Introduction
Think and Grow Rich examines the psychological power of positive thought. Napoleon Hill
delves into the importance of our thought patterns for our success. Successful people from
the past combined positive thoughts with persistence and education. They surrounded
themselves with supportive colleagues. We will all fail when seeking our life goals, but those
willing to keep trying will become successful.
Published during the Great Depression, Think and Grow Rich was highly successful. To
date, it has sold more than 15 million copies. This makes it one of the top ten best-selling
self-help books of all time. In 2007, Businessweek ranked the book as the sixth best-selling
business paperback.
Detailed Planning and Attainable Goals
“Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass.” — Napoleon Hill
The way to become successful is to know what you want to achieve. Without clear goals, we cannot start our journey toward success. Define your personal goals as precisely as possible. If you hope to become rich, you should define how much money you wish to earn by a certain age. These goals will help you understand how much you will have to invest to reach your main goal.
After identifying a goal and giving it a timeframe, you will want to outline a plan. This plan should incorporate a step-by-step approach to attaining your final goal. Once you have this plan, you need to act. Start immediately.
Desire is the Starting Point
You can get what you seek as long as you hold on to your desires. Yet, this does not mean you should desire the outcome. For example, merely wishing for money will get you nowhere. Instead, you must become obsessive about making effective plans and goals.
The following steps will help you plan your way to becoming wealthy:
- Decide how much money you want to earn. This should be precise (even to the exact dollar).
- Determine what you are willing to give to receive this amount of money.
- Choose a date by which you aim to have obtained all this money.
- Create a detailed plan of how you will reach this goal and consider what you can do right
now. - Write the above in a clear statement.
- Finally, make sure you read this statement aloud twice a day.
Successful People Have Faith in Their Abilities
“There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief.” — Napoleon Hill
Unwavering faith is a fantastic asset. Individuals with unwavering faith will do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. This is because you cannot achieve success without self-confidence.
You Cannot Have Faith Alongside Fear
Faith cannot coexist with fear. So, once we have mastered all fears, we can have an unwavering faith to grow rich. There are six subtypes of fear:
- The fear of poverty embodies indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
- The fear of criticism embodies self-consciousness and insufficient poise. A person might have an inferiority complex, low initiative, and a lack of ambition. They may be overly extravagant.
- The fear of ill health triggers hypochondria, poor exercise, susceptibility, self-coddling, and intemperance.
- The fear of losing someone’s love causes jealousy, fault-finding, and gambling.
- The fear of old age makes us slow down and develop an inferiority complex around the age of 40. This is associated with a loss of initiative, imagination, and self-reliance.
- The fear of death leads to a focus on dying rather than living. They may have a lack of purpose and insufficient suitable occupation.
Subconscious Can Influence Our Behavior
Unwavering faith is not something we are all born with. But we can learn to develop this faith over time. Auto-suggestion is the most effective way of developing one’s self-confidence. It involves considering particular and purposeful thoughts to influence your behaviors.
Auto-suggestion works by fueling your subconscious with positive goals and thoughts. As your subconscious impacts your reality, these positive messages will increase your self-belief. You will start to accept that you can reach your goals. Auto-suggestion is synonymous with self suggestion. It is the bridge between the conscious and subconscious mind. So, as well as reading important goals aloud, you also need to attach emotions to these words. When reciting affirmations, you should encourage your desire to consume you. Your subconscious mind will only instigate action when it includes emotions and thoughts.
Also Read: Finding Your Purpose: How Ikigai Can Transform Your Life
Knowledge Is Power
“An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.” — Napoleon Hill.
Knowledge is one of the most critical skills for achieving your life goals. But, you should throw out your preconceived ideas of how important education is. Being knowledgeable isn’t tied to the degree you have. Henry Ford is an example of someone who lacked education but had lots of valuable knowledge.
Types of Imagination
Creative Imagination: This type of imagination helps us develop new ideas. It starts from nothing and creates something unique. You can only reach creative imagination when desire stimulates your conscious mind. It’s a muscle you must train.
Synthetic Imagination: This type of imagination uses old ideas to create new concepts. For example, Sony used the technology from Dictaphones to make the first Walkman. There is no creation here because it works with existing mental material.
Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses is all about self-awareness. If we know our weaknesses, we can challenge them and prevent them from impacting our goals. Some of the most common themes include vague goals, a lack of ambition, procrastination, and poor resolve. Once we understand our weaknesses, we can improve our skills. Or we can account for these weaknesses through our strengths. A thorough and honest self-analysis helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses. To achieve this, you can set up a checklist of questions:
- Have I achieved my goals for this year?
- Was I always friendly, courteous, and cooperative?
- Did I make all decisions promptly and firmly?
You should then compare your subjective self-analysis with somebody’s objective evaluation of you. Ask somebody who knows you well to discuss your strengths and weaknesses candidly.
Reinforce Your Positive Emotions
Our subconscious can shape us positively by providing us with strength and resilience. But, it can also shape us negatively by making us pessimistic. We must train our subconscious to identify our desires and goals. We can do this by feeding our subconscious with positive and constructive feedback. Hence, we should always adopt a positive mentality irrespective of our current circumstances. We can reinforce this by surrounding ourselves with optimistic people.
Successful People Are Resilient. Stick to Your Plans. Those who fail are often due to insufficient determination. Successful people are often resilient. Multimillionaires are individuals who can make split-second decisions. Still, they can also back these decisions until they come true. They are not scared of losing money and take losses with a pinch of salt.
How to Develop Persistence and Endurance
Abide by these rules to make persistence and endurance habits in your life:
- Produce a concrete goal that you are passionate about.
- Create a detailed plan to achieve smaller goals to help you towards your concrete goal.
- Do not let negative opinions impact your thoughts or behaviors.
- Develop strong relationships with those who can support you through difficult times. They
should also celebrate your success with you.
The Mastermind as a Driving Force
Accumulating money requires power. Without power, it is impossible to put your plans into action.
There are three ways to accumulate power:
- Infinite intelligence
- Accumulated experience
- Experiment and research
The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
Transmutation relates to transforming one element of energy into another. Sex is our most primal and powerful drive. It is the most influential energy. Sex is such a powerful desire that individuals often put their livelihoods and reputations on the line for it. But sex can be helpful if you redirect this energy into other pursuits. This may take significant willpower, but it will have a positive impact.
Surround Yourself with Smart People
To become successful on a large scale, you will need smart people who can support you. The Brain Trust is a peer group of like-minded, intelligent people. They should have a common goal and be willing to develop their competencies. There should be a system of checks to keep each other accountable. They are your peer group.
For Brain Trust to work, you will need to develop a synergistic effect. This effect occurs when two people’s skills combine to accomplish a shared goal. The results are better than the sum of the Brain Trust’s parts.