The Magic of Thinking Big Book Summary

Here’s a book summary of The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz. This book is recommended often by successful people, topping the list of recommended books from Tim Ferriss’s podcast interviewees.

But this is not just a summary. It’s much more than that.

I want to give you the WHY behind the tips and cross-reference that with my knowledge of all the other advice I have obtained from successful people.

I’ve gotten more and more picky with what I read. I realize there’s no way I can get through thousands of books. Also, you can read a book and forget most of it if you don’t take effective notes. So sometimes, it’s also about picking the right book to read and actually using what you learn.

I look for books that can actually help me in my immediate future in achieving my goals.

This book popped up from time to time. Eventually, I had to pick it up because successful people like the investor Chris Sacca highly recommended it. Google puts him as a net worth of over $1 billion dollars. Who knows if that’s actually true.

Regardless, I decided to take a peek at this thing to see if there’s anything I can use to better my own life.

Watch this video in order to find out what I learned: 

You will learn some of the best quotes from The Magic of Thinking Big as well:

Here are summaries from other people:

These are video summaries from other people in the order that I found them useful. Take a look.

Conclusion

Here are my thoughts and a summary of my findings:

• The book is worth the read and has sold 6 million copies. However, the author made his living as a professor and self-help motivational coach. Despite people like Chris Sacca recommending it, some of the points are common within the self-help community. It doesn’t pass my test of credibility of the author. Nonetheless, there are some good points in the book.
• The biggest insight would be an emphasis on the power of thinking bigger and having bigger goals. His emphasis on how people with the exact same or worst circumstances, upbringing, genetics, personality, and access to resources have done ten times better than you. It’s an inspiring and valid point. It reminds me of Elon Musk and Richard Branson. They both tend to have loftier goals like space exploration while the rest of us have average goals or beliefs. If others have achieved flight to Mars, you can probably achieve your more modest dream of financial independence. 
• Most average people have tons of excuses. Everyone has an excuse for why they’re not successful. Avoid the disease of “excusitis.”