Customer Reviews

Think and Grow Rich: The 21st-Century Edition: Revised and Updated

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This version of Think and Grow Rich is a major disappointment. The beauty of Napoleon Hill's original book is that it is seamless -- you almost can't wait to get to the next page, the next idea. But in this book the editors stick in huge sections of italicized material every few pages that have little or nothing to do with Hill's ideas at that point in the text. It's almost as if he is constantly being interrupted. All that italics material just gets in the way when you're trying to absorb Hill's ideas, which are themselves wonderful. I am not certain what the editors were trying to do here, but they completely succeeded in messing up a great book, which I have read perhaps fifteen times.

The first batch of significant books that had the greatest influence on me in terms of attaining personal achievement includes mostly Napoleon Hill's books:

- The Law of Success (early edition);
- Think & Grow Rich;
- The Keys to Success;
- Success through a Positive Mental Attitude;
- Succeed & Grow Rich through Persuasion;

The others were from Clement Stone, Dale Carnegie, & Earl Nightingale.

That was the early 70's when I had just started work as a young engineer.

The author, Napoleon Hill, had impressed me most by his relentless dedication in spending some two to three decades of his life in pursuing & researching the success secrets of the rich & famous...with a little help from Andrew Carnegie, of course.

As matter of fact, many of the famous people he interviewed were also favourite role models of mine e.g. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, just to name a few

Till this day, I have never forgotten what he said:

"The most powerful instrument we have in our hands is the power of our mind."

I have never ceased to be fascinated by the simplicity & the potency of his ABCs of personal achievement: CONCEIVE, BELIEVE & ACHIEVE!

It is certainly enlightening to note that even Stephen Covey had drew inspiration from Napoleon Hill's work even though he never made that credit. He only admitted that the 7 Habits had its origins from "200 years of success literature in the United States." That remark itself is self explanatory.

Anthony Robbin's Mastery program as embodied in his books as well as his audio/video resources is no exception, even though he has been influenced in larger extent by NLP.

If you look at & compare the 17 principles of personal achievement in 'The Law of Success' &/or the 13 Steps to Riches in 'Think & Grow Rich', one can obviously see the uncanny resemblance of the 7 Habits & the Mastery principles...in one way or another.

At this juncture, let me outline the principal theme of each book:

The Law of Success: the original course on the fundamentals of success - all the seventeen essential principles of personal achievement (over 1,000 pages of information);
Think & Grow Rich: The seventeen essential principles are reframed & condensed in terms of thirteen concrete steps to wealth creation (in actuality, this is a condensation of the Law of Success) ;
The Keys to Success: a further elaboration of the seventeen essential principles with concrete suggestions, exercises & advice;
Success Through Positive Mental Attitude: joint authorship with Clement Stone, with a further emphasis on developing a positive mental attitude;
Succeed & Grow Rich Through Persuasion: joint authorship with Clement Stone, with a further emphasis on developing master salesmanship & networking;
[It is pertinent to note that Clement Stone actually built his insurance business empire with these principles.]

My most productive, personal learning experience from Napoleon Hill's work is the understanding - & application - of his success principle #1: Develop Definiteness of Purpose.

[Very surprisingly, J Y Pillay, former Chairman of Singapore Airlines, - who had been credited for building the airline to what it is today, A GREAT WAY TO FLY! - also credited his work axiom to this same success principle, but he attributed it to an ancient Hindu scripture known as Bhagavad Gita.]

I am certainly gratified to note that Napoleon Hill's work had casted so much influence on - & empowered - so many people in the world, including myself.

I have read the original version a few years ago, but the distance and time between when Dr.Hill wrote the book and our generation of 2000's made some of his concepts misunderstood or not completely understood. I am fascinated with this version's extensive commentary which is like a mentor explaining in modern terms Dr. Hill's concepts. This is like a modern version of this business bible, none of the original ideas or concepts is lost in this version.

This book purports to contain all of the text from the original edition, published by Napoleon Hill in the 1930's. However, I have a 1940 edition in my library, and I have compared this new version with it. This new one doesn;t come close to containing everything that was in the original. In fact, this new version is confusing. It is a desecration of Napoleon Hill's book. Save your money.

I was at first put off by the book I saw as unscientific and crass. But too many people I admired swore by it so I could not resist a peek...

Than BANG! I was indeed blind, but now I do see! The principles and techniques described DO WORK, period. I could do you no greater favor than to somehow talk you into buying this book and applying its recipies to achieve whatever worthy goals you have (or to find out your goals in the first place).

Yes, the language used in the book is one of its time, and yes again, some of the explanations are certainly more scientifically sound than the rest. But that is clearly irrelevant! Hill himself urges the reader to "grab whatever tools are available immediately for the task at hand and get better ones later along the way".

If mere archaic language and florid style are enough to deter you, there is no helping you. And if you are put off by the less than scientific flavor of parts of the text, please bear this in mind:

-Napoleon Hill unfortunately had no formal scientific training, but we should not hold it against him since that did not prevent him from making valuable contributions to understanding of practical methods for realizing a full human potential.
-In his time science proper did not really begin to pay attention the subject matters with which he dealt, so he did not lose that much, after all.
-When later on the subject matter did receive the proper scientific attention, it turned out that Hill was right on most accounts.

You can check that out, for example, in these two outstanding books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a preeminent academic psyhologist: "Flow" (as scientifically sound and respectable as psychology books get but writen for intelligent lay audience) and "Optimal Experience" (more technical and demanding).

For those that think there is nothing concrete in "Think & Grow Rich" I can attest that there is and point out a paralel: Most people do not believe Warren Buffett when he says in interviews that his investment strategy is perfectly described in "Intelligent Investor" by Ben Graham. Obviously, there is nothing concrete in that book, too ;) But, not everyone can be helped...

Back to the book. The short final chapters alone are worth many times the sticker price. They are:
Self-analysis test questions (at last a full day is required to answer all of them properly, back than it took me a full week)
The One Thing Over Which You Have Absolute Control
55 Famous Alibis by Old Man IF

Also, this is the book that introduced the word "mastermind" into the popular culture, but mastermind for Hill means so much more, and so it could for you...

Do browse through the book, at least check the chapter titles using the "Search inside this book" function, just to get the sense what is it all about. Than go and buy it, apply what it teaches and never look back! It is that good.

Perhaps a more authentic, more complete edition published in 2004 by Aventine would also be a wise choice. 21st century has nothing to do with it. The advice in the book is timeless. And the Swan of Avon said it well about attempts to gild the solid gold...

The editors of this book (and specially the Audio version of the book) make it almost unbearable. Their constant interruption of Hill to add absolutely irrelevant additional information and often times unnecessary explanations, make the audio tapes enraging. They break the flow of ideas that Hill expresses so wonderfully. They are so concerned with the time-relevance of examples that they force modern-day examples into the chapters. And they are so long-winded and uninteresting that I found myself screaming at the cd player to please SHUT-UP! Understand: The beauty of a classic is that it is timeless. Now if for copiright reasons they needed to add so much junk to a classic, the audio version should be set up so that the listener could jump-skip their material. The editors ruined the book experience.

The book is great. But it is frustrating to keep hearing the "editor's comment" and then "end of editor's comment" and then the comments from the editor. I appreciate the editor putting in his or her two cents, but it is frustrating when you get into the deep thought about what Napoleon Hill is saying, then suddenly, the message "editor's comment" disrupts your thought. To me, it is an ego trip of this editor by putting in too, too much of his comment. The whole CD 2 of the 9 CD is packed with Editor's comment. It is frustrated keep getting interrupted over and over by the "Editor's Comments" and I decided to vent online to let someone else know not to buy this version. If you want to buy, go for the original, the unabridged version of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.

Over the years, I have gone through varioous copies of Think & Grow Rich, the paperback version. Some copies I gave away, others were all dogeared and a few actually fell apart.

This new version, published in 2003 has all of the content of the original version with some new information as well. All of the original material that we all grew to love is in here.

I bought this book along with Hill's classic The Law of Success, a 1,000 page success enclyclopedia which is the actual course that Hill taught over 70 years ago.

[...]

Think & Grow Rich is the all time classic for business success. I recommend it to everyone in my organization. The principles in this book have made a major difference in my business as well as everyone who has used it.

Great book and a must read for all achievers and those who want to be. A great addition to the success library for all of those who appreciate this book and read it over and over and over again.

Books on similar subjects appear to arrive several at a time. In addition to this particular work, I have another three all with the word `Millionaire' in the title (two very different works both called "How to think like a Millionaire" and one called "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind). No!, they do not show you how to go out and win the lottery or obtain the secret of some other get-rich-quick scheme. If they did, I would describe them all as rubbish and demand a refund from the publisher.

Leaving those other works aside, this book shows you how to look after and make the most of what you have. My father always used to decry the fact that "money always goes to money." Of course, if you have a lot and are getting a decent rate of interest, then, of course, it does. But I also remember a young married soldier from many years ago who owned a very up-market car, a nice towing caravan, a small removals lorry and had the finest furniture in his married quarter. Those vehicles were for rent and his fellow soldiers (and officers) made the most of them. I remember him very clearly because everything he achieved was both legal and on an under-paid private soldier's wage and he owed no money to anyone. His secret was in making extra money and looking after all his income with the greatest care.

And that is what this book is all about. It requires the reader to adopt a very different attitude towards money and expenditure and it works. Or at least it can - if you are prepared to learn the lessons and put them in to practise.

And I wish you well.

NM

I am very happy that I bought this edition of Think & Grow Rich. Having already read the original edition, I could certainly feel the difference in the effect the book had on me where-in I could relate the principles to the real life examples around me (rather than something that happened in distant past, when I was not even born :-))

Except for a minor flaw in CD - 8 where a 2 sentences are repeated respectively, the quality of the recording and oration is excellent.