5 Things I Learnt from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill — Book Review Series
Inspired by my mentor on speed reading and the increase of books I need to read to become a better version of myself, I decided to create Book Review Series, where I will share with you 5 things I have learnt after reading a particular book. In this article, the book I am reviewing will be “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.
Without further ado, let’s begin.
1. Self-discovery is Way More Important Than You Think It Is
“Knowing Yourself Is The Beginning Of All Wisdom.” — Aristotle
As spoken by Aristotle, if you really want to be successful, you must understand yourself first. Why is that so? This allows you to observe who you really are, including your strengths and weaknesses. All successful people have a strong foundation of awareness on themselves, that allows them to utilize their unique talents and delegate others to compensate for their weaknesses.
Do not try to solve everything by yourself because you need a lot of time to develop your skill gaps and weaknesses. Furthermore, having a lot of strong weaknesses does not make you stand out from the rest. Life is too short to learn everything, so build a team to help you with the tasks you have. Compensate your weaknesses by utilizing other people’s talents!
To get started, allocate some time for yourself without any distraction. Be honest with yourself and create a list of both your strengths and weaknesses. Using your life goals as a reference point, figure out how your strengths can be utilized and how to compensate for your weaknesses, so you can work your way up to achieve your life goals.
2. Good Habits Lead to Success
If you want to reach your destination, start by taking small steps. Having a definite and realistic goal will not make you achieve what you want without proper action and planning. Most people feel motivated and set their goals at the beginning of the year, but ended up procrastinating because they did not have the right habits and routines.
According to Dr Bruce Lipton, our subconscious mind controls 95% of our daily lives and is made out of habits and routines based on the environment we are brought up in. Hence, if you do not have the right habits, you ended up wasting time and deviate yourself further away from your goals. You must develop the right habits in your daily routine so you automatically ended up doing what you are supposed to do to achieve what you want. Unlearn any bad habits you have so you have time to nurture the good ones.
For me, I implemented a routine called the “2-minute rule” to cultivate new habits. This rule forces me to cultivate a new habit for 2 minutes, then proceed with my usual daily life. It is effective because your brain will feel that implementing an unfamiliar habit for 2 minutes is not a big deal and eventually you can extend the time and add the new habit into your routine.
To deal with bad habits, you got to make things as hard as possible for yourself to carry out that bad habit. Your brain will convince yourself to quit because it feels too difficult to complete the task. Repeat this process for a few weeks and you find yourself rid of the bad habit.
3. Master Your Mind and Emotions
All successful people know how to manage their emotions and mind well, especially when dealing with challenges and making decisions.
One of the common fears people have is the “fear of the unknown”. We are afraid to try things outside our comfort zone because we do not know what the risks are and fear making mistakes. As the current school system has conditioned us to not make mistakes, we often just do things that are perceived right by society instead of trying new things. Hence, you must convince yourself to be relentless or comfortable in making mistakes because that is how you actually learn and grow.
Based on my experience in my network marketing journey, it is indeed challenging because I forced myself to do something new instead of following the old-school hard selling methods taught in network marketing. The methods I meant will be finding friends and families, then persuade them to purchase your products or recruit them as your down lines. If you are in the MLM industry, you definitely can relate to what I am sharing here.
Here are some ways I used to master my mind and emotions when attempting new strategies and habits in my life. Whenever I want to make a major decision, I usually convince myself to take a step back and look at a bigger picture. I list down the potential gains and risks I will have based on my decisions, then decide whether I am comfortable to compromise with the possible outcomes based on my decision. Surely, there are times where things do not go as planned, but you must remain calm at all times because we only can make rational decisions when we are calm and mindful.
If the problem is too difficult to handle, do not hesitate to ask for guidance and help. Having a team that you can trust and compatible with you will definitely help you make better decisions. If you have a mentor to consult with, you are highly recommended to do so because your mentor will have more experience than you. One thing you need to be aware of is that you must not be biased and take things personally when receiving opinions and perceptions from others. Be sure to ask yourself why you accept them before you decide to take any action.
Last but not least, if things go bad or mistakes are made, never blame yourself or others. Instead, ask yourself what you can learn from it because everything that happens in life is a valuable experience for you so you won’t repeat the same mistake.
4. Don’t Limit Your Creativity
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. — Albert Einstein
Across human history, many groundbreaking discoveries are formed. It is fascinating just how powerful the human mind can be when it comes to generating ideas. All these inventions and innovations will not be discovered and created if the power of imagination does not exist. Not even the video camera I am using where I can freely publish and share what has helped me along my journey in network marketing to all of you for free.
Never underestimate the power of creativity because this power allows us to improve, evolve and even create an entirely new civilization. I understand that many of us are afraid to unleash our creativity because we fear being judged by others and making mistakes. However, it is perfectly fine to let your ideas flow out during a discussion whenever required. Others may not accept your ideas right away due to constraints, but it can potentially create new inspirations to make that idea feasible and being realized.
Without trying, you never know if your idea actually changes the world into a better place to live in. So, do not hesitate and keep it to yourself. Be comfortable making mistakes because that’s how everyone improves and be the best in the world.
5. Transformation Does Not Happen In Isolation
This lesson came to me as I watched a YouTube interview video some time ago last year. This particular quote from the interviewee actually inspires me and realizes the importance of having a team. One of the great advantages of having a team is that you can delegate tasks and ask for different ideas, making things easier to be completed.
Be extremely mindful of picking the right people in your team, because not everyone can work harmoniously with each other as each of us are unique in our own perspectives. Many successful people have their own mastermind groups where they can consult for advice or even utilize their group’s skill set to achieve goals where they could not do it by themselves.
If you are just getting started, it is okay to start by yourself as you may not meet the right people who have the same vision and mindset as you yet. Continue to network with more people so you can identify the best ones to be in your mastermind group. For your management team, attempt to delegate tasks that you are really bad at first to your team and only let yourself do the tasks that you are brilliant at.
Conclusion
In general, these are the 5 things I learnt after reading the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Feel free to share what you have learnt from the book as well so other people have the chance to learn.
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Till then, take care!
