Think and Grow Rich

R. U. Darby's uncle struck gold in Colorado, raised money for mining equipment, and began pulling rich ore. Then the vein disappeared. After desperate drilling, they quit and sold everything to a junk dealer. That dealer hired a mining engineer who found the vein just three feet from where the Darbys stopped — and pulled millions from the mine.

Darby carried that lesson into insurance sales, becoming one of America's top producers. Edison failed 10,000 times before perfecting the light bulb. Hill's four steps to build persistence: a definite purpose backed by burning desire, a definite plan in continuous action, a mind closed tightly against negativity, and a supportive alliance of encouragers. When your plan fails, replace the plan — never the goal.

The Master Mind principle is Hill's term for coordinating knowledge and effort between two or more people in perfect harmony toward a definite purpose. Andrew Carnegie attributed his entire fortune to his group of roughly 50 specialists. Henry Ford leapt from poverty to extraordinary wealth after allying with Edison, Firestone, and Burbank. Hill even argues the American Revolution succeeded because Adams, Hancock, and Lee formed a Master Mind that grew into the Continental Congress.

The principle has two dimensions. Economically, you access knowledge and resources beyond one person's capacity. But Hill also claims coordinated minds produce an intangible "third mind" — a force greater than the sum of the parts. Select allies who share your purpose, meet at least twice weekly, maintain absolute harmony, and offer each member clear benefits for their cooperation.

Hill's analysis of millionaires revealed a stark pattern: every one reached decisions promptly and changed them slowly. People who fail do the opposite — decide slowly and reverse course at the first resistance. Henry Ford's stubbornness about the Model T was called obstinacy, but it yielded a fortune before any change was needed.

Guard your decisions fiercely. Hill warns that relatives and acquaintances will eagerly volunteer opinions that undermine your resolve — share plans only with your Master Mind group. Keep your eyes and ears open, your mouth closed. The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence demonstrated what decisive courage looks like: each signed knowing it meant death if the Revolution failed. Their decision, born from a Master Mind of Adams, Hancock, and Lee, created a nation.

Autosuggestion is Hill's term for self-directed stimuli reaching the mind through the five senses — the only voluntary method for programming your subconscious. The subconscious responds to thoughts mixed with intense emotion and ignores detached, rational instructions. This is why the Six-Step Formula demands you feel possession of your goal, not just recite it.

The principle cuts both ways. Negative thoughts saturated with fear program the subconscious just as effectively as positive ones charged with faith. Hill demonstrated this with his son Blair, born without ears. By relentlessly planting the desire to hear — through bedtime stories, emotional conviction, and unwavering belief — Hill influenced Blair's subconscious so powerfully that the boy eventually developed functional hearing against all medical expectations.

Knowledge is only potential power. When a lawyer tried to prove Henry Ford ignorant in court, Ford replied that by pressing the right button on his desk, he could summon anyone to answer any question — so why clutter his mind with trivia? Carnegie admitted knowing nothing about the technical side of steelmaking; his Master Mind group held that expertise. Hill redefines education: it's not what you know, but your ability to organize knowledge and direct it toward a definite purpose.

Acquire specialized knowledge relevant to your chief aim, structure it into practical plans, and fill gaps through allies. Hill notes that continuing self-education impresses employers more than degrees because it signals initiative — the quality that separates leaders from followers. The person who stops learning after school is "forever hopelessly doomed to mediocrity."

Of Hill's Six Basic Fears — poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, and death — criticism is among the most destructive because it operates invisibly. It stops people from setting ambitious goals, starting businesses, or voicing honest opinions. Hill confesses that when Carnegie proposed his 20-year research project, his own mind flooded with fears: "Who are you to aim so high? People will think you're crazy."

Criticism destroys ideas at birth. Parents who chronically criticize create permanent inferiority complexes. Employees who fear ridicule never share their best thinking. Hill's prescription: decide not to worry about what others think, and recognize that most people project their own limitations onto you. Nurture every idea the moment it appears — every minute it lives gives it a better chance of surviving.

Sex transmutation — Hill's most provocative principle — means channeling sexual energy into creative endeavor, not suppressing it. Hill found that individuals of greatest achievement had highly developed sexual natures and learned to redirect that drive into imagination, courage, and persistence. His analysis of 25,000 people revealed most don't peak until after 40, largely because they spend earlier decades dissipating this energy rather than transmuting it.

The mechanism is practical. Of Hill's ten mind stimuli, sexual desire ranks first in intensity. Top salespeople unconsciously convert this energy into personal magnetism and enthusiasm. When the emotion of love combines with sexual energy, Hill calls the result the "eternal triangle of achievement-building genius" — the force he found behind nearly every creative masterwork and financial empire in history.

Hill's Invisible Counselors technique is the book's most unusual practice. Every night before sleep, he visualized nine admired figures — Emerson, Edison, Darwin, Lincoln, Napoleon, Ford, Carnegie, Paine, and Burbank — seated around an imaginary council table. He addressed each one aloud, requesting specific traits: Lincoln's patience and humor, Edison's faith and persistence, Carnegie's organizing ability. Over months, these figures developed personalities so vivid Hill temporarily stopped the practice.

The underlying mechanism is autosuggestion applied to character building. By repeatedly imagining himself among greatness, Hill reshaped his own thinking patterns and decision-making. He later expanded the council to over 50 members including Christ, Aristotle, and Socrates. The technique exploits a principle woven through the entire book: your subconscious cannot distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one.