Napoleon Hill Unmasked: Lies, Scams, Cults, and Occult Beliefs

how do you do I'm very happy to have this personal visit with you I want you to become a reader I want you turn the television off the average millionaire reads a non-fiction book a month I got a friend of mine reading two a month because he wants to be a two millionaire this book is one of your 25 must reads oh absolutely in the Bible it says ask and you shall what yeah pretty good formula you ought to look into it when you speak of your poverty and lack of Education Mr Carnegie explained you

you are simply directing your mind power to attract these undesirable circumstances what do Bruce Lee Kobe Bryant and Oprah Winfrey have in common they all read a book called Think and Grow Rich his work has since spawned countless millionaires this book changed everything for me when doubt creeps into your mind remember that uh whatsoever a man believeth that shall he also re yes that is the voice of the Napoleon Hill and I have to apologize because once you've heard it it's pretty hard to [Music] unhear very few books have the potential to put Christians in

a self-help Chokehold quite like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill this book if I can find it right here this book is more than just a best seller it's the entrepreneurs gospel uh the self-help Holy Grail the self-improvement manifesto and believe it or not the sacred scripture of a 1930s secret cult it has influenced millions of people and celebrities all around the world giving credit to his book and its concepts for changing their lives and there are a lot of very good and true things to say about challenging ourselves to become more motivated and

successful many people have been helped by the concepts and Think and Grow Rich and this includes Christians but is that all there is to this man in this book have we possibly been bamboozled by the Napster is there more to the story of what's behind these messages I say 100% yes and hopefully by the end of this video I have convinced you of this to prepare for this video I reread Think and Grow Rich which is no easy task I watched the Think and Grow Rich movie which yes that is actually a thing I follow

the Napoleon Hill Institute and the Napoleon Hill Foundation on social media I looked at a lot of other works that the Napster has written and I read blogs and watched videos and did as much as I thought was sufficient to gather the information for this video even after all of that there's probably still more to know about this man this video will be in four parts with a conclusion part one is about Napoleon Hill who is he I'll go over a basic biography for Hill that is given by most people that might be sympathetic to

his teachings but then I'll also go over what I considered to be his full biography which is uh definitely more controversial this might surprisingly be one of the longest parts of this video I did not expect this research to turn out the way it did but I was absolutely floored with what I found out about Napoleon Hill it was just one thing after the other but all the information is relevant for the other parts to have more context I'll also go over some of the push back from Napoleon Hill supporters on some of this controversy

and also something interesting that I stumbled upon in doing so part two is about the book Think and Grow Rich here I will give a short synopsis of each chapter how it got published and the interesting but Shady origin story part three will cover the stealthy hidden spiritual bait and switch in Think and Grow Rich I'll cover some strange parts of this book and also discuss Napoleon Hills spiritual beliefs he says he's a Christian but is he here I will discuss his true beliefs and why they look and sound Christian but they are not part

four covers the elephant in the room here we will talk about an important peripheral argument to all of this the claim that it works or that it has helped this is probably one of the biggest arguments that people have for Think and Grow Rich or the general teachings of people like Napoleon Hill the argument is that this has helped them or that this has worked for them in some way it's in part four that I hope to reveal a sort of epiphany that I've had about not just Napoleon Hill in his book but the bigger

picture of it all and lastly there will be a conclusion here I will will just share my final [Music] thoughts think of a famous business Guru if you can think of them Napoleon Hill has probably influenced them this is a variety of people from self-help coaches like Tony Robbins Dan lock Les Brown uh Grant Cardone Ty Lopez just to name a few but there's also other people who are famous entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez Bob Proctor Will Smith Damon John from Shark Tank Oprah Winfrey which been there done that made a video about it but Napoleon

Hills Think and Grow Rich has also influenced people who have influenced Christians people like John C Maxwell and Charles Stanley just to name a few these are Big names and I actually admire and respect both of these men but this explains why a book that was written in the 1900s stays on the bestseller list every year or in the self-help or self transformation section at your local bookstore and sell well in Christian spaces that should show the power of the philosophy and teachings in this book which are also infused with new thought teachings which I

will cover more of that in part three but who is Napoleon Hill and you know something when I put together this biography I thought that this was going to be straightforward I thought this was going to be simple and and boring but no that is not what happened this is not a regular biography I was very very surprised that in my research Napoleon Hill is not always who he claimed to be and this can be very typical with people that we put up on pedestals when it comes to their teachings that really work for us

which causes us to ignore the other things in their life that might be uh problematic it's the classic case of oh let's just ignore the negative things and only see the positive because this person has done so many good things this is how people are not held accountable and time is the best tattletale I always say and oh my has it told on Napoleon Hill so there are two biographies of Napoleon Hill there's the official biography that's straightforward clean and pristine written by the Napoleon hell Foundation which exists to promote personal development and success principles

through the the education and the Publications and programs based on Napoleon Hills philosophies and I'm sure their official biography that they approved in 1995 is completely and totally unbiased in their portrayal of Napoleon hell so that's the first biography and then thanks to court documents other accounts and newspaper articles there's the biography that adds these stuff to his life that perhaps a lot of his disciples don't like very much so the either downplay or downright ignore so let's go over the basic biog graph y first Oliver Napoleon Hill was born on October 26th 1883 in

a one room cabin in pound Virginia his father's name was James and he was an unlicensed dentist and Moonshiner on the side his mother's name was Sarah and I was surprised to know that Napoleon's name isn't Napoleon but Oliver either way they both make great cat names so he didn't change his name to Napoleon until 1908 now remember the year 1908 as I will give some very important context to this a little later his early life was not easy he grew up in poverty and after his mother passed away when he was nine his father

remarried and Hill credited his stepmother Martha with encouraging him to pursue education and was a source of encouragement for him she bought him a typewriter and encouraged him to write this was probably one of the more pivotal times in his life because this carried over into him writing for newsletters but unfortunately before he was even 13 years old he became an orphan as both of his parents had died at this point as a result of his loss he was known to be a rebellious child even so he busied himself as a Mountain Reporter doing articles

for the local newspaper and by the time he was 15 he was writing articles for many small town newspapers he had a goal for himself he was saving to go to law school to become a lawyer but unfortunately had to drop out because he couldn't afford it he persevered throughout his life until he finally had the Breakthrough that changed everything which was a meeting with the great Andrew Carnegie Napoleon was assigned to interview him and it was in this meeting that Carnegie charged hill with a 20-year challenge that changed his life what resulted from this

Challenge and meeting was his most popular book that slammed America into the self-help movement Think and Grow Rich Carnegie's challenge was that if Napoleon would commit to 20 years without compensation to compile together the principles of success from the country's greatest businessmen and leaders seeking out the common denominators of their stories of success then he would introduce Napoleon to the most wealthy and successful men of the time Napoleon of course took up the challenge and over the next 20 years he met and interviewed with over 500 successful men many of them millionaires he became an

adviser to Andrew Carnegie and also an unpaid adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936 he was married five times had about five kids and wrote numerous successful books on how to help you become the best version of yourself he was a Christian who taught Christian Concepts and people respected him as a Christian man he passed away on November 8th 1970 at the age of 87 there that's the elevator version biography that is typically told but there's a lot more to this story so let's fill in those gaps if you look at the website

of the Napoleon Hill Foundation or flip through the completely probably maybe unbiased official biography of Hill it seems very impressive to see his supposed accomplishments not only did he have incredible meetings with all of these famous businessmen it's said that he was an advisor to two presidents woodro Wilson and Franklin D Roosevelt Napoleon even claimed that he came up with FDR's most famous phrase the only thing we have to fear is fear itself but there's a big problem here the biography that I just read with all of this impressive information is probably mostly garbage yes

Napoleon Hill most likely had a tough childhood and grew up in poverty he did go to law school and he did write numerous books but there are a few things from his life that they don't tell you in your self-help seminar or your MLM boss babe group chat Napoleon Hill was a topnotch scam artist but Napoleon Hill claimed to be a Christian so in the Christian world we have a more precise word for this a charlatan I will cover other specifics about his book Think and Grow Rich in part two because there are going to

be some over LS with this part but for now I'm going to focus on just his life in general and the unethical and scammy things that he did yes Napster started writing early but when he started writing for that newsletter at the age of 15 when he had no news to report he would just make it up I'm quoting this from his own biographers here Napoleon soon became a prolific source of stories his writing was unpolished if not crud but he compensated with unbounded Verve and a vivid imagination indeed he later recalled that when news

was scarce and there weren't stories to tell he simply made them up now in case people don't know this I mentioned this before but there is something called uh the Napoleon hell foundation not to be confused with the Napoleon hell Institute the institution is more of a global certified coaching division for Napoleon Hill's teachings the foundation is a non profit Educational Foundation it exists for no other reason than to continue the Legacy and teachings of Napoleon Hill and his teachings and writings and apparently there are unpublished works from Napoleon Hill that they won't let anybody

see one of them is an unpublished autobiography that Napoleon Hill wrote that is the source material used for the official Napoleon Hill biography that was released in 1995 by the Napoleon Hill Foundation this is pretty interesting and significant because the Napoleon Hill Foundation has only released their version of his autobiography which I'm sure is totally and completely unbiased but they won't let anybody else see the source material which is again Napoleon Hill's own writings so there's the secret archive that the foundation won't let others see and I find that very interesting do you remember in

the boring bi graphy that I said to remember the year 1908 well interestingly in Napoleon hell's official biography which again is from the Napoleon hell Foundation there's a mysterious 5 years that's just missing from the years of 1903 to 1908 there's just a blank space but because the Napoleon hell Foundation can't completely hide court documents and and newspaper articles and you know these these Paper Trails we can fill in the gaps we know that between this time he was actually married and oh boy if you are a Napoleon Hill admirer you would probably want to

skip these few years this was his second marriage to a woman named Edith Whitman they had a baby girl they moved to Alabama where Napoleon gets involved in the lumber business but for some reason he decides to send his wife and daughter back to Virginia while he continues to live in Alabama it turns out that throughout his marriage to Edith the Napster was being quite naughty he was visiting quite a few number of prostitutes in cities throughout the South not only this his marriage to Edith was filled with violence and abuse there was even a

time where he took his young daughter from Edith without telling her and taking the baby to his mother and threatened Edith that he would never return her but Edith God bless her heart went and got her child back and filed for divorce she said that Napoleon was cruel violent and had a terrible temper and there are some things here that I actually find incredibly disturbing to even share like violent things that he did and said to his own daughter and the horrible threats that he would make to his wife this was more than a case

of just he said she said because when Napoleon was married to his fourth wife Rosal Lee he moved in with with his son Blair which apparently was one of his only children who would even talk to him at the time but that didn't last long because Napster ended up scamming him too but even though Blair let his dad stay with them in their own home Napoleon would take out his temper on his son's wife Vera if you want to know all the details all of my resources that I'm using for this video will be in

the description for you to know more but let me just say that it's pretty disturbing so heads up and 1908 a very important year Napoleon Hill was arrested for fraud but was released possibly due to insufficient evidence however the more serious issue was his involvement in Shady practices at his Lumber Company Napoleon purchased 10 to $220,000 worth of lumber on credit from suppliers across multiple States but sold it quickly in Alabama at unusually low prices for cash now of course the buyers started to get suspicious and the local sellers were getting angry so to hide

the cash flow Napolean falsely claimed the money came from New investors prompting his business partner to sell his share and leave the company you following me so far by late 1908 the news of Napoleon Hills fraud spread throughout the lumber industry and rather than face the consequences he fled what a dude nobody could find him so they put out warrants for his arrest and not only this apparently he was also in trouble with the US Postal Service for male fraud and the lumber company filed a lawsuit against him so he fled to Washington DC again

in 1908 is when this happened he completely reinvented himself and became a new man literally because this is when Oliver and Hill would start introducing himself by his middle name Napoleon and some people who might be watching who admire Napoleon hell would think so what the guy made a few mistakes and he wanted to do better and he did he reinvented himself and even gave himself a new name to show how much of a changed man he was okay let's go with that then someone needs to explain to me if that's the narrative that people

want to go with why would this left out of his totally and completely not biased official biography from the Napoleon Hill Foundation H if it's so virtuous a pull yourself up by your bootstrap story then it would be a good thing to add it to your completely not bias official biography not something to avoid but I don't think that's the case he abused his wife and child and was a scam artist who committed fraud and never made any of it right I still want you to keep in mind the year 1908 as as we are

not done with this year yet because this is the year that Napoleon Hill supposedly met with Andrew Carnegie but more on that in part two now you heard me correct earlier that Napoleon Hill has been married five times that's a whole hand people now what I found interesting is that most people assumed that he was only married like two or three times and again it seems to be one of those things that's just kind of shoved under the rug Napoleon's first marriage happened when he was just 15 and had gotten a girl pregnant now this

is according to the official Hill biography which is the only known record of this marriage the young girl's father angrily demanded that the two be married but not long after the wedding it says this that Napoleon's bride confessed that he had not fathered her child and the marriage was an olded and it's thought that Napoleon Hill has a child out there that he has fathered his second wife was Edith which we all know how that turned out his third wife was Florence Elizabeth Herer he married her in 1910 he had three children with her and

of course he could barely support her and their three children in between his full-time job of scamming and scheming people and constantly being supported financially by her family so she filed for divorce in 1935 more on her later so now being broke and lonely he finds his fourth victim I mean wife Rosa Lee beland what a name and she is a very interesting part of his story within 48 Hours of knowing each other Napoleon Hill and Rosa Lee Bean decided they wanted to get married a few months later in 1937 they did now it was

Rosa who helped Napoleon edit and write Think and Grow Rich she's kind of a satisfying story in a way because he really met his match with Rosa he signed over all royalty rights for Think and Grow Rich to Rosa Lee but the idea was that all of the people that Napoleon had conned over the years couldn't come and demand their money back from Napoleon it was also a move to protect his royalties from going to his ex-wife Florence and his children so Not only was he a scam artist but uh he's also a deadbeat dad

so of course made a ton of money from the book Think and Grow Rich and of course they spent all of it and went nearly broke they divorced in 1940 and it's assumed that they both cheated on the other she does come up again later in our story though so keep an eye out for her then there is his fifth wife Annie Lou Norman after Rosal Lee divorced him he was broke he tried going to his third wife Florence once again begging for money and when that didn't work he went to Clinton South Carolina where

he met Annie Lou they married in 1943 and they surprisingly remained married until his death in 1970 so that's Hill's five Mees now if you can believe it the web gets even more Twisted here with a new thought cult that I never even knew existed until I did this research it's the largely forgotten Royal fraternity of the master metaphysicians it was founded by a dude named James B schaer he had about 10,000 followers and taught new thought metaphysical beliefs like the human mind had the ability to change everything around it uh if you could simply

imagine it then those thoughts could become real you know like the stuff you'd find and Think and Grow Rich maybe that's why the master metaphysicians used it as one of their religious texts there's also a rather a reason why some people would know about the master metaphysicians the cult gained national attention when they adopted a 5-month-old baby named Jean gaun claiming they could raise her to be immortal through a strict vegetarian diet and positive thoughts as part of their belief that immortality could be achieved through focused thinking the plan was to make her Immortal by

never allowing her to hear mention of of death or disease nor would she be exposed to any bad or destructive thoughts no unkind words would ever be spoken in her presence and baby Jean would eat an all vegetarian eternity diet so why do I mention any of this because there's a rather interesting fact about baby Jean Napoleon Hill was her Godfather in fact Rosa Lee his fourth wife was an Engaged member of the royal fraternity of the master metaphysician cult let me just stop here and again reemphasize the fact that Rosa Lee helped write and

edit Think and Grow Rich and that's just as much her book as it is Napoleon Hills however it is clear that Rosa Lee was probably more involved in the cult than Napoleon but it's also clear that he wasn't complet uninvolved either I mean his own book was considered a religious text to them and he was close enough to be baby Jean's Godfather apparently these were offers that he couldn't [Music] refuse the Royal fraternity of the master metaphysicians could be its own video trust me but the long and short of it is baby Jean got taken

away from crazy man schaer and was put back with her mother and she is still alive today now as if you couldn't already tell Napoleon Hill had quite the reputation for being pretty scammy as we've seen there's so much here in this regard that I actually had trouble narrowing down which scams to share because this could be its own Deep dive on its own and is actually kind of hard to navigate which portion of this video I went to add this stuff because literally throughout every portion of his life he is doing something scammy so

I'm just going to do my best to kind of compile what we haven't gone over already here now that we've gone over somewhat of a timeline for his life probably the biggest scam that he was a part of which is very well documented is kind of a knee slapper there was an expose article on Napoleon Hill in the 1900s when he was in the thick of all of his claims and it turns out he started a shady Venture called the George Washington Institute of advertising and guess the year that it started in 1909 the year

after he supposedly met with Andrew Carnegie however this George Washington Institute of advertising was a total scam College the school promised to teach advertising and marketing but charged High fees without delivering real education or job opportunities there was a lot of legal troubles with this and it left students feeling completely ripped off this is so well documented and there's so much more to go over with this as far as details which again if you want to check those out be sure to check out the description for my resources but in short the school pushed students

to bring in new students hinting that they could make money or get per for doing it how it would work is you would send in names of people that might be interested in the college and you would get a commission for it sound familiar yeah Napoleon Hill started an MLM scam I do not know how many of you watched my video about mlms or multi-level marketing companies but in my opinion one of the most important parts of the video was part four about the positive thinking books that are used in mlms Napoleon Hill's book Think

and Grow Rich is not only a best seller in self-help but also a required reading I mean highly recommended in most mlms now this is just one of several questionable businesses that Napster was involved in and it made many people doubt his credibility and view him more as a con artist than a true success Guru but what made this so similar to an MLM was the recruitment process for the colle college so it's no surprise that in 1912 this whole thing just fell apart and the Napster had to think of something else I'm going to

give you the rapid fire version of this okay he was arrested many times and On The Run throughout his life for theft fraud and scamming he got arrested for stealing a car and he even scammed a Mormon in 1930 Napoleon Hill helped produce the first Mormon feature film but the production faced legal issues due to his unlicensed stock scam which led to delays lawsuits and of course a box office failure when he was married to his fifth wife he claimed to be an adviser for President Roosevelt scammed the whole town and was run out of

town he impersonated being a lawyer which even his totally and completely unbiased official biography admits that this was an exaggerated claim they call it exaggerated and I call it a flat out outright lie which brings me to his flat out lies outside of the scams and fraud there are just flat out lies that Napster told to make himself look really important one of them was in 1917 or 1918 when he was supposedly approached by President woodro Wilson for help with the war effort apparently President Wilson was willing to pay Napoleon handsomely for his services but

napole a true patriot and even though he was dirt broke wouldn't take any money according to Napoleon Hills biography President Wilson didn't even have an idea for what Napoleon might do to help the war he just wanted him to be involved however this tale gets woven a little bit more let me just read you Napoleon Hill's own words about how President Wilson just thought that Napoleon Hill was the best best thing since sliced bread quoting here I was sitting in President Wilson's office as he read the decoded message from them Hill claimed his face turned

white as snow when he finished reading he handed the documents to me and left the room he was gone for about 15 minutes when he returned he handed me a couple of sheets of paper on which he had written his reply to the Germans which ended with three questions related to the terms of the Armistice yes you heard that right apparently Napoleon Hill was about to be asked by the president of the United States for his advice on the terms of ending World War I well golly G willikers I wonder what the Napster did well

let's find out after I read his reply he asked if I had any suggestions to add to it I said yes Mr President I would suggest a fourth question I would ask whether the request from an Armistice has been made on behalf of the German people or the German Warlords of course exclaimed the president for that will put them on notice to get rid of their Kaiser before they can get an Armistice and it did just that now the biggest kicker is there's absolutely zero evidence of Napoleon hell ever meeting President Wilson much less giving

him advice on how to run the country the Federal Trade commit charged Napoleon Hill on October 1919 which is weird considering he was supposed to be working for the president but whatever but he got charged for fraudulent advertising he even created fraudulent Charities like creating Charities and then stealing money from them he had numerous unpaid debts and just flat out lies about the people that he supposedly met however there is one person that Napoleon Hill probably met met which would be Thomas Edison there's even an incredibly awkward photo to prove this however there's a pretty

convoluted story behind this as well the short version is that Napoleon Hill basically engineered this meeting and then kind of tricked Thomas Edison into meeting with him got the photo and then inflated the story in fact the reason why Napoleon even met with him was to was to give Thomas Edison some sort of award for one of his scam Charities that he was doing it was a medal of some kind which he hands to Thomas Edison and Edison hilariously just hands it right back to Napoleon Hill like he's so confused why are you handing this

to me I don't want this that does not sound like a mentor or a friend to me that sounds like somebody who's fanboying over somebody that they admire next when Napoleon was married to his fifth wife he made up a big fat lie that Gandhi wrote to him he wrote to him asking about Napoleon's book and wanted to distribute it throughout India now there's a lot more flat out lies that he told which we will go over more of those in part three as they are more relevant in that section you know what I think

it's fair to go over some push back that I might get here now with most things that I try to research I try to find if anybody disagrees with any of this and see whatever evidence they have to the contrary like with most lies there might be some truth in there it's like the guy who caught a fish that was as big as a whale he might have caught a fish and that was true but to make himself look important and interesting he exaggerated what actually happened into an unnecessary extreme for clout and popularity could

this be the case with the Napster so I have to wonder is there anything here that's actually true that's maybe been exaggerated or maybe not maybe it is just genuinely true but because he has such a bad reputation nobody believes him like I'm pretty sure the Napoleon Hill Foundation and The Institute they know all of this they know about the supposed lies the scams and everything else so I tried to look to see what they had or maybe some Napoleon Hill apologist had to back up their boy Napoleon and of of course there are indeed

some claims that they don't agree with but interestingly just when I didn't think it could get any worse for the Napster in trying to give him some credit and see what his supporters have to say I inadvertently stumbled upon something in my research I think I stumbled upon some more proof that he's just more of a scam artist than we realized it all started with the claim that Napoleon really did meet President William Howard Taft Defenders of Napoleon Hill will say that there is proof for this apparently when Taft was a Supreme Court Justice which

was well after his presidency it said that Taft wrote two letters to Napoleon Hill about his book law of success and I have some questions and I believe that I'm within my right to ask some fair questions here here especially considering the mountain of evidence that this man is known to exaggerate lie through his teeth and scam people now let's look at the first letter this was written in 1927 okay just for context Taft was President between the years 1903 and 1913 so by 1927 Taft was a Supreme Court Justice this letter is basically taed

saying hey I received your book thanks for sending it I'll read it if I get a chance pretty generic and wow would you look at that there's a handy dandy signature there at the bottom I got this image from the Napoleon hell foundation on Instagram it says a lot in the caption on Instagram but here's a snippet of what they posted along with this letter this historical gem captures a moment of intellectual exchange between two influential figures emblematic of Timeless wisdom and its relevance across disciplines the letter is housed in the Napoleon Hill Foundation World

Headquarters and archive offices in Wise Virginia so this letter is in the archives at the Napoleon Hill Foundation but even so I still kind of have to wonder even though it looks good has this been independently verified by researchers have they made the letter widely available for public examination by experts I mean I have to wonder because typically genuine historical documents are subjected to like rigorous scrutiny including handwriting analysis and comparison with other verified documents not to mention Napoleon Hill had a pattern of producing alleged letters and endorsements from prominent figures many of which were

later called into question for example similar letters attributed to Thomas Edison Andrew Carnegie just to name a few have been criticized as either Fabrications or completely taken out of context however I have a different perspective I could be completely wrong but I actually think this is a legitimate letter but I'm also a '90s kid and this reminds me of when I would write a letter to like Christina RI or Candace Cameron or jtt and I would get a letter back that would be rather generic right with a copy of their signature on the bottom like

it would be a mass response to their fans that was sent by people hired to specifically respond to fan mail it could just be me but that's what this seems like to me it's like ta secretary is over here like Betty we got another book review for ta's ready to read oh man Doris now we got to glance over it and respond for him you know to make it seem like this incredibly busy politician cares Amen to that Betty would you like to give it to him to sign mhm mhm here you go Mr President

would you sign right here please thank you continue with your insanely busy day and don't you worry I'll have your afternoon tea for you just right away mhm that's right darling mhm with a donut oh okay oh cookies oh yes sir yes sir right away that's probably how that went and knowing Napoleon Hill's patterns for exaggerating claims I could see how getting a letter like that would be turned into something it wasn't now there's also the second letter which by all accounts if it was authentic is way more important than the first and when I

was looking at it just by chance I noticed something odd so let's read what this says December 24th 1927 My Dear Mr Hill I thank you for sending me your law of success I Note One passage with which I fully agree every failure is a blessing in disguise providing it teaches some needed lesson one could not have learned without it most so-called failures are only temporary defeats if that were in bread it would help especially if it were made to apply to those who are studying expediency in politics and the yielding to popular errors and

deferring to them I shall have pleasure and looking over the introductory lesson when I have the opportunity sincerely yours Taft I don't know man Doris and Betty did a good job writing that up I mean it's just generic that sounds generic to me here's the second letter that Napoleon Hill said he got from Taft in 1928 okay this is what it says Dear Mr Hill I have now had the opportunity to finish reading your law of success textbooks and I wish to express my appreciation of The Splendid work you have done in the organization of

this philosophy it would be helpful if every politician in the country would ass simulate and apply the 17 principles upon which your lessons are based it contains some very fine material which every leader in every Walk of Life should understand I am happy to have had the privilege of rendering you some slight measure of help in the organization of this Splendid course of Common Sense philosophy now keep in mind this was not a small book for somebody of this stature to stop what they're doing and read a book that's I think it's like over 500

pages um yeah that's a stretch so this quote appears in the original 1937 version of Think and Grow Rich which I have access to and saw the quote but I didn't see any images in any edition of the book you know how usually they'll take like a photocopy of it that wasn't there also what's interesting is that the way that the quote ends in the original book is that it isn't from Taft it just says that it's from a former president and former Chief Justice of the United States but in the current updated version of

Think and Grow Rich which has been revised it's the one that I have um all of these endorsements have been completely taken out including the one from Taft but but as far as this Letter's existence all I found was the post from the Napoleon Hill Foundation on their Facebook page here's what the caption says it says a historical archive letter contained in the 1937 version of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill from former president and US chief justice William Howard Taft on Hill's contribution but again I'm kind of confused about this because the letter

does appear it's it says that it's a letter contained in the book but it's just a quote so I don't know what that means so if there's some if there's somebody smarter than me that maybe knows a little bit more about this let me know in the comments or email me but aside from this my source for both of these letters are from the social media accounts of the Napoleon Hill Foundation and I can't help but notice something strange about them when I look at these two letters they look different do you see what I

see do you see what I see I'm sorry I should that that was really off key sorry about that all right let me put this in perspective let me break this down let's look at William taff's signature online it's pretty impressive isn't it look how sleek and smooth and consistent his signature is now look at the first letter written in 1927 and compare it to the other William Taft signatures and it looks spot-on this is actually one reason why I think it's legitimate even if it is a generic letter now let's now look at this

second letter written in 1928 only one year later which was supposedly again written by Taft and let's look at this signature guys I am no expert but this looks like a sloppy forged signature to me the letter head is not the same the type is not the same and I think it's very clearly obvious that this signature is not William taff's signature I think the Napster made this up I think he forged his signature and considering his scammy nature and constant lies and profession as a con man you'd think he'd learn to forge a signature

better so my theory at least with this one incident is that I think that the first letter was a generic letter from the president with his signature on it I think Napoleon Hill then took that signature and tried to forge it terribly which considering that the internet did not exist back then and you couldn't check people just took his word for it and again not to mention the highly suspicious timeline here Napoleon Hill's book was written in 1937 William Taft died in 1930 so again it's the same pattern of claiming these men said and did

something that cannot be completely verified because they're dead you know and as far as the other push back that Napoleon Hill supporters have where they claim there's some legitimacy with what he claims this is typically the formula that I found when I looked into them it's the fish that became a whale it's like being in the audience of watching the right Brothers flying equals him being best friends with them or he knows a friend who met Andrew Carnegie once equals Hill is now intimate business associates with him and maybe he did actually meet Thomas Edison

once and even got a photo of it but it becomes an extraordinary claim of nonsense and I don't doubt that a generic letter from William Taft turns into them being best buddies who talk all night on the phone braid each other's hair giggling together it's wash rinse repeat with this guy I am genuinely not impressed with the push back and considering the napster's track record this assessment is what makes the most sense by far guys I could honestly be here all day telling you about the Shady dealings of Napoleon Hill but I think that this

is sufficient you get the point I did not expect this at all when I started my research on him the popular narrative portrays Napoleon Hill as a victim of bad business dealing someone who is simply too trusting for his own good it's framed as though there's this Grand conspiracy against him or that he actually did meet these people but then leave out valuable information about those details however when you consider the extensive trail of Lies theft Forge checks Shady business deals scams multiple arrests it's hard not to question whether his story is just complete balone

but most people don't know him for these things when you think of Napoleon Hill you think of his book Think and Grow Rich it's one of the most popular new thought books of all time which yes Napoleon Hill is a new thought author I will specifically cover more of this in part three but for now let's segue into this popular book and what it's about [Music] whether it's real estate circles or business Endeavors the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill has been passed around as if it were an ancient text filled with secrets

on how to be rich and successful it's the business Bible and it's incredibly difficult to do a synopsis of this book in my opinion because it's filled with so much but assuming that most people watching haven't read it I'm going to do my best to give a synopsis of this book this was really hard to do so I hope that my summary of each chapter is helpful in giving you an idea of what this book is about for my later commentary to make sense now I have the revised and updated version uh there's different kinds

you can get online but you won't find any difference really in the original version and this one except there's basically a chapter 1 in the revised version called The Power of thought and this idea was woven into the original introduction and various chapters but wasn't given its own dedicated chapter so they went ahead and just made that an extra chapter here also to prevent redundancy just know that in every chapter Napoleon Hill brings up supposed conversations that he had with really important and famous people that I've already mentioned before and also pay attention to this

synopsis because it will sound different to you and make a lot of sense I think anyway after we go over part three in the introduction Napoleon Hill talks about how powerful your thoughts are and how they can shape your reality he says that success starts with a clear purpose persistence and belief in yourself he explains this entire Venture that he's doing in this book started with a challenge from his best buddy Andrew Carnegie and how Hill spent 25 years studying the lives of over 500 successful people like Henry Ford Thomas Edison blah blah blah blah

been there done that and then he hints at a secret to success hidden in the book encouraging readers to go Discover it as they read he explains that this book is not just about making money but it's about achieving success in any area of life he Hypes up this Secret success calling it The Carnegie secret claiming it will manifest to readers only if you are ready chapter 1 is called the power of thought and it begins with Napoleon Hill giving away the secret in the very first line of the book he says truly thoughts are

things this is a very famous phrase in new thought and is the basis for the Law of Attraction so the secret is basically the law of attraction you're welcome chapter 1 introduces the foundational principle of the book which is the power of thought and belief in achieving success lots of people fail because they stop trying when things get tough and he also talks about how powerful your thoughts are they can shape your life but you need to combine them with persistence and action to actually succeed and then he talks about how your thoughts are magnetized

and have a vibration ational frequency but the big takeaway is that failure is usually just a stepping stone and it's the people who stick with their goals even when things are hard are the ones who find success chapter 2 is called desire and basically the focal point here is that desire is the starting point of all achievement success begins with a burning desire backed by faith persistence and definite plans when he talks about desire he does not mean wishing for something that is missing what he means in this context is desire is an intense passion

wanting something so fiercely that it motivates the person to action it has to be more than just wishful thinking a desire must also have a timeline as well as a specified good or service that will result from achieving the goal like for example if someone desires to Grow Rich start by deciding the exact amount of money desired and what can be given in exchange for this money set a firm date to achieve the money and create a plan write this out in a clear statement and read it aloud twice a day in the morning and

in the night the action plan should be revised with the purpose to imprint it in your mind so in other words this is the formula for manifestation you live as if it were your reality is basically what this is chapter 3 is a little bit more practical on how to make that happen it's by faith which is not defined how a Christian would Define faith in this perspective faith is visualizing and believing in the attainment of your desire in other words it's belief with no doubt it's a power to bring it to you basically the

key is to have confidence that your goal will become a reality if you focus on negative thoughts your subconscious will start working against you and make those doubts come true instead act like you've already achieved your goal and keep picturing your success this is a playoff of the previous chapter keep repeating your goal to yourself until it feels real pay attention to your thoughts catch yourself when you're being negative and replace those doubts with positive uplifting ideas a way to develop Faith according to to Napoleon Hill is by repeating affirmations you repeat instructions to your

subconscious and it's even more important if your thoughts are emotionalized because these are the only ones that are recognized by your subconscious this is how they get power he says that any emotionalized thought any thought charged with emotion is mixed with faith and will begin to immediately translate into the physical IC equivalent and then our subconscious will only recognize and act upon thoughts that have been well mixed with emotions or feelings so you mix Desire with belief or faith which is belief and thinking positive with no doubt chapter four is about Autos suggestion which is

just a fancy word for visualization so this is his technique for training the subconscious mind to believe that you deserve to be successful you write an action plan and you state it out loud twice a day and you visualize it if the desire is for a certain amount of money picture the amount and state how this will be achieved read the plan often to memorize all the points uh this is also like a form of meditation through constant repetition and sets the stage for the rest of the book there's also an affirmation that he puts

in this chapter that I'm going to read to you he says I believe that I will have this money in my possession my faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes I can touch it with my hands it is now a waiting transfer to me at the time and in the proportion that I deliver the service I intend to render and return for it that is a clunky sentence I'm awaiting a plan by which to accumulate this money and I will follow that plan when it is received and then

something really strange he says at the end of the chapter is that after you've read this entire book you should come back to this chapter and read the whole chapter aloud once every night until you are convinced that it's true chapter 5 is called specialized knowledge now the key idea here is knowing that success isn't about knowing a little bit about everything it's about gaining specific knowledge that's directly tied to your goals so general knowledge he says like things that you learn in school won't make you rich instead you need to focus on learning skills

or information that you can actually use to get closer to what you want you can partner with others who have the expertise you're missing by forming what he calls a mastermind Group which we we will go over more later this is where everyone works together toward a shared goal and the main idea is that uh you need to keep learning and applying what you what you know to make real progress towards success I I mean some of that is just good advice chapter six is about imagination he says basically to be creative the more you

use your imagination the better it gets imagination is how you turn your desires into actionable plans it's the tool you use to visualize your goals and figure out how to make them happen your ideas can then be turned into money by having a clear goal and a solid plan on how to make it happen now he breaks imagination into two types synthetic imagination and creative imagination synthetic imagination takes things you already know like old ideas or plans and then rearranges them into something new creative imagination is what sparks brand new ideas and it also has

what he calls a higher vibration this vibration really gets activated when your really inspired and it connects you with what Napoleon Hill calls the higher intelligence or the infinite intelligence it also connects you with other people's thoughts and something greater than yourself to bring in fresh ideas I think that the chapter can be summed up in this one sentence you can create anything you can imagine the reason why is because true reality is in the mind and money is material and the material world world will respond to your thoughts so imagine big chapter seven is

called organized planning and this chapter is just about how to be a good leader uh having a clear detailed plan and how it's essential for turning your goals and desires into reality he talks about the importance of having a mastermind Group which is a team of like-minded people who can provide support advice specialize knowledge help you achieve your goals again he has a whole chapter on this later but here he talks about effect effective leaders and what those qualities are and he warns against common causes of failure like procrastination lack of persistence poor organization and

there's a quote that Napoleon Hill is known for which is a quitter never wins and a winner never quits chapter eight is called decision now here he's basically saying that a lack of decision or procrastination is one of the main causes of failure this one actually reminds me a lot of Damon John because if you watch Shark Tank you'll notice that he doesn't like people who dilly dally that are not quick about making decisions and now that I know his love for this book it makes sense why he is that way so people who are

rich have a common denominator according to Hill of reaching decisions quickly and changing their mind slowly so this chapter teaches you how not to be swayed by the opinions of others but instead to keep your own counsel and that of your Mastermind group so that you make firm productive decisions that ensure your success chapter nine is called persistence and basically this is the ability to keep going even in the face of obstacles setbacks and challenges persistence is what separates successful people from those who give up too soon and it's the key to turning your desire

into money or success basically most people will throw in the towel at the first sign of opposition but willpower combined with desire is necessary to ensure that your objectives are reached and fear doubt or outside opinions can derail you now I just want to pause here and just let you guys know that yes I will be giving some commentary on some of these ideas later so just hold your horses chapter 10 is The Mastermind this chapter was really interesting first of all um it's one of the later chapters and honestly he should have added it

first because he mentions it quite a few times before this chapter and there's no context to it anyway but basically he's saying that power is essential for success in getting money okay and getting rich and this power as he defines it is like an organized and intelligently directed knowledge you can't have great power without the Mastermind in other words a mastermind is a group of people with different skills abilities and viewpoints who work together to achieve a common goal however according to Napoleon this is more than just a group of buddies trying to encourage you

a mastermind group is economic but it's also a spiritual Alliance or what he calls psychic according to Napoleon Hill when Minds come together they generate a higher level of energy or a third mind which Taps into what he calls the infinite intelligence or a Divine mind negativity and conflict can disrupt this Collective energy and reduce its Effectiveness so if you have anybody in the group who is just doubting asking too questions just bringing down the vibe you need to kick them to the curb the next chapter is chapter 11 which is just weird it's called

sex transmutation um and here Napoleon Hill argues that sexual desire is like the most powerful human desire and in order to be successful it's essential to how do I say this redirect this desire away from physical expression okay and other words the simplest way I can put this is that you're channeling your carnal desires into creativity in a in a spiritual aspect this is emotional remembering how important emotions are uh your emotions have a powerful vibration to create so what he's saying is to channel that energy into making yourself rich and successful chapter 12 is

called the subconscious mind and this one's rather important to the whole process what he describes as the subconscious mind is like the in between between the finite mind of a man and infinite intelligence that enables humans to tap into the forces of the universal mind this is just pause real quick this is a new thought term so basically another way to describe this universal mind or Divine mind or infinite intelligence that he keeps using is to think of it this way okay it's like a universal force that connects all Minds so we are connected through

our thoughts strong emotions and feelings and this is how we connect with God or what he calls infinite intelligence not only this according to Napoleon Hill we can tap into this Collective pool of thoughts ideas and inspiration shared across Humanity allowing you to access insights Solutions ideas creativity that go beyond your personal experiences and knowledge if this sounds a little creepy it's because it is but this is his way of explaining how new ideas and solutions can seem to appear as if from nowhere when your mind is properly tuned he explains that this is the

only way to turn thoughts into spiritual and physical outcomes because remember the secret of the book is that thoughts are things so basically your subconscious mind is a powerful tool for turning your desires into reality but you must control what you feed it positive thoughts strong emotions and repeated affirmations help program your mind for Success according to Napoleon Hill but also remember that negativity doubting negative thoughts that can derail your success so don't be negative or fear-based and don't doubt so there's a little detour for you to help you really understand this infinite intelligence that

he keeps talking about this is a very new thought concept but more on that later chapter 13 is the brain um and he begins this chapter by saying that every human brain is capable of picking up vibrations of thought which are being released e by other brains basically your brain is a broadcasting station for thoughts from the infinite intelligence now he ties this together with the chapter about the Mastermind which explains why it's important to be vibrationally attuned with your group and again it seems like it's a it's a pattern but emphasizing the importance of

strong emotion okay Faith and desire amp simplifies the thoughts your brain broadcasts so these emotions are the fuel to strengthen the energy of your thoughts and make them more likely to attract positive outcomes literally The Law of Attraction you guys I mean yeah tell people that they're more spiritually powerful the more strong emotions they feel I mean what could go wrong chapter 14 is called The Sixth Sense and this is definitely one of the the most disturbing chapters remember all the things that we went over before about the imagination thoughts infinite intelligence and add another

layer of intuition and you have what he calls The Sixth Sense and it's literally as it sounds it's like a spiritual Intuition or gut feeling that you have about certain things but it's more than just that this chapter definitely takes on a creepy mystical tone what he is saying is that you have this power within you like a psychic ability to know and see certain things that are only for you that go beyond logical reasoning and he describes his own mystical Connection by describing his own use of what he calls the invisible counselors he claims

that through deep thought and visualization he could tap into the wisdom of historical figures like Abraham Lincoln Thomas Edison Henry Ford um and yeah I will go uh into a lot more detail about this later chapter 15 is called how to outwit fear and this is sort of a conclusion to the book and focuses on overcoming the mental and emotional barriers that prevent success and what he does is that he identifies six primary fears that sabotage your progress first one is fear of poverty fear of criticism fear of illness fear of loss of Love fear

of old age and sixth fear of death now this also plays on another book he wrote called if I can find it outwitting the devil which I will talk about later but he explains that these fears are rooted in negative thinking and can paralyze ambition it can destroy confidence disrupt focus and what he's saying is that you need to eliminate these fears from your subconscious mind to succeed you want to confront your fears directly repace negative emotions like doubt and worry with positive ones like Faith love and purpose don't focus on fear or negativity because

that attracts failure while focusing on faith and positive energy attracts success you got to be spiritually aligned man you got to maintain your higher vibration that's how you outwit the fear also something else he does in this chapter is suggesting drowning out your worries which his advice on this is to take control of your mind and deliberately starve your worries by not giving them attention the way to do that is to flood your thoughts with positivity and purpose which drowns out fear and creates mental Clarity next is chapter 16 which is called the devil's workshop

which carries over from the last chapter and he calls this the seventh basic evil so remember everything that I just said about how your mind must always be occupied with positive High vibration focused thoughts or it will become a workshop for destructive emotions like fear doubt worry and what he metaphorically refers to as the devil's workshop because your thoughts are energy that's what you will attract based on what you're thinking about again it's Law of Attraction but basically what I see him doing here is is telling you to turn off your thinking capabilities critical thinking

is negative thinking and he cloaks critical thinking with the guise of worry and it's brilliant because anything that makes you feel any sort of negativity or makes you feel bad at all or any sort of Doubt especially about what he's saying you are told just to drown it out and think positive but let me just say please do not do this please do not turn off your brain or your thinking capabilities for money however this does make sense considering Napoleon Hill's spiritual beliefs which we will get into in part three so that's the basic synopsis

for this book which was so hard to do but hopefully I gave you a good idea of what this book is about but let's get into some peripheral details about this book let's start with the inspiration for it because if you remember we've gone over this a few times but according to Napoleon Hill the primary inspiration for thinking Grow Rich was Andrew Carnegie which at the time was one of the wealthiest men in history I've mentioned him a few times in this deep dive but according to Napoleon Hill Carnegie believed that success was not like

a luck thing or or privilege but could actually be distilled into like a systematic set of principles that anybody could follow and to refresh you remember it was in 1908 that according to Napoleon Hill that he met Andrew Carnegie and and Andrew reportedly just posed this life-changing challenge to to Napoleon Hill which as a reminder it was to spend 20 plus years studying and documenting the philosophies habits and strategies of the most successful people at the time the claim was that Carnegie offered Napoleon access to his own personal network of these influential people to support

this endeavor Napoleon said he did this without a guaranteed salary and he believed that the knowledge he gathered could Empower Millions to achieve their dreams and over the next two decades supposedly he worked as a journalist educator and speaker all while compiling the material that would later become the foundation for Think and Grow Rich yeah he claimed to have spoken to some pretty impressive people and all of this became the book that is Think and Grow Rich but if part one has taught us anything about the Napster it's that there's always more to the story

in part two I told you to keep in mind the year 1908 the year that his completely and totally unbiased official biography by the Napoleon Hill Foundation said that he met the famous Andrew Carnegie the meeting that changed his life so Andrew Carnegie took Napoleon Hill under his wing and and charged him to interview millionaires which led to his Epiphany and and this book wow what a nice guy of Carnegie don't you think I mean it sets the tone for the rest of the book somebody who's high in the success chain helping someone down on

the bottom to succeed well too bad it's definitely garbage Napoleon Hill literally faked it till he made it I do not think that Napoleon Hill could have possibly known that the internet would be a thing today and that so many of us would have access to information that would very easily verify or debunk his claims in part one we learned a lot about his scammy ways and I saved this one in particular for part two because it applies to Think and Grow Rich and his supposed meeting with Andrew Carnegie so let's get into it the

first issue is that Hill claimed that Carnegie tasked him with a project that involved spending two decades interviewing and studying successful people without financial compensation it was all about the knowledge he would gain however there is no record or document to show that Carnegie commissioned anything like this nor is there any proof that he provided Napoleon Hill with any kind of endorsement Financial or otherwise and then there's also the timeline issues which is my personal favorite part he claims to have met with Andrew Carnegie in 1908 the year that he was fleeing from the authorities

trying to evade a fraud charges dealing with the fact that he's an abusive husband going through a divorce yet he had the time to meet with the most powerful man in America makes sense there are some glaring problems with this first this is not the year that he told everyone that he met with Andrew Carnegie this story was never shared or told to anyone until after Andrew Carnegie died in 1919 how convenient second in 1908 there are conflicting accounts of what the knobster was doing at that time and there is no evidence that he was

a journalist with access to someone like Andrew Carnegie not to mention that Napoleon said he went without financial compensation for all those years fourth Andrew Carnegie was already semi-retired and heavily involved with philanthropy by 1908 which would make meeting with a peasant like Napoleon Hill less likely Napoleon stories about his relationship with Carnegie and their supposed collaboration and Bromance has changed over time as well sometimes Carnegie is a mentor commissioning a grand study and other times the details were vague and Napoleon's accounts of his life and work with Carnegie often contradict each other making it

hard to pin down a a clear narrative which obviously fuels skepticism about his claims the second issue is that there is no paper trail Napoleon Hill claims to have proof that he met with Andrew Carnegie because of the many letters from Andrew that he supposedly wrote to Napoleon so where are they well according to Napoleon Hill's own biographer all of these letters burned up in a fire in fact this isn't just true of Andrew Carnegie but this is the supposed explanation for why there's no proof for Napoleon hell ever forming a relationship like he claims

with anyone outside of his own writings what's even more though is that even if you believe it was burned up there's absolutely no records from Carnegie's side to verify any of this this is also true of the other famous people he claimed to have a close relationship with there is no documented evidence from Andrew Carnegie's personal papers correspondents business records or even Andrew Carnegie's own biographer that indicates he wrote letters to or even met Napoleon hell what's interesting is that Andrew Carnegie apparent ly has extensive records as well which include detailed documentation of his meetings

and activities and nowhere is Napoleon Hill mentioned the thing is is that Carnegie's biographers have simply no motive to lie they're just simply stating a fact that they found no evidence of Napoleon's claims about his relationship with Carnegie and very unshocking I'm sure there are also no verified letters of introduction so if you remember Napoleon claimed that Andrew Carnegie provided him with letters of introduction to various prominent people Thomas Edison Henry Ford and others all right but those letters have never been produced or verified by any credible Source also we've been through this a few

times but there are no living witnesses to confirm or deny anything that Napoleon Hill said by the time Think and Grow Rich was published there are few if any living people who could confirm his interactions with the people that he cited in his book The Third issue is that it's an inconsistent genre okay you'd think that if such an extensive project had taken place over 20 years it seems likely that some of these people would have mentioned Napoleon or his work but there's no record of this Andrew Carnegie was a businessman okay he was not

a self-help philosopher like Napoleon Hill I'm not too familiar with Carnegie's writings but I am more more familiar with napoleons since I have a new thought background and from what I understand Carnegie is much more practical than spiritual for example Napoleon's idea of getting rich is all about using positive thinking manifesting setting clear goals visualizing Law of Attraction stuff okay he focuses on the power of your mind and staying persistent to make your dreams come true on the other hand Carnegie's way to wealth was more about practical business moves hard work and making the most

of opportunities he believed in making money by being smart and and using that wealth to help others like funding libraries education because he thought rich people should give back to society and this is so easily shown today if you read his biography versus what Napoleon Hill said about him in his book so either Andrew Carnegie completely changed his beliefs about economics business spirituality and success when he met Napoleon Hill or someone is lying which brings me to why lie to begin with so in short Napoleon exaggerated a lot and honestly Flatout lied and I know

I know you're just as surprised as I am but as I mentioned before this is even verified by Napoleon Hill's own biographers who are sympathetic to him and at first they can say that oh yeah yeah Napoleon Hill actually did meet Andrew Carnegie but he just exaggerated ated the meeting but I would say that this is just having your head in the sand it's almost certain that he never even met Andrew Carnegie but the question is why why would he do this why lie and it's very simple and you've probably already picked up on it

by now but my theory is that it's clout he exaggerated and manufactured these stories to make himself seem important reliable and influential if the Napster were still around today he'd love himself some Billy Carson or Andrew Tates Napoleon Hill is the Elizabeth Holmes of the 1900s it's Anna sorin B Gibson or Clark Rockefeller or Christian whose last name I don't know how to pronounce and we'll probably put on the screen who pretended to be a part of the Rockefeller family there are numerous people that I could compare him to today if you make yourself seem

very confident and very powerful and spiritual then people are going to perk up and listen to you and unfortunately we can obviously see that his methods and others really worked also fun fact though not exactly the same I can't help but mention one more person on this list this reminds me also of Dale Carnegie the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People a little known fun fact about him is his real name isn't Dale Carnegie spelled like Andrew Carnegie he only changed his name to this spelling after after he sold his first book

in an attempt to associate himself with the Carnegie family now Dale Carnegie claims that he changed his name to that because it would be easier to remember but let's get real here he knew this was a brilliant marketing ploy to make his own name more known and it worked still to this day people think that Dale Carnegie and Andrew Carnegie are related but there's absolutely no no relation at all whatsoever between these two men nor have they ever met Dale Carnegie changed his name for clout I also have another theory as to maybe why Napoleon

Hill made up meeting all these men that I will get into in part three because maybe in his mind they really did Mentor him it's just maybe not how we think of it it's a little creepier than that now that we've gone over all that I discovered the interesting backstory to how Napoleon Hill got this book published there was a very important thing that happened to Napoleon Hill around 1928 to give you some context this was kind of around the time that he was friend crushing on Thomas Edison which wasn't reciprocated and this is also

when his very convenient probably imagined fire happened where all of his important papers got burned up also at this time he sort of went into hiding after one of his friends got murdered and he ticked off the KKK and maybe some Mobsters oh it's it's a long story okay but basically in 1928 he was in hiding broke in alone in the woods of Virginia and he came out of hiding then he moved to Philadelphia and decided he was ready for another publishing scam I mean adventure and came into contact with a man named Andrew Pelton

Hill wanted to get his book Lo La of success published he was completely broke and had to impress Pelton so he borrowed a lot of money and rented a huge Suite in a hotel and put on this facade for Pelton and it worked even though law of success was actually not a good book at all Pelton published it and no doubt Napoleon telling everybody that he was besties with people like Andrew Carnegie and the president swayed them over but what's significant about Pelton is that he was a publisher of new thought material he was a

big proponent of the self-help Prosperity movement Napoleon's book law of success was published and this was the beginning of Napoleon Hill becoming rich while writing as a self-help newth thought author however he was only Rich for a little while though because of course apparently he wasn't any good with money or something and when Napoleon Hill married his fourth wife Rosa Lee beland who we've gone over before in 1936 she helped edit Think and Grow Rich and presented it to Pelton okay the idea was hey you want to be rich then all you need are thoughts

and it was an intense success all because Andrew Pelton got Napster so now that we've covered the synopsis of thinking Grow Rich how it got published and the Shady origin story I want to dig deeper into this book's teachings in order to do that I need to I need to cover the stealthy spirituality that goes along with it Napoleon Hill is a new thought author and Think and Grow Rich is a new thought book and let me tell you why this is [Music] significant there's a whole other element here that goes beyond the Practical this

is also spiritual a lot of people talk about Napoleon Hill as a con man and how wildly popular and useful his book is but I don't see many people talk about the spiritual beliefs that go along with what he taught and why they are so problematic especially for Christians probably because most people who have done expose videos on Napoleon Hill talk about his Shady business dealings and lies and uh honestly after that fun adventure of part one who could really blame them I'm so surprised that nobody's made a movie out of this man's life but

now that we've gone over that we're going to touch on the spiritual side of Napoleon Hill and in my opinion this is really the heart of the issue we've gone over just the synopsis of Think and Grow Rich and some Christians read it and think hm something is off here but I don't know what it is other Christians read it and love it thinking that it's biblical that's because this isn't just a simple self-help book about becoming successful this is a trojan horse this is a new thought book written to sell you on an alternative

spirituality now you've heard me mention the term new thought a few times in this deep dive and for anything to make sense in this video I need everybody to understand what new thought is if you've been keeping up with my videos the last few months you'll know that this is a definitely an annoying passion of mine and I warned you okay I warned you that I'm here to annoy you forever and ever amen about you thought because I'm just genuinely stunned how this belief system has flown under the radar in Christian culture for so long

but if you're new here lean in really close to what I'm about to say because everything that matters in this video has everything to do with the fact that Napoleon Hill isn't just some self-help guy that wrote a book that one time that sold Millions Napoleon Hill is part of the new thought movement and is only one of the new thought authors who is responsible for the foundation of the self-help movement and trust me new thought is a mountain of a topic that I don't think I could cover enough in depth because it's a complicated

web I wrote an entire book called happy lies about new thought and only one of those chapters was about the self-help movement but I easily could have written three to four times as much but I hear that that Publishers frown upon that or something I will leave more resources in the description about new thoughts specifically for you to check out as I won't be going over all of that here and this will also include links to where you can find my book but if you have read a self-help book like Think and Grow Rich most

likely you've been exposed to ideas from the new thought movement this is a 19th century spiritual movement and has found its way into the secular literature of the 21st century and the spiritual literature with teachings like manifestation The Law of Attraction which is just barely scratching the surface and it's the beliefs of new thought that have informed Napoleon's writing and subsequently forming the beliefs of millions of Americans including Christians new thought can be both secular while at the same time look Christian so the ability to appeal to a huge audience is noteworthy as mentioned before

new thought is the 19th century spiritual movement that grew out of metaphysics and the practices of hypnotists and mental healers like Anton Mesmer and Phineas Quimby both of which I plan on doing a deep dive on at some point the core beliefs of the movement were that the mind was in control of the body and that illness was an outgrowth of negative or false thinking and that any sickness could be healed through faith and positive thinking spiritually speaking it was a free-for-all We Are The Authority because we can have direct individual communication with God this

caused a lot of contempt for negative thinking and critical thinking as this was seen as holding them back from a personal experience with God people had a strong sense that they were specifically chosen by God which is what I call the chosen one syndrome it puts the spotlight on ourselves as some sort of unique and special chosen spiritual vessel for God's purpose the way that you experience God according to new thought was through your emotions intuition and feelings and at the time this was revolutionary today we think nothing of this but being told that this

is a powerful part of yourself that will yield results positive results in your life like healing and prosperity well let's just say it it got people a little drunk with power another core Doctrine in new thought says that the mental world is the only true reality and the material world is its creation reality is in the mind not what's material your experience equals truth and what's true is what works this is also a philosophy called pragmatism the original name for new thought was called the Mind Sciences this is where you have a strange marriage of

spiritual and science because people were very disillusioned with the idea of a god outside of themselves that sounded really good to them writing on the coat tales of the Enlightenment there were new Sciences out there that seemed fascinating so people started seeking an individual Divine experience with God and it was from those experiences that people built their beliefs about what was true about themselves and God not from scripture and from these experiences and many times from Spirit contact came information about the supposed laws of the universe the way in which to harness these laws was

through your mind because your mind has power and this is where we also see an overlap of misused science to support these ideas especially in quantum mechanics neuroscience and quantum physics new thought focused primarily on healing at first because there were like like really archaic methods of diagnosing and healing I mean you're throwing leeches at people and it just I could see the appeal okay so the thought that we could heal ourselves through faith and our minds was very appealing however around the turn of the century the movement's focus shifted towards something else towards personal

and financial prosperity so it infused these ideas of health and wealth being your birth rights as a human being it's these aspects of the movement that remain the most influential today but there is a fundamental connection with new thought that sets it apart from all other movements even though there are aspects of new thought that are pretty secular especially with groups like religious science or what's known today as Center for Spiritual Living there's a very important thing to understand about this about this movement okay you guys heard me say this before but new thought claims

to be a Christian Movement if I were to Define new thought in a sentence it would be the positive thinking movement in America with Jesus as its mascot in two words I would describe it as metaphysical Christianity it's beyond the physical it's a higher spiritual way of thinking a better version of Christianity so you'll hear Christian terms and even scriptures being quoted but it's always understood in this different definition in new thought your words and thoughts and emotions are actually what's real and remember the material world is a product of that so that's what I

mean by metaphysical now Napoleon Hill who also claimed to be a Christian was one of many authors who adopted these ideas he's one of a few new thought authors who is largely responsible for introducing new thought ideas in into the self-help genre where they became incredibly popular Norman Vincent Peele Dale Carnegie and and James Allen okay there's just a few names a few players here in this movement in the self-help genre and as I mentioned before in the synopsis Hill's beliefs about faith positive thinking thought power and failure clearly have their origins in the new

thought movement as does some of his language that he uses like infinite intelligence Universal Mind thought vibrations frequencies thoughts becoming things just to name a few not only this remember Rosal she was drinking deeply from The Well of new thought and was a member a deeply involved member in that creepy metaphysical cult but my theory is that Think and Grow Rich was a smashing success probably because of Rosal Lee Napoleon Hill not a very good writer and a lot lot of his books didn't do very well outside of this one she was the secret sauce

Not only was she a good editor and writer but her beliefs in spirituality were also shared throughout the pages of Think and Grow Rich so let's get down to some of these new thought beliefs in Think and Grow Rich the foundational basis for thinking Grow Rich is to master the principles in it it's not just a book that you read once it's one that you read every day of your life throughout your life it's designed like that sort of like the Bible as mentioned in the synopsis The Pinnacle and climactic lesson of this entire book

is what the Napster calls the secrets remember Napoleon Hill claims that the secret to infinite riches was passed on to him by the great spiritual Sage Andrew Carnegie and although he spends the introduction being unnecessarily mysterious about it he never actually explicitly mentions what the secret is but then again as I went over before he sort of does instead he leaves Clues throughout the book saying that it's mentioned at least once in every chapter now we've already gone over his non-association with Andrew Carnegie but just to put this in context let me read this excerpt

from the book to you in every chapter of this book mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than 500 exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years the secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie more than a quarter of a century ago The canny Lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind when I was but a boy then he sat back in his chair with a merry twinkle in his eye and watched carefully to see if I had the brains

to understand the full significance of what he had said to me when he saw that I had grasped the idea he asked if I would be willing to spend 20 years or more preparing myself to take it to the world to men and women who without the secret might go through life as failures sorry I'm being unnecessarily dramatic okay hold on I said I would and with Mr Carnegie's cooperation I have kept my promise this book contains the secrets after having been put to a practical test put to a yeah put to a practical test

by thousands of people in almost every Walk of Life it was Mr Carnegie's idea that the magic formula which gave him a stupendous Fortune ought to be placed Within Reach of people who do not have time to investigate how men make money and it was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every calling he believed the formula should be taught in all public schools and colleges and expressed the opinion that if it were properly taught it would be so no it would

it would so revolutionize the entire educational system that the time spent in school could be reduced to less than half that was a little too fun to read I mean this is brilliant marketing don't you think this is the Allure of so many new thought beliefs in general doesn't this make you want to know more are you one of the Smart Ones who can figure it out I want to be one of the Smart Ones that figures it out anyways as I mentioned in the synopsis he gives away the secret literally in the first line

of the first chapter it's that thoughts are things now someone familiar with the history of new thought or with new thought writings in general will immediately understand exactly what this phrase means and that it's a fundamental new thought teaching but because new thought has more influence than recognition most readers will just skirt right over this but thoughts are things that phrase is like one of the Ten Commandments for the new thought movement also interestingly one of the people who was greatly influenced by Napoleon Hill was new thought Guru Bob Proctor who wrote a book by

the same name because remember according to new thought your mental life is an expression of the material world your mental life your thoughts create your reality I mentioned this already in the synopsis but basically the secret that Napoleon Hill is talking about is the law law of attraction I have an entire chapter in my book that talks about the law of attraction and manifestation affirmations visualization but we are talking about a spiritual belief that uses biblical words and principles but the actual concept comes straight from hell what the Law of Attraction teachers don't tell you

until you're ready or whatever is that the reason why everything responds to your thoughts emotions and feelings is because you are God you are a Divine being that can manifest your reality you cannot divorce this from The Law of Attraction you cannot divorce this from the teachings of Napoleon hell but remember there is a catch you have to be ready for it spiritual and Universal forces respond to your mind and you get results because you've learned to use your own inner power this is really where people can get very confused with these methods so there

are powerful Universal principles that react to the power of your thinking but this realization and understanding is only for those select few that really get it and are ready for it which I always found really ironic and quite manipulative it's like a type of religion where you have to work your way to this type of Enlightenment but but only a few people have ever supposedly reached that level so why are they even telling you about it then if you're going to read Think and Grow Rich and sift through it for some some sort of universal

secret on how to be happy healthy and Wealthy but only a small percentage are ever really ready for it which even then I don't even think that is completely true well then what does that do then what it does is it creates a fail safe for you it gives you a reason to tell people why it's not working for them and this is brilliant you got to want it more you got to work harder and you tell them they're just not ready for it but if they persevere then they will be granted access to this

special and hidden knowledge and to complete the fail safe you're not supposed to doubt so this eliminates you doubting if it's even working or questioning the methods at all oh and buying more of their products books and signing up to their seminars and workshops uh yeah that can also help you get there too deception is supposed to be brilliant and boy this is brilliant but there's more there is a hidden inspiration for Think and Grow Rich in part to I mentioned that I had another theory as to maybe why Napoleon Hill made up meeting all

these men and it's a little weird now that we've gone over what new thought is and where it is in Think and Grow Rich to some degree this is what I think there is a possibility that perhaps in his mind he wasn't making it up maybe he thinks he was actually talking to these men just not in the way we might think let me explain what some people may not recognize is that Napoleon Hill claimed to also speak to yeah Abraham Lincoln but also to Plato Socrates Aristotle Paul yeah Paul the Apostle and even Jesus

Christ and this is just a small list of of people that he has claimed to talk to and yes this is found in this very book Think and Grow Rich in the synopsis I mentioned that I would revisit this but in the chapter about the Sixth Sense Napoleon Hill has a section called building character through Autos suggestion he said that he had imaginary Council meetings where he called on his cabinet members for not knowledge he claimed that these were imaginary meetings and they were a mental exercise a way to access the wisdom and qualities of

these men by visualizing conversations with them he refers to this practice as part of his sixth sense or infinite intelligence which if you remember he believed could connect him to the collective knowledge of humanity I think that this went beyond just just the physical to him it seems that he believes that this mind could be interacted with in a spiritual way including the minds of Great Men alive or dead in these supposed imaginary meetings he would call on people like Ralph Waldo Emerson Darwin and pretty much any person of stature that you could think of

that was already dead when I read this it's as if it was like he was almost praying to them asking for help but guess who one of his cabinet members was none other than Andrew Carnegie another was Henry Ford and the other is Thomas Edison this is also kind of really weird though because I'm pretty sure that Henry Ford and a few others were still alive when Think and Grow Rich was was published so I don't know what that's about but if you're believing that you can get information from the collective mind I I guess

that made sense in Napster land but there's another interesting point about this Napoleon Hill says in this chapter that these are imagined meetings because the assumption is that he doesn't have access to these people however if these were imaginary meetings and if some of these men were still alive and he was apparently buddy buddy with them couldn't he have actually met with them instead of a imagining his creepy cabinet I mean that's just an interesting inconsistency there but keeping in mind Napoleon's belief about us all being able to tap into this infinite intelligence can you

see how he might have believed that's exactly what he was doing when he was having these conversations because the deepest truest part of you is Spirit which you access through the mind your body on the other hand is seen as a barrier to this connection which is why you're encouraged to turn it off from Napoleon's perspective grounded in new thought beliefs it makes perfect sense to me that he would view his imagination as a way to access the infinite mind or infinite intelligence in other words in his view these conversations he describes as imaginary are

actually real interactions with this higher intelligence framing it this way is a clever move it allows him to appear grounded and not crazy while still presenting himself as deeply spiritual this approach aligns perfectly with new thoughts emphasis on imagination as a bridge to higher Consciousness now people might think that this is super spiritual or whatever but it sounds flat out delusional but I think he knew exactly how this would sound which is why he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth they can't be his cabinet members they can't be imaginary and true at

the same time uh to give you an example of this let me read an excerpt to you from his book uh also if you have this book I actually encourage you to go read this entire section for the complete context of what he's saying here but this is what he says starting on page 254 he's speaking about his cabinet members here okay these meetings became so real IC that I started to be fearful of their consequences and discontinued them for several months the experiences were so uncanny I was afraid if I continued them I would

lose sight of the fact that the meetings were purely experiences of my imagination some 6 months after I discontinued the practice I was awakened one night or thought I was and saw Lincoln standing at my bedside he said the world will soon need your service say it is about to undergo a period of chaos that will cause men and women to lose faith and become panic-stricken go ahead with your work and complete your philosophy that is your mission in life if you neglect it for any cause whatsoever you will be reduced to a primal State

the following morning I was unable to tell whether I had dreamed this or had been actually awake I don't know which one it was but it was so vivid in my mind that the next day I resumed my meeting meetings at night I began to add new members to my cabinet now it consists of more than 50 among them Christ St Paul Galileo cernus Aristotle Plato Socrates Homer voler Bruno and then on the next page page 256 he says this lest I be misunderstood I wish here to State most emphatically that I still regard my

cabinet meetings as purely imaginary but I feel entitled to also suggest that they have led me into glorious Paths of Adventure do you see what I mean about the double speak now don't you think that's interesting he believes that he actually gets answers wisdom and direction from these beings that are supposedly imaginary but claims that this is how we use the supposed Sixth Sense he's not just talking about gleaning information from people he's actually talking about meeting with these supposed figures to become wealthy but what's even more striking is that he said that he's not

the only one that uses this but people like Jon of Arc Muhammad and even Jesus Christ understood and made use of The Sixth Sense this is what made them great according to the Napster now remember again Napoleon Hill calls himself a Christian and many Christians have read and promoted this book but do they even realize the new thought occult inspired influence that has inspired these teachings from Napoleon Hill outside of the business advice do they see that there's another spirituality being sold to them along with it this part of the book and many other parts

of this book are anti-biblical this whole Autos suggestion part of the book and many many other parts of the book should tip Christians off right away what I just read to you should should make alarm Bells go off in your head for the Christian this should tell you something is wrong here but because they've been sold on certain concepts of the book they look at this with a different set of eyes the Bible teaches us to discipline our minds and practice diligence we're encouraged to bring our requests to God daily including seeking His blessings for

our business Pursuits whatever they may be but according to Napoleon Hill you are already entitled to this there is no asking it's all about the power of your mind and your belief it repositions who has the sovereignty it's not God it's you God wants you to have the sovereignty God always wants you to be healthy and Wealthy no matter what so if that's the case then all you need to do is change your thinking simple but it's not that simple and it's not Biblical scripture is very clear that we make our requests known to God

and that he's in control no matter what is going on on in our lives this doesn't make God bad or unjust this makes God God not us this is just one aspect of Think and Grow Rich that is incredibly problematic and very disturbing but later on in Napoleon Hill's writings there's absolutely no doubt that he continued this practice of speaking to supposedly imaginary beings in fact I mentioned this book before but he wrote a book called outwitting the devil where the entire book is him having a conversation with Satan but don't worry it's all imaginary

it's not a cultic okay because the spirit that that he's talking to it's very real but it's also in my imagination but don't take the information seriously but I'm going to write a book about this information that you should take seriously this creates a contradictory situation okay on one hand he wants you to fully trust his advice but on the other he builds an escape Clause to avoid accountability if it fails or if it's offensive which is by the way the same formula I see when some Christians who claim to be prophets make a prophecy

but that's another video it's hard not to do a sort of synopsis on this book but there's a broader conversation to have about Napoleon Hill's occultic infl influences another book that Napoleon wrote was called the master key to riches and it was in 1967 and it was at this time later on in his author life that it seemed apparent that he stopped talking to an imaginary cabinet and was just outright open about talking with actual unseen beings so his journey into communication with these Spirits apparently began at least as early as Think and Grow Rich

and continue to evolve also in 1967 he wrote a book called Grow Rich with peace of mind which literally looks like a rehashing of Think and Grow Rich which a lot of new thought gurus do this they'll just recycle the same information but in chapter 12 of this book he openly describes visits from Spirits he describes them as unseen friends unseen Watchers strange beings and the great School of Masters that had been watching over him he says that this master speaks to him audibly revealing secret knowledge I mean it gets really creepy you guys I

could read some of this stuff to you guys but I won't I mean because it's creepy and also because I'm pretty sure this video is long enough so it seems that the Napster has been in contact with these Spirits since his early days and they have informed a lot of the information and teachings and methods that makes up what we see in Think and Grow Rich now something really interesting also just to mention about outwitting the devil I've given you guys so many dates but they really are helpful to give context to everything okay outwitting

the devil was written in 1938 okay very close to when Think and Grow Rich was published which was in 1937 but nobody knew about outwitting the devil until 2011 because it's so creepy and controversial in this book he tells of his battle with depression and a breakthrough of Faith he experienced after publishing Think and Grow Rich after this breakthrough he gets into a Q&A interview with the devil and forces him to confess his strategies this whole book in essence is a channeled book from Satan but what I don't think people connect is that the the

book outwitting The Devil teaches the same exact principles as Think and Grow Rich it emphasizes the power of the Mind manifestation visualization aligning with universal laws to achieve success the book also frames terms like vibration frequencies Universal forces infinite intelligence all in a supposedly Christian context Think and Grow Rich is a new thought book and outwitting the devil is also disturbingly a new thought book that shares quite a bit of DNA with Think and Grow Rich now all of Napoleon Hill's occultic experiences could be one of two things number one just being aware of Napoleon

Hill's patterns by now he might simply just have been trying to be Sensational to get people's attention I would not put it past him to get rich by shocking people by making it seem like he has some sort of special spiritual knowledge due to Spirit contact and can you really top a conversation with the devil and how you outwitted him we see people do this on the internet all the time even in the Christian World a few Deliverance Ministries come to mind people eat this stuff up okay and the second thing it could simply be

is simply what it is that he actually did have Spirits contacting him and he put this in his writing knowing new thought this is actually a pattern for the belief system as a lot of teachings do come from spirits but either way it doesn't look good for him there's a lot more but I think you guys can get a really good idea of the type of occult practices that the Napster was into and how it repeatedly shows up throughout his writings I am still stunned to this day to know how many Christians read his work

and think that it's not only good stuff but that it's biblical if that's you you have been bamboozled by the Napster but even with everything that we've just gone over there's one more element that I want to go over that I think might be nagging at people that's impossible in my opinion not to cover you might be to this point and not be impressed at all so what Napoleon Hill is a fraud he's a liar he's a con big deal he was a new thought author and talk to spirits imaginary or real so what and

your argument might be that his work has changed your life it has genuinely helped you and this is what you might be holding on to so let's talk about [Music] it whenever I cover topics like this or see books like Think and Grow Rich there's always an important Nuance to make or a very common push back that I get which usually comes in the form of but this fill in the blink mess method belief book Etc has changed my life it's helped me and it works it's this aspect that is probably the hardest to nail

down and kind of makes me want to pull out my hair a little bit if I'm honest because it's like trying to catch a cloud what do you do when you have a teaching book method or whatever that genuinely has good advice good sense and quality information that's helpful and I think that I have hopefully figured out a way to explain this in a very fair way but I think it helps to really nail down the core problem not just with Think and Grow Rich but with new thought teachings in general so let's start with

the good and true things about what Napoleon Hill is teaching and saying that I don't think many people could fault or disagree with first on a practical level a lot of this book is just genuinely good business advice a lot of what he wrote about is just how capitalis works if you want to succeed well you live in America if you set your mind to it and you work hard enough you can achieve it this is fundamentally true about the American dream this is part of what makes this country so great but this book would

not be worth anything in a government that didn't allow you to work up the ladder it's more than just your mind this is a philosophy of government as well be that as it may the advice still stands be Innovative be imaginative don't be afraid to make mistakes be excited to put your mind to something that you love and make it happen be consistent hardworking a good leader trustworthy and responsible when you fail learn from it adapt and move on you'll succeed best when you're lifting up others so in this way it's a very American book

it's very practical when it comes to this type of business advice also there's a lot of Truth in what he is saying about being careful about the people that you're around again I just think that this is common sense you are influenced by who you hang out with and I'm pretty sure we can all think of at least one person that we've hung out with who is extremely toxic maybe they put you down a lot maybe they Gaslight maybe they're not very supportive whatever it is there's something to be said about good healthy boundaries next

in regards to overall positive thinking I 100% believe that we can definitely uh have a change in our own mental and emotional health when we are being purpose full with watching what we are thinking and what we're speaking this is not a new thought concept again it's common sense it's like it's like Breaking Bad Habits and forming good ones uh like improving your diet quitting smoking managing your temper budgeting wisely limiting screen time being mindful of your emotions I mean these all require intentional effort it is a calculated mental shift toward positivity towards making the

decision to do better like consider someone who's constantly negative or cynical even a Christian are their life circumstances contributing to their mindset could adjustments like better nutrition having a better attitude less screen time a focus on healthier thoughts could that improve their mental health and reduce their cynicism certainly what you focus on shapes your mental and emotional well-being this does not equate to having Supernatural mind pow it's just not being an idiot also Napoleon's approach to business success in the book isn't just about repeating some Mantra to get rich I think he actually in some

cases does a good job of making it clear that success takes real effort planning setting goals learning skills surrounding yourself with supportive people staying persistent I mean that's generally good knowledge to have a lot of what he writes about is about self-discipline you know and and what it takes to prepare yourself for leadership and how to be a good leader but as I mentioned before everything that I just told you probably didn't even originate with Napoleon Hill he himself didn't even live by the standards of his own book so that Segways me into talking about

some of the harmful and tricky things about what Napoleon Hill is teaching in Think and Grow Rich you do not need to read Think and Grow Rich to get good business advice there are tons of books better books that have this same information and we see it regurgitated everywhere from life coaching to motivational speaking General business practices especially from those people who are successful in what they do in my opinion why people like this book specifically is for an entirely different reason it's because something else is sold to you along with these lessons and it

doesn't have anything to do with business it has everything to do with selling you on the supposed inner power that you have to create your own reality that is a powerful thing to tell somebody and it's very deceptive this book doesn't just promise business advice it promises personal mystical power we have already gone over a lot of the ways that this is harmful and tricky but let me cover a few more that might help bring Clarity and context to this argument of it working ultic beliefs and practices are supposed to work that's the Allure otherwise

nobody would be attracted to them so if you're using forbidden practices that God says to stay away from but hey it works I mean I think you can understand the issue with that the reason why God says to stay away from these things is because it will draw you away from him it will deceive you another reason why people say that it works is because the nature of these teachings doesn't allow for doubt you have no choice but to say that it works it's drilled in your head that you have to live in such a

way that you have whatever it is that you are believing for this is manifestation 101 you have to literally believe you have it which means that you are living imagining rather that you have the thing which you are believing for so when you are told that this is not just spiritual but also scientific which is a whole other video then you train yourself to believe with no doubt that this is always working and has always worked so when somebody comes to critically analyze what it is that you're doing you will insist that it has worked

over and over and over again because that is the Vicious Cycle of the new thought Works argument this is how it keeps you in the cycle of deception and the part that stings the most is that we learn to do this to ourselves we train our own brain to not critically think about these things now another reason why a lot of people would claim that this is helpful and legitimate are the endorsements given to this book by celebrities and even Christians this one Might Sting a little bit John C Maxwell is is a well-known respected

author speaker and Pastor who specializes in leadership development he has stated many times that Think and Grow Rich is a lifetime must read on his books list in fact if anybody's familiar with John Maxwell you might have already picked up on the similarities between Napoleon Hill's techniques and teachings and John Maxwell's in fact he has his own Mastermind groups that are patterned after Napoleon Hill's teachings another surprising person who has endorsed Think and Grow Rich is the late Charles Stanley in his book how to reach your full potential for God study guide in chapter 11

called the ongoing Pursuit this is what Charles Stanley has to say about Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill I would never encourage you to pursue or receive anything that is contrary to Purity or God's commands but I strongly encourage you to expand your horizons be open to new ways to express your gifts or to serve others recognize that you can draw insights from many areas of information even areas that don't seem remotely connected to your career field years ago when I was a young Pastor I accepted an invitation to preach at a Revival miles

away from my home church after the services had ended the pastor handed me a small Brown Sack and said I hope I do not offend you in giving you these books but I felt impressed that they may be of benefit to you I thanked him and left opening the sack only hours later inside I found two books S one of which I later realized was a classic in the business field it was titled Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill I thought that was a rather odd title for a fellow Pastor to be giving me

knowing that my heart was fully in the ministry and that Financial wealth had no appeal to me as I began to read that little book however I could hardly put it down page after page held nuggets of information and truth that I could apply directly to Building a Church winning the Lost and encouraging growth in those who were already saved the principles in that book excited me and instructed me simultaneously I was not interested in Building Wealth or acquiring material things but I could see that God desired for me to make adjustments in my thinking

my attitude and my planning that could make me very rich in spiritual fruit I began to apply the principles of that book to my Endeavors as a pastor and I discovered they worked for years I read Think and Grow Rich every year to remind myself that the TRU truth of God is not just for one career field it is for all manner of work and Ministry that book by Napoleon Hill opened my eyes to the value of motivational books these books were not part of my college education or my Seminary training in retrospect I am

convinced they should have been required reading for my academic studies the key to gaining benefit from these books is this always weigh their advice against the word of God always be alert about how the principles presented relate to the truth taught by Jesus Christ many times we will find that the Commandments statutes and precepts of scripture are packaged in new terms or unusual phraseology to catch a person's attention or trigger a person's faith I mean I mean if we're going to weigh this against the word of God it belongs in no other place than the

garbage you do not need to read this for business advice this is not the book to go to I mean in reading this excerpt I can't help but point out that this is exactly the point that I'm trying to get across about new thought this isn't just self-help but it's infused with new thought principles which at their core are occultic and Gnostic but the issue is that it seems very Christian which is the entire thesis of my book happy lies this is exactly why new thought is so tricky for Christians and when we have endorsements

like this it makes it seem like these Concepts really work I mean I can probably guess that somebody like Charles Stanley uh doesn't know much about new thought and is assuming that Napoleon Hill is onto something with this power of thinking but I do want to make one thing clear before I go on this isn't like an expose video about Charles Stanley or John Maxwell or something like that it's not like they're Heretics or false teachers Stanley's son is another story different song different verse different video but new thought teaching are designed to be tricky

you are the target I mean not only did new thought deception happen to me but I'm very very positive that a lot of people watching have read books like this or have been really enamored with teachings on the power of the Mind frequencies vibrations neuroscience and whatever else is out there and much more so it doesn't surprise me that he was enamored completely with a book like this however what is very hard for me to wrap my head around is how respected Brothers like Maxwell or Stanley or any other Christians who I might love and

respect can treat this book as if it's only a business book and and skirt by the incredibly problematic spirituality that goes alongside it like think about it would he say the same thing about the Book of Mormon would he say the same thing about the new world translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses yeah just ignore this problematic stuff you know sift it through the word of God but here it's still useful I that I don't get it this genuinely baffles me this isn't a case where we can excuse the problematic Parts because of the parts we

like I mean what are we doing when we uphold a new thought author as an authority in our Christian Community what are we doing what are the effects of this it seems that this helps explain how a lot of new thought teachings get adopted by Christians we can like and respect any Christian okay that endorses this book okay we don't have to agree with them and also understand that they did a disservice to Christianity by endorsing this book without addressing the very problematic and downright occultic and anti-christian teachings I think that those two things can

be true at the same time so what's wrong with Napoleon Hill using new thought Concepts to help people have a better life aren't some of these things he says good and true yes and no a lot of this works because it's rooted and good practical and true advice common sense that any successful business person might teach you so what you are being sold here is actually two different things the best way I think to explain this is that this book okay takes something intrinsically good solid business advice device a healthy mindset positive thinking and uses

it as a vehicle for something else entirely it's a classic bait and switch the bait is be grateful for everything Express gratitude when you go to bed at night when you wake up in the morning write things down that sounds great but the switch is that this is how you create abundance wealth and prosperity your gratitude affirms your reality and you command and create with positivity the bait tells you that wealth and fame are necessary to do good and spread your message the switch is that wealth becomes the measure of your success and your worth

so yes you can absolutely get solid business advice and helpful Concepts from this book and indeed people have become wealthy from this but my question is if it works for you in that capacity does it then lend credibility to the rest of the spiritually questionable beliefs that are sold to you alongsid it because that is what is happening and I think this is the core of the issue along with this you are also being sold a set of spiritual beliefs whether you realize it or not imagine for a second okay that you're buying a cookbook

full of delicious recipes but as you read it you realize it's also trying to convince you to follow a specific diet or lifestyle philosophy without being upfront about it it's not just selling recipes it's subtly trying to sell you a belief system too similarly Think and Grow Rich offers great business advice but it also introduces spiritual Concepts that do not align with a Christian world view with without explicitly stating it and this is the fundamental problem not just with this book but with all new thought infused material that is sold to Christians this is true

of the people who claim to be neuroscientists who sell you science out of one side of their mouth but then out of the other sell you new thought infused pseudo science that says the vibrations and frequencies of your thoughts affect the reality around you this is true of the teacher saying they're a Christian who out of one side of their mouth sells you Bible scriptures and the gospel but out of the other side sells you the belief that there is power in your words and you declare and command health and wealth and this is true

of the self-help books written by new thought authors who out of one sight of their mouth will sell you really good and solid motivational and entrepreneurial advice and then out of the other side sell you a new thought spirituality cloaked in virtuous Christian language that has deceived Millions we buy the lie because it's cleverly sold with the language of Truth so if you are somebody who has been helped by this book and the concepts have worked for you I believe you truly but my question is at what cost how do you defend this because that

is really what it comes down to I need to know how a Christian would view this book as some sort of unspiritual resource for your methods of success how can you as a Christian recommend this book on any level knowing the spirituality that's being sold along with the business advice which literally can be taught through another resource that isn't going to sell them a spirituality that would draw them away from Christ [Music] in all my days of knowing about Napoleon Hill and his teachings I never knew what a controversial figure he really was and sort

of what a scumbag he was until I did the research for this video but even worse Not only was he a top-notch scam artist he also sold millions of people a false spirituality under the guise of Christianity at the end of the day the spirituality he's selling devolves into another Works based religion and this well always runs dry if your success in life depends entirely on these thinking methods what happens when you fail you'll always need something or someone to blame it's a system that constantly sets you up for failure in the name of success

it sets you up to constantly chase after perfect thoughts leaving you on a mental hamster wheel that's exhausting and unsustainable Napoleon Hill's gospel is an endless quest for growth and Improvement it promises a payoff that's always just Out Of Reach Jesus invites us to come to him for rest promising that his burden is light Hill's approach on the other hand demands constant striving a Relentless pursuit of unattainable growth it's it's like a cat chasing a laser pointer the the promise of wealth and success is the dangling carrot but most people never get there you know

there's a fine line between a great salesperson and a con man and what tends to happen in these environments is that charismatic figures like Tony Robbins or Joe despenza people with bold magnetic personalities become the face of these teachings they Market their mindset methods to the rest of us who are often more submissive and and eager to follow them this Dynamic is why such a small percentage of people actually make it in these systems while the majority are stuck chasing the illusion of success we love this stuff in fact this is I believe part of

the reason why we are so easy to deceive we suppress truth but we love lies the Napster has sold many people on claims that ultimately will leave them empty he promises fulfillment but his teachings are full of empty air it's like what Jude 12 says that these teach teachings and teachers are like clouds that appear to have rain and appear to have something wholesome but they are clouds that just blow over the land without giving any rain they are clouds without water so there is my deep dive on Napoleon Hill in his book Think and

Grow Rich I am very hungry and very thirsty right now I'm going to go take care of that and believe it or not every time I do one of these deep Dives with as much information as I give there's always so much more that I could share but I hope that this has been helpful for you what do you think though do you agree or do you disagree with me do you think I missed something let me know in the comments below