Talk:Think and Grow Rich/Archives/2014

What is the "secret" in the book?

I think he refers to it as the "magic mind" or "master mind" - the thing he does not state directly

Correct. The "secret" is never actually described or presented in the book. I left the book with a feeling of enormous disappointment; I'd been told that this was a great book that would help me improve many areas of my life, but all I found was frustration. Anyone can write a book about the great secret s/he has; without actually saying what the "secret" is, it's meaningless.

Septegram 18:30, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Did you follow the instructions?--Iplars 18:07, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

He says "you'll figure it out if you're ready for it." I wonder what we do if we aren't ready for it? And how can an idea be impossible to describe directly? --Shay Guy 06:27, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

I think that "the secret" should be stated directly in the article. After reading the book several times, I've never been sure what "the secret" is. Assuming that his idea; "you'll figure it out if you're ready for it" is magical-mystical nonsense, then the article is not objective. Instead it's playing along with the book's little game. The "magic mind" or "master mind" (or whatever the consensus is) should be directly identified as "the secret". If there seems to be no clear consensus, then that's an even more significant fact that should be clearly stated with-in the article. It's difficult to find objective information about this book or about N. Hill. OscarVogel 21:39, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

To answer the question directly, the "Secret" in the book is how millionaires (now billionaires) make money. So obviously paying $8 or $15 for a book won't give you that. What the book says, and it causes much confusion, is that life itself teaches the lessons for how to make money. To be more specific: We teach and learn from each other how to make money. It is not something taught "in school", that is too one-way; it is taught and learned through interaction, through life's lessons and each generation is different. People who can't make money are failing at life itself, which is pretty obvious, and always need someone (parents, government, spouse, the army) to save them from themselves. Yes, it is harsh, but that is what you pay $8 or $15 for when you purchase Think and Grow Rich. Learning life's lessons requires failure, because real learning involves making mistakes. Now, we aren't talking about in 2007 making $150,000 per year, that is not "riches" and anyone making that kind of money probably hasn't failed very much. Or even $1.6 Billion, sure it is a lot of money but the US Government's budget is $3.2 TRILLION, so $1.6 Billion is far, far less than the government takes in, and they don't have to do anything for that money but pass a tax bill. We are talking about making so many mistakes that you can become a Trillionaire if you want, if you are willing to fail enough and learn life's lessons. The subject of the book, Andrew Carnegie, was 100 times richer than anyone alive today as a percentage of the US Economy. There is no one alive today who comes close to the power and wealth in Carnegie's day that he had, he was feared as an "Emperor in Washington" one day if he kept going. And he had no army, no constitution, no taxing powers! So obviously he knew more about life than anyone alive, or since. I'm sorry that you can't get what he knew for $8, because he learned it from life itself. He did build thousands of libraries, though, in the hopes people would pick up a book and read. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.49.211.127 (talk) 03:41, 24 February 2007 (UTC).

The Secret is what the book The Secret details. It is as simple as this, whatever you focus on you bring into existence ... it can be wealth or it can be poverty. This book brought me from a negative net worth without a job and on the verge of eviction to a positive net worth and home of my own within a very short period of time. I thought it was a fluke, but it's not. You have to really focus on what you want, really want what you want, be willing to pursue it (in an educated way) and you basically get it. That's the Secret.68.198.176.70 03:05, 4 April 2007 (UTC)JC

I think what we are all converging on is that "the secret" is information derived from applying the steps and concepts in the book directly in your own life. It's a bit like a cookbook telling you to bake a few souffles with general guidelines. All the things that can cause it to fall and be ruined are difficult to describe in print, but the information is easy to convey with a little bit of audience participation. Like said cookbook, I think a good literal definition suitable for an encyclopaedia can be made from string the book's chapter titles - desire, faith, etc - together, along with a brief description of the style of the examples where "the secret" is applied. I suggest modifying the sentence that starts with "It is noted in the book..." since this nearly fits the bill.