Think and Grow Rich chapter 1 summary

After an interview with America’s steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill was inspired to investigate the psychology of success. 20 years later, the result of that quest was this literary classic that kickstarted a boom in the genre of self-help. If you can look past some of the anachronistic language and examples, this book is still a sure source of inspiration that deserves to be revisited time and again.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Every major achievement begins with the intense belief in one’s ability to accomplish it.
2. You are who you think you are. Encourage positive thoughts and eliminate fear and doubt.
3. Knowledge is only as good as the plans you have to use it.
4. Persistence is insurance against failure.
5. Make decisions quickly and do not be easily swayed by the negative opinions of other people.

Think and Grow Rich Summary

Please Note

The following book summary is a collection of my notes and highlights taken straight from the book. Most of them are direct quotes. Some are paraphrases. Very few are my own words.

These notes are informal. I try to organize them by chapter. But I pick and choose ideas to include at my discretion.

Enjoy!

Introduction

• “Thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and burning desire.
• When one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.
• Opportunity has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity.
• You don’t need anything more than to know what you want and the determination to stand by that desire until you realize it.
• One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.
• Failure takes great delight in tripping on when success is almost within reach.
• The better portion of all sales I have made were made after people had said, “No.”
• When you begin to think and grow rich, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work.
• Success comes to those who become success conscious.
• Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious.
• A common weakness is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by your own impressions and beliefs.

1) Desire: The Starting Point of All Achievement

• Leave yourself no possible way of retreat. Make it a do or die situation.
• Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success.
• Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.
• If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see them in your bank balance.
• Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start.
• A burning desire to be, and to be is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off.
• There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief.
• All achievement, no matter what may be its nature, or its purpose, must begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite.

6 Steps to Turn Desire Into Riches (Or Accomplish Any Goal)

1. Define the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire.
3. Establish a definite day when you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire. Begin at once, whether you are ready or not.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of your plans for #1-4 above.
6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily.

2) Faith: Visualization Of, and Belief in Attainment of Desire

• Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.
• You may benefit, by passing on to your subconscious mind, any desire which you wish translated into its physical, or monetary equivalent, in a state of expectancy or belief that the transmutation will actually take place.
• The mind comes to take on the nature of the influences which dominate it.
• It is essential to encourage positive emotions and eliminate the negative.
• Faith is the “eternal elixir” which gives life, power, and action to the impulse of thought.
• Faith is the antidote for failure.
• Every man is what he is, because of the dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind.
• Be careful of your thoughts. The subconscious mind will turn into reality a thought driven by fear just as readily as it will translate a thought driven by courage, or faith.

Self-Confidence Formula

1. Believe in your ability to achieve your goal. Therefore, demand persistent, continuous action toward its attainment.
2. Realize that your thoughts generate action. Concentrate 30 minutes each day on the task of thinking of the person you intend to become. Create a clear mental picture of achieving your goal.
3. Any desire that you persistently hold in your mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means. Therefore, devote ten minutes daily to demanding of yourself the development of self-confidence.
4. Clearly write down a description of your goal.
5. Realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice. Therefore, I will work for the good of others. Others will believe in me because I believe in myself.

3) Auto-Suggestion: The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

• Plain, unemotional words do not influence the subconscious mind.
• The subconscious mind takes any orders given it in a spirit of absolute faith, and acts upon those orders, although the orders often have to be repeated over and over again.

4) Specialized Knowledge: Personal Experiences of Observations

• General knowledge is little use in the accumulation of money.
• Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.
• The accumulation of great fortunes calls for power, and power is acquired through highly organized and intelligently directed specialized knowledge, but that knowledge does not, necessarily have to be in the possession of the man who accumulates the fortune.
• As knowledge is acquired it must be organized and put into use, for a definite purpose, through practical plans.
• Those who are not successful usually make the mistake of believe that the knowledge acquiring period ends when one finishes school.
• School merely paves the way to learning how to acquire practical knowledge.
• The person who stops studying merely because he has finished school is forever hopelessly doomed to mediocrity, no matter what may be his calling. The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.
• Both success and failure are largely the results of habit.

5) Imagination: The Workshop of the Mind

• Man’s only limitation, within reason, lies in his development and use of his imagination.
• Your imagination improves the more you use it.
• Plans of action must be formed with the aid of imagination.
• Riches do not come by hard work and honesty alone. They come in response to definite demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance or luck.
• An idea is an impulse of thought that impels action, by an appeal to the imagination.
• The story of practically every great fortune starts with the day when a creator of ideas and a seller of ideas got together and worked in harmony.

6) Organized Planning: The Crystallization of Desire Into Action

• No individual has sufficient experience, education, native ability, and knowledge to insure the accumulation of a great fortune, without the cooperation of other people.
• Keep reworking your plan until you find something that works. Be persistent.
• Temporary defeat is not permanent failure. It may only mean that your plans have not been sound. Build other plans. Start all over again.
• No man is ever whipped, until he quits—in his own mind.
• A quitter never wins—and—a winner never quits.
• Most men become great leaders because they were first intelligent followers.
• The man who can follow a leader most efficiently is usually the man who develops into leadership most rapidly.

How to Build Practical Plans

1. Ally yourself with a group of as many people as you need to create and carry out your plans.
2. Decide what advantages, and benefits, you may offer the individual members of your group, in return for their cooperation.
3. Arrange to meet with this group at least twice a week, and more often if possible, until you have created your plan.
4. Maintain perfect harmony between yourself and every member of your group.

Important Factors of Leadership

1. Unwavering courage.
2. Self-control.
3. A keen sense of justice.
4. Definiteness of decision.
5. Definiteness of plans.
6. The habit of doing more than paid for.
7. A pleasing personality.
8. Sympathy and understanding.
9. Mastery of detail.
10. Willingness to assume full responsibility.
11. Cooperation.

10 Causes of Failure in Leadership

1. Inability to organize details.
2. Unwillingness to render humble service.
3. Expectation of pay for what they “know” instead of what they do with that which they know.
4. Fear of competition from followers.
5. Lack of imagination.
6. Selfishness.
7. Intemperance.
8. Disloyalty.
9. Emphasis of the “authority” of leadership.
10. Emphasis of title.

8 Elements of A Good Job Application

1. Level of education
2. Relevant experience
3. References
   • Former employers, teachers, or other prominent people
4. Picture of yourself
5. Apply for a specific position
6. State your unique qualifications for that position
7. Offer to go to work on probation. Make your offer clear based on upon:
   • Your confidence in your ability to fill the position
   • Your confidence in your prospective employer’s decision to employ you after the trial period
   • Your determination to have the position you seek
8. Knowledge of your prospective employer’s business

How to Get the Exact Position You Desire

1. Decide exactly what kind of job you want. If it doesn’t exist, maybe you can create it.
2. Choose the company, or individual for whom you wish to work.
3. Study your prospective employer, as to policies, personnel, and chances of advancement.
4. Figure out what you can offer and plan ways and means of giving these advantages.
5. Forget about “a job.” Concentrate on what you can give.
6. Put you plan to provide value on paper.
7. Present your plan to the proper person with authority. Every company has room for the man who has a definite plan of action which is to the advantage of that company.

30 Major Causes of Failure

1. Unfavorable hereditary background.
2. Lack of a well-defined purpose in life.
3. Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity.
4. Insufficient education.
5. Lack of self-discipline.
6. Bad health.
7. Unfavorable environmental influences during childhood.
8. Procrastination.
9. Lack of persistence.
10. Negative personality.
11. Lack of controlled sexual urge.
12. Uncontrolled desire for “something for nothing.”
13. Lack of a well defined power of decision.
14. One or more of the six basic fears.
15. Wrong selection of a mate in marriage.
16. Over-caution.
17. Wrong selection of associates in business.
18. Superstition and prejudice.
19. Wrong selection of a vocation.
20. Lack o concentration of effort.
21. The habit of indiscriminate spending.
22. Lack of enthusiasm.
23. Intolerance.
24. Intemperance.
25. Inability to cooperate with others.
26. Possession of power that was not acquired through self effort.
27. Intentional dishonesty.
28. Egotism and vanity.
29. Guessing instead of thinking.
30. Lack of capital.

28 Questions You Should Answer Each Year

1. Have I reached any of my goals?
2. Have I done my best work?
3. Have I done the most that I could do?
4. Have I been cooperative and fun to work with?
5. Have I procrastinated?
6. Have I improved my personality?
7. Have I been persistent in following my plans to completion?
8. Have I been a good decision maker?
9. Have I permitted any one or more of the six basic fears to decrease my efficiency?
10. Have I taken appropriate risks?
11. Has my relationships with my associates been pleasant, or unpleasant?
12. Have I lost focused?
13. Have I been open minded and tolerant of others and new ideas?
14. In what ways have I improved my skills?
15. Have I shown lack of self control?
16. Have I lost check of my ego?
17. Has my conduct towards others lost respect?
18. Have I based my opinions on facts or guesses?
19. Have I budgeted my time and expenses appropriately?
20. How much time do I waste that could be put to better use?
21. How can I re-budget my time and focus my work more efficiently in the coming year?
22. Have I done anything wrong?
23. In what ways have I exceeded expectations?
24. Have I been unfair to anyone?
25. Would I be excited to work with me if I was somebody else?
26. Am I in the right vocation?
27. Have people been happy with my services?
28. What is my present rating on the fundamental principles of success?

7) Decision: The Mastery of Procrastination

• Reach decisions promptly. Then be slow to change your mind.
• If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no desire of your own.
• Keep you eyes and ears wide open—and your mouth closed—if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt decision.
• Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence.
• Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it.
• People who know what they want generally get it.
• 98% of people are working where they are today because they lacked a decision to plan a definite position and the knowledge of how to choose an employer.

8) Persistence: The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith

• Will-power and desire, when properly combined, make an irresistible pair.
• Persistence is to character what carbon is to steel.
• The starting point of all achievement is desire. Weak desire brings weak results.
• There is no substitute for persistence.
• Persistence is insurance against failure.
• You will never achieve noteworthy success in any calling without persistence.
• The only “break” anyone can afford to rely upon is a self-made “break.”
• Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence.

Symptoms of Lack of Persistence

1. Failure to recognize and clearly define exactly what you want
2. Procrastination
3. Lack of interest in learning new things
4. Indecision
5. The habit of relying on excuses instead of actually trying to solve the problem
6. Self-satisfaction
7. Indifference
8. Blaming others for one’s mistakes
9. Weakness of desire
10. Willingness to quit at the first sign of defeat
11. Lack of organized plans
12. Neglecting to move on ideas or grasp opportunity
13. Wishing instead of willing
14. Compromising with poverty instead of aiming for riches
15. Searching for shortcuts and cheap bargains
16. Fear of criticism

How to Develop Persistence

1. A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment.
2. A definite plan, expressed in continuous action.
3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances.
4. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage you to follow through with both plan and purpose.

9) Power of the Master Mind: The Driving Force

• A “Master Mind” is the coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.
• There are obvious economic advantages to surrounding yourself with a group who is ready and willing to lend you whole-hearted aid.
• No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.
• Great power is accumulated through the principle of the Master Mind.

10) The Mystery of Sex: Transmutation

• Sex is the most powerful of human desires.
• The men of greatest achievement are men with highly developed sex natures.
• The men who have accumulated great fortunes and achieved outstanding recognition were motivated by the influence of a woman.
• The emotion of sex contains the secret of creative ability.
• Remove the sex gland and you will have removed the major source of action.
• Men attains to the status of a genius only when, and if, he stimulates his mind so that it draws upon the forces available, through the creative faculty of the imagination.
• The world is ruled, and the destiny of civilization is established, by the human emotions. People are influenced in their actions, not by reason so much as by “feelings.”
• A mind stimulant is any influence which will either temporarily, or permanently, increase the vibrations of thought.
• The average man reaches the period of his greatest capacity to create between forty and sixty.
• Love alone will not bring happiness in marriage, nor will sex alone. When these two beautiful emotions are blended, marriage may bring about a state of mind, closest to the spiritual that one may ever know on this earthly plane.
• Take women out of their lives, and great wealth would be useless to most men.

The 10 Stimuli of the Mind

1. Sex
2. Love
3. Fame, power, and money
4. Music
5. Friendship
6. A Master Mind alliance
7. Mutual suffering
8. Auto-suggestion
9. Fear
10. Narcotics and alcohol

How to Reach Your Creative Faculty

1. Stimulate your mind so that it vibrates on a higher-than-average-plane using one or more of the 10 sources (above).
2. Concentrate first upon the known factors of your invention, and then create in your mind a perfect picture of the unknown factors of your invention.
3. Let your subconscious mind takeover.
4. Relax by clearing your mind of all thought, and wait for the answer to “flash” into your mind.

11) The Subconscious Mind: The Connecting Link

• The subconscious mind is the connecting link between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence.
• It is the medium through which prayer may be transmitted to the source capable of answering prayer. (Like a radio that converts language into a wavelength that can traverse large distances)
• Your subconscious mind functions voluntarily, whether you make any effort to influence it or not. This is why it’s so important to master negative impulses and actively feed it desirable food.
• Man creates nothing which he does not first conceive in thought.
• Your subconscious mind responds best to the language of emotion or feeling.
• Fill your mind with positive emotions.
• The presence of a single negative in your conscious mind is sufficient to destroy all chances of constructive aid from your subconscious mind.

The 7 Major Positive Emotions

1. Desire
2. Faith
3. Love
4. Sex
5. Enthusiasm
6. Romance
7. Hope

The 7 Major Negative Emotions

1. Fear
2. Jealousy
3. Hatred
4. Revenge
5. Greed
6. Superstition
7. Anger

12) The Brain: A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought

• The subconscious mind is the “sending section” of the brain, through which vibrations of thought are broadcast.
• The Creative Imagination is the “receiving set,” through which the vibrations of thought are picked up from the ether.
• We know little to nothing of the intangible force of thought.

13) The Sixth Sense: The Door to the Temple of Wisdom

• Only attained after mastering the previous 12 principles.
• Understanding of the sixth sense comes only by meditation through mind development from within.
• Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of impending dangers in time to avoid them, and notified of opportunities in time to embrace them.

How to Outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear

• Indecision crystalizes into doubt, the two blend and become fear.
• Fear is nothing more than a state of mind.
• Our state of mind is subject to control and direction. We have absolute control over our thoughts.
• All thought has the tendency to clothe itself in its physical equivalent.
• Thoughts of fear and poverty cannot be translated into terms of courage and financial gain.
• Criticism is the one form of service, of which everyone has to much.
• Kill the habit of worry by reaching a general , blanket decision that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry. With this decision will come poise, peace of mind, and calmness of thought which will bring happiness.
• The most common weakness of all human beings is the habit of leaving their minds open to the negative influence of other people.
• Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit.
• You either control your mind or it controls you.
• The most practical of all methods for controlling the mind is the habit of keeping it busy with a definite purpose, backed by a definite plan.

The 6 Basic Fears

1. Poverty
2. Criticism
3. Sickness
4. Loss of love of someone
5. Old age
6. Death

More Books Like Think and Grow Rich

If you enjoyed Think and Grow Rich, check out these similar book summaries:

• The Magic of Thinking Big
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• The Obstacle Is The Way

Want more high-quality book summaries?

Each week, I email the most interesting insights from famous books. Join over 500+ people who read my highlights and personal commentary.

What are the chapters of Think and Grow Rich?

What are the 13 steps of Think and Grow Rich?

How many chapters are in the book Think and Grow Rich?

What is the main point of think and grow rich?