I first read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill over 2 years ago when I used to live in hostel and it didn’t resonate with me.
Fast forward to today, I just finished reading it, and this time around, I appreciate what the writer was saying.
Think and Grow Rich is about how to attain riches. When Napoleon Hill refers to riches, he is not only referring to finance, but also to the spiritual and health and wellness aspects of riches. Based on researching 25,000 people over 25 years, Napoleon Hill identified 13 success principles.
He dedicates a chapter to each success principle, and each chapter builds on the previous chapter.
Who this book is for:
- This book is great for aspiring entrepreneurs.
- If you want to achieve wealth and don’t mind hard work, this book is for you.
- This book is also great for people who just want to improve themselves.
- If you wants to succeed in life.
Who this book is not for:
- This book is not for people who want a get rich quick shortcut.
- Think and Grow Rich is not for lazy people.
- This book is also not for people who want an entertaining book. It’s merely a nonfiction book meant to teach you something
There is so much valuable information packed into these pages that I have decided to make Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” this week’s edition of the Wealthy Tools Book Review Series.
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Napoleon Hill interviewed over 500 successful individuals to come up with his 13 keys to success.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: 13 Steps to Riches listed in the book are:
- Desire: The Turning Point of All Achievement
- Faith: Visualizing and Believing in the Attainment of Desire
- Auto-Suggestion: The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind
- Specialized Knowledge: Personal Experiences or Observations
- Imagination: The Workshop of the Mind
- Organized Planning: The Crystallization of Desire into Action
- Decision: The Mastery of Procrastination
- Persistence: The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith
- Power of the Master Mind: The Driving Force
- The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
- The Subconscious Mind: The Connecting Link
- The Brain: A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought
- The Sixth Sense: The Door to the Temple of Wisdom
Considering the fact that this self-improvement masterpiece is still widely read more than 75 years since its initial publication, you know that the information to be gained from its message is valuable.
If you read, study, and apply the 13 lessons to be learned from its pages, you will find it much easier to build success in any part of your life.
Step 1: Desire
Not hope, not a wish but a strong burning desire. This is perhaps the most important step which is why napoleon has put at the begining of the book.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: 6 Practical Steps to Acquire Riches or Achieve Any Goal
- Know exactly what you want. If it is money, know the exact amount of money that you want.
- Determine what you intend to give in return for the money, or the goal that you’d like to achieve.
- Set a definite date for getting the money or achieving the goal.
- Create a definite plan with the steps to achieve your goal, and begin at once. Do not wait for the perfect time because there will never be a perfect time.
- Write a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you’d like to acquire, or the goal you’d like to achieve. Include the date by which you’d like to get the money, what you intend to give in exchange for the money, and describe your plan for getting it.
- Twice each day, read your statement aloud – before you go to sleep and immediately after you arise in the morning. As you repeat the statement, see yourself already having the money or having achieved the goal – bring your desire to life!
Step 2: Faith
Faith is a strong, emotionally charged belief. Faith is a state of mind which may be created by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind through the principle of auto suggestion. If you take to heart the perspective that the future holds greater things for you – or any other greater belief that you hold – then your future has a greater likelihood of holding these things. Why? They’re consistently on your mind – thus you pay more attention to the factors that will make them happen.
Step 3: Autosuggestion
Basically, the idea is that if you keep repeating your plan for success to yourself, it has a greater chance of actually coming true. Why? Again, embedding a thought deeply within yourself – and repetition does the trick – increases the chance that the thought will come up at the right time when you need it. It supports the first 2 principles of Desire and Faith.
Before you move on to next step , read the napoleon hill’s guide of 6 steps to acquire riches.
Step 4: Specialized Knowledge
Let me ask you a question, would you rather do 10 jobs valued at $10 /hour or 1 job valued at $100 /hour.
A brain surgeon get paid much more for his specialized knowledge rather than jack of all trades with general knowledge like brick laying, gardening and plumbing.
Successful people leveraged the specialized knowledge of other people. Andre carneige admitted that he didn’t know much about the technical stuff of steel business but he didn’t need to because he had a staff with that kind of knowledge.
Step 5: Imagination
“It has been said that man can create anything which he can imagine”
Another key element is imagination, or the ability to take a idea and transform it into something concrete. I think that, for many, this is one of the key stumbling blocks on their path to success. They see the goal, they see where they are at now, but they lack the imagination to construct the path between here and there.
How can you do it? Break it down. Just focus on figuring out the next step, and then the step after that and the one after that…
Step 6: Organized Planning
If you want to get rich , you need a plan. Here are 4 things to keep in mind:
1. Create a mastermind group. One should surround themselves with a team of support – people who have both knowledge of how to go down the path you want to go, but also care about helping you.
2. Decide what you can offer to your mastermind team members in return for their cooperation.
3.Meet with your team members twice a week and more often if possible.
4.Maintain the harmony between yourself and every team member.
These 4 things will help you to turn your plan into action. If plan doesn’t work replace it with a new plan.
I felt this chapter was key to the whole book, a reminder that in the end, your dreams do take hard work (though a good mindset helps a great deal).
Step 7: Decision
When it comes time to make decisions, make them. Don’t defer to others and don’t delay the decision. This is perhaps the biggest part of becoming a leader and a person that people will depend on and follow.
Entrepreneurs may know this as ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’, where new idea or trend captures your attention and you end up staying away from your original goal or decision in this case.
Napoleon analyzed hundreds of Millionaires and found that every single one of them have the habit of reaching decisions quickly and change decisions slowly.
It’s fine to gather information, but when the time comes, be decisive: come up with a firm decision and stick with it.
Step 8: Persistence
Persistence means that you know you’re following the right path for you and that you won’t allow a few mis-steps or stumbles along the way keep you from achieving your goal.
Many people give up the first time they’re dealt a blow, but sit down sometime and read a biography of a great leader and see how many times they were knocked down – and how viciously it happens.
I recently read a great biography of Abraham Lincoln and I was actually stunned how true this was in his life – he had a lot of missteps during his political career, but he was persistent about it and eventually wound up as President of the United States of America.
Don’t let some bumps in the road keep you from following the path, even if they seem like huge stumbling blocks that you are going to have incredible difficulty surpassing.
Step 9: Power of the Master Mind
The title of this chapter set off warning bells, but it actually just refers to being able to pick the minds of others for ideas, and often sharing them in fair exchange.
Do you remember the suggestion of creating a mastermind group who can support you? This group should include as many smart people that you know, especially ones that you trust well enough to bounce ideas off of.
This is the same concept as Stephen Covey’s Win-Win principle.
Basically, find the smartest people in your life that you trust, and utilize them to help you think through your plans.
Step 10: The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
Sexual desire is the one of the most powerful human desires, man with sexual desire develops Imagination, Courage, Will-Power, Persistence, Creative Ability.
Author advises tapping into your sex drive in order to drive yourself to further success. The book offers several tips on how to do this, but I generally feel like many of those would lead to frustration for many people rather than success.
Step 11: The Subconscious Mind
Positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind at the same time. One or the other mass dominate. It is your responsibility to make sure that positive emotions dominate.
Whenever you think a negative thought about your dreams, immediately and forcefully remind yourself that not only is such a thought a waste of time, it actually just pulls the dream out of your grasp.
Instead, make an effort to think in positive ways about your plan, slowly training your mind to not pull up negative thoughts about achieving what you want to achieve.
Step 12: The Brain
Although the terminology is as fuzzy as can be here, the basic idea is that most people send a lot of nonverbal cues about what they’re thinking, and putting extra effort into trying to pick up on those cues can pay enormous dividends.
I will say that quite often I have a terrible time with nonverbal cues that others give me – perhaps that’s why I enjoy blogging so much, because I don’t really have to worry too much about nonverbal cues.
Step 13: The Sixth Sense
This chapter tells us a really simple idea: meditate. Simply sit back, close your eyes, and let thoughts slip away.
Once your mind is empty, the chapter gives a number of things to think about, but I often find that some of my best ideas come from the moments when I really do let all of my thoughts completely slip away from me – the good ideas just appear.
The Six Ghosts of Fear
The six primary fears that fill people’s lives and keep them from being successful are poverty, criticism, ill health, lost love, old age, and death.
However, if you let those constantly guide your life, you’re bound to not reach your dreams.
Final Look at Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Looking at Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, all the sections work together because they are inter-related.
Many people fail because they fail to plan. There is a major section in the book that’s on organized planning, which tells us how to organize and use information after you have acquired it. And more importantly, how to organize knowledge into plans of action.
If you have never read the book before, I recommend you to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
Buy or Don’t Buy?
More than any other book I’ve ever read, the value of Think and Grow Rich depends heavily on the reader. If a reader comes into this book seeking guidance for how to get over a rough patch in life, they’ll find it. If a reader comes at this book needing a confidence booster for making a difficult professional leap, they’ll find it.
So, I agree with the theme behind Think and Grow Rich – the idea that self-confidence and keeping your eyes on the goal are big parts of success – but they’re only a few pieces of a much larger puzzle.
In short, if your primary challenges in life are a sense of focus and a sense of feeling that you actually can achieve your dreams, read this book.
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