Book Notes: Think and Grow Rich
My notes and highlights from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, covering its process for building wealth.
These are highlights/notes from book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill and Ben Holden-Crowther.
These are personal notes, would recommend reading the book, but in case you are short on time - just skim through these notes 😊
The book focuses on it's title from the start, explaining and building up a process to be RICH. I have jotted down key takeaways in form of lists.
Thanks to the authors for such an awesome book! Let's dive in -
- Choose a definite goal, place all your energy and effort on that goal
- Leave no way of retreat. Either win or perish( then try again)
- Everyone wants to be rich, you need to plan and ask following questions -
- Define a amount.
- What exactly you need to give in return of money you desire
- Setup a timeline for achieving that
- Plan out for carrying out your desire
- Write it all down somewhere
- Read it again and believe that you can. Measure if you are nearning your goal daily/weekly/monthly.
- Practical dreamers do not quit
Chapter 3 - Faith
- The emotions of faith, love and sex are most powerful of all positive emotions.
- Mind with positive emotions becomes favourable abode for the state of mind known as faith.
- Perfection will come through practice, not just by reading instructions.
- Faith is the external exilir which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought
- Faith is anecdote to FAILURE
- Man who wins is the man who THINKS HE CAN.
- Biggest example of faith is religion and god. Those preaching from christ are not miracles but just mere faiths.
Chapter 4 - Auto Suggesstion
- Subconcious mind recognizes and acts upon only thought which have been well-mixed with emotion or feeling.
- Do not wait for a definite plan. Begin at once, but keep demanding and expecting.
Chapter 5 - Speacialized Knowledge
- 2 kinds - General and specialized
- General - not much use in accumulation of money
- Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized and planned via action.
- Knowledge is power only when it is organized
- An educated man is one who has so developed his mind that he may acquire anything he wants.
- You must know where to get knowledge when you need it and how to organize that.
- Doing a thing well is never trouble.
- Idea is the key, specialized knowledge can be found somewhere.
Chapter 6 - Imagination
- Man can create anything he can imagine
- Man is limited with development and use of the imagination
- 2 types -
- Synthetic - using old ideas and explanations
- Creative - new ideas, works automatically.
- Put your imagination to work on plans to achieve your desire.
- Start of coca-cola with a imagination.
- Riches will not just come with hard work, it requires application of definite principles.
Chapter 7 - Organized Planning
- How to build plans -
- Get group of people you need for creation and carrying out your plan
- Decide what benfits you offer individual members of your group in return.
- Arrange meetings twice a week with your group
- Maintain good relationship with your group
- No one can build fortunes alone.
- Have a no-quit attitude and mindset.After all, Winner never quits.
- Intelligent followers become great leaders.
- Attributes of leadership
- Unwavering courage
- Self control
- Keen sense of justice
- Definiteness of decision and plans
- Doing more than what you are paid for
- Pleasing personality
- Mastery of detail
- Assume full responsibility
- Cooperation
- Fields where new leadership will be required
- Politics
- Banking
- Religion
- Journalism
- What to have when applying for a role
- Education
- Experience
- References
- Qualification
- Skills
- Keep in concise and neat
- How to get exact position you desire
- Decide what kind of job you want
- Choose list of companies/individuals
- Do research about them - Pro/Cons list
- Analysis based on research, what's best for you?
- Reach out to some options that remain in list
- Causes of Failure
- Lack of purpose and ambition
- Insufficient Education
- Lack of self-discipline
- Ill health
- Procrastination
- Lack of persistence
- Lack of power of decision
- Over caution - taking no chances
- Wrong selection of people in personal and professional life
- Intolerance and Intemperance
- Dishonesty, egotism and vanity
- Guessing instead of thinking
Chapter 8 - Decision
- Reach decisions prompty
- Don't be influenced by opinions of others
- If influenced you'll have no desire of your own
- Talk less, keep your ears and eyes open, mouth closed
- Tell the world what you want to do, but first show it. (Action over words)
Chapter 9 - Persistence
- Transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent
- Persistence is a direct result of maintaining habits.
- It comes from desire, will power and definiteness of plans
- Keep willing instead of just wishing.
- Avoid fear of criticism. Aim high and work for it, some people will always criticize.
- If you ask people, what do they want most in life, 80% of them will answer - happiness, money, security, fame and power, etc. People rarely have definiteness of plans. You can't have everything in one go, always aim for a specific goals.
- How to develop persistence?
- Definite purpose
- Definite plan
- Remove all negative influences.
- Friendly alliances who encourage you.
Chapter 10 - Power of the Master Mind
- Power translates plans into action
- Power here -> Organized effort to convert desires into monetary equivalent
- How to acquire power?
- Intelligence
- Experience
- Experiment and Research
- Great eg. Mahatma gandhi who gave 200 million indians a definite purpose. He had immense power with which he lead to independence of india!
Chapter 11 - Mystery of Sex
- Sex we think of is just physical due to improper influences. There's more to it!
- Sex desire is most powerful of human desires - It develops imagination, courage, will-power, persistence and creative ability. Think about it, if all this energy is harnessed towards your goal, is your goal not achievable?
- Ten mind stimuli
- Desire for sex
- Money
- Love
- Music
- Friendship
- Master mind alliance
- Mututal suffering
- Auto suggestion
- Fear
- Narcotics, drugs and alchohol
- Difference between normal and genuis person is that "sixth sense" which is basically creative imagination.
Chapter 12 - The subconcious mind
- Medium of communication between thinking mind and infinite intelligence
- It works voluntarily, just make efforts in right direction towards your desires
- Subconcious mind is most influenced by the emotion/feelings.
- Seven positive emotions -
- desire
- faith
- love
- sex
- enthusiasm
- romance
- hope
- Seven negative emotions
- Fear
- Jealosy
- Hatred
- Revenge
- Greed
- Superstition
- Anger Chapter 13 - The Brain
- Creative imagination is receiving set of brain, which receives thoughts by brain of others.
- Mostly around how complex is human brain
Chapter 14 - The Sixth Sense
- It is the portion of subconcious mind that has been referred to as the Creative Imagination.
- It cannot be experienced without achieving the 12 principle above
- It comes via meditation through mind development from within.
- Self suggestion is powerful factor in building character.
Chapter 15 - Six Ghosts of Fear
- Three enemies to clear out -
- Indecision
- Doubt
- Fear
- Six basic fears -
- Poverty
- Symptoms
- Indifference
- Indecision
- Doubt
- Worry
- Procastination
- Symptoms
- Criticism
- Self consciousness
- Lack of poise
- Personality (Charm, ability of expressing opinions)
- Inferiority Complex
- Lack of initiative
- Lack of ambition
- Ill-health
- Exercise
- Hypochondria - habit of talking of illness
- Loss of love
- Jealosy
- Fault Finding
- Gambling - Love cannot be bought :)
- Old Age
- Death
- This is useless. Death will come no matter what, live the life you have.
- Remember matter and energy can't be created or destroyed.
- Thinking about death - old man worry
- Poverty
- Fear paralyzes abiloty to reason, faculty of imagination, kills self-reliance -> leads to uncertainity of purpose, turns will power into nothingness
Life is a checkerboard, player opposite to you is TIME. If you hesitate, men will be wiped off the board by TIME. Indecision will not be tolerated.
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