Lead the Field: How to Build a Millionaire Mindset (Earl Nightingale Series)

by Earl Nightingale

To become diamond miners, the first thing we need to do is to break away from the crowd, and quit assuming that because people in the millions are living that way, it must be the best way.

It’s not the best way; it’s the average way.

The people going the best way are way out in front. They’re so far ahead of the crowd, you can’t even see their dust anymore. They’re the people who live and work on the leading edge, the c...

You and I have a choice to make, really. It takes imagination, curious imagination, to see diamonds in their rough state as cut and polished gemstones, and t...

There’s no growth of any kind without risk. We start running risks when we get out of bed in the morning. Risks are good for us. They bring out the best that’s in us. They brighten the eye and get the mind cooking. They quicken the step and put a new, shining look on our days.

Human beings should never be settled. It’s OK for chickens and cows and cats, but it’s wrong for human beings. People start to die when they become settled. We need to keep things stirred up.

The point of the article was, simply, don’t try to run away from your troubles. Overcome them; prevail, right where you are.

They never failed to give a friendly greeting to their customers. Naturally, they became wonderfully successful.

The people we have talked about here, and the thousands currently doing the same thing all over the country, possess something the average American doesn’t have: They have goals. They have a burning desire to succeed despite all handicaps. They know exactly what they want. They think about it every day of their lives. It gets them up in the morning, and it keeps them giving their very best all day long. It’s the last thing they think about before dropping off to sleep at night. They have a vision of exactly what they want to do, and that vision carries them over every obstacle.

Everything worthwhile that has been achieved by men and women is a dream come true, a goal reached.

We become what we think about. And when we’re possessed by an exciting goal, we reach it. That’s why it’s been said, “Be choosy, therefore, what you set your heart upon. For if you want it strongly enough, you’ll get it.” Amen to that.

Once a person fully understands that the goals that are important to him can become real in his life, well, it’s like opening a jack-in-the-box: All sorts of interesting and exciting things begin to happen. Quite often, we become truly alive for the first time in our lives. We look back at our former lives and realize we were shuffling along in a kind of lockstep; that we were actually taking our cues from those about us, in the unspoken assumption that we’re all alike, when nothing could be farther from the truth. We are not all alike. Each of us is quite different, with different abilities, different genetic profiles, different wants in life. What would wonderfully satisfy one family, and represent complete success for them, would be considered failure by another family—all because of their different aspirations, their different plateaus in life, the differences in their lifestyles, upbringings, educations.

“The secret of happiness is freedom; and the secret of freedom, courage.”

The best definition of success I’ve ever found goes like this: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal,” or, in some cases, “… the pursuit of a worthy ideal.”

If you have a goal that you find worthy of you as a person—a goal that fills you with joy at the thought of it—believe me, you’ll reach it.

For those whose goals involve the serving of great numbers of people, chances are they will be richly rewarded, indeed.

I went on to say that while our needs are few, and relatively simple, our wants, in this incredibly affluent society, are virtually endless.

quotation. It’s possible to get rich without enriching others, but for most of us, it’s not the way we want to go. It’s nothing to take pride in. Why bother when there are so many positive, excellent, and productive ways to serve others?

whatever our goal happens to be, if we stay with it, if we’re fully committed to it, we will reach it. That’s the way it works.

I like to compare human beings to ships, as Carlyle used to do. It’s estimated that about 95 percent can be compared to ships without rudders. Subject to every shift of wind and tide, they’re helplessly adrift. And while they fondly hope that they will one day drift into some rich and bustling port, you and I know that for every narrow harbor entrance, there are a thousand miles of rocky coastline. The chances of their drifting into port are a thousand to one against them.

One goal at a time—that’s important. That’s where most people unwittingly make their mistake. They don’t concentrate on a single goal long enough to reach it before they’re off on another track, then another, with the result that they achieve nothing—nothing but confusion—and make excuses.

We become what we think about.

By thinking every morning, every night, and as many times during the day as we can, about the single goal we’ve established for ourselves, we actually begin moving toward it, and bringing it toward us. When we concentrate our thinking, it’s like taking a river that’s twisting and turning and meandering all over the countryside, and putting it into a straight, smooth channel. Now it has power, direction, economy, speed.

We have it all. Yet, in the midst of our plenty, millions lead unhappy, aimless lives, They live in tiny prisons of their own fashioning. These are the people who don’t know that each of us—each one of us—not the economy or fate or luck or the breaks, is in charge of his life. Each one of us is completely responsible.

As Carlyle put it, “The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.”

Take the magnificent bald eagle, for example. My wife and I saw dozens of bald eagles on a recent fishing trip to Alaska. To see one of them come swooping down and pluck a live and sizable fish from the water on a single pass is astonishing. More astonishing, still, is the eagle’s eyesight. And because of its need to see from high altitudes small rodents moving in the grass, or a fish just inches under the surface of the water, its incredible eyes take up just about all the space in its head. For the eagle, its eyes are the most important thing, and everything else works in unison with them. Its brain is tiny and rudimentary. It doesn’t think or plan or remember; it simply acts in accordance with stimuli.

The eagles look at their prey just like us looking at our goals

The ultimate creative capacity of the human brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite.

To use the computer analogy, man is a vast storehouse of data, but we have not learned how to program ourselves to utilize these data for problem-solving purposes.

“Man, under average conditions of work and life, uses only a small part of his thinking equipment… . If we were able to force our brain to work at only half its capacity, we could, without any difficulty whatever, learn 40 languages, memorize the large Soviet encyclopedia from cover to cover, and complete the required courses of dozens of colleges.”

Look at it this way: Your goal is in the future. Your problem is to bridge the gap that exists between where you now are and the goal you intend to reach. This is the problem to solve.

“Successful people are not people without problems; they’re simply people who’ve learned to solve their problems.”

There you have it. Living successfully, getting the things we want from life, is a matter of solving the problems that stand between where we are now and the point we wish to reach!

No one is without problems; problems are a part of living. But let me show you how much time we waste in worrying about the wrong problems. Here’s a reliable estimate of the things people worry about: things that never happen, 40 percent; things over and past that can’t be changed by all the worry in the world, 30 percent; needless worries about our heal...

So the whole thing boils down to a matter not of problems, which are common to us all, but of our ability to solve them.

why? Do you know why most people don’t automatically turn on their own vast mental resources when they’re faced with a problem?

It’s because they’ve never learned how to think. That is a fact, believe it or not.

Most people never think at all during the entire course of their lives. They remember, but that’s not thinking creatively, or thinking in new directions. They react to stimuli, but again, that’s not thinking. Remembering to set the alarm clock at night and getting up when it rings in the morning does not take thought. Nor do showering, shaving, getting dressed, eating breakfast, and going to work. At work, ...

Very few of them have reference books. But much more important than that, only one in “I don’t know how many thousands” will take a large notepad, write the problem at the top of the page, and then deliberately turn on his thinking apparatus.

The mind of man can lift anything. His muscles—even the best developed—are puny alongside those of some of the dumbest animals on earth. If man had depended on his muscles for survival, he probably would have disappeared, as did the dinosaurs—which were, incidentally, the most physically powerful creatures that ever lived.

Successful people are not people without problems; they are simply people who have learned to solve their problems.

“Our rewards in life will always match our service.”

What you put out will determine what you must get back in return. It’s so simple, so basic, so true—and yet, so misunderstood.

Never before in the history of the world have human beings been so interdependent. It is as impossible to live without serving others as it would be to live if others were not constantly serving us. And this is good. The more closely knit this interdependence becomes, the greater will be human achievement. We need each other, and we literally cannot live without each other. Every time we strike a match, drink a glass of water, turn on the lights, pick up the telephone, drive our car, put on our clothes, take a bath, mow the lawn, or go fishing (try making your own fishhooks sometime), we’re being served by other human beings. Every time we look at our watch, we are being served by a great industry, and by the efforts of thousands of human beings.

Whatever you seek in the form of rewards, you must first earn in the form of service to others. All attempts to sidestep this law will end in failure, frustration, and ultimately, demoralization.

How many times have you been in the position of the man who sat in front of the empty fireplace and said, “Give me heat, and then I’ll give you some wood”?

Constructive discontent is what is responsible for our continuing upward spiral of civilization.

It was apparent from their attitudes that they wanted to live on the Monterey Peninsula, but they were almost out of money and unable to find work. But he had said, “Nobody wants to give me a job.” He wanted someone to give him something—in this case, a job. What might have happened if he had turned the whole idea around? What if he had said instead, “What do I know how to do that will serve some of the people of this beautiful part of the world?” Or, “How can I, or we, be of value to this community?” “The people here will be happy to supply us with the living we need if we can think of some way to serve them.” If we can think of some way to serve them. “What do they need or want that we can supply? Do they need a handyman, a first-class housekeeper, or both? Can we wash and wax cars right in their driveways? Can we detail the cars so they look like showroom display models? Let’s buy a pad of paper and a ballpoint pen and start making a list of all the things we can do to earn a living here. It will give us time to think of other ways, more profitable ways. But that wash-and-wax idea might grow into quite a service for the community. And let’s not stop there. Let’s think of some more ways we can start right here to be of service to the people who live here.”

Right there in the restaurant, instead of being depressed and considering themselves failures, they could have come up with a dozen or so ways in which they could have remained on the Monterey Peninsula and built a fine business for themselves.

Do you know how many people would have reacted in the same way these young people reacted? Most of the people in the United States—or any other country, for that matter. People will do everything in the world—even turn to crime—before they will think.

George Bernard Shaw once commented: “I have become rich and famous by thinking a couple of times a week. Most people never think at all.”