Napoleon Hill was a notorious Scam artist before writing Think And Grow Rich, arrested many times.

[Vigilante]

Who's doing Tony Robbins

Presumably his wife Bonnie "Sage" Robbins

 

[ChrisV]

“There are only so many times that a man can be arrested for the sale of unlicensed stock, altering checks, and outright theft, before you have to question the official history.”​

It starts.

Naploeon Hill. One of the most beloved Gurus of all time had very humble beginnings. One of his first business ventures succeeded when Hill would purchase lumber on credit and sell it to suppliers at cut rate prices. How was he able to turn a profit this way? Simple, he just never paid the lumber companies who gave him the lumber and skipped town.

From Gizmodo’s 2016 research on Hill:

Hill was involved in countless scams over the years. One of his earliest involved buying lumber on credit, never paying his suppliers, and selling the lumber to others for cash at rates well below market value. This, as you can guess, didn’t last very long before Hill went on the run.

Hill tried his hand at a number of businesses with varying degrees of legitimacy. He was an executive at a lumber company, he was part owner of a candy company, and he made a go of it as a magazine publisher. But at every turn, there was some kind of shady dealing that would cause his business ventures to crumble. Promoters of Hill claim that it was all a matter of bad luck, and Hill’s naivety. According to his biographers, Michael J. Ritt Jr. and Kirk Landers, Hill’s greatest flaw was that he was too trusting. His business associates would take advantage of him by stealing tremendous amounts of money and later pointing the finger at Hill as the thief.

Napoleon Hill was a deeply troubled soul, suffering bouts of depression and loneliness as he struggled to become a financial success. Constantly on the move, he believed that success came through confidence and visualization. But behind every upbeat quote and promise of future riches, Hill had a darkness that could not be contained. With every breath he uttered there was a kind of intellectual and spiritual impotence underneath; a cacophony of buzzwords echoing through the skyscrapers of Chicago and the airwaves of Hollywood. And it was his words that would both render him a prophet, and destroy the lives of those closest to him.​

I’m really busy but I wanted to post this. Napoleon Hill was really the grandfather of what you see in Self Help these days. “The Secret is to just be positive, visualize success and riches will come to you.”

Reporters who investigated were able to find no evidence that Hill's claims of a meeting between him and Andrew Carnegie were true, and couldn’t even find any evidence that they had ever met.

From Hill’s book:

IN EVERY chapter of this book, mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years.

The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, more than a quarter of a century ago. The canny, lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind, when I was but a boy. Then he sat back in his chair, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and watched carefully to see if I had brains enough to understand the full significance of what he had said to me.

When he saw that I had grasped the idea, he asked if I would be willing to spend twenty years or more, preparing myself to take it to the world, to men and women who, without the secret, might go through life as failures. I said I would, and with Mr. Carnegie’s cooperation, I have kept my promise.

This book contains the secret, after having been put to a practical test by thousands of people, in almost every walk of life. It was Mr. Carnegie’s idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous fortune, ought to be placed within reach of people who do not have time to investigate how men make money, and it was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every calling.​

From the article:

I contacted Andrew Carnegie biographer David Nasaw about the alleged meeting between Carnegie and Hill, and he told me he “found no evidence of any sort that Carnegie and Hill ever met.” I pressed Nasaw about whether there was any chance at all that Hill’s book could be based on real events. Nasaw replied, “Let me put it this way. I found no evidence that the book was authentic.”
​

He apparently didn’t start making these claims until after Carnegie died.

Think about it. Let’s say I came on this forum and said. “Hey… before Steve Jobs died he gave me the task. He wanted me to interview hundreds of the worlds most successful men and uncover the magical secret to riches."

You would be like “ummmmm who the F*ck are you, how do you know Steve Jobs, and why would he pick YOU instead of a reputable journalist. He picked Walter freaking Issacson to do his biography. Why would he choose you?”

In my opinion, Hill's entire premise is laughable. “Andrew Carnegie picked ME, some random guy off the street and gave me the task of interviewing hundreds of (what would be) billionaires (in their time) and finding THE SECRET OF WEALTH. And the Secret? Positive thinking!” Nothing about creating market value, or great customer service. Just pure positivity!

From Wikipedia:

Hill left his coal mine management job soon afterwards, and began law school before withdrawing for lack of funds. Later in life, Hill would use the title of "Attorney of Law," although Hill's official biography notes that "there is no record of his having actually performed legal services for anyone," [9]
​

Business ventures:

During May 1909, Hill relocated to Washington D.C. and initiated the "Automobile College of Washington," where he instructed students to build, chauffeur and sell motor cars.[12]

During April 1912, the automobile magazine Motor World accused Hill's college of being a scam relying upon on misleading marketing materials that would be "a joke to anyone of average intelligence”​

It can’t be all bad, right?

During September 1915, Hill established and served as the dean of a new school in Chicago, the "George Washington Institute of Advertising," where he intended to teach the principles of success and self-confidence. On June 4, 1918, the Chicago Tribune reported that the state of Illinois had issued two warrants for the arrest of Hill, who was charged with violating blue sky laws for fraudulently attempting to sell shares of his school with a $100,000 capitalization, despite the school's assets only being appraised at $1200.[17] The school ended soon afterwards.​

What did he day he was doin during those years around 1918 he was (allegedly) selling fraudulent stock and evading warrants? He was advising Woodrow Wilson, of course.

Later in his life, Hill would say that he spent the years of 1917-1918 advising president Woodrow Wilson amidst World War I. [18]​

During 1922, Hill also initiated the Intra-Wall Correspondence School, a charitable foundation intended to provide educational materials to prisoners in Ohio. The foundation was directed by, among others, the check forger and former convict Butler Storke, who was later himself to be sent back to prison during 1923. [19] According to Hill's official biography, this period was also when hundreds of documents associating Hill with various famous figures were destroyed in a Chicago storage fire.[20]​

Oh, he met all those famous figures, but all of the documents were lost in a fire. Gotcha. All this misfortune, but not all is bad.... He then published Laws of Success (the unabridged version of Think and Grow Rich) and the rest is history!

During 1928, Hill relocated to Philadelphia and convinced a Connecticut-based publisher to publish his eight-volume work The Law of Success. The book was Hill's first major success, allowing Hill to adopt an opulent lifestyle. By 1929, he had already bought a Rolls-Royce and a six-hundred acre property in the Catskill Mountains, with the aid of some lenders.[21]​

And of course, there’s this gem:

At the age of 17, Hill graduated from high school and went to Tazewell, Virginia to attend business school. During 1901, Hill accepted a job working for the lawyer Rufus A. Ayers, a coal magnate and former Virginia attorney general. The author Richard Lingeman said that Hill received this job after arranging to keep confidential the death of a black bellhop, whom the previous manager of the mine had accidentally shot while drunk.[6]
​

Lmfao

Anyway, read the piece Gizmodo did in 2016:

https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon-hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

Nobody will ever know for certain how authentic Hill was, but I do know one thing for certain.

I have read his book and he is indeed right. It goes far beyond "thinking positively and achieving success."

The message is exposing a fact that few people are aware of, which is our brain is like a computer. It will concentrate on what we tell it. It will deliver results to us, based on what we think about. Like Hill said, if we plant weeds, it will grow weeds. If we plant beneficial crops, it will produce that. It makes no judgement - it just does what it is told to do. And it will do this 24 hours a day, whether we realize it or not. It is working on pushing and steering us towards whatever conclusion we are trying to reach.

I can completely verify that this is true. I have had many complex thoughts, and I realize that there is an answer, I just have to let my brain work on it a while. And EVERY TIME it comes up with a path to follow to find the answer, if not the answer directly. Put another way, but with the exact results, is why people take time to meditate. Do you think they do that to just feel good? No, they do that to harness the power they have in their inner brain. Unlike most people that are distracted by the constant bombardment to our senses every day, when these people meditate they turn off all the distractions and focus on what is important. And although it may be vague, like the meaning of life, for example, the best ones also focus on the here and now issues they have to deal with. Is it a coincidence these people usually have more confidence, and are unusually focused and successful? They're not smarter - they just know how to tap into their own power at their disposal. And the results are impressive.

Your knocking down Hill is a prime example of not using the power in your own mind. Sure he may have done some terrible things. But is that any reason to ignore or discredit his very profound discovery that IS of great benefit to everyone? For everything and everyone, there is a good and a bad way to look at it. You work too hard at your job - OR you have a great opportunity at your job to work harder than everyone else so when the opportunity presents itself for a promotion, you will be ready and you will be chosen. Wow - same thing - two vastly different ways of looking at it. Of course, the vast majority are in the first camp, and then they wonder why they don't get ahead.

Like another "fake guru" that people love to bash (I am not in that group), people love to find fault with Robert Kiyosaki. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't do something - I don't care. I do care very much about his message though. One message of his that has stuck with me is to never work to earn, but to work to learn. If you are not improving in what you're doing, you're wasting your life. BAM! I can't argue with that! I picked it up, and it's at the forefront of my consciousness.

Where do I get these, and many more, ideas that help me be more successful? I'd like to say I'm a genius and just make them up myself. But that's not true - I get them from books written by others that have discovered something of great importance. Every book is like a brick - solid, but still only a brick. Get enough bricks, and I can make something impressive. And that's what I've been doing while on this planet.

If anyone wants to read about a true failure - a true fake - someone that failed at every single thing they did, except the last thing - read about Abraham Lincoln. You will be amazed at the sheer fortitude this man had. Many would not have the fortitude to push on through life as he did. But we don't look at his failures - no Sir - we look, of course, at his success and being one of the most respected people of all time. All time!

If all the naysayers have a better book, instead of tearing down someone else, tell us about it, or write it yourself if it doesn't exist. I'm a sucker - I buy books all the time. That's how I found this forum, in fact!

 

[lowtek]

Seeing how much hate Tai Lopez gets on this forum, I have been wondering when someone would come along and point out the shady doings of Napolean Hill.

I'm certain the same standards will be applied

 

[Fotis]

I remember Dan Kennedy saying that, even though Hill inspired him and many other entrepreneurs, you couldn't ignore the fact he died broke.

As a bonus, Kennedy suggested you check Clement Stone's The Success System That Never Fails. Stone became a billionaire and when he read Think And Grow Rich, he was surprised to find inside it a lot of the principles he had personally used. Personally, I enjoy Stone's writing way more than Hill's.

 

[Xavier X]

Presumably his wife Bonnie "Sage" Robbins

 

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[Fox]

It’s a book I got a lot of value from and I still use the principles in there.

Can anyone find fault with content in the book? I’d like to see what principles you don’t agree with it or how you would do differently.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Something doesn't add up.

(Nevermind, it's a Gizmodo article, which hasn't been reputable in years.)

A few points from the book which I found extremely helpful:
1. Set goals, set a date, set a number, create a plan, write it down.
2. You have to believe you can succeed. Imagine rock climbing a mountain, and the entire time you're telling yourself you can't make it.
3. Using your conscious mind to influence your subconscious mind. (This should be up your alley with the neuroscience)
4. He even says, just knowing general information is useless. You need a practical skill.
5. Problem solving. Connecting unrelated ideas to come up with a solution.
6. Surround yourself with people smarter than you: The Mastermind.
7. Persistence

Regardless of what his background was, a lot of successful people will swear on these points as their business bible.

 

[SteveO]

2. You have to believe you can succeed. Imagine rock climbing a mountain, and the entire time you're telling yourself you can't make it.
3. Using your conscious mind to influence your subconscious mind. (This should be up your alley with the neuroscience)

The difficult step for people is that they feel that "thinking" is the tool. It is not. Perception is the key.

Your conscious mind and subconscious are already linked. The real power comes in when you can connect that link at will. That is where your instincts are. That is where you can access your intuition. That is where you become what some call psychic.

I use the concept of "let it go... believe that it will happen... and pay attention to what YOU are telling YOURSELF" in each and every moment.

We are in control of what we create by our perception. Not by what we see as controlling everything physical and all of those around us.

 

[Fox]

The book is over 80 years old. Find me a workout book or technical guide that also hasn't become outdated in that time too. Some of the language used is goofy but so would a book written today be in another 80 years.

Its one of the first books on mindset, self belief, and visualisation. It was an early non scientific take on some pretty in-depth topics.

I think its aged well and is a good beginner read on success principles. You don't have to take on board everything but the overall concepts are sound.

As for did he meet these people or not - I don't really care. He definitely studied them one way or another and distilled some good overall principles people can use. A lot of people much more successful than me have recommended it. Its not like the book is recommending compound savings or "doing what you love". Its think its well rounded for its time.

 

[SteveO]

Have you seen how some football coaches, can't play football? Yet they can lead a team to victory.

I have never played soccer. Coached my daughter's team though. We won our division and the league awarded me the opportunity to put an all star team together to play tournaments. It has been a number of years but I think the players were 10 and 11 year olds.

We won our first tournament which was a large one. We then signed up for another that was mixed with boys and girls teams. Won that as well. The boys teams were powerful and fast. We were cunning. We spread the field and played teamwork. The team of boys that we played in the finals had one player that dominated. I assigned an aggressive girl to stay with him and not let him control the ball. He fell on the ground crying at the end of the game.

 

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[ChrisV]

I have had many complex thoughts, and I realize that there is an answer, I just have to let my brain work on it a while. And EVERY TIME it comes up with a path to follow to find the answer, if not the answer directly. Put another way, but with the exact results, is why people take time to meditate

I do this as well. Yes, it works.

I ask my brain “How can I solve this problem” forget about it, and randomly in a day or a few days, it just finishes processing then pops the answer into my head.

In psychology they call it Incubation.

Incubation (psychology) - Wikipedia

Incubation is one of the four proposed stages of creativity, which are preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.[1] Incubation is defined as a process of unconscious recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at some later point in time.[2] Incubation is related to intuition and insight in that it is the unconscious part of a process whereby an intuition may become validated as an insight. Incubation substantially increases the odds of solving a problem, and benefits from long incubation periods with low cognitive workloads.[3]

The experience of leaving a problem for a period of time and then finding that the difficulty evaporates on returning to the problem, or, even more striking, that the solution "comes out of the blue" when thinking about something else, is widespread. Many guides to effective thinking and problem solving advise the reader to set problems aside for a time.​

If all the naysayers have a better book, instead of tearing down someone else, tell us about it, or write it yourself if it doesn't exist. I'm a sucker - I buy books all the time. That's how I found this forum, in fact!

Millionaire Fastlane … Unscripted .

These: Books Fastlaners Recommend

And re: Hill - I don’t know if it’s wise to take success advice from someone who’s only success was selling success advice.

 

[The Abundant Man]

Seeing how much hate Tai Lopez gets on this forum, I have been wondering when someone would come along and point out the shady doings of Napolean Hill.

I'm certain the same standards will be applied

Who's doing Tony Robbins

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

I may have been too brief. What I was trying to say is that there is considerable evidence to suggest Hill did not practice what he preached. Why should we treat Hill differently than other gurus on the forum?

If it's acceptable to say "Sure, he didn't do what he taught, but his lessons still helped many people," isn't it also acceptable to say the same about other gurus who we, as a forum, normally pick on?

Have you seen how some football coaches, can't play football? Yet they can lead a team to victory. (I'm stretching the example, but its for illustration purposes.)

Totally agree, Tai Lopes has some decent advice. But nowhere close to what Hill gave us. I'd wager Tai practices more of what he preaches than Hill, if the allegations are true. It's your job to see if what he says works for you. Simply saying Tai bad, Hill good, is lazy.

 

[ChrisV]

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

I do this as well. Yes, it works.

I ask my brain “How can I solve this problem” forget about it, and randomly in a day or a few days, it just finishes processing then pops the answer into my head.

In psychology they call it Incubation.

Incubation (psychology) - Wikipedia

Incubation is one of the four proposed stages of creativity, which are preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.[1] Incubation is defined as a process of unconscious recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at some later point in time.[2] Incubation is related to intuition and insight in that it is the unconscious part of a process whereby an intuition may become validated as an insight. Incubation substantially increases the odds of solving a problem, and benefits from long incubation periods with low cognitive workloads.[3]

The experience of leaving a problem for a period of time and then finding that the difficulty evaporates on returning to the problem, or, even more striking, that the solution "comes out of the blue" when thinking about something else, is widespread. Many guides to effective thinking and problem solving advise the reader to set problems aside for a time.​

Millionaire Fastlane … Unscripted .

These: Books Fastlaners Recommend

And re: Hill - I don’t know if it’s wise to take success advice from someone who’s only success was selling success advice.

It is good to know that this "technique" has a name and is recognized. I didn't know that. I'm glad that you have used it and agree that is is effective, as well.

So with this information, you are telling me that Hill's advice is proven, recognized, and effective. Okay, we're on the same page so far.

But at the end you say it is may be not wise to take his advice, based on his track record. We all start somewhere. At one time I was not a genius. Ha - that's a funny way to say I'm not a genius, but doesn't it sound so much better that way? I take advice from many people that don't have stellar track records, but all are successful. Let's take a modern day hero for comparison. Steve Jobs. Regarded as brilliant by many. And he certainly was. But. I despise how Steve Jobs treated his daughter, but I still respect much of his business advice. He also was legendary on how badly he treated his employees. I still listen and learn from him. Jobs had millions when he did that, which made it 1,000,000 times worse! I doubt Hill ever abandoned a son or daughter, and yet you vilify him anyway. Let's put things into perspective and see them clearly. You should read about Colonial Harland Sanders sometime - there was a fiery pistol of an entrepreneur in his younger days. Cross him at your own risk - he was not always the kindly grandfatherly type we all know and love.

I don't idolize very many people. I realize they all have good traits and bad. That, however, does not stop me from appreciating the profound things they accomplish though. If you knew me well you could say that I have had many failures. And I wouldn't argue that. I would, however, tell you how each of them taught me a lot and made me stronger and smarter. But I won't do that, because as long as you don't know me, I can remain a "perfect" stranger... LOL

 

[Stargazer]

Carnegie wrote an Essay 'The Gospel of Wealth.' Mainly about how the wealthy have a duty to redistribute that wealth once acquired for the better common good as opposed to the British Aristocratic duty of keeping it in the family.

More importantly though he clearly states that hard work and perseverance were the foundation of his wealth. Being from Scotland this would make perfect sense. They are very Scottish Presbytarian traits.

He was also a massive believer in self Education hence him funding a staggering percentage of libraries in the world for the time. He wanted the poor to have access to books to self educate themselves.

Like most extremely wealthy people his real secret was spotting the opportunity and dominating the chosen market. In his case steel.

It is the spotting the opportunity plus hard work and perseverance that underpins great wealth.

I guess no one wants his Essay on that though.

Dan

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

Have you seen how some football coaches, can't play football? Yet they can lead a team to victory. (I'm stretching the example, but its for illustration purposes.)

Great example.

Using that logic, I also know a LOT about many subjects from reading books, even though I have never undertaken the work myself. Makes perfect sense to me, especially when you consider that the greatest invention of all time is widely considered to be the printing press as it allowed us to accumulate and build upon our knowledge. No longer did we have to learn everything by doing it ourselves.

So someone may not have actually done what they write about - I'd never consider them a fraud for that.

I judge the message, not the author. That's not a bad thing. My books (in progress) are a accumulation of many things I've learned from other people, and I certainly haven't done a lot of what I discuss, nevertheless I am an authority on some topics. I think everyone falls into that category somewhat.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

Positive visualization is bullshit and will be detrimental to your success.

I really can not stress that enough.

So your method is to do the opposite of bullshit, which I am going to assume is negative visualization. Sure. If you did more in life, you would rely much less on what you have heard, and instead of what you have done, and you would know what really works, and what is drivel.

The bottom line is that when you’re overconfident you don’t take the proper steps to prepare and do what you need to succeed. A realistic view of your obstacles is always best.

Do you know why so many people settle for just average? Because they don't have big enough goals. They don't have big enough dreams. They don't have the confidence that they can achieve what they planned to do. So they stop somewhere along the way - never meeting their goals. Why is that? Is it they just don't "know" enough, or they don't work "hard" enough? No - it's because they TALK THEMSELVES out of it. Nobody can convince you or I to quit - to give up - to settle. Except ourselves. So what separates the ones that ARE successful and meeting their goals and the ones that stop short of success? ATTITUDE. BELIEF. Not JUST confidence, but MORE than than - and what is more than confidences? It's OVER confidence. Your quote sounds EXACTLY like an excuse for NOT achieving a worthy goal. Well I tried - it just didn't work because... and anyway, a REALISTIC VIEW OF MY OBSTACLES IS ALWAYS BEST. No you didn't try - you GAVE UP. Big difference. Maybe you actually couldn't reach your goal - so what do you do then? Do you give up? NO. You adjust. Realign your goal. And THEN you CONTINUE. Or.... NOT. Behind it all is confidence and perseverance. Call it any fancy word of the day that you want to - winners know what it is, and HOW to achieve it.

In one study, she taught a group of third graders a mental-contrast exercise: They were told to imagine a candy prize they would receive if they finished a language assignment, and then to imagine several of their own behaviors that could prevent them from winning. A second group of students was instructed only to fantasize about winning the prize. The students who did the mental contrast outperformed those who just dreamed.

ONE study? Third graders? Dreaming of candy? Sheeet. Don't waste my time with drivel like this. You attack and demean a great man, and THEN back up your weak opinions based on ONE study with THIRD GRADERS? If that's the best you can do, you can leave now.

Instead, she offers a simpler and faster alternative, an extension of her empirically validated mental contrasting exercise. She calls it WOOP — which stands for “wish, outcome, obstacle, plan.”

According to preliminary data the author presents, mental contrasting can lead to better eating habits, an improved exercise regimen and greater control over alcohol consumption, among other benefits.

Oh, her own little acronym. How cute. Probably a decade of schooling and this is what we get as a result of that? What's next? Study third graders? Oh, my bad - we did that already!

One more study by one more graduate of psychology somewhere, that we are supposed to take seriously and believe? "She" should get a real job and achieve something meaningful, instead of telling me about my eating habits, et al. So many idiots in the world - and way too many people that stop and listen to their drivel.

I have shelves full of books by people that DO know what they are talking about. I don't need to study third graders thinking processes, or my eating habits - "among other benefits." Ha.... These are the people "doing studies" that think they know something, which George Carlin and Sam Kinison would rip apart. I think George and Sam were on to something, based not on academia, but their own "real" life experiences. I can only imagine how they would shred this, in short order.

FIND the answers you need to succeed, and then embrace them and engage action. It's that simple, and the answers have been out there for a very very long time.

A long long time ago I heard it this, (which is a cornerstone of how I think and act) “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” And who came up with that, do you suppose? It is one of Napoleon Hill's more famous quotes.

 

[SteveO]

@ChrisV . I am not thin skinned and believe that everyone has an opinion. That is a good thing. Everyone's perception allows them to live their life according to how they view our reality.

You have basically stated how ludicrous my beliefs are to you with many of your statements. I meditate, look for visions, and follow them in decision making. Works for me. I also believe that we are linked to the spirit world in many ways that we don't understand.

I am certainly not telling you that you are wrong. Nor that your opinion is less than mine. But everyone that reads this thread know what your opinion is ad nauseam.

 

[maverick]

Nobody will ever know for certain how authentic Hill was, but I do know one thing for certain.

I have read his book and he is indeed right. It goes far beyond "thinking positively and achieving success."

The message is exposing a fact that few people are aware of, which is our brain is like a computer. It will concentrate on what we tell it. It will deliver results to us, based on what we think about. Like Hill said, if we plant weeds, it will grow weeds. If we plant beneficial crops, it will produce that. It makes no judgement - it just does what it is told to do. And it will do this 24 hours a day, whether we realize it or not. It is working on pushing and steering us towards whatever conclusion we are trying to reach.

I can completely verify that this is true. I have had many complex thoughts, and I realize that there is an answer, I just have to let my brain work on it a while. And EVERY TIME it comes up with a path to follow to find the answer, if not the answer directly. Put another way, but with the exact results, is why people take time to meditate. Do you think they do that to just feel good? No, they do that to harness the power they have in their inner brain. Unlike most people that are distracted by the constant bombardment to our senses every day, when these people meditate they turn off all the distractions and focus on what is important. And although it may be vague, like the meaning of life, for example, the best ones also focus on the here and now issues they have to deal with. Is it a coincidence these people usually have more confidence, and are unusually focused and successful? They're not smarter - they just know how to tap into their own power at their disposal. And the results are impressive.

Your knocking down Hill is a prime example of not using the power in your own mind. Sure he may have done some terrible things. But is that any reason to ignore or discredit his very profound discovery that IS of great benefit to everyone? For everything and everyone, there is a good and a bad way to look at it. You work too hard at your job - OR you have a great opportunity at your job to work harder than everyone else so when the opportunity presents itself for a promotion, you will be ready and you will be chosen. Wow - same thing - two vastly different ways of looking at it. Of course, the vast majority are in the first camp, and then they wonder why they don't get ahead.

Like another "fake guru" that people love to bash (I am not in that group), people love to find fault with Robert Kiyosaki. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't do something - I don't care. I do care very much about his message though. One message of his that has stuck with me is to never work to earn, but to work to learn. If you are not improving in what you're doing, you're wasting your life. BAM! I can't argue with that! I picked it up, and it's at the forefront of my consciousness.

Where do I get these, and many more, ideas that help me be more successful? I'd like to say I'm a genius and just make them up myself. But that's not true - I get them from books written by others that have discovered something of great importance. Every book is like a brick - solid, but still only a brick. Get enough bricks, and I can make something impressive. And that's what I've been doing while on this planet.

If anyone wants to read about a true failure - a true fake - someone that failed at every single thing they did, except the last thing - read about Abraham Lincoln. You will be amazed at the sheer fortitude this man had. Many would not have the fortitude to push on through life as he did. But we don't look at his failures - no Sir - we look, of course, at his success and being one of the most respected people of all time. All time!

If all the naysayers have a better book, instead of tearing down someone else, tell us about it, or write it yourself if it doesn't exist. I'm a sucker - I buy books all the time. That's how I found this forum, in fact!

This. Repped++

Everything you read, experience and perceive should be interpreted by yourself to filter out learnings.

Never take things for granted (relates to all areas of life).

Always form your own opinion.

By adopting this mindset you'll be able to learn from anything and everything.

 

[The Abundant Man]

It’s an opinion, there is no wrong or right...right?

 

[babyballer]

Just because he's old and dead and claimed to interview American titans of industry doesn't mean he's immune to the same scrutiny we apply to today's gurus. Who knows, in 100 years Tai Lopez might be regarded as the business visionary of our time...

I hate to break it to you but Tai will never ever be a business visionary when all he does is just teaching people how to get rich. Even that teaching of his is questionable at best. Tai has no good track record of having a real business whatsoever. A real business visionary is like Steve Jobs who actually did something great in his lifetime.

 

[MTEE1985]

Coaches like Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are all about strategies, it is not about skills. You're not using a good analogy.

I think your comment shows @ApparentHorizon is using a perfect analogy. He is simply stating that you don’t have to have been a top player to be a top coach. You need to have a combination of some skills and some strategies.

There’s dozens of these same threads going around the forum and the underlying theme is there is no “right” answer. There is no factual basis to judge who is more helpful than who because it ultimately comes down to the individual. I don’t agree with 100% of what anybody writes, MJ included. Would that offend him? Of course not, he constantly talks about how what works for person A will not work for person B. I’d be cautious to be that committed to the teachings of any one person/book/program.

 

[garyfritz]

So someone may not have actually done what they write about - I'd never consider them a fraud for that.

No. But if he claims to be an expert and wasn't (beyond writing books), if he claims to have been personally taught by Andrew Carnegie and evidence says he wasn't ... that starts to leak into fraudulent territory.

 

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[luniac]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIHP2JMs81M

 

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[Lionhearted]

I do this as well. Yes, it works.

I ask my brain “How can I solve this problem” forget about it, and randomly in a day or a few days, it just finishes processing then pops the answer into my head.

In psychology they call it Incubation.

Incubation (psychology) - Wikipedia

Incubation is one of the four proposed stages of creativity, which are preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.[1] Incubation is defined as a process of unconscious recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at some later point in time.[2] Incubation is related to intuition and insight in that it is the unconscious part of a process whereby an intuition may become validated as an insight. Incubation substantially increases the odds of solving a problem, and benefits from long incubation periods with low cognitive workloads.[3]

The experience of leaving a problem for a period of time and then finding that the difficulty evaporates on returning to the problem, or, even more striking, that the solution "comes out of the blue" when thinking about something else, is widespread. Many guides to effective thinking and problem solving advise the reader to set problems aside for a time.​

Millionaire Fastlane … Unscripted .

These: Books Fastlaners Recommend

And re: Hill - I don’t know if it’s wise to take success advice from someone who’s only success was selling success advice.

I think Grant Cardone's Sell or be Sold should be in that list as well. His philosophy that sales extends into just about EVERY aspect of life, blew my mind when I understood the premise was true. Very sobering for those who say ,"They don't like sales." If you don't like sales get ready to have a pretty miserable and mediocre life. All the best.

 

[SEBASTlAN]

Well to be fair Napoleon Hill was only studying the wealthiest people, not claiming he himself was wealthy (unless I missed that part?)..

 

[ChrisV]

And honestly, I’m not sure how much I believe when people say TGR made them rich. I mean there are people that believe that a lucky charm causes them to win sports games. It doesn’t necessarily make it true.

The secret to wealth is simple: create something people want more than the money in their pocket. If you want $5, make something worth $6. Hill doesn’t talk about that at all.

I mean maybe I’m wrong but I really didn’t get anything from the book. TMF and US are much better.

 

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[garyfritz]

I mean maybe I’m wrong but I really didn’t get anything from the book. TMF and US are much better.

+1. Hill's writing reminds me of the "just think positively and you'll win the lottery, find your soulmate, etc" new-agey fluff that it spawned. TMF is **real** and actionable.

Don't get me wrong, I fully believe in the importance of positive thinking. If you're not positive about your goal, you will not put in the effort to achieve that goal. But the action is the magic sauce, not the positive thinking. Positive thinking without effort will get you nowhere, 99.999% of the time. I mean even if you're sure your positive vibes will win the lottery, you still gotta buy a ticket...