I read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich a few years ago and loved it. The book introduced me to a number of life-changing concepts, so I was hardly surprised when I later learned it is the bestselling success book of all time. There was, however, one thing I didn’t take away from the book: a clear understanding of what Napoleon Hill refers to as the “hidden secret” in his book.

If you have read Think and Grow Rich you will know there are numerous mentions of this hidden secret. In fact, Napoleon Hill offers the following teaser in the book’s introduction:

“In every chapter of this book, mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy whom I carefully analyzed over a long period of years.”

I was therefore very happy when I recently received a copy of Brian Kim’s e-book The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich. Would my curiosity finally be satisfied? I hoped so, but I must admit I was also worried that the secret Brian would identify would be a big let-down. I believe my thoughts were: “Please don’t be the Law of Attraction!”

What’s the Book About?

Brian doesn’t waste any time in his book, identifying what the secret is at the very start of Chapter 1. I’m happy to say it is not the Law of Attraction.

As previously noted, the secret is said to appear in every chapter of Think and Grow Rich. Brian is understandably keen to prove the secret he has identified is what Napoleon Hill had in mind. He devotes the second chapter to going through Think and Grow Rich chapter by chapter, pinpointing exactly where the secret is mentioned. Assuming you have read the book, you should find some satisfaction to going “Aha! That’s where it is!” I think you will also be more than convinced that Brian has indeed correctly identified the hidden secret.  The rest of the book goes into detail about how you can use the secret to obtain whatever it is you desire in life.

One thing I noticed is that there is some repetition in the book. However, I think this was a conscious decision on Brian’s part to make sure the reader fully comes to grip with the message of the book. As he says in the book, one common fault of success books is they ‘pump’ you up and that’s where it ends. The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich is designed to forever change you way you approach a goal or desire.

Why Buy the Book

I highly recommend this e-book to people who have read Think and Grow Rich. If you haven’t read this classic, Brian has included a copy of this book in PDF format free with the purchase of his book.

Now, those of you who have read Think and Grow Rich may be wondering whether or not this book is worth your hard-earned cash. “Can Brian Kim really tell me anything new about success that Napoleon Hill hasn’t?” is what you may be thinking.

Well, the book succeeded in satisfying my curiosity about what Napoleon Hill refers to as the hidden secret, but it also did far more than this. I believe the book’s real value is that it helps everything you have read about self-improvement and personal development come together and click into place.

Think of success as a puzzle. We are all familiar with many of the pieces of this puzzle, principles such as courage, confidence, hard work, persistence, etc….. What is not so clear to many of us is how these pieces fit together to form the puzzle. Brian has done an incredible job in this book of giving the reader both the big picture, as well as a detailed process for making your deepest desires become reality.

The book is a healthy 122 pages, and Brian has also generously included two bonuses: a special report called The Three Biggest Mistakes People Make When Using the Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich and a workbook that accompanies the book bundled up as a special offer for Pick The Brain readers.

Click here to access the special offer for Pick The Brain readers and get The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich by Brian Kim and the bonuses today.

“Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.” – Evan Esar

At some or other point in our lives, we’re likely to be called upon to make a speech, be it for a family wedding or a presentation at work. While maintaining a degree of spontaneity is crucial, winging the whole thing is probably not the best option. Instead, taking the time to prepare something solid can leave a memorable impression for years to come.

Two great resources on the subject are Alan Barker’s Improve Your Communication Skills as well as Dale Carnegie’s The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking. Ultimately, it comes down to these things:

Research the audience. Knowing who you’ll be addressing allows you to use an appropriate style. That way, you’re more likely to connect with the specific group by using words and jargon they’ll understand. It also allows you to pick a topic they’ll be interested in hearing you speak about. That’s a must. What you have to say has to somehow tie into helping them solve a problem or achieve a goal. There has to be some sort of emotional connection or else the whole thing will turn into a bore.

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Am I the only one who has trouble focusing on a single task? I doubt it.

It wasn’t always this way. At school and university it seemed relatively easy to apply myself to a single task. But these days it seems as if my mind is wanting me to do a million different things at once.

I call this the “web 2.0 mind”. Why? Because I believe the web 2.0 has changed how I act, both online and offline. When online I’m usually busy doing a number of different things at once. Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Gmail, Flickr, Facebook, Skype, blogs…. these are just a few of the places I might I be at any given moment. Doing multiple things at once has become the norm for me, which is why I say even when I’m offline I can find it difficult to focus on a single task. Of course multi-tasking is nothing new, but never before has it been so easy and enjoyable to be doing so many things at once.

You may be asking yourself: does this web 2.0 mind even need “taming”? Well, let me make one thing clear: the ability to be doing a number of tasks at once – ie multi-tasking – is not only an asset, but a necessity, in this modern economy. And as I previously noted, it is often fun to have a number of things on the go at once. However, there often comes a time when you need to put your head down and get a particular task or project completed. And when this time comes, the last thing you want to have to deal with is a mind that is running wild with thoughts such as “I wonder what is on the Digg front page” or “I’ll just check Twitter quickly to see what my friends are up to”. These sound pretty harmless, but it’s funny how 5 minutes can quickly turn into 30 minutes without you realizing it.

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Traditional decision making processes and models are falling behind the fast pace of this new century, both for individuals and organizations.  Many of us are aware of this situation, but are feeling lost without a new approach to make good reliable decisions fast. In this article I will introduce you to a new approach to decision making; all you need is an open mind and a little practice.

A History of Decision Making

Before we go further, let’s review how you or your parents / grandparents made decisions.  This is admittedly a big blanket statement, but I think you will get the idea:

19^th century: You typically didn’t make decisions yourself.  Someone else who was more educated and/or had more authority, such as political or religious leaders, made the decisions and you just followed.  Individual thinking and decision making were discouraged for the cause of the groups.

20^th century: Mass education made it possible for many of us to think for ourselves and make decisions.  While there were many decision making techniques, most were based on logic taught at schools and other educational organizations.

21^st century: We start noticing the problems of traditional reasoning methods and decision making techniques based on such logic.

There are two major methods of reasoning: induction and deduction.  Induction involves gathering data to come up with the conclusion, or really just the possibility of the conclusion.  While no amount of data is enough to ensure the conclusion, we typically spend time gathering lots of data when we try to use inductive reasoning.  So it takes time.  In this fast paced world, it’s quite likely that the situation has changed already by the time we make decision based on induction.

Deduction doesn’t rely of gathered premises but it relies on logical premises.  In short, it assumes certain premises to be true in order for it to work.  But the advance of science is now questioning even basic ideas such as linear time.

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We’ve recently celebrated Thanksgiving in the U.S., a time when many people stop and think about what they’re thankful for. Now that the holiday is past us, should we return to taking everything for granted? No!

Gratitude isn’t meant to be something you pull out once a year, use a little bit, and then stuff into a closet until next Thanksgiving. It should always be on our minds. Most people spend so much time thinking about what they want, that they forget about everything they already have.

An attitude of gratitude not only lets us appreciate our lives more, but it also puts us in the right frame of mind for doing even better. And if you think about it, you’ll quickly see that you have plenty of amazing things to be grateful for.

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