The inner life
Think and Grow Rich
Direct answer
Think and Grow Rich is a 1937 book by the American author Napoleon Hill which sets out thirteen steps, beginning with desire and faith, for turning a definite aim into wealth.
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At a glance
- Also called
- napoleon hill, thirteen principles of success, master mind group
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Law of Attraction, New Thought, Autosuggestion, The Secret
Think and Grow Rich is a 1937 book by the American author Napoleon Hill which sets out thirteen steps, beginning with desire and faith, for turning a definite aim into wealth.
A plain educational schematic; it does not diagnose a condition or replace professional care.
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What is Think and Grow Rich about?
Think and Grow Rich teaches that riches begin as a state of mind. Hill's thirteen steps start with a burning desire for a definite sum, pass through faith, autosuggestion, specialised knowledge, imagination, organised planning, decision and persistence, and include the master mind, a small group who meet to further one another's aims. The reader writes a statement of the sum wanted, the date and what is to be given in return, and reads it aloud twice a day.
The book joins New Thought ideas to practical advice on planning and persistence, which is part of why it has lasted. Its account of its own origin is doubted. Hill said that Andrew Carnegie had commissioned him in 1908 to interview hundreds of successful men; no record apart from Hill's own word confirms that the two ever met.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Imagination and intention.
What sets Think and Grow Rich apart
Among the classics of New Thought this is the one written as a manual for salesmen and managers. It has no chapter on healing; its subject is money, and its method mixes mental exercises with ordinary counsel about plans, decisions and keeping at a task. Two of its ideas left the movement entirely and entered business speech: the definite chief aim, written and dated, and the master mind, a standing group of allies. Its least quoted chapters, on sex transmutation and a sixth sense, show how much of the older mental science it kept.
- Author: Napoleon Hill, born Virginia 1883, died 1970
- First published: 1937, by the Ralston Society
- Steps: thirteen, from desire to the sixth sense
- Earlier version: The Law of Success, 1928
- Origin story: a 1908 commission from Andrew Carnegie, known only from Hill
- Daily exercise: a written statement of aim read aloud night and morning
Often mistaken for something else: The Science of Getting Rich (1910) is a short tract of doctrine by Wallace Wattles; Think and Grow Rich is a long manual built from anecdotes of businessmen, and it adds the group of allies that Wattles lacks.
The story behind Think and Grow Rich
Hill (1883 to 1970) was born in Virginia and worked as a journalist, promoter and lecturer. He published The Law of Success in 1928 and reworked its material into Think and Grow Rich, issued by the Ralston Society in 1937, during the Depression. The book has stayed in print ever since and is counted among the best selling self-help titles. Later accounts of Hill's life record a string of failed ventures alongside the success of his books.
Why Think and Grow Rich matters
Think and Grow Rich carried New Thought into the language of business, and much later success writing descends from it.
How to read Think and Grow Rich
Readers still take from it the written definite aim and the master mind group, and leave aside its claims about thought vibrations.
Think and Grow Rich in practice: an example
A reader who writes down a sum, a date and what they offer in exchange, and reads it morning and night, is following the first of Hill's steps.
Where readings of Think and Grow Rich go wrong
Think and Grow Rich’s stories of interviews with famous men cannot be verified, and it is no source of financial advice.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- think and grow rich napoleon hill, think and grow rich summary, napoleon hill, thirteen principles of success, master mind group
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is Think and Grow Rich about?
It argues that wealth starts with a definite desire held with faith, and gives thirteen steps for acting on it, from autosuggestion and planning to persistence and the master mind group.
Did Napoleon Hill really work for Andrew Carnegie?
Hill said Carnegie set him the task in 1908. Carnegie died in 1919, before Hill made the claim in print, and researchers have found no letter or record that confirms a meeting.
What is a master mind group?
It is Hill's term for two or more people who meet regularly, in harmony, to help each other toward definite aims. He held that such a group thinks better than any member alone.
