Book Review: Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill

For those of you that don't know, Napoleon Hill is the OG self-help guru. He wrote the eternally popular Think and Grow Rich, which I read and enjoyed. I saw this 'new' book at the local thrift store and was instantly intrigued. It turns out this book was published over 70 years after the author's death. His family and estate thought the content was just too controversial for the time. One reason is that the theme of the book is Mr. Hill having a question and answer session with the Devil himself. In addition, the book is highly critical of organized religion and public schools. The book was both edited and annotated by Sharon Lechter. Apparently she heavily edited the original manuscript, and added her peanut gallery comments throughout the book. That aspect did leave me wondering if the original manuscript is floating around somewhere. This edition however was an adequate presentation of a number of concepts.

Drifting

Mr. Hill divides the population into drifters and non-drifters. He states that drifters account for 98% of the population. A drifter is just like it sounds-- it's someone who drifts through life without a sense of purpose or direction. He argues that when you drift through life, the Devil (or other people) essentially has control over you.

Hypnotic Rhythm

Hill describes a state of mind called hypnotic rhythm. It is essentially the patterns that people get caught in. These can be good or bad. It essentially takes a major life event in order to break a hypnotic rhythm. Hill describes this phenomenon in the following manner:

“Nature uses hypnotic rhythm to make one’s dominating thoughts and one’s thought-habits permanent. That is why poverty is disease. Nature makes it so by fixing permanently the thought-habits of all who accept poverty as an unavoidable circumstance”

The seven secret principles for spiritual, mental, and physical freedom

In this book hill describes the seven secret principles for spiritual, mental, and physical freedom, which are as follows:

• definiteness of purpose
• self-discipline
• learning from adversity
• influence of our environment and our social interactions
• time
• harmony
• caution

I thought the book was an entertaining read for the interview format alone. I am rarely a fan of heavily edited and annotated versions of anything, so I'd be interested in comparing this book to an original manuscript. I just can't help but feel patronized. Perhaps this person's interpretation of the manuscript is not correct, or the editing left out some key insight. We may never know.

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