See You At The Top - Self-Image - Azara Feroz Sayed

'See You At The Top' is the name of the book by Zig Ziglar.

As part of the Wipro Leader's Program training sessions that I attended for six months - it seemed the Wipro Training faculty had an obsession with Zig Ziglar - everyone would use his quotations and yes I would say 30% of the videos presented to us were Ziglars. Being a fan of country music and reading books on the civil war etc developed love for the heavy southern accent due to which hearing Zig Ziglar was all the more exciting (we were provided audio cassettes as giveaways during the sessions) apart from the excellent content. Ziglar would end his videos by saying 'See You At The Top'. Since than it was a TODO to read the book. And I got an oppurtunity to read brand new copy of the 25th Anniversary Edition adding to the excitment!

'See You At The Top' is a P.L.A. (positive life attitude) book. The power of positive belief converting into positive action by focusing on tridimensional (physical, mental, spiritual i.e. health, wealth and happiness) aspect of success relying on the foundation stones of honesty, character, faith, integrity, love and loyalty. Ziglar mentions about taking the Stairway to the Top (refer picture) and each of the step is an aspect that Ziglar goes deeper into in the book. For being successful, Ziglar emphasis on using the characteristics that we all already possess - character, faith, integrity, honesty, love and loyalty and take the steps leading to success. That is all that is needed for success - the person (us) - by using the abilities we have. As most of us use only 2-5% of our abilities. Ziglar calls those individuals who do not believe in themselves (and hence don't use their abilities fully) as theives - robbing themselves, their loved ones, society because of reduced productivity. The tragedy of loss of human resources is that the average person goes to the grave with his music still in him. A dime and $100 gold piece has the same value if they are corroding at the bottom of the occean until we use them for their intended use. Our value becomes real and marketable when we reach within ourselves and utilize the enormous potential that is ther within us. We are where we are because that's exactly where we wanted to be. Their is a chance that we have been give wrong directions in form of negativity in environment, experience. Always believe that "Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success and endowed with the seeds of greatness". Of all the gifts our creator gives us, surely the gift of choosing the way we wish to be is one of the greatest. The ability to visualize before we perform, provides the additional confidence to perform successfully.

The book is filled with references to numerous books, biblical verses, movies (all adding up in my TODO), quotations, examples and yes lots of humor. I have pasted below some of the interesting thoughts
* Why do the weathermen always say there is 20% chance of rain and not 80% sunshine?
* One can climb an oak tree in two ways, one can climb it or sit on an acorn!
* I've read women giving birth to boys and girls but never about giving birth to a salesman, doctor, lawyer etc However I do read salesmen, doctors, lawyers die. Since they are not born but do die - somewhere between birth and death - by choice - by training - they become what they wish to become! A woman never gives birth to a success or failure. People blame lack of education, parents, environment, skin, religious beliefs, too old, too young, fat, slim etc for their failures. Everytime the index finger is pointed at someone else the other three fingers are pointing at us. Everything starts with us including success and happiness.
* Darwin's theory of evolution, that man is not from god but is animalistic in origin - is a blow to our self esteem - thinking I came from a monkey doesn't makes anyone feel good!
* I don't go to church as there are so many hypocrites there is an excuse people provide for not going to church. They don't realize hypocrite is standing between them and God. The hypocrite in that case is more closer to God than they are. Hypocrites are everywhere so statying away from church for them doesn't helps.
* The Norwegian word for sell is selje which literally means "to serve"
* "You're always late", "You never do anything right" etc neither builds love nor confidence. Besides failure is an event - no a person - yesterday ended last night - today is a brand new day and it is ours!
* If we take what we have and use it - our talent will be increased - which brings more rewards etc
* Their is nothing like good or bad memory. Their is either trained or untrained
* Admire the skills of others but remember in most instances we could greatly improve our own skill by using the same amount of time and effort

The book begins with the "The End" - the end of life of Mediocrity! Today is the first day of the rest of our life! We are now engaged in the process of building a foundation for a greater future. Ziglar uses the "Count the Squares" in an empty square thought provoker. An in-depth look to the empty square helps us count the 30 squares in it i.e. an ind-depth look reveals considerably more than a casual glance. Ziglar says this is true about understanding ourselves, knowing our potential and our future. Ziglar promises to provide directions to help us achieve that.

When exposed to new material one time will remember only 2% of it two weeks later. If they are exposed to the same material on six consecutive days, they will remember 62% of it two weeks later. The more we are exposed to an idea - it is more likely that we will take action. So Ziglar encourages to review the important ideas in the book periodically.

The first page of the book has the quotation "I Believe - You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people what they want". I remember how thrilled I was with the simplicity with which this quotation was used to drive an important point by one of our business development manager - for all of us to be successful in the account, we have to help our client manager to be successful. Ziglar talks about this in terms of serving - if you serve more you earn more!

Self-Image is the First Step on the Stairway to the Top (refer picture)
The first step on the Stairway to the top is self-image. It is important to have love ourselves as if we cannot love ourselves where will we draw the love for anyone else - we can't give away something that we don't have. The Bible says "Love thy neighbour as thyself" . The most noticable manifestation of a poor self-image is the way a person reacts to criticism and the way he reacts to someone laughing at him/her.

The person with a healthy self-image moves into management very well. He exhibits a cautious confidence that shows he is qualified and will do the job. He is short on promises but long on fulfillement. He neither seeks nor avoids confrontations and meets decision making head-on. He understands that he was promoted because management has confidence in his ability to either handle the job or grow to the job. He knows where to draw the line between arrogance and confidence. He can be firm on principle but flexible on method. He understands that ideas don't ideas don't care who have them and is secure enough to give associates the credits for ideas. He draws a line between friendly and being familiar. He doesn't gets "all shook up" when he makes a wrong decision, because he knows in most cases the worst decision is no decision, so right or wrong he makes decisions. His self-image helps him to act decisively and yet not feel threatened when he is either mistaken, challenged or has to ask for help on specific matters.

I have used the "15 Steps to a Healthy Self-Image" that Ziglar talks about from the site below and have added other ideas that I found interesting in the book
http://www.gnorb.net/life/20060530/15-steps-to-a-healthy-self-image/

1. Take inventory of our worth - If we had a friend who lost his legs in an accident, but got $10M for it in a court settlement, would we trade places with him? Probably not, so count that as part of our worth. We would certainly like to have more money but not at the cost of our one of our assets, our health.
Also we have the capacity between our ears to store more information than can be stored in dozens of man's most sphisticated computers. It would cost billions if scientist were to attempt to create a human brain, it would be bulky in size and it would require lots of power to operate. Still it would not have the creative capability that God has blessed us with.
We are as precious to God as any of his other creatures - the difference between Rembrandt and us is - Rembrandt lifted his brush every day! God doesn't sponsors flops! We are somebody as God wouldn't spend time on creating a nobody!
Remember: Self worth has nothing to do with how much money you have.
2. Make sure our appearance is good - Keep ourself well groomed, hygienically sound, and looking sharp. The quickest, cheapest way to increase our self image: dress sharper. Go out and invest in a couple of good quality dress shirts, polos (double mercerized cotton is great), dress pants/slacks and shoes. Looking good automatically boosts our self image because, hey, if you dress the part, how much harder is it to play it?
When women walk out of a beauty salon, they "walk proud". Women will smile little more braodly, have a tendency to laugh more at little incidents and funnies and just seem to enjoy life more after the trip to a beauty salon. The performance of students is considerably better on "picture taking day" when the students "dress up". Every husband says his wife is happier, friendlier and more productive after she has got "dolled up" in a new outfit. Employers note that employees do better work, all other things being equal, when they are neatly or sharply dressed. Both men and women feel more confident when they know their appearance is good. Our appearence has direct bearing on the way we feel about ourselves and has a bearing on many facets of our lives, as it carries over in the way we deal with other people.
3. Read biographies and autobiographies of successful people - Read life stories of Henry Ford, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison etc
4. Listen to speakers, preachers, and teachers who build mankind - Listening to these people is incredibly educational, uplifting and rewarding. Here’s an example: ever listen to Joel Osteen? Like his theology or not, you have to admit that he’s a great motivator and uplifter of people. Same for people like Tony Robins.
5. Begin any goal with small, easy steps, then increase the difficulty - Success begets success. When you see yourself succeeding in little things, it makes it easier to go to the next level and begin succeeding there. Build a healthy self-image with a series of short steps. One reason many people never attempt new things is their fear of failure. If possible, start any new venture with a phase or portion you are confident you can handle, then transfer that initial accomplishment from one area of success to another. Building a healthy self-image needs to start in an area where we know we can succeed. Once success is accomplished there, we can move another step and another and another. Each step gives us added confidence and hence self-image improves and hence performance improves
6. Smile and complement others - When we smile at people and they smile back, we automatically feel better. Ditto for compliment. When we sincerely compliment a person or extend him a courtsey, he is going to receive a direct benefit and like himself better. It is impossible for us to make someone feel better and not feel better ourselves. One of the best ways to make anyone else feel better is to spread optimism and cheer. If we are not feeling very much spirited but act that way, we will soon feel spirited. If we are optimistic and cheerful, the chances are much stronger that we will lift the other person's spirit.
7. Do something for someone else wholeheartedly - Expect nothing in return, ask for nothing in reward, and accept nothing in return. When we volunteer or help someone - we realize that we are truly fortunate and do have lot to be thankful for, that, we can make a contribution and that we are. in fact, somebody. In short, we will stand tall in our own eyes.
8. Deliberately associate with uplifters and good-finders - We acquire much of the thinking, mannerisms and characteristics of the people around us. Even our IQ No one can long be positive associating with people who drag them down, so make an effort to find people who are positive and uplifting, people who go out of their way to find good in people. Clubs like the Toastmasters are a good way for anyone to start finding uplifters and good-finders in their area.
9. Remember all your good qualities - Make a list of all our positive qualities in a card. Ask friends to list the things they like about us. Carry that card and read it few times a day. Bragging about ourself to ourself helps to be confident in who we are, without being arrogant.
10. Make a list of all the past victories in your life - Again, success begets success. A lot of times we minimize what we’ve accomplished while maximizing what others have done. We compare our worst to their best. This list should include those things from childhood to present that gave us most satisfaction and confidence - which do not appear on the educational charts. As we periodically review this list, we will be reminded that we have succeeded in the past and we can do it again. This builds confidence, which builds image, which builds success, happiness etc.
11. Avoid adult programs, soap operas, and horoscopes - We can’t continually see man at his worst and feel good about ourself by watching adult programs. Similarly, it is a enormous waste of time and the "drug-like ability" to hook into tuning in tomorrow to see what happens, and it spells bad news with a capital BAD. Tomorrow the start of soap opera, and at least one of his or her buddies, will either be in trouble, headed for trouble, or just getting out of trouble. When we view life in this negative perspective over a long period of time, we identify with the situations which mostly parallel with our own and it goes on. The horoscope "hooks" us in similar fashion. We think it as harmless to read as we don't believe in it - eventually we will become fatalistic as a result of it - will not make decisions or take trips if the horoscope is not in tune.
12. Learn from successful failures - See how often successful people failed before they succeeded. The only difference between us and someone who’s succeeded in the long term is that they’ve probably failed a lot more than us. Edison, Lincoln, Einstein, Henry Ford, Walt Disney were failures before they eventually succeeded due to their persistence.
13. Join an organization with worthwhile goals that encourages public speaking - One of the best, quickest, and most efficient ways to improve your self image and performance is to join an organization that has worthwhile goals and encourages public speaking.
14. Look at people in the eyes when you talk to them - This is surprisingly one of the hardest things to do. When we look at people in the eye, they can see how honest we are and how proud we are of doing whatever it is you’re doing. Some people with low self-image feel "unworthy" and "are not good enough" to look directly into the eyes of another. To overcome the feeling, we can practice - looking ourselves in the eye - in front of the mirror. Set aside a few moments each day for this exercise. Repeat some positive affirmations (Step#9 and #10) of what we have accomplished., positive things that other people have said to us. The second phase involves eye-contact with children. The third phase is peer group and associates, as well as those who might work at lesser positions. This will give us enough confidence to look in the eye of everybody we meet.
15. Earnestly and honestly work towards being physically fit - It’s no secret that people who are physically fit, or are working towards that goal, have more stamina, are happier, and exude more confidence than those who are not fit and are not working towards that kind of goal. We may not be fit and may not be working towards that type of goal, but still be positive. Imagine how much more so will we be when you combine your naturally good disposition with the psychological and biological advantages offered by good health?

Edit: In retrospect, I (the author of gnorb.net) should have probably added a 16th step: Work. Whenever someone does something for us which we can do for ourself, our self esteem goes down a bit. Make a habit of having people do things for us which we can do for ourself and our self image will go down the drain. (Ever go to a welfare line and try to look at the eyes of people there? Most of the time, sadly, the thing we see the least of in their eyes is pride: most of them have attrociously low self images, and we will never earn more than our self image dictates we should.) Likewise, when someone gives us something which we can earn for ourself (gifts are an exception most of the time), they are inadvertantly denying us the chance to earn it. All of us, to a certain extent, tie the work we do and the things we accomplish to our self image, so a quick way to raise your self esteem is to work for what we want.


It is beyond a doubt that most problems, whether they are economic, social or martial are not really problems but rather symptoms of problems. Deugs, alcholism, pornography, homesexuality, obesity are symptoms of deeper difficulties. Many other fads are also symptoms of real problems, particularly when it's obvious the fads are related to people doing "their thing" in defiance of parents or the so-called "society". Once we accept ourselves for our true worth, then the symptoms of vulgarility, slopiness etc disappears.

The Swedish Government promises every individual that he will be "taken care of" from birth to death. To the casual observer, Swedes would be happiest people in existence because of such magnificient arrangement. On the contrary, Sweden has the fastest growing drug problem, high rate of divorce, highest rate of suicide among retired - which indicates the difference in self image - building our own security as opposed to having someone else take care of us.

80% of workers go reluctantly to work. This lose of pride in work brings performance down and quality of work declines. This explains the need for Foriegn imports and the domestic sales volumes goes down - this is price we pay for low self-esteem.

Think like a champion, Act like a champion, See ourselves as a champion and perform like a champion.

Some interesting ideas
* What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us - Ralph Waldo Emerson
* You are the only one who can use your ability. Its an awesome responsibility - Ralph Waldo Emerson
* I hear and forget. I see and hear and I remember. However when I see, hear and do, I understand and succeed - Anonymous
* The price of success is much lower than the price of failure
* The person who won't read is no better that the person who can't read
* Success is not a destination. It is a journey, it's the direction in which you are travelling
* Education and intelligence are not the same thing.
* No one on the face of the earth can make you feel inferior without your permission
* The most destitute person in the world is the one without a smile
* No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of anyone else
* It is not who's right that is important - its what's right
* The person who won't stand for something will fall for anything
* We don't drown by falling into water, we get drowned if we stay there
* We are not beaten by being knocked down. We are only beaten if we stay down.
* Work gives us more than our living - it gives us our life

Building Trust - Azara Feroz Sayed

During my experience in working for corporates, I found the one thing that could have helped the most was a trustful environment. The energy sapping acitivites that we engage in, due to lack of trust, especially at a time when we are required to do more with less, makes the time spent in consciously building trust so much worthwhile. I would push it to the extent of including it in the organization's mission statement and having policies and procedures aligned with it e.g. 360 degree feedbacks to include examples of trust building acitivities implemented

I came accross an interesting article relating to "Building Trust" at
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/twelve-keys-for-building-trust/ which I have used for discussion in this post.

The foundation of any relationship, whether it be with a business associate, spouse, parent, client or, friend, is trust. Trust is not something that can be built with quick fix techniques. Rather, it is something that is cultivated through consistent habits in our interactions. The following are twelve patterns of behavior that increase trust in our relationships.

1. Be transparent - Do not try to hide things from others. Refuse to have any hidden agendas. We might think we can pull a fast one on someone else. We can’t. Most people have good intuition and even though they may not be able to consciously determine that we are hiding something, they very likely will have an uneasy feeling around us. If they don`t feel comfortable around us, they won`t be able to trust us.
Another sinister aspect of having hidden agenda is that it erodes our ability to trust others. We will assume that if we aren’t fully forthcoming, other people aren’t either. When we are trustworthy, however, we will see others as more trustworthy too.
In my experience, being transparent in a Manager-Employee relationship takes lot of courage for meeting the consequences (emotional and reputational hurt apart from additional issues being created) of being transparent. Even though we are transparent, prior experiences and organization culture, makes it difficult for people to accept it and they continue to engage in untrustful actions. Me and Feroz would debate a lot on being transparent, every time I would go thru a difficult situation, due to someone indulging in an untrustful action. I am all for transparency - experience makes you stronger - to face the consequences and not give up on the trust building process!

2. Be sincere - This is similar to the previous point. Only say what we mean. Be impeccably honest with our words. Refuse to try and craft our words to manipulate others. Don`t give fake compliments, patronize others or say something just because we think we are supposed to. Again, people have good BS detectors. When others know that we only speak genuinely, it increases their capacity to trust us. Everyone loves authenticity.
In my experience, in an Manager-Employee relationship, as mentioned earlier, prior experiences and organization culture blinds people to our attempts and it could be a fursterating experience when your attempts to build trust don't go anywhere. Staying at it and not being affected by some failures is the key to building life-time relationships!

3. Focus on adding value - In any relationship, always have the best interest of others at heart. Work hard to give as much or more than we get. When we consistently add value to someone`s life, they not only feel like we are on their side, they also have the urge to reciprocate. In business relationships, this means always under-promise and over-deliver. In personal relationships, focusing on meeting the needs of the other person instead of taking in order to get our own needs met.
In my experience, in an Manager-Employee relationship, apart from "adding value", it is also important that 'we are on their side' feeling be implicitly created, by communicating the value that the relationship has been providing as "value add". Since "value add" is sometimes taken for granted especially in an environment of "peer pressure" where we are more focussed on comapring the "value add" that the manager has been providing to peers.

4. Be present - The last thing anyone wants is to have a conversation with someone who isn’t there. Instead of retreating into your head, focus on listening to others. Whenever you are with someone, make them your primary focus. Don’t think about work while we are at home talking to our spouse. Don’t think about life at home when we are with a client. When it comes to relationships, presence means quality time and quality time builds trust.
In my experience, in an Manager-Employee relationship, a big investment in communication (emphasis on listening) is the most important thing. Looking back at those instances where trust was not shared, I feel spending more time in communicating would have helped to improve the trust in the relationships. An improvement area for me!

5. Always treat people with respect - Ever since we were little kids, we have been taught to be respectful. However, when our standards get violated or there is no one around to see (read: we don`t think there will be any consequences), we can often engage in petty behavior. This encompasses a wide range of actions from personal attacks during arguments to gossiping behind someone’s back. Always remember that another person’s inherent worth as a human being entitles them to be treated with dignity. When people know that you will always treat with them respect, it is very natural for trust to flourish.
In my experience, in an Manager-Employee relationship, this is important and additionally important (read Item#9 "Set Boundaries" below) is to make sure you are treated with respect too and not taken for granted. Feroz would caution me on this aspect based on the few interactions with my team members that he was part of.

6. Take responsibility - When we mess up, which we invariably will, be quick to clean it up. Skip the excuses and just take responsibility. Justifying and making excuses may help us in the short term but in the long run, it does nothing for our character or the level of trust we are given. Accountability is a rare trait these days with most people wanting to avoid negative consequences at all costs. Dare to be different and we will win the trust of others.
In my experience, in an Manager-Employee relationship, taking responsibility for glitches done by the team is an expectation. I believe it is important that we talk about such behaviour too as part of "value add" to the relationship. In my experience all these actions on my part were never considered as "value add" by the team.

7. Focus on feedback - Unless we`re mind readers, the only way we can know how well a relationship is going is by getting feedback from the other person. Be not only willing to accept feedback – actively seek it out. Many people are afraid to give us feedback, especially if its negative, out of fear that they will offend. Ask with sincerity and respond respectfully and others will be far more willing. Take both the positive and negative into account along with our own judgment and adjust our behaviour accordingly.
In my experience, creating an organizational culture of providing frank personal feedback is important. Tools soliciting feedback need to encourage for specific examples which makes the person revisit the situation as they write about it rather than simply checking-on a box.

8. Take criticism well - Learn to handle criticism with grace. Instead of getting defensive, consider the possibility that what the other person is saying might be true. Closing yourself off from criticism has the effect of closing off all communication. In some cases, the criticism may indeed be inaccurate. In these instances, you have the opportunity to show empathy. Try to understand the problem from the other person’s point of view. Perhaps the criticism is just a thinly veiled attack that stems from a deeper upset they may have with us. In these cases, our willingness to dig deeper without getting defensive will certainly enhance the trust in the relationship.
For a leader, this is important. In my experience, due to lack of trust, people don't provide direct feedback. Regular feedback is important and I believe spending time on frequent one-on-one communication will probably help us 'hear' the feedback. Once again, I wish I had spent more time in on-eon-one communication to 'hear' the feedback.

9. Set boundaries - Be clear about how we expect people to behave around us. Again, do this in a mature manner: be sincere and respectful. When we have clear standards, people know exactly how to behave around us and that gives them certainty. The strength that we communicate by setting boundaries builds trust – when someone knows that they can`t take advantage of us that alleviates the fear that someone else will.
Important! I already talked about this in Item#5 - "Always treat people with respect"

10. Be a class act - Hold ourself to a higher a standard. Be quick to apologize when we know we are wrong. Only speak well of others, even those who don`t speak well of us. Why should we do this? First, imagine what it would do to our sense of self to know that other people only have good experiences with us. Second, imagine how much trust such behaviour engenders in others. Finally, imagine the example we set for others – the conduct of others will improve just by being around us consistently.
Important in building relationships. I would consider this as an important aspect in the evaluation of a manager. The only reason I keep mentioning about these attributes being part of a formal feedback for a manager is - we otherwise are blinded with the organizational culture and lack of training to notice i.e. one becomes blinded to these important aspects that the manager is demonstrating. I believe having to write down an example for a feedback always makes me think about actions taken for granted.

11. Our word is our bond - Keep all the promises we make and ensure that we make promises only sparingly. Make our word stronger than any written contract. Refuse to make empty promises and manipulate people. When a promise we have made is no longer beneficial to us, instead of deciding to not follow through, attempt to renegotiate the deal. When we renegotiate the agreement, ensure that the new commitment provides even more value to the other person.
I think this is Item#3 "Focus on adding value" and Item#10 "Be a class act" working together at all times.

12. Be consistent - Above all, be consistent in our behavior. Don’t engage in the behavior once in a while when it seems convenient. Our consistency is the key to your trustworthiness. Small actions add up and a track record of high character is invaluable in any relationship. Become intensely principle-centered and trust will follow easily and consistently.
It needs courage to not get frusterated - when efforts to build trust are washed out turns - and continue focussing on our endeavors. I think this is the most important of all the items mentioned above. I regret losing some relationships due to the emotional and reputational hurt and not investing in mending them.

The Magic of Thinking Big - Azara Feroz Sayed

The Magic of Thinking Big is a 50+ yr old bestseller by David Schwartz about being sucessful using the magic of thinking - the power of belief, attitude and action! It is funny to read the examples of $1000 salary or a handsome salary of $35,000 - one need to keep the perspective of this while reading the 50+ year old book.

David introduces by saying sucess is not determined by the size of one's brain as it is by the size of one's thinking. The size of bank accounts, size of happiness accounts, size of one general satisfaction account is dependent on size of one's thinking.

David talks about study human behaviour to know the rules of success using the fully equipped laboratory of human beings that is around us to study human action. The laboratory provides us with every possible example of human action. We need to observe and experiment - to know more about sucessful people, to know why people act as they do. To get insight into human action by asking questions as Why is XX so sucessful? Why is YY just mediocre? etc

David talks about "walk-watch", watching people walk, to know what is going on in their mind are they troubled, are they happy - one way to use the laboratory that we have at our disposal. I always thought Feroz did this to entertain me. He would try to build up stories on what is going on with the person.

One of the things that David mentions is that confidence determines how we fight our fears. Memory management is the most important thing for building confidence - depositing and withdrawing positive thoughts is the key to confidence. He talks about recalling pleasent experiences to boost confidence (refer post "Mastering your mind" on how this can be used to manage difficult situations). Feroz doesn't listens to news, songs, chat shows etc in the morning to ensure his postive rhythm is not disturbed.

With Feroz, I have learnt the importance of setting a high standard for others to follow. I helped Feroz with the logistics during one of the 'Interviewing Skills' session he conducted. During the session, Feroz tried to capture students responses to most of the aspects mentioned in the book, as part of the interview questions. Stressing students with questions during the interview to check how strong their beliefs were. He played back the video in the class - for the students to know what the interviewer is trying to know about the applicant and what would be the best response and yes importance of appearence!

I have used the review of the book at the site below and added some the ideas that I found interesting in the book
http://www.lifetrainingonline.com/blog/the-magic-of-thinking-big-part-i.htm

Believe You Can Succeed and You Will
Belief and wishful thinking are quite different. Wishful thinking will never spur you to action and as a result, your wishful thought will forever remain a wish. Belief works this way. Belief, the "I'm-positive-I-can" attitude generates the power, skill and energy needed to achieve results. When we truly believe we can do it, the HOW TO DO IT will reveal itself.

Without firm, unwavering belief that man can travel in space, our scientists would not have had the courage, interest and enthusiasm to proceed. Belief in great results is the driving force behind all great discoveries. Belief in success is the one basic, absolutely essential ingredient in successful people.

Disbelif is the -ve power. When the mind disbelieves or doubts, the mind attracts "reasons" to support the disbelief. Doubt, disbelief, the subconcious will to fail, the not really wanting to succeed, is responsible for most failures.

The size of our success is determined by the size of our belief. We can also consider belief to be the thermostat that regulates our accomplishments in life. If we take a look at one who is struggling in mediocrity, he believes he is worth little so as result, he receives little. Contrast this with the person who is advancing in life. They really belief they’re worth a lot, and again as a result they receive a lot.

A person is a product of his own thoughts. Believe Big. Let us adjust our thermostat forward. Let us launch our success offensive with honest, sincere belief that we can suceed. Believe big and grow big.

We know that our mind is a "thought factory", producing countless thoughts in a day. Production in our thought factory is under the charge of two foremen Mr Triumph and Mr Defeat. Mr Triumph is in charge of manufacturing postive thought. He specializes in producing reasons why we can, why we will etc The other foremen, Mr Defeat, produces negative, deprecating thoughts. He is our expert in developing reasons why we can't, why we are inadequate. His speciality is why-we-will-fail thoughts. They both are obedient and snap to attention immediately when required. The more work we give either of these foremen, the stronger they become. Eventually taking the entire thought-manufacturing process. To have strong belief, we need to ignore Mr.Defeat (refe "Taming the Gremlin" post) and strengthen Mr. Triumph.

As Tony Robbins says, Belief is to have faith when nothing in the our environment is supporting us. Generating the feeling of certainity. Operating with Strong Belief, is to operate from faith instead of fear. Belief is about creating certainity in face of fear. When we operate out-of-fear, we constantly focus on worst that could happen. We anticipate in advance and thereby avoid participating. The greatest way in the world not to achieve anything is to not to take the first step. Belief, is to have courage to put ourselves on the line by having faith - faith is the ultimate power.

While recruting, companies often look for candidate who aspires leadership for himself and his company - a determination to undertake a personal program of self development.

Cure Yourself of Exusitus, the Failure Disease
The distinguishing difference between a person who is going places and the individual who is barely getting by is the latter person’s habit of excuses. The more successful the individual, the less inclined he is to make excuses. But the fellow who has gone nowhere and has no plans for getting anywhere always has a boxful of reasons to explain why. Persons with mediocre accomplishments are quick to explain why they haven't, why they don't, why they can't, and why they aren't.
Much like any other disease, this disease of ‘excusitis’, as the author calls it, will get worse if not treated properly.

The problem is, once you’ve selected for yourself a ‘good’ excuse, you end up sticking to it. You then end up using that excuse to explain to yourself and others why you’re not making progress in that area of life; And each time you use that excuse, the more it gets ingrained into your subconscious and the more you begin to believe it is true.

Successful people on the other hand learn how to vaccinate themselves against excusitis instead fertilizing their minds with the seeds of confidence and achievement - making the most of the resources available with them as "the right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms every time" and being grateful for having the available resources.

Poor health? Lack of education? Too old? Too young? Bad luck? Personal misfortune? he way my family brought me up? are some of the common excuses used by mediocre people. The four most common of this disease are healthy excusitis, intelligence excusitis, age excusitis and luck excusitis.

http://www.seniorsnetwork.co.uk/positivethinking2/excusitis.htm
1."But My Health Isn't Good." - Health excusitis is used as an excuse for failing to do what a person wants to do, failing to accept greater responsibilities, failing to make more money, failing to achieve success. Remind yourself often, "It's better to wear out than rust out."

2."But you've got to have brains to succeed." - Intelligence excusitis or "I lack brains" is common. Unlike most other types of excusitis, people suffering from this particular type of the malady suffer in silence. Not many people will admit openly that they think they lack adequate intelligence. Rather, they feel it deep down inside. Most of us make two basic errors with respect to intelligence: We under estimate our own brain power, and We overestimate the other fellow's brainpower. Because of these errors many people sell themselves short. They fail to tackle challenging situation because it "takes brains". What really matters is not how much intelligence we have but how we use what we do have. The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than the quantity of your brain power. Interest, enthusiasm, is the critical factor. With a positive, optimistic, and cooperative attitude a person with an IQ of 100 will earn more money, win more respect, and achieve more success than a negative, pessimistic, uncooperative individual with an IQ of 120. Just enough sense to stick with something-a chore, task, project-until it's completed, pays off much better than idle intelligence, even if idle intelligence be of genius calibre. Stickability is 95% of ability. Negative Thinking is the reason for some brilliant people's failures.
He has a very mediocre job (he's afraid of responsibility).
He has never married (lots of marriages end in divorce).
He has few friends (people bore him).
He's never invested in property of kind (he might lose his money).
These men use their great brainpower to prove why things won't work rather than directing his mental power to searching for ways to succeed. We can't do much to change the amount of negative ability, but we can certainly change the way we use what we have. Knowledge is power- when you use it constructively.
Closely allied to intelligence excusitis is some incorrect thinking about knowledge. We often hear that knowledge is power. But this statement is only a half-truth. Knowledge is only potential power. Knowledge is power only when we put to use - and then only when the use made of it is constructive.
The story is told that the great scientist Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein's reply was, " I don't know. Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?"
It is more important to use our mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts. The ability to know how to get information is more important than using the mind as a garage of facts. When questioned Henry Ford responded, I don't know the answer to the question but can find a man in five minutes who can do that. The idea is to use the best available resources rather than making yourself a factman. What we want around are people who can solve problems, who can think up ideas. People who can dream and then develop the dream into a practical application; an idea man can make money, a fact man can't.
Never underestimate our own intelligence and never overestimate the intelligence of others. It's not how many brains we've got that matters, rather it's how we use your brains that counts. Reminding several times daily: "My attitudes are more important than my intelligence." using our brain to find ways to win. Remembering that ability to think is of much greater value than the ability to memorize facts. Using our mind to create and develop ideas to find new and better ways to do things. Asking, "Am I using my mental ability to make history or am I using it merely to record history made by others."

3."It's No Use I'm too old (or too young)." - Age excusitis, the failure disease of never being the right age comes in two easily identifiable forms: the " I'm too old" variety and the "I'm too young" brand. How old we are is not important, it's one's attitude toward age that makes it a blessing or a barricade. For too young, don't be age conscious, don't take advantage of new gold bars, get used to having older persons working for us. What matters really is how well we know our job. Age has no real relation to ability, unless we convince yourself that years alone will give us the stuff we need to make your mark. The cure for age excusitis is to look at our present age positively. Think "I'm still young," not "I'm already old." Compute how much productive time we have left. Life is actually longer than most people think. Invest future time in doing what we really want to do. Start thinking, " I'm going to start now, my best years are ahead of me." That's the way successful people think.

4. "But my case is different: I attract bad luck." - Luck excusitis - If luck determined who does what and who goes where, every business in the nation would fall apart. People who rise to the top in any occupation- business, management, selling, law, engineering, acting or what have you- get there because they have superior attitudes and use their good sense in applied hard work. Accept the law of cause of effect. Take a second look at what appears to be someone's " good luck." we'll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking preceded his good fortune. Take a second look at what appears to be someone's " bad luck." we'll discover certain specific reasons. Mr. Success receives a set back; he learns and profits. But when Mr. Mediocre loses, he fails to learn. Don't be a wishful thinker. We don't become successful simply through luck. Don't count on luck for promotions, victories, the good things in life. Luck simply isn't designed to deliver these good things.

Build Confidence and Destroy Fear
Other than excuses, fear is another very real hindrance to success. It keeps you from capitalizing on opportunity; it wears you down physically, it also closes your mouth when you want to speak. Fear can even cause you to become sick. Fear — manifested in uncertainty and lack of confidence — explains why millions of people accomplish little and enjoy little. In one way or another fear keeps people from getting what they want in life.

So is there an antidote for fear? Absolutely. The cure is found in action. If indecision and postponement further breed fear, then taking action will kill it off. To conquer fear: Isolate fear. This is where we determine exactly what it is that we are afraid of. Take action. Every type of fear has some type of action which will counter-act it. When deciding what course of action to take, do not hesitate. Hesitation only magnifies the fear. Be decisive and act immediately.

self-conciousness can be a reason for fear at times. It is important for us to put people in proper perspective to get over self-conciousness.
- Get a balanced view of the other fellow - The other fellow is important as every human being is. We are important too. Think, we are two important people sitting down to discuss something of mutual interest and benefit.
- Develop an understanding attitude to the adult bully. Try to think, the adult bully is having some bigger problems and his behaviour towards us is the otcome of that big problem he is struggling with - making him feel inferior - and he is using us to get over it.
- Doing what's right keeps our confidence satisfied. As the guilt pulls down our confidence.

Being confident is another way of banishing fear. Confidence is not something that people are born with, it is developed; And developing it requires a little effort on our part. Much lack of self-confidence can be traced directly to mis-managed memory. Everyday we make thought deposits in our "mind bank". When we settle down to face a problem, ineffect we say to the memory bank, "what do I already know about the problem?". Based on our prior experience our memory bank provides info. If we have a repository of failures deposited as -ve thoughts rather than "learnings from an experience which didn't give us the results we were looking for but some other results for us to work on further" - failure is what the memory is going to provide us a response to us. This is like, if we put dirt in the car crank case every day, the fine engine will surely be messed up - unable to do what we want it to do. -ve thoughts create worry, frusteration, feelings of inferiority.

Before going to bed, recall the good things we saw people do, recall the little victories and accomplishments, count your blessings, go over the reasons why we are
glad to be alive - these will be the positive deposits. When driving or alone recall pleasent experiences, positive thougts - these will be the positive deposits too.

The best way to build confidence is the “fake it ’till you make it” approach. In other words, to think confidently, act confidently. Schwartz quotes the great psychologist, Dr. George W. Crane who said, “Remember, motions are the precursors of emotions. You can’t control the latter directly but only through your choice of motions or actions…Go through the proper motions each day and you’ll soon begin to feel the corresponding emotions!” This example can best be seen with smiling. It’s hard to feel sad if you try to smile as hard as you can. (Go ahead try it ;)) The same holds true with confidence. It’s hard to be shy and uneasy if you’re body is telling you you’re confident. Aren't these thoughts that Tony Robbins talks about in Changing State - to use physical changes to change our mental state.

Some physiological changes boost confidence
- Be a front seater
- Make eye contact
- Walk 25% faster - Throw shoulders back, lift head
- Speak up
- Smile big

How to Think Big
Schwartz explains how big we think ultimately determines the size of our accomplishments. But how can we enlarge our thinking? How do we think big? Maybe by looking at the traits of some big thinkers, we can figure out just how one can expand their thinking
- Big thinkers are really good at crafting positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others. The words they choose are reflective of this and help others to envision a positive outcome.
"I'm sorry to report we've failed" to "Here's a new approach that I think will work"
"We face a problem" to "We face a challenge"
"We incurred a big expense" to "We made a big investment"
Using big, positive, cheerful words and phrases to describe how we feel ("Just Wonderful!"), to decribe other people, compliment people, to outline plans etc
- Big thinkers have trained themselves to not only see what is in their current reality but to see what could become their reality. 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 future. He isn't stuck with the present. The teacher who only thinks of Jimmy as he is - an ill-mannered, backward, uncouth brat - certainly will not aid Jimmy's development. But the teacher who sees Jimmy not as he is but as he can be, she'll get results. Asking questions like "What can I do to 'add value' to my work, home etc", "What can I do to 'add value' to my subordinates?", "What can I do make myself more valuable?"
- Big thinkers see themselves as part of a team. Success does not come alone but by working with others. They help in every way they can, even when there is no direct and immediate compensation. The fellow who shrugs off a problem outside his own department with a comment "Well, that none of my concern, let them worry it", hasn't got the attitude it takes for top leadership. Seeing the company interest as identical with our own. Probably only a very few people working in large companies have a sincere, unselfish interest in the company. But after all, only a relatively few persons qualify as big thinkers.
- Big thinkers do not get bogged down by trivial details or small failings. They learn to keep moving forward, keeping their eyes on the overall objective.
What causes quarells - Little, petty thinking causes arguments so let us eliminate petty thinking. Before complaning, accusing, reprimanding, counter attack in self defense, ask "Is it really important enough for me to get all worked up about". This question works like magic! Keep focus on the big objective while working with employees, marriage, neighbours
What does it to make a good speech - Knowledge of what we are going to talk abiut and an intense desire to tell it to other people as well as a burning desire for other people to hear it. Not letting your mind go over trivial thoughts about standing position, arm position, grammatical mistake but focus over the important task of delivering the speech. Don't fall in the triviality trap while making speeches, solving problems, think of things that really matter - things that make a difference. Don't become submerged under surface issues. Concentrate on important things.
- Big thinkers don't Short Sell - One of the biggest weakness is to sell ourselves short! We are truly bigger than we think! A assessment of our strengths and weaknesses with those we consider sucessful/failure will help us to know how truly big we are and this will be reflected in everything that we do.

How to Think and Dream Creatively
Creative thinking is nothing other than finding new and improved ways to do something. Success in any endeavor is dependent upon using creative thinking to discover these improved ways; And as with confidence, it can be learned.
Schwartz offers six steps to develop and strengthen our creative thinking ability:
Step 1: Believe it can be done. This is pretty self-explanatory. In order for us to do anything, we first must believe it can be done. Once we have that belief, it sets the mind in motion to find ways to accomplish it and paves the way for creative solutions. Belief releases creative powers. Disbelief puts the brakes on them. Eliminate the word "impossible" from vocabulary to help develop creative power through belief. "Man belongs where man wants to go"
Step 2: Don’t get paralyzed by tradition. Too many of us think that something cannot change because that’s the way it always has been and always will be. Instead, experiment. Be open to new ideas. Try out new ways of doing the same thing. Be progressive in all that we do. "Nothing grows on ice. If we let tradition freeze our minds, new ideas can't sprout" Be an experimental person. Break up fixed routines. Do something new - develop interest in distribution if in manufacturing
Step 3: Ask yourself daily, “How can I do better?” Self-improvement in all areas of life come when we ask ourselves this question and take the time to listen to what our mind presents to us. Absolute perfection in all human undertakings from building missiles to rearing children is unattainable. This means there is always room for improvement. Successful people know this and they are always searching for better way. . The successful person doesn't asks "Can I do it better?" they ask "How can I do it better?". Try to implement a weekly improvement program. All during the week make notes about ideas to improve at work, home. Every monday, set aside hours to review and prioritize ideas to be implemented". Each day in the mornings ask Qs "How can I do a better job today?", "What can I do to encourage my employees?", "How can I increase my personal efficiency?", "What can I do to improve my relationships at work, home?".
Step 4: Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” Asking this type of question forces the mind to figure out ways to find intelligent short-cuts. Capacity is a state of mind. How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do. When we really think we can do more, our mind thinks creatively and shows us the way.
Step 5: Practice asking and listening. Take advantage of leveraging others’ knowledge. Encorage others to talk. Test your own views. Listen to other's views. Successful people make profit by exposing ideas to other intelligent people.
Step 6: Associate and surround yourself with people who can help you to think of new ideas and new ways of doing things. Be part of professional group that provides stimulation in your own occupational area. Joining a group outside occupational interests helps to broaden thinking. A oak tree produces enough acorns to populate a good sized forest; yet only one or two acorns become trees the rest don't survive the hard ground, squirrels. The same is true with ideas if we are not on gaurd, the -ve thinking people(squirrels) will destroy them. Ideas require special handling from the time they are born till implemented.

You Are What You Think You Are
If you look around you, you might observe that some people command confidence, loyalty and admiration while others do not. If you look closer, the most respect are also the most successful. Why is that? Well, according to Schwartz, it can be distilled into one word: thinking. Thinking makes it so. Others see in us what we see in ourselves and we receive what we think we deserve.

If you think you are less than someone else, you are. For thinking dictates action. If you feel inferior, you’ll act that way and no amount of bluffing will be able to hide it for long. If you feel you’re not important, you’re not. It’s as simple as that.

On the other hand, when you think you are important, when you really think so; then others will think so too. It really comes down to this: “How you think determines how you act. How you act in turn determines: How others react to you.”

To gain respect of others, we must first think we deserve respect. And the more respect we have for ourselves, the more respect others will have for us.

Look important - it helps you think important . Our appearence talks and ensure it says positive things about you. Never leave home without feeling certain you look like the kind of person you want to be. Use clothing to lift your spirits build confidence. A psychology professor gave advice to students on last minute preps for final examination. "Dress up for the exam. Have your dress pressed. Shine your shoes. Look sharp becuase it will help you think sharp." Our physical exterior affects our mental interior. How you look on the outside affects how you think anf feel on the inside. An executive feels more like an executive if he is dressed like one. Our appearence talks to us and also to others. It helps determine what others think of us. In theory, it's pleasent to hear that people should look at man's intellect, not his clothes. People do evaluate on the basis of appearence. Our appearence is the first basis for evaluation other people have. And first impressions last, out of all proportion to the time it takes to form them. We look at some people and respond with "Hey Mac" and respond with "Yes Sir" attitude.

Think your job is important Job thinking tells a lot about a person and his potential for larger responsibility. How impotant a applicant thinks his present job is - even though there would be something that he doesn't likes - becomes an important considereation while recruitment as the applicant will take the pride to the next job too. Like appearence, the way we think about our work says things about us to superioirs, associates, sub-ordinates - infact everyone with whom you come in contact. Think, I am important. I do have what it takes. I am a first class performer. My work is important. Think about ways to make business better and progress faster - expect to be given a chance to present and implement ideas. A person who thinks his job is important, receives mental signals on how to do his job better. And a better job means more promotions, money, prestige and happiness. The way we think about our job determines how our subordiantes think towards their jobs. Think enthusiastically and show positive attitude, your sub-ordinates will pick-up the right thinking. Ask "Am I worthy in every respect of being imitated?" "Are all my habbits that I would like to see in my subordinates?".

Practice uplifting self-praise rather than belittling self-punishment. Build your own "sell yourself on yourself" commercial.
www.professorprosperity.com/2008/07/how_to_write_personal_aspiration_statments/
Tom Staley, meet Tom Staley - an important, a really important person.
Tom, you’re a big thinker, so thing big.
Think big about Everything.
You’ve got plenty of ability to do a first-class job, so do a first-class job.
Tom you believe in Happiness, Progress, and Prosperity.
So: talk only Happiness, talk only progress, talk only prosperity.
You have lots of drive, Tom, lots of drive.
So put that drive to work. Nothing can stop you, Tom, nothing.
Tom, you’re enthusiastic. Let you enthusiasm show through.
You look good, Tom, and you feel good. Stay that way.
Tom Staley, you were a great fellow yesterday, and you’re going to be an even greater fellow today. Now go to it, Tom. Go forward.”
Practice commercial loud in private at least once a day. It helps a lot to do this before a mirror. Repeat commercial forcefully with determination. Make blood travel faster through body. Get warmed up. Read it before tackling anything that demands courage. Read it every time you fell let-down.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=249133056&blogID=325390178
In all of life's situations ask yourelf, "Is this the way an important person thinks?" Then obey the answer.
1) Situation - When I worry
Ask Yourself - Would an important person worry about this? Would the most successful person I know be disturbed by this?
2) Situation - An idea
Ask Yourself - What would an important person do if he had this idea?
3) Situation - My appearance
Ask Yourself - Do I look like someone who has maximum self-respect?
4) Situation - My Language
Ask Yourself - Am I using the language of successful people?
5) Situation - What I read
Ask Yourself - Would an important person read this?
6) Situation - Conversation
Ask Yourself - Is this something succesful people would discuss?
7) Situation - When I lose my temper
Ask Yourself - Would an important person get mad at what I'm mad at?
8) Situation - My jokes
Ask Yourself - Is this the kind of joke an important person would tell?
9) Situation - My job or business
Ask Yourself - How does an important person descrive his job to others?

Manage Your Environment: Go First Class
Just as what we eat is reflected in the state of our bodies, what food we choose to feed our minds has just as powerful an effect on our thoughts, habits, attitudes, and personality. The food for our minds that Schwartz is referring to here is our environment.

It’s hard to deny it. Our environment shapes us, and makes us think the way we do. For example, prolonged exposure and association to negative people makes us in turn think negatively. Associating ourselves with people who think big will raise our level of thinking. Our success is largely dependent upon what and who we choose to surround ourselves with.

So when choosing friends, select those who are interested in positive things; friends who really want to see you succeed and willingly encourage you in your plans and ideals. Find those who have common goals and desires, having a support system makes all the difference when your own motivation is in the slumps. Find friends who breathe encourgaement into plans and ideals. If we select petty thinkers as your close friends, we 'll gradually develop into petty thinkers ourselves.

Make Your Attitudes Your Allies
Communication is a lot more than just the words we choose to speak. Someone may say one thing but you know that they mean something entirely different. This is what Schwartz means by ‘attitude.’ To understand someone’s attitude, we don’t listen for the words but instead discover it through expressions, voice tones and inflections. When our attitude is right, our abilities reach a maximum of effectiveness and good results inevitably follow. Need to make the following three attitudes allies in everything we do:
The attitude of I’m activated - To be activated is another way of saying you are enthusiastic about what you’re doing. To get enthusiastic about anything - people, places, things - dig into it deeper. If you ever hope to get someone else excited about something you must first be excited about it yourself. Results come in proportion to enthusiasm applied.
The attitude of You are important - Every person in the world has the desire to feel important. The desire to be important is man's strongest, most compelling non-biological hunger. Headlines that produce sales read like "Persons with distinctive tastes", "You want only the best", "Be the envy of everyone". If we can consciously and genuinely make others feel important, the world is our oyster. Customers will buy more, employees will work harder, others will cooperate more, and boss will do more to help you. Treating someone as second-class will never get us first-class results. Share praise. Don't hog it as when you share praise sub-ordiantes will know we sincerely appreciate their value. Never let anyone feel he is taken for granted. Appreciate everyone's contribution and how much it is important.
The attitude of Service first - We all understand that money is necessary for our survival. Without money we can’t buy the food, clothing, shelter and other things we need. We can’t fully help the poor or enrich our families lives. Money, then, is a desirable objective. However, putting “money-first” in our minds does not increase money. The seed of money is in fact, service. If you have an attitude of putting service first — always giving people more than they expect to get — you’ll create wealth. Put service first and money will take care of itself.

Think Right Toward People
Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between what we want to be is the support of other. Salesmen depend on people to buy their product, writers depend on people to read what they are writing, and politicians depend on people to vote for them. If success is dependent upon other people’s support, how do we get others to support us then?
The answer can be summed up on one phrase, think right toward people. Schwartz relates former President Lyndon Johnson’s ten-point formula from to help you do this:
- Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing.
- Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe, old-hat kind of individual.
- Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you.
Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all.
- Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you.
- Study to get the “scratchy” elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.
- Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest Christian basis, ever misunderstanding you have had or now have. Drain off your grievances.
- Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely.
- Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
- Give spiritual strength to people, and they will give genuine affection to you.

We need to improve the "likeability" factor as it is more important than "technical" factor. Being likeable makes it easier to succeed. Sucess is guaranteed if have mastered the technique of thinking only good thoughts about people. Adhere to the suggestions
- Recognize the fact that no person is perfect. Some people are more nearly perfect than others, but no man is absolutely perfect. The most human quality about human beings is that they make mistakes, all kinds of them.
- Recognize the fact that the other fellow has a right to be different. Never play god about anything. Never diskike people because of their habbits are different from your own or because they prefer different clothes, religion, parties etc We don't have to approve of what another fellow does but we must not dislike him for doing it.
- Don't be a reformer. Put a little more "live-and-let-live" into philosohphy. Most people intensely dislike being told "you're wrong". We have right to our opinion but sometimes it is better to keep it to ourselves.
- Recognize how dull it would be if all people were alike and everybody was perfect
- Recognize no person is all good and no person is all bad. The perfect person doesn't exist
- Recognnize that if we let our thinking go uncontrolled, we can find much to dislike in almost anyone. By the same, token, if we manage our thinking properly, if we think right toward people, we can find many qualities to like and admire in the same person
- Recognize that the person who does the most talking and the person who is the most successful is rarely the same person. Encourage others to talk. Listen and Learn
- Recognize that courtsey practiced in every relationship is the finest tranquilizer that can be used. No commercial preparation is 1/10 as effective in relaxing as the little things done for other people. Thinking right towards people removes frusterations and stress.
- Recognize the real test for thinking right towards people comes when things don't go exactly the way we want. How we feel when we are passed up for promotion? Or When criticized for job done. Dont blame others for setback. How we think when we lose will determine how long it will be until until we win!

Get the Action Habit
There is plenty of room at the top. There are many almost qualified people, but there is one success ingredient often missing. The abiity to get things done to get results. Prinicipal Executives looking for a key person demand answers to questions like "Will he do the job?", "Will he follow through?", "Is he a self-starter?", "Can he get results or is he just a talker?"

Ideas and thinking about something is not enough. Everything that we have in this world, from ships to skyscrapers to baby food, is just an idea acted upon.

If you take a comparative study of successful and average people, you’ll find that they fall into two classes. The successful are ones who are active. The average, the mediocre, the unsuccessful are passive. The active person does. The passive person is going to do but doesn’t

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. We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking actions. We can’t wait for everything to be 100 percent favorable before we take action. Most things that really mean anything require some leap of faith. Sure, perfection is highly desirable but hoping for the perfect set of conditions is to hope forever.

Make up your mind to do something with your ideas other than simply dreaming more about them. Ideas are important. We need to have ideas to create or improve anything. But ideas in and of themselves are not enough. Ideas only have value when acted upon.

People that get things done don't wait for the spirit to move them. Rather than thinking about the unpleasent features of the task, jump right in and get going without lot of deliberation so that you can return to tasks that you love to do

Now is the magic word of success, Tomorrow, next week, later, sometime, someday often are synonyms for the failure word, never.

Initiative is the special kind of action. Its doing something wort-while without being told to do it. The person with initiative has a standing invitation to join the high-income brackets in every business and profession. To develop the initiative habit
- Be a crusader. If there is something that we believe ought to be done, pick up the ball and run.
- Be a volunteer. Sometimes we don't vounteer due to be the fear of being laughed at, of being called an eager beaver, of being accused of bucking for a raise. It's natural to want to belong, to be accepted, to have group approval. But asking "Which group do I want to be accepted by the jealous group or progressive group" will help us with the choice. Volunteer for special assignments.

How to Turn Defeat Into Victory
It is not possible to win high level success without meeting opposition, hardship, setback. It is possible to use setback to propel us forward. Defeat is only a state of mind - nothing more.

Civil Aeronautics Administration studies setbacks to pave the way to safer air travel. Doctors use setbacks to pave the way to better health and longer life by using information provided in post mortem. Everyone follows the success principle : Salvage something from every setback

The difference between success and failure is found in your attitude towards setbacks, handicaps, and other disappointing situations. Here are five ways to turn defeat into victory:
- Learn from prior mistakes. When you have a setback, learn why it didn’t work, readjust, and then go on to win next time.
- Don’t just beat yourself up. Learn to be your own constructive critic. Look for your faults and weaknesses not with the intention of putting yourself down but to correct them. This is what being a “professional” is all about. Blaming others is destructive. We gain absolutely nothing from "proving" that someone else is wrong
- Stop blaming luck. This is a cop-out. Instead, research why something went wrong. Blaming luck will never get you where you want to go, it’s only another form of ‘excusitis.’
- Mix up persistence with experimentation. Try to stick to your goal but at the same time, if the route you’re taking isn’t getting you anywhere, try a new approach. Experiment. There’s no sense in banging your head against a wall.
- Remember that there is always something good about every situation. Look for it. This will keep discouragement at bay and help you to learn from all experiences.

Use Goals to Help You Grow
Goals are as essential to success as air to life. The important thing is not where you were or where you are but where you want to go.

A goal is more than a wish or dream. It is a dream acted upon. Without goals, people just wander through life without direction or purpose. Goals are essential to success as air is to life.

Not only do goals give you a sense of purpose and direction, they also give you energy. Energy increases and multiplies when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal. By surrendering yourself to your desires, and letting yourself become obsessed with a goal, you receive the physical power, energy, and enthusiasm needed to accomplish it.

Like the progressive corporation, plan ahead. We are in a sense a business unit. Out talent, skills, abilities are our products. We want to develop our products so they command the highest possible price.

Schwartz uses the common approach to goals. That is plan where you want to be 10 years from now but work on that plan month by month. Define a plan for how you want life to be 10yrs from now in work, home and social areas. The three department of life are closely related. Each depends on other to some extend. But the one department which has most influence over other department is work.
1) Work
· What income do you desire in ten years?
· What level of responsibility do you look for?
· What prestige does seek from your work or business?
2) Home
· What level of standard do you aspire to?
· What kind of residence do you want to provide for yourself and your family?
· What kind and where will be your next vacation?
· What level of income will you give away to charity?
3) Social
· What kind of friends do you desire to have?
· What social groups do want to join with?
· What community position do you look to hold?
· What worthwhile cause do you want to be champion of?

30 Day Implementation Guide
What not to do?
1) Putting things off till tomorrow
2) Negative language
3) Watching television for more then 60 minutes per day.
4) Gossip
Obtain those habits.
1) Examine your appearance each and every morning.
2) Plan your day's work a day before.
3) Complement people on every opportunity.
Increase value in your work place
1) Do a better jog for your employer
2) Learn more about the company you work for.
3) Make number of suggestions to assist your companies' production.
Increase your value at home
1) Show appreciation to you wife and the family each time they do something for you.
2) Do something special one a month for your family.
3) Set time aside each day to give you loved one each day.
Sharpen your mind
1) Invest two hours per week reading professional magazines or a book in your field.
2) Read one self help book.
3) Make four new friends.
4) Spend 30 minutes daily in quite undisturbed thinking

Invest in education. Real education, the kind of worth investing in, is that which develops and cultivates your mind. How well-educated a person is measuered by how well his mind is developed-in brief how well he thinks.

The most important qualification for an executive is the sheer decide to go ahead. John Wanamaker said "A man is not doing much until the cause he works for possesses all there is of him". Desire when harnessed is power. Failure to follow desite, to do what you want to do most, paves the way for mediocrity.

Surrender to goals. Let them posses us and give us the automatic instrumentation we need to reach the goal.

Use goals to live longer. No medicine in the world is a powerfule in bringing about life as is the desire to do something.

Evaluate everything you do with the question, "Will this help take me where I want to go?"

How to Think Like A Leader
Remember that achieving high-level success requires the cooperation and support of others. And gaining support from others requires the ability to lead. To help you in this ability, Schwartz offers four leadership rules or principles that can cause others to do things for us in the executive suite, in business, in social clubs, in the home, or anywhere else we may find people:
- Trade minds with the people you want to influence. Here’s the key: To get others to do what you want them to do you must learn to see through their eyes. Truly “walking in their shoes” will unlock the secret of how to influence others.
- Think: What is the human way to handle this? People have all different approaches to leading others. One way is to assume the role of dictator, making all decisions without consulting those affected and not listening to subordinates. Dictators don’t last long. Sooner or later unrest begins to happen and their subordinates begin to leave. Another technique of leadership is the cold, mechanical, “I’m-a-rule-book operator” approach. This type of leader does everything exactly according to the book. He fails to understand the spirit of the law and ends up treating his subordinates as machines. This cold, impersonal efficiency alienates his subordinates and fails to ever inspire them. The leader who manages to have tremendous success and results with his followers is the leader who makes them feel human. This type of leader genuinely thinks that everyone under his stewardship is both important and needed in the organization. This builds respect and trust and forms the foundation whereupon they can be inspired and motivated.
- Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. To develop a progressive mindset, follow these two maxims: Think improvement in everything you do and think high standards in everything you do. Those who are constantly looking to expand, make things more efficient, develop new products and processes, and increase prosperity will naturally develop a following. People tend to follow after those who think, believe and push for progress.
- Take time out to confer with yourself. Like machines, we require a period of maintenance and a “tuning-up.” Check the lives of the great religious leaders like moses, jesus, buddha, mohammed spent time in solitude - away from distractions of life. Many people fail to tap their creative leadership power because they confer with everybody and everything except themselves. This is best accomplished when you take time out in managed solitude. In other words, find a moment every week where you can — in solitude — spend some time just thinking. This is a tool that all great users use. Use this time to confer with yourself, to discover solutions to personal and business problems, and generally tap into a higher consciousness that only solitude and moments of quiet can bring.

Conventional Wisdom v/s Peter Drucker - Azara Feroz Sayed

Came across the brilliant article posted below at http://sanjivspace.blogspot.com/2007/07/peter-drucker-management-beliefs-vs.html

Refer earlier related posts 'What makes an effective executive' and 'Rising to the top'

Conventional wisdom (CW) : Executives need to develop the ability to make many decisions rapidly and accurately.
Peter Drucker (PD): The effective decision-maker actually makes very few decisions. This is because he recognises that most problems he faces are generic. They are not unique, one-off events. He, therefore, establishes a rule, a principle or a policy to handle all such situations. He always assumes that the event that clamours for his attention is in reality a symptom. He looks for the true problem. He is not content with just doctoring the symptom. He then makes a decision on principle at the highest possible conceptual level. This does not, as a rule, take longer than a decision on symptoms or expediency. Because the manager solves generic situations through a rule and policy, he can handle most events as cases under the rule; that is, by adaptation. This is why he does not need to make many decisions.

For instance, when Alfred Sloan, Jr, took over General Motors in 1922, he was faced with a company struggling for survival with about half a dozen divisions each headed by capable but almost independent chieftains, all pulling in different directions.
Everyone before Sloan had seen the problem as one of personalities, to be solved through a struggle for power, from which one man would emerge victorious. Sloan saw it as a constitutional problem to be solved through a new structure, that is, decentralisation, which balances local autonomy in operations with central control of direction and policy. Sloan thus identified the generic problem, which was one of organisational structure, and solved it at the highest conceptual level through decentralisation.

CW: It is important for an executive to plan his work.
PD: As Drucker put it, the above advice sounds eminently plausible. The only trouble with it is that it rarely works. The plans always remain on paper, as good intentions. Effective executives, as Drucker observed, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning their time. They start by finding out where their time already goes (by recording how it is actually spent by keeping a time log). Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally, they consolidate their "discretionary" time into the largest possible continuing units. This three-step process -- of recording time, managing time and consolidating time -- is the foundation of executive effectiveness.

CW: When making staffing decisions, a manager must be alert to the weaknesses of a prospective candidate.
PD: The effective executive fills positions and promotes on the basis of what a man can do. He does not make staffing decisions to minimise weaknesses but to maximise strengths. This is because to try to build against weakness frustrates the purpose of organisation. Organisation is a specific instrument to make human strengths redound to performance while human weakness is neutralised and largely rendered harmless.

Drucker quoted the following example to illustrate his point. Abraham Lincoln, when told that General Ulysses S Grant, his new commander-in-chief, was fond of the bottle, said: "If I knew his brand, I'd send a barrel or so to some other generals." After a childhood on the Kentucky and Illinois frontier, Lincoln assuredly knew all about the bottle and its dangers. But of all the Union generals, Grant alone had proven consistently capable of planning and leading winning campaigns. Grant's appointment was the turning point of the Civil War. It was effective because Lincoln chose his general for his tested ability to win battles, and not for his sobriety, that is, for the absence of a weakness.

CW: Executives need to be good problem-solvers.
PD: While problem-solving is an important task, one must always keep in mind that an organisation obtains results by exploiting opportunities, and not by solving problems. All one can hope to get by solving a problem is to restore normality. At best, it can help eliminate a restriction on the capacity of the business to obtain results. The results themselves must come from the exploitation of opportunities.

CW: Entrepreneurs are a breed apart from other people with a different psychology and character traits.
PD: Entrepreneurship is not about character traits. It is not something mysterious -- whether a gift, talent, inspiration, or "flash of genius". Entrepreneurship is a purposeful task that can be organised. It is a question of behaviour, policies and practices rather than personality. It is a discipline that can be learned. What's more, entrepreneurship is part of every executive's job and needs to be mastered by any manager who wishes to be effective.

Blink - Azara Feroz Sayed

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3110851.cms

The article in timesofindia on intuition refers to the book "blink" (metaphor "a blink of the eye" for intuition) by Malcom Galdwell prompting me to read the book which was also suggested in one of our training sessions.

'blink' is about how experts make better decisions by making "snap judgements" (rather than studying "volumes of analysis") especially when confronted with complex situations or need for decisions under stress.

As per 'blink', it is alright to judge a book by its cover so long as we do so in an intelligent, informed, controlled manner. Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.

The power of knowing in the first two seconds (thin slicing),is not a gift given magically to a fortunate few. It is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves.

Our unconscious reactions often have to compete with our emotions, our likes, dislikes, prejudices and stereotypes and these emotions can easily corrupt (prime) the ability of our unconscious.

Also there are instances when our intuition betrays us. This failure on part of our unconscious has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but on the few particular details on which we need to focus and manage (mind reading is an example).

As I was reading the book, I was wondering how the results of the numerous studies relating to "thin slicing", "priming", "mind reading" could be be applied to other aspects of our life e.g. customer service, recruitment, relationships apart from using them to manage our unconscious reactions

I have used the review from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/497 and have added ideas from the book that sounded interesting to me

In the introduction to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, he tells the story of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s purchase of an ancient kouros dating from the sixth century BC. The museum had scientists perform test after test on the kouros to make sure it was authentic. It was concluded that the statue was most definitely the real thing, being thousands of years old. When art historians, however, took one look at the statue they knew that something was amiss and, sure enough, after a few more tests it was determined that the statue was artificially aged. Gladwell’s book is all about that one look the experts took of the korous to know that it was a fake. Blink is all about the snap judgments we make everyday and how we can use those judgments to make better decisions. This incident also brings an important aspect relating to intuition - the experts from Getty Museum's wanted to own the kourus and hence were blinded to their intution - we sometime ignore our intuition and try to see what we want to see.

Our brain uses two very different strategies to make sense of any situation. The first is the one we are most familiar with. It's the conscious strategy. We think about what we have learned, and eventually we come up with an answer. This strategy is logical and definitive. This takes a long time (study of Iowa gamblers - takes 80 cards for decision). It is slow and needs lots of information. The second strategy operates quicker(study of Iowa gamblers - decision kicks in 10 cards). It operates below the surface of consciousness (a.k.a. adaptive unconscious - not to be confused with the dark unconscious decribed by freud) and provides messages thru indirect channels such as sweat glands in palms of our hands, feeling sommething is amiss, the hunch etc.

Adaptive unconscious is thought of, as a giant computer that quickly and quietky processes a lot of data that we need in order to keep functioning as human beings. The giant computer crunches all the data it can from the experiences we have had, the people we have met, the lessons we have learnt, the people we have met, the books we have read, the movies we have seen and so on and form a opinion When we walk out into the street and suddenly realize that a truck is bearing down on us - do we have time to think through all options - the unconscious makes very quick judgements based on very little information.

Just as a modern jetliner is able to fly on auto-pilot with little or no input from the human, comscious pilot - the adaptive unconscious does an excellent job of sizing up the world, warning people of danger, setting goals and initiating actions in a sophisticated and efficient manner.

Neurologist Antonio Damasio determinded that critical part of the brain, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which lies behind the nose, plays a critical role in decision making. It works out contigencies and relatioships and sorts through mountains of information we get from the outside world, priortitizing it and putting flags on things that demand immediate attention. Damage is ventromedial disconnects between waht you know and what you do like Addicts who can articulate very well the consequences of their behaviour but fail to act accordingly. People with damaged vetromedial were not able to sense the pricking of sweat in their hands or feel something is amiss - the push to make sure they did the right thing is missing in them.

We toggle back and forth between our conscious and unconscious modes of thinking, depending on the situation. When we decision to invite a co-worker over for dinner is a conscious. We think it over. We decide it will be fun. The spontaneous decision to argue with the same co-worker is made unconsciously.

We are innately suspicious of adaptive unconscious, of rapid congnition as we live in a world that assumes that the quality of the a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it. When doctors are faced with a difficult diagnosis, they order more tests and when we are uncertain about what we hear, we ask for second opinion. We are conditioned with 'Haste makes waste', 'Look before you leap', 'Stop and think'. There are moments, particularly in times of stress, when our 'snap judgements' and 'first impressions' can offer a much better means of making sense of the world.

One of the amazing studies comes from a psychologist, John Gottman, at the University of Washington. Gottman brings young couples, who have recently married, to his lab and videotapes them for fifteen minutes. He leaves them alone and has them discuss anything that is a point of conflict within their marriage. Besides the camera, he also hooks the couples up to electrodes, which measure heart rate and how much they sweat, and also attaches a device to their chairs that measures how much they move around. Gottman then goes back and analyses the data and videotapes and is able to determine whether the couple will have a successful marriage. Gottman is a master of facial expressions. He has a numbering system that corresponds to every emotion a couple could possibly express in a conversation. Generally, if the negative emotions in the conversation outweigh the positive or neutral emotions the
success of the marriage does not look good. Although these results may look skeptical at first, Gottman has studied over three thousand couple and by looking at his fifteen minute videos has had a ninety percent success rate for determining whether a couple will still be together in seven years - all based on measiring the positive and negative emotions in 15 minutes of conversation.

Although Gottman’s work is conscious and deliberate, Gladwell notes that much of what he does is part of rapid cognition or what he refers to as “thin-slicing.” Gottman finds patterns(positive and negative emotions) in behavior based on very “thin slices” (15 minutes) of couple's experience rather than analysing individual life and life together over a week or longer. Galdwell ignores all the greater details or irrelevant information and simply focuses on the positive and negative emotions in the 15 minutes of conversation. Our unconscious is really good at this (ignoring irrelevant information and focusing on the thing that matters most) and it is a large part of the snap judgment calls we make everyday.

The study for calculating risk by determining which of the physicians covered by the company are more likely to be sued is one more very good example of "thin-slicing". Rather than examining physicians training and credentials and analyzing the records to see how many errors they have made over the past few years. It was found that the easier option was to simply listen to the tone of the voice used by the doctor while talking to the patient for two seconds - to determine the likely hood of the patient sueing the doctor. This 'thin slice" was selected based on the fact that if the doctor treats patients on a personal level - they will never blame the doctor even if the doctor is wrong - rest all of the other information is irrelvant. Isn't that brilliant - wouldn't it be wonderful if we learnt to 'thin slice' and apply it to other aspects of our life to run it more efficiently, apart from knowing that this is what our unconcious uses while making "snap judgements" - by always questioning is this the "thinnest" slice for such a decision that we can use routinely henceforth.

Another example of "thin slicing" is a study done by Nalini Amabdy where the teacher's effectiveness ratings provided by students based on 2 second videotapes of a teacher - with the sound turned off - matched with those provided by students who sat in the teacher's class for an entire semester. The example illustrates the importance of "thin slicing" in decision making i.e. focusing on the relevant information (2 secs video tape) needed to arrive at the decision and ignoring everything else (feedback over one semester).

Feroz uses "thin slicing" all the time with movies, books - he watches a movie for 10 minutes or reads 5 pages of a book and decides if it is worth his time. An example of the ability to extract an enormous amount of meaningful information from the thinnest slice of experience.

The chapter on Kenna's Dilema mentions about 'The Gambler' song by Kenny Roger. Me and Feroz are Kenny Roger fans but Feroz will never get tired of hearing his songs and the CD keeps playing for hours once it goes in.

Since the "snap judgements" are unconscious processes, it can be frustrating that we can not even describe why we feel or act a certain way when prompted by a stimulus. Gladwell believes that it is often detrimental to our judgments if we try to describe what is happening within our unconscious.

Galdwell gives the example of tennis coach Vic Braden. While working with professional athletes, Braden began asking players how and why they play the way they do. In his research, Braden discovered that none of the athletes he talked with were able to give him a consistent answer to his question. Braden then began videotaping star tennis players and digitizing their movements so that he could see, frame for frame, ever move they made, while, say, hitting a forehand. When asking players how they hit a forehand, Braden found that most said something about using their wrist to roll the racket over the ball. The videos, however, show that the wrist almost never moves until long after the ball has been hit. These players were making up stories to explain something that occurred within their unconscious. The results of these stories were coaches teaching faulty advice and beginners walking away with wrist damage.

Gladwell remarks that one of the things humans need to come to terms with is accepting our ignorance in many situations and learning to say “I don’t know.” Many of the outputs of our nervous system result from unconscious inputs, therefore making it often useless to try and explain ourselves.

Adaptive unconscious also involves a process called “priming”. Gladwell mentions the study of two Dutch researchers who had several groups of students each answer forty-two Trivial Pursuit questions. Half were asked to take five minutes to think about
what it would mean to be a professor and write it down, while the other half were asked to do the same with soccer hooligan in place of professor. The students who thought about professors ended up getting 55.6 percent of the questions correct, while the soccer group got 42.6 percent correct. The professor group wasn’t any smarter than the soccer group, but they were put in a “smart” mind frame before answering the questions.

The several studies provided on "priming" are interesting. Priming is the dark side of rapid cognition, a process that goes on within the adaptive unconscious that can change the way we think. Most of the time we are simply operating on auto pilot, and the way we think and act - and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment - are more susceptible to outside influences than we realize. If you were provided lot of info relating to old age - your walking style will be slighlty affected immediately as you get out of the session i.e. you are "primed" with the information - your conscious tells your body - I have picked some clues that we are in an environment that is concerned about old age and lets behave accordingly. There are times when we reach snap jusdgement without ever getting below the surface. The priming (powerful associations with certain words) that causes us to change our behaviour can also be related to people's appearence - their shape, color, sex, size. Warren Harding is considered to be one of the worst presidents of US. Many people who looked at Warren Harding saw how extraordinarily handsome and distinguished-looking he was and jumped to the immediate - and entirely unwarranted - conclusion that he was a man of courage and intelligence and integrity. They didn't dig below the surface. The way he looked carried so many powerful connotations that it stopped the normal process of thinking dead in its tracks. Priming is the root of a good deal of prejudice and discrimination. Knowing the circumstances when rapid cognition can lead us astray is important

When we make a split-second decision, we are really vulnerable to being guided by our stereo types and prejudices, even ones we may not necessarily endorse or believe

The studies on priming are done using Implicit Association Test Tool (IAT - url www.implicit.harvard.edu) based on the fact that we make connections much more quickly between pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds than we do between pairs of ideas that are unrelated to us. The IAT shows that our unconcious attitudes maybe utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values. The IAT is also a predictor of how we act in certain kinds of spontaneous situations. To fix the effect of priming, the something that happens outside of our awareness - we need to consciously change the experiences that formed our first impressions - i.e. treating black people as equals in every way by exposing oursleves to their culture, becoming comfortable with them - taking active steps to manage and control the first impressions

Several of the examples in the study for "priming" relate to the attributes that are associated with blacks (part of Race IAT) and how that "primes" our judgements. Once again, made me thank God for not having to struggle as hard as some of our other fellow beings have to - to achieve anything based on the social "priming". We saw in the post on 'Taming the Gremlin' - how we can shut off the "priming" effect of the unconscious. The scary revealations provided by the IATs can certainly be used in many areas. To ensure the right person is recruited and not necessarily a 'tall leader' as we automatically associate leadership with imposing physical structure. To ensure excellent customer service is provided without judging anyone on the basis of their appearance.

One of the most memorable stories Gladwell tells relates back to the lesson of the korous and trusting gut reactions over vast amounts of empirical evidence. This story involves a man named Paul Van Riper and the Millennium Challenge War Games of 2002. Van Riper, an experienced Marine Corps commander, was appointed head of the Red Team; the enemy team in which Van Riper was a rogue military commander who had broken away from his government located in the Persian Gulf. He was to have a strong following of religious and ethnic loyalties and was harboring four different terrorist organizations (sound familiar?). The Blue Team (the United States) was given millions of dollars worth of high-tech gizmos and hundreds of military analysts, as well as significantly more troops. The Blue Team was given the equipment to know exactly where the Red Team was at all times, and supposedly all the information to know what the Red Team would do before they actually did it. The events of the games, however, did not go exactly as the Blue Team had expected. On the second day of the “war,” Van Riper used motor bikes to exchange messages rather than using satellite etc that the Blue team was expecting them to use. He sent a fleet of small boats into the Gulf to track the ships of the Blue Team. He than attacked them in an assault of missiles, sinking sixteen American ships before the Blue Team had a chance to strike. Being an experienced military man, Van Riper knew what all the analysts and technology whizzes working for the Blue Team could never understand: when making decisions under immense pressure, experts won’t logically and systematically compare all available information. That takes far too long. Experts know to thin-slice the situation based on experience, wisdom, intuition, a rough mental simulation, and react to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, this method did not sit well with the United States Military. Those in charge of the War Games “un-sunk” the lost ship and gave Van Riper a script to act from, in which the Blue Team, of course, won. After hearing this story, is it any surprise that shortly after when the U.S. declared war on Iraq, ensuring a straight-forward and quick victory, that troops are still being sent over and loosing their lives? Van Riper’s story provides a frightening example of what can happen when people in high places venomously ignore their snap judgments.

blink is about making sophisticated decisions at the spur of the moment. Basket ball is an intricate, high speed game filled with split-second spontaneous decisions. But the spontaneity is acheived by hours of practice as sponteneity isn't random. How good people's decisions are under high stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training, rules and rehearsal. We need to create conditions for sucessful spontaneity in advance.

A truly sucessful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking. Deliberate thinking is wonderful tool when we have the luxury of time, clearly defined tasks. The fruit of this type of analysis can set the stage for rapid cognition. In good decision making, frugality matters i.e. reducing a complex problem to simplest elements. When we thin-slice, we understand the underlying pattern of the problem unconscioulsy i.e. we 'edit' the problem for frugality. We get in trouble when we are not able to 'edit' the problem. When people were provided choice of 70 jams - they were paralyzed with the choices and were not able to decide. Snap judgements are made in a snap because they are frugal. We need to have steps to get to the frugality of the problem for snap judgements to happen.

The ability to operate without having to explain constantly enables rapid cognition. This is a wonderful thought for managers to keep in mind when working with teams

People's first impressions are wrong as they mis-interpret their own feelings when presented with new and unusual information. It takes time to understand new information and to actually start appreciating it - till the time the information is understood it falls in wierd category. The new model of ergonomic chair was rejected by people in their first impression due to its different look and feel. People didn't have an history with the new model and hence it is difficult for them to imagine a future with it. There was nothing familiar in the ergo chair and hence the work 'ugly' was just a proxy for different. The problem with market research is that often it is simply too blunt an instrument to pick up this distinction between the bad and the merely different. Testing ideas that are truly revolutionary is another matter, and the most successful companies are those that understand that in those cases, the impressions of their consumers need interpretation. Their is a caveat, the first impressions of experts don't fall in this category i.e. experts like different things than most of the people. When we become expert in something, our tastes grow more esoteric and complex. Experts know how to interpret and decode their snap judgements and first impressions.

It is not that if we have all the information, we can't lose. In the game of chess we can see the chess board, yet we don't win all the time. Managers try to know more and more about everything and this hinders them from performing optimally.

blink presents ideas relating to our spontaneity in making decisions relating to product. First of all the product is both the product and packing for people to make decision. Also the snap decision about products is a reaction to the evidence of taste buds, eyes, memories and imagination and is not related to one dimension. Hence it is important to service all the dimensions of the product. In the example of coke and pepsi - pepsi was busy working on branding while coke was busy on getting the sip test - it is important to remember that the product decisions are made not only on sip test. The triangle test - identify pepsi from three glasses two of which contain coke and one contains pepsi is a good example of how a good vocabulary of taste is needed to identify the pepsi glass and a shallow knowledge of colas won't do - we need to think about colas and become an expert on cola.

The practice of inferring the motivations and intentions of others is classic thin slicing. It is picking up on sublte, fleeting cues in order to read someone's mind.

Of course, there are cases in which using judgment can backfire. Take the case of the three police officers working in the South Bronx who came upon Amadou Diallo standing outside his apartment building at midnight. The officers immediately assumed that Diallo was a robber or drug-dealer due to the fact that he was out so late and black. When the officers yelled to Diallo to come talk with them he ran into the vestibule of his house trying to open the inside door. The officers say that Diallo began reaching into his pockets, pulling out what appeared to be a gun. The officers fired forty-one shots, mutilating Diallo’s body. When the three officers went up to look at they man they had just killed, it turned out that what had been in his hand was a wallet and not a gun at all. In this case Gladwell believes that the officers experienced a condition he calls “temporary autism,” in which a person under incredibly high stress (heart rate of 175) is unable to interpret facial expressions, or unable to “mind read.” Because of past experiences, when Diallo turned to run they panicked due to the heightened stress of the situations, the police were not able to make clear judgments about the situation, such as reading the fear on Diallo’s face for malice. Mind reading is an ability that increases with practice

We don't have much control over whatever bubbles to the surface from our unconscious. If we can control the environment in which rapid congnition takes place than we can control rapid cognition - we can prevent the people from fighting wars, polices from making mistakes etc