Think and Grow Rich: The 13 Principles, Napoleon Hill and a Free 3-Day Challenge

What is Think and Grow Rich about?

Think and Grow Rich is a self-development classic by Napoleon Hill, first published in 1937. Its central idea is that your thoughts, and the definite purpose you attach to them, shape what you achieve. Hill organized that idea into 13 principles, which he called steps toward riches, and wrote the book as a practical sequence: decide what you want, believe you can have it, make a plan and keep going until you do.

It is one of the best-selling self-help books ever published, and the reason it has lasted is how usable its principles are. Each one can be turned into a daily action, which is why readers still return to it almost ninety years later. The principles below are the heart of the book.

What are the 13 principles of Think and Grow Rich?

1. Desire. Every achievement starts with a burning desire for a specific goal, not a vague wish.
2. Faith. Believe the goal is reachable and hold that belief until it becomes a conviction.
3. Autosuggestion. Repeat your goal to yourself, in writing and aloud, so it settles into your thinking.
4. Specialized Knowledge. General knowledge is not enough: learn the skills your goal requires.
5. Imagination. Use your imagination to design the plans and ideas that turn desire into results.
6. Organized Planning. Turn the goal into a written plan and act on it in steps.
7. Decision. Decide quickly and change your mind slowly, so hesitation does not stall you.
8. Persistence. Keep going through setbacks. Hill treats persistence as the quality that holds everything else together.
9. Power of the Master Mind. Work with a group of people who share your purpose and multiply your effort.
10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation. Hill’s term for channeling strong drives into creative, productive work.
11. The Subconscious Mind. What you repeat and feel strongly about is carried into your subconscious and shapes your actions.
12. The Brain. Hill describes the brain as a receiver and sender of thought, which is why he stresses a clear, focused mind.
13. The Sixth Sense. The final step is intuition, the sense that crowns the other twelve.

The book also covers the “six ghosts of fear” that hold people back and how to dismiss them. If you want the principles explained as a live training with exercises, the free Think and Grow Rich Challenge below walks through them over three days.

Who was Napoleon Hill?

Napoleon Hill was born on October 26, 1883, in Pound, Virginia, and died on November 8, 1970. He started writing as a teenager, as a “mountain reporter” for small-town newspapers, and went on to become one of the best-known voices in the success-literature tradition. His first major work was The Law of Success in 1928, and Think and Grow Rich in 1937 became the book that carried his name around the world.

The Napoleon Hill Foundation, a nonprofit established in 1963, maintains his papers and continues to publish his materials. His ideas also sit at the heart of the New Thought tradition that Russell Brunson’s Secrets of Success draws on, alongside authors such as Orison Swett Marden, Charles F. Haanel and Robert Collier. Our Secrets of Success review shows how that library fits together.

Which other books did Napoleon Hill write?

Most readers start with Think and Grow Rich and then continue with The Law of Success, his earlier and longer work, or The Master Key to Riches. Outwitting the Devil, subtitled The Secret to Freedom and Success, was written in 1938 and reached readers decades later.

Where can you read or listen to Think and Grow Rich?

The book is available in print, as an ebook and as an audiobook from the usual book sellers and libraries. If you would rather learn the principles by listening and doing than by reading alone, the audiobook and the free challenge pair well: one gives you the full text, the other turns it into daily practice.

The Secrets of Success Book Box trial is a third route. It is free for 30 days, you pay $37.95 for shipping, and three physical books arrive: Think and Grow Rich, Applied Psychology and Secrets of Master Salesmanship, along with an audio presentation of Napoleon Hill’s unpublished manuscript. After the trial the membership is $97 a month, and you can cancel anytime.

What is the free Think and Grow Rich Challenge?

The Think and Grow Rich Challenge is a free three-day virtual event, about 90 minutes a day, hosted by Russell Brunson. It turns the book’s principles into a guided practice:

• Day 1: Definite Purpose and the Mastermind Principle
• Day 2: Positive Mental Attitude and the Golden Rule of Business
• Day 3: Going the Extra Mile and Applied Faith

The speakers include Russell Brunson, Tom Bilyeu, Dean Graziosi, Jeffrey Gitomer, Sharon Lechter, John Assaraf and Joe Vitale, and registrants can join a private Facebook group for advice, connections and support. The page also promises rare footage of Napoleon Hill himself teaching his principles. You can read more about one of the speakers in our John Assaraf profile.

Registration is free, and the page shows a countdown to the next start in your own time, so you can plan the three sessions around your week.

What is Napoleon Hill’s unpublished manuscript?

Secrets of Success offers access to manuscripts by Napoleon Hill that were never published. Its Bibliomania page asks, “Can one book really be worth $1.5 million dollars?” and promises access to the book, three gifts from Napoleon Hill and a place in the Secrets of Success mastermind community, along with two unpublished Hill books for free.

Members of the Book Box also receive an audio presentation of the unpublished manuscript. For anyone who has read Think and Grow Rich and wants more of Hill’s thinking, this is the offer built for you.

How can you apply Think and Grow Rich today?

The principles work best as a short daily routine. A simple version you can start this week:

1. Write your definite purpose in one sentence, with a date and what you will give in return.
2. Read it aloud every morning and every evening.
3. Make one written plan with the first three steps, and take the first step today.
4. Find your Master Mind: one or two people who will hold you to the plan each week.
5. Review weekly: decide quickly, adjust slowly and keep going when it is hard.

The free challenge adds the part most readers skip: a live structure, speakers who share how they use the ideas and a group to practice with. Results depend on your effort and circumstances, and nothing here is a promise of income.

Is the Think and Grow Rich Challenge worth it?

Yes, for anyone curious about the book or Russell Brunson’s teaching. It is free, it is short, and it runs on a schedule you can plan around. The challenge also leads naturally into the Book Box membership and the other Secrets of Success programs, so you can decide at your own pace whether to go further.

It comes from Russell Brunson, the co-founder of ClickFunnels, through Secrets of Success, which states its prices and terms openly. For the full tour of what that includes, read our Secrets of Success review.

Our verdict on Think and Grow Rich and the challenge

Think and Grow Rich earns its place as a classic because its 13 principles are simple enough to practice. Reading it gives you the ideas, and the free three-day challenge gives you a structure for using them. If you want the printed book with the unpublished Napoleon Hill material, the Book Box trial is the way in. Start with the free challenge, write your definite purpose and take the first step.