Sunday, August 23, 2009

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (Part 1)

This is Part 1 of my book summary of Napoleon Hill's influential success classic, Think and Grow Rich.


Hill was able to personally meet the most powerful and successful people of the 20th century for over 25 years. Through his work, he was able to formulate a philosophy of achievement based on real stories of real people who had used those techniques to create their successes. In a nutshell, his book teaches how we can put ourselves into the same state of mind as those who have created great wealth.


Practice 1: Create a Burning Desire

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. The example given was a great warrior burning his ships after landing in enemy territory where they were outnumbered, so failure was not an option for their men. Desiring riches with the correct state of mind that becomes an obsession , then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence that doesn't recognise failure, will bring riches.

Wanting to be rich and having a burning desire to be rich are 2 different things. To bring yourself into the correct state of mind, you have to be able to see, feel and believe that you have already achieved that goal. This is the same psychological exercise that forms the basis of hypnosis and auto-suggestion

Practice 2: Maintain Unshakable Faith

Faith is a state of mind which can be created by conscious repeated instructions to the subconscious mind. Faith, or belief, is a thought that you can control i.e. you are able to control what thoughts to put in your mind. This is a very important concept because what you put in your own mind, will affect your subconscious mind, which will affect the decisions you make, which will affect the actions that you take, which will affect the results that you get. Having a strong self belief and clearly defining what you plan to achieve will plant the seeds of faith that will influence your conscious attitudes and actions.

This concept was also discussed in my earlier article, The Mindset.

To be Continued... Part 2

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