David Joseph Schwartz (1927–1987)

I remember almost nothing about this book. My retention isn't great, but it's certainly not nil. I'm going to blame the book. Here's what I'm reasonably certain about the content: At some point in the reading I was told to doubt my limits, to push beyond comfort, and to embrace change. I heartily endorse every one of those message. OK, stop. Perhaps I'm wrong about having retained nothing of the book; perhaps I've absorbed the book's messages to such an extent that they're now simply a part show more of me. Perhaps Schwartz's words have burst through their lexical protein shells and, through a kind of dark mental alchemy, become part of my very essence. That wouldn't be Big Thinking, but it would be Magic. show less

A Review of The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

Think success, don’t think failure. The mantra of believe in yourself is the premise of this book. The copy I have read was first published in 1960. This was one of the books I found in my grandfather’s bookcase and one which I kept after he died. This is second time I have read this book with many years between the readings. I know the book has been re-published many times since and is available. The reason I selected this book show more to write a review is that maybe a newer generation might find it an interesting book to read, and they might not have heard about it before.

The book is really a tutorial of how to respond positively to events with mini stories describing how other people have handled both negative and positive events in their lives. This gives the reader a clear understanding of how to approach similar situations with good advice. Of course “you can’t move mountains” but believe in yourself and your abilities and you will climb a mountain of doubt. Because, if you do not believe in yourself you are more likely will not succeed.

I have always believed that to succeed in anything you have to have confidence in yourself. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But, it’s true. The more confidence you have within you the more other people will believe in you. Don’t suffer from fear is another mantra the author discusses which is I believe is a common feeling we all have when it comes to our ability to try new things. We fear failure more, partly because of the unknown and what other people might think about us. I have written about this subject because I feel we are all capable of achieving what we want. Sometimes we just need to understand that fear is only temporary when we start to take action. When we confront our fear head-on the more likely we will gain confidence in ourselves to tackle similar situations in the future.

What I would say which I feel the author doesn’t express is that as humans we have the tendency to set our expectations to high and when things don’t pan out the way we expected them to we can get disillusioned and often depressed. I am not saying you should not aim high or set your goals high, but sometimes things are not always in our control. So we have to learn to aim high, but always remember that not everything is going to go our way.

My analogy of this would be the climbing of Mount Everest, sometimes events and conditions are against you, but for those who keep trying they often reach the summit of their goal. What we all must accept is that failure is part of success. Those that keep trying will find success, as long as they are prepared to evaluate their performance after each attempt and improve.

It’s natural and part of our makeup that as individuals we don’t like coming second, but in a race sometimes there is only one winner. We have to learn that success is more subjective and teach ourselves that taking part is a success. This will make us more confident as individuals with the right attitude to be a better person in this world.

This book is worth keeping and re-reading. David J. Schwartz says “Got a good idea? Then do something about it.” show less

I first heard about this book from Steve Harvey. He mentioned that there were 2 books that changed his life – ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ and ‘The Magic of Thinking BIG’. So to start off with, I picked up this book and TBH it didn’t completely grab me. The biggest reason was the writing style. David keeps switching from one topic to another within the same chapter. For instance, in the chapter “You are what you think you are”, David talks about ‘looking good’, show more ‘thinking of your job as important’ or ‘giving yourself a pep talk’. Now while all of these are perfectly valid under this chapter, your brain processes this as 1 chapter with another 3-5 sub-chapters under it, if you know what I mean. Doing this across all 13 chapters makes it difficult to remember what the sub-points you read in the previous chapters.

I’ve read a few other books in the ethos of self help including How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Richest Man in Babylon and Think and Grow Rich and those grabbed me. I’ve been trying to think why those appealed to me and I realized that it was because they only dealt with one topic per chapter. For instance, in TAGR, in the first chapter, all the examples and scenarios only talk about ‘Burning Desire’. If you only look at the contents page of ‘The Magic of Thinking BIG’ you’d be scratching your head thinking, “Ok-ay, what were some of the examples from this chapter? How come I can’t pinpoint the crux of the subject here? Why don't I remember what he spoke about.”

Apart from the structure per chapter, I’d say 75% of the content in the book really makes you go “Well, that’s interesting, I never though of it that way.” I’m guessing this is a book that I’ll have to revisit every 6 months to so that it stays fresh in my mind.

Some of his stories and analogies are really mind blowing and apt! Like when he says that you have a Mr. Foreman Positive and Mr. Foreman Negative working in your mind. Or when he talks about thinking of your mind as a bank and forcing yourself to only withdraw positive thoughts from it and to also only deposit in positive thoughts. Or his analysis on how to get enthusiastic about a topic – Dig into it deeper, really made an impression on me. I started thinking of other successful people – Steve Jobs, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Goggins – they all dug into their craft deeper, that’s why they got to the level they did.

Overall, it is a good read, and I'd recommend it. But it’s definitely a book you’ll have to revisit every so often to refresh your mind..

I’ve added in additional notes to my IG page, if you’re interested

Instagram - @alvito.reads show less

Oh my GAWWWD. I can’t stand anymore of this book. Maybe the print rather than the audio version would be better, but I felt like I was watching an infomercial. Or being sold some whitening toothpaste. But even that isn’t right because at least with that you get a product in hand!

I made it to Chapter 6 and still wanted to puke, so I’m done.

If you want to know what this book is about, just read all the motivation memes on the Internet that don’t tell you anything new and certainly show more don’t tell you how to do it like, “don’t think small. Think big!” and you will have a strong handle on this book. show less