The Magic of Thinking Big gives you useful methods, not empty promises. Dr. Schwartz presents a carefully designed program for getting the most out of your job, your marriage and family life, and your community.The book, which has sold over 4 million copies, instructs people to set their goals high and think positively to achieve them. The author gives a step-by-step guide on how to achieve what one wants by changing their thought patterns and thought habits.

No matter whether your life goals are incredibly big and daunting or fairly small and achievable, chance are you’ve thought “Where do I even begin?” more than once.

The author suggests you start by creating a mindset in which you feel 100% capable of achieving whatever you set out to do.Why does this work? Because once you start believing in yourself enough, your brain will spark the creativity required to achieve your goal.

These ideas could have been the roots of what would later become positive psychology. One McKinsey study quoted in the book states that what management and societal leaders are looking for most, when working with people, is the drive to move forward.

People are looking for this attitude, because it makes sure you persevere in the face of failure and adversity, instead of running away at the first roadblock.Now David presents us with several strategies to improve your self-belief and confidence.

The first is to constantly work on your creative thinking skills. As opposed to just memorizing facts, which will only help you in certain situations, creative thinking will help you solve any kind of problem you will face.

Belief is everything and there is nothing mystical about the power of belief, but we must draw a distinction between merely wishing and actually believing. Doubt attracts ‘reasons’ for not succeeding, whereas belief finds the means to do the job. Schwartz was in conversation with an aspiring fiction writer. When the name of a successful author came up, the aspiring writer quickly said, ‘But I could never equal him; I’m not in his league.’ Knowing the writer in question, Schwartz pointed out that he was neither super-intelligent nor super-perceptive, merely super-confident. The writer had at some point decided to believe that he was among the best, and so he acted and performed accordingly.

Most of us believe that the result of an event is the best indicator of how successful we are, yet events are much more likely to reflect a person’s level of confidence. In Schwartz’s words: `Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life.’ Turn the thermostat up, and witness the results.

Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen. Success does not require a superintellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn’t based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never—yes, never—sell yourself short.

Never depend on luck to get what you want. The only vaccination against ‘Excusitis’, as Schwartz calls it – ‘commonly known as failure’s disease’ – is conscious self-belief. Schwartz knows that as soon as we hit a rough spot our thinking is likely to shrink back to its normal size, yet this is exactly when it is crucial not to. Sporting champions do not collapse when, in the course of a game, they are being beaten. Instead of building a case against themselves, they will at this point remember that they are a champion.

Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. Remember this, too! Big ideas and big plans are often easier—certainly no more difficult – than small ideas and small plans. Thinking larger thoughts is a kind of magic, since the effort put in is small compared with the long-term results. In the 1890s, a person named Gottlieb Daimler drew a three-pointed star on a postcard to his family and wrote next to it, ‘One day this star will shine down on my work.’ He co-founded Mercedes-Benz. Great accomplishments such as these demonstrate Schwartz’s claim that a person is best measured by the size of their dreams.

For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But today, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. It turns out that at work, most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return.

Right from the start Grant takes a moment to address that being a giver doesn’t mean giving all the time. It doesn’t mean being a doormat and it doesn’t mean putting the needs of others above your own. Even though these seem like giving ways, Grant brings combines anecdotes, research, and popular stories from history to weave a different fabric that the best workers are made out of. It’s one of giving and how givers do certain things better that bring them an extra advantage.

One of the ways that givers get ahead is through better networking, and not in the traditional sense of selling something to someone. Givers rather, choose to help others and because they give and give, rather than take and take, they have a larger network. In the short run this means a bit of stagnation rather than moving forward but in the long term givers come out ahead. Givers win in the long term because they build up a larger network and help those people get ahead. If a giver needs to call in a favor then, they have a bigger balance of resources to draw from, and probably better results.

Grant also writes about how givers negotiate better than takers. In one study of student negotiators, the group trained as givers got better deals for themselves and their opponents. The researchers concluded that by shifting their thinking toward one of giving, these students were able to find creative solutions to the negotiation impasse they were at. They found things that were of high value to their opponent low cost to them. It was the research manifestation of the children fighting over the last lemon, both claiming they needed it.

Adam Grant advances the provocative proposition that givers enjoy a powerful comparative advantage over takers. His message is that the succeed-at-any-expense takers’ tactic is a dangerous, ultimately ill-fated success strategy. In particular, Give and Take is a searing indictment of the takers’ tactics of grasping, maneuvering, and manipulating corporate executives who literally take from their colleagues and customers; and who by their pursuit of egregious unethical misconduct literally take from their company’s customers, colleagues, and shareholders. The putative poster boy of this unsustainable style is Ken Lay, former Enron CEO, who exemplified that “takers may rise by kissing up, but they often fall by kicking down.”

At a time when marketing is moving from manipulation to meaning, when consumers seek the authentic over the plastic, when people more and more seek work that embodies their values and purposes, the implications of the message of Give and Takeare profound, for “There’s something distinctive that happens when givers succeed: it spreads and cascades . . . creates a ripple effect, enhancing the success of people around them.”

The Richest Man in Babylon first appeared on the scene in 1926 as a series of informational pamphlets on basic financial management. By 1927, several of these pamphlets had been compiled into a book and this collection has been in print ever since.

In short, The Richest Man in Babylon is a series of financial parables. These stories are set in ancient Babylon and relate the story of a Babylonian regular guy who used some basic financial sense and built up a great deal of wealth.  Basically, a young man asks a rich person to mentor him. This wealthy man slowly teaches him the rules to wealth, which are timeless and that anyone can apply. He scolds the young man when he makes mistakes, but eventually the boy gets rich.

1. Spend Less Than You Make. Save and Invest The Difference

Sounds so obvious but common sense isn’t so common. Most young people I meet have openly admitted that they spend every bit of what they make every paycheck.This is one of my pet peeves that annoys me most. I know secretly that they will not get rich if they make more money (like they often complain and wish for) because they will just spend more and return down to zero in the bank account.

2. Use Saved Money To Make More Money

This is probably one of the golden truths of wealth creation that is voiced in many classics like Rich Dad Poor Dad. Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank explains this well. He imagines every dollar like little soldiers. Everyday, his mission is to capture more soldiers and get those soldiers to work to capture even more soldiers.

Most people are using that money on things that rust, rot, or deteriorate to a net worth of zero. These include houses, cars, boats, clothing, watches, jewelry, or any merchandise. You’re making someone else rich by doing that.

What are the smart people doing? They’re taking every dollar they save and spending that on something that will make them MORE money. Usually, it’s on something that they’re skilled at or can understand: a basketball player might spend it on basketball lessons, a programmer might spend it on an exclusive programming in-person training, a businessman might spend it on a small business that will make him more money.

3. Only Take Advice From People Skilled In That Field

Only take advice from the best people in a field. Be careful of any other advice that comes your way. Everyone loves giving advice. The book illustrates this with a story of the main character investing his money with foreign jewel traders that promised to bring back rare jewels for cheap. He was scammed and brought back fake jewels. He also tried investing his money in the shield business with a man who worked as a cloth maker (and clearly didn’t know a thing about the shield industry).

An example would be listening to advice from the tailor on jewelry or business. What does this guy know about either of these things? NOTHING! That’s why he’s a tailor. Find an expert at business or jewelry who has made a lot of money (and can prove it).

Sounds simple but you’d be surprised how many people listen to anyone’s advice. A lot of successful people do listen to advice, but it’s not as stringent as it should. They will listen to anyone who sounds successful or looks rich or is on a fairly famous podcast or has made at least 6 figures.

4. Only Invest Your Money In Industries and Skills You Are Very Familiar With Or You’ll Lose Your Money

Along a similar theme as the last point, you only want to invest in industries that you are familiar with. For example, let’s say you don’t know much about real estate. Investing money in it is like throwing it out the window because it’s easy for people to mislead you or for factors you didn’t consider to deplete your investment.Just like you shouldn’t try to do heart surgery with no knowledge or experience with surgery, you should not waste your hard earned money on areas you aren’t familiar with.

5. Don’t Wish For A Lump Sum of Cash. Work To Achieve A Consistent Cash Flow Instead.

People wish that they get lucky and win a lottery. But any lump sum of cash you win will eventually go to zero and you’ll be broke again. In fact, many lottery winners go through their whole winnings within a year. And their happiness levels go back down to zero.

The craziest part is that usually, they’re no better of than when they started: their fashion, standard of living, and everything else is surprisingly the same. They weren’t smart with their money or have a money-mindset and therefore they bought things that will depreciate to zero value.Treat your money like solders that will bring you more money.

6. You Will Lose Money If You Put It To Foolish Use

What this basically means is that if you invest or use money in businesses you aren’t familiar or people who aren’t good at a task, you will lose it. If you push it too hard to earn money in a near-impossible way, you will lose it. If you buy into scammers, you will lose the money. If you spend or use money based on your own inexperience or emotional urges, you will lose it.

7. Put Away 10% of your Earnings and You Won’t Even Notice A Difference in Quality of Living

Pay yourself first. This means that before you spend any of your earnings, put aside 10% for saving and investing.Your money is not truly yours to keep because you immediately give it away by spending it on rent, food, or items you don’t need.

The book makes a profound point: If you start with 10% tucked away, you will not even notice the difference. Your quality of life will have no noticeable difference. You surprisingly will learn to live without it.

8. Invest in Your Ability To Earn More

What the heck does that mean?It means you should spend your time (or money) to improve your skills, knowledge, and ability to earn more money. I truly think is a golden truth to wealth that is most important, yet overlooked constantly, so pay attention:

Most people quit learning at the age of 21 when they finish school. Others are lifelong learned. Until they die at 90 years old, they keep learning and improving. This gives them a huge advantage over time. While the average worker, goes home after work to watch TV, does nothing to improve himself, and rots his or her brain, you can get ahead by improving yourself a little each day.

9. You Will Lose Money If You Let Greed Cloud Your Judgement

There is a difference between having big dreams versus letting your greed influence your decisions. You can build a multi-billion dollar business with a small $1000 investment. It’s been done before. Crazier things have been accomplished.

But that does not mean you buy into a promise of someone offering you a “magic return of millions with a one time investment.” That’s a scam. Often, a lot of billionaires I have studied, like Sam Walton and Warren Buffett, were always very conservative with their investments. They would rather build slowly versus rushing into an opportunity with risky down-side.

10. What You Earn Is Not Yours To Keep Until You Invest It Properly

The book mentions a concept called “what you earn is not yours to keep.” It basically means that just because you earned $100 bucks doesn’t mean it’s really yours because you immediately turn and spend it on items (rent, toys, clothes, etc.). So in reality, it’s their’s to keep.

Instead, immediately take 10% off the top and set it aside into a income-generating system (like a Lemonade stand or McDonald’s) that you own forever and keeps generating you money for you to keep.

11. People Who Take Action Get Luckier Because They Make Their Own Luck

Don’t interpret this to mean, “if you gamble more, you will make more money.” What he’s actually saying here is that people who actually take what they learn and use it (rather than keep it in their head), tend to be more “lucky.” If you are doing everything you can to bend all your odds in your favor, you will have more chances and appear to others to be more lucky.

The stories themselves are of varying levels of quality. There are two great stories, a fair number of middling ones, and a few that left me confused as to the reason for their inclusion. Many of the stories had overlapping concepts, but they were explained and applied in different ways. In short, buy this book if you learn well from stories. If a well-told tale of the experiences of others is the way that you learn, this book will be very enlightening. I often learn this way, as I learned about totalitarianism from 1984 and objectivism from Atlas Shrugged.

The Millionaire Next Door was Tom Stanley’s runaway bestseller, revealing to the world a most unexpected picture of America’s millionaires. The Millionaire Mind is the more thoughtful and insightful look into the psychology of millionaires, the ‘soft’ factors in terms of attitudes and beliefs that have made these people so successful.

The key question asked: is it possible to have a very enjoyable, balanced life but still achieve millionaire status? Stanley’s surprising answer is that while money can’t buy happiness, millionaires are perhaps more aware than most that the best things in life are free. Rather than, as you might expect, spending their non-working time visiting glamour spots or engaging in expensive hobbies, the great majority of millionaires prefer to spend time with family and friends. If they are not doing this they are involved in community activities or playing a round of golf. As the author suggests, most millionaires are a ‘cheap date’ – but are not miserly personalities.

‘Vocation vocation vocation’

The way to sustainable wealth and a enjoyable life is simple: do work that you love to do. The more you love your work the more likely you will excel in it, and the more rewards accrue to you. You are also much more likely to create a profitable niche through the process of deepening your skills, knowledge and contacts in your chosen area. Millionaires are happy to make a life out of truck spare parts or car washes if they see opportunities – no matter what others think. Above all, millionaires ‘think differently from the crowd’ – they spend a lot of their time looking for things that others have overlooked, overturning assumptions and creating profitable niches within generic industries.

Risk, reward and self-belief

Stanley notes the strong correlation between the willingness to take financial risk and financial success. While most of us would see starting a business as a great risk, the financially successful see working 9 to 5 for someone else risky. You are dependent upon your employer for your livelihood, and your income is related to how much time you spend working. But millionaires tend to choose a career in which there is no ceiling on how much money they can make if they are successful at it.

School

A good proportion of self-made millionaires worked hard in school but were not the top students. What they learned most in school was how to judge people well and get along with them, and that hard work could bring a surprising level of success. It turns out here that great grades aren’t necessarily the key to success, but tenacity and leadership skills are. In other words, if you work hard and are involved in extracurricular activities (particularly in leadership roles) but are a B student, you’re in much better shape to succeed than an A student who coasts and isn’t involved in said activities. In fact, the chapter largely indicates that the B student is preferable here. In other words, don’t be ashamed of your grades – only be ashamed if you’re not willing to work for it.

Spouse

Nine out of ten married millionaires say their marriage has been a major factor in their success. A spouse provides on tap psychological support and advice which is likely to be honest.  If your relationship is about physical attraction above all, it won’t be rock solid when you need it to be because the bedrock of a reliable marriage is compatible values. If you have appropriate values for becoming a millionaire, then you’ll just undermine all of it by having a spouse that doesn’t share those values.

The Home

Another big clue appears here when it’s shown that millionaires on the whole do not buy houses that are ostentatious, but instead are functional for what the needs of the people are. They generally take their time looking for homes, search out bargains, and clearly define their needs before they buy, including factors such as good public schooling and so forth. They also buy modestly – the average millionaire owns a home with a median value only slightly above the median value for all homes; in fact, many of the most ostentatious homes are owned by non-millionaires.

What is the millionaire mind? Not living a spartan lifestyle and making money your god, but freedom from reliance on credit and being in control of your finances. The great self-discipline of the average millionaire means that they can’t help piling up wealth long after their modest needs have been satisfied. The millionaire mind evokes the famous biblical saying, “To them that hath, more will be given.” Not only do these people have money, they love their work. Most people will think ‘of course they love their work, they can do what they want’ – but few appreciate that it was their love of their vocation that helped to make them wealthy in the first place.

The “Rich Habits” are ten principles created through years of researching the daily success habits of his wealthiest clients. These ten simple principles miraculously transform every individual who comes into contact with them. By applying these principles, you are literally walking in the footsteps of the wealthy. In Rich Habits, Tom Corley provides a step by step financial success program that is concise, easy to understand and even easier to apply, regardless of your age, education or income level.

Rich Habits shares similar insight by eliminating the excuses and obstacles we often make for ourselves. It’s no longer merely about having good timing or [random] good luck. Tom Corley stresses the importance of developing daily habits that will help us create our own opportunities and increase the chances of having really good luck.

Likely the biggest reason Rich Habits holds such a high rank in my rather massive book collection is not because Tom is my client (which he is) but simply because this book cuts all the junk out and focuses on what really matters. Tom sees the urgency in making changes immediately so he gets straight to the point. More importantly, the stories and lessons are relevant to anyone from any background, so long as you are serious about really making a change in your life. This book empowers the lower and middle class in ways few other books have ever even attempted.

Redefining & Creating Luck

When we look at any popular success story, the temptation may be to think it was all luck and that it was an overnight success. We rarely see the journey there, the price that had to be paid for success. In Rich Habits, Tom confirms that it really is all about luck but we need to transform how we view luck. The average person may wait around for random good luck, but this leaves too much up to circumstances and adversity. The wealthy have mastered ways to create their own opportunity luck, which is an empowering thing to know. No longer do we need to feel that we are victims of adversity.

Use Daily To-Do Lists

To-do lists may seem like a mundane task or extra work but Tom’s research has shown that the wealthy use daily to-do lists and aim for 70% completion or better. This discipline makes long-term goals more achievable and puts us in a “do it now” mindset. By extension, this insight shows us how procrastination and lack of organization can be detrimental to our potential for success and wealth. The practice of daily to-do lists helps us visualize success and make progress more tangible.

Build Relationships Daily

In business, it is easy to treat people as sales prospects and referral sources. This short-sighted view on the value of people makes relationships more transactional, whereas it should be more about mutual support, emotional empowerment, and reciprocation. Tom urges us to meet people often and nurture relationships daily.

The wealthy show us that everyone matters and we should not think about a person’s immediate value or what we can gain from relationships; instead, we should focus on building life-long relationships and empowering others around us. Observe any truly successful person and chances are they have friends and colleagues they have known for years. Truly, success is often about who we know, not what we know. No one “makes it” alone.

Stop Gossiping

Tom’s research reveals that 79% or more of the poor engage in gossip while 6% of the wealthy or less do so. The key difference for this gap is that the wealthy treat their relationships like gold. Here are some reasons gossip is bad news for everyone.

Gossip Breeds Jealousy – When we focus too much on the good fortune and success of others, it is easy to become envious. We may gossip to say successful people are just lucky. This puts us in the position of waiting for good luck or merely living vicariously through others, which is certainly not productive.

Gossip Stops Productivity – Those who engage in gossip frequently eventually stop trying to make positive changes in their lives. They look at the more successful and wealthy as people they do not wish to become because of their flaws. This puts us into a gear of excuse-making rather than result-driving.

Gossip Hurts Relationships – Eventually, gossip makes us so bitter and jealous that we become toxic to others around us. This leads to isolation and more resentment. This vicious cycle is hard to break because it feeds off itself.

Rich Habits calls us to take inventory of ourselves and reform bad habits. By acknowledging our strengths and weaknesses, we can truly reinvent ourselves for the better. Even if you are already successful, the ten daily rich habits can help enrich your life. The ultimate goal is to turn destructive behaviors into productive ones while making us more proactive rather than reactive. In this manner, we become masters of our destiny, creating more opportunity luck every day!