Have you studied Think and Grow Rich?

Incidently, anyone interested in reading TAGR by Napoleon Hill, can be read here, (free):

http://www.virtuescience.com/think-and-grow-rich.html

...and just for fun, here is; (another freebie, favorite of mine) Wallace D Wattles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Wattles

Book is here; "The Science of Getting Rich:"

http://wattles.dapatlah.com/getrich.pdf

[quote/]THERE IS A THINKING STUFF FROM WHICH ALL THINGS ARE
MADE, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills
the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces
the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in
his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance
can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this,
a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind.
Otherwise he cannot be in harmony with formless intelligence, which is
always creative and never competitive in spirit[/quote]
 
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I've had a look through the book (but not studied it in detail). I think there are some ideas to think about, as well as some stuff I find a bit strange.

I treat this book like any other - read with an open mind and decide what you think will work for you. Following something like this blindly is, I think, a recipe for disaster.
 
Shadow said:
I read it a few years ago, but found it rather tedious and verbose.

Richest Man in Babylon was a better read.
Click to expand...

Been trying to find a free ebook of that, I lost the site I was reading it from

Thanks Our Obsession for the Think and grow rich links.
 
It's the one Stuart Zadel published.

I realised when I downloaded it that I had already downloaded a copy. It is the original. Can't remember where I got it. From one of the sites where you download free books (bookyards?).
 
reading the cashflow one now.

how is it i have already realised 95% of this....? do people really float thru life knowing f_k all?
 
MCS_80 said:
Have you studied Think and Grow Rich?

Hello everyone, :D

Over the last 3 years I have had in my possession the book “Think and Grow Rich” written by Napoleon Hill. The book was introduced to me by Lindsay Tavner, the founder of Doors Plus.

It took me approximately 6 months to completely read the book for the first time. I was always finding an excuse to put it down or leave reading it until I went to bed to start reading where I promptly lost interest and fell asleep. I have now read this book 4 times in the last 12 months and am only just beginning to start practicing it. Faith, Desire, Sex Transmutation etc where foreign to me before I started to actually accept these as facts that control my and everyone’s success, whether we think about them or not.

It would be interesting to know how many of you out there have studied Think and Grow Rich and how it has impacted your life, financially and socially.

Do you have a statement written on paper that you read out aloud everyday as the book suggests?

Do you use the Master Mind principle?

How many times have you read Think and Grow Rich?

What are your thoughts about the Think and Grow Rich philosophy?

Any other input, experiences and ways you have enjoyed/disliked this book welcome.

Cheers :D

Mick
Click to expand...

I read it once and realised that it was obvious; you become what you think about most; as the book says.

It's soo not rocket science, but it makes it clear that by being conscious of what you think about, you can shape your future.

For instance; after I read it, I decided that most of my spending MUST be towards creating more wealth.

It became an obsession; to the point where I loathed even going to buy groceries as I viewed it as a waste of money - consumerism and doodads.

It bloody works, but it can be dangerous as well.
 
BayView said:
I read it once and realised that it was obvious; you become what you think about most; as the book says.

It's soo not rocket science, but it makes it clear that by being conscious of what you think about, you can shape your future.

For instance; after I read it, I decided that most of my spending MUST be towards creating more wealth.
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I think that's what happens with most people.

It is obvious and logical but I for one, and by the sounds of it I wasn;t alone, I hadn't worked any of it out until it was put in front of my nose. (So how obvious was it ?)

Then it motivated me too.

Same can be said of event spruikers who charge $295 or hwatever to tell you things that sound obvious, but some peopel leave so motivated desptie it being obvious for the same reasons I did.
Some peopel value what is presented / some don't

Some of them gone and become succesful at what they were motivated to do, some don't.
 
I studied the book for years.
It took me a long while to realise it is "snake oil".

Why?, well a few points off the top of my head.

Napoleon Hill mentions in the book his friend was going into a dangerous surgery and was not the slightest bit worried he was coming out ok, he did.
Well they are both dead now.

If it works why is the world still full of poverty and turmoil?.

Napoleon Hill admits that although the book is hugely based on mind control that literally nothing is known about the human brain.

Why couldn`t Napoleon Hill flap his arms and fly?, or perform anything "out of this world", besides making money, despite the whole concept being based on anything you can conceive and believe you can acheive"?.

He states that all great dreams often come down to life and death decisions, and that you must have this kind of commitment in order to attain your goal.
Well he would have many living people to attest to that as the others are dead I guess and setting goals for them did not end well, all those years of placing family second and being totally self absorbed were a complete wasted life.

What the basic concept of the book ignores is the impact of "time".

It is a fact that anyone can do amazing things given enough time, the time factor is different for all people.
But even more to the point that people can attain what they truly believe.....until they either do or don`t have success, someone can be a complete failure all their life and suddenly have huge success, not because they repeated affirmations to themselves every day but simply because at that second they truly believed it,for a vast variety of reasons, there are also many cases of someone completely not believing in a thing for many years until one second they see and opportunity and do but then they still fail anyhow, Hill presents his facts in a way that would have you believe we live in a perfect world.
Believing in something yourself is one thing but it also depends greatly on what other minds believe, and also the time and fortitude an actual person has in order to make it reality, which in the overwhelming amount of cases does not bear out.

No-one on the planet has a perfect life therefore the book does not work as presented, and to this day noone has ever been able to flap thier arms and fly.

There are also immeasureable examples throughout history of people who went through horrible lives or great pain only to write a book which touched the hearts of millions or painted a picture or conveyed and idea or in many ways added to the happiness of millions which would not have been acheived without great hardship, yet I guess if they bought think and grow rich it would never have happened since they would have attained happiness, after all isn`t that what everyone wants?.
Great things have come from negative attitudes just as they have positive.
 
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markpatric said:
Napoleon Hill mentions in the book his friend was going into a dangerous surgery and was not the slightest bit worried he was coming out ok, he did.
Well they are both dead now.
Click to expand...

Everyone dies. Simple nature. He did however overcome his short term illness, a lot more than the average person does. Nothing can change the laws of nature. :D

markpatric said:
If it works why is the world still full of poverty and turmoil?
Click to expand...

The world is full of poverty and turmoil because the majority allow others to do their thinking for them. We all sometime in our life allow others to think for us, dont we?

markpatric said:
despite the whole concept being based on anything you can conceive and believe you can acheive"?
Click to expand...

This is true. Re-read this quote again. Hill states that you "Can" achieve anything if your "Mind" believes it. He does not in any form or fashion state that it "Will" achieve it. Hill has explained this saying in his private lectures many times. Don’t confuse or miss read "Can" with "Will". Hill nor anyone else can say you "Will" do anything, but anything your "Mind" can concieve, and "Believe", the mind "Can" NOT WILL achieve. :D

markpatric said:
No-one on the planet has a perfect life therefore the book does not work as presented, and to this day noone has ever been able to flap thier arms and fly
Click to expand...

True, but only a crazy person would want to "Believe" they can do that, and why would any sane person want to try it? We can "fly" at the speed of sound and do it all while we read a book on a plane. Why would any sane person want to flap their arms to fly? :D

I look forward to your answers, you raise some interesting comments. :D


Cheers

Mick
 
markpatric said:
If it works why is the world still full of poverty and turmoil?.
Click to expand...

This is one of the biggest banes in my life.

Why do people choose to live a "loser" life???

It does not take a lot of intelligence or effort to do well in life - if you know that this is the case.

Unfortunately, the majority of human behavior is to follow the path of least resistance. This is why you see people drop out of school, or get fat, live on the dole and so on.

It is simply easier to do less. It certainly doesn't help if the Gubbmint makes it easy for them to do so.

But there are consequences to this behavior; being poor, being unhealthy and so on. It's ok if you choose; but most don't and then whinge about how unlucky they are, or "how lucky the rich b@stards are".

Imagine if you could grab hold of every 6 year old on their first day of school and force them to put away 10% of every single week's pocket money and/or money from doing jobs etc. Then tell them that they will retire at 40 as a very well-off individual, and they would believe you and do as you say..

Imagine if you could grab them and tell them they need to sacrifice one hour every day of their school life towards homework and they will retire at 40 as a very well-off individual, and they believe you and do as you say..

It all sounds so easy, but it takes discipline, commitment, sacrifice, pain, and is boring, and for most people this is too big a job.

All through my life, the most successful people I have met are those who are willing to go the extra yard; to do more than the job asks for, to get up early and go for that run...and so on.

This is (generally) the 5% that are at the top. Some get lucky and make loads from a fluke, but this is rare.

The 95% who are at the bottom won't do what is required - and this applies to any field of endeavour.

I often use golf as the example. Those who know me know I was a golf pro. Now, to me this is no big deal. But to get to this level requires years of hard work - getting up at dawn to pound balls and so on.

Many people say to me; "gee, I'd love to play like you do".

Well, here's the thing - anyone can do it! The price to be paid is lots and lots of practice, lessons and sacrifice - lots of effort, study, and more important - application.

I spent 30 years teaching people to play golf. Much of what I taught was simple exercises that needed regular application. The information was what people wanted, but then they had to physically go out and do it - to apply it.

Very few ever did. They all wanted the miracle cure with no work.

To parallel this to becoming wealthy, all that is required is for people to get the information, then apply it.

For most, the first step is to stop spending on cr@p, and put money aside for investing.

Sounds easy, but as we know; most people don't apply this knowledge - even after they get it.
 
It was a lot more than a short term illness, it was clearly a situation he used in the book to demonstrate that you can beat nature using your own thoughts....but only I guess when Hill says so, there would be inumerable times when patients went in with a positive attitude and didn`t live to tell the tale, yes it helps of course but we all know that.

The world is full of poverty simply because no matter what Hill or anyone thinks it has never changed.

Regarding whether or not you can or will acheive something is exactly why the book is a complete waste of time.
Hill described in the book how to make yourself beleive even if you don`t at first, you could apparently make yourself believe anything you wanted badly enough.
The fact that you distinguish between can and will is astounding if you truly have read the book more than a few times, have you honestly read it even once?.

You say only a crazy person would believe certain things, surely you have never read the book in saying that, Hill even gave examples of a genuis who was locked up due to his belief in what he wanted to acheive, this is the very heart of the book, this is why people buy the book, and you said it yourself it is not feasible.
By the way, to flap your arms and fly was an extreme example.

I will add though that I do believe in miracles and the power of faith etc, I just don`t believe Hills book is accurate or a "great truth" as its presented.
 
BayView said:
This is one of the biggest banes in my life.

Why do people choose to live a "loser" life???

It does not take a lot of intelligence or effort to do well in life - if you know that this is the case.

Unfortunately, the majority of human behavior is to follow the path of least resistance. This is why you see people drop out of school, or get fat, live on the dole and so on.

It is simply easier to do less. It certainly doesn't help if the Gubbmint makes it easy for them to do so.

But there are consequences to this behavior; being poor, being unhealthy and so on. It's ok if you choose; but most don't and then whinge about how unlucky they are, or "how lucky the rich b@stards are".

Imagine if you could grab hold of every 6 year old on their first day of school and force them to put away 10% of every single week's pocket money and/or money from doing jobs etc. Then tell them that they will retire at 40 as a very well-off individual, and they would believe you and do as you say..

Imagine if you could grab them and tell them they need to sacrifice one hour every day of their school life towards homework and they will retire at 40 as a very well-off individual, and they believe you and do as you say..

It all sounds so easy, but it takes discipline, commitment, sacrifice, pain, and is boring, and for most people this is too big a job.

All through my life, the most successful people I have met are those who are willing to go the extra yard; to do more than the job asks for, to get up early and go for that run...and so on.

This is (generally) the 5% that are at the top. Some get lucky and make loads from a fluke, but this is rare.

The 95% who are at the bottom won't do what is required - and this applies to any field of endeavour.

I often use golf as the example. Those who know me know I was a golf pro. Now, to me this is no big deal. But to get to this level requires years of hard work - getting up at dawn to pound balls and so on.

Many people say to me; "gee, I'd love to play like you do".

Well, here's the thing - anyone can do it! The price to be paid is lots and lots of practice, lessons and sacrifice - lots of effort, study, and more important - application.

I spent 30 years teaching people to play golf. Much of what I taught was application. The information was what people wanted, but then they had to physically go out and do it - to apply it.

Very few ever did. They all wanted the miracle cure with no work.

To parallel this to becoming wealthy, all that is required is for people to get the information, then apply it.

For most, the first step is to stop spending on cr@p, and put money aside for investing.

Sounds easy, but as we know; most people don't apply this knowledge - even after they get it.
Click to expand...

That`s true and that is why Hill packaged the book up as an easy guide for the everyday man to have anything he wants in life.
In a perfect world what you say is true of course but do you really believe that?, I don`t, it has a lot more to do with what your priorities/skills/physical appearance/mental mindset and any given combination of one or more intanglibles.
If you have a city of ten people they cannot all be rich and successful.
 
I read it when I was younger. It didn't make an impression on me - it was too complex and I figured that either I was too dumb or the author was over complicating things.

I read widely on personal development for a few years and encourage you to do so as well (it'd be sad to pin all your hopes on one book and then perhaps one day find out that the emperor wasn't wearing any clothing). Read for example about Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist that gave Hill his start and the reason why he donated so many libraries. You'll discover success techniques and principles and can choose to apply the things you feel are congruent with yourself.

Over time you might form your own philosophies about life and success, not worry about trying to be successful, but just engage in the activities that put you in a state of flow.
 
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