13 Proven Steps to Riches From “Think and Grow Rich”
Napoleon Hill’s classic is just one book with answers for all things self-help
Tired of reading self-help books and feeling disappointed it’s the same old sh*t thrown at you? Think you’re missing a piece somewhere that can guide you out of the noise and chatter? Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” is the missing piece to all your motivational woes.
The concepts Hill has presented in this 1937 release feel so fresh and actionable, you will feel shocked and speechless. The new self-help books appear to be a puny copy of this masterpiece. I started this year with this audiobook and listened to it twice at that time. After pausing it at several points throughout I bought the physical copy as well, so I can read and re-read and mark it all up.
Hill, supposedly interviewed over 500 self-made millionaires of his time like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Charles M. Schwab, to name a few. And distilled the common behaviors, traits, and habits of uber-successful and rich people into this book.
And this book has influenced several authors with bestsellers in personality development like Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey, and Norman Vincent Peale.
In “Think and Grow Rich”, Hill has shortlisted 13 core principles a successful person needs to follow to acquire whatever riches he’s after. Not to miss at any cost — “Think and Grow Rich” is a treasure trove of motivational quotes for anyone who wants to hear it. Even if you just read the quotes below every principle, you stand to win.
1. Desire
Think of anything of supreme value that you now possess; something you truly value and cherish. Just what was it before you made it yours? A dream, a wish, a desire? You bet! Similarly, every painting, sculpture, book, business, skyscraper, a dream career, was the first seed of thought in someone’s mind.
There are many ways to achieve an object your desire, and most likely you’d be clueless on how to get there. Hill shares six practical steps one can use to convert that desire into a reality; success, richness, fulfillment in life, or whatever you are after.
“The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
2. Faith
It’s more about faith in yourself and your ability to work towards your ideal. While faith in spirituality is not the intent here, faith in yourself can serve as a crutch to power ourselves forward, at our weakest point. And you know what? It works.
With unflinching faith and belief in ourselves, we can tap into our innermost potential. Hill has left no stone unturned on how to develop that inner faith. From visualizing your successful self to building a dominative positive mindset to overcome any negativity trying to make its way into your open mind.
“Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.”
3. Auto-suggestion
Remember hiking on rough terrain and telling yourself and your friends that the top is just half a mile away and you would get there, and eventually getting there.
Chances are, you might have been using auto-suggestion already without your knowledge. But what if you can take it to the next level? Using auto-suggestion as a medium to influence your mind to direct your actions to accomplish far higher dreams.
Hill provides you six fail-proof steps on applying auto-suggestion in everyday life. It has helped me shed inhibitions around making new friends or handling difficult conversations better with prospective clients.
“It is a well-known fact that one comes, finally, to believe whatever one repeats to one’s self, whether the statement is true or false.”
4. Specialized Knowledge
Given our natural skills and acquired skills, we all have a unique set of skills we can put to use to live more meaningfully. Specialized knowledge or your niche is that sweet spot that makes you different from another person. You might have noticed that not all rich people are smart in every side of their business or life and many ultra-knowledgable folks remain penniless in spite of their knowledge.
Hill says if one identifies his specific knowledge and persistently works in his area of strength, he will become the best in that field and success becomes obvious. Achieving richness is all about identifying your specific knowledge and how you put your skills to use.
“More gold had been mined from the mind of men than the earth itself”
5. Imagination
Hill argues, — It is through creative imagination, the desire is crystallized into reality. Man can create anything he can imagine. He stresses that man’s only limitation lies in failing to develop and use his imagination to guide him.
Hill shares insightful stories about great industrialists, artists, musicians, poets, writers, and businessmen who became great because they developed the faculty of creative imagination. Also, he enlists steps on how to fire your imagination to lead you to succeeding in whatever you are after.
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
6. Organized Planning
Hill says after studying rich, and famous people of his era for 25 years, “planning” is one principle that most wealthy people had in common.“The most intelligent man living cannot succeed in accumulating riches and success — not in any other undertaking — without plans which are practical and workable,” he asserts.
Your achievement can be no greater than your plans are sound. Hill walks you through common traits and habits of the wealthy, 30 major causes of failure, a 20 self-analysis questionnaires to take a deep look at oneself. Finding new opportunities and how to face the gut-wrenching defeat and move on to find the next best opportunity.
“A goal is a dream with a deadline”
7. Decision
Indecision is the cause of failure for men and women. He calls indecision — the mastery of procrastination. Hill reveals that rich and successful people often make decisions quickly (good or bad) and stick to them or take time to change them. And the others take time to reach a decision but are likely to change their stand in a wink and also quite often.
I struggled with decision-making and at times took ages to even decide a dish I’d like to order at a restaurant. But this chapter really helped me how to make decisions promptly and stick to them. The faster we act, the less overthinking we will become is my takeaway.
It’s okay to make a bad decision, learn from mistakes and move on rather than indecision.
“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.”
8. Persistence
What happens with a concoction of desire and willpower? Nothing, until you bring in the magic ingredient that can fructify your actions — Persistence. Unsuccessful people compromise with their situations, while the winner persists against any conditions. He draws us in by deeply illuminating our minds on symptoms we’re giving up when we should keep at it.
People looking for quick wins, aspiring big results without giving the venture, adequate time to mature, and bear fruits eventually decide to give up and try something else. Success eludes them as if they’re chasing a horizon never to be found, and they wonder why.
“There is no substitute for persistence. The person who makes persistence his watch-word, discovers that “Old Man Failure” finally becomes tired, and makes his departure. Failure cannot cope with persistence.”
9. Power of the mastermind
Think of a group of individuals who are in harmony, meeting at a place or online regularly to discuss each other’s business problems and brainstorm about possible solutions to help each person in the group. That’s the mastermind in a sentence. He goes on to show how the rich and famous work in their mastermind to attain the success they so desire.
Often times when we hit upon a hurdle, we get a solution when we discuss it with our like-minded friends, right? The same thing businesswise. Hill says the mastermind is powerful because it’s not one brain that is thinking about the problem but a cumulative group. And the probability of finding a solution collectively outweighs the single-minded effort.
The Master Mind principle: Two or more people actively engaged in the pursuit of a definite purpose with a positive mental attitude, constitute an unbeatable force.
10. The Mastery Of Sex Transmutation
Hill says, “The emotion of sex brings into being a state of mind.” The passion that the desire for sex drives in people is so very intense that men develop keenness of imagination, courage, willpower, persistence, and creative ability unknown to them at other times, just to indulge in it.
If every other desire he/she aims to pursue is as powerful as the desire for sex, then the person will be able to make it a reality. He reasons that powerful drive can be harnessed and channelized to other pursuits in literature, art, or any other calling, including, of course, the accumulation of riches.
The desire for sex is inborn but how just like how water can be dammed and deviated, the sex energy can be given other forms, through willpower. It’s because of the biased human nature and ignorance of the subject sex is thought of as just a physical need.
“Sex energy is the creative energy of all geniuses. There never has been, and never will be a great leader, builder or artist lacking in the driving force of sex.”
11. The Subconscious Mind
Hill says, “You cannot entirely control your subconscious mind, but you can voluntarily hand over to it any plan, desire, or purpose which you wish transformed into concrete form.” It’s the connecting link to infinite intelligence. Infinite intelligence is a concept where we can access an ocean of knowledge subconsciously.
Subconscious thoughts can be influenced through the power of thought and habitualizing our mind with thoughts of our deep desires. Else the subconscious mind feeds on whatever stray thoughts you think every day. As humans, positive and negative thoughts are a given. But the rich or those who’ve accumulated wealth have positive thoughts or thoughts of abundance dominate, sending positive impulses to the subconscious thereby it all works out as expected.
Oftentimes, when you sleep over a problem, you hit upon a solution by morning as if some magic just happened while you slept. It’s clearly the subconscious mind at play.
“Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind’s eye, and you will be drawn toward it.”
12. The Brain
— The broadcasting and receiving station for thought. Not just our own but even the ones surrounding us. When you’re in the company of a high-energy person, their vibrant energy rubs off on you like melted butter. And vice versa. The rich consciously or unconsciously follow the same. They surround themselves with like minded successful people, which empowers them further to get the things done. A mastermind round-table discussion is one example.
Hill adds, “Man knows but little concerning the physical brain, and its vast network of intricate machinery through which the power of thought is translated into its material equivalent. It has been determined that there are from 10,000,000,000 to 14,000,000,000 nerve cells in the human cerebral cortex arranged in definite patterns.”
“You have a brain and mind of your own. Use it, and reach your own decisions.”
13. The Sixth Sense
— The door to the temple of wisdom. It’s the faculty of creative imagination. Some refer to it as sudden flashes, a hunch, or the work of a guardian angel. Not everyone is able to comprehend it, we know. An accident you just missed, a deal that came through when you trusted your gut, and so on.
Hill has backed every step to riches with scientific proof and he isn't a believer in miracles. But the sixth sense comes close, he says. The sixth sense is the infinite intelligence that converts acorns into oak trees, a dream into a skyscraper, an idea into a million-dollar business.
“Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of impending dangers in time to avoid them, and notified of opportunities in time to embrace them.”
No book has influenced me this much I admit. I am a sucker for self-help books for nearly two decades and this book is by far the novel in all of them. It is a cult classic and a top favorite among many millionaires I’ve read about. No wonder it’s called the grand-daddy of motivational books.
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