“Our minds have no limits, except those we set for ourselves.”
\n\n\n
Summer and vacations are a great time to relax and free your thoughts from work and routine, as well as an ideal opportunity to engage in self-development. We suggest to relax and travel with benefits, so we have prepared for you a review of Napoleon Hill’s classic business book “Think and Grow Rich”.
\n\n\n
There is no universal recipe for success, any business coach will tell you that. But a universal book that will help you develop an individual plan, set the right goals and start acting, teach you how to prioritize and develop willpower is right in front of you.
\n\n\n
The book will be useful to everyone who wants to achieve success in any field. The author understands wealth as everything – knowledge, success, achievements and other values of human life. Practical advice in the book will teach you to set clear goals, plan your time, find effective results, believe in yourself and achieve what you want.
\n\n\n
What is its specialty: the book is the result of twenty years of studying the activities of many successful Americans, such as John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie. As a result of a huge analytical work, hundreds of personal meetings and correspondence with famous entrepreneurs and politicians, Napoleon Hill derived a formula for success, which formed the basis of this book.
\n\n\n
Who Recommends: “Think and Grow Rich” is recommended reading by virtually every popular author of business literature. And this is not a tribute to fashion, it is a sign of the relevance and practical importance of the work. Napoleon Hill is to the world of business literature as Dostoevsky is to the world of fiction – a must-read for everyone.
\n\n\n
“All it takes to succeed is one profound idea. The principles described here are essentially ways to nurture useful ideas”
\n\n\n
Every person has to go through 13 steps on the way to achieving wealth. We decided to briefly review each of them.
\n\n\n
The first step to wealth is Desire
\n\n\n
Dreams come true when desire becomes action. Everything is simple and complicated at the same time. Using the stories of great people as examples, N. Hill shows the reader how a burning desire and determination can turn a person’s life around.
\n\n\n
Do you have a desire for money? Napoleon Hill gives 6 tips to help manage this desire:
\n\n\n
- \n\t
- Determine the exact amount of money you would like to have. Not “a lot” or “approximately”, but set a specific amount.
- \n\t
- Honestly determine what you are willing to sacrifice (e.g., free time).
- \n\t
- Estimate the time frame by which you will already possess this money (year, month).
- \n\t
- Make a concrete plan to fulfill the desire and start acting immediately, whether you are ready to realize it or not.
- \n\t
- Write everything down: the amount of money, the time you want to have it by, what you are willing to sacrifice in exchange, a plan for acquiring the money.
- \n\t
- Every day – before going to bed and in the morning – read your notes aloud. When reading, imagine, feel and believe that the money is already yours.
- \n
\n\n\n
While these principles sound unfamiliar, they have been tested and endorsed by truly great entrepreneurs, notably Andrew Carnegie and Thomas A. Edison.
\n\n\n
The second step to wealth is Faith
\n\n\n
Faith is an indispensable element of success, the catalyst for all mental abilities. It is a state of mind that can be developed into will with the help of the thirteen principles detailed in the book. Controlled faith activates every thought; you can rise to unattainable heights, inspired by the power of the confidence you have gained. In the chapter on faith, the author provides five principles of self-confidence that every business person should master.
\n\n\n
The Third Step to Wealth – Self-Healing
\n\n\n
Self-hypnosis is seen by the author as a means of control. With its help you can make the depths of your consciousness work for you, and you will achieve amazing results. Your task is to ensure that the dominant thoughts in your mind are positive thoughts of success. Napoleon Hill gives a number of practical recommendations on how to achieve this.
\n\n\n
The Fourth Step to Wealth – Special Knowledge
\n\n\n
Your education is in your hands. You can acquire the knowledge that will lead you to your goal.
\n\n\n
The author distinguishes two types of knowledge – fundamental knowledge and specialized knowledge. Fundamental (general) knowledge you will almost never need. The largest universities possess in aggregate almost all kinds of fundamental knowledge available to civilization. However, most professors are not among the richest and most successful people on earth. They specialize only in teaching knowledge.
\n\n\n
Knowledge cannot attract money unless it is organized intelligently and directed with a detailed plan of action toward a specific goal. Millions of people continue to believe in the common misconception that “knowledge is power”. It is nothing of the sort! Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes real power only when it is processed into a clear plan of action and directed toward a final result.
\n\n\n
The fifth step to wealth is Imagination
\n\n\n
Imagination is the workshop where human plans and desires are forged. It is not for nothing that it is said that man can create anything he can imagine.
\n\n\n
It manifests itself as “synthetic imagination” and “creative imagination”.
\n\n\n
Synthetic imagination. With the help of this function, a person puts together already known concepts, ideas, and designs into new combinations. This function does not create anything, although it is widely used in generalizing observations, experience, and in education.
\n\n\n
Creative imagination. Through creative imagination, the human mind goes beyond standard thinking
\n\n\n
Wealth begins with an idea. Ideas are formed by imagination.
\n\n\n
The Sixth Step to Wealth – Planning
\n\n\n
Planning is one of the most important steps on the road to success. You need to form a clear, actionable plan (or plans) through which you can accomplish what you want to accomplish.
\n\n\n
Napoleon Hill gives some tips on outlining such a plan:
\n\n\n
- \n\t
- Take as many allies as you need to create and implement your plan (or plans) – use the think tank principle.
- \n\t
- Before you form an alliance of intellectuals, determine what benefits each member of your group will receive from being part of the alliance and what you can offer them. No one will work with you indefinitely without compensation for their labor.
- \n\t
- Agree to meet with the think tank members at least twice a week, and even more often if possible, until together you come up with a plan that best suits you.
- \n\t
- Keep harmony in your relations with members of the intellectual group. If you cannot exactly fulfill this recommendation, be prepared to fail at any moment. “Brain center” cannot exist without compatibility of all its participants.
- \n
\n\n\n
Keep the following things in mind:
\n\n\n
- \n\t
- You are engaged in an endeavor of great importance to you. To be sure of success, you must have a foolproof plan of action.
- \n\t
- You must bring the experience, education, natural ability and imagination of others to your side and to your advantage. Anyone who has achieved impressive success in business has followed this method.
- \n
\n\n\n
The book also focuses heavily on leadership. Napoleon Hill examines the key mistakes of leaders and also highlights 11 secrets of management:
\n\n\n
- \n\t
- Courage and determination: these are based on knowing yourself and the cause to which you have dedicated your life. No performer would want to work under a leader who is not very courageous or confident.
- \n\t
- Самоконтроль. Человек, не контролирующий себя, не сможет контролировать и других.
- \n\t
- A keen sense of justice. Without it, a leader loses the respect of his subordinates and loses the moral right to command.
- \n\t
- Clarity of Decisions.A person who hesitates in his decisions shows insecurity, which means he cannot lead successfully enough.
- \n\t
- Clarity of plans. A successful manager plans his or her work and works to a plan.
- \n\t
- The habit of working “overtime.“ One of the responsibilities assigned voluntarily by a supervisor is the willingness to work more than he or she requires of subordinates.
- \n\t
- Attractiveness of personality. Carelessness and sloppiness will never lead you to success. Leadership requires respect for yourself.
- \n\t
- Empathy and understanding. A successful manager sympathizes with his subordinates and can always come to an agreement with them. Moreover, he should be able to understand their problems.
- \n\t
- Perfect command of the subject and the situation. The manager knows the case like the back of his hand.
- \n\t
- Willingness to take full responsibility. A successful leader should always be ready to take responsibility for the mistakes and omissions of subordinates.
- \n\t
- Сотрудничество. Руководитель должен понимать и применять принцип совместных усилий и воспитывать у подчиненных способности к сотрудничеству. Для управления нужна энергия, а ее дает сотрудничество.
- \n
\n\n\n
The Seventh Step to Wealth – The Solution
\n\n\n
The author analyzed 25,000 stories of failure. It turned out that the bigger the case, the more dangerous is indecision. Almost all of us have had to struggle with the desire to postpone a decision.
\n\n\n
The stories of large fortunes have much in common: all their owners make decisions on the fly, but are extremely slow and cautious in changing them. And all losers without exception are similar to each other in the opposite way: they are extremely slow to make decisions, but change them quickly and often.
\n\n\n
The Eighth Step to Wealth – Perseverance
\n\n\n
Persistence is an essential factor in the process of turning a desire into its monetary equivalent. The foundation of perseverance can be safely called willpower. Most people at the first sign of failure are ready to immediately abandon their goals and intentions. And only very few people fight to the end, despising all difficulties, until they achieve their goals.
\n\n\n
It is necessary to realize all the weaknesses that stand in the way of your goal and get rid of them. Then your persistence will be transformed into confidence, experience and strength.
\n\n\n
The ninth step to wealth – The Brain Center
\n\n\n
The power of the mind is key in achieving success. Plans by themselves are meaningless unless some force moves them forward. The author describes a technique that helps the intellect to engage and us to use it effectively.
\n\n\n
What is a think tank and what is it for? It is the coordination of the knowledge and efforts of two or more people united in the pursuit of a specific goal. The author emphasizes the use of this method of working, because it is through it that the most effective solutions can be found and a workable plan can be developed.
\n\n\n
The Tenth Step to Wealth – The Mystery of Sex and Sublimation
\n\n\n
Direct your sexual energy in a creative direction and with its help you will come to prosperity. Sublimation is, simply put, the transformation of sexual energy into some other kind of energy. Napoleon Hill tells us that the ability to transform one’s sexual energy into other activities can lead a person to incredible success.
\n\n\n
The Eleventh Step to Wealth – The Subconscious Mind
\n\n\n
There is no arguing about the power of the subconscious mind. A person is not able to fully control the subconscious mind, but a person is free to choose the working material for it: your subconscious mind has only your plans, desires and intentions. You can implant any plan, any thought, any intention that you would like to translate into a material (or monetary) equivalent into your subconsciousness. The author describes a number of techniques that will help you learn to control the power of the subconscious mind.
\n\n\n
Twelfth Step to Wealth – Intellect
\n\n\n
Stimulated, or accelerated to a high level of vibration, the intellect becomes more receptive to thought from external sources. This acceleration process occurs through positive or negative emotions.
\n\n\n
The intellect stimulated by sexual feeling operates much more effectively. As a result of the transformation of sexual feeling, the thought process is dramatically enhanced, making the creative imagination more receptive. On the other hand, a well-functioning brain not only attracts extraneous ideas, but also puts itself in the state necessary for the subconscious mind to perceive these ideas.
\n\n\n
The Thirteenth Step to Wealth – The Sixth Sense
\n\n\n
Usually, we call it intuition. This principle is the high point of the book’s philosophy. As the author states, it can be understood and acted upon only after the previous twelve principles have been internalized.
\n\n\n
After familiarizing yourself with the principles set forth in this book, you should be prepared to accept as true statements that would otherwise seem meaningless to you. With the help of the sixth sense you will be warned of impending dangers, as well as alerted to chances not to be missed.
\n\n\n
Summary
\n\n\n
All the practical advice included in the book was compiled from the experiences of great American figures of the twentieth century. Napoleon Hill worked on the book for 20 years, analyzing about 250,000 stories of success and failure. We hope that these tips will help you get one step closer to your cherished goal.
