All achievement, including every fortune ever built, have their beginning in an idea. The wealth comes from turning the idea from something we can see in our minds eye alone into something that serves other people, and for which they are willing to pay. This is done through auto-suggestion, organized planning, master-mind association and an inner harmony between the thoughts of your mind and the actions and achievements of your life. You literally become and achieve what you think about all day long. To control your life, control your thoughts.

1. Thoughts Are Things


Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe man can achieve.

Thoughts are very powerful when mixed with a definiteness of 

purpose and a burning desire for their translation into riches or other 

material objects. 

A man by the name of Edwin Barnes once turned up at Thomas 

Edison’s business and announced he had come to go into business 

with the inventor. 

Thomas Edison later said, 

‘‘He stood there before me like an ordinary tramp, but there was 

something about the expression of his face which conveyed the 

impression he was determined to get what he had come after. I had 

learned from years of experience that when a man really desires 

something so deeply that he’s willing to stake his entire future on a 

single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him 

the opportunity he asked for because I saw he had made up his mind 

to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved no 

mistake had been made.’’

In other words, an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted 

into material rewards by the application of known principles. You can 

start with nothing except the capacity to know what you want, and add 

determination to realize your desires. To do this, you have to

overcome the habit of quitting when overtaken by temporary defeat.

Before success comes in any person’s life, they are sure to meet with 

temporary defeat and perhaps some failure. Often, success comes 

just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken you. All 

you have to do is to hang on in there.

The answer you may be seeking to the questions raised by 

experiences in your life may be found in your own mind. One sound 

idea is all you need to achieve success. When riches begin to come 

they come so quickly and in such great abundance that you’ll be 

wondering where they had been hiding for all those lean years.

Riches actually begin with a state of mind and definiteness of purpose 

with little or no work. One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the 

average man’s familiarity with the word impossible. He knows all the

rules that won’t work, and all the things that can’t be done. Success 

comes to those who become success conscious - or those who are 

obsessed with success. Failure comes to those who allow themselves 

to be failure conscious.

Another common weakness is the habit of measuring everyone and everything by our own experiences. We can foolishly believe that our own limitations are the exact measure of everyone else’s limitations.

Every person is the master of their own fate - because everyone has the power to control what they think about. Brains become magnetized by the dominating thoughts that are held in the mind.These magnets attract the forces, the people and the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of the most dominating

thoughts.

2. Desire

Summary of Think and Grow Rich

1. Define your major purpose. Definiteness of purpose is one major key to success.
2. A common cause of failure is being overtaken by temporary defeat. Never quit, push yourself to go the extra mile. Great success always lays just one step beyond failure.
3. Don’t stop when someone objects. Reject the urge to cave to negative outside pressure. Think to yourself ‘I have to do this!’
4. Become success conscious. Be aware at all times of your ability to be successful.
5. Stake everything on one good idea and a subsequent plan.
6. You are the master of your own fate – you control your thoughts, and therefore your destiny.
7. Your desire to be successful and acquire material possessions must transcend all else.
8. Burn the bridges that lead to alternative options. Ensure that you must follow through with your plan for success.
9. Your accumulation of wealth cannot be left to chance.
10. Let no one negatively influence you to abandon your plan and your goals. Focus on the positive and on improving your performance and you will achieve your goals.
11. No one is ready for something (i.e. wealth) until they believe they can acquire it.
12. Have faith in what you believe and ensure that this faith is unwavering.
13. You will develop faith through the use of autosuggestion.
14. Faith is a state of mind that is created by repeating suggestions to the sub-conscious mind.
15. No one is doomed to bad luck; bad luck is a result of focusing on the negative aspects of life and the situations within life.
16. Thoughts which are mixed with any of the feelings of emotion constitute a magnetic force which attracts other similar or related thoughts.
17. Ally yourself with a group of as many people as you may need for the creation and carrying out of your plan or plans for the accumulation of wealth.
18. Arrange to meet the members of your group at least twice a week until you’ve perfected the necessary plan(s) for the accumulation of wealth.
19. Maintain perfect harmony between yourself and every member of your group.
20. Keep in mind; you are engaged in an undertaking of major importance to you. To be sure of success, you must have plans which are faultless.
21. Keep in mind; you must have the advantage of the experience, education, native ability and imagination of other minds.
22. Know what you want and you will probably get it.
23. Be money conscious and not poverty conscious. Instead of thinking that you are trying to avoid poverty, think that you are trying to become rich.

Six ways to turn desire into wealth

1. Fix in your mind the exact figure of money or the exact material items you are going to possess. You must be very definite when stating the material wealth you wish to receive.
2. Determine what you will give in return for the wealth you desire. Be definite.
3. Establish the exact date that you intend to possess the wealth you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once to put this plan into action, regardless of whether or not your feel ready to follow this plan.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the wealth you intend to acquire, name the time limit for it’s acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the wealth and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement once before bed and once after waking up in the morning. As you read, see, feel and believe yourself to already be in possession of your defined wealth.

Eight Essential Steps Towards Wealth

1. Desire – the starting point of all achievement.
2. Faith – visualization of and belief in attainment of desire.
3. Autosuggestion – the medium for influencing the subconscious mind.
4. Specialized Knowledge – personal experience or observations.
5. Imagination – the workshop of the mind.
6. Organized Planning – the crystallization of desire into action.
7. Decision – the mastery of procrastination.
8. Persistence – the sustained effort necessary to induce faith.

The Major Attributes of Leadership

1. Unwavering courage – based upon knowledge of self and of one’s occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such a leader for long.
2. Self-control – the man who cannot control himself can never control others. Self-control sets a mighty example for one’s followers, which the more intelligent will emulate.
3. A keen sense of justice – without a sense of fairness and justice, no leader can command and retain the respect of his followers.
4. Definiteness of decision – the man who wavers in his decisions shows that he is not sure of himself, cannot lead others successfully.
5. Definiteness of plans – the successful leader must plan his work and work his plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical, definite plans is comparable to a ship without a rudder; sooner or later he will land on the rocks.
6. The habit of doing more than paid for – one of the penalties of leadership is the necessity of willingness, upon the part of the leader to do more than he requires of his followers.
7. A pleasing personality – no sloppy, careless person can become a successful leader. Leadership calls for respect. Followers will not respect a leader who does not grade high on all of the factors of a pleasing personality.
8. Sympathy and understanding – the successful leader must be in sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their problems.
9. Mastery of detail – successful leadership calls for mastery of the details of the leader’s position.
10. Willingness to assume full responsibility – the successful leader must be willing to assume responsibility for the mistakes and shortcomings of his followers. If he tries to shift his responsibility, he will not remain the leader. If one of his followers makes a mistake and shows himself incompetent, the leader must consider that it is he who failed.
11. Cooperation – the successful leader must understand and apply the principle of cooperative effort and be able to induce his followers to do the same. Leadership calls for power, and power calls for cooperation.

The Ten Major Causes of Leadership Failure

1. Inability to organize details.
2. Unwillingness to render humble service.
3. Expectation of pay for what they know instead of what they do with what they know.
4. Fear of competition from followers.
5. Lack of imagination.
6. Selfishness.
7. Intemperance.
8. Disloyalty.
9. Emphasis of the authority of leadership.
10. Emphasis of title.

The Thirty-One Major Causes of Failure

1. Unfavorable hereditary background.
2. Lack of a well-defined purpose in life.
3. Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity.
4. Insufficient education.
5. Lack of self-discipline.
6. Ill health.
7. Unfavorable environmental influences during childhood.
8. Procrastination.
9. Lack of persistence.
10. Negative personality.
11. Lack of controlled sexual urge.
12. Uncontrolled desire for ‘something for nothing’.
13. Lack of a well defined power of decision.
14. One of more of the six basic fears.
15. Wrong selection of a mate in marriage.
16. Over-caution.
17. Wrong selection of associates in business.
18. Superstition and prejudice.
19. Wrong selection of a vocation.
20. Lack of concentration of effort
21. The habit of indiscriminate spending.
22. Lack of enthusiasm.
23. Intolerance.
24. Intemperance.
25. Inability to cooperate with others.
26. Possession of power that was not acquired through self-effort.
27. Intentional dishonesty.
28. Egotism and vanity.
29. Guessing instead of thinking.
30. Lack of capital.
31. Name any particular cause of failure from which you have suffered that has not been included in the list.

Self-Confidence Formula

1. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life; therefore I demand of myself persistent, continuous action towards its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.
2. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical reality; therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture.
3. I know through the principle of autosuggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it; therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence.
4. I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.
5. I fully realize that no wealth can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself. I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory and repeat it aloud once a day, with a full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person.

Self-Analysis Questionnaire

1. Have I attained the goal which I established as my objective for this year? (You should work with a definite yearly objective to be attained as a part of your major life objective.)
2. Have I delivered service of the best possible quality of which I was capable, or could I have improved any part of this service?
3. Have I delivered service of the best possible quantity of which I was capable?
4. Has the spirit of my conduct been harmonious and cooperative at all times?
5. Have I permitted the habit of procrastination to decrease my efficiency, if so, how much?
6. Have I improved my personality, and if so, in which ways?
7. Have I been persistent in following my plans through to completion?
8. Have I reached decisions promptly and definitely on all occasions?
9. Have I permitted any one or more of the six basic fears to decrease my efficiency?
10. Have I been either over-cautious or under-cautious?
11. Has my relationship with my associates in work been pleasant or unpleasant? If it has been unpleasant, has the fault been partly or wholly mine?
12. Have I dissipated any of my energy through lack of concentration of effort?
13. Have I been open-minded and tolerant in connection with all subjects?
14. In what way have I improved my ability to render service?
15. Have I expressed, either openly or secretly, any form of egotism?
16. Has my conduct toward my associates been such that it has induced them to respect me?
17. Have my opinions and decisions been based upon guesswork, or accuracy of analysis and thought?
18. Have I followed the habit of budgeting my time, my expenses and my income?
19. How much time have I devoted to unprofitable effort which I might have used to better advantage?
20. How may I re-budget my time and change my habits so I will be more efficient next year?
21. Have I been guilty if any conduct that was not approved by my conscience?
22. In what ways have I rendered more service and better service than I was paid to render?
23. Have I been unfair to anyone, and if so, in what way?
24. If I had been the purchaser of my own services for the year, would I be satisfied with my purchase?
25. Am I in the right vocation, and if not, why not?
26. Has the purchaser of my services been satisfied with my services, and if not, why not?
27. What is my present rating on the fundamental principles of success? (Be honest.)

Training Yourself to be Persistent

1. Definiteness of purpose – knowing what one wants is the first and, perhaps, the most important step toward the development of persistence. A strong motive forces one to surmount many difficulties.
2. Desire – it is comparatively easy to acquire and to maintain persistence in pursuing the object of intense desire.
3. Self-reliance – belief in one’s ability to carry out a plan encourages one to follow the plan through with persistence.
4. Definiteness of plans – Organized plans, even though they may be weak and entirely impractical encourage persistence.
5. Accurate knowledge – knowing that one’s plans are sound, based upon experience or observation, encourages persistence; guessing instead of knowing destroys persistence.
6. Will power – the habit of concentrating one’s thoughts upon the building of plans for the attainment of a definite purpose leads to persistence.
7. Habit – persistence is the direct result of habit. The mind absorbs and becomes a part of the daily experiences upon which it feeds. Fear, the worst of all enemies, can be effectively cured by forced repetition of acts of courage.

Quotes

• The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way. 

• Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you --Robert Kiyosaki 

The Key To Leadership: Priorities

The Pareto Principle:

20 percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production IF you spend your time, energy, money and personnel on the top of 20 percent of your priorities.

The distribution is claimed to appear in several different aspects relevant to entrepreneurs and business managers. For example:

• 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your profits come from 20% of the time you spend
• 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products
• 80% of your sales are made by 20% of your sales staff

 

20 Percent of the people in an organization will be responsible for 80 percent of the company's success.

 

Prioritize Assignments:

 

1. High Importance/ High Urgency

2. High Importance/ Low Urgency

3. Low Importance/ High Urgency

4. Low Importance/ LowUrgency

 

 

Every person is either an initiator or a reactor when it comes to planing. An example is our calendar.

 

Leaders tend to initiate, and followers tend to react.

                                           

 

Leaders	Followers
Initiate	React
Lead	Listen
Spend time planing	Spend time living day-to-day
Anticipate Problems	React to Problems
Invest time with people	Spend time with people
Fill the calendar by priorities	Fill the calendar by requests

 

Summary of Eat That Frog

 My summary here attempts to condense the book into a few pages of critical insights, organized into four primary sections: organization, efficiency, identifying your strengths, and optimizing yourself.  Implementing even a small number of these techniques will result in greatly increased effectiveness.

DO NOT WAIT, the time will never be right
Seven Step Method

1. Decide exactly what you want
2. Write it down – thinking on paper is critical
3. Set a deadline on your goal
4. List the steps necessary for achievement
5. Organize the list into a plan (priority and sequence, visual layout)
6. Take action on your plan immediately
7. Do something every day to move closer to that goal

Reasons for procrastination (and their solutions)

• vagueness/confusion around objectives and how and why to accomplish them (write down goals, list specific steps)
• feeling of inadequacy, lack of confidence, inability in key area of task (identify and learn key skills)
• attempting to begin task while fatigued (protect energy level with diet, exercise, regular breaks/vacations)
• important tasks seem large and formidable upon first approach (resolve to do single step or limited time period)

Organization

Always Work From a List

Four lists: master list (to capture all ideas), monthly, weekly, daily

• Make a list of every step needed to complete project, organize by priority and sequence
• Just go as far as you can see, and be confident will be able to see farther at that future point
• Make the next daily/weekly/monthly list at the end of the previous day/week/month
• Transfer items from Master -> Monthly -> Weekly -> Daily
• When a new task comes up, add to list before doing it
• Tick off items as you complete them

ABCDE Method

Place letter next to each item

• A: task you must complete, very important, major positive/negative consequences (rank many A items with A-1, etc.)
• B: task you should complete, mild consequences
• C: task is optional, would like to do but no consequences attached
• D: task can be delegated, do so ASAP
• E: task can be eliminated without any real difference

Never do a B task when an A task is left incomplete

Begin Immediately and Persist Until the Task is Complete

• Once you know the highest-value task, everything else is a relative waste of time
• Take action on the most important task first thing every morning
• Once you start, keep working to full completion (task switching costs are a major time sink)
• Notice if you are becoming distracted by conversation or low-value activity
• Most identifiable sign of high-performing people is action-orientation, they are in a hurry to complete key tasks
• Urgency will generate action instead of discussion: focusing on specific steps, concentrating on results

Tricks to Get Started

• It is easier to commit to doing a small piece of work, and momentum often keeps us working beyond the initial steps
• Divide large/complex projects into distinct smaller steps, and resolve to do one of them
• Resolve to work for a specific short time period, as little as 5-10 minutes (even shorter works too)

Create Deadlines

• Imagine you have to leave town tomorrow, what absolutely must be done before you go?
• Set deadlines (and sub-deadlines as appropriate) for every task and activity
• Determine how many minutes/hours each task will require, add a 20% buffer, then make it into a game to beat your own estimates

Create Blocks of Time

• Set aside 30/60/90 minute blocks for important tasks
• Getting up early and working for hours before going to work is a key productivity habit
• Time planner on day/hour/minute level enables you to see and consolidate blocks of time
• Plan your day in advance and schedule fixed time periods for particular activities (e.g. sales calls 10-11 AM)
• During these work times, turn off electronic communication, eliminate any distractions, work nonstop
• Use transition periods (“gifts of time”) to complete small steps in larger tasks
• If you fly often, plane rides are a great unbroken block of time, plan your work for the entire duration

Review your goals and performance at the end of every day/week/month

Efficiency

Three Questions for Maximum Productivity

• What are my highest value activities?  (Think to yourself, then ask others)
• What can I and only I do that if done well will make a real difference?
• What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

The more accurate your answers are to these questions, the easier it will be to set priorities and do the most valuable task

Apply 80/20 Rule to Everything

• Law of Forced Efficiency: There is never enough time to do everything, but there is enough time to do the most important things
• A handful of your tasks are likely much more valuable than any of the others
• You get your time and life under control only insofar as you discontinue low-value activities
• If you want to add something new, you must complete or discontinue something old
• Completing high-value tasks is more satisfying
• Continually review responsibilities to identify tasks which can be delegated/eliminated without loss

The most powerful word is “no”

• Say no to anything not a clear high-value use of time
• Say it clearly so that there are no miscommunications
• Say it regularly as part of your time-management strategy
• Say it early and often!

Question to Ask: “If I were not doing this already, knowing what I know now, would I start doing it again today?”

Improve Rate-Limiting Steps

• There is always a rate-limiting step in every task
• Identify that choke point, and make a single-minded effort to weaken that constraint
• 80% of the limiting factors exist internally within you or your organization
• Take an honest look at self and company, accept responsibility for your life and look to yourself for both the cause and cure of the problem
• Accurate identification of the limiting factor can bring about huge progress quickly, otherwise you solve the wrong problem (epistemic rationality!)
• The key constraint may be small and not entirely obvious, make a list of every step in a process
• Behind every rate-limiting step is another one, so target the next one and alleviate that as quickly as possible

Questions:

• What is holding you back?
• What sets the speed at which you achieve your goals?
• What determines how fast you move from here to there?
• What holds you back from doing the most important tasks?
• Why haven’t you already achieved your goal?

Workspace

• Clear everything off your desk until only the task at hand is in front of you
• Have everything you need to complete task in hand before you begin
• Make your work area comfortable, attractive, and conducive to working long periods
• Once you complete preparations, begin working immediately
• Assume the body language of high-performance: sit up straight, sit forward away from back of chair

Electronic Communication

• DO NOT check voicemail/e-mail first thing in the morning
• Tech is your friend, there to increase speed/efficiency/accuracy of information transfer, but can be addictive
• Just because someone sends you an e-mail does not mean you have an obligation to respond (if the e-mail is important enough, the sender will resend)
• Delete 80% of e-mails unread immediately. Only 20% of those remaining are urgent, put the rest in a file to respond later
• Create zones of silence in your life where no one or nothing can reach you
• Maintain inner calm by pausing on a regular basis to listen to the silence

 Identifying Your Strengths

What Are Your Unique Talents?

Do what you love to do, and do it well!

• What gets you the most compliments/praise?
• What affects the performance of other people the most?

Ask yourself these questions:

• What am I really good at?
• What do I enjoy the most about my work?
• What has been the most responsible for my success?
• If I could do any job at all, what would it be?
• If I won the lottery, what work would I choose to do?

Rule of Three

Three core tasks provide most of your value, focus on optimizing those

In thirty seconds, write down your three most important goals in life right now

• Giving people longer rarely results in different answers
• In most cases people have a financial/career goal, a personal relationship goal, and a health/fitness goal.

Expand to three most important goals in:

• Business/career
• Family/relationship
• Financial
• Health
• Personal/professional development
• Social/community
• Biggest problems or concerns in life

Key Result Areas

Your work can usually be broken down into 5-7 key result areas (KRA), where you are completely responsible

• Make a list of important output responsibilities, tasks which feed into others
• Determine key result areas and grade yourself on 1-10 scale
• Your performance is only as strong as your weakest KRA
• We tend to avoid jobs where we performed poorly in the past
• Refuse to rationalize/justify/defend weakness, instead identify clearly, and make a plan to improve

Big Seven in management: planning, organization, staffing, delegating, supervising, measuring, reporting

Big Seven in sales: prospecting, building rapport and trust, identifying needs, presenting persuasively, answering objections, closing the sale, getting resales and referrals

Question to Ask: “What one skill would have the greatest positive impact on my life?” (ask others as well) 

Optimize Self

Skill Acquisition

• Identify the most important things you do, and make a plan to continually upgrade those skills
• You can learn any skills necessary to be more productive/effective

Three Steps to Mastery:

• Read in your field at least one hour/day
• Take every course/seminar available on key skills
• Listen to audio during downtime

3 D’s of New Habit Formation

1. Decision to learn new habit
2. Discipline to practice
3. Determination to persist until habit is encoded

Optimizing Mood

• To perform at your best, you need to be in a good mood!
• Level of self-esteem is critically important for motivation and persistence
• The way you interpret things determines how you feel
• Resolve to become an optimist

Four Behaviors of Optimists:

• Look for the good in every situation
• Seek the valuable lesson in setback/difficulty
• Look for the solution to every problem (vs. blame/complain)
• Think and talk continually about your goals

The biggest enemies are fear of failure/rejection and accompanying doubts

• The way to overcome fear is to do precisely that thing
• Act as if you already had the courage and behave accordingly

State maxims to yourself on a regular schedule, to internalize positive beliefs

Visualize

• Imagine being your future awesome self, self-image has a powerful effect on behavior
• Visualize how the world would look with your goals completed

Generate Intrinsic Motivation

• See yourself as role model for others
• Set higher standards for yourself than others set for you
• Make it into a game!

Energy Level is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT for Motivation

• Utilize the specific time of the day when you are at your best for top-priority tasks
• Sometimes your best use of time is indeed to quit early and get a lot of sleep
• Take one full day off every week: no work or electronic communication or anything taxing. Instead do activities which replenish you
• Take regular vacations every year, both weekends and 1-2 week breaks

Big three for energy level:

1. Sleep
2. Diet
3. Exercise

Questions:

• What am I doing physically that I should do more of?
• What am I doing that I should do less of?
• What am I not doing that I should start doing to maximize performance?
• What am I doing that affects my health should I stop doing entirely?

Work/life balance is not optional

• Time management is a means to an end: freeing up time to do the things you love
• The more in-person time you spend with loved ones, the happier you will be
• What matters is quality of time at work and quantity of time in rest of life
• When you work, work – wasted work time comes out of personal life

You are shaping yourself into a new, superior human being.  Be an ascending spiral of personal effectiveness.

Welcome to my blog

Hi Friends, it's my first attempt of writing my own blog. I keep on posting my readings and leanings  about entrepreneurship. Please encourage me with your feedbacks.


Thanks,
Koti Kallam