Dear Loser,
I read Think and Grow Rich three times. I did all the exercises. I joined a mastermind group. My bank account has not changed. What am I doing wrong? — Thought, Didn't Grow in Tucson
Dear Thought,
Nothing. You're doing nothing wrong. The book is doing something wrong, which is promising that a specific mental attitude will produce specific financial results. Think and Grow Rich was published in 1937 and has sold over 100 million copies, which means the main beneficiary of the "think and grow rich" philosophy is the estate of Napoleon Hill, which has grown very rich indeed from people thinking they'll grow rich.
The mastermind group is a nice idea. Surrounding yourself with motivated people can be useful. But a mastermind group where everyone is reading the same book and doing the same exercises is just a book club with higher expectations. If the other people in your mastermind group have also read the book three times and are also not rich, that's data. Use it.
The useful parts of the book — set clear goals, work persistently, learn from setbacks — are common sense dressed in 1930s motivational language. The useless parts — that your thoughts literally attract wealth through some kind of cosmic frequency — are not common sense. They're magical thinking, which is a polite term for "believing in something because it would be nice if it were true."
Close the book. Open a spreadsheet. Look at your income and expenses. That's where the growing rich happens: in the boring gap between what you earn and what you spend. No amount of thinking changes the math.
— The Loser