Customer Reviews

Think and Grow Rich

5 star:		(613)
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3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

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This is a classic, and hence the examples are old (not to be confused with outdated).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.

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.

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.

Although this book has been around since the 30's, it is still head and shoulders above the others.

The title can be misleading. You do need to think and by reprogamming your mind with these time tested and proven techniques, you will become rich.

The most beneficial part of the book to me was the exercise of holding a mental picture of myself for 30 minutes per day along with affirmations.

All I can say, is that it works, it really works.

Napolean Hill spent over 20 years interviewing the most successful men of his time and then put the findings of his study; the characteristics of the most successful people in Think & Grow Rich.The fact is that successful people think differently. This is why a multi-millionaire can lose his entire net worth and have it all back in five years or less while unsuccessful people plod along and never amass any real level of wealth or success.Hill states that when the secret appears to you, whether it be in the first ten pages or on the 200th page, that is when your life will change.This is when you are ready for it.I have known people who read the book and never got it. Not surprisingly, these people have never achieved very much in life either. If you don't get it...you don't get it.Think & Grow Rich is a must read for all those who want success and are ready for it.I wish you the best of succe$$, happiness and wealth.

I was introduced to Think and Grow Rich over 25 years ago. WOW! What an outstanding book. This book contains money making secrets that have changed my life.

"Think and Grow Rich" is based on Napolean Hill's famed "Law of Success", a 16 lesson, 2 volume course on personal development and success. "Think and Grow Rich" represents the distilled wisdom of distinquished men of great wealth and achievement.

Andrew Carnegies magic formula for success was the direct inspiration for this book. Carnegie demonstrtaed it's soundness when his coaching brought fortunes to those young men to whom he had disclosed his secret.

This book will teach you that secret. And the secrets of other great men like him. It will show you not only what to do but how to do it.

If you learn and apply the simple basic techniques revealed here, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success.

And you my have whatever you want in life. As Napolean Hill says; "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. I also recommend "The Law of Success" on which this book is based

In 1990, I returned home (Orlando,Fl) after a crashing business failure in Hawaii. I had read Think & Grow Rich many years before along with other mind books including "You can if you Think you can" by Norman Vincent Peale. Frustrated, I decided to go back to my "roots" and dug out the old dog eared copy of "Think and Grow Rich" that I had packed away and began to read and most importantly apply the techniques. Within weeks, I found a new opportunity and within months, my income had grown to a personal high. I really can't say enough about Think and Grow Rich, except read it and apply the principles. The other book that came into my life at the same time I began to reread Think and Grow Rich was "More Wealth without Risk" by Charles Givens and oh yes, I also reread You can if you Think you can by Dr. Peale. I highly endorse all three books for anyone serious about success.

This book teaches what we never learn in school---the principles of success.I own book the book (Action Pack) and the cassette tapes which I play in my car. I never fail to pick up a new idea everytime I read the book or listen to the tapes. I recommend Success through a Postive PMA by Hill and Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing.

I have read over 400 books on personal development. Think and Grow Rich is the best.It's not just positive thinking, but also strategies and techniques to reach your goals.It's great to see Napolean Hills great book has such a high rating here at Amazon and is still one of the best selling books.If you want just one book, this should be it.If you are in business or want to be or in a leadership role, I also suggest Direct From Dell by Michael Dell. If Napoleon Hill were alive today and interiewing the most successful people of the times, surely Michael Dell would be at the top of his list.I am also sure that Mike Dell has read and applying the strategies from Think and Grow Rich.Read and apply the techniques from both books and you can't help but be successful.

In 1992, I suffered three major crisis; loss of my job, marital seperation and loss of a loved one. These elements put me into a tailspin financially and emotionally. THINK & GROW RICH was one of two books that I read at that time and significantly turned my life around! I found myself with no money, huge debts, no friends and no job. I had lost my self esteem and felt powerless. The principles in Think & Grow Rich gave me the how to turn mylife around. After applying the technique descibed on page 36, opportunities began to come to me. Within two weeks, I found new employment actually at a higher income than before. I started a very successful part time home based business, within two months, all bills were caught up and within six months all debts were paid off! With a better attitude I started to attract new people into my life. I went from a extreme negative attitude to a positive attitude, from a negative cash flow to a positive cash flow and from a life of emptiness to a life of aliveness. I believe that THINK & GROW RICH is the very best self developent book of all time! I also own the 8-cassette tape program/course and highly recommend it to everyone. I mentioned that THINK & GROW RICH was one of two books that turned my life around, the other book was More Wealth Without Risk by Charles Givens which is to personal finance what Think & Grow Rich is to Personal Success. I make it a habit to review both books and their tape programs continously and get continued results and ideas.