Think And Grow Rich! (1937 - 1st Edition) by Napoleon Hill

Summary

Napoleon Hill presents success as the result of turning a clearly chosen desire into action through planning, belief, useful service, and persistence. Although the book focuses heavily on wealth, it also describes riches more broadly as including peace of mind, strong relationships, harmony, and personal fulfillment.

Main strategies and methods

• Study actively: Treat the book as a textbook rather than entertainment. Hill recommends reading slowly—one chapter at a time—underlining useful passages, revisiting them, and discussing them with a regular study group.
• Set a definite goal: Decide exactly what you want rather than relying on vague wishes. For a financial goal, Hill’s six-step method is to:
  1. Specify the exact amount.
  2. Decide what service or value you will provide in return.
  3. Set a target date.
  4. Create a plan and begin acting on it.
  5. Write down the goal, deadline, contribution, and plan.
  6. Read the statement aloud twice daily while vividly imagining the desired outcome.
• Use belief and self-suggestion: Hill argues that repeatedly focusing on a goal with emotional commitment can strengthen confidence and influence action. He advises pairing affirmations with concrete effort rather than relying on words alone.
• Build specialized knowledge: General knowledge is not enough, Hill says; knowledge becomes useful when organized and applied toward a specific purpose. He encourages continued learning through experience, mentors, libraries, courses, and collaboration.
• Use imagination to make plans: Hill distinguishes between recombining existing ideas and generating new insights. Put ideas into written plans and revise them when circumstances show they are not working.
• Seek cooperative support: Form a “Mastermind” group of compatible people who can contribute knowledge, feedback, and encouragement. Hill stresses regular meetings, shared purpose, fair compensation, and harmony among members.
• Persist through setbacks: Treat defeat as potentially temporary information that a plan needs changing. Hill’s examples emphasize continuing after rejection or difficulty while replacing ineffective plans instead of simply repeating them.
• Make decisions promptly: Decide what you are pursuing, avoid endless delay, and be cautious about letting other people’s opinions dictate your choices. Hill also advises listening and gathering information without unnecessarily revealing plans.
• Offer valuable service: For work and career progress, Hill emphasizes the quality and quantity of work and a cooperative, agreeable manner. He recommends researching a prospective employer, identifying a specific role, and clearly presenting the value you can provide.
• Practice leadership through service: Hill’s leadership checklist includes courage, self-control, fairness, decisive planning, attention to detail, accountability, cooperation, and willingness to do more than the minimum. He criticizes leadership based on intimidation, selfishness, or status alone.
• Review your habits regularly: The book offers a 28-question annual self-analysis covering goals, work quality, persistence, decision-making, fear, spending, relationships, and whether you are using time effectively. It also catalogs common obstacles such as procrastination, lack of purpose, poor self-discipline, intolerance, and failure to cooperate.
• Manage fear and discouragement: Hill identifies fears of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, and death. He recommends examining these fears, making decisions rather than dwelling in worry, and limiting exposure to discouraging influences.
• Direct attention toward constructive aims: Hill encourages cultivating hope, enthusiasm, confidence, and self-control while resisting habits of negative thinking, blame, and excuse-making.
• Channel strong emotion into constructive work: Hill describes “sex transmutation” as redirecting sexual energy into creative or professional activity. This is presented as his personal theory, not as established wellness science.

The book’s accounts of wealth, health, the subconscious, and “infinite intelligence” are presented as Hill’s philosophy and anecdotes; they should not be taken as medical or scientific guidance.

Presenters and sources

• Napoleon Hill — author
• Dan John Miller — narrator/reader
• Master Key Society — recording producer

The book also cites or discusses figures including Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Edwin C. Barnes, and others.