Five lessons from “Think and Grow Rich” book

This is a great book and I recommend everyone to read it because this was documented with case-studies and stories of many great inventors like Thomas Edison, leaders like Nelson Mandela, Olympic athletes etc. They were under-estimated, not recognized initially and criticized. But they didn’t give up on themselves and changed their destiny, some even through great disabilities. It is not at all about just finance or money. It is wealth in terms of knowledge, growth and persistence through real life examples and in all aspects.

1. Thoughts are powerful

Thoughts have great power, the more positive and burning your desire is the faster it gets converted into reality. It should be stronger than your insecurities, others opinions and your own doubts. That is the reason why you should be careful what you “think”. Make sure they are positive and lead you forward, not pull you down.

Case study: Thomas Edison was very young when he was sent home with a letter from school. His mother read it – “Your child is too smart and fast for our school. He should be in a better school so we are sending him home(expelling)”. So from then on his mother taught him at home, he did home schooling and as we all know he went on to invent electricity. After many years, he found the note which said “Your son is mentally retarded and slow for our school, please find a special school which teaches for kids like yours”. It all depends on how you take a news and react to it. His mother put a powerful and strong thought in him that he is smarter than other kids.

2. Strong and Positive desires take many shapes

When you believe and desire something strongly, any kind of disability, barrier or challenge cannot stop you from achieving it. In case if you are physically disabled for that it manifests itself into a different kind of reality that is more meaningful as per your current physical ability.

Case study: There are stories of Athletes who wanted to run in Olympics, lost their legs in an unfortunate accident. But their ambition to build an identity was so strong that they manifested it into becoming a pilot(so they can fly, not run)

3. Be Grateful

Be grateful for everyday you get to live. Maintain a gratitude journal. Write it at the start of the day and end of the day, it can go a long way. It will help us to stay motivated and positive by reminding us how lucky and privileged we are even with very little. We are not entitled to anything. It will keep us grounded. It will be a great reminder when a day gets difficult.

4. Burn the ships of retreat/backup

Having a back up will automatically make you comfortable to fail and not work hard. Remove every distraction, back-up/fallback plans, when you have a discovered your purpose. If you have them you are sub-consciously thinking of failing back to them hence you will quit. Don’t think about any other way but forward.

Case study: There was once a Chinese warlord who wanted to invade a Kingdom and has come through Sea with ships. But after landing, he realized that the other army was much bigger and well equipped with arms. So he first asked his soldiers to burn his own ships, that has put the soldiers in a position where if they want to survive, they have to win the war and capture other army’s resources. In-fact, they went on to win the war.

5. Persistence

Keep working on your goals and don’t stop at any point for anything. Keep believing in yourself and keep growing better with age. Compare yourself with your old self not with others. You don’t know their journey, they might be ten steps ahead of you, working super hard which might look like an overnight-success. You should get wiser, smarter and peaceful with age. Improving your business/work and knowledge should be your primary focus. Talent only is put to use when you work on it consistently.