1340: Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill & Success & Something Greater, Your Magic Key with Sharon Lechter

If you're that kind of person and you've got the capital and you're a great negotiator, you've got great people skills, you could probably be a successful flipper.

But it's like a job, right?

If you're not flipping, you're not making money. And that's why I prefer income property.

Because you just make money every month. Welcome to the Creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You're about to learn a new slant on investing, some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world's most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine, self made multimillionaire who's actually been there and done it. He's a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who's owned properties in 11 states, had hundreds of tenants, and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason's footsteps on the road to your Financial Independence Day. You really can do it. And now, here's your host, Jason Hartman, with the complete solution for real estate investors.

Welcome to episode 1340. 1340. And you know what that means. Any show that ends in a zero. Any episode that ends in a zero is a tenth episode. And we discuss something of general interest. Today we are going to discuss something of very popular, general interest. This is a book that you have all heard of, probably many, many, many of you have read. It's considered to be the sort of bible, if you will. Not the bible, but the bible of personal development maybe. And that is, of course, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And we have my friend Sharon Lecter to join me with this episode today. She's been on the show many times before, as you know, she's written or been involved with, I should say, I'm not sure the exact involvement. Many of the rich dad philosophies and books and so forth, along with Robert Kiyosaki, who's been on the show a couple of times as well. So we'll hear from her in a moment about her new endeavor into Think and Grow Rich and working with the Napoleon Hill foundation and so forth. Now, this book is pretty amazing because it was written back in 1937. Wow, 1937. Imagine how much the world has changed since 1937. And imagine how back in 1937, how little consciousness there was about this type of thing. It was just not in the mainstream like it is today. Very, very different world. Obviously in 1937. I know some of you are thinking, did they Have Instagram back then? No, obviously not. So yeah, definitely, definitely a different world. Well, as I just returned from the Art Basel show in south beach or Miami Beach, I guess took the Brightline train down there and the Brightline train is this three stop train. It, it's probably losing money galore, I'm guessing, I don't know. It simply goes from West Palm beach to Fort Lauderdale to Miami and then it goes back and it has like this sort of first class train experience. And I paid for the $40 ticket. One way to have the first class experience. They call it Select. And you know, it was kind of neat. It would be so nice in this country if we had real train system. Now of course we have very old tracks here and they're not very good. The ride was not very good on the train. But boy, if we had high speed rail systems like they do in China and Japan and in some places in Europe, that would be just really cool. When we were in China, Carmen and I, a few months back, you, you heard me talking about it on the podcast. Many times we took the high speed train and I think, I can't remember, but that one train, I think we got up to like 270 miles an hour. It was fast. Wow. The maglev train that's magnetically levitated. So every year in Miami or Miami beach, they have this big art show called Art Basel. It started I guess in Basel, Switzerland. And I think it's held in a few different places around the world now. One of them being here in, in Miami beach. That was kind of a fun time going down there, checking it out. And anyway, just got back from that. You know, you think back to Napoleon hill's Day in 1937. He chronicled these industrialists for Think and Grow Rich, which became this hugely famous book. And he interviewed so many successful people and talked about and tried to figure out what were the things that made them so successful. Just before we get to Sharon Lecter here, I'll just go through with you a few thoughts on the book. I've got some paperwork out here that I'll just go over with you and just kind of looking at what it contains and if you've read the book, if you've been a student of this, this will be a good refresher for you. If not, it'll be new information and very powerful information. So Napoleon Hill starts out talking about the power of desire and how that is really the turning point toward achievement and how we need to desire something. Right. He talks about it in a Few areas, of course, there's more to life than these areas. But he talks about career, he talks about leadership, he talks, of course, about money.

And.

And then he talks about failure. And to look for the lessons within failure, to examine them without emotional attachment. And, you know, I kind of alluded to that when I talked to you yesterday on yesterday's episode. That's the idea of not being attached to the outcome. There's a lot more success in life and a lot more fulfillment in life available to us.

You.

If we are not attached to the outcome. Now, when I say that, look, of course we are attached to the outcome in many ways, but some people are just over attached and they sort of view it as though it's everything and it's not everything. Okay? Life goes on, whether it happens the way you want. You know, sometimes a lot later, you discover that it worked out for the best. Right? You know, I remember sitting in church one day hearing the pastor say, God's delays are not God's denials. Maybe it's just a delay, maybe it's not a denial. Maybe there's a reason that it couldn't happen right now. It couldn't happen the way you pictured it. So the way we think things should work out is not always the best way. The way the world thinks things should work out is not always the best way. Many, many good lessons and understanding of the concept of attachment. And, you know, he says every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. Okay. Okay. Then he goes on to talk about faith and visualization and belief in the attainment of these desires. By the way, I want to remind you that my visualizations, remember, we had those weekly guided visualizations. They are on a separate podcast feed now. We used to play them every Saturday on this show, and then we decided to move them off to their own feed. So whatever podcast platform you're using, just type in probably Jason Hartman's guided visualizations, and I'm sure those will come up and you can subscribe separately. Very, very powerful. I was originally introduced to that concept many years ago when I read Shakti Gwain's book when we did our Venture Alliance Mastermind retreat in Hawaii. I wanted to get her to come and speak at that event. We've had some phenomenal speakers over the years at the Venture Alliance Mastermind events, whether it be the former governor of Nevada. Oh, my gosh, you know, Brian Smith, the founder of Ugg Boots. Of course, he. He spoke at Meet the Masters as well. But it was really cool having him in that intimate setting at the Venture alliance mastermind group. Just speaking to maybe, I don't know, 20, 20 of us or so at that one, and many other great speakers, but unfortunately, Shakti Gawain had just passed away. I read that. And it was shortly before our Hawaii Venture alliance event and our Profits in Paradise event there. But guided visualization, very, very powerful tool. So check out those guided visualizations that relate to real estate investing, by the way, on the separate podcast feed there. And those are all available to you. Okay, then Napoleon Hill talks about the power of auto suggestion and how this is the way we influence our subconscious. And I have to tell you, I am going through. Sadly, I cannot remember if I've had him on the show. Hey, look at 5,000 guests. I can't remember them all, okay? But I am going through one of Joe Dispenza's books right now and I'm gonna have some stuff to share with you about that book. Super, super powerful, really good stuff. So a lot of people, and I don't know if Joe Dispenza or not, or even Shakti Gawain or them, you know, I don't know if they have built on Napoleon Hill's foundation, but many other, you know, thought leaders on this subject have built on the Napoleon Hill Foundation. And hey, listen, Napoleon Hill built on other foundations, right? He built on James Allen, who wrote this great tiny little book entitled As a Man Thinketh. Get As a Man Thinketh. It's all about the law of cause and effect and how we become what we think. Incredibly powerful, tiny little book As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. Really, really powerful book. Okay, so how we influence our subconscious by this. Then he talks about specialized knowledge and how if we want to achieve our desires, we need to specialize and have a very specialized knowledge. And of course, this is 1937. Now there is a new book out that looks interesting to me, although I have not read it, and I believe it's entitled Range. And it talks about how today the generalist is the person who wins the game. I'm not sure haven't read that book, but it does seem interesting. So it would. It would contradict the specialized knowledge concept. Okay. Then he goes on to talk about how imagination is the workshop of the mind. Imagination, the workshop of the mind that relates, of course, to guided visualization and why that is so powerful. And Napoleon Hill is credited with saying, as the mind of man, or whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve, whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve. Great, great saying. So, you know, if it's something wild and ridiculous, well, your mind might be able to conceive it, but it won't believe it, right? So that's not achievable. But if you can conceive it and believe it, then it can be achieved. He goes on to talk about how the crystallization of desire into action, what's required for that is organized planning. Organized planning. And then he goes on to talk about decision and how that is how you become a master over procrastination. One of the quotes I like so much and repeat often. Although now that I'm thinking of it off the top of my head, I'm probably not going to get it exactly right. But it goes something like this. Successful people make decisions quickly as soon as all the facts are available and change them very slowly if ever. Unsuccessful people make decisions very slowly and change them often. That is such a good lesson for life. Because if you think about it, at the times that you've been successful in life, what did you do? You. You seized the moment, right? You seize the moment and you strike while the iron is hot, right? You get the facts, but you don't wait too long. You don't become, as I was talking about yesterday, that P versus PC balance that Stephen Covey wrote about so eloquently. You're not the seminar junkie. If you want to be a real estate investor. You learn stuff. You get the facts, but then you do it. You don't learn forever, right? It's the P versus PC balance, the production versus production capacity. So we've got to make decisions, okay? Successful people are decisive. So that is a very powerful character trait. Of course he talks about persistence, right? How this sustained effort is necessary and how persistence creates or induces fear, faith in oneself. That is very interesting. When you become persistent and you see the results of your persistence start to work. That's how you become confident. That's how you induce faith in yourself. Okay, he talks. Of course. Look. This one, super powerful. The power of the mastermind. The power of the mastermind. We have a mastermind group, the Venture Alliance Mastermind. Your financial friends join it. Get involved. Come to our next mastermind event. Okay? That's very powerful. Napoleon Hill talked about the power of the mastermind group, okay? He says no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind. And that third mind is the mastermind. Very powerful. Now this one's interesting. Transmutation of sex. It's not what you think. I know some of you are thinking, whoa, what does that one mean? Transmutation of sex? What he's talking about here, it's a very powerful tool. He's talking about converting the power of the sexual drive into a highly creative outlet, arguably, after we have food, clothing, and shelter as humans, right? The next biggest, most powerful drive is the drive, the sexual drive, right? It's a super powerful drive in all of us. There is all, almost nobody out there in the world who can disagree with this and that drive. Because, look, hey, if it wasn't there, probably none of us would be here, right? Our ancestors had that drive, and that is why we exist, okay? Just basic evolution. Survival of the fittest and most adaptable, as Charles Darwin wrote about. And he talks about how we need to tame this drive, right? We need to channel this drive and transmute it. Transmutation of the sex drive into a creative outlet, okay? We've all known people who let their passions ruin their life. We've got to control our passions, and we've got to channel our passions. And it can be very, very powerful when we channel that drive into a creative outlet. So if we want to achieve success, if we want to accomplish something, you know, we got to take these drives we have and channel them. Look at a river is channeled in a direction. If you break the banks of the river or a levee, maybe that's a better example, or a dam, then it's not channeled anymore. It just goes everywhere and the energy disperses. But if we can channel that energy, it's very, very powerful. Then he goes on to talk about the subconscious mind, how that is the connecting link. That is a very powerful tool under the surface, how to use our subconscious mind. And of course, the guided visualizations on another podcast feed. Go and subscribe and listen to all of those. Not while you're driving or operating heavy machinery. By the way, my guided visualizations, getting a lot of good feedback on those. And they relate to real estate investing specifically. Okay, so where else can you find guided visualizations for real estate investing? Ha. That's pretty specialized. Okay. Pretty specialized. Okay. He talks about the brain, a broadcasting and receiving station for thought. One of the episodes I did in the guided visualizations, that was just kind of an informational episode on that podcast feed was about how the brain is a transmitter, not just a processor. Then he talks about the Sixth sense. Okay, you probably saw the movie the Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis. That was a really fascinating movie. A little scary though, for sure. But how this is the door to the temple of wisdom. So those are just some of the things I wanted to share with you about Think and Grow Rich, that very famous book. What do you think? Do you have any thoughts about this? Any questions for us, go to jason hartman.com ask engage with us there or through the jason hartman.com website in any way you'd like to. Let's get to my friend Sharon Lechter and talk about her research into this.

It's my pleasure to welcome Sharon Sharon Lecter back to the show. She's been on several times before over the years. She's the former CEO of Rich dad and Pay youy Family First. She's an entrepreneur, number one New York Times best selling author, international bestselling author, philanthropist, international speaker, mentor, licensed CPA and chartered global management accountant. She's the author of several books, including her newest, Success and Something Greater. Your magic key. Sharon, welcome back. How are you?

I am delighted. Thank you so much, Jason. Always thrilled to be with you.

It's good to have you on again. And you're coming to us from Phoenix, right?

I am, yes. It's starting to cool down. It's down to 105.

Well, it's a dry heat.

Yes.

I lived there for six years and liked it quite a bit. First of all, before we dive into your new book, Sharon, and maybe you can just hold it up for us for those on video.

Absolutely.

Good stuff. Tell us about some of your other books because I didn't mention all of the titles and your work with Robert Kiyosaki and such.

Well, right. Robert and I became partners. We wrote Rich dad, poor dad and 14 others in that series. We were partnered for 10 years and certainly it created quite the global success because I think it was the right message at the right time. It was kind of a viral marketing success even before the Internet. And then when I left rich dad in 2007 was when the Napoleon Hill foundation reached out and said we'd love to have your support. So my last four books have been in cooperation with the Napoleon Hill Foundation. So it's been just an incredible journey and a huge opportunity to help reinvigorate the teachings of Napoleon Hill. And Success is Something Greater is my fourth book with the foundation very newly released.

So is Napoleon Hill. Would you sort of consider him kind of the original self help author for the first kind of prosperity guru?

There's no doubt about it. He really is thinking grow rich back in 1937. But it was his life's work. He spent 25 years charged with that responsibility. By Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world at the time. He said, I have all these rich friends, and I think we have things in common. And so he really charged Napoleon Hill with. He introduced him to all of these rich people, and at that time, they were all men, and said, I want you to create the thesis of success. And that's what he did and think and grow rich. That's why it's still as applicable today as it was in 1937, because it's not one man's philosophy. It was the commonalities of all of these people and how they created success in their life.

Yeah, good stuff. Well, success in Something Greater sort of expands that definition of success beyond economics, right?

Oh, it does. My first book with the foundation, Three Feet From Gold, we wrote back in 2008, 2009, and that was when we were in the middle of a economic crisis, and we wanted to talk to people how they survived those valleys. And so we talk about perseverance. And the Three Feet From Gold is kind of like, you're right there. What. You know, having faith in yourself and what you're doing. And so what we wanted to do this time, which is 10 years later, is we wanted to really share with people that success means different things to different people. We have never before published content from Napoleon Hill himself, but we also interview and share the stories of close to 20 successful entrepreneurs. Every one of them followed a different path. Every one of them had a different secret sauce or magic key that they use to create success in their life. But also that success, they went beyond that and did something and something greater. And that's the title. And what we're honored about is that was actually the title that Napoleon Hill was gonna use for his last book and before he died, and he was never able to use it. So the foundation reached out to me and said, sharon, we'd like you to use this title, and it's Perfect Success and something greater.

Fantastic. So how many people were profiled in the book?

We have just under 20 people where we talk to them about their successes, and they're from all different walks of life. John Assaraf, of course, is very.

He's been on the show. Yeah.

Yes, yes. And then we also have Bob Bondurant, who's a very famous race car driver. Rita Davenport, who led Arbonne from 100 million to a billion in sales and revenue. We have John Asworth, the one who created the golf apparel company. And we have.

You've got Men and women. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. Lisa Copeland, who was one of the top women in automotive. So every one of them has a unique story. The founders of Barefoot Wines. And each one of them, you know, one found a gap in the market and went after it. One of them, you know, Bob Bondurant says, know the track. Do your due diligence. You know, even though he was one of the top rated drivers, he would still go in early and drive the track. Always pay attention to where you're going. Always have your eye on where you want to be.

Okay. So looking at some of those, you know, thoughts become things. Find your purpose. Set a goal. Overcome obstacles. Find the gap. Power of asking. Be a visionary. Surround yourself with good people, you know, and just kind of. I won't say them all, but, you know, constant forward motion. Walter o'. Brien. That's a good one. Going the extra mile, being unstoppable. Setting milestones. What do you want to share from these? You know, sort of highlights at the.

End of the day? Any reader that reads the book, you know, they might find a chapter that they, yeah, I already did that. I've done that. Or they might. The next one might actually hit you between the eyes and. And you'll see if they can do it. So can I. The best way to learn something is by feeling it. And so through telling stories and sharing the success stories of others, people can relate to it more, and it makes it easier to take that action, to take that step in your own life.

Yeah, because it's more relatable to them. Right. So in terms of the types of success, and success meaning more than, you know, what the world views, financial success, tell us about some of the other types of success, if you would, that you profile in the book.

From my perspective, success is how you feel about yourself when you look in the mirror. So we have people in the book that were basically, their success was created financially through a business and allowed them to create foundations, to give back and to make a different world. Cynthia Kersey created the Unstoppable Foundation. She shares that story. She's now changing entire communities in Africa by bringing in not just education, not just money, but understanding how they can be sustainable and create ecosystems and build entire universities so that she's really changing the face and the dynamics in Africa, and she shares that story. And so it gives people the idea, the concepts of things that they can do in their own life, in their own communities, to make an impact.

Okay, good. So is that the only sort of definition of success? I like what you said about how you feel about yourself, you know, because we really are the ultimate arbiter of what success means. You know, you can be poor and successful, you can be rich and miserable, anything in between. A lot of permutations. Is that the only sort of key marker of success?

I guess I should say every one of these stories has a different marker of success for them. Obviously, Bob Monnorant was, you know, the number of wins he could get on the raceway and obviously with that came money. But for him it was becoming the best at what he was doing. Someone else's win is opening up an orphanage in Africa. Somebody else's win is becoming a billionaire. That's not mine. That's not my definition of success. I believe in little wins every day. We can create a lifetime of success because successes can be small or large. It depends on what your goal is and what you're looking at. And if you create success just a little bit every single day, you're going to wake up and have created a large success.

Yeah. Good. Good stuff. Okay, so other profiles or stories or any more details you want to share about any of them?

Well, my dear friend Fred Wagenhals is in the book and he, his story is a really unique one because he's an inventor, he's an innovator. He basically had the original patent for the jet ski and he sold it for $75,000 because he was about to lose his house, he couldn't pay his employees, and he was about to lose his marriage. And by selling that patent for $75,000, he was able to keep his house, pay his employees and move on to the next. And so his secret sauce is make a deal so you can get to the next deal. So even in our interview with them, and I've known him for a long time, you learn things about people that you don't, that you've known for a long time. Conversations. And he said, no, I never, you know, we said, don't you, don't you regret it?

Right. That's instantly what everybody will think. Yeah. What if.

Right. Had I held onto it, this billion dollar industry? He said no. He said, because that allowed me to pay my employees, it allowed me to get to the next deal. And he went on and he invented the bucking Bronco that you see in bars. He invented the little car that was on Fantasy Island. And then with his connections and the people he knew in Nascar, he started doing a little die cast cars for NASCAR. And he sold that company for well over two, I think $240 million years later so he doesn't look back and regret selling that patent.

I'm really curious what the Jet Ski patent would be worth, though.

Yeah, exactly.

By the way, did he say what year did he sell that patent? I mean, that must be a lot older than I thought. Because the reason I can tell is when you talk about some of the inventions or things he did afterwards, I'm looking at those points in time and the Jet Ski doesn't seem that old to me. You know, maybe more than, what, 35 years old or something, But I guess it's a lot older. Huh.

Well, and that probably. No, probably 20, 25 years ago. I could probably get. I don't have that exact date on the top of my head, but I know that he's done a lot since then. So he was in his new company 20 years ago that I know of. So the Jet Ski patent has got probably 30 years on it. Yeah. So that means it's no longer a valid patent today because the life of the patent has run out. But I'm sure they've made additional advances on that that have been able as well.

Yeah, yeah, really interesting. You know, that's an interesting point too. It's one that I've been pondering a lot lately, is that this old idea of never quit, you know, never give up, be persistent, be tenacious, and you'll win the game. Ultimately, the world will yield to your plan. Right. Rather than you yielding to the world's plan. But sometimes being a quitter is the right thing to do, isn't it?

Well, being persistent and never giving up are essential components to success. But there's also something in Think and grow Rich called the sixth Sense. And also being aware the market may change something. You know, when we started the Rich Dad Company, we thought we were going to build that company globally through the 25 most powerful women in Forbes magazine. That was a colossal failure. You know, the world told us, no, we're going to build this through these companies that have distributors everywhere. And we had no idea. That was never even part of our original marketing plan. And so you do have course correction. And so that never give up is like in your original goal, maybe. But yes, there's definitely course correction along the time. Markets change, industries change, technology changes. And so you have to be aware on the front lines of what's happening in your market and be able to be nimble enough to make corrections so that you can maximize your potential. But sometimes you're in an industry that just goes away and you gotta pay attention that never quit attitude can become foolhardiness. And you want to make sure you're constantly aware of the industry, the market, where you're going, and really having benchmarks along the way.

Yeah, good. Good point. Good point. Okay, Sharon, well, what else do you want to share? Maybe a question I haven't asked you.

Well, I'm absolutely excited about Success in Something Greater. As I said out this week and I most of my career, I was releasing a new book every nine months to a year. Jason and I. This is my first book in five years. And that's because six and a half years ago, I lost my youngest son.

So sorry.

Kind of put me in neutral.

Right, sure.

And I'm sure everybody watching and listening has had something that stopped him in their tracks. And so I really, a couple of years ago, thought about retiring, had a lot of pushback because I just wasn't getting the same zest. And so I kind of made the decision. Instead of retiring, I was going to refire. And so I have a movement called Play Big Movement. It's a private Facebook group. Anybody can join. It's free. Where I'm showing the things that I'm doing now to get back in the game. I turned 65 in January. There's a lot of Runway left. There's a lot more for all of us to do. And it's really through power of association, like you being so gracious having me on your show again and so continuing to reach out and supporting others create to create success, success in their life. We all have a lot more to do, as I said. So I'm excited to be back on your show, and I'm excited to be part of the Play Big movement and inviting people to come along with me. And the beginning is success is something greater. I got another book coming out in the spring, so we're back in the game.

Is this the new book? Did you give the title the new book?

This is the Success and Something Great.

Right. Is there another one, though?

Spring is going to be called Exit Rich, so we'll get scheduled back on your show for that.

Oh, Exit Rich, huh? Is that about selling businesses?

Probably, yes. It's about building your business, the foundation and with the concept, the system, so that you can get maximum profit when you sell it. And we've been picked up by Inc. Magazine's imprint for that one, so I'm excited about that. But that's. That's for April next year.

Sharon, you are just. You've been doing such innovative, great stuff for so many years. It's always great to hear. So keep up the good work and definitely can't wait to dig into the book myself and dive in.

Give out your website Absolutely. Sharon Lecter L E C H t e r sharonlecter.com I'm Sharon Lechter on all social media accounts so you can find me everywhere. And thank you so much. I appreciate your support.

It's good talking with you again. Thanks Sharon.

Thank you.

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