Success Principles: 7 Lessons Everyone Should Learn From Napoleon’s Hill Think and Grow Rich

There are so many great books that have been written on the topics of success and wealth.

who thinks he can by Orison Sweett MardenThe science of getting rich by Wallace WattlesHow to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie, to name just a few.

But a book is mentioned over and over again by just about every opinion leader I can think of.

That book is by Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich.

Now, before you run out and buy a copy, I’d like to add that it doesn’t make my top 40 bestselling books.

The first two chapters were amazing.

I found it fascinating, especially when he talked about his own son being born without ears.

That story moved me and still makes me cry, no matter how many times I read it.

I wish the rest of the book were as moving or as memorable. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it is not.

That said, it contains some very powerful ideas. Of the 17 concepts discussed I found 7 convincing, so let me share them with you:

1. Faith
2. Knowledge
3. Habit
4. Calendar
5. persistence
6. Energy
7. mastermind group

Faith is what is addressed first and for good reason.

Success begins with faith. When any new business ventures into new territory, it can be scary. Faith is what keeps us going.

Faith has a magical ability that helps us overcome even the strongest obstacles.

Knowledge is simply the accumulation of knowledge. And you’d think this would be the easy part, as today we have virtually unlimited access to knowledge thanks to Google, YouTube, and Amazon, not to mention our local libraries.

But as my mentor, Jim Rohn, taught me, “what’s easy to do is also easy not to do.”

And guess what? More people choose NOT to do the things they know they should simply because they are “too busy” or, more realistically, too lazy.

Knowledge alone will not do it.

We’ve all been told that “knowledge is power”, but this is only half true.

More correctly, knowledge is potential power. It is when we take action based on that knowledge that we create change within our world.

We all know people who say they knew the stock market would crash or a stock would take off, but if they didn’t act on their hunches, what good is it?

Knowledge must be combined with planning, action (power), and continual action (persistence) to create habits that will in turn produce the results you want.

Earl Nightingale actually wrote his classic, the strangest secretbased on this book and summed it up best when he said the secret was “We become what we think about”.

The more I thought about them, the more I began to see the wisdom within them.

Our thoughts (T) turn into feelings (F), our feelings into actions (A), and actions lead to results (R). Gold, in short, TFAR.

6 simple words but when understood they can change everything.

The final item on my list is what Napoleon Hill calls the intellectual group. While incredible success can be achieved by one person, the greatest success comes from teamwork.

Michael Jordan was an incredible individual player for many years before he became a world champion.

At first it was all Jordan. But year after year, despite incredible personal praise from him, the Chicago Bulls couldn’t break through.

It was only when Scottie Pippen and other teammates stepped up that he went on to create a dynasty.

Just remember, TEAM: together, everyone achieves more.

And there you have it, 7 principles of the classic Think and Grow Rich. It may not be the book I turn to for answers, but it deserves a place in anyone’s library, and the chapter on faith alone is worth the price of the book.

Adrian Pastor