Think and Grow Rich (Hill)

This one is supposed to be a classic, a landmark book. The dust jacket says it set the standard for motivational thinking, which is currently something of an epidemic. It was published back in 1938 and it's still kept in stock at Chapters. Either this book panders to the vanity of man in a way not duplicated since, or it has something important to say. You know those recurrent books? The ones you never read but see everywhere, hear about constantly? Napoleon Hill's best seller has been chipping away at me for the last five years. I gave in reluctantly. It sat on my shelf for several months after I bought it.

I wish I had read the thing sooner. Some of it is weirdness incarnate (An entire chapter on "The Mystery of Sex Transmutation"? Really? But why?) but some of it is gloriously illuminating. It is a book about desire and obsession, faith and revelation, hallucination and reality. There are chapters devoted to decision, persistence, think tanks, and social graces. It touches on dozens of topics (including telepathy, the American Constitution, and choosing a spouse) while staying in tight orbit around the main theme, which is, say it with me now . . .

No. Not money. Mr. Hill has a distinctly mercenary tone; he returns to wealth as the supreme object again and again. But these principles are not limited to the accumulation of a staggering fortune. You could pick them up and point them at anything. Probably you could say the book is about success, but I don't know about that either. For me it was a handbook on the method of making thoughts powerful, entities that do more than just flutter about and then collapse like ancient tissue butterflies. It was a call to take risks and explore the sharp, swiftly moving, brightly flashing whirlwind that lives in your head. It was a challenge and a rebuke. It said that you get from life what you demand from life, so why not demand something extraordinary?

I am a mouse. I do not make demands. I make half formed requests in a wispy voice with my face hidden in my hands while beginning the shuffling retreat. Creeping through life is not rewarding or exciting, so this year I am conducting an experiment. I am going to follow Napoleon Hill's advice and deliberately cultivate an obsession. It might be another way of choosing madness or it might be an escape from the madness that is fear.

A sample:

"Gandhi wielded more potential power than any man living in his time, and this despite the fact that he had none of the orthodox tools of power, such as money, battleships, soldiers and materials of warfare. Gandhi had no money. He had no home. He didn't even own a suit of clothes but he did have power. How did he come by that power? He created it out of his understanding of the principle of faith, and through his ability to transplant that faith into the minds of 200 million people."