Author: Napoleon Hill
Info: Copyright 2009: City unavailable (company doesn't exist anymore), White Dog Publishing (originally published in 1937)
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮
Where Acquired: Library checkout.
Category: Recommended reading. Many of the personal development/ leadership podcasts I frequent, including The Dave Ramsey Show and Read to Lead, recommend this book.
Synopsis: Hill reveals his secrets for attracting and obtaining wealth. Using examples from his contemporaries and from his own life, the author illustrates his prosperity theory.
Favorite Quotes:
ACHIEVEMENT, ALL EARNED RICHES, HAVE THEIR BEGINNING IN AN IDEA! - Introduction (no pg #)
Persons, especially salaried people, who schedule their spare time, to provide for home study, seldom remain at the bottom very long. Their action opens the way for the upward climb, removes many obstacles from their path, and gains the friendly interest of those who have the power to put them in the way of OPPORTUNITY. - p. 46
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. - pp. 46-47
Persistence is the direct result of habit. The mind absorbs and becomes a part of the daily experiences upon which it feeds. Fear, the worst of all enemies, can be effectively cured by forced repetition of acts of courage. Everyone who has seen active service in war knows this. - pp. 101-102
Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant PERSISTENCE. - p. 104
The Positive:
- The Kindle Edition had real page numbers.
- Some of the advice and quotes were helpful. The need for a change of mindset is necessary in order to prosper.
- The arbitrary use of ALL CAPS in portions of the text was a pain.
- In chapter seven, one statement really bothered me. It was not the initial deal breaker, but it did not show the author in a favorable light: Let us remember--all of us--that we live in a country (USA) where every law-abiding citizen enjoys freedom of thought, and freedom of deed unequaled in anywhere in the world. Most of us have never taken inventory of the advantages of this freedom. We have never compared our unlimited freedom with the curtailed freedom in other countries. Here we have freedom of thought, freedom in the choice and enjoyment of education, freedom in religion, freedom in politics, freedom in the choice of a business, profession, or occupation, freedom to accumulate and own, without molestation, all the property we can accumulate, freedom to choose our place of residence, freedom in marriage, freedom through equal opportunity to all races, freedom of travel from one state to another, freedom in our choice of foods, and freedom to aim for any station in life for which we have prepared ourselves--even for the Presidency of the United States (pp. 81-82). While I am reading this as a 21st century United States citizen, I have kept in mind that this book was written in 1937. While the majority of what Hill says in this statement is true in the modern era, I cannot possibly reconcile his belief that this was true for his day. At that time, the infamous Jim Crow Laws were in full effect to curtail most of the aforementioned freedoms to blacks and other people of color. Was the author that naïve, or did he expect only a certain audience to read this book? As I said, I understand that as it relates to now, to a certain extent, Hill is accurate. However, he was terribly shortsighted for his time.
- The book seemed disjointed. The author would extrapolate on a certain subject in one chapter, then mention how he was going to explain that subject after he'd already done so. For example, he gives an exhaustive list of what he believes are the elements of failure, but gives a tease of their mention a couple of chapters later.
- Hill introduced many concepts for which he gave no sufficient explanation. The mastermind group was the worst. He mentioned it several times in the text and even devoted a whole chapter to it, yet never fully explained what it is or how it works.
- The author's obsession with sex was rather creepy. Pardon my ignorance, but last time I checked, sex isn't an emotion as the author believes; it is the physical act of copulation. Essentially the author asserts that attracting riches requires one to regularly engage in sexual intercourse and be in a continual state of arousal. His assumption that "men are polygamous by nature" (p. 155). was also disturbing.
- Hill's material was chauvinistic, if not misogynistic.
Conclusion:
Why this book comes so highly recommended is a mystery to me. Even for its time, it seemed off the mark and only for a very select audience. Though it had a few good points, I seriously doubt I'll ever read it again, nor will I recommend the book to others.
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