Professional Documents
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This book
tries to explain why some people amass great fortunes while others
fail to make ends meet. Since its launch in 1937, this has always been
the reference book for people who want to get rich.
Note: this article is written by our guest writer Nicolas Bazard from
the Object if 10% blog.
Chapter 0: Introduction
The answer is yes! And this method, the fruit of 25 years of research,
has been divided into 13 steps. Napoleon Hill tells us that personal
enrichment is possible provided we know one and only one secret. This
secret will never be precisely named in the book, but will nonetheless
be evoked more than a hundred times because this secret is more
effective when it is simply left in sight, where those who are willing and
looking for it, will be able to use it… But it is clear that through these 13
steps, you think and become rich.
Andrew Carnegie taught this secret to him when Napoleon Hill was
still a young man. The latter then spent the next 20 years of his life
revealing this secret to more than 100,000 men to check its
effectiveness.
However, Barnes did not know Thomas Edison and could not
afford the trip to Edison’s office. These obstacles would have
stopped most people, but not Barnes, who wanted so badly to
work with Edison. So he took a freight train and managed to
get an interview.
Barnes was a very ordinary boy but despite this, Edison felt that his
desire to work with him was very strong, so he hired him as a simple
employee.
This did not dampen Barnes’ willingness and focus to become Edison’s
partner and not his employee. After several years, Barnes still had his
goal in mind and an opportunity arose. Edison had just invented a new
machine that none of his salesmen could sell.
Napoleon Hill gives another example, that of a man who headed west
in search of gold. He quickly found his sought-after metal and began to
make a fortune. He exploited all the gold in his mine right up to the day
it dried up. And what did he do then? He gave up.
The normal reaction after a failure is to give up, which is what most
people do. Of the 500 richest of our time, most confided to the author
that they only enjoyed great success after a failure that seemed
hopeless.
One day, Henry Ford, the man who revolutionised the automobile,
decided to produce his V8 engine. All his engineers told him that his
idea was “impossible”. Ford ordered them to try it anyway. Six months
passed, then six more… And the engineers couldn’t build the much-
touted engine. Determined, Ford told them to keep looking.
Then one day, magically, engineers discover the secret to making the
V8 engine.
When Barnes got off the freight train to meet Thomas Edison, he could
have been mistaken for a vagabond, but his thoughts were those of a
king. Throughout the journey, he visualised himself working as
Edison’s partner.
For everyone, Barnes was just another cog in Edison’s business. But in
his own mind, he was Edison’s partner from the first day he started at
the company.
Napoleon Hill tells an old story about a warrior who sailed to a battle
probably lost in advance. When he arrived at the scene, he asked his
soldiers to set fire to the boats. There was therefore only one solution
left: “Conquer or die”. And they won this supposedly unwinnable
battle.
4. Define a specific plan that will help you achieve your desire, and
immediately start putting it into action.
5. Write clearly on a paper the amount you want to acquire, the time
you have set and the specific plan you have developed to achieve all
of this.
6. Read your written goals a loud, twice a day, in the evening before
bedtime and in the morning as you wake up.
Then one day, magically, engineers discover the secret of making the
V8 engine.
Napoleon Hill then tells us the story of his child, born deaf-mute.
Seeing him, the author says to himself “I want my son to hear and
speak, I want him to have a normal life.”
Every day Napoleon Hill repeated to himself that he wanted his son to
have a normal life.
A few years later, the author buys a phonograph that his son then
listens to for hours, his teeth clamped onto the device’s casing. The
bone being a good conductor of sound, his son could hear the music,
even softly.
More than anything in the world Napoleon Hill wanted his son to be
able to hear, so he sought solutions in the technological advances of the
time.
Let’s use yourself as an example, why are you reading this chronicle?
Because you want to know how to turn your desire into its physical
equivalent, that is money.
When men are first confronted by crime, they hate it. The second time,
they get used to it. Over time they end up totally accepting it as normal.
All thoughts repeated again and again, end up being accepted by our
subconscious, whether they are good or bad.
This faith is both the first step towards wealth and the only antidote to
failure. This explains why the rich are always more successful and the
poor always fail more.
Once this idea is fixed in your mind, nothing can make you ignore it.
With your eyes closed, you can “visualise” the money you desire and
imagine that, at the same time you are helping others and this it is not
just about acquisition or personal advantage, but about exchanging.
There can be no enrichment without a service rendered in return.
The fact that you are reading this article proves that you really want to
know the secrets of success. To obtain satisfactory results, you must
follow all the instructions described in Think and get rich and deeply
believe that your desire will materialise.
There are two kinds of culture: general and specialised. General culture
is of little use in the quest for wealth. Lengthy studying does not help
you get rich, besides most professors are poor.
The lawyers didn’t know what to say. Everyone recognised that Ford’s
words were those of an educated man.
Before you can transform your desire into its monetary equivalent, you
first need to specialise in a particular field. Knowledge of the service,
goods or profession that you intend to offer, in exchange for the
fortune, is indispensable.
Those who fail often make the mistake of believing that the time to
learn ends with school. The truth is the school is just trying to teach us
how we can acquire practical knowledge.
That’s why I created my blog: 10% goal, which aims to help you find
investments that will deliver at least 10% a year!
If you are amongst those who believe that only hard work leads to
wealth, think again, it is not! Money is not the result of work. Money is
the answer to a demand. Those who get rich are those who respond to
a specific demand, one shared by a large number of individuals on
earth.
All sellers who master their profession know that an idea can be sold
where the goods cannot. Bad sellers ignore it, which is why they will
remain bad sellers!
The author then tells us the story of a book salesman who noticed that
the best selling books were the ones that had the prettiest covers. So he
changed the cover of the books he couldn’t sell and made a fortune!
For ideas, there is no standard price. The creator of ideas defines his
own price and if he knows how to do it right, he will earn a lot of
money.
The story of almost all the big fortunes begins on the day the creator of
ideas and a salesman of ideas meet and work together.
Bring together all the people who will need for your plan to succeed
Decide on the advantages and benefits you can offer the different
members of your group in exchange for their cooperation.
If the first plan you make fails, replace it with a new plan. If that
doesn’t succeed either, replace it again with a new one and so on until
you find the one that works. This is exactly where the majority of
people get discouraged and fail because of their lack of perseverance.
One is only ever beaten when one gives up mentally. No one can expect
great financial success without experiencing temporary failures.
The author uses a phrase that I like very much: “A quitter never wins
and a winner never lets go”
Here are the qualities that all the leaders should develop:
Infallible Courage
Self-control
Firmness in decisions
Accuracy of plans
A pleasant personality
Control of details
Cooperation
Neglect of details
Seeking a salary for what they “know” and not for what they do with
what they know
Lack of imagination
Selfishness
Intemperance
Disloyalty
3. Lack of ambition
4. Inadequate education: Men are paid for what they know, but
especially for what they do with their knowledge
5. Lack of self-discipline
6. Poor health
8. Hesitation: The most common cause of failure. It’s never The Right
Time
9. Lack of perseverance
10. A negative personality
14. One or more of the 6 basic fears: They are described in the “the
Six Ghosts of Fear” section
15. Poor choice of spouse: marital relationships will fail if they are
marked by misery, sadness or the destruction of any sign of
ambition.
23. Intolerance
27. Dishonesty
Most people who fail in their attempt to earn a lot of money are usually
very impressionable.
Although it’s not their intention, close friends and parents often curb
our ambitions by issuing reservations or expressing a negative opinion.
Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes throughout
their lives because a person destroyed their confidence with opinions
and mockery.
You have a spirit and a mind, so use them to make your own decisions.
The value of a decision depends on the courage it takes to make it. Men
who are prepared to risk death take great decisions that drive
civilisation forward.
The greatest decision in the entire history of the United States was
taken in Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776 when 56 men signed a
document, knowing that they may be buying freedom for all
Americans, or hanging 56 of them by the neck until dead.
Most people give up at the first resistance and that is why they never
get rich.
A lukewarm desire brings meagre results
Desire is the origin of any enterprise. Never forget it. A small desire
delivers only meagre results, just as a small fire gives off little heat. If
you lack perseverance, fight this weakness by stimulating your desire
until it becomes obsessive.
Desire
Faith in itself
Adequate knowledge
Cooperation
Willpower
Habit
Here are the weaknesses that must be overcome by those who seek to
make a fortune:
The key to power and success is to know how to surround oneself with
brilliant men. This is no table in the case of Andrew Carnegie whose
“Masterminds” group had fifty people whose mastery of the steel
industry was at their fingertips. The success of great men is often down
to the people who surrounded them.
Reproduction
Sexual desire is extremely powerful. To satisfy it, some risk their lives
and their reputation.
On the contrary, people who cannot catalyze this energy will always fail
in life. It is for this reason that success does not materialise at 20 years
old (with rare exceptions), but later when man eventually manages to
master his sexual energy.
The subconscious records and classifies all thought that reaches the
conscious through 1 of the 5 senses. The subconscious works day and
night.
You do not have control of your subconscious, but you can suggest an
action plan. Once you have accepted the existence of your
subconscious, you will understand why it is important to specify your
desires and write them down. However, to act on the subconscious, you
have to be patient and harness the power of habit: Repeat your goals
and your plan aloud,every day.
If you do not try to control it, your subconscious will feed on thoughts
that cross your mind, whether these thoughts are positive or not. Learn
to master your thoughts and master your subconscious.
The human brain is similar to a radio station: it can emit waves, but
also receive them. When the brain works intensely, it is able to give an
emotional charge to the waves received so that they are integrated into
our subconscious.
The sixth sense cannot be understood nor assimilated if one has not
understood and mastered the other 12 principles of Think and
get rich,right from the start.
Napoleon Hill defines the sixth sense as the part of the subconscious
that has been named the “creative imagination”. By developing this
sixth sense, you will possess a “guardian angel” that will open the door
to the “temple of wisdom“.
Napoleon 1st: Emperor (you will notice that this is the only non-
American)
Using and pausing the use one’s sixth sense cannot be done at will.
However, by applying the principles of this book, one can develop one’s
sixth sense.
The starting point for all fulfillment is desire and once there, one will
discover the sixth sense. This unknown “something” has been the
engine and source of inspiration for exceptionally great thinkers,
entrepreneurs, artists and statesmen.
Any unexpected event that provokes emotions and causes the heart to
beat faster than usual will awaken your sixth sense. The author takes
the example of the car driver who turns the wheel at the last moment to
avoid an accident: The sixth sense helped him.
To succeed, you must drive away any form of fear from your mind.
However you must not forget that fear is a state of mind and that a
state of mind can be controlled and directed. Unfortunately for the
fearful, states of mind are transformed into their physical equivalent,
whether the state of mind in question is voluntary or not.
The fear of poverty is merely a state of mind. And yet it can be enough
to destroy any chance of success. Many people do not invest their
money for fear of losing it.
Napoleon Hill asks himself the following question: How did man come
to fear criticism?
Fear of disease
Jealousy and other forms of neurosis come from the fear of losing a
loved one. It is a very powerful form of fear, one that probably causes
the most havoc in the body and mind.
Man can have several children from several women at the same time
while a woman can only have one child at a time and therefore only
one partner. Moreover, women are more likely to be afraid of losing
their love, as a result of the polygamous nature of man.
This fear is the cruelest of all. This anguish has spawned a number of
religious fanaticism. Religion only gives meaning to life by suggesting
that there is a life after death. Religion tries to explain the following
questions: “Where do we come from?” And where are we going?”
Destructive thoughts
The waves emitted by fear are transmitted and pass from one mind to
the other. This is why negative people tend to project their pessimism
and that positive people pass on their enthusiasm!
People who do not succeed all have one thing in common: they know
the reasons for their failures and explain them by making excusing for
them! Unfortunately, excuses don’t make money.
If I had money
If….
Think and get rich is the very first book I’ve read on the subject of
personal finances and personal development in general. It was after
reading this book that I decided to take my life into my own hands.
As Napoleon Hill explains, the richest men are first and foremost men
who never stop learning. I like to read, I like to learn. As a result of this
first book, I went in search of other books on personal finances and I
managed to change from a broke student to one with savings of €5000
when I embarked on working life.
I have also read several books on the stock exchange such as The
Intelligent Investor, the principles of which I strictly follow. My
portfolio achieves an average performance of 30%!
I am now getting into real estate, after reading several books such as
Everyone Deserves To Be Rich and How I became Independently
Wealthy In 4 Years.
Will I succeed in getting permanently rich with real estate? I’m sure I
will!
Why?
Well because, as with my savings (which had started pretty well) or the
stock exchange (my first investments were catastrophic) I will make
mistakes… Even huge mistakes! But I will not give up, I will continue
to train myself and learn. I will succeed someday.
I myself created five different blogs and two information services that
were all failures. Am I ashamed of them? No, as I am not giving up and
most of all: I learned from my mistakes! I remain convinced that one
day or another I will succeed on the Internet, it will take the time it
takes.
Strong Points:
The “timeless” side of the book means that it will remain topical for
decades to come
Also known under the title “Think and become rich”, this book
teaches us the life philosophy of people who have learned how to
get rich.
Weak Points:
This book was written 80 years ago now, and one feels this
occasionally, especially through some of the examples the author
gives.