Everyone has a brain and everyone can think, but you have to think correctly to get rich.
Think and Grow Rich Video Summary by One Percent Better & The Swedish Investor
Key Takeaways
No matter which track you choose to follow, in order to get rich: becoming a trader, a value investor, a real estate pro, a chief executive, or perhaps an entrepreneur, you must have the correct mindset.
Due to the law of averages, some people may be able to acquire riches without following the advice in these videos, but hoping that life will give you such a break, instead of taking responsibility of your own actions and thoughts, is a plan that is flawed, at best. Instead, let us now examine how you can optimize your chances of gathering a great fortune.
"If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self"
Step 1: Have a Burning Desire
Not hope, not a wish, but a strong burning desire. This is perhaps the most important step. The 6 steps to turn desire into financial gain:
A long time ago, a great warrior had to face a much stronger foe. When the Warrior’s armies arrived in enemy territory, he had them burn all the ships behind them at the beach. They were greatly outnumbered by the enemy, but now, they had no choice but to win. So … they won.
If you ask a hundred people what they want in life, they will probably not be able to answer. If you push them though, they will mention some of their wishes – perhaps money, fame or security. But the universe doesn’t respond to vaguely expressed wishes. It responds to a burning desire, implemented through definite plans and a constant persistence.
"God seems to throw himself on the side of the man who knows exactly what he wants, if he's determined to get just that."
Understand that you must have Desire in order to succeed. If you want to reach higher than mediocrity, be sure that you can attach a burning desire to a possible outcome of that endeavor of yours.
Here’s a six-step method for transforming that desire into its material counterpart:
- Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.
- Determine when you intend to start giving in return for the money you desire.
- Establish an exact date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
- Create a plan for carrying out your desire, then put it into action right away.
- Write down the amount of money you desire, the date you will get it and your plan to get there. The four previously mentioned steps into a statement.
- Read your written statement out loud twice a day. Preferably in the morning and right before you go to sleep. See and feel yourself already in possession of the money.
The last step is called auto-suggestion. Have you ever exaggerated a story or told a lie, until you started to believe in it yourself? Well, this is the exact same thing, but it aims at creating faith inside you that your burning desire will one day come true.
Step 2: Faith
Faith is a strong, emotionally charged belief. Faith is a state of mind which may be induced or created by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind through the principle of auto-suggestion. You develop faith after you have mastered the 13 principles in this book, but especially auto-suggestion.
Faith is a strong, emotionally charged belief. Faith is a state of mind which may be induced or created by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind through the principle of auto-suggestion. You develop faith after you have mastered the 13 principles in this book, but especially auto-suggestion.
Step 3: It is what you think that matters.
"Truly, thoughts are things, and powerful things at that when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence and a burning desire for that translation into riches."
This is the main idea of Think and Grow Rich. You can even tell it from the title. If you don’t see riches in your thoughts, how can you expect to ever see them in your bank accounts?
All achievements and all earned riches start with an idea. Every great leader that has ever existed was a dreamer. How do you think that Mahatma Gandhi or George Washington, or Martin Luther King succeeded? It all started with an idea.
You have the ability to control your own mind, because you can feed it with whatever thought impulses that you choose. It is incredibly powerful. Thought, backed by a strong desire, has a tendency to transmute itself into its physical equivalent.
It’s a double-edged sword though. If you fail to plant thoughts in your subconscious mind, deliberately, it won’t remain idle. It will pick up other thoughts which unintentionally reach it. Once again, you don’t want to leave this to chance.
"If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure that you will control nothing else"
Auto-suggestion is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of mind. It supports the first two principles off desire and faith.
Whatever environment you place yourself in, your subconscious mind is going to take in stuff. You need to put yourself in the environment for profit. Profit in well-being, make you a better person, profit in money. You are the average of the 5 people you spend most time around. Are the people you spend the most time with making you a better person?
Before you move on to the next steps, repeat the 6 steps from step 1. When you reading aloud your written statement, Napoleon stresses that you attach feeling and emotion to it because your subconscious mind only acts on thoughts that are emotionally charged.
Put yourself in situations that will be profitable. Feed your mind with books, knowledge, videos, and people that are going to make you stronger, work harder and push you to grow rich.
Step 4: Specialized Knowledge
The power of a network. Successful people leverage the power of specialized knowledge of other people. Knowledge has no value expect that which can be gained from it’s application. Just knowing something doesn’t make it profitable, you have to know how to apply it.
Step 5: Imagination
"It has been said that man can create anything with which he can imagine."
If you’ve been brought up like most people with “work and you won’t starve,” this will make you uncomfortable. Even though the only way you’ll ever be rich is by thinking, it’s the hardest work there is. The only thing you can’t outsource is your thoughts. The value your thoughts can generate is literally only limited by your imagination.
If you “think,” the amount of opportunities is only limited by your imagination. However, thinking has no value to most people and is associated with laziness. Imagination is necessary to turn desire into real-world results.
"Thinking is the hardest work there is. which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." -Henry Ford
Step 6: Organized Planning
If you are to get rich, you need a plan. There are four things to keep in mind. Each will help you turn your plan into action. If a plan doesn’t work, replace it with a new plan.
- Create a mastermind group which is a coordination of knowledge and effort in a spirit of harmony between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose
- Decide what you can offer your mastermind team in return for their cooperation. No one wants leeches that picks the brains of other’s without providing value.
- Meet with your team members 2x/week and more often if possible.
- Maintain harmony with yourself and every team member
Step 7: Decision
People who fail to make money, are easily influenced by the opinions of others. Family and friends will often hold you back whether they are well intentioned or not. Make your own decisions.
People who fail have a habit of reaching decisions slowly and change them too often. Entrepreneurs know this as shiny object syndrome- where a new idea or trend captures your attention and you end up straying away from your original goal or decision. Reach decisions quickly and change decisions slowly.
Step 8: Become an unstoppable force
No one is ever defeated until he or she has accepted that as a reality. Persistence is everything in any part of life where you wish to thrive. Rich people persist. The more intense your desire, the more likely you are to persist.
"There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence, but the quality is to the character of a man, what carbon is to steel"
When someone has cultivated the habit of persistence, they gain insurance against failure. Remember, there is no such thing as something for nothing. At times, it may seem like other people succeed without first paying the price, but that is probably not true. (Even if some people would like to advertise it that way) The grass is not greener on the other side. Stick to your plan and win. A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits.
Step 9: The Power of The Mastermind
Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose. The biggest benefit of masterminds, is synergy. 1+1=3. The mind’s within the group becomes something more than the sum of their parts so greater things can be achieved.
Step 10: The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
"Destroy the sex glands, whether in man or beast, and you have removed a major source of action."
According to Napoleon Hill, the five strongest stimulants known to man are: Friendship, Music, A burning desire for riches, Love, and Sex.
Sexual desire is one of the most powerful human desires. Men with sexual drive develop imagination, courage, willpower, persistence and creative ability. It’s a powerful driving force that can be channeled into other creative pursuits.
Desire for sex is the most powerful all human desires. So strong is this desire that it was said that the Trojan War was started as a result of it. Observe what happens to any animal after it has been castrated, and you see what happens when sexual energy is removed from a being.
"The energy must be transmuted from desire for physical contact, into some other form of desire and action before it will lift one to the status of a genius."
There’s a reason why most men don’t achieve much before they are 40, and it’s not only due to the fact that they become wiser and more self-confident by them. It requires a lot of willpower, the forming of new habits and the elimination of old behaviors.
Step 11: The Subconscious Mind
Positive and negative emotions can’t exist in the mind at the same time. One or the other must dominate. It’s your responsibility to make sure that positive emotions constitute the dominating influence of your mind. The seven most powerful positive emotions are: desire, faith, love, sex, enthusiasm, romance and hope. Napoleon encourages to form a habit of applying these positive emotions.
Step 12: The Brain
"The sixth sense defies description."
There is this collective mind that we all can tap into by radiating the correct frequency from our brains. His explanations seem to be in line with ones of psychedelic experiences. Maybe he’s suggesting a DMT, LSD or mushrooms trip?
"It cannot be described to a person who has not mastered the other principles of this philosophy, because such a person has no knowledge, and no experience which with the sixth sense may be compared."
Step 13: The Sixth Ghosts of Fear
Before you can put Napoleon Hills philosophy into use, you must conquer your fears. Here are six of the most common and most destructive ones, and remember, they only exist in your mind, and you have the ability to control them, if you so desire, and if you practice enough.
1. The fear of poverty Common symptom of this fear is the indifference towards money expressed through a lack of ambition. Your mind can’t focus on how to become rich if it constantly must worry about how to put food on your table. You must reach an absolute decision that whatever you can acquire, as long as you give it your all, is sufficient.
2. The fear of criticism This is characterized by nervousness in the presence of others and it destroys initiative. To beat it, you must stop worrying about what other people think or say. Dare to be a little bit cringy sometimes!
3. The fear of ill-health A common symptom, is the habit of faking illness to serve as an alibi for laziness. To make this stop, you must forget about symptoms, and especially stop looking for them. Any symptom can be deadly if you google it!
4. The fear of loss of love of someone Jealousy is a common sign of this. Reach a decision that you will get along without love if necessary. And, if you’re currently single, use this time to create a life, where you learn to appreciate living by yourself. Then, everything beyond that is just a bonus!
5. The fear of old age Speaking apologetically about one’s age is characteristic for the fear of old age. Eliminate this fear by accepting aging, not as a handicap, but as a blessing. For you have the possibility of being much wiser and having a better self-control than during your youth. And hopefully, the wonders of compound interest have been working in your favor for a while.
6. The fear of death A common symptom is the habit of thinking about dying, instead of living your life to the fullest. The reason why you must conquer this, should be obvious. I can’t imagine that anyone who is spending his days worrying about the fires of hell, or having to spend an eternity wearing a nightgown can ever be happy. The endless nap is inescapable, learn to accept it!
In general, kill off these fears by coming to the conclusion, that nothing life has to offer is worth the price of constant worry.