Review of Think and Grow Rich! by Napoleon Hill
This is a book review of Napoleon Hill’s all-time international classic Think and Grow Rich!. It is the original version, restored and revised by Ross Cornwell, and fully annotated and indexed.
A simple Google search with “Think and Grow Rich” shows millions of results. Since publishing the book in 1937, when the Great Depression was at its strongest, Napoleon Hill has impacted, or rather created, personal development as we know it today. That is why I am reviewing the book: its teachings are powerfully fundamental to any form of personal development.
Think and Grow Rich! is an accumulation and deconstruction of 500 studies he conducted on the world’s most successful people over a 25-year period. Hill studied, and was fortunate enough to develop relationships with many people, such as Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Gandhi, William Wrigley, Wilbur Wright, Theodore Roosevelt, Elbert Hubbard, Franklin Woolworth, John Rockefeller, Charles Schwab, and Alexander Graham Bell. Such a powerful study alone should be enough reason to buy the book. To tap into the minds of men who pioneered today’s world is an irresistible opportunity.
Hill’s book is similar to Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People in that they’re both classic books still shaping many of today’s self-help teachings. Though the books are over 70 years old, they’ve been reshaped by each author’s family and other experts. If either of the classic books are not directly mentioned in a modern personal development book, its principles mostly likely exist without attribution to their original source.
What is the Secret?
The most mysterious aspect about the book is what Hill calls “the secret”. The secret was revealed to him by Andrew Carnegie who subtly told the secret without giving it a name. Hill provides half of the secret, but tells the reader it is up to them to figure it out. In the author’s preface, Hill says:
“The secret to which I refer is mentioned no fewer than a hundred times throughout this book. It has not been directly named, for it seems to work more successfully when it is merely uncovered and left in sight, where THOSE WHO ARE READY and SEARCHING FOR IT may pick it up… If you are READY to put it to use, you will recognize this secret at least once in every chapter. I wish I might feel privileged to tell you how you will know if you are ready, but that would deprive you of much of the benefit you will receive when you make the discovery in your own way.
There is a real interesting seven minute video on YouTube I recommend you go watch where Napoleon Hill discusses the secret. The video captures rare footage of Hill, someone that has shaped personal development today, so I recommend you watch it – if not to learn about the secret, then to just see Hill.
What’s fascinating about the secret is that some people cannot discover it – even after reading Think and Grow Rich! 15 times. This is not a problem on the person’s part, it’s merely an indication that they’re unready. As Hill says, the secret is obvious to you when you’re ready.
The secret reflects Think and Grow Rich! principles: you can read the book and overlook powerful lessons because your awareness is not ready to gather such lessons. Like Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, by reading the book one time every year you experience powerful new realizations in each reading because your present awareness and experience is not enough to completely grasp the principles.
13 Steps to Think Yourself to Wealth
The 13 steps to riches, which form the book’s chapters and most of its contents, follow:
- Desire
- Faith
- Autosuggestion
- Specialized Knowledge
- Imagination
- Organized Planning
- Decision
- Persistence
- Power of the Master Mind
- The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
- The Subconscious Mind
- The Brain
- The Sixth Sense
The chapters on desire and the mastermind were the most compelling to me. The mastermind section is about gathering a group of like-minded people together. Wealthy individuals often thank Hill for bringing this success principle to mind because even though you may not have the knowledge or expertise in an area, the mastermind connects you to people who gather the information you need for success.
Why this Version?
There are a lot of Think and Grow Rich! versions. Why should you get this version by Ross Cornwell? Simply put, from my experience and many other people’s experience, this is the best version. As the book’s front page states: “The version of TGR! that makes all others obsolete.”
Ross Cornwell has included a lot of useful material that other versions released after 1960 exclude. In the back of the book is Bruce Lee’s application of Hill’s “Definite Chief Aim” (you write down your goals using the self-confidence formula). Lee’s definite chief aim was found in Hollywood and matched his success of being the highest paid Oriental star in the United States.
Go to the following link I’m about to give to you, then take a few minutes to read people’s life-transformation stories. Because the original book was released over a half-century ago, people have shared their story on how Think and Grow Rich! changed their life. The 13 steps to riches provided by Hill can change you to who you want to be. If you don’t already have a copy of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich!, or if you’re curious about this version of the classic book, you can grab your copy now from Amazon by clicking here.
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Update: 60 Minutes TV crew is interviewing in my home. I'm hungrily learning about their lighting and background setup! 
