearable art that bridges legacy and innovation — as a symbol of the enduring value of Hill’s teachings and humanity’s reach in the 21^st century. Each necklace is a jewelry art piece connected to the first successful lunar library and the global Napoleon Hill community. 

A life of service

Green remains an active civic leader, serving the chamber of commerce, and as former president of the UVA-Wise Foundation Board. His accolades include multiple Outstanding Citizen of the Year awards from the Wise County Chamber of Commerce and the University of Virginia’s College at Wise Volunteer of the Year. Gov. Glenn Youngkin recognized Green in 2024 among the state’s standout volunteers, while past Governors McAuliffe, McDonnell, Kaine and Warner have issued proclamations declaring Napoleon Hill Day each October. 

“We honor an individual who has been one of the College’s greatest ambassadors,” Chancellor Donna P. Henry. “He led the Foundation Board for years with great confidence, vision and wisdom.”

But it’s not the plaques on his wall that define Don Green. It’s the letters from students, the thank-you notes from parents, the ripple effects of lives changed.

“So many of the students have stayed in touch, and it’s a good feeling,” Green said. “A lot of things, money, cars, clothes, food, travel — they give us pleasure. There’s nothing wrong with pleasures, but helping other people gives us happiness.”

Cosmic habit force and the legacy to come

Hill’s most enigmatic principle — Cosmic Habit Force — teaches that repeated thoughts and actions, once instilled with belief and purpose, take on a life of their own, pulling us toward our destiny.

It’s an axiom Don Green lives daily. His life is not merely one of achievement but of alignment-of thoughts forged into habits, habits into character, and character into change.

For the students of Central Appalachia, Green is showing them that the Keys to Success aren’t confined to textbooks, boardrooms or even Earth. Successful character has traits to be imitated. 

“It’s not enough to tell students they can succeed,” he says. “You have to give them the tools — and show them how to use them.”

In a place once shaped by coal rock out of the ground, Don Green is helping shape what can rise from it: minds that conceive, believe, and — without apology — achieve.

Jack Kennedy, a Napoleon Hill Scholar, is a native of Wise County, and now a museum docent at the U.S. Space Force Museum at Cape Canaveral Station, Florida. Contact him at Jack@JackKennedy.net