In the first chapters of Napoleon Hill’s legendary Think And Grow Rich, we’re told of a secret hidden in the book that he couldn’t possibly disclose, for it must be ‘experienced’ by the reader. Hill teased that the realisation of what all successful people know could strike you after the first chapter or the very last, but once you knew their secret, your life would never be the same again.

Now that’s how you get somebody to read a book.

The Secret, an adaption of Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling book, is essentially Think And Grow Rich jacked to the nines and removed of all spoilers.

If you took the top ten bestselling self-help books of the 20th century, threw them in a bin liner, then stuck a label on it marked ‘The Secret‘, you’d have a bloody good idea of what this movie is all about.

Similarly, if you are schooled in the arts of visualisation, positive thinking or neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), The Secret will not come as much of a revelation at all. It is a careful rebranding of tried wisdom that has been passed through the ages.

And the only saving grace is that much of it actually works.

What is The Secret?

I don’t like to give away spoilers, but this review is going to be pretty redundant if we ignore the plot. Besides, I’d have to give a Z- for the acting (which reaches full blown Hiroshima in parts).

Let’s get it out there…

The Secret:
The universe is governed by a Law of Attraction.

If you project positive thoughts, feelings and images on to the universe, the universe will repay you by making them a reality. Likewise, if you fester in negative thoughts, those thoughts will become your world.

Where I lose patience with The Secret is in its translation of this ancient wisdom for the daily struggles of the average proletarian. For example, I really hate the idea that simply thinking about a fat cheque arriving in the post means I’m less likely to receive my gas bill.

The principles of visualisation are not so divine that bills disappear and money falls from the sky. More importantly, the movie fails to distinguish between the workings of the conscious mind versus the possibilities of the lucid subconscious.

The Secret introduces visualisation in almost comical fashion. At one point, an ‘enlightened’ child realises he can acquire the red bicycle of his dreams by cutting it out of a catalogue and focusing on it. This is not the best lesson for an already materialistic world, but it’s also just plain false.

I’m left imagining a nation of Secret Believers sitting in their garages, eyes clenched, attempting to daydream their way out of debt. Whether you believe in these principles or not, there’s no excuse for lazy stupidity. And I wish the line had been drawn a little deeper in the sand than ‘think of all the shit you want and Santa Brains will deliver it‘.

What The Secret lacks in subtle persuasion, it makes up for in brutal persistance. The movie slaps the viewer with bold statement after gigantic bold statement. If you achieved anything in centuries gone by, it was the result of The Secret, or so we are to believe.

“I can’t believe all the people who knew this. They were the greatest people in history!” gasps the narrator in the first 5 minutes.

A cynical mind will immediately question the authority on which these claims are made, and certainly the extent to which ‘the secret’ was bounced around like a scroll in an Old Boy’s Club.

The movie largely consists of talking head ‘experts’ extolling the virtues of what you can achieve when you put their lessons to good use. There are some inspiring moments. One particular story highlights the full recovery of a man who was mute and paralyzed with a crushed spine. He credits his miraculous recovery to the power of the mind alone. It is one of the genuine ‘wow’ moments in a movie that too often focuses on materialistic greed.

And how about those acting sequences?

If you’re watching The Secret for a cinematic adaptation of the book’s teachings on the big screen, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Most of the scenes are word-for-word enactments of what an expert has just said. It leads to some comically bad moments that wouldn’t look out of place on a Neighbours outtake reel.

The Secret is not all bad. If it encourages a new generation to embrace positive thinking and visualisation, then it should be labelled a success. You can learn a lot if you treat the movie as introductory material and follow it up with your own research. However, much of the true wisdom is likely to be lost by an Oprah generation that thinks it can wish on red bicycles to fall out of the sky, or bills to turn in to cheques.

Give it a shot. But don’t expect it to change your life in 87 minutes. And don’t expect any secrets.

About Martin Osborn

Martin Osborn is a 24 year old entrepreneur from London. He writes the popular Internet Marketing blog, Finch Sells.

One day in 1939, George Bernard Dantzig strolled in to class several minutes past the hour. An able graduate student at UC Berkeley, it was not unlike Dantzig to stay up late pawing over an assignment. Only this time he had slept through his alarm call.

Dantzig rushed in, took his seat and glanced at the blackboard.

Professor Jerzy Neyman, had etched two mathematical puzzles on the board. Believing them to be part of his homework assignment, Dantzig noted down the equations and caught up with the rest of the class.

A few days later, Dantzig reconvened with Professor Neyman. The assignment had proven a tough nut to crack — but he had solved the puzzles nonetheless. Dantzig left the work on Neyman’s desk, blanketed by a thousand other papers, and thought no more of it. As it turns out, none of the other students had answered the puzzles. Not one colleague had even tried.

They were not puzzles, after all.

The statements Neyman had scrawled on his blackboard were not part of a homework assignment. They were famous for being two ‘unsolvable’ maths problems.

Nobody had told Dantzig.

Six weeks later, Neyman crashed through his student’s front door with a yell of excitement. The prodigy was still asleep. But this was a major breakthrough, and Neyman didn’t want to wait until breakfast. He had prepared the homework papers to be sent away for publication. In doing so, he would write Dantzig’s name in to folklore.

The student who solved the unsolvable, without so much as batting an eyelid.

I love Dantzig’s story. It’s a shining example of creativity that has passed through many decades, many journals and many blogs.

Because he didn’t know he ‘couldn’t’ solve the problems, he was able to tap in to the full expanses of his creative mind. And come up with an unlikely solution.

How many people give up before they’ve found the answer to their own problems? How many lost souls believe that no such answer exists?

A defeatist attitude gets you nowhere in life.

Creative thinking is a skill, not a talent. You do not need to be in possession of the genius gene to think creatively. You simply need to adopt the right mindset.

What is creative thinking?

Creative Thinking — A way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling at first).

Below I have compiled 7 essential tips that will help you master your own creative thinking.

1. Brainstorm

We’ll start with the most obvious.

Brainstorming is a classic idea generation technique. It can take on one of two forms: structured brainstorming or unstructured brainstorming.

Structured brainstorming is designed around a goal with guidelines and rules. It is typically the method of choice for team meetings. Team members take it in turns to suggest one idea, and no criticism is allowed. The technique is designed to squeak maximum input from every member of the team, not just the domineering personalities.

Unstructured brainstorming takes on the guise of an open forum. Team members are free to suggest ideas as they come to mind. There are usually no rules or guidelines.

While these forms of brainstorming may seem destined for the board meeting room, and not for your personal usage, it’s important to note the differences.

If you need to solve a specific problem, a structured brainstorming approach is the best way forward. A good starting point is the SWOT Analysis. Describe your focus then work outwards.

A SWOT Analysis is designed to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

By focusing on the four areas, you will be able to evaluate your problem methodically and reasonably. In essence, it brings structure to the madness of our minds.

However, if you lack a central focus, you may prefer to take the unstructured brainstorming route.

My favourite unstructured method is the visual mindmap.

Note: Here are five excellent mind mapping tools.

If I’m brainstorming ideas for a new product, or a new blog post, I will bust out MindNode Pro and splurge my entire thought stream in to a visual representation that ends up looking something like this, minus the artistic talent:

Credit: LearningFundamentals.com.au (lots of great mindmaps!)

The beauty of mind mapping is that it brings structure to a wholly unstructured process. There is no need to put a leash on your imagination. I often find that in searching for one answer, another creative idea wrestles away my attention.

Mind mapping has become an integral part of my week. Even when I have nothing of significance to map!

2. Keep a creativity journal

You never know when a moment of inspiration is about to strike. If you rely on such moments, failing to act on them is a major sin.

Keep a journal for all the brainfarts that interrupt your day. Write in the journal before you go to bed, and whenever inspiration strikes.

When you’re looking for a great idea, you might find a lead that isn’t relevant until many weeks or months down the road. Years even.

Creative thinking sessions should be broadly targeted. Don’t restrict yourself to solving only one problem. It’s amazing how the mind works, and rarely does it form a logical sequence of thoughts.

3. Surround yourself with creative people

This is a tough one, but super effective. Often you can tell a lot about a man by his five closest friends. Great minds are attracted to great minds. Creative souls are intertwined with other creative souls. I consider it no coincidence that moaning, bitching defeatists are often found in packs.

Our attitudes are contagious.

If you need to be inspired, spend an afternoon with somebody inspiring.

Go to exhibitions and conferences. Make a list of the friends and family you admire the most. Pick up your phone and arrange to meet them. There doesn’t have to be an aim to the meeting. Your incentive is to adopt their spirit, to channel their creative energy.

Spending 365 days influenced by misery gut defeatists is no way to rise above them. When I look at the notorious ‘We are the 99%’ protests, I think it’s such a shame. Such a waste.

If you want to conjure something from the economy, from yourself, you should be channelling the energies of those who are making it happen – not those bitching in a street with their woes confined to a banner and a chant.

4. View the issue as a legendary thinker would

Brainstorm problems through the eyes of your role model.

What would they do? How would they approach your situation? What life advice would they give you?

Most of us have role models, those who act as guiding lights for the person we hope to become. By laying down for 20 minutes, conjuring the image of your role model and vividly imagining them dealing with your problem, you will escape the confines of your learnt habits.

5. Hone your split personalities

Walt Disney, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century, might as well have been three different people. He was notorious for his seismic mood swings. Walt could show up to a meeting as any one of three personas:

• The dreamer
• The realist
• The spoiler

Some days, Walt could be found dreaming of extravagant new directions for his company. He would balance a dozen new characters, with a handful of foreign markets and a vision for the future where the sky knew no bounds.

Other days, Walt the Realist would show up. Any team member wanting to put forward a new idea was expected to research, analyse and ‘put up or shut up’. You needn’t open your mouth lest your vision be fully realised.

Then famously, there was Walt Disney – the ultimate party pooper. Just when his executives had decided on a strategic direction, Walt would take the poor troopers aside. He would paw over their plans, silently, before tearing them to shreds in a fit of disdain.

Walt Disney, the spoiler, knew how to police his worst ideas. His greatness was defined by an ability to switch between all three personas. He had dreams, he had expectations, and he had standards. You get nowhere fast without all three.

Perhaps the best advice I’ve heard for honing your split personas is to assign a physical area to each.

• When you want to pluck inspiration from your Inner Dreamer… surround yourself with nature. Sit outside somewhere quiet, and allow your thoughts to shoot for the sky.

• When you want to refine standards from your Inner Realist… go to your study, or wherever the nearest Internet connection is located. I find that when I want to get in touch with reality, I need to see what other people are doing. The Internet is a great research portal.

• When you want to play Devil’s Advocate as your Inner Spoiler… go to a coffee shop. Detach from your home or work space. Treat the Cappuccino Rendezvous as a battle of wits. Imagine you are investing hard money in yourself. Comb for the flaws in your plan like a sniffer dog on crack.

So many failed ideas in this world are caused by a refusal to separate the dreamer from the realist and spoiler. The success of your creative ideas depends on your ability to learn this skill.

6. Get in to a positive mood

Huffing and puffing over a problem? You might as well call it a day.

Self-criticism and negativity suppress your creativity.

You will never be able to think at your creative peak when you are pissed off with the world. Never.

I’m not exaggerating. It’s an evolutionary trait that is wired in to humans.

When we are negative, we react to our environment with greater caution. We are less prone to taking risks. It is a mindset that in ancient times would have aided our survival. Unfortunately, it is not an attitude that is conducive to reinventing the wheel, or recognising moments of inspiration.

To maximise your creativity, get yourself in to a good mood. Bad moods cause us to scrutinise, to hesitate for a split second. A split second reaction is all it takes to quash your creative spirit. Don’t let it.

7. Nurture the subconscious

Until you see yourself as a creative thinker, you will never be one.

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
- Buddha

Creative thinking is a skill, but like confidence, it identifies and sticks to those who embrace it.

Confident people channel their inner confidence. To the rest of the world, their demeanour seems natural, at ease.

Creative people rely on a similar inner belief. They are confident in their creativity. Accepting of their ability to hone solutions to life’s problems. The rest of the world tends to focus only on the net result: products, services and ideas that didn’t exist before.

They call it genius, and yet the skill ‘to create’ is theirs too.

You have to truly believe you have the answers to your problems, or the grandest solution slapping you in the face will still not save you.

There are many methods for building creative confidence that rely on nurturing the subconscious. They attempt to shift your perception from within.

These methods include hypnotism, neuro-linguistic programming and binaural tones.

Each topic is deserving of its own post. I am a fan of them all.

Impossible is just a word in somebody else’s vocabulary

When George Dantzig sat down to solve the ‘unsolvable’ maths problem, he never questioned his ability to find the answer. Would he have managed the same feat if he knew not to try?

Creative thinking is that kind of skill. It rewards persistence and faith. You can have it too.

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About Martin Osborn

Martin Osborn is a 24 year old entrepreneur from London. He writes the popular Internet Marketing blog, Finch Sells.

If you’re young, working class or not blessed with a rich family, the decision to rent or own your home has largely been taken out of your hands. Buying a house is paramount to extortion, so renting is the only option.

Since the mortgage crash, lenders have made it an absolute pain in the arse to get on the property ladder.

Where I come from in London, a deposit of 25% is par for the course if you want to buy a house

The average house price in my area is close to £300,000 (about $500,000), so even a modest mortgage would involve stumping up £75,000 in hard cash.

The age of first time buyers continues to sky-rocket, and is it any wonder?

If you want to move out from your mother’s basement, the only way to do so is to rent.

Renting in London can cost anywhere from £800/month for a modest studio flat, to the £1500/month I pay for a 4-bedroom house in the suburbs. With bills and council tax on top, most tenants are hard pressed to tuck away £200/month in to savings. Furthermore, it’s practically impossible to rent if you’re not prepared to split the costs. This is most popularly done by house-sharing, or by taking the plunge as a couple.

If we’re to go by the current prices in my area, and savings of £200/month, it would take no fewer than 375 months (31 years!) to save enough cash for a house deposit. And that’s without life coming along and shoving its proverbial fist up your arse.

Admittedly, by choosing to live in London, you’ve already welcomed the fist halfway up there.

Even by moving away from the ‘Big Smoke’, your earning potential is likely to have the same relative weighting on wherever you choose to live. House prices correspond to local salaries.

My career gives me a welcome advantage in that I can work from wherever I plop my laptop, but most aren’t so fortunate. And it leaves the question, how do first time buyers find the savings necessary to buy a home? Is it even worth it?

If you’re going to spend the best part of your 20s and 30s scrimping and saving for a home you can call your own, does it not make sense to rent permanently and invest in other assets?

Possibly, but then I have just as many bones to pick with renting.

1. Is a ‘deposit’ really a deposit?

I’ve lost over £5000 in the last 2 years, all to a blood-money payment otherwise known as the property deposit. I refuse to refer to deposits as deposits anymore. They’re a giant fucking swindle. A payment in cold cash that the landlord can, and will, slowly strip away by any means necessary. Whether it be through cleaning charges, pet disinfectant fees, or simple wear and tear, your deposit is unlikely to be seen again. It is essentially an advance payment for the joyous future verification that your landlord is a prick.

If that sounds a little harsh, I apologise, but I’m sick to death of rogue money-grabbing landlords.

2. How many tears must you cry before somebody fixes the bloody washing machine?

I’ve experienced both ends of the stick; dealing with landlords directly and going through a property management agency. 95% of the time, shit is not going to get done either way. If the washing machine is busted, or the bathroom floor is leaking, expect them to deal with it when it suits them.

But wait, if you don’t pay your rent on the 16th of every month, prepare to have your balls chopped off. You can’t get a landlord off the phone when there’s money at stake. In future, I’m going to use a simple voicemail redirect: “Hello landlord, or should that be honeybadger? You will get rent when I get non-leaky bathroom floor. Leave your god damn message and piss off.”

3. What if I want to hang pictures?

The last contract I signed made it clear that if I wanted to so much as hang a picture on my wall, I had to have written confirmation from the landlord.

First of all, I get it. It’s not my home.

If I were to paint every single room battleship grey and tattoo the ceilings in death metal lyrics, he should probably have the right to kick me out and withhold my deposit. But hanging a picture? Why even call it ‘renting a home’ anymore? I get more freebies from the hotels I visit.

Soap, teabags, pens, sometimes curtains…

If I’m paying £1500/month to live in your house, I expect to be able to drill the occasional hole where it suits me. I’m not sure if that’s unreasonable, but it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when I have to seek written consent just to scratch my balls.

My conclusion is that whether you choose to rent or buy, both conventional roads are tied to a rat race.

Even the government schemes that supposedly support first time buyers are carved out of irony. If you earn over X amount, you don’t qualify. It’s another classic case of the middle class ceasing to exist.

I’ve given up the idea of buying a home on a 25% mortgage. And I’ve given up the idea of ever getting a deposit back (although I’m still taking a previous landlady – eh, land-complete-and-utter-wench – to court out of principle).

Tenants and first time buyers are little fish. That’s just the way it is.

The best way to escape this reality is to invest your money elsewhere, grow wealth that exists outside of ‘home ownership’ and one day, some day, slap down a 100% payment in hard earned cash.

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About Martin Osborn

Martin Osborn is a 24 year old entrepreneur from London. He writes the popular Internet Marketing blog, Finch Sells.

How much of the day do you spend parked on your arse wondering why you can’t summon the energy to complete whatever agonizingly mundane task you’re working on?

Think about it.

We sit at desks during working hours, then jump in the car and sit for the drive home, then sit at the table to eat our dinners, then slump on the sofa to complain about our exhausting day.

We complain about feeling overworked, stripped of our energy, and yet when you look at what we actually do, physically, it doesn’t add up to very much. Exhaustion, in 2012, seems to be derived from stress and mind weariness rather than muscle aching exertion.

One of the great ironies of life is that to create energy, you must first create movement.

Without movement, energy cannot exist.

Is it any wonder that as you collapse hunched over a keyboard, strong Latte perched to your lips, you’re likely to feel more tired than when you last crept off to bed? It’s because the body requires movement to initiate energy! And most of us, myself included, are lackadaisical about getting physical before 9am.

The exact same concept applies to being creative.

Much of my work revolves around the need to innovate and think outside the box. From my experience, there’s no environment quite so ill-fitting for creative thinking as being sat like a statue with your pencil kissing an empty page.

Even when you think you’re physically exhausted, it’s typically an illusion born out of convenience. Collapsing in front of a television is the easy option, but rarely the right one. The solution is to get up, go for a jog, or a fast walk, and create some movement.

Movement creates energy, and energy creates life. Energy is the fuel that gets your brain ticking, releasing the static build-up of mind weariness, and kicking your arse in to action.

Many people try to replicate this natural process by consuming coffee by the bucket load. Caffeine raises alertness, and it unleashes adrenaline, but it’s still an awful substitute for natural energy.

We have a lazy modern habit of seeking quick fixes when in reality, all that is needed is an injection of physical exertion.

The next time you’re faced with crippling writer’s block, or a lateral thinking conundrum that you can’t seem to get your head around, stand up and leave the situation.

Put some life in to your body, raise your heart rate and give your brain the fuel it needs. You’ll often find that answers pop in to your head when you’re least expecting them, and that’s usually because you’re not sat on your arse at the time. Coincidence?

Liked This Post?

• Filthy Rich Mind is proudly sponsored by Global Test Market. You can sign up today and get paid to offer your opinion to some of the world’s biggest brands. Earn some extra cash right now!

• Thanks for reading the blog. We’d love to hear your thoughts, and have you back again. Please feel free to subscribe to the Filthy Rich Mind RSS feed for lifestyling tips and tricks. You can also follow us on Twitter!

About Martin Osborn

Martin Osborn is a 24 year old entrepreneur from London. He writes the popular Internet Marketing blog, Finch Sells.