Think & Grow Rich

| Author: Napoleon Hill, 1937

What’s It All About?

Can a book written in 1937 still be relevant today? At first, I was skeptical that a book written so long ago could still have lessons for today’s leaders. But after I read another book, You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero, I changed my perspective. If one author can be inspired by their predecessors, maybe it’s worth the time to take a trip back in history and see where it all began. I’m glad I went into Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich with this new mindset, because his classic book presents some very relevant thoughts on personal mindset and independence.

The story behind Think and Grow Rich began with Andrew Carnegie, an icon in manufacturing history. He asked Napoleon Hill to look at people exhibiting success—and failures—throughout a wide variety of industries to determine what makes for a successful leader. Hill researched over 25,000 people over the course of twenty years and uses his book to highlight 30 common reasons for failure.

Favorite Quote

“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct, and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”

Biggest Takeaway

Where you are in life depends on way more than just circumstance. As this book shows, you also must take intentions, thoughts, and belief into account. If you think about positive results for your future, they have a better chance of happening. For example, if you clearly envision a positive outcome, you will start behaving in a way that will help you get what you want. On the other hand, if you always think about gloom and doom, you’re not going to have a great day.

Bonus information

The Audible version of Think and Grow Rich has a PDF workbook, which really helped me get momentum after using a hard copy of the book for years. And you get to hear some original audio, which is awesome!

Reviewed by: Trevor Blondeel, September 5, 2022

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop floor. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website