PDF Summary:Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill

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Also for completeness, we have included explanations that are not supported by science today, but that still may be useful in understanding Hill’s principles.

Similarly, some of the stories Hill uses differ from accepted historical accounts, but may be valuable as aids in remembering and applying the principles.

Regardless of the packaging, Hill’s message that we can chart our destiny through positive thinking remains relevant to many people nearly a century later.

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Introduction

Think and Grow Rich, originally published in 1937 in the aftermath of the Great Depression, offers a formula and step-by-step instructions for getting rich, which author Napoleon Hill asserts are accessible to everyone regardless of their circumstances. The book was well-received by depression-weary citizens and remained a bestseller for decades. It is still popular today.

People who want to make a lot of money are the primary target of the advice given in Think and Grow Rich, but it’s also applicable by those who define success differently.

Hill’s premise is that your thoughts, whether positive or negative, become your reality. You must control your thoughts if you want to control...

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Example 2: Striking Gold

• A man had a specific purpose and desire to find gold. He discovered a small amount of gold, staked a claim, and raised money for the machinery and labor to extract more.
• But after much work, the effort came up empty. He lacked persistence, so he quit, selling the machinery to a ‘junk’ man.
• Before reselling the machinery as junk, the junk man hired an engineer, who advised that the gold lay just three feet from where the man had stopped drilling.
• The engineer was right and the junk man made a fortune because of the first man’s failure to persist.

Similarly, the 500 wealthy men interviewed by Hill told him their greatest successes came when they persisted in going one step beyond a failure or setback. Thomas Edison reportedly tried and failed 10,000 times before inventing a successful electric lightbulb.

Temporary defeats are common in most endeavors, and they often seem to come when success is within reach. Unlike Edison, though, many people quit too soon.

Developing a Success-Consciousness

People who become rich do so because they have a success-consciousness — they spend their time thinking about...

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Example 3: Director Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg had an all-consuming desire to make movies. He had made films as an amateur, but hadn’t broken into the industry. He came up with a unique idea for literally getting in the door. He took a Universal Studios Tour, then sneaked away and hid on the lot until after the tram had left. As he left at the end of the day, he made a point of speaking to the guard. Because the guard then recognized him, he was able to return daily for three months.

Then Spielberg’s burning desire drove him to find other entry points. He always wore a suit and carried a briefcase, giving the impression he was a student with a summer job there. He spoke often to directors, writers, and editors. He found a vacant office and moved in, and he added his name to the directory. Spielberg eventually got to know the head of production for the television department, who became his mentor and gave him opportunities to produce films.

Spielberg’s burning desire forced him through obstacles that would have held back many others in his position. His desire seemed all-consuming, and he was willing to do anything to achieve it.

Set a Specific Goal

Beyond...

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1. I will concentrate my thoughts for 30 minutes a day on the person I intend to become.
2. I will spend 10 minutes a day demanding self-confidence from myself.
3. My goal demands that I develop self-confidence to achieve it.
4. I will cultivate positive thoughts toward myself and others. I have faith that I will change my thoughts and become self-reliant and successful.

How Faith Leads to Success

Here are two examples of how unwavering faith in an idea led to incredible success and systemic changes.

Example 1: The creation of U.S. Steel Corporation

Charles M. Schwab, who worked for Andrew Carnegie, had a vision for restructuring of the steel industry. But it was counterintuitive. The standard practice at the time was to create monopolies, then increase prices to reap profits, which restricts demand. Schwab, however, wanted to do the opposite — make steel cheaper, and create a huge and expanding market to create larger profits.

To do that, he needed the cooperation of J.P. Morgan, one of the world’s wealthiest men. Others had tried and failed to interest Morgan in organizing a steel trust.

Schwab’s great faith in his idea, his eloquence in presenting it, and his...

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• Ford tired of the questions, and replied that at the touch of a button he could summon someone who could answer any question he had about his business. Why would he clutter his mind with useless general knowledge when he had people around him who could supply any knowledge he demanded?

No matter how much knowledge he contains himself, anyone who knows where to get knowledge when needed is an educated individual. Through his Master Mind group, Henry Ford had all the specialized knowledge he needed to start an automobile revolution.

The same was true of Andrew Carnegie. He reportedly once said he didn’t know anything about the technical aspects of the steel business, and he didn’t particularly care to — because his Master Mind group knew everything necessary for making and selling steel.

A group of dedicated minds brainstorming and thinking together can connect and build on one another’s ideas and insights. Together, you and your Master Mind can achieve something greater than any individual could achieve alone.

Both of these examples also illustrate another point — someone who’s had limited formal education should never feel inferior, because specialized knowledge is...

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• A clergyman had an idea to start a technical school to train students in practical applications of technology, but he needed $1 million to do it. Through imagination he came up with a bold plan to get it — he gave a sermon titled “What I would do with $1 million.” Soon after the speech, a member of the audience gave him the money to start the training institute.

Don’t forget that ideas are just ideas, and they need to be acted on to become real. But great ideas can take on a momentum of their own, spurring you to act and persist until they transform into reality.

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Capitalism consists of more than money. It also encompasses groups of organized, intelligent people who come up with new ways to use money that create profits and serve the public. These people include scientists, inventors, educators, analysts, and people with the specialized knowledge to envision and produce new products, services, and inventions. This knowledge benefits hospitals, colleges and schools; pays for government services for everyone; and builds transportation systems.

Organized capital is responsible for delivering the basic necessities of life — food, shelter, heat, electricity, plumbing — at a relatively modest cost. Capitalism rallies the land, machinery, factories, ships, automobiles, and people to deliver your standard of life.

Capitalists are the people who use labor, ingenuity, and people organization to drive progress in society. They have a desire to build new things and provide useful services, and in return earn profits and become rich.

You have abundant opportunity (freedom) to do the same. But if you want to enjoy riches, you must contribute something to society in return — namely, products or services of value. The riches you receive will be in...

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Because of these decisions a nation was born — a desire became a reality. Great changes like this often take root with a definitive decision in the minds of only a few people.

Tips for More Decisive Decision-Making

• Keep your most important thoughts to yourself (or share them only with your Master Minds), so competitors won’t know your plans.
• Gather the facts and information you need quietly. Keep your mouth shut, and your eyes and ears open. People who know little talk the most to impress others. When you talk rather than listen, you miss the chance to learn something useful. And you give people outside your Master Mind group the chance to shoot down your ideas.
• Show the world what you plan to do by doing it rather than talking about it.
• Don’t be swayed by negative opinions from close friends and relatives.
• If you know what you want and have a plan to achieve it, be decisive and undeterred.

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Your payoff for following these four steps is the ability to write your own ticket in life.

You should also examine yourself methodically for signs that you lack persistence:

• Motivation
  • You’re indifferent: You’re willing to compromise on your goal rather than fight for it.
  • Your desire is weak because you lack a motive that drives you to act.
  • You lack ambition to be wealthy, to act so that you become wealthy, and to own wealth.
  • You’re self-satisfied: You can’t better yourself or your circumstances if you remain complacent or smug about where you are.
• Specificity of Goal
  • You can’t define what you want, and so have nothing to work toward.
  • You don’t have any plans that are thought-out and written so they can be evaluated.
• Work Habits
  • You procrastinate, using excuses and alibis to justify not making plans or acting.
  • You have no interest in obtaining specialized knowledge necessary to succeed.
  • You don’t act on ideas or recognize when opportunity presents itself.
  • You search for shortcuts to riches instead of ‘paying your dues.’
• Mindset
  • You’re indecisive, passing the...

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• Desire to get something for nothing: Gambling is reckless behavior that leads to failure.
• Overcaution: Life involves taking chances. If you don’t take chances you’ll only get what’s left after others choose.
• Intentional dishonesty: If you have a reputation for being dishonest, no one will work with you.
• Egotism and vanity: These are red flags that warn others to avoid you, making it impossible to attract people who can help you.
• Inability to cooperate with others: You can’t succeed single-handedly, so you must inspire cooperation.
• Intolerance means you are closed-minded and have stopped learning, which will keep you from accessing the people and information you need to achieve riches.

Habits

• Procrastination: When you wait for the right time to start you don’t get anything done.
• Lack of self-discipline: If you don’t control your mind, it will control you.
• Superstition and prejudice: Superstition is fear and a sign of ignorance. Keep an open mind and you won’t fear anything.
• Intemperance: Overindulgence in food, drink, or sex shows lack of discipline and hinders success, which requires sticking to a plan.
• A habit of spending...

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For example, when Napoleon Boneparte was inspired by his first wife Josephine, he was invincible. When he ended his relationship with her, he was defeated. Similarly, Abraham Lincoln discovered his creative imagination when his mind was stimulated by the love of Anne Rutledge. A businessman noted that his attractive secretary’s presence drove him to new heights of creative energy.

Salespeople and others with strong charisma create their personal magnetism from redirected sex energy, whether they realize it or not.

People without formal education can achieve greatness through the use of creative imagination, stimulated by sex energy. But people rarely achieve great wealth or other success before age 40, because they waste their energies in the physical expression of sex, rather than harnessing the energy for mental creativity. For example, Henry Ford’s and Andrew Carnegie’s greatest achievements occurred after age 40.

In addition to sparking creativity, the emotion of sex combined with the emotion of love changes people for the better by enhancing judgment, balance, calmness, and focus.

Of course, sexual energy when overindulged can be as damaging as drugs or alcohol. A...

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Positive and negative emotions can’t occupy your mind at the same time — one will dominate. A single negative thought is sufficient to block your mind from helping you reach your goal. Even prayer can have a negative effect, because people often pray as a last resort, when their minds are filled with fear and doubt.

To fully engage the power of your subconscious mind to reach your goal, practice faith and positive thinking until it becomes habit.

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The sixth sense is a signal often referred to as a hunch, inspiration, or intuition that provides answers we’ve been seeking, or a warning of danger that flashes into our mind and enables us to avoid trouble or an accident at the last second. For some people, the sixth sense takes the form of a guardian angel. A combination of the mental and spiritual, the sixth sense is almost indescribable.

Great leaders like Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Christ, Buddha, Confucius and Mohammed likely used the sixth sense. Our ability to use this power comes only slowly, if at all, as we learn to apply the principles.

Anyone who applies the principles can still succeed in achieving riches, without fully understanding the last principle, the sixth sense.

But if you want more — a complete philosophy for getting what you want from life — the principle of the sixth sense exists to increase your understanding of yourself, others, Nature, and happiness. As you digest the ideas in this book and chapter, eventually you may find you’ve acquired the power — the sixth sense — that has driven great achievements throughout history.

A Master Mind of the Subconscious

In an unusual application of the...

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5. Old age: This fear is driven by ill health, diminishing sexual attractiveness, and loss of physical and economic freedom. Some people slow down and develop and inferiority complex because they believe they are “slipping.” Yet some of our most useful years, mentally, are later in life.

6. Death: We fear it because we don’t know what to expect after death. There’s no point to fearing it, however. Death will come regardless of what we think about it.

Fortunately, because fears are states of mind, we can control and eliminate them.

You can make a decision to replace each fear with alternate thinking. For instance, instead of fearing poverty, decide to manage with the money you have without worrying about it; banish fear of criticism by resolving to not care what others think; instead of fearing old age, view it as a blessing, and so on.

Also eliminate the habit of worry by realizing that nothing is worth the price of worry.

You have the power to control your mind, filling it with whatever you choose. You are responsible for using this power constructively.

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• Does life seem hopeless?
• Do you complain a lot or feel sorry yourself?
• Do you have a lot of health complaints?
• Do you envy others?
• Do you oftenfrequently criticize others?
• How do you react to things?
• Do you take care of yourself?
• How do you handle mistakes?
• Are you fearful?
• Do you self-medicate with alcohol or something similar?
• Do you have a strong goal and a plan to reach it?
• Do you take responsibility for your circumstances?
• What are you biggest weaknesses and what are you doing to eliminate them?
• What is your biggest worry? Why do you put up with it?

Here’s how to protect yourself:

• Realize that you have willpower and use it to build a wall of immunity against negative influences.
• Close your mind against anyone who discourages or depresses you.
• Make a point of associating with people who encourage you to think and act for yourself.

Don’t “ask for” trouble — thinking about it can make it happen.

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The master key is powerful. If you don’t use it you’ll fail. But the reward for controlling your mind is mastery of yourself and your destiny — attaining life’s riches.

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• Cooperation: Leaders practice and inspire cooperation.

The flipside — negative personal qualities and ineffective behaviors — constitutes the most common reasons that would-be leaders fail.

Negative personal qualities of failed leaders

• Fear of competition from followers: Shows a lack of courage and self-confidence. Leaders train understudies and delegate tasks.
• Lack of imagination: Without imagination you can’t respond effectively to emergencies and develop effective plans for others to follow.
• Intemperance: This shows a lack of self-control, and followers will not respect you.
• Lack of humility: If you’re a great leader, no task should be too small for you to do.
• Selfishness: Shows a lack of empathy and unwillingness to take responsibility for others’ mistakes. This sparks resentment.

Ineffective behaviors of failed leaders

• Inability to organize details;
• Seeking respect for what you know, rather than for what you do.
• Disloyalty: If you are not loyal to those above and below you, you lose their trust.
• Authoritarianism and emphasis on title: This is leadership by force instead of by consent, and it ultimately fails.

How...