Think and Grow Rich, a book by Napoleon Hill is one of the most prestigious and treasured books in the field of motivational literature. This book can help you reach your highest potential and bring you great personal happiness. Napoleon Hill gives you a blue print for self-mastery helping you accomplish whatever goal you have set up for yourself.
Napoleon Hill mentions that every page within the book contains a magical secret that, once discovered, will unlock the key to making money and becoming wealthy beyond your current wildest dreams. This makes every reader study the book at a deeper level, searching each page for this secret.
There is a secret within the book, but to find it you will probably have to study the book several times and do all the exercises Napoleon Hill recommends. These exercises are designed to help you develop the level of skill where success becomes natural.
There are 13 main chapters within think and grow rich. The main chapters are:
Chapter 1 :: Desire ? The starting point of all Achievement
The First step towards Riches
In this chapter, Napoleon Hill talks about the starting point of all achievement - Desire. He writes that the desire or impulse to achieve something in life can be so great that any obstacles no matter how big or small can stop an individual from reaching the goal he has set up for himself. A person with burning desire, an obsession with success can go to any lengths until he succeeds. Failure does not bother him and in fact he uses it as a stepping-stone to fuel his burning desire for achievement.
Napoleon Hill mentions a couple of stories of everyday common people who in the face of insurmountable odds came out victorious. Read on to understand how desire can change a man’s life.
Mr.Edwin C. Barnes had one consuming obsession of his life; in fact it was a burning desire to become a business partner with a great inventor. So extraordinary was his desire to become the business associate of Thomas A. Edison that he caught a freight train to Orange, New Jersey because he never had money to pay for the fare. After arriving he straight made his way to Edison office and presented himself and asked Mr.Edison for a opportunity to become his business partner.
Mr.Edison was very impressed with Barnes determination that he gave him a chance to work in the office at a very nominal wage. He worked with great eagerness but never gave up the desire to be his business partner. He waited for his opportunity and when it came in the form of a new invention known at that time as the Edison Dictating Machine. Mr Edison is salesmen were not very excited over the machine. They Believed that the machine had no future and thus selling it would be a difficulty.
Barnes knew that he could sell the product and suggested this to Edison who agreed immediately. Barnes did sell the machine and went to become Edison’s partner. He was so successful that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market the product all over the nation. In fact their business grew by the slogan Made by Edison and installed by Barnes?
So strong was his desire that he achieved what he was out for. That is all there is to the Barnes Story of success!
So we see that just wishing will not make a person rich but one must desire richness with a state of mind that becomes a passion, then planning definite ways and means to acquire those riches and not recognizing failure but persisting with a one track mind towards your goal.
You may as well know that you can never have enough riches unless you work hard for it, it is a well-known fact that as you shall sow, so shall you reap. You should know that every great leader, poet or actors are dreamers. In fact so intense are their dreams that they see their dreams in spiritual form before it can transpire into physical form. If you do not see riches in your imagination you will never see them in your bank balance.
Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, he put his dreams into action and despite more than ten thousand failures; he stood by his dreams until he made it a physical reality.
Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put his dreams into action, and barely missed living to see a united North and South translate his dream into reality.
The same way Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through air now one may see evidence all over the world how successful their dreams were. Always remember that practical dreamers do not quit!
As Napoleon Hill says, all who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heart-breaking struggles before they arrive.
How can one harness and use the power of desire? This has been answered in this and the subsequent chapters in this book
Chapter 2 :: Faith ? Visualization of, and Belief in Attainment of Desire
The Second step towards Riches
Faith is another word for "Absolute Confidence". When a person has faith in his beliefs then one can say that half of the battle to acquire success is won. So when faith is combined with the vibration of thought then the subconscious mind picks up the vibration and translate it into spiritual equivalent and transmits it to infinite intelligence.
How to develop Faith
The method by which one develops faith where it does not already exist is very difficult to describe. Faith is a state of mind, which may be developed at, will after the thirteen principles, which are in this book, have been mastered.
All thoughts, which have been given feeling and mixed with faith, begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical counterpart. The emotions or the feeling portions of thoughts are the factors, which give thoughts vitality, life and action.
There are millions of people who lack faith in them; these people believe that they are doomed to poverty and failure because of some strange force over which they have no control. These people are prey to their own misfortunes because of this negative belief, which picked up by the subconscious mind, translates into its physical equivalent.
Any order given to the subconscious mind with belief, or faith will be met with success. One should practice how to give the subconscious an order mixed with faith.
Perfection will come through practice. It cannot come by simply reading instructions the values of faith are endless; faith is the elixir, which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought.
Riches begin in the form of thought! The amount is limited only by the person in whose mind in whose mind the thought is put into motion. Faith removes limitations!
Remember this when you are ready to bargain with life for whatever it is that you ask as your price for having passed this way.
Chapter 3 :: Auto Suggestion ? The medium for influencing the subconscious mind
The Third step towards Riches
Auto-suggestion is a term, which applies to all suggestions, and all self-administered motivation, which reaches one’s mind through the five senses. In other words auto-suggestion means self-suggestion meaning giving suggestion to yourself so that it reaches your subconscious mind.
No thought, whether it can be negative or positive, can enter the subconscious mind without the aid of the principle of auto-suggestion. It has been said that the subconscious mind is like a fertile garden spot if desirable crops are not sown then weeds take over in abundance. Auto-suggestion is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature.
The ability to reach and influence the subconscious mind has its price and that price has to be paid. One cannot cheat, even if one desires. The price to influence ones subconscious is everlasting persistence in applying the principles described.
Here is a most significant fact- the subconscious mind takes any order given it in a spirit of absolute faith and acts upon those orders, although the orders have to presented over and over again, through repetition, before they are interpreted by the subconscious mind
This chapter represents the keystone to the arch of this philosophy and the instruction contained in this chapter must be understood and applied with persistence. Keep this in mind and you will at all times, be conscious of the important part the principle of auto-suggestion is to play in your efforts to accumulate money through the methods described in this book.
Chapter 4 :: Specialized Knowledge ? Personal Experiences or Observations
The Fourth step towards Riches
Knowledge is power and there are two kinds of knowledge. One is general and the other is specialized. General knowledge no matter how great in quantity or variety will not make you successful, however, specialized knowledge can.
It may be, is of no use in the accumulation of money for example see the professors in great universities have lots of knowledge but little or no money. They teach knowledge but they do not specialize on the organization, or the use of knowledge.
Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized, and intelligently directed through practical plans of action. The missing link in all systems of education known to civilization today, may be found in the failure of educational institution to teach their students how to organize and use knowledge after acquire it.
Before you can be sure be sure of your ability to convert desire into its monetary equivalent, you will require specialized knowledge of the service, merchandise, or profession which you intend to offer in return for fortune. Men sometimes go through life suffering from inferiority complex, because they are not men of education but see for example Thomas A. Edison had only three months of schooling during his entire life. He did not lack education neither did he die poor. Henry Ford had less than a sixth grade schooling but he managed to do pretty well himself.
Specialized knowledge is among the most plentiful, and the cheapest form of service available. If you doubt this, consult this the payroll of any university. It pays to know how to purchase knowledge; a man can organize and direct a group of men who possess knowledge useful in the accumulation of money. A person with specialized knowledge needs to combine his knowledge with ideas, in the form of organized plans to yield riches.
Chapter 5 :: Imagination ? The Workshop of the Mind
The Fifth step toward Riches
The imagination is plainly the workshop in which are shaped all plans created by man. The impulse, the desire, is given shape, form and action through the aid of imagination. It has been said that man can create anything, which he can imagine. Through the aid of his imaginative gift man has discovered and harnessed, more of natures forces during the last fifty years than during the entire history of the human race, previous to that time.
Using his imagination man has conquered air so completely that birds are a poor match to him in flying. He has harnessed the ether and used it as a means of instant communication with any part of the world. He has increased the speed of locomotion, until he may now travel at the speed of more than three hundred miles an hour. Mans only limitation, within reason, lies in his development and use of his imagination
There are two forms of imagination. One is known as synthetic imagination and the other as the creative imagination.
Synthetic Imagination
Through this faculty, one may arrange old concepts, ideas, or plans new combination. This faculty creates nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education and observation with which it is fed.
Creative Imagination
Through the faculty of the creative mind, the finite mind of man has direct communication with infinite intelligence. It is the faculty through which the hunches and inspiration are received. It is by this faculty that all basic, or new ideas are handed over to man. It is through this faculty that thought vibrations from the mind of others are received. It is through this faculty that one individual may tune in, or communicate with the subconscious minds of other men.
Chapter 6 :: Organized Planning ? The Crystallization of Desire into Action
The Sixth step towards Riches
Organized planning - Everything that a man creates or acquires begins in the form of desire, that desire is taken on the first lap of its journey, from the abstract to the concrete, into the workshop of the imagination, where plans for its conversion are created and organized.
The most intelligent man living cannot succeed in accumulating money or any other undertaking without organized plans, which are practical and workable. Just keep this fact in mind and remember that when your plans fail it is a temporary defeat and not a permanent failure. It may only mean that your plans were not very sound. Build other plans and start all over again.
Thomas A. Edison failed ten thousand times before he perfected the glowing electric light bulb. That is he met with temporary defeat ten thousand times, before his efforts were crowned with success. Temporary defeat should means only one thing that the certain knowledge that something is wrong with it. Millions of people go through life in misery and poverty, because they lack a sound plan through which to accumulate wealth.
Henry Ford accumulated a fortune, not because of his superior mind, but because he adopted and followed a plan which proved to be very sound. We see men who have accumulated great fortunes but we recognize their triumph, overlooking the temporary defeats, which they had to surmount before striking it rich.
So to be successful a person must carefully plan his work, and then work his plan into action
Chapter 7 :: Decision ? The Mastery of Procrastination.
The Seventh step towards Riches
In a research of over twenty five thousand men and women who had experienced failure, one very common fact was disclosed that lack of decision was the main factor for the reason of failure. This is no mere statement of a theory. It is a fact.
Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy, which practically every man must conquer.
Study of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark, disclosed the fact that everyone of them had the habit of reaching decision promptly, and of changing these decisions slowly, if, and when they were changed. People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions if at all, very slowly, and changing these decisions very quickly and repeatedly.
The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are, generally, easily influenced by the view of others. They permit the newspapers and gossiping neighbors. To do their thinking for them opinions is the cheapest commodities on earth. If you are influenced by these opinions when you reach decisions, you will not succeed in any undertaking. If you are influenced by the opinions of others you will have no desire of your own.
You have a brain and a mind of your own. Use it and reach your own decision. The value of decisions depends upon the courage required to render them. Socrates decision to drink the cup of poison, rather than compromise in his personal belief was a decision of courage. It turned time ahead a thousand years, and gave to people then unborn the right to freedom of thought and of speech.
Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely know what they want in life and generally get it. These leaders in every walk of life decide quickly and firmly. The world has the habit to make room for the man whose words and actions shows that he knows where he is going.
Chapter 8 :: Persistence ? The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith
The Eight step towards Riches
Persistence or determination is an essential factor in the procedure of transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent. The root of persistence is the power of will.
Will power and desire, when properly combined make an irresistible pair. Men who accumulate great wealth are generally known as cold blooded and sometimes ruthless. Often they are misunderstood. What they have is will power, which they mix with persistence and place back of their desires to insure the realization of their goals.
The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on despite all opposition, until they attain their goal. There may be no heroic implication to the word persistence, but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel.
The building of a fortune, generally, involves the application of the entire thirteen factors of this philosophy. These principles must be understood and applied with persistence by all who accumulate money.
To gain control over your will be persistence no matter how slowly you may, at first have to move. With persistence comes success and there is no substitute for persistence. It cannot be replaced by any other quality. Remember this and it will hearten you at times when the going gets tough.
Chapter 9 :: Power of the Master Mind ? The Driving Force
The Ninth step towards Riches
The Power of the Master Mind Group - Power is essential for the success in the accumulation of money. Power may be defined as organized intelligently directed knowledge. Power as a term used here refers to organized effort, sufficient to enable an individual to transform desire into its monetary equivalent. Organized effort is produced through the coordination of effort of two or more people, who work in a sprit of harmony.
Plans are inert and useless without sufficient power to translate them into action. The ways power can be acquired is very simple. Power is organized knowledge and the sources of knowledge are
Infinite intelligence, this source of knowledge may be contracted with the aid of creative imagination as described in an earlier chapter.
Accumulated experience? The accumulated experience of man (or that portion of it which have been organized and recorded), may be found in any well-equipped public library. An important part of this experience is taught in schools and collages where it has been classified and organized.
Experiment and research in the field of science, and in other walks of life, men are gathering, classifying and organizing new facts daily. This is the source to turn to when knowledge is not available through accumulated experience.
The Master Mind may be defined as Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a sprit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose. No individual may have great power without availing himself of the Master Mind.
Chapter 10 :: The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
The Tenth step towards Riches
The meaning of the word transmute is in simple language the changing or transferring of one element, or form of energy, into another. The emotion of sex brings into being a state of mind. Because of the ignorance on the subject, this state of mind is generally associated with the physical, and because of improper influences, to which most people have been subjected, in acquiring the knowledge of sex; things essentially physical have highly biased the mind.
Sex transmutation is simple and easily explained. It means the switching of the mind from thought of physical expression, to thoughts of some other nature.
Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men develop keenness of imagination, courage, will power, persistence and creative ability unknown to them at other times. So strong and impelling is the desire for sexual contact that men freely run the risk of life and reputation to risk it.
When harnessed and, and redirected along other lines, this motivating force maintains all its attributes of keenness of imagination, courage etc., which may be used as a powerful creative forces in literature, art, or in any other profession or calling, including of course, the accumulation of riches.
Chapter 11 :: The Subconscious Mind ? The Connecting Link
The Eleventh step toward Riches
The sub-conscious mind consists of a field of thought that reaches the objective mind through any of the five senses, is classified and recorded, and from which thoughts may be recalled or withdrawn as letters may be taken from a filing cabinet.
The subconscious mind works day and night through a method of procedure unknown to man, the subconscious mind draws upon the forces of infinite intelligence for the power with which it voluntarily changes one’s desires into their physical equivalent, making use, always of the most practical media by which this end may be accomplished
The subconscious mind receives and files, sense impressions or thoughts regardless of their nature. You may voluntarily plant in your subconscious mind any plan, thought, or purpose which you desire to translate into its physical or monetary equivalent. The subconscious acts first on dominating desires, which have been mixed with emotional feeling, such as faith.
You cannot entirely control your subconscious mind, but you can voluntarily hand over to it any plan, desire, or purpose, which you wish, transformed into concrete form.
The subconscious mind is the go-between, which translates one’s prayer into terms which infinite intelligence can recognize, presents the message, and brings back the answer in the form of a definite plan or idea for procuring the object of the prayer.
Chapter 12 :: The Brain ? A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought
The twelve step towards Riches
Man with all of his boasted culture and education, understands little or nothing of the indescribable force of thought. He knows but little concerning the physical brain, and its vast network of complex machinery through which the power of thought is converted into its material equivalent
More than twenty years ago, the author, working in conjunction with the late Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, and Dr. Elmer R. gates, observed that every human brain is both a broadcasting and receiving station for the vibration of thought Through the medium of ether, in a fashion similar to that employed by the radio broadcasting principle, every human brain is capable of picking up vibrations of thought which are being released by other brains.
When stimulated to a high rate of vibration the mind becomes more receptive to the vibration of thought. Which reaches it through the ether from outside sources. This stepping up process takes place through the positive emotions or the negative emotions. Vibrations of an exceedingly high rate are the only vibrations picked up and carried, by the ether from one brain to another.
Operation of your mental broadcasting station is a simple procedure. You have but three principles to bear in mind and to apply, when to use your broadcasting station are the subconscious mind, creative imagination and auto-suggestion. The stimuli through which you put these three principles into action have been described-the procedure begins with desire.
Chapter 13 :: The Sixth Sense-The Door to the Temple of Wisdom
The Thirteenth step towards Riches
The thirteenth principle is known as the sixth sense, through which infinite intelligence may, and will communicate voluntarily, without ant effort from, or demands by, the individual. This principle is the apex of the philosophy. It can be assimilated, understood, and applied only by first mastering the other twelve principles.
The Sixth Sense is that portion of the subconscious mind, which has been referred to as the creative imagination. It has also been referred to as the receiving set through which ideas, plans, and thoughts flash into the mind. These flashes are sometimes called hunches or inspiration. Somewhere in the cell structure of the brain, is an organ, which receives vibrations of thought ordinarily, called hunches. Understanding the sixth sense is very difficult; it comes only by meditation through mind development from within.
The sixth sense probably is a medium of contact between the finite mind of a man and infinite intelligence, and for this reason it’s a mixture of both the mental and the spiritual. It is believed to be the point at which the mind of man contacts the universal mind.
Through the aid of the sixth sense you will be warned of the impending dangers in time to avoid them and notified of opportunities in time to embrace them. The sixth sense will act as your guardian angle that will open the door to the temple of wisdom.
Bonus Chapter :: How to outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear
To successfully use any portion of this philosophy, the mind must be prepared to receive it. It is not difficult to prepare the mind. It begins with study, analysis, and understanding of three enemies, which will have to be cleared out. These are indecision, doubt and fear.
The sixth sense will not function while there three negatives or any one them remain in your mind. The members of this unholy trio are closely related; where one is found, the other two are close at hand.
Indecision is the seedling of fear! Remember this- indecision crystallizes into doubt, the two blends and become fear! This blending process is often slow; this is one reason why these three enemies are so dangerous. They take root and grow without their presence being observed.
There are six basic fears, with some combination of which every human suffers as one time or the other. Most people are fortunate if they do not suffer from the entire six.
Named in the desire of their most common appearance, they are: -
· The fear of poverty
· The fear of criticism
· The fear of ill health
· The fear of loss of love of someone
· The fear of old age
· The fear of death.
Do not be deceived by the habits if these subtle enemies. Sometimes they remain hidden in the subconscious mind where they are difficult to locate, and still more difficult to eliminate.
