Outside of the Bible, there is only one book I read every year. Some years I read it more than once! I want to share with you that book, why I read it every year, and why you should read right now.

Think and Grow Rich

The book I’m talking about is the famous Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. The book was published in 1937. It had its roots in a meeting Hill had with business legend Andrew Carnegie in 1908. Hill set up a short one hour interview with Carnegie to get some information on a story he wanted to write. That meeting went on for three days and Carnegie challenged Hill to curate the philosophy of American Success, and share it with the world. Carnegie promised to introduce Hill to the most successful people of that time: Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Harvey Firestone, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley, and Charles Schwab.

Why I Initially Read It

I initially decided to read Think and Grow Rich to learn more about how I could take my thoughts and turn them into things. How I could create something in the physical world based on my thinking about it. I wanted to be rich financially but I also wanted the riches that money could not buy: health, love, friendship, respect, wisdom, inner peace, intimacy and integrity.

I really like that the book is factual, that it’s real history, that I can google most of the people, places, and events to learn more about them. The events happened in the real world, affecting real people and creating real riches. I like that the book is about self-mastery. It’s about you getting better and then bettering your best. It contains a toolbox of ideas and methods that you can use to turn your burning desire into a physical reality.

I Wanted More Results

My first reading was because I wanted more results in life. To be better, to get more done, to get the important things done. I read it because my ambition was looking for ways to express itself.

For me, the book worked. I read it in college for the first time. It helped me get on course and finish college in just 4 years (just barely made that – had to take a summer class in German to make it). It helped me realize that I could take ideas and thoughts, put them through a system, a group of known principles to allow me to turn those thoughts and desires into reality. It helped me become a long-term results machine.

Why Read It Every Year?

I read it every year because it’s a different book every year. How could the same book, the same words, the same pages be different every year? Well, the book hasn’t changed but I have. You see each year I’ve grown (or maybe if it’s a bad year I’ve regressed a little) and I’m a different person at a different point in life. I have a new goal, what I call a new Bring About Statement. I’m in the process of bringing about something new.

That’s actually something I learned early on – that you need to bring a goal, a desire, something you want to create to your reading of the book. It’s a textbook on bringing that desire into reality. Hill lays out step by step instructions on how to create your Bring About Statement, how to build the faith and persistence you’ll need to bring it about.

I take notes every time I read it. I use post-it notes to collect my thoughts as I’m reading and leave those in the book. Each time I re-read it, my understanding of the principles goes a little bit deeper. It takes many readings and many applications of the principles inside the book to really master it. Reading it at least once a year allows me to build on those skills.

Something New to Work on Every Time

The book has so much to work on that one reading only begins to scratch the surface of what you can work on. With each reading, I pick just a few things to really dig deep and work on. What he discusses:

– The 11 Major Attributes of Leadership

– The 10 Major Causes of Failure in Leadership

– The 31 Major Causes of Failure

– 28 Self-Analysis Questions for Personal Inventory

– The 8 Causes of Persistence

– The 16 Persistence Weaknesses

– The 10 Stimuli of the Mind

– The 6 Basic Fears

– 61 Self-Analysis Questions

– 55 Famous Alibis

Truth be told, the biggest reason I read it every year is that my mindset needs it. It brings my mind back to a state of possibility and hope. It raises the vibration of my thinking and gets me excited about life, what life has to offer, and reminds me how much control we really have in life. We can’t change what happens in the world but we get to choose how we respond to what happens – that makes all the difference. Taking back control over my thoughts and directing them toward what I really want in life is a key event I want and need to have happen at least once a year!

Now it’s your turn. Take control, read Think and Grow Rich and make it a great day,

Blaine

Blaine Oelkers is a lifetime entrepreneur, a graduate of Purdue University and Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship program. He’s achieved over 100 Million dollars in sales and has coached 1000s of business owners. He’s America’s Chief Results Officer® (CRO) helping business owners and their companies get results. He can be reached at blaine@selfluence.com.

Blaine is America’s Chief Results Officer® and the world’s greatest creator of doneness. He knows your results matter and he can help you get better, faster and more long-lasting results. Get started with one simple and elegant results technique that activates your mind with your top goal over 100 times a day. He explains it in a short TEDx talk he did which has been viewed by over 120,000 people! Your results matter – get access immediately at www.BlaineTEDx.com