Think and Grow Rich Summary and Review | Napoleon Hill

1-Sentence Think and Grow Rich Summary

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill teaches that the power of positive thinking, focused desire, and persistence are key to achieving personal success and financial wealth.

Life gets busy. Has Think and Grow Rich been gathering dust on your bookshelf? Instead, pick up the key ideas now. We’re scratching the surface here. If you don’t already have the book, order the book or get the audiobook for free to learn the juicy details.

Napoleon Hill’s Perspective

Napoleon Hill was an American self-help author. His books focused on specific principles for personal and financial success. He began his career as a journalist before becoming an advisor to President Franklin D Roosevelt. It was a meeting with Andrew Carnegie that inspired his self-help career. He used his knowledge from this interview to write books on business success and making money. Many of his self-help books remain as relevant now as they were before his death, in 1970. 

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. 

StoryShot #1: Achievements Need Detailed Planning and Attainable Goals

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.

These recommendations will help keep you motivated and focused on the next milestone. Eventually, you will achieve your final goal.

StoryShot #2: Desire is the Starting Point of All Achievement

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:

1. Decide how much money you want to earn. This should be precise (even to the exact dollar).
2. Determine what you are willing to give to receive this amount of money.
3. Choose a date by which you aim to have obtained all this money.
4. Create a detailed plan of how you will reach this goal and consider what you can do right now.
5. Write the above in a clear statement.
6. Finally, make sure you read this statement aloud twice a day.

StoryShot #3: Successful People Have Faith in Their Abilities

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. 

Mahatma Gandhi is an example of the power of faith and self-confidence. Gandhi did not have access to the typical instruments of power: money and the military. Instead, he had an unwavering belief that he could lead his country, India, to freedom. This belief allowed him to influence his fellow citizens and spark a change.

We are no different from Gandhi. If we can harness an unwavering belief in ourselves and our ability to attain our goals, we can achieve anything.

StoryShot #4: 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:

1. The fear of poverty embodies indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
2. 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.

3. The fear of ill health triggers hypochondria, poor exercise, susceptibility, self-coddling, and intemperance.
4. The fear of losing someone’s love causes jealousy, fault-finding, and gambling.
5. 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.
6. The fear of death leads to a focus on dying rather than living. They may have a lack of purpose and insufficient suitable occupation.

All fears fall under one of these bullet points. All fearful thoughts can never result in acts of significant financial gain. But, we can redirect our minds away from fearful thoughts. 

Fear is a state of mind. As we control our state of mind, our fears no longer control us.

StoryShot #5: Our 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.

Use auto-suggestion as often as you can. The more often you use auto-suggestion, the more likely you are to achieve success. 

The following steps will help you become rich:

1. Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Repeat your written statement aloud. Then, visualize having that money.
2. Repeat this action every morning and night until you have a clear image in mind of all the money you wish to make.
3. Keep visualizing these desires until you have memorized them.

StoryShot #6: Knowledge Is Power

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. 

Being successful doesn’t require too many facts. Instead, it is more critical to get the right experiences and knowledge. Combining experience, knowledge, and strengths will help you develop. Although experience is more important, we should always be willing to learn. It is easy to believe we already know enough. Still, those who continue to expand their knowledge and experiences are most successful. You can do this by seeking new experiences or going to university. You might attend evening courses or acquire practical experiences.

You should always surround yourself with people who are knowledgeable and experienced. We want to avoid being the most knowledgeable person in our professional and friendship groups. Instead, we want to surround ourselves with people who can help us learn new skills and ideas. 

StoryShot #7: Imagination Will Turn Your Dreams into a Reality

The Importance of Imagination

Every success story begins with an idea. These ideas spawn from people’s imaginations, the creative workshops of our minds. We can use this to turn dreams from ideas into reality. Within your imagination is where all plans form. The only limitation you face depends on how much you develop your imagination. There are two types of imagination: synthetic and creative.

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.

These two types of imagination complement each other. Ideas are the starting point for all fortunes, and they are the product of imagination. For example, Asa Candler, the founder of Coca-Cola, used headache medication approximately 140 years ago to make the drink. Candler took the recipe from a pharmacist and turned the product into a massive success. Indeed, ideas can be traded where tangible merchandise cannot. Most fortunes begin when someone with an excellent idea meets someone who sells ideas. When matched with desire, ideas are unstoppable forces. They are more powerful than the brains that created them. Thus, you must listen, cultivate, and develop a desire to see them through.

StoryShot #8: 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:

1. Have I achieved my goals for this year?
2. Was I always friendly, courteous, and cooperative?
3. 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. 

StoryShot #9: 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.

StoryShot #10: Successful People Are Resilient

Stick to Your Plans

If you consider those who fail, it is 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. 

Successful people stick to their original plans despite the obstacles that arise. They give their dreams the space to blossom into reality. Despite this, you should still make corrections where needed. For example, if an easy price correction will have a massive impact, you should make this change. As long as you keep your overall goal in sight, you will make the right changes at the right time. 

How to Develop Persistence and Endurance

Abide by these rules to make persistence and endurance habits in your life:

1. Produce a concrete goal that you are passionate about.
2. Create a detailed plan to achieve smaller goals to help you towards your concrete goal.
3. Do not let negative opinions impact your thoughts or behaviors.
4. Develop strong relationships with those who can support you through difficult times. They should also celebrate your success with you.

Strength of will is integral to persistence. Once you can combine desire and willpower, you are likely to achieve your goals. How easily you can persist depends solely on how much passion you have to reach your goal. Your Mastermind group can encourage you to persevere through difficult times.

The Eight-Stage Approach for Persistence

Here’s an eight-stage approach for cultivating persistence:

1. Definiteness of purpose: You need to know exactly what you want as your ultimate goal.
2. Be obsessive: Having a genuine desire for your goal means obsessing over building a fortune.
3. Self-reliance: You must believe you can follow your plan and achieve each of your goals. 
4. Definiteness of Plans: Your plans should be organized and thorough so that they are clear when things get tough. 
5. Accurate Knowledge: Your plans and the corresponding goals should always be factual. 
6. Co-operation: You should be persistent when things get tough. Call on your mastermind and others around you to encourage you. 
7. Willpower: You should always focus your attention on seeing your plans through to completion. 
8. Persistence: Your daily behavior will become a habit and then it becomes who you are. So, by making courage a habit, you can overcome fear.

StoryShot #11: 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:

1. Infinite intelligence
2. Accumulated experience
3. Experiment and research

Your Mastermind group is formed of members who have the knowledge that you do not. It is impossible to get enough knowledge alone. Convert this knowledge into power by organizing it into definite plans. Throughout history, cooperative alliances have been essential for every great fortune. A collection of minds produces results greater than the sum of the parts.

StoryShot #12: 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 reputation 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. 

This does not mean we should repress our sexual drives. Instead, we need to give this sexual energy an alternative outlet. For example, use this energy to complement your creative abilities. 

StoryShot #13: 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. 

Meet these people at least twice a week. You must also maintain harmony with each individual in the group. The individuals within your group must be equally persistent, and they must be happy for you to lead them.

Final Summary and Review of Think and Grow Rich 

This book is a bestseller for good reason – it clearly outlines some simple tips and tricks that will help you become rich. The theories are easy to implement and well explained. Adopting the proper mindset and putting achievable plans in place are ways to achieve your goals. You should also have the right people around you to help boost morale and motivation.

The theories are basic, and how you implement them will depend on your own personal goals. However, this book offers great advice for anyone with big dreams.

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