Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Transmuting Desire Into Drive: Napoleon Hill’s Controversial Claim | #Success - Ep. 117

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Most people skip over the chapter on sexual transmutation in Think and Grow Rich because it feels uncomfortable. I’ll be honest… for years, I did the same thing. But recently, I pulled something fascinating out of my vault - a 1937 issue of Practical Psychology magazine, published the same year Napoleon Hill released Think and Grow Rich. Inside was an article he wrote called “Sex Urge Stimulates Genius.” And it forced me to finally have the conversation most entrepreneurs avoid. Hill makes a bold claim: men seldom succeed before forty - and often not until fifty - because they dissipate their strongest driving force. After studying more than 25,000 people, he believed the highest achievers learned how to redirect their sexual energy instead of constantly releasing it. That idea might sound controversial in today’s world, but the principle underneath it is powerful: if you want extraordinary success, you have to stop chasing pleasure and start channeling energy toward purpose. In this episode, I open up about why this topic makes me uncomfortable… why I avoided teaching it during our Think and Grow Rich Challenge… and why I now believe it’s one of the most misunderstood keys to creativity, drive, and long-term achievement. Key Highlights: ◼️Why Napoleon Hill believed the majority of high achievers don’t “hit their stride” until after forty ◼️The difference between pleasure and fulfillment - and how chasing the wrong one kills momentum ◼️What “transmutation of sexual energy” actually means (without the weird mysticism) ◼️The modern trap of dopamine addiction - from pornography to social media - and how it quietly drains ambition ◼️Lessons from Tim Ferriss’s 30-day “No Beer, No Masturbating” challenge and what happened when people removed instant gratification from their lives At its core, this episode isn’t really about sex. It’s about discipline. It’s about learning to hold tension instead of constantly seeking release. Just like music builds anticipation before delivering the chorus, your life works the same way. When you stop giving away your strongest energy to quick rewards and instead aim it at your mission, your creativity expands, your focus sharpens, and your drive multiplies. ◼️If you’ve got a product, offer, service… or idea… I’ll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event →⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ◼️Still don’t have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have a funnel, but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next selling online event by going to sellingonline.com slash podcast. That's selling online.com slash podcast. This is the Russell Brunson Show. Why men seldom succeed before 40. That's fascinating. And this week says, it said I discovered from analyzing from the analysis of over 25,000

people, the men who succeed in an outstanding way seldom do so before the age of 40. So why do people only succeed after 40? He says, and more often than not, they do not strike the real pace until they're well beyond the age of 50. This study to close is the fact that the major reason why the majority who succeed do not begin to do so before the age of 40 to 50 is their tendency to dissipate their energies through overindulgence in physical expression of the emotion of sex. Okay, so their focus is having sex, looking at pornography, doing these things like that,

to take away that energy versus not doing that. letting it stay inside of you and then using that to go and open up your creativity, your genius, driving you towards your different goals and motivation. So I thought it was an interesting way to look at what Napoleon Hill calls transmutation of sexual energy. Hey, this is Russell. Welcome back to my vault. Today I pulled out something very unique, very fascinating, a little controversial.

It is an issue of Practical Psychology Monthly Magazine from 1937, which happens to be the exact same year that Napoleon Hill wrote and launched the book, Think and Grow Rich. And in here, I found an article he used to promote thinking grow rich. And the article is called Sex Urge Stimulates Genius. And it's an entire chapter about, again, transmutation of sexual energy, which is something Napoleon Hill,

again, talks about thinking grow rich, talks about here. And again, this is something that I rarely, if ever have heard people talk about, when they talk about thinking grow rich, they talk about Napoleon Hill. There's something he keeps bringing up. And so I wanted it today in this video dive

a little bit deeper, like, why is he talking about it? Is it important first to understand and how can it help us to be more successful in our business? and in our lives. This makes me uncomfortable because, you know, I'm the Mormon LDS guy

who doesn't normally talk about these type of topics. It's funny, we did a Think and Grow Rich Challenge a little while ago, and when we were building out Thinking Grow Rich Challenge, I was like,

I'm going to pick, I think we picked six different laws from the Thinking Grow Rich book to talk about. And specifically, I did not pick one on sexual transmutation of energy,

because I don't want to talk about that. And it was funny is, we had a bunch of guest speakers. One of our guest speakers is John Gray, who wrote the book, the book, Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. And when it was John's turn to do his presentation, we were interviewing him.

So I asked him a question. He looked at me kind of annoyed. He's like, I can answer that question or I can give the presentation I planned. Would you rather me give my presentation I planned? I was like, oh, sure, go for it. And then, of course, he dove deep and spent an entire hour going deep on transmutation of sexual energy. And it was funny because I'm sitting there live on this camera.

There's a whole bunch of people watching this. My face is bright red as he's going deeper into this. I saw people in the comments like, look at Russell Blushing. Look at like, look how awkward Russell feels right now. This conversation as we were going live for an entire hour talking about it. So it's not like I think I normally talk about. But I do, I have read about it. I have studied.

I do have an opinion on it. And so in this article when I found this in the last month, I found this magazine and I bought it. I thought it'd be fun to bring up and talk to you guys about it today. Now, this magazine is the only issue I've ever found at this one. I paid $1,596. And 35 cents to be able to bring this to you guys today. because again, there's lunch school articles, but I wanted to bring it

because this is just a unique article that Napoleon Hill wrote specifically about sex, how sex urge stimulates genius. I want to stimulate my genius. I thought we'd dive into this and talk about how you can actually do that. I have a couple things I want to share quotes from here, but before we do,

what does that mean? Transmutation of sexual energy. So when Napoleon Hill talks about this, it's interesting because he talks about like the most powerful force that we have inside of our bodies is the sexual energy. It says the problem that most people have, the reason that most people aren't successful

is because, instead of like keeping that energy and focusing it on productive goals and things like that, they try to get rid of that energy very quickly, very often, right? I think about this nowadays. Like, it's interesting I see, especially in today's site, even more like way more so than 1937. But today I see people who who have goals, they have dreams, and then they use their sexual energy and they look at pornography.

They do these things like that. They releases sexual energy and then they just go back to drifting. And they lose that drive. They lose that energy and the momentum forward. And so Napoleon Hill talks about, he says that if you will not waste the sexual energy, and instead you like you bottle it up or you store it, like that energy is one of the most powerful things to open up creativity and to get you to drive towards something. And if you focus that energy on other things, that's how you become driven.

It's how you accomplish your goals, how you get the things you want in life. Now, I think, unfortunately, this is probably not going to be a popular opinion for most people. Most people probably think I'm, anyway, whatever. But the culture I grew up in and that I believe still my faith to this day is that people should wait until marriage to have sex. That's something that I did, something I believe people should do. I think it's something that Christianity teaches that God would like. And it's interesting for me, that's the way I live my life. So because of that, like, those drives were focused on other things, right, towards my goal of becoming state champion to wrestling, being an All-American to Wrestling, starting my business, growing my business, right?

Where most people in their teenage years, early in, you know, early in their marriage, like before they're married, like, they're looking at, they're searching, all the stuff, like, they're always looking for that release, they're always going to where. I see nowadays it's like so crazy because you look at like pornography use among people, like it's higher than it's ever been, right? And so many people, people who would be successful who could be creating companies and businesses and doing things. Instead, they slip back into this tendency to go and focus for those things. And it's interesting because this is true like almost any area of life. Like you look at the people, like there's always two versions of everything, right? There's the drifter and the driven version,

right? Napoleon Hill talks about it. win the devil. Like there's, there's people that drift and there's people that are driven, right? And it's interesting because like every version, like, there's always like a positive negative of everything, right? The thing I want to talk about in relation to what Napoleon is talking about here is people are seeking pleasure instead of fulfillment, right? There's always like, there's always the driven way and there's the drift away. Napoleon talks about drifting and then about being a non-drifter or someone who's driven, right? And so what people are searching for and what they're seeking is they're looking for pleasure over fulfillment, right?

And they want the reward without the work. And this happens in tons of areas of your life, right? Again, I think one of the easiest ones is like, pornography is like, it's like you get the reward without the work versus having an actual relationship with somebody who you love, right? It takes the work to get the actual reward. You look at this in relationships, right? There's social media.

You get the reward without the work, or it's actually going out and talking to people and building relationships. A lot of times reading is the same thing. Reading is like, is you get the reward without the work versus actually going out there and doing the thing. going to school. I have friends who go to school

and they get their bachelor's and their master's and their doctor because they're so scared of actually doing the work, right? They want to just keep drifting and keep going through things versus actually going and getting the reward. And so there's this thing

where our brains by default always try to slip to get the reward without doing the work. And so they get the pleasure without fulfillment, right? And so Napoleon was talking about here is like the default is like people

are like they have the sexual energy that they use it right and it builds it up where you can go and it gets you to get fulfillment and actually accomplish things you're looking for or you can get the reward without the work, right? You can drift, you can just give it away and it can dissipate.

It's why he's saying that people aren't successful until their 40s and their 50s when that urge has gone to where they found a spouse to get married to where no longer is like this thing that are always craving going for, right? They learn how to control it and because of that they can go and be successful. There's a quote from the movie Fantastic Four, which isn't the best superhero movie of all time. And I don't remember any of the movie other than there was this one part, one of the Fantastic Four is a musician, right? And talking about how music is made. And I remember when I heard this, that I clicked on my head.

I was sitting in a plane, flying summer, watching this movie. And this is what the quote said. And I'll read the quote and I'll try to explain it. It says, music is just a series of altered patterns. The musician creates the pattern

and it makes us anticipate a resolution then holds back and makes you wait for it and then delivers the course. Right. You should look at any song. The song is all about building up anticipation and waiting, right? And so the song's happening

and it's getting these altered patterns that create this tension, the tension, the course comes and then reduce it and gives you this resolution, right? And that's what happens is that when people are going and they're looking for the reward without the work, they're just going for the course, the course. Like they're just, they slip back into that thing where they get the reward without the work versus you build the anticipation, right? The music starts building, it builds, it builds, right? The tension happens and it releases into a

course. And so that's kind of the same thing here. It's like people don't allow the energy to be used inside of them to go and actually accomplish their goals, right? Instead, they're looking for the fastest release possible. And so one of the things I, that I talk about when I, I'm working, especially with younger entrepreneurs, it's like, you have to be careful. Like, don't chase things that give you the reward without the fulfillment of like actually doing the work, right? Because there's always a version. Anything you're looking at in life, there's always two versions of it. There's the version you have to work for and then there's the cheap version you can get and you can get the pleasure without the fulfillment. But if you learn how to like withhold that, right,

don't go after the instant pleasure. Instead, hold it back for actual fulfillment. That's the energy that'll help you to grow and actually achieve the things you want to do. And so again, While this is an awkward topic for me you talk about, and I'm not even looking forward to the comments in this YouTube video, because I'm sure it's going to be weird for some of you guys. It is a principle we talked about in thinking grow rich and over here.

I think the reason why is because if you want to be successful, right, we have to fight back our urges. And this can be true in anything. You want to be healthy in life, right? Like when I wanted to be healthy, I had to eat less calories. Like I couldn't just indulge everything I wanted to, right? I wanted the pleasure.

I wanted the fulfillment of like looking good and being healthy and like feeling the energy and vitality I wanted, right? And I couldn't do that by eating donuts every time I want. Like I had to restrict those things, right? Do the hard work so I can actually get the fulfillment of the thing I'm looking for, right? This is true in all areas of your life. And so that is my thing I want to share from, share from this issue of practical psychology and also think and grow rich. My question for you guys is, what do you guys think about transmutation

of sexual energy? I know that a couple years ago, Tim Ferriss did a really interesting challenge based on this. It's called the Nobo Challenge. We stood for no beer, no masturbating. And he had everybody in this community do it for 30 days. No beer, no masturbating, and see what happens. I remember watching as a bystander, like, this is, again, so awkward. But I wanted to see what would happen to typical people who are doing those things in life and they cut them out for 30 days. And it's crazy because as you saw at the very beginning, everyone's like, this is crazy. I'm trying to try it. And they're setting these goals. Like, they think it's an impossible thing, right? And then they go for 30 days and you start reading the comments. And people are like, oh my gosh,

like this changed my life. Like, I was able to get stuff done. I was able to focus. I was able to Like, when those things got off the table, it's like they literally transformed their entire life. And for most of them, they've never had a period where they've gone away from those things, right? Where they, again, they go for fulfillment or not of instant pleasure. And when you do that and you see what happens in 30 days. Again, go back, you can go and find it online, find when Tim Veres did this challenge and go read the comments to the people who went through it. And you see thousands and thousands of people like, my life was changed. Why was it changed?

It's because those things were taken off the table. It's exactly what Napoleon Hill is talking about here in thinking grow rich and inside practical psychology magazine. right? When you don't go for the quick release and instead you use that energy towards your goals, towards your vision, towards the things you're trying to do. He talks about like sexual energy is the best for creativity. It's the best for becoming a genius. It's the best for stimulating your mind to go and do the things versus if you're always releasing that. It takes away your drive. There's a lesson from Poli Hill from the grave that I didn't think I'd ever talk about publicly online, but thanks to John Gray, Drithing Growers Challenge. And now because of this magazine,

I had a chance to awkwardly share with all of you guys. We'd love to know your comments down below. What do you think? Who wants to do the No-Bow challenge with Tim Ferriss in the group and see how that'll change your life and increase your drive? The question then comes to like, well, how do you cultivate this inside of your marriage, right? One of my favorite scenes from Rocky, part one is Rocky and Adrian and are there. They're getting ready to fight with Apollo Cree. And if you remember Mick comes to Rocky and said, hey, Rock, women weakened legs. Like do not like pursue this because you're going to win this fight. Women weakened legs, right? And you see him like when him and agent is trying to snuggle with him and he's like, no, no, not

until after the fight, right? I saw recently Sean O'Malley was preparing for his big title rematch against Marab. And it was interesting he talked about leading up to that. He's like, I stopped being on social media. I was getting the dopamine. I pulled off social media. I stopped smoking weed. He was doing all these things to prepare himself, right?

I think it's true. Like if you want your significant other to be successful, it's like you've got to give them the ability to let those things build up to be able to create the environment for creativity, for the energy, for your drive. And so without giving you examples from my life, that's a way to definitely be able to hardest this power even after marriage. All right. So again, in the comments, I want to hear your guys' thoughts.

If you would like to read this article from practical psychology, I actually pulled it out and we have it on a PDF for you down in the description. I believe click on that and we'll send you guys a PDF so you can read it. That way you can get kind of your version of your thoughts about what Napoleon Hill says here. And also, of course, you can go back to thinking grow rich and read that chapter if you would like to. But if you want the actual article from this magazine, click in the description, go check.

it out and with that said I appreciate you guys for listening hope you enjoy this episode I cannot wait to hear what you have to say in the comments down below