Defined by action—or thought?
by Miki SaxonAs studies on corporate culture and the psychology of managers and workers proliferate, people spend more time and energy tracking themselves in an effort to “know their place” than ever before.
You are what you eat; you are what you wear, and now, you are where you sit. Far be it for me to pooh-pooh any of these findings, I’ve been around long enough to see them in action.
However, I have a passionate belief that you are what you think and an equally passionate belief that you can change what you think if you so choose.
My attitude towards, and development of, MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy)™ throughout my working years has it’s underpinnings in the writings (sans the religious parts) of Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich
His writings predate, and are supported by, much of the current research, so if you want a synopsis of great thoughts on which to build your MAP and guide your organization, here are ten of Hill’s greatest (and best known) quotes.
- “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
- “What you think, so you will become.”
- “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
- “Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.”
- “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”
- “A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
- “Thoughts mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire are powerful things.”
- “Perseverance: The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
- “Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”
- “Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk in life.”
Print them out; share them with your people; discuss them; embrace them; practice them; and watch the benefits roll in for your company, your people and you.
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August 21st, 2007 at 12:07 pm
[...] I loved Andy Grove’s description of leadership, “Well, part of it is self-discipline and part of it is deception-deception in the sense that you pump yourself up and put a better face on things than you start off feeling. But after a while, if you act confident, you become more confident. So the deception becomes less of a deception,” especially since I’ve always believed that so much of who we are and what we do is a function of how we think. [...]