I first got the book from San Jose Library, browsed through it and found it less than interesting. Then I listened to the audio book through Audible and was captivated by the contents. Interesting takeaways:

1. Most people who couldn’t go on higher up in corporate ladder or grow are mostly due to their behavior, not their technical expertise. This is what prevents them from getting there.

2. The art of apologizing

3. Advertise their effort to change their behavior.

4. Follow up. Listen without prejudice – just say “Thank you.”

5. Feedforward – eliciting advices from peopl eon what they can do better in the future.

The twenty habits:
1. Winning to much: The need to win at all costs in all situations – what it matters, when it doesn’t, and when it’s total beside the point.

2. Adding too much value: The overwhelming desire to ad our two cents to every discussion.

3. Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them.

4. Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty.

5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However”: The overuse of these negative qualifiers what secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.”

6. Telling the world how smart we are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.

7. Speaking when angrey: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.

8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share the negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked.

9. Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.

10. Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to praise and reward.

11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.

12. Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it.

13. Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.

14. Playing favorites: failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.

15. Refusing the express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.

16. Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.

17. Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.

18. Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually only trying to help us.

19. Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone by ourselves.

20. An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are.

The 21st habit that was singled out is “Goal Obsession” – hog the spotlight and ended up losing talented people in the team. The classical example was the “Good Samaritan” research that showed even the priests-to-be may practice what they preach when they’re obsessed with the goal (to teach a sermon about the “good Samaritan”). One should ask himself/herself frequently, ” what am I doing?” and “why am I doing this?”

Most of the bad habits center around these two interpersonal flaws: appropriately sharing and withholding of information and emotion.

When getting feedbacks from coworkers, get the 4 commitments from them: 1) Let go of the past, 2) Tell the truth, 3) Be supportive and helpful – not cynical or negative, 4) Pick something to improve yourself – to focus on “improving” and not judging – create a parity and bond.

The questions to ask for feedback are: Does the subject 1) communicate a vision, 2) Treat people with respect, 3) solicit contrary opinions, 4) Encourage other people’s ideas, and 5) listen to other people in meetings?

The 4 quadrants, based on x-axis of known or unknown to self and y-axis of known or unknown to others, are 1) Blind spots, 2) Public knowledge, 3) Private knowledge, and 4) Unknowables.

You can obtain the feedback yourself by 1) Make a list of people’s remarks about you, 2) Turn the sound off – observe the how other physically dealing with you, 3) Complete the sentence exercise, 4) Listen to your own self-aggrandizing remarks, 5) Look homeward (check with your family members).

About techniques of “apologizing”: say “I’m sorry, I’ll do better in the future” – get in and get out quickly. Do not justify why and explain.

The next step following apologizing is to advertise that you’re improving – be your own PR person. The classical corporate troubleshooting process 1) assessing, 2) isolating the problem, 3) formulating the solution, 4) getting approval from the top, 5) getting buy-in or agreements from coworkers, 6) getting acceptance from subordinates, 7) implement the solution. Do not skip #4~#5 that most people forget.

Practice listening and say “thank you” often and then “follow up” (“how am I doing?”). The last step is to practice “feed forward.” Tell people that you’re improving one area and ask for 2 advices and then say “thank you.”

The rules about “changing”: 1) May not be able to change, 2) Pick the right thing to change, 3) Don’t delude yourself what you really need to change, 4) Don’t hide yourself from the truth you need to hear, 5) There is no ideal behavior, 6) If you measure it, you can achieve it, 7) Monetize the result, create a solution, 8 ) The best time to change is NOW.

I like the last chapter about imagining yourself being of 95 years old and asking yourself what advises you would give. Most advises you get from people are: 1) Be happy now, don’t wait until you’re old. 2) Treat your friends and family members well; they are the ones surrounding you at your dying bed – not your colleagues. 3) Follow your dreams – best to die trying than to regret not trying. Most people stay at a certain workplace because 1) They enjoy what they’re doing, 2) they enjoy the people they work with, 3) they’re following their dreams. Tips for people managers.

This is a good book. It’s amazing how subtle the changes need to be to get to the next level; we often think being technical/knowhow savvy is the critical step, when it’s probably the least of the problem. Marshal Goldsmith as his own “What Got You Here” website.

I picked up this book per the recommendation of the “4-hour work week” book. At first, I thought to myself, how does dance choreographing have to do with business or engineering. As it turns out, to be creative in dancing is probably much harder since it’s so visible and yet subtle at the same time. This book taught me a lot of creative ideas. I like the creative exercises, especially “Do the verbs,” “Pick a fight,” “Play twenty questions,” and several others. The book is organized with several concepts followed by several exercises for each concept. The concept of “spine” is particular interesting. Overall, it’s a pretty good book – good to see the creative process from a virtuoso. I particular like the fact that Tharp spent a lot of time studying the famous ones’ (Beethoven, Mozart, and etc.) creative habit as well.

Here are the outlines of the book:

Develop your start-up rituals of preparations that impels your forward every day, faced down your fears and put your distractions in proper places: This arm us with confidence and self-reliance. You may want to subtracting distractions from your life, as Tharp subtract movies, multi-tasking, numbers (clocks, meters, scales, bank statements, etc.) and background music.

Exercise 1. Where’s your “pencil”? Where is the one tool that feeds your creativity and is essential that without “it you feel naked and unprepared? This could be your voice recorder, pen and notebook, postit notes such that when an idea comes to you, you’re able to jot it down fast.”

Exercise 2. Build up your tolerance for solitude. Sit alone for x number of minutes (start at 10 minutes and keep increasing) in a room and let your thoughts go wherever they will. Then start paying attention your thoughts to see if a word or goal materializes – “quietness without loneliness.

Exercise 3. Face your fears. Identify and breakdown the ones that are holding you back. Don’t run away from them or ignore them; write them down and save the page. Don’t let it stop you in your tracks.

Exercise 4. Give me one week without. Take a week off without clutter and distractions such as mirrors, clocks, newspapers, speaking, telephone, computer, coffee, car and etc.

Your Creative DNA, the creative code hard-wired into our imaginations. For Tharp, it’s “focal length” – involvement vs. detachment – dive in, step back, dive in. step back… Bios (distinguishes between one’s life and another) vs. Zoe (the aggregate, life in general without characterization). If you understand the stands of your creative DNA, you begin to see how they mutate into common threads in your work. You begin to see the “story” that you’re trying to tell; why you do the things you do (both positive and self-destructive), and how you see the world and function in it. The 33-questionnaire help to decipher your creative DNA. I like Tharp’s answer on her idea of mastery – having the experience to know what you want to do, the vision to see how to do it, the courage to work with you’re given, and the skill to execute that first impulse – all so you can take bigger chances.

Exercise 5. You can observe a lot by watching. Two exercises: pick a scene (e.g. between a couple) and write down everything they do and then do the same except writing down what you find interesting. The differences between the two descriptions speaks volume about how you see the world. You will be revealed.

Exercise 6. Pick a new name. What would you choose? What would you want it to say about you? Done wisely and well, a change a name can be self-fulfilling prophecy.

Harness your memory. Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art. It’s our vocabulary for connecting what we’re experiencing now with what have experienced before. It’s how we interpret it – for ourselves and others. Muscle memory – more for acquiring skill than for developing inspiration. Virtual memory – ability to project yourself into feeling and emotions from your past, and let them manifest themselves physically. Sensual memory – the sudden appearance of a smell or taste or sound or color instantly floods the imagination with images from the past. Institutional memory – like going through old file folders would open up a torrent of memories and associations, where you can find a useful idea. Ancient memory – old arts that brings up the spirit of the ancestors. Just go over the old CD, movies, books, magazines – the “shadowing” process.

Exercise 7: Name that muse. Associate a series of objects with something you are familiar and with similar meaning,e.g. Urania sounds like Uranus, hence associated with astronomy. I often use this method to remember a list of answers to an essay question for my school exam.

Exercise 8: Trust your muscle memory. Learn to train your muscle memory, your ability to retain and repeat motion.

Exercise 9: Mining your memory in a photograph. Take a family picture, any picture, and study it. What do you see in it that is indisputably similar to your life today, to the person you’ve become? What is vaguely similar? What bears no resemblance or suggests nothing memorable? The goal is to connect with something old so it becomes new. Look and imagine.

Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box. Create a box that you can transfer files. Fill it up with every item that went into the making of a creative project. This box documents the active research on every project. Keep a folder or drawer that contains the “pre-ideas” – those intriguing little tickles at the corners of your brain that tell you when something is interesting to you without your knowing quite knowing why. E.g. Beethoven kept notebooks for rough ideas, notebooks for improvements on those ideas, and notebooks for finished ideas. In the box, you may have the index cards that outline the goals, all the research materials, notebooks, tchotchkes,

Exercise 10: “Begin!” Take a deep breath, stamp your feet, and shout “Begin!”

Scratching (like scratching a lottery ticket). It’s what you do when you can’t wait for the thunderbolt to hit you. As Freud said, “When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.” When you’re in scratching mode, the tiniest microcell of an idea will get you going. Ideas can be acted upon 1) be generated, 2) retained, 3) inspected, 4) transformed to suit your higher purposes. Ways to search for ideas 1) Reading. The more you read, the more mentally fit you feel. 2) Everyday conversation. If you listen, you will hear ideas. 3) Enjoying other people’s handiwork. 4) In the footsteps of your mentors and heroes, using their paradigms as a starting point for ideas. Be careful not be become an imitator. 5) Amid nature. Observe how the birds waddle. 6) Don’t stop with one idea. Link A to B to C and maybe come up with H. A few rules to make scratching more manageable: 1) Be in shape. 2) scratch in the best places. For a sculptor, select the best stone to work with. 3) Never scratch the same place twice. If you scratch the same way all the time, you’ll end up the same place with the same old ideas. 4) Maintain the white hot pitch. Throw a tantrum at yourself. Anger is a cheap adrenaline rush. Scratching is where the creativity begins. It’s the moment where you ideas first take flight and begin to defy gravity. If you try to rein in, you’ll never know how high you can go.

Exercise 11: Chaos and Coins: gathering chaos into a satisfying order is a daunting challenge. Toss a handful of coins. Fiddle with the coins, moving them around into strange or familiar geometries.

Exercise 12: Reading archaeologically. “What you will be in five years depends on two things: the people you meet and the books you read.” Read backward in time. Start with where the author ended and finish where he started, solving the mystery of how the write got that way. “Reading fat” – reading related texts surrounding the book – like Oxford English Dictionary.

Exercise 13: A dozen eggs. Sit on the floor, bring the knees to the chest, curl the head down to the knees and try to make yourself as small as you can. And then you have no choice by to expand and grow. When you stimulate your body, you brain comes alive in ways you can’t simulate in a sedentary position.

Exercise 14: Give yourself a little challenge. Give yourself a handicap to overcome will force you to think in a new and slightly different way.

Exercise 15: Take a field trip. imbuing the walk with a steeply determination to come back with something in mind. Places like museums, local gallery, walk in the woods, hospital ER room, bus terminal, library archives, police station, construction site, mall, blues club, dairy farm, open field.

Accidents will happen. A plan is like the scaffolding around a building. When you’re putting up the exterior shell, the scaffolding is vital. But once the shell is in place and you start work on the interior, the scaffolding disappears. Planning cannot take over as you toil away on the interior guts of a piece. Transforming your ideas rarely goes according to plan – the paradox of creativity. Habitually creative people are “prepared to be lucky.” In creative endeavors luck is a skill. Some of the problems that can derail you well-laid plans: 1) other people. Relying too much on others, even in the inevitably collaborative process makes you crazy. 2) Perfectionism at the start. Limits are a secret blessing, and bounty can be a curse. It’s better to be ready to go than to wait until you are perfectly ready. “No deprivation, no inspiration. No then, no now.” 3) The wrong structure. You have to choose the form that’s not only appropriate to you but right for your particular area. 4) A sense of obligation. Not an acceptable reason to stick with something that isn’t working. 5) The wrong materials.

Exercise 16: Pick a fight. Art is competitive with yourself, with the past, with the future. Creativity is an act of defiance. You’re asking 3 questions that mock conventional wisdom: 1) Why do I have to obey the rules? 2) Why can’t I be different? 3) Why can’t I do it my way? You need to channel your innate defiance productively to generate anger, emotion, combustion, and heat. So, pick a fight – with the system, the rules, your rituals, even your everyday routines. Sometimes, to force change, you have to attack the work with outrage and violence. You won’t always win, but the exercise is liberating.

Exercise 17: Our Perfect World: 1) quiet, 2) no one present who does not belong – no observers. 3) all the time in the world. No worry that you will be thrown out or that you will go into overtime. 4) No goal other than to try things. 5) no fear of failure; nothing will fail. 6) No obligations other than to do your best, 7) We entertain each other; I challenge them, and they challenge me. 8 ) Each day completes itself. The next day is new.

Exercise 18: How to be lucky. Be generous. To be a great choreographer (or teacher), you have to invest everything you have in your dancers. It takes courage to be generous like that. They involve their friends in their work, and they tend to make others feel lucky to be around them.

Exercise 19: Work with the best. You need to rub up against other people.

Spine. Begins with your first strong idea. The idea is a toehold that gets you started. The spine is the underlying theme, a motive for coming into existence. What am I trying to say? That is the moment when you will embrace, with gratitude, the notion of a spine. You can discover the spine in many ways: 1) with an aid of a friend, 2) induce it with a ritual, “explain it to me as if I’m ten years old. 3) recall your original intentions and clarifying your goals. 4) from music.

Exercise 20: Make a picture that’s worth ten thousand words. Create a gesture or movement that would need many words to convey its meaning. If you can do this, you have the skill to develop congruities and affinities. You can find spine. When words fail, spine does not.

Exercise 21: Spinal tap. Pick a favorite work of art and try to determine what spine, if any, the artist built into it – to seek out the hidden architecture of a piece. The spine is the one of the first places to look if you want to understand how a work of art gathers substance and integrity. If you can find the spine in work that already speaks to you, you can build better spines for work of your own.

Exercise 22: What’s you MQ (Metaphor Quotient)? The process by which we transform the meaning of one thing into something different is an essential part of human intelligence. Everything you create is a representation of something else; in this sense, everything you create is enriched by the metaphor.

Skill. Mastered the underlying skills of their creative domain, and build the creativity on the solid foundation of those skills. Skill is how you close the gap between what you can see in your mind’s eye and what you can produce; the more skill you have, the more sophisticated and accomplished your ideas can be. Craft is where our best efforts begin. Learn to do it yourself. It’s the only way to broaden your skills. Personality is a skill too. Perfect practice makes perfect. Art is a vast democracy of habit. The great ones never take fundamentals for granted. Concentrate on the imperfections. Inexperience erases fear; you do not know what is and what is not possible and therefor everything is possible. Hemingway’s quote, “… to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing.” Analyze your own skill set. See where you’re strong and where you need dramatic improvement, and tackle those lagging skills first. “Without passion, all the skill in the world won’t lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager bout floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.”

Exercise 23: Take inventory of your skills. Before you can appreciate your skills and where you might need improvement, you need to take inventory.

Exercise 24: Play Twenty Questions. Thoroughness, like discipline, is one of the most valuable skills. The patience to accumulate detail keeps you grounded and sharp. Before you approach a topic, write down twenty things you want to know about it. The more you know, the better you can imagine.

Exercise 25: Package your time. Harding’s quote, “The most important thing is not what the author or artist had in mind to begin with but at what point he decided to stop.” Think of all things you want to accomplish in the next few months. Make the circles big or little depending on the importance of the task. Use this method to for prioritizing your time.

Exercise 26: Take away a skill, a vital one. Would you be able to create? How would you overcome the loss? How would you compensate? What skill would come to the fore to rescue the work? It’s the value of thinking hypothetically; it unleashes new talents and it forces you to face reality. E.g. Jack Welch’s valuable thinking; Take away new customers. What have you got left? Pick one of your skills from your inventory. Now remove it. What’s left?

Ruts and groves. There will be time when your creativity fails you. You are in a rut. It’s not a creative block. A rut is a false start or you’re spinning your wheels. You know you’re in a rut when you annoy other people, bore your collaborators and supporters, fail to challenge yourself, and get the feeling that you’re standing still. A rut can be the consequences of 1) a bad idea, 2) bad timing, 3) bad luck, 4) sticking to the tried and tested methods that don’t take into account how you or the world has changed. Dealing with ruts: 1) You have see the rut. You have to make a habit of reviewing your efforts along the way, seeing where you’ve been and where you are to make sure you’re still heading in the right direction, if any. 2) admit you’re in a rut. The more disciplined you are, the less you’ll be willing to cut your losses and stop the sanity. 3) Getting out of the rut. To get out of the rut. 1) You need a new idea. Give yourself an aggressive quota for ideas, like give coming up with 60 uses for a stool within 2 minutes. 2) Challenging your assumptions. Switching things around like 1) identify the concept that isn’t working. 2) write down your assumptions about it, 3) challenge the assumptions, 4) act the challenge.

When you are in a groove, you’re not spinning your wheels; you’re moving forward in a straight and narrow path without pauses or hitches. You’re unwavering, undeviating, and unparalleled in your purpose. There are groves where everything flows for days, weeks, months, and you knock out a finished work in record time. Finding your grooves: 1) a breakthrough in your craft, 2) in congenial material, 3) in a perfect partner, in a favorite character, 4) comfortable subject matter.

Exercise 27: Do a verb. Pick a verb and act it out physically, e.g. “squirm,” “dart,” “twirl,” or “chafe.” The big ten are: push, spin, run, jump, twist, roll, skip, turn, walk, and fall.

Exercise 28: Build a bridge to the next day – to increase the chances of successive successes. Hemingway’s trick – call it a day at a point when he knew what came next (to extend the mini-groove.) Try to stop while you have a few drops left in the tank, and use that fuel to build a bridge to the next day. Give yourself a creative quota. Write the leftover idea on a notebook and put it away. Start the next day by looking at your note.

Exercise 29: Know when to stop tinkering. Knowing when to stop is almost as critical as knowing how to start. For Twyla, she attaches the name to the work as the last thing she does.

Exercise 30: Brew ruts into grooves. A bad habit – i.e. one that doesn’t produce good results – is a rut. Exorcise the rut. Exercise the groove.

An “A” in failure. Every creative person has to learn to deal with failure, because failure, like death and taxes, is inescapable. A therapeutic power to failure. It cleanse. It helps you put aside who you aren’t and reminds you who you are. Failure humbles. Private failures (first drafts that get tossed in the wastebasket) are great. The more you fail in private, the less you’ll fail in public. Creative act is editing. You’re editing out all the lame ideas that won’t resonate with the public. It’s setting the bar a little higher for yourself and your audience. Jerome Robbins’ quote, “you do the best work after your biggest disasters.” It’s a tug of war. You have to forget the failure to get it behind you, but at the same time you have to remember and understand the reasons for it. Failures may be failure of 1) skill – develop the skill you need, 2) concept – get out while the getting’s good, 3) judgment – remember at all times that you’re the one who’ll be judged by the final product, 4) nerve – looking foolish is good for you. It nourishes the spirit, 5) through repetition – it forces us to cling to our past successes. 6) from denial – changing that work and how we work.

Exercise 31: Give yourself a second chance. By acknowledging failure, you take he first step to conquering it.

Exercise 32: Build your own validation squad. As we mature, we need to build criticism into the working process, as we do with failure. Look for people who are 1) have talents who you admire, 2) your friends (have your best interest in heart), 3) don’t feel they are competing with you, 4) have hammered your work in the past.

The long run.There is no long run without devotion, commitment, and persistence. Being in “the bubble” is elimination of every distraction, sacrificed almost everything that gave pleasure. When creativity has become your habit; when you’ve learned to manage time, resources, expectations, and the demand of others; when you understand the value and place of validation, continuity, and purity of purpose – then you’re on the way to an artist’s ultimate goal: the achievement of mastery. Mastery is an elusive concept. You never know when you achieve it absolutely – and it may not help you feel you’ve attained it. When it all comes together, a creative life has the nourishing power we normally associate with food, love and faith.

I listened the the audio version of this book. The book was long and upon completing the book I thought I have just completed an advanced class on economic. Greenspan really turned this book into a brain dump of his past experience as the Fed chairman. This book should be a must read for an Economic major student. I will probably go back and read the book over again.

In his early life, he was into music and baseball. He was familiar with lots of the baseball statistics – a telltale sign of his talents. He decided to go to school after deciding doing gigs is not good enough for him but he still enjoyed playing Jazz on his saxophone and clarinet.

One thing I admire about him is his ability to create a company (Townsend and Greenspan) from scratch and provide a consulting service to an industry. He is an entrepreneur, not an academia, in his own right.

Greenspan gave a pretty good explanation of the FOMC and Fed organization and how the system works to inject money or remove money from our system. I learned a little of how the politics works in that system.

Greenspan’s views on the past US Presidents were a little surprising. Starting from Nixon, he thinks Nixon’s dark side (bad attitude) toward all ethnics is an equal-opportunity one. He just has a foul mouth but a very intelligent man. Greenspan praised Ford’s calm and steady mentality and credited Ford’s contribution in de-controlling various industries that started US’s prosperity. He did not work with Carter much but did not think too highly of him. Greenspan thought Reagan had a lot of one-liner stories that communicated well to the people. But Reagan has no interest in the details. He gave Clinton high mark for his high intelligence and executing to all the economic reforms, thus enjoying our 1st budget surplus for a long time. But he attributed that to the global dis-inflationary force that created the stock market boom. He didn’t take responsibility for taking the interest rate too low to cause the stock market bubble though. Greenspan did not talk much about George W. Bush except for his reckless fiscal policy, probably for obvious political reasons.

The crisis of 1987 and the dot com bust and the 911 incidents were the crises he faced during his tenure as the Fed chairman. He went to great details on the decisions he made. He believed that he was very fortunate to be the chairman at the greatest disinflation time of our era due to the global forces (2 Billions work forces being joined by China, India, and Eastern Europe). But he warned that at sometime, this disinflation force will cease and the inflationary force will kick in. I believe we’re seeing the material supply inflation now but the labor force inflation will kick in later as the world labor force got brought up to full employment.

He spoke eloquently about creative destruction – how the old industries (telephone) got destroyed to make ways for new industries (mobile phones). This is necessary to maintain high level of productivity, thus sustaining the rate of growth for capitalism. Japan’s banking industry were not allowed to go through the creative destruction – not in the cards for Japanese culture. Thus it took Japan more than 20 years to clear out their mess.

Greenspan was amazed by how the communism collapsed so quickly and was able to try out market capitalism so quickly. It proves that Adam Smith’s invisible hand are working its magic. Central planning just doesn’t cut it. Through market capitalism the central government will gradually lose its power and grip over its people. Can the new revisionist communist (like China) handle the loss of its power base? It’s a slippery slope for them.

Greenspan emphasized that the essence of the market economy is the protection of the property right. I never thought about this being the fundamental building block of our free market economy. Does it mean that US has the competitive advantage over the other countries like China, which does not yet protect the property rights of the people. Will China improve or backtrack? Very interesting.

His prediction for the global economy of 2030: somewhat dire for Europe but promising for Asia. Risk of inflation after the global disinflation effect subsided may be one of those risk areas – it’s going to be the age of turbulence. In other words, the low-interest rate party is going to be over soon. Will the US economy be resilient enough the sustain all the shocks and turbulence? Fed’s job is getting tougher. Is he glad he has retired?

More than 10 years ago, I read this book casually. “Think and Grow Rich!” Yes, keep dreaming. Obviously, I didn’t think much of it. The examples were very old and I couldn’t quite relate to them. The new audio-book edition with the editor’s comments really brought them to light for me. Of course, having read lots of the self-improvement books, I came to appreciate how revolutionary this book was during its time of writing – 1937, right after the Depression. Indeed, this is a real classic. The pdf file
can be found here. Here is a nice video of Napoleon Hill on Youtube.

The 13 steps:
1. A burning desire (goal setting): burn your bridge of retreat. The 6 ways: 1) fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire, 2) determine what you intend to give in return (no free lunch), 3) set a date, 4) create a definite plan and being at once, 5) write them out on paper, 6) read your statement out aloud, twice daily. The poetry, “… For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. … That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.” How true!

2. Faith (strong belief without the religious connotation): Develop faith, a state of mind that can be induced, by affirmation or auto-suggestion. The affirmation or auto-suggestion works by speaking into your sub-conscious mind. “Whether the statement be true or false. If a man repeats a lie over and over, he will eventually accept the lie as truth.” Self-fulfilled prophesy works both ways – use it to your advantage. Encourage the positive emotions as dominating forces and eliminate negative emotions. The book went into great details about an idea from Charles M. Schwab, with JP Morgan’s help that bought out Andrew Carnegie’s steel company and turn it into the US Steel Company. The merger nearly created so much wealth – synergy, in today’s term.

3. Auto-suggestion: This was covered slightly in the previous chapter. But it went into more depth. The three steps to stimulate your subconscious mind: 1) Repeat loudly the written statement of the amount of money you intend to accumulate, the time limit, the description of services/merchandise you intend to give in return for the money. 2) Repeat this program night and morning until you can see in your imagination, 3) Place a written copy of statement where you can see it night and morning.

4. Specialized Knowledge: “Knowledge will not attract money, unless it is organized, and intelligently directed, through practical plans of action, to the definite end of accumulation of money.” 5 ways to purchase knowledge a) One’s own experience and education, b) experience and education through cooperation of the “Master Mind Alliance.” c) Colleges and Universities, d) Public libraries, e) Special training courses. I would add “Internet” to f) nowadays. I often envy those Jeopardy winners who possesses so much general knowledge but now I feel sorry for them because probably the game shows are the only outlets for them to succeed in life. Hill emphasized that the main thing is the idea. Specialized knowledge may be found just around the corner – any corner!

5. Imagination: The desire is given shape, form and action through the aid of the imaginative faculty of the mind. Two forms of imagination: Synthetic imagination – combining old concepts ideas, and Creative imagination – original ideas, a faculty through which “hunches” and “inspirations” are received – tune into your “Infinite Intelligence” by communicating with the subconscious minds of others. Hill gave the example of a young preacher Dr. Gunsaulus received his one million dollars after his determination to get it within a week. “Ideas are intangible forces. .. They have the power to live on, after the brain that creates them has turned to dust.”

6. Organized Planning: 1) Faultless plans, 2) Have the advantage of the experience, education, native ability and imagination of other minds – your “Master Mind.” Keep replacing the plan if it does not work. Temporary defeat is a not permanent failure. “No man is ever whipped, until he quites – in his own mind.” The major attributes of Leadership: 1) Unwavering courage, 2) Self-control, 3) A keen sense of justice, 4) Definiteness of decision, 5) Definiteness of plans, 6) The habit of doing more than pair for, 7) A pleasing personality, 8 ) Sympathy and understanding, 9) Mastery of detail, 10) Willingness to assume full responsibility, 11) Cooperation – leadership calls for power and power calls for cooperation. Hill went into a lot of details about getting employment. In marketing your service, he talks about the QQS formula: 1) Quality of Service, 2) Quantity of Service (habit of giving your best), 3) Spirit of Service – habit of harmonious conduct. I like the way Hill characterizes the value of your brain – divide your annual income by the on-going interest rate. For example, if you make $100K per year at 5% interest rate, your brain is worth $2M. Of course, if your brain or ideas have a lasting value, the compounding effect could have an infinite value. How interesting! Hill then talked about 31 major causes of failures – a real downer. He suggests that we take annual inventory of ourselves – the 28 questions to ask ourselves every year. I would probably shrink them down the following 3 questions: 1) Have I given the best of myself in quality/quantity/spirit of my service to my customers/employers? 2) Have I used my time and money and channeled my energy efficiently according to my plans and toward my goals? 3) How and where have I improved myself in terms of my knowledge, my personality, and my work habits?

7. Decision (do not procrastinate): Make your own decisions or tap into your “Master Mind” – “opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth.” “Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence.” Hill gave examples of Abraham Lincoln’s decision to issue the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the 56 people’s decision on sign on America’s Declaration of Independence, risking their own lives. “Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely, know what they want, and generally get it.” “Definiteness of decision always requires courage.”

8. Persistence(Will Power): How to cultivate persistence: a) Definiteness of purpose. b) Desire, c) Self-reliance (using self suggestion), d) Definiteness of plans, e) Accurate knowledge – “guessing” destroy persistence, f) Cooperation, g) Will-power – the habit of concentrating one’s thoughts upon building the plans, h) Habit – forced repetition of acts of courage. One must overcome the fear of criticism.

9. Power of the Master Mind: Power may be defined as “organized and intelligently directed knowledge.” The sources of knowledge: a) Infinite knowledge (next chapter), b) Accumulated experience, c)Experiment and Research. “Master Mind” is defined as “Coordination and knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” By today’s terms, it would be “a synergistic team with complementary knowledge and experience” like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and Larry Page and Larry Page And Sergey Brin. This is a way to multiply your brain power. On the power of positive emotions, Hill talks about “Money is shy and elusive; it must be wooed/attracted and won… Poverty needs no plan .. it is bold and ruthless.” I don’t think I ever personify wealth that way but I can see why.

10. Sex Transmutation (harness the sexual energy): Hill brought up the correlation of highly developed sexual energy to high achievement. The top 10 stimuli to human mind: 1) sexual expression, 2) Love, 3) Desire for fame, power, or financial gain, 4) Music, 5) Friendship, 6) A Master Mind alliance, 7) Mutual suffering, 8 ) Auto-suggestion, 9) Fear, 10) Narcotics and alcohol. “Genius is developed through the sixth sense.” Where do these “hunches” come from? 1) Infinite intelligence, 2) One’s subconscious mind, 3) The mind of other person, 4) From other other person’s subconscious mind. Hill cited several examples of great people driven by force of sex, Napoleon Bonaparte, Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, William Shakespeare, and etc. Hill also drew the conclusion that the majority of men do not succeed until age of 40 or 50, due to their tendency to dissipate their energies through over-indulgence in physical sex. “The average man reaches the period of his greatest capacity to create between forty and sixty.” I guess I still have hope. Hill mentioned a lot of stereotypes between the role of man and woman. I think they probably apply mutually these days.

11. Subconscious Mind: According to Hill, the subconscious mind is the connecting link between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence. And emotionalized thoughts have direct influence on the subconscious mind. Thus, the following 7 positive emotions must be injected through auto-suggestion: 1) Desire, 2) Faith, 3) Love, 4) Sex, 5) Enthusiasm, 6) Romance, 7) Hope. They are against the 7 negative emotions: 1) Fear, 2) Jealousy, 3) Hatred, 4) Revenge, 5) Greed, 6) superstition, 7) Anger. Positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind the same time. One or the other must dominate. The subconscious mind is the intermediary, which translates one’s prayers into terms which Infinite Intelligence can recognize, presents the message, and brings back the answer in the form of a definite plan or idea for procuring the object of the prayer. I’m not sure Hill really meant “Infinite Intelligence” to be God. But it appears that Hill does believe man can tap on the God-like nature through the subconscious mind.

12. The Brain(a broadcasting and receiving station for thought): The intangibles, our thought, that our brain picks up cannot perceive through any of our 5 senses. All of us are controlled by forces which are unseen and intangibles. Hill goes into the power of telepathy.

13. The Sixth Sense: Hill extracted the sixth sense using meditation through mind development from within. By studying his heroes like Edison, Emerson, Darwin, Lincoln, and etc., Hill could role play each role and have for himself the “invisible counselors” or his “imaginary cabinet.” This is pretty cool. It’s like having internal debates as he takes on various opposing roles.

In the final chapter, Hill talks of the 6 basic fears that might block your success: Fear of 1) poverty, 2) criticism, 3) ill health, 4) loss of love of someone, 5) old age, 6) death. Fears are nothing more than states of mind – subject to control and direction. Hill had the cures for each of fears. He also addressed the 55 famous alibis (excuses). Hill’s parting message: “If we are related, we have, through these pages, we have met.” Indeed.

The last few chapters on Master Mind, Sex transmutation, Sixth Sense, the Brain, the Subconscious Mind, in my view, are the ways Napoleon Hill deployed human’s creativity. These are the unique ways you tap on your own internal creative intelligence. I can see why this book was and has been a classic. Each area can be expanded and elaborated in several books.

I have listened to the audio book twice and read the book once over. I believe I have learned how to tap on these powers to take myself to the next level. After all, according to Hill, my creative life has just begun…

This is a great book recommended by the author of “4-hr work week” book. This book is almost like a modern version of the “Think and Grow Rich,” although I feel this book is a bit more practical.

1. Believe you can succeed and you will.
3 guides to acquire and strengthen the power of belief: 1) Think success, don’t think failure. Think “I will win.” 2) Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Never sell yourself short. 3) Believe Big.

2. Cure yourself of excusitis, the failure disease. 4 common forms of excusitis: 1) “But my health isn’t good.” 2) “But you’ve got to have brains to succeed.” 3) “I’m too old.” 4) “I attract bad luck.”

3. Build confidence and destroy fear. Practice the following: 1) Action cures fear: Isolate your fear and then take construction action. 2) Put only positive thoughts in our memory bank. Simply refuse to recall unpleasant events or situations. 3) Put people in proper perspective. People are more alike than they are different. Get a balanced view of other fellow. 4) Practice doing what your conscience tells you is right. 5) Make everything about you say, “I am confident.” Like a) Be a “front seater.” b) Make eye contact. c) Walk 25% faster. d) Speak up. e) Smile big.

4. How to think big. 1) Don’t sell yourself short. Concentrate on your asset. You’re better than you think you are. 2) Use the big thinker’s vocabulary. Use big, bright, cheerful words. Use words that promise victory, hope, happiness, pleasure. 3) Stretch your vision. See what can be, not just what is. Practice adding value to things, to people and to yourself. 4) Get the big view of your job. The next promotion depends on mostly how you think toward your present job. 5) Think above trivial things. Focus your attention on big objectives.

5. How to think and dream creatively. 1) Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution. Eliminate “impossible,” won’t work,” “can’t do,” “no use trying” from your thinking and vocabularies. 2) Don’t let tradition paralyze your mind. Be receptive to new ideas. Be experimental. Try new approaches. Be progressive in everything you do. 3) Ask yourself daily, “How can I do better?” There is no limit to self-improvement. 4) Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” Capacity is a state of mind. 5) Practice asking and listening. Big people monopolize the listening; small people monopolize the talking. 6) Stretch your mind. Get stimulated. Associate with people who can help you to think of new ideas, new ways of doing things. Mix with people of different occupational and social interests.

6. You are what you think you are. 1) Look important; it helps you think important. 2) Think your work is important. 3) Give yourself a pep talk several times daily. Build a “sell-yourself-to-yourself” commercial. Remind yourself at every opportunity that you’re a first-class person. 4) In all of life’s situations, ask yourself, “Is this the way an important person thinks?” Then obey the answer.

7. Manage your environment: Go first class. 1) Be environment-conscious. 2) Make your environment work for you, not against you. Don’t let suppressive forces – the negative, you-can’t-do-it-people – make you think defeat. 3) Don’t let small-thinking people hold you back. Jealous people want to see you stumble. Don’t give them that satisfaction. 4) Get your advice from successful people. Your future is important. Never risk it with free-lance advisors who are living failures. 5) Get plenty of psychological sunshine. Circulate in new groups. Discover new and stimulating things to do. 6) Throw thought-poison out of your environment. Avoid gossip. Talk about people but stay on the positive side. 7) Go first class on everything you do. You can’t afford to go any other way.

8. Make your attitudes your allies. 1) Grow the “I’m activated” attitude. Results come in proportion to enthusiasm invested. Three things to do to activate yourself are: a) Dig into deeper. When you find yourself disinterested in something, dig in and learn more about it. This sets off enthusiasm. b) Life up everything about you: your smile, your handshake, your talk, even your walk. Active alive. c) Broadcast good new. No one ever accomplished anything positive telling bad news. 2) Grow the “You are important” attitude. People do more for you when you make them feel important. a) Show appreciation at every opportunity. Make people feel important. b) Call people by name. 3) Grow the “service first” attitude, and watch money take care of itself. Make it a rule in everything you do, give people more than they expect to get.

9. Think right toward people 1) Make yourself lighter to life. Be likable. Practice being the kind of person people like. This wins their support and put fuel in your success-building program. 2) Take the initiative in building friendships. 3) Accept human differences and limitations. Don’t expect anyone to be perfect. Don’t be a reformer. 4) Tune in Channel P, The good thoughts station. Find qualities to like and admire in a person, not things to dislike. Think positive thoughts towards people – and get positive results. 5) Practice conversation generosity. 6) Practice courtesy all the time. 7) Don’t blame others when you receive a setback. Remember, how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

10. Get the action habit 1) Be an “activationist.” Be someone who does things. Be a doer, not a ‘don’t-er.’ 2) Don’t wait until conditions are perfect. They never will be. Expect future obstacles and difficulties and solve them as they arise. 3) Ideas alone won’t bring success. Ideas have values only when you act upon them. 4) Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Do what you fear and fear disappears. 5) Start your mental engine mechanically. Don’t wait for spirit to move you. Take action, dig in, and you move the spirit. 6) Think in terms of now. 7) Get down to business – pronto. 8 ) Seize the initiative. Be a crusader. Pick up the ball and run. GET IN GEAR AND GO!

11. How to turn defeat into victory. 1) STudy setbacks to pave your way to success. 2) Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then correct them. 3) Stop blaming luck. Research each setback. 4) Blend persistence with experimentation. Stay with your goal but don’t beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches. Experiment. 5) There is good side i every situation. See the good side and whip discouragement.

12. Use goals to help you grow 1) Get a clear fix on where you want to go. Create an image of yourself 10 years from now. 2) Write out your 10-year plan. Put down on paper what you want to accomplish in your work, your home, and you social departments. 3) Surrender yourself to your desires. Set goals to get more energy. Set goals to get things done. Set goals and discover the real enjoyment of living. 4) Let your major goal be your automatic pilot. 5) Achieve your goal one set at a time. Regard each task you perform as a step toward your goal. 6) Build 30-day goals. Day-by-day effort pays off. 7) Take detours in stride. 8 ) Invest in yourself. Invest in education. Invest in idea starters.

13 How to think like a leader. 1) Trade minds with the people you want to influence. 2) Apply the “Be-human” rule in your dealings with others. 3) Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do. 4) Take time out to confer with yourself and tap your supreme thinking power. Managed solitude pays off. Use it to release your creative power.

I utterly enjoyed reading this book. The ideas are very well thought out with good examples and the organization of the book is superb. Love the outlines. The teachings make a lot of sense to me. I think I ought to practice these. Perhaps, I have not been thinking big. There is still a lot of potential left in me. Let’s see how it would pan out. THINK BIG!