Autosuggestion - one of the thirteen principles of success - is the focus of this chapter.

Napoleon Hill started the chapter by explaining that autosuggestion is self-suggestion, which encompasses all suggestions that we allow to reach our minds through the five senses.

Human beings have control over what reaches their subconscious minds…

… however, in the great majority of  instances, we don’t exercise it… and therefore, most people go through life in poverty!

At this point, I felt that the 21st Century edition gave informative and relevant commentary that:

• Studies showed that our subconscious is nonjudmental
• Psychological conditions - fixations, phobias and compulsive behaviors - occur when children learned things so powerfully that they become firmly planted in the child’s subconscious mind till adulthood
• Hill’s theory is based on the exact same psychological principles that thoughts do remain stored in the subconscious, and the more emotionalized when the thoughts are when they are input, the more influence they exert on attitude and behavior. Knowing this, we can use autosuggestion as a tool to input positive thoughts to achieve the success we desire.

Following that, the 6 steps from Chapter 3, ‘Desire’ are repeated because of the importance of communicating the desire to our subconsious mind in a spirit of absolute faith, of which here is a summary for your reference:

1. Fix  in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return.
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to have the money.
4. Create a definite plan to carry out your desire.
5. Write it out in a clear and concise statement.
6. Read your written statement aloud twice daily, when you arise and before you retire.

However, merely reading out your statement is not good enough. You need to mix emotion or feeling with your words.

Modern Day Examples of Autosuggestion

More useful commentary was given in the 21st Century Edition on how the autosuggestion technique is most widely taught by contemporary motivational experts. Today, it is called Creative Visualization and regularly used by Olympic athletes and NASA astronauts as well as in the medical practice. Here, I quote a few modern day examples:

• Dr. Maxwell Maltz is a noted plastic surgeon found that it is important for patients to change their inner perception of themselves as well as to change their outer experience. His bestseller, ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’ draws heavily on visualization to increase self-esteem and improve a wide range of abilities.
• The Silva Method, another variation of visualization had been taught to millions of people. Jose Silva sold millions of his bestseller, ‘The Silva Mind Control Method’
• Dr. O. Carl Simonton published ‘Getting Well Again’. As an oncologist, he concluded that cancer patients who used visualizations in conjuction with chemotherapy treatments had a marked improvement over those who didn’t.

Last but not least, the original ‘Think And Grow Rich’ mentioned that many philosophers made the statement that man is the master of his own destiny but most failed to say why…

… and the reason that man may become the master of himself, and of his environment, is because he has the power to influence his own subconscious mind. And the actual performance of transmuting desire into money is through autosuggestion. That is the principleby which you can reach, and influence, the subconscious mind.

And Napoleon Hill went on to advise the reader to complete the book and return to re-read this chapter once every night till he or she become thoroughly convinced that the principle of autosuggestion is sound.

FAITH in your ability - one of the thirteen principles of success - is the focus of this chapter.

Napoleon Hill started the chapter by stating that the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration when faith is blended with thought… describes how to develop faith through self-suggestion… illustrated with an amazing story of how an idea built a fortune… and concluded by reaffirming that riches begin with thought.

In sharing how to develop faith through self-suggestion (also called autosuggestion), Hill shared this short poem that I thought truly brings out the essence of ‘think’ and grow rich:

If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think you dare not, you don’t;

If you like to win, but you think you can’t,

It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,

For out in the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow’s will –

It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,

You’ve got to think high to rise,

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can!

I can’t agree more with Hill that in order to achieve anything worthwhile that we need an unshakable faith in ourselves that must be beyond the shadow of a doubt that we can achieve!

In fact, doubt is a killer that tend to creep into our mind as we embark on any journey of achieving a worthy goal. And as I write, what T. Harv Eker taught came to mind - that when negativity sets in, all we have to do is to tell our mind, “Thank you for sharing!” - so simple yet so powerful.

The Disaster of Negative Thinking

Hill pointed out that the subconscious mind makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses. He illustrated with the example of how electricity can light up our world or electrify us if we’re not careful which leads me to share a real life experience…

Many years ago, when I was still in Corporate Singapore, I met an ex-colleague, a young man in his early thirties. Everyday, he went around talking about negative stuff and how unfortunate he was plus… how emotionally he was depressed by his relationship with his ex-girlfriend.

A few short years later - after I left - I heard news that he had chosen to end his life by jumping down a building. Sad story.

This chapter also reminds me of ‘Your First Year in Network Marketing’ by Mark Yarnell where Mark, an immensely successful network marketer, related his experience of listing a few things for his new recruits to follow but there was one item most of them cannot. That is - to stop reading the newspapers and stop watching news on TV (except during the midday).

NOTE: I’m recalling the above from memory and I may not be exactly right in the details but that’s the crux of the matter.
Mark Yarnell said that the world is full of bad news and we sort of need to have a mental fast to clear up the negativity in our subconscious.

Classic Examples of Men with GREAT FAITH

• Jesus Christ is listed as head of men with great faith through the sum and substance of His teachings and achievements. His ‘miracles’ were produced only through the state of mind known as faith. In fact, according to Hill, the basis of Christianity is faith, no matter how many people may have perverted, or misinterpreted, the meaning of this great force.
• Mahatma Gandhi is another astounding example of a man with great faith. He influenced two hundred million minds to coalesce and move in unison, as a single mind - with no money, no home, not even a suit of clothes. But he had power which he created out of his understanding of the principle of faith and through his ability to transplant that faith into the minds of those two hundred million.

The Story of Charles Schwab

In the original version of Think And Grow Rich, I do find it a challenge to fully grasp the meaning of the entire story. So, I was truly glad as the 21st Century edition gave informative commentary at the right places.

For instance, just before Hill relates the story of how Charles Schwab’s idea built a fortune through his oratory speech, the authors explained that this story illustrates at least six of the thirteen principles of success and faith is at the center of it… and that if Charles had not mixed his “big idea” with absolute, unwavering faith that he could pull it off, the whole history of American business would have been different.

As another example, the commentary in the21st Century edition painted the background surrounding this event so that the reader could fully understand the impact of the story that one can literally think and grow rich through a single idea! An example of this is giving a summary of Charles M. Schwab, Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan which I make a short quote here:

• Charles M. Schwab was Andrew Carnegie’s right-hand man, and president of the Carnegie Steel Corporation
• Andrew Carnegie was a wealthy and powerful steel baron whose company controlled 25 percent of the iron and steel production in America.
• J. P. Morgan was a wealthy and powerful Wall Street banker whose company had arranged the financing for many of the major industrial companies in America at the beginning of the twentieth century.

And the commentary even went on to paint the finance, business and industry scenario at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was absorbing and refreshing reading and highly recommended.

Barnes had a desire to become the business associate of Thomas A. Edison, the great inventor.

His desire was not a hope, not a wish but… a pulsating desire which transcended everything else.

With his burning desire, a few years later after he made his way to Edison’s office, he was in business with Edison. And…

*** The dominating dream of his life had become a reality ***

This chapter talks about the power of a definite desire to achieve one’s goal.

Barnes’ desire was to become Edison’s business partner and created a plan by which to attain his purpose. What is yours? What is it that you want so badly that you will achieve at all costs?

DO or DIE Attitude

Not long ago, I met a friend and asked him about his internet business. Guess what was his reply?

He said to me he is applying for another qualification as a backup plan. His unspoken words were: “in case his internet business fails” Immediately, I would bet with anyone that he will not succeed. His desire was not definite.

Barnes did not say, “I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization.” But Barnes said, “There is one thing in this world that I am determined to have, and this is a business association with Thomas A. Edison. I will burn all my bridges behind me and stake my entire future on my ability to get what I want.”

Barnes left himself no possible way of retreat. He had to win or perish! In other words, he had a “DO or DIE attitude!” And failure is NOT an option to him. That’s the reason why I absolutely love this story…

Burn your Boats!

A long while ago, a warrior sailed to an enemy’s land, unloaded all the soldiers and equipment and burn the boats!

Now, as his soldiers watched the boats go up in flames, it’s literally DO or DIE! No other option.

Guess what’s the final result? They won.

Classic Examples of Men with GREAT DREAMS

• Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp operated by electricity. He began to put his dream into actions and failed more than ten thousand times. Despite his failures, he succeed at last. Otherwise, you won’t be reading this on your computer
• Henry Ford was poor and uneducated. He turned his dream of a horseless carriage into reality by putting more wheels into operation than any other men ever lived!

21st Century Examples of GREAT DREAMS

• Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak were two university dropouts who dreamed of making and selling computers for the average person to use. They built the first Apple computer in 1976 in the family garage in Jobs’ family garage! As they said, the rest is history and Jobs became a three-time billionaire credited with the creation of iMac, Pixar, iPod, iTunes and most recently, iPhone!!
• Dean Kamen saw a man in a wheelchair having difficulty getting up a curb and set his mind to create a device that would liberate people confined to wheelchairs, resulting in the iBot - a revolutionary wheeled device that uses computers and a sy;stem of stabilizing gyroscopes that imitate the human body. It goes over curbs, go up and down stairs, travel over rough ground and even raise oneself to see eye to eye with a standing person!

BELIEF is a state of mind necessary for Success

There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it. The state of mind must be BELIE, not mere hope or wish to succeed.

And… no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty! And this is a poetry in this chapter that I like a lot:

I bargained with Life for a penny,

And Life would pay no more,

However I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask,

But once you have set the wages,

Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,

Only to learn, dismayed.

That any wage I had asked of Life,

Life would have willingly paid.

I like the part that talks about how opportunities often come disguised and slipping in by the back door. And often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

It then explain that one f the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when you are overtaken by temporary defeat and every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

The above characteristic of giving up too soon is so true through the evidence of meeting so many aspiring internet and network marketers while building my business. In fact, I hasten to add that many of them did not even get to start at all. Many a time, when a distributor joins a network marketing company, he/she got excited, phoned a few people and met with a few rejections and then concluded that network marketing does not work…

… it’s the same for some internet marketers I’ve seen who just created one product for sale and then expect it to be an overnight sensation. And when it didn’t, they don’t make any attempts to improve the product or website and concluded that internet marketing does not work!

In this chapter, I specially like the commentary which I quote a little directly from the book:

“… Wayne Allyn Root to write his book The Joy of Failure… which proved that the rich and famous got to be that way only because of what they learned from their failures.

“People such as Jack Welch, the hugely successful CEO of General Electric, who, early in his career, failed dramatically when a plastics plant for which he was responsible blew up.

“Billionaire Charles Schwab was a failure at school and university, flunking Basic English twice due to a learning disability, and then failed on Wall Street more than once, before the thought of the idea that grew to make him very rich indeed.

“Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Steven Jobs, Donald Trump… had to fail in order to learn the lessons that ultimately made them successes. Every one of them was a failure, but none of them was defeated.”

The chapter concludes with the notion that we must magnetize our minds with intense desire for riches … becoming ‘money conscious’ until the desire for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it.

The 21st Century Updated Edition

The ORIGINAL

]]> http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition-chapter-2-thoughts-are-things/feed/ http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition-chapter-1-the-secret-of-success/ http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition-chapter-1-the-secret-of-success/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:00:28 +0000 rogerloh http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition-chapter-1-the-secret-of-success/ It is said that Napoleon Hill and Think And Grow Rich had made more millionaires than any other person in history!

It is practically impossible to find a motivational speaker who does not draw on Hill’s work. Traces of Napoleon’s principles can be found in the works of successful contemporary men like Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, Steven Covey, etc.

With an unwavering dedication, Napoleon Hill spent nearly 30 years of his life and wrote Think And Grow Rich after analyzing more than 500 well-known millionaires.
Some of these millionaires are listed below:

• Henry Ford (Ford automobile)
• George Eastman (Kodak)
• Charles M. Schwab (Andrew Carnegie’s right hand man)
• Theodore Roosevelt (26th US President)
• Thomas A. Edison (inventor with more than 1000 patents)
• Edwin C. Barnes (the only partner of Thomas Edison)
• Woodrow Wilson (28th US President)
• And many more…

Think and Grow Rich: The 21st-Century Updated Edition is a new and updated edition in which every aspect of Think And Grow Rich has been analyzed to ensure its relevance to the current business climate. Quoting directly from Chapter 1: The Secret Of Success:

“… In those instances where material might be considered dated or out of step with contemporary practices, the original text has been updated or augmented with relevant new material.

“A hallmark of the original edition of Think And Grow Rich is that in every chapter, Napoleon Hill cites real-life examples based on his own firsthand knowledge of America’s most successful self-made multimillionaires. In this edition, every one ofHill’s stories has been retained, and the editors have added contemporary examples and modern parallels which clearly demonstrate that Hill’s principles are as up-to-date as today, and are still guiding those who succeed.

The 21st Century Updated Edition

The ORIGINAL

]]> http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition-chapter-1-the-secret-of-success/feed/ http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition/ http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:21:07 +0000 rogerloh http://personal-development-blog.com/think-and-grow-rich/think-and-grow-rich-the-21st-century-edition/ If you live in the 21st century, you might want to grasp a copy of Think and Grow Rich: The 21st-Century Updated Edition

I almost got a hold on this edition by chance as I was reading Napoleon Hill’s original Think And Grow Rich for the 3rd time…

What happened was I remembered one of my students in my Basic Internet Skills class told me that there’s a new version that give lively, modern day examples which make the original version comes alive and relevant to us living in the 21st century.

However, I mistook Ted Ciuba’s The New Think & Grow Rich: An Unauthorized Re-Presentation of Napoleon Hill’s Success Classic for the same edition

So, when I head down to Borders*, I went straight to the Business & Marketing section and found ‘Think And Grow Rich: The 21st Century Edition’ thinking that it’s Ted Ciuba’s edition…

(more…)

Gonzalez said that our BELIEF is our ceiling, our limitation, that defines how far we can go…

In fact, you probably heard this before: When you believe, you will take ACTION! 

… this is what he said too: “If we don’t believe in something, we won’t do anything, will we?”

And there is GOOD NEWS for us:

We can raise our BELIEF level!

How?

The answer is deceptively simple. As long as you understand these TWO things and live by them, you’re going to raise your BELIEF which is influenced by:

1.  The BOOKS you read
2. The PEOPLE you hang out with

So, it’s time to reflect on whether you’re reading novels or cook books or entertainment magazines all the time. If so, you might want to consider adding some books to your reading repertoire

And at the same time, beware of who you mix with. If you hang out with negative people who focus on problems all the time and not solutions, it’s time to contact less with them if you treasure the relationship.

Ruben, a 3 time Olympian in luge (a bobsled-like winter sport) was totally captivating… right from the very beginning where a video clip was played that showed him sliding down a steep slope, gathering momentum, picking up speed, and becoming simply unstoppable (no pun intended) …

… at 85 mph, it was not scary but ‘terrifying’ and ‘awful’ in the very words of Ruben!

He recounted once when he was speeding downhill when he coach, a 6 foot 6 ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger’-like Olympian champion (who started from 5 year old) called him on the walkie talkie… As a matter of fact, Ruben himself started at a much later age of 21 when he did not have the privilege of learning from a young and tender age where things would naturally become part of him. Watch Ruben Gonzalez LIVE when he was interviewed from The STRIP:

As you saw, that call alone had helped Ruben focus on his DREAM, not his challenges…

In fact, in Success University’s DVD (part of Success Express package they mail out each month), Ruben mentioned that he read a ton of biographies when he was young and this is what he found: (more…)

This teleseminar came at the right time as I was re-reading Think And Grow Rich for the third time - which is an all-time classic based on highly successful multimillionaire Andrew Carnegie’s magic formula for success!

Ted said that we’re programmed from the age of 2 to become who we are. Ted Ciuba is a certified hypnotist who is renowned for creating the Holomagic wealth programming to program people for success through rhythms, NLP commands, etc. The positive programming will affect not just the conscious, but the subconscious mind which is far more powerful than the conscious.

The Holomagic wealth programming program goes into your inner self and help you connect you to making money… and by working through Holomagic, you would be able to identify your own calling as it help you work through areas like:

• What are you created to do?
• What would you do if you don’t have to work money?

There will be 13 audio CDs for each individual area of Think And Grow Rich which are:

1. Desire
2. Faith
3. Autosuggestion
4. Specialized Knowledge
5. Imagination
6. Organized Planning
7. Decision
8. Persistence
9. Power of the Master Mind
10. Passion (originally ‘The Mystery of Sex Transmutation’)
11. The Subconscious Mind
12. The Brain
13. The Sixth Sense

What is Ted’s favorite chapter and why? Chapter 10 - Passion - which he had renamed and vastly expanded and developed from the original ‘The Mystery of Sex Transmutation’ of the book by Napoleon Hill. He likened it to a dog in heat which is unstoppable!

Click here to grab a copy of Think And Grow Rich.

And here are some gems that I like to share with you:

1. Success University is about ongoing learning.
2. As you continue to learn, you’re like a bamboo… when you’re ready to sprout, you will sprout in the right direction.
3. There are lots of valuable resources at:
   • www.AlexMandossianToday.com
   • www.VirtualBookTourSecrets.com