How has Napoleon Hill affected your thinking?
 

Napoleon Hill was such a great thinker. He is definitely one of my Heroes. I remember someone suggesting reading his book while I was waiting tables at a Macaroni Grill in Overland Park, KS on January 1st 1995. It changed the course of my thinking forever.

In fact, to honor his mentorship of me, and Im certain so many others, I have created a Napoleon Hill Law of Success Podcast Series.

So far, I have done The first 3 lessons,

1. The MasterMind Group
2. A Definite Chief Aim
3. Self-Confidence
4. The Habit of Saving
5. NEXT UP- Leadership and Initiative


Such an amazing mind and thinker... How has Napoleon Hill affected your thinking?

I just bought the law of success and think and grow rich off amazon, so he hasn't affected my thinking yet :P, but hopefully ill get through them in a week or two... i've heard such great things about Napoleon Hill and i can't wait to read his books.

Btw, your website is pretty rockin :)

Hey thanks!

Yeah, Think and Grow Rich is a classic, however the Law of Success is more comprehensive, although nearly 1600 pages... sort of a daunting task.

Which is one of the reasons I wanted to do that podcast series, so I could dissect each Lesson in the Law of Success. 1600 pages, 100 pages a week for 16 weeks or so... plus all the other books I am reading!!!

Man, I need this photoreading thing to start working for me! heh

Napolean Hill's writing is to Personal Development what the Gospel of John is to Christianity.

Hill was quite daring for his time, and should be required reading for every high school student. The idea that we become what we think about seems so... common, yet the implications are earthshattering. Prior to that, success literature was focused on changing our circumstances... work harder, save money, be a saver. All good advice, but Hill showed us that we could change ourselves.

The Laws of Success is definantly the way to go, as Think and Grow Rich was written to be a popular introduction for the masses. Much more detail is available in the LOS.

It is also interesting to note that Hill spoke of such things (without using the names we now have for them) as Out of Body Experiences, Guides, Channeling, and the Collective Unconscious.

Highly Recomended.

I agree. I worked with a teacher that did some work with her students on Think and Grow Rich. Great stuff. Hill got me thinking about MY thinking and how I could change circumstances by thinking I could. I am looking forward to reading Law of Success.

One thing that has always perplexed me about Dr. Hill was that apparently, he ended up broke. And one of his students, applied his information better than he did, W. Clement Stone, and ended up helping Napoleon out and bought the rights to his work. Apparently W. Clement Stone Trust owns the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

Kind of interesting. I have never found the whole story out,but I heard that from Brian Tracy.

So, you can know... but that doesnt mean you act on what you know.

Just to clarify: That is Not his idea, Buddha said that more than 2000 years earlier.

I just finished reading the "good book" tonight. Surely this demonstrates "The Golden Rule" that you should do unto others as you would have them do to you.

Kindness attracts kindness, and good intentions shall attract the same?

Yeah he definitely has helped point me in the right direction financially. Also got me to thinking about the future...

Hi Travis,

"One thing that has always perplexed me about Dr. Hill was that apparently, he ended up broke."

What I heard from another Napoleon Hill hero worshiper, (Dan Kennedy, although I only heard it once, so I may be off in the details), was that the reason Hill went broke was because he hated to ask to be paid what his work was worth. One of the few things that Hill was afraid of was having his reputation diminished. Because of that, he didn't want to be thought as "money grubbing", greedy, and other negative baggage that folks carry around about aquiring wealth.

Stone "rescued" him and put him to work training his sales men and women. That's where much of the audio that we have of Hill comes from - his training sessions with those sales guys.

If I find the exact reference, I'll let you know.

Bob

Right on MyCroft, I appreciate that. That makes total sense. I have been unable to find anything to verify that other than what Brian Tracy had stated.

Also, I put up Lesson 4 - The Habit of Saving up last night.

» CG Podcast #006 - Napoleon Hill's Law of Success Podcast Series #04/16 - The Habit of Saving

Love your blog
 

Travis,

I'm currently reading your blog and it's very informative. I really like the article you wrote titled "When is it Time to Get New Friends and Get Rid of the Dream Stealers?"

I'm currently going through the process of winning new friends and losing old ones. Sometimes it can be painful.

- Alex

Hey Alex,

Im glad that you found that article useful... yeah, I had a couple friends that were not part of the whole 'get yourself better' movement, and they are just a couple of downers. So, I wish them well, but I think I will surround myself with people who have better attitudes!

I love this forum... I see that Im not alone in this way of thinking!

Hi Travis

Getting rid of another one of those miserable types as we speak....

Who needs that sort of negativity/lack of vision around you, huh?

BTW, your blog is quite informative...

:)

Hi All

I read TaGR for the first time about 5 years ago. It was the first time in my life that I was able to read a book that went totally against everything that I had been told, and exactly along the lines of the way I thought things should be. If it werent for all the negative influences around me turning me into a sheep, I would have listened to my inner voice that I had been hearing since the age of 12, and gone more the way I wanted rather than the way I 'should'

TaGR absolutely annihilated the relationship I was having at the time. The daunting realisation that it was just so not going to work any more,with my revised thinking. Only a few months later I quit my job and haven't really 'worked' all that hard in years. I'm finding much more pleasure in the simple things in life, and am slowly clearing myself of the debts I had built up. (suing Barclays for £2k yay!) However I have a long way to go. I've only made my life simple. Doesnt mean I dont want an M3, and boat, yada yada; the list goes on lol.

Anyway, Think and Grow Rich is, in my mind, great. I always recommend it to people and have bought it for 3 people already, and read my own copy about 5 times.

Throw in Rich Dad Poor Dad as well and ur golden. there are tons of others as well of course, but theyre the two that really 'converted' my thinking totally.

Something very interesting happened to me. Not too long after I started reading personal development books and articles, my dad was moving to a new house and cleaning out his attic. I knew there would be some books in there so I went over to his house and looked through them.

I had found myself a copy of Think and Grow Rich that hadn't been touched in 19 years. And I had no idea that it was such a popular book at the time. I don't even remember how I used to think before I started reading books like that.

Napoleon Hill was one of the early pioneers in the Human Potential movement, but I find his ideas really American and over-commercialised and his real life examples of rags to riches just not believeable at all. Tony Robbins, although running a mass - money making venuture, is much more polished and influential.

I do agree with you a bit on that Lonewolf......but that is part of it. You have to filter out the Americanisation and the 'spin' that he puts on it.... but surely there are a ton of things for almost anyone to pick up from TaGR.

Tony Robbins is great as well. I've only listened, read and seen videos, have not seen him in person, but he rocks. Clever guy, very passionate about his work. Another good one to add to the "Heroes" list.

I also hold Donald Trump and Bill Gates in very high regard, not that they have a thing to do with helping others develop themselves. At one point Donald Trump could walk to a bum in the street and know that he was $800m poorer than somone with nothing. But he clawed it all back, and well, is where he is now.

Faith, Persistance, Burning Desire, etc etc. Avoid the rat race and dont be cattle, demand what you want of your life and you shall have it.

Oh, and the stories are of course true, however hard to believe - the less imaginable, the more ideas are implanted into my head....the possiblities are endless!

Any Tony R has the benifit of still being able to add to his training, instead of being six feet under like Napoleon. I'm sure NH was just as enthusiastic when he was 30 something, when writing the book almost 100 years ago. Tony can play on the way the world has adapted and changed, making his info seem more relevant and possible, perhaps.

Napoleon Hill's work has given me some great insight into autosuggestion and the subconscious mind.

One of the things though is that Hill's work is classic but also dated material and while the content he presents is wonderful, his perspectives on it are from my grandpa's era. I have gotten quite a bit from Bob Proctor also whose mentor was Earl Nightingale whose mentor was Hill. It's exciting to see the progression of material switch minds over the days and get revised to a dynamically changing world.

From my experience when I used the book, I had two outcomes, a good one and a bad one. I used this book while I was in nursing school. I wanted to make a little money on the side. One of the techniques I've learned is using stimulating the creative imagination. The thing is that I used the negative path, which is use alcohol to run the creative imagination to make money. I came up with having an event(party) to make money. To throw a party where people could have a good time and charge them for a fee. I assembled my mastermind group, I used the Autosuggestion, and the use of the subconcious mind. I think the auto suggestion had a negative affect on me in a way that I was having a tunnel vision and I was not perceiving the present moment. I was so focused on having the event done that everything else fell behind, like my schooling, my job, and my relationships. My eye was one the prize. During the event I was greedy when the money was coming in. I didnt care even some people werent having fun as long as I was getting paid. My grades in school suffered terribly because of my "desire." The good outcome I had was that I accomplished something big, and alot of people had fun. I know that I used the book in a wrong way but the next time I need to used it will defintely the right way.

Hi Hugh


Have to just stick my oar in here and suggest that Benjamin Franklin in his Autobiography was way into personal change before NH was born!

Franklin was one of those guys who belived that internal integrity was beyond everything else and was the torch for others to follow in their self improvement.

In fact Frank Bettger became who:) he became because of Ben Franklin's 13 week system of self improvement.

There's many more exciting developments taking place in newer fields like hypnosis, meditation and Neuro Linguistic Programming. Reading Napoleon Hill is like reading Freud to understand modern psychology; it's an old classic.

To revive this old thread, I have a question.

Do readers who are new to the whole PD thing, revise and re-read books like "Think and Grow Rich"?
Over the past two days I havent revised the book and Im starting to feel, ive lost my motivation for my purpose and goals. Its difficult to describe.

My other question is, how long did it take you to be become positive/motivated/purpose orientated etc, on a permanent basis?? I.E.: not slacking between good and negative moods, but constantly managing to stay in good/positive moods??

A lot of people seems to talk about Tony Robins, but which book/material should a newbie start with? I have read a lot of personal development materials (including Napoleon Hill), but I have never even opened a Tony Robins book.

I would recommend "Awaken The Giant Within", then "Unlimited Power". However if you are aware of NLP, "Unlimited Power" is very similar.

His next book "Inner Strength" be out soon(or its already out). I have yet to see it my bookstores back in Singapore.

Hope this helps

Thank you! I have just ordered Awaken The Giant Within, so now I'll cross my fingers and hope to get it before the holidays.

Napoleon Hill..
 

Funny, I just posted on another thread for my first time,and I was quoting NH... I was given the newest copy so it is updated with a more current rewrite while maintaing the basic text. It truly does change the way you view the world after reading it. It truly is your thought ,and intent that manifests what you bring into your life. 'The Secret' is based on this I believe.
PMA- Positive mental attitude. I am trying to stay in that thought ,and so far has at least led me on the path I am now on ...PMA, Persistance, ......