Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is a timeless formula for achieving success. First published in 1937, the lessons contained within remain pertinent and effective over 80 years later.
Hill wrote: “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.”
So, what can be learned from the successes that inspired the book? And how can readers today look beyond defeat to achieve success?
Be driven by a burning desire
The driving force of your millionaire mindset, says Hill, must be something you feel so strongly about that failing is not an option.
In the book, he gives the example of Thomas Edison. Edison was so passionate about developing an electric light source that even after thousands of failed attempts, he kept going. It took years for him to finally achieve his goal and invent the lightbulb.
So, what is something you deeply want to achieve? Why do you want to achieve this? And how does it make you feel when you think of this ambition? These are all important questions to ask that will start to form your millionaire mindset.
Don’t underestimate the power of your subconscious
The subconscious is referred to on multiple occasions throughout Think and Grow Rich. For the author its role in adopting a millionaire mindset cannot be overestimated.
Positivity is one of the ways the subconscious plays a role in your millionaire mindset. The book explains that the subconscious stores all of our experiences and emotions: positive and negative. In doing so, it is able to use these experiences to exert influence over how we feel each day.
So, feed your subconscious a barrage of negativity and that’s exactly what it will give back to you. But, feed it with positivity, and your thoughts and actions will be influenced by this in return.
Similarly, the belief that success is possible is very powerful when it comes to your subconscious. Affirmations and visualisations of success can drive out feelings of negativity. This is because your brain struggles to tell the difference between something real and something imagined. By imagining yourself succeeding, you can programme your subconscious to help you take steps towards this achievable goal every day.
Be specific in your intentions
Specificity is key when setting goals and staying the course to achieving them. Modern corporate organisations incorporate this into the acronym SMART: i.e., the requirement that goals be specific and measurable.
So, if your goal is a monetary one, exactly how much money do you want to make? If your ambition lies in your career, what job title or position are you seeking?
Write it down somewhere and keep this in mind through all of the bumps in the road. Not only will this keep you motivated, it will also allow you to celebrate the key milestones on the way.
Be open to constructive criticism
None of us is an island, and this is especially true when working towards ambitious goals.
The first step in this is to explore and acknowledge your own strengths and weaknesses. Be honest and thorough. For example, are you decisive and strategic? Did you achieve the last goal you set? Are you a team player?
When you have identified what you believe to be your strengths and weaknesses, ask a trusted yet objective person for their opinion too. Sometimes, it’s hard to spot these for ourselves, which is where this advice comes in handy. It’s important to feel comfortable talking honestly with this person so that you can be open to the constructive criticism.
Keep going
“A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.” This one-liner sums up the advice that persistence is key in achieving a millionaire mindset.
It’s a mantra that can be easily related to real-life scenarios as well as mindset, though.
Think of investing and those who spook at the first sign of trouble, attempting to time the market by withdrawing early. Chances are these people won’t grow their wealth to its full potential.
By contrast, having the courage to stick with investments through the ebb and flow will be much more likely to see significant returns.
Key takeaways
The key takeaway of the book is that success is no accident. When it comes to the ambitious goals of building long-term wealth, the millionaire mindset is the most valuable tool available to us.
Despite appearances, this mindset can be cultivated and maintained by anyone willing to put in the work.
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