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| website = [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/343476/think-and-grow-rich-by-napoleon-hill/9781785042416 penguin.co.uk]
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📘 '''''Think and Grow Rich''''' is a 1937 self-help book by American writer Napoleon Hill, published amid the Great Depression. <ref name="LoCReads" /> The first edition was issued by the Ralston Society in Meriden, Connecticut. <ref name="OCLC874022719" /> It distills Hill’s earlier “Law of Success” ideas into thirteen “steps to riches”—chapters on Desire, Faith, Autosuggestion, Specialized Knowledge, Imagination, Organized Planning, Decision, Persistence, the Master Mind, Sex Transmutation, the Subconscious Mind, the Brain, and the Sixth Sense. <ref name="CMCDesc">{{cite web |title=Think and Grow Rich |url=https://cmc.marmot.org/Record/.b19608342 |website=Colorado Mountain College Library Catalog |publisher=Colorado Mountain College |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> The register is motivational and prescriptive, organized as concise “step” chapters and built on devices such as visualisation and autosuggestion that readers are told to practice. <ref name="PenguinUK2019">{{cite web |title=Think And Grow Rich |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/343476/think-and-grow-rich-by-napoleon-hill/9781785042416 |website=Penguin Books UK |publisher=Penguin Books |date=8 August 2019 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> According to the Library of Congress, the title had sold more than 20 million copies by Hill’s death in 1970 and at least another 50 million since. <ref name="LoCReads" /> Decades later it remained commercially durable, appearing at No. 10 on BusinessWeek’s paperback business best-seller list on 4 June 2007 (its 24th month on the chart). <ref name="BWList2007">{{cite web |title=The BusinessWeek Best-Seller List |url=https://billgeorge.org/article/the-businessweek-best-seller-list/ |website=Bill George |publisher=Bill George |date=4 June 2007 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
== Chapter summary ==
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👻 '''15 – HOW TO OUTWIT THE SIX GHOSTS OF FEAR (Clearing the Brain for Riches).'''
== Background & reception ==
🖋️ '''Author & writing'''. Hill was a U.S. self-help author whose earlier works included ''The Law of Success'', and he spent decades writing and lecturing about “principles of success.” <ref name="MacmillanAuthor">{{cite web |title=Napoleon Hill |url=https://us.macmillan.com/author/napoleonhill |website=Macmillan |publisher=Macmillan Publishers |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> Publisher materials present ''Think and Grow Rich'' as the outcome of more than 25 years of research and interviews with over 500 prosperous individuals. <ref name="PenguinUK2019" /> Hill’s origin story credits Andrew Carnegie with urging him to codify a success philosophy after an early meeting. <ref name="NewYorker2006">{{cite news |title=Fresh Prince |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/06/fresh-prince-3 |work=The New Yorker |date=30 October 2006 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> That anecdote is disputed: an EBSCO reference article, citing Carnegie’s biographer, reports that no evidence exists that Hill ever met Carnegie. <ref name="EBSCO2023">{{cite web |title=Napoleon Hill |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/napoleon-hill |website=EBSCO Research Starters |publisher=EBSCO Information Services |date=2023 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> The book’s structure is fixed around thirteen named “steps to riches,” from Desire and Faith through the “Master Mind” to a final “Sixth Sense” chapter. <ref name="CMCDesc" /> Later classroom-oriented printings retained the chapter architecture while adding contemporary vignettes, including a 2005 Tarcher/Penguin revision edited by Arthur R. Pell. <ref name="Tarcher2005">{{cite web |title=Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller—Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century |url=https://archive.org/details/thinkgrowrichthe00hill |website=Internet Archive |publisher=Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin |date=2005 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
📈 '''Commercial reception'''. The Library of Congress notes that ''Think and Grow Rich'' had sold more than 20 million copies by 1970 and at least another 50 million since. <ref name="LoCReads" /> Its long-tail sales persisted into the 21st century; on 4 June 2007 it ranked No. 10 on BusinessWeek’s paperback business list and was marking its 24th month on the chart. <ref name="BWList2007" />
👍 '''Praise'''. The ''Financial Times'' wrote that the book “made [Hill] famous,” distilled his thinking, and—published in 1937—“sold in the tens of millions,” offering Depression-era optimism that still finds readers. <ref name="FT2018">{{cite news |title=Book review: Truthful Living: The First Writings of Napoleon Hill |url=https://www.ft.com/content/d08a813e-cc92-11e8-8d0a-a6539b949662 |work=Financial Times |date=29 November 2018 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> ''Business Insider'' highlighted the title’s actionable maxims about wealth, power, and overcoming mental barriers. <ref name="BI2013">{{cite news |last=Woodruff |first=Mandi |title=15 Insights From The Man Who Taught The World To 'Think And Grow Rich' |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/insights-from-napoleon-hills-think-and-grow-rich-2013-9 |work=Business Insider |date=14 September 2013 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' situates the book among 20th-century self-help titles that popularized positive-thinking prosperity ideas and “sold millions.” <ref name="BritannicaPG">{{cite web |title=Prosperity gospel |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/prosperity-gospel |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. |date=28 October 2025 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
👎 '''Criticism'''. Writing in ''The Guardian'', Oliver Burkeman argued that Hill offered no evidence that his celebrated interviewees were happy and that the book’s “single Secret of Success” thesis is unconvincing compared with multifactor explanations of achievement. <ref name="Guardian2009">{{cite news |last=Burkeman |first=Oliver |title=How to feel up in a downturn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/15/oliver-burkeman-happy |work=The Guardian |date=15 August 2009 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> EBSCO’s overview further records historians’ view that Hill’s claimed meeting with Carnegie lacks documentary support. <ref name="EBSCO2023" /> A longform investigation at ''Gizmodo'' criticized Hill’s record, alleging fabrications and fraudulent ventures that complicate readings of his success narrative. <ref name="Gizmodo2016">{{cite news |last=Novak |first=Matt |title=The Untold Story of Napoleon Hill, the Greatest Self-Help Scammer of All Time |url=https://gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon-hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645 |work=Gizmodo |date=6 December 2016 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
🌍 '''Impact & adoption'''. In sport, a ''Guardian'' profile of world snooker champion Peter Ebdon details how he used ''Think and Grow Rich'' techniques—visualising outcomes under pressure—during pivotal matches. <ref name="Guardian2003Ebdon">{{cite news |last=Rendall |first=Jonathan |title=A breed apart |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/apr/06/snooker.features |work=The Observer |date=6 April 2003 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> In higher education and workforce contexts, UVA Wise reported in 2024 on a partnership with the Napoleon Hill Foundation and a long-running “Keys to Success” class drawing on Hill’s principles. <ref name="UVAWise2024">{{cite web |title=Japanese Business Development Training CEO Visits UVA Wise, Signs Agreement with Napoleon Hill Foundation |url=https://www.uvawise.edu/news/2024/08/japanese-business-development-training-ceo-visits-uva-wise-signs-agreement-napoleon |website=UVA Wise News |publisher=University of Virginia’s College at Wise |date=9 August 2024 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> The Foundation also promotes structured learning based on Hill’s material through its own programs. <ref name="NHFSurvey2015">{{cite web |title=Success Survey |url=https://www.naphill.org/get-involved/success-survey/ |website=Napoleon Hill Foundation |publisher=Napoleon Hill Foundation |date=19 August 2015 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
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