 The Secret to Freedom and Success. The book is called Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. He is the author of the very famous book Think and Grow Rich, which is one of the all-time famous books, all-time greatest books regarding creating wealth for yourself. This was actually a book that was hidden since 1938 and it was only released, I think, in about 2010 when his estate decided to release the book. He wrote it. It was considered too controversial at the time because of the subject matter. So one of the things that he talks about in this book, Outwitting the Devil, The Secret to Freedom and Success, is that he says the biggest thing that people struggle with is called drifting. And a drifter is one who permits himself to be influenced and controlled by circumstances outside of his own mind. He would rather let thoughts occupy his mind than go to the trouble of thinking for himself. A drifter has lots of opinions but they are not his own. So the context of the book really is an interview between Napoleon Hill who's the author. He was a very famous journalist who interviewed some of the world's greatest success minds and the devil, this fictitious character called the devil, so it's Napoleon Hill interviewing the devil and the devil telling Napoleon Hill how he corrupts people's minds, how he influences people to start getting into negative thinking, how he influences people to give up rather than persist. So I'm going to read a few points from the book here. Let's have a look here. The youthful inexperienced mind is apt to mistake temporary success for permanency. The youth often makes the mistake of coveting the temporal gains of immoral unjust plans but neglects to look ahead and observe the penalties which follow as definitely as night follows day. So he's saying there everything is temporary whether you have a great amount of success you shouldn't think that it's just going to last forever. Likewise if you have gone through a tough spot at the moment you shouldn't think that it's going to last forever. Everything is temporary. He's talking about perseverance here. When plans fail he substitutes others but he does not change his purpose. He perseveres. Eventually he finds a plan that succeeds. So if you were given up because it all just got a bit too hard, a reminder that the devil is trying to get you to stop. He wants you to quit but the person who moves with definiteness recognizes the difference between temporary defeat and failure. When plans fail he substitutes others but he does not change his purpose. He perseveres. Put it in context if you've got a business that you're trying to run or a job or a girl you're dating or whatever and you're trying to make things happen and then you know you try something it doesn't work. Well two types of people. One person goes well that's the end of that and doesn't try again or the other person goes okay didn't work that way I'll try this way perseverance. All habits save only that of the love of definiteness of purpose may lead to the habit of drifting. So yeah so all habits that we have may lead to us drifting except for having a definiteness of purpose. The devil says once any person hesitates procrastinates or becomes indefinite about anything he is just one step removed from my control. That's stuff that's vicious stuff I should say. Procrastination is a killer man that will kill you. In fact I actually came up with a procrastination how to beat procrastination formula and if you want to get it if you're listening to me or you're watching as well you can text the word James1 that's James and the number one to the number 44222 if you're in the U.S. and if you're anywhere outside of the U.S. you can just go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash free stuff and I'll give you my stop procrastinating formula. I'll also send you actually my notes from Think and Grow Rich by the same author Napoleon Hill. Let's have another read here of this book let's find out some other things that I underlined here. The first thing you will notice about a drifter is his total lack of a major purpose in life. He will be conspicuous by his lack of self-confidence. He will never accomplish anything requiring thought and effort. Tough. The devil likes to sow the seeds of fear and uncertainty in the minds of people. Laziness plus indifference equals procrastination equals drifting. We've all been guilty of it at some time or another right? The devil says that he plants the seeds of negative thought in the minds of people through newspapers moving pictures the radio and all other popular methods of appeal to the mind. I cause people to allow me to do their thinking for them because they are too lazy and too indifferent to think for themselves. Yeah you've got to think for yourself. All right let's keep going here what else we got here from Napoleon Hill and outwitting the devil. Positive thoughts can be woven by time into permanent habits that's good so you think positive you'll get you'll act positive. Nature will not tolerate idleness or vacuums of any sort all space must be and is filled with something when the individual does not use the brain for the expression of positive creative thoughts nature fills the vacuum by forcing the brain to act upon negative thoughts. Successful people must control their environment thereby ensuring themselves against the influence of a negative environment so if you've got friends and they're always bitching the whole time you've got to get them out of your life because otherwise you will be negative and you will bitch but if you want to be happy surround yourself with happy people so you've got to really control your environment. The first duty of every human being is to himself every person owes himself the duty of finding how to live a full and happy life. What else we got here. Definitiveness I'm getting the pronunciation here wrong aren't I? Definiteness of purpose everyone is born with the privilege of being definite but 98 out of every 100 people lose this privilege by sleeping on it the privilege of definiteness can be maintained only by adopting it as a policy by which one is guided in all areas of life. The person who thinks in terms of power success opulence sets up a rhythm which attracts these desirable possessions the person who thinks in terms of misery failure defeat discouragement and poverty attracts these undesirable influences all successful people use hypnotic rhythm either consciously or unconsciously by expecting and demanding success as long as people fear something no matter what I will keep a grip on them says the devil you got to eliminate fear right non-drifters do not wait for opportunity to be to be placed in their way they create opportunity to fit their desires and demands of life they create opportunity I love it they don't wait they create I think we might leave it at that I like that that last message creating opportunity so that's the book outwitting the devil the secret to freedom and success by the very famous author Napoleon Hill who's also the author of the book think and grow rich I will send you my personal notes on think and grow rich if you type in James one or send a text rather than James one to the number 44222 or you can go to jamesconic.com forward slash free stuff leave a comment down below if you're watching on YouTube subscribe I do these book reviews all the time thank you for listening on the James one show podcast and I will catch you on the next one