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919 of 935 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly inspirational. The single best book I have ever read., February 12, 2006
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This is a classic, and hence the examples are old (not to be confused with outdated).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. The Think and Grow Rich Action Pack (1937) - I recommend the Action Pack edition,
2. Napoleon Hill's Keys to Success: The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement - this is an excellent guide to his principles,
3. Your Right To Be Rich [Unabridged] - this consists of 12 hours of live lectures covering the 17 principles, that Hill conducted in Chicago in 1954.
By internalizing, I mean studying in depth - analyzing the ideas, making notes and summaries. I own more CDs by Hill, but I believe that these 3 items make the perfect study plan on the Philosophy of Personal Achievement.
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.
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309 of 314 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I owe everything to this book, December 16, 2004
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.
Two of my most useful tools in the book are the poem "My Wage" ("I bargained with Life for a penny...") and "If You Think You Are Beaten" ("Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man..."). 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 on Concord Avenue in Anderson, S. C. 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 is actually closer to the one I read back then. The versions sold since the 1960s omit a lot of material that Ross 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.
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425 of 437 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do Not Buy This Version, February 7, 2007
Do not buy this version. I purchased this version and discovered the original 1937 edition free online so I decided to compare. I discovered after comparing the first few pages of the original online version to this version that quite a few critical points had been omitted from the book. I became curious, so I went through every word of the online version and compared it with the book and was astonished at the amount of important information that was excluded from the book. Almost all of the key elements of the book had been removed or worse (reworded and changed) this completely diluted the message. I can see why many readers could find the book to be a little vague and unclear. I decided to write down the numerous words and paragraphs that had been removed from this edition and put them together. Wow! Just reading what was removed was profound and told a story in and of itself and made me question why this critical information was removed. It should be a crime to remove so much original content. Something that was clear, concise and cohesive had now become distorted and muddled. Clearly the original content could stir the masses for change not just for money but politically and socially which Napoleon states. The thought police have been more active than I thought wink wink. Here is a small list of omitted subjects that you are missing if you purchase this version:
Christianity - and it is not what you would expect
Copernicus
Lincoln slavery and a united North & South
Philipine representative that excited his people to freedom
Earth - high vibrational frequency (correlates a lot with the quantum physics of today)
School and education - most of what is taught in school does not help a person succeed in life. Charles Schwab demonstrates this by hiring dozens of poor men he had not went to school and turned them into successful leaders
Dreamers - people with big imaginations that have the greatest potential
to change the world
Concrete work that was performed by Napoleon Hill 25,000 interviews over several decades. 500 men interviewed were the wealthiest on the planet at that time.
The principles can be applied to desires other than money, social political change, scientific discoveries, inventions etc.
The original 1937 version is available free online as an ebook. I hope that I may have inspired previous readers who may have been discouraged after reading this edition to review the free online version.
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