revised standard version”—to make all of these things as clear as possible without in anyway interfering with or disturbing the integrity and message of the original work.
What to make of
Think and Grow Rich!? Dr. Hill’s book is a publishing phenomenon. Year after year, people continue to discover it—
tucked away inconspicuously on a bookstore or library shelf or passed along from a family member, friend, or associate—and
they have read it,
loved it, and used it to turn their lives around and their powers of creativity and imagination loose.
The first copy of
Think and Grow Rich! was sold in 1937. Eleven years later, in February 1948,
Coronet magazine polled 300 successful young men and women, asking, What book or books most influenced your life and contributed to your success
Think and Grow Rich! ranked fourth on the list. In September 1986—38 years and eight US. presidents later—
USAToday published a list of the “10 top-selling paperback books about investments in America for that month. Despite the fact that it is only in the most general sense an investment book, being primarily about investing
in yourself and other people,
Think and Grow Rich! ranked Noon the list. (Books it beat
How to Buy Stocks,
The Only Investment Guide You’llEver Need, and
Getting Yours.)
Some years ago the Library of Congress conducted a survey asking what books most influenced readers lives. The top answer, by a wide margin, was the Bible. In second and third place were, respectively,
AtlasShrugged by Ayn Rand and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In, Business Week magazine published The BusinessWeek Best-Seller
List” in its October 14 edition. Almost incredibly,
Think and Grow Rich!ranked tenth on the list of the current 15 top-selling paperback business books years after the first copy of the book was purchased!
Walk into any well-stocked bookstore in America or check any online seller and you will find a few paperback copies of
Think and Grow Rich!for sale (usually the 1960 version in one of its manifestations) in the business or self-motivation sections.
Think and Grow Rich! endures because it works.
For three years it was my privilege to serve as the first editor-in-chief of
Think & Grow Rich Newsletter, published by Imagine, Inc, for the
Napoleon Hill Foundation, a charitable organization he had established. My experience in that position not only provided me with the insight and
confidence needed to undertake this restoration/revision of
Think and GrowRich!, but also introduced me to the living power of this book in changing people’s lives. I was exposed to the kind of correspondence and phone calls that pour in daily from people throughout the world, in all walks of
life and in all circumstances, who have read
Think and Grow Rich!, applied its principles diligently, and attained self-confidence, self-understanding, and levels of success that most people only dare dream of. You may one day find yourself giving such a personal testimonial.
Yet there is more to
Think and Grow Rich! than the power of the principles it explains. Part of the book’s
appeal is the uncanny, almost prophetic insights of Napoleon Hill about matters and issues that are very much today He talked about concepts such as networking, participatory management, excellence in customer service, visualization techniques,
brainstorming, and the use of written goals and objectives long before any of these became corporate or psychological buzzwords—even before, inmost instances, the terms themselves were created. He spends almost an entire chapter discussing
the concept of mentorship, although he never refers to it as such and puts an unusual Hill twist on it. His speculations on human brain functions anticipate the whole area of right brain/left brain research. Anyone of the numerous self-analysis tests scattered throughout his pages is thoroughly applicable today and well worth the price of this book alone. Fifty years before the word downsizing would come into vogue, Napoleon Hill spelled out in specific detail the perfect strategy and tactics to use when one finds oneself suddenly forced to look fora job or trying to start a business. His analysis of what capitalism is and means (in
Chapter 6) is the most compelling and persuasive ever made and should be required reading for everyone.
No matter what town, state, province, or country you may live in, your personal success library will never be complete without this restored,
revised,
fully annotated, and fully indexed version of
Think and Grow Rich!It contains all of the book’s original contents. It includes restored material that makes it more relevant and valuable to today’s economy than it was when it was first written. Teaching the practical steps to the attainment of financial independence and even great wealth is one of the main purposes of
Think and Grow Rich! But it turns out that the greatest value of this wonderful book is not that it can make you financially successful, but that it
can help YOU, or ANYONE, achieve success however you may define it—
and help you get whatever else it is that you desire from life.
To paraphrase Napoleon Hill’s most famous statement:
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