That was painful. While there were many great points made in this book, the examples were so dated that being able to identify with them was almost impossible. Furthermore, I felt the book rambled and I found myself skimming most of the time. My dislike for the book could have been the edition that I read; my edition was very disjointed and there were many formatting and typographical errors. Regardless, because we live in an age of the accessibility of high volumes of information, I didn't have the patience to read through what I considered to be too much elaboration on the most basic and fundamental ideas.

Do I have to give this a star? This is a self help book that has some good ideas, most of which people already know they should be doing to be successful. He takes on such controversial issues as "never giving up," "planning ahead," and the ever progressive and edgy idea "talk with smart people to get good ideas." The only real problem with the book is he studied hundreds of successful people and that is his research. All of the people had their own individual ways of becoming successful, and yet he boils down everything to one specific plan on how to be successful. So even though everyone he studied didn't do everything in his book, he makes the logical leap that to be successful you need to do everything in the book. Oh, and if there is something you don't like (talking to yourself in the mirror for example) you're just not ready for it yet.

Bottom line, he has good yet not novel ideas that he got from successful people along with inspiring stories of success but he takes too much liberty with his research drawing definite conclusions for the secret formula for success without sufficient data. If you like this book I can point you to a thousand other self help books along these lines, but it wasn't for me.

Al final me arrepentí de darle mérito extra y le puse 1 estrella. Este libro te tira dos cosas logicas y que podrias serte utiles pero al toque te lo arruina hablandote de cosas sinsentido. Me costo horrores terminarlo porque simplemente NO TIENE SENTIDO LO QUE PLANTEA

When you think of the self-help gurus of today, they can all pretty much credit Napoleon Hill as the original inspirational, motivational speaker of the 20th century. Nappy, as I lovingly refer to him, was ahead of his time with his Think and Grow Rich book. Of course, I didn't read it back than but I had to keep reminding myself the era of the book is from the 1920's. So I had to forgive him when he referenced a "colored girl" since that was accepted terminology back than.

What I like about Nappy is his writing style is simple and repetitive. You get the message and he gives it to you again so by the end of the book, assuming you buy into his message, you have been enlightened.

His message is simple, it's all in your mind. Decide what you want and go after it. He changed my life when I was at my lowest point in my life and couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. His words reached into that last bit of hope I had inside and intensified it to the point where I was able to get up, dust off and start over again. In a bad economy, I would definitely recommend either his book (which by the way can be downloaded for free) or watch youtube videos of him speaking. He has some great practical tools that are still relevant today (like his mastermind group: have a group of people as smart or smarter than you that you meet with regularly to bounce ideas around.)

فكر و ضاعف ثروتك .. لــنابليون هيل
كتاب تنمية ذانية من 250 صفحة..
من مجموعة أفضل الكتب في التنمية التي قرأتها إلى الآن .. هذا الكتاب أحسن مرجع لمن يبحث عن كيفية الحصول على المال و مضاعفة الثروة ..
الكتاب يحتوي على أفكار عملية و تطبيقية .. لتنمية وعيك المالي و اصلاح كل ما من شأنه أن يفسد عليك فرصة الحصول على المال و جمعه ..
وبحيث يحكي لنا الكاتب قصص ناجحين أمثال هنري فورد و أديسون و غيرهم .. و المنهج المتبع لديهم حتى أصبحوا من أغنى الأغنياء ..
يعني الكتاب باختصار حصيلة دراسات أعوام للأغنياء و منهج حياتهم و أسلوبهم و طريقة تفكيرهم ..
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المبادئ التي يجب أن تتبعها لحصولك على المال
1 - حرق الرغبات : يجب أن تقع في حب أهدافك
2 - الايمان المطلق
3 - تحدث إلى ذاتك : أخبر بأهدافك إلى نفسك مرتين في اليوم في الوقت الحاضر
4 - تخصص : نمي معرفتك في المجال و التخصص و المهنة التي تعمل فيها
5 -تخيل : ما العقل يمكن تصوره ويعتقد أنه يمكن تحقيقه
6 - ضع مخططك .. نفذ مخططك
7 - اتخذ قرارك .. قرر الآن و فورا ، الكون يحب السرعة
8 - كن مثابرا
9 - شكِّل العقل المدبر
10 - حول رغباتك إلى وقود لتحقيق هدفك
11 - أعد برمجة معتقداتك
12 - استمع إلى مشاعر امعائك
13 - الحاسة السادسة : كن منفتحا على العالم
n  n

Timeless information, great words of wisdom, and excellent advice from, perhaps, the greatest personal development book ever published. The principles can be used for anything that you desire. I bought this bestseller from: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...

Era un po' che non scrivevo una recensione mettendoci il cuore. Sono un po' incasinato tra il lavoro e lo scrivere un libro mio. Tra una cosa e l'altra sono però riuscito a leggere questo libricino. Vi racconto com'è andata.

Mentre stavo preparando l'esame di Statistica Bayesiana in magistrale, ero matto per questo genere di cose. Credetemi o meno, ma a me sembrava di aver trovato qualcosa di incredibile. Ve la faccio breve: dato che in quel periodo mi sembrava di dover fare mio il più possibile quel corso, mi settavo ogni sera un timer da 5 minuti in cui mi ripetevo "In quest'esame prenderò il massimo, in quest'esame prenderò il massimo, in quest'esame prenderò il massimo". Roba da fottuti di testa, vero? Non è esattamente quello che un uomo di scienza farebbe per far succedere qualcosa.

Da uomo con due lauree in materie scientifiche, lasciate che ora vi dica una cosa: so bene cosa state pensato. Davvero. Quando non hai mai letto un libro non-fiction, i titoli pompati tipo questo possono essere davvero fuorvianti. Potrebbero indurti a pensare che stai per leggere qualche stronzata inutile che è stata scritta solo per vendere, che è il motivo per cui hai quel libro in mano. E' stato così bravo a vendere ma così schifoso nell'aiutarti. Considerate inoltre che se il libro di cui stiamo parlando ti parla di come diventare ricco trasformando un'idea in qualcosa di tangibile, senza considerare nessun altro fattore coinvolto, ma il vostro puro desiderio ardente, lasciate che metta le mie due lauree in un angolino (perché bruciarle pare brutto) e lasciate che vi dica che persino un fottuto pesce rosso sa che avete appena letto una marea di stronzate.

Questo libro è stato scritto negli anni 30. Regà, nei fottuti anni 30. Se ve lo siete immaginato in questo modo molto da boom economico, probabilmente rimarrete delusi dal sapere che io mi sono sentito invece così durante l'esperienza di lettura. Sembrava molto come se qualcosa stesse succedendo alla mia testa. Mi ha dato l'impressione che le mie connessioni neurali fossero state mappate e ricollegate in modo corretto. Questo perché il libro racconta storie vere di persone che hanno trasformato un'idea in un ossessione, e con gli strumenti corretti hanno realizzato cose incredibili. Fondare una società miliardaria, raccogliere un milione di dollari in meno di una settimana. Sapete, le classiche cose che succedono dopo aver letto un libro. E mentre le mie due lauree urlano dall'angolino in cui le ho messe per cercare di farmi ragionare, inizio a sentire qualcosa di strano che mi frulla per la testa. E' da malati mentali pensare che qualcosa del genere sia possibile, ma se avete gia letto una delle mie recensioni prima, sapete che di solito lascio la roba figa in fondo.

Riprendo le fottute lauree dall'angolino. Quella della magistrale è stampata su una sorta di finta pergamena. C'è scritto "con Lode". Non che l'abbia fatto per impressionare le tipe alle feste (mi ci immaginate lanciando un "Hey piccola, che cosa stai bevendo? Ti va di farti offrire un giro da un laureato con lode in statistica epidemiologica?" - non avrebbe molto senso). Ma mi riporta alla mente quel periodo da fuori di testa in cui settavo il timer e mi ripetevo che avrei preso il massimo a quell'esame. Dove cercavo di farlo diventare un ossessione, per alimentare il mio desiderio ardente.

E indovinate un po' com'è andata a finire.

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Vi lascio il mio blog in cui trovate la versione fancy della review in lingua inglese e vi invito a scrivermi qui sotto che cosa ne pensate del libro, della review, o di tutti e due.

Ciao Ciao

This is one of my Top 5 favorite books of all time. I've read it 3 or 4 times.

This book has been suggested to me by more poor morons than any other book of all time. I suppose it makes people feel better about what they can imagine they are going to get, but it just seemed a bunch of weak minded bosh to me.

There are some books in your bookshelves which you can read many times and every time you will get some new ideas. Think and grow rich is a book like this. Whenever I read this book I find out some new ideas every time. The psychological techniques and dealing with cetain situaiton are delead in a pretty good manner. He is a time tested motivational author who wrote this immortal book. A child or a youth everybody needs motivation because it's a positive source of energy that keeps you going in full blaze.

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."

I think my notes sum up my thoughts on this book.
I bought this book largely because it often came up as THE book to read for productivity and goal management.

It reads like new age wishing to the cosmic genie for money.

There's some value in the ideas, but the ideas are hindered by the flaky interpretation of events that end up getting distorted to suit the author's personal bias. I stopped reading by the chapter on sexual transmutation because I just wasn't reading it - I mean my eyes read the words, but I was reading at this point for the sake of finishing the book, not to retain or understand the information. I officially stopped reading when he used the words 'scientifically proven' without citing the study, which just added to the new age infomercial vibe the book has.

To sum up the books contents by chapter:
1. Think about money all of the time. If you're thinking about your dinner, STOP! Think about money. Stay tuned and I'll tell you how you can be rich right after these messages from our sponsors.
2. Think about how much money you'd like to have and when you would like to have it. Use step one to think about it all of the time. Forget about the dog, he can feed himself. Think about money. My rich friends think about money all of the time, and so should you.
3. The only measure of a truly successful person is based on how much money he makes. If you don't think so, you're just bitter. Have faith that the cosmic genie shall provide, if you wish hard enough and often enough.
4. You're not wishing hard enough. Wish better. Your wish should be automatic or else the cosmic genie might miss your wish for money. You need money. What do you mean you're not wishing for money? Don't you want to be successful. Look at this person who is rich and by our society's standards is a good person because he is rich.
5. Here's some outdated practices to look for a job. You want money, you're going to need to work for it. Don't type your resume yourself, that's a woman's job. (In all honesty though, this chapter was by far the most practical and his advice is: understanding what you have to offer vs the sort of clients/employer you want to work for is pretty solid. It is of course the complete opposite of how we're told to look for work. I suppose this is running on the assumption that one is already employed and trying to better oneself). Also some really good advice on focusing on who you want to work to help you attain your objective - it might mean something like working for a mentor, or for a company that does what you want to sell to others but need the street cred to make it happen, or to learn the professional practices and so on.
6. You should be imagining money. Here's the story about coca-cola that barely connects with the point I was trying to make.
7. You need to have a plan (totally good advice until...): a new wave of business management is needed in our great country. Rich people are the only people who are born leaders, poor people who happen to get lucky are just posers and they're ruining the very fabric this country was made of. (I swear that sentiment was in there somewhere. He's also very disconnected between how business enterprises actually treated their staff and why labor laws had to become a thing - i mean if business entities were really run by good natured all around great people... just saying)
In all honesty, this wasn't a bad chapter. He covers failing, failing hard, and failing often.
8. Here's a story about our founding fathers. (I'm Canadian, I'm so tired of hearing this story. I'm not that attached to your parchment. Also locking a bunch of dudes in a room until they see things your way is NOT patriotic, it's torture. wait... maybe that is patriotic.) Side note: the only useful bit is using your desperate situation as a way to motivate/push you to succeed. (Read: Scarcity: Why having so little means so much - and it'll explain why scientifically 'with actual real studies done with actual real scientists' that might not be possible)
9. If you don't have money, it's your own damn fault for not thinking about money enough or in the right way. You need to seduce the money, make her feel loved, make her want you. Your poor because you don't want money badly enough and you keep thinking poor people thoughts.
10. don't tell anyone what you aspire to do. ever. they'll just steal it from you and do the thing better and faster than you can and then they will have all of the money. Only tell people WITH money your plan because only people with money can help you, that's because they don't need more money! It's like a social service or good will or something to help you out, and rich people are such great people.
11. ... I stopped reading when he mentioned something about something being scientifically proven but didn't cite the research and so it came off as an opinion based fact, and lets face it, if I wanted those, I have a facebook feed full of them.

I'm donating the book to the library where more desperately poor people can wish to the comic genie and not actually take serious steps to better their lives or fix their relationship with money.