The Magic of Thinking Big

Brief summary

Schwartz argues that the main thing holding people back is the relative smallness of their thoughts, and explains the importance of 'Thinking positively toward oneself'. He begins the book by relating a story of a salesman who sells significantly more product and makes more money than his co-workers. Schwartz points out that the man was not smarter, more educated or better connected than his colleagues. According to Schwartz, the man expected to sell more so he did.

Another important idea that Schwartz reminds us through this book is - 'To see what can be, not just what is'. He explains that visualization adds value to everything and thinking big means training oneself to see not just what is, but what can be.

The next message the book gives its readers is the necessity of - 'Broadcasting good news' He explains transmitting good news is win win, and we feel better and so do the people we are talking to.

In this book, David J. Schwartz, the author, talks about "Make Your Attitudes Your Allies."

This book is a classic motivational and self-help book, which is similar to another motivational book - The Power of Positive Thinking. The legendary American football coach, and sportscaster - Lou Holtz mentions that this book helped him create his lifelong goals list. As one reads each chapter, the reader gains an understanding of each chapter title/topic along with a brief excerpt from the author's personal life. He also describes three failure diseases : excuse-itis, detail-itis and procrastination. This book builds an individual's confidence, mentality, vision of life and ultimately the ability to think big introspectively and extrospectively. In short, making better decisions and avoiding negative thoughts are benefits of reading this book.