Episode 789 · Jun 6, 2023

Think and Grow Rich: Desire, Faith, and Autosuggestion

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In episode 789 of The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III walks through the first three chapters of Napoleon Hill's *Think and Grow Rich*, one of the best-selling books in history with over 100 million copies sold. George has read the book at least a dozen times himself and draws on that depth of experience to unpack why these foundational principles still matter, wherever you are in life.

The opening chapters are not just an introduction. They lay the bedrock of every achievement that follows. Desire, faith, and autosuggestion form a system, and George breaks each one down in a way that is practical, immediate, and honest about the work required.

What Desire Really Means (and Why It Matters)

Napoleon Hill describes desire as the starting point of all achievement, and George emphasizes that it is more than motivation. Desire is a reflection of what you truly want, not just the fuel that drives you but the signal that something important is possible for you.

George puts it plainly: if you have a desire inside you, that desire itself is evidence that the outcome is achievable. You would not carry a dream you had no capacity to pursue. The challenge is not in wanting something, it is in committing to it fully.

A burning desire shows up in your daily behavior. As George frames it, how you do anything is how you do everything. If your actions do not reflect what you say you want, the desire may not be as deep as you think. Are you all in, or are you hedging? That answer tells you more than any goal-setting exercise.

Napoleon Hill's Six Steps to Pursuing Your Desire

Hill lays out six concrete steps in this chapter. George walks through them using the example of money, though they apply equally to relationships, lifestyle, or any other meaningful goal.

First, fix in your mind the exact outcome you want. Second, decide what you are prepared to give in return. Third, set a definite date by which you will achieve it. Fourth, prepare a plan and start it immediately. Fifth, write down a clear statement combining all four of the above. Sixth, read that written statement aloud every day, in the morning and at night, as if it has already happened.

That sixth step connects directly to the third principle, autosuggestion, and it is where the system becomes a daily practice rather than a one-time declaration.

Why Faith Is a Decision, Not Just a Feeling

The second chapter places faith immediately after desire, and that placement is deliberate. You cannot pursue a burning desire without faith, because desire always points you beyond your comfort zone, into territory your past experience cannot yet confirm is possible.

George draws a clear distinction: belief comes from experience, but faith is a decision you can make right now. Napoleon Hill defines it as a state of mind that can be induced by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind. You do not have to wait until you feel ready.

In actual life, every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith.

George applies this to business, relationships, and any goal that stretches beyond the familiar. When you combine faith with a clear desire, something begins to shift. You act more deliberately, you notice the path more clearly, and you build momentum. Faith, George says, is the water and fertilizer that grows the seed of your desire.

How Autosuggestion Programs Your Subconscious Mind

Autosuggestion is the third chapter, and it is often mistaken for simple positive thinking. George is direct: it requires effort and work. Repetition alone, without a plan and real action behind it, will not carry you far.

What autosuggestion actually does is train the subconscious mind to work in alignment with your stated desire. When you read your written statement aloud daily, in the present tense, as if the outcome has already happened, you are communicating directly with a part of your mind that does not easily distinguish between a vividly imagined reality and a lived one. That is both the power and the responsibility of this practice.

The statements to use sound like: "I see myself as," "I will have," "I am going to." Paired with a written declaration, a specific date, and a concrete plan, these become a daily ritual that gradually rewires your self-image and directs your focus.

Your subconscious mind is ultimately what will help you to create what you truly want in your life. This is sometimes viewed as inspiration or gut feelings or intuition.

The Hidden Obstacle: Worthiness

George closes with what he identifies as the real reason most people fail to achieve what they want. It is not a lack of information, strategy, or opportunity. It is a quiet, often unexamined belief that they are not worthy or deserving of what they desire.

I really believe that if you don't feel that you're good enough or you're not worthy or you don't deserve something, that is nothing more than conditioning and brainwashing that you've had from your environment.

That conditioning is not permanent. Autosuggestion is your tool to actively reprogram your mind rather than letting your environment do it for you. Your mind is being programmed constantly, whether you are paying attention or not. The question is whether you are directing that programming or just absorbing whatever comes in.

Action Steps

Write your desire as a specific, dated written statement and read it aloud every morning and night in the present tense, as if it is already true.
Examine your daily actions honestly. If they do not reflect your stated desire, treat that as useful information about where your real commitment level is.
Decide to have faith in your desire today. Do not wait for belief to build from past experience. Make the decision and reinforce it through daily repetition.
Identify one belief you hold about what you do or do not deserve, and trace it back to its source. Recognize it as conditioning, not permanent truth.
Return to the first three chapters of *Think and Grow Rich* with fresh eyes. George has read the book over a dozen times; each reading at a new stage of life reveals something new.

Desire gives you direction. Faith gives you the energy to move. Autosuggestion keeps your mind aligned with where you are going. It is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

Okay, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. Welcome back to The Mastermind. I can't believe it's episode 789. It seems like I just started doing the podcast yesterday, but I've been doing this for a while now, and as many of you know that have been listening for a while, I started The Daily Mastermind is a way for myself to gain that daily inspiration, motivation, and continue to learn and grow. And, you know, I've enjoyed that, and now it's turned into something that's a true passion project. And today, and this week, we're talking about ways to change your reality, and talking about how we can start creating the life that you were meant to live at a better, bigger, more ongoing level. So, we're talking about the book, Think and Grow Rich, which I believe is one of the ultimate guides to taking control of your life and crafting a true plan that you could go back to. And like me, maybe you've read it multiple times and depending on where you're at in your life, there's new insights that you can gain from this book. In fact, I've heard that many truly successful people have read this book 20, 30, 40 times. And I believe that because I've done that. I've probably read it at least a dozen times, skipping through, but also reading it cover to cover. So I want to talk to you today about sort of the first three chapters of this book. And I'm going to break them down over the next week just to give you some of my insights, some thoughts. Because one of the things I truly believe is that Think and Grow Rich, it's definitely a pattern, a strategy, a plan you can use to create success. I mean, look, success leaves clues. And more, I really believe this, more success has been created from that book than any other. After 80 years and over 100 million copies sold, you know, outside the Bible, this book is literally one of the best-selling books of all time, you know, admittedly by many of the greatest leaders that we've heard of. So today I want to talk to you about these first three chapters, and it's sort of laying the foundation of what you need to do, because it talks about your desire, your faith, and auto-suggestion or affirmations, and I think there's a couple of quick thoughts I want to give you on these and then I'll let you get going throughout your day. So let's kick it right off with desire. What is desire? You know, desire, Napoleon Hill talks about is the starting point to success. And it's perhaps the most important principle that you need to learn and you need to identify. And a lot of us don't really think about it. We just think about what's our motivation, right? But desire is a reflection of what you truly want. What do you what is it that you truly want in life? It's not just described as, because Napoleon Hill talks about it as a burning desire, it not just the fuel you use it actually a reflection of what you ultimately want And I here to tell you that if you desire it you can achieve it Or you wouldn have look I don believe that we would be given these desires or these you know, these dreams that we have inside ourselves if we didn't have the ability to achieve them. I just don't think that would be the case. You wouldn't have those if the possibility wasn't there. But how do you create a burning desire? You know, how do you create this drive? because if it's a burning desire, if it's something you truly desire, then it should be reflected in your day-to-day. Because if your actions don't reflect what you say you want, then it's doubtful that you truly want it. So it's all about your approach, and it's all about this concept that how you do anything is how you do everything. And so you have to ask yourself, when it comes to your desires, are you all in? Are you sort of wondering or testing? Are you hedging your bets, or are you all in? And in this chapter, Napoleon Hill talks about six steps that you can use to achieve your desire. And I believe that the steps are sort of a way to kind of clarify and also pursue your desires as a burning desire. So let me give you kind of a quick rundown example of the six steps that he talks about. And we'll use the example of money. And I realize some of you might have a desire for a relationship or communication or lifestyle, whatever it is. But let's use money for this example. The first step is to fix in your mind the exact amount of money that you want in your possession or the desire that you want. Fix in your mind exactly what you want. And second, decide what it is you're prepared to give in return for that desire. Maybe it's time, it's money, maybe it's not doing certain things, maybe it's committing to something. But fix in your mind your desire, decide what you're willing to give up for that. Third, select a definite date. what is the time a timeline I can't overemphasize enough is so important to have a timeline in your desire and then prepare a definite plan obviously the plan is gonna be important but you've got to begin that plan immediately to go closer towards your desire and step five is based on the the first four steps you know fixing your mind what are you gonna give up what's a date and what's the plan. Write down a clear statement of exactly what it is. So in the case of money, write down exactly the money that you're going to get, the time that you're going to get it in, what you're willing to give up, and what you're going to do to get it. And writing that statement down is key. And then the sixth step, which actually will lead to, you know, this third thing I talk about today is read your written statement out loud every day. And here's the key. Listen to me here. read it as if you've already got it as if it's already in your possession because see the subconscious mind doesn't differentiate between reality and not reality it's sort of why your mind at times when you're watching a movie you could just get so sucked into it that you you feel it right or a dream you wake up from a dream and you you just felt real because what we're doing here with your desires we trying to clarify it give you know sacrifice for it a date a time a plan and then write a statement that you can use This is the true way that Napoleon Hill talks about you following and accomplishing your desires achieving your desires And so desire was the first thing I wanted to kind of highlight. The second chapter is on faith. And it's interesting that this is the very second thing that he puts in there, but faith is really that key element that's going to help you to accomplish your desire. And remember that faith, I've talked about this before, it's a decision. It's different from belief, where beliefs come from your experience. Faith is something you could decide to do. Napoleon Hill says, faith is a state of mind that can be induced by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind. So this goes back to this idea that it could be a decision that you can also ingrain in your mind and increase and build and grow your faith. Another method that can provide the faith required is to create a mental image of achieving your desire over and over and over, like we talked about in the first one. When you get clear, super clear, and you create that image in your mind of what you have as if you already have it, it begins to build your faith. And this chapter is just filled with examples of how people throughout history accomplished massive things through faith, Faith applied to their desire. You know, there's a great quote that says, In actual life, every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith. Because everything we do outside our comfort zone, in life, business, relationships, it's all going to require faith. Because you don't have any belief that it's going to happen because it's new to you. So remember, when you apply faith to the desire you have, you'll begin to manifest or create what you're actually desiring. And that's the key. You have to apply. It's almost like faith is that fertilizer or water that's going to grow towards your desire. And it stems from what's deep inside you already. So just remember, you do have the talents. If you have inside you a desire or dream that you want, just know that that is something that is going to be possible for you. But all great things require some sort of faith. So make sure you take time to cultivate your faith. Now, the third chapter, this is the one on auto-suggestion. It's probably one you've all heard about or, you know, affirmations is something you've thought of before, but I want to give you a different take on this. This is the way you can actually drill into your subconscious mind and get your subconscious mind working for you through repetition, through repetition. The idea here is that you can concentrate your mind on what you desire so clearly and so often and repeatedly until you burn into your subconscious mind that it's a reality. And your subconscious mind is ultimately what's going to help you to create what you want because this is something that, you know, sometimes you'll actually, you'll have that inspiration or gut feeling or intuition. These things come from your deep desires and your subconscious mind. And so that's why you want to follow your gut sometimes, right? But the key here is it needs to be combined with effort and work So many people feel like they can law of attraction their way to get what they want you know just repetition and affirmations But it going to take work It's going to take, like we talked about in that first section, finding and creating a definite plan, what you're going to give up for it, and doing the work of the plan to get you there. And when you combine the principles of repetition, right, auto-suggestion, to a written statement, like we talked about, it forms an awesome daily ritual. It's one that will train your mind to go to work for you. So when you say things like, I see myself as this, I will have this, I am going to, and you have your written statement, whatever it is. The point is, whether it's your business, your finances, your relationships, write down that written statement, put a date on it, and then read that statement as if it's already happened. and that is a key principle that's difficult for us to do because here's the thing sometimes we don't accomplish the things we want in life because we really just don't believe that we're worthy or deserve them and one of the things I wanted to kind of comment on I'm going to let you go here is I really believe that if you don't feel that you're good enough or you're not worthy or you don't deserve something that is nothing more than conditioning and brainwashing that you've had from your environment, from people around you, because I truly believe that we're all deserving of greatness. We're all here for a reason. And affirmations, that's your secret weapon. Auto suggestion is your secret weapon to be able to help you to program your own mind in a positive direction instead of letting it get programmed from your environment. Because make no mistake, whether you're being proactive or not, your mind is being programmed from everything around you. So just in review here real quick, we talked about desire and how you've really got to clarify what it is you want. And then you have to apply faith, which is that fuel and that decision to chase it and to go after it. And then using the power of auto-suggestion, you can ingrain that faith and build that faith and help you to accomplish your desires if it's already happened. Those are the first three chapters of the book, and I really encourage you to dig deep into it. Tomorrow, we're going to talk a little bit more about specialized knowledge, the imagination, and organized planning, creating a plan. And then we'll continue to go throughout the book. So that's my message for today. Do me a favor, a small favor, if you wouldn't mind. Like and subscribe this podcast and share it with someone. Share it with someone that you know. It would mean the world to me. I think it would make a difference in a lot of people's lives. I'm out at a high-end mastermind this week. And so I'm talking with a lot of people and I can tell that there's a lot of people out there that need these messages. And so that's why I do it as well in addition to for myself. So that's my message for today. I hope you have an amazing day and I'll look forward to talking with you more tomorrow.

About the host

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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