The Magic of Thinking Big
David J. Schwartz, 1959
Why does one salesman earn five times more than his colleagues when he is no smarter than they are? Professor David Schwartz watched people at his training courses for years and came to a conclusion: it is not about intelligence, it is about the size of your thinking. His 1959 book gives concrete exercises against excuses, fear and the habit of waiting for perfect conditions.
Who it is for
For anyone who feels capable of more but is used to underrating themselves. And for everyone who keeps putting important things off until a better time.
Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers.
Harry, who thought five times bigger
At the sales department's annual meeting, the company's vice-president called the best sales representative up to the stage. He was a very ordinary-looking man named Harry. In a year he had earned almost $60,000, while the other representatives averaged $12,000. The vice-president asked the room what Harry had that they did not, and went through the answers himself. Is he smarter? No, his test scores are average. Does he work more? No, he even took more days off than the others. His territory, his education and his health are no better either. The whole difference, the vice-president said, comes down to one thing: Harry thinks five times bigger.
David Schwartz was sitting in that room. He taught at a university and for many years ran training courses for salespeople and managers. Those words stuck with him, and the more people he watched, the more convinced he became: the size of your bank account, your happiness and your satisfaction with life depends less on the size of your intellect than on the size of your thinking. The author's name for it is thinking big.
So why do so few people think this way? Schwartz's answer is that each of us is partly a product of the thinking of the people around us. And most of them think small and keep repeating that the top is already full and there is no way to break through.
The book came out in 1959, so its incomes and prices belong to that era, and many of its stories come from the lives of American salespeople and office workers. It is built like a training program: for every thought the author gives concrete actions and describes the people he tested them on. Seven steps lie ahead, from the belief that sets off the search for a way to the goal that works like an autopilot. Let's start with what happens in your head when you tell yourself “I can.”
First “I can”, then “I know how”
A friend of Schwartz's worked in the highway department of one of the states. The department sent the plans for a new highway to 21 engineering firms: eight bridges costing $5 million in all. The winning firm was to receive $200,000 for the design. The four biggest firms agreed to compete right away. Of the other seventeen, sixteen turned it down: the engineers shook their heads and said the job was too big for their firm. Only one firm, with just three engineers, said it would take the job. And it was that firm that won the profitable contract.
Schwartz distinguishes between two similar acts: believing and wishing. Belief, in his words, works differently from wishing: the “I'm sure I can” attitude produces strength, skill and energy, and the knowledge of how to do it follows. The author stresses that there is no mysticism or magic in this. It is simply that someone who believes they will succeed starts paying attention to the people higher up, studies how they solve problems and learns to be successful.
The author compares belief to a thermostat. A person who thinks they deserve little gets little, and over time it shows even in the way they walk and talk. And since others see in us what we see in ourselves, such a person shrinks in other people's eyes as well.
After a lecture in Detroit, a man from the audience came up to Schwartz. Five years earlier he had been an ordinary employee at a firm that sold tools and dies, living with his family in a cramped house. He went to another city for a job interview, and that evening in his hotel he suddenly got angry with himself. He wrote down the names of five acquaintances who had moved ahead of him in their jobs and earnings, and compared himself with them honestly. Neither brains, nor education, nor character gave them an edge. He lagged behind in only one thing, initiative, because deep down he did not think much of himself. At the interview he asked for a salary not $750 higher than his old one, as he had planned, but $3,500 higher. And he got it.
Hence the author's three rules. Think of success, not failure: when facing a difficulty, tell yourself that you'll manage. Remember that you are better than you usually think you are: successful people, as Schwartz observed, are ordinary people who came to believe in themselves. And set big goals, because the size of what you achieve depends on the size of your belief.
About the author
David J. Schwartz was an American professor with a doctorate who taught at a university and for many years ran training courses for salespeople and managers. His book “The Magic of Thinking Big”, according to its publisher, has helped millions of people.
All books by this author: David J. Schwartz
Terms from the book
- Autopilot
- IQ
- Thinking big: The author's key idea: the habit of setting big goals, rating yourself highly and seeing opportunities instead of obstacles. It is Schwartz's model, not a scientific term.
- Excusitis: Schwartz's name for the habit of explaining why you are not getting ahead. He calls it the failure disease and singles out four main excuses: health, intelligence, age and luck.
- Thermostat: A device that keeps a room at a set temperature. Schwartz compares belief in yourself to it: by his account, it sets the level of what you achieve in life.
- Buyer: A store employee who chooses and orders goods from suppliers for their department.
- Memory bank: An image from the book: memory as a bank where thoughts are deposited every day. In the author's view, its teller hands out exactly the memories you ask for.
- Realtor: An agent who helps people sell and buy houses, apartments and land for a living.
- Dime: An American ten-cent coin. Here, the ten cents the cashier overcharged.
- Cincinnati: A city in the southwest of the state of Ohio, in the USA.
- Negators: The author's word for people who insist at every turn that nothing will work out, and pull others down to their level.
- Passivationists: The author's word for people who put everything off and wait for perfect conditions. He calls their opposites activationists.
- Down payment: The part of a home's price that the buyer pays up front, with the rest paid off through a loan.
- Hubbard: Orville Hubbard, an American politician who was mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, for many years in a row.
- Dearborn: A city in the state of Michigan, in the USA, next to Detroit.
- Congress: The United States Congress, the country's highest lawmaking body. It is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
- Sevareid: Eric Sevareid, an American journalist and war correspondent who worked in radio and television for many years.
- Burma: A country in Southeast Asia. Since 1989 its official name has been Myanmar.
All terms
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