Bunk

I was highly disappointed when I read this book. Napoleon Hill is dead on on some very obvious and commonsensical things but way off on tons of others. Yes, autosuggestion & visualizing your outcomes are good exercises but are common sense for most people unless you have super low self-esteem. Nothing new here. Tips on how to write a resume and apply for a job are helpful to the would-be job applicant, but that isnt why you bought this book. My biggest bone of contention is due to the metaphysical/new-age overtones throughout the book. Napoleon Hill espouses a concept called infinite intelligence, but never defines it. It is something more like an omnipresent god-force or life force. This is total hogwash, and wont solve any MAJOR problems. You dont hear of scientists tapping into infinite intelligence to seek out a cure for cancer. How come I can't tap into this mysterious force, to say, tell me the winning lotto numbers or pick winning stocks? Maybe because it is total nonsense. Hill also commits the sunk cost fallacy in the story he tells where somebody stopped digging just three feet short from striking gold. While I see his point that many times just a little more effort will result in a sizeable payoff, sometimes one must know when to stop a futile endeavor. Hill advocates being persistent, but says nothing about how to identify situations when it should be stopped and a new goal should be sought. Hill is a strong advocate of positive thinking. Who isnt? Did I have to read this book to find out that it is better to think positively than negatively? No way. While positive thinking is good for many things, it cannot cure Parkinson's Disease or Alzheimers. Napoleon Hill says you can be anything you want to be. Total bunk. If this is true, why didn't he become the next Carnigee or Rockefeller? Does this statement not apply to him, and if it doesn't apply to him, why should it apply to others? Hill also commits the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, which is Someone did x to become successful, therefore x caused their success. You can't use an example of one person who achieved sucess against tremendous odds and say that therefore anyone can surmount these odds. We hear of the few who are successful against the odds but not of the many who fail. That is how the real world works. Not everyone can be a Bill Gates or a Micheal Jordan. Hill mentions nothing about realistically assessing your skillsets against your goals. He just says go for it. That is stupid. Better advice is to try lowering your standards a bit and you will find you can achieve your goals much easier. Maybe you cant build a huge software corporation but you can have a thriving small consulting firm. I don't care how positive you are, there's some things you can't do because of lack of competency. Thats the sober truth, and it won't sell books.

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Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill | 9781604591873 ...