 Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of the all-time great business books One of the all-time great life books really and Today I am going to read out my personal notes that I typed out from this book about six years ago And I give away these notes at my website JamesSwanick.com In the form of a PDF so if you want to get these notes and a follow along Go to JamesSwanick.com and I will send you my notes, but Think and Grow Rich is a very famous book by a former journalist called Napoleon Hill back in the day and It's pretty much treated like the Bible of Business books in terms of mindset getting your head straight for success developing persistence overcoming obstacles And Napoleon Hill was Like I said, he was an American author and he became Very much an early producer of personal success literature. So You know today we've got you know people like Tony Robbins and the motivational coach and Jim Rowne who passed away a few years ago and all these people who are you know into personal development and Goal setting and they got Brian Tracy, but Napoleon Hill back in the early 1900s was very much the first author of Kind of like self-development mindset He died in 1970 But Think and Grow Rich which he wrote in 1937 has sold 20 million copies 20 million copies He was also an advisor to two presidents of the United States Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, so Yeah, I'm gonna read out these notes and what we're gonna do a little bit of commentary on them, but if you are wanting to I wouldn't say tough enough, but if you're wanting to really have a refresh if you like on staying positive and Understanding your goals and desires and staying on track and you're wanting to create a winning mindset for Growth whether it's in your finances whether it's in your spiritual life or your relationships then think and grow rich is one of the all-time classics And we're gonna get into my notes here and about Well, let's we'll start in about 90 seconds. I just want to give you a little bit more context on on on this as well because Napoleon Hill wrote this Well, he wrote rather that the turning point in his life Came in about 1908 when he was given an assignment to interview Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Carnegie is one of the great industrialists and philanthropists of our time and At that time he was one of the most powerful men in the world And if we just go if we go to Napoleon Hill's Wikipedia page here, I'm gonna pull this up and I'll just read it in 1908 Carnegie was among the most powerful men in The world he'll claim that Carnegie had actually met with him at that time and challenged him to interview wealthy people To discover a simple formula for success and that he had taken the advice to interview successful people of the time So, yeah, he he The polling he'll set out and interviewed People like Andrew Carnegie Henry Ford Edwin C. Barnes who was an associate of Thomas Edison Apparently Carnegie had given Napoleon Hill an introduction to Ford and He'll then introduced him to Alexander Graham Bell Creator of the telephone Thomas Edison and a few other people. So essentially Napoleon Hill interviewed some of the world's greatest Business people most successful people in history really around that time in the Sort of, you know Early to mid 19 1900s So He collated all of the great Thought processes from some of the world's greatest entrepreneurial minds at the time And put them into this book thinking grow rich And Now I'm going to read you my notes and you can pick out some of these things that are relevant to you And Let's do it. Okay. So I'm reading from my notes thinking grow rich by Napoleon Hill. I'm not reading from the book I'm reading from the notes that I took when I read the book six years ago, which you can find at James swanick com And I will send them to you So you can print them out and stick them on your fridge or stick them on your bathroom wall Or stick near your workplace I keep mine in a drawer in my in my bathroom and I pull them out in time to time Just to give me a reminder and I pulled them out today and I thought, you know what I'm just going to do this I'm just going to go over him. So here we go Write down a written statement of purpose. It should be similar to the following So this is like a statement that he's saying by the first day of such and so Include date. I will have in my possession $50,000 or you just input any amount of dollars in here Which will come to me in various amounts from time to time during the interim in return for this money I will give the most efficient service of which I am capable Rendering the fullest possible quantity and the best possible quality of service in the capacity of salesman of And then that's where you Describe the service that you intend to sell I believe that I will have this money in my possession. My faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes I can touch it with my hands. It is now awaiting transfer to me So what this is is a written statement of purpose. So he's encouraging You to write down almost like a contract to yourself saying that I will have by this date This amount of money or I will have by this date a certain Health or a certain weight or a certain relationship So it's a written statement of your purpose Let me just go over it again and again You can just copy and paste the version that you get when I send it to you from a website But I'll just verbally say it again. This is an example of a statement of purpose By this date I will have in my possession This amount of money which will come to me in various amounts from time to time during the interim in return for this money I will give the most efficient service of which I am capable Rendering the fullest possible quantity and the best possible quality of service in the capacity of salesman of My product of my service I believe I will have this amount of money in return for this money My faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes. I can touch it with my hands It is now awaiting transfer to me So what Napoleon Hill was encouraging us to do here was to write it down write it down And when we write it down and forms in our brain and we sort of subconsciously and consciously think about that goal as we as we go along I believe I will have this money in my possession My faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes I can touch it with my hands It is now awaiting transfer to me So let's subconsciously and consciously think about that goal as we as we go along and we start to take the actions towards that goal All right, let me go on here He's talking about persistence here the hidden guide that's no one enjoy great achievement without passing the persistence test Those who can't take it simply do not make the grade Those who can take it are bountifully rewarded for their persistence They receive as their compensation whatever goal they are pursuing So he's talking about persistence here That is not all they receive something infinitely more important than material compensation The knowledge that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage So two main themes here to be successful we must be persistent Those who can't take it simply do not make the grade Those who can't take it are bountifully rewarded for their persistence They receive whatever goal they are pursuing To put this in context in my own I guess business life You know I've created the 30 day no alcohol challenge I've created Swanee's glasses The 30 day no alcohol challenge did has done particularly well There's been a couple of changes to it in the last two or three months And it's gone backwards in terms of the number of people and the number of sales who've gone into that program And because I've experimented with a few changes I wanted to experiment a few structural changes a few payment changes and a few marketing changes And as a result not as many people have got into that program in the last two or three months That's been frustrating but at the same time I keep reminding myself persistence Persistence persistence maybe I needed to go two steps back in order to go one big huge leap forward And so the persistence is keeping me continuing on it's not like throwing in the towel and going this is all too hard I'm being persistent now you don't want to be so persistent that you're flogging a dead horse As we say in Australia it's like if you've got a dead animal you know you're trying to beat it and try to get it to get up But if it's dead it's not nothing's going to happen right so you have to identify that But if you can persist and overcome setbacks and obstacles and keep going according to Napoleon Hill who interviewed Andrew Carnegie Henry Ford Graham Bell Thomas Edison some of the greatest business people of our time then people receive as their compensation whatever goal they are pursuing He goes on to say a few people know from experience the soundness of persistence they are the ones who have not accepted defeat as being anything more than temporary Exactly so defeat is nothing more than temporary how many times do we just go man it's too hard that sucks I got defeated and then we just go that's permanent If we treat it as temporary and we get up and we go again then we move forward And then he Napoleon Hill goes over four necessary steps here to develop persistence They call for no great amount of intelligence no particular amount of education and but little time or effort The necessary steps are a definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment That's the first one number two a definite plan expressed in continuous action Number three a mind close closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences including negative suggestions of relatives friends and acquaintances Number four a friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose These four steps are essential for success in all walks of life So let's go over that again to develop persistence the four necessary steps are number one a definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment So what's your definite purpose what's your burning desire why do you have a burning desire to ask ourselves what your purpose is it's like what do we really want what do you really want out of life Like what's your purpose is it just to build a business to make money or is it to build a business to make money to have a lifestyle or is it to have a lifestyle because you value freedom Because you want to change the world because you want to help the most people You got to have a definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment Number two a definite plan expressed in continuous action a plan a plan a plan a plan do you have a plan Or are you simply just going through the motions and bouncing from thing to thing and there's no real directions no real vision you just kind of like going with the flow This is an interesting one I got to tell you for many years I loved just going with the flow I loved the fact that I didn't know where I was going to be a month from the day that I was saying it I didn't know I love the fact that maybe I might be living in Columbia one year in Argentina the next London and Los Angeles and New York and Austin and moving around and I was quite proud of the fact that my plan was really to have no plan it was just to kind of bounce around So I guess in that sense you could say that my definite plan was to have no plan and I expressed it in continuous action well now it's changed a little bit now I have a definite plan And the definite plan is to be more settled in one place my definite plan is to work on my relationship romantic relationship my definite plan is to Is to build business to two of these businesses 30 day no alcohol challenge and this one is be like blocking glasses and to keep helping people and keep working in the self development space where I'm learning new things and educating myself that is my definite plan expressed in continuous action Now you can break that down and even more specifically I could break that down into my 30 day no alcohol challenge I can have a definite plan so on this month we're going to test this and then on this month I'm going to test paid advertising and then this month I'm going to try and set up affiliates That's an example of being more specific but according to think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill the necessary steps include having some kind of definite plan Expressing continuous action and the continuous action means just always be doing things always be taking action don't just look at the plan and go all that's nice and do nothing actually express it in in in action. I think I'm pretty good at taking action. I'm also pretty hard on myself and the fact that I often think that I'm not doing enough. But as long as you're taking some form of action you're moving forward moving the needle. Number three, a mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences including negative suggestions of relatives friends and acquaintances. This is a good one. People will always tell you shouldn't do that. Oh that's too much or even if they don't say it they'll think it and you can sense that they think it. I know that my my mom and dad back in Brisbane Australia still scratch their head about what the hell I'm doing living in America. You know they want me to come back to Australia and and my mom especially makes little things little remarks like come back home and blah blah blah. And according to Napoleon Hill you got to have a mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences including the negative suggestions of relatives friends and acquaintances. Now you could argue that my mom's not really being negative because she's just wanting to encourage me to change locations but for me that's not what I want to do. And so every time she says that it's for me a negative suggestion from a relative in this case in this case my mother. So you must have a mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences according to Napoleon Hill. So in that sense you know I have to block it out and just go whatever I'm living my own life I'm doing this and I'm staying saying true that's just one example. Other people will question. Your choice of romantic partner. People raise eyebrows or even if they don't say anything you can just sense it they'll make a little little remark a little joke here we kind of just straight away know that. They're thinking that you shouldn't be doing that we shouldn't be dating that person. Maybe they're right I'm not saying that you got to completely discount their their thoughts. But if you are persistent and if you're developing persistence and you are you genuinely believe in whatever it is that you're wanting to believe in then you must have a mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences. As Napoleon Hill states. Number four was a friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose. Yeah you got relationships you know people who support you you can't do it alone you got it you have to get you have to help other people and you have to have other people help you. You have to have friends. Business associates you got to reach out to people. These four steps are essential for success in all walks of life. Let me continue on here when one makes an impartial study of the profits philosophers miracle men and religious leaders of the past. One is drawn to the inevitable conclusion that persistence, concentration of effort and definiteness of purpose with the major sources of their achievements. When riches take the place of poverty, the change is usually brought about through well conceived and carefully executed plans. Anybody can wish for riches and most people do, but only a few know that a definite plan, plus a burning desire for wealth are the only dependable means of accumulating wealth. One of America's most successful and best known financiers followed the habit of closing his eyes for two or three minutes before making a decision. When asked why he did this he replied with my eyes closed I'm able to draw upon a source of superior intelligence. I've been trying to get better at meditating using the calm app and the headspace app. It's still a struggle for me but when on those occasions when I actually do it, I feel amazing having done it. So try sitting with your eyes closed even for two or three minutes if you're trying to make a tough decision you don't know the answer. According to Pauline Hills think and grow rich closing your eyes for two or three minutes before making a decision will draw upon a source of superior intelligence. So give that a try. Let's go on here make your desires clear and reduce them to writing. You will also understand the necessity of persistence and carrying out instructions. So yeah just this morning about 20 minutes before I started preparing to record this episode. I actually did some freestyle writing I had out got out a book and I just wrote down some desires and put them in writing. Apparently that's a good thing. Apparently that'll help trigger things in the brain as well in persistence. It begins with study analysis and understanding of three enemies which you shall have to clear out. These enemies are indecision doubt and fear indecision doubt and fear how many times have you been indecisive not made a decision. I'm constantly going back and forth should I shouldn't I this indecision is a huge enemy to success doubt scared of what might happen. Not backing yourself fear fear of consequences. Napoleon Hill goes on here says there are six basic fears with some combination of which every human suffers at one time or another. Most people are fortunate if they do not suffer from the entire six named in the order of their most common appearance they are. The fear of poverty the fear of criticism the fear of ill health. The fear of loss of love of someone the fear of old age the fear of death. So the six fears of poverty criticism ill health loss of love old age and death. Fears are nothing more than states of mind one state of mind is subject to control and direction. Man can create nothing which he does not first conceive in the form of an impulse of thoughts. Every human being has the ability to completely control his mind. And with this control obviously every person may open his mind to the tramps thought impulses which are being released by other brains or close the doors tightly and admit only thought impulses of his own choice. So he's saying here that he's starting to move into thoughts here in that it's our thoughts that are the reason for our health or our wealth or our relationships. It's just everything that we think master the fear of loss of love by reaching a decision to get along without love if that is necessary. That's interesting master the fear of loss of love by reaching a decision to get along without love that is necessary. Kill the habit of worry in all its forms by reaching a general blanket decision that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry. Kill the habit of worry in all its forms by reaching a general blanket decision that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry. So that song what's the world what how's it go what's the point of worrying it never was worthwhile so I've got the troubles in your old kit bag and smile smile smile. I can remember when I learned that probably 1985 when I was 10. Yeah, we all know this like this. There's no point in worrying it doesn't get you anywhere but we still do it anyway. Don't we I mean even this morning when I woke up in bed to 10 minutes and just sort of lay there I was worrying about how my paid Facebook ads promotion was going to go. In terms of driving traffic to the 30 day no alcohol challenge and worrying about whether I was going to spend a lot of money and get and get no return on investment. What's the point of that what was there any point there wasn't. But we do it anyway don't we we just worry. If we can control it as best we can then obviously we're going to let go of the shackles and we'll be able to get up and kick ass. In fact, the other thing I was thinking I've been watching the show lately called billions it's on showtime. And I mean I've sort of got into the practice of watching a little bit of late night like a indulging in half an hour 45 minutes of late night. TV show because now it's sort of like Game of Thrones season Game of Thrones is on on a Sunday night now got to watch Game of Thrones but I slipped into the habit of watching a TV series here and there. So I'm watching a show billions and there's a character on that show billions who works and she's a she's a woman who works at a hedge fund and her job is like a psychiatrist. And all of these hedge fund guys who need to be really like kicking ass and not worrying all the time and making good decisions. Go and see her when they're worried and stressed and she sort of like gets into their head and reframes their thinking. To the point where they walk out the door five minutes later ready to like go and kick ass and there's no worry and there's no stress and they're just like yes let's do it and because of that they're able to make good decisions and. Be aggressive and make good trades and therefore make millions of dollars for the company. So. What was the point of that. Well that character that psychiatrist kills the habit of worry. In all the people who work in that hedge hedge fund. That's an extreme example but if we were able to get inside our heads or have a psychiatrist psychologist or someone or head coach or whatever just help us eliminate that worry and be fearless. Wow would be Superman or super women wouldn't we because as Napoleon Hill says we you may control your own mind you have the power to feed at whatever thought impulses you choose with this privilege goes also the responsibility of using it constructively. You are the master of your own earthly destiny just as surely as you have the power to control your own thoughts. You may influence direct and eventually control your own environment making your life what you want it to be. Or you may neglect to exercise the privilege which is yours to make your life to order. Thus casting yourself upon the broad sea of circumstance where you will be tossed hither and young like a chip on the waves of the ocean. You have absolute control over but one thing and that is your thoughts so our thoughts are thoughts are thoughts. You have absolute control over but one thing and that is your thoughts. That is one of the tricks of opportunity it has a slight habit of slipping in by the back door and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity. Know what you want and have the determination to stand by that desire until you realize it. So now he is talking about failing and success he says one of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. When riches begin to come they come so quickly in such great abundance that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years. Success comes to those who become success conscious failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious. Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win essential to success. Let me repeat that success comes to those who become success conscious failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious. Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win essential to success. I'm on the last page of my notes here. Success requires no apologies failure permits no alibis. If the thing you wish to do is right and you believe in it go ahead and do it put your dream across and never mind what they say if you meet with temporary defeat. For they perhaps do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. I like that. Never mind what they say if you meet with temporary defeat for they perhaps do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. I like repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary voluntary development of the emotion of faith. Faith is the eternal Alexia which gives life power and action to the impulse of thoughts thoughts which are mixed with any of the feelings of emotions constitute a magnetic force which attracts on the vibrations of the either other similar or related thoughts. So yeah it's talking about positive thoughts attract other positive thoughts positive emotions create positive thoughts. That's why if you let me just use an analogy here if you hang out with positive happy people you will be happy and positive. If you hang out with six guys you will have six packs you'll likely get a six pack. Because you'll it's like attracts like there's that magnetic force. If you're always wanting and complaining then you're likely to always hang out with people who whine and complain. My dad used to always say to me the phrase if you lay down with dogs you'll come up with fleas. So think about your friends who are they are they bringing you down are they holding you back are they negative. These people that you're spending time with thoughts which are mixed with any of the feelings of emotions constitute a magnetic force which attracts from the vibrations of the either other similar or related thoughts. Excuse me. So there you go there are my notes on Napoleon Hill's book Think and Grow Rich. I would encourage you to either get the book or if you want those notes which are my notes in PDF form reminder you go to JamesSwanick.com and I will send them to you. Let me just go to my website now make sure I tell you exactly where it is so you can you're not like searching for it. Let's go to JamesSwanick.com let's have a look here. There it is right on the top it says get my book notes on three life changing books and says enter your name and email address and I'll send them to you. So yeah just put your email address in there and I will send you those notes but they are the books from Think and Grow Rich. Persistence. A plan. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage you to follow through with plan and purpose. Making your desires clear and reducing them to writing. Overcoming those six basic fears poverty criticism ill health loss of love. Old age fear and death. You have the power to control your mind. Burning desire to win success requires no apologies failure permits no alibis. It's good stuff huh. I bet when you were listening to that you were thinking about how this can work in your own life. Yeah. What's your definite purpose what's your definite plan. What are the negative and discouraging influences in your life that you can close out. Who are some friendly people that you can get involved with to improve your business or your relationships. Persistence. Persistence. The good notes are like this. You have absolute control over about one thing and that is your thoughts. I'm going to put this on my Snapchat actually if you're following me on Snapchat. Or if you're not rather you should definitely download Snapchat on your phone and follow me. It's just my name James Swannick SWAN WICK. I do probably about 10 to 15 little 10 second videos a day where I do little habit hacks and positive affirmations and do little book reviews and things like that. I'm just going to do one right now while I'm on the thing with you. Alright I'm here just recording my podcast that I'm doing a review of the book thinking grow rich by Napoleon Hill one of the great success books of all time. There you go so that's me the replay of me on my Snapchat. Let me just send that to my snap. So if you want to see the video of me doing this go and follow me on Snapchat. And I am now going to tell my Snapchat audience to go and download the show so you can listen to me recording a Snapchat so you can see what it's all about if you know if you don't do Snapchat you can hear me doing it so you've got an idea. And if you want to listen to my podcast then go to the James Swannick show in iTunes. There it is right there. It's been going for two years now. Okay, so now I've just talked to my Snapchat followers. So thank you for listening to this. I appreciate your support. Please do share this episode now with someone that you feel will get a lot of benefit from this. If you're listening to this on your phone right now, then you can share this very easily by when this episode finishes you will just go click on the button and you can just hit the share button there. There's three little dots down on the bottom right hand corner of your screen. If you hit those three little dots there and a little button comes up that says share episode. You click on the share episode and then it gives you the options of like message, Facebook, WhatsApp. Click it on the Facebook icon and then just say, hey, this was an episode on Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. You should listen and then bang, there you go. The link will automatically be included and you'll be sharing that on your Facebook page. So yeah, once again, if you're listening to this on your cell phone, just look on the screen on the bottom right. There's three little dots. Click on the share episode, post it to your Facebook. That would really help me out. So I hope you enjoyed this. Get out there and develop persistence, a definite plan, a mind closed tightly against all negative influences, a friendly alliance. Remember to that you control your mind. You have the power to feed at whatever thought impulses you choose. Success requires no apologies. Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. Thanks for listening. Share this episode right now and I will catch you on the next one. See ya.