(Українська) Helen Hadsell — The Woman Who Had Mastered the Art of Winning

Helen Hadsell was a Texas-born speaker and writer who won more than 5,000 contests in her lifetime. To this day, she is remembered as “The Contest Queen.” Among her prizes were trips around the world, new cars, luxury furniture, and even a house that had once been showcased at the New York World’s Fair. In her book It’s All in the Game, Helen revealed the mindset and methods behind her extraordinary winning streak — a philosophy she called her Formula for Success. Here’s a look at her fascinating life and the secrets that made her legendary. Helen was born in June 1924 in South Dakota and grew up during the Great Depression. Despite the hardships of that era, she never lost her optimism. Her father instilled in her one simple truth — that anything in life is possible if you believe and take action. By the time she was eighteen, she had already moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a clerk at a naval shipyard. There, she had met her future husband, Pat Hadsell, whom she married during World War II. The couple eventually settled in Texas and raised their children while Helen ran the household. By the time her kids were old enough for school, she had been dreaming of doing something more creative for quite some time. By the late 1940s, contests and promotional sweepstakes were becoming wildly popular across America. Helen began entering them as a hobby — one that would soon transform her life. In her first year, she had sent dozens of entries but won only once — a Toni Home Permanent hair styling kit. For the next ten years, luck seemed to ignore her. Then one day, she came across Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking, and something changed forever. By then, Helen had been trying to win for a decade without any major success. The book inspired her to change her mindset and trust in visualization. By 1964, the Hadsells’ mailbox was constantly filled with good news. The family had already won everything from lawnmower sharpeners to trips to Disneyland. Helen’s prizes included vacations to Washington, Venice, and New York. She often said that her only competition was herself. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe,” she liked to quote, “it can achieve.” Still, Helen dreamed of something bigger — a car, a home, or a world tour. In 1972, she began working with José Silva, the founder of the famous Silva Mind Control Method. By that time, she had already developed her own “winning formula” and wanted to explore the power of the mind even further. Helen trained at Silva’s Institute of Psychorientology, and soon she had been teaching there regularly while editing the Mind Control newsletter. She lectured widely across the Midwest and even spoke at a parapsychology conference in France. Her persistence finally paid off. Helen eventually won a new car — and in 1977, she hit the jackpot: the grand prize from Publisher’s Clearing House — a custom-built home valued at over $500,000, to be constructed anywhere in the United States. She had beaten roughly 1.5 million other contestants. When she received the call announcing her victory, she had been entering contests for nearly three decades. Helen’s Formula for Success In It’s All in the Game, Helen described her simple but powerful winning strategy. She had always selected contests carefully, choosing only those that offered meaningful prizes and realistic odds. She had been visualizing success daily, repeating affirmations like “I’m a winner” and “Luck is on my side.” She had surrounded herself with reminders of success — notes and affirmations taped around her house. She had learned every contest rule by heart before entering. Her unshakable faith in her ability to win, combined with focused visualization, became her trademark. One day, while her husband Pat was reading a newspaper, he mentioned that he’d love an outboard motor — the top prize in a Coca-Cola contest. By then, Helen had already developed the habit of turning every wish into a vision. She began picturing him fishing from a small boat powered by that motor. She entered the contest, crafted a clever slogan, and two weeks later, Coca-Cola called: they had won. Later, Helen dreamed of celebrating her 40th birthday with Pat in Paris, dining near the Eiffel Tower. She had been imagining that scene for months — the lights, the café, the laughter. She entered every contest that offered a trip to France but never won first prize — until one day, she received tickets to Venice instead. She exchanged those business-class tickets for regular flights to Paris. And so, just as she had imagined, she and Pat spent her 40th birthday in the City of Light. Years later, she wanted to meet the famous TV host Art Linkletter. When she arrived at his Christmas show, all the seats were taken. She had been waiting outside for ten minutes when a staff member suddenly opened the door and let her in. During the show, Linkletter announced he would give a special prize to one lucky audience member. As he walked up the balcony stairs, he stopped right in front of Helen — and handed her a diamond-studded Lecoultre watch worth $1,500. By the time national TV and magazines began covering her story, Helen had already inspired thousands of Americans to try their luck. Her optimism and her “Formula for Success” became a cultural symbol of self-belief and possibility. Her story remains a joyful reminder that belief, focus, and gratitude can turn ordinary moments into miracles. As Helen herself said: “The only real competition you’ll ever have… is with your own disbelief.”