What I Learned From The 13 Principles of Napoleon Hill’s, “Think and Grow Rich”

If you want to learn about success, become more self-aware, and use your mind to its fullest potential, then continue reading, and pick up this book.

Napoleon Hill studied 500 of America’s most successful people and developed 13 principles that contributed to what Hill describes as the “Philosophy of Success”.

The 13 Principles include:

1. Desire

2. Faith

3. Auto-suggestion

4. Specialized Knowledge

5. Imagination

6. Organized Planning

7. Decision

8. Persistence

9. The Power of the Master Mind

10. Sex Transmutation

11. The Subconscious Mind

12. The Brain

13. The Sixth Sense

1. Desire is your starting point for all achievement. Success starts by defining a goal and devoting all your energy into achieving it. Hill states, if you hold onto your desire for this goal, you will achieve it.

Action to take: For the goal, write down exactly what you want to achieve, what you will give up to achieve it, a specific date you will achieve it by, and create a plan for achieving it.

2. Faith is the belief in your desire and your ability to achieve it. A lack of faith can be the greatest inhibitor of success.

Action to take: State in writing and out loud that you can achieve your goal, throw positive thoughts consistently into your mind and through your subconscious, it will feed into growing your faith.

3. Auto-suggestion is the tool to influence your subconscious mind. It is self-suggestion.

Action to take: To influence your subconscious mind you need to craft a written statement of your desired purpose and include what you want to achieve. Read this statement twice a day with full emotion, as simply reading it will not influence your subconscious mind.

4. Specialized Knowledge in the area in which you intend to be successful is required to achieve that goal.

Action to take: Figure out what specialized knowledge you require and start learning, practicing, and implementing.

5. Imagination is where all your ideas and plans are created and formed. Ideas and plans are created from previous knowledge, experiences, and hunches.

Action to take: Listen to the ideas that come into your mind, and attempt to put them into plans and actions.

6. Organized Planning is how you put your desires into actions.

Action to take: Hill recommends taking four actions including:

1. Creating a “Master Mind” group (historical/fictional people that you look up to for their insight) that consists of people who will help you carry out your plan.

2. Before assembling the group, be sure to ascertain what it is you can offer each of the members in return for their work.

3. Meet with the group at least twice a week, or more if possible, until a solid plan has been created.

4. Maintain good relations between you and the group at all times.

7. Decision is how to prevent procrastination. Hill stated that the leading cause of failure is indecision/procrastination.

Action to take: find a desire that is strong enough where you are not easily persuaded and hesitant to make a decision.

8. Persistence is built upon will power and is the sustained effort towards your goal.

Action to take: Hill describes an 8-step process to develop persistence:

1. Definiteness of purpose: Knowing exactly what you want.

2. Desire: Becoming obsessed with amassing your monetary fortune.

3. Self-reliance: Belief that you can follow your plan increases your persistence.

4. Definiteness of plans: Organized, thorough plans guide you forward.

5. Accurate knowledge: Ensuring that your plans are based on fact.

6. Co-operation: Members of your Master Mind can encourage you to persist.

7. Willpower: Concentrating your attention on seeing your plans through to completion.

8. Habit: Persistence is the direct result of habit. What you do daily becomes who you are. By repeatedly acting courageously, fear can be overcome.

9. The Power of the “Master Mind” is a tool to gain knowledge from people you look up to and value their insight. Knowledge, accumulating experience, and experiment and research is how you gain power to work towards your goal.

Action to take: create a “Master Mind” group of people that you look up to and value their insight. Consistently communicate with them to gain knowledge and implement their information.

10. Sex Transmutation is what Hill describes as transferring the desire of sex (the strongest driving force) into the efforts towards achieving your goal.

Action to take: don’t repress your sexual drive but transfer it to outlets that enrich the mind, body, and spirit.

11. The Subconscious Mind cannot be controlled but you can provide it positive information of desires, plans, and ideas. This needs to be a habit as your subconscious works 24/7 and can be influenced by negative thoughts as well.

Action to take: consistently think of positive thoughts in the form of your desires, plans, and ideas, write these all out, and read them daily with positive emotions.

12. The Brain can pick up thought vibrations from other brains, or at least Hill believed this.

Action to take: read this chapter and believe what you want to believe. However, continue to develop your mind through powerful thoughts, learning, experiences, and experimenting. You will find other like minded people this way.

13. The Sixth Sense is the door to wisdom. Hill believes in “Infinite Intelligence” which the subconscious can tap into and receive powerful information. Hill describes the sixth sense as creative imagination and is a combination of the mental and spiritual. He states inspiration and hunches are from the creative imagination.

Action to take: develop the previous 12 principles. Hill states that once you accept the first 12 principles, you will be open to the sixth sense. Be open and listen to it as it is like your “guardian angel”.

I highly recommend you read this book if you are interested in self-improvement. I’ve learned the power of my mind, became more self-aware, and realized the power of our thoughts, if we use them to our advantage.