We’re now halfway through May (also exactly 6 months from November 14, noteworthy to me) and I finished this whack ass book called Think and Grow Rich that I thought I’d share an excerpt from… because when I started reading it I was like WTAF is this and as I progressed I decided that it’s actually (mostly) just good general life advice. 
The book is supposedly about increasing your income, but a lot of its content is relevant to being a halfway decent human being. I’ll link to this Forbes article (even though it forces me to turn off my adblocker) and also the Wikipedia page… this is the maximum plug I’m going to give this book, but I’m passing it onto a colleague who is into self improvement because I think he’ll enjoy it as well. It’s a quick read, and some of the chapters are a bit over the top for me, but I really like his lists. Worth noting, I feel like if this book had been published in the last 10 years it would’ve been called “ableist” or found offensive in some other way, which is a poorer reflection of our culture than of the content of this book.
The 30 Major Causes of Failure
I had to search for QUITE A WHILE to find another blog that had the author’s list typed out verbatim… since everyone is keen on summarizing shittily what was said perfectly the first time around. This blog post has the explanations of each, directly from the book.
- Unfavorable Hereditary Background
- Lack of a Well-Defined Purpose in Life
- Lack of Ambition to Aim Above Mediocrity
- Insufficient Education
- Lack of Self-Discipline
- Ill Health
- Unfavorable Environmental Influences During Childhood
- Procrastination
- Lack of Persistence
- Negative Personality
- Lack of Controlled Sexual Urge
- Uncontrolled Desire for “Something for Nothing”
- Lack of a Well-Defined Power of Decision
- One or More of the Six Basic Fears
- Fear of: Poverty; Criticism; Ill Health; Loss of Love of Someone; Old Age; Death
- Wrong Selection of Mate in Marriage
- Over-Caution
- Wrong Selection of Associates in Business
- Superstition & Prejudice
- Wrong Selection of a Vocation
- Lack of Concentration of Effort
- The Habit of Indiscriminate Spending
- Lack of Enthusiasm
- Intolerance
- Intemperance
- Inability to Cooperate With Others
- Possession of Power Not Acquired Through Self-Effort
- Intentional Dishonesty
- Egotism & Vanity
- Guessing Instead of Thinking
- Lack of Capital
That’s all for now… it’s been a crazy month so far, and there’s a lot to still accomplish and more books to read. Stay tuned, stay safe!
The Chaos Path 