How to "Think and Grow Rich" Part 3 - Desire & Wealth

I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay me no more. 

(Unknown poet)

The second chapter of Think and Grow Rich deals with desire. Napoleon Hill clearly outlines a burning desire for wealth and achievement,  as the first step towards riches (however you choose to define riches).

It was stated in my previous post all riches start with an idea.  This chapter shows desire as the fire that drives such ideas into reality.

In this chapter of the book Hill challenges us, to begin cultivating a "BURNING DESIRE' for wealth and success.  It goes without saying that the most successful people on earth, were those who were driven by a consuming passion to achieve some sort of goal. They had an idea, and along with the idea they had a passion to succeed.    


When you look at any successful business, any successful product - the Ipad, the IPod, the personal computer, the television to name just a few examples.  You can be sure that the product had its beginning in the thoughts of people somewhere.

Wealth and success flows from ideas. As Hill tells us:

BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES 

ARE THE OFFSPRING OF THOUGHT

(Hill, 1960, p.31)

Thoughts and ideas are not enough however.  During my life, I have met many people with good ideas, good ideas that could have made them wealthy.  Not to sound presumptuous, by I also had some good ideas over the years. But ideas alone are not enough to attain wealth.

Wealth may originate from a human idea, but PASSION is required to cary the idea into existence. Wealth requires a definite and focused desire to materialize from thought.

POVERTY OF THOUGHTS AND DESIRES

Lately, I have met many young people who do not seem to have a desire for anything.  They seem to be happy just coasting along life.  They appear without ambition, not driven towards anything.

This saddens me. Not because they are working menial jobs, or because they are still stuck at their parent's homes, or because they live without the 'trimmings' of riches, but because they are poor in their thoughts and mindset. They do not really desire anything (at least that is what it looks like from the outside).  

The road towards success requires of us to overcome many obstacles and heart-aches.   Without passion and a burning desire, we are sure to quite when the first obstacle appears.  Passion provides the energy to carry our dreams into physical reality.

I think what Hill is asking us to do in the second chapter, is to stir up our desires to a burning passion. Hill states that to become successful you need to develop a 'red hot desire for achievement'.

I had times in life when I lost my passion, I had times when I felt like quitting.  This is normal, life is hard and anyone working at a big dreams will have to overcome many difficult obstacles.  Our first step towards wealth and success is therefore to cultivate a burning desire to attain a goal, a red hot passion to succeed.

Then, in the words of Napoleon Hill, we must allow that desire to materialize into gold.

DESIRE MUST BE BACKED BY DEFINITE PLANS 

A word of caution.  On page 17 Hill tells us that wishing for wealth is not enough to accumulate riches and success.  Our desire for wealth must be backed up by solid plans, and our plans need passion, persistence and faith, to carry through.    

I have outlined Hill's steps below:

1. We have to cultivate a strong desire for the achievement of our goals, and then;

2. We have to make definite plans to attain our goals (planning and goal setting);

3. We have to back our plans with persistence, passion and faith.

Desire without a plan is worthless speculation and plans without passion is powerless and sure to die.

CULTIVATING A WEALTH MINDSET

Up to this point in life, most of us had many experiences and people affecting our lives.  Some of these influences were positive, and some where negative.  You can be sure that such influences programmed your mind to think in a certain way.

Over time we pick up mindsets, thought patterns, beliefs and attitudes.  Such collective mental programming is almost always not conducive towards achieving our goals for wealth and success.  Hill shows us that it is in our power to change.  It is our thoughts we have to change first.  

Hill's book essentially gives us a way of cultivating a wealth mindset.  He argues that we need to have wealthy thoughts in order to become wealthy. My challenge to us is to challenge our current thoughts and to stir up our passions for achievement and innovation.

The world is presently in a very difficult spot, we need new ideas and those passionate enough to bring such ideas into reality. May you and I become people of passion, and may our passion drive the realization of 'things' needed to improve the world.