Jul 26, 2007

The Carnegie Secret

This man is Andrew Carnegie. If you draw up a list of the 50 most successful people who have lived anytime in the past 100 years, there is a very good chance that his name would be on that list.

Carnegie grew up in a poor family. His father was a hand loom weaver. His mother was the daughter of a shoemaker. One of Carnegie's first jobs was as a messenger boy in a telegraph company , earning $2.50 per week.

Despite these humble beginnings, Carnegie ended up building one of the most powerful and influential corporations in the history of the United States. By the 1860s, he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, as well as bridges and oil derricks. In the 1870s, he founded the Carnegie Steel Company, which eventually became the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world.

Carnegie wasn't just a business tycoon. Among other things, he was also a scholar and a social activist. He became one of the best-known philanthropists in the world, and had a special interest in funding local libraries, world peace, and scientific research. By the time he died in 1919, he had given away USD $350,695,653 (approximately US$4.3 billion, adjusted to 2005 figures). After his death, his estate continued to donate millions of dollars to charitable causes.

Carnegie, as social activist, also had several interesting theories. One of his key ideas was that wealthy people had a responsibility to redistribute their wealth back to the poor in society, for the greater good of mankind. He called this idea the
Gospel of Wealth.

Anyway, Carnegie had a secret. It was later known as the Carnegie Secret. Apparently Carnegie discovered this secret all by himself. He felt that it was very, very important. It was basically the secret to achieving just about any goal a person might have. Carnegie felt that he should teach this secret to everybody, to share it with the rest of the world. How did he try to do this?

He met a young journalist. He explained the Carnegie Secret to the journalist. He wanted the journalist to write about the Carnegie Secret. However, Carnegie didn't want the journalist to simply take Carnegie's word for it, that the Carnegie Secret was true and really worked. Carnegie wanted the journalist to vigorously investigate and test the Carnegie Secret and be personally convinced of it . How? By researching the most successful people in the United States, and meeting them personally wherever this was possible, and asking them if they too, knew the Carnegie Secret.

It was a project that lasted 20 years. During this time, the journalist personally met with, or did research on, people like
Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, John Rockefeller and many others. In total, the journalist did his research on more than 500 extremely affluent, powerful and/or successful people. And eventually, that journalist, Napoleon Hill, did write a book about the Carnegie Secret. First published in 1937, the book continues to be sold today, 70 years later. It is one of the bestselling books of all time.

The book, of course, is about TAR.

It is not one of my favourite books. One reason is that I find it rather dated - the examples and illustrations it uses are drawn from the world as it was in the 1920s and 1930s. The book also presents conventional, non-TAR wisdom such as the importance of persistence and good planning, which is rather obvious and self-explanatory to me. However, a good chunk of the book does revolve around key words like "thought", "faith", "visualisation", "imagination" , "subconscious mind", "reality", "the sixth sense", "autosuggestion", "positive affirmation", "the transmutation of sex energy", "the science of prayer", "Infinite Intelligence" etc. In other words, hardcore TAR.

As I said - it's not one of my favourite books. But it is one of the pioneering works, and it would be unfair to regard it as anythng less than a true modern classic. It is Mr Andrew Carnegie's secret. In case you're interested, this is the book -
Think and Grow Rich.

12 comments:

Ross Cornwell said...

Mr. Wang,

I enjoyed reading your piece on Andrew Carnegie ("The Carnegie Secret") today and thought you might be interested to know that a new edition of Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" has been published -- an edition that eliminates the problems you mention concerning the book.

Its title is "Think and Grow Rich!" (subtitled) "The Original Version, Restored and Revised." I am the editor/annotator of this new 412-page edition, which is really an homage to Dr. Hill. (For several years I was the editor-in-chief of "Think & Grow Rich Newsletter.")

What I have done is this: to restore Dr. Hill's book to its original manuscript content (it was first published in 1937, but was abridged in 1960), annotate it with more than 50 pages of endnotes (most of the persons and events he discusses are generally unknown to readers today), index it thoroughly, add an appendix with a wealth of additional information about Dr. Hill and his work, and revise the book in ways to help remove certain "impediments" to reading the book today (language that today would be considered obsolete, sexist or racist). None of these things had previously been done with TGR.

If you would like to learn a little more about this project, a quick visit to www.tgr-restored-revised.com will give you some details. The "Editor's Foreword" provides more complete information, and the “Testimonials” page will demonstrate how well-received this new book is around the world.

Here is the book’s Amazon.com page...

http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Original-Restored/dp/1593302002/sr=1-1/qid=1172004763/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1493475-7148634?ie=UTF8&s=books

The book is available on all the Amazon websites and most other online sellers, it can be ordered by any bookstore, and it will start appearing in bookstores soon. We also sell direct, at steep discounts, to personal success coaches and motivational speakers who use it for back-of-the-room sales and to teach Master Mind Study Groups.

Our edition of TGR! is superior in every way to other versions on the market. It is a trade paperback, not a pocket-size mass market paperback. It is unabridged. It is 412 pages versus 230+ (depending on the edition). It looks better, feels better, reads better than any other version. It is fast becoming the "version of choice" among Napoleon Hill devotees and other students of success and high achievement.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Ross Cornwell, Editor

Anonymous said...

The book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill seems to be about using the group mind or what he called Master Mind to succeed in life.

All very successful people have made use of this secret or master key (expertly that is) throughout history, according to Hill. And that I can concede is quite true.

Yet at Wikipedia the "Gospel of Wealth" is explaining another theme.

Is there some kind of confusion here?

economicsjournalist said...

Mr Wang,
I'm quite surprised that you left a comment on my blog. Thanks.

Yes, the book is the 'Intelligent Investor'. I do know that this book is quite popular. And yes, I also see no reason why they should hide it. But then, I did encounter many times, the book being 'sold out'. Since then, I submit to the theory of conspiracy. Of course, I may be wrong:).

I quite like your recent blogs on mind power, although I still like ur political posts more. And yes, I am trying to experiment it in my life. Hope I am doin it the right way:).

P.S. As you might have guessed, yes I am still a student.

Anders Brink said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Blogter said...

What are your views on Robert Kiyosaki's books?

Blogter said...

Mr Wang,

What are your views on Robert Kiyosaki? Or would you rather not comment? You can email me privately if that's better.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

I don't really agree with many of Kiyosaki's views. The biggest merit of his books is that they have this ability to spark an interest in the layman in financial matters (which to many laymen would otherwise be a dry, technical topic). And that is a big merit. But if you start looking at the details in his book, well, there I start disagreeing with him.

Blogter said...

Mr Wang,

Thanks. Indeed his ideas seem a bit over-simplistic. Perhaps one day you can tell us which of the areas in which disagree with him.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Wang your article "The Carnegie Secret" is very thought provoking but is actually not accurate. Think and Grow Rich was not the definitive work that Napoleon Hill published documenting his 20 years of research.
The book was actually titled "The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons" and was published in 1928. It has been reported that the information contained in this book was so powerful that the elite of that time actually worked to have the book taken off the market. And subsequently approx. 10 years later Hill released "Think and Grow Rich".

Anonymous said...

mr. wang, napolean hill states that the secret andrew carnegie taught him "cannot be given away, it cannot be purchased for money" yet if i google carnegie secret 2.5 million results come up

Unknown said...

Have you guys heard of the book "Think & Grow Balls!"? It's pretty interesting and if you go to the website you'll see a complete discussion on what, exactly, the Carnegie Secret is. The discussion should be able to clear up any confusion.

Anonymous said...

Have you read Grow Rich with a Peace of Mind? Napolean Hill wrote that later. I like it more then Think and Grow Rich.

The later book has more philosophical elements.