Ok, so I am reading “Think & Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill – a book that Mary Kay Ash herself recommended somewhere along the lines (in her autobiography I am pretty sure). The first time I tried I could not get through it, this time I am reading it with a girlfriend who owns her own business as well and this time…
the book seems incredible! Anyway… I wanted to share the following today:
”The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are, generally, easily influenced by the “opinions” of others. They permit the newspapers and the “gossiping” neighbors to do their “thinking” for them. “Opinions” are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking, mush less in that of transmuting YOUR OWN DESIRE into money.
If you are influenced by the opinions of others you will have no DESIRE of your own.”
The book goes on…
“You have a brain and mind of your own. USE IT, and reach your own decisions. If you need facts or inofrmation from other people, to enable you to reach decisios, as you probably will in amy instances’ acquire these facts or secure the information you need queitly, without disclosing your purpose.
It is characteristic of people who have but a smattering or a veneer of knowledge to try to give the impression thet they have much knowledge. Such people generally do TOO MUCH talking, and TOO LITTLE listening. Keep your eyes and ears wide open – and your mouth CLOSED, if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt DECISION. Those who talk too much do little else. If you talk more than you listen, you not only deprive yourself of many opportunities to accumulate useful knowledge, but you also disclose your pLANS and PURPOSES to people who will take great delight in defeating you, because they envy you.
Remember, also, that every time you open your mouth in the presence of a person who has an abundance of knowledge, you display to that person, your exact stock of knowledge or your LACK of it. Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous thorugh modesty and silence.”
All CAPS and italics HIS. Typos … mine. 
February 12, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I enjoyed reading your blog today, and it occurs to me that you might be interested to learn that a new edition of Napoleon Hill’s classic book “Think and Grow Rich” has been published.
Its title is ”Think and Grow Rich!” (subtitled) “The Original Version, Restored and Revised.” I am the editor/annotator of this new 412-page edition, which is really an homage to Dr. Hill. (For several years I was the editor-in-chief of “Think & Grow Rich Newsletter.”)
What I have done is this: to restore Dr. Hill’s book to its original manuscript content (it was first published in 1937, but was abridged in 1960), annotate it with more than 50 pages of endnotes (most of the persons and events he discusses are generally unknown to readers today), index it thoroughly, add an appendix with a wealth of additional information about Dr. Hill and his work, and revise the book in ways to help remove certain “impediments” to reading the book today (language that today would be considered obsolete, sexist or racist). None of these things had previously been done with TGR.
If you would like to learn a little more about this project, a quick visit to http://www.tgr-restored-revised.com will give you some details.
The book is available on all the Amazon websites and most other online sellers, it can be ordered by any bookstore, and it should start appearing in bookstores in January.
Our edition of TGR! is superior in every way to other versions on the market. It is a trade paperback, not a pocket-size mass market paperback. It is 412 pages versus 256+ (depending on the edition). It looks better, feels better, reads better than any other version. It is fast becoming the “version of choice” among Napoleon Hill devotees and other students of success and high achievement.
February 23, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I think that the Myst is honored that you posted here on this blog I have to check that book out.