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How to Crush Your Doubts and Fears — The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

Book review and summary

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About The Magic of Thinking Big

Written decades ago but still relevant today, David Schwartz’s The Magic of Thinking Big is a manifesto filled with practical tips about why it is important to think big, and how to do so in a variety of situations.

In his book, The Dip, marketing guru Seth Godin cited this book as a game-changer in his own life. Schwartz includes stories by real people who used various “thinking big” techniques to gain promotions, win over crotchety customers, and ultimately achieve their goals. This book is an easy read and very encouraging. Definitely recommended.

Chapter 1: Believe You Can Succeed and You Will

Summary of this chapter: Your attitude is everything. Trying without belief is failure — you have to believe you are among the best. Don’t worship leaders — learn from them and study them. Your mind, as Schwartz points out, is a thought factory that receives and produces thoughts, and the more work you give to the “positive” side of your mind as opposed to the negative sides, the stronger it gets.

Now is a fantastic time — there are new technologies and opportunities and markets everywhere! So don’t sell yourself short: successful people are ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do.

This book is a training program, and like any such program, it does 3 things: 1) provide content (what to do) 2) supply a method (how to do it) 3) pass the acid test (get results).

• Belief is not the same as wishful thinking.
• Strong belief triggers the mind to figure ways and means and how-to. And believing you can succeed makes others place confidence in you.
• most people understand little about why people act as they do even though they are surrounded by people all their lives [because] Most people are not trained observers.
• Be a trained observer: Study the most and least successful people you know.

Chapter 2: Cure Yourself of Excusitis, the Failure Disease

In this chapter, Schwartz discusses the 4 most common excuses: bad health, not enough brains (don’t overestimate how much brainpower the other guy really has or underestimate your own brainpower), too old/young, bad luck.

• Recommended book: How to Live 365 Days a Year by Dr. Schindler.
• Tell yourself: “I resolve to live until I die”
• Knowledge is only potential power. Knowledge is power only when put to use — and then only when the use made of it is constructive. (Ie, miscellaneous facts aren’t useful. Knowing how to get info > storing facts in your brain)
• Age has no real relation to ability unless you convince yourself that years alone will give you the stuff you need to make your mark.
• “Luck” is really just cause-and-effect

Chapter 3: Build Confidence and Destroy Fear

Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear.

Schwartz points out that the brain is like a bank, and lack of self-confidence is due to a mismanaged memory. So one should only “deposit” positive memories, because what one remembers from the past colors what one sees in the present.

• Write down 3 things that make you happy every day.
• Dr. Melvin S. Hattwick, advertising psychologist: ads are more likely to be remembered when the feeling is pleasant.
• People are more alike than they are different. So get a balanced view of people —

[the other fellow] is important. Every human is. But remember this, also: You are important, too.

• Guilt jams your thought processes. Going against the desire to do right = cancer of the conscience.
• Recommended book: JC Penney’s Fifty Years Witih the Golden Rule
• George W. Crane in Applied Psycholgy: we can change our attitudes by changing our actions physically (sit up front, make eye contact, walk a little faster)

Remember, motions are the precursors of emotions. You can’t control the latter directly but only through your choice of motions or actions — George W. Crane

Chapter 4: How to Think Big

• Remember “know thyself” does not mean “know only thy negative self.”
• An exercise Schwartz recommends: figure out your top 5 assets, write down 3 successful people who don’t have these assets to as great a degree as you do. You probably outrank many successful people by 1 or more asset. You’re bigger than you think!

We do not think in words and phrases. We think only in pictures and/or images. Words are the raw materials of thought. When spoken or read…the mind automatically converts words and phrases into mind pictures.

When you speak or write, you are, in a sense, a projector showing movies in the minds of others.

• We can choose to see ourselves as we will be, not as we were.

The price tag the world puts on us is just about identical to the one we put on ourselves.

• How to be a good speaker: know what you’re talking about and intensely desire to tell others.
• How to eliminate quarrels: eliminate petty thinking.
• Thinking your present job is important will help you get that promotion.

Chapter 5: How to Think and Dream Creatively

Creative thinking, Schwartz says, is everywhere, not just in science/art/writing. How can we all be more creative thinkers? 1) believe it’s doable (Eg, “assuming we can eliminate jails, how would we begin?”), 2)

Creative thinking is simply finding new, improved ways to do anything.

• When you truly believe something is possible, your mind finds ways to do it. When you think something’s impossible, your mind will find ways to prove that.
• So when you want to do something, make a list of reasons why you CAN DO IT.
• Average people resent progress. You have to delete thoughts like “won’t work,” “can’t be done,” “it’s stupid.”
• There is no one best way to do anything.
• One of Schwartz’s students regularly takes notes on how to improve her business and reviews her ideas for 4 hours once a week, selecting which ideas to implement. She just conscientiously asks “how can I do a better job?” and finds the answers.

It isn’t so much what you know when you start that matters. It’s what you learn and put to use after you open your doors that counts most. — Schwartz’ student.

• Write down all of your good ideas to solve problems and achieve what you want to achieve.

Capacity is a state of mind. How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do. When you really believe you can do more, your mind thinks creatively and shows you the way.

• Schwartz’s Success Combination formula: do what you do better (increase quality)+ do more of what you do (increase quantity)
• Remember that leaders spend more time asking advice than giving it. Leaders are decision-making machines, so they neeed raw material.

To sell John Brown what John Brown buys, you’ve got to see things through John Brown’s eyes.” And the way to get John Brown’s vision is to listen to what John Brown has to say. — old saying + Schwartz

• Encourage others to talk and test your own ideas by asking questions. Then listen carefully. Expose yourself to ideas of the intelligent. Expand your interests, rub elbows with folks outside your usual circles.

Ideas are highly perishable. If we’re not on guard, the squirrels (negative-thinking people) will destroy most of them. Ideas require special handling from the time they are born until they’re transformed into practical ways for doing things better.

How to deal with ideas:

1. Write them down
2. Review them
3. Cultivate/fertilize and make them grow.

• Don’t be paralyzed by tradition. Be receptive to new ideas.

Chapter 6: You Are What You Think You Are

According to Schwartz, others see us as we sees ourselves, because our thinking regulates our actions. So we need to dress right, believe in the importance of our work, give ourselves pep talks throughout the day,

• Just like the Coca-Cola Co. keeps using ads to remind consumers of its presence, reselling and reselling coke, we too need to be resold on ourselves and realize we are first class people.
• Here’s an idea: write a personal commercial ad about yourself: “Tom, you’re a big thinker. You’ve got plenty of ability to do a first-class job. You believe in happiness, etc…”

Chapter 7: Manage Your Environment: Go First Class

Just like the body reflects what it’s fed, so does your mind reflect its diet, determining habits/attitude/personality. We must fight to stay optimistic.

The number one obstacle on the road to high-level success is the feeling that major accomplishment is beyond reach.

• Remember: when you tell average friends your big dreams, they’ll probably laugh. But when you tell big people your big dreams, they won’t laugh.

Big men do not laugh at big ideas.

People who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people.

• It’s not true that successful people are inaccessible. The most successful people are humble and ready to help.
• Go first-class in all you do: Buy quality things that last.

Chapter 8: Make Your Attitudes Your Allies

Enthusiasm makes things 1000% better. But how do you develop enthusiasim? By researching and getting to know the topic/person.

• Recommended book: How to Talk Well (James F. Bender)
• Salesmen are good news braodcaster. They try to pass on good news all the time.
• They also treat everyone as the important people they are. EVERYONE wants to feel important. (Ad examples: “for smart young homemakers.” “People with distinctive tastes use…”)
• So make “little” people feel big, and “big” people feel bigger.
• Making others feel important makes YOU feel more important.

A person is a biological rarity. He is important in God’s scheme of things.

• How to make people feel important: compliment them on little things, remember their name, share glory, give thoughtful gifts.

People with a money-first attitude become so money conscious that they forget money can’t be harvested unless they plant the seeds that grow the money. And the seed of money is service.

Grow the “service first” attitude, and watch money take care of itself.

• Remember you don’t get a raise on a promise of better performrance, but by demonstrating better performance.
• Always give people more than they expect.

Chapter 9: Think Right Toward People

Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others.

• People aren’t pulled up to higher-level jobs, but lifted up. And being likable makes you lighter to lift.

You would be surprised how many really big people have a clear, definite, even written plan for liking people.

• How to be likable: remember names, be easy going and comfortable, be interesting, don’t be a know-it-all, heal grievances, always congratulate or sympathize with people. Don’t ignore people.

The most important person present is the one most active in introducing himself.

• Recognize that…no one is perfect, everyone has a right to be different, so don’t be a reformer.
• The best salespeople REALLY like the people they’re selling. The people you like will sooner or later like you.
• Remember that people like talking about themselves. So be conversationally generous.
• If you get passed over foro a promotion, don’t be mad. Ask: “What can I do to make myself more deserving of the next opportunity?”

Chapter 10: Get the Action Habit

There is plenty of room at the top. Remember that EVERYTHING we have started as an idea that was acted upon. Ideas alone aren’t enough. Ideas are only valuable when acted upon.

The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise, but to meet andn work out difficulties when they do arise.

• The best way to combat fear, any kind of fear, is action.
• Nothing starts itself. Action precedes action. You can’t wait for inspiration. Inspire yourself. Just get started without (overly) thinking about the task ahead.
• Be a “start right now” person — if you see something that needs to be done, do it.

Chapter 11: How to Turn Defeat Into Victory

Have the right attitude: competition doesn’t take stuff out of you, it puts stuff into you. You are learning how to sell.

Salvage something from every setback.

• To prevent a war of words after being sniped at: take a long pause first.

It is true that in this complex world others may trip us. But it is also true that more often than not we trip ourselves.

Persistence is only one of the ingredients of victory. We can try and try…and still fail, unless we combine persistence with experimentation.

• Seek out your faults and correct them.

Chapter 12: Use Goals to Help You Grow

The important thing about goals: it’s not where you were or are, but where you want to get. We can plan 10 years ahead. Form an image of who you want to be, 10 years from now. Think in terms of 3 categories: work, home, social.

People these days are measured by the size of their dreams. No one accomplishes more than he sets out to accomplish. So visualize a big future.

All of us have desires. All of us dream of what we really want to do. But few of us actually surrender to desire. Instead of surrendering to desire, we murder it.

Energy increases, multiplies, when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal.

• Schwartz shares a story about a college friend whose mother (a widow) was diagnosed with fatal cancer when he was two, but staved off death for 20 years because she wanted to see her son graduate first.

Use goals to live longer. No medicine in the world…is as powerful in bringing about long life as is the desire to do something.

• the principle of the “next mile” (Eric Sevareid, author and correspondent, interviewed in Reader’s Digest April 1957): don’t think about the whole project, just the next step.
• An hour is easy. Forever is difficult.

If you check the past histories of people who seemed to arrive at the top suddenly, you’ll discover a lot of solid groundwork was previously laid.

• Make a master plan to take you to your objective, but also map out alternatives. There are many detours on the route to high-level success.
• Real education isn’t storing facts. It’s cultivating your mind, how well you think. Education is about improving thinking ability.

Chapter 13: How to Think Like a Leader

Leading means getting people to do things they wouldn’t do if they weren’t led. There are four leadership rules: 1) trade minds with people you want to influence, 2) ask yourself what’s the humane way to handle things? 3) believe in and push for progress 4) take time to confer with yourself and develop your thinking abilities.

• Schwartz shares a story about an executive named John S (engineering development section of a large aluminum manufacturer). When he had to lay off a person, he told the man why it was to his advantage, and helped him find a better position. Because:

Whoever is under a man’s power is under his protection, too.

Anybody can hire a man. But the test of leadership is how one handles the dismissal. By helping that employee relocate before he left us built up a feeling of job security in everyone in my department.

What kind of world would this world be,

if everyone in it were just like me?

• Spend time alone. All prominent people have — good and bad — Jesus was in the wilderness and Marx was in jail.
• Practice directed and undirected thinking.
• Don’t fight little people. That pulls you down to their level.

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