After reading Think and Grow Rich and applying certain methods, my life started changing in certain areas. It changed the way I think - it put a desire in my heart to achieve certain things in life, it allowed me to think beyond my day-to-day job, and ultimately, it allowed me to achieve a promotion.
For those who know me, I never lacked desire, purpose or drive. But what this book taught me was to put these goals into focused action. Hill's main philosophy is to be persistent with the set plan you have put in place until the goal is met. I was amongst the most common group of people who would give up after a moment of defeat. Hill mentions in his book that the most successful people in the world would all say this one thing - their plan will come to fruition one step after the moment of defeat.
I’ll cover the following four areas that have helped me change my attitude which also allowed me to achieve a step forward in my career and beyond:
- Desire
- Knowledge only has the potential of power
- Leadership
- 👉👌 Transmutation
Desire
Don’t be deceived by social media. You’ll see all these motivational speakers, entrepreneurs and influencers saying that “everyone” should be financially free by owning their own business and achieving their dreams…
I don’t agree with this. I don’t believe everyone is meant to be business owners. I don’t believe everyone is meant to be wealthy. I don’t believe everyone is meant to achieve their dreams.
Pause. What?! Not everyone should achieve their dreams?!
Yes. That's what I believe.
Why? Because it can be an idol. So sometimes God tells us to let it go.
Our desire shouldn’t be what we want to do in life, but what does God want us to do with our time here on earth?
Unpopular opinion? Probably.
Continuing…
But I do believe everyone is meant to be continuing to grow each day in some way or form.
The reality is that numbers are the easiest way to measure growth, which is why everyone is so obsessed about it (mindful that it does give us a level of freedom too).
But growth doesn’t always have to correlate with money. It can be as simple as:
- I want to be a father
- I want to know more about God / I want to grow in faith
- I want to explore other cultures
- I want to be healthier
- I want to study something new, etc.
Think creatively.
In my humble opinion, wealth is not for everyone (I know it’s ironic given that the book title is “Think and Grow Rich”).
Desire is the spark to start a fire to what you want to achieve, whatever that may be. I took Hill’s practical steps in putting desire into action (chapter 2) and did the following:
- I came up with a goal of getting a promotion in 2025.
- What was I exchanging in my day-to-day to achieve this? I gave extra hours at work (within reason as I’ve got a child lol).
- I gave myself a deadline.
- I planned out what projects I wanted to be a part of, had regular meetings with my manager, and had to be super organised in my day-to-day to achieve my KPIs each month.
- I shared my goals with a few of my closest friends.
- I prayed on it every morning and spoke to myself aloud the plan for the day.
Result: Promotion achieved.
I do agree with Hill where he says that anything is possible for a person with a burning desire and persevering faith they could achieve it. But here's a question you should ask when going ahead to achieve something - at what cost? Because just remember, everything has a cost.
Knowledge only has the potential of power
“Knowledge is power”. This is something we hear way too often, more than we should. Why? Because this is false, according to Hill. Knowledge actually only has the potential of power.
For knowledge to become power, it needs to be organised into an actionable plan with a conclusion. And I totally agree with Hill’s argument that this is the reason why college (university degrees for Aussies) are not as highly valued as they should be. They are just “miscellaneous knowledge” as he puts it. I can also testify to this, as I have applied ZERO, literally nothing from my university degree in my everyday life since the day I entered into the workforce.
I know this is also an unpopular opinion:
When you don’t feel the impact of what it actually costs to get an education, it goes unappreciated. As mentioned earlier, for us to attain something, it needs to cost something. And this is probably the reason why we get so little out of a huge opportunity in a first world country. Particularly for Australians, we only start to feel the impact of the debt we have collated from HECS (a loan from the Australian government that can help cover university tuition fees) after entering the workforce, without attaining any value from what we’ve studied.
I’m all for studying and in fact, I encourage studying. But we need to study not because the world says it's good for you. We need to start studying wisely, so it no longer becomes miscellaneous knowledge, but applied knowledge.
Hill convicts me with:
“The person who stops studying merely because he has finished school is forever hopelessly doomed in mediocrity, no matter what may be his calling. The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.”
Leadership
So, what does success look like? Does it always have to be in a leadership form?
The book states there are two different types of people. Leader or follower. The book strongly challenges people to become leaders, but I personally don’t believe this is for everyone. It’s not everyone’s calling. The reality is, there are people who end up achieving more in life being a follower, or an “underestimated form of leadership” as the following Ted Talk puts it (I highly recommend watching it - and it’s SHORT):
https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement?language=en
However, I do want to emphasise my agreement with Hill that there is a difference in compensation. At most times, the difference is significant. So if you decide being a “follower” is your path, you need to let go of the thought of deserving the same entitlement as a leader. That is the harsh reality. Stop expecting the same pay or as close to what your leader is getting paid.
On the flip side, if you choose the pathway of leadership, note “the man who cannot follow a leader intelligently, cannot become an efficient leader”, as Hill puts it.
Sex transmutation
We all know the desire of sex is one of the most, if not, the most powerful desires in humanity. The desire is so strong that people will risk everything that they have to accommodate for it (as we have all seen with the scandal with the CEO of Astronomer back in July 2025).
From the perspective of a Christ follower, this particular desire is a gift from God. This gift has been given to us alongside the gift of freewill. Which means, according to Hill, sex can completely ruin your life or it can completely take you to another life’s milestone if controlled well.
So how do we control such a strong desire?
I’ve grown up in church learning that we need to defeat, overcome and potentially eliminate this desire to avoid sin. But the more that I think about it, there was no real solution… until I read this book.
Hill says that this particular desire needs an outlet through different forms of expression. If we cannot find this outlet, it will seek an outlet through physical channels, which again leads to sin and destruction. He uses the analogy of a blocked river, which will eventually find a way to flow. Sexual energy is the same. You can try to submerge it and control it, but it will eventually find an outlet. A less worthy outlet if not expressed correctly.
The most successful individuals will channel their sexual energy into other areas such work, art, business and/or other passion areas, according to Hill. If this is done well, it will make a huge impact on what is really important in your life, especially your marriage.
My concluding thoughts: this book has completely changed my life. Not in a sense where I’m seeking more wealth, but my mindset towards everything has changed, which in turn has given somewhat more financial increase. This is a great book to read for people who are seeking to understand what a growth mindset looks like, and how we can hit those milestones (small or big) in our lives, as it is a tangible way to understand our progress.
Give this book a chance, and it may change your life too: