How Successful People Think: Exploring Uncommon Ways of Thinking for Greater Success

I have now finished John C. Maxwell’s book, “How Successful People Think” and want to cover the last four chapters with you.

Question Popular Thinking

The premise of this chapter asserts that if you just go with popular thinking, you may or may not be okay with your success – but it is the lazy way out. You should always question why everyone is doing what they are doing; don’t just take what other people are doing and implement it the exact same way. Always continue to do your own thinking. Though you should consider and appreciate what and how other people think, you should always do your own thinking. Don’t limit yourself to the results of others. If you want uncommon results, you must engage in uncommon thinking.

Benefit From Shared Thinking

You benefit from shared thinking when you acknowledge that you are not the only genius in the room. Your ideas will not always be the best. Your ideas, in fact, may be better if you complement your ideas with other people’s ideas.

Acknowledge the fact that the source of the idea doesn’t matter as much as the execution of the idea. Humble yourself and pursue the best ideas, no matter where they come from. Maxwell reiterated the point that shared thinking is only as good as the people who are doing the sharing. So, you need to be very intentional about who you have on your team, around your table, who participate in your shared-thinking exercises. Have an idea of what you want the makeup of those people to look like, and then commit to only keeping those types of people at your table.

Practice Unselfish Thinking

“Unselfish thinking creates a legacy.”

Maxwell explained that your life is broken up into thirds: one is learned, the second is earned, and the third is returned. The first third of your life should be devoted to education. The second third should be devoted to building a career. And then the third part of your life should be focused on giving back to others, returning something in gratitude. If you desire to leave a legacy, then at some point, you have to leave something to others. Maxwell says, “don’t just leave things to others, leave things in others.” Make them better.

This concept really resonates with me. As I get older, I think about leaving a legacy more than just living my life. What am I going to leave in this world beyond me? To do that, I know I have to think unselfishly.

When considering your kids, your spouse, your friends, most of these people don’t care about what you give them; they care about how much of your time and presence you give them. Just remember that people who love you would rather have more of you than any material thing you can give to them.

Rely on Bottom-Line Thinking

To sum up the successful thinking model presented by this book, you have to ask yourself, “What does success for my company look like, beyond just profit?” What are you after, besides just money? When you are clear on that, all of your corporate goals and operating objectives, your mission, everything that is going to fuel your company growth is then built around this. If you look closely at any resilient and successful company, you will uncover that they very clear on their “bottom line.” Again – Maxwell is not referring to the bottom line of profit, but rather the bottom line of why they are in business. They use this why to develop their future plans, to structure their organization, to hire their people. They do not forget it, or let it slip from front-of-mind decision-making.

In business, it is commonly said that anytime you make a decision, your purpose and your profits compete with one another. However, Maxwell wants you to think: profits serve your purpose; they don’t compete with it. Your purpose and profit will compete with each other, though, if you allow that to happen. And you allow it to happen when you lose focus on the WHY – the purpose – of your business.

You need to create a strategic plan to achieve that bottom line in your business. Remember the bottom line is going to likely be this huge endeavor; so, you do need to break it down into smaller pieces that people can understand and actually go execute. Once you have that plan together, like any other operation, you must align your people and resources to maximize that bottom line achievement. Then, stick with a system where you can monitor your progress and hold yourself accountable to results.
 
Usually, at the beginning of a new year, I start off by building a budget based on what I believe our business is going to achieve financially to ensure that the right money is in the right places for us to be successful. This chapter reminded me that the profits of the company come after the successful execution of the bottom line. The bottom line is not profit; it is how we are choosing to serve, in an extraordinary way, the people to whom we provide value. I challenge you to be intentional about that first, and then let the profits follow.

God Bless!
Schuyler Williamson