Currently I´m going through „Think and grow rich*“ by Napoleon Hill. It´s a classic. Over 15 million copies sold worldwide. That´s what is standing on the front page. When I read the slogan for the first time I immediately asked myself: Did this book create 15 million new millionaires?
Since several years I´m aware of the publication. It´s almost ten years ago that a friend of mine sent over a screenshot of the front page. At that moment my friend was thinking that the book might be of interest to me. Growing rich? Sure. Sounds amazing. But after my friend had sent over that screenshot I did not buy the book. During that time I knew that within the next years I simply want to focus on making music and joining a big company in order to get employed. Having this in mind, why shall I go through the content of „Think and grow rich*“? Growing rich will only deviate from my priorities.
As a conclusion during the following years I focused on writing songs. In parallel, I worked within finance as part of a big company. Then, in January 2023, I finally bought the book. As I´m still going through the content one point has already become crystal clear: Currently the fact of growing rich still does not seem to be a priority to me. If so, I would have gone through the content within two or three weeks. As it´s a classic I´m reading it very slowly. Half of a chapter. Then some weeks are passing. Another half of another chapter. Time is passing.
Searching for the secret
During reading I have recognized that probably I´m purely going through the content in order to figure out if there is a special secret which needs to be followed in order to accumulate riches or if rich people simply were more diligent and disciplined when compared to people who did not grow rich.
And here we are. One of the major points which I have detected (or better say not detected) is that mentioned „secret“. At the back of the book the author has mentioned that within the book the ultimate secret on how to grow rich has been mentioned for more than 100 times. Lucky me. My assumption seemed to be right. Actually there appears to be a secret which is considered as the most essential factor in order to accumulate riches. So it´s not just about being diligent and disciplined.
But here´s my current status: I simply don´t get it. I´m already reading several chapters twice. However the secret does not reveal to me. Besides of mentioning the existence of the secret the author has additionally mentioned that the secret will only reveal to those who are ready to accumulate riches. I take this as a statement that currently my mind is not prepared in order to accumulate riches. If so, probably I would have already detected the secret. The last piece of required knowledge which can be taken out of the book. On the other hand sometimes I´m thinking about that I might have already detected it but I´m not aware about it. However, if I´m being asked right now what´s the ultimate secret I will not be able to provide an answer. So for now I´ll stay with that. I have not detected the secret yet.
Why the secret does not reveal to me?
I was always thinking that it´s already one of my top priorities to accumulate riches. Since several years I´m reading a variety of books in terms of finance, business and entrepreneurship. Why the secret does not reveal to me? For now I can definitely state that in order to grow rich I´m lacking in what the author has dedicated a whole chapter for. I have figured out that I´m lacking in desire. In order to accumulate riches it seems that there needs to be a strong stimulus within one´s mind which then turns to a burning desire in order to gather a huge amount of money.
However, when I was listening to the inner part of myself I truly recognized that I do not feel that specific burning desire. Which appears to be a result of the fact that currently my mind is not prepared to accumulate riches. The point is that I do not feel a strong motivation to accumulate riches. Much more I do not feel any need to do so. It´s not that I prefer spending my time watching TV rather than thinking about how to make money. But I´m far away from what the author has highlighted as that specific burning desire.
So currently I´m thinking on how people were able to generate that burning desire respectively what kind of restrictions I´m facing currently. I figured out several reasons.
Why to grow rich?
Firstly, from many rich people it has been told that their strongest motivation to accumulate riches was to get rid of poverty. However, that kind of motivation does not work for me. I did not grow up poor. So based on my history and my past experiences there´s simply no need to overcome poverty.
Secondly, growing rich is contradictory to my personality set up which constantly strives for minimalism. In practice, when it comes to simple things like food and clothes, I will satisfy the basic need with a suitable solution. And that´s it. For example, I only own a very limited amount of shoes. One pair of street shoes. One pair of sport shoes. One pair of house shoes. One pair of business shoes. One pair of hiking shoes. And finally one pair of shoes for spending time at the beach. In no way I see a reason to accumulate more shoes.
What has been stated here in a representative manner for shoes is mostly related to all of the material things which I own. The point is that basically I´m not a materialistic person. I never buy stuff. I only search for a store when I require a specific item. In no way I´m interested in accumulating stuff.
My simple approach in terms of food and clothes
And when it comes to food, I have recognized another important fact. Even if I grow rich I do not see myself eating different food or even more food than currently. Since several years I´m already spending my money for organic food. Basically I do not require more money in order to be able to purchase a better quality. There is no better quality available. I´m already at top notch. In addition, my stomach capacity is limited. So even if I grow rich I do not see myself eating three portions for dinner rather than one.
Thirdly, and this is the most surprising fact to myself, I have enough money. I´m able to satisfy my basic needs on a high level. Meaning living within an appropriate apartment, consuming organic food and wearing clothes which are clean and not broken. I do not see that by growing rich I will be able to heighten that kind of satisfactory level. It´s already at the top. Furthermore, I´m in possession of a health insurance. Additionally, on a monthly basis I pay some money for the retirement plan which is being offered by the German state while running my private savings plan in parallel. Besides that I own an investment depot. Based on that I do not feel any need to accumulate riches in order to finance my health insurance or retirement plans. The point is that I´m already able to finance them.
Focusing on generating value
Lastly, in common literature it has been mentioned that rich people grew rich by simply focusing on generating value. It´s been told that they did not primarily aim to accumulate riches. Basically they intended to generate value. As part of a capitalistic society generating value will automatically lead to the accumulation of money. So it seems that for these kind of people the amount of money they earned appeared as a side effect.
It´s tough to validate these kind of statements. But at least they sound sympathetic. And although I cannot validate the true motivations or better say driving forces of other people I assume that the motivation of purely generating value is applicable for a minority of people. About Warren Buffett it is being said that he´s primarily deemed as being competitive. It seems that the money he owns has served as a side effect. His driving force seemed to be that he purely wanted to be better than others in terms of a financial perspective. The achievement of this goal is easy to measure if money is being taken as a scale. However his driving force seemed not to be to accumulate a certain amount of money on a nominal basis. Much more it seems that he was mainly driven by basically making more money when compared to the competitors.
So the last reason which appears in my mind why to accumulate riches is donation. Financing a children´s home in a developing country. However as much as I see a sense in doing so it does not seem to be sufficient to ignite that specific burning desire.
Holy words
I´m not growing rich yet. Basically I do not feel that specific burning desire which has been mentioned in „Think and grow rich*“. In addition, my mind is not set up to accumulate riches. Probably I will read the chapter again which deals with desire. It´s my intention to figure out if the desire needs or can be established by force in the case that it does not arise by itself. For example, overcoming poverty as a motivation arises by itself. It does not need to be hammered into the minds of the respective ones. However, if I detect that the desire needs to arise by itself then I will try to stop forcing my mind to establish the need of accumulating riches.
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Martin
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