读书笔记 - Think and Grow Rich

This book has over 15 million copies sold, written by Napoleon Hill, which is a landmark bestseller. This book deserves second read, and it outlines the thirteen steps to riches.

1. Desire: The starting point of all achievement
2. Faith: Visualizing and believing in the attainment of desire
3. Autosuggestion: The medium for influencing the subconscious mind
4. Specialized Knowledge: Personal experiences or observations
5. Imagination: The workshop of the mind
6. Organized Planning: The crystallization of desire into action
7. Decision: The mastery of procrastination
8. Persistence: The sustained effort necessary into induce faith
9. Power of the master mind: The driving force
10. The mystery of sex transmutation
11. The subconscious mind: The connecting link
12. The brain: A broadcasting and receiving station for thought
13. The sixth sense: The door to the temple of wisdom

The major attributes of leadership

1. Unwavering courage
2. Self-control
3. A keen sense of justice
4. Definiteness of decision
5. Definiteness of plans
6. The habit of doing more than paid for
7. A pleasing personality
8. Sympathy and understatnding
9. Mastery of detail
10. Willingness to assume full responsbility
11. Cooperation

The major causes of failure in leadership

1. Inability to organize details
2. Unwillingness to render humble service
3. Expectation of pay for what they know instead of what they do with what they know
4. Fear of competition from followers
5. Lack of imagination
6. Selfishness
7. Intemperance
8. Disloyalty
9. Emphasis of the authority of leadership
10. Emphasis of title

 QQS formula

1. Quality of service means the performance of every detail, in connection with your position, in the most efficient manner possible, with the object of greater efficiency always in mind
2. Quantity of service means the HABIT of giving all the service of which you are capable, at all times, with the purpose of increasing the amount of service as you develop greater skill. 
3. Spirit of service means the HABIT of agreeable, harmonious conduct that will induce cooperation from associates and fellow employees.

Capital consists not of money alone, but more particularly of highly organized, intelligent groups of people who plan ways and means of using money efficiently for the good of the public, and profitably for themselves.

Capitalistic society guarantees every person the opportunity to provide useful service and to collect riches in proportion to the value of the service.

Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy that practically everybody must conquer.

In the story of the Declaration of Independence it will not be difficult to detect at least six of these principles: Desire, Decision, Faith, Persistence, The Master Mind, and Organized Planning.

The major weakness of all educational systems is that they neither teach nor encourage the habit of definite decision.

Those who have cultivated the habit of persistence seem to enjoy insurance against failure. No matter how many times they are defeated, they finally arrive up near the top of the ladder.

Persistence is a state of mind, so it can be cultivated. Like all states of mind, persistence is based upon definite causes including:

1. Definiteness of purpose
2. Desire
3. Self-reliance
4. Definiteness of plans
5. Accurate knowledge
6. Cooperation
7. Willpower
8. Habit

Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence.

The Master Mind may be defined as: coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.

That power, when successfully used in the pursuit of money, must be mixed with faith. It must be mixed with desire. It must be mixed with persistence. It must be applied through a plan, and that plan must be set into action.

The most powerful of all human emotions is that of sex. Highly sexed people always have a plentiful supply of magnetism. This energy may be communicated to others through the following media:

1. The handshake
2. The tone of voice
3. Posture and carriage of the body 
4. The vibrations of thought
5. Body adornment

The emotions of love, sex and romance are sides of the eternal triangle of achievement-building genius. Nature creates geniuses through no other force.

The seven major positive emotions: Desire, Faith, Love, Sex, Enthusiasm, Romance, Hope
The seven major negative emotions: Fear, Jealousy, Hatred, Revenge, Greed, Superstition, Anger

Six ghosts of fear

1. The fear of poverty
2. The fear of criticism
   
3. The fear of ill health
4. The fear of loss of love
5. The fear of old age
6. The fear of death

Without doubt, the most common weakness of all human beings is the habit of leaving their minds open to the negative influence of other people.

You have absolute control over but on thing, and that is your thoughts.