Below are my personal notes of Think and Grow Rich. These highlights were what I used to write my personal development book, Wiser Next Week, a condensation of many different self improvement books

• Success comes to those who are success conscious

• Desire: Read your written statement aloud, which states how much money you want the service you will render to receive it, your deadline and a definite plan. Do this daily and really see and feel it has already occurred

• Faith: Autosuggestion: any desire persistently held in the mind will find physical manifestation to obtain it
  • Faith, desire, imagination and persistence are all needed to reach your stated purpose

• One who refuses to compromise with circumstances he doesn’t like is an invaluable asset

• Ideas can be turned to wealth through definite purpose and definite plans
  • Success requires no explanation, failure permits no alibis

• The Major Attributes of Leadership

1. Unwavering courage based on knowledge of self
2. Self control
3. A keen sense of justice
4. Definiteness of Decisions
5. Definiteness of Plans
6. The habit of doing more than paid for
7. A pleasing personality
8. Empathy
9. Mastery of detail
10. A Willingness to assume full responsibility
11. Cooperation

• 10 Causes of Failure in Leadership

1. Inability to organize details
2. Unwillingness to give humble service
3. Expectation of pay for what they know, rather than use of what they know
4. Fear of competition from followers
5. Lacking of Imagination
6. Selfishness
   1. Real leaders claim no glory
7. Intemperance
8. Disloyalty
9. Emphasis of “authority” in leadership
   1. Flaunting the reason others should follow you as because of your title rather than personal, internal qualities
10. Emphasis of title

• Major Causes of Failure in Life

1. Lack of well defined goals
2. Lack of ambition to rise above mediocrity
3. Lack of education
4. Lack of self control
   1. Control starts from within
5. Procrastination
   1. Work with the tools you have now, better ones will be found as you progress
6. Lacking persistence
7. Negativity
8. Indecisiveness
9. Overcaution
10. Associating with the wrong people
11. Lack of concentrated effort
12. Lack of enthusiasm
13. Overindulgence
14. Uncooperativeness
15. Dishonesty
16. Egotism and Vanity
17. Guessing Instead of Thinking

• Remember that it is one thing to want more, but something greater to be worth more

• Do not easily be swayed by opinions, as doing so will permit others to think for you. Opinions are the cheapest commodity on earth

• Persistence
  • Every failure brings with it an equivalent seed of advantage
  • Most ideas are still born and need definite plans of immediate action to inject life into them
  • How to Develop Persistence

1. Definite purpose backed by a burning desire to fulfill it
2. Definite plans shown in continuous action
3. Ignoring negative influences
4. Alliances with like minded people

• Power is organized effort

• Sex: Everything Man does is to please Woman
  • This gives woman the power to make or break a man

• Subconscious Mind: Intermediary that one’s prayers are brought back an answer in the form of a definite plan

• The starting point of all achievement is desire. The finishing point is the type of knowledge that leads to understanding

• Your thoughts and desires are the magnets that attract life, the life from the great ocean of life out there. Only units in harmony with your desires are attracted 
• Ghost creations of uncontrolled imagination have caused most of the damage people have done to their own minds. 

• How to Outwit the 6 Ghosts of Fear
  • 3 Enemies:
    • Indecision
    • Fear 
    • Doubt
  • Fears are only a state of mind, subject to control and direction

1. Fear of Poverty
   1. Grew out of man’s tendency to prey on his fellow man economically
   2. Symptoms: Indifference, lack of ambition, tolerating poverty, indecision, worry, fault finding, slob, insecurity, over caution, looking for the negative in everything, procrastination, compromising with difficulties instead of using it as an opportunity, planning for what to do when overtaken by failure
   3. Solution: Decide to be grateful for whatever wealth you can accumulate
2. Fear of Criticism
   1. Man’s nature is to criticize his fellow man’s character
   2. Fear of criticism robs man of initiative, imagination, individuality and self reliance
   3. Criticism plants fears
   4. Symptoms: Self consciousness, nervous and timid in conversation, indecision, avoidance of key issues, lack of ambition
   5. Solution: Decide not to worry about what others think, do or say
3. Fear of Ill Health
   1. Symptoms: Enjoyment of imagining ill health, talking of it until it happens
   2. Solutions: Decide to forget symptoms
4. Fear of Loss of Love
   1. Grows from man’s polygamous nature to steal other men’s women
   2. Symptoms: jealousy (suspicion without proof), fault finding, gambling (irrational behavior in attempt to make favorable showing to loved ones)
   3. Solution: Decide to be able to live without love if necessary
5. Fear of Old Age
   1. Symptoms:Inferiority complex at around the age of 40, speaking apolegetically oneself “being old” instead of gratitude for the wisdom and understanding age brings, trying to appear young
   2. Solution: Decide to accept it not as a handicap but as a gift of wisdom, self control and understanding not known by youth
6. Fear of Death
   1. Derives from the unanswerable questions “whence and whither” , where we come from, what happens after death
   2. Symptoms: thinking about death instead of making the most out of life, lack of goals
   3. Solution: Decide to accept that death is inevitable
      1. Develop a burning desire to achieve, backed by service to others

To be successful, you must find peace of mind, acquire the material needs of life and obtain happiness

The Devil’s Workshop and the 7th Basic Evil

• Defined as the susceptibility to negative influencers
• Its weapon is intangible because it is merely a state of mind
• Recognize that people are lazy and indifferent in nature and therefore susceptible to suggestions
• Control your mind through keeping it busy with a definite purpose backed by a definite plan

• Analyze your weaknesses, instead of building alibis to cover them up
• Master Key: its the privilege of creating in your on mind a burning desire for a definite form of riches

If these brief notes, peaked your interest in Think and Grow Rich , you can check it out on Amazon here.

And be sure to check out my book, Wiser Next Week.