Over the years I’ve read a huge number of books on success.  They always seem to have some ‘angle’ that they’re taking which suggests that this “all new” method is better than any other.  In these instances, I like to look for the positive aspects of such angles and see how I can incorporate these into my existing arsenal of success practices.

This book from Jack Canfield – The Success Principles – is different.

This book is a comprehensive collection of ideas packed into 64 different areas of your life which have all been thoroughly tried and tested by Jack Canfield and his associates.  Whatever aspect of personal achievement you’re looking for help with, the chances are you’ll find something in this book!

It’s interesting that whilst many of these books are either aimed at the complete beginner to personal development and others aimed at people with specific issues (e.g. time management) this book has been quite clearly written for ANYONE who has a desire to improve their lot in life.  If you’ve never done any sort of self development in the past, then this book will help you get started.  If you’ve done a lot of self development, this book will help you to address the areas where you need specific help.  If you’re a complete master at self development, then I’d like to thank you for reading my blog, Mr Canfield, sir!

What I particularly liked about the way this book is written is that all of the techniques are supported with stories – much like Jesus did with the parables – so it’s far easier to absorb the content and the concepts.   Also, the chapters aren’t too long so if you want to read it from cover to cover (and it’s definitely worth doing so) and you come across an area where you’re less interested, then you won’t get bogged down there.

For me, this book has really helped me to gain clarity and perspective in several areas of my self development to a level not achieved with a variety of previous books.  Ultimately it comes down to this: do you want to achieve success the hard way or the easy way?  You want the easy way, don’t you, and this book makes our goals of ultimate success significantly easier to achieve.

Check it out on Amazon today!

The book can be thought of as a complete handbook for success and the themes taught in it were used by Andrew Carnegie himself when coaching young men who went on to become very wealthy.  The principles are as applicable today as they were when they were first written over 100 years ago, which is witnessed by the continued success of Think and Grow Rich almost 40 years since the author’s death.  Each chapter deals with a specific element of success such as “Desire”, “Decision” or “Persistence”.  Hill explores each principle in depth and gives tips, exercises and formulas to help you to internalize his teachings.

The book is squarely aimed at anyone who is dissatisfied with their current lot in life.  Its aim is to help us find the confidence to make the changes for the better and then goes about equipping us to have the best chance of success.  It’s for anybody who believes there should be something better, but doesn’t know how to find it.

One of the interesting quirks of this book (and I’m of the opinion that Hill had a few quirks!) is that he clearly states in the introduction that the real secret that we need to learn from the book is not spelled out and that we need to figure it out whilst we’re reading it.  Depending where you are on your personal development journey, this secret might jump straight out at you or you may have to read the book several times to finally understand it (as I did!)  However, I agree fully with Mr Hill’s prediction that once you do figure out what the secret is, it will change your life!
[Note: Please don't ask me what the secret is - it would spoil the learning experience for many people if I post it here!]

Whilst on the whole this is an amazing book, there are a few areas where that quirkiness of Hill’s does make for some challenging reading!  When I first heard about this book it was from the late, great Jim Rohn who described Hill as “part weird”.  He said of these quirky (or “weird” as he called them) sections of the book as nothing to worry about and something to simply skip over when it gets too weird for you.  I would agree with his judgment on this and simply say that the few weird bits don’t detract from an otherwise amazing book.

The biggest thing that I got from this book personally was from the section on persistence.  This chapter takes you by the hand and works with you to put aside anything from your past that may be holding you back and essentially helps you to “get over yourself”.  It’s really easy in life to procrastinate (in fact there’s a whole chapter just on dealing with procrastination in this book!) yet we all know that it’s the people who just push on, often with a grim determination, who ultimately succeed.  Look at Colonel Sanders – he was told over 300 times that his chicken recipe was no good before he finally find someone who would take it on.  That’s the kind of persistence that I want for you as well as for myself.  It’s that persistence that reminds us that the end result will be worth all the effort.

This blog only exists thanks to Think and Grow Rich!

Why Should You Buy It?

If you’re serious about changing your life and achieving your full potential, then I truly believe that Think and Grow Rich is the best book available to help you do this.  In my opinion, this book should be required reading for everyone who dreams of living a better life.

I would strongly recommend that you get yourself a copy and read it from cover to cover.  If you don’t finish the book feeling incredibly excited about your future, then read it again and look for what you missed the first time through!  Whatever you do though, invest in yourself and do read this book!

Buy Think and Grow Rich here