BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & PERSONAL GROWTH
Some successful people I follow or know suggested reading “Think and Grow Rich”, so I set pretty high expectations for this book. To be honest, I was about to return this book, twice… but decided to finish it regardless of all the disappointments. In my opinion, the main idea and “THE SECRET” might be described in fewer words. Still, I found some valuable takeaways I’m applying these days. Those are: Positive thinking & Autosuggestions, Finding the Desire and the idea of Sex Transmutation.
The Three Critical Ideas from the book (IMHO)
- Desire and Persistence. Desire is the starting point of any endeavour. Below are the steps to identify what you want and to accomplish your desire (according to Napoleon Hill).
Desire won’t work by itself. There’s a combination of hard work, faith and persistence. As Napoleon Hill said: “Without persistence, you will be defeated even before you start. With persistence, you’ll win.” And remember: “A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits.”
2. Positive thinking and Autosuggestions. Desire to achieve something is a great kicker, but as you’re moving towards your goal, more doubts and concerns may appear on your way. According to Hill, our greatest weakness is a lack of self-confidence and fears that usually follow us when we start something new (e.g. fear of poverty, illness, criticism, old age, etc.). Autosuggestions are the way to instruct our subconscious to think positively, improve self-confidence and remove those fears and doubts. Because “The one who wins is the one who thinks they can”.
3. Sex transmutation. Sex is the greatest motivator for a human being, ahead of the desire of Love, Money/Power, etc., according to Mr Hill. He suggested that it’s possible to direct the sexual energy towards accomplishing other objectives. Sexual energy is associated with creativity, and if it is not transmuted into some creative effort, it will find a less worthy outlet. The sex transmutation requires willpower, and if a person lacks it, there’s a good chance that their sexual energy would leak out via excessive sex, masturbation, stimulation, desire, worry, or overthinking. Here’s a nice article by Scott Jeffrey that gives some basic ideas on where to start.
Hence, desire it passionately, be persistent, think positive, believe that you can do it, surround yourself with the most intelligent people (or at least use your imagination and make the imaginary meetings in your head), transform your sexual energy into the creative fuel and you will achieve great things. I believe those are the SECRET from the book.
