• The Secret to Think and Grow Rich

    by Alexander Becker on January 25, 2007 | Link

    The original bestseller Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, first published in 1937, was the outcome of interviewing and researching more than 500 successful men and women in an effort to discover the exact method they applied in order to achieve their respective goals. Included among them were Thomas Edison, Charles Schwab, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell, and John D. Rockefeller, alongside many others.

    The purpose of the studies was to be able to consciously reproduce the natural ways that led to the success of the aforementioned people. Please note that none of them ever consciously applied any secret method to accomplish their goals.

    Only in hindsight -- after the fact -- is it possible to recognize the patterns that were most successful. It doesn't even take a Rockefeller -- you could as well study young children's behavior and derive the exact same blueprint.

    In the introduction to Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, indirectly describes a -- somewhat hidden -- how-to methodology of thinking and achieving any goal you desire, not limited to achieving financial success.

    Throughout this philosophy will be found the suggestion that thought, backed by strong desire, has a tendency to transmute itself into its physical equivalent. --Napoleon Hill

    The latest take on Think and Grow Rich, is the "manual" The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich by Brian Kim. It is published in electronic form and is actually a workbook, a step-by-step walk-through, dealing with the virtues and their sequence required to think and grow rich.

    Brian Kim has found the secret, he cites the natural process of goal achievement as a main outcome of the application of the secret as well as a major ingredient of the recipe itself.

    The main point is: The secret is the secret. It takes the understanding of the secret to spot it. And the reverse is also true: The steps towards discovering the secret are exactly what you're after, as in the journey is the reward, only better. Stated in only slightly different words, the secret is -- while being somewhat elusive -- that there is no secret.

    While Napoleon Hill states that specialized knowledge is an important part of the method, in the Hidden Secret, Brian Kim recognizes that it's a mere by-product which is almost taking care of itself. The aquisition of specialized knowledge is another instance of a natural outcome, if and only if, you follow the steps and the sequence to the letter.

    It is said that the secret jumps from the page once you're ready.

    Somewhere as you read, the secret to which I refer will jump from the page and stand boldly before you, if you are ready for it! When it appears, you will recognize it.

    The best thing about the secret is that it can be spelled out and yet you're only able to grasp it, if and when, you are ready for it.

    On the other hand, although the secret, the recipe, is a natural process, it is not quite sure that this natural process is in fact learnable by anybody who even gets the book and the manual read aloud. The theory is that even with the most thoroughly annotated and delicately explained step-by-step instructions to discover the secret, it is not universally reproducible for an arbitrary reader.

    It's like teaching an art: The techniques can be acquired by almost anybody yet only a few wanna-be painters have the talent -- the other half. Without talent, you teach technicians, not artists.

    Back to Napoleon Hill --

    If you are ready for the secret, you already possess one half of it.

    Want proof? Here is the secret: Apply burning desire, absolute faith, and a definite plan to your major purpose using this exact sequence, without ever giving up while staying religiously consistent all the time, whatever it takes.

    So what you say? There you go, as a prerequisite to think and grow rich you already need to possess half of it...

    Conclusion: Get all the info you can and -- if you really want it -- you will find the secret. I recommend the annotated edition by Ross Cornwell even though the original book is in the public domain. Get the Hidden Secret by and from Brian Kim. The step-by-step instructions are particularly helpful and interesting and will give you some valuable insight both into the methodology and your own thinking. Brian Kim teaches you the secret -- guaranteed --, it's up to you whether you end up as a technician or a true artist.

    Of note is the revised edition, Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised, an edited and annotated homage by Ross Cornwell who --

    restore[d] Dr. Hill's book to its original manuscript content (it was first published in 1937, but was abridged in 1960), annotate[d] it with more than 50 pages of endnotes (most of the persons and events he discusses are generally unknown to readers today), index[ed] it thoroughly, add[ed] an appendix with a wealth of additional information about Dr. Hill and his work, and revise[d] the book in ways to help remove certain "impediments" to reading the book today...

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