WHO IS NAPOLEON HILL?

At the turn of the 20th century, Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men the world has ever seen. In today’s value (2015), Carnegie would have been worth a whopping $310 billion dollars. In an effort to document the elements of his success, Carnegie solicited the help from an ambitious journalist, Napoleon Hill. Carnegie promised to open the doors to America’s 500 wealthiest people if Hill was up to the challenge. Lucky for us, Hill was up for the challenge and he actually spent 20 years of his life conduct the research Carnegie charged him with conducting. In the end, Hill’s research was simplified to the 250-page book we have today: Think and Grow Rich. This book has gone on to be the #1 selling success book ever written.

PRESTON AND STIG’S GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THINK AND GROW RICH

Albert Einstein has an amazing quote: “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; or you can live as if everything is a miracle.” We find this quote very accommodating for the way you might receive this book. If you buy into the main premise of Hill’s argument that success and material wealth can be accomplished through constant and consistent thought – harnessed with faith and desire, then this book will hold limitless power. If you don’t subscribe to this idea, then you might as well move on to something else. As for Preston and Stig, they whole heartedly agree with Hill’s premise. This book has had a dramatic impact on Preston’s life since reading it for the first time and he hopes you’ll be open to the potential it might have on you.

In this section, Napoleon Hill talks about how your thoughts can truly help you achieve whatever you want. He describes the story of Edwin Barnes, a man who had an immense desire to partner with Thomas Edison and just work under him. Of course, he faced many obstacles in his path and although he didn’t even know Edison in person and lacked resources and money to meet Edison in New Jersey, he never gave up. After he conquered all hurdles, he finally met Edison and went to become a rich, successful man since he became the major distributor of Edison’s dictating machine.

Hill also stresses on the importance of learning through failures by sharing the story of Mr. Darby who quit because he failed to mine gold. Darby was convinced that he could make money and though he struck gold, he realized that it had simply vanished. After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally gave up and sold all his equipment to a man who collected junk. Unfortunately for Darby, the man he sold the equipment to found gold only after digging about 3 feet more into the ground! Many people taste failure because they quit as soon as they experience temporary defeats. Since we are all guilty of this at one time or another, it’s imperative to understand that one should be determined and try harder, no matter how many times he/she experiences adversities.

According to Hill, one can attain absolutely anything if he/she has a burning desire. Desire isn’t merely a wish or a hope, but it’s definite and insatiable. In order to amass wealth or anything else an individual needs, he needs to follow these six steps:

• Determine the exact amount of money you need.
• Figure how much you offer in return for the amount you desire.
• Determine an exact date to own the money.
• Work on a plan to help you carry out your desire and start immediately by acting on your plan.
• Put into writing these desires and the timeline.

Read the statement you’ve written aloud every day because it automatically makes you believe that you’re in possession of that money already. Hill emphasizes the fact that it’s not an option to quit while describing Thomas Edison’s 10,000 failed attempts when he was creating the light bulb. Even extraordinary, brilliant individuals such as Edison, Henry Ford, Helen Keller and Abraham Lincoln had to face unbelievable adversities during their time, so failure should be treated as the seed that invites success.

Hill discusses true stories of many people who have been successful due to their unshakable faith. While he also admits that it might seem onerous to believe and be faithful when everything’s falling apart around you, he states that faith is absolutely essential to achieve success. In order to build faith, you need to believe in yourself and be persistent to attain your goals. You can also spend at least 30 minutes on your thoughts every day to inch closer to success because your positive thoughts are extremely powerful and can influence you to tread in the right direction. In addition, one needs to also write down their goals and purpose in life while utilizing auto‐suggestion for at least 10 minutes to strengthen self-confidence.

Ultimately, Hill teaches that it’s crucial to think and believe that you CAN. If you think you’re beaten, you’ve lost already and similarly, if you want to accomplish anything no matter what it is, you need to have faith and realize that you can do it. Of course, in a race, it’s quite possible for the faster and stronger man to outdo everyone, but a man who has the will and thinks that he can win, will win.

Now that you’ve written down a statement and are working on a plan to achieve the money you need, you simply need to train your subconscious to attain success. Auto-suggestion is simply a way of teaching yourself to believe that you are going to make it. In order to instruct yourself, sit in a peaceful area and read your statement while visualizing and believing that you’re already in possession of that money. Mere plain words won’t help you; however, if you reach your own subconscious by channeling your thoughts, success won’t be such an enigma anymore.

Auto‐suggestion not only helps you take steps towards victory, but it also creates an unfaltering faith in you that will only steer you in the right direction. Think of it in terms of driving a car. Since you’ve trained your mind and body to act appropriately, driving a car becomes second nature to you. Similarly, if you convince yourself through auto‐suggestion, which is the third step to attain success, you will gain desirable outcomes effortlessly.

We all know that knowledge is power and Hill drives the point home by stating that in order to thrive, one must use his specialized knowledge, the fourth step, to become extraordinarily successful. In his own style, Hill distinguishes between education and knowledge and asserts that both the components attract money. For instance, professors and teachers are highly knowledgeable, yet some struggle with their finances. Why? Well, knowledge will fail to pull in money if it isn’t organized and tested with practical plans. The application of knowledge for the benefit of society is what is important.

Furthermore, Hill declares that the education system fails consistently since it doesn’t instruct students on how they can organize and utilize the wealth of information they learn. Education, in effect, could offer knowledge to you, but if you don’t have the ability to discover answers, then it’s simply worthless. We all attempt to make money in different arenas, but specialized knowledge is all about gaining mastery over several aspects of your field by employing your knowledge to earn money. In order to do that, you can always seek knowledge through public libraries, training courses, universities, colleges and practical experiences.

Decades ago, a clerk in a drug store used all his life savings of $500 to buy an old kettle and a wooden spoon. The doctor who sold it to him was confident that its secret ingredients could help millions of people. Upon writing the ingredients on a scrap of paper, the old doctor went on his merry way, leaving the clerk to do anything he pleased with it. However, the clerk was no fool; in fact, he hadn’t really purchased the kettle for $500, but what he had bought was an idea, and once he mixed his own secret ingredient, a powerful imagination, he created Coca‐Cola.

For years, Coca-Cola has created thousands of opportunities for people all over the world, but it’s astounding to know that it was created with just an idea! Asa Candler used his imagination to create something that has helped millions of people. Needless to say, imagination is the fifth step towards success and it has two types – creative and synthetic imagination. While synthetic imagination has its boundaries, creative imagination is limitless, thereby offering you the opportunity to create something you hadn’t imagined in your wildest dreams.

We learned that our knowledge can be organized and used to gain riches. In this section, Hill talks about how one can achieve heights with a simple tool – organized planning, which is the sixth step to attain wealth. He outlines four steps that can be employed to construct practical plans that will help you accomplish anything, even if it seems impossible.

• Associate yourself with other people to create a direction and put your plans into action.
• Before you begin forming alliances with this group of people you need, known as the “Master Mind” group, you need to determine what you can offer in return for their unfaltering cooperation.
• Make sure you meet your group at least twice every week to tweak your plans until you’ve perfected them.
• Always maintain flawless harmony with your group since plans fail when they are put to test without harmony.

Once you have your Master Mind group, it’s apodictic that you’re treading on the right path, but remember that you need to adjust and adapt to changes if your plans fail because, failure, as mentioned earlier, is just temporary defeat. Don’t get bogged down with your temporary defeats because they are just that – temporary.

In this section, Hill discusses the importance of avoiding procrastination and making critical decisions. According to Hill, the primary reason for failure among most people is procrastination. In order to be successful, it’s highly crucial that you take action immediately, rather than procrastinating and speculating about it to no end. For instance, Henry Ford was known to make quick decisions and once he made them he changed them very slowly and deliberately. He was recognized as an obstinate person who manufactured the ‘Model T.’ Although customers and advisors felt that the car was ugly, Henry didn’t sway from his decision, thereby making huge amounts of money in the process.

Furthermore, Hill states that the people who think too much and waste time before making important decisions and rely upon the judgments or opinions of others rarely succeed. If you’re easily influenced by others, it means that you don’t have a burning desire. Use your own thoughts, brain, body, mind and soul to make your decisions and stand up to it. Your decision, the seventh step that could take you towards riches, is highly important.

Persistence, the eighth step to accumulate riches, is an extremely important factor to achieve anything. It’s an important habit or practice you need to have to develop faith and succeed in your endeavors. Hill has described several examples of people who have shown their will and determination by being unbelievably persistent. For instance, think about Thomas Edison. Do people even try after failing 10 times, never mind 10,000 times?!

Another great example of persistence can be learnt from the legendary Bruce Lee who captured millions of hearts all over the world. He was chosen for a movie, but was very disappointed when the role was given to another actor. However, he didn’t give up and sought new roles even when he had to struggle. So, how to develop persistence? Well, first off, your will power acts as a bane to develop persistence and when it’s combined with desire, it becomes an unstoppable combination.

Power, the ninth step to be taken to achieve money, is as essential as the other factors mentioned throughout the book. Power helps you make money, but its responsibility doesn’t end there because it teaches you how to maintain your riches, which is as important as making money. There are many ways to gain knowledge but the easiest way to accomplish that is through intelligence, experience and research. However, when that knowledge is converted to power when you organize all your plans and put them into action, success is just a stone’s throw away.

According to Hill, the ‘Master Mind’ is of paramount importance if an individual seeks to have power. The Master Mind is a synchronization of effort and knowledge between people in order to attain definite purposes. Now that you know how important it is to create organized plans and test them practically, you can also add intelligence and persistence along with these factors while you’re selecting your Master Mind group.

In this section, Hill describes the importance of sex transmutation, which is the tenth step to guide you towards accumulating wealth. Sexual urge is very powerful and often, men lose focus and risk their lives, career and money in order to quench their desires; however, if that sexual energy can be transformed into a creative energy by harnessing and redirecting it, it has the ability to help you overcome most obstacles.

This is not to be misunderstood as Hill isn’t promoting celibacy, but what he’s saying is that since our sexual urges are insatiable, they can be converted into something that’s very productive. Sexual desires create an intimacy between a woman and man and although that’s natural and good, one can achieve greater heights by controlling the urges and transmute them into a creative force.

This section is an amalgamation of powerful thoughts, faith and the subconscious. We’ve already learned how you can train your mind into believing that you’re meant to achieve success and this chapter elaborates more on that theory. Incredibly, we can voluntarily plant any plan we desire in our subconscious and this is the eleventh step towards gaining riches. Of course, it’s not really possible to control everything in our subconscious mind, but it’s not that hard to think and start believing that it is indeed possible to achieve anything you want.

Since our subconscious works tirelessly 24/7, thus dominating our thoughts, desires and actions, this is imperative to be successful. All the steps outlined in the book are geared towards reaching out to your subconscious and training it to develop creativity, faith and belief to walk the path that leads to a better future.

In this chapter, Hill explains how creativity, imagination and the subconscious work together to achieve prosperity. He also elaborates further on how the subconscious, sexual transmutation and the Master Mind group work. While our brain is an amazing machine, it’s known to possess a receiving and broadcasting station that guides us our day-to-day life. With about 14 million nerve cells, the brain works like a factory and the greater the vibration it receives, the higher the chances to receive other important signals.

In effect, the subconscious works as the broadcasting station while our creative imagination assumes the role of the receiving station. Therefore, our creative imagination receives several signals transmitted by others around us. The vibrations can be increased through emotions and this enables the brain to open up and receive more signals. Once this happens, our chances of attaining success become infinitely greater.

Whether you refer to it as an intuition, a gut feeling or a hunch, the sixth sense is the thirteenth step that is responsible to guide an individual to accumulate wealth. While the sixth sense has the ability to gain access to our infinite intelligence, it can only be mastered after all the twelve steps have been practiced. Hill states that it’s not possible to explain how the sixth sense works but it can only be understood after you’ve experienced it.

Since the sixth sense has a connection with the infinite intelligence, it provides a combination of spiritual and mental thoughts that can guide you to associate with the Universal Mind. It not only warns us about impending dangers, but it also provides clues about silent opportunities that could slip away from us when unnoticed. Hill declares that he isn’t a believer in miracles, but there is a power that could transform things beyond our wildest imagination, which appear like miracles.

According to Hill, there are six fears that could impact your life with negative outcomes and they can also become our major obstacles in our path to find riches. The six fears include poverty, old age, criticism, illness, love and death. For instance, we suffer from the fear of poverty during a recession and at other times it’s the fear of death that makes us lose control over our thoughts. These fears not only prevent you from becoming rich but it also spreads indecision, doubt, indifference and procrastination like the plague.

However, fortunately, Hill maintains that the answers to overcome these fears lie within the very symptoms of our fears and while they can’t be eradicated easily, it isn’t impossible either. For instance, if you’re always worried due to the fear of poverty, you can develop a decisive attitude and build your confidence and faith to travel down paths you’ve never travelled before.

Apart from the six fears discussed in the previous chapter, Hill talks about another evil factor that could prevent you from becoming rich. In fact, he states that this evil is even more dangerous and deadlier than the six fears and it’s so deeply sown into our minds that it becomes very difficult to eliminate it. This evil, the darkest of all, is your susceptibility to negative influences and if you don’t take actions immediately to analyze yourself to figure out whether you’re under these influences, success could be just a dream.

To extinguish this evil, Hill suggests that it’s important to first understand that we, as humans, are lazy and indifferent by nature. We are easily influenced by negative influences and thoughts that might ruin our wonderful future. Therefore, once it’s understood, it’s imperative to protect yourself by setting up certain habits that fight with all the fears you face. If an individual recognizes that he’s easily swayed by negative influences, he must build a protective wall around himself to block his mind against such influences. Furthermore, success isn’t impossible, so one must quit making excuses to cover up his/her mistakes. In addition, you can always surround yourself with people who have the ability to support your dreams and have a positive influence on you.

It’s no wonder that this book has been a favorite for many people all over the world even after almost a century! Since Hill’s writing is clear and concise, it’s very easy to implement all the steps outlined in the book throughout our lives. In fact, Ken Norton, the man who defeated the great Muhammad Ali with a knockout punch and went on to become the reigning champion, has used the steps outlined in this very book! Yes, it’s that good!