Must Read Summaries - Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

Thoughts Are Things

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe man can achieve.

Thoughts are very powerful when mixed with a definiteness of purpose and a burning desire for their translation into riches or other material objects.

A man by the name of Edwin Barnes once turned up at Thomas Edisons business and announced he had come to go into business with the inventor.

Thomas Edison later said,

He stood there before me like an ordinary tramp, but there was something about the expression of his face which conveyed the impression he was determined to get what he had come after. I had learned from years of experience that when a man really desires something so deeply that hes willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked for because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved no mistake had been made.

In other words, an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into material rewards by the application of known principles. You can start with nothing except the capacity to know what you want, and add determination to realize your desires. To do this, you have to overcome the habit of quitting when overtaken by temporary defeat.

Before success comes in any persons life, they are sure to meet with temporary defeat and perhaps some failure. Often, success comes just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken you. All you have to do is to hang on in there.

The answer you may be seeking to the questions raised by experiences in your life may be found in your own mind. One sound idea is all you need to achieve success. When riches begin to come they come so quickly and in such great abundance that youll be wondering where they had been hiding for all those lean years.

Riches actually begin with a state of mind and definiteness of purpose - with little or no work. One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average mans familiarity with the word impossible. He knows all the rules that wont work, and all the things that cant be done. Success comes to those who become success conscious - or those who are obsessed with success. Failure comes to those who allow themselves to be failure conscious.

Another common weakness is the habit of measuring everyone and everything by our own experiences. We can foolishly believe that our own limitations are the exact measure of everyone elses limitations.

Every person is the master of their own fate - because everyone has the power to control what they think about. Brains become magnetized by the dominating thoughts that are held in the mind. These magnets attract the forces, the people and the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of the most dominating thoughts.

Desire

There are no limitations except those we set ourselves. Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.

Burn your bridges behind you whenever you decide on a definite course of action or have a definitive goal to work towards. Make it impossible to go back any way except victorious. When you cut off all possible sources of retreat, you unleash creative powers within your soul that you never knew existed.

Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for more of it. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, planning definite ways and means to acquire riches and backing those plans with persistence that does not recognize failure will bring riches.

The method by which a desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent is;

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. Not a vague general term, but an exact amount.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for that amount of money. (Remember - theres no such thing as a free lunch or something for nothing).
3. Establish a definite date by which you intend to possess the amount of money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out that desire and begin at once (whether you are ready or not) to put that plan into action.
5. Write a clear, concise statement of the amount, by when and your plan for how you will achieve it.
6. Read your written statement aloud each day - when you arise in the morning, in the middle of the day and before retiring for the night. As you read, visualize yourself already having achieved your goal.

If you truly desire money so keenly that desire becomes an obsession and visualize yourself already in possession, youll become determined to have it.

All those who have accumulated great fortunes throughout history first did a certain amount of dreaming, hoping, wishing, desiring, planning and visualizing - all before they actually acquired their fortunes.

Definteness of purpose and burning desire to posses it made all the difference. The real leaders of the world have always been those people who could convert their thoughts into skyscrapers, factories, airplanes and everything else.

The great pioneers of the past did exactly that. For example, Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp operated by electricity, and despite 10,000 failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality. Practical dreamers dont quit. The world today is filled with an abundance of opportunity which the dreamers of the past never knew.

All those who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heart-breaking struggles before they arrive. Often, the turning point in their lives comes at the moment of greatest crisis when they seem to discover hidden sources of strength.

Faith

Ideas are translated into huge fortunes all around you every day.Using the medium of faith, you can join that group of people whose achievements know no bounds.

Faith is the head chemist of the mind. The emotions of faith, love and sex are the most powerful of all the major positive emotions. When the three are blended together, thoughts reach the subconscious where they are changed into their spiritual equivalent, the only form that can receive instruction from the Infinite Intelligence.

In actuality, however, faith is a state of mind which can be created by repeated instructions to the subconscious mind through the principle of autosuggestion. Faith is a state of mind which you can influence and develop at will through the repetition of affirmations.

All thoughts which have been emotionalized (given feeling) and then mixed with faith begin immediately to transform themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart. This works just as readily for negative thoughts as for positive thoughts.

Millions of people feel themselves destined to be poor or failures because of some strange force over which they have no control. In this way, people are programming their subconscious minds with negative material, and right on cue thats what they achieve.

Perfection of this principle comes through practice. It cannot come by merely reading instructions. A mind dominated by positive emotions becomes a favorable place for the state of mind known as faith. Faith can be likened to an eternal elixir which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought. Faith is the starting point of all riches.

Its well known that a person finally comes to believe whatever is repeated to them enough times - whether the statement is true or not. In fact, every person becomes whatever they are because of the dominating thoughts they permit to occupy their mind. The thoughts anyone deliberately puts into their minds and nourishes with intense emotions constitute the motivating forces directing and controlling every movement, act and deed.