Think and Grow Rich

The Amazing True Story That Gave Us Think And Grow Rich

On a dark and stormy night in 1908, a young man was invited to the mansion of America's first billionaire, Andrew Carnegie.  In front of a flickering fire, Napoleon Hill, a young, ambitious reporter quizzed Carnegie about his principles of success. 

The crusty Carnegie was impressed by the earnest young fellow and suddenly offered him a shocking proposition: "Mr. Hill, on your behalf I will use my considerable influence to arrange opportunities for you to personally spend time with 500 of the greatest accomplishers of our time. They will include fellow industrialists, entrepreneurs, inventors, merchants, statesmen, artists, and many others. You will have as much time as you need to interview, learn from and observe them. Your objective will be to validate the belief success is a matter of an ideology, of universal laws, which can be enumerated, learned and then simply duplicated and used as skills to deliver predictable results, just as you might learn the laws and process of making steel.

You will accomplish this mission by documenting the beliefs and behaviors all these great men and women share in common. No remuneration shall be paid to you by myself. You must support yourself while working on this project.

Your goal will be the publication of a 'success encyclopedia' enumerating the laws. Whatever the financial rewards arise from that are yours. You have just 60 seconds to accept or reject this offer…"

Napoleon Hill said yes, with a second to spare.  And more than a hundred years later more than 100 million people have learned the principles of success because of his decision. 

Originally published in 1937, Think and Grow Rich is a "summary" of an earlier work of Hill's called The Law of Success in 16 Lessons. Thus was laid out the "Philosophy of Achievement" as passed on by Andrew Carnegie and the other successful people he introduced Hill to.