The Business of Belief: How the World's Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe

by Tom Asacker

Beliefs are really nothing more than working assumptions.

Because belief is unique and fluid. Belief is a personal construct,

These hardwired biases to see patterns and make meaning, craft an acceptable and consistent personal narrative, and exert control over its environment are the irresistible forces that influence the brain’s creation of beliefs.

We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Our individual mythologies, our comfortable, prefabricated interpretations and sets of opinions, are our beliefs.

That’s how our brains evolved—by seeking patterns and making meaning, everywhere and all the time.

Our perception becomes our reality, and a belief is born.

Can you believe it? You can if you can feel it.

Your mind simply wants to understand and make predictions. So it will invent dots until it envisions a coherent picture. This happens automatically and the resulting view is the unique, imaginative frame through which you look at the world.

Your present passes through a filter of your past to create spontaneous meaning.

Everything is inherently without meaning. Except for the meaning we create.

we almost always find a way to create a story that reinforces what we want to believe.

Stories are powerful. Because we all become the stories we tell ourselves.

Who we think we are is why we do what we do.

We live in our stories, and we live according to them.

We don’t optimize our decisions. We decide, and believe, in order to feel good. And to avoid feeling bad.

Desire fuels belief, especially in their ability to control their destiny, and through thoughtful and determined action (and luck) many achieve what they put their minds to. Belief, then, is a somewhat naïve, self-fulfilling prophecy.

We have a deep desire to understand and explain everything to ourselves, including the random twist and turns of our own lives.

What we believe is what we desire, and what we desire is ultimately what we do. It’s the human condition.

Only those who truly desire what’s on the other side, and who feel relatively safe and in control, will be moved to venture across.

Great designers design new beliefs.