Meet two kinds of people – the Haves and Have Nots – and the one decision that separates them.
I once had occasion to visit Charleston, South Carolina. I had never been there before, so I hired a taxi to drive me around the historic old town. I particularly wanted to see the Battery, where the famous shot was fired on Fort Sumpter. Along this beautiful drive, some of Charleston’s oldest and finest homes look out over the bay. I commented to my cab driver on what lovely homes they were, and he said, Yeah, some of those homes have 40 rooms. Then he thought for a moment and said, And every one of them is owned by a crook.
The Have Nots do not want to do more than they have to – and that is why they continue to have not.
4. Try for five ideas every morning. Write them down and save those sheets of paper in a special ideas file. Focus on ideas within your line of work or expertise or area that you are most interested in. To think well and profitably, you must discipline your thinking. Keep your thoughts on course, controlled, and focused. Many or perhaps most of your ideas will prove fruitless. But some of them will be very good. A few will be excellent. And every once in a while you’ll come up with something truly outstanding.
6. Change your attitude. Attitude has been called the most important word in the language. William James put it this way: The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. To change your attitude, begin to act like the person you most want to become. If you were already in possession of the goal you’re shooting for, how would you conduct yourself in all of your affairs? How would you dress? How would you talk? Well, do it now, and tomorrow, and the next day. Begin now to act the part of the person you most want to become. And you will end up becoming that person. The German philosopher Goethe gave us the secret when he said, Before you can do something, you must first be something.