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    Think and Grow Rich
    Think and Grow Rich
    Think and Grow Rich
    Ebook354 pages12 hours

    Think and Grow Rich

    By Napoleon Hill

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Join the millions of readers who have reached new heights of success using Napoleon Hill’s powerful strategies. On bestseller lists for more than 50 years!
     
    “Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.” —Napoleon Hill. Achieve greatness in today’s world! Inspired by Andrew Carnegie’s personal philosophy, Think and Grow Rich teaches ordinary people the secrets of success. This easy-to-read motivational guide reveals how your subconscious mind and attitude affect your ability to reach your goals and fulfill your potential. Anyone can implement the tenets Hill so clearly lays out—which is why the book is believed to have sold more than 100 million copies, remained on bestseller lists for more than half a century, and had a major influence on personal-growth seminars. It proves that: “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFall River
    Release dateJul 20, 2021
    ISBN9781454940289
    Author

    Napoleon Hill

    NAPOLEON HILL was born on October 26, 1883 in Southwest Virginia. Napoleon was born into a rural, poverty-stricken area where education was not important. At the time, boys quit school around age 13 or 14 and went to work in the coal mines. However, Napoleon wanted a different life, so he sought an opportunity to go to Tazewell Business School and later received a job as a secretary. Eventually, he took a job as a reporter and interviewed Andrew Carnegie, one of the world’s richest men. Mr. Carnegie urged Napoleon to devote his life to developing a simple success philosophy that anyone could follow, and Napoleon did just that. In 1928, he published his first book, The Law of Success, which was a result of studying 500 of the most successful men at the time. The Law of Success was a complex book and was over 1000 pages long, so Napoleon condensed his research and wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937. Think and Grow Rich has sold millions of copies all over the world and is a set of principles that we can all use to live successful lives. Napoleon Hill was a lifetime author and continued writing books until he passed in 1970. Today, the Napoleon Hill Foundation continues Napoleon’s work of making the world a better place in which to live and has published over 100 books by Dr. Napoleon Hill. To learn more, go to naphill.org

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    Reviews for Think and Grow Rich

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    • 3/5

      Sep 23, 2017

      I'm listening to this as an audiobook while getting other things done. It was written in 1938 and I don't think has aged well, in regards to writing style. However you can't take a step into positive thinking/learned happiness/learned optimism waters without hearing about this book. It seems to be the primordial well from which all other positive thinking guides spring. So, I'm listening to it mostly as research so I know what the heck everyone is talking about.
    • 3/5

      Jan 19, 2017

      I was interested to read this because it inspired Bad Brains. Makes some good points and reiterates some ideas I've read in other books of the genre.
    • 4/5

      Dec 23, 2016

      The book was written just after The Great Depression of the 1930s, however, much of its advice is still relevant today. There are a few dated areas, but there are small, minor, and far-between. This book is as good today as it was then.
    • 5/5

      Jan 29, 2016

      Always a great reread or re-read. A good straight forward kick in the pants to put the head on straight and move forward. I have bought copies for my children to keep and review over their lives
    • 5/5

      Dec 21, 2015

      Think And Grow Rich is phenomenal and life changing for me and everyone I know that has read it! I recommend it to all of my friends and family. It's a must read at least once! Napoleon Hill was very ahead of his time. Once I read it I wished I had knew about it and read it many years ago!
    • 4/5

      Sep 14, 2014

      Definitely useful.
    • 2/5

      Aug 14, 2014

      This Audio book had a unique way of swithching disks that I liked. The beginning and end of each disk would have a lot of music so you'd realize that it was time to switch without being interrupted in thought by "End of Disk 1"

      The rest of this was not appreciated. Granted taking my word for it might not be the best when it comes to self help books from someone who didn't actually follow the suggestions.

      Regardless, this book badly needs to be updated for the 20th century. Did you know part of the reason I might be poor is because I don't have enough sex energy? Did you know that it doesn't matter if women are poor? They might kill themselves, but were not sure. Oh and every man loves a woman. None of this would go over by any 21st century publisher.
    • 3/5

      Jan 9, 2014

      A great Book, a classic that everyone should read and capitalise on.
    • 2/5

      Aug 7, 2012

      I started this book just because I was looking for something to read via Audible.com. I continued on reading due to having already used the credit in my account and because I needed something to listen to while running, anyway.The original edition contains dated scientific references, among other things. A majority of the book is written in a formal style, such that it reads as a textbook, but without actual authority behind it.There are some inspirational moments and prescriptive details in the book, but the book starts and finishes in the realm of the surreal.I actually ended up enjoying the cultural oddities preserved in a 70 year old book, which got me through it.
    • 5/5

      Jul 21, 2011

      This book was, for the most part, very encouraging. I don't agree with the spirituality behind Hills Philosophy, but a lot of what he presents is common sense. Thinking patterns do affect outcomes in people lives and wealthy people tend to think a certain way.
    • 5/5

      Jul 2, 2009

      Think and Grow Rich is a book to help people create a state of mind that can assist in achieving success. The book offers a number of exercises for the reader to complete to improve success rates. The author provides lists of attributes and attitudes that seem to be common drivers of success and failure for the reader to reflect on.

      One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success. Riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose. One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man's familiarity with the word "impossible." He knows all the rules which will not work. He knows all the things which cannot be done. Know what you want and be determined to stand by that desire until he realized it. Seek expert counsel before giving up. Keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be. This is a lesson that needs to be learned before succeeding.

      There are a number of principles of success:

      Desire is the starting point of all achievement. Faith is the visualization of and belief in attainment of desire. Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith. We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, though the stimuli of our daily environment. Auto-suggestion is the medium for influencing the subconscious mind.

      Specialized knowledge is the personal experience or observations. There are two kind of knowledge - general and specialized. Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized and intelligently directed through practical plans of action and directed to a definite end. The accumulation of great fortunes calls for power, and power is acquired through highly organized and intelligently directed specialized knowledge, but that knowledge does not, necessarily, have to be in the possession of the man who accumulates the fortune. Specialized knowledge is among the most plentiful and cheapest forms of service which may be had. It pays to know how to purchase knowledge. There is a universal weakness of people - lack of ambition. Specialized knowledge, plus imagination, are the ingredients that go into a successful business. The beginning of a successful business is an idea. A idea is capable of yielding an income far greater than that of the average professional whose education required several years of college. There is no fixed price for sound ideas. Imagination is the workshop of the mind.

      Organized planning is the crystallization of desire into action. It is not the lawyer who knows the most law, but the one who best prepares his case, who wins. Remember when your plans fail, that temporary defeat is not permanent failure. It may only mean that your plans have not been sound. No man is ever whipped, until he quits -- in his own mind. "Brains" are a form of capital which cannot be permanently depreciated through depressions, nor can this form of capital be stolen or spent. Money is as worthless as a sand dune, until it has been mixed with efficient "brains". Quality, Quantity, Spirit is required for delivering a service. This is commonly called the QQS rating. "Man, know thyself!" If you market merchandise successfully, you must know the merchandise. You should know all of your weaknesses in order that you may either bridge them or eliminate them. This is a free country where every man may think as he pleases, where nearly everybody can live with but little effort, where many may live well without doing and work whatsoever. However, you should know the full truth concerning this freedom of which so many people boast, and so few understand. As great as it is, as far as it reaches, as many privileges as it provides, it does not, and can not bring riches without effort.

      Decision is the mastery of procrastination. Keep a closed mouth and open ears and eyes. Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it. Deeds, and not words, are what count most. The sustained effort necessary to induce faith. Persistence is a state of mind, therefore it can be cultivated

      Power of the master mind the driving force. Power is essential for success in the accumulation of money. Power may be defined as "organized and intelligently directed knowledge. "Master Mind" may be defined as: coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two of more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.

      The Subconscious Mind is the connecting link. Positive and negative emotions can not occupy the mind at the same time. One or the other must dominate. Fears are nothing more than a state of mind. One's state of mind is subject of control and direction. The six fears are: Poverty, Criticism, Ill health, Loss of love of someone, Old age, Death. There can be no compromise between poverty and riches. The two roads that to poverty and riches go in opposite directions.

      Your business in life is to achieve success. To be successful, you must find peace of mind, acquire the material needs of life, and attain happiness. You may control your own mind, you have the power to feed it whatever thought impulses you choose. With this privileges goes the responsibility of using it constructively. You are the master of your own earthly destiny just as surely as you have the power to control your own thoughts. You may influence, direct, and eventually control your own environment, making life what you want it to be or you may neglect to exercise the privilege that is yours to make, thus casting yourself upon the broad sea of circumstance.

      Without a doubt, the most common weakness of all human beings is leaving their minds open to negative influence. Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit. You either control your mind or it controls you. The most practical way of all methods for controlling the mind is the habit of keeping it busy with a definitive purpose, backed by a definite plan.

      People who do not succeed have one distinguishing trait in common. They know all the reasons for failure, and what they believe to be air-tight alibis to explain away their own lack of achievement. Building alibis is a deeply rooted habit. Habits are difficult to break, especially when they provide justification for something we do. Plato had this truth in mind when he said, " The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile." Another philosopher had the same thought in mind when he said, " It was a great surprise to me when I discovered that most of the ugliness Is saw in others, was but a reflection of my own nature."

      Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision. Previously, you may have had a logical excuse for not having forced life to come through with whatever you asked, but that alibi is not obsolete, because you are in possession of the master key that unlocks the door to life's bountiful riches.
    • 5/5

      Jun 30, 2009

      Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich is a Powerful foundation for success. This book exercises tools to help in applying things in my everyday life and business from a practical standpoint. This book will motivate and inspire you. A philosophy, scientific and methodology -- We can do re-programming of the unconscious with means of consciousness.
    • 5/5

      Mar 26, 2008

      This is one of my favorite books of all time! I pick it up at least once a year for a refresher. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to maximize their potential.
    • 5/5

      Dec 1, 2006

      Embarrassed to peruse the self help section? Sorry, but you'll have to! This work has been around since the early 20th century after Napoleon Hill did extensive research and interviews with famous business-people and politicians at the solicitation of Andrew Carnegie. A fun read, but also rooted in philosophy and based on early scientific research and methodology in investigating the human psyche through programming the unconscious by means of consciousness.

    Book preview

    Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

    CHAPTER ONE

    INTRODUCTION

    THE MAN WHO THOUGHT HIS WAY INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH THOMAS A. EDISON

    Truly, thoughts are things, and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.

    A little more than thirty years ago, Edwin C. Barnes discovered how true it is that men really do think and grow rich. His discovery did not come about at one sitting. It came little by little, beginning with a burning desire to become a business associate of the great Edison.

    One of the chief characteristics of Barnes’ desire was that it was definite. He wanted to work with Edison, not for him. Observe, carefully, the description of how he went about translating his desire into reality, and you will have a better understanding of the thirteen principles which lead to riches.

    When this desire, or impulse of thought, first flashed into his mind he was in no position to act upon it. Two difficulties stood in his way. He did not know Mr. Edison, and he did not have enough money to pay his railroad fare to Orange, New Jersey. These difficulties were sufficient to have discouraged the majority of men from making any attempt to carry out the desire.

    But his was no ordinary desire! He was so determined to find a way to carry out his desire that he finally decided to travel by blind baggage, rather than be defeated. (To the uninitiated, this means that he went to East Orange on a freight train).

    He presented himself at Mr. Edison’s laboratory, and announced he had come to go into business with the inventor. In speaking of the first meeting between Barnes and Edison, years later, Mr. Edison said,

    He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is 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 that no mistake was made.

    Just what young Barnes said to Mr. Edison on that occasion was far less important than that which he thought. Edison, himself, said so! It could not have been the young man’s appearance which got him his start in the Edison office, for that was definitely against him. It was what he thought that counted.

    If the significance of this statement could be conveyed to every person who reads it, there would be no need for the remainder of this book.

    Barnes did not get his partnership with Edison on his first interview. He did get a chance to work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work that was unimportant to Edison, but most important to Barnes, because it gave him an opportunity to display his merchandise where his intended partner could see it.

    Months went by. Apparently nothing happened to bring the coveted goal which Barnes had set up in his mind as his definite major purpose. But something important was happening in Barnes’ mind. He was constantly intensifying his desire to become the business associate of Edison.

    Psychologists have correctly said that when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance. Barnes was ready for a business association with Edison, moreover, he was determined to remain ready until he got that which he was seeking.

    He did not say to himself, Ah well, what’s the use? I guess I’ll change my mind and try for a salesman’s job. But, he did say, I came here to go into business with Edison, and I’ll accomplish this end if it takes the remainder of my life. He meant it! What a different story men would have to tell if only they would adopt a definite purpose, and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession!

    Maybe young Barnes did not know it at the time, but his bulldog determination, his persistence in standing back of a single desire, was destined to mow down all opposition, and bring him the opportunity he was seeking.

    When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different direction than Barnes had expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity.

    Mr. Edison had just perfected a new office device, known at that time, as the Edison Dictating Machine (now the Ediphone). His salesmen were not enthusiastic over the machine. They did not believe it could be sold without great effort. Barnes saw his opportunity. It had crawled in quietly, hidden in a queer-looking machine which interested no one but Barnes and the inventor.

    Barnes knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine. He suggested this to Edison, and promptly got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he sold it so successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it all over the nation. Out of that business association grew the slogan, Made by Edison and installed by Barnes.

    The business alliance has been in operation for more than thirty years. Out of it Barnes has made himself rich in money, but he has done something infinitely greater, he has proved that one really may Think and Grow Rich.

    How much actual cash that original desire of Barnes’ has been worth to him, I have no way of knowing. Perhaps it has brought him two or three million dollars, but the amount, whatever it is, becomes insignificant when compared with the greater asset he acquired in the form of definite knowledge that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles.

    Barnes literally thought himself into a partnership with the great Edison! He thought himself into a fortune. He had nothing to start with, except the capacity to know what he wanted, and the determination to stand by that desire until he realized it.

    He had no money to begin with. He had but little education. He had no influence. But he did have initiative, faith, and the will to win. With these intangible forces he made himself number one man with the greatest inventor who ever lived.

    Now, let us look at a different situation, and study a man who had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three feet short of the goal he was seeking.

    THREE FEET FROM GOLD

    One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

    An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the gold fever in the gold-rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

    After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, and told his relatives and a few neighbors of the strike. They got together money for the needed machinery and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

    The first car of ore was mined and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

    Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again—all to no avail.

    Finally, they decided to quit.

    They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some junk men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with fault lines. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!

    The junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

    Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

    Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that desire can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

    Remembering that he lost a huge fortune because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say ‘no’ when I ask them to buy insurance."

    Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his stickability to the lesson he learned from his quitability in the gold mining business.

    Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and perhaps some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.

    More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning.

    It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.

    A FIFTY-CENT LESSON IN PERSISTENCE

    Shortly after Mr. Darby received his degree from the University of Hard Knocks, and had decided to profit by his experience in the gold mining business, he had the good fortune to be present on an occasion that proved to him that No does not necessarily mean no.

    One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old-fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.

    The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, What do you want?

    Meekly, the child replied, My mommy say send her fifty cents.

    I’ll not do it, the uncle retorted, Now you run on home.

    Yes sir, the child replied. But she did not move.

    The uncle went ahead with his work, so busily engaged that he did not pay enough attention to the child to observe that she did not leave. When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, I told you to go on home! Now go, or I’ll take a switch to you.

    The little girl said yes-sir, but she did not budge an inch.

    The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an expression on his face that indicated trouble.

    Darby held his breath. He was certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper.

    When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, "My mommy’s gotta have that fifty cents!"

    The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on the floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her.

    The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered. After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had just taken.

    Mr. Darby, too, was doing some thinking. How did she do it? What happened to his uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other similar questions flashed into Darby’s mind, but he did not find the answer until years later, when he told me the story.

    Strangely, the story of this unusual experience was told to the author in the old mill, on the very spot where the uncle took his whipping. Strangely, too, I had devoted nearly a quarter of a century to the study of the power which enabled an illiterate child to conquer an intelligent man.

    As we stood there in that musty old mill, Mr. Darby repeated the story of the unusual conquest, and finished by asking, What can you make of it? What strange power did that child use, that so completely whipped my uncle?

    The answer to his question will be found in the principles described in this book. The answer is full and complete. It contains details and instructions sufficient to enable anyone to understand and apply the same force which the little child accidentally stumbled upon.

    Keep your mind alert, and you will observe exactly what strange power came to the rescue of the child, you will catch a glimpse of this power in the next chapter. Somewhere in the book you will find an idea that will quicken your receptive powers, and place at your command, for your own benefit, this same irresistible power. The awareness of this power may come to you in the first chapter, or it may flash into your mind in some subsequent chapter. It may come in the form of a single idea. Or, it may come in the nature of a plan, or a purpose. Again, it may cause you to go back into your past experiences of failure or defeat, and bring to the surface some lesson by which you can regain all that you lost through defeat.

    After I had described to Mr. Darby the power unwittingly used by the little child, he quickly retraced his thirty years of experience as a life insurance salesman, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that field was due, in no small degree, to the lesson he had learned from the child.

    Mr. Darby pointed out: Every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself, ‘I’ve gotta make this sale.’ The better portion of all sales I have made, were made after people had said ‘no.’ 

    He recalled, too, his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold. But, he said, "that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything."

    This story of Mr. Darby and his uncle, the child and the gold mine, doubtless will be read by hundreds of men who make their living by selling life insurance. And to all of these, the author wishes to offer the suggestion that Darby owes to these two experiences his ability to sell more than a million dollars of life insurance every year.

    Life is strange, and often imponderable! Both the successes and the failures have their roots in simple experiences. Mr. Darby’s experiences were commonplace and simple enough, yet they held the answer to his destiny in life. Therefore they were as important (to him) as life itself. He profited by these two dramatic experiences, because he analyzed them, and found the lesson they taught. But what of the man who has neither the time, nor the inclination to study failure in search of knowledge that may lead to success? Where, and how is he to learn the art of converting defeat into stepping-stones to opportunity?

    In answer to these questions, this book was written.

    The answer called for a description of thirteen principles. But remember, as you read, the answer you may be seeking, to the questions which have caused you to ponder over the strangeness of life, maybe found in your own mind, through some idea, plan, or purpose which may spring into your mind as you read.

    One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success. The principles described in this book, contain the best, and the most practical of all that is known, concerning ways and means of creating useful ideas.

    Before we go any further in our approach to the description of these principles, we believe you are entitled to receive this important suggestion. When riches begin to come they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years. This is an astounding statement, and all the more so, when we take into consideration the popular belief that riches come only to those who work hard and long.

    When you begin to think and grow rich, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work. You, and every other person, ought to be interested in knowing how to acquire that state of mind which will attract riches. I spent twenty-five years in research, analyzing more than 25,000 people, because I, too, wanted to know how wealthy men become that way.

    Without that research, this book could not have been written.

    Here take notice of a very significant truth, viz: The business depression started in 1929, and continued on to an all-time record of destruction, until sometime after President Roosevelt entered office. Then the depression began to fade into nothingness. Just as an electrician in a theatre raises the lights so gradually that darkness is transmuted into light before you realize it, so did the spell of fear in the minds of the people gradually fade away and become faith.

    Observe very closely, as soon as you master the principles of this philosophy, and begin to follow the instructions for applying those principles, your financial status will begin to improve, and everything you touch will begin to transmute itself into an asset for your benefit. Impossible? Not at all!

    One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man’s familiarity with the word impossible. He knows all the rules which will not work. He knows all the things which cannot be done. This book was written for those who seek the rules which have made others successful, and are willing to stake everything on those rules.

    A great many years ago I purchased a fine dictionary. The first thing I did with it was to turn to the word impossible, and neatly clip it out of the book. That would not be an unwise thing for you to do.

    Success comes to those who become success conscious.

    Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious.

    The object of this book is to help all who seek it, to learn the art of changing their minds from failure consciousness to success consciousness.

    Another weakness found in altogether too many people, is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own impressions and beliefs. Some who will read this, will believe that no one can think and grow rich. They cannot think in terms of riches, because their thought habits have been steeped in poverty, want, misery, failure, and defeat. We refuse to believe that which we do not understand. We foolishly believe that our own limitations are the proper measure of limitations.

    Millions of people look at the achievements of Henry Ford, and envy him, because of his good fortune, or luck, or genius, or whatever it is that they credit for Ford’s fortune. Perhaps one person in every hundred thousand knows the secret of Ford’s success, and those who do know are too modest, or too reluctant, to speak of it, because of its simplicity. A single transaction will illustrate the secret perfectly.

    A few years back, Ford decided to produce his now famous V-8 motor. He chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block, and instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was placed on paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder gas engine block in one piece.

    Ford said, Produce it anyway.

    But, they replied, it’s impossible!

    Go ahead, Ford commanded, and stay on the job until you succeed no matter how much time is required.

    The engineers went ahead. There was nothing else for them to do, if they were to remain on the Ford staff. Six months went by, nothing happened. Another six months passed, and still nothing happened. The engineers tried every conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of the question: "impossible!"

    At the end of the year Ford checked with his engineers, and again they informed him they had found no way to carry out his orders.

    Go right ahead, said Ford, I want it, and I’ll have it.

    They went ahead, and then, as if by a stroke of magic, the secret was discovered.

    The Ford determination had won once more!

    This story may not be described with minute accuracy, but the sum and substance of it is correct. Deduce from it, you who wish to think and grow rich, the secret of the Ford millions, if you can. You’ll not have to look very far.

    Henry Ford is a success because he understands, and applies, the principles of success. One of these is desire: knowing what one wants. Remember this Ford story as you read, and pick out the lines in which the secret of his stupendous achievement have been described. If you can do this, if you can lay your finger on the particular group of principles which made Henry Ford rich, you can equal his achievements in almost any calling for which you are suited.

    YOU ARE THE MASTER OF YOUR FATE, THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL, BECAUSE . . .

    When Henley wrote the prophetic lines, I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul, he should have informed us that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls, because we have the power to control our thoughts.

    He should have told us that the ether in which this little earth floats, in which we move and have our being, is a form of energy moving at an inconceivably high rate of vibration, and that the ether is filled with a form of universal power which adapts itself to the nature of the thoughts we hold in our minds, and influences us, in natural ways, to transmute our thoughts into their physical equivalent.

    If the poet had told us of this great truth, we would know why it is that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls. He should have told us, with great emphasis, that this power makes no attempt to discriminate between destructive thoughts and constructive thoughts, that it will urge us to translate into physical reality thoughts of poverty, just as quickly as it will influence us to act upon thoughts of riches.

    He should have told us, too, that our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man is familiar, these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.

    He should have told us that before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must magnetize our minds with intense desire for riches, that we must become money conscious until the desire for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it.

    But, being a poet, and not a philosopher, Henley contented himself by stating a great truth in poetic form, leaving those who followed him to interpret the philosophical meaning of his lines.

    Little by little, the truth has unfolded itself, until it now appears certain that the principles described in this book hold the secret of mastery over our economic fate.

    We are now ready to examine the first of these principles. Maintain a spirit of open-mindedness, and remember as you read, they are the invention of no one man. The principles were gathered from the life experiences of more than 500 men who actually accumulated riches in huge amounts; men who began in poverty, with but little education, without influence. The principles worked for these men. You can put them to work for your own enduring benefit.

    You will find it easy, not hard, to do.

    Before you read the next chapter, I want you to know that it conveys factual information which might easily change your entire financial destiny, as it has

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