About the Author
David J. Schwartz (1927-1987),started from a one-room school house in rural Indiana,delivering lectures on motivation and how to set big goals and achieve them. He went on to become a professor at Georgia State University, and also began his own work as a self-help coach and life strategist. Schwartz became well known as one of the foremost American experts on motivation through his motivational publications and self-help books, especially The Magic of Thinking Big, published in 1959, which have sold over six million copies.
Schwartz later founded his own consultancy firm, Creative Educational Services Inc., specializing in leadership development. In the course of researching his books, Schwartz spoke to many persons who had reached the top in their field. Instead of getting detailed responses, he was told that the key factor in personal success was simply the desire for it. Schwartz asserts that success is not primarily a matter of circumstances or native talent or even intelligence – it is a choice.
Summary
Is the size of a person’s success determined by any specific factor? Are wealthy and successful people superhuman? Do you need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction? Is there anything mystical about success? In this bestseller, The Magic of Thinking Big, the author details many outstanding case studies which support his position that success is not determined by your intellect or innate talent, but by the size of your thinking – great success is all about thinking big.
Schwartz states that the thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence you may have. Indeed, there is magic in thinking big. 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. This great accomplishment supports Schwartz’s claim that a person’s success is best measured by the size of his or her dreams, thinking and believing.
Thinking bigger thoughts require no more effort than thinking smaller thoughts. Schwartz well known quote provides further support: “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.” The basic principles and concepts supporting this writing come from the greatest minds such as Emerson who said: “Great men are those who see that thoughts rule the world;” minds like Milton who in Paradise Lost wrote, “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven,” and Shakespeare who observed that “There is nothing either good or bad except that thinking makes it so.”
A special feature of this book is in every chapter you will find practical ideas, techniques, and principles that will enable you to harness the tremendous power of thinking big, to help you achieve the success, wealth, health, happiness and fulfillment you desire and deserve. Every technique illustrates a real-life case study of goal achievement by demonstrating the habit of thinking big and the power of belief. You will discover not only what to do, but more importantly, you will see exactly how to apply each principle to actual situations and challenges.
The practical, proven techniques Schwartz presents will show you how to: develop the power of belief; achieve success with the power of belief; cure yourself of excusitis, the failure disease; build confidence and destroy fear; get big results by believing big; cultivate mental state of empowering thought patterns; discover the secret that lies in your attitude towards health; discover why your thinking power is more important than mere intelligence; use your mind for thinking; think and dream creatively; develop the action habit; use goals to help you grow and live longer; capitalize on the magic of now; and tap into your supreme thinking power.
According to Schwartz, to have greater happiness, peace of mind, earn more money, become a better salesperson or better manager you should think big, believe big and become enthusiastic. Adjust your habits of thinking. Launch your success offensive with honest, sincere belief that you can succeed and you will succeed.