Why I Am a Think and Grow Rich Fanatic
BY MITCH HOROWITZ
I often use this blog to explore contentious issues in New Thought. But not today. Today I am writing as a fanboy – and with unashamed admiration for Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I am a fanatic for the book. I give away copies, evangelize for it, and recently published a replica of the original 1937 edition.
Having beat a drum for Think and Grow Rich for years, I am sometimes asked by friends and coworkers: Does this brashly titled, 80-year-old self-help book really work?
The answer is yes. But only if you avoid one common mistake: reading the book casually, thinking that you already “get it” – and thus skipping vital exercises and steps.
Think and Grow Rich will yield its magic only if you do exactly what the author says – and do it as if your life depends on it.
Maybe you’re like me. You’ve read dozens upon dozens of self-help books and you have a “been there, done that” attitude. It is easy to fall into. But that kind of approach will blunt the benefits of Think and Grow Rich. This is because Napoleon Hill wrote the book in a very exact manner. He spent twenty years studying the lives of high achievers of all types – inventors, generals, diplomats, artists, industrialists – and he codified their common traits into a step-by-step program. Hill was certain, as am I, that he had created a model of what great minds do when bringing an idea from the conceptual stage to the physical stage.
When friends tell me that they feel stuck in life, I give them a copy of Think and Grow Rich with this advice: Go home and start reading the book, and follow every step and exercise with fanatical zeal. Forget about every other self-help book that you have ever read (including those that crib from Think and Grow Rich). As a personal experiment, dedicate yourself to Hill’s process for six months.
One of the beautiful things about Think and Grow Rich is that it can be used to attain any worthy aim. Whether you’re an artist, graduate student, or soldier, if you’re not reading Think and Grow Rich, you’re selling yourself short. The book will meet you wherever you are, and will serve whatever goal you have in mind. But only if you follow its program all the way.
Let me offer a personal example. Hill instructs you to write down a specific sum of money that you want to earn, and the date by when you want to earn it. When I first started reading Think and Grow Rich I was uncomfortable writing down a particular amount. I hesitated doing so. It felt unnatural. It seemed to me like I was closing off options or cheapening my priorities. Writing down a sum chaffed against my religious leanings. But once I got past those hesitancies, I found it extremely potent to commit to an exact dollar amount and deadline.
As I write these words I am looking at a yellow sticky note pasted inside the back cover of my personal copy of Think and Grow Rich (whose jacket and spine I have covered with clear packing tape to keep the book from falling apart after repeat readings). My yellow note is dated “11/23/14” and has a specific sum which I committed to earning by “11/23/15” (which happens to be my birthday). I later wrote an addendum on this piece of paper: “This happened!! 5/27/16.” The latter date is when I noticed, quite by surprise, that the sum had arrived within the specified time frame.
Why did this happen? One reason is that writing down and committing to a precise amount and deadline can produce a unique pull on the mind, both consciously and, I suspect, subconsciously. When you write down, and thus reinforce, any concrete goal, you start noticing opportunities, people, possibilities, and ideas that can serve your objective.
So, accept my advice as that of a friend who wishes you success: Read Think and Grow Rich in the right way. Set aside all doubts and self-help fatigue, even if you’ve read it before. Give the book everything you’ve got. It will give back to you.
Mitch Horowitz is a PEN Award-winning historian and the author of One Simple Idea: How the Lessons of Positive Thinking Can Transform Your Life. Mitch is vice president and executive editor at TarcherPerigee, where he recently reissued Think and Grow Rich: The Classic Edition. Visit him at www.MitchHorowitz.com
Mark Twain famously said: “The two most important days of your life are the day you were born–and the day you find out why.” With all due respect, I posit that the “why” isn’t to be “healthy, happy and prosperous” as my late pastor used to teach.
We know that earthly riches have no eternal value, so it’s quite possible that a soul’s purpose for incarnating far surpasses material wealth, robust health or even a happy relationship. There something significant to be learned, balanced or gained through an experience of lack, illness or even aloneness.
We know that we can’t learn, experience or practice generosity unless other souls volunteer to play the role of someone in need. Neither role is more desirable or valuable than the other in the Grand Scheme. As well, we cannot become proficient at forgiving 70 times 7 unless we’re in situations that provide those opportunities. Trespassers are a blessing to those who understand why they appeared on their paths.
What if the myopic ego self wants wealth, but it violates the will of the soul who feels that anything doesn’t last eternally is worthless? Should we violate the soul’s will? Can we? Is it wise to even try?
In all our getting, may we get an understanding of why we chose to appear on this planet at this time, with this bank account balance and this particular cast of characters. May we learn what we sought to learn. May we grow as much as we intended. May we, through our conversations with the God Within, discover pertinent glimpses of our spiritual history. May we learn what part of that history did we come here to heal, balance or forgive.
If we don’t accomplish our missions before we step out of these current human body costumes, quite possibly, we will be more impoverished than when we arrived.
Hi Patricia, I share your concerns but I have a frankly different view. First, I noted in the piece that one needn’t want to “grow rich” to benefit from Hill’s book; it is a blueprint for all ethical accomplishment. Second, and more importantly, I am leery of the idea that the “ego” may want something at odds with the “soul” or “essence,” or some such. For years I thought in those terms but eventually came to question them. These are labels that we place on ineffable experience. They can become a kind of catechism in themselves. When we manifest behavior that we like we call it “essence” — and when we don’t like it we call it “personality.” I don’t what my soul is precisely. What is spirit? What is personality? I’m not positing these questions rhetorically or looking for a dictionary definition. Perhaps who we are is all one thing. My sense is that human beings are here to be generative. And in order to be so, men and women must find their own way to contribute to life and to create beautiful and constructive things. If your idea of that is outlined above, bravo — I will be first in line to support you. But people who consider themselves “spiritual” or “progressive” often fail to understand the tremendous act of self-realization experienced by an individual who founds a successful business, or creates a work of art, or succeeds in their vocation after years of effort. Those experiences are every bit as transcendent as what you are describing above. If Napoleon Hill or Marcus Aurelius or the words of Christ can help the individual attain his or her own sense of realization and constructive action, then I think that is an example of ethical philosophy in action. And if a person’s goal is to accumulate resources, I would say the same holds true. Are riches temporal? Not always. Resources can educate a child or bring beauty into the world, or found a school or hospital. The Bible that I read at night was produced by someone’s resources. What matters is not the type of aim a person has, but the generativity and self-expressiveness that aim brings into creation. In such instances we may be honoring the principle that we are created in the image of the Highest. -m