A few years ago I became a big fan of self-help literature especially classic self-help literature. Most people who keep up with that kind of literature know that Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of the big classics.

And what does it say on the cover?

This book could be worth a million dollars to you.

Id like to think that this post (inspired by Hills book) about thinking your way to riches when gambling could also be worth a million dollars to you.

In the introduction to Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill explains how he interviewed over 500 of the wealthiest men in the world to find out how they became such success stories. He then used the information he gleaned from those interviews to codify a system for getting rich.

You can do the same thing as a gambler, and its even easier for you because of the internet. You see, you dont have to interview 500 successful gamblers to find out what they did. You can just find them on the internet and read about the techniques that worked for them.

Dont know which gamblers got rich from their gambling?

Bing and Google are your friends, but let me give you some names of rich gamblers:

Those are just a handful of examples of people who have made fortunes via their gambling activities. Youll notice that some of them are blackjack players, some poker players, and others, sports bettors.

Those are the gambling activities youll want to focus on if your goal is to think your way to riches as a gambler.

One of the biggest takeaways from Think and Grow Rich is that if you want to succeed, you need to know what it is that you want exactly. This means setting some goals. I have some tips Ive found helpful for setting goals in my life in gambling and in other areas.

Youve probably seen the acronym SMART as it relates to goals, and Ive seen different explanations for what those letters mean. Heres my take on the acronym:

The idea behind having a specific goal is that it keeps you from flailing away at something vague. I want to get rich from gambling isnt a good goal because it isnt specific enough. I want to make $1 million in a year playing poker is a specific goal.

Measurable goals are goals that youve put a number on you can measure your failure or success. $1 million is measurable. Getting rich isnt.

Achievable goals are goals that are possible.

Retrievable goals are those that youve written down so that you can retrieve them in the future.

Finally, time-oriented goals have a deadline. If you havent set a deadline, you cant make any kind of real plans for achieving your goals.

Its easy to think that winning at gambling is a something for nothing enterprise, but its exactly the opposite. For most gamblers, youre giving up something to get nothing, but the casino will NEVER give you something for nothing.

The casino games have a built-in mathematical edge for the casino which prevents that. Poker games have a rake a percentage of each pot that the house takes to pay for your space there. Sports bettors deal with the vig the extra amount the book charges losers.

To overcome the house edge, the rake, and/or the vig, youre going to have to do something other than just placing bets. Youll have to do some work. Thats what youre exchanging for the getting rich part of this deal.

With blackjack, this usually means learning how to count cards, although thats not the only advantage technique in blackjack.

With poker, you must become an expert player. And not just expert enough to be as good as the other players at the table. You must become good enough that you show a profit above and beyond the 5% of each pot that gets collected in rake.

With sports betting, you must be able to find lines that are worth betting on.

All these strategies and techniques require consistency, dedication, and expertise. No one is born a winning bettor.

You dont have to master card counting, Texas holdem strategy, and handicapping all kinds of sports to get rich in gambling. In fact, its probably better if you focus and specialize. I had a great boss who used to tell me that the man who chases two rabbits catches neither.

His point is well-taken.

In fact, you dont even need to have a new idea.

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Becoming good enough to get rich with just one of these strategies is more than most people can pull off.

So, dont feel like you have to come up with a dozen, half-a-dozen, or even three or four great ideas to get rich gambling.

Just pick one that you feel confident in and run with it.

The biggest reason most people fail at anything including gambling is giving up. Napoleon Hill illustrates this point by telling the three feet from gold story.

Its a story about a man who went west during the Gold Rush to earn a fortune mining for gold. He staked a claim and started digging. After weeks, he found gold. He went home, got together some money for machinery to mine the ore, then went back to work.

After the first carload of ore was minded, the vein of gold vanished. They kept drilling but still couldnt find any more gold. They finally gave up and sold the machinery to a junk dealer.

But, as it turns out, the gold was still there it was just in a different place than he thought because of the fault lines. The gold was there, but it was three feet from where theyd stopped drilling.

The junk man who bought the machinery became rich.

One of the reasons he became rich was because, instead of quitting, he got some expert advice who knew something about gold veins and mines. Thats how he found out about the fault lines and where the gold probably really was.

Dont give up at gambling when youre just three feet away from the gold.

One thing all rich gamblers have is the faith that they are the masters of their fate. In other words, they avoid gambling games that consist of nothing but chances. They only place bets where their decisions matter.

You are not the master of your fate when playing real money slots. The result is entirely random. Theres nothing you can do about the houses mathematical edge on a slot machine.

But, when you play blackjack, you get to decide whether to hit or stand, whether to double or split. This aspect of making decisions that matter when gambling is characteristic of gambling activities where you can get rich.

Success in gambling is no different from success in any other part of life. To succeed, you must have the desire to succeed.

Sure, you might think, but doesnt everyone have a desire to succeed at gambling?

Yes and no.

Everyone hopes to win, but not everyone wants to win badly enough to do the work required to figure out both how to win and what strategies work toward winning.

Most gamblers dont have sufficient desire to learn how to count cards in blackjack. They think its too hard.

But if you want to count cards badly enough, you can do it assuming you dont have some kind of learning disability preventing it.

How do you think and grow rich gambling?

Maybe you should read the entirety of Napoleon Hills book and think about how it applies to all human endeavors, including winning money at gambling.

Ive barely scratched the surface of the lessons in the book that apply to gambling.

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Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - Gambling Success Tips - BestUSCasinos.org