Think and Grow Rich!

because they actually need them, but mainly because
“everyone is doing it The individual falls into line and
does likewise, lest some other individual CRITICIZE him.
Women seldom have bald heads, or even thin hair, because
they wear hats which fit their heads loosely, the only purpose
of the hats being adornment.
But it must not be supposed that women are free from
the fear of criticism. If any woman claims to be superior to
man with reference to this fear, ask her to walk down the
street wearing a hat of the vintage of 1890.
Hill was not infallible—if for no other reason than the fact that medical scientists in his day understood little about the relationship between genetics and male pattern baldness.
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Playing upon this Collier’s (which ceased publication in enjoyed along history and was once America’s leading general interest magazine. It was founded in April 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier as
Once a Week and sold along with his biweekly Collier’s Library, which printed short novels and popular stories at bargain rates cents for pages. The first edition featured pieces by Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
James Whitcomb Riley, and H. Rider Haggard, the author of King
Solomon’s Mines, She, and other adventure stories. Winston Churchill,
Agatha Christie, Pearl Buck, and Neville Shute are just a few of the many authors whose works would grace the magazine’s pages over the years. Collier’s gradually evolved into a weekly newsmagazine. Its crusade against injurious patent medicines—for example, a remedy called “liquozone” that was advertised to cure everything from cancer to dandruff—was a major impetus behind passage of the US. Food and Drug Act. Poor management and consistent red ink resulted in the magazine’s sale to the Cowles publishing organization, which buried the publication and rolled its subscribers over into Look magazine in
1957.
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This form of Hill believed firmly in mind over matter when it came to health issues, and medical research has since demonstrated conclusively that state of mind does play an important role in good

health. However, whether he actually believed the following anecdote which he uses in the original Think and Grow Rich!—or was simply using it to make a crucial point—is unclear:
During the flu epidemic which broke out during the
world war, the mayor of New York City took drastic steps to
check the damage which people were doing themselves
through their inherent fear of ill health. He called in the
newspaper men and said to them, Gentlemen, I feel it
necessary to ask you not to publish any scare headlines
concerning the flu epidemic. Unless you cooperate with
me, we will have a situation which we cannot control The
newspapers quit publishing stories about the flu and
within one month the epidemic had been successfully
checked.
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