How Did Napoleon Hill Think And Grow Rich

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Throughout recorded history, mankind in every culture has always demonstrated the same basic lust for the pursuit of wealth and power. Many have achieved this success longed for by man, and many have crumbled and fallen short of their goals. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich set out to capture the mindsets of all those who have achieved wealth and power and explore what these successful people have in common. Napoleon delivers his results by speaking directly to the reader with step by step instructions on how to grow rich and think like those whose have already achieved riches. Napoleon spent 25 years researching successful people and came up with 13 principles that if followed will help you think and believe in yourself as the …show more content…

Napoleon lists desire as perhaps the most important principle. He is not referring to wishful thinking, but having an intense, burning obsession for success and then pairing this with a plan to achieve any form of success. As examples he lists Edwin Barnes, who had a burning desire to be business partners with the famous Thomas Edison. Barnes couldn’t afford a trip to meet Edison and didn’t possess the fancy clothes for an interview. Failure was not an option for Barnes and he hopped on a freight train to New Jersey and presented himself to Edison as is. Edison recognized the determination this man had and hired him, giving him a chance at a minimum wage job. Barnes later jumped at the opportunity to help sell Edison’s new invention that Edison’s own sales team refused to sell to avoid risking failure. Barnes became so successful that he was given a contract to sell the product all over the nation. His burning desire to work with Edison was not going to let any obstacle stop him, and that is why he achieved his success. It’s not all about how you look or what fancy resume you can bring to the table but how eager you are and your desire to achieve your goals and your plans to reach them. As Napoleon Says “All who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heart breaking struggles before they arrive.” Only those with a strong desire and plan can persevere through those heartbreaking …show more content…

He listed two types of knowledge, general knowledge and specialized. We our taught in our time at school the general knowledge that gets us through, but if this general knowledge is what makes us rich then professors would be the richest of us all. The thing is professors are abundant with knowledge but they do not know how to use the knowledge. Napoleon reasons that this is the missing link in our educational system that universities do not teach students how to harvest and invest their knowledge to sprout growth after acquiring it. That’s why he stresses the importance of specialized knowledge. To Napoleon, “an educated man is not one with an abundance of knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants.” He tells the story of Henry Ford, who only had 6th grade schooling under his belt. The press called him an ignorant pacifist and Ford sued the newspaper company. While in court the attorneys tried to prove that ford without schooling was ignorant and asked him very basic general knowledge questions such as “Who was Benedict Arnold?” and “How many soldiers did the British send to America?” Ford was fed up with the questioning and told the lawyer that there is no need for him to clutter his mind with this general knowledge when he can push a button and summon someone to his aid to answer any question and devote himself to his business. Any

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