The Secret Formula
Dear ___,
I wanted to share something concrete from the book with you. The book started out as a memoir, but it got too long and boring, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Don’t tell my book coach, but I deleted all my manuscript files in Google, burned the only physical copy I had, and I’m officially starting over. Kind of. I kept the last copy of the manuscript that I’d sent to my editor. And, I’m still using some of what I wrote.
I’ve hinted at my past career history here online. How I’d job hopped for almost 20 years and spent a lot of money trying to become an online-solopreneur-spiritual-coach-type person. I learned a lot and met a lot of cool people, but I never made any money.
The one thing all those coaches had in common — whether they were an angel intuitive or a tech bro—was this one book called Think and Grow Rich. And I want to tell you all about why I have such a problem with this book.
Here’s a bit from my own book. It’s not edited, I might regret posting it in such a state. But, I wanted to share because all I can imagine is how much better the world would be if Americans were actually living their dreams instead of chasing The Dream.
xx
m
PS: Obviously the critique is of “The Machine” not individuals - except Hill and other blatant a**holes. Of course, you are welcome to disagree with me.
PPS: I haven’t landed on my own book title yet, it keeps changing.
The Dream Machine
Do you feel like there’s a secret formula to life that, if only you could figure it out, would bring you success and happiness?
Have you ever bought a self-help book hoping its fool-proof methods would work for you?
Do you feel like you should be turning your passing interest in watercolors into an empire?
If you do, you’re not alone. I used to believe in secret formulas and fool-proof methods too. There’s a reason we feel this way and it’s all thanks to a guy named Oliver Napoleon Hill.
Picture this: It’s America, 1937. You thought the worst was over, but you’re in a recession after the Great Depression. Wherever you are, life is shitty. Everything is expensive. The weather is ruining crops. You’re about to enter a World War. You’ve even stopped going to church. You probably just lost everything or almost everything. Factories and farms are still shut down. Jobs are still hard to come by. Everybody is trying to recuperate at once and a guy Oliver Napoleon Hill sees his entry.
What do desperate people have a lot of? Dreams. Dreams of starting over, of reinvention, of stability, of money. Oliver sensed what they were longing for. If he could speak to the peoples’ dreams they would give him their money. The idea was simple: write a book to cure their desperation.
Oliver tied his name to several successful people for credibility, including Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Ford (though whether he ever talked to any of them is questionable). Oliver would “interview” these men for his book and share their “secrets to success”, which would be packaged neatly for housewives, factory workers, farmers, automotive technicians, teachers, and ministers all hoping for a better life.
He needed a catchy title. Something so mindlessly obvious and simple they’d have no choice but to spend their meager pocket money on it: Think and Grow Rich. What started out as one con-man’s quest to milk every drop of hope from Americans has now turned into what I like to call The Dream Machine.
Think and Grow Rich is widely accepted to be the success bible for Americans and has inspired the likes of Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss (The 4 Hour Work Week), Marie Forleo, and Rhonda Byrne (The Secret) as well as masses of self-help gurus, personal coaches, online marketers, content creators, and spiritual guides. They all follow his blueprint for growing rich by selling us their own formulas, which are just permutations of his own.
The sad news? Just a few years after the Great Recession of 2008, I was twenty-seven and in the midst of my own spiritual crisis, and I got sucked into the Machine.
The good news? After over a dozen years, I escaped.
The Secret Formula
The thing is Hill never actually spills his secret formula. He dances around it and gives a bunch of principles and tells the reader that they will know the secret formula when they see it. These are just a few quotes from Think and Grow Rich. Does this advice sound familiar?
Find your purpose: “Carry out one consuming obsession of your life. Burn all your bridges behind you and stake your entire future on your ability to get what you want. Win, or perish. Work yourself into a white heat of desire for money.”
Recite mantras: “Read aloud twice daily the written statement of your desire for money. Close your eyes. See and feel yourself already in possession of the money. Have absolute faith, otherwise you will not see the money.”
Get a Dream Job & Market Yourself: “Refuse to compromise with life by accepting and keeping a job you don’t want. Change your life by learning something specific and market it. General knowledge from school and college is useless for making money.”
If you can dream it you should do it: “Begin at once to put your imagination to work on the building of a plan, or plans for the transformation of your desire into money. You can build a fortune through the use of imagination. Do not stop until you have read [my] book at least three times.”
The Problem is Not . . .
The problem isn’t that these principles don’t work. They can, in fact, work really well.
The problem isn’t that we shouldn’t have ambitions, goals, and dreams. Those are great.
The problem isn’t that we shouldn’t mix spirituality with success. That’s fine.
The Problem Is the Lies.
The problem is that Think and Grow Rich spawned some miserable lies, including these:
#1) The mystery of life is solvable with the right formula - a.k.a. a secret formula exists
#2) Someone can tell sell you the secret formula
#3) The mystery of life is only worth solving and pursuing because it makes you money.
#4) If you’re not doing this, you’re lazy and wasting your potential.
The sneaky thing is that this all seems like a great idea. American Success Culture is as innocent and unavoidable as the message on a graduation card: “Chase your dreams! Live your purpose! Be successful! Love what you do and never work a day in your life!”
Well, I beg to differ.
In 2011, I joined the American Success Culture. I tried to channel my search for meaning into successful businesses, pyramid schemes, and online coaching programs. Until finally, in 2024 I quit, utterly exhausted.
Self-help seems admirable at first. Improve yourself, it’s good for you. But in the end, it’s an endless quest with no finish line. A $13 billion dollar industry that capitalizes on our fears and insecurities. All this self-improvement just keeps us focused on how wrong we are. There’s always something to improve, another goal to reach. And so we get beat down. We think we should’ve tried harder. We feel like a failure.
The Dream Machine takes the sacred parts of being human (dreams, inspiration, faith, purpose) and tells us they're only valuable if they make money.
And that’s why I’m writing this book.
Because that’s all BS.
Because there is no secret formula.
Because life is a mystery, and it’s better that way.
My Sweet Lord
I really want to see you
Really want to be with you
Really want to see you, Lord
But it takes so long, my Lord
My sweet Lord
My Lord
My Lord
I really want to know you
Really want to go with you
Really want to show you, Lord
But it won't take long, my Lord (Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord (Hallelujah)
My Lord (Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord (Hallelujah)
Really want to see you
Really want to see you
Really want to see you, Lord
Really want to see you, Lord
But it takes so long, my lord (Hallelujah)
Today’s pick is about wanting to get close to God, it’s the song we are all singing in one way or another — what is the meaning of life? Is God there? Can we touch the divine? We are not sure but humans will keep seeking, secret formulas and all.