1. 1-Sentence-Summary:
1.1. The Magic of Thinking Big gives you several starting points to develop and strengthen the most important trait of successful people: believing in yourself.
2. Favorite quote from the author:
2.1. "Do what you fear and fear disappears." - David Joseph Schwartz
3. Lessons
3.1. Create a mindset in which you feel 100% capable of achieving whatever you set out to do.
3.1.1. This works because once you start believing in yourself enough, your brain will spark the creativity required to achieve your goal.
3.1.2. What management and societal leaders are looking for most, when working with people, is the drive to move forward.
3.1.2.1. People are looking for this attitude, because it makes sure you persevere in the face of failure and adversity, instead of running away at the first roadblock.
3.2. To improve your self belief and confidence:
3.2.1. Constantly work on your creative thinking skills.
3.2.1.1. As opposed to just memorizing facts, which will only help you in certain situations, creative thinking will help you solve any kind of problem you will face.
3.2.1.2. David suggests 3 things:
3.2.1.2.1. Always be open to new ideas.
3.2.1.2.2. Learn something new whenever you can.
3.2.1.2.3. Ask yourself “How can I do a better job today?” every day.
3.2.1.3. For example: It might seem useless to you to learn photoshop if you’re working in a car dealership, but if it’s fun, do it anyway.
3.2.1.3.1. Adopt the mentality of “Who knows what it might be good for?“.
3.2.1.3.2. In this case you could easily use your new graphic design skills to create a bunch of awesome Facebook ads that can help you sell a lot more cars.
3.2.2. Shut down the negative voices in your head.
3.2.2.1. Negative thinking is quite the norm.
3.2.2.2. However, you’ll find nay-sayers are almost always unsuccessful or just average.
3.2.2.3. You can do this by writing down a pep talk that reads like a commercial where you try to sell yourself to yourself.
3.2.2.3.1. Focus on what makes you different, for example that you’re funny and make people laugh at work all the time.
3.2.2.3.2. Read it out loud once a day and in quiet whenever you feel a bit down.
3.2.3. Treat everyone you meet with respect.
3.2.3.1. Chances are you won’t become a success all on your own – usually people around us lift us up in a way.
3.2.3.2. Respect them even if they act crazy - they might just have a bad day.
3.2.3.3. Just like you want to be treated like an important person, so do they.
3.2.4. Create an environment of high quality people for yourself
3.2.4.1. “You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.”
3.2.4.2. Only take advice from the ones that have gone where you want to go.
3.2.4.3. Jeff Bezos from Amazon didn’t have a lot of successful friends, so he just surrounded himself with books.
3.2.4.3.1. By reading biographies of successful people he felt like hanging out with them.
3.2.5. Have a great attitude
3.2.5.1. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind and people always catch on to what’s going on.
3.2.5.2. Two things you can do to improve your attitude include always doing what you think is morally right and always dressing well.
3.2.5.2.1. The former is powerful from the inside, because you believing in your work will make sure you take pride in it, the latter is powerful from the outside, because it makes you and others feel important.
3.2.5.3. No one is born confident, yet everyone can learn it.
3.2.5.3.1. “Fake it till you make it” is true in this case, because you can control your emotions by behaving the way you want to feel.
3.2.5.3.2. So sit in the first row, make eye contact with people and walk faster than others.
3.2.5.3.3. Just like dressing well it will make you look important on the outside, which in turn will make you feel confident on the inside.
3.2.5.4. “Winners find solutions, losers find excuses.”
3.2.5.4.1. Believing in yourself is what creates the difference between trying to find someone to blame when things go wrong, and looking for a way to try again and be better.
3.3. Take a 2-step approach: Plan and execute.
3.3.1. Write down a detailed, step-by-step plan with instructions how you’ll do each step and a rough idea of when you’ll complete it.
3.3.2. Then, get to work and study your setbacks.
3.3.3. Don’t waste any energy beating yourself up
3.3.4. Try to learn from what went wrong and take the next step.