I recently finished reading Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. The book puts forth a philosophy of success inspired by the many successful people the author interviewed and worked with. It was at the suggestion of Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest people of all time, that the author undertook the mission to discover and reveal what he calls the “secret” of success that has allowed the titans of the world to achieve what they have.
Published in 1937, Think And Grow Rich uses examples from almost a century ago. However, many of these examples should be familiar with the modern reader. Names like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. are just as well-known today as they were in 1937, because their lives changed the world forever. It is also helpful to remember that in 1937 the United States, as well as the rest of the world, was still recovering from the Great Depression, so fear of poverty and desire for riches were at the top of people’s minds. That is why even though the philosophy of Think And Grow Rich can be used to achieve success in any field, the title of the book and the main focus of its content pertains to material success. Nevertheless, there are many examples in the book of great individuals who were successful in fields outside of business or industry.
Think And Grow Rich is not a how-to manual or a list of get-rich techniques and instructions. It is a philosophy of success that focuses on the mind. The premise of the philosophy is that “thoughts are things” and “powerful things at that” and must be harnessed in order to achieve success.
Before we get to the thirteen steps to riches that make up thirteen of the fifteen chapters of the book (Chapters 2 to 14), the author emphasizes in the introduction (Chapter 1) that the reader must have a definite purpose. You cannot achieve something if you don’t know what you want to achieve. My personal analogy is that it doesn’t matter how good a pilot is; if he doesn’t know where he’s going he will fail. Likewise, it doesn’t matter how talented, intelligent, or capable you are, if you don’t know what you want to achieve you are not going to attain success because anything worth achieving is difficult and requires concentrated effort and power of will.
The first step to riches (Chapter 2) is desire. Not any desire, but a burning desire that becomes a “consuming obsession”. And not a desire for something vague or ambiguous, but a burning desire for a definite purpose. As the author writes, “It is not sufficient merely to say ‘I want plenty of money’” but it is necessary to “Be definite as to the amount”. It is also important to have a definite date and a definite plan for the achievement of such purpose. Having a definite desire with a definite date and definite plan allows you to take concrete action to turn your desire into a reality. And it is the burning desire that pushes you to do whatever it takes, to overcome whatever obstacles, and to bounce back from whatever setbacks that you encounter on your journey to achieve your purpose.
The second step to riches (Chapter 3) is faith. Faith, as described in the book, is the visualization of and belief in attainment of desire. It is hard to stay motivated if you lose faith that you will be able to achieve your goal. If you no longer believe you’ll succeed, you’ll give up because you would think you’re fighting for a lost cause and so further effort would be futile. Faith is a major positive force and the author believes the spirituality of having faith allows you to communicate to what he calls Infinite Intelligence, which would provide the insight and creativity for you to come up with solutions to achieve your goals. Infinite Intelligence is the author’s concept of a transcendental source of ideas and imagination, and will be mentioned throughout the book. Mixing faith with thought is powerful and has the tendency to transform the subject of that thought into its physical equivalent. He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right.
The third step to riches (Chapter 4) is auto-suggestion. Auto-suggestion, or self-suggestion, to put it in another way, is the act of feeding your mind thoughts that are beneficial to the achievement of your goal. For example, the author suggests a routine for the reader to follow to harness the power of auto-suggestion. The routine is to have a “written statement of the amount of money you intend to accumulate, the time limit for its accumulation, and a description of the service or merchandise you intend to give in return for the money”, to read and repeat this written statement in the morning after waking up and at night before going to sleep, and to place this written statement where you can see it morning and night “until it has been memorized”. Auto-suggestion influences the subconscious mind in such a way that it will help you maintain faith and come up with solutions to obstacles.
The fourth step to riches (Chapter 5) is specialized knowledge. Specialized knowledge is knowledge specifically useful for the attainment of a certain goal. The author contrasts this with general knowledge, which he finds irrelevant to the achievement of the goal. If you have a definite purpose, then acquire the knowledge you need to realize that purpose. All other knowledge will not help.
The fifth step to riches (Chapter 6) is imagination. The power of imagination is particularly obvious to readers from 1937, when the book was published. In only a century, the world had changed so much. In the early 1800s, the vast majority of people were farmers. They often had to make their own things, communicate by letters, ride horses for transportation, suffer from diseases that people did not know how to treat, etc. In the early 1900s, people had invented and mass-produced airplanes, automobiles, trains, steamships, lightbulbs, telephones, telegraphs, radios, vaccines, etc. Many goods became affordable to society at large as efficient factories dramatically lowered the cost of production. Many examples from the book demonstrated how the imaginative faculty of the inventors, business leaders, and industrialists of the age catapulted civilization into rapid advancement, even as naysayers repeatedly said what they were trying to do was impossible. The book states that there are two forms of imagination: synthetic imagination and creative imagination. Synthetic imagination arranges “old concepts, ideas, or plans into new combinations”. Creative imagination derives from the “hunches” and “inspirations” that come from Infinite Intelligence, the transcendental source that hands over new ideas to mankind. Both forms of imagination are necessary to create the plans and solutions necessary to achieve a goal. More importantly, it is imagination that comes up with the goal to be desired in the first place.
The sixth step to riches (Chapter 7) is organized planning. This chapter is the longest in the book and contains many practical instructions for the ambitious, although some of these instructions have been outdated since the book was published in 1937. The first of these instructions is to ally yourself with a group of like-minded individuals who will help you achieve your goals. It is important to do so because “No individual has sufficient experience, education, native ability, and knowledge to insure the accumulation of a great fortune, without the cooperation of other people”. This concept is called the “Master Mind” principle and will be described in more detail in Chapter 10. The author spends much of the rest of the chapter discussing the “ways and means of marketing personal services”. He first focuses on the major attributes of leadership, which are: unwavering courage, self-control, a keen sense of justice, definiteness of decision, definiteness of plans, the habit of doing more than paid for, a pleasing personality, sympathy and understanding, mastery of detail, willingness to assume full responsibility, and cooperation. The author then lists the 10 major causes of failure in leadership, which are: inability to organize details, unwillingness to render humble service, expectation of pay for what they “know” instead of what they do with that which they know, fear of competition from followers, lack of imagination, selfishness, intemperance, disloyalty, emphasis of the “authority” of leadership, and emphasis of title. The next part of the chapter discusses the fields that are in need of leadership at the time of writing in the 1930s, followed by practical instructions to apply for jobs during the 1930s. The author also introduces the QQS rating concept, which stands for quality, quantity, and spirit of service rendered. QQS determines the value of a person’s service. Quality and quantity of service are quite self-explanatory. The spirit component emphasizes the importance of being pleasant and harmonious with those you work with, and to work with enthusiasm. The chapter then discusses common causes of failure, and the underlying principle that one should never try to get without giving if he desires success.
The seventh step to riches (Chapter 8) is decision. Being decisive allows you to avoid procrastination, which “is a common enemy which practically every man must conquer”. The chapter advocates reaching decisions quickly and definitely, to follow promptly with action, and to change decisions (if necessary) slowly. What others may call stubbornness or obstinacy in your decisions, you should call commitment and persistence. The power of decisiveness is illustrated in the chapter by the example of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who all committed themselves to the American Revolution by signing the Declaration of Independence, which would have meant death if they failed. It is that decision to win freedom and independence for the Thirteen Colonies, or die trying, that propelled the outnumbered colonials to triumph over the mighty British Empire.
The eighth step to riches (Chapter 9) is persistence. Persistence is essential to the achievement of success. The road to any goal worth attaining will be full of obstacles and potential setbacks, and persistence is the quality that separates those who will overcome and win and those who quit and lose. Concentrated effort and power of will must be maintained through an extended period of time to achieve the goal desired, and if you do not persist until you have attained your goal you will fail. Persistence is an absolute necessity for great success.
The ninth step to riches (Chapter 10) is the power of the master mind. The author defines power as “organized and intelligently directed knowledge”. He states that there are three major sources of knowledge: Infinite Intelligence (the transcendental source), accumulated experience, and experiment and research. The “Master Mind” is defined as “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose”. The chapter states that “No individual may have great power without availing himself of the ‘Master Mind’”, because great achievement requires coordination with others.
The tenth step to riches (Chapter 11) is the mystery of sex transmutation. The concept behind this is that “Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires”, and when sex energy is transmuted from physical expression and directed along other lines, it can be harnessed to achieve great results. The author claims that men seldom succeed before forty because they dissipate their sexual energy “through over indulgence in physical expression of the emotion of sex”. As men grow older and develop better self control, some of them discover the power of channeling their sexual energy to drive them to achieve their goals. The author also adds that the emotion of sex, mixed with love and romance, brings “calmness of purpose, poise, accuracy of judgement, and balance” and will temper sexual energy with “sanity, balance, and reason”. The author states that “The emotions of love, sex, and romance, are sides of the eternal triangle of achievement-building genius” and “It brings one into communion with Infinite Intelligence”.
The eleventh step to riches (Chapter 12) is the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind influences our thoughts, emotions, and intuitions, and we should be careful with what we feed it. Auto-suggestion should be used to help build a subconscious mind that is conducive to success, through self-affirmations, the focusing of thoughts on goals, and visualization of realizing those goals. The subconscious mind should also be fed the seven major positive emotions, which are: desire, faith, love, sex, enthusiasm, romance, and hope. The seven major negative emotions should be avoided, and they are: fear, jealousy, hatred, revenge, greed, superstition, and anger. Through the use of auto-suggestion and prayer, you can “Form the habit of applying and using the positive emotions”. At the same time, the chapter advocates avoiding negative impulses (negative people, negative thoughts, negative media, etc.) and to try to only draw from positive impulses.
The twelfth step to riches (Chapter 13) is the brain. This chapter discusses the author’s theory of telepathy, where he believes the brain can receive and broadcast thoughts. He believes the brain can communicate with other brains and with Infinite Intelligence through the ether, and this would allow ideas and imagination to be communicated and aid towards success. I am skeptical of the author’s ideas in this chapter.
The thirteenth step to riches (Chapter 14) is the sixth sense. The author writes that “The sixth sense defies description”, but essentially it “is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been referred to as the Creative Imagination”. If all the other twelve steps to riches are mastered, the sixth sense will become an instinct that naturally directs one towards success through communion with Infinite Intelligence. The sixth sense “is a mixture of both the mental and the spiritual”.
Napoleon Hill concludes Think And Grow Rich by discussing how to outwit the six ghosts of fear (Chapter 15). Before using the philosophy of Think And Grow Rich, you should prepare your mind and heart by eliminating the enemies of indecision, doubt, and fear. Hill writes, “Indecision crystallizes into doubt, the two blend and become fear”. The six basic fears are fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of ill health, fear of loss of love, fear of old age, and fear of death. Through understanding these fears and arming yourself with the knowledge that “fears are nothing more than states of mind”, you can overcome these fears by focusing on what you can control and accepting what you cannot. In his conclusion, Napoleon Hill writes, “Your mind is your spiritual estate! Protect and use it with the care to which Divine Royalty is entitled. You were given a Will-Power for this purpose”.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Think And Grow Rich and found it a very helpful philosophy of success. The concentration of thought, desire, and persistent effort is essential to any great undertaking, and the book does a great job in describing how best to harness your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual resources in order to turn your dreams into a reality.
If you want to read Think And Grow Rich yourself, here’s a link to order it on Amazon.
Think And Grow Rich: https://amzn.to/2F7zsaV
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