Title Think and Grow Rich

Author Napoleon Hill

Year Published 1937

Kind of Book Personal Finance/Visualization

How strongly I recommend it 7/10 

My Impressions This book deals mostly with the mindset needed to attract wealth into your life. It will turn the people off who think the power of visualization and "The Secret" are bunk, but for those who like books like that, this is the Grand Daddy of them all.

Date Read circa 2017

Practical Takeaways

  • Don't quit right before the miracle happens

  • Keep on keeping on no matter how hard the going may be

  • Be very clear and specific about what you want and your goals

  • Know what you want

  • Write out your goals

  • Make sure the name of your book/article/product is killer (it matters a lot with sales)

  • Put all your eggs into one basket

  • Desire the thing you want until it becomes an obsession

  • Have a reserve pile or money to absorb the shock of your mistakes when starting your own business.

  • Figure out what you are willing to sacrifice to get what you want

  • Don't waste sexual energy, harness it

  • Shut off negative influences and actively work to influence your subconscious mind through positive impulses of desire.

  • To remedy the fear of death stay busy, do useful things for others

Getting clear on what you want

  1. Write down exactly how much money you want

  2. Determine what you intend to give in return for the money

  3. Establish a definite date when you intend to posses the money

  4. Write out a clear statement

  5. Read the statement twice a day out loud

  6. Visualize yourself already attaining the money

  7. Have faith in your ability "I think I can I think I can"

Tips for prayer/creative imagination

  • State the in terms of what you want, not in terms of what you don't want

  • Make them short and clear

  • Make them about a specific goal, but not how you're going to accomplish it

Big Ideas

  • Sexual energy is the most powerful of all the stimuli that move people into action.

  • When you know what you want you will generally get it

  • You must make personal sacrifices in order to achieve great success

  • You either control your mind or it controls you.

  • "The world does not pay you for what you know. It pays you for what you do, or what you induce others to do.”

  • Most people couldn't tell you what they want if you asked them

  • Knowledge is potential power. It only becomes power if it is organized into definite plans of action and direct to a definite end

13 principles for attaining riches

  1. Desire —want something

  2. Faith — believe you can get it

  3. Autosuggestion —tell you subconscious you can get it

  4. Specialized Knowledge —acquire the knowledge necessary to get it

  5. Imagination —imagine a plan to get it

  6. Organized Planning —plan out how you're going to get it

  7. Decision Decisively— acting on the plan to get what you want

  8. Persistence —Continue going after what you want despite obstacles and setbacks

  9. Power of the Mastermind— a group of people working towards what you want

  10. The Subconscious mind

  11. The Brain

  12. The Sixth Sense

11 Leadership Virtues

  1. Courage

  2. Temperance (self-control)

  3. Justice

  4. Integrity

  5. Decisiveness

  6. Organization

  7. Determination

  8. Charisma

  9. Gentle Sympathy

  10. Ownership

  11. Humility

8 Reasons why most people fail

  1. Lack of a well defined purpose in life

  2. Procrastination

  3. Lack of Persistence

  4. Lack of sexual energy (ejaculating too often)

  5. Indecision/ indecisiveness

  6. Overcaution

  7. Lack of concentration of effort

  8. Indiscriminate spending