Know yourself

“The only difference between you today and you five years
from now is the books you read and the people you meet.”
– Emerson

“All the breaks you need in life wait
within your imagination. Imagination
is the workshop of your mind,
capable of turning mind-energy
into accomplishment and wealth.”
THINK AND GROW RICH
Six Steps That Turn
Desires Into Gold
4
The method by which desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of the
following six definite, practical steps:
1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say, “I want plenty
of money.” Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be
described in a subsequent chapter.)
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality
as “something for nothing.”)
3. Establish a deﬁnite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a deﬁnite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you’re ready or not,
to put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for
its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through
which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement aloud twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising
in the morning. As you read - see, feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.

Four Steps to Persistence
There are four simple steps which lead to the habit of persistence. They call for no great amount of
intelligence, no particular amount of education, time and effort. The necessary steps are:
1. A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment.
2. A definite plan, expressed in continuous action.
3. A mind tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of
relatives, friends and acquaintances.
4. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with the plan
and purpose.
5
It is important that you follow the instructions described in the six steps. It is especially important that
you observe, and follow the instructions in the sixth paragraph. You may complain that it is impossible for
you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it. Here is where a burning desire
will come to your aid. If you truly desire money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have
no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to become so
determined to have it that you convince yourself you will have it, that the mere reading of the words is of
no consequence - unless you mix emotion, or feeling with your words. Your subconscious mind recognizes
and acts only upon thoughts which have been well mixed with emotion or feeling.
You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious mind with thoughts or spoken
words which have been well emotionalized with belief.
Unless you are one of the two out of every hundred who already have a definite goal at which you are
aiming and a definite plan for its attainment, you may read the instructions and then pass on with your daily
routine and never comply with those instructions.
Lack of persistence is one of the major causes of failure.
It is a weakness which may be overcome by effort. The case with which lack of persistence may be
conquered will depend entirely upon the intensity of one’s desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak
desires bring weak results.
The eagerness with which you follow these instructions will indicate clearly how much or how little you
really desire to accumulate money.
Poverty is attracted to the one whose mind is favorable to it, as money is attracted to him whose mind has
been deliberately prepared to attract it, and through the same laws. Poverty consciousness will voluntarily
seize the mind which is not occupied with the money consciousness.

“Success is determined not so much
by the size of one’s brain as it is by
the size of one’s thinking.”
THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG
6
Several years ago I witnessed an exceptionally impressive sales meeting. The vice president in charge of
marketing for this company was tremendously excited. He wanted to drive home a point. He had with him
on the platform the leading representative in the organization, a very ordinary looking fellow, who earned
in the year just ended, a little under $60,000. The earnings of other representatives averaged $12,000.
The executive challenged the group. Here is what he said, “I want you to take a good look at Harry.
Look at him! Now what’s Harry got that the rest of you haven’t? Harry earned five times the average but
is Harry five times smarter? No, not according to our personal test. I checked. They show he is about
average in that department.”
“And did Harry work five times harder than you fellows? No, not according to the reports. In fact he took
more time off than most of you. Did Harry have a better territory? Again, I’ve got to say no. The accounts
averaged about the same. Did Harry have more education? Better health? Again, no. Harry is about as
average as an average guy could be, except for one thing.”
“The diﬀerence between Harry and the rest of you”, said the vice president, “is that Harry thought ﬁve
times bigger.” Then, the executive proceeded to show that success is determined not so much by the
size of one’s brain as it is by the size of one’s, thinking.
This was an intriguing thought. And it stayed with me. The more I observed, the more people I talked with,
the deeper I dug into what’s really behind success, the clearer was the answer. Case history after case
history proved that the size of bank accounts, the size of happiness accounts, and the size of one’s general
satisfaction account is dependent on the size of one’s thinking. There is magic in thinking big.

7
On some occasion you probably heard someone say something like, “It’s nonsense to think you can make
a mountain move away just by saying ‘mountain, move away’. It’s simply impossible.”
People who think this way have beliefs confused with wishful thinking. And truth enough, you can’t wish
away a mountain. You can’t wish yourself into an executive suite. Nor can you wish yourself into a four
bedroom, three bath house or the high-income brackets. You can win success by believing you can
succeed. There is nothing magical nor mystical about the power of belief.
Belief works this way. Belief, the “I’m positive I can” attitude, generates the power, skill, and energy
needed to do it. When you believe “I can do it”, the “how to do it” develops.
Actually, in these modern times belief is doing much bigger things than moving mountains. The most
essential element in our space explorations today is the belief that space can be mastered. Without firm,
unwavering belief that man can travel in space, our scientists would not have the courage, interest and
enthusiasm to proceed.
Belief that cancer can be cured will ultimately produce cures for cancer. Currently, there is some talk of
building a tunnel under the English channel to connect England with the continent. Whether this tunnel
is ever built depends on whether responsible people believe it can be built.
Belief in great results is the driving force, the power behind all great books, plays and scientific discoveries.
Belief in success is behind every successful business, church, and political organization. Belief in
success is the one basic, absolutely essential ingredient in successful people. Believe, really believe,
you can succeed and you will.
Just before you go to sleep, deposit good thoughts in your memory bank. Count your blessings. Recall the
many good things you have to be thankful for: your wife or husband, your children, your friends, your
health. Recall the good things you saw people do today. Recall your little victories and accomplishments.
Go over the reasons why you are glad to be alive. Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory
bank. Destroy those negative thoughts before those thoughts become mental monsters.
Become known as a person who always feels great. It wins friends. Praise, sincerely administered, is a
success tool.
Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker
always visualizes what can be done in the future. He isn’t stuck with the present.
How blind can we be? See what can be, not just what it is. Practice adding value to things. Practice adding
value to people. Practice adding value to yourself. Remember, how you think when you lose determines
how long it will be until you win.

In the heyday of this activity, John D.
Rockefeller said that, “The ability to deal
with people is as purchasable a commodity
as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for
that ability,” said John D., “than any other
under the sun.”
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND
INFLUENCE PEOPLE
8
What do you want? Not many things, but the few things that you do you wish, you crave with an insistence
that will not be denied. Some of the things most people want include:
1. Health and the preservation of life.
2. Food.
3. Sleep.
4. Money (security) and the things money will buy.
5. Life in the hereafter.
6. Sexual gratification.
7. The well-being of our children.
8. A feeling of importance.
Almost all these wants are usually gratified - all except one. There is one longing - almost as deep, almost as
imperious as the desire for food or sleep - which is seldom gratified. It is what Freud calls the “desire to be
important.”
Lincoln once began a letter stating, “Everybody likes a compliment.” William James said, “The deepest
principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” He didn’t speak, mind you, of the ‘wish’ or
the ‘desire’ or the ‘longing’ to be appreciated. He said the ‘craving’ to be appreciated.

Six Ways to Make People Like You
9
Rule 1: Become genuinely interested in other people.
Rule 2: Smile.
Rule 3: Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Rule 4: Be a good listener.
Rule 5: Talk in terms of the other man’s interest.
Rule 6: Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
Seven Rules for Making Your Home Life Happier
Rule 1: Don’t nag.
Rule 2: Don’t try to make your partner over.
Rule 3: Don’t criticize.
Rule 4: Give honest appreciation.
Rule 5: Pay little attentions.
Rule 6: Be courteous.
Rule 7: Read a good book on the sexual side of marriage.
12 Ways of Winning People to Your Way of Thinking
Rule 1: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Rule 2: Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never tell someone they are wrong.
Rule 3: If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
Rule 4: Begin in a friendly way.
Rule 5: Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
Rule 6: Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Rule 7: Let the other person feel that the idea is theirs.
Rule 8: Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
Rule 9: Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
Rule 10: Appeal to the nobler motives.
Rule 11: Dramatize your ideas.
Rule 12: Throw down a challenge.
Nine Ways to Change People Without Giving Offense
or Arousing Resentment
Rule 1: Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
Rule 2: Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
Rule 3: Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
Rule 4: Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
Rule 5: Let the other person save their face.
Rule 6: Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.“
Rule 7: Give the other person a fine reputation to live it up.
Rule 8: Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Rule 9: Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

“My attitude was that the competition
can try to steal my plans and copy my
style. But they can’t read my mind; so
I’ll leave them a mile and a half
behind.” — Ray Kroc
GRINDING IT OUT
10
I was a battle-scarred veteran of the business wars, but I was still eager to go into action. I was 52 years old.
I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gallbladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier
campaigns. But I was convinced that the best was ahead of me. I was still green and growing.
We agreed that we wanted McDonald’s to be more than just a name used by many different people.
We wanted to build a restaurant system that would be known for food of consistently high quality and
uniform methods of preparation. Our aim, of course was to ensure repeat business based on the system’s
reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator. This would require a continuing
program of education and assisting operators and a constant review of their performance. It would also
require a full-time program of research and development.
I knew in my bones that the key to uniformity would be in our ability to provide techniques of preparation
that operators would accept because they were superior to methods they could dream up for
themselves.
My attitude was that the competition can try to steal my plans and copy my style. But they can’t read my
mind; so I’ll leave them a mile and a half behind.
I have always believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own
problems. It is a simple philosophy.

11
My way of fighting the competition is the positive approach. Stress your own strengths, emphasize quality,
service, cleanliness, and value, and the competition will wear itself out trying to keep up.
“Press on: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common
than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent.”
Too many young Americans these days don’t get a chance to learn how to enjoy work. Much of this country’s
social and political philosophy seems aimed at removing the risks from life one by one. As I told a group of
business students in one of the talks I gave at Dartmouth, it is impossible to grant someone happiness. The best
you can do, as the Declaration of Independence put it, is to give them the freedom to pursue happiness.
Happiness is not a tangible thing, it’s a by-product of achievement.
Achievement must be made against the possibility of failure, against the risk of defeat. It is no achievement
to walk a tight rope laid flat on the floor. Where there is no risk, there can be no pride, achievement and,
consequently, no happiness. The only way we can advance is by going forward, individually and collectively,
in the spirit of the pioneer. We must take the risks involved in our free enterprise system. This is the only
way in the world to economic freedom. There is no other way.

To live through an impossible situation, you
don’t need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver,
the muscles of Hercules, the mind of an
Einstein. You simply need to know what to
do. It is also that which this book is about.
THE E MYTH
12
The industrial revolution, the technological revolution, the information explosion are all familiar phenomena in
today’s world. There is no question of the impact each has had on our lives.
If asked to describe the Turn-Key Revolution, most people would simply respond with a blank stare. Yet, it’s
impact on American business, and the inferences we can draw about that impact for the future, are as profound
as any of the phenomena cited above.
For at the heart of the Turn-Key Revolution as a way of doing business that has the power to dramatically
transform any company from a condition of chaos to a condition of order, excitement, and continuous
growth. I’m talking about the key to the development of a successful business: the ultimately balanced model
of a business that works.
The genius of McDonald’s is not franchising itself. The franchise has been around for more than 100 years.
Many companies such as Coca-Cola and General Motors have utilized franchising as an effective method of
distribution to reach broadly expanding markets inexpensively. The true genius of Ray Kroc’s McDonald’s is the
Business Format Franchise. It is the business format franchise that has revolutionized American business.
The success of the Business Format Franchise is without question the most important news in business.
In 1993 Business Format Franchises reported a success rate of 97% in contrast to the 50% failure rate of new
independently owned businesses that failed that year. Where 80% of all businesses fail in the ﬁrst ﬁve years,
96% of all Business Format Franchises succeed!
The reason for that success is the Franchise Prototype.

“Contrary to popular belief, my experience
has shown me that the people who are
exceptionally good in business aren't so
because of what they know but because
of their insatiable need to know more.”
— Michael Gerber
13
Once having completed his prototype, the franchisor then turns to the franchisee and says, “Let me show you
how it works.” And it does. The system runs the business, the people run the system. The system becomes
the solution to the problems that have beset all businesses and all human organizations since time immemorial.
It integrates all the elements required to make a business work. It transforms a business into a machine, driven
by the integrity of its parts, the prototype as it’s progenitor.
Unlike the tradename franchise before it, Ray Kroc’s system leaves the franchisee with it as little operating
discretion as possible. This is accomplished by sending him through a rigorous training program before ever
being allowed to operate the franchise. At McDonald’s, they call it the University of Hamburgerology, or
Hamburger U. There, the franchisee learns not how to make hamburgers, but how to run the system that makes
hamburgers, the system by which McDonald’s satisfies its customers every single time. The system that is the
foundation of McDonald’s uncommon success.
Once the franchisee learns the system, he is given the key to his own business. Thus the Turn-Key operation.
The franchisee buys the business, learns how to run it, and then “turns the key.” The business does the rest.
And the franchisee loves it! If the franchisor has designed the business well, every problem has been thought
through. All that is left for the franchisee to do is learn how to manage the system. That’s what the franchise
prototype is all about. It’s a place to conceive and perfect the system.

14
The study of war is not only natural,
but necessary for any conscientious
business leader.
WAGING BUSINESS WARFARE
Philip of Macedonia said, “An army of deer led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer.”
“Whenever fortune wants to render a new prince great, says Machiavelli, “she raises up enemies against him,
compelling him to do battle with them, so that by overcoming them, he ascends to greatness.”
Today, every leader must know the eight “1st principles” of war:
1 . Good leadership is the prerequisite of competitive superiority.
2. Maintain your objective, but be able to adjust your plans.
3. Concentrate greater strength at the decisive point.
4. Take the offensive and maintain mobility.
5. Follow the course of least resistance.
6. Achieve security by good intelligence about your competition.
7. Make certain all personnel play their part.
8. The element of the surprise attack.
Your competitors are the main impediment to your increased proﬁtability. The business of business is
to make money. Your competitors are after the same dollar as you are, and every dollar they gain you lose.
The objective of war and business is precisely the same: to impose the will of one side on the other, and
to do so relentlessly. But whereas a real war is intermittent and eventually ends, business warfare is
waged everyday for as long as the business exists. It never ends. From the first day of your career to
your last, you are fighting, or should be.

15
The science of warfare predates the science of management by thousands of years. If you want to learn to
hit a baseball, you study the way Ted Williams or Willie Mays did it. If your job is to compete with rival firms or
entrepreneurs, you should study the way the best competition does it. Conceiving business as a form of warfare
is a core approach of some of the most profitable and fastest growing companies in the world, from Fortune
500 monoliths to one-person operations.
The key is to pull information out of the experiences, insights and techniques of armed combat and to apply
this wealth of information to increase your business’s competitive strength. Why is war such a good model?
It is the most intense competition of all.
Business owners and soldiers alike began taking note of the similarities between business and war long
before management became a discipline. In the 19th century, Carl von Clausewitz, author of On War, wrote that
business is a form of human competition greatly resembling war. In the same century, British social philosopher
Herbert Spencer pointed out that the businessman is like a soldier, both must show courage and aggressive-
ness, and face disgrace or disaster if they fail.
In recent years, Albert W. Emery said, “Marketing is merely a civilized form of warfare in which most battles
are won by words, ideas, and disciplined thinking.” Today, corporate strategy is based on the military idea of
reading the situation and reacting to it.
The greatest figures combine two qualities rarely found in one person. Great warriors are great thinkers…
“All battles are won ﬁrst of the mind” - they are obsessed by the need to take action, to execute your
strategies and tactical ideas. Warriors are taught: “When in doubt, attack. When the situation is obscure, attack.
If you cannot attack the whole, attack a part.” This proactive bias is the basis of a winning spirit.
“Every day and every moment in each day
you have the power to fashion a new creative
life to your own specifications, training
yourself, educating yourself... applying
yourself seriously to your craft.”
— David J. Rogers

Genuine empire builders are obsessed:
they can no more stop following their
dream then they can cease to breathe.
THE ALEXANDER COMPLEX
16
What distinguishes the empire builders, in the end, is their passion. They devote their lives to an idea that in
time becomes an ideal. Most important, they inspire others to buy into their dream. All are out, in one way or
another, to change the world.
Scratch a genuine Empire builder and you’ll discover a drive not to compile riches, but literally to change
the world.
“It’s not enough to have a brilliant idea.” Spencer says, “The empire builder needs to be a charismatic evangelist
who can rally people to his cause and then lead them. He has to be a savvy politician, an inspiring coach,
a good manager and a technical whiz. It doesn’t hurt to be an actor with a flair for the dramatic.”
It all comes back to vision. The great entrepreneur inspires people with drive and vitality. By the force of personal-
ity, he is the center of attention in his social and business life. His desire to be the best, to be different, to make a
mark in the world, goads him to project himself to the head of the pack. And how better to do that, ultimately
than through the superiority of his ideas?
What emerges from a study of the people in this book is that empire builders above all think of themselves as
visionaries. They are endowed with a singular, transformative idea, perceived in total detail as if it were a reality
before them and not just a dream. And they succeed brilliantly at communicating their vision to the team that
ultimately makes it real. It is this clarity of ultimate goals that holds a team together and keeps the empire
builder’s “army“ on course as it makes its everyday marketing and production decisions.
Today’s empire builders may not possess Alexander’s incandesence, they won’t come to be called “the Great,”
but their divine fires burn fiercely nonetheless. Like Alexander, they cannot stop, nor would they want to.
They live in the grip of a vision. Work and career take on the quality of a mission, a pursuit of some Holy Grail.
And because they are talented and convinced that they can change the world, they often do.

Alexander’s decision, like MacArthur’s,
was justified by results.
THE MASK OF COMMAND
17
After the fall of Tyre, when Darius improved his bid, offering the whole of his empire up to the Euphrates,
from which Alexander was still 500 miles distant, and also threw in the offer of a large cash sum and his
daughter’s hand in marriage, Parmenio at once urged Alexander to accept.
Alexander‘s famous reply was that he would indeed have this were he Parmenio but, being Alexander,
he would do no such thing.
Whatever his initial vision, he was now hell-bent on displacing Darius as ‘Great King’ and making himself
master of the world. He saw that the Persians for all of their material superiority, were vulnerable to the
confrontation of a superior will, and of the strength of his will he had no doubt.
Alexander’s management of those politics, like his command of strategy, mastery of logistics and skill
in diplomacy, were to be the raw material of his epic.

This book is about people who translate
missions into results, people who are
the basic unit of excellence in every
organization.
PEAK PERFORMERS
18
Now we can see that the diﬀerence between peak performers and their less productive coworkers are much
smaller than most people think, that extraordinary achievers are people who have found ways to make a major
impact.
In gathering and analyzing information from some of the most productive people in our culture, we came to see
that the heart of the peak performer’s ability to function is neither a singular talent nor even a collection of
behaviors, but an overall pattern of attributes. Possessing these attributes, a peak performer will very likely:
• Be motivated toward results by a personal mission.
• Possess the twin capacities of self-management and team mastery.
• Have the ability to correct course and manage change.
Today, the emerging wisdom of the peak performing organization is that “it all boils down to people.”
People make financial decisions.
People develop innovative products.
People conduct marketing campaigns.
People are the basic natural resource of business.
One peak performer speaks for most others when he replies, “I got jump-started by watching others, by learning
from the people I most admire.” The peak performers say repeatedly that stories of our most productive people
provide them not only with strategies but also with values - values as leverage points for triggering that impulse
to excel. Why do human beings care so much about some things that they will concentrate every resource on
them? For answers, look to their values.

It is a truism that many who join a rising
revolutionary movement are attracted by
the prospect of sudden and spectacular
change in their condition of life.
THE TRUE BELIEVERS
19
No matter how vital we think the role of leadership in the rise of a mass movement, there is no doubt that the
leader cannot create the conditions which make the rise of a movement possible. He cannot conjure a movement
out of the void. There has to be an eagerness to follow and obey, and an intense dissatisfaction with things as
they are before movement and leaders can make their appearance. When conditions are not right, the potential
leader, no matter how gifted, and his holy cause, no matter how potent, remain without a following.
The same Russians who cringed and crawled before Stalin’s secret police displayed unsurpassed courage
when facing individually or in a group the invading Nazis. The reason for this contrasting behavior is not that
Stalin’s police were more ruthless than Hitler‘s armies, but that when facing Stalin’s police, the Russian saw a
mere individual. When facing Germans, he saw himself a member of a mighty race, possessed of a glorious past
and an even more glorious future.
Dreams, visions and wild hopes are mighty weapons and realistic tools. The practical mindedness of a true
leader consists in recognizing the practical value of these tools. Yet this recognition usually stems from a
contempt of the present which can be traced to a natural ineptitude in practical affairs. The successful
businessman is often a failure as a communal leader because his mind is attuned to the “things that are“
and his heart set on that which can be accomplished in “our time.”
The true believer is emboldened to attempt the unprecedented and the impossible not only because his
doctrine gives him a sense of omnipotence but also because it gives him unqualiﬁed conﬁdence in the future.
The discarded and rejected are often the raw material of a nation’s future. The stone the builders rejected
becomes the cornerstone of a New World. A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, decent, peaceful
and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come. It was not the irony of history that the undesired
in the countries of Europe should have crossed an ocean to build a new world on this continent. Only they
could do it.

“Individuals don’t win; teams do.
Walmart is just a spectacular example
of what happens when people find a
way to work together.” - Sam Walton
MADE IN AMERICA
20
The more you share profits with your associates — whether it’s in salaries or incentives or bonuses or stock
discounts — the more profits accrue to the company. Why? Because the way management treats the associ-
ates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers.
If you want the people in the stores to take care of the customers, you have to make sure you are taking care
of the people in the stores. That is the most important single ingredient of Walmart’s success.
Our relationship with the associates is a partnership in the truest sense. It is the only reason our company has
been able to consistently outperform the competition and even our own expectations.
Our associates build value for themselves financially and otherwise by believing in the company and keeping
it headed in the right direction.
None of this leads to a true partnership unless your managers understand the importance of the associates
to the whole process and exercise it sincerely. Lip service won’t make a real partnership, not even with profit
sharing.
In our individual stores, we show them their store’s profits, their store’s purchases, their store’s sales, and their
store’s markdowns, we show them all that on a regular basis, and I’m not talking about just the managers and
the assistant managers. We share that information with every associate, every hourly, every part-time employee
in the stores.
If you want to build an enterprise of any size at all, it almost goes without saying that you absolutely must
create a team of people who work together and give real meaning to that overused word “teamwork.”
If you’re not serving the customer, or supporting the folks who do, we don’t need you. When we are thinking
small, that is another thing we are always on the lookout for: big egos. You don’t have to have a small ego to
work here, but you had better know how to make it look small, or you might wind up in trouble.

Happiness can be defined, in part at
least, as the fruit of the desire and ability
to sacrifice what we want now for what
we want eventually.
THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY
EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
21
The word paradigm comes from the Greek. It was originally a scientific term, and is more commonly used today
to mean a model, theory, perception, assumption, or frame of reference. In a more general sense, it is the way
we “see” the world - not in terms of visual sense of sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding, interpreting.
If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work
better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other - while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked
by duplicity and insincerity - then, in the long run, I cannot be successful.
To focus on technique is like cramming your way through school. You sometimes get by, perhaps even get
good grades, but if you don’t pay the price day in and day out, you never achieve true mastery of the subjects
you study or develop an educated mind.
In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do. We all know
it. There are people we trust absolutely because we know their character. Whether they’re eloquent or not,
whether they have the human relations techniques or not, we trust them, and we work successfully with them.
Albert Einstein observed, “The signiﬁcant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking
we were at when we created them.”
The seven habits of highly successful people:
1. Be productive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek first to understand then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw

22
“My driving belief is this: great teamwork is
the only way to reach our ultimate moments,
to create the breakthroughs that define our
careers, to fulfill our lives with a sense of
lasting significance.” — Pat Riley
THE WINNER WITHIN
Every team is a stage setting, a place to act out the drama of our lives. When our teams excel, we win. Our best
efforts, combined with those of our teammates, grow into something far greater and far more satisfying than
anything we could have achieved on our own. Teams make us part of something that matters. They are the
fountain from which all our rewards will ultimately ﬂow.
They say that the Chinese bamboo plant takes 10 years for its root structure to establish itself properly, but once
established, a bamboo plant can soar 100 feet into the air in just a single year. Just like an innocent attitude, it
will ﬂourish sooner or later, given the right circumstances.
The essence of the core covenant is totally positive peer pressure. It replaces blaming and finger-pointing to
vicious enemies of teamwork with mutual monitoring and mutual reinforcement. In a constructive way, it coerces
everyone on the team to support each other and the goals of the covenant.
It is critical to realize that failure is as much a part of the picture as success. No matter how hard you compete,
you ultimately have to absorb losses. So you do absorb them, with grace and a determination to learn whatever
they might teach. But never be tempted to embrace them.
Be angry. Be upset. Be determined to come back stronger next time. But do you not be accepting. People who
are negatively conditioned accept defeat. People who are positive do not.
CORE COVENANT
A covenant is an agreement that binds people together. Sometimes a covenant is written out in great detail.
Sometimes it is unspoken, completely expressed through action or trust.

23
Every team must decide, very consciously, to uphold covenant terms that represent the best of values —
voluntary cooperation, love, hard work, and total concentration for the good of the team.
The core covenant must spring from the natural leaders and spread throughout the team. The top producers,
being the team’s natural leaders. They have to monitor the rest and to apply positive peer pressure.
When you understand team dynamics, it is obvious: a team must first be together like a sound, strong family.
People on all levels of the team from superstar to role player, have to endorse and uphold a core covenant.
You must set the stage for people to excel. No attitude lecture can take the place of the environment that
leaders create for their people. A sound, energized environment allows excellence to happen because a leader
has to help talent want to do its best. In the words of Wayne Dyer, the highest form of sanity is living in the
present moment. It is also the highest form of discipline: a coach must keep everyone on the team in touch
with present moment realities knowing where they stand, knowing where they are falling short of their
potential… And knowing it openly and fairly.
Career Best Effort was a system steeped in numbers and measurement, but we were not just talking about
points and statistics. Like any true quest for excellence, it reached for the best in body, mind, and spirit.
Unlike most reviews of player performance, which arbitrarily rake people over the coals, this system focuses
on the positive use of information. We were out to give the players a clear picture of how they were doing,
where they stood, and where to focus their fullest concentration.
Complacency, the thief that stole our previous season’s hopes, can exist only in an atmosphere of denial.
It just can’t survive in an environment of knowing. If relevant facts are assembled and presented in a clear,
open-hearted way, reality is defined and denial becomes an impossibility.
The Crime Scene of Complacency
Tampering with the work ethic as though it were an on-off switch.
• Hoarding stockpiles of effort for big moments, only then to find the reserves pilfered or drained.
• Sabotaging the quest for a fresh dream.
• Littering performance with “garbage time“ rather than pursuing breakthroughs.
• Looting past glories by leaning on old ways to win.
Complacency is the last hurdle standing between any team and its potential greatness.
Riles’ Rule of Entitlement
When a milestone is conquered, the subtle erosion called entitlement begins its consuming grind. The team
regards its greatness as a trait and a right. Halfhearted effort becomes habit and saps a champion’s strength.
Players who feel entitled to greatness should cherish their memories, tend to their pensions, and read retire-
ment brochures. Because that is all the future can offer them.
Time-Out
Only by committing oneself to a tougher and constant standard of training, alertness, and performance can
complacency be kept at bay. Mastery is the next goal, and mastery is built on excellence, a gradual result of
always wanting to do better. Mastery demands an intense awareness of the present moment and key knowledge
of one’s individual best effort potential. In getting to mastery, no matter what the team or contest, precise and
clearly understood information is the foundation. Mastery is as emotional as it is mental. You can’t attain Mastery
and neglect morale - and morale isn’t simply encouragement. It is sparked by the will of a team’s coach and its
leadership to challenge the team defiantly to reach for tougher new standards.
Every now and then, somewhere, someplace, sometime, you are going to have to plant your feet, stand firm,
and make a point about who you are and what you believe in. When that time comes, you simply have to do it.

Know yourself

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Know yourself

Similar to Know yourself (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Know yourself