Book Summary: Three Feet From Gold – By Sharon Lechter, Greg Reid and the Napoleon Hill Foundation

Napoleon Hill was way before his time. Think and Grow Rich and Outwitting the Devil are two of the best books I have ever read. According to Hill, you can control your mind and your attitude regardless of what happens to you. Once you truly understand that then success will be yours.

Why is this important to me?
I don’t want to waste your time. Three Feet from Gold is a good book and parallels what Napoleon Hill did when Andrew Carnegie tasked him to study success.

Three Feet from Gold is a story that Greg S. Reid was tasked to write a book by interviewing and meeting with highly successful people. The reason why the title is so strong is based on a true story where the Darby Family was digging for Gold and stopped. They sold their land and the new owners sought council from experts and struck gold. The irony is that the Darby’s were only three feet away from finding the Gold.

The main lesson here is not to quit. Thomas Edison tried thousands of different filaments until he found the right one when he created the light bulb. Most people would have given up. I do have a corollary where this principle is bad. Addiction with gambling is based on the same principle. People think they are close to striking it rich when they gamble. This is why Las Vegas can build billion dollar casinos and have them paid for in 5 years.

Three Feet from Gold is packed with great lessons which I will profile. For the sake of time, I will pick three and relate how they work through examples.

1. (P+T) x A x A=Success – This success stands for P is Passion, T is Your Talent, A is Associations, A is Actions. I have read a lot of material and this formula is right on. Basically because if any value is zero then you will not have success. You have to take action and WORK to achieve success and you have to solicit the knowledge of other through associations. If you do not do that then success will be fleeting.

2. Masterminds – Napoleon Hill in all of his works discusses the power of Mastermind groups. This book is a classic example. Greg was successful in writing because he had access to successful people and made them part of his mastermind. The concept is simple – multiple heads with varying backgrounds are better than one.

3. Subconscious Mind – I touch on this more from Napoleon Hills other works. The conscious mind is designed to be critical and cautious. If not then we would have been food to larger animals. Understanding the unlimited nature of the subconscious will open your abilities. A personal example may help. I was a horrible reader and in college had a sixth grade reading level. Using a concept known as Mental Photography has allowed me to overcome this limitation. The results for me personally have allowed me to increase my reading speed, comprehension and writing ability by more than 10 times. This is the power of using your whole mind. Napoleon Hill talks about this a lot in his work Laws of Success.

Three Feet from Gold is a good book if you are not familiar with Napoleon Hill’s work. It is a fast and easy read packed with great principles. If you have not read any of Napoleon Hills work then I suggest strongly that you read: “Laws of Success, Outwitting the Devil and Think and Grow Rich.” Those books have the power to change your life.

I hope you have found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is (P+T) x A x A=Success. Understanding and doing daily behavior using this formula will bring you the success you want. Likewise, not doing each part of the formula will result in frustration and failure.