Wouldn’t it be awesome if we can get what we want by simply thinking about it and changing the way we think? Well, we can.
The secret to achieving this is laid out by Napoleon Hill in his book. To get you there faster, let’s dive into think and grow rich summary and review.
“Your big opportunity may be right where you are now” – Napoleon Hill. Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is perhaps one of the most well-known and successful books on obtaining riches and success that has ever been written.
For over 50 years it’s been on national bestseller lists and provides timeless truths on the laws of success and riches.
How did he achieve this feat? He interviewed over 500 wealthy people to figure out what is the common denominator in all of them. Getting rich is not so much of the money in your bank account, but who you become through the process of acquiring wealth.
Your big opportunity may be right where you are now” – Napoleon Hill Click To Tweet
As the quote suggests, success is often found right where we are right now, all we have to do is open our mind to see the pathway of opportunity. In Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill outlines how to do just this, and has even created 13 steps to follow that will lead you to wealth, knowledge, health and success. Here’s a brief review book review of Think & Grow Rich with an outline of the 13 steps to riches.
Getting rich is not so much of the money in your bank account, but who you become through the process of acquiring wealth. Click To Tweet
Table of Contents
The 13 steps to riches laid out in Think & Grow Rich aren’t what you think. In fact, they are much simpler than many would ever imagine, yet they still hit home when you think about the truth behind each step. Many of them are psychological and have a simple belief, to begin with, and ultimately lead to the wealth you’re looking for.
A video primer to get started
1. Desire
Everything begins with a desire to achieve. A tale of a little girl arriving at a farmer’s home arrives and says that her mom needs $0.50 cents. The man told her off many times, but the little girl held her ground. Even when the man started to get angry and walk towards the little girl, she took a step forward and shouted to the man that her mom needs $0.50 cents. Eventually, the man reached into his pocket and grabbed a half dollar and gave it to the girl, and on she went.
That story reminds me of a story in the bible. The story reinforced the concept of desire and persistence.
“In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justiceagainst my adversary.’
For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice”
For those interested, it’s in Luke 18: 1-8.
As you can see, it all starts with desire.Having a desire as strong as the little girl or the widow demonstrated is the starting point to achieving riches. If you want it bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to get there regardless of the obstacles presented.
Don’t just have a desire, have a burning desire. Let it bother you so much for you to take action. Without that, it is just a wish. Are you fired up to take action now?
2. Faith
Once you have the desire strong enough to obtain riches, you need to back that desire with a plan to achieve. This is how faith is explained in Think and Grow Rich. As Napoleon Hill explains, faith is “Visualization of, and belief in, attainment of desire.”
While faith is often a hard concept to describe, it is assured that faith will be obtained while following the thirteen steps to wealth. Napoleon Hill explains that explaining how to obtain faith to one who doesn’t have it is like explaining the color red to a blind man who has never seen color.
He also mentions that “Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.”
With a desire to obtain, and a belief in the actions to obtain riches, faith is developed and a necessary ingredient in obtaining wealth and success.
I guess Faith is the advanced fake it till you make it technique. Act as if what you imagined in your mind has already occurred.
Do you want a nice body, then act healthy. Do what healthy people do. If you want to become wealthy, start acting like the wealthy. Not in spending but behavior.
To get you started, our viral article – 15 things wealthy people do differently will help you. The article will walk you through the 15 habits of highly successful people.
3. Autosuggestion
Some of us may be familiar with the term “affirmations.” Affirmations are truths that you might repeat to yourself to help train your subconscious mind and ultimately your habits to act according to your beliefs.
Autosuggestion is basically the same thing as repeating affirmations. One might want to train their subconscious mind that “it’s easy for me to get up at 6:00 AM every morning” or “I enjoy waking up at 6:00 AM every morning”, for example. As you repeat this to yourself multiple times per day, over a period of time your subconscious mind will develop the belief and ultimately the habit of waking up at 6:00 AM every morning.
Napoleon Hill says that autosuggestion is “the medium for influencing the subconscious mind.” It is referred to as “self-suggestion” which is received in through communication through the five senses we all have. By training your subconscious mind to believe and act on obtaining wealth, your subconscious mind will develop the belief to obtain and soon become a reality.
In the book, the author said more than 500 of the most successful people in this country said their success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken them. If your affirmation is on point, it will be very difficult for you to give up on your dream.
most successful people in this country said their success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken them Click To Tweet
4. Specialized Knowledge
There are two types of knowledge; general knowledge and specialized knowledge. In Think & Grow Rich, it’s explained that professors have a lot of general knowledge, but not specialized knowledge. They know how to do things but often lack the ability to do them. This specialized knowledge is more focused and difficult to obtain but is a necessary ingredient for building wealth.
Napoleon Hill states that “as knowledge is acquired, it must be organized and put into use for a definite purpose through practical plans.” You must determine your reason for being, determine what knowledge is needed for your purpose, and then organize it into a practical plan to achieve your goals.
In the medical field, we see this a lot. While there are outliers, specialized doctors tend to make more than the generalist. Internal medicine doctor versus a gastroenterologist. A general surgeon versus neurosurgeon.
This is another reason why we have to keep reading to improve our knowledge. In our review of the richest man in Babylon, we touched base on the reasons to improve your knowledge constantly and why billionaires read a lot of books.
5. Imagination
There is nothing new under the sun – King Solomon
Imagination is referred to as “The workshop of the mind.” In Think and Grow Rich you will learn of two types of imagination; synthetic imagination and creative imagination.
Synthetic imagination is taking current knowledge and arranging them into new combinations to create more efficient ways of doing things.
Creative imagination is taking inspiration to create and build new ways of doing things and turning them into a reality. It’s bringing to life what only you may originally understand from inspiration.
You don’t have to invent anything extraordinary to become wealthy. You just have to have a better imagination.
6. Organized Planning
Napoleon Hill refers to organized planning as “The crystallization of desire into action.” In previous steps detailed more in the book, he instructs you to brainstorm plans to obtain your wealth. This step requires that you take those plans and organize them in a step by step process. This step also suggests that you seek the help of other individuals and act accordingly.
7. Decision
“The mastery of procrastination” is decision. The opposite of decision is procrastination, an obstacle that everyone will have to overcome at some point. Being able to identify your weakness to procrastination and make a conscious effort to overcome it will be an essential skill for building long term wealth.
8. Persistence
“The sustained effort necessary to induce faith” is referred to as persistence in Think & Grow Rich. Just like procrastination is an obstacle we all face, being persistent or lack thereof, is another obstacle we must overcome in order to obtain wealth.
In the book, Napoleon Hill suggests that persistence can be overcome by effort, and that “The ease with which lack of persistence may be conquered will depend entirely upon the intensity of one’s desire.” Desire, coupled with persistence, over time will appear as if you’ve realized a miracle.
9. The Master Mind
You may have heard of a “mastermind group”, which is simply a group of individuals who gather together to discuss and bounce ideas and suggestions off each other on a certain topic, such as building wealth.
In the book, he describes power as “organized effort, sufficient to enable an individual to transmute desire into its monetary equivalent. Organized effort is produced through the coordination of effort of two or more people who work toward a definite end, in a spirit of harmony.”
Utilizing the talents, skills, and abilities of others is a powerful tool that can have a dramatic result on your achievement of wealth and success. Through a mastermind group as suggested above, new ideas are often brought to life, that otherwise may have never been discovered.
10. Sex Transmutation
One might think that sex transmutation refers to the physical. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Think & Grow Rich describes sex transmutation as “the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expression to thoughts of some other nature.”
Because sex desire as described above is one of the most powerful human emotions, the energy can be used for the exercise of willpower. Although an interesting topic that is difficult to expound upon, it certainly rings true as you hear it from the words of Napoleon Hill.
11. The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind can be thought of as the field where all thoughts and emotions received through the five senses are obtained and recorded. Being able to influence this part of your mind will have a huge impact on the achievement of wealth and success. In the book, Napoleon Hill explains the most common positive and negative emotions that should be sought after and also avoided, to impact the subconscious mind to help aid in achieving wealth.
12. The Brain
The brain is the “broadcasting and receiving station of thought” as described in the book. Although an interesting concept that is also difficult to expound upon, Napoleon Hill demonstrates how our brains are able to broadcast and receive vibrations from other people’s thoughts.
Have you ever wondered why it feels like that person in the waiting room is looking at you, so you turn your head and see them quickly look away just after eye contact? That’s the concept he refers to and teaches how this can be used to your advantage.
13. The Sixth Sense
What is the sixth sense you ask? The sixth sense may be thought of your creative imagination or inspiration you receive. Napoleon Hill suggests this sense can be obtained once you have mastered the other twelve steps to achieving riches.
It’s “the door to the temple of wisdom” as he explains and will unlock many revealing strategies and processes to obtaining your desired wealth and success goals.
Should You Read Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill?
Although the title suggests it will teach you to be wealthy, it also applies to achievement overall. Napoleon Hill shows you through specific examples of the above 13 steps on how you can actually achieve success, whether that be wealth, health, or reaching a certain goal. If that sounds like you then the lessons taught in Think & Grow Rich is timeless and worth reading more about!
Grab your copy below.
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Adebayo
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I am a pulmonary and critical care doctor by day and personal finance blogger/debt slaying ninja by night.
After paying off close to $300,000 in student loan debt in less than 6 months into my real job, I started on a mission to help others achieve the same. There is no magic to this than to strap up and get it done. Some of the ways we achieved this include side hustle, budgeting, great negotiation skills, and geographical arbitrage.
When I was growing up, common knowledge in Nigeria is that there is one thing you cannot trust anyone else with, and you guessed it – your money.
Being frugal came easily to me based on my background. However, the concept of building wealth did not solidify in my mind until when I finished medical school. I wish I knew what I know now when I was 14. Still, I don’t know enough and I am constantly learning to improve my knowledge.
My goal is to reduce financial illiteracy among young professionals. I am catering to the beginners – babies and toddlers in financial literacy.
