Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich has sold 20 million copies, and many credit it with their rise to wealth. But what does the book actually say?

Far from being a manual on materialism, it explores the impact that the immaterial has on shaping reality. Hill uses terms like ‘The Creative Imagination’, ‘The Sixth Sense’ and ‘Infinite Intelligence’. Once you learn how to harness the power of your mind, anything can be yours.

Think and Grow Rich was published in 1937, and was 25 years in the making. Hill interviewed many of the great industrialists. He worked as a lecturer, speech writer, and magazine publisher, and eventually made his own small fortune.

The book includes 13 steps to riches, including 1) the importance of desire 2) definiteness of purpose, and 3) using ‘Infinite Intelligence’ to provide you with solutions. Napoleon Hill also talked about a ‘secret’ that was the basis of wealth – which we will come to.

Hill describe desire as “the starting point of all achievement.” He mentions the Wright Brothers, with their seemingly unreasonable desire for man to fly. They created something out of nothing. Desire is truly a miracle-working power.

Some might baulk at this statement. Everybody has desires, but very few go on to achieve the extraordinary. Why is desire that important?

Hill uses phrases such as the “one consuming obsession of his life,” “a burning desire,” “a keen, pulsating desire, that transcended everything else” and “a white heat of desire for money.”

He’s not talking about ordinary passing desires, but obsessions people dedicate their entire lives towards achieving. This is what transforms a commonplace wish into an extraordinary drive, harnessing all of the seen and unseen forces of creation towards its achievement.

How intense is your desire? How much emotion is involved when you’re imagining things you deeply want? If your answers are “not very” and “not much,” Hill offers a formula for turning your desires into riches.

Determine the exact amount of money you desire. Then state what you’re prepared to give in return for this sum. Thirdly, set a date by which you will possess this money. Then, commit this information to paper. Read your statement, with conviction, out loud twice a day.