Then the executive proceeded to show that success is determined not so much by the size of one’s brain as it is by the size of one’s thinking. (Location 44)
Tags: mindset, success
“too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” (Location 52)
Tags: management, quotes
“The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.” (Location 66)
Tags: perspective, stoicism, mindset
Shakespeare, who observed, “There is nothing either good or bad except that thinking makes it so.” (Location 67)
Tags: mindset, quotes
Belief works this way. Belief, the “I’m-positive-I-can” attitude, generates the power, skill, and energy needed to do. When you believe I-can-do-it, the how-to-do-it develops. (Location 153)
Believing they will succeed—and that it’s not impossible—these folks study and observe the behavior of senior executives. They learn how successful people approach problems and make decisions. They observe the attitudes of successful people. (Location 159)
Tags: mindset
The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who believes he can do it. A (Location 161)
Belief in success is the one basic, absolutely essential ingredient of successful people. (Location 190)
Tags: success, mindset
Think doubt and fail. Think victory and succeed. (Location 198)
Tags: mindset
It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don’t worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers. (Location 202)
Tags: mindset, mentor
Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life. (Location 204)
Tags: mindset
Thinking success conditions your mind to create plans that produce success. Thinking failure does the exact opposite. Failure thinking conditions the mind to think other thoughts that produce failure. (Location 291)
Tags: failure, success
Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen. Success does not require a superintellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn’t based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never—yes, never—sell yourself short. (Location 293)
Tags: mindset, success
Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. Remember this, too! Big ideas and big plans are often easier—certainly no more difficult—than small ideas and small plans. (Location 296)
Tags: goals, mindset
Go deep into your study of people, and you’ll discover unsuccessful people suffer a mind-deadening thought disease. We call this disease excusitis. Every failure has this disease in its advanced form. And most “average” persons have at least a mild case of it. (Location 340)
Tags: failure
Study the lives of successful people and you’ll discover this: all the excuses made by the mediocre fellow could be but aren’t made by the successful person. (Location 345)
Procedure One, then, in your individual program of thinking yourself to success, must be to vaccinate yourself against excusitis, the disease of the failures. (Location 357)
Tags: mindset
Excusitis appears in a wide variety of forms, but the worst types of this disease are health excusitis, intelligence excusitis, age excusitis, and luck excusitis. (Location 359)
“I’m going to live until I die and I’m not going to get life and death confused. While I’m on this earth I’m going to live. Why be only half alive? Every minute a person spends worrying about dying is just one minute that fellow might as well have been dead.” (Location 383)
The right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms every time. (Location 413)
Tags: attitude
Refuse to talk about your health. The more you talk about an ailment, even the common cold, the worse it seems to get. (Location 416)
Tags: mindset, health
Talking about bad health is like putting fertilizer on weeds. (Location 417)
Tags: quotes, health
The story is told that the great scientist Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein’s reply was “I don’t know. Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?” Einstein taught us a big lesson. He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts. (Location 494)
Tags: warehouse for facts, brain
Henry Ford was never interested in miscellaneous information. He knew what every major executive knows: that the ability to know how to get information is . more important than using the mind as a garage for facts. (Location 501)
Tags: warehouse for facts, brain
After the fellow answered a particularly odd question, some thing about a mountain in Argentina, my host looked at me and said, “How much do you think I’d pay that guy to work for me?” “How much?” I asked. “Not a cent over $300—not per week, not per month, but for life. I’ve sized him up. That ‘expert’ can’t think. He can only memorize. He’s just a human encyclopedia, and I figure for $300 I can buy a pretty good set of encyclopedias. (Location 505)
Tags: warehouse for facts, brain
Remind yourself several times daily, “My attitudes are more important than my intelligence.” At work and at home practice positive attitudes. See the reasons why you can do it, not the reasons why you can’t. Develop an “I’m winning” attitude. Put your intelligence to creative positive use. Use it to find ways to win, not to prove you will lose. (Location 517)
Tags: attitude, mindset
Remember that the ability to think is of much greater value than the ability to memorize facts. (Location 520)
Tags: newsletter, brain, warehouse for facts
Ask yourself, “Am I using my mental ability to make history, or am I using it merely to record history made by others?” (Location 521)
Tags: warehouse for facts
Compute how much productive time you have left. Remember, a person age thirty still has 80 percent of his productive life ahead of him. And the fifty-year-old still has a big 40 percent—the best 40 percent—of his opportunity years left. Life is actually longer than most people think! (Location 593)
Tags: old age
Action does cure fear. (Location 658)
Remember, it’s ten times easier for a man with a job to get another job than it is for someone unemployed to connect.” (Location 683)
Tags: career
When we face tough problems, we stay mired in the mud until we take action. Hope is a start. But hope needs action to win victories. (Location 690)
Tags: action
Use this two-step procedure to cure fear and win confidence: 1. Isolate your fear. Pin it down. Determine exactly what you are afraid of. 2. Then take action. There is some kind of action for any kind of fear. (Location 704)
Tags: fear
And remember, hesitation only enlarges, magnifies the fear. Take action promptly. Be decisive. (Location 707)
Tags: fear
Here are two specific things to do to build confidence through efficient management of your memory bank. 1. Deposit only positive thoughts in your memory bank. (Location 721)
Tags: positivity, brain
Confident, successful people, on the other hand, “don’t give it another thought.” Successful people specialize in putting positive thoughts into their memory bank. (Location 726)
Tags: mindset, positivity
Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank. (Location 736)
“Simply this: destroy their negative thoughts before those thoughts become mental monsters.” (Location 740)
It is clear that any negative thought, if fertilized with repeated recall, can develop into a real mind monster, breaking down confidence and paving the way to serious psychological difficulties. (Location 748)
“I figured out something pretty basic back then. I discovered people are alike in many, many more ways than · they are different. I discovered the other fellow is pretty much like me. He likes good food, he misses his family and friends, he wants to get ahead, he has problems, he likes to relax. So if the other fellow is basically like me, there’s no point in being afraid of him.” (Location 790)
Walking toward the elevators, I caught myself repeating aloud, “Underneath he’s probably a very nice guy. Most folks are.” (Location 826)
Tags: mindset
Doing what’s right keeps your conscience satisfied. And this builds self-confidence. When we do what is known to be wrong, two negative things happen. First, we feel guilt and this guilt eats away confidence. Second, other people sooner or later find out and lose confidence in us. (Location 868)
It is easy to prove that managed motions can change emotions. People who are shy in introducing themselves can replace this timidity with confidence just by taking three simple actions simultaneously: First, reach for the other person’s hand and clasp it warmly. Second, look directly at the other person. And third, say, “I’m very glad to know you.” (Location 880)
Tags: charisma, networking
Be a front seater. (Location 885)
Tags: charisma
Practice making eye contact. (Location 889)
Tags: charisma
Walk 25 percent faster. (Location 898)
Practice speaking up. (Location 913)
Tags: think big, charisma
Smile big. (Location 928)
Tags: charisma
PUT THESE FIVE PROCEDURES TO WORK FOR YOU (Location 943)
Action cures fear. Isolate your fear and then take constructive action. Inaction—doing nothing about a situation—strengthens fear and destroys confidence. Make a supreme effort to put only positive thoughts in your memory bank. Don’t let negative, self-deprecatory thoughts grow into mental monsters. Simply refuse to recall unpleasant events or situations. Put people in proper perspective. Remember, people are more alike, much more alike, than they are different. Get a balanced view of the other fellow. He is just another human being. And develop an understanding attitude. Many people will bark, but it’s a rare one who bites. Practice doing what your conscience tells you is right. This prevents a poisonous guilt complex from developing. Doing what’s right is a very practical rule for success. Make everything about you say, “I’m confident, really confident.” Practice these little techniques in your day-to-day activities: Be a front seater. Make eye contact. Walk 25 percent faster. Speak up. Smile big. (Location 944)
Tags: favorite
Here is something very basic: We do not think in words and phrases. We think only in pictures and/or images. (Location 992)
Tags: visualisation
The point is this: Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others. To think big, we must use words and phrases that produce big, positive mental images. (Location 1004)
Tags: think big
Use big, positive, cheerful words and phrases to describe how you feel. (Location 1025)
Tags: language
The moral is this: Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. He isn’t stuck with the present. (Location 1063)
Tags: visualisation
the big things that make a good speaker: knowledge of what he’s going to talk about and an intense desire to tell it to other people. (Location 1166)
Yet all these successful public speakers have one thing in common: They have something to say and they feel a burning desire for other people to hear it. (Location 1170)
Tags: public speaking
Use the big thinker’s vocabulary. Use big, bright, cheerful words. Use words that promise victory, hope, happiness, pleasure; avoid words that create unpleasant images of failure, defeat, grief. (Location 1247)
Tags: language
Creative thinking is simply finding new, improved ways to do anything. (Location 1264)
Tags: creativity
When you believe something is impossible, your mind goes to work for you to prove why. But when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your mind goes to work for you and helps you find the ways to do it. (Location 1289)
Tags: mindset
“To keep my forward thinking on the track, I’ve divided my job into four elements: customers, employees, merchandise, and promotion. All during the week I make notes and jot down ideas as to how I can improve my business. (Location 1378)
General Electric uses the slogan “Progress is our most important product.” (Location 1398)
Capacity is a state of mind. (Location 1414)
Tags: mindset
person. I refuse to work on important projects with persons who have lots of free time. I have learned from painful, expensive experience that the fellow who has plenty of time makes an ineffective work partner. (Location 1449)
A leader is a decision-making human machine. (Location 1459)
Tags: ceo
Your ears are your intake valves. They feed your mind raw materials that can be converted into creative power. We learn nothing from telling. But there is no limit to what we can learn by asking and listening. (Location 1476)
Tags: learning, listen
Encourage others to talk. In personal conversation or in group meetings, draw out people with little urges, such as “Tell me about your experience…” or “What do you think should be done about…?” or “What do you think is the key point?” Encourage others to talk, and you win a double-barreled victory: your mind soaks up raw material that you can use to produce creative thought, and you win friends. There is no surer way to get people to like you than to encourage them to talk to you. (Location 1479)
Tags: charisma, listen
Resolve to put your ideas in saleable form. An idea written or in some sort of picture or diagram form has many times more selling power than the idea presented only in oral form. (Location 1551)
Tags: selling, stories
Note: Convert your ideas to written form!
Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” Capacity is a state of mind. Asking yourself this question puts your mind to work to find intelligent shortcuts. The success combination in business is: Do what you do better (improve the quality of your output), and: Do more of what you do (increase the quantity of your output). (Location 1559)
Tags: push limits
Practice asking and listening. Ask and listen, and you’ll obtain raw material for reaching sound decisions. Remember: Big people monopolize the listening; small people monopolize the talking. (Location 1562)
Tags: listen
To be important, we must think we are important, really think so; then others will think so too. Here again is the logic: How you think determines how you act. How you act in turn determines: How others react to you. (Location 1577)
Pay twice as much and buy half as many. Commit this answer to memory. (Location 1628)
Tags: favorite
Note: Buy good quality
There’s a story often told about the job attitudes of three bricklayers. It’s a classic, so let’s go over it again. When asked, “What are you doing?” the first bricklayer replied, “Laying brick.” The second answered, “Making $9.30 an hour.” And the third said, “Me? Why, I’m building the world’s greatest cathedral. (Location 1640)
Tags: anecdote, mindset
The way we think toward our jobs determines how our subordinates think toward their jobs. (Location 1712)
Tags: management, mindset
Go in that vacant room across the hall and tell yourself, ‘I’m going to give a great talk. I’ve got something those people need to hear and I want to say.’ Keep repeating those sentences forcefully, with complete conviction. Then come into the conference room and give your talk again.” (Location 1756)
Tags: public speaking
Remember: People who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people, are strictly average or mediocre at best in terms of accomplishment. The opinions of these people can be poison. (Location 1876)
Do circulate in new groups. Restricting your social environment to the same small group produces boredom, dullness, dissatisfaction; equally important, remember that your success-building program requires that you become an expert in understanding people. Trying to learn all there is to know about people by studying one small group is like trying to master mathematics by reading one short book. (Location 1980)
Tags: environment
Make your environment work for you, not against you. Don’t let suppressive forces—the negative, you-can’t-do-it people—make you think defeat. (Location 2045)
Tags: environment
Get your advice from successful people. Your future is important. Never risk it with freelance advisors who are living failures. (Location 2048)
Tags: advice
Note: Get advice from successful people
Get plenty of psychological sunshine. Circulate in new groups. Discover new and stimulating things to do. (Location 2049)
Tags: friendship
To activate others, to get them to be enthusiastic, you must first be enthusiastic yourself. (Location 2098)
Ever notice how seldom children complain about the weather? They take hot weather in their stride until the negative news corps educate them to be conscious of unpleasant temperatures. Make it a habit always to speak favorably about the weather regardless of what the weather actually (Location 2172)
Tags: complaining, mindset
“Give me a Good Word or none at all.” (Location 2191)
Tags: language
Practice appreciation. Make it a rule to let others know you appreciate what they do for you. Never, never let anyone feel he is taken for granted. (Location 2246)
Tags: appreciate
Practice appreciation with honest, personalized compliments. People thrive on compliments—whether two or twenty, nine or ninety, a person craves praise. (Location 2251)
Tags: favorite
Note: Give people honest personalised compliments
Practice calling people by their names. (Location 2257)
Tags: networking, communication
Don’t hog glory, invest it instead. (Location 2264)
Put service first, and money takes care of itself—always. (Location 2332)
Tags: money
Here is a simple but powerful rule that will help you to develop the put-service-first attitude: Always give people more than they expect to get. Each little extra something you do for others is a money seed. (Location 2363)
Note: Always over deliver
Grow the “I’m activated” attitude. Results come in proportion to the enthusiasm invested. (Location 2369)
Grow the “You are important” attitude. People do more for you when you make them feel important. Remember to do these things: Show appreciation at every opportunity. Make people feel important. Call people by name. (Location 2374)
Grow the “Service first” attitude, and watch money take care of itself. Make it a rule in everything you do: give people more than they expect to get. (Location 2376)
The rule is: Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others. (Location 2380)
The answer, wrapped up in one phrase, is think right toward people. Think right toward people, and they will like and support you. (Location 2389)
Now, here is an exceptionally important observation: In at least nine cases out of ten, the “likability” factor is the first thing mentioned. And in an overwhelmingly large number of cases, the “likability” factor is given far more weight than the technical factor. (Location 2398)
Tags: likeability
Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing. (Location 2412)
Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you. (Location 2415)
Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all. (Location 2416)
Tags: ego
Study to get the “scratchy” elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious. (Location 2418)
Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment. (Location 2421)
Tags: character, charisma
Take the initiative in building friendships—leaders always do. It’s easy and natural for us to tell ourselves, “Let him make the first move.” “Let them call us.” “Let her speak first.” (Location 2442)
Tags: leadership, character
Actually, it’s a mark of real leadership to take the lead in getting to know people. Next time you are in a large group, observe something very significant: the most important person present is the one person most active in introducing himself. (Location 2445)
Tags: leadership, networking
Here are six ways to win friends by exercising just a little initiative: (Location 2457)
Introduce yourself to others at every possible opportunity—at parties, meetings, on airplanes, at work, everywhere. (Location 2458)
Tags: networking, friendship
Be sure the other person gets your name straight. (Location 2459)
Be sure you can pronounce the other person’s name the way he pronounces it. (Location 2460)
Tags: communication
Write down the other person’s name, and be mighty sure you have it spelled correctly; understandably people have a thing about the correct spelling of their own names! If possible, get their address and phone number, also. (Location 2461)
Tags: names
Drop a personal note or make a phone call to the new friends you feel you want to know better. This is an important point. Most successful people follow through on new friends with a letter or a phone call. 6. And last but not least, say pleasant things to strangers. It warms you up and gets you ready for the task ahead. (Location 2463)
Tags: networking
Note this simple but key fact: No person is all good and no person is all bad. The perfect person just doesn’t exist. (Location 2485)
Make a forceful promise to yourself. Refuse to let others prejudice your thinking. Stay tuned to Channel P. (Location 2519)
“But I also get something else which most salesmen never search for—that is, some sound reasons why I can like the prospect. Maybe the job he’s doing will supply the reason, or perhaps I can find it someplace in his past record. But I find some good reasons to like him. (Location 2531)
Hundreds of my own little experiments have revealed this: The person who does the most talking and the person who is the most successful are rarely the same person. (Location 2570)
Tags: listen
Almost without exception, the more successful the person, the more he practices conversation generosity, that is, he encourages the other person to talk about himself, his views, his accomplishments, his family, his job, his problems. (Location 2571)
Tags: listen
Remember this: the average person would rather talk about himself than anything else in this world. When you give him the chance, he likes you for it. Conversation generosity is the easiest, simplest, and surest way there is to win a friend. (Location 2575)
Tags: conversation
Remember this: how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win. (Location 2593)
Make yourself lighter to lift. Be likable. Practice being the kind of person people like. This wins their support and puts fuel in your success-building program. (Location 2607)
Tags: be likeable
Take the initiative in building friendships. Introduce yourself to others at every opportunity. Make sure you get the other person’s name straight, and make certain he gets your name straight too. Drop a personal note to your new friends you want to get to know better. (Location 2608)
Tags: friendship, networking
Note: Take the initiative in making friends, make the 1st move and remember their name!
Accept human differences and limitations. Don’t expect anyone to be perfect, Remember, the other person has a right to be different. And don’t be a reformer. (Location 2610)
Note: Everyone is different. Don't try to change people.
Tune in Channel P, the Good Thoughts Station. Find qualities to like and admire in a person, not things to dislike. And don’t let others prejudice your thinking about a third person. Think positive thoughts toward people—and get positive results. Practice conversation generosity. Be like successful people. Encourage others to talk. Let the other person talk to you about his views, his opinions, his accomplishments. Practice courtesy all the time. It makes other people feel better. It makes you feel better too. Don’t blame others when you receive a setback. Remember, how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win. (Location 2611)
Tags: positivity, favorite
As one executive explained, there are many almost-qualified people, but there is one success ingredient often missing: that is the ability to get things done, to get results. (Location 2620)
Every big job—whether it be operating a business, high-level selling, in science, the military, or the government—requires a person who thinks action. (Location 2621)
Principal executives, looking for a key person, demand answers to questions like “Will she do the job?” “Will he do flow through?” “Is she a self-starter?” “Can he get results, or is he just a talker?” (Location 2622)
But nothing man-made or man-designed is, or can be, absolutely perfect. So to wait for the perfect set of conditions is to wait forever. (Location 2645)
Tags: execution
The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise, but to meet and work out difficulties when they do arise. We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking action. It’s still good advice to cross bridges as we come to them. (Location 2665)
Tags: challenges
Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Here’s something to remember. Action feeds and strengthens confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear—wait, put off, postpone. (Location 2731)
Tags: fear
Build confidence. Destroy fear through action, (Location 2755)
it’s easier to spend what’s left over after savings than it is to save what’s left over after spending. (Location 2808)
Tags: investing
Get the “speak up” habit. Each time you speak up, you strengthen yourself. Come forward with your constructive ideas. (Location 2826)
Tags: character
Remember, ideas alone won’t bring success. Ideas have value only when you act upon them. (Location 2886)
Tags: execution
Note: Ideas alone are worthless, it's all about the execution
Get down to business—pronto. Don’t waste time getting ready to act. Start acting instead. (Location 2891)
salvage something from every setback. (Location 2947)
Tags: failure
Defeat is only a state of mind, and nothing more. (Location 2983)
Tags: mindset, failure
The difference between success and failure is found in one’s attitudes toward setbacks, handicaps, discouragements, and other disappointing situations. (Location 3090)
Tags: failure
Blend persistence with experimentation. Stay with your goal but don’t beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches. Experiment. (Location 3096)
Tags: persistence
Nothing happens, no forward steps are taken, until a goal is established. Without goals individuals just wander through life. They stumble along, never knowing where they are going, so they never get anywhere. (Location 3104)
Tags: goals
The important thing is not where you were or where you are but where you want to get. (Location 3109)
Over and over again in different ways these researchers kept getting one answer: the most important qualification for an executive is the sheer desire to get ahead, (Location 3175)
Tags: hard work
The step-by-step method is the only intelligent way to attain any objective. (Location 3279)
Tags: compound
A diploma or degree may help you get a job, but it will not guarantee your progress on the job. “Business is interested in competency, not diplomas.” (Location 3341)
Tags: college
Real education, the kind worth investing in, is that which develops and cultivates your mind. How well educated a person is, is measured by how well his mind is developed—in brief, by how well he thinks. (Location 3344)
These four leadership rules or principles are: Trade minds with the people you want to influence. Think: What is the human way to handle this? Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Take time out to confer with yourself and develop your supreme thinking power. (Location 3384)
Tags: leadership
Keep this question in mind: “What would I think of this if I exchanged places with the other person?” It paves the way to more successful action. (Location 3432)
Practice praising people. Rub people the right way. Be human. (Location 3537)
Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do. (Location 3544)
Tags: standards
To be a more effective leader, put these four leadership principles to work: 1. Trade minds with the people you want to influence. It’s easy to get others to do what you want them to do if you’ll see things through their eyes. Ask yourself this question before you act: “What would I think of this if I exchanged places with the other person?” 2. Apply the “Be-Human” rule in your dealings with others. Ask, “What is the human way to handle this?” In everything you do, show that you put other people first. Just give other people the kind of treatment you like to receive. You’ll be rewarded. 3. Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do. Over a period of time subordinates tend to become carbon copies of their chief. Be sure the master copy is worth duplicating. Make this a personal resolution: ‘At home, at work, in community life, if it’s progress I’m for it.” 4. Take time out to confer with yourself and tap your supreme thinking power. Managed solitude pays off. Use it to release your creative power. Use it to find solutions to personal and business problems. So spend some time alone every day just for thinking. Use the thinking technique all great leaders use: confer with yourself. (Location 3669)
Tags: leadership
When an Argument or Quarrel Seems Inevitable, Think Big Successfully resist the temptation to argue and quarrel by: 1. Asking yourself, “Honestly now, is this thing really important enough to argue about?” 2. Reminding yourself, you never gain anything from an argument but you always lose something. 3. Think Big Enough to see that quarrels, arguments, feuds, and fusses will never help you get where you want to go. (Location 3699)
Note: You never gain anything by an argument, always look to avoid