Book I Recommend, Be Inspired

One of my favorite books is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  It is a non-fiction, motivational book that talks about principles and mindset of successful people.  From the title, most people would think it is only about money, but it is not.  Richness is not only defined by money, it can be any blessing you have in your life, such as richness in friends, love, or attention.  In my opinion, the word "rich" there depends on what you want to have in your life.  The book helps you to achieve that kind of prosperity.

          Think and Grow Rich literally changed the way I think.  As the book says, it all starts with your thoughts.  It actually only implies the primary principle it wants to convey, you have to think for yourself what the author is actually saying as the secret for success.  The author studied and researched successful people for almost 20 years.  That is the reason he was able to give stories of various big companies that started only from humble beginning.  There is one part where it states how the most famous softdrink started.  Another one is an anecdote about Mr. Ford.

This is one story that stuck in my mind.  He, with his company, revolutionized the way cars are assembled and made it available for the masses.  The story that the book relates to is when he asked his engineers to make a V8 motor where all 8 engines are available in one.  The engineers told him it is impossible to create that kind of engine, but he just said, try to make it anyway. 

So, the engineers did try.  They failed the first time.  They tried again and presented to him a model, but it is still not working.  Every time they failed, Ford persisted and told them to try again. Ford never gave up and never stopped believing that it can be done.  Then one day, the engineers got it working.  They created the V8 engine, which in the time of its conception they thought impossible to create.  This story proved the cliché…nothing is impossible. 

I want to read this especially at times I feel so overwhelmed with circumstances not going my way.  It inspired me that I can do anything too.  This is one of the lessons conveyed in the book. 

There are a lot more lessons to be learned and suggestions to adhere that can be found in the book.  One of them is providing six steps in achieving your goal.  I will state here one of the steps.  It is being specific on what you want to achieve and then write it down. 

This has been practiced by various nationalities, but I do not find it commonly practiced here in the Philippines.  At work, we have written our goals down, but outside work, most people I meet just have dreams.  It's like they want this 'something' and dream about it, not really thinking that they can achieve it.  They do not write down specific steps to achieve that dream, they do not have goals. 

I can relate to them because once in my life, I was like them.  I just try to dream of something and felt like it is always out of my reach, that I cannot get it.  I have low self-esteem and not having anything to back myself up with previous achievements, I felt depressed and hopeless.  I know maybe some of the people around me did not notice that I am feeling that way inside, I was so quiet and reserved back then. 

It helps me a lot now to be more focused on what I want to achieve in life.  I do not want to live in the dream-world, I want to see my goals be made real.  Right now, I am not yet in a stage of my life where I can do what I love, but I'm taking it one step at a time. 

I like meeting people who are also on this journey so we can help each other out.  One thing that we should have in common is the can-do attitude and the persistence to make it happen.  I really do not like meeting negative people or people who think that something is not attainable.  Because this simply means they lack belief in themselves, and those people's attitude tend to rub on other people.  I try to avoid pessimists because when I really want something, I will do everything to get it.  Of course, there will be obstacles in the way, but it does not mean that it's an excuse to stop. 

Finding people who have the same belief as yours is one of the suggestions also indicated in this book.  It is what Mr. Hill stated as having a "Mastermind group".  The group that consists of people you trust and who have the same attitude and belief as yours.  You might not have the same opinions, but you have the same attitude of believing that you can do whatever you want to do. 

I am now in the process of finding these people and I hope that someday we can achieve all our goals together.  I also hope more people would read this book and be inspired.