David J. Schwartz

Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.
– David J. Schwartz

Accept the law of cause and effect. Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s
“good luck.” You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking
preceded his good fortune.
– David J. Schwartz

Study the lives of successful people and you’ll discover this: all the excuses made by the
mediocre fellow could be but aren’t made by the successful person.
– David J. Schwartz

Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are
not supermen. Success does not require a super-intellect. Nor is there anything mystical
about success. And success isn’t based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks
who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never – yes, never – sell yourself
short.
– David J. Schwartz

Refuse to talk about your health. The more you talk about an ailment, even the common cold,
the worse it seems to get. Talking about bad health is like putting fertilizer on weeds.
Besides, talking about your health is a bad habit. It bores people.
– David J. Schwartz

Put service first and money takes care of itself.
– David J. Schwartz

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.
– David J. Schwartz

The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who believes he can do it.
– David J. Schwartz

Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second
class – think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity.
– David J. Schwartz

Remind yourself often, “It’s better to wear out than rust out.” Life is yours to enjoy. Don’t
waste it.
– David J. Schwartz

Success shuns the man who lacks ideas.
– David J. Schwartz

A man who lacks enthusiasm never develops it in another. But a person who is enthusiastic
soon has enthusiastic followers.
– David J. Schwartz

When you believe something is impossible, your mind goes to work for you to prove why. But,
when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your mind goes to work for you and
helps you to find the ways to do it.
– David J. Schwartz

Give yourself a pep talk several times daily.
– David J. Schwartz

The overwhelming majority of really successful people work much longer than 40 hours a
week. And you don’t hear them complain of overwork. Successful people have their eyes
focused on a goal and this provides energy.
– David J. Schwartz

Be extra, extra cautious about this: don’t let negative thinking people – “negators” – destroy
your plan to think yourself to success. Negators are everywhere and they seem to delight in
sabotaging the positive progress of others.
– David J. Schwartz

A humorist once said the most difficult problem in life was getting out of a warm bed into a
cold room. And he had a point. The longer you lie there and think how unpleasant it will be to
get up, the more difficult it becomes… The point is clear. People that get things done don’t
wait for the spirit to move them; they move the spirit.
– David J. Schwartz

Practise these little techniques in your day-to-day activities:
a. Be a “front seater.”
b. Make eye contact.
c. Walk 25 per cent faster.
d. Speak up.
e. Smile big.
– David J. Schwartz

Friendship can’t be bought. And when we try, we lose two ways:
1. We waste money.
2. We create contempt.
– David J. Schwartz

People do more for you when you make them feel important.
– David J. Schwartz

The difference between success and failure is found in one’s attitude toward setbacks,
handicaps, discouragements, and other disappointing situations.
– David J. Schwartz

Every day thousands of people bury good ideas because they are afraid to act on them. And
afterwards, the ghosts of these ideas come back to haunt them.
– David J. Schwartz

The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence
you have.
– David J. Schwartz

The body is what the body is fed. By the same token, the mind is what the mind is fed… The
kind of mind food we consume determines our habits, attitudes, personality.
– David J. Schwartz

Expect to be sniped at. It’s proof you’re growing.
– David J. Schwartz

Spend some time each day answering this question: “How can I give more than is expected of
me?”
– David J. Schwartz

Go first class in everything you do. You can’t afford to go any other way.
– David J. Schwartz

Being self-critical is constructive. It helps you to build the personal strength and efficiency
needed for success. Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from “proving”
that someone else is wrong.
– David J. Schwartz

The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise,
but to meet and work out difficulties when they do arise.
– David J. Schwartz

How you think determines how you act.
How you act in turn determines:
How others react to you.
– David J. Schwartz

Praise your subordinates to your supervisor by putting plugs for them at every opportunity.
It’s an old American custom to admire the fellow who’s on the side of the little man. Your
subordinates will appreciate your plugs and their loyalty to you will grow.
– David J. Schwartz

How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.
– David J. Schwartz

Success is determined not so much by the size of one’s brain as it is by the size of one’s
thinking.
– David J. Schwartz

A personnel selection executive told me that he receives 50 to 250 times as many applicants
for jobs that pay $10,000 per year as for jobs that pay $50,000 a year. This is to say that
there is at least 50 times as much competition for jobs on Second Class Street as for jobs on
First Class Avenue.
– David J. Schwartz

Build castles, don’t dig graves.
– David J. Schwartz

Action cures fear.
– David J. Schwartz

NOW is the magic word of success. Tomorrow, next week, later, sometime, someday often as
not are synonyms for the failure word: never.
– David J. Schwartz

A person is a product of his own thoughts.
– David J. Schwartz

Let your major goal be your automatic pilot. When you let your goal absorb you, you’ll find
yourself making the right decisions to reach your goal.
– David J. Schwartz

You win when you refuse to fight petty people. Fighting little people reduces you to their
size. Stay big.
– David J. Schwartz

Everyone you know craves praise. Have a special good word for your wife or husband every
day.
– David J. Schwartz

Don’t wait until conditions are perfect. They never will be. Expect future obstacles and
difficulties and solve them as they arise.
– David J. Schwartz

Accept human differences and limitations. Don’t expect anyone to be perfect. Remember, the
other person has a right to be different. And don’t be a reformer.
– David J. Schwartz

As you approach your job each day, ask yourself, “Am I worthy in every respect of being
imitated?”
– David J. Schwartz