Synopsis: Think and Grow Rich, Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Desire
The Starting Point of All Achievement
There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning DESIRE to possess it.
pg. 38
There are 6 steps to transforming desire into outcome.
- You must be explicit in your wants.
- You must determine what you’re willing to give in order to get what you want.
- Specify a precise timeline required to reach your goals.
- Determine a plan of action and begin immediately.
- Put the whole scheme into plain English.
- Read the statement twice daily until you feel and believe it to already be.
You achieve what you set out to achieve, so set your goals high.
In order to have a burning desire to accomplish something, you must be willing to burn bridges. By burning bridges, you leave yourself no room for error. You force yourself to succeed because you cannot go back. Failure is not an option.
You must believe in yourself and your ability to achieve your goals so that you can take the necessary actions to reach your goals.
Synopsis: Think and Grow Rich, Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
The Man Who “Thought” His Way Into Partnership With Thomas A. Edison
This is a first in a series of chapter synopses of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I won’t bother to cite details, as I’ve already read them. The point of these synopses is to jog the memory and record the salient points.
The first chapter is a “dimming of the lights” in preparation for the contents to come. We meet a man who gave up digging for gold, not knowing that he was just 3 feet away from striking it rich (he should have asked an expert). This same man witnessed an event where a young colored girl didn’t back down to a white uncle and got what she wanted. Remember that this book was written in the 1930’s and is recording a common, racially sensitive issue. We discover that this man goes on to become a successful insurance salesman who makes most of his sales after the pitchee has said “no.”
The common thread here is determination or desire. The miner lacked it, the colored girl didn’t know that she had it, and the salesman had learned from his previous mistakes.
