THINK LIKE A GENIUS
Make every thought, every fact, that comes into your mind pay you a profit. Make it work and produce for you. Think of things not as they are but as they might be. Don’t merely dream—but create!
—Maxwell Maltz
You are a potential genius.Your amazing brain has more than 18 bil- lion cells, each one of which is connected to and interlinked with as many as 20,000 others. This means that the number of possible thoughts you can think is greater than all the molecules in the known universe.
You have the capacity to learn at incredible rates and to retain more information than you can even imagine. It is said that “when an educated person dies, it is as if a library burned down.”This potential library is contained between your ears.
THE ORIGINS OF WEALTH
Throughout human history, value has been contained in land, la- bor, capital, furniture, fixtures, machinery, and other hard assets. Wars and revolutions have been fought over their control.The pri- mary creators of value were those people who could combine these various resources together to produce products and services for the marketplace.
In the twentieth century, however, we have seen change take place at a speed that is virtually unimaginable. In 1900, 50 percent of the American population lived on farms raising food for the other 50 percent who lived in towns and cities.Today, less than 3 percent of the population lives on farms, and they produce not only enough food for all Americans, but huge surpluses as well that are exported or even given away to the entire world.
We have moved from the agricultural age to the industrial age to the service age to the information age, and we are now entering the communications age. The primary source of value today is not land, labor, and other hard assets, but knowledge, information, and ideas. The greatest wealth you could possibly possess is between your ears.You can create an unlimited future for yourself by tapping into your brainpower and channeling it, like a powerful current, to ener- gize your life and get you anything you really want.
TRUE WEALTH TODAY
The richest American today, and perhaps the richest person in the world, is Bill Gates. The net worth of his company, Microsoft, is greater than the net worth of IBM, which has been in business many years longer. Microsoft is based entirely on brainpower. It cre- ates wealth by making it easier to process information digitally within computers, and from computer to computer by telephone lines, wireless systems, and satellites.
If you own a company, your chief assets walk out the door every night at quitting time.Your building could burn to the ground, but as long as your people got out safely, you could walk across the street and start your business again. The chief assets of any organi- zation, and of any individual, are contained in the ability to think and to apply that thinking to getting results that other people will pay for. The ability to create wealth is determined by mental strength rather than physical strength.
STARTING CAPITAL
In generations past, it may have taken many years for a person to accumulate enough capital to start and build a successful business in manufacturing or services. Today, such a large investment in physical assets can actually be a liability. A change in technology on the other side of the world can render a $100 million manufactur- ing plant obsolete in a few months.
But what you have between your ears can be invaluable. It is ca- pable of countless applications and uses. It is completely portable. It is versatile. It is flexible, and can be increased almost without lim- its, if you learn how. An immigrant could arrive at a U.S. airport with the ability to create a billion-dollar industry in his head. He could walk up to cus- toms; open his hands and say, “Nothing to declare;” and walk on through. His assets are all in his knowledge and skill. Many of the most successful and respected entrepreneurs and businesspeople in America arrived this way.
KNOWLEDGE IS THE GREAT RESOURCE
The primary source of value today is knowledge. Since there is no limit to the amount of knowledge you can acquire, there is no limit to the amount of value that you can create.You can start from wher- ever you are, no matter what your background, and begin to in- crease your mental assets.You can start work today on improving your ability to perform and get results for which others will pay.
The wonderful thing about knowledge is that it can be repro- duced hundreds of thousands, even millions of times without losing its value. It is the one commodity that can actually be infinite in its application. If you or someone else comes up with a new idea to do something faster or better, that idea can be spread around the world in no time at all, and be in the hands of millions of other people who can also use it to improve their lives and work. And you have lost nothing. The idea still has its original value to you. This is ab- solutely incredible.
HARD ASSETS VERSUS BRAINPOWER
Today, our banking and financial industries are struggling to make the shift to knowledge as an asset. Banks, for example, will lend money today only against hard assets, things that can be seized as collateral and sold to repay the loan. However, the real assets of a company are not the tangible items at all. They are the thinking ability of the people who work there. They are contained in the combined brainpower of teams of experts working together to solve problems, create innovations, and produce goods and services for the competitive marketplace.
Your ability to utilize your brainpower and unlock your creative abilities is absolutely essential to your success. Today, we know more about how you can become smarter than we ever have before.
SMALL DIFFERENCES LEAD TO BIG RESULTS
Often small improvements in the way you think and perform can lead to significant improvements in your performance. It is not nec- essary for you to attend university and get years of education to bring your knowledge up to the level where it can pay off for you. Sometimes very small changes in what you are doing right now, right where you are, can bring about amazing results.
Here’s an example. If a horse runs in a horse race and wins by a nose, it earns 10 times the prize money of a horse that comes in sec- ond. Does this mean that the horse that comes in first is 10 times faster? Is it twice as fast? Ten percent faster? No, the horse that wins is only a nose faster.
By the same token, your possession of one small piece of infor- mation at the right time and in the right place can enable you to make an extraordinary difference in a particular situation. Often a single idea or insight can change your whole life or career.
thanks for reading.
Written by BRIAN TRACY.
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