The Magic of Thinking Big

by David J. Schwartz

Put service first, and money takes care of itself.

Always give people more than they expect to get. Each little extra something you do for others is a money seed.

Introduce yourself to others at every possible opportunity—at parties, meetings, on airplanes, at work, everywhere.

listen in on as many conversations as you can. Note two things: which person in the conversation does the most talking and which person is the more successful.

the big cause of stress is negative feelings toward other people. So think positive toward people and discover how wonderful, really wonderful this world is.

how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

Most of the good ideas come from just getting to work.”

you remember something much longer and much more exactly if you write the thought on paper.

We must have persistence. But persistence is only one of the ingredients of victory. We can try and try, and try and try and try again, and still fail, unless we combine persistence with experimentation.

If you aren’t getting results, try a new approach.

the hour-by-hour method. Instead of trying to reach the ultimate goal—freedom from the habit—just by resolving never to smoke again, the person resolves not to smoke for another hour. When the hour is up, the smoker simply renews his resolution not to smoke for another hour.

An hour is easy; forever is difficult.

It’s a rare person who has achieved high-level success who has not had to take detours—many of them.

The 4 percent who liked the commercial were people pretty much like Ted in terms of income, education, sophistication, and interests. The remaining 96 percent were definitely in a different socioeconomic class. Ted’s commercials, which cost a lot of money, flopped because Ted thought only of his own interests.

“If I were a typical prospective buyer, how would I react to this ad?”