Think and Grow Rich

[Amadeus]

THINK & Grow Rich. What a brilliant book. What a profound book. What a book of genious. Napoleon Hill mentions a secret in the book and stated that it is more beneficial to the reader when he discovers the secret on his own. I'll save you the trouble. The secret is THOUGHT. What we THINK about daily is what we become. For crying out loud, the secret is in the title of the book, THINK & Grow Rich. The secret is not desire, it is not being motivated, and it is not having a positive attitude all the time. The 13 principles listed in the great book are just organs of the organism, the organism of THOUGHT. The 13 principles are just states of THOUGHT. Hill states that a person can THINK himself or herself into any station in life.

"The only thing the creator gave us complete control over is the power to control our own minds and think of anything we desire about." I want to express something to this forum a view of the philosophy that maybe only .000001 percent of the human population has even only comprehended. Andrew Carnegie was one of the few who understood this secret. Hill was one of the few, however I don't think he applied it as much as Carnegie, Edison, or Ford. Thought is energy. Energy, like matter can neigher be created nor destroyed. When we think we are releasing a form of energy out into the World. Hill called it the ether. It is debated weather the ether exists. When we throw out the intangible energy of thought into the world, we get back the same energy almost like a boomerang. Is it telekenisis in some form? Maybe. I have seen it work for me time and time again. It is very important to know exactly what it is you want, have a white heat of desire for it, and go after it everyday and night until it has been obtained. As hill states, it can not be a hope or a wish.

To be honest, most people who have read the book do not get into this state of desire. Perhaps other things in life like a spouse, "the rat race", news, gossip, or televison get in the way. I know it did for me for a few years until I really got the secret. You know there is just no half-ass way to do it. Yes it is easy once you commit, but you must commit to your Defiinite Chief Aim and think about it night and day. Then the whole World will be at your fingertips. As Hill states in one of his audios, "I don't know why it is that when a man decides what he wants that the whole universe seems to come to his aid to see that he gets it. I don't know why it is, but I just know that it is." He also states that "the mind attracts the thing the mind dwells upon." I personally don't think that it is as simple as the person is attracted to the object of his or her major purpose. In some wierd undocumented form, the object seems to find the person as well. The major purpose, goal, or whatever you want to call it meets the person half way. Your brain becomes a magnet, literally. I also feel that telepathy also comes into play. I think you convey your goals in life to others without uttering a word about your goal. I have experienced this.

Every morning I read my Definite Chief Aim with emothion. I will jog on my treadmill for about an hour. As I am exercising I will THINK about my goal and to the detail what I want in life and from that day. I will THINK about in detail what my future house will look like, what my car will be like, and how much money will pour into my bank account everyday. I'll mix emotion with these thoughts and actually believe I will have them. That day when I go out on the roads to sell my product I feel I have a heads-up on every other salesman. My numbers show that! I get business pouring in that I don't even touch.

"Mighty is the human mind, it builds or destroys." - Napoleon Hill

[gberardi]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

THINK & Grow Rich. What a brilliant book. What a profound book. What a book of genious. Napoleon Hill mentions a secret in the book and stated that it is more beneficial to the reader when he discovers the secret on his own. I'll save you the trouble. The secret is THOUGHT.

I think what happened was that a lot of people were wondering what secret they missed, and then "Master Key to Riches" was written to explicitly state it.

I have to admit, when I read "Think and Grow Rich", and kept reading lines like, "I think you can figure out what the secret is based on what you just read", I kept thinking, "Well, ok, but what if I didn't get it? What if I just THOUGHT I got it but was wrong?"

But all action comes from thought, and we can control our thoughts. It's an amazing concept that most people don't realize. You can continue to do the same thing every day and not like it, but you made that choice. You also have the choice of doing something different and getting different results. Simple yet powerful stuff!

[andrew]

This book is on the top of my todo list. I found an old 1952 Edition of it in my bookshelf, and it's sitting here waiting for me to read.

Question: do the different editions make a difference? Like I'm reading one over 50 years old, will a more recent one be better?

[The Probabilist]

Very well put, I'm glad for you that this excellent book has had such an impact on your daily pursuit to become rich. (Not just in monetary ways) Your post also inspired me to re-read it again, once I've finished reading Blue Ocean Strategy.

I really liked how you brought up the insight that he doesn't know why it works, it just does. I share this same view with everything. I don't care how the mechanics of a car or a game or corporate taxes work. I'm just interested in using them all in the most optimal way for personal gain/growth. The same goes for life, as Steve recently wrote about. The game of life is the biggest system of all and since it's the reality as we know it, why not make the best of all that it encompasses?

Can't wait to make the best of it.

[Susie]

I read it years ago and I was left with the impression that the secret to growing rich was channeling your sexual energy into making money or some variation on that. ?

[Amadeus]

Susie, the chapter on sexual transmutation basically just states that you can influence the vibrations of your mind through sex, being that it is the most powerful form of thought. However, you can also use state of thought of desire, faith, and love to increase the vibrations of your brain to your desired goal.

If anyone is interested in added documentation of Hill's philosophy I would recommend you reading The Silva Method by Jose Siva. Silva believed that when you meditate you can force your brain to use alpha waves (the state of our brains when we are asleep). You can use this to heal yourself and loved ones. You can use this to make things happen in your life and other's lives. A coauthor of one of Silva's books even links what Napoleon Hill was trying to say to what Jose Silva was studying, documented, practiced, and taught. It seems that Hill's method of reading your goals with emotion helped his readers accidentally tap into what Silva discovered.

[copla]

Absolutely brilliant book... I need to re-read it though, haven't hit it up in a good three months. If anyone's interested in the formation of a lot of Hill's ideas, check out the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, it's an incredible read, giving you direct access into the life and philosophy of one of the most successful person of all time. It's really interesting to see how Carnegie came to develop and utilize the concepts that would later make up Think! And Grow Rich.

[stephencp]

"To be honest, most people who have read the book do not get into this state of desire."

And there's a secret too, it's the desire behind the thought. How many people attend seminars and read books and know the "right" thoughts and affirmations but nothing changes? Because they don't do it. Why? Because they don't believe nor have the DESIRE. You cannot leave emotion out the of the equation.

Stephen
Power-Book Library: Free personal development, success, inspiration and motivational classics

[timmymayes]

I have to agree this book is awsome. I've not gotten entirely through it just yet so i'm holding off to really implement the ideas as it says to finish the entire book before jumping in.

Cheers,
Timothy

[Lonewolf]

There has to be a balance though between dreaming about stuff and actually doing it regardless of how you feel at the time.

[Steve Roh]

I learned from Alvin's blog (he's a member here, his site is listed in another thread) that Bruce Lee was a big fan of Napoleon Hill, in fact in the late 1960's Bruce Lee wrote down his definite chief aim in accordance with Hill's advice:

"I, Bruce Lee, will be the highest paid Oriental superstar in the United States. In return, I will give the most exciting performances and render the best quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting in 1970, I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1989 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. Then I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness."

How cool is that???!!!

[jonw]

i read the revised version which has many notes on people/issues discussed throughout the book. i was quite impressed.

Amazon.com: Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised: Books: Napoleon Hill

[Fusebox]

I read the book about 4 weeks ago, Ive passed it onto my brother to read, so havent chance to revise it. But since reading I have generally been in a more positive state mind. This alone is a big achievement for me.

[fubek]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

only .000001 percent of the human population

That would be 65 people.

[Amadeus]

Yep, that is about right fubek. And I'm not even saying I am one of the 65, because I have not achieved my dreams yet.

Maybe remove one of the .0

[Sujetti]

I have had the book for years and really enjoyed it. I have the so called original version reprined by Ballantine Books. I went on the Amazon website just to read customer reviews and came across one reviewer who emphatically stated not to purchase this book because so much information was removed. What was once clear and concise became vague and muddled. Well I found the original version free on the internet at http://www.asamanthinketh.net/files/tgr.pdf and decided to go through each word to see if there was a difference. Wow! I realized that the essence of the book had been removed (perhaps even deliberately). I did not even think this was legal. I encourage you to write down or copy and paste just what is missing from your version of the book and then read it. If you have the Ballantine Books edition you will be utterly surprised. You will also notice several themes developing. Pay particular notice to the absence of the term Vibration of Thought and the word 'ether'. Which is the essence of the book. You will also notice quite often content removed about the U.S. government, church, woman and people who used their power not for riches but to start revolutions.

To Amadeus. It is our Vibration of Thought that determines our life. A person who is in a Beta brain state will have a different outcome than a person in an Alpha brain state who has similiar thoughts. These two sections were missing from my version of the book that I was fortunate enough to come across on the link that I posted above.

''The very fact that the subconscious mind is the medium of communication between the thinking mind of man and Infinite Intelligence is of itself, a thought which almost paralyzes one's reasons.''

''Through the medium of the ether, in a fashion similiar 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.''

''Vibrations of an exceedingly high rate are the only vibrations picked up and carried by the ether, from one brain to another. Thought is energy travelling at an exceedingly high rate of vibration. Thought which has been modified or 'stepped up' by any of the major emotions vibrates at a much higher rate than ordinary thought, and it it THIS TYPE OF THOUGHT which passes from one brain to another through the broadcasting machinery of the human brain.''

[Beautiful Future]

I seem to remember Napoleon Hill saying in the book that it was a 'two part secret', something like that anyway, and after reading it I assumed that he was talking about 'thought' and 'belief'. 'Action' has got to be in there somewhere though.

[dadeon]

I think the real secret is that the book changes yur thinking - it changes yr mindset and opens you up to the real source of wealth and abundance - which is a way of thinking and not a 'how to strategy'.

Wealth and abundance is a 'result' of your thinking. Recall the James Allen piece that Circumstances does not make a man - it reveals him...

Great book - worth a read at least once a year!

[Ian99]

I first read this book about 10 years ago. At the time I thought it was positive fluff. No substance, just waffle about thoughts. Over the years I have had some success and plenty of failures. The failures stopped me in my tracks, then after the sting lessened I would wonder to a different vehicle of wealth, with the same results. I remembered a passage from the book “A quitter never wins – and – a winner never quits”. Thinking about it, in all the stories of really successful people, they had this in common. They had infact failed more than me! It was time to re-read it.

Now it makes more sense, perhaps I wasn’t old enough or experienced enough to accept the message. Thought, and how you mold it is everything. Without the foundations of burning desire mixed with a game plan and faith in your abilities, your just another smart talented person not meeting your potential. Napoleon arms you with these, gives you the weapons of autosuggestion, and loads you with stories of real people, legends in the business world, demonstrating the techniques actions and effects.

Now I have a plan written down, my chosen vehicle is property investing. I meet with a group of like-minded people on Monday nights, a master mind group. I have started visualizing my definite desires. This book is a must, a quote from it comes to mind “A real student will not merely read this book, he will absorb it’s contents and make them his own”.

I’m not a religious man, and have great difficulty with both the sixth sense chapter and anything talking about the infinite intelligence. With this aside, I can’t see how you can smash though the inevitable hurtles life throws you, without arming yourself to the teeth with your desires using the concepts listed in this book.

I have written a pretty extensive review of Think and Grow Rich if you’re interested in viewing it at

Property & related book reviews: Think and Grow Rich Book Review

[Holistic Star]

I recently attended a 10 week Mastermind group where we discussed a different chapter of the book each week.

For me the setting of goals in the book felt forced. I attending the group because I wanted some clarity about what I wanted but I found there wasn't a lot of ecology in checking in if the goal you have set is the right one for you. The focus in week 1 was to write your goal and the following sessions were based on that goal. So because I was in confusion about what I wanted I found some of the sessions frustrating.

However the group did have a benefit for me. I met people that I am still in touch with now. I found that I don't have to force my goals, and I set myself a mission to clearing any emotional blocks i have to achieving goals which I have made a lot of progress on.

I would recommend joining a 10 week think and grow rich master group if you can because it is great to be around likeminded people to discuss using the loa with.

[shirleywins]

I really liked your post. I especially liked your comments on focusing on your Definite Chief Goal. I first read Think & Grow Rich about 11 years ago around the time when I was re-entering the work force after having my second child. I had no computer skills in a world that was quickly becoming computer crazy. When I first read it, most of it went over my head. I got enough out of it to land a job that I had really wanted by using the simple "focus on what you desire". I recently listend to Think & Grow Rich on CD. Listening to the CDs in my car seemed to interupt the flow of the message. I definitely have been inspired by your post to go back and read a hard copy.

[nvictor]

Was the author himself materially rich? Or just spiritually?

[Mr D]

Thinking about reading this book...

Right now I'm reading POWER by Robert Greene

[Sunnybayes]

Originally Posted by Susie

I read it years ago and I was left with the impression that the secret to growing rich was channeling your sexual energy into making money or some variation on that. ?

I only understood this after I had an experiece while abroad: going out.

[jakethegreat]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

Every morning I read my Definite Chief Aim with emothion. I will jog on my treadmill for about an hour. As I am exercising I will THINK about my goal and to the detail what I want in life and from that day. I will THINK about in detail what my future house will look like, what my car will be like, and how much money will pour into my bank account everyday. I'll mix emotion with these thoughts and actually believe I will have them. That day when I go out on the roads to sell my product I feel I have a heads-up on every other salesman. My numbers show that! I get business pouring in that I don't even touch.

"Mighty is the human mind, it builds or destroys." - Napoleon Hill

Not sure if this was mentioned already, but Brian Kim wrote a flat-out sexy book that analyzed Napoleon Hill's concepts. You can find it at http://*************. I thoroughly recommend it

[Tom1985]

Hello,

Just inviting you all to come and take a read of my success story over at Think And Grow Rich Seminar - Are YOU the next millionaire success story? .

Feel free to ask any questions, I'm fairly new to the 'forum' world!

Thanks

Jay Street

[evelynlim]

When I first read it, I liked it but failed to apply it. But thanks for the reminder. Time for a re-read!

Evelyn

[iambrian]

Hi,

for me the secret is not on the thought/desire part but actualizing or living out the thought/desire that matters.

In my case, I was able to start living out my desire/thought because I had found my purpose/aim in life such that when things get tough, it is this purpose/aim that sustains me.

And it is this purpose/aim [and the 'why'] that is helping me to manage wealth and growth because once you start having them, your life will change. You will need to manage it once it does and never lose sight of your purpose/aim.

Cheers!

brian

[Key2Wealth]

When Napoleon Hill started to do research for the book "Think and Grow Rich" he was in college and went to see Andrew Carnegie, Andrew offered the job (with out pay) to write this book, he accepted the offer. I have read that it took Napoleon over 20 years to write this book, in the end he became very well off by what he learned and by publishing "Think and Grow Rich" and other books.

This is a book that probably has more people credit it with their success than any other book of this type ever written, I know I read it every year and listen to a tape of it at least once a week. You can get a free copy at my web site if you are interested.

To your wealth
Lee Stuckey

[Jennihul]

Originally Posted by nvictor

Was the author himself materially rich? Or just spiritually?

He was materially wealthy for a good while but apparently failed, by typical standards, toward the end of his life. There is another book about it. I prefer not to judge such things as good or bad. Money is not a necessity for wealth nor is poverty a guarantee of misery. But I think he was estranged from his family.

Jennifer