Think and Grow Rich - Key Learnings
This personal development and self-improvement book was written by Napoleon Hill back in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Despite it being almost a century since this was first published, this book remains as one of the top books in the category and has over 100 million copies sold to date!
Expectations: l had this book on my reading list for exactly the title - who doesn’t want to think and grow rich? I was expecting this book to be a lot more business focused with practical advice and therefore resulting to an increase in wealth overtime.
Reality: Think and Grow Rich is all about how to control your mindset, live with purpose and funnel your energy into something which will reward you with self-defined success. The “secret” he explores is the power of your mind and how everything which exists on this planet has originated from a thought in someone’s brain, which then converted into a physical reality. This in turn means that, if you are able to control your mindset properly, you too will be able to achieve whatever it is that you want to succeed in.
There are far too many learnings in this book to include in this blog post and nor is this post intended to replace reading the book itself. This is more of a summary of some key points I learnt which I’m sure will prove to be inspiring to any of you who are reading this too.
Master Mind Alliance
Napoleon highlighted the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people in both your professional and personal lives. When in business, it is hard to wear all caps at once and therefore he suggested forming a “Master Mind” group made up of people who have different areas of expertise and those who you deeply trust.
“When a group of individual brains are coordinated and function in harmony, the increased energy created through their alliance becomes available to every individual brain in the group.”
Opportunities
Humans typically only value things that have a price. In order to be successful, this needs to be reversed. Take advantage of FREE opportunities available to you. (Libraries are less spoken about than a £70/month gym membership). Many people use the excuse of not being able to do something because they need X amount of money to start up but especially in the digital age, there are so many resources available online and readily-accessible which could be of great benefit to you!
Napoleon had also written how, in his eyes, The Great Depression was a blessing in disguise. This was because it forced the whole world to “restart” and effectively gave everyone a new opportunity. Economically, this is may be applicable to what the world will be seeing in a few months or years time from now.
Goal Setting
If there is a lack of definition, your mind will lose focus and you will either not succeed or take much longer than necessary to reach your goal. Many individuals see temporary defeat as a sign that they should just give up but what this really means is that you need to refine your plan. Your goal is achievable and you are capable of success.
The majority of people are good at making a start on passion projects, ideas and businesses but only a small % of these people see these through. This is down to self discipline and habit which can be triggered and kept in check by consistently reminding yourself of your defined purpose and your ultimate goal.
“Make a definite decision and work towards a definite plan in order to succeed your definite purpose. ”
Leadership
An individual with strong leadership skills is someone who is decisive, confident in their plan and is willing to take responsibility for their own and their team’s mistakes. If you struggle to make a decision and end up hesitating frequently, this will only show your team that you’re not sure of yourself or lack expertise in the field. It is essential to “plan your work and work your plan” which will ensure a process is in place, making the workplace as efficient as possible.
Power of your brain & mindset
When you really think about it, the human body is extremely complex and the brain which essentially “manages” it all is probably the most powerful tool on Earth. There are between 10,000,000,000 and 14,000,000,000 nerve cells in the human cerebral cortex arranged in a definite pattern which allow our brains to function as they do.
“Brains are a form of capital which cannot be permanently depreciated through recessions, nor can this form of capital be stolen or spent. Money is useless unless paired with a good brain.”
The best part of this is that we all have a brain! We are all capable of great successes and we all have the power to create as every material thing that exists today started off in the form of thought-energy. The brain is capable to birth incredible things such as ideas, which if executed properly are much more powerful than the brain - they have the potential to live on for much longer than you can.
On the topic of creation, there are 2 forms of imagination:
Synthetic Imagination - An arrangement of old concepts and ideas into new plans. Nothing “new” is created and is based upon learnings from your own experience, education or observations.
Creative Imagination - When your mind has direct communications with Infinite Intelligence. This part of your brain only functions when the conscious mind is stimulated through the emotion of strong desire.
Napoleon explained how the majority of people’s ideas and creations are based upon synthetic imagination. Only a small minority of people who have trained themselves to think only positively and show the deepest desire for their definite purpose have access to the creative imagination.
A weakness of many individuals is the habit of leaving their minds open to the negative influence of other people, mindlessly engaging in conversations and discussions which have no benefit to them. Your thoughts serve as a magnet “which attract units of life”. Which basically means you attract the energy you give off. If you are vibrating on a low level, that is all you will receive. Likewise, if you let a low energy interrupt your high energy, this will bring you down to a lower energy.
Failure
“Success requires no explanations, failure permits no alibis. In fact, every failure brings with it a seed of advantage.”
Napoleon included a few self-assessments in his book which made it very confrontational - which is exactly what you need if you really want to be successful! It’s definitely important to be honest with where you are currently in order to be able to develop yourself effectively. Napoleon included a list of 30 major reasons of failure but I’ve listed some below which I thought were the most important. How many are you guilty of? - Be honest!
Lack of a well-defined life purpose. 98% of people are said to have no such aim.
Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity. Those who try something, give up and settle for a compromise.
Lack of self-discipline. This comes from self-control. You need to be able to control yourself before trying to control anything else.
Procrastination. The most successful people don’t “wait for the right time” because there is no such thing as a right time. Start and work with what you have and perfect your craft as you go along.
Lack of persistence. Most people are good starters but poor finishers. Each success starts off with an idea but credit is given for the fruition of the idea, not the idea in its intangible form.
A negative personality. As mentioned in the previous section, energy dictates everything and no good idea can form in a negative environment. Think of more reasons why you can be successful rather than excuses of failure.
Indecision. It’s always better to make a quick decision and change this if needed to slowly than to make a decision slowly then change your mind quickly and frequently. Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely know what they want, usually get it.
Lack of money management. You can be making the exact amount of money you wanted but if you can’t manage your finances, you will end up further away from success than you planned.
Guessing instead of thinking. People can be too lazy to base decisions on facts and thinking accurately and settle for guesswork or snap-judgements instead. Inaccurate foundation = inaccurate version of success.
“We end up where we are in life because we either took control of our lives or because we let our lives control us.”
Fear
The biggest reasons of failure usually falls under one of the six basic fears: poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age and death.
I’m sure many of us, if not all of us have felt one of these fears which have stopped us doing something we wanted to do. One of the biggest fears would be the fear of criticism. It’s all too common to hear someone scared of starting a business/project/youtube channel because they fear “what people will think”. In this circumstance, we are allowing our friends, family and the public influence us so much that we are no longer living our own lives. We are actually valuing the fear of criticism more than our desire for success.
Napoleon outlined 57 alibis people use to justify their lack of success (a whole 3 pages worth!) Here are a few common alibis:
“If I had time…If times were better…If I had the chance…If I could meet the “right people”…If somebody could help me…If luck were not against me…If I had done this when I was younger…”
Napoleon also explained how we are capable of passing thought-impulses from one mind to the other, subconsciously. The transferring of energy from one to another happens involuntarily which means when someone possesses fear, this can easily be transmitted to someone else. This just highlights the importance of which company you keep and what energy you allow into your mental.
“Worry is a state of mind caused by fear - it works slowly and persistently. Step by step it gets worse until it paralyses one’s reasoning faculty, destroys self-confidence and initiative. It’s a form of sustained fear caused by indecision therefore it is a state of mind which can be controlled.”
I hope you were able to learn something new from this post and if you did, I highly recommend reading the full book as I guarantee you will find it even more useful! This book is free to read on Apple iBooks (click here to download) but is also available on Amazon in a variety of formats.
Kavita K xo
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