Summary and review ofThink and Grow Rich

Reviewed by Diario de un Inversor · UpdatedJune 13, 2026

Our review

«Think and Grow Rich» is one of the most influential self-help and personal success books of the twentieth century: Napoleon Hill published it in 1937, during the Great Depression, after supposedly spending twenty years interviewing American industrialists and magnates such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. The book distills those conversations into thirteen principles — burning desire, faith, autosuggestion, specialized knowledge, imagination, organized planning, decision, persistence, the power of the «mastermind», the mystery of sexual energy as creative force, the subconscious, the brain, and the sixth sense — which Hill presents as the laws of economic success. Its influence on subsequent self-help literature is difficult to overstate: most genre books published in the twentieth century contain ideas that trace directly or indirectly to this text. Critical reading, however, is mandatory: Hill mixes legitimate psychological observations about motivation and persistence with esoteric claims about mental telepathy and subconscious communication that have no empirical backing. Additionally, the methodology behind the supposed interviews has been historically questioned. The book is useful as historical material on the success mindset of the interwar period and as a document of American enrichment rhetoric, not as a verifiable personal finance manual.

Key takeaways

• Goal clarity and persistence in the face of obstacles are attributes that subsequent psychological research has confirmed as relevant to achievement.
• The «mastermind» group concept — surrounding oneself with people who share goals and help each other — has real correlates in the literature on networks and collaboration.
• The book mixes psychologically grounded ideas with esoteric claims that lack empirical support: readers must separate the two categories using their own judgment.
• Its primary value in 2026 is historical and cultural: it is the text that defines twentieth-century American enrichment rhetoric.

Fact

«Think and Grow Rich» was published in 1937 during the American Great Depression and has become one of the best-selling nonfiction books of all time, though Hill's research methodology has been questioned by historians.