The Magic of Thinking Big
This story originally appeared in my book club. Since I recently sold the company I launched at 19 years old — we did $5m in sales and raised $2.5m in VC- I’ve shifted my focus to reading a book a day. Join my book club now to see what a 26 year old with one exit under his belt is reading.
I used to hate it when my parents would say: “You can do anything you put your mind to”.
It felt too “fairy”, “up in the clouds”, “sexy one-liner”.
But, as often parents are, they were right. Recently, I shocked many when I said I would launch a podcast and take it to #1 in iTunes and 1,000,000 downloads in the first 6 months. Well, that just happened.
It’s the Magic of Thinking Big. The book is a powerful reminder that you simply must brainwash yourself to truly believe you can do anything, and it’ll happen.
Click here to buy the book on Amazon and read along.
Here are the three lessons I learned from the book that holds the key to anyone moving from poor to rich, sad to happy, and unsuccessful to wildly successful.
Prime Your Mind
Belief, strong belief, triggers the mind to figure ways means and how to. And believing you can succeed makes others place confidence in you.
Those who believe they can move mounts do.
When you face a difficult situations, think “I’ll win”, not “I’ll probably lose”.
Think victory and succeed.
Losers Look For Ways To Feed Themselves Excuses
Study the lives of successful people like Red McCombs or Jerry Weintraub and you’ll discover this: all the excuses made by the mediocre fellow could be but aren’t made by the successful person.
Knowledge is only power when you use it constructively. If you use your knowledge to feed yourself more elaborate excuses, you fail.
Remember that the thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence you have. This is how people win who never got a perfect SAT score, or have no college degree or high IQ.
Ask yourself: “Am I using my mental ability to make history, or am I using it merely to record history made by others?”
Stop the excuses. Tell yourself you can, feed yourself positive thoughts, and go make history.
Why You Are Washed Up And 40
The reason so many gossip magazines are successful are not because they do a great job reporting the truth but because they appeal to many worried minds looking for an excuse.
You read: “Why you are washed up at 40” and think “I’m 40! I must be washed up. I can’t do anything”.
Understanding that human nature is to look for a convenient excuse is both a power defense for yourself, and a powerful offense for you to beat your enemies.
Feed your enemies this poison and they’ll have no choice but to eventually agree with you — their mind is looking for an excuse! (that is, unless they are thinking big!).
In conclusion, do just three things every morning to convince yourself you can do anything. I always make myself laugh, just smile and start laughing (preferably when no one is around so they don’t think you’ve gone mad).
Second, look in the mirror directly into your eyes and repeat your wildest dreams (thanks Taylor Swift). I go between “I’ll be a billionaire by 34”, “I’ll run and win the US presidency in 2036” and “I will take my first company public by 30 years old”.
Now go, and think big.
Click here to buy the book on Amazon and read along.
If you liked these book notes, you’ll probably like these too:
Billionaire Red McCombs: “You Either Make Dust, Or Eat It”
The Most Persuasive Man Ever That You’ve Never Heard Of
Hey there! Quick favor: if you click that heart button below, it means more people will see these lessons for free. Would mean the world to me. Thanks! -NL :)
