The Magic of Thinking Big Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Audio available

Brief Summary

Success isn’t something that happens to everyone. It takes a lot of self-belief and the ability to move past failure.

You can be successful by implementing changes to your life that will benefit you in the longterm. Learning to think positively and be respectful of other people is just the beginning. You also need to develop your confidence and sustain a positive attitude even when confronted with potential failure. Most importantly, you need to surround yourself with supportive friends and colleagues. After all, if you really want to accomplish all your goals, you cannot do it alone.

About the Author

David Schwartz was a motivational speaker and author. His book, The Magic of Thinking Big was first published in 1959 and has since become a bestseller, with over 6 million copies sold. Schwartz was a professor at Georgia State University and a founder of the Creative Educational Services Inc. consultancy firm. He was considered a leading expert on motivation. He died in December 1987.

Topics

Self Development Motivation & Inspiration

The Magic of Thinking Big Book Summary Preview

What you'll learn:

How positive thinking leads to success.
Believing in yourself is integral to your success.
It is just as difficult to accomplish a small goal as it is a major one.
If you find reasons for not trying to achieve your goal you guarantee yourself a failure.
Making physical changes such as walking with confidence will affect your mindset in a positive way.
Making a list of your goals to achieve over the next ten years will help you reach them.
Continuously thinking about your goals and ideas in a positive way will hone your mindset for success.

Who this is for:

Entrepreneurs
Business Executives
Office Managers
Students
Business Owners

Key Insights

The key to accomplishing your goals is believing in yourself. Everyone has goals and, whether they are big or small, certain common factors determine whether or not you’re likely to meet your goals. You have to start by believing in your abilities.

Focus on improving your mindset. When you develop a positive mindset, you will start to believe you can accomplish anything. As you start to grow in confidence you’ll become more adept at creative thinking. This, in turn, will help you fulfill your ambitions.

Having a successful mindset is more than just retaining facts.

A lot of people believe that the more you know, the more successful you will be. While gaining knowledge in a subject matter can be liberating, it does not mean you will achieve all your goals. Learning all you can about a subject is known as fact memorization. While it is useful in understanding a subject, it does not help you to figure out how to be successful in your own life.

If you are serious about achieving your goals, you need to become adept at creative thinking. Unlike fact memorization, creative thinking helps you to overcome obstacles and find solutions to them. Creative thinkers are often innovative and much more effective when it comes to encountering unforeseen problems.

One of the big differences between fact memorization and creative thinking is how it affects your mindset. There is nothing wrong with learning facts and retaining information. However, if you’re only way of approaching problems is to focus on facts you know about a subject, you can find yourself boxed in by your own knowledge.

When you allow yourself to be flexible in your approach, improvising a solution to something unknown is much easier. Creative thinking doesn’t come naturally to everyone and you may find that have you to train yourself into the habit. Be open to suggestions and new ideas as this will help with your mindset. Try new things whenever the opportunity presents itself, and ask yourself on a daily basis if you can do a better job today than previous days.

As you refine your creative mindset, engage with others from different backgrounds and industries. This will help you look beyond your own experiences and see things from a fresh perspective. While you may find it can be challenging at times, it will also allow you to develop a different set of skills and engage with a new community of peers.