Cover via Amazon
I read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich over the holidays. It’s a relatively easy read. If you want to know more about the content of the book check out the Wikipedia page (Think and Grow Rich) as well as the Wikipedia page for Hill’s other book The Law of Success.
The book has an interesting back story. The book was actually prompted by the great tycoon Andrew Carnegie, instructing Hill to talk to successful people and figure out the key to success.
After reading the book, I still consider Dale Carnegie to be the master of self-improvement books. Dale uses a greater wealth of stories to illustrate his points and takes a much more applied approach. Nonetheless, if you have the right level of experience, you’ll find some good content in Think and Grow Rich, albeit its delivery may be a bit antiquated. Here are the 2 points that I think are most important:
1) Definiteness of Purpose. I write about purpose quite a bit since it’s so important. If it doesn’t have a purpose, it won’t last. However, Napoleon goes a bit further. He promotes the idea of a “major definite purpose”, a borderline obsession with what you wish to accomplish. He then instructs that you must put concrete criteria around what that means. For instance, “make a lot of money” isn’t enough. Rather, “10 million dollars by age 30,” is the right way to do it according to Hill. This is consistent with the general laws of human behavior surrounding accomplishing something (even small tasks)–namely, the fact that nothing gets done without a deadline and the action to be executed must be clear. According to Hill’s research, apparently these laws scale to much larger tasks/goals.
2) The Mastermind Group. Basically, surround yourself with good people and grow your intelligence through your association with them. I think most people highly focused on self-improvement tend to forget this one and fill their time with books and their own activities. Community is powerful. Our connections to other people make or break us.
-Kevin
2.1.2010
