How to think like a leader

A man big enough to be humble appears more confident than the insecure man who feels compelled to call attention to his accomplishments. A little modesty goes a long way.
Praise people for every effort they put forth. Praise is the greatest single incentive you can give people, and it costs you nothing.
Remember, the main job of the leader is thinking. And the best preparation for leadership is thinking. Spend some time in managed solitude everyday and think yourself to success.
In everything you do, show that you put other people first. Just give other people the kind of treatment you like to receive. You'll be rewarded.
Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do. Be sure the master copy is worth duplicating. Make this a personal resolution: "In life, if it's progress I'm for it."
There is magic in thinking big. But it is so easy to forget. When you hit some rough spots, there is a danger that your thinking will shrink in size. And when it does, you lose.

A. When little people try to drive you down, THINK BIG
To be sure, there are some people who want you to lose, to experience misfortune, to be reprimanded. But these people can't hurt you if you'll remember three things:
1. You win when you refuse to fight petty people. Fighting little people reduces you to their size. Stay big.
2. Expect to be sniped at. It's proof you're growing.
3. Remind yourself that snipers are psychologically sick. Be Big. Feel sorry for them.

Think Big Enough to be immune to the attacks of petty people.

B. When that "I-haven't-got-what-it-takes" feeling creeps up on you, THINK BIG
Remember: if you think you are weak, you are. If you think you are inadequate, you are. If you think you're second-class, you are.
Whip that natural tendency to sell yourself short with these tools:
1. Look important. It helps you think important. How you look on the outside has a lot to do with how you feel on the inside.
2. Concentrate on your assets. Build a sell-yourself-to-yourself commercial and use it. Learn to supercharge yourself. Know your positive self.
3. Put other people in proper perspective. THe other person is just another human being, so why be afraid of him?

Think Big Enough to see how good you really are!

C. When an argument or quarrel seems inevitable, THINK BIG.
Successfully resist the temptation to argue and quarrel by:
1. Asking yourself, "Honestly now, is this thing really important enought ot argue about?"
2. Reminding yourself, you never gain anything from an argument but you always lose something.

Think Big Enough to see that quarrels, arguments, feuds, and fusses will never help you get where you want to go.

D. When you feel defeated, THINK BIG.
It is not possible to achieve large success without hardships and setbacks. But it is possible to live the rest of your life without defeat. Big thinkers react to setbacks this way:
1. Regard the setback as a lesson. Learn from it. Research it. Useit to propel you forward. Salvage something from every setback.
2. Blend persistence with experimentation. Back off and start afresh with a new approach.

Think Big Enough to see that defeat is a state of mind, nothing more.

E. When romance starts to slip, THINK BIG
Negative, petty, "she's-(he's)-unfair-to-me-so-I'll-get-even" type of thinking slaughters romance, destroys the affection that can be yours. Do this when things aren't going right in the love department:
1. Concentrate on the biggest qualities in the person you want to love you. Put little things where they belong-in second place.
2. Do something special for your mate-and do it often.

Think Big Enough to find the secret to marital joys.

F. When you feel your progress on the job is slowing down THINK BIG
No matter what you do and regardless of your occupation, higher status, higher pay come from one thing: increasing the quality and quantity of your output. Do this:
Think, "I can do better." The best is not unattainable. There is room for ding everything better. Nothing in this world is being done as well as it could be. And when you thin, "I can do better," ways to do better will appear. Thinking "I can do better," switches on your creative power.

Think Big Enough to see that if you put service first, money takes care of itself. In the words of Publilius Syrus:

"A wise man will be master of his mind,
A fool will be its slave."


And that brings to the end our book summary of this book. I hoped it's changed you like it has me. To THINK BIG....

Use goals to help you grow

A goal is an objective, a purpose. A goal is more than a dream; it's a dream being acted upon. A goal is more than a hazy "Oh, I wish I could." A goal is a clear "This is what I'm working toward."
Without goals individuals just wander through life. They stumble along, never knowing where they are going, so they never get anywhere.
Goals are as essential to success as air is to life. No one ever stumbles into success without a goal. No one ever lives without air. Get a clear fix on where you want to go.
The individual who fails to set long-range goals will most certainly be just another person lost in life's shuffle. Without goals we cannot grow.
People these days are measured by the size of their dreams. No one accomplishes more than he sets out to accomplish. So visualize a big future.
"A man is not doing much until he cause he works for possesses all there is of him."
Desire, when harnessed, is power. Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to mediocrity.
All of us have desires. All of us dream of what we really want to do. But few of us actually surrender to desire. Instead of surrendering to desire, we murder it.
Throw away those murder weapons. It's never too late to let desire take over.
Successful people have their eyes focused on a goal, and this provides energy.
Goals, intense goals, can keep a person alive when nothing else will.
Use goals to live longer. No medicine in the world-and your physician will bear this out-is as powerful in bringing about long life as is the desire to do something.
The person determined to achieve maximum success learns the principle that progress is made one step at a time. Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments.
Do this: Start marching toward your ultimate goal by making the next task you perform, regardless of how unimportant it may seem, a step in the right direction. Commit this question to memory and use it to evaluate everything you do: "Will this help take me where I want to go?" If the answer is no, back off; if yes, press ahead.
It's clear. We do not make one big jump to success. We get there one step at a time. An excellent plan is to set monthly quotas for accomplishment.
Examine yourself. Decide what specific things you should do to make yourself more effective. Make notes of the things you will do in the next thirty days. Then, when the thirty-day period is up, check your progress and build a new thirty-day goal. Always keep working on the "little" things to get you in shape for the big things.
Lots of conscious effort, invested day by day, made the person what he is. Building new positive habits and destroying old negative habits is a day-by-day process.
Create your first thirty-day improvement guide right now.
Ask yourself "Isn't my future worth this small investment?"

How to turn defeat into victory

We can turn setbacks into victories. find the lesson, apply it, and then look back on defeat and smile. Defeat is only a state of mind & nothing more.
Decide right now to salvage something from every setback. Being licked is valuable if we learn from it.
It is true that in this complex world others may trip us. But it is also true that more often than not we trip ourselves. We lose because of personal inadequacy, some personal mistake.
Condition yourself for success this way. Remind yourself that you want to be as nearly perfect as is humanly possible. Be objective. Put yourself in a glass tube and look at yourself as a disinterested third party would look at the situation. See if you have a weakness that you've never noticed before. If you have, take action to correct it. Many people become so accustomed to themselves that they fail to see ways for improvement. Have the courage to face your faults.
Being self-critical is constructive. It helps you to build the personal strength and efficiency needed for success. Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from "proving" that someone else is wrong.
Be constructively self-critical. Don't run away from inadequacies. Be like the real professionals. They seek out their faults and weaknesses, then correct them. That's what makes them professionals.
View your mistakes as "Here's another way to make me a bigger winner."
"A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience."
Stop blaming luck. Blaming luck never got anyone where he wanted to go.
All thoughts are magnetic. As soon as you tell yourself, "I'm beaten. There's no way to conquer this problem,"negative t6houghts are attracted, and each of these helps convince you that you are right, that you are whipped.
Believe instead, "there is a way to solve this problem," and positive thoughts rush into your mind to help you find a solution.
It's believing there is a way that is important.
When you hit a snag, don't throw up the whole project. Instead, back off, get mentally refreshed. Try something as simple as playing some music or taking a walk or a short nap. Then, when you tackle it again, the solution often comes almost before you know it.
Remember, there is a good side in every situation. Find it. See the good side & whip discouragement.

Get the action habit

Every big job requires a man who thinks action.
Think of it. Everything we have in this world, is just an idea acted upon.
As you study people-both the successful and the just average-you find they fall into two classes. The successful are active. The just average, the mediocre, the unsuccessful are passive.
We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking action. It's still good advice to cross bridges as we come to them.
We can't buy an insurance policy against all problems. Make up your mind to do something about your ideas. Ideas are important. Let's make no mistake about that. We must have ideas to create and improve anything. Success shuns the man who lacks ideas.
First, give your ideas value by acting on them. Regardless of how good the idea, unless you do something with it, you gain nothing. Second, act on your ideas and gain mind tranquility.
Someone once said that the saddest words of tongue or pen are these: it might have been.
Action feeds and strengthens confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear-wait, put off, postpone.
The way to combat that kind of fear-yes any kind of fear-is action.
Build confidence,. Destroy fear through action.
Rather than wait for the spirit to move you, sit down and move your spirit.
Lots of good dreams never come true because we say, "I'll start someday," when we should say, "I'll start now, right now."
Live the advice of Benjamin Franklin: "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
When you see something that you believe ought to be done, pick up the ball and run.