I was looking through some of the reviews and see that some people gave it five stars and some gave it only one. I think if the people who gave it one star would practice the principles given in this book they would quickly upgrade their rating.

This book was published in 1937, during the Great Depression, and if the people who suffered during that time had read this book their lives might have been better.

It is really about convincing yourself to become wealthy. It outlines the steps you need to take and the steps you need to avoid.

There are also a lot of interesting ideas in this book. For example, sex transmutation is where you transfer the energy of your libido into other purposes. Great people have done this. Also, 99% of the public has no goal in life that is why they are stuck in jobs they do not want.

Most people do not succeed until they are older. In fact, most success does not come until after you are 40 years old. Edison & Carnegie were past the age of 40 when they made their fortune. He forgot to mention that George Washington was 43 when he took on the greatest military on earth.

His roundtable idea is very intriguing.

I do not see why anyone would not want to read this book.

Overview: 60% brilliant, 30% obvious, 10% batshit crazy - and 100% worth reading

Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" is about more than getting rich: it's about getting what you want. And while his no-bullshit insights come with a liberal dose of craziness and – well – bullshit, his overarching philosophy is spot-on. Hill's recipe boils down to this: to get what you want you must 1) desire, 2) believe, 3) act, and 4) persist.

First, the battiness
Hill's advice is always useful, even if not always completely truthful. For instance, he repeatedly claims that "thoughts can affect mother nature." I don't think this is true, and Hill doesn't provide any evidence to support his claim, but his reader might be better off believing it. Because thoughts do profoundly affect you. And if you think you can affect nature by thought alone, and "think" accordingly, the impact this will have on your beliefs and your actions can be profound.

"Lack of evidence" is a common theme through "Think and Grow Rich." Some of the claims Hill makes are pretty crazy, though they're presented as if they were glaringly obvious and unquestionably true. He often states that a claim has been "proved" where it's simply been stated. You'll read about the transmutation of the subconscious, about how thought vibrations travel through the ether, and how to plant creativity in your subconscious via communication with the infinite intelligence. The book is heavy on mystical musings and light on facts. That said, I don't think these bits of battiness detract from Hill's core message, and if anything, my occasional outrage kept me engaged.

Onto practical matters: The first step towards riches is DESIRE
On first glance, this statement might seem banal, or even tautological: if you want riches, the first step is to… want riches. But Hill's advice cuts much deeper than this. It is not enough to want riches, or to wish you had them. Hill means something more radical: you must have a burning desire to be rich. If you fail in this regard, you will fail to achieve your (vaguely) desired goal.

Hill gives some concrete advice for nurturing desire. First, you must define your purpose. Only then can you become consumed by it. Hill's recipe for making desire concrete is this: decide exactly how much money you desire; establish a definite date by which you intend to possess it; create a definite plan; write it down; and read your written statement aloud - twice when you wake up, and twice before you go to bed. Become so obsessed with desire that you already see yourself in possession of the money

But don't kid yourself into thinking desire will be enough: "wishing will not bring riches... [only] planning definite ways... and backing those plans with persistence" will. Take, then, this burning desire, and put all your effort behind it. I love Hill's emphasis on action: you are instructed to be a practical dreamer. It's not enough to 'decide' you're totally committed: act accordingly. Cut off all sources of retreat, Hill tells us. Burn all bridges behind you, so that you win or perish. The tone here might be a little extreme, but his message carries crisp and clear: don't half-ass it.

Include liberal doses of FAITH
It is impossible to translate burning desire into action without belief. You must have faith: you must believe in your plan, and more importantly, believe in yourself. Of course, this is easier said than done. One concrete way to foster faith is through autosuggestion. The idea here is that you can come to believe something by repeating it to yourself sufficiently. Repetition of thought is powerful, and Hill claims it's the best way to influence your subconscious mind – the presumed bastion of belief.

This might come off as a little crazy, but Hill elaborates: repetition alone isn't enough. The mere reading of words is of no consequence unless you mix in strong emotions. Desire is one such emotion. Thus, if we've followed Hill's first step and developed a burning desire, it will be that much easier to apply autosuggestion to foster a sense of faith. And believing in yourself, and in your plan, is absolutely crucial. This might all be getting a little speculative, but so far, I'm inclined to agree with Hill.

A short aside on transmutation: the mystical powers of sex and the subconscious
It's only when Hill starts discussing the power of belief that I find myself getting incredulous. Hill claims that belief is "picked up by the subconscious mind and transmuted to its physical equivalent." If by this Hill means 'your beliefs will affect your own actions,' then I agree. If instead he means 'your beliefs themselves can influence physical reality,' then I disagree - or at least I would love to be presented with evidence.

And indeed, you soon discover that Hill does mean the latter. He explains that our brains are connected by vibrations of thought, and that these vibrations connect us to the "infinite intelligence" – whatever that is. Hill confidently states that there is an undiscovered organ in the brain that receives 'vibrations of thought' – called hunches – from this infinite intelligence. Once these hunches have been captured, our subconscious mind will hand them over to our conscious mind in a flash of inspiration. And this, he claims, is how to get your plan for riches. As best I could tell, this is what Hill means by "transmutation of thought."

It's my opinion that Hill here is liberally dipping into craziness – and he doesn't stop there. "Sex transmutation" comes next. We're told that "sex energy" is "creative energy," and you're implored to "harness and transmute" your desire for sex to lift yourself to a "higher sphere of thought." Harnessing sexual energy, it seems, will help you capture those aforementioned hunches. Here, at least, Hill offers some circumstantial evidence: apparently, many of the highly successfully men he studied were "highly sexed." Again, I'm not quite sure what this means, and I'm not quite sure how he was able to ascertain the sexual nature of so many strangers, but there you have it.

There is no substitute for PERSISTENCE
Back to practical matters: we've discussed desire and belief, and the need to "act" has been referred to throughout. The final ingredient is persistence. Without persistence, you will fail. Unfortunately, lack of persistence is a "weakness common to the majority of men." Fortunately, it can be overcome, and the ease with which it may be conquered "depends entirely on the intensity of one's desire." Of course, it's hard to 'learn persistence,' since you need to be persistent in the first place to be able to successfully employ a 'persistence enhancing technique.'

That said, Hill does give some good 'persistence enhancing' advice, which amounts to restating the advice that’s been given thus far. The key, again, is to have a definite purpose and a burning desire for its fulfillment. You must then transform that purpose into a definite plan, and immediately act. Consciously conquer procrastination and indecision. Throughout, guard your mind against negative and discouraging influences. And finally, form a "master mind alliance" – a coordination of knowledge and effort, for the attainment of a definite purpose – consisting of people who will encourage you to follow through with your plan and your purpose.

Conclusiont
Hill might be a little crazy, and his writing style is a bit over the top. He tends to take on the tone of a late night infomercial ("I have never known anyone who was inspired to use the secret, who did not achieve noteworthy success in his chosen calling") and he has an troll-like propensity to go into all-caps mode ("ALL ACHIEVEMENT, ALL EARNED RICHES, HAVE THEIR BEGINNING IN AN IDEA!"). More critically, some of the particular things he says are at odds with his philosophy as a whole ("these steps call for no hard labor. They call for no sacrifice"). The danger is that these are the statements readers latch on to, and lose the forest for the trees.

And this would be a shame, for when all is said and done, "Think and Grow Rich" is terrific book. Hill is passionate, and his advice is refreshingly practical. The above caveat aside, Hill tells it like it is. He decries the "universal weakness of lack of ambition" and our "national pastime of trying to get without giving". He explains that people mistake their wants for their just dues, and is explicit on the fact that you can't get something for nothing: "there is but one dependable method for accumulating, and legally holding riches, and that is by rendering useful service."

Mystical musings aside, Hill's philosophy makes sense, and not in the vague "no shit, Sherlock" sense. He believes that "riches begin in the form of thought," and he makes this claim concrete. Desire, believe, act, and persist, he advises. If you do these things, you cannot fail – and never forget that "a quitter never wins-and-a winner never quits."

Let's be honest to ourselves and face the truth: success in business depends on a complex equation with a lot of variants, such as 1) how well your business idea adapts to the powers of supply and demand, which govern (and oppress) contemporary society, 2) where you come from economically to begin with (I've seen aromatherapy businesses run by middle-class sons of bitches grow and be more "successful" than neighborhood food establishments run by poor honest people), 3) how much investing capital you have at the time of creating your business, 4) your race, and 5) sheer dumb luck.

Quotes like “The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat” are ludicrous, absolutely ridiculous and delve into the worst kind of new-agey, self-help bullshitting bullying: victim-blaming. So, if your business is not successful, you are to blame, because you simply failed to desire it enough? Fuck that shit. This book is a perfect example of everything that is wrong in today's first-world-white-heterosexual-male-dominated economic culture. Tell me that such ideas as "desiring it enough" would work in Somalia, hell, even in Egypt, and then we'll talk.

Don't waste your time with this codswallop. Read real literature instead: you'll definitely increase your IQ this way.

DNF.

This book reads like those Facebook posts you see from acquaintances that got involved in a pyramid scheme and they have to constantly hype their product but everyone knows its trash. "With AQUALUNG 3000, I can BREATHE through my KNEECAP, which allows me up to 2,000 PERCENT more OXYGEN!!"

I'm sure there are things to be gained from this book....if you read it in 1950.

كتاب نابليون هيل " فكر تصبح غنياً "
وسُمى بعد التعديل " فكر وازداد ثراء "
أرى أنه كتابٌ يحوى ضفتين من الحديث، ضقة روحانية، وضفة عملية علمية ..

الضفه الروحانيه يتحدث كما لو أنه تقمس كتاب السر " the secret "، حيث يتحدث عن تجريد الأفكار من فقّعاتها لتسقط وتتحق على أرض الواقع، ولابد من الإيمان والإيحاء الإيجابى الدائم، وهذا الجزء أحترمه، ولكن لا أحبذه بدرجة كبيرة، اعرف أنه لابد من الثقة بالنفس وعدم التزعزع فى تحقيق الأهداف، وإذا فعلت هذا بشغف وأهتمام كامل، فسيتحقق بالتأكيد ..

ولكن أكره فكرة التعبير والذبذبات الأثيرية الذى يتم التحدث عنها، وبطبيعة البشر التى تحبذ معرفة كل الأسباب لكل شيئ، فهذا التفسير لا أقتنع به كثيراً.
...
الضفة العلميه والعمليه تحوى على جانب جيد ومفيد جداً، يتحدث عن التركيز والاهتمام بهدف واحد وعدم تشتيت العقل ..
وضع خطط منظمة للوصول لما تريده..
إحاطة نفسك بالأشخاص التى تسعفك وتخلق معك أفكار جديدة ..
عدم السماح لأى شخص بالتأثير عليك..
عدم التردد فى اتخاذ القرارات ..
تجنب الخوف والقلق والتوتر فهم من مسببات الخيال والابداع.. وهكذا


وأخيرا أختم كلامى بجملة مقتبسة من الكتاب
ان الحياة هى لوحة شطرنج ، واللاعب المنافس هو الوقت، واذا ماترددت قبل القيام بحركتك او اهملت القيام بحركتك سريعا
ستزاح أحجارك من فوق اللوحة بمرور الوقت، فانت تلعب أمام منافس لا يتحمل التردد

Si bien el tema de visualización ya se lee por todo lado, me gusta mucho el hecho de:

*Desear, visualizar, autosugestionar con emociones y ejecutar!

Este libro refuerza el hecho de que a punta de pensar sin acción no sirve pa nada, pero sin duda alguna, todo empieza desde nuestra mente.

Es un libro que vale la pena leer para soñar, inspirarse y conocerse a si mismo un poco más. Como dice el autor, es importante leerlo y aplicarlo, sino, este libro no te va a gustar, yo ya empecé a incorporar un ejercicio en mi meditación mañanera con lo que me enseñó y seguro este libro y sus enseñanzas serán un 5 estrellas a largo plazo

Every now and then I come across a book which makes me feel that I have wasted my precious time reading it. And this book is one of them. It's a matter of reading preference and books like these aren't the ones I want to spend my lifetime reading. Never mind the 4.11 rating people have given this, I really couldn't rate it anything beyond 0.11. If GoodReads had that option, I would have settled for that rating only. This book is a piece of crap!

I am ambitious and I have an insatiable hunger for growth but this book couldn't make them feel more in anyway.

Money can’t buy happiness but ___.

What do you say?

✨What the book is about:

☑️inspirational and motivational self help book with anecdotes and real life experiences on what makes a person achieve their goals
☑️the differences between a person who achieves their goals vs the rest

Update 2020-07-08:
This “deluxe edition” is by far the best version of the book and i have read it many times over. In “the monk who sold his Ferrari” robin Sharma correctly calls this a spiritual book so the title is somewhat misleading. Excellent to have in the library at home.

Expert counsel: “The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines”. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darby’s had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!
The “junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.” p.7

“He recalled, too, his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold. “But”, he said “that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.” p.11

“Success comes to those who become success conscious. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious.” p.14

“Henry Ford is a success, because he understands, and applies the principles of success. One of them is desire: knowing what one wants.” p.16

Wishing: “Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.” p.26

Faith: “Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.” p.53

“The time will soon come when a man may breakfast in New York, and lunch in San Francisco.” p.114 (2025?)

”Truly, there is something to the idea that hero-worship is helpful, provided one worships a winner.” p.109

“It is one thing to want money - everyone wants more - but it is something entirely different to be worth more! Many people mistake their wants for their just dues. Your financial requirements or wants have nothing whatever to do with your worth. Your value is established entirely by your ability to render useful service or your capacity to induce others to render such service.” p. 176

Summary:

Money must be attracted by who you become. You must have a burning desire, faith that you will succeed, use auto suggestion, specialized knowledge, imagine and plan before you decide and then persist together with other people (your master mind group). Success and wealth will come through effort but poverty will come without effort. Also it takes time to harness our basic drives (sex transmutation) and get rid of fear (six ghosts of fear). Therefore you must take some calculated risk. You cannot care what other people think. You have to be focused like a laser on your goals, daily. You must visualize the achievement of your goals everyday. You must clearly see and feel it come to you. And you must be very precise in stating what you want in writing, in talking to yourself and others. Beware what enters your mind and let the subconscious mind work over the problem and then be quick to act when you see a solution to the getting of wealth. Also you must evaluate yourself clearly and objectively at least once a year and with the help of another person. Don’t stop before you hit the gold vein!

All I can say is.........

Think And grow Rich is one of the most prestigious and treasured book in the field of motivational literature. This book can help you reach your highest potential and bring you great personal happiness. Napoleon Hill gives you a blue print for self-mastery helping you accomplish whatever goal you have set up for yourself.
Napoleon Hill mentions that every page within the book contains a magical secret that, once discovered, will unlock the key to making money and becoming wealthy beyond your current wildest dreams. This makes every reader study the book at a deeper level, searching each page for this secret. There is a secret within the book, but, I recommend you study the book several times and do all the exercises Napoleon Hill recommends. These exercises are designed to help you develop the level of skill where success becomes natural. There are 13 main chapters within think and grow rich.
The principles and philosophy of success that Napoleon Hill outlined in his masterwork, Think and Grow Rich, have served as the foundation for every rich sucessful man and woman around. You will gain deeper insight into Hill's philosophy as you learn interpret and apply the seventeen universal principles of success. You'll learn how to turn setbacks into a springboard of achievement, generate attention for your ideas, influence others and improve personal relationships and above all define your true joy in life achieve financial success. Think And Grow Rich is a working blueprint for a life of prosperity - that will give you powerful tools to achieve your dreams.

Another book about the power of positive thinking

I’d wanted to read a classic self-help book, and several modern motivational speakers have credited Napoleon Hill. This book was written in the US in 1937, during recovery from the Great Depression. Hill asserts that the Great Depression was worsened by mass fear, and this concept seems just as valid in today’s economy. Much of what is offered in “The Secret,” including that now-trademarked name (a term that Hill coined but failed to copyright), is a direct rip-off from Hill.

Hill was challenged by his friend Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world, to find out how people made money, in an era where most people did not. Hill spent many years interviewing powerful men of the era (powerful women in that era being very few), for example Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, and of course Carnegie. During a 20-year period, Hill distilled his findings into 17 principles by which to get rich and powerful. He hastens to point out that richness and power is not just about money, but about quality of life and achievement of goals. He even states that Mahatma Gandhi was the most powerful man living at the time, and that he also applied these principles to achieve that power.

Some of the concepts are old school: hard work, planning and persistence, for example. However, he was the first to suggest positive self-talk, imagination, and visualization as tools for achievement. He also offers some surprisingly modern ideas such as transmutation of sexual energy, sixth sense or intuition, and imagining wise counsel from a “Cabinet” of people one admires. He devotes a chapter to harnessing fear, giving tips on overcoming the “six basic fears” including fear of death and fear of ill health.

Although some of the material seems dated, I understand that an updated edition has been released that corrects this. While not written in a style I enjoy, I can appreciate the concepts that Hill pioneered that are still popular in self-help books today.