The Secret That Changed My Life – My Journey with Think and Grow Rich

I did not know when I cradled this book in my arms that it was going to take me on an emotional roller-coaster that would rattle my mind, challenge my patience and plunge into secrets I never imagined existed to tell. The title seemed so easy enough, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill but there was something about those words that seemed to be an obligation to me. My background, I am a Nigerian woman, who was born into a world, where life often appears to many as a daily struggle to live, and success an aim that appears to remain a dream for a few. But this was a book that was bold enough to assure me that fortune and success could begin… right here in my own mind.  It read on the cover, “One of the most important best sellers in history.” I was unsure whether it was another of those motivation books that contain sweet words which dissolve when you meet the reality of bills, responsibilities and disappointments. But as I got down to read, my heart started beating. It was even more, than a book, it was like an older, and wiser friend was sitting down beside me, and speaking words of wisdom in my ears saying, Your mind is your greatest treasure, my dear. Hold it, employ it, it will carry you all you want.“ In the opening chapter itself one could feel the voice of Hill as a subtle yet vigorous prompting that wealth is more than money it is an initial choice, a psychic image, an inner hunger that cannot be killed. He wrote about individuals who had nothing to begin with-men and women that had no more chances than I have, and they got to greatness, simply because they did not cease to pursue their dreams. That idea seized me. I frequently stopped to think just so I could catch my breath and fantasize--what would it be like were it to also happen to me? The twists in this book are not dramatic and not about the characters of the novel. It is you- the reader-who is the real suspense. Each page makes you think to yourself, Am I really able to do this? Will I actually be different in life by practicing the principles?” And then, when you feel you have got the answer, Hill comes and provides yet another principle, yet another hidden truth, yet another challenge, which makes you have to search in your soul. Perhaps the most vivid lesson that I learnt was his doctrine of desire. He said it as though it were something unsafe like fire. A small amount of desire, he said, never brings big results. I, as a Nigerian woman with certain disappointments in life, felt those words. At times you dream small knowing that you can be hurt. Yet I felt uneasy about this book in the most positive way--it said to me that I should cease to be a nice person about my ambitions, but to aspire to success, with the fervor of a man who is dying of thirst.   The other chapter, which impressed me, was the one in faith. Not only doctrinal belief, but belief in yourself, cutting out whatever you conceive to be yourself and moving when you believe there is power in doing so. I reflected about just how many times I have used self-doubt to talk myself out of things. The words of Hill made me understand that doubt is like a robber who steals things before the money comes to the hands. I wondered how many blessings I had driven away simply out of not feeling that I deserved them? Then it was the decision piece. This was no easy talk-this was a smack of reality. Hill noted that effective people take swift and decisive courses of action. I was conscious of the fact that I had waited a lot of times to get to the right moment to begin something. It never came to that moment. By reading that chapter it was as though someone was ripping out my excuses. I hear him whisper, but I almost hear him, saying, The universe is just waiting to see when you are ready to play, and then is ready to take your action. Yet, it was not all inspiration and sweetness because this book presented me with the reality of persistence. This is where most of the people fail. Hill was also made to tell about persons who were on the brink of quitting right before prosperity is near. I could hear in those stories how life can make you weary, how it can make you stupid, you have tried it before. However, simultaneously, the stories sparked some fire in me. What would happen, I thought, if I, too, am only three steps away from my breakthrough? And imagine that it will be the next yes that comes directly after the last no.   As a Nigerian woman, I found it personal to be reading Think and Grow Rich. It touched the part of me that society occasionally tries to shut up, the part that wants more than to manage life. It brought back memories that you can be born in law yet you can be raised in high, that you can be born in a poor place yet something in your mind takes you where you have never been with feet. And the saddest fact? The first thing is that success is not selfish, it is a responsibility. Since once you become wealthy in mind, spirit, and resources, you can uplift people. When I finally reached the end, I discovered that one of the most powerful things about the book was that this book does not tell you you need to dream, but dares you to show that your dreams can come true. It does not preach money-it preaches having a life so rich in aim and that money will be one of the by-products. Even after reading the final pages, the suspense carried over, and it is no longer a matter of finding out what Napoleon Hill is going to write next, but of finding out what I am going to do next! Will I leave it with beautiful words on paper, or am I going to put it to practice? The true cliff-hanger is that.  There is power in this book and I want to tell you that you can do more than you think you can do. Read this book and you will know. Any dream you have, proves that you can do it. Until you choose, with all your heart, to think and to do differently and with boldness nothing will happen. Think and Grow Rich is more of a mirror than a book. It will present the mirror of self, which core will present to you who you are and what you could be. And the question remaining is… will you dare to be that person?