Think and Grow Rich [Paperback]

I bought this book two years ago. It turned my life around. Following the principles Napoleon Hill teaches in this great book enabled me to overcome a serious, long-term drinking problem, in a matter of weeks. It also gave me the courage to quit a dead end job and start my own business. Not a week goes by that I don't pick up this book and re-read a section related to some problem that has come up. I also re-study a chapter and the endnotes each week to keep my motivation hitting on all cylinders. When I finish, I start over again with the first chapter. I will read this book and study it in this fashion for the rest of my life, just as I do with my Bible. Those two resources are the blueprint and the foundation for leading a purposeful, meaningful life. I give copies of Think and Grow Rich to people whom I think it will help. I recommend it to anyone who is seeking the key to success in life in all aspects.

I was introduced to "Think and Grow Rich!" by an alcoholic member of our cemetery sales team. I had a wife and three children at the time, and we were just barely making it. My only source of income was the commissions I made knocking on doors selling cemetery property, and they were hard to come by, especially since almost nobody was a permanent resident in the Miami area. Reading "Think and Grow Rich!" gave me a crutch to lean on as I forced myself out to pound those doors where the potential prospects were. If my family was going to eat, I had to convince people to buy cemetery property 30 or 40 or more years before they would need it. The Six-Step Success Formula the book contains helped me to realize that there was a way even for an uneducated lunkhead like me to make it like the big guys. I followed the success formula faithfully, and, lo and behold, my whole life turned around. I truly believe that Dr. Hill has the same message the Bible has for us. It was just little easier for me to apply. I went on to build the largest cemetery organization in the country starting out from my basement. In 1970, we sold 30 cemeteries to Service Corporation International, making it possible for them to become the largest funeral-cemetery company in the world. I served as President of their Cemetery Division for three years. I'm now 82 years old, living comfortably on the shores of Lake Hartwell with my wife of 62 years. Almost all my good fortune came about because I had the good fortune to be introduced to "Think and Grow Rich!" in 1953. (This new addition of the book is actually closer to the one I read back then. The versions sold since the 1960s omit a lot of material that Mr. Cornwell has put back in.) I have given away many cases of this great book. It was required reading in my company and in my family, and it has made a difference in a lot of the people's lives who were given the opportunity to make it part of their lives. Thank you, Ross Cornwell, for this wonderful "added value" new edition of the book that has meant everything to me -- and for giving me this opportunity to look back and appreciate how really important all of this is and what a difference it has made in my life and the lives of so many others.

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

-Napoleon Hill

If you asked me to recommend to you the single best book I have ever read, my answer would be a very definite "Think and Grow Rich".

First published in 1937, this is the end product of two decades of research conducted by Napoleon Hill. His research started when Andrew Carnegie (the steel tycoon who was then the richest man on earth) gave him the assignment of organizing a Philosophy of Personal Achievement. Hill, who was a poor journalist, armed with just an introductory letter from Carnegie, set out to interview over five hundred successful people including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, John D. Rockefeller, George Eastman, William Wrigley Jr. and Charles M. Schwab. Hill then revealed the priceless wisdom of his research in the form of the thirteen steps to success (in Think and Grow Rich) and the seventeen principles of success (in courses and lectures he conducted).

The concepts taught by Napoleon Hill transformed my life. Some of these include developing a definite purpose, building a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), channeling the power of the sub-conscious mind and dealing with adversity. Everything he wrote about or talked about is thought provoking. He was wise, humble and funny. His philosophy is universal; he did not mix it with religion. The riches he referred to were more than money, for the Philosophy of Personal Achievement can be applied to anything in life.

Hill was well ahead of his time. This book has a chapter dedicated to some of today's most important issues - Specialized Knowledge, Decision Making, Imagination and Organized Planning (in which he deals with Leadership). He also has principles for Teamwork, Creative Vision, Health, etc.

This is a classic, and hence the examples are old (not to be confused with outdated). But they are as relevant today as they were in the early twentieth century. Here is an example from T&GR in the chapter on Desire:

On the morning after the Great Fire of Chicago (1871), a group of merchants on Chicago's State Street went into a conference to decide whether to rebuild their stores or leave Chicago. All but one decided to leave. The merchant who decided to stay pointed a finger to the remains of his store and said "Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build the world's greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down." His name was Marshall Field and his store still exists, and in Hill's words is "a towering monument to that state of mind known as a burning desire." I lived in Chicago from 2002 through 2004 and worked three blocks away from this impressive store on State Street. Sometimes I would visit it or stand outside it to derive inspiration and be reminded of the power of desire. It is amazing that Hill describes "burning desire" with a story based on the Chicago Fire.

There are thousands of self-help books out in the market and hundreds of self proclaimed "gurus" who have made a living by copying the wisdom in Hill's books. As I went through some of those books I realized that there was not much in them that Hill had not already written about. I recommend quality over quantity. Instead of reading through many books, I recommend that you study the following works of Hill and internalize his wisdom:

1. Think and Grow Rich

2. Napoleon Hill's Keys to Success: The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement

3. Your Right To Be Rich [Unabridged]

By internalizing, I mean studying in depth - analyzing the ideas, making notes and summaries.

Some have criticized Hill's work by stating that his research was unscientific. They pass him up for Jim Collins (whose "Good to Great" dedicates 76 out of its 300 pages to research methodology and notes that hardly anybody ever reads) or Marcus Buckingham (whose "First Break..." similarly uses 25 pages for Gallup's Meta Analysis and what not). These people don't know what they are missing.

I am greatly indebted to Napoleon Hill. The purpose of my writing this is to spread awareness of his work so that more people can benefit from it. This, I believe is the best way in which Hill would have liked to have been repaid.