Think and Grow Rich is a book by Napoleon Hill. It was written in 1937. It is widely considered one of the most influential self-help books. It discusses the power of thought and the hidden secret to moneymaking. It is steeped in mystery in the sense that the book says “the secret” and does not outright tell you the hidden secret to financial success. It expects you to find it yourself and that you can only find it when you are ready.
Are you ready to take this book and obtain the riches you desire?
What you can expect to read about
In this book you will read about the 13 steps to riches. Each on containing a different topic and stories about people that used these principles to find extreme success and riches for themselves. The topics you will read about are:
- The power of thought
- Desire
- Faith
- Autosuggestion
- Specialized Knowledge
- Imagination
- Organized Planning
- Decision
- Persistence
- Power of the Master Mind
- Sex
- The Subconscious Mind
- The Brain
- The Sixth Sense
- How to Outwit Fear
- The Devil’s Workshop
Overview
Before I dive into this review I just want to say the outline/notes I took for myself after I finished this book are 4 pages front and back, written out. I have a full outline for the book written up, but I don’t think all of you would want me to go into that much detail here. So, I will try to keep things short and just hit the main important points.
This book starts by explaining how there is an unspoken secret to obtaining riches. This secret is talked about in each chapter. The premise for this book is that Napoleon Hill spent 20+ years researching and interviewing the richest most successful people and finding out what the secret to their success is. That is how he gets the ideas and inspiration for this book.
Now I am going to rattle off the most important concepts or quotes from the book:
- “There is no such thing as something for nothing”
- Important qualities A BURNING DESIRE, purpose, persistence, faith, and determination
- Don’t quit after temporary defeat
- “Success requires no explanation, failure permits no alibis”
- “No more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty”
- “That any wage I had asked of life, life would have willingly paid”
- “Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought”
- “The subconscious mind is like a fertile garden spot in which weeds will grow in abundance if the seeds of more desirable crops are not sown”
- “Both success and failure are largely the result of profit”
- “Self mastery is the hardest job you will ever tackle. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self”
- Being a part of a real or imaginary mastermind group is beneficial
- “You either control your mind or it controls you”
Some other topics the author went into a lot more detail about were
The major attributes of leadership pg. 120
How to get the exact position you desire pg. 132
The 30 major causes of failure (ex. mediocrity) pg. 132
How to display sexual energy pg. 218
The power of sexual transmutation
“The most common weakness of humans is the habit of leaving their minds open to the negative influence of other people”
Review
Think and Grow Rich is an interesting book. It is extremely popular in the personal development field. It makes some bold claims. Beyond those there are some abstract concepts that people may not buy into today. Such as; the ether, infinite intelligence, and vibrations (of energy or something). Some of the ideas are great, if not a little wacky such as having “imaginary meetings” with the people you look up to in your mind.
This book also demands a lot from it’s readers. It gives exercises, one for example is to read a specific chapter every day. There is also an exercise to do specific affirmations twice a day every single day. I think that this reflects on how confident the author was in his message.
Towards the beginning of the book the author sets up that there is a secret to success, one that can be seen in every chapter and that only those who are ready will find it. There are those out there who think they have found the secret and those who think “the secret” was just a mechanism to generate more sales. What do you think?
I would recommend this book to anyone looking to achieve success in life and to everyone getting into the personal development genre.
Difficulty 8/10 – This book is easy to read, but the author demands a lot from the readers via exercises and rereading
Clarity 6/10 – “The Secret”
Usefulness 9/10 – Lots of ideas & practices to implement into your life
Entertainment 7.5/10 – The book was entertaining and pleasurable to read, with good historical stories
Re readability 6/10 – A book to be read a few times over a lifetime. Once you have the general message and principles down you should be good. There were many good quotes. I wrote 4 pages of notes. Front & back.
Overall 9/10 – A useful, interesting book everyone should read. Even if only for discussion purposes. This book offers a lot and many of it’s principles are worth using.
If you liked this content please subscribe, like, follow, comment, and share. I am trying to grow my blog so I can devote more time to it and I would greatly appreciate your help! Thank you.
How to read a book