Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - book review by K. J. Thomas

THINK & GROW RICH                                                                                                   Napoleon Hill

The book titled “Think and Grow Rich” written by Napoleon Hill, a great American writer is an international best seller published in the year 1937. This book speaks about the magic formula of success. This formula was given to Napoleon Hill by Andrew Carnegie, the great American industrialist and philanthropist when the author interviewed the American millionaire in the year 1908.

 The author says,” All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an IDEA!

An intense, burning desire for something definite is the first step towards riches. But your strong, intense desire must be mixed with your strong FAITH!

Remember that every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage.  Therefore you need obstacles on your way to achieve your desire for wealth!

Desire backed by faith push reason aside and inspires one to achieve his goal!

FAITH means visualization of and belief in attainment of desire. This is the second step towards riches.

Among the emotions, there are only three most effective emotions which are FAITH, LOVE and SEX.

When these most effective positive emotions are blended together, have the power to strengthen our thoughts which reach our subconscious mind and develop into INFINITE INTELLIGENCE!

Faith and Love are spiritual whereas sex is physical. The mixing of these powerful positive emotions open communication between the finite thinking mind of man and Infinite Intelligence!

How can we develop our FAITH?   We can develop our faith by repeated instructions given to the subconscious mind because faith is a state of mind.

Repetition of positive and strong orders to our subconscious mind is the only method of developing the emotion of faith in human being!

You must remember that a mind dominated by only positive emotions is the best place for the birth of FAITH! Therefore one should always be    OPTIMISTIC in spite of hundreds of failures and obstacles!

AUTO-SUGGESTION: Faith can also be developed by ‘Auto-suggestion’. An Auto-suggestion is that one should believe that FAITH is the eternal elixir which gives, life, power, and action to the impulse of thought.  Therefore Faith is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!

One must write down on a paper very clearly what one wants to achieve. One must write down one’s major aim very clearly such as accumulation of riches and so on.

Secondly, one should repeat his/her thoughts twice in a day – in the morning as soon as one wakes up and just before one goes to bed at night!

Thirdly one needs self-confidence to put one’s plans into practical life. One needs, consistent and continuous action towards the achievement.

Through Auto-suggestion, one’s dreams can be converted into some practical means of attaining the aim!

“Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger for faster man,

Bjut soon or late the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can!”

The emotion of LOVE, in human heart and brain, creates a favourable field of magnetic attraction, which causes an influx of the higher and finer vibrations which are afloat in the world. This is why all great men’s achievements were backed by the strong influence of WOMAN!

FAITH was the basis of all the miracles performed by Jesus Christ! 

This miraculous power of faith was reflected on the deeds and words of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of Indian freedom struggle!

There are many shining examples of great men who put into practice this magical formula of attaining riches and I quote below only one among them! It is the miraculous story of an young man named Charles M. Schwab who was hardly 38 when he put into practice this magic formula- “All achievement, all earned riches have their beginning in an IDEA!” This philosophy was the warp and the woof of the entire transaction of the United States Steel Corporation which was formed in the year 1900.

First the idea of the United States Steel Corporation was born in the mind of a young man Schwab. His faith, his desire, his imagination, his persistence were the real ingredients that created the six hundred billion gigantic steel company in America! This idea was created by him alone through his imagination. Second, he mixed faith with his idea. Third, he formulated a PLAN for the transmutation of his IDEA into reality. Fourth, he put his plan into ACTION with his famous speech at the University Club where some millionaires including J.P. Morgan, John W. Gates and others. Fifth he applied his PLAN with PERSISTENCE and supported it with firm DECISION. Sixth, he made his way for success by a BURNING DESIRE.  When his speech convinced the millionaires, they were ready to buy the various small companies of Andrew Carnegie. Finally Schwab convinced Carnegie that the sale of his companies would give him a huge profit and Carnegie agreed to sell his steel companies for $400,000,000. All parties were happy and contented. The thirty eight old Schwab had his reward. He was made president of the new corporation and remained in control until 1930.

In order to convert our burning desire for attainment of riches or anything into reality, one must follow six steps which are given below.

1)      Fix in your mind the exact amount or the exact aim you desire.

2)      Decide exactly what you want to give in return for the money or aim you desire. One must remember that nothing important can be achieved without sacrifice. So you should give your hard work, persistsence and strong will power.

3)      Fix the date on which you achieve your aim or wealth

4)      Create a definite plan to achieve your aim.

5)      Write out clearly on a paper all the above steps such a making a brief statement of the exact amount of money you desire, the time limit and all other things you have planned.

6)      Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, just before going to bed and as soon as you wake up in the morning.

After doing these steps, you must see and feel yourself already in possession of the money/aim (as if you have already received the money or achieved the aim!) Thus you communicate the object of your burning desire directly to your SUBCONSCIOUS MIND in a spirit of ABSOLUTE FAITH!

Through the repeating of this procedure, you voluntarily create thought habits to convert your desire into its monetary equivalent.

Next step is organized planning. It is called ‘the crystallization of desire into action. Join with groups of people you may need for the creation and carrying out of your plan for the accumulation of money making use of the ‘Master Mind” principle.

One must avoid the bad habit of procrastination because it is the bitter enemy of decision. Procrastination leads to failures.

“If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no desire of your own”.

Another quality to be encouraged is persistence. It is the sustained effort necessary to induce FAITH.

The basis of persistence is the power of will. Will power and desire, when properly combined, make a powerful pair.

One must remember that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage.

The mystery of sex transmutation   : Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires.  When driven by this desire, human beings develop keenness of imagination, courage, will power, persistence and strong creative ability.   Transmutation of sex energy calls for exercise of will power. The desire for sexual expression is inborn and natural.  Therefore, the emotion of sex contains the secret of creative ability.

“The sixth sense is CREATIVE IMAGINATION. The faculty of creative imagination is the direct link between the finite mind of human being and Infinite Intelligence.

Whenever ideas or concepts flash into one’s mind through a hunch (inspiration), they come from the following sources:- 1) Infinite Intelligence

                                      2) One’s subconscious mind

                                      3) From the mind of some other person who has just released the thought, or

                                        Picture of the idea or concept.

                                     4) From other person’s subconscious store house.

One’s subconscious mind is a store house where every sense impression and thought impulse are kept. These waves have reached the brain through the five senses of human being.

What are the ten mind stimuli? They are 1) the desire for sex expression

2) Love

3) A burning desire for fame, power, finance and MONEY.

4) Music

5) Friendship between either of the same sex or those of the opposite sex.

6) A master mind alliance based upon the harmony of two or more people

7) Mutual suffering

8) Auto-suggestion

9) Fear

10)Narcotics and alcohol

Sex energy is the creative e energy of all genii.  All the great leaders in all fields of life were driven by the force of sex.

The mere possession of sex energy is no enough. This energy must be transmuted from desire for physical contact, into some other form of desire and action before it will lift one to the status of genius.

The Subconscious mind consists of a field of consciousness, in which every impulse of thought that reaches the mind through the five senses.

The subconscious mind works day and night, but conscious mind works only when we are wake up.

The subconscious mind is the connecting link between the finite mind of man and the Infinite Intelligence.

There are seven major positive emotions. They are

1)      The emotion of desire

2)      The emotion of Faith

3)      The emotion of Love

4)      The emotion of sex

5)      The emotion of enthusiasm

6)      The emotion of Romance

7)      The emotion of Hope.

There are seven major negative emotions. They are

1)      The emotion of Fear

2)      The emotion of Jealousy

3)      The emotion of Hatred

4)      The emotion of Revenge

5)      The emotion of Greed

6)      The emotion of Superstition

7)      The emotion of Anger.

One must remember that positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the human mind at the same time. Only one must dominate.

Every human brain is both a broadcasting and receiving station for the vibration of thoughts.

The creative imagination is the ‘receiving station’ of the brain, which receives thoughts, released by the brain of others.

The subconscious mind is the ‘sending station’ of the brain, through which the vibrations of thought are broadcast.

The sixth sense is the door of the temple of wisdom.

The sixth sense through which Infinite Intelligence will communicate voluntarily without any effort from the individual. This principle is the apex of this philosophy.

The sixth sense is a part of the subconscious mind and creative imagination. It can also be called as the ‘receiving set’ through which ideas, plans and thoughts flash into the mind. These flashes are called ‘hunches’ or inspirations.

The sixth sense is the medium of contact between the finite mind of man and the Infinite Intelligence.

“Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of Impending dangers in time to avoid them and notified of opportunities in time to embrace them”.

Thus your sixth sense is your “guardian angel”. Success comes to those who become success conscious.

If you pray for a thing, but have fear as you pray, that you may not receive it, or that your prayer will not be acted upon by Infinite Intelligence, your prayer will have been in vain!

Prayer does result in the realization of that for which one prays. If you have ever had the experience of receiving that for which you prayed,  your mind was free from fear and doubt and you must have had a robust faith that your prayer would be answered and actually, got it. There are no obstacles between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence. The communication must be based on patience, faith, Persistence, understanding and a sincere desire to communicate and your prayer will be certainly answered in the positive manner!.

The subconscious mind is the intermediary, which translates one’s prayers into terms which Infinite Intelligence can recognize, presents the message and brings back the answer in the form of a definite plan or idea for procuring the object of the prayer.

Before your prayer will reach Infinite Intelligence, it probably is transformed (“stepped up”) from its original thought vibration into terms of spiritual vibration.  Faith is the only known agency which will give your thoughts a spiritual nature.  Remember FAITH and FEAR make poor bedfellows. Where one is found, the other cannot exist.                                                                                                                          Kjt/29-01-2017