The first step in attracting what you want is to cultivate a desire for it. More specifically, a burning desire. You have to viscerally want it, and then create a vision of your life where you have it. The desire has to be strong enough to sustain you even when things get rough (see Principle 8). By coupling longing, vision, and persistence, you can start to attain your objective.

Once you have your desire, you need to have faith in the process. Faith is what Napoleon Hill calls an ‘eternal elixir which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought.’ It transforms your ordinary thoughts into a spiritual force, which powers your communion with Infinite Intelligence. A weak expression of faith holds little power. If you want to attract more wealth, but you only believe in yourself and this process a little bit, than Hill argues that you’ll only attract a little wealth.

If you want to maximize your faith, then you need to monitor your self-talk. Self-talk is the words and mental scripts that you tell yourself, whether it’s, “I struggle for money and I’ll never be wealthy” or, “I attract plenty of money with ease.” Your self-talk starts in your conscious, thinking mind; but if you repeat a certain phrase in your head enough times, it seeps into your subconscious. Hill calls this process ‘autosuggestion’. The subconscious is the fertile, creative aspect of your brain; and the words that it uses to describe you affect how you see yourself.

The fourth of the thirteen principles of Think and Grow Rich is that, contrary to popular thought, knowledge is not power. Knowledge attracts abundance when it is organized and intelligently directed through practical plans of action. An action plan built on knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient. You also need to have faith that your plan will produce the outcome you desire. That is done by drawing on the accumulated experience of those who have already accomplished the success you desire.

One of the most famous Napoleon Hill quotes is “whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” If you want to attract abundance, start with an idea. The ability to use your imagination to see a picture in your mind of what you want starts the process of creation. What you want can be anything, from a big house on the beach to a job that lights you up every morning. Go ahead and dream big and have complete faith that Infinite Intelligence will do everything possible to make manifest your most vivid imaginings.

When you decide to take a road trip, the first thing you do is put your destination into the navigator system. Perhaps you’ll consult a map and decide on a route to follow to reach your destination. Having a well defined plan of how to achieve your goals is just as important as knowing what roads to take on your drive. But just like on a road trip, sometimes you’ll take a wrong turn and deviate from the right path. That’s why it’s important not just to make a plan before you begin, but also to course-correct when things go wrong. The sooner you course correct, the faster you reach your goal.

Instead of making vague wishes, Napoleon Hill recommends that you make a conscious decision. Set a target—whether it’s $100,000 per year, enough money and free time to spend a week in the Bahamas, or something else—and make a decision to aim for that target. You’ll need a certain state of mind to employ this principle. One of the first decisions you’ll need to make is to be mindful of your thoughts and feelings. That is one of the requisites for benefitting from this philosophy.

Like a roller coaster ride, we all have ups and downs. Some days you’re flying high like a bird. Other days you’re the statue. Sometimes it seems like the latter is more common than the former. The easiest and most common thing to do when faced with difficulty, temporary setback, or rejection is to quit. Instead of giving up, when you’re feeling low is the time to double down and persevere. The most successful people aren’t the ones who never take a hit, they’re the ones who know how to take a hit without giving up.

When two or more people join their talent, knowledge, and effort to achieve a definite purpose, Hill argues, it’s almost as though a third mind enters the room, one with more wisdom and experience than any individual member has. Almost all great achievement is the result of a group of dedicated individuals working together.

Here lies another one of the secrets hidden within this success system. There are certain emotions that evoke amental state that allows access to Infinite Intelligence. Every feeling has a vibration, and for you to come into harmony with the universal mind, you must be resonating on the same frequency as what you want to receive. That means that if you want the Infinite Intelligence to give you more money, start feeling abundant now. Use powerful positive emotions to make your mind oscillate on a higher frequency, so that you can be in a position to ask for and receive what you really want.

The subconscious mind is the power center of your mental activity. It has dominion over every vital function taking place in your miraculous body and brain. Always on the job, the subconscious mind processes material, energy, and thought and transforms it into living tissue to maintain life. The subconscious is also the part of the mind that transmutes ideas, plans, dreams, and desires into material form. When you visualize abundance, your subconscious is the part of your mind that draws on the force of Infinite Intelligence and manifests abundance for you.

Hill asserts that the brain is similar to a radio. Just like a radio, your brain operates at specific set frequencies. In the case of your brain, these frequencies are emotions: love, hate, despair, fear, confidence, and more. A radio can only provide sound when the transmitter and receiver are set to the same frequency. In the same way, if you want your brain to provide wealth, then you have to make sure that your emotions reflect that frequency. If your brain is set to a frequency of despair and poverty, then that is all that you will be able to manifest via the Infinite Intelligence.

This is where the entire philosophy of Think and Grow Rich culminates. Achieving a complete understanding of the other twelve principles prepares you to receive guidance from an infallible source. Namely Infinite Intelligence. When you’re receiving guidance from this source, it’s almost as though you develop a sixth sense that guides you, with unerring accuracy, to take the steps needed to manifest your desires. Napoleon Hill introduces the idea of a “secret” in Think and Grow Rich , that once discovered and applied will literally sweep followers of this system on to success.

The essential “secret” of Think and Grow Rich is that you are in total control of the one thing that enables you to have the life of your dreams. Whether that’s more free time with your loved ones, a 50 foot yacht, more respect from your co workers, or better, more fulfilling personal relations.

That one thing is your mindset. The secret of Think and Grow Rich is that your thoughts control your mindset, which creates your reality.

Napoleon Hill was a deep and complex thinker, but if you’re looking for a quick Think and Grow Rich summary , here it is.

Your mind is a tool that’s more powerful than you realize. You can use it to tap into Infinite Intelligence and manifest almost anything you want.

If you’re intrigued by this Think and Grow Rich summary are looking for a deeper analysis, then we recommend that you join our Mastermind where we discuss Napoleon Hill’s book and similar books in-depth.