The Magic Of Thinking Big

David Schwartz attended a company’s sales meeting where the marketing vice president pointed out a sales representative who earned five times as much as the average rep in the room. The reason wasn’t his brilliance—he was about average—nor his hard work (he took more time off than the other sales people), nor his sales route. Instead, “the difference is that Harry thought five times bigger” (2).

The reasons people don’t think big is that the world around them insists that there’s too much competition, that opportunities are limited, that the future is a matter of fate and not personal control, and that success costs too much.

Instead, opportunities abound. Throughout history, the greats—King David, Emerson, Milton, Shakespeare, and others—have asserted that people’s thoughts determine their outcomes. A desire for a better life and the intelligence to find the tools to get there are all that’s needed to begin.

As former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, said: “Life is too short to be little” (4).

Schwartz says that each chapter provides “dozens of hardheaded, practical ideas, techniques, and principles” for achieving success (5). The list includes a total of 84 distinct benefits from reading the book.