" Think And Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill

Upon approaching this chapter I thought the sixth sense was “creative imagination”.

For this chapter I can’t necessarily expound on anything. Is that due to my lack of experience or knowledge on what Napoleon was saying or at least trying to tell me? To be honest I’ve never had “invisible counselors” who I approach with my problems and if you ask me that sounds somewhat crazy. However, why should I ignore potential power through knowledge due to my ignorance? Why should I frame something as false just because I have a closed-minded point of view?

The book states that, “the sixth sense defies description! It cannot be described to a person who has not mastered the other principles of this philosophy, because such a person has no knowledge, and no experience with which the sixth sense may be compared. Understanding of the sixth sense come only by meditation through mind development from within.” I guess he just hit my nail right on the head. I do have no experience or little to no knowledge. I mean, I did plan on reading the book for a second time to probably grasp concepts or ideas I never garnered initially as well as get a better understanding. So, then who am I to think that I am even remotely close to being ready to explore my sixth sense when I have not perfected the principles written out in this book? “A Mighty Force Of Slow Growth” - don’t rush it, slowly but surely.

One of the ways to gain knowledge can be through other people’s experiences as talked about in the preceding chapters. Napoleon stated that: “My experience has taught me that the next best thing to being truly great is to emulate the great, by feeling and action, as nearly as possible.” That’s where the “invisible counselors” come into play. He tended to have an imaginary board meeting inside his imagination with astounding men of the past such as Thomas Edison, Lincoln, Ford, to name a few, having literal conversations with them, asking questions and giving feedback. He studied the records of their lives with painstaking care. Hmm…I guess for me an example of this would have been when I read “The Snowball and The Business of Life”, by Alice Shroder. That book is about a biography on Warren Buffett and I emulate Warren. One I would love to make even 1% of all the wealth he has amassed throughout his life and counting…(Sometimes I get confused when reading this…I’m seeing Napoleon being listed as an individual the author emulates. Isn’t the author Napoleon? Or can one emulate themself?) I think my friend Lorenzo told me that “some environments build you but not all environments are built for you”. In this case he made his OWN environment to develop in. That’s a strong imagination if you ask me. The author ends the section on “The Startling Power of Imagination” by saying: “while the members of my cabinet may be purely fictional, and the meetings existent only in my own imagination, they have led me into glorious paths of adventure, rekindled an appreciation of true greatness, encouraged creative endeavor, and emboldened the expression of honest thought.”

Some vocabulary:

• impress: make(someone) feel admiration and respect.

• poise: graceful and elegant bearing(a person’s way of standing or moving) in a person.

• unremitting: never relaxing or slackening; incessant; relentless.

• repartee: conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies.

• uncanny: strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way.

• chide: scold or rebuke.

• emphatic: expressing something forcibly and clearly; wholehearted.

Some lines that stood out to me:

• “I knew, of course, that all men have become what they are because of their dominating thoughts and desires.”

• “The starting point of all achievement is desire. The finishing point is the brand of knowledge which leads to understanding- understanding of self, understanding of others, understanding of the laws of nature, recognition and understanding of happiness.”

Last chapter begins and ends tomorrow…….