If we look at the title, which depict that how to become rich by just thinking. But the book is much more than that. It’s a philosophy and wisdom of successful persons described in 13 principles, which can help anyone to succeed in their life, achieve their goals and become prosper in any field of their life. So, if you want to take some motivation and also want to succeed in life, you’re on the right place.
What if I tell you that this book is based on the interviews of 500 most successful individuals of America including Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison etc. Yeah! That’s true. In 1908, Napoleon Hill went to Andrew Carnegie – A great industrialist of America, to take his interview. He gave Napoleon and idea to interview the most successful individuals of America and write their wisdom and experience in the form of a book. Then, a couple of decades later, Think and grow was published based on the 13 principles taken from the wisdom of most successful individuals of that time. It became the bestseller. This book says that:
Desire + Ideas + Plans + Massive Action = Success
13 Principles of Think Grow and Rich:
These 13 principles are what, Napoleon called as “Philosophy of Success”. As these principles are derived from the collective wisdom and experience of 500 most successful individuals of America. Hills states the goals of this book as follow:
- To help reader become self-aware
- To help reader understand, how to become successful and effective
The 13 principles of this book are the key toward success and achievements. These principles are:
- Desires
- Faith
- Auto-suggestion
- Specialized Knowledge
- Imagination
- Organized Planning
- Decision
- Persistence
- The Power of Master Mind
- Sex Transmutation
- The Subconscious Mind
- The Brain
- The Sixth Sense
1. Desires – The Starting Point of All Achievements:
All the races, journeys and success stories have a starting point. Same goes for your goals. Your journey towards your goals also has a starting point and that’s starting point is “Desire”. Desire is the starting point for all achievements. We merely just wish for our goal. There’s a difference between Wish and Desire. Desire is strong act of wishing and making it obsession. By wishing we just end up being nothing. But with desires, we act, go and achieve our goals. You desire towards your goal uses two types of motivation:
- Pull Motivation: The output of the goal is so good that you get pulled towards your goal.
- Push Motivation: Consequences of not acting can be so bad that you get push towards taking action.
If your desire is money based, then no worries. Hill has given 6 steps, if your desires are money-oriented.
- Be specific about the amount of money you want to have.
- Decide what exactly you intend to give for the money you desire.
- Determine a deadline before which you want to get that amount of money.
- Design a plan to achieve your goal and begin at once.
- Write all the above thing on a paper like the amount of money you desire, what you intend to give, your action plan and deadline.
- Loudly read out your statement twice a day, more often after awaking and before going to sleep.
You will become rich only if your desire toward money is too strong. All of the above 6 steps will help you achieve your goal.
2. Faith – Visualization of and Belief in Attainment of Desire:
Faith is the strong self-belief and believe in that you can achieve anything you want. Faith is the condition of mind that is developed by repeating affirmations or instructions to subconscious mind. Any thing or thought that is repeated, becomes a part of subconscious thinking and you become obsessed with it and take actions to achieve it. By repeating your thoughts about your goals or simply affirmations and visualizing yourself makes you feel that you can achieve that thing sooner or later. In other words, faith is the self-confidence you develop to achieve your goals. Hill states that you should acknowledge following steps to increase your faith:
- Trust you are capable of achieving what you desire.
- Promise yourself that you will take action.
- For 10 minutes daily, demand yourself to increase your self-confidence.
- Write down summary of your goals on a page and don’t stop until you achieve it.
- Commit to yourself that you will never use unfair means to achieve your goal. Because unfair means always result in failure at the end.
If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don’t
3. Auto-Suggestions – The Medium for influencing the Sub-conscious Mind:
Self-Suggestion can also be used as the synonym of self-suggestion. It acts as a bridge between our conscious and sub-conscious mind. When you repeat your affirmations, your sub-conscious mind accepts it and suggests you different ways and plans to achieve it. Get control over your sub-conscious mind and in this way, you will automatically get the auto-suggestions. Hill recommends then following steps to gain control over your sub-conscious mind:
- Find a comfortable and quiet place where you can focus on your mind and read your written statements aloud.
- Repeat this process morning and night so that your sub-conscious mind accepts it and visualize yourself having all that money you desire.
- Place this page at a place where you can see it in the morning and night and attach your emotion with the output of your goal, so that you remain motivated all the times.
4. Specialized Knowledge – Personal Experience or Observations:
You often have listened that knowledge is power. But knowledge is power only when you know the way to implement it, when you know how to use it practically. There are two types of knowledge: General knowledge and Specialized knowledge. General knowledge will be of no use, when you are specific about a specific goal. You have to gain specialized knowledge about your goals and plan to achieve it. Knowledge makes us rich when it is specific and organized. So, to become successful you must have specialized knowledge about your goal, your plan and your action. It does not necessary that you have the prior specialized knowledge. You can get specialized knowledge, after you have set your goal, by readings books, attending workshops or joining the people having that knowledge. Once you’ll have all the necessary knowledge about your goal, you can go fluently towards it.
5. Imagination – The Workshop of Mind:
Napoleon Says:
“Idea are the beginning points of all fortunes.”
Your imaginations form the ideas and plans, which help you to achieve success and become rich. Whatever the thing you believe that you can achieve, and you will surly get that. It’s all about your imaginations, which boost your self-confidence, give you ideas and form your idea into reality. Hills states 2 types of imaginations:
- Synthetic Imaginations: By synthetic imaginations, you just rearrange, reformulate and rethink of the previously existing ideas into a new form.
- Creative Imaginations: Creative imaginations form new ideas, concepts and plans. This imagination can only be developed when you get control over your conscious mind.
To develop creative imaginations, always think of the new ideas and ways to do your daily work. Your imaginations are the forces that motivate you to form your desires into reality.
6. Organized Planning – The Crystallization of Desire into Action:
“Your achievements can be no greater than your plans are sound.” – Napoleon Hill
Just having desire to succeed and doing nothing will lead you nowhere. A strong desire always needs a strong and well-organized plant to be acted upon. It might be possible that you may get fail at first, but don’t stop yourself. Change your plan accordingly and act again until you get success. Hill said that you should join group of people who would help you developing your plan. He says:
- Join a group of people who would help you implementing your plan.
- Think what you can offer to them in return.
- Have meeting with them twice a week at least.
- Maintain healthy relations with them.
You can just look upon the example of Thomas Edison, who failed 10,000 times in developing an electric bulb. The key to his success is that he never gave up and continued working on his plans.
7. Decision – The Mastery of Procrastination:
After the interviews of so many successful individuals, one point that Hill observed in all was that, they all had quick decision-making ability and changing it slowly. Procrastination is an act of delaying a task. You should avoid it. You should develop a strong and quick decision-making ability and changing it slowly if required. A person who lacks decision making ability can be easily persuaded by others. He doesn’t have his own intentions to do a thing. He always looks on others to make his decision. Look and learn from the experience of successful individuals and develop your own ability to make yours. It’s also possible that the decision you took may cause failure. Don’t worry, learn from your previous decision and make a new one.
8. Persistence – The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith:
Persistence is the sum of will power and desire. Persistence is the state of mind cultivated by having definiteness of purpose, desire, self-reliance, definiteness of plans, accurate knowledge, cooperation, willpower and habit. Though the basis of persistence is will power, but it is also influenced by:
- Definiteness of Purpose
- Self-Reliance
- Definiteness of Plans
- Accurate Knowledge
- Co-operation
- Habits
Hill states the following 4 steps to develop persistence:
- Develop definite purpose
- Design a proper plan
- Keep away all the negative influences
- Have accountability of yourself
Hill says about the persistence that:
“If one does not possess persistence, one does not achieve noteworthy success in any calling.” – Napoleon Hill
9. Power of Mastermind – The Driving Force:
Power is essential in the accumulation of money. Plans are inert and useless, without sufficient power to translate them into actions. Hill says that there are 3 ways of acquiring power:
- Infinite Intelligence
- Accumulated Experience
- Experiment and research
Hills defines the master mind as “The coordination of knowledge, experience and plans between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose.” No one can attain power without having a mastermind. You might have experienced that discussing some problem with someone often results in the solution. The same goes for mastermind. The more you discuss your plans with them, the more ideas you’ll get.
10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation – The Tenth Step toward Riches:
Sex transmutation is simple and easily explained. It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expressions to the thoughts of some other nature. Sex has three constructive potentialities:
- The perpetuation of Mankind
- The maintenance of health
- The transformation of mediocrity into genius through transmutation
Sex desire is the most powerful of all human desires. Its motivating force brings keenness of imagination, courage, will power, persistence and creative ability unknown to people at other times. The transmutation of sex energy calls for the exercise of will power, to be sure, but the reward is worth the effort.
11. The Sub-conscious Mind – The Connecting Link:
The sub-conscious mind consists of a field of consciousness, in which every impulse of thought that reaches the objective mind through any of the five senses is classified and recorded and from which thoughts may be recalled or withdrawn. The sub-conscious mind works day and night. It is more receptive to the thoughts that are driven by emotions such as Desires, Faith, Love, Sex, Enthusiasm, Romance, Hope. Stay away from the 7 negative emotions such as Fear, Jealousy, Hatred, Revenge, Greed, Superstition, Anger. Depending upon which emotion we focus more result in success or failure.
“There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.” – Napoleon Hill
12. The Brain – A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought:
According the Alexander Graham Bell, “Every human brain is both a broadcasting and receiving station for the vibration of thoughts.”
- The sub-conscious mind is the sending station, through which the vibrations of thoughts are broadcast.
- The creative mind is the receiving station , through which vibrations of thoughts are picked.
To operate your mental broadcasting abilities, you should focus on cultivating your both sub-conscious and conscious mind.
13. The Sixth Sense – The Door to the Temple of the Wisdom:
The sixth sense is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been referred as Creative Imagination. It also has been referred as receiving station through which ideas plans and thoughts flash into the mind. However, sixth sense will work only if you eradicate fear from your mind permanently.
To attain the sixth sense, you first have to master the 12 principles first. The power to use sixth sense comes slowly by mastering other principles.
How to Outwit Six Ghost of Fear:
As faith can not live with fear in the same mind. So, you have to outwit the 6 ghosts as:
- Poverty
- Criticism
- Ill Health
- Loss of Love
- Old age
- Death
Fear is just a state of mind. It’s nothing more than that. You just have to direct and divert your mind from these fears, and you’ll be master of all the principles.
Conclusion:
- Your must have a strong burning desire to achieve your goals.
- Faith is necessary to boost your self-confidence.
- Persistence is the key to remain determine and motivated.
- Gain specialized knowledge about your goals to succeed.
- Develop a strong and quick decision-making ability.
- Train your mind to develop new ideas.
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