I have now finished Think and Grow Rich for the 4th time (the 1st time since being a mindset coach) and I can say that I have not put all the principles into practice... yet!

For those of you that are not familiar with the book, it is the best-selling personal development book of all time having sold more than 100 million copies!!! Napoleon Hill interviewed and studied over 25,000 people including the titans of the time, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. His purpose was to find what made people successful. And...

He found the secret sauce.

Now he talks about the formula for riches, but the same formula can be applied to any area of life; relationships, health, family, spirituality, etc. This is a must-read for anyone from any walk of life.

Now, this brings me to my question... why have so many read it and not achieved success?

Well, Napoleon Hill states, "What you can conceive and believe, you can achieve!" So the flip must also be true: what you can't conceive and believe, you can't achieve. I think this is profoundly powerful. Most of us can't even see ourselves being successful or don't believe we're good enough for success, so how can we achieve success?

"FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE!" is one of the statements in the book.

But I think most of us have more faith that things will go wrong than right… which causes us to give up. Persistence is one of the principles that Hill gives for success. Having faith to persist through any challenge is one of the keys to success. Failure is only temporary, but it is made permanent when we let it. A.k.a. quitting is a failure.

I also believe being able to train your imagination and change your beliefs is an integral part of creating success. If this book taught me anything, it is that you are what you think. Hence the title, "Think and Grow Rich" can also be read as "Think Rich and Grow Rich." The great Jim Rohn once said, "If someone hands you a million dollars, best you become a millionaire or you'll lose it!" The message is you must THINK like a millionaire to BECOME one. The proof is in the fact that the majority of lottery winners lose all the money and end up in a worst financial position than before they won.

Our thoughts are creative and most of us are not using them consciously or intentionally. That is why Hill talks about having a definiteness of purpose backed by faith, having goals, and a plan by which to attain those goals. If you look at the statistics, only about 20% of people even set goals which means they have no aim in their lives. From my experience, most people don't set goals that are aligned with their purpose because they don't even know what it is. And if they do, they don't always have a plan.

When you don't have an intention, you are living unintentionally. When living unintentionally, you will have unintentional thoughts. When your thoughts and unintentional, you will become a person that you never intended to become. And when you are not who you intended to be, you will have no intentional results (aka riches).

That is one of the reasons I learned NLP (neuro linguistic programming), or how our thoughts/words we use to program our mind. And when working with clients; we always start by changing limiting beliefs into empowering ones, finding their purpose, and creating 3 sets of goals (being, doing, and having) along with a plan of action.

I definitely learned so much about myself from rereading this book. I am actually excited to install these principles into my subconscious mind, now. From having a definite purpose, backing it with faith, creating a goal and plan, and persistently pursuing it; this book has the key to unlock a whole new world for you. In the end, you can choose to practice the principles and use them or not.

A great to close this is with a great quote by Henry Ford, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."