Book of the Month - Think and Grow Rich

Jose Moreno

​Think and Grow Rich (1937 original Masterpiece Edition) by Napoleon Hill is a book about turning your desires into success, and thus its money equivalent. By researching and speaking with 100s of successful leaders and businessman, Hill collected one of the greatest philosophies on how to turn those desires into money. Now these principles, and this book as a whole, are not just about making money. Likely, there is nothing new in this book which you have not heard of before. However, there are also likely not many books or people who have put together such principles together, in an easy to read and understand format. As Dr. Miller Reese Hutchison, longtime associate of Thomas Edison, states in the foreword, this book should be adopted by all high schools as required reading before graduation. There were so many excellent quotes and nuggets of information, and each chapter provides a good amount of information which you will need to allow to soak in. As Dr. Hutchison also mentions, this is more of a Textbook than a novel, and one of which I will continue to read for years to come.

Think and Grow Rich

Just beginning with the title, if you take the time to think about it, this is not a formula for making money. This book is about a mindset, and allowing that mindset to gradually change or “grow” over time. When this process is put together, for the purpose of making money, it has led to vast wealth for those who followed the principles. These principles were not pre-formed for the individuals which the book discusses, however it is a combination of characteristics and habits researched by paying attention to and discussing what 100’s of successful people believed helped them become the men and women they were. The main person mentioned throughout the course of the book is Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie led the expansion of the steel industry in the US, back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was an extremely wealthy man, and his fortune rose to about $309 Billion according to Forbes, based on 2007 dollars. This is more than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg combined wealth as of 2017! Andrew Carnegie is not the only famous/wealthy/successful businessmen/leader mentioned in this book. Out of the 100s of men researched over 20 years, here are a few names which stood out to me: Henry Ford (Ford Motors), William Wrigley Jr (Chewing Gum), George Eastman (Eastman/Kodak), Theodore Roosevelt (President), Charles Schwab (Schwab Investments), King Gillette (razors), John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil now: Marathon Petroleum, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron…), Thomas Edison (Light Bulb), F.W. Woolworth (Woolworth), Woodrow Wilson (President), William Taft (President) and Graham Bell (Telephone). These are just the few I personally recognized when reading through some of the names mentioned in the book. There were others mentioned, which in this day and time (100 years later), are not as memorable. Imagine a book written in our time which could include the likes of Barrack Obama (President), Steve Jobs (Apple), Elon Musk (Tesla), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway, GEICO, Dairy Queen, Duracell, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, Business Wire), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and others. How valuable of a book do you believe this would be? The power of books if the ability to get in the minds of people who you likely would not get to meet or have a conversation with, but their thoughts are then laid out onto pages to be read as long as we as humans feel it is relevant. We can certainly say that Think and Grow Rich has stood the test of time, and that many businessmen since the book was written, also believe the steps/suggestions in this book are well worth each word.

​“This ‘missing link’ in all systems of education known to civilization today, may be found in the failure of educational institutions to teach their students how to organize and use knowledge after they acquire it”

​The quote above stood out significantly to me, and obviously, the educational system did not take Dr. Hutchison’s advice! School teaches students how to become great workers, not how to become wealthy! We are taught loads of new information, taught how to study to prepare to show our knowledge of the information, but for the most part we are not taught how to use this information to accumulate WEALTH. The key word is wealth, because with the information we learn in school, we MAY be able to get a very well-paying job/career. If that’s your goal, it’s not a bad thing. However, if you feel you want more wealth specifically, having a job/career will not get you there or KEEP you there. I mention keeping wealth because wealth is not about how much money you make in a year. We hear stories of athletes making millions of dollars in their short 2 to 20 year careers, and then becoming “broke” after they are no longer able to WORK. Living an unsustainable lifestyle, and not turning their money into wealth. Wealth is generational. You can pass it down to at least one, if not several generations of family. If a person can make millions and lose it all, then we know that keeping money is not about the amount of money you have, but the mindset of the person who has accumulated it. This also means your mindset can create it as well!

​“Men are paid, not merely for what they know, but more particularly for WHAT THEY DO WITH THAT WHICH THEY KNOW”

​As a long-time…extremely long-time student (13 years Primary, 4+ years Undergrad, 1.5 year Masters, plus courses for certificates) I can certainly attest to the quote above. There are millions, if not billions of people who we would all consider “smart” or “knowledgeable”. Not all are millionaires and billionaires! In fact, you can argue “intelligence” is not the key to making money. Reading a few Chapter titles from this book, you can see there are attributes which 90%, if not 100% of us either have or can use more powerfully: Desire, Faith, Specialized Knowledge, Imagination, Organized Planning, Decision, Persistence, The Brain! Not only are these attributes which we all have, but we can change the manner in which we use them. Think and Grow Rich is about changing the mindset in which you use your emotions and your thought process, in order to change it into the creation of money.

“Riches don’t respond to wishes”

​Just thinking alone will not create money either. Another famous quote which aligns with the one above, is “A dream (or thought) without a plan is just a wish”. If no plans or actions is put into place with your dreams, wishes, thoughts etc…then it will never become money or any other physical reward you want to acquire. Therefore, success of any kind is dependent on the actions you take to create it. The best way to fail, is to not try at all, or in other words to not take ACTION. An action with a well thought out plan is of course a more effective action, but better than no action at all. There are many other great quotes, snippets, nuggets, you name it, so I encourage you to take the time to read this book. It is certainly a book which I plan to read over and over again until many of the principles become 2nd nature. If you need an extra push to get a project, business, or any major endeavor started, go back and read the chapter you feel is most applicable for the situation. In the book, there are certain principles which are recommended to become part of your daily routine. Use them wisely and consistently. 

​There are quite a few editions of this almost 100-year-old book, and after reading many of the reviews, I selected to read the 1937 Original Masterpiece Edition (Dauphin Publications). You can use the link above for a physical copy, or use a site like eStories to access the Audiobook version. If you plan on reading this over and over again, like I do, then get the physical or electronic version. I’ve taken a liking to physical books in the recent past for some odd reason. Thanks for reading our review of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Did this spark any of your desires and put them into action with an organized plan? Let us know what you think of the book, and if you plan to use its principles, in the comments below. Subscribe to our Blog to receive updates via email when our newest posts are released. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Apple News, and subscribe to the Share Repurchase Newsletter to see our Organized Plan of Investing put into ACTION! The Share Repurchase Portfolio is up over 8% so far in 2017!