Pastor Nathan introduced me to Napoleon Hill! This guys is amazing. Think and Grow Rich is a project that Andrew Carnegie had Napoleon take on. Andrew Carnegie asked Napoleon to study the top 50 wealthiest men in the world at that time. I believe Napoleon said it took him twenty years to write this book. He spent 20 years writing this book! Studying the lifestyles of the wealthiest men in the world. He found a lot of common factors on how these men became successful and rich. This book the outcome of his research.

Biggest Takeaway: The major factor in all of these men’s lives was faith. An unwavering confidence that no matter what, they would be successful. I thought it was interesting how much faith is a factor.

To be honest, I have to go back and reread this book at least another 3-4 times before the principles will even start to stick and be applied in my life. This is a must read book. In fact I’d make it a must read 3-4 times book.

Some Highlights:

• One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.

• It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.

• Christianity is the greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form.

• If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your own.

• The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.

• Love is, without question, life’s greatest experience.

• Man’s greatest motivating force is his desire to please woman!

• NO MAN IS HAPPY OR COMPLETE WITHOUT THE MODIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE RIGHT WOMAN.

• If you neglect to make the start, or stop before you arrive, no one will be to blame, but YOU. This responsibility is yours.

• The fear of criticism robs man of his initiative, destroys his power of imagination, limits his individuality, takes away his self-reliance, and does him damage in a hundred other ways.

• A busy person seldom has time to think about dying. He finds life too thrilling to worry about death.

• “The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”

²⁰Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super abundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, dreams] -Ephesians 3:20

I recently heard about a pastor who read this verse and thought, God, you want to do things way beyond anything I can ever dare ask, think, pray for, hope for, or dream of. I want that to happen in my life. He said that God spoke to his heart, “Well, when are you going to start dreaming big ? You haven’t given me anything to work with. ” He said, now every time he wakes up he dreams of what could be done through his life, dreams of what he can do to reach people, nothing is off limits!

“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.”

I am convinced that God wants to do unbelievable things through our lives. God is looking for people who will dream big for Him. He wants to change the world through us. But in order for that to happen, we need to allow God to shape our dreams and to believe Him that ALL things are possible to him who believes.

One of my mentors told me a long time ago, “Bubs, dream big and go for it.” I’ll never forget that.

So dream big this year -  Dream of how you can impact people this year. Dream of what you can accomplish this year. Dream of who you want to meet and  where you want to go. When you dream of this year make sure you’re THINKING BIGGER than you ever have, TALKING BIGGER than you ever have, GIVING MORE than you ever have, and ENVISIONING MORE than you ever have. Give GOD something to work with.