Think and Grow Rich: The Psychology of Wealth

This article provides insight into the psychology of wealth and contains excerpts from Napoleon Hill’s timeless classic, Think and Grow Rich.  Napoleon Hill was a journalist who began his career interviewing successful businessmen for a popular publication called Bob Taylor’s Magazine.  He first major interview was with Andrew Carnegie, who at the time was the richest man in America.  20 years later Think and Grow Rich was published and has since gone onto sell over 15 million copies and influence countless lives for the better.

Dreams are the seedings of reality: AWAKE and ASSERT!

The psychology of wealth requires you to awake, arise, and assert yourself, dreamers of the world.  Your star is in the ascendency.  The world depression brought the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.  It taught people humility, tolerance, and open-mindedness.  The world is filled with an abundance of opportunity which the dreamers of the past never knew.  A BURNING DESIRE TO BE AND TO DO is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off.  Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness or lack of ambition.  The world no longer scoffs at the dreamer nor calls him impractical. Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they “arrive.”  The turning point in the lives of those who succeed usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves…”

Before passing to the next chapter, kindle anew in your mind the fire of hope, faith, courage and tolerance.  If you have these states of mind and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else will come to you when you are READY for it…

There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it.  No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it.  The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish.  Open-mindedness is essential for belief in the psychology of wealth.  Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage and belief.

Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.  A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.

Success requires no apologies, failure permits no alibies!

In planning to acquire your share of the riches, let no one influence you to score the dreamer.  To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit which serves as the lifeblood of our own country – your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our talents.  Let us not forget, Columbus dreamed of an Unknown world, staked his life on the existence of such a world and discovered it!  Copernicus, the great astronomer, dreamed of multiplicity of worlds and revealed them!  No one denounced him as “impractical” after he had triumphed.  Instead the world worshiped at his shrine, thus proving once more that “SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES, FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.”

If the thing you wish to do is right and you believe in it, go ahead and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what “they” say if you meet with temporary defeat, for “they,” perhaps, don’t know EVERY FAILURE BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT SUCCESS.  Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a horseless carriage, when to work with what tools he possessed, without waiting for opportunity to favor him, and now evidence of his dream belts the earth.  He’s put more wheels into operation than any who ever lived because he was not afraid to back his dreams.

Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, began where he stood to put his dream into action, and despite more than 10,000 failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality.  PRACTICAL DREAMERS DO NOT QUIT.

Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put his dream into action and barely missed living to see a united North and South translate his dream into reality.  The Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through the air.  Now one may see evidence all over the world that they dreamed soundly…

The world has become accustomed to new discoveries.  Nay, it has shown a willingness to reward the dreamer who gives the world a new idea.

Wishing will not bring riches!

The psychology of wealth requires more than wishing. Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money, wishes for it.  Whishing will not bring riches.  But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of size definite practical sets, viz:

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.  It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or note to put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning.  AS YOU READ – SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

It is important that you follow the instructions described in these six steps.  You may complain that it is impossible for you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it. Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid.  If you truly DESIRE money so keenly that your desire I an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it.  The object is to want money, and to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it.  Only those who become “money-conscious” ever accumulate great riches.

I hope you enjoy reading Think and Grow Rich and learning about the psychology of wealth as much as I have. Subscribe or check back for part 2.

Dale