I can appreciate books like “Think and Grow Rich” and “The Secret” and the other books that highlight the power of positive thinking. However, I know people that take it just a little too far and focus a little bit too much on positive thinking that they forget that the world does not and has never revolved around them. I just don’t buy that believing and building a mental picture of a red bike will lead to a red bike appearing. Honestly, I don’t even think it’s the right mental picture to strive for. Life in this world does not revolve around me and it does not revolve around you. After coming back from Central America and getting to know an impoverished community over seven years and committing to working with the community for the past four, I’m even more convinced that success in this lifetime comes from our ability to think positively about others or growing a bigger vision about others. Again, it’s not intuitive, but it’s true. If all you and I think about is how we make a fast buck and nothing bigger than that, we will ultimately fail. However, if our dreams are about others and our success becomes a means to an end to doing that - we will be successful.
The problem with positive thinking - rather positive thinking just about yourself is that even the most positive thinkers during this economic downturn suffered some tremendous losses. There was just too much irrational exuberance by the talking heads and authors that wrote that their success was all due to their ability to think big and positively. Sure, some of it was due to that, but a variety of external factors also played a large role including a huge bull market. Failure these days is in large part also due to external factors. Why put so much stock in “positive thinking” when so much of success/failure is due to external factors? Put it another way, is positive thinking self-delusional? I posit that success truly comes from a vision beyond yourself and execution - the ability to actually go out and do it rather than just thinking about it. You do have a choice between positive and negative thinking, it should always be positive thinking, but it should never be the sole motivation for success.
That ends my rant for books and speakers that justify their existence by saying it just takes positive thinking for success, I think it’s just plain dangerous - what do you think?
Bob Proctor from “The Secret” once invited me to one of his events are a ’special guest’ about 7 months ago. Before he got on stage we had a chance to speak a little. The gist of our conversation is that positive thinking etc. is all important yada yada… but where people go wrong is that they don’t take proper ACTION!
How obvious right? NOTHING is going to ‘manifest’ out of thin air. ACTION is required. The Law of Attraction for me has enabled me to have an inner calmness; I know that as long as I stay on course, utilize all my mental faculty and available energies, things will come together in ways that I cannot predict to ‘make manifest’ what it is I’m trying to accomplish.
It’s important for people to realize that “The Secret” is also full of marketing tactics etc… Authors need to make a living too ; )
Sitting there and wishing for something to happen is not going to make it happen. Get off your lazy a** and make it happen.
The question is if the positive thinking is only for a desired external result, or if it is an end to itself.
Positive thinking impacts all areas of our lives, and we benefit from it, regardless of its external impact on our tangible prosperity. The benefits can be purely internal.
Which in itself, is prosperous.
I think that sometimes positive thinking leads to naivety and not always the correct decision. If you’re constantly a ‘glass half full’ type of thinker, you may end up running yourself into the ground by thinking that you will be successful, rather than realizing that your business is in trouble and needs to be re-tooled for a given market. Granted, someone on your team should be a positive thinker, but you might want a negative thinker on your team just to play Devil’s Advocate and keep your plans in check.
I would counter that seeing that the company “nees to be re-tooled” is the 1/2 full part.
I agree with you on a conceptual basis though, to quote Charlie Munger: “If you jump out of the window at the 42nd floor and you’re still doing fine as you pass the 27th floor, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a serious problem.”
As with anything, there are different flavors of optimism and positive thinking. Having a balanced team helps bring all your options to light.
Here, here!! A succinct and sensible comment indeed. What we get, and don’t get from life, and from business, is the result of a little positive thinking, a little healthy scepticism, and an occasional reality check.
I think you have hit some great points here, I think that there is a huge capacity for self delusion built into the human psyche and seeing clearly is sometimes really hard at any time either under stress or otherwise. Some great companies however have been built on delusion, and some great companies have been taken down by delusion. The current crisis with the credit markets is a perfect testament to the power of massed positive and negative thinking, and failure to realise that the buck will stop somewhere.
I prefer to not call it a negative thinking style, but a realistic way of looking at things.
Positively realistic.
I think there is far more negative and not really realistic thinking around now than there should be. It happens when people panic. I have been trying to raise some capital and its tough right now, and sure they could keep it all as cash but when are they going to get back in? By the time they do, the smarter smart money will be making profits and the cycle will continue.
i agree with your opinion.. I still remember the reason I keep on maintaining good grades in my university time is just that to ensure my parents are proud and happy.
Positive thinking DOES NOT equal Irrational Exuberance, you are equating to different items, and this is incorrect. Positive thinking didn’t cause the financial systems to ‘virtually’ crumble, GREED caused the systems to ‘fail’ and irrational exuberance constituted the straw that was holding the house together, until the straw began to fray…
Belief does, and I’m going to draw that thread. I think that people were sold something that was a bad product and they believed it would be all fine and no amount of positive thinking would help and it may have clouded judgment.
I understand your point and I am also a little cynical of the whole self-help genre. It often reminds me of that old Saturday Night Live skit. ” I’m good enough…. and people like me.”
But the other side of the equation is that if you don’t have enough positive thinking you are likely to never try. Too many people talk themselves out of accomplishing goals even before they start.
As with anything in life, a balanced middle way is healthy.
“the ability to actually go out and do it rather than just thinking about it.”
You got this part right. But then again, no success ever came from a single factor. ( unless you count winning lottery a success)
Many are under the impression it only takes positive thinking to succeed. It is only a starting point. You have to believe in yourself to take the actions needed to move ahead. More important is persistence in harmony with a positive outlook.
Delusional? Not if you temper posivity with realism.
I’ve always adhered to Robert Ringers outlook, “The sustaining of a positive attitude, through the assumption of a negative result.” And it has served me quite well as I clamored up the competitive hill. And as my subordinates can attest, I am fond of saying, “Action! Action! Action! Works every time it is tried.” The best ideas, never executed are useless.
Great post.
I’m in the process of writing a book for American Management Association about the role of emotion in startup success AND failure. Based on my study of the entrepreneurial landscape, I wholeheartedly agree with your views about the limitations of positive thinking in the startup process. I’ve come to it not as a dichotomy (either positive thinking OR negative), but as a BOTH/AND paradox where the trick is to squeeze as much usefulness out of your passion/belief while also doing whatever is necessary to ground yourself and your business in reality. It’s possible to be fiercely passionate and committed to a vision, while also planning and executing with honesty and rigor, which means looking at what can go wrong (or has). Unfortunately, we know that intense positive belief — including falling in love with an idea, a pet product or technology, etc.– can literally lead to a form of blindness, an inability to ’see’ contradictory data or uncomfortable facts. The fact that the entrepreneurial literature is full of mostly motivational hype (’you can do it–we can help’) often adds to the problem.
Passion/belief is a necessary quality in starting your own business, because it’s so hard — but it positive thinking is not enough, and if misdirected or misunderstood–it can do as much harm as good.
THANKS for your great post. JB
Positive Thinking is simply one tool in one’s belt. As with most tools it can be used for “good”, “bad”, to help oneself, or to help others.
It alone can be very powerful in some instances and can help fortify the internal foundation as you begin down a path.
As with anything though, it has its limitations and it certainly won’t build a product for you, or make a bike appear out of thin air.
It can however motivate you to walk down to the store to find out the cost of the bike. It can motivate you to sell the lemonade to earn the money to buy the bike. And it can also motivate you to help the neighbor get his lemonade stand up and running instead of spending the money on the bike.
I positively think you nailed this one. As several have mentioned, action is a big requirement, so is knowing what to be positive about. Focusing ones energy on empowering others (like your example of Central America) comes with a reward system of its own. But you already know that.
First of all, I think there is nothing wrong with thinking positively. But the important thing is you have to be realistic. Those books like “The Secret”, they take “positive thinking” thing too far (purposely), and their message is not only dangerous but plain nonsense. The creators of such products are just exploiting the current state of people and cashing in on that. These products are also very well researched, marketed, advertised and backed by powerful individuals. Basically, they know what they are doing. But I doubt that they believe in “the secret” themselves. It’s just a business!
The state of people that I am talking about is, there are millions of people who are lost, confused, without faith, looking for hope, searching for something (anything!), desperate…etc and this is the exact target market for products like “The Secret”.
I am working on a book to be published by the American Management Association on the role of positive emotion in startup success AND failure, and I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on the limitations and dangers of unexamined positive thinking. My bottom line is this: passion, belief, and deeply felt commitment are vital to any startup journey–because starting a business from scratch is incredibly hard to do. But while these qualities are necessary, they are not sufficient, and in fact can blind an entrepreneur to important streams of insight and information.
The key is to dream the big dream while also grounding yourself in an honest and rigorous analysis of reality — I call it ‘earned optimism,’ the confidence that comes by considering worst case scenarios and knowing that you will still be standing….
THANKS again for a great post. jb
Another good post Andy. Thought provoking as I expect from you.
I’ve been blogging recently about success in business and serving others. The more service one provides others the more stable one’s success. It’s not rocket science but it is a hard pill to swallow especially when things are tough.
I think it was William James that said, “We become what we think about.” I think it’s true. That which we focus our attention on we move towards whether for good or bad. However, for me, I am motivated by negatives as much if not more than positives. I help people because I want them to not suffer - not because I want them to be rich. I try to focus on serving customers so they meet their objectives and don’t suffer disappointments - probably more than I work to help them achieve successes. Competitive pressure, market pressure, all of these are negatives - and I try to make them positive, but it’s the thought of negative consequences that drives me to work extra hard especially when serving others. Staying ahead of the negatives and strategically thinking through the scenarios is all part of the game. But without positives, it too is too much to bear.
Yeah, when things are good it’s easy to ‘feel the love’ and talk a big dream. But when times are tough it’s hard to walk that talk. Those that constantly are stuck on what’s in it for them are going to have a tough time enduring the bad times. And those that focus on others and can remember whom they are doing it for can make it through the darkest times. Remember whom you serve and why you are doing it. I think having a purpose beyond ones own self makes for a better life. It makes all things bearable.
Positive thinking WORKS, when combined with hard work and persistent action towards your goals.
There’s a lot of positive people out there who are struggling financially because although they THINK positive they’re still too afraid to take persistent action and calculated risk to achieve their goals.
Reminds me of a quote from zig ziglar- we succeed when we help others to succeed if thats the correct way its said
Based on some of the comments, it doesn’t sound like many people have even read or seen “Think & Grow Rich” or “The Secret”. These books are not just about “positive thinking”.
My interpretation of Think & Grow Rich is that Napolean Hill, through conversations with Andrew Carnegie and 500 extremely successful men of the time, is trying to encourage people to make a mental shift in their business and life. He lays out 13 steps that these guys had taken to be extremely successful. The foundation and shift seems to be all mental - that you need a precise vision of what you want and truly seeing (believing) yourself actually achieving it. For example, many people cannot believe they can create a $100 million company, and so they can’t.
The Secret is the Law of Attraction. In simple terms, what you think about is what you see and what you attract into your life. If you focus on the negative, that’s what you get. If you focus on the positive, that’ s what you get.
I think The Secret fits in to what Napolean talks about with respect to achieving what you want. If you have a vision/desire/determination of exactly where you want to go, you want to attract people who align with this vision and can help you.
All this stuff can be as hokey as you want it to be, or you can take the knowledge gained and run with it.
Julia, do you have a 100 million dollar company, if so can you invest 1.4 million in mine for a 14 million return making your 100 million company a 114 million?
If you don’t maybe the secret is to make some self help message and product based on lots of other products and sell that to saps. I have seen several of these and it dilutes the truth work your ass off… which is what I do. I have made 3 companies succeed. I believe in my abilities because of that success not because of some audio message or book.
thanks in advance for the 1.4!
Morganlean, you seem to assume that working your ass off and visualizing and believing in what you want (Think & Grow Rich) and working with people who align with what you want (The Secret), are mutually exclusive. They’re not.
In chapter 8 of Think & Grow Rich, a quote at the front says “Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant PERSISTENCE.” To me, it sounds like Mr. Hill is saying you need to work to get what you want. Wouldn’t you agree?
Since you must have read Think & Grow Rich given your reply, and believe that Napolean Hill only wrote his book back in 1937 to pitch his self help mumbo jumbo to people during the Great Depression, I’m curious as to why you think that someone like Andrew Carnegie, who at that time was worth over $480 million, would have suggested, encouraged, and helped Napoleon Hill to write this book.
The Secret may be where many people are getting a bad taste in their mouths. As with most books, you can always check it out from the library for FREE without buying anything, and make your own decision. I think it provides interesting ideas.
I don’t think the books mentioned say anything about not working hard to get what you want and that you only need a positive attitude. I think they’re saying you need to KNOW what you want and must BELIEVE you can get it, and provide ideas on HOW to accomplish this.
Finally, I can sense your distaste for the self-help realm and how it’s repackaged and sold to “saps”. I find this funny, because this is what capitalism is. Coke or Pepsi? Google or Bing? McDonalds or Burger King? The Secret or Think & Grow Rich? It’s the same damn thing, but repackaged, isn’t it?
Basically Julia, I think that these programs are designed to sell dreams and ideas mostly to people who can’t get there. Some people may. That’s how they work, not everyone is going to be a millionaire it just cannot happen.
With a Coke you get a Coke, you know what you are getting and what its about. You don’t really need to be desperate for success to buy a lot of Coke over your lifetime, Coke is a real product that sells a high quality package. Everyone who buys it gets what they wanted. Self help cannot always work, you follow a program and maybe it will work and maybe it won’t. The program doesn’t make you succeed circumstance and ability do, if you don’t have either don’t buy it but the sales are good for these programs because people “Saps” buy it, if everyone on every program got what they wanted there would only be one program it can never happen. That’s why I say its snake oil, I don’t mind if you disagree with me that’s my point of view.
Not an apologist for Julia, but MorganLean, you’ve made 3 companies successful because you envisioned their success and then took the necessary steps to make that so. Hard work needs to be part of that (no matter what any others say), but you can attribute that to diligence and a foreseeable outcome (in your mind).
I didn’t envision success, I thought of an idea at a time and market with people to sell it to. And I executed.
I thought = envision… geez.. it’s just semantics..
I completely agree positive thinking is overrated. As long as you are constant and capable you can overcome anything.
I believe that positive thinking is dangerous if you do it for the wrong reasons. Also if you do not have a set of value backed behind your beliefs.
All you need to accomplish anything, whether it’s building a birdhouse or constructing an office building is (i) motivation, (ii) ability and (iii) access to resources. Positive thinking is knowing you can accomplish your goal because you’ve done it so many times that it is second nature or you are so dead-set on your goal that you intend to overcome any obstacle that threatens to impede your success–or a mixture of these.
You could be the best darn birdhouse builder in the world, but if you’re stuck in Antarctica you may lack motivation to build birdhouses (penguins wouldn’t use them) or the resources to build them (no trees for lumber). Time to develop another, more realistic goal!